Tigerlilly's Alpha 2 impressions levels 35 - 45 (lvl cap)

[Fox]

What can I say? I grouped a lot in both dungeons, Field dungeons, PvP Arena, and PvP Misty Woods (first open PvP quest area with end game items).

First off, levels 1-35 are fairly easy. Completing all quests are a face roll, soloing field dungeon bosses are relatively easy, and PvP is completely imbalanced due to level 20s being queued against level 45s. Also, BEWARE! You can choose your PvP faction at level 5, however there will be level 40-45s waiting in the starting zones for levels 5-30 to be instantly ganked once you put on your faction costume. The faction costume makes you attackable by ANYONE wearing the opposing faction costume. You can also swap factions back and forth to get each faction's outfit.

At level 36(ish) and up, the difficulty goes full nitro and you go from super easy to difficulty rating 4 out of 5 stars on half the enemies and 5 out of 5 stars for field bosses. AoE and adds go from conservatively used to full blast, this group team work becomes the #1 priority to Cc and stun/knock down. OR you all die.

Ok, so now lets get into class impressions.

Levels 35-38


Assassin - This class becomes more and more solo attack dependent to the point of being in a group hindering your DPS and ability to stay alive. The majority of your class revolves around getting in, and being in stealth. This got to the point on my assassin where I would be in a group of 3 to take down a boss. The team couldn't collectively take down the boss, but since i can almost perma-stealth and receive NO aggro while attacking the boss, I could solo kill that boss while the 2 other members of my team stood on the side lines doing nothing. If they did join in, it would mess up my rotation and counters, then we would all wipe.

Blade Master - This class becomes more and more group dependent. For those that played Tank Pally in WoW for burning crusade, think that. But without the heals /sigh. The Blade master becomes excellent for outlasting hoards of MELEE baddies. However, cooldowns that are too long, and an inability to effectively heal + not being able to deflect/counter/block ranged damage makes you extremely ....DEAD. This means that you will have to be conservative on how many adds you pull. Pre 35 you could pull like 15 things and outlast them. Not so much post 35.

Summoner - This class becomes the solo PvE player's #1 choice. You get your snares, heals, and pet cat heal to a very good level. This means you can outlast and out heal just about anything. Boring game play compared to other classes (IMO) but definately the best Solo class.

Kung Fu Master - This class is divided into 2 groups. Those that master this class and become Supermen, and those that casually play or can't master this class. Pre 35 this class takes a lot more damage than many others, due to mechanics of you needing to get hit, inability to counter everything (if you want that go Blade Master) from multiple mobs, and an EXTREMELY short counter/block channel. Kung Fu Master has a 1.5 sec channel, and Blade master has a 4 sec channel. This means you have to be able to anticipate when to counter and WHAT attack takes priority to counter, as well as having a very good connection (PING) to the server to pop off those 1.5 sec counter/blocks in time. Lastly this class has longer combo chains that give you boosts, as well as GRAPPLE. The GRAPPLE ability is like a wrestling move / MMA fighter move where you knock them to the ground, and ground & pound them. It also incapacitates that enemy for a time. This makes Kung Fu Master a better solo boss tank (imo) over the Blade Master. All of this is a moot point however, as past level 35 if you miss your 1.5 sec counter you will die very fast.

Force Master - This class is much better for PvE leveling and questing, but as the levels go higher (imo) the damage output isn't great enough for soloing things post 40. You will burn all the adds to the ground, but you will have difficulty solo killing field bosses and dungeon bosses. Lastly, you start to see more and more "ranged" attacks that the force master can't deal with very effectively. In a group however, the force master truly shines.

Lyn Blade Dancer - This class is generally awesomesauce all the way to 45. You get endless AoE, a solid single target rotation, and also a decent self heal (if specced right). While (from what i've seen) the Blade Dancer can't solo things as effectively as a summoner, or an assassin, it would make my #3 pick for PvE soloing ability and my #1 pick for PvP (and my main is an Assassin). BEWARE, as a blade dancer you depend on mobility and counters. after level 35 and DEFINATELY post 40, if you miss counters you will die very quickly.

Destroyer - This class basically does what it says till around level 38. Then you start taking a lot more damage and also the mobs do a lot more critical hits on you. While you have endless AoE with this class, pulling tons of mobs can get you killed. You can take this class 2 ways: Stack crit and accuracy to miximize DPS as a support / primary DPS group player OR stack the +Health Pool / Evade / Accuracy to mitigate the extra damage. If you solo a lot I would heavily suggest the +HP as opposed to the +Crit path for Soul Shields.

BLADE & SOUL LEVEL 40-45

1. You take a lot more damage and will be chugging potions all over the place unless you're summoner.

2. You will start to see for the first time that you can get 1 shotted by bosses and field bosses.

3. Gear starts becoming a lot more important, so skipping all the dungeon runs and farming items to evolve and level up your weapons & accessories will hinder your ability to progress. This is where you will see people start to go back to the lower dungeons and field bosses to farm those items needed for evolving and upgrading weapons.

