Help Picking a Class

[Riftmarked]

Hey guys, I left this during 1.2 as 1.3 was implemented and have decided to come back, but things are so different I'm a bit lost. I spent some time reading the forums and stickies to catch up, but I'm still unsure of what class to play. Back in 1.2 I played a warrior that was 2h dps champ/paragon/riftblade, and liked it until 1.3 killed it.

My focus is PvE, just not into PvP if that helps.
The two classes I'm eyeing are cleric and warrior. I don't plan to main or focus on DPS on either, will pursue it as an interest later in the game for fun. So it really boils down to tanking on a warrior vs healing or tanking on a cleric.

I'm personally leaning towards cleric because I never really played as one before and the versatility of a cleric is appealing, but I'm worried my lack of experience with healing may ruin it for me.

I'm not super-experienced with MMOs so I need work on skill rotations, and strongly prefer macros.

If anyone could lend a hand and give me some advice about this before I dive in on Sunday I'd appreciate it, as I'm a bit overwhelmed with what I've been reading on the forums.

TL DR: Cleric heal vs Warrior tank and why please.

Thanks!

[Ajax1114]

Assuming that by PvE, you mean you intend to raid, I'd say playing a healer is more likely to get you raid spots than playing a warrior tank, where your only alternative is DPS. Not that no guilds need tanks, but a lot of guilds have established tanks already and if you find that you can't tank as a cleric, you can fall back on healing - can't do the same with a warrior.

As for macros, there isn't a lot of room for ideal gameplay with macros in this game, but I think you can macro more as a warrior tank than you can as a cleric healer. Optimal healing actually involves very little in the way of macros, in my experience.

I wouldn't say that skill rotations are a big part of healing, though, either. Healing in this game tends to be much more about timing and reacting to circumstances than following a 1-2-3-4 pattern, and in some cases, it can literally involve hitting one button for most of a fight - single target tank healing for a cleric, for example, often involves (mostly) hitting your big heal over and over.

Bottom line: What sounds more appealing to you, healing or tanking? And more importantly, considering that clerics can heal and tank, would you be comfortable with learning how to heal if your main role on a cleric was tanking? Don't be surprised if some people try to get you to do roles that you'd rather not do. However, what matters most is what you want to do. The rest will come with experience. (I mean, hell, I didn't know what a global cooldown was when I first started playing this game and now I can do most any role on any class.)

[Rozel]

Rogue. +1 to the infestation.


derping aside (gosh, why do I always open like this?), a cleric would probably be the most versitile class, but it lacks in dps until you're well geared, with full core and the like. I personally like warrior as it can do decent dps with t1 drops in raids. Also easy hp pool. Cleric and warrior tank gear are a dime a dozen, save for maybe cleric shield but it drops often enough.

To the bottom! Warriors are considered best tanks, bloody got 3 souls mostly for tanking. You can play mix and match if you're planning on raid tanking. Clerics are just as good, but instead of having all sorts of taunts, it has DoL as a threat generator. Works really well. One tanking soul to work with. Just to throw this in here, rogue tanking isn't half bad. It's great really. One tanking soul also, but the ports (teleporting straight to target or point) are very fun. It's tank soul, rift stalker, is a hybrid tank soul that can also support dps souls.

To healing! Love thy cleric. If a cleric is well geared enough/tank is well endowed, they can heal and throw in a decent amount of dps also. It's a situational soul for healing and its dps diverges from melee/range, so mix and match can bring you with epic raid heals, tank heals, hybrid, or support heals. There's also mage healing which is amazing for healing also.

That's some things I guess.

[Tristik]

~~
I'd say Cleric since you seem to be a bit on the fence as to what you want to do. Purely for the fact you you can heal OR tank depending on which you end up falling into. If you end up not liking warrior tanking, all you have to fall back on is dps.
~~

[Riftmarked]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll probabaly go cleric and give healing a shot, hopefully that works out for me, can anyone link me to a good guide for cleric? I've looked through the cleric guides section and was kinda overwhelmed mostly because it felt like a lot of the guides were for PvP or focused on end game content I'm not ready for yet.

[Merridwyn]

For levels up to 20 , it really doesn't make a blind bit of difference what you play. Work your way towards the Duracell build at around lvl 24/25 and you'll fly through. I think the recommended spec screen ahs the duracell in it, so you could start of with that, or experiment a bit. Having fun is the most important thing.

Re: healing - this is my first MMO and I've had no problem learning to heal. I levelled with purisent, but sent/ward is a sound build too.

As for macros - yes you can macro-play healers. As long as your macros are sound and you know what's in them and why, you're fine. Be ready to fill your 50 slots and want more though

Best of luck, I hope you enjoy. x