Class roles in Velious?

[Mindsplatter]

Looking to start a new main character, I don't really do the alt thing, so I'm planning for the long term. I'm looking for a class that's relatively fun and as complex as possible to play on raids, desireable for end game content, and preferably a decent soloer. Considering the following: Shaman, cleric, druid, necromancer, monk, enchanter, warrior. Could anyone outline their roles in Velious raiding? My main motive is raiding, so I want to enjoy my raiding experience (feel like I'm serving a unique role, not just button mashing)

[Estu]

I don't know much about raids, but here's how your classes stack up in terms of grouping and soloing. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

Shamen are excellent soloers once they get their pets at 34, and always wanted for groups because of their slows, buffs, heals, and dots. They are relatively complex to play, though I don't know to what extent this is true in raids.

Clerics are bad soloers unless you're fighting undead, in which case you root-nuke like a wizard, which still isn't really that good soloing. They're the best healers for groups and are always wanted, but their play style is pretty straight forward and some find it boring.

Druids are good soloers and have excellent utility spells and abilities, but are not very high in demand for groups since other classes can generally do what they do better.

Necromancers are excellent soloers and good in groups, and have an interesting play style, but they are not vital for grouping.

Monks are OK soloers and do the best melee DPS in groups, and can also offtank. They have some nice utility abilities such as sneak, mend, and feign death that make them more interesting to play, but I don't get the impression that they're as complex to play as a caster.

Enchanters are decent soloers when leveling and the best soloers when they hit 50 due to charm. They're also in high demand for groups for their crowd control abilities and clarity. They are complex to play.

Warriors are the worst soloing class, and are very gear-dependent for grouping, unlike (comparatively) paladins and shadowknights, who can hold aggro with spells. They also only have four buttons to press: melee attack, range attack, bash/slam/kick, taunt. However, they are the best tanks for raids because of their high skill caps. Tanking is a nontrivial job, though I can't really tell you to what extent it's more or less interesting than playing some other class, especially not in the context of a raid.

[Sigmastorm]

Nothing is complex in Everquest, just a complete waste of time compared to anything else.

On another note I could level every single class to 60 before velious comes out, so get cracking.

[oldhead]

Looking to start a new main character, I don't really do the alt thing, so I'm planning for the long term. I'm looking for a class that's relatively fun and as complex as possible to play on raids, desireable for end game content, and preferably a decent soloer. Considering the following: Shaman, cleric, druid, necromancer, monk, enchanter, warrior. Could anyone outline their roles in Velious raiding? My main motive is raiding, so I want to enjoy my raiding experience (feel like I'm serving a unique role, not just button mashing)

that rules out clerics, monks, rogues, warriors.

I think you would like shamans or enchanter best.

But only you can answer that.

[Messianic]

that rules out clerics, monks, rogues, warriors.

I think you would like shamans or enchanter best.

But only you can answer that.

Eh, after playing a monk extensively in Velious and Kunark, I can tell you they are easy, with a big but - feign pulling, especially with Kunark/Velious FD behavior, is not easy. It isn't incredibly complex, but it does take some getting used to. It's definitely not button mashing.

[Omnimorph]

He's talking about raiding incase you guys missed that.

Enchanters become essentially buff bots on velious raids. Where as monks i'd say are one of the more interesting classes, pulling temple of veeshan on my monk was one of my all time favourite experiences.

Tank wise - there's not many complex encounters in terms of tanking, so ... not sure how much fulfillment you'd see in this.

So yeah, i'd have to say monk. Although unless you get some pretty nice gear for them they can't solo particularly well.

No mention of bard ... they get to pull PoG. And the speed they move at is very nice ;) as complex to play as you want to make them. But definitely the best class to be identified as a good player in groups.

[Messianic]

...monk. Although unless you get some pretty nice gear for them they can't solo particularly well.

I'd definitely agree with you on this after about 54-55. Soloing on a monk was a pain in the rear end until I pulled together some decent gear (Tranquil staff, etc) - although it got downright easy once I got my Fungi Tunic ;)

Once 75% bandaging comes along (I believe in Kunark with 201+ bind wound), that also makes it a ton easier.

[Cogwell]

Necros and Bards are your best bet, as they have multiple roles, varied abilities, and have to micro manage a bit. They are probably the 2 classes that play the most like modern MMO classes.

