Classes

[MagnustheDemon]

This might be brought up often but considering I didn't see it in this thread, could be in the wrong thread knowing me...I have many questions about the other classes.

I mainly play a lupine warrior and it's been a blast. If slightly easy. What are the other classes like? Ate they just as easy as warrior?

I think I had tried my hand a black mage but I kept dying so much, I eventually gave up. Granted I was half asleep so I might have made many mistakes.

 

[WolframL]

The game is flexible enough that you can do a lot of things with the classes, but here are some of the basics:

Warrior: Mainly intended to be tanky via generating lots of Threat and being able to absorb the damage, they have AoE and high single-target damaging abilities to help with the former.
Thief: DPS and debuffing, with their starting Perk giving a damage boost when an enemy is afflicted by any negative status effect.
White Mage: Healing/support with a side of damage, mainly but not exclusively Holy-based.
Black Mage: Mainly offensive casting with an eye towards AoE and battlefield control rather than strict damage (though they can do that too). They're also the default summoner class by virtue of being the only one to gain a summon by default.
Charmer: Buffing/debuffing and teasing (previously Resolve nuking but the rework changed that a bit since everything hits the same health bar now) and since many of their skills scale off Presence they also make excellent summoners.

These are just the frameworks the game gives you though, and since you can use whatever Powers you've learned regardless of class, you can easily mix and match them in all kinds of ways. For example, you can very easily combine Warrior and White Mage into a paladin-type build (pick your base class depending on which aspect you want to focus more on), or make a Thief/Mage hybrid using spells to inflict debuffs and then hit enemies for massive Twist the Knife damage, or Warrior/Thief and Charmer and make a combat bard-type, or... the only real limit is your imagination.

 

[MagnustheDemon]

Wow. I had no idea the combat was so in depth in this game. I've been playing for awhile now...maybe 6 months (mostly on phone too) and this us news to me. Thus will open up so many new choices. I can't wait

 

[Savin]

or make a Thief/Mage hybrid using spells to inflict debuffs

Or a Thief/W.Mage hybrid that uses Smite spells that all benefit from TTK

 

[TheGSone]

You are not limited by classes, as you can learn every spell, physical attack, and use any item. Stats are the real limit.
I could try to give a short description, but with the recent changes, I'm still lost.
Anyways, you max 3 of them at a time, with drinks giving you a temporary 4th. You can retrain these, but not on the go.
So play whatever you find fun, save some money, and retrain to try new stuff.

 

[Kyubi Xiaolong]

only thing i see with classes is that certain scenes require you have certain classes (like black mage to help darius) is there a list of all quest points that are class locked or is that the only one so far?

 

[WolframL]

There are various points where having a certain Class or Background will affect a scene, but there's nothing gated behind them and most of the pc.bg checks are alternatives to skill checks so you can still see the scene (albeit with slightly different dialogue) if you have the minimum Cunning/Strength/Whatever to pass the alternate condition. Also, you can change your class easily.

These class and background checks help add a measure of depth to a Champ who otherwise has to be written as something of a blob to allow room for player RP, since they allow the writers to make more assumptions than they can for more generic scenes.

 

[Kyubi Xiaolong]

true but changing classes also changes your perks and then you have to waste a week of game time to revert back to the class you were using for your build..... like i use warrior class for that first perk becuase being able to switch from tank to heavy damage dealer based on party needs is fun for me

 

[MagnustheDemon]

Or a Thief/W.Mage hybrid that uses Smite spells that all benefit from TTK

Dead thread revival time woooo. What do you mean by this . Honetsly i play on the phone for the most part. half of the descriptions for the skills are cut off. So can i humbly ask you to elborate for me?

 

[Tide Hunter]

Dead thread revival time woooo. What do you mean by this . Honetsly i play on the phone for the most part. half of the descriptions for the skills are cut off. So can i humbly ask you to elborate for me?

