Ugh need help!!!

[Plezurenpain-DN]

I know I've asked in the past for help in regards to picking alt classes for myself.  I'm trying to keep it so that I have only 1 account to play but as you all know, we're limited to 8 characters across both servers & factions.  I've already made the decision that I'm going to have a chanter, cleric, sorc, glad, temp, and assassin as I've enjoyed these classes already & in the past.  I don't care too much for a ranger so I've excluded that class out.  I tried a SW but didn't care for it too much (but they may play entirely differently at higher levels so IDK) so I excluded that class out too.  That leaves me with SM, AT, and gunner to fill the last 2 slots.  I understand AT is a tank and honestly you can't see their armor while they're in their mech but I plan to mostly PvE so I'm ok with taking a tanking role with playing that class.  I've been told that gunner is ok but you have to go cannon built & weave in pistols to maximize your DPS so I'm not sure if I could do that effectively instead of just pumping out cannon DPS.  I tried SM years ago and didn't really get a feel for it because I'm used to pet classes in other games letting your pet DPS/tank on its own instead of you having to tell it what to do & I never got the SM higher than like 25.

That being said, HELP ME decide what is good to play.  Keep in mind, I'll most likely PvE predominately but I might venture out in PvP some times too.

[Neleth-KT]

For short o_o

AT is not fun until lv 74

Gunner is fun but nothing for u in pve after lv 70

SM ur pet will die from boss aoe in lv66+ instance

If you can't handle weaving u won't like to play sin and glad and all physical classes,I can teach u how to weave but I'm not sure if I got a physical class in DN will check out later o_o

If you interesting in weaving I can teach u personally just pm me and we talk ;D

[Plezurenpain-DN]

Well how does SW play at higher levels?  Are they expected to be a heal nyerk or are they DPS or are they full support?  I know last time I posted a similar thread about this I was told they did decent DPS but nobody said if they are seen as a full time DPS or heal nyerk or full support.  I ask this because, although I like my chanter as its the first melee I played & enjoyed in this game after release, I was told that they are pretty much support & heal bitches at higher levels instead of full time DPS because their DPS is lackluster.

BTW this would all be null & void if freakin NCSoft would put additional character slots up for sale on the BCM....speaking of which I'm going to go suggest that now.

[Kiatra-KT]

good luck with the BCm suggestion... people have griped about the char limit per account for years...

 

SW is actually how the person feels like playing it after 66, I've seen some pure dps 1's that can make a sorc/master at weaving sin/glad cry, I've also seen a sub par geared solo heal an all ranged group in Adma on an event run(boss fight for I think a card drop, not to the pumpkin we had last week) the class adapts well to how the run is going, all how well YOU react. so have fun and SLOW level it so you understand what it can and can not do.

[Vantheria-DN]

10 hours ago, Plezurenpain-DN said:

Are they expected to be a heal nyerk or are they DPS or are they full support?

I've seen maybe two "full support" songweavers ever. Most songweavers do not like to heal anyone except themselves lol. (Which is fine; if they wanted to heal, they'd go cleric or chanter.) As such, most groups do not expect songweavers to heal. That said, songweavers ARE expected to keep the main healer's (cleric or chanter, whoever) mana restored at all times. Some songweavers do not, and honestly, they're crap lol. Granted, most higher level clerics and chanters don't need a lot of mana assistance, but you would still need to keep an eye on it.

[Plezurenpain-DN]

4 hours ago, Vantheria-DN said:

I've seen maybe two "full support" songweavers ever. Most songweavers do not like to heal anyone except themselves lol. (Which is fine; if they wanted to heal, they'd go cleric or chanter.) As such, most groups do not expect songweavers to heal. That said, songweavers ARE expected to keep the main healer's (cleric or chanter, whoever) mana restored at all times. Some songweavers do not, and honestly, they're crap lol. Granted, most higher level clerics and chanters don't need a lot of mana assistance, but you would still need to keep an eye on it.

