A good post and I'm looking forward to reading more of your thoughts when the game goes live.
But I'm not sure that I agree with some of this advice, at least as it relates to Vanguard. Specific comments follow:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Racci
All the other tank classes will at least appear to be better in everyway.
|
There were plenty of times in beta where the other tanks had even more trouble holding aggro than Warriors. It's hard to speculate where the balance will fall come release (since Sigil is changing so many things so rapidly), but Warriors weren't really looked down upon during beta. At least not that I ever saw.
Quote:
|
Finding groups will be a pain consistantly.
|
Groups were generally somewhat hard to find during beta since the game is so solo-friendly, at least into the 30's. Additionally, the LFG/LFM features are somewhat lacking.
That said, tanks were the second-easiest archetype to find groups, following healers. The tank classes in Vanguard, at least for the first half of the game, frustrated a lot of casual would-be tanks and their numbers past the early levels were very limited. Of all the groups I was in while playing my warrior, I think only a couple of times was I in a group with more than one tank. And when playing my healer, most of my groups had to go without a tank.
Quote:
|
When someone dies in the group it will be you.
|
I actually didn't find this to be true. At least from my experience most of the times when people died were due to getting more adds than the group's CC capacity. Deaths came when the tank was unable to hold aggro over more than one mob, since at least up to mid-level they had no multi-target attacks or taunts and only one four-second rescue on a twelve-second timer. In these cases usually it was a Bloodmage or DPSer who died, while the tank was doing his best, but failing, to grab aggro over the add.
Again, this could easily change as Sigil tweaks the relative damage and hate generation of all the classes.
Quote:
|
A warrior needs to rely constantly on other players for everything from heals, buffs and travel.
|
I completely agree. The warrior was, by far, the most group dependent character I played in beta. Their soloability is absolutely dwarfed by most of the other classes.
Quote:
|
For a 1st timer I would suggest a Rog, monk or wizard.
|
Rogues are actually not very solid classes at the moment, especially not for first-time players.
Rangers, disciples, shaman and cleric are probably the most self-sufficient and "easiest" classes to play for a new player to get their feet wet and learn the game in relative safety. They are also some of the best solo classes, which could be handy for new players trying to ease into the game.
Quote:
|
Will there be Race/Class bonuses and penalties not just stat wise but in exp gained etc?
|
Nope. All races and classes gain XP at the same rate.