hi there,

first of all thanks for reading this post of a 1-post-guy (been lurking for years tho ) and thanks for the input for the following questions:

1. which class should i play'? friar yay or nay?

the issue here is that i love albion as a realm but i hate the boring ass low utility classes(srsly, firewiz vs. eld or rm anyone?) also i have almost no rvr experience since ive been playing on camlann / mord for many years(mostly played a chantress but had a ton of chars on 50 and geared..)....so i dont know much about albion class only-grps dynamics. the only 2 albclasses that i "like" are friar and cabby. but id prefer a friar by a fair bit because i love the concept of the class. so i guess this question is sorta answered already. 99% friar. but the thing is id love to rvr as well...and many people say that friars suck in rvr. especially at 1.65. be honest,would you grp a friar?

2. if friar,which spec?

there are many ways to spec a friar. duh. i have a full time job now,a girlfriend and 4 cats (meow.) that keep me very busy. so i simply cant afford to lvl a toon to 50 (especially not on uth) thats not flexible. i gotta be able to do ****** solo if needed. gimme your input here.

i was thinking:

25 rejuv (spec heal and useless(?) hot),49 buff (matter resist yay or nay? shaman roots no det hello.), 12 parry, 34 staff
or
18 rejuv (id love to keep the rezz), 48 buff (****** shamans ), 13 parry, 39 staff

feedback? because u know....maybe there will be castergrps (hib heat nukes, mid coldnukes) with the lack of the "new" charge ability...i might even get an invite @ rvr?



i had other questions on my mind but somehow i forgot it all. maybe cuz its late but who knows.
sorry for awkward formating and general lack of structure in this post

feel free to help an old veteran with any feedback,everything is much appreciated.

greetz


PS: lets hope uth opens soon....im kinda sick of the current dota patch and want cotswold music baby!

There have been some groups on Genesis that ran a friar and two clerics for heals. That may have been due to a combination of improperly implemented 2 handed melee damage and a too powerful group HoT though.

Honestly most people will tell you that Friar is not a very groupable class, and in the purely 8v8 sense they would almost all be right. However, since you probably don't have time for that kind of group, it may not matter as much to you.

I would suggest you go for a good heal / buff friar if you want to group (being a healer you're not expected to have det) and if you want to solo probably more staff / buff.

As for spec, that's something you'll have to work out, but I doubt the extra matter resist it worth it. Heat yes, because Hib caster groups that debuff heat are very common. Cold is usually debuffed from Mids, but that sort of group is much rarer compared to tank groups. Still it's a common enough type (unlike matter) that your group would probably benefit from it.

thanks for your reply.

its true that i probably wont take a spot in a lets-rvr-errnight-till-we-hit-rr11-grp but id still love to rvr from time to time.
i know how to play and how to prioritize properly but im rly not sure an alb grp with a non-heal-friar pumps out enough dps to kill anything rly. (and ill definately not spec over 25 heal because that rejuv line is a JOKE imo)

i need a swiss knife basically. being able to solo farma bit, revisit all the old locations i miss so much (even if that makes me sound like an awkward weirdo) and kill mids/hibs in my spare time. solo and grp! probably a spiritcabby would be the "better" choice....but my super competitive days are over and im willing to play the underdog now.

feel free to spam more,guys!

greetz

Yea you've made a good choice Friars are great & flawed!
Just because they are a "swissarmy knife" they are not entirely usefull in every aspect of Uthgard. However, they do do very well solo PvE and are cheap(ish) to build a template.
if you can find a pala or a reav(flex) then levelling/farming is an absolute breeze.

In terms of RvR

for 8v8 - friar is sub-par no matter what specc - waste of time. (Also keep defence & relic raids a friar is pretty boring to play).
but the class does fine solo/smallman

for solo
i prefer the full on battlefriar,
44staff, 47enhance, 12parry, 7 rejuv

a good alternative is to have
39staff, 49enhance, 18rejuv, 9parry
which is probably better for smallman 2-6mans



things to remember.
in RvR other people will have charges/potions so expect to be blocked a lot (due to friars poor weaponskill).
the group HoT is completely useless.
use the terrain/hide - to heal & remove dots/desease.
get as slow a staff (5.5spd) as possible.

In Summary If you want a swiss army knife then you need to be able to melee properly i.e. the Knife part.
to do that Keep a minimum of:
45 enhance and 39 staff.. also 7 rejuv is essential.

If played correctly in a setup group, a friar can do the difference. My team fought a team with one in it and, trust me, it was true pain... But communication is vital.

thanks for your replies,guys. much appreciated. well i wont go 44 staff. im not that much into solo pvp and probably not even very good at it. most of the time i was MA of castergrps with my chantress on camlann/mordred. so 39 staff (i REALLY hope thats enough to dish out some dps to enemy support), 48 buff (last haste, cold and heat resists), 18 rejuv (decent specheal, better rezz), rest parry (13 i think,which is a bit low...but ill spec dodger and MoParry II asap)

for RAs im not quite sure what to get. is trip worth it? i would assume it is. but purge? 30 minute timer is kinda lame. maybe at higher RR. but at lower RR id focus on passives (dex,qui 2, Mopain 2,moparry 2,dodger 2,lw tl, aom 2) and maybe mcl 1 if i run into mana problems.

spam away, you are really helping me out here.

greetz

For friar I really enjoy 39 staff 47 ench 24rejuv and the rest in parry.

I'll either start with a Friar or Cabby for farming and funding a million alts.

