Hello All,

I am very new to albion (never played before). I am starting here with a bunch of friends and was hoping for some inputs on what are the pro's and cons of each class listed below:

Sorcerer
Cabalist
Wizard

I would like a character who will get a group, and will have utility in PvE as well as RvR.

Thank you!

I would like a character who will get a group, and will have utility in PvE as well as RvR."

Sorcerer - Will get a group in rvr. but is often undesired in pve. sorc cc is not required when single pulling mobs, and while power regen is nice, most groups rely on tinderboxes for regen.

Wizard - while these are sometimes liked in pve (especially if ice), they are completely worthless in pvp. sorry if i offend any wizzies out there. they do damage and all. but they lack any utility whatsoever. there just insnt space in an alb group for a zero utility class.

Cabalist - amazing in pve given the pet and dmg shield. amazing in rvr given nearsight, debuff, disease, etc. unortunately, 1 in 3 of all toons seems to be a cabby. ok thats an exagerated number, but really, there are way mroe cabbies than there needs to be.

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personally, id suggest theurg. they are still loved in pve, high utility in pvp, and seem to be slightly less common than cabbies. or at the very least, a group with 2 theurgs is viable, where a group with 2 cabbies is a waste of a space. 2 theurgs tends to be excessive lockdown, but it can be a lot of fun if the theurgs work well with one annother.

Netchel wrote:I would like a character who will get a group, and will have utility in PvE as well as RvR."

Sorcerer - Will get a group in rvr. but is often undesired in pve. sorc cc is not required when single pulling mobs, and while power regen is nice, most groups rely on tinderboxes for regen.

Wizard - while these are sometimes liked in pve (especially if ice), they are completely worthless in pvp. sorry if i offend any wizzies out there. they do damage and all. but they lack any utility whatsoever. there just insnt space in an alb group for a zero utility class.

Cabalist - amazing in pve given the pet and dmg shield. amazing in rvr given nearsight, debuff, disease, etc. unortunately, 1 in 3 of all toons seems to be a cabby. ok thats an exagerated number, but really, there are way mroe cabbies than there needs to be.

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personally, id suggest theurg. they are still loved in pve, high utility in pvp, and seem to be slightly less common than cabbies. or at the very least, a group with 2 theurgs is viable, where a group with 2 cabbies is a waste of a space. 2 theurgs tends to be excessive lockdown, but it can be a lot of fun if the theurgs work well with one annother.

what race would you suggest to start out as for a sorc cab or theurg?

Ok I agree with you about the leveling part but in RvR your conclusions are wrong. You can run with 2 Cabbies in grp np, but you shoudnt run with 2 Theurgs. So make a Cabbie i d suggest.
Sorc and Cabbie Saracen with 15Dex 10Int
Theurg Breton with 15Dex 10Int
regards

I think you should not consider a chars PvE utility too much. Said that even if some of those 4 mage classes might have more PvE utility then others, they are all welcome to parties that just wanna enjoy enjoy the game and form a nice exp crew. Even if, lets say, ice wiz are prolly the most welcome in parties and you might find your way to 50 easier, you cannot take that in consideration when u roll a char, cos u ll end up having the class you didnt really want, after you spent a lot of time leveling it.

So you should just think they are all useful in PvE (and in fact they are), and look at the PvP factor, which is as somebody else already said: wiz useless, other 3 are good.

Again since they are all good (Sorc, Cabby, Theurg) you shouldnt really think about what is more useful or what is missing more in the realm, i think you should go for the one you like to play, cos once again, they are all good and welcome in RvR. Maybe Sorc is a lil bit more wanted then the others just cos its really necessary and not cos the others 2 are bad or nanything, they are just wanted as much as the other useful classes, its just the sorc which is more

If you are noob that you dont know what they do here is a quick overview:

Sorc: Core of a RvR grp, he is the one who can make the difference from a lost/won inc during the battle with the other realm mezzer (and also after that). If you are good in PvP everybody will want to grp up with you, if you are bad nobody will want you

Theurg: Pet Spammer. The main (and pretty much only) task of a theurg is to neutralize enemies caster by sending pets to them. Probably the easiest of the three mages to play. Spamming pets on an enemy caster when u are so far away from him is not that hard to do, but will cause a lot of problem to them. Other then that you just need to root single target ocasionally, and spam some DD when just 2 of them are left

Cabalist: Disease (single and AE), Nearsight, Pet, Decent DD of his own, great debuff for mage assisting. thats a lot of stuff and not that easy to prioritize your spells since all of them are good. You can cripple both caster with ns and melees with disease, your pet will interrupt one enemy, and if you are able to teamplay with your grp and do assist on the same target with sorc(s) they ll go down instantly cos of your body debuff. Probably need a lot of training and teamplay to be played to the fullest, but even without that can still do a decent job.

races: saracen 15 dex 10 int for cabby and sorc
for theurg you can go either briton or avalonian (more con vs more int and a "avalonian tag" over your head during RvR) dex 15 int 10, or 10 cost 10 dex 10 int imho (having insane castrate is less crucial then sorc or cabby, and 5 pts are not gona make that much difference anyway) Int is not so important in a matter of damage delt since you ll be doing pets mostly, but will give you more mana too. Personally i d go Avalonian.