So, each class has perks, and the thief's level 1 perk is Twist the Knife (TTK). Its effect is a 50% damage bonus (which multiplies after all other modifiers) to weapon hits on creatures that have a debuff. While most of the White Mage powers are purely spells, two of the level 4 powers benefit a "paladin" type character, that is, one that uses both white mage powers and weapon attacks. I have something similar, but because of aesthetics, it's a Warrior with the powers so I can feel like a paladin. It's probably stronger to be a thief/white mage, though, because Charge Weapon gives a weapon damage bonus and Smite Evil is a very strong weapon attack that's also a spell. Because it's a weapon attack, Twist the Knife works with it, providing an extra 50% damage boost to an already powerful blow, assuming the enemy is debuffed.

 

[Savin]

Its effect is a 50% damage bonus

+50 Attack Power, actually. Which is +50% of your weapon's damage added onto the total, effectively, rather than a modifier to the total damage after powers.

But yeah, W.Mage spells that use your weapon benefit from it, and that's what I run.

 

[CMGuest]

+50 Attack Power, actually. Which is +50% of your weapon's damage added onto the total, effectively, rather than a modifier to the total damage after powers.

But yeah, W.Mage spells that use your weapon benefit from it, and that's what I run.

I thought the only white mage spells that used your weapon were Charge Weapon (stance), and Smite Evil. And if you're running thief anyways, the latter is directly competing with Dastardly Trick. Maybe I just don't understand how the math works, but wouldn't DT have more raw damage under most circumstances?

 

[Tide Hunter]

+50 Attack Power, actually. Which is +50% of your weapon's damage added onto the total, effectively, rather than a modifier to the total damage after powers.

Oh, I based my comment off of the wiki. So my paladin is sort of a side-grade to that build (no shield or heavy armor, so +25 to all attacks), and ttk isn't as absolutely ridiculous as I thought.

I thought the only white mage spells that used your weapon were Charge Weapon (stance), and Smite Evil. And if you're running thief anyways, the latter is directly competing with Dastardly Trick. Maybe I just don't understand how the math works, but wouldn't DT have more raw damage under most circumstances?

Dastardly Trick does +200 attack power and +50 accuracy, plus a stun or stagger. Smite Evil has +50 accuracy and deals bonus holy damage based off of your spellpower. At 71 spellpower, Smite Evil's damage bonus is 86 holy damage, and if you're using the War Scythe or a similar heavy weapon that's 50 base damage. At 17 strength, along with the Champion's belt, that's 61 attack power before powers and perks.

Now, I'm not certain about the calculations, but I'll give two sets of numbers for Smite Evil. The first assumes that SE's bonus holy gets modified by attack power, the second assumes not.
1: Without twist the knife active, This champ would have 136 damage multiplied by 1.61, leading to 218.96 damage.
With twist the knife active, that's multiplied by 2.11, for 286.96 damage. I don't know if it rounds up or down, or even just is a floating point behind the scenes.
2: Without ttk, that's 50*1.61 + 86, resulting in 166.5 total damage.
With ttk, that's 50*2.11+86, which is 191.5.
For Dastardly Trick, without ttk it's 50*3.61=180.5 and 50*4.11=205.5.

The numbers I had for the one using Smite Evil aren't really optimized, the willpower doesn't have starting bonuses and the spellpower boosting equipment is just the Amulet of Transference, the Witch's Hat, and the War Scythe, so willpower could be raise further. But essentially, if attack power does not impact the Smite Evil damage bonus, then Smite Evil outdamages Dastardly Trick when your spellpower's high enough to provide 100 or more flat damage (assuming you're using a weapon with 50 base attack. More or less changes the effective damage boost threshold). If attack power does impact the Smite Evil damage bonus, then it can outdamage Dastardly Trick even if your character has no willpower investment and only has spellpower bonuses from the Amulet of Transference and the Witch's Hat and no sources besides.

 

[CMGuest]

Now, I'm not certain about the calculations, but I'll give two sets of numbers for Smite Evil. The first assumes that SE's bonus holy gets modified by attack power, the second assumes not.

Played around a little bit to check that. Based on the Powers entry, Smite Evil's holy bonus seems to be unaffected by attack power (no change based on str or equipment like the Champion's Belt), but is affected by spell power (changes based on willpower and equipment like Witch's Hat), so it looks like the second formula is likely more accurate. Which does make sense considering that the bonus holy damage is supposed to represent the magical energy you're coating the weapon in, not a change in the force behind the blow.