Shaman and Druids will be healing, buffing, and dispelling poisons/diseases. Clerics will be doing more reactive healing (quick heals, group heals) up until Velious, and then they really start into the CH chains. The timing can be fun if you've never done it before, although the entertainment can wear off eventually.

Paladins will be DPSing (lol?) and group healing A LOT in velious. Outside of raids they'll be tanking, and are very able to tank trash mobs in ToV and Kael. SKs are a bit odd - they depend largely on your guild. SKs are capable to tank trash if your guild allows it, and can be more effective pullers in Velious due to snare, but most of the time end up being just self-reliant moderate damage.

Enchanters are similar - if youre charming giants it can be fun, but other than that they are essentially borked in velious - they cant mez because everything is immune, they can't nuke because of the stun aggro, so essentially they debuff and die - and buff in between.

In the end, for this server, I would suggest Bard or Paladin, because how useful they are, how stackable they are, and how few there are of them on the server.

[Glad8tor]

You should also keep in mind that velious is a LONG ways away....from what ive heard we shouldnt get our hopes up for kunark for atleast several more months, then well....only god knows how long it will take for velious to be completed(over a year or 2 possibly?). I could level several toons to 50 in that time.

Id be looking into more of kunark's raiding necessities(spelling?) but thats just my thought process.

As for what class, i would say a shaman or enchanter. Both have fairly decent solo abilities, both are highly sought out in raids and groups, and neither are extremely easy to play aka button pushing.

Sincerely,
EQfiend

[Kevris]

Warrior raiding = /dis def, press taunt key until you die, then hope you were not the last tank or that whoever was the next tank picked up agro quickly.

Cleric raiding = Pressing your "CHEAL to Target ((CLERIC2)) is next!" button

Necromancer raiding = Cleric tells you: I'M OOM! GIVE ME MANA NOW; you begin casting Sedulous Subversion, Cleric looks refreshed.

Shaman raiding = Ranger tells you: Can you cast dex buff please?

Druid raiding = Ranger tells you: Can you hit me with a heal please? You begin casting Greater Healing.

Monk raiding = Running around in little circles trying to FD split various angry giants, flurry drakes, etc. Occasinaly you have to hit mend as all of these mobs hit hard as fuck.

Enchanter raiding = Ranger tells you: Haste pls; Cleric tells you: Clairity pls, Raid Leader tells you: Mez shit faster! We're getting owned!

Try a bard man. There are never, ever enough bards to go around.

[Messianic]

Monk raiding = Running around in little circles trying to FD split various angry giants, flurry drakes, etc. Occasinaly you have to hit mend as all of these mobs hit hard as #$##.

LOL - that's about right - Jump-Feign ftw!

[Noselacri]

Shaman: In most group play, you serve as the buffer/debuffer and, if noone else is there to do the job, healer. You'll struggle a little to do it all at once, but it's doable with a good group in a non-hellish dungeon. On raids, you mostly buff melees and slow mobs, and occasionally patch heal. In Kunark, shaman start to really come into their own when it comes to soloing as three of their most important items become available there, but Velious is where you can actually have +hp items in every slot, and where some of the more challenging solo mobs are. I would say that the shaman solo powerhouse is born in Kunark and fully applied in Velious.
Grade: 8/10 for being well-rounded, a strong solo class that's also highly desirable in groups, and overall a very solid class

Cleric: Your universal main healer. Noone can heal like a cleric. That is, however, pretty much all you can do. If you like being the undisputedly best at something, cleric is a good choice. If you dislike being useless whenever there's not a group in need of a main healer, cleric is a horrible choice. This class is just one of those absolutes, sort of like warriors: the best at what they do, but pretty much incapable of doing anything else.
Grade: 7/10. During Velious specifically, with its emphasis on raiding, clerics should do pretty well. It'll depend on your playstyle, however, and anyone wanting more out of their character than a healbot that has to be in a group might find the class lame.


