Class System Review, Fridays update!

[Exo]

Ok after reading the new class descriptions, I'm a little less worried now.

I encourage everyone to re-read all the classes now. From the way they list the abilities it appears that there wont be a skill tree, but all the abilities will be available to that class. It just depends on how you want to fight, when choosing which skills to use.

If a barbarian wants to duel weild then he gets 2 swords and he has abilities available that go with the dual weilding or he can pick up a 2 handed sword and have abilities for it also. Plus he has the "kick in the nuts" tricks that the Master thief used to have also.

I think each class will get ALL the skills that were previously available to those classes.

The only one I saw that seamed to kinda disapear was the zealot. The dark Templar has healing abilities now, but I'm sure they are "Dark" heals. So they probably had to tweak that class a little, to incorporate what used to be "holy" powers.

So I dont think its such a bad thing after all, except that there will be less diversity among players. But as long as they dont Warcraft it out with a skill tree, then I think it will be great to have tons of abilities to choose from.

[Altair]

They did this for a reason...Mostly when you get into the game and start leveling you will tend to want to do other things that you see characters can do but your character is banned from from it. Now instead of making 2 characters you can more focus on your main and make him to almost exactly what you want him to be. More of the lines that Mages will be strong so melee classes need more of a buff sort of speak to keep up. I like this idea and I'm sure they know what they are doing.

[RookRJ]

Honestly I don´t know why some of you guys are getting so mad about.

Consider the amount of information we had before this update. It was next to ZERO. We had plenty of concept art but only a ROUGH idea of how the classes were going to play out. There was no skill tree, no skill point pool, NADA.

Now we just got told that some classes got merged. So what?

However... if you´d ask me why those classes got merged... I would say that the REAL reason is that FC looked at things and realized: "Holy crap... we´ve spent so much time doing these concept arts that we forgot about the skills and stuff!! We´ll have to merge some classes in order to make that release date!!"

Does it show that I don´t trust FC?

[Phrost]

Druid of the storm sounds a bit naff tho...they should have been named 'Naturist' and focus on (in the) buffs :P

love the lotusmaster/defiler merger and the ranger/waylayer merge.. cut me down from 4 classes to just 2

[IcePROject]

Originally Posted by Melkorus

I'll hold my tongue until we know more info, but it looks like this is going to suck A LOT, I can see WoW talent tree written all over it, which I don't like. You either have to chose this or that, defeating the entire purpose of merging in the first place.

Hmm...Ok...so.....do I take heal or do I take life drain.....do I take dark dmg or holy dmg...OLD OLD OLD!!! damn it! This is especially going to suck if we have the same amount of feat/skill points that we were originally going to have. If that is the case, people will either end up being (for example) old Zealots or Dark Templars, or they will be half of each - which I don't find appealing, and merging would make no sense. Hopefully they will give us at least 150% of skill/feat points that we were originally going to have, so people can be Zealot and half a DT, or the other way around or anything in between.

EDIT: Looks like I couldn't really hold my tongue lol, but I didn't bitch as much as I wanted to tho

well didn't you have to make those choice with the old classes? you had to pick a class that do holy or dark dmg... now you just choose it with skills and can change it if you don't like it. Same goes with ranger... now you don't have to choose between bow and crossbow , you take both and "master" the one you prefer.

I see nothing wrong with those merges as long as the skills are learn thrue action and not trainer... I hope if you choose to use a crossbow then your crossbow skills goes up and not your bow skills and if you want to master Bow too , when learning bow skills , your crossbow skills goes down since you don't use it anymore.

[Hunglo]

I'm liking the idea of the assassin class, leaning more towards that then the herald.

[IcePROject]

Originally Posted by Exo

I encourage everyone to re-read all the classes now. From the way they list the abilities it appears that there wont be a skill tree, but all the abilities will be available to that class. It just depends on how you want to fight, when choosing which skills to use.

If a barbarian wants to duel weild then he gets 2 swords and he has abilities available that go with the dual weilding or he can pick up a 2 handed sword and have abilities for it also. Plus he has the "kick in the nuts" tricks that the Master thief used to have also.

