Never played these classes, next choice?

[Octopath]

So I met my first goal on green teal, get a guise on a ranger. Ready to take a small break and play a alt.

So after living the struggle of being a ranger my first time, what of these classes would be a good second class? I definitely want to be able to solo if needed. I’ve never played these classes past like lvl 5

Shaman
Wizard
Cleric

All are appealing but also hard to choose. It would nice to always be needed in a group as a cleric. I hear shaman is amazing but takes a while to mature. Wizard can port and nuke.

Thanks

[Naxy]

Being a cleric is like playing reverse whack-a-mole with health bars. ;)

I was in a group recently where we had respawn in the camp, someone broke mezz by mistake a few times and the chanter was annoyed. It occurred to me that this mistake was the most fun I had all evening. I actually had to work. Undoing a chanters work, means a clerics work needs doing.

Duoing with a melee or a pet class can be great fun. Help with crowd control, runners etc. A cleric has some fun tools, like root, stun, atone etc.

[vossiewulf]

I would say the Shaman by far and away is the most interesting to play of those three. You can tank better than any caster class, have like 12 gillion useful spells, you get a pet, you GET SOW AT L9, good DOTs, heals, upper level buffs are killer.

Shaman has many varied useful tools, the other two are pretty much one-trick ponies who end up doing very little when things are going good, as Naxy pointed out.

[Midoo]

I'm a Shaman main, it's pretty great. Shamans have some of the best buffs in the game and are in my opinion the most aggressive Priest class. Druids and Clerics can pull their own in a fight but neither of them can top the Shammy's raw ability to kill (malo + dots). But on the other hand excelling with a Shaman takes colossal pp investments; if you want to graduate from "good solo class" to "soloing endgame velious dragon bosses" you need to get your hands on Torpor and Fungi and work on your Epic which can cost a combined total of a couple hundred thousand platinum. Also keep in mind that all Shaman races are either KoS from the rest or isolated from the rest so leaving your starting zone will take tons of effort.

Clerics are the best healing class in the game so if you're mostly thinking of being a support that's what you should pick. They can solo and are very effective against the undead but you'll mostly shine in a group where people need you.

I haven't played a Wizard before but at some point I heard a wiz in a raid can cast every nuke in his spellbook and then AFK for 30 minutes and no one will notice. If you have absolutely nothing on your mind other than pure, raw burst damage (portals to get around are useful but if I wanted a "taxi" class I'd pick Druid instead) then this class is for you. Don't expect to be invited to many leveling groups though.

[DMN]

A collection of some of the most boring classes in the game. Ya, shaman picks up later but still 30+ levels of boring AF-ness. Pick your own poison.

[Tecmos Deception]

Shams are cool. Quite a grind to solo to 34 when you finally get a pet to round out your solo tools though. It's less repetitive in groups imo but often not faster.

Don't think that clerics are one trick ponies. Yeah, healing in their thing. But the smaller the group, the more of a clerics other tools tend to be in need: roots, stuns, lulls, even damage. They can solo to 50, not quickly but it's doable especially if you focus on undead.

Wiz is cool enough. Pretty rare, ports are great, you solo alright especially if you find quad spots later. Your nukes hit hard on classic mobs and your root, snare, and stun utility aren't bad, even if your sustained DPS is never any good in grinding groups.

[Benanov]

You could think about it from a utility perspective. How well can you travel? How useful are you to other players?

Shamen are high-utility. They can buff pretty much every stat you have (minus INT/WIS iirc) and they have the most requested travel spell in the game - spirit of wolf. Vision buffs? Yep. Enduring breath? Yep. Regen? Yep. People are going to interact with you a lot, and you'll get invited to a lot of groups - shaman slows are very good and you can even tank at lower levels (or, with Torpor, at high levels). You can invis, but no invis vs undead. You get a pet, which is basically a cute weak DoT. You're a decent main healer, one of only three slowers (I'm counting Bard), and a decent source of DoT damage. I played one to 14 and was bored, though. They apparently open up in the 30's. Aside: Ultravision is beautiful on Green/Teal if you're playing a nightblind race.

