Rinkusan-KT Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 I feel like this thread has been years overdue, but with Aion 6.0's class revamp coming soon, I thought I'd make a sort of guide/commentary explaining my personal group PvP playstyle as well as present and comment on other chanters' playstyles before everything we understand about this class possibly flies out the window. To this day across every region, there isn't a general consensus of how to play this class - especially in group PvP - because so many chanters have their own methods. So instead of just diving into my playstyle, I thought I'd share my opinions of the strengths/weaknesses of other chanters' playstyles so that by the end of this thread, the conclusion I've reached hopefully makes logical sense. As the title of this thread suggests, this guide will be heavily opinionated and based on *my* personal PvP experiences and observations of other chanters; please feel free to take any of the following points with a grain of salt. With all that being said, here are some generalized playstyle patterns I've seen over the past few years and my opinions of them.For those who don't want to read the wall of text below this line, here's the tl;dr: -Healing light sucks. -Chanters have the best physical CC in the game. -Play like a templar. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Pseudo-Cleric This is probably the most common group PvP playstyle I've seen; unfortunately, I believe it's also the worst. This playstyle is characterized by full-time healing with a small portion of time dedicated to buff maintenance, all while the chanter sits in some sort of defensive set. While it was extremely viable before the 4.8 skill update, the pseudo-cleric playstyle is the least effective way of contributing to group PvP nowadays, mainly because this method heavily relies on (healing light) and the enemy group actually targeting you for your defense set to actually do anything. Contrary to popular belief, healing light is not a good skill; while it (debatably) has its uses when (word of quickness) is up, it is a terrible skill under almost every circumstance. Healing light heals 1346 (which is 673 heals per second), and even with revival mantra, a +8 essence point boost, and a heal boost set that you realistically will not have equipped the whole fight, healing light heals about 2300 (1150 heals per second); many classes, including chanters themselves, can contribute more than this just by auto-attacking. Aside from the over-dependence on such a terrible healing skill, this playstyle overall lacks the adaptivity (AKA the ability to switch between healing and DPSing based on the situation) and crowd control utility that makes chanters such a ferocious class. 2. The Flexible Pseudo-Cleric This playstyle is slightly more efficient than the previous method. It has the same pattern of healing and buffing that the pseudo-cleric uses with the added benefit of throwing out stuns and debuffs between healing rotations, most notably (inescapable judgement) and (infernal blaze). Not much to say about this; the criticism I have for the the pseudo-cleric playstyle still applies here, including the lack of adaptivity and over-dependence on healing light. However, this method at the very least uses both buff and crowd control utilities that makes this class amazing; just not as well as it could. 3. The DPS Chanter The dps chanter in group PvP has been memed to death throughout the years. It's characterized by full-time DPS with a small portion of time dedicated to popping instant-cast skillbook buffs like and (block curtain). Is this playstyle inefficient? Sure; many have argued, "why take a dps chanter when I can just take another DPS class with way better DPS and almost as many stuns/stumbles, like a glad or assassin?", and I agree. However, at the very least, the dps chanter is able to use all of its crowd control utility - AKA the BEST physical crowd control in the game. What it lacks is reliable burst-healing and the support utility gained from buffs like elemental screen and word of protection. 4. The DPS Chanter in Support Spec An uncommon playstyle that's become a bit more popular over the past several months. Like the DPS chanter, this method includes dpsing full-time, but with the added buff maintenance and instant-cast support skills like and weaved between DPS rotations. You have all the notable crowd control benefits of a typical dps chanter and all the shields and buffs of a pseudo-cleric. My only complaint though is - once again - the adaptivity because these chanters are stuck with the casting handicap caused by , hence the reason why these chanters dps full-time and rarely pop any cast-based heals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What I believe what makes chanters stand out from most classes is 1. adaptability (switching between burst-healing [because our long-term healing is terrible] and DPSing) and 2. utility (buffs and crowd control). Notice how only some of these playstyles have both types of utility, but none of them have adaptability. For that reason, I created a playstyle that tries to balance out all 4 of these criteria: heals, DPS, buffs, and crowd control. 