Druid: This class was never great, and especially not during Velious. Well, if you like solo kiting outdoors a lot, to the point where it's all you ever want to do, druid is fine. If not, consider another class. The thing about druids is that they're excellent soloers but really sub-par at everything else. You'll struggle to be a group's healer, you won't properly fill a DPS spot, your buffs aren't amazing, your debuffs are virtually non-existent, and you can't ress or anything. You have the ability to sort of fill a number of roles, but not well enough that anyone would invite you to do it. Druids are notoriously bad in raids, and in Velious the only reason you really want one is because they have slightly better elemental resist buffs than the other priest classes.
Grade: 2/10 for the dr00d. They get a bit of credit for being versatile soloers and having the convenience of SoW and ports, but that doesn't amount to much. Noone wants a druid in their group if they could choose something else.

Necromancer: I frankly don't know a whole lot about how necromancers operated during Velious. I assume they filled a DPS role and did it no worse than most other classes in that category, and on raids they feed mana to clerics and maybe help pull if they're good. I see no reason why a necro would be desirable anywhere, and while they are really strong soloers, so are several other classes that can do more than that.
Grade: 4/10 for presumably being good DPS and a traditionally powerful soloer without much to add to a group or raid. This is a very uneducated guess.

Monk: Let me start off by saying that I don't know how this server plans to handle the Velious monk mechanics. On Live, before they got nerfed sometime during Velious, monks were overpowered as shit. They were top DPS, #1 pullers, and could tank surprisingly well. A monk was the best choice for rampage tanking, for instance, so a monk could fill three roles in a raid: main puller, secondary tank and top-competitive DPS. After the nerf, monks were still fine DPS and the best pullers, but their tanking took a noticeable hit.
Grade: 9/10 before nerf, 7/10 after. It's still a pure melee class that isn't absolutely #1 DPS, and a raid only ever needs one monk. Great if you can be that monk, not so great if you're the second or third one there who just gets to do "really good but not the best" DPS.

Enchanter: Always been a fantastic class that noone else can really replace. You can also do some crazy stuff with charm in Velious, and mez becomes more and more important in dungeons as the expansions progress. Chanter slow is only 5% below shaman slow, so they can easily fill that role when required. Strictly a support class, however, which deters some.
Grade: 7/10 for having a pretty much uncontested role as crowd controller and crack provider, as well as the best haste buff by far and a fine slow. Can't really deal damage very reliable, though, and can't heal, so not amazingly versatile.

Warrior: The main tank. The only main tank. Velious is where hybrids finally lose the ability to main tank anything that they don't out-gear, more or less. Okay, a really good knight caaaan tank some of the less brutal raid mobs, but in general, you'll need a warrior to tank a raid and noone will consider any alternative unless it's, like, a NToV-clearing guild taking down Zlandicar for fun. Warriors truly come into their own in Velious, and we start to see weapons itemized solely for them, role-defining ones like Blade of Carnage. They still can't solo for shit, of course, and are a pure melee class that isn't actually DPS, which can be a bit of a bitch. Nevertheless, having the most monopolized and universally required role is a hell of a luxury. Even clerics can be replaced by other healers in a pinch, as long as you have a few of them left. You usually can't even attempt a raid without a warrior or two.
Grade: 9/10 if you raid. If not, uh, 3/10. Hybrids are still far better tanks in XP groups, and a warrior has absolutely no utility of any kind.

[Braveguard]

Warriors are the worst soloing class, and are very gear-dependent for grouping, unlike (comparatively) paladins and shadowknights, who can hold aggro with spells. They also only have four buttons to press: melee attack, range attack, bash/slam/kick, taunt. However, they are the best tanks for raids because of their high skill caps. Tanking is a nontrivial job, though I can't really tell you to what extent it's more or less interesting than playing some other class, especially not in the context of a raid.

I disagree on a couple of minor points here. Paladins and SKs are still VERY gear dependent... arguably moreso than warriors since they have lower HP pools (have to make up for it in gear). On that note, Paladins and SKs will never be the preferred raid tank (except after AAs and only situationally then) because their top end HP/AC will never challenge that of a warrior. In a group, I think it's kind of a toss-up since it's much less of an issue.

Also, warriors are tough to solo but not impossible. With bind at max warriors can "heal" somewhat. As long as you don't try to hunt above blue you should be able to hunt viably solo... although you'll never be as good at it as most classes. This is especially true considering potion use (DS and SoW).

