MMO Gamers

Imagine for a moment that a loving uncle or grandfather has come over for a visit.  You’re excited about the visit because your mother has kindly informed you that he will be bringing a gift.  He arrives and surreptitiously produces a bag full of gifts.  He pulls out the gifts one by one and places them on the table before you; nine in total.  They shine and sparkle and you eye them hungrily.  They all look to be about the same value, though some are more desirable than others.  Then your kindly uncle/grandfather tells you that you may choose one gift, but only one.  Dammit.

When I first read Craig Morrison’s letter and learned of the one-time option of auto-levelling a character to 50 for those subscribers who already had a level 50 or higher character I thought it was a great idea.  I still think it’s a great idea, but why only the one character?  What if I make a 50 and hate the class?  So, for the last few weeks I’ve been pondering, cogitating, ruminating, and musing over which class to create.  Of course, there are a number of considerations.

1. I play with a regular group of people, who will also be creating level 50 characters, so ideally my class choice will compliment the group dynamic
2. The classes I already possess
3. Fun factor

I think I’ve narrowed it down to four preferred classes, from least to most likely.

Bear Shaman
This class never really interested me before, but now I’d like to try one.  Everyone who has played one assures me they’re a lot of fun, and a melee healer would play a lot differently to my other two healers, the Priest of Mitra and the Tempest of Set.  One of our group members has already called dibs on rolling a BS, and since I already have two healers I can hold off on trying one.  Plus, I’d probably want to play this class from the ground up, taking him through Tortage and all the low level content.

Ranger
I have a level six Ranger on Tortage at the moment.  I’m not entirely sure about this class yet.  It does some decent damage with the bow, and then you have the benefit of switching to melee weapons and getting those awesome fatalities.  But it’s easier and just as effective, at least so far, to just keep shooting the bow instead of changing to melee.  And since I haven’t had much of a desire to play my Ranger beyond level six, perhaps it’s not a good choice for 50.  It might make a good PvP alt though.

Barbarian
Another low level character I have hanging out at the pubs and clubs in Tortage.  He’s pretty fun to play though, doing some good damage and getting lots of fatalities.  And I haven’t really played a DPS class yet, having had two healers as mains, so it would be a nice change.  I’m leaning towards this class for my 50.  My main concern is that our group won’t have a tank, since no one is planning on rolling one.

Dark Templar
Probably the class that’s had the most problems and the one that’s getting the most love in 1.05.  I already have a tank however, a 35 Guardian at time of writing, and I expect to get that tank up to level 50 before 1.05 releases.  So do I need another Soldier class?  But if I make one of the other classes, a Barbarian for instance, and have to bring on my Guardian all the time, then what was the point of rolling the 50 in the first place.

So that’s my dilemma.  While I’m pleased with the option to auto-level a character to 50, I would’ve preferred to have an auto-level slot available at the character creation screen, so if I didn’t like the class I could reroll, rather than only being allowed to do it once.  Also, level 50 seems high to me.  Being able to skip Tortage and start at 20 on all your characters once you had a level 60, or even a level 80, would’ve been preferable.  There are only nine classes after all, so you’ll only end up doing Tortage in its entirety nine times, and it’s an excellent starting zone.

If anyone can help me by extolling the virtues of each of the afore mentioned classes; the Bear Shaman’s healing and damaging abilities, the Dark Templar’s tanking and DPS; it would be greatly appreciated.