Runes of Magic US / AU

There is no universal answer to your question, as classes get adjusted all the time. What's today high DPS might be average tomorrow and vice-verse.

Why not select class you like to play and play it? With 3 class option, even if first combo does not work, you have a chance to reset, and with fruit of forgetting, you can fix wrong-class issue later as well..

Quoted from "Vadel;498607"

1) What is the best class combo to solo, from complete noob all the way to max?

I'm looking to have a character that will be great for farming, at all levels, if possible.

I personally enjoyed playing my mage/priest. You can't beat 5 seconds of invulnerability when paired with the high magic damage from flame, along with the foods, buffs, elites, and potions that boost everything from your damage to your health. That stated, the quests in this game are designed to move you up at a slower pace on any class (without resets on daily quests).

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2) What are the best class combos for PvP (read, most solid, best balanced)?

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I'm just wanting to know the classes that are the most balanced and worth playing, in terms of effectiveness.
I don't want to waste my time on combos that I find out 50 or 60 levels later are actually sub-par and in need of work.

Generally, anything /k is going to give you a tremendous amount of survivability. Rogue is best at burst damage, highest overall is a variable due to several of the skills themselves having a random factor. The current flavor of the chapter for highest damage in both PVP and PVE is Rogue/Scout. For PVP, Priest/Scout has Iceblade, which (if you stat for it) can wipe out a multitude of people in a matter of seconds- they're terrible in PVE however. Mage/Druid is also considered one of the top PVP classes at the moment, as the druid side allows you to heal yourself while doing heavy damage with Magma Blade.

Bear in mind that the class systems here mean you will always be weak to at least one other kind of character class.

W/P is not great, from what I've heard. I think you may mean P/W, which is, oddly enough, an axe-wielding melee DPS class. I've only played P/W a little, but the soloing potential was readily apparent from the acquisition of the 20/20 elite. I have no idea how well that continues at higher levels, nor do I have any frame of reference to compare it to M/P, M/K, or R/K.

I just have to go by hearsay, since I've never been big on soloing.

In that case not your class, but your gear will dictate how good is your PvE/PVP experience. Every class has good things going for them, but some have higher DPS then rest of them.

ATM R/S are very good, Wd/W as well. Some of them take us trough instance that is hard just to keep after them...

As M/R i did not have a problems questing, and it is nice class to play with interesting dark magic elites. I think that is worth a test.

As long as you don't turn quests to pay death XP/TP debt, game has enough of quests to level you up. Dailies do help, but you can't depend on them, as the easiest one atm - butterflies in xaviera will give you 2.66M per day, and for example at the moment I need close to 50M to level up. That would mean close to 20 days of dailies quests.

IMHO you best to try couple of characters before you select your favorite.

ps. too bad you missed bonus XP/TP we had last 11-12 days. It will end tonight. Might get you to level 50 in a couple of days, if not in a day.

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Please keep in mind, I am looking for the best of the best combos. I don't just want something that's one of the top 10, out of 40. If say three, or five combos, are equally great (yet differing, I know), and they are the best three to five combos in the game, that is what I am looking for.

Summary: "I want to be FotM. Doesn't matter if other combos are competitive, just tell me which one is most popular."

Answer: R/S

in both pve an pvp

R/S As of right now thats considered the highest dps combo.

But let me tell you something your going about this all wrong. You are wanting the best of the best combo which there is none. I can kill a equally gear R/S with thw right rotation. And they can kill me with the right rotation.
I can also kill any other equally geared class combo and they could kill me with the right rotation. It depends on the person controlling the toon not the toon its self. If you dont know your class then no matter which one you pick it will suck. You should pick a class that YOU enjoy. Not the class thats considered OP and you play it becuz its OP. If you enjoy the OP class cuz you like its play style then great good for you. But dont play a clas just becuz its OP.

Quoted from "Vadel;498641"

So, what I've gathered so far, as far as possibly viable classes are:


Solo PvE


M/P - Anyone know how this one stacks against Wd/D?
P/W - Anyone know how this one stacks against M/P or Wd/D?
Wd/D - I read in another thread this combo is awesome, even for elite solos
R/S - Sounds like they may be good. But anyone have experience with this combo, at least through 60 for soloing?
Wd/W - Sounds like they may be good. But anyone have experience with this combo, at least through 60 for soloing?
M/D - I read the biggest difference between this and the M/P are that M/D do more dmg, while M/P has better survivability, due to better healing (but less dmg)

~
Please keep in mind, I am looking for the best of the best combos. I don't just want something that's one of the top 10, out of 40. If say three, or five combos, are equally great (yet differing, I know), and they are the best three to five combos in the game, that is what I am looking for.

And, when I say the best, I mean the best from a technical/factual standpoint, as they currently are.
~

PVP

??? still not sure ????

Could use some solid advice on the greatest PvP combos!

The answer you're looking for in regards to the best three to five combos is highly subjective. Most classes have to use a rotation of their skills in order to do any damage at all (with the sole exception of Mages, who one-button spam flame for boss fights after foods, buffs, pots, and music have been applied, and use 2-3 skills for PVP purposes).

Each class combination has pros and cons to it that are going to make it weak in one area or another of the game- there is no all around god mode "best" class. That's to encourage you to play with others in order to make up for where your class combination suffers.

In short, you aren't going to be soloing an instance past a certain point. The game isn't set up for that. Similarly, you can be a beast in PVP and still get one-shot by the class you're weak to.

And to an extent, you have to play what suits your own play style. I, for example, probably will never pick up a Scout class- shooting arrows just isn't my thing, even if the class was extremely OP during chapter 3. Runewaker tends to nerf all classes at one point or another to keep them from burning through content too quickly, so you're going to have to expect setbacks. Thus, it's just easier to pick what you like best, rather than asking for someone else's "best" combo class.

