Best Grinding Class?

In the list? Archers.

Blademasters and Venomancers are the game's best grinders. BMs can AoE grind lots of phys mobs. Venos can grind any mob without repairs, so the offset of not grinding as many mobs is covered by the fact that you don't have repair bills.

Archers can make some decent money due to killing rather fast as well.

Clerics. They can actually kill more at a time than other classes with next to no repair bill, due to taking only poison stack damage. In 7X was killing 24 lvl 72 mobs, and later on 40+ lvl 96 when I finally got my specialized grinding gear for my old main. Search the cleric forums for poison aoe posts from either Sylvae or Nalae/Nelae. Can't remember exactly the spelling of the second one.

I like grinding with my veno, because I can take more than one mob at a time even though I have a normal golem w/o any special skills on it (like reflect or magic defense). With the psn aoe attack a veno has, its really nice. Does good damage and not a long cooldown so you can spam it a few times.


Um for EA, kinda sucks in beginning because a lot of the mobs are melee so that you need to spam skills more often, but at later levels..maybe around 70(?), they are mostly magic so you can Stun shot them and auto attack away, Or replace stun shot with aim low.


My psy is only lvl 55, but so far I kill things quickly, but my hp is a problem...but they have fast channeling/casting so its easy to spam skills and kill a mob quickly. I usually spam the main water and earth skills and about 2 attacks of each, the mob is dead.

Everything I've read about the Assassins say they take too much damage.
I find the Veno playstyle very annoying.
And the Barbarian takes too long to kill anything.

If that's the only reason you're done with melees, try BMs at least once-- they do less damage than a 'sin, more than a barb (if you go fist you will do a good amount of damage, definitely more than a barb, nearing a 'sin, from what I've seen of high level fist BMs). They wear HA, meaning they don't die nearly as quickly as a 'sin. And if you go axes (which still does good damage) you can chain aoe on phys mobs. I had a friend that was frustrated with Barb's killing speed and switched to a BM and loved it.

Don't judge just on what you've read on the forums-- my 'sin doesn't have any issues grinding, and rarely uses (HP) pots. I guess it's just how you play. My 'sin does have high vit (capped at 50), and a lot of +HP/+vit gear, so that might be part of the reason why.

That said, my other answer is not gonna be in your list-- Cleric. I've seen clerics do some amazing things with poison mobs, like someone said before.

Outta your list... Psychic. Fast attack, high damage-- but if you think that 'sins take too much damage, all of your choices are pretty bad, 'cause they're lower HP+Arcane, or in an Archer's case, has the annoying 1/2 damage if the mobs get too close. I've never played an archer, though, so...

LifeHunting - Heavens Tear wrote: »

In order of solo grinding:

BM (high and quick DPS, medium HP)
Barb (high HP, low-medium DPS)
Veno (w/ pet)
Cleric (self heal, plus good DD)
Wiz (low HP, high-serious high DPS)
Psy (low Hp, seriously HIGH DPS)
sin (Low Hp, quick stun, high DPS)
Archer (low HP, only high dmg from range, dmg cut in half when close)

Bolded a couple of points I take issue with. b:angry I won't deny that BMs and venos are great grinders, but archers should be a long way from last on this list.

1. Archers grind on magic, non-DoT mobs, with the aim of killing them before they so much as touch you (with slow and knockback, as well as stun and freeze if necessary). This invalidates the "low HP" complaint, as well as the close range penalty one (mobs cast outside of minimum range so our damage is never halved).
2. Archers have miniscule repair costs. Each shot takes about 6-8 coins off the weapon's value, and ammo is 2 coins a piece (if you're spending more than this for PvE grind ammo, you're throwing money away for close to zero gain). Typically I get a repair bill of about 9-10k per hour, 95% of which is weapon repair (again, being hit so seldom means low armour repair cost).
3. I never use any potions barring emergencies, eg a mob respawns next to me while I'm shooting something else, or **** around with barrage or other MP-intensive skills. Like I said, most mobs drop before hitting us, and if they do get a chance, we have a shell which soaks up a couple hits AND recovers MP (demon Winged Shell just makes this even sweeter). Grinding results in a net gain in potions - I've got like 4 full stacks of them in my bank.

