Beginner's Guide To Choosing A Class

First of all, welcome to Perfect World International. Let me tell a little history about myself. I played previous versions of Perfect World over many servers. I remember always having trouble deciding which class was best for me. I now have a character of each class over level 60+ and very well built. I've never had a complaint on my character build or not being able to do my part. Some of you might disagree with this guide but I think this will help many people.

In this guide, I will help you decide which class you really want and a few things to work on in that class. This guide is built around PvE (Player Vs. Environment). I will give you a short summery on each class, then go further into detail for that class.

Part I Choosing a class: Here I will describe the overall "duties" of each class and their secondary jobs.

Archer(Arch): You are the DD, known as the Damage Dealer. Your only job is to deal very high amounts of damage. You will have almost no resistance and will rely heavily on others for support, also due to only doing half damage to targets within 5 meters. But every group needs an Archer if they hope to accomplish anything higher up. A possible Secondary job for an archer is physical tank, due to its incredibly high evasion.

Cleric(Cler): You are the Healer and Buffer. Each class has its own buffs, but the Cleric is the known buffer. Cleric is a must in 99% of the tasks throughout your journey in PW. You only have 1 extremely powerful offense attack, beyond that you stay out of the way. Your job is to keep everyone alive and healed. You secondary job could be an elemental tank. You will naturally have very high magic resistance, and you can heal yourself.

Wizard(Wiz): You are the DD (Damage Dealer) of elemental power. The Wizard ties with the Cleric in terms of armor and weaponry. Although the Cleric is built on healing people, you are the "Archer" of elemental damage. Having multiple elements to choose from you can easily pick out the monsters weakness and use it against them. Your primary job is to deal high amounts of elemental damage. For your second job, you can be classified as the elemental tank along with the Cleric, due to the high elemental resistance.

Blademaster(BM): You are a cross-breed from a tank and a damage dealer. You are built on strength giving you an extremely high physical defense and physical offense as well. Your health bar normally never gets near the Barbarians HP, but you make up for it in physical resistance. Your primary job is to help tank and defend the rest of the squad. Some may argue on that, but that's what you end up doing anyways. Your secondary job is rely as a primary tank if there is no Barbarian around.

Barbarian(Barb or BB): The Tank. Simple as that. Extremely high health bar with a large amount of physical resistance (Not as high as BM). You and the Cleric are the heart of 99% of the squads in the game. You can withstand high hits and keep aggression(Aggro) on you and away from your squad. Your main job is to keep Aggro so that the damage dealers can do their job and not have to worry about a boss turning around and step on them. Because of your high hp, you will have a lower damage count. Everyone needs a tank. Your secondary job could be a damage dealer when not in Tiger Form. Although not being in Tiger Form gives you more damage, it also lowers your ability to survive. Some Non-Tiger Form Barbs can act as a BM.

Venomancer(Veno): You are the summoner as well as the curse dealer. You can summon incredible monsters to fight your battles with the strength of a BM and the life of a Tank allowing you to solo most of the game. Your skills revolve around 2 things, magic damage and Fox Form. Fox Form can conjure curses from every which direction, giving your squad the advantage in anything you do. Magic form can summon Wood damage attacks and poisons. Not as powerful as a Wizards pure elemental power, but it's still something to think about. Primary job of a Venomancer is to curse enemies with godlike plagues and to summon the most unholy creatures imaginable. Your secondary job, which is used everywhere, is to "Pull" monsters.

Part II Brief discussion on manufacturing: I'm not going to go into much detail with this.

Apothecary: Creating potions and other materials to aid in battle.
Blacksmith: Creates weapons.
Tailor: Creates armor.
Craftsmen: Creates rings and other jewelry as well as supplies.

To level on these takes a good amount of coin. Everyone needs each type of manufacturing though later on to get high level gear and equipment.

Part III More details on your class: After reading Part I, you choose which class you think you would enjoy the most. Here are the further advanced details for each class once you've chosen it.

