Essential classes?

[Sean-Khan]

Hello,
I've just started to get familiar with new Essential classes. I'll have to say I love the new Hunter! From what I've seen, at least some of the classes seem very interesting. Are they more versatile & interesting to play, or is this just freshness of new material? I've seen some comments telling they were actually less versatile.

Levelling is still a bit of a mystery to me (I've used only DDI), did I get it right that they don't get the normal encounter/daily/utility powers, just fixed class-abilities (plus feats & stats)? Not even prestige classes?

About fighter, I really like that there's striker & defender versions, and defender aura replaces marking - defender looks much stronger to me but maybe it's a design decision as the class spends time protecting others rather than dealing damage around, which is what most players usually want to do. I think I saw a paladin-version that would also attack rather than use mental scorch, but I might have read wrong.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Assuming you only use Essentails books, there are a lot fewer feats and paragon paths and powers for the Hunter (ranger) That is crunch.

In play, not sure. I think two rangers will tend to be more different than two Hunters, but the players could use fluff to make them look very dissimilar.

Hunters get higher power choices, for sure, and they can either take the PP in Essentials or a variety of others from different books.

As for defenders, yes their approach to the game is a bit different. Strikers are very popular as damage dealing is fun. Play a Fighter if you like defending and doing damage. I have heard the Slayer and Knight can dish out damage. Not sue of the Paladin.

 

[Rune]

The slayer can definitely put out some damage, but that's not surprising, since it's a striker.

One thing you'll have to be careful of with the Knight's aura is that it does nothing if the Knight gets force-moved. And, even if the Knight is not force-moved, they can't stop a foe like a fighter with combat superiority can.

The Paladin, on the other hand (if I recall), has a daze attached to its defender punishment, so it can actually stop a foe.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

No, the paladin has no daze attached to his defender punishment. But he can use his encounter power with his melee base attack when making opportunity attacks.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Most of the classes (apart from the mage) have something that restricts them (lack of choice for encounter powers happens a lot, or no dailies at all) so that there are less "options" than older versions of that class, and the martials have their versatility changed. The hunter, for example, gives up versatility in choosing dailies and encounters, but makes up for it with at-will versatility. He has a choice of stances which he can combine with his three at-wills (one of which has three different effects, making it basically a total of 5 at-wills). So the hunter continuously has lots of options, and their encounter power also gives you choice of effect, not to mention save ends is normally a daily "level" effect, so their lack of dailies are less of a problem.

From what I've seen, people have enjoyed playing the essential characters, likely in part because it's hard to build a bad essential character, while the other characters have a lot more in terms of fiddly bits to pick from.

One of the big tradeoffs, like with the defenders, is you get an "easier" mark, no need to track it, no need for a fighter to have lots of burst attacks to mark multiple targets, no need to track your immediate action use since it's an OA ... but you do lose some of the more powerful features, like the fighter's ability to stop movement, or the paladin's ability to maintain his divine challenge at range with ranged attacks, etc.

 

[Sean-Khan]

Thanks for your replies!

What I like most in knight is how it is more logical, even if it isn't as effective in all situations. In a fight with lots of minions, new defenders seem very effective.