[guineapig]

Druid: This class was never great, and especially not during Velious. Well, if you like solo kiting outdoors a lot, to the point where it's all you ever want to do, druid is fine. If not, consider another class. The thing about druids is that they're excellent soloers but really sub-par at everything else. You'll struggle to be a group's healer, you won't properly fill a DPS spot, your buffs aren't amazing, your debuffs are virtually non-existent, and you can't ress or anything. You have the ability to sort of fill a number of roles, but not well enough that anyone would invite you to do it. Druids are notoriously bad in raids, and in Velious the only reason you really want one is because they have slightly better elemental resist buffs than the other priest classes.
Grade: 2/10 for the dr00d. They get a bit of credit for being versatile soloers and having the convenience of SoW and ports, but that doesn't amount to much. Noone wants a druid in their group if they could choose something else.



I would just like to point out that druids are the second best nukers in the game through Velious. They should be at least on par with mages as far as desirability is concerned. Sure pets add a bunch of DPS, of that there's no doubt. But there are times were DPS is not the issue but backup healing, porting is.

example:

Wildfire DRU/59 1: Decrease Hitpoints by 1294 320-mana

Seeking Flame of Seukor MAG/59 1: Decrease Hitpoints by 1024 320-mana


If you look at other comparable spells between mage and druid as they were back in classic-Velious you will notice the same pattern over and over again.

Druid nukes are significantly better accross the board plus they provide utility. Most mages simply provide DPS and not much else (there are a few exceptions to this rule... rarely)

[Noselacri]

Well, certainly, druids are on par with mages if mages don't use pets. Warriors are also on par with rogues if they don't backstab.

Back in the day, people tended to not let magicians and necromancers use pets in raids. That's because we were stupid. There's really very, very few raids where pets are a liability, and any trouble almost always boils down to the owner being a moron. One can assume that a magician will almost always have a pet up, and that makes up a significant portion of their damage. That's why their nukes are similar to druids'.

The difference is that magicians have some utility that's actually valuable. Look at druids: they can do so many things, but virtually none of it is needed in a raid. It's fine for 5-mans where there's barely any overlap, but when your utility consists of things that are mostly designed to complement soloing, it falls short in a raid environment. What are you gonna do, SoW people and buff their agility? Cast a damage shield on the tank? Track for mobs? Not only are these things far less valuable than real utility but there's almost always a handful of classes that can do it. The individual druid in a raid is probably the least valuable role in the game. The one and only thing that druids can actually provide over others is their Circle of Summer/Winter stuff, and that's not exactly a strict necessity. Magicians, on the other hand, have mod rods, an underrated but extremely useful thing to have around. They can also help apply malowhatever to mobs, something that usually has to be done in a hell of a hurry, so having an extra guy trying is great. Then you have Call of the Hero, a spell that you can build entire raid strategies around. And really, there is no sense in trying to argue that druids are better at dealing damage than magicians.

[Cogwell]

Shaman: In most group play, you serve as the buffer/debuffer and, if noone else is there to do the job, healer. You'll struggle a little to do it all at once, but it's doable with a good group in a non-hellish dungeon. On raids, you mostly buff melees and slow mobs, and occasionally patch heal. In Kunark, shaman start to really come into their own when it comes to soloing as three of their most important items become available there, but Velious is where you can actually have +hp items in every slot, and where some of the more challenging solo mobs are. I would say that the shaman solo powerhouse is born in Kunark and fully applied in Velious.
Grade: 8/10 for being well-rounded, a strong solo class that's also highly desirable in groups, and overall a very solid class

Cleric: Your universal main healer. Noone can heal like a cleric. That is, however, pretty much all you can do. If you like being the undisputedly best at something, cleric is a good choice. If you dislike being useless whenever there's not a group in need of a main healer, cleric is a horrible choice. This class is just one of those absolutes, sort of like warriors: the best at what they do, but pretty much incapable of doing anything else.
Grade: 7/10. During Velious specifically, with its emphasis on raiding, clerics should do pretty well. It'll depend on your playstyle, however, and anyone wanting more out of their character than a healbot that has to be in a group might find the class lame.