Wizards are more medium utility. Druids are the better taxi class, but Wizards get a lot of travel options and their usefulness in a group is inverse of how well the group is doing at the steady stream of single pulls game (get a few clickies to help with that). When things go pear-shaped and that healer mob needs to die NOW, yeah that's when you want a wizard. You wanna faction up fast on green cons? Wizard. Wizards also are immune to puny things like "damage shields" that rip melees to shreds. Wizards are the only class getting you to Hate and Sky. You'll solo easily (especially post-29) but you'll struggle for groups here and there. Join a good guild. (Aside: If you ever manage to group with 2 wizards and a mage...holy crap, things just don't live long.) Wizards get a stun or two, which is handy. Stuns are crazy aggro, but when you need to interrupt a caster NOW, it's nice.

Clerics are fairly high utility. You're amazing vs. undead and cleric undead nukes rival wizards for mana efficiency and damage ratios. You get invis vs undead pretty early. Get yourself a Bonethunder Staff, and you're the quintessential Battle Priest in Unrest. The anti-summoned line isn't as good as mages or druids, but I'll mention it because it does have its place, if you can ever find space on your spell bar for it. Root is passable CC, if no enchanter. Your buffs are always welcomed. Stuns are a lot more useful than anyone thinks they are (charmed mob breaks? Stun it; the charmer will thank you). A valid strategy for a very bored cleric is to stun-lock a mob. Depending on the length of the fight, you can spend less mana stunning than you do healing. (Plus it's fun as hell watching the tanks desperately try to taunt off of stun aggro, when the thing just isn't hitting you because it's stunned all the time.) You have 36 seconds of blissful invincibility, if you can ever get the blasted spell to channel. Lull/Root/Atone allows for some interesting dungoneering tricks.

However, you have very few options for traveling. You've got gate/bind but that kind of fades by 29, as you'll be the one expected to bind close to rez everyone else on a TPW. Oh yes - that. Except for Paladins, you're doing all the rezzing. I haven't gotten a lot of begging for rezzes at 29 (the 0% is for 'oops I am bound on the other side of OOT'), but I suspect at 39 it's a steady stream of begging, and at 49 it'll be pretty bad.

However, you do have the fact that everyone bends over backwards to escort you where you need to go. Tanks will fall all over themselves to taunt off of you, DPS classes will even try to taunt off of you, and casters will melt a mob if it looks your way. It's pretty easy to get an invisibility or a wolf spirit. No one wants to piss off a cleric.

Just...don't expect to solo well. I'm soloing skeletons in Rathe Mountains in between groups and it's ~55% mana per one skel at 29. (That's down from 95% at 24.) It's very, very slow.

[Yttrium]

Shaman if you can grind a guise. Ogre and troll are horrid to look at and terrible in old world dungeons (try navigating mistmoore or unrest as an ogre). I would argue no class benefits more from a guise than them. Yes they get shrink but it doesn't work "outdoors".

[TripSin]

Shaman if you can grind a guise. Ogre and troll are horrid to look at and terrible in old world dungeons (try navigating mistmoore or unrest as an ogre). I would argue no class benefits more from a guise than them. Yes they get shrink but it doesn't work "outdoors".

Is shrink even in Green/teal? Thought I heard ppl saying it isn't yet

[Octopath]

A collection of some of the most boring classes in the game. Ya, shaman picks up later but still 30+ levels of boring AF-ness. Pick your own poison.

Probably why I never played any of them lol.

[Octopath]

I'm a Shaman main, it's pretty great. Shamans have some of the best buffs in the game and are in my opinion the most aggressive Priest class. Druids and Clerics can pull their own in a fight but neither of them can top the Shammy's raw ability to kill (malo + dots). But on the other hand excelling with a Shaman takes colossal pp investments; if you want to graduate from "good solo class" to "soloing endgame velious dragon bosses" you need to get your hands on Torpor and Fungi and work on your Epic which can cost a combined total of a couple hundred thousand platinum. Also keep in mind that all Shaman races are either KoS from the rest or isolated from the rest so leaving your starting zone will take tons of effort.

Clerics are the best healing class in the game so if you're mostly thinking of being a support that's what you should pick. They can solo and are very effective against the undead but you'll mostly shine in a group where people need you.

