So during the Early Access beta and Open Beta I was able to try out a few of the classes that will be available during launch. I almost always will end up with a sorcerer(ess) class as I gravitate to ranged classes for my play style. Ranged and mobility are what I really enjoy, so I also played the Druid and Necromancer. All classes were very enjoyable. Here is my review of each based on 25 levels and not being able to get very far in the skill tree.
Sorceress
This was the first class I played and really enjoyed in the Early Access Beta. It felt powerful like a sorceress should with spells that did both damage and movement control. The challenge that I have with most of these classes is the standing still to case spells. However, due to the power that was behind them it wasn’t too much of an issue.
Mana control was however, you have to be very cautious with mana usage, even if you choose passive skills to spend points in to increase your mana. I found myself getting into a few sticky situations with movement and not enough mana as the cost for spells was high. This likely will change as you get further into the skill tree and other mechanics for tailoring skills, but up to level 25 it was a bit of a challenge.
Strategic placement of spells and ensuring that you use them in the right order was definitely something that needed to be done. Fire and ice worked really well together for the slow and dots that both were able to apply. This did cause mobs to die quickly, but not before reaching you and likely smacking you a few times.
I didn’t get much of a chance to play with the skill tree, but found that I could easily put together a build that worked for me in being able to take on pretty much anything I needed to.
Druid
The Druid was played during Open Beta. I was really curious and intrigued by this class and the shape shifting concepts. Like most Druid classes you can choose how you play in what shape shifting aspects you chose along with other spells based in nature. It felt like I would hope a Druid would in playing.
I chose to stay with the wolf shift, but also used some electricity and ice as secondary crowd control spells. This class was much more mobile compared with the Sorceress. Along with more powerful, especially as you were able to collect gear that aided with skills differently.
Due to a piece of gear that I obtained it was rare that I had to use potions for health, which just made things that much more fun. While the Wolf isn’t necessarily intended to be a tank build, I found it to be very tank like and also provide the damage that I like to see when I consider the Druid to be more DPS, for me at least, in play style.
There are some issues with mana control here too at lower levels even when you increase the mana that you have through the skill tree. The increase doesn’t really grant much compared with the cost of spells. However, once you get the hang of your rotation of skills this does become more easily managed. I didn’t find that I was balancing this until closer to level 25 though due to the slowness of obtaining skills because of so many other neat features you can select from.
This will be my starting class for launch.
Necromancer
I also was able to play a Necromancer to 25 during Open Beta. This class was by far the most powerful where we felt the need to increase the level of the world when we played either in a group or individually. With being able to raise skeletons that do incredible damage it was rare that mobs would even touch you as a player.
There were many different kinds of skeletons that you could raise, but we were only able to get the regular (Attach or defend) and the initial mage level ones. You are able to call certain numbers of each. At one point, due to gear, I was running with up to six swordsmen and 4 mages. Yep, the destroyed everything easily.
This class felt a bit like easy mode. Mana management was fairly good because you really didn’t need to cast much to get mobs down due to the power of your minions. Even on hard mode the challenge of mobs didn’t feel overwhelming. However, when you did get into a harder fight you did have to pay attention to ground affects as you are pretty squishy.
Gear plays a huge role in the game, much more then I initially realized when playing the sorceress. There are so many different buffs or benefits from certain gear that I found I wanted to upgrade certain pieces just to keep a particular benefit long after the gear itself really wasn’t helping. I am looking forward to seeing what is beyond level 25 when this game launches in June.
The Adams-Schlag Family 