Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vayden" data-source="post: 4598920" data-attributes="member: 57791">Well, there seem to be a few of you out there enjoying this, so I'm gonna keep going. Today, an expansion on Tip 1 (Know your party) - which monster types are best (and worst) for which classes? Let's go through the list!1a) ClericsClerics tend to do radiant damage most of the time, which means they love fighting Undead. They also have a decent selection of area attacks in their encounters and dailies, so they like minions almost as much as Wizards do. Their party buffs tend more towards defense and healing, and they don't give attack bonuses quite as well as warlords, so you want to slant slightly towards low-defense/high offense monsters to play to the clerics strengths. Happy Cleric: Lots of undead brutes, artillery, and skirmishersSad Cleric: Soldiers, anything resistant to Radiant damage. 1b) FightersFighters tie with Rogues for the highest possible straight up attack bonus, and their ferocious opportunity attacks and marks make them the best in the game at pinning people down. Skirmishers and Lurkers are great for fighters, because they can feel great satisfaction by catching and pinning the mobile, dangerous opponents. They don't have enough area attacks to really handle minions, though cleave helps. Big solos and/or soldiers they're okay against, but they don't really shine. The one thing fighters really hurt at is attacking at range, or having their reflex/will attacked. Happy Fighter: Skirmishers, Lurkers, ElitesSad Fighter: Artillery that attacks reflex/will1c) PaladinsWhile fighters shine locking down multiple opponents, Paladins shine locking down one single opponent. Like clerics, they love fighting undead, but even more than that they love fighting solo monsters. They have very few area attacks, so too many minions will make your paladin feel like they're wasting their time, and while they have more ranged powers than the fighter, those tend to be restricted to their dailies. Happy Paladin: Undead, SolosSad Paladin: Minions, artillery, or pretty much any situation where the party is heavily out-numbered and the paladin can't lock down all the targets.1d) RangersI haven't had a chance to see the TWF or Beastmaster Ranger in action yet unfortunately, so I'm going to just comment on the archer ranger for now. The archer ranger is your perfect prototypical ranged striker. They love settling back and putting holes in an enemy - they hate enemies with high AC and enemies who get into their face too easily. This is a tough balance to strike, because some ranger players will get bored sitting back and claim they're just doing the same thing over and over, while other ranger players love the simplicity of standing 10 squares away and quietly accumulating kills. You have to read your player here to figure how often you should be pushing through the front line and hurting them. A ranger also tends to enjoy bigger monsters, as they can put some nasty effects on a monster and those get wasted if the monster dies right away. Happy Ranger: Anything with a relatively low AC, elites and solos. Sad Ranger: Skirmishers or artillery that get to the ranger too easily, Soldiers or anything else with a high AC. 1e) RoguesSingle target damage machines. While they don't have the range of the ranger or warlock, and don't have the multi-target option of twin-strike, against one big target, the rogue has the highest alpha strike capability of anyone. A rogue loves nothing more than to be flanking a solo or elite monster with a defender. Conversely, they hate nothing more than wasting 57 points of damage on a minion. With their ability to attack reflex instead of AC, they're also more willing to take on soldiers than a ranger is. Happy Rogue: Any melee monster with a lot of hitpoints.Sad Rogue: Minions, artillery or other monsters that it's tough to get combat advantage against. 1f) SwordmagesThe Wizard of melee types, a Swordmage is much more capable of taking on minions or ranged opponents than other defenders. I haven't seen them in play as much as I'd like, but I rate their "stickiness" as a little bit less than the Paladin or Fighter. They are also very mobile with their multiple teleport power options. They tend to do less damage per hit than the fighter and paladin as well, since they spread their damage around more. Happy Swordmage: Lots of minions, being the 2nd defender in the party so that they can roam around and freelance more without worrying about defending as much. Sad Swordmage: Solos and/or Elites - the fewer opponents, the sadder the swordmage. 1g) WarlocksWarlocks deal less pure damage than any other striker, but they have access to typed damage and can attack multiple defenses. A warlock's favorite target tends to be something where they can find the perfect chink in the defenses to exploit - something with one low defense, or a vulnerability that they can exploit. They're also good at immbolizing or otherwise rendering an opponent ineffectual. Happy Warlock: A big brute they can neutralize, anything vulnerable to the damage type of their at-wills.Sad Warlock: Minions.1h) WarlordsWarlords shine at granting to-hit and damage bonuses, as well as setting up combat advantage for their allies. They love a good collection of melee enemies or a big solo they can hit with Lead the Attack or similar powers. Like Fighters and Rogues, they become much less effective at range or against very high ac opponents (though they love one single high ac opponent, since they can give to-hit bonuses to their allies).Happy Warlord: Melee opponents, a nice big solo.Sad Warlord: Ranged opponents, minions. 1i) WizardsThis one's relatively simple - the more opponents, the happier the wizard. Wizards are the anti-thesis of strikers - they spread their damage around and create damaging zones. Against a solo, they can still be effective, but they lose much of what makes them special. Also, since almost all their damage is typed, resistances and vulnerabilities are big for them. Happy Wizard: Minions, anything vulnerable to their attacks (esp fire)Sad Wizard: Solos, things with resistances (esp fire).If you're lucky enough to have a party that tends towards the same likes/dislikes, this gets easier to work with - a Warlord/Fighter/Rogue combination means that you should generally steer away from using ranged attackers, while a Cleric and a Paladin in the same group begs for some undead to slaughter. However, even with a disparate group, you can still make this work for you. Your first rule should be to always be giving at least one player a chance to shine - never make an encounter that hits everyone's weak spots, unless you're just being sadistic. The second rule is to make sure that everyone gets a chance to shine at least once every 4 fights - if you have a wizard, make sure you mix minions in at least that often so that he gets a chance to shine. The third note is the reminder that you have multiple monsters in each fight - if you have a paladin/rogue/wizard/warlord, maybe have a big melee solo for the rest of the party to fight, but ring the encounter with ranged-attacking minions that the wizard has to take care of in order to enable the rest of the party to survive.</blockquote>

Verification