Class balance perception

[Grumpbot]

Hi all, I mentioned this question buried in a more generic thread but didn't get much response, so I figured maybe a dedicated thread would be a better bet. My wife and I quit in the period when Tomb of the Vulture Lord was in testing but before it was released, and I'm very curious about perceptions of class balance in the current version available on RoR vs. the version of the game that was active when I last played. It's been a long time, but this is what I remember about class balance perception around the time that we left:

DPS (Order):

Bright Wizard and Slayer were considered top RDPS and MDPS respectively
Engineer and Witch Hunter more situational but playable
Shadow Warrior and White Lion were considered quite bad, but I think White Lion may have been getting buffed right when we left.

Tank (Order):
Ironbreaker was considered the best tank
KotBS and Swordmaster were both perfectly playable but worse than Ironbreaker

Healer (Order):
Runepriest was considered the best direct healer, Warrior Priest also considered great
Archmage was considered playable but worse than the others (they may have also been getting a buff right when we left)


DPS (Destruction):
Sorcerer and Marauder were considered the best RDPS and MDPS, but Witch Elf was pretty close to Marauder depending on the situation. I think the tentacle pull ability was what put Marauder over the top, iirc.
Choppa was considered pretty good as well, and may have been buffed around when we left.
Magus and Squig Herder were both considered pretty bad.

Tank (Destruction):
Chosen was considered the best tank.
Black Orc was considered fine but worse than Chosen.
Blackguard was considered to be the worst tank.

Healer (Destruction):
Zealot and DoK were both considered to be great
Shaman was fine but a bit lower.



________________________

Mainly I'd love to know where current opinion strongly differs from my own memories. Maybe Squig Herder got some love?

[Krima]

totaly different game.. White lions are the best class right now.. they can fly and have superpowers.

Regards,

[Marsares]

totaly different game.. White lions are the best class right now.. they can fly and have superpowers.

Regards,

We are powered by the tears in the weekly deluded "Nerf Pounce" threads on the forum.

[Shadowgurke]

Order

RDPS: BW = SW > Engi

MDPS: Sl = WL > WH

Tank (Order):
Kotbs > SM= IB

Healer (Order):
WP = RP = AM (not meta)



Destruction
RPDS: Sorc > SH > Magus
MDPS: Mara > Choppa > WE > DoK


Tank (Destruction):
Ch > BO > BG

Healer:
Dok >>>> Zealot > Shaman

[TenTonHammer]

DPS (Order):

Bright Wizard and Slayer were considered top RDPS and MDPS respectively
Engineer and Witch Hunter more situational but playable
Shadow Warrior and White Lion were considered quite bad, but I think White Lion may have been getting buffed right when we left.

Tank (Order):
Ironbreaker was considered the best tank
KotBS and Swordmaster were both perfectly playable but worse than Ironbreaker

Healer (Order):
Runepriest was considered the best direct healer, Warrior Priest also considered great
Archmage was considered playable but worse than the others (they may have also been getting a buff right when we left)


DPS (Destruction):
Sorcerer and Marauder were considered the best RDPS and MDPS, but Witch Elf was pretty close to Marauder depending on the situation. I think the tentacle pull ability was what put Marauder over the top, iirc.
Choppa was considered pretty good as well, and may have been buffed around when we left.
Magus and Squig Herder were both considered pretty bad.

Tank (Destruction):
Chosen was considered the best tank.
Black Orc was considered fine but worse than Chosen.
Blackguard was considered to be the worst tank.

Healer (Destruction):
Zealot and DoK were both considered to be great
Shaman was fine but a bit lower.

Mainly I'd love to know where current opinion strongly differs from my own memories. Maybe Squig Herder got some love?

Yes slayer is still the best respective DD on order, WH is not "situational" and is a viable second MDPS choice, people just prefer to run x2 slayer because 100% uptime shatter limbs is broken

KOTBS is better than ironbreaker, the auras are extreamly strong which is why both kotbs and chosen are considered the strongest tanks then iron breaker
and becuase SM has to compete with IB and KOTBS its the worst of the 3

WL was not buffed, but here is RoR, pounce is far more reliable and consistent and its burst is still high

Yeah the healer status for order is still about the same

Mara and Sorc are also still the top DD as well and unfortunately x2 mara outshines both WE and choppa

Yeah the tank rankings for destro is right as well, BO's stat steal bellow is very strong here, unlike on live where BO was thought of as weak, the class is pretty good here

BG becuase it has to compete with BO and chosen and also because many of its debuffs is made redundant by mara, it is considered the worst one

We are powered by the tears in the weekly deluded "Nerf Pounce" threads on the forum.

You shall have your reckoning! You and the rest of your ilk can only hide for oh so long behind the order biased devs!

[Grumpbot]

Thanks for the replies!

One question though -- is this purely PVP focused or are you considering PVE as well? I have to admit I'm pretty fuzzy on my perception of things as we were serious PVE'ers as well as PVP'ers. We had a pretty unorthodox group setup, but I remember IBs being the best PVE tanks bar-none, with KotBS being more of a support tank than a main tank. I know LV and the other dungeons aren't in the game yet, so for this server it doesn't matter.

I really do hope the dungeons get added in though as the PVE group content in this game was absolutely fantastic. I've played so many MMOs and LV is still the gold standard for endgame small group PVE in my mind.

[peterthepan3]

99% sure most people are talking about PvP when discussing class balance given that almost any class can shine in PvE.

[Telen]

Order
RDPS: BW (with kotbs for crit) >> BW = SW > Engi
MDPS: WL (smallscale) = SL (rvr) > WH
Tank (Order): Kotbs >>> IB > SM
Healer (Order): WP (with RP for healbless) >>>> WP > RP > AM

Destruction
RPDS: Sorc > SH > Magus
MDPS: Mara >>> WE = Choppa
Tank: Ch >>> BO > BG
Healer: DoK (with Zea for healbless) >>> Dok > Zealot > Shaman >>>>>>>>> Shaman (when vs kotbs)

You cant look at war balance in a vacuum some classes synergize much better than others and some are made much less effective when facing groups with a certain class.