Druid: This class was never great, and especially not during Velious. Well, if you like solo kiting outdoors a lot, to the point where it's all you ever want to do, druid is fine. If not, consider another class. The thing about druids is that they're excellent soloers but really sub-par at everything else. You'll struggle to be a group's healer, you won't properly fill a DPS spot, your buffs aren't amazing, your debuffs are virtually non-existent, and you can't ress or anything. You have the ability to sort of fill a number of roles, but not well enough that anyone would invite you to do it. Druids are notoriously bad in raids, and in Velious the only reason you really want one is because they have slightly better elemental resist buffs than the other priest classes.
Grade: 2/10 for the dr00d. They get a bit of credit for being versatile soloers and having the convenience of SoW and ports, but that doesn't amount to much. Noone wants a druid in their group if they could choose something else.

Necromancer: I frankly don't know a whole lot about how necromancers operated during Velious. I assume they filled a DPS role and did it no worse than most other classes in that category, and on raids they feed mana to clerics and maybe help pull if they're good. I see no reason why a necro would be desirable anywhere, and while they are really strong soloers, so are several other classes that can do more than that.
Grade: 4/10 for presumably being good DPS and a traditionally powerful soloer without much to add to a group or raid. This is a very uneducated guess.

Monk: Let me start off by saying that I don't know how this server plans to handle the Velious monk mechanics. On Live, before they got nerfed sometime during Velious, monks were overpowered as shit. They were top DPS, #1 pullers, and could tank surprisingly well. A monk was the best choice for rampage tanking, for instance, so a monk could fill three roles in a raid: main puller, secondary tank and top-competitive DPS. After the nerf, monks were still fine DPS and the best pullers, but their tanking took a noticeable hit.
Grade: 9/10 before nerf, 7/10 after. It's still a pure melee class that isn't absolutely #1 DPS, and a raid only ever needs one monk. Great if you can be that monk, not so great if you're the second or third one there who just gets to do "really good but not the best" DPS.

Enchanter: Always been a fantastic class that noone else can really replace. You can also do some crazy stuff with charm in Velious, and mez becomes more and more important in dungeons as the expansions progress. Chanter slow is only 5% below shaman slow, so they can easily fill that role when required. Strictly a support class, however, which deters some.
Grade: 7/10 for having a pretty much uncontested role as crowd controller and crack provider, as well as the best haste buff by far and a fine slow. Can't really deal damage very reliable, though, and can't heal, so not amazingly versatile.

Warrior: The main tank. The only main tank. Velious is where hybrids finally lose the ability to main tank anything that they don't out-gear, more or less. Okay, a really good knight caaaan tank some of the less brutal raid mobs, but in general, you'll need a warrior to tank a raid and noone will consider any alternative unless it's, like, a NToV-clearing guild taking down Zlandicar for fun. Warriors truly come into their own in Velious, and we start to see weapons itemized solely for them, role-defining ones like Blade of Carnage. They still can't solo for shit, of course, and are a pure melee class that isn't actually DPS, which can be a bit of a bitch. Nevertheless, having the most monopolized and universally required role is a hell of a luxury. Even clerics can be replaced by other healers in a pinch, as long as you have a few of them left. You usually can't even attempt a raid without a warrior or two.
Grade: 9/10 if you raid. If not, uh, 3/10. Hybrids are still far better tanks in XP groups, and a warrior has absolutely no utility of any kind.

The OP said he didn't want a button masher, and was interested mainly in Velious raiding. The enchanter cant mez shit in Velious and the Warrior is most certainly a button masher.

Also, Necros will be more or less required for raiding in velious, unless you have about 10 clerics. The mobs last a long damn time and good luck keeping up a CH chain with not much Flowing thought or mounts.

Also, Druids will be valuable in Velious for PotG/resist buffs and off- and spam-healing. The Clerics will be in the CH chain, and there will be lots of AE damage to deal with or in the case of the Kael mobs, lots of spikey damage to assist healing with.

[Messianic]

Monk: Let me start off by saying that I don't know how this server plans to handle the Velious monk mechanics. On Live, before they got nerfed sometime during Velious, monks were overpowered as shit. They were top DPS, #1 pullers, and could tank surprisingly well. A monk was the best choice for rampage tanking, for instance, so a monk could fill three roles in a raid: main puller, secondary tank and top-competitive DPS. After the nerf, monks were still fine DPS and the best pullers, but their tanking took a noticeable hit.
Grade: 9/10 before nerf, 7/10 after. It's still a pure melee class that isn't absolutely #1 DPS, and a raid only ever needs one monk. Great if you can be that monk, not so great if you're the second or third one there who just gets to do "really good but not the best" DPS.

