Archer, Blademaster, or Wizard?

aznboiek

Alright so ive been playing with a veno for up to lvl 20 and ive got to say its getting kind of boring. I was thinking of switching into one of the three classes i listed but i have no idea which would be the most fun. I read a lot of threads that says that archers are best but take a long time to be good? Blademasters listed because it seemed like a cool class to try and wizard cause everywhere it says that they can really one hit kill. Please give your info on these classes id really appreciate it

Kedth - Sanctuary

Wiz and Archer r classes for ppl who like to see big numbers in terms of damage dealing. Wiz its tricky to lvl cause you r gonna die a lot of times probably if you haven't got the patience. In these classes u HAVE to control your DD on parties or you can mess it up really bad and get all the squad killed. Yeah, lots of cowboys out there in those classes >.<

BM is an all terrain class... u can tank ok if u have nice aggro control, u can so some mean DD with the right build and you can do your job too... which is... mob controlling (a lot of BMs forget about this simple fact >.>) Means u stun everything than can harm the HP of casters and pure DDs and support the real tank.. which is the barb.

Now, its up to you. Have fun with ur new class

Tiaque - Sanctuary

Wizards will not start one-shotting everthing until much, much higher in the game....for that matter, neither will archers. Like the poster above says, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of control and awareness. If you have that, then I say go for it. Otherwise, roll a BM.

Disclaimer: Please note the following is based off personal experiances and ideas. This is not the be-all, end-all, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will disagree with something or other.

Wiz 1-20 (assuming pure mag build): You will die a lot, especially since a lot of mobs are melee at beginning levels. You will remain squishy throughout your career as a mage, so get used to it. If you can't learn to kite by level 20, you're in big trouble. It gets a little better around level 30, and you get a knockback skill that will be your best friend at level 39. Starter Suggestions: Carry lots of pots, mediate often, and max your sheilds as wells as your spam skills (pyro, gush, stone rain) asap, and maybe try finding a BM friend to help out. Suggested Starter genie skills: Earthquake (knockback), Tree of Protection (HP recovery), Extreme Poison (increased damage)

Archer 1-20 (assuming pure dex build): You probably won't die as often, but you will tend to die a lot if you aren't used to it, and fighting is still a pain in the ****, since almost everything is melee at beginner levels and archers do 1/2 dmg in melee. Again, learn to kite asap. It gets a little better after level 19, when you get a knockback skill, and more mobs become ranged. Archers are also one of two classes that don;t get a self-heal skill. Starter Suggestions: Carry lots of pots, stay out of the air when possible (starter wings will drain your MP), keep a lot of arrows/bolts/shots, mediate often, and max winged shell and blazing arrow, and/or team up with a cleric. Suggested Starter genie skills: Tree of Protection, Extreme Poison, and any others archers may want to recommend.

Blademaster 1-20 (assuming HA build): Very, very easy at lower levels (at least compared to the other two) - next to nothing is ranged, and those that are do phys damage anyway. This is the utility class...you can tank, you can DD (though don't expect more than 4 digits for awhile), After level 20, it gets a little bit troublesome as mobs start to do magic damage, which most BMs are vunerable to. Starter Suggestions: Pots are your friend ^^ - MP pots if you skill spam are probably a good idea, though not really required otherwise. Max Aura, Drake's Ray, and Roar of the Pride ASAP, as well as your marrows when you get them. Suggested Starter Genie Skills: Tree of Pretection, Relentless Courage (increase attack speed)

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Hope it helps Good luck and have fun with whatever class you choose.

Garmr - Harshlands

Awesome summary, Tiaque

I'd like to add that if you go Light Armor wizard, you don't die all that much. I've only had a few mob deaths on my wizard and those were to elites and bosses. (Tip: You don't want to disconnect near Farng as a level 2x. Relogging is painful for he is FAST.) Arcane/Robe is most common for the PvE servers, but LA is the way a lot of us on the PvP servers go. It's safer that way. The attack power in early levels is just slightly lower than Pure Magic, but the physical defense is much better, especially with Stone Barrier (pdef boost) running.

Blademaster is fun. Definitely not as squishy as a caster, and it has some of the best skillsets in the game IMO. Stuns, true AOEs, speed spells... good stuff. I haven't leveled one into the 2x range yet though - I still prefer Wizard and Barbarian. Blademasters eat MP like nobody's business and I couldn't stand that. (The Barb does it too but the sheer tankness of my wolf makes up for that.)

I haven't played archer. But from a PvP perspective, the 7x archers don't oneshot me too well even though they were 40 levels above me. They can 3-shot me with a Crit as the third hit, but the one that was after me the most usually took 5-8 attacks to kill me. (Wraith Events - gotta love 'em. You're hunted while hunting!) She only crit on me with a oneshot off the bat once or twice.

The wizard at the wraith event, on the other hand, killed me three times, one hit each. And they WEREN'T CRITS. So by that point in the game I'd fear a Wizard more than an Archer. Wicked serious damage there that was better than the Archer crits.

aznboiek

hey thanks for the help i was wondering while reading the reply what kiting was and how genie skills were obtained?

Seveneyes - Harshlands

Garmr - Harshlands wrote: »

Awesome summary, Tiaque

I'd like to add that if you go Light Armor wizard, you don't die all that much. I've only had a few mob deaths on my wizard and those were to elites and bosses. (Tip: You don't want to disconnect near Farng as a level 2x. Relogging is painful for he is FAST.) Arcane/Robe is most common for the PvE servers, but LA is the way a lot of us on the PvP servers go. It's safer that way. The attack power in early levels is just slightly lower than Pure Magic, but the physical defense is much better, especially with Stone Barrier (pdef boost) running.