5. For simplicity's sake, I'll call this The Pseudo-Templar Basically, this method involves dpsing part-time with a staff while in support spec, so pretty similar to playstyle #4. The catch though is that you're not using rage spell so that during a particular moment when one of your teammates is getting beat down, you have the ability to switch sets and cast your two burst-healing skills: (recovery spell) and (healing burst) before immediately switching back to your main job of locking people down. The reason why I'm comparing this playstyle to templars is because the motions are almost the same; only the timing of each skill and the whole chanter buff maintenance system is different. -Both classes are trying to lock down a target with a DPS rotation in order to pull the target off of a group member; chanters use and related stuns while templars use and stuns/taunts. -Both classes keep a peripheral eye on the team's health bars for burst support; chanters use and while templars use and This is a playstyle that gives you the ability to burst-heal when a teammate's health is tanking, do damage as a bonus, pop all the support buffs you want, and most importantly, lock people into eternity. And all you had to do was get rid of this awful excuse of a healing skill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vantheria-DN Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 Agreed completely. That's exactly the playstyle I like to use. Granted, there are times when I'm the only healer and so then obviously things are different. But if I'm with a cleric, yeah, "pseudo-templar" all the way. With the new profile gear saves, it's so easy to just do one click and switch from your dps set to your heal set for 2 seconds then immediately switch back. I don't know why so many chanters don't want to do it? I really want NCsoft to change Rage Spell to a toggle skill like our mantras. Like you said, I can't have it on most of the time because of that detriment to cast speed. If it was toggled, we could easily do a custom chain combo to toggle it off before immediately going into Healing Burst or whatever. Anyway, maybe in 6.0 Aion will increase the amount of HP that Healing Light and many of the cleric skills actually restores because so many of those cleric skills are just as useless as our Healing Light. But I digress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rinkusan-KT Posted January 3, 2018 Author Share Posted January 3, 2018 4 hours ago, Vantheria-DN said: Agreed completely. That's exactly the playstyle I like to use. Granted, there are times when I'm the only healer and so then obviously things are different. But if I'm with a cleric, yeah, "pseudo-templar" all the way. With the new profile gear saves, it's so easy to just do one click and switch from your dps set to your heal set for 2 seconds then immediately switch back. I don't know why so many chanters don't want to do it? I really want NCsoft to change Rage Spell to a toggle skill like our mantras. Like you said, I can't have it on most of the time because of that detriment to cast speed. If it was toggled, we could easily do a custom chain combo to toggle it off before immediately going into Healing Burst or whatever. Anyway, maybe in 6.0 Aion will increase the amount of HP that Healing Light and many of the cleric skills actually restores because so many of those cleric skills are just as useless as our Healing Light. But I digress. Absolutely; the profile gear mechanic makes it easier than ever to switch between roles in an instant. As for why so many chanters prefer going pseudo-cleric mode over any of the other playstyles, I've had this discussion with several people 2 years ago, and the main argument is this: "Chanters are a support class. They're supposed to heal." The image of chanters being a buff-oriented support class with the sole job of backing up the cleric has been around for years, even way back in the 3.X patches, and it's still their image today unfortunately. I think it's kind of ironic that even CLERICS today are learning how to do more than just heal while so many chanters are adamant about doing nothing but healing. A rage spell toggle would be amazing. The rage spell animation + the time it takes to actually remove it before popping your burst-heals is the reason why I've given up on incorporating this skill into the pseudo-templar playstyle. Honestly, I'm perfectly fine with healing light being a mostly-useless skill. From the offensive skillbooks we got in 4.8 to the lack of ap shields for chanters in 5.3, it's very obvious at this point that the developers do NOT want us to be a tunnel-vision support class, and I've never had more fun playing such a flexible utility class in group PvP. I honestly hope that Aion 6.0 doesn't turn us back into mini-clerics with buffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neleth-KT Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Healing light is like a flamebolt for chanter/cleric. Nobody really using it but it's there to fill the gap between CDs Ofc I would be happier if cast time is 1 sec instead 2 sec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rinkusan-KT Posted January 12, 2018 Author Share Posted January 12, 2018 On 1/4/2018 at 10:41 PM, Neleth-KT said: Healing light is like a flamebolt for chanter/cleric. Nobody really using it but it's there to fill the gap between CDs Ofc I would be happier if cast time is 1 sec instead 2 sec. I wouldn't say that comparison is entirely accurate. At least a sorcerer's flame bolt is better than its auto-attack. A chanter's auto-attack, on the other hand, is better than healing light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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