Since you are starting with friends, did you think about setups at all? How many are you, and what are your goals in the game? PvE, or more RvR?

For any group setup in RvR, both a Sorc and a Theurgist are a must. Cabalists work too, but are not quite as essential. That being said, a Sorc is a lot harder to play, but you can essentially forget about RvRing without one. So if none of you guys has rolled a sorc yet, that would be your class to play. However, prepare for a steep learning curve - and multitasking skills and great overview are a must

maye wanna check out this vid to see what sorc gameplay is like http://www.megaupload.com/?d=420XWQ6N

Thank you all, this has been very insightful. I have always played a caster in Dark age and will most likely try a sorc here. I used to play a spiritmaster on mid and an eldritch on hib.

On a side note, does the sorc get any DD? In hib, the eldritch had mess and DD so was just curious. What would be the hib and mid equivalent of a sorc?

Thanks!

sorc has baseline lifetap in the body line, and a spec dd spell in body as well. matter also has a spec dd+snare, but you shouldnt spec matter. playing sorc tends to involve a lot of balancing between cc, interupts and rdps. Although on uthgard given the power consumption issues, you will find that balance to be harder to achieve.

What is the cookie cutter build for a sorc? I am curious what is the most prevalent build to see how it fits my play style

Thanks!

I'd recommend 39 body/37 mind or 31 body/44 mind.

The first one would eliminate any Lifetap variance (with +11 or less to body), and give you a better ae root. The second gives you red mez. I've never played a sorc on Uthgard, so I don't know exactly how well either spec performs over the other, but those were always the ones I remember from live. I played a sorc on Mordred with the first spec and did rather well. You can get some MoF to lower the change of yellow mez resist. Not sure how well the level 35 dd spell would work here though, although I used it to much success on Live.

Cookie Cutter spec: body 47, mind 26 (or 46/27)
standard 209 mage DD, 60 secs AE root, 46 secs Ae mezz, blue power regen.

There is no mage similar to sorc in hib/mid to make any comparsion, those who are the most close are eld and cabby, the main difference is eld has powerfull straight DD, cabby uses body debuff + body DD

there are 3 cookie cutter specs: split spec (most common), body (second most), and mind (a low third, only really common at higher rr).

split spec: 39 body/37 mind
you have yellow everything

body spec: 45+ body/24+mind (whether you go 45/29 or 47/26, or even 48/24 is really a minor difference)
this spec relies on the lvl 45 body spec dd for higher dps. this comes at the expense of relying on blue ae mez, and losing out a lot on self mez dampening buff. other upsides include that the 47+ body specs have the red dex/quick debuff.

mind spec: 44 mind/31 body
this spec has red ae mez, but only blue ae root. (there is a minor uncommon variation of this where one drops ae root entirely to get the 55% mez duration reduction self buff). your dmg sucks at low realm rank. but you have a great mez. of major significance on the mez is that it is 400 radius compared to the lower level ae mez spells which are only 350. larger radius means hitting more people, better interupts, and less radius falloff on targets within the normal 350 radius. this results in a signficant increase in mez duration. for power consumption, spammign red mez is very costly tho on uthgard. other upsides of this spec include red str/con debuff.

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my personal recommendation for a new sorc is to go 39/37 when you start out and see how your playstyle goes. if you find yourself dpsing a lot, then consider going body. if you find yourself just spamming mez, then mind. otherwise, stick with the jack of all trades.

the only exception id make to that recommendation is for solo and smallman id start out as body spec. in small groups, some cc is needed, but it doesnt need to be great. you live and die by killing things quickly then. or if you are goign to die anyways, maybe you can kill something before you drop

Netchel wrote:there are 3 cookie cutter specs: split spec (most common), body (second most), and mind (a low third, only really common at higher rr).

split spec: 39 body/37 mind
you have yellow everything

body spec: 45+ body/24+mind (whether you go 45/29 or 47/26, or even 48/24 is really a minor difference)
this spec relies on the lvl 45 body spec dd for higher dps. this comes at the expense of relying on blue ae mez, and losing out a lot on self mez dampening buff. other upsides include that the 47+ body specs have the red dex/quick debuff.

mind spec: 44 mind/31 body
this spec has red ae mez, but only blue ae root. (there is a minor uncommon variation of this where one drops ae root entirely to get the 55% mez duration reduction self buff). your dmg sucks at low realm rank. but you have a great mez. of major significance on the mez is that it is 400 radius compared to the lower level ae mez spells which are only 350. larger radius means hitting more people, better interupts, and less radius falloff on targets within the normal 350 radius. this results in a signficant increase in mez duration. for power consumption, spammign red mez is very costly tho on uthgard. other upsides of this spec include red str/con debuff.

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my personal recommendation for a new sorc is to go 39/37 when you start out and see how your playstyle goes. if you find yourself dpsing a lot, then consider going body. if you find yourself just spamming mez, then mind. otherwise, stick with the jack of all trades.

the only exception id make to that recommendation is for solo and smallman id start out as body spec. in small groups, some cc is needed, but it doesnt need to be great. you live and die by killing things quickly then. or if you are goign to die anyways, maybe you can kill something before you drop

I am going to try that first spec with 39/37. I think it'll give me the most feeling for the sorc

Thanks so much!