Two hybrid classes, much maligned for being too much in the middle and not specialised enough, have been taken for a test drive by myself over the past few days since Phase 1 of closed beta started. I thought I would do a brief writeup of how the classes handle themselves and fit in thus far.
The Vampire:
Up until now I have not explored the talent tree in much detail and thus not spent precious talent points. As this is a beta and we're all testing like crazy, I have decided to put off my talent spending until at least level 29 when I have more of a feel for the character and when I am not trying out multiple things to bring you the inside story.
The Bard:
The Bard, some call him a poet, others a minstrel... but most call him a rather out of place hybrid. The Bard class in the eyes of most is a weak healer, poor damage dealer, rather squishy and has no appreciable benefit over most other classes in a Raid/Instance environment.
I wish I could disagree with them.... but so far I cannot...
Their damage dealing surpasses the mighty Priest by some distance early on but that is nothing to write home about, the Priests damage dealing abilities are pathetic at best. The Bard's main skills are performed via music and generating Chords which appear on your 'Scoresheet'. Chaining these chords in a certain manner will perform some type of skill or buff depending on the skills unlocked. This rather unique combo system is hampered by the fact that some tooltips have the incorrect chord combos, reducing Bards to confusion and relative weakness overall.
In these early stages of the game the Bard seems to be underpowered and their usefulness restricted in group activities. Their solo game is nothing to shout about either, being relatively weak on the damage scales and squishier than the average character. I find myself relying on my Ram pet quite a bit to squeeze the enjoyment out of the class when soloing. I really hope they pick up later on.
Overall, these hybrid classes seem to be rather weak and underpowered in their early game which is a shame. The Vampire has some very unique abilities but when it comes down to it, they seem to fail at excelling in any aspect and are given a cold shoulder. The Bard's score sheet is a very fun tool when you learn how to master it, requiring a lot of work to keep your short lived buffs alive and getting meagre bonuses to show for it.
But... before all of you Vampire and Bard fans get depressed, this is only phase 1 of the beta test. With full release not scheduled for another 5-6 months, there is plenty of time for both of these classes to be modified and who is to say they won't be a highly sought after class when we hit the higher levels?
Check out my other Forsaken World previews and guides.
Check out my other Forsaken World previews and guides.
2 comments:
Did you also decide to wait to put points into Bard talents? If so, that could very well be your problem.. Even with the fast leveling, running around at lvl 20, with no talent points, will seriously hamper your character. You can't really claim anything about the skills/dmg/power/etc. till you use those points, and boost your main skills, other than at lvl 1 they are rather weak, which could be applied to any class.
Yes, I never spent any talent points on my Bard. I know that the characters are easy enough to level up but I wanted to wait until I was sure. With the current issues surrounding Bard skills I wanted to hold off with regards to talent points. This is after all only Phase 1 of a closed beta and a first impression of the classes.
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