Blademaster is fun. Definitely not as squishy as a caster, and it has some of the best skillsets in the game IMO. Stuns, true AOEs, speed spells... good stuff. I haven't leveled one into the 2x range yet though - I still prefer Wizard and Barbarian. Blademasters eat MP like nobody's business and I couldn't stand that. (The Barb does it too but the sheer tankness of my wolf makes up for that.)

I haven't played archer. But from a PvP perspective, the 7x archers don't oneshot me too well even though they were 40 levels above me. They can 3-shot me with a Crit as the third hit, but the one that was after me the most usually took 5-8 attacks to kill me. (Wraith Events - gotta love 'em. You're hunted while hunting!) She only crit on me with a oneshot off the bat once or twice.

The wizard at the wraith event, on the other hand, killed me three times, one hit each. And they WEREN'T CRITS. So by that point in the game I'd fear a Wizard more than an Archer. Wicked serious damage there that was better than the Archer crits.

The PvP perspective is very inaccurate. Archer's main form of DPS is physical hits, we do have metal attacks too, but they only add a certain amount of damage on (unlike most other classes we don't get many +#% of weapon attack). Based on this an archers worst enemies are barbs, who have v good phys def and have the large HP pool meaning even if we don't kill with our 2 main metal attacks it's gonna be a loooong fight. Then again barbs have a hard time vs us as they will tend to miss a lot when they reach us (plus we'll kite). What you should see is an archer vs a Cleric/barb/veno (especially ones wearing robes). I've killed soooo many robed classes my level with just a few normal shots.

Yet with Wizards they are magical attack, and guess what.... A barb is weak to magic. That is why you get one hit by wizards and don't by archers. These are the basic rules of pw, so if you don't understand them you probably shouldn't give advice.

Now onto the topic...

At low/med levels (1-49), bms are =the best class out of the 3 for PvE. Closely followed by archers in second and wizards last.

mid/high level (50-79) archers and bms are about equally good for PvE. Archers are better for normal grinding/DDing/questing. While axe bms are very good at AoE grinding. Again wizards are last.
PvP wise these levels are where archers are feared. Archers are always good vs clerics/wizards/venos until the very end levels. We will struggle vs bms/barbs but that's how it is. Bms are good at PvP these levels too as they have a nice range of stuns and have the HP to help. Wizards are only average here.

High level (80-100) PvE wise it's just the same as mid levels, to be truthful all classes are good at PvE at these levels.
PvP at these levels is where Wizards really shine. A lot of their skills at +#% of the weapon attack so the better the weapon exponentially increases the power of skills. Wizards by far outweigh all damage dealers here and you'll start seeing some really nice. Bms are still really nice at these levels, but archers lose a lot of their PvP threat that they had in mid levels.

To summarise I generally feel the best classes for each "set" of levels are:

Low level - non of these 3 really, the only real class that shines these levels are venos
Mid level - archers, archers and... archers. These are the king of the mid levels for both PvE and PvP. They will only really struggle vs barbs in PvP (and some bms).
high level - Wizards all the way. The only better (I feel) PvP class are barbs...

Lastly I feel bms are average throughout these levels (not the best, not the worst), which to be honest is what bms are about. Jack-of-all-trades

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

Kedth - Sanctuary wrote: »

Wiz and Archer r classes for ppl who like to see big numbers in terms of damage dealing. Wiz its tricky to lvl cause you r gonna die a lot of times probably if you haven't got the patience. In these classes u HAVE to control your DD on parties or you can mess it up really bad and get all the squad killed. Yeah, lots of cowboys out there in those classes >.<

BM is an all terrain class... u can tank ok if u have nice aggro control, u can so some mean DD with the right build and you can do your job too... which is... mob controlling (a lot of BMs forget about this simple fact >.>) Means u stun everything than can harm the HP of casters and pure DDs and support the real tank.. which is the barb.

Now, its up to you. Have fun with ur new class

I like what Kedth stated, very important things that pple tend to either ignore or forget. I see some 80s 90s wizzys or archer that absolutly DO NOT know how to measure their aggro rate.

Tiaque - Sanctuary

aznboiek wrote: »

hey thanks for the help i was wondering while reading the reply what kiting was and how genie skills were obtained?

My apologies for not clarifying that ><

Kiting:

For a wizard/cleric: cast gush (or cyclone, be you healer) on enemy, run away, cast another spell, run away, etc, etc until mob is dead. Everyone has a slight variation to how they do it, but the basic principle is to stay away from the mob - phys damage hurts us squishies. At higher levels, kiting is sometimes alternated with knockback skills.

For an archer: again, basic principle is to get the melee mob off you. For my archer (who is n00b, I'm still getting used to her), I just use a skill like "Take Aim", then run away, shoot arrow, run away, shoot arrow, etc. Again, I'm sure there's a better explanation out there, but you get the idea ^^; Again, also alternated with knockback skills

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Genie skills can be obtained from the Watcher of the Skies NPC in any major town. Genie skills require certain affinities (see Genie Guide), and some require your genie to be a particular level or you to be a certain class. To get genie skills, speak to the NPC, select "Genie Skill" (probably not the exact wording), de-equip your genie and drag it over to the skill box. A list of skills should appear - those you are unable to get will usually be dulled out. Flip through the pages until you find the skill you like.

aznboiek

Hey thanks a lot info helps greatly

Haven_Brute - Heavens Tear

what i did at lower lvls on my archer was take aim then frost until it got close and then lightning strike. once you get lvl 19 you can do take aim frost arrow then 2 regular shots then knockback and regular shots and you should have no problem. eventually you wont need take aim. those are just my experiences though