4. You get access to Misty Woods end zone & can do faction (ready PvP) quests against other players or PvP NPCs for quests and dailies. These kills and quests award faction points. You can then take those earned points and trade them for faction currency. That faction currency is used to get end game items, weapons, AND sweet cool looking costumes!


MISTY WOODS

Misty Woods is only accessible once you're progressed through the main story line to almost the end. I was able to gain access at 43, but most players (unless skipping content or blasting through the main story line) won't see Misty Woods till level 44 - 45.

In Misty Woods you MUST BE WEARING A FACTION OUTFIT OR YOU'RE KOS TO ALL FACTION NPCs, even you're own faction!!!!! The quest giver area won't attack you. Thats like a little "safe area" however everything past that and you're attackable by all factions unless wearing a faction costume. Once you've put on that costume, that faction won't attack you.

Misty Woods has costumes, rings, necklaces, & earrings for end items. They also sell a demon horn. The Demon Horn is like the "Serpent Bell" which you get from certain quests or crafted by a jewelcrafter. These items can be taken to Mr. Cho (the guy that teaches you all the windstriding skills) to learn a new windstriding technique or improve one you already have.

Misty Woods also has field bosses that are completely BRUTAL. Think of these as mini faction boss / generals that roam around and respawn. They can be attacked and killed for faction loot boxes and points. They are not meant to be soloed. I took a few down in small groups of 3 (as there weren't many level capped characters around). They drop PvP soul shield fragments, faction coins, and weapon/accessory chests.

Misty Woods also has 7 field dungeons (that i counted so far). Plus it has a lot of end game gathering nodes. This means there is a LOT of incentives to playing in this area.

Lastly, for those of us out there that like playing stealthy rogue ninja classes, this area drops one of the better looking ninja-type costumes to wear. However you must complete a story line quest, then farm the field dungeon for the possible drop.

[Lotharen]

Nice write up! I appreciate the work you put into it.

[Dino]

Agreed, thank you for the write up.

[KhazGrey]

I am a bit confused by some of this. I played a blade master to 18 and was able to block fireballs and other ranged magic. The only thing I couldn't block was what I would call a breath ability that was poisoned base. I didn't think to test the gunners attack as I was charging them (checking this next beta). So what exactly were these blade masters you played with not able to block?

Also I have watched youtube videos by Xteagun (spelling might be off) using a force master to solo climb Mushin tower. Seems he/she can crank out the DPS just fine. Possibly just a skill/gear issues but not sure.

[Fox]

Yes, most of the ranged damage is poison or acid based. Poison spit, and something that looks similar to Poison spit (but black like the corruption). At level 40+ it really starts getting used a LOT more. I played around with using the anti poison pots, which you can get from daily quests and dungeon rewards. If you hit the anti poison right after getting hit, it mitigates most of the damage. The problem is that it has a cool down and there are multiple poison/acid spits being tossed at you. You could wait for all of it to hit you, then hit the anti venom. If you did this (depending on how many enemies are targeting you with it) that is still 2-3 ticks of 2+ poison damage which takes you down 1/4 - 1/3rd of your health.

This isn't as troublesome for standard NON dungeon or field dungeon mobs, but in dungeons & field dungeons it becomes an issue. This too can be mitigated by having DPS or support on your team target those spitting poison or corruption at you, however the context in which I was talking was from a solo playing perspective.

Lastly, in regards to the Force Master. When we're talking about doing the levels in the tower, you should be attempting this with the beginning end game items to survive. This means that you are already level 45, have gotten end items and started (if not already) maxed those items, and are now farming higher tier items. I was also talking from a perspective of leveling 38-45, and I would consider the tower as 45+

With that said, I still felt from a DPS perspective that the Force Master's damage was too spread into AoE and not enough solo target damage. This means that the Force Master could still decimate large amounts of multiple mobs like a hot knife through butter. The annoying part came after the adds were dead and the Force Master was trying to solo burn the Dungeon Boss or field boss. It seemed to me like each force master was having trouble not being able to solo DPS the boss faster than they would take damage (when compared to Assassin & Blade Dancer). I didn't include Summoner in that last part because Summoner has dedicated heal & tanking abilities at a level the Force Master doesn't have.

Suffice it to say, obviously there is going to be issues that stem from gear, due to not having all the sexy bling bling gear till farming after level cap. However I feel that some of the classes (Assassin, Force Master, Destroyer, Blade Master) start to feel TOO pigeon holed into a specific DPS niche, and into TOO specific class ability dependencies that aren't that apparent at lower levels (with mobs that don't have all the higher level moves) but become more obvious and more annoying at level cap. This can be overcome through grouping (GASP! Grouping?!?! who would do that in a MMO?!?!) but I was looking at it from a solo play aspect.