Not sure what I'll main in RVR yet but I've always been a theurg guy, assuming wizards work I might give that a shot. Who doesn't like to blow stuff up?

for friar you ahve 2 choice go for full heal(i dont recommned) or go for full staff if going for solo(still not recommned)

for basics a friar needs 7 rej(cure dease posien)

15 staf side snare(best sanre in game about 25 sec)

45 ench (your last dex qui and slef af buff)

tehn rest is up to you

i tested a tons of specs

i played 29 staff 34 rej 48 ench rest parry spec on groups alot

i played 44 staf 45(46-47-48) 7/15 rej rest parry spec on solo or on group

i played 37 staf 25 rej 48 ench rest parry spec for pve/solo/mini groups

all did well on their part yet you have to pikc waht typ you wana play and what suits you best

remmber friar lacks range thngy so alwys kiting chars kick your ass(shamy- bard) unless they are cluless

Friar's

Use to duo as a Pala/Friar dia farming in DF, 0 down time, constant hunting, ****** ace combo

damn...this thread is almost a year old..
in the past year i did a lot of paper daoc and came up with the following spec

25 rejuv (235 delve specheal, 30% rezz, cure disease, useless first HoT)
48 enhance (Max Selfbuffs, good Resistbuffs)
36 staff (will be probably spamming Taunt or Sidesnare anyways)
10 parry (point efficient)

In RvR grps it might work as a Backline-Supporter/Peeler.
More EHP vs. Hib and Mid Castergrps
extra Peeler,Conc (Spec AF due to Cleric not having to buff base as much) and extra Healerino vs. Meleegrps

also will 36 Staff be good enough to at least put SOME pressure on overextending offtanks? Im not sure.

In PvE it should still be enough to slowly farm away some seals or drops for salvage and maybe get a slot in dragonraids?

I really tried to talk myself into switching realms since i find all other Classes in Alb boring AF (other than Cabalist...but there will probably over a million of them @ release..) but the Alb music and landscape is just too real.

TBH im not even sure where im going with this post. Just gimme honest feedback if my statements above are complete nonsense or not.

cheers!

edit: spelling bee

You should just consider a Paladin instead or play that Cabalist you mentioned. You can solo and level on your own time and be less useless in RvR than a Friar. TBH a Friar is really boring in RvR even if you do get invited because you don't really do anything other than give resist buffs and the heals or dps equivalent to a Minstrel pet (maybe even worse if the pet is buffed, rofl)

If you simply just want to PvE and enjoy the concept of a Friar, then by all means become a PvE legend and you can even organize your own DF raids, but it's not only unwanted but also quite boring for RvR.

First of all thanks for your reply.

Do you really think that Friar DPS is going to suck THAT hard? (i mean, 50 comp wpn spec on RR4 aint much...but its not THAT bad...or is it?)
Cabalist is of course a great choice and i enjoyed my pvp and rvr server one, but there are just going to be too many of them out there.
Paladin sure is interesting as well(especially since its receiving so much hate on the forums <3)..but im afraid in RvR a Pala is even more useless than a Friar. But i gotta admit the highest Pala i ever had was 3lx or sth Another con: Pala is way more expensive to gear than a Friar.

I dunno, man Alb classes are just so meeh.... ~

1. It's the lowest weaponskill table in the game
2. Their damage stat (dex) never rises through level, making it worse than any other melee class
3. The value of self-buffs is completely mitigated in anything outside of 1v1

I assure you a Paladin is more useful than a Friar due to Slam, Guard, and Intercept alone. The heat resist chant is very underrated. Faith Healing is also a decent RA once you get above RR5ish. Plate/block/parry makes it difficult for tank trains to drop him as he's guarding clerics/casters.

The problem with Paladins is they are difficult to play well in a RvR group, and your group has to be competent enough to not forget they are running a Paladin. If everyone just runs away in opposite directions on INC with no coordination, the Paladin might as well not even be there. There are specific schemes and tactics required with everyone being aware that he is the designated peeler with Slam+Tranq and the Paladin himself has to be very aware of his positioning. You only ever want to have to purge roots and rely on being demezzed by Sorc/Mins. If you are mezzed out of an entire fight then your group is bad. This also affects how you approach different realms (Hib casters can't root so you can generally push in more if their Druids are being passive; Mid casters/shamans will root you immediately so you need to stay back more.)

So as you can see, there is a lot that goes into it.

P.S. you can farm diamond seals with a Friar or Reaver all day so gear cost shouldn't be that much of a problem.

1. true!
2. definately true! (and a horrible design...dex should at least be tertiary imo..)
3. not completely true, since conc on alb is quite valuable id assume simply because of cleric spec AF.

so what spec would you recommend? I would probably AT till 40 so thats an extra 108 skillpts if im not mistaken.

42 Chants, 15 Parry, 39 Slash, 50 Shield (chants are a bit low...still endu 5 and 39 slash for some solo farmerino so i just fall asleep and not into a coma)

48 Chants, 12 Parry, 33 Slash, 50 Shield (glorious chants including last spec AF and 20 heatresi vs those nasty hib nerds, less dmg though and a tad less parry)

those are 2 that come to mind.

edit: for farming dias id probably have to roll mid :p

You don't go Slash for RvR, you go Thrust for Wyvernfang. Anytime hinder with 27s duration. You use a fast weapon and a small shield so you can Slam+Tranq+Wyv very quickly, and when the tank comes out of slam, he is crawling 15+ more seconds. You carry a large shield you can swap to if you get tank trained while guarding so you can block up to 3 targets. You pick Saracen for the dex and generally 15 dex 10 con is best. You autotrain Chants to 36 which allows you to go 44/42/47/3. The 5 extra Parry for AT until 48 is not worth it. You can AT until 40 if you want to gain 2 more Parry but I wouldn't unless you're getting monster XP with a set team farming high end ******.

The autotrain until 36 is crucial to get 47 Chants which gives you the +20 Heat chant.