I haven't played a Wizard before but at some point I heard a wiz in a raid can cast every nuke in his spellbook and then AFK for 30 minutes and no one will notice. If you have absolutely nothing on your mind other than pure, raw burst damage (portals to get around are useful but if I wanted a "taxi" class I'd pick Druid instead) then this class is for you. Don't expect to be invited to many leveling groups though.

Great points. I forget how difficult starting as a shaman will be. Either a evil race who can’t take advantage of CB or a barb who is in a isolated area that I know nothing about.

If I did go shaman is ogre the best choice followed by troll? I honestly lean toward barbarian just so I can do some of the noob quests.

I think I have narrowed it down between shaman and cleric now.

[Midoo]

If I did go shaman is ogre the best choice followed by troll? I honestly lean toward barbarian just so I can do some of the noob quests.

Ogre frontal stun immunity is life changing. When you solo and root breaks there's an average of 4-5 casts before your re-root actually lands from all the mob stuns. As an Ogre you don't have to worry about that. i.e. whether that unrest death beetle stun interrupts your heal or not can make the difference between life or death. Not to mention the melee stats on the Ogre are absolutely INSANE, making melee shaman very viable even in high levels. Instead of wasting mana root rotting or sending the pet you can just buff yourself and Hulk Smash your way to max level.

Trolls get regeneration, which is amazing, and their stats are pretty good too. Layer Chloroplast on top of their natural regen and lose yourself canni dancing your whole mana bar back. Their stats are very good too, and they're less mana-crippled than Ogres but also less effective in melee. Personally I tend to alt tab when regenning so I don't really feel the difference but if you're in a rush and want to move from pull to pull ASAP then definitely go for Troll.

Barbarians are pretty unique. They don't get an innate racial aside from their decent stats (decently more caster-oriented than Ogre or Troll making melee barb shammy not as viable late game) but the positive faction is a must have for a newbie. I traditionally do the bone chips quest then crushbone and HHK after Unrest so if you want to level as fast as possible and cheese your way through the early levels then Barb is the way to go. The run from Halas to North Karana however is absolutely agonizing. (unless you're on blue, you can just dial a Surefall port)

Can't speak for Cleric, the only one I have is a Dwarf I took to 20. But I hear they're very capable soloers if you know where to go and are much more straightforward than shammy. You can't afford to zone out when playing SHM since you have to multitask slowing mobs + tracking and refreshing long buffs + rebuffing haste + watch where your pet is going + canni dance constantly when not casting, whereas a cleric can just turn their brain off and fill the draining health bars like reverse whack-a-mole.

[Znakebite]

Play a Dark Elf Cleric. You won't regret it.

[Naxy]

Benanov, that was a good cleric description.

[Octopath]

Think I’m going to make a ogre shaman.

Only thing holding me back has been no ability to go to CB and do belts and pads. Is it possible to do that quest with wolf form?

[greenspectre]

I've been rocking barb shammy and love it. Having the Gnoll Fangs and Bandit Sash quests really helped catapult me through the 7-14 range. Remember you don't get invis till 29 either, so being good-aligned makes travel much easier.

[vossiewulf]

Yeah I was going to say if you don't know Everfrost/Permafrost/Halas then that's a good reason to start a barbarian, always been one of my favorite places and is way nicer and more interesting in general than ogre/troll. Its only disadvantage to me is its remoteness, have to admit you end up doing more running as a Barbarian than about any other race. Except Iksar maybe.

But I just plain like it, mammoths and frost giants and snow leopards and a snowy landscape, and at 20 you hop into Perma, the original Sol A except in teal blue <rimshot>.

If the stats are really what you want, then go Ogre, but I think you might have more fun being a Barb.

[DMN]

Stats aren't going to make much difference. Troll is significantly better than ogre in this time period.

[Swish]

Clerics don't have to be boring, in the absence of a bard/enchanter I've been the guy who will stun aggro adds and root them...you're an undead wizard if you want to solo (see the class guides section on the wiki), and eventually you'll have one of the most powerful/important epics in the game.

For bonus points, pick a dark elf... and try to purple line your tank before a CH lands, as Innoruuk wills it ;)

[Kotopes]

Cleric is in fact way better soloer than wizard 1-50, especially if you stick to undead. They can wear plate, take hits and heal themselves, and bash mobs at lower levels between nukes.
Human Inny cleric is also a good alternative to DE, same benefits minus ultravision, but not KoS everywhere, and a few unique quests/items.