Hmm I might have to reconsider making one then.  I thought they might get pigeonholed into being a heal bi**h like chanters are apparently (one of he reasons why I'm not liking my chanter anymore & the other being my lvl 30 sorc does more dmg than my lvl 60 chanter).

[Vantheria-DN]

51 minutes ago, Plezurenpain-DN said:

Hmm I might have to reconsider making one then.  I thought they might get pigeonholed into being a heal bi**h like chanters are apparently (one of he reasons why I'm not liking my chanter anymore & the other being my lvl 30 sorc does more dmg than my lvl 60 chanter).

It's true that chanters are often expected to heal. However, they ARE in the same class as cleric though, so this is not an unreasonable expectation. Also, as you noted, chanters hit like cooked spaghetti. We don't offer much in the form of dps; our purpose is to make the rest of the group feel like gods with our buffs and help keep everyone alive. Chanters aren't meant to be hard hitters. That's not the way the class was designed. I mean, we can heal ourselves nearly as much as a cleric, and we have all of these buffs. It would be kind of unfair if we hit hard too, right? lol It would be another broken class (like songweaver... XD).

But anyway, yeah, if you like to be able to JUST heal yourself and still be able to do a nice amount of damage, I think you might like songweaver.

[Plezurenpain-DN]

OK so I deleted my AT I had & made a SW instead.  I'm still open to a SM instead though.

[Azzmaria-KT]

AT is a magic tank. that means that his defense comes mostly from skills and how you use them. It is also a nice AoE DPS and can be a really good offtank that can manage many mobs at once. It is different than a templar. So it is another experience. 

Gunner is a total DPS. you need low ping for that class. If you already have many DPS classes I´m not sure if it can give you some "unique" experience

Spiritmaster is totally different if you want to play alone or in groups. If you want to go alone it can be compared with a sorcerer in some way, Your pet can make possible for you to solo some instances and areas easier. But to play as DPS use to be better a Sorc. But SM in a group are other thing. They can improves a lot the damage for other classes. They can give some CC skills. Your fears can save the team a lot of times (and are totally great in PvP). You can debuff some mobs and bosses and sometimes that is really needed. If you play as SM you will in some way supporting your team to improve their damage and saving them. 

[Forgotten-DN]

Just putting this out there: if you ever find yourself in a situation where you're the only one in the group capable of healing others, DO IT. I've seen far too many ignorant/selfish SWs refusing to heal others for no other reason than "herp derp, I'm DPS." If there's a Cleric or Chanter in the group, you should still help toss out heals if you see someone's health getting low or if Cleric/Chanter is overwhelmed.

Don't be one of the bad SWs (we already have TOO MANY of those).

With regards to the rest of your post: If you didn't like the play style of SM, it doesn't get much better at later stages. SMs have to have near perfect rotations at endgame to dish out competitive DPS on par with Sins or Sorcs. If you don't like weapon swapping on a Gunner, you probably won't like having to figure out your ideal rotation on SM and constantly managing spirits.

Finally, I won't question or criticize your reasoning for wanting to play a single account. I too wish to have that sense of simplicity again. What I will say is that making multiple accounts/alts will only benefit you because of how Aion's events work: all the best items are rewarded via events. Having more accounts means more opportunities to obtain those items, which is the fastest way to making any sort of profit in the game. This is why you see people talking about having 50+ characters that they cycle through during events. Yes, it's more work, but trying to stay competitive without numerous alts means you're likely going to be constantly selling items from the BCM. Duel wield credit cards or spend more time making alts, it's your choice.

[Plezurenpain-DN]

28 minutes ago, Forgotten-DN said:

Just putting this out there: if you ever find yourself in a situation where you're the only one in the group capable of healing others, DO IT. I've seen far too many ignorant/selfish SWs refusing to heal others for no other reason than "herp derp, I'm DPS." If there's a Cleric or Chanter in the group, you should still help toss out heals if you see someone's health getting low or if Cleric/Chanter is overwhelmed.

