Rate these classes

[Lexi]

So! I am thinking up some character concepts, but I'm having a hard time deciding on what class I want to play. Currently, I am looking at neutral ranger, dark-knight, good/neutral ninja, cleric, and neutral/evil battlemage. I suppose the latter two are generally better at exploring and gearing up, which is something I think I am pretty terrible at right now. So how would you guys rate these classes in overall performance? Is there any specific religions that you would match the cleric or dark-knight with (or any specific religions you would advice against)? What are the pros and cons of the different races available for these classes?

Any general tips would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Manual Labour]

Rangers are excellent solo explorers and equippers.

[Pieman]

I always say let the character concept flow.

You're building around a class. Choose the one that most appeals to you first. If you do truly want to explore a cleric or ranger are great choices but let the character come to you.

Next you choose your race. Which race fits best and which can you most solidly roleplay even if you find yourself lacking inspiration.

Religion choose after your race, especially if it s a class that it makes a big difference on. What does the character want and why would that faith appeal to it enough to follow?

I know I didn't answer many of your questions, but hey. all about dat RP and then moving from there.

[Lexi]

I feel I have a firm grasp on the core roleplay of my concepts, and race does not affect the premise of the character's goals/history/ambitions. I do not feel I lack inspiration so much as understanding of the weaknesses/strengths of the different class and race combinations. Just don't want to end up with a character at 50 that's always fighting uphill.

[Fool_Hardy]

Exploring...

Feral Archer and purchase identify.

Edit: Ohh. Even better Avian Archer.

[Fool_Hardy]

In all actuality, if you want to explore. Remember that each of those choices your looking at will have some appeal on trips to certain end game areas. By choosing a class that can travel with the largest range of people, meaning neutral, you will be sure to be asked along on more trips. If however, you want to know what class will help you solo every area, I would suggest the cleric for the curing abilities needed in many of those areas.

[Lexi]

Avians can't be rangers, though?

I know there was a big ninja overhaul recently. Are assassination ninjas viable these days? Most I've encountered seem to have chosen other paths.

I was actually contemplating feral or beast ranger, just wasn't sure if non-ogres performs well (I always sort of disliked ogre/stone rangers, felt like the class should've been restricted to small/medium-sized races).

I recall doing fairly well with my battlemage back in the days, although she was Savant and that used to come with some sweet perks. It just seems to come with the whole package of high survivability, damage (especially against the high level MOBs that're hard for melees to take down), and recovery (field-dressing and slow). Warriors and rangers strike me as the best at just dishing it out without taking too much damage, using pugil staff in the endgame areas. The archer path for rangers in particular seems like it would be extremely neat, and call lightning puts the hurt on outdoor mobs.

Dark-knight I just want to play for the sweet rps, plus I never raised a malform past level 2. What're the major differences between the dark-knight races? They seem mostly the same, with trading higher strength for dex/int. Just worried about all these giant-sized warriors running around.

[mya]

14 minutes ago, Lexi said:

worried about all these giant-sized warriors running around

Avian DK for the bash avoidance bonus, and a laging pet, so that you can break his lag by having your pet lag them.
In my opinion DEX > STR on a DK. And better yet, the DEX options all have more mana than human.

[Celerity]

Really hard to go wrong with a ranger. You have great PK prowess, even if not the best equipped. You've got an escape from PK card in camo. Herb cures disease.

You can't reliably lag, so you are forced to chase. You have burst melee damage which gives you output, even if you panic or caught completely off guard. You'll probably get a couple kills by doing nothing if you are lucky.

You've got pet management and all the skills that go along with it.

You can dip your toes into casting with thunderstorm which requires some conditions to work well, teaching situational casting.

You've got a lot of flexibility in how to approach fights with your ability to use fired weapons, camo, charmies, melee, and casting. These same things make it easy to explore, even alone.

You've also got a wide range of cabal and race choices available. Look at who is playing now. Try to pick a cabal that wouldn't make you enemies with the strongest characters around. Tribunal/Warmaster are good choices to learn in because both force you to fight a variety of enemies.

Watcher can be very difficult to play in (depends if it is active, but it usually isn't), so I'd probably avoid it.

Ogre is typically the best race for a ranger all-round, but if the magic 'vuln' scares you, rangers don't really have a gimp race, so you can't really go wrong. Stone giants are a good #2 choice. Giant size + two-handed in one hand (ogre/stone) is very nice for rangers.

Werebeasts are a safe, strong non-giant ranger.

I played a feral ranger and found them to be very effective as well, but probably not for your first ranger (low hp + fire vuln = death if careless).

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Stay away from battlemages. Even great players have problems with them now and you'll be made a target just because of the class. Uphill fights you want to avoid.

DKs are not an easy class to play but you can learn a lot of different and difficult to learn skills from playing them. I'd wait until you feel more confident to attempt one. You don't learn much from being smashed and a beginner DK gets smashed around. This class will be very uphill for you.

Clerics aren't a great learning class because they don't teach you a lot of skills. They make you lazy, because gear, consumables, and tactics aren't quite as important for them. You'll likely be stronger than you would as most other classes, but ranger does this too while teaching you.

Ninja can be a rough class, especially against big melees that you said are running around. I'd pick one after ranger to learn other important skills to build on the ranger foundation.

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Don't sweat religion for clerics. It matters way less than people give it credit. Just pick something fun and you won't notice the difference. I had the worst religion choice (life) and still had a very successful cleric.

Religions for DK is a bit more important, but I don't think you should be worrying about a full malform now.

Play with DKs/Cleric religions during the next upcoming Halloween Madness and test what the religions do. Then write it down.

[Fool_Hardy]

1 hour ago, Lexi said:

Avians can't be rangers, though?

I don't know. Never tried for it myself.

Edit: Celerity as always provides clear points. It really just matters what you want to do.

[Magick]

That is correct.  Avians cannot be rangers.

https://theforsakenlands.com/wiki/main/wiki.pl?Races/Avian

or

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