Shamans begin to shine in Kunark, and after massive platinum investment, in classic they are nothing special. Also solo is very slow and boring 1-34, and 34+ not that much better still. Now with JBB, epic and later Torpor is when they become solo gods.

[Adron]

Cleric is in fact way better soloer than wizard 1-50, especially if you stick to undead. They can wear plate, take hits and heal themselves, and bash mobs at lower levels between nukes.
Human Inny cleric is also a good alternative to DE, same benefits minus ultravision, but not KoS everywhere, and a few unique quests/items.

Shamans begin to shine in Kunark, and after massive platinum investment, in classic they are nothing special. Also solo is very slow and boring 1-34, and 34+ not that much better still. Now with JBB, epic and later Torpor is when they become solo gods.

Cleric is a 'way better soloer' than wizard 1-50? uh, have you ever played a wizard? I think i soloed 40-50 on a wiz without ever dipping below half health. at every level, against any blue mob you run into, your nukes are as mana efficient as a cleric's vs undead. Not to mention the efficiency in terms of time of larger nukes for larger amounts of mana. Log in, your choice camp is already camped. what does a cleric soloing do? A wiz ports to their 2nd choice, which again, can be any mob, not just undead, and goes to town. Maybe you never played a snare class? its leaps and bounds better than relying on root alone when soloing.
FYI, soloing with a class that can whip hill giant ass starting at 39 (wizard, not cleric) means you have oodles of cash to buy the things you cannot camp on your own soloing. And that plate you make sound like it helps you solo is like paper at some point. tanks rely on their passive defensive abilities to live, as any tank would tell you if you listened.
Cleric is likely a way more INTERESTING soloer. wiz can get so easy it bores you into doing stupid crap like standing up before your mana bar is full. the dangers of being so good, etc.

[DMN]

I think cleric is a better solo'r from 44+, at least in the vanilla time period. Especially if you went 25 cha at character creation with a decent cha race. And certainly if you got a manstone a dorf with max stamina at character creation. Come kunark though the cha cleric is going to shit all over the dorf, especially if they went inny for religion

[Kotopes]

Cleric is a 'way better soloer' than wizard 1-50? uh, have you ever played a wizard? I think i soloed 40-50 on a wiz without ever dipping below half health. at every level, against any blue mob you run into, your nukes are as mana efficient as a cleric's vs undead. Not to mention the efficiency in terms of time of larger nukes for larger amounts of mana. Log in, your choice camp is already camped. what does a cleric soloing do? A wiz ports to their 2nd choice, which again, can be any mob, not just undead, and goes to town. Maybe you never played a snare class? its leaps and bounds better than relying on root alone when soloing.
FYI, soloing with a class that can whip hill giant ass starting at 39 (wizard, not cleric) means you have oodles of cash to buy the things you cannot camp on your own soloing. And that plate you make sound like it helps you solo is like paper at some point. tanks rely on their passive defensive abilities to live, as any tank would tell you if you listened.
Cleric is likely a way more INTERESTING soloer. wiz can get so easy it bores you into doing stupid crap like standing up before your mana bar is full. the dangers of being so good, etc.

1-34 cleric is definitely way better, I did wizzy on blue with that free 40 damage nuke stick and geared up, it was still not that easy. 34+ you still need some gear to effectively quad kite.
Cleric is not just plate, its DA/DB, Lull, Memblur, hp+ac buffs among other things. Can solo well in dungeons that tend to have higher ZEM. Way easier groups when you have time for them too. Ports are cheap thanks to abundance of druids.

You greatly underestimate cleric's ability to solo 1-50, especially in Classic era, they are a decent solo class. However 51+ is when wizzy shines as a solo class. Clerics can struggle to 54 but it's a pain.