This is accurate. I stopped playing my monk after those nerfs because the change was pretty substantial. Before those nerfs, I was able to solo fairly well. Afterward, I had difficulty soloing blue mobs that were almost light blue. I guess the power I had for so long was not working as intended...

One of the most shocking abilities monks had was whipping out an OP 2hander and turning on the auto-riposte discipline (I forget what it was called) on mobs that attacked very quickly or quadded...Alternatively, I also had stonestance which decreased the damage i took substantially, and saved me from quite a few deaths after a low-probability failed FD...

[Cogwell]

Well, certainly, druids are on par with mages if mages don't use pets. Warriors are also on par with rogues if they don't backstab.

Back in the day, people tended to not let magicians and necromancers use pets in raids. That's because we were stupid. There's really very, very few raids where pets are a liability, and any trouble almost always boils down to the owner being a moron. One can assume that a magician will almost always have a pet up, and that makes up a significant portion of their damage. That's why their nukes are similar to druids'.

The difference is that magicians have some utility that's actually valuable. Look at druids: they can do so many things, but virtually none of it is needed in a raid. It's fine for 5-mans where there's barely any overlap, but when your utility consists of things that are mostly designed to complement soloing, it falls short in a raid environment. What are you gonna do, SoW people and buff their agility? Cast a damage shield on the tank? Track for mobs? Not only are these things far less valuable than real utility but there's almost always a handful of classes that can do it. The individual druid in a raid is probably the least valuable role in the game. The one and only thing that druids can actually provide over others is their Circle of Summer/Winter stuff, and that's not exactly a strict necessity. Magicians, on the other hand, have mod rods, an underrated but extremely useful thing to have around. They can also help apply malowhatever to mobs, something that usually has to be done in a hell of a hurry, so having an extra guy trying is great. Then you have Call of the Hero, a spell that you can build entire raid strategies around. And really, there is no sense in trying to argue that druids are better at dealing damage than magicians.

PoTG was a significant source of mana regen, Druid FR and CR buffs were somewhere between 5-10 points better than normal "Resist X" spells, and the level of healing needed during your average boss fight is conservatively 10x more than Kunark. That means that druids aren't going to be DPSing unless you have a total glut of Clerics, not to mention of significant amount of poison and disease AEs that will need curing during the event.

[Noselacri]

If healing is needed, shamans are infinitely better. The thing about druids is that they have very, very little they can do that others don't do better, and they have no defined role. You never hear "we need more druids", or even "we need a druid". At most you'll want one for the few buffs they have that aren't done better by others. More than one druid is a sheer waste of potential, and while a raid will do just fine with several if people aren't idiots, it'll always be a compromise. Druid is primarily a solo class, one that unfortunately wasn't given much worthwhile raid utility compared to others. Since the OP is asking about raid roles, that's what should be said. Druids are alright in raids, but there's always going to be a better option, especially if the one druid spot is filled and the rest just overlap. Even shamans stack better because they're individually better healers than druids if they have torpor.

[fuji]

I would go wizard for velious. 2k unresistable during ToV is priceless.

[guineapig]

How fast are you going to mobilize for these big raids without a squad of druids porting and SoW-ing everybody... or are you going to perma-shackle a shaman to every wizard in order to accomplish this?

[Cogwell]

If healing is needed, shamans are infinitely better. The thing about druids is that they have very, very little they can do that others don't do better, and they have no defined role. You never hear "we need more druids", or even "we need a druid". At most you'll want one for the few buffs they have that aren't done better by others. More than one druid is a sheer waste of potential, and while a raid will do just fine with several if people aren't idiots, it'll always be a compromise. Druid is primarily a solo class, one that unfortunately wasn't given much worthwhile raid utility compared to others. Since the OP is asking about raid roles, that's what should be said. Druids are alright in raids, but there's always going to be a better option, especially if the one druid spot is filled and the rest just overlap. Even shamans stack better because they're individually better healers than druids if they have torpor.