I think each class will get ALL the skills that were previously available to those classes.

here's a quote from jayde on topic (just been posted 5mins ago) :

Originally Posted by Jayde

Also, I would also mention that I really think the arguments that the change is "dumbing down" the system are really missing the essence of the merge decision.

After all, which is more simplistic?

Option A:
-Pick one: Guardian or Halberdier at level 20

Option B:
-Pick if you want to invest in 1h/Shield feats or Polearm feats 20-80
-Pick which type of gear you want to get over 8 different tiers
-Pick which weapon combo lines you want to use 20-80
-etc.

I would think that the second option is more of the "thinking man's" type setup...therefore, I can't really see it as a dumbing down at all.

[Heme]

Originally Posted by Jayde
Also, I would also mention that I really think the arguments that the change is "dumbing down" the system are really missing the essence of the merge decision.

After all, which is more simplistic?

Option A:
-Pick one: Guardian or Halberdier at level 20

Option B:
-Pick if you want to invest in 1h/Shield feats or Polearm feats 20-80
-Pick which type of gear you want to get over 8 different tiers
-Pick which weapon combo lines you want to use 20-80
-etc.

I would think that the second option is more of the "thinking man's" type setup...therefore, I can't really see it as a dumbing down at all.

But... Wouldn't that be the exact same thing as just picking Halberdier or Guardian?

I'm not bitching, but the info they throw out at us is so minimal it leads to speculation, and people stop following the game.

[Fenris-Wolf]

The way I read the new class descriptions, was that you gained all the abilities possed by the merged classes. Where the "WoW talent tree" came into play was what skills you wanted to specialize in, as dictated by your feat selection. That concept really doesn't bother me depending on how it handled.

If specializing in one 'tree' over another is just a difference between being good and being better, then it will work out well. If the make it so that a specialized character is so poor at his alternate list of abilities that it is barely viable, then I don't thiink the merger will have resolved anything.


The "Druid of the Storm" and the new "Barbarian" both sound like much better classes to me then the origonals. The old Stormcaller was just too one-dimentional, and the Druid was just a steaming pile of unneccessary code All the old Rogue classes were pretty good as they were, now they just sound even more insane; Barbarians not only do massive melee/AoE damage but they have the best stun-locks and disorients too!! That class will be nerf'd in the first few months of launch gauranteed.

As for the new Dark Templar, they sound like a much better class as well. I couldn't see much use the old Temp and Zeal could offer a group as there were already 2 other melee buffing classes that were better at melee and an entire archetype full of better healers. The new Templar's method of fighting remains the same as before; one-handed melee combined with life-drain and life-drain heals, but they also have the Zealots aura buffs. The combination of melee, healing and buffing will make them much more viable for groups. (I've noticed that some people have commented on the Zealot being scrapped, but that's not true; it's their Auras that were carried over into the new Templar)

The only class merger I'm not so sure of is the new "Guardian." To me, the old Gaurdian was set up as the perfect tank while the Halberdier was more of the perfect off-tank. The difference between their roles being that the Guardian had more raw blocking and defence, which is better suited to holding the attention of a powerful enemy, while the Halberdier had AoE which was much better suited to collecting the aggro of large numbers of "weaker" enemies. Maybe it's just because my previous MMO experiences have taught me that "Tanks" require more Min/Maxing then any other class role (because designers tend to basis the content on how strong a character "could be" instead of someone who is average; at least as far as end-game content is concerned) that I hace a hard time visualize a "Guardian" being viable in his role without a high level of specialization. Thus defeating the purpose of merging the classes for the sake of diversity.

P.S. Anyone else notice that there were no race restrictions listed in the priest trees anymore?

[IcePROject]

Originally Posted by Heme

But... Wouldn't that be the exact same thing as just picking Halberdier or Guardian?

I'm not bitching, but the info they throw out at us is so minimal it leads to speculation, and people stop following the game.

yes and no , I prefer to have choice over 80 lvls then choosing at lvl 20 (even if there is different type of guardian) . It just give you more choices trought the game , and I like it. It's not more or less minimal then it was a week ago... it's just the same.