[Tecmos Deception]

Cleric is a 'way better soloer' than wizard 1-50? uh, have you ever played a wizard? I think i soloed 40-50 on a wiz without ever dipping below half health. at every level, against any blue mob you run into, your nukes are as mana efficient as a cleric's vs undead. Not to mention the efficiency in terms of time of larger nukes for larger amounts of mana. Log in, your choice camp is already camped. what does a cleric soloing do? A wiz ports to their 2nd choice, which again, can be any mob, not just undead, and goes to town. Maybe you never played a snare class? its leaps and bounds better than relying on root alone when soloing.
FYI, soloing with a class that can whip hill giant ass starting at 39 (wizard, not cleric) means you have oodles of cash to buy the things you cannot camp on your own soloing. And that plate you make sound like it helps you solo is like paper at some point. tanks rely on their passive defensive abilities to live, as any tank would tell you if you listened.
Cleric is likely a way more INTERESTING soloer. wiz can get so easy it bores you into doing stupid crap like standing up before your mana bar is full. the dangers of being so good, etc.

Ports and non-undead potential vs. half as likely to die, able to split camps the wizard wouldn't be able to, MORE efficient nukes if against undead because of the MR adjustment besides the raw damage:mana, able to rez if necessary, potential to do ridiculous stuff with a manastone at 39+.

You're off your rocker if you think a 39 wizard can "whip hill giant ass." You need like 10-12 minutes per hill giant, and that's being a bit optimistic.

[Gatorsmash]

1-34 cleric is definitely way better, I did wizzy on blue with that free 40 damage nuke stick and geared up, it was still not that easy. 34+ you still need some gear to effectively quad kite.
Cleric is not just plate, its DA/DB, Lull, Memblur, hp+ac buffs among other things. Can solo well in dungeons that tend to have higher ZEM. Way easier groups when you have time for them too. Ports are cheap thanks to abundance of druids.

You greatly underestimate cleric's ability to solo 1-50, especially in Classic era, they are a decent solo class. However 51+ is when wizzy shines as a solo class. Clerics can struggle to 54 but it's a pain.

Lol clerics are better solo'rs than wizard.

The retards on this forum, it's like YouTube comments come to life.

@op Troll Shaman is the way to go. And don't believe the idiots, It's one of the easier classes to solo in classic.

[ScottBerta]

Ogre Shaman

[Madbad]

Lol clerics are better solo'rs than wizard.

The retards on this forum, it's like YouTube comments come to life.

@op Troll Shaman is the way to go. And don't believe the idiots, It's one of the easier classes to solo in classic.

Explain your sarcasm in the face of the fact that one of the first 50's on green was a solo cleric.

[Gatorsmash]

Explain your sarcasm in the face of the fact that one of the first 50's on green was a solo cleric.

A class that has fucking less DPS than a Paladin UNLESS ITS vs. UNDEAD (let that sink in) is now a decent solo class and better than a quad'ing wizard.

The retards on this forum never disappoint. Lol

[annali]

A class that has fucking less DPS than a Paladin UNLESS ITS vs. UNDEAD (let that sink in) is now a decent solo class and better than a quad'ing wizard.

The retards on this forum never disappoint. Lol

Calm down Sandra, it’s a twenty year old emulator.

[gundumbwing]

A class that has fucking less DPS than a Paladin UNLESS ITS vs. UNDEAD (let that sink in) is now a decent solo class and better than a quad'ing wizard.

The retards on this forum never disappoint. Lol

Mayhaps your class knowledge extends as far as your platinum could carry you on blue?

[Barlu]

Hey Octopath,

Hope all is well with you. I would roll an Ogre Shaman given the choices.. No Crushbone but upper Guk has a great Zem and a very wide level range. As others have mentioned it is slow going early on as a shaman but really picks up 34+. Great character to have at 60.

[kjs86z]

Octo,

You could do a cleric now and make an Iksar shaman at Kunark launch to duo with the hundreds of lizard monk alts that will be running around.

Just fewd for thot

[Neverwinter27]

Cleric is in fact way better soloer than wizard 1-50, especially if you stick to undead. They can wear plate, take hits and heal themselves, and bash mobs at lower levels between nukes.
Human Inny cleric is also a good alternative to DE, same benefits minus ultravision, but not KoS everywhere, and a few unique quests/items.

Shamans begin to shine in Kunark, and after massive platinum investment, in classic they are nothing special. Also solo is very slow and boring 1-34, and 34+ not that much better still. Now with JBB, epic and later Torpor is when they become solo gods.