Don't be one of the bad SWs (we already have TOO MANY of those).

With regards to the rest of your post: If you didn't like the play style of SM, it doesn't get much better at later stages. SMs have to have near perfect rotations at endgame to dish out competitive DPS on par with Sins or Sorcs. If you don't like weapon swapping on a Gunner, you probably won't like having to figure out your ideal rotation on SM and constantly managing spirits.

1)  My main in WoW for the past 12 years was a shadow priest.  Not sure if you're familiar with the game but that's a DPS priest.  I've always been the type of player that never saw it "beneath me" to throw out some heals every now & again if the healer was out of mana or even dead.  So that wouldn't be an issue for me.  What I was curious about is the role that a SW takes in a group/raid setting.  I started a sorc at launch of Aion (ended up deleting it later to remake him because i didn't like the way I made him look later) then made a chanter because it seemed kinda cool & was melee.  After coming back to Aion after years I find out that a chanter's role isn't really a DPS role but simply being there for mantra buffs & throwing out heals with the cleric along with a LITTLE DPS if you're able to squeeze it in.  I was afraid that a SW would be locked into a similar role.

2)  I'm used to having to manage spell rotations and stuff like that.  Its the swapping weapons mid-fight that I'm not sure if I can get used to.  Now you mention constantly managing spirits, does that mean that a SM has to swap pets during the fights too?

[Calista-DN]

10 hours ago, Vantheria-DN said:

I've seen maybe two "full support" songweavers ever. Most songweavers do not like to heal anyone except themselves lol. (Which is fine; if they wanted to heal, they'd go cleric or chanter.) As such, most groups do not expect songweavers to heal. That said, songweavers ARE expected to keep the main healer's (cleric or chanter, whoever) mana restored at all times. Some songweavers do not, and honestly, they're crap lol. Granted, most higher level clerics and chanters don't need a lot of mana assistance, but you would still need to keep an eye on it.

 

5 hours ago, Plezurenpain-DN said:

Hmm I might have to reconsider making one then.  I thought they might get pigeonholed into being a heal bi**h like chanters are apparently (one of he reasons why I'm not liking my chanter anymore & the other being my lvl 30 sorc does more dmg than my lvl 60 chanter).

 

28 minutes ago, Forgotten-DN said:

Just putting this out there: if you ever find yourself in a situation where you're the only one in the group capable of healing others, DO IT. I've seen far too many ignorant/selfish SWs refusing to heal others for no other reason than "herp derp, I'm DPS." If there's a Cleric or Chanter in the group, you should still help toss out heals if you see someone's health getting low or if Cleric/Chanter is overwhelmed.

Don't be one of the bad SWs (we already have TOO MANY of those).

With regards to the rest of your post: If you didn't like the play style of SM, it doesn't get much better at later stages. SMs have to have near perfect rotations at endgame to dish out competitive DPS on par with Sins or Sorcs. If you don't like weapon swapping on a Gunner, you probably won't like having to figure out your ideal rotation on SM and constantly managing spirits.

Finally, I won't question or criticize your reasoning for wanting to play a single account. I too wish to have that sense of simplicity again. What I will say is that making multiple accounts/alts will only benefit you because of how Aion's events work: all the best items are rewarded via events. Having more accounts means more opportunities to obtain those items, which is the fastest way to making any sort of profit in the game. This is why you see people talking about having 50+ characters that they cycle through during events. Yes, it's more work, but trying to stay competitive without numerous alts means you're likely going to be constantly selling items from the BCM. Duel wield credit cards or spend more time making alts, it's your choice.

I really agree with Forgotten -  SW are a great class because they can do so much. It's very understandable in a group if a DPS spec SW is limited in the amount of heal support and mana support they can (or even want) to do, it's really questionable (and arguably bad) in an emergency to say "i won't or can't heal"  when you'e the only healing class in the group.

