Newbie looking for class/investment advice.

Salinavi

I've just started here in Imperial and I have spoken to a few people in game already about choosing a class. I know I want to play in Kinsarmar for now so that limits things a bit.

I am so broken I just missed that awesome leveling promotion, I'll never get over that, but I can bring my Elite membership so that should help a bit right?

Right now I am torn between all of the neutral classes. I like Shaman and Berserker from playing them both in the newbie zone. Renegade sounds fantastic as a theme from the description on the main website. Engineer I could take it or leave it, but it is new so maybe I could discover something?

I definitely want to PvP. It doesn't have to be my main focus, but I am about 80% interested in that over other game activities as medium-to-long term goal.

I know from talking to @Wyll and a few others in game that Shaman is a solid PvP choice. Coding shouldn't be a huge issue for me I don't think. So if that is the main hurdle, it sounds exciting! I don't mind class complexity, and I'm patient enough to "git gud."

I've also heard Berserker is solid for group PvP (and isn't all PvP in a group?), isn't played a lot (bring exclusive usefulness? I love being useful right?), and bashes really well. Considering level 100 is a requirement, Berserker might be a solid choice as well.

Sadly the newbie zone didn't really favor me towards either Shaman or Berserker. I don't have any RP planned out yet so neither of them fit some RP theme I might want to play.

Considering membership type credit investment and the 2000 lessons package from the site, (some classes are more expensive, that is just reality) what do the long term players suggest? I'm not in love with any class yet, sadly, and I'm wasting time trying to choose. Being GMT+7, I thought the forums might get me a more broad base of thoughts from more players than those I could reach out to from the newbie zone.

Lastly, People who fight against Kinsarmar, is it lacking something in particular? Don't mind filling a niche and really learning my class, just want to get the most out of my investment. Thanks for your time.

Dillon

Berserker is the best bashing class if you're bashing for experience. With the existence of the scepters, the best bashing class is really the tankiest bashing class, and berserker is pretty good for that. But what really makes it shine is its warmask; a purple warmask will give you an increased 10% xp. The artifact warmask lets you have two paints, most correlating to a +1 stat but there is also one to boost gold drops with. I am not a combatant, so this is hearsay and if someone says otherwise, listen, but from what I've gathered, berserker is pretty lackluster in 1v1 pvp, but unmatched as a supporter. Shaman currently is top dog, or one of the top dogs, in the pvp world, and is probably due a couple nerfs, but it should still be pretty powerful when things are rebalanced. 

Pros to berserker:
-Don't have to buy a diadem of quickening 
-Artifact shield works both defensively and offensively in bashing, giving you a two-for-one purchase
-Warmasks are awesome

Pros to shaman:
-Good utility
-Lots of shamanic lore around the place
-Curses are speedy

Seig

Unless things have changed a lot recently, you're going to want a class that can 1v1 and bring something to a group. 90% of fights before I retired we're 1v1s so if you're interest is mostly pvp, you're gonna need to be viable 1 on 1, or even 1 vs X. As Dillon said before shaman is supposed to be hit with a few nerfs, but I'm thinking it should still remain pretty strong. Berserker is going to be an uphill struggle 1v1, even if it is doable, because they are so hinderable. 

So with that in mind, shaman is probably the way to go for pvp out of those 2 choices, since it brings a lot to both realms of team pvp, and 1vXs. But if you enjoy a challenge and making things work while being a team monster, go for berserker.

Salinavi

Thank you both for your advice. I'm pretty thrilled that it is such a difficult decision to choose between the two. I guess I'lll just play both until one finally sticks.

Sarrius

Seig is correct. The game is so small that duels are back to being king.

With that said, Berserker is on the upswing and has some cute toys within it that nobody seems to be mentioning. It is still a dirty bag of tricks like it always has been, it is just a different bag and different tricks. It also is capable of surprisingly high resists, which makes it a good choice for those indiciduals with lesser artifact budgets.

Shaman will still be very strong, post-classlead. The report the combat council collaborated on doesn't shit on the class and those people that still are part of said council will be helping adjust the impact of said reports before they go live.. unless the plan has changed, idk.

I'll say that Magick has enough 'carries'(i.e people that do the heavy lifting from a dps/seal the deal standpoint) that I think you'd be a more beneficial contributor to them as a Berserker. I'm not really aware of how their level 100 racers panned out, class-wise, but I base that on the norables in the circle.

Most of all, play what makes you happy. You can figure out the rest later.

Salinavi

It is a bit strange that the Berserker newbie attack takes 4 full arounds to kill the goblins, but the Shaman takes 3 (and is much faster to boot.)

At what point does the Berserker overtake the Shaman for bashing? 

I like the idea of having a dirty bag of tricks, and I like the theme of fighting with a shield. The slower newbie questing really threw my for a loop though.

Seig

Salinavi said:

It is a bit strange that the Berserker newbie attack takes 4 full arounds to kill the goblins, but the Shaman takes 3 (and is much faster to boot.)

At what point does the Berserker overtake the Shaman for bashing? 

I like the idea of having a dirty bag of tricks, and I like the theme of fighting with a shield. The slower newbie questing really threw my for a loop though.

I dunno that berserker pve dps gets higher than shaman, it's just my understanding they can get extra exp and also tend to be more tanky. However it is possible the hunting part overtakes it at higher levels when your crit rate is higher, since you'll have 3 chances to crit per combo vs only one chance per attack.

So it could be possible at higher levels, but I've never tested to see the difference.

Rokas

Crit opportunities are king to anything other than scepters in a game that doesn't have overflow (or whatever it's called when you store extra damage for the extra attack).

Salinavi

Makes sense, thank you both for the explanation. So it is a battle of crit opportunities vs early speed. Very interesting choice to make still.