I play a cleric as well, and while AoE grinding is great, it actually requires a bit of effort and concentration, where archer grinding is more like "turn on Shell, shoot 3 nearest things, pick up drops and repeat".

I voted for wizzies. Simply cause playing one annoys the heck out of me.

Psy = best grinding plus leveling avg overall emo. Due to being a magic class u can gring higher level air mobs quickly, finish quests faster than others due to op kill rates. Most air mobs are mag anyways.

Now if you trying to grind for lvls only and not worry about coins, you can do what i did. I made a second psy and lvled him from 1 to 69 only using 2 hours of x12 hyper time and 3 to 4 gold charms. There was some repair costs involved but dont remember the numbers. In short it only took two 4 hour days or less to get that high from lvl one....... Now i have to do all those culties and fbs and quests .

Imagine how much time and money it would have been with oracles.... Heheb:surrender

LifeHunting - Heavens Tear wrote: »

In order of solo grinding:

BM (high and quick DPS, medium HP)
Barb (high HP, low-medium DPS)
Veno (w/ pet)
Cleric (self heal, plus good DD)
Wiz (low HP, high-serious high DPS)
Psy (low Hp, seriously HIGH DPS)
sin (Low Hp, quick stun, high DPS)
Archer (low HP, only high dmg from range, dmg cut in half when close)

You must not have seen good archers solo grinding then, or had a bad experience with one b:pleased. Good archers can kill things before they even reach them - so the close range damage reduction is null in solo grinding. A demon archer with demon quick shot can kill normal mobs their level (i.e level 96 spiders near cliff of shattered ice) in about 3 seconds (in 3-4 quick attacks | 2 attacks if it crits) - I haven't seen clerics who can kill one of those spiders that fast when they tried.

And unlike BM/Barbs, archers don't have to run to their targets. Archers can grind on any thing. BM/Barbs/sins are usually limited to melee mobs, and casting mobs for clerics/wiz/psy are best. Archers are just as good a solo grinder from mid-low level to high level, but the same can't be said for all other classes. Such as how clerics usually shine at level 75+ (starting to grind on those lvl 80 butterflies above lake of woe. It might be earlier than that since there are lots of low level flying wood mobs, but I don't see low level clerics aoe grinding on those often.)

Just my opinion, I think venos, then archers are the best at solo/aoe grinding in general (not for specific mobs) - Which is why it's a known FACT these two classes usually finishes top in public quests whether being in a squad or not. Archers can usually kill a mob faster than a veno can as I've seen, but I place veno first because of lesser hp/mp cost and risk.

MeXyCaN - Archosaur wrote: »

Psy = best grinding plus leveling avg overall emo. Due to being a magic class u can gring higher level air mobs quickly, finish quests faster than others due to op kill rates. Most air mobs are mag anyways.

I see how it's possible that psy can be the best over all in terms of easiness starting as soon as early levels, and huge attack damage.

Xaphana - Sanctuary wrote: »

I haven't gone too far in the game yet.

I have:
Assassin: 16
Venomancer: 34
Barbarian: 35

So far I haven't enjoyed the classes I've played.
Everything I've read about the Assassins say they take too much damage.
I find the Veno playstyle very annoying.
And the Barbarian takes too long to kill anything.

I'm torn between Psychic, Wizard and Archer.

So what do you believe is the best ranged (non-veno!) grinding class in the game?

I think you should try a psy Xaphana, because archers and wizards do have difficulties starting out and you might not like it right away.

Euphy - Dreamweaver wrote: »

If you actually care to exert some effort grinding, clerics are the best "long-range" grinders after venomancers. We can tank 10-25 poisoning monsters without difficulties and no inherent vitality and then 2/3-shot them (Poisoners are Wood-based and weak to our Metal magic).
Archers, wizards, and psychics cannot tank in the same way and are stuck doing 1v1-3. Venomancers can tank multiple enemies of any kind using their pet, but you don't like their style.

=D I agree on a few things and not on some. There really is not just one class that is best at long range grinding. I have to admit it's an awesome sight seeing a cleric who can pull 20ish mobs from everyone else grinding in the area, spam heal him/herself and AoE them. From what I've heard, that takes alot of effort and not all high level clerics can do that solo. But for the time it takes a cleric to aggro/healing/attacking them, an archer can kill just as many 1 or a few at a time standing in a particular spot. Archers can 2/3 shot them too - without effort , and unlike cleric skills, there is no channeling time.

