Avoiding Ability Bloat

[Smellybelly]

Hopefully I can overcome my manual dexterits and cognitive issues that plagued me in WoW before I quit. Was a decent vanguard and SWTOR because my ability priority was pretty much 1-6 on my bar, in order. Not sure if it's that easy here, but I can dream.

I had 34-40+ hotkeys in SWTOR, how in the megafluffy ninth level of hell did you even manage to turn around with 6 keys?!

[Darrell]

About a month ago, I came back to RoR after a long hiatus. I have mostly played dps, but recently also started playing a Black Orc. Perhaps my perspective can be of use.

While the characters I’ve played to various extents all have a lot of abilities, not all of those abilities are immediately necessary in combat. Some of them are more for out-of-combat, like summoning pets. Some of the in-combat ones are only situational or reactionary (for instance, a disarming attack that can be used when you parry) and aren’t used all the time. Generally, by level 20, you’ve gotten most of the class abilities. After that it’s getting more tactics, unlocking additional morale abilities, and a few more abilities tacked on.

Speaking to the difficulty of tanking: I haven’t found it to be the impossibly monumental task I thought it would be, at least on my Black Orc. After playing only dps, I didn’t think I could trust myself with the additional responsibilities. But, it’s not that hard to get used to. If you see a group mate getting hit hard, get within 30ft of them and guard them. Make life difficult for whatever is attacking your friend. Use Hold the Line in front of your group to provide protection to them and yourself from ranged fire. More difficult is the abstract concepts like knowing when to push, knowing when to pull back. In general, as the tank, you lead the charge. If there are objectives present, like scenarios, lead the push to the objective and fight on the objective. There are some things a tank has to do or keep track of that a dps doesn’t but, as someone who can’t multitask that well, I think I do a pretty good job. Honestly if you’re guarding anything at all I’d say it puts you in the top half of tanks, from my experience so far (Black Orc is now level 24).

I share your preference to having only a few abilities to keep track of. To that end, I use the PlanB addon (works with Black Orc and Swordmaster mechanic). The addon changes your hotbar, depending on what stance/plan is active, allowing you to minimize key usage. For instance, “E” for my Black Orc will: use Clobber if I have no plan, snare if I have a good plan, or use Skull Thumper when I have the best plan. This lets me keep my abilities managable without having to constantly dance all over my keyboard. I highly recommend it if you wish to play a Swordmaster or Black Orc.

Melee DPS is fun, but if you’re not running with a group then it can be a difficult playstyle. You’re relying on other people to guard and heal you, which they may or may not do, so you may or may not be successful at any given time. Ranged DPS is more managable, as you can stay back and still throw damage so you don’t need the guarding as much and can make do with occasional heals thrown your way. My experience as a Black Orc tank has been that it’s also fun, as you still get to be in the melee brawl without dying immedaitely, and it’s much easier to be the support for your team than to hope your team has support. I’ve never played a healer, though.

Any class that you play is going to have its own little nuances that you’ll need to utilize in order to be effective. Tanks need to know when to change guard, ranged have to know when to kite, healers have to know how to detaunt, melee dps have to know how far they can commit to the fight. Each has its own effective ways of dealing damage and ability rotations to be doing.

Personally, I recommend playing a tank at some point. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve felt like I’m much more useful to my team than I am on a dps class. You can really feel the difference you make. Anecdotally, last night I got into a Doomfist Crater scenario with my Black Orc. Destro was down about 120 points to Order. I believe I was the only tank. I go charging up the ramp, the tides turn, we ended up winning that scenario. It obviously wasn’t solely because of me, but it felt good to see that kind of swing after I joined. A tank who is properly guarding, applying pressure, and controlling the enemy can make a huge difference in a way that can be felt distinctly.

In the meantime, you can feel free to level a few different careers in T1, do some RvR in the lakes and scenarios, and by level 10 or so you should have a good enough feel for the class to know if it’s something you want to do. I wish you good luck!

[freshour]

Once you learn what other debuffs certain classes have as those tend to be like... a masssssssive amount for each class and so much overlap. I was able to get my melee dok down to about 3-4 buttons that I use regularly. Sure there are things like cleanse, rez, my covenants, pots, flee and all that, but usually you can narrow it down significantly if you just ask "Hey what debuffs do you have" or go on warbuilder and look. Made it a lot simpler for me personally.