You're right about shaman and stacking of course, but there are some upsides to druids over shaman. Namely, they don't have the debuffing duties to take them away from healing; they have a nice quick heal to help with tank healing (you're probably not going to be torporing the MT); they're a leather class - of which there are only 2 instead of 3 chain classes; transport can be a pain in velious for guilds and druids will help with that; and they have a stacking FR debuff.

I didn't play a druid, and I'm not saying they're as critical as Clerics or Shaman, but I think they're far from worthless.

[hedbonker]

Cleric raiding = Pressing your "CHEAL to Target ((CLERIC2)) is next!" button

Never played a raid cleric, I see...

[Kevris]

Never played a raid cleric, I see...

Never had a sense of humor, I see...

[hedbonker]

A sense of humor is for punks. Besides, you are just shilling for bards anyway. We all see through your thinly veiled guise...

[Reiker]

Yall are forgetting the #1 important job of knights in Velious... they're there to tank green drakes! And ramp tank sometimes, depending on your guild (I think my SK friend really got his feelings hurt when our guild leader started having me (a shaman) ramp tank some mobs like Vindi since I could torpor/heal and require less cleric attention. jesus I love shaman).

[Kevris]

A sense of humor is for punks. Besides, you are just shilling for bards anyway. We all see through your thinly veiled guise...

Curses! My vile plan to fill the server with more combat-ineffective-force multiplier-classes-that-don't-really-shine-until-they're-in-a-raid has failed!

[Yinaltin]

Warrior raiding = /dis def, press taunt key until you die, then hope you were not the last tank or that whoever was the next tank picked up agro quickly.

Cleric raiding = Pressing your "CHEAL to Target ((CLERIC2)) is next!" button

Necromancer raiding = Cleric tells you: I'M OOM! GIVE ME MANA NOW; you begin casting Sedulous Subversion, Cleric looks refreshed.

Shaman raiding = Ranger tells you: Can you cast dex buff please?

Druid raiding = Ranger tells you: Can you hit me with a heal please? You begin casting Greater Healing.

Monk raiding = Running around in little circles trying to FD split various angry giants, flurry drakes, etc. Occasinaly you have to hit mend as all of these mobs hit hard as fuck.

Enchanter raiding = Ranger tells you: Haste pls; Cleric tells you: Clairity pls, Raid Leader tells you: Mez shit faster! We're getting owned!

Try a bard man. There are never, ever enough bards to go around.


best posting ! all 10000 % true ...

[guineapig]

best posting ! all 10000 % true ...

In all honesty having 1 bard per raid group can seriously trivialize most raid content due to the resists alone. Just have all your bards equipped with the best percussion mod they can get their hands on and most raids will basically turn into a tank and spank with an occasional death touch. There are some exceptions, but not many.

[Cogwell]

In all honesty having 1 bard per raid group can seriously trivialize most raid content due to the resists alone. Just have all your bards equipped with the best percussion mod they can get their hands on and most raids will basically turn into a tank and spank with an occasional death touch. There are some exceptions, but not many.

For better or worse, AE resist songs are luclin.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

In all honesty having 1 bard per raid group can seriously trivialize most raid content due to the resists alone. Just have all your bards equipped with the best percussion mod they can get their hands on and most raids will basically turn into a tank and spank with an occasional death touch. There are some exceptions, but not many.

furthermore, most velious dragons have a negative resist component (-300, -400) in their aoe, making it difficult to even put up any kind of resist (usually just better off in your +HP gear).

[HeallunRumblebelly]

To answer your question about velious raid roles

Warriors tank (main and ramp generally)
Clerics heal
shm / dru / enc buff (shm also can do some decent healing) -- really depends what version of mobs we get for places like tov / kael depending on their charmability but they're all unmezz D=
SKs don't do !@#$ but the ocassional inc pickup and light drake work in ToV
Paladin casts brells, note singular :P
Mage / Rogues / Wizards / Monks dps (monk also pulls)
Bard is manabot for CLR due to lengthiness of encounters
Necro pumps CLR mana

As far as velious raiding goes, wizard / rogue / CLR / 1-2 warriors who don't ragequit will be what decides whether your guild progresses or stagnates (assuming you get the encounters from the other guilds D=)