Time to Start Archmage Unlocked?
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:39 am
"Why can't I play a Mage?
Some classes and races have to be unlocked before you can play them. This keeps the game simple at first, and reveals greater complexity later, when you've mastered the basics."
The idea here to keep the new players from getting confused, screwing up, and blaming the game; however, do we really have the best classes unlocked from the start to do this? I am thinking not, and explain why herein.
Tier 0 Classes:
Bulwark and Barbarian are great starting classes, as they can resort to bumping into enemies until they die against everything but bosses, and rarely get into a difficult situation. I don't think anyone would suggest these are not good beginner classes.
Archer:
Once upon a time, these classes were for constant ranged damage, now they are more like the rest of the ranged classes, reliant on cooldowns, but their cooldowns have been stacked into one number, ammo, rather than several (they do have several normal cooldowns as well, but these are of lesser importance). Like other ranged classes, Archers play by the simple rule of stay out of melee, hit them when they can't hit you. However, relatively low hitpoints can leave ranged vs ranged tactics elusive, and their disengagement is cumbersome. While this might have once been the best intro to ranged combat, i question if it is anymore. However, i certainly don't think it is much more difficult than other ranged classes and their starting life is certainly more forgiving than other ranged classes, and such it probably should be left unlocked from the start.
Arcane Blade:
Why this is a beginner friendly class i will never know. Even mirthless seems confused as how to make them work well. You have Ivory tower traps of getting spells and not maxing them, a confusing balance of having to melee some of the time and stay ranged some of the time, a resource that ties up an infusion slot, and a difficult balance in specializing vs branching in both stats and skills. Nothing about this class is straight forward, and this class is not suitable for beginners at all.
Rogue:
Melee glass cannons are rather difficult to play, but not that difficult conceptually. In theory, rogues should be great vs mages as they gap close and instantly burst down, but in practice, this is harder to pull off than it sounds. Their natural affinity for double daggers also makes them more luck dependant, which can be a good or bad thing for beginners, but at least frees up generic points. Not a great beginner class but probably a reasonable option.
Shadowblade:
You'd think merging the arcane blade (difficult) with the rogue (somewhat difficult) would make this class very difficult, but here magic usage is more straightforward than with the arcane blade, and invisibility is easier to use than stealth as a gap closer, so i don't think they are any harder than rogue, despite sharing some of the problems of both rogues and arcane blades.
Alchemist:
I've heard it 1000x, this is the easiest class to play, however I've only ever heard this from players who are clearing the east with it. For a beginner who is unlikely to make it to the east, this class does not seem easy at all, especially with the advice given by others. Your most powerful ability (golem) also scales worst, your bombs need aoe boosts as an artificial range booster, which then also requires investment into immunity from self. needing these things makes other choices ivory tower choices (looks good/cool but are rookie traps). Your reliance is on avoiding combat early so the golem can do its work in peace, not exactly something most new players are going to be inclined to do naturally. Controlling the golem is not straight forward as this causes your alchemist to attempt suicide faster than most escorts, thus requires lots of practice (this may be out of date). All in all, even beyond the people who attempt to pair this with shalore for a terrible beginner class, this is perhaps the worst instinct to go to as a beginner except maybe arcane blade. And as it is advertised as the only noob friendly mage, this just compounds the problem.
Tier 1 unlocks: (Unlocks you expect to get before tier 2 dungeons)
Summoner:
very straight forward in skills, stats, how to play, and acts as a caster with normal Life per Level. This is probably the best introduction to caster characters, certainly more noob friendly than the alchemist and arcane blade, probably also more user friendly than the rogue or shadowblade.
Cursed:
I'm not sure what my opinion is on this for beginners. My first successful cursed was rampager which requires foreknowledge, but most of my failures were in B38, where cursed were terrible at everything. I don't think they are clear to play for beginners, but i don't know for sure.
Archmage:
The controversial one, the one that DG even has to justify to others in his FAQ. Archmages gameplay is pretty straight forward. You blast things from range with super high damage attacks, and then you back away when cooldowns are down, and blast away again. If the enemy closes the gap, you use one of your many escapes to reset the fight. Statwise, they are easy and logical to build, just lots and lots of magic, with willpower and constitution taking a back seat. Their power level certainly isn't what is throwing people off, as they tied for most b43 winners. They are also easily the most popular class, so it isn't because they are a class that is "not for everyone". For complexity sake, archmages have many many options, not including the 4 trees they have locked, they easily have the most options of any class, but they lack clearly bad options of others, so that isn't a huge problem for a beginner, and beginners not being able to play the class DG has put by far the most work into, is alone enough to override that concern. Compaired to archer's, their limiter on attacks is more straight forward, and their disengage is much much more useful. Compaired to arcaneblades, their role is clear. I don't understand how they are harder as a class to understand than any class other than berzerker and barbarian, and maybe summoner, and thus think they should be an auto unlock. Locking archmages seems to cause problems, and not fix anything, and seems to be based on a preconcieved notion of difficulty based more on the mage stereotype (one that mage players may wish to believe) than any reality.
I think alchemist should be locked (perhaps unlocked at first successful potion made or something) moving archmage to default, and arcane blade be locked in favour of starting the much more straight forward summoner unlocked. This is both more logical traditionally and mechanically, and if number of options on archmage turns out to actually be a problem, just lock some more of those with some easy unlock options (it isn't like you couldn't just start half of abilities locked and still have the mage appear to have the most work put into it of all the classes)
Some classes and races have to be unlocked before you can play them. This keeps the game simple at first, and reveals greater complexity later, when you've mastered the basics."