Archer: You will have extremely high critical hit rate, evasion, and accuracy. You only do 1/2 damage up close, so try to keep everything away from you as much as possible. You will discover later on that you must have a Barbarian to keep aggro from you. If not, you will steal aggro each and every time you hit something because of your extremely high damage. You will use Light Armor, and your overall stats build will be 4 Dexterity and 1 Strength per level. You are mainly used for your Barrage skill which causes hundreds of arrows to rain all over the battlefield.

Cleric: You will have a very high amount of Mana and you will be needed everywhere. From being the party healer and buffer, you will also be called from all over the map to revive people. You are the support for the entire Perfect World. You will use Arcane Armor and your overall build will be 9 Magic and 1 Strength every two levels. You are mainly used for your ability to heal but everyone wants a cleric to have a maxed out Revive skill. A maxed out Revive gives more experiance back when they are brought back from the dead.

Wizard: Being the extremely powerful elemental damage dealer, you will be relied on just as much as an Archer. You will use Arcane Armor for most of your path, but later on it is advised to use Light Armor to withstand some physical damage and get some critical hits in there. You won't rely on a Barbarian as much as an Archer which is a plus. For a pure damage Wizard you will use 9 Magic and 1 Strength every two levels. I suggest using Light Armor and getting 3 Magic, 1 Strength, and 1 Dexterity per level. You will be used for your fire skill "Dragon Breath". It has a wide area of effect(AOE) that causes fire damage to everything around you.

Blademaster: You are known for your ability to stun the enemy and act as a secondary tank passed down from the Barbarian. You have high damage but not enough to overpass the critical hits from an Archer. Your overall build will consist of a general 4 Strength and 1 Dexterity per level. I prefer to have 3 Strength, 1 Dexterity, and 1 into Vitality to act as a tank. You will be using Heavy Armor to withstand the high physical damage you'll be getting hit by. You can use any class of physical weapons to its full potential through your skill tree. You are known for your Drake skills.

Barbarian: You tank, DONE. You are only used to keep Aggro and survive. Both very vital parts in this game, especially the surviving part. You will have incredible health but lower damage in your Tiger Form. But wait... then how do you keep up with the Archers high damage and keep Aggro? Barbarians are NOT made to do damage, at all. They have abilities which keeps the Aggro of a monster focused on you. You will constantly be getting hit from every direction. You pair up with a Cleric very nicely in any situation. The overall build of a true tank is 2 Vitality, 1 Dexterity, and 6 Strength every two levels, which leaves you with 1 extra stat to put in either Vitality or Dexterity, depending on which you need to hold your gear. In general you just get enough Dexterity and Strength to hold your gear and the rest goes into Vitality if you really want to make a good character. You will use Heavy Armor. If you wish though, you can use Light Armor to withstand some of that elemental damage. But always remember, your are NOT the damage dealer. Your only job is to keep Aggro, and with your extremely high health, stay alive. You are known for your Tiger Form that keeps you and everyone else alive.

Venomancer: The Venomancer does not need armor in the over-all sense of things. The Venomancer has a summon to protect her and keep the Aggro. But armor always helps this whole staying alive thing. So you will use Arcane Armor because of your extremely high Magic you're going to have. You will use the build, 9 Magic and 1 Strength every two levels if you're going for a pure Veno with Arcane Armor. There is nothing wrong with a Veno going 3 Magic, 1 Strength, and 1 Dex per level to use Light Armor. You're not going to get hit much, so the only thing that Light Armor will do for you is raise your Dexterity which in return raises your critical hit rate. I suggest sticking to Arcane Armor though. Most of your skills have high Magic damage percentage. Such as 5000 damage +300% magic damage. So you won't be doing much critical hits, you want to keep a higher damage in general. Thus, the Arcane Armor works best. You are known for your ability to "Pull" and curse monsters. "Pulling" is used to pull one monster out from a group at a time to kill, instead of killing a whole bunch at a time. Later on you will face very powerful monsters that you just can't fight all at once. So "Pulling" is required.

Part IV Summary: As you know this is just a guide to help you choose your character and what each character does. Some other people may disagree with me on these facts, but when it comes down to it... this is what each class is doing. After reading this guide and choosing what YOU want to become, I highly suggest looking down in the Class Discussion area to learn more about your class individually. Thank you for your time and enjoy your time at Perfect World International.

~Technotic