What are your thoughts as to which Hib class is the most challenging?

I was considering playing either a Bard, Mana Eldritch or Valewalker. I like support, but when I compare a Druid to a Healer, the Druid just seems like the same, with less. The same goes for Bard, though at least the Bard has the advantage of needing to provide interrupts, adding an element to their gameplay that compensates, at least to some degree, for the extra CC, heals and celerity that Healer gets.

When I speak of challenge, I speak of the number and difficulty of the things a player must consider to play successfully. This continuum is clearly seen in the contrast between the things a Healer must consider and the things an Enchanter must consider (I've played both, and there's a world of a difference; heck, just compare Mana Eldritch to Mana Enchanter).

Simple weakness -- which has nothing to do with whether a class is challenging -- should be taken into account if it means that the class is irrelevant, but these classes should still be mentioned, simply out of curiosity.

Either an eld of some sort, or a druid/bard.

With an eld you have to pre kite like mad, NS, disease, snare, and nuke when needed. A druid will obviously be responsible for keeping the group a live, while rooting, shearing and interrupting. If you just sit back and spread druid is simple enough but that won't help your group win fights. Interrupting on druid without catching the train, getting NSed/CCed or rupted out of usefulness isn't so easy. IMO bard is a rather simple class to play. There just isn't all that much to do with 1 form of CC, and some insta amnesia. You normally won't be able to heal since you're mostly a front line interrupter, and your heals aren't that great, but if a druid is taking dmg or both druids are busy you may throw out a heal every once and a while.

I would say an Eldritch though I'd spec it light and not mana. With disease and snare you can control the enemy AT. With red nearsight you can seriously cripple enemy supporters and tanks while still having access to grey NS which is awesome for rupting due to its low power cost, huge range and low cast duration. With your light spec DD you have the possibility to dish damage aswell in certain situations, especially against alb grps who rarely run with friars and thus cold resists.
Arguably a bard has as many tasks being, like you said, the main CCer, rupter, back-up healer and the only class that can demezz if you don't run a mentalist. Since you're the only main CCer to have only one form of CC and no access to castable amnesia or other forms except a DD with short range and 10sec cooldown you're also pretty limited in your actions. Also since eld has the power to influence the course of the fight more than a bard since it can lockdown both tanks and support he is in most cases the priority target for most enemy ATs and is consequently more pressured. You'll be forced to focus on keeping yourself alive using disease/snare and good positioning rather than performing your other duties. Add to that being a squishy target so you can't really afford to get caught by tanks too often.

As for Druid I play one myself and while it's a less straight forward than say a cleric, I can't say it's the most challenging class on hib or daoc. There is a certain gradation though since an aggressive druid has to be more careful than if you're hanging back. I can't think of many druids who have mastered the art of playing up front.

I can only go by 9 years of live but a well played Bard is hard to find on live, it can be a very fullfilling role in a decent group but very frustrating in a bad one or playing with immature players as Bards tend to be whipping boys. The Bard is the heart of a Hib 8 man, that's why they are the first thing any group kills when fighting a Hib group. Being that 8mans here seem to be tank heavy a Bards role is even more important.
If you know how to pre-kite and not get blinded by DPS an Eld could actually be a lot of fun to play here other than one thing. I still don't buy that resist rates are the same as live, it's nice seeing that I have a 35% chance to resist when an OJ mob resists 75% of my casts on a regualr basis and it seems to be worse vs. players. To have a gray con player resist a spell on live is screenshot worthy and maybe a post on VN, here it seems to happen enough to be unmentionable.
VW's are my favourite class to play on live but they rarely get groups, I've heard it's the same here. They deal out some serious dps but are not easy mode like some other classes in 1on1's.

9 years of pvm, oh dear!

Eld/Druid/Bard imo.

Most people think Druid isnt challenging and easy, but druids rupts/shears and roots are very important. Youll have to get a good feeling about when you should rupt, root a tank or heal.

A good druid is very important for a hib group. Too bad many druids here lack doing interrupts. One part of the reason why hib is so underperforming here.

Eld and Bard are explained above.

Eld by far.

danteafk wrote:9 years of pvm, oh dear!

I suppose PvM is suppose to mean somethign funny?

danté afk seems to be erm, dishing out the one line responses as of late! xD.

Light eld imo!

Theyre so pivotal to the success of hibernia 8v8 that its not even funny a lot of pressure for one guy!

Red ns, prekite, disease, snarenuke, debuffs, being able to drop tanks at the right moment, re-doing ns mid-fight, and not getting pwnd by tank trains

its a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!

you miss cure disease in your bard descriptions, which is plain hell job vs mid grps

Rasta wrote:danté afk seems to be erm, dishing out the one line responses as of late! xD.

im kinda bored mate since my pc got broken on the delivery to uk ;F

core i7 inc ;D

you forgot clearing pets rastah

damn why did i choose it

make a blademaster and try to make some damage

Eld = fun pure.
Its hard, but if you can handle it, its pure fun...

Clarex wrote:Eld = fun pure.
Its hard, but if you can handle it, its pure fun...

don't listen to him!! hib needs less elds with red ns

Eld is the hardest class on hib imo...

playing a druid well is also pretty hard, i know i fail at it anyway