The idea here to keep the new players from getting confused, screwing up, and blaming the game; however, do we really have the best classes unlocked from the start to do this? I am thinking not, and explain why herein.
Tier 0 Classes:
Bulwark and Barbarian are great starting classes, as they can resort to bumping into enemies until they die against everything but bosses, and rarely get into a difficult situation. I don't think anyone would suggest these are not good beginner classes.
Archer:
Once upon a time, these classes were for constant ranged damage, now they are more like the rest of the ranged classes, reliant on cooldowns, but their cooldowns have been stacked into one number, ammo, rather than several (they do have several normal cooldowns as well, but these are of lesser importance). Like other ranged classes, Archers play by the simple rule of stay out of melee, hit them when they can't hit you. However, relatively low hitpoints can leave ranged vs ranged tactics elusive, and their disengagement is cumbersome. While this might have once been the best intro to ranged combat, i question if it is anymore. However, i certainly don't think it is much more difficult than other ranged classes and their starting life is certainly more forgiving than other ranged classes, and such it probably should be left unlocked from the start.
Arcane Blade:
Why this is a beginner friendly class i will never know. Even mirthless seems confused as how to make them work well. You have Ivory tower traps of getting spells and not maxing them, a confusing balance of having to melee some of the time and stay ranged some of the time, a resource that ties up an infusion slot, and a difficult balance in specializing vs branching in both stats and skills. Nothing about this class is straight forward, and this class is not suitable for beginners at all.
Rogue:
Melee glass cannons are rather difficult to play, but not that difficult conceptually. In theory, rogues should be great vs mages as they gap close and instantly burst down, but in practice, this is harder to pull off than it sounds. Their natural affinity for double daggers also makes them more luck dependant, which can be a good or bad thing for beginners, but at least frees up generic points. Not a great beginner class but probably a reasonable option.
Shadowblade:
You'd think merging the arcane blade (difficult) with the rogue (somewhat difficult) would make this class very difficult, but here magic usage is more straightforward than with the arcane blade, and invisibility is easier to use than stealth as a gap closer, so i don't think they are any harder than rogue, despite sharing some of the problems of both rogues and arcane blades.
Alchemist:
I've heard it 1000x, this is the easiest class to play, however I've only ever heard this from players who are clearing the east with it. For a beginner who is unlikely to make it to the east, this class does not seem easy at all, especially with the advice given by others. Your most powerful ability (golem) also scales worst, your bombs need aoe boosts as an artificial range booster, which then also requires investment into immunity from self. needing these things makes other choices ivory tower choices (looks good/cool but are rookie traps). Your reliance is on avoiding combat early so the golem can do its work in peace, not exactly something most new players are going to be inclined to do naturally. Controlling the golem is not straight forward as this causes your alchemist to attempt suicide faster than most escorts, thus requires lots of practice (this may be out of date). All in all, even beyond the people who attempt to pair this with shalore for a terrible beginner class, this is perhaps the worst instinct to go to as a beginner except maybe arcane blade. And as it is advertised as the only noob friendly mage, this just compounds the problem.
Tier 1 unlocks: (Unlocks you expect to get before tier 2 dungeons)
Summoner:
very straight forward in skills, stats, how to play, and acts as a caster with normal Life per Level. This is probably the best introduction to caster characters, certainly more noob friendly than the alchemist and arcane blade, probably also more user friendly than the rogue or shadowblade.
Cursed:
I'm not sure what my opinion is on this for beginners. My first successful cursed was rampager which requires foreknowledge, but most of my failures were in B38, where cursed were terrible at everything. I don't think they are clear to play for beginners, but i don't know for sure.
Archmage:
The controversial one, the one that DG even has to justify to others in his FAQ. Archmages gameplay is pretty straight forward. You blast things from range with super high damage attacks, and then you back away when cooldowns are down, and blast away again. If the enemy closes the gap, you use one of your many escapes to reset the fight. Statwise, they are easy and logical to build, just lots and lots of magic, with willpower and constitution taking a back seat. Their power level certainly isn't what is throwing people off, as they tied for most b43 winners. They are also easily the most popular class, so it isn't because they are a class that is "not for everyone". For complexity sake, archmages have many many options, not including the 4 trees they have locked, they easily have the most options of any class, but they lack clearly bad options of others, so that isn't a huge problem for a beginner, and beginners not being able to play the class DG has put by far the most work into, is alone enough to override that concern. Compaired to archer's, their limiter on attacks is more straight forward, and their disengage is much much more useful. Compaired to arcaneblades, their role is clear. I don't understand how they are harder as a class to understand than any class other than berzerker and barbarian, and maybe summoner, and thus think they should be an auto unlock. Locking archmages seems to cause problems, and not fix anything, and seems to be based on a preconcieved notion of difficulty based more on the mage stereotype (one that mage players may wish to believe) than any reality.
I think alchemist should be locked (perhaps unlocked at first successful potion made or something) moving archmage to default, and arcane blade be locked in favour of starting the much more straight forward summoner unlocked. This is both more logical traditionally and mechanically, and if number of options on archmage turns out to actually be a problem, just lock some more of those with some easy unlock options (it isn't like you couldn't just start half of abilities locked and still have the mage appear to have the most work put into it of all the classes)
