Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Warrior vs. Mage . . . what should I choose?

Here's the question:
Hi Friendly! I'm starting Runes of Magic, and since you've had experience with games like the one that shall not be named, which is similar to Runes of Magic, I thought you may have some advice on which type would be better. I've decided on two types: Warrior or Mage. I'm interested in mages because they specialize in attacks with elements and all that, yet warrior is, warrior, which is always awesome, whatever the game may be.

Both are awesome for the reasons you give, and guess what? It's actually sounding like you could be both at once!

Check out this little snippet from their website:

"When you first start Runes of Magic, you will choose your primary class: warrior, ranger, cleric, knight, mage or rogue. When you reach level 10, you can add a secondary class. There are up to 30 individual class combinations.

Generally, all classes in Runes of Magic can serve as either the primary or secondary class. To make your secondary class your primary class or vice versa, you must visit a special class trainer, such as the one in Varanas. You have full access to the complete level-based skill set of your active primary class, but only the non-specific skill set of your secondary class is available.

Character attributes of the secondary class equal 10 percent of those of the primary class. Experience, attribute and talent points are applied only to the active primary class, and the level of the secondary class cannot exceed the level of the primary class. To level the secondary class, you have to register it with any class trainer as your primary class."

I believe the first place I saw a really good application of this system was in Guild Wars. I run a really scary ranger/elementalist in Guild Wars. I built my entire build around using an elite ranger skill that dumps TONS of mana back into your character if it successfully hits. I used this mana to fuel devastating meteor storm attacks. I could throw them out much more recklessly than a regular elementalist because of this skill (which cost a lot of mana), but they were less powerful than if cast by a true elementalist.


He looks like a ranger sure enough



But, HEY, he throws fire like a wizard! Tricky ranger!


As far as typical play styles: The warrior usually has high hitpoints and armor class, but does low damage. The mage usually has low hitpoints and armor class, but does high damage.

So it sounds like a very interesting situation actually.

I've also heard this is possible in Final Fantasy XI. Check out this link.

Here's a quote from it:
"You can change your job any time, and eventually gain the ability to select a support job. With a support job, you can effectively "hold two jobs at once." Want to be a warrior who can cast white magic? How about a monk with black magic? With support jobs, the combinations are endless!

As your adventures progress, you may find that new jobs become available. Why not try your hand at learning the ways of the bard, ranger, or beastmaster?"

So, multiclassing isn't new (and yup, it even stretches back to pen and paper days of Dungeons and Dragons), but I can tell you that the game which shall not be named DOES NOT allow multiclassing. A warrior is a warrior. A mage is a mage. Yeah, you can tweak what "kind" of warrior you are or what "kind" of mage you are, but pretty much it goes like this: warriors wear tough armor and kill stuff up close with their wicked looking weaponry, and Mages wear dresses and kill stuff from a distance with burning rings of fire.

And as you all know, in Wizard101 we even multiclassing through our secondary schools. The Ice Wizard is kind of our "warrior class," and the Storm Wizard is definitely our "nuker class." You can have an ice wizard that casts Storm spells. /shrug

Hey! Look at that, Tipa over at West Karana even wrote something up on RoM recently.

Ahh dangit . . . look at what you did . . . now I'm actually downloading RoM.


(whoa . . . big download)


Thanks a lot anonymous!

;-)

Happy Dueling!

7 comments:

witchwarrior said...

Mage and warrior is a good combination!

Tipa said...

I've seen a bunch of warrior/mages in RoM. Mixing close and ranged dps is a good combo.

Anonymous said...

RoM is an interesting beastie. It's a mix of the "good old design" and "better new design". The dual class system is especially nice. If you liked that *other* game, you'll probably like RoM.

I enjoyed it for the time I played it, and may go back someday... but I'm pretty burned out on DIKU design. Still, RoM is well-done, and definitely worth a peek if you like that sort of game. :)

(Rogue/Mage for me, though; ranged DPS makes me happy.)

Tesh said...

Bleh, that Anonymous is me. Sorry.

Blaze Goldenblade said...

Mage/Warrior is a good combination, however one thing of note is that the warrior is a highly offensive melee class if you are looking into defense try knight. Personally I enjoy playing a Mage/Knight combo(high attack/high defense) Have fun playing!

Stingite said...

Thanks all for your comments!

@Blaze: Excellent insight there. I appreciate the clarification. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm downloading this game...ITS TAKING FOREVER!! i really hope its worth 2 TO 3 HOURS of downloading!
Anyway...
love your blog friendly :)

~Lindsey Griffintamer