It may not be your fault- maybe the main heal (cleric/chanter/heal spec SW) has DCed - but why would you let your group down, maybe even fail, when you have the skills to prevent it?

It may not be the class for you, especially if you might want to PVP as well since you could potentially be needed to play even more of a support role at times.  

[Plezurenpain-DN]

5 minutes ago, Calista-DN said:

It may not be your fault- maybe the main heal (cleric/chanter/heal spec SW) has DCed - but why would you let your group down, maybe even fail, when you have the skills to prevent it?

It may not be the class for you, especially if you might want to PVP as well since you could potentially be needed to play even more of a support role at times.  

See that's what I was saying earlier.  I don't mind popping the occasional heal when/if needed or even taking over the role of the healer if the healer dies or something else like a DC happens in the middle of the fight or even the healer stops healing in the middle of the fight.  What I don't want to be is pigeonholed into HAVE TO HEAL 100% of the time like a cleric & apparently chanters too from what I'm finding out.

[Forgotten-DN]

12 minutes ago, Plezurenpain-DN said:

I've always been the type of player that never saw it "beneath me" to throw out some heals every now & again if the healer was out of mana or even dead..

Good. Now go convince 99% of the rest of the SW population to do the same 

SWs are DPS first, support second. You won't be pigeon-holed into healing. Vantheria was on-point: people have low expectations for SW heals. Get used to people harassing you for mana though.

SMs won't have to constantly swap pets, but you will have to manage their health, buff and dispel them, pull them back when necessary, know which pet is appropriate to use and when, etc.

Chanters aren't expected to heal 100% of the time, only when a cleric isn't present. I don't know how you built your chanter, when spec'ed for DPS, they're not bad, you just shouldn't expect to be a top DPSer. Again, Vantheria's explanation is solid. The biggest issue with Chanters is that can't easily swap back into a DPS role in the middle of a fight because of stigmas and having to reallocate essences. If you tell your group that you're DPS spec, they probably won't care as long as you're still dropping necessary buffs, heals, and mantras as needed. And there are definitely excellent Chanters out there that capably heal and DPS at the same time (mind you, they're geared to the teeth).

[PetitFour-KT]

I always volunteer to solo heal easy instances like adma/fallen poeta/AOE etc on my SW, but random LFG people are always too narrow minded to believe that would work. I actually do full support on my SW a lot, more often than I go full DPS. I stopped healing AOE on my cleric because that's not challenging any more, on SW it's a lot more fun. SW is very easy to start cause cancer class but there's a bit more to the full potential of the class. In group pvp if you have a good support mindset you can extend the possibilities.

[Scooopz-DN]

On 11/9/2017 at 10:01 PM, Forgotten-DN said:

Chanters aren't expected to heal 100% of the time, only when a cleric isn't present. I don't know how you built your chanter, when spec'ed for DPS, they're not bad, you just shouldn't expect to be a top DPSer. Again, Vantheria's explanation is solid. The biggest issue with Chanters is that can't easily swap back into a DPS role in the middle of a fight because of stigmas and having to reallocate essences. If you tell your group that you're DPS spec, they probably won't care as long as you're still dropping necessary buffs, heals, and mantras as needed. And there are definitely excellent Chanters out there that capably heal and DPS at the same time (mind you, they're geared to the teeth).

Chanter is crazy gear dependent. I have 6 sets of gear. 2 for PvE. A healing boost set and a dps set. You can do both with rage spell on with support stigmas for group (instigation > any other buff). Set your equipment macros up to easily swap sets so you can heal when necessary and then switch back when you don't have to. Call out your shields so your protective ward or block curtain don't get overridden by templar buffs and you're good to go. Can easily push 5k+ dps on chanter in support spec since most elite mobs can't be knocked down so the only real damage you're missing is from mountain crash.