Venos tanking so many mobs at once is quite a sight, but they just idle with the mobs and don't kill that fast. Many times I see archers kill about 4-5 mobs, and then you see the veno still at it with that handful of same mobs. Archers' killing range is 30+ meters and kills faster- they just point, click and kill. Venos have to waste time sending in and calling back their pets and moving to targets. They often have to heal their pets when they could have cast a spell to damage mobs.

And about the whole scenario with tanking many poison mobs 10-25, archers/wizards do have the potential to do that as well. Wizards also have good wood defense, archers use distance and attacks as a defensive measure and can chip off at least 1/2 those wood mobs hp with barrage before they reach the attacking distance. These two classes can tank as well as a cleric can with the genie skill nullify wood damage, pots that reduces wood damage for 20 secs, and hp pots - they just have to kill them fast enough before the drug effects wear off. With an archer, get on a mount >use hp foods while aggro as much as you think you can handle > get off mount > triple spark to purify the poison > use cloud eruption to gain enough spark to use barrage, use the barrenland orb (pot that reduces wood damage) > and then barrage. Because of tripled sparked, the barrage will have extra added damage. The only risk of doing this is if the mobs are too scattered, and you don't kill them fast enough or kill the main target (increased life or defense) too fast because of crits. Then again, I've seen clerics died aoe grinding this way too on those wood mobs with similar risks.

No offense, but it's hard to agree with the whole statement of "clerics are the best long-range grinders after venos" when the archer class is solely a 'ranged DD' that has no grinding restrictions on a certain type of mobs to enable them to grind speedily and effectively. What I should say is, these three classes are no doubt the best long-range grinders, but it's also a matter of how well the person plays the class, location/mob types and the manner they grind in. i.e if you were to take for example the 3rd map valley of the scarred... 30+ mobs auto aggro-ing and fast exp and spawn rate, solo grinding on the long range caster type mobs, the veno would be best suited, perhaps an archer if they can kill fast enough, but definitely not a cleric because of the silence debuffs and archer mobs mixed in.

Of the 3 options I'd have to say Archer is easiest grind, the wizard and psy are better grinders in my experience but require more attention being paid to what exactly you're doing while grinding. Archers have a quicker recovery from goofing up and can do so while keeping the grind continuous. Psychics and Wizards will often have to retreat and re-approach.

Grinding style would also be taken into consideration:

killing:
Most consistant kills without need for recovery periods without charms: archer
quickest individual kill potential: wizard
most consistant kill rate: psychic

Survivability:
most ability to take the hit: Archer
most ability to escape the fight: wizard
most ability to keep the fight at a distance: psychic

Best combination of the two if you play with a friend: Archer+Wizard

Least damage type restrictive: archer

neodaystar - Sanctuary wrote: »

From What I've Heard... Alot Of Effort And Not All ... Clerics Can Do... For The Time It Takes A Cleric To Aggro/healing/attacking Them, An Archer Can Kill Just As Many 1 Or A Few At A Time Standing In A Particular Spot. Archers Can 2/3 Shot Them Too - Without Effort :d , And Unlike Cleric Skills, There Is No Channeling Time. if I Want To 1v1 I Can 2/3 Shot Monsters My Level(+5) Too. With My Decent Channeling Gear It Happens Before They Can Attack Once.

... Tanking Many Poison Mobs 10-25, Archers/wizards Do Have The Potential To Do That As Well. Wizards Also Have Good Wood Defense, Archers Use Distance And Attacks As A Defensive Measure And Can Chip Off At Least 1/2 Those Wood Mobs Hp With Barrage Before They Reach The Attacking Distance. sorry... Wizards And Archers Would Die Attempting To Tank 10 Poisoning Monsters. Without Purify None Of It Is Possible. You Need To Be Able To pull And group The Monsters. The Poison Stacks To The Point That It Does 1500 - 2500 Per Tick. If I Weren't Able To Purify At That Point I'd Be One-shot By The Poison. Archers And Wizards Can't Even Heal Over Time To Balance Out The Effects. So No, I Refute This. Clerics Alone Have The Ability To Tank Masses Of Toxic Monsters.