As a Human Innoruuk Cleric, what would be the recommended starting pts be?

[Kotopes]

As a Human Innoruuk Cleric, what would be the recommended starting pts be?

Personally as a semi-casual player I went for +20 wis and +10 cha, however if you plan to raid and obtain the best possible gear you might even go +25 cha and +5 wis.
High wisdom is nice since you can get on more +hp/ac items, but good +cha items are not very common. Pretty much every cleric piece out there has some wis on it, notably shoulder piece from plane of Air. It's +25 wis and it rots all the time too.

[Kotopes]

Lol clerics are better solo'rs than wizard.

The retards on this forum, it's like YouTube comments come to life.

@op Troll Shaman is the way to go. And don't believe the idiots, It's one of the easier classes to solo in classic.

In how many +high % ZEM dungeons can a wizard effectively solo, split camps, utilize mem blur as needed and tank stuff while running for the entrance with DA/DB or channeling out gate? All a higher lvl wizzy does is quad in outdoor zones with a shitty ZEM. Only at 51 with Pillar of Frost does quad become overwhelmingly better than simply nuking some blue undead.

Troll shamans have 20% exp penalty, and there is NOTHING a barb shaman cannot solo that a troll (or even ogre) can.

[Tecmos Deception]

In how many +high % ZEM dungeons can a wizard effectively solo, split camps, utilize mem blur as needed and tank stuff while running for the entrance with DA/DB or channeling out gate? All a higher lvl wizzy does is quad in outdoor zones with a shitty ZEM. Only at 51 with Pillar of Frost does quad become overwhelmingly better than simply nuking some blue undead.

Troll shamans have 20% exp penalty, and there is NOTHING a barb shaman cannot solo that a troll (or even ogre) can.

I'm with you on the solo ability of a cleric and your conclusion that a barb shaman can do anything a troll can. But I disgree with the implication that a troll shaman isn't functionally superior to a barb one. Just because they can both solo the same things in theory doesn't mean troll regen isn't stupidly good or that a 20% exp penalty matters hardly at all (especially when barbs also have a 5% penalty).

[Kotopes]

I'm with you on the solo ability of a cleric and your conclusion that a barb shaman can do anything a troll can. But I disgree with the implication that a troll shaman isn't functionally superior to a barb one. Just because they can both solo the same things in theory doesn't mean troll regen isn't stupidly good or that a 20% exp penalty matters hardly at all (especially when barbs also have a 5% penalty).

Not superior but perhaps somewhat better mostly after lvl 51, prior to getting Torpor. Then the difference is very small again given both get the spell eventually from a drop or just buy it from someone.
Barb will have easier leveling due to better faction as well, not just lesser xp penalty. Those Splitpaw scroll quests in Qeynos were stupid easy xp 25-35, and only barb can do them for example.

[Smellybuttface]

Not superior but perhaps somewhat better mostly after lvl 51, prior to getting Torpor. Then the difference is very small again given both get the spell eventually from a drop or just buy it from someone.
Barb will have easier leveling due to better faction as well, not just lesser xp penalty. Those Splitpaw scroll quests in Qeynos were stupid easy xp 25-35, and only barb can do them for example.

Didnt the scroll quests get nerfed, along with most of the other exp turn-in quests?

[Tecmos Deception]

prior to getting Torpor.

I think a lot of shams are green are going to be "prior to getting Torpor" for a lot longer than they are expecting.

[Octopath]

Damn I tried to make a barbarian shaman but I’m blind as a bat.

As of now I’ve done nothing. Tried a couple times with various classes/races but it’s so hard to get past that low lvl hump.

[Tecmos Deception]

Damn I tried to make a barbarian shaman but I’m blind as a bat.

As of now I’ve done nothing. Tried a couple times with various classes/races but it’s so hard to get past that low lvl hump.

Shams DO get infravision buff at level 9. So you wouldn't have to suffer for long. If you've played on green at all already, you could easily afford one of those infravision rings from sola and go drop transfer it for your barb sham.

[Octopath]

Shams DO get infravision buff at level 9. So you wouldn't have to suffer for long. If you've played on green at all already, you could easily afford one of those infravision rings from sola and go drop transfer it for your barb sham.

Awesome thanks for the heads up!