Quoted from "Vadel;498659"

I want to know all the best combos, yes. I was not particularly looking to go the FotM route, unless it (apparently the R/S) is indeed superior (in play effeciveness, not just popularity) to any of the other "best combos".

So, is R/S actually superior to all the other "best combos"? Or, is it 1 of the best of the best combos? If the latter, what would the others be?

I'll let you in on a little secret.

This is a gear modification game. The class combination isn't going to mean much if the guy you're up against has outgeared you. (If he statted correctly, has his gear clean tiered, plussed and runed and even remotely knows how to use his rotation- he's going to kill you. That's just the bottom line.)

Same thing with the bosses. They're essentially a gear check. If your gear doesn't pass a certain checkpoint for having been statted, tiered, plussed, and runed- the boss is going to put your face to the floor.

Quoted from "Vadel;498667"

I understand that the player's skill + their gear will be the two greatest determining factors.


That being said, I've settled on either M/P or P/W as my initial character.

Would someone mind offering-up some pros & cons for the two combos?

As I play M/P, I can offer pros and cons of the class. I'm capped on both sides.

Pros:

1. Holy Aura- 5 seconds of complete invulnerability to any damage, be it magic or melee. It has a 1 minute cooldown, but in instances and PVP, this skill can make the difference between living and dying. When paired with magic or melee immunity foods, survivability increases to 9 seconds, which should be more than adequate time in which to (a) run if you're not prepared to continue the fight, or (b) kill what/whoever it was that was trying to kill you.

2. Stunners: M/P has two of them. Lightning lasts for 10 seconds on players when maxed, 12 on a boss. The other is electrostatic discharge, which roots a player for 3 seconds. You must bear in mind that this will not stop a player/boss from using their skills on you unless you are behind them or to the side of them.

3. Silence: Stops all casters from being able to cast skills for 10 seconds on a boss, 5 on a player. Essential when fighting other casters/bosses with magic damage.

4. Outburst: Allows a Mage/Priest to triple crit on a target. Occurs about 25% of the time at max level, often boosting the Mage/Priest to the top of the dps scrutinizer. No talent points required.

5. Buffs: Include Elemental Catalysis (50% increased spellcasting speed and 20% increased magical damage, but has a 5 minute cooldown), Essence of Magic and Intensification (both of which boost magic attack power, one for 15 minutes, the other for 20 seconds), and Energy Influx (increases critical damage by a flat amount for 30 seconds. Others include Elemental Weakness (decreases Target's resistance to magic damage by 10% at level 65), Energy Well (reduces mana costs), and I haven't even covered the wind skills yet.

6. Nobody crowd controls like a M/P. Thunderstorm will take out a siege gate/defenses very easily at the top level. Purgatory fire is very useful for clearing trash mobs in instances. And as Electrostatic Discharge is a frontal AOE, it's useful for rooting small groups of players- provided you can move out of range before their skills fire off.

7. Urgent Heal: Saves like crazy on health pots/foods.

Very good solo class until KT, after which point you will need a group/guild. Depending on your gear, it is possible to hit a player for well over 90k health with a single fireball (although it has a 6 second cooldown).

Edit: Cons

1. Priest side can take forever to level up, even with the extra xp/tp boost provided by Xaviera at level 20/20. They're primarily a healer class and don't have many attack skills.

2. This game is going to starve you for talent points regardless of the class you play, so it is critical to pick which skills will best benefit your play style. As a m/p, maxing flame, fireball, and lightning are a must. After that, talent points should be allotted towards whichever side you chose to play (fire or wind). Fire and Wind Masteries are also a must-max, but cap out at 50.

3. As a mage, you are squishy. The bosses in the instances have insanely high magic crit resistance (and magic defense in general), and they hit hard. Annelia's adds alone can hit for 90k+ on a player (Grafu Castle). You must stat stam and some hp in order to be able to survive, sacrificing insanely high magic damage.

4. Mage gear is expensive. I'll say that again: Mage gear is expensive. It does not drop nearly as frequently as melee gear does.

Mage is generally considered the "best" AoE class, because their AoE's are spammable.

KT (Kawak's Tomb) is a level 62 instance. It is very difficult for anyone to solo.

Also, M/P probably levels their Priest more easily than any other class. Save your old mage gear for use on your secondary, and/or level your Priest on dailies.

M/P can go pull groups of mobs, yes, provided they're certain they can survive the adds/aoe effect if the mob doesn't go down on the first purgatory fire hit. Of course, thunderstorm is always an option if the mage wants to do damage from a distance- the issue being that the mob group isn't going to just stand still and take damage, as there's no guarantee that discharge will hit the group. They're generally spaced out just enough to prevent a stunner from rooting the entire group. Although if Purg is leveled enough on a good staff, the mage should just be able to purg everything.

You do Kawak's tomb around level 55-60 if I remember correctly, but honestly, it's beneficial to find a good guild before that. There's a siege title that decreases spellcasting speed by 15%. In addition, a guild will help you to gear up, and can answer any questions you might have about the game.

Wardens usually wear chain, use 2-h melee weapons, and are the pet/minion class of RoM. They are fairly good at both AoE and single target DPS. Warden/Druid is good for soloing because they get Warden pets + Druid heals. It's almost like you're a tank, DPS, and healer trio all by yourself. The pets don't have the defense of a real tank, but are immune to AoE, so still have decent survival with a healer behind them. I hear that Wd/D is different from other Wardens, in that wearing caster gear is a viable option. Overall, it seems to be a somewhat enigmatic, and underrated combo to me. I fully intend to experiment with it myself, once I get back into the mood for RoM.