These Two Classes Can Tank As Well As A Cleric Can With The Genie Skill Nullify Wood Damage, Pots That Reduces Wood Damage For 20 Secs this Skill Last 10 Seconds., And Hp Pots - They Just Have To Kill Them Fast Enough Before The Drug Effects Wear Off. With An Archer, Get On A Mount >use Hp Foods While Aggro As Much As You Think You Can Handle that's The Difference, Sure You Could Probably Kill 3 Or Maybe 5 This Way, Spamming 3500hp Food, However Pulling Anything Worthwhile Would Take Longer Than 10 Seconds> Get Off Mount > Triple Spark To Purify The Poison > Use Cloud Eruption To Gain Enough Spark To Use Barrage, Use The Barrenland Orb (pot That Reduces Wood Damage) > And Then Barrage. Because Of Tripled Sparked, The Barrage Will Have Extra Added Damage. The Only Risk Of Doing This Is If The Mobs Are Too Scatteredlike I Said Before... Purify Is Required To Properly Group The Monsters... Failing To Do So Means Your Aoes Fail. Clerics Could Afford To Do So, Other Classes Would Die If They Somehow Survived This Long, And You Don't Kill Them Fast Enough Or Kill The Main Target (increased Life Or Defense) Too Fast Because Of Crits. Then Again, I've Seen Clerics Died Aoe Grinding This Way Too On Those Wood Mobs With Similar Risks. the Only Times I've Died: I Lured A World Boss, I Lured So Many monsters My Ironheart Didn't Balance the poison Before Purification (~50+), Or I Fell Asleep.

No Offense, But It's Hard To Agree With The Whole Statement Of "clerics Are The Best Long-range Grinders After Venos" When The Archer Class Is Solely A 'ranged Dd' That Has No Grinding Restrictions On A Certain Type Of Mobs To Enable Them To Grind Speedily And Effectively. clerics Have Bother Physical And Magical Attacks. Some Have Argued That Compared To All Classes We Face The Least Restrictions What I Should Say Is, These Three Classes Are No Doubt The Best Long-range Grinders, But It's Also A Matter Of How Well The Person Plays The Class, Location/mob Types And The Manner They Grind In. Agreed. I.e If You Were To Take For Example The 3rd Map Valley Of The Scarred... 30+ Mobs Auto Aggro-ing And Fast Exp And Spawn Rate, Solo Grinding On The Long Range Caster Type Mobs, The Veno Would Be Best Suited, Perhaps An Archer If They Can Kill Fast Enough, But Definitely Not A Cleric Because Of The Silence Debuffs And Archer Mobs Mixed In.all Classes Have Their Limitations. Obivously Clerics Don't Seek Out silencing Enemies. Then again wizards, psychics, and venomancers (silenced ones can't heal pets) would face the same problems. Archer mobs aren't a threat to a high level cleric, unless your completely ganked.

I'm not saying that clerics are the end-all-be-all long-range grinders. Yes we consume vast amounts of mana, have smaller pools then wizard, and depend on skills so we can't be silenced. However, I feel vindicated in saying the have immense potential (sure, the player behind the monitor must have some skill) and that Tox-tanking is something only clerics can do. The process you described to imitate it is expensive, cumbersome, and incredibly risky: it makes no sense. Moreover, clerics can AoE grind on any herd-able, preferably magical, ranged enemy. The process simply cuts out purification and focuses on spamming Ironheart.
Venomancers can very grind quickly at very low costs and clerics can grind very quickly with moderate costs. (Tox-tanking has low repairs, magical-tanking has much higher ones.) Archers and Wizards cannot heal themselves or a substitute pet and most therefore focus on 1v1, will small AoE usage at best. This can easily be mimicked by a cleric. So yes... clerics offer more opportunity in terms of long range grinding. This doesn't mean that all clerics will out grind all archers and wizards.
PS: Something is weird about the quote box: I apologize.

A 99+ demon archer with full interval gear is probably the best non-aoe grinder in the game. They have the highest ranged DPS.

As for AOE grinding... archers can grind in OVS about as fast as BMs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0UfOHnFDOs

1000+ mobs per hour