Hello everyone...
I'm interested in making a character to get into PVP with... My only problem is I don't know, very well, what archetypes/classes are good for what. I know every guild can be great at PvP, for the most part, but I'm looking for one that is both fun to play, and has a variety of choices (for example, I've heard that druids can only kill through using Sap, which is not the way I want to play).
Can I get any advice? Additionally, I would like a class that can survive off a minimal ammount of OOC credits. Thanks!

Druids have Thornrend and now to a lesser extent Sap. Cant be used together by what Estarras said. Cudgel is pretty much needed to be really effective, otherwise youre just hindering it seems.

Mages are demesnes too, Geos are hard hitters and Aquas can help their allies in their demesne. Not too sure whats good for them, havent done much training in either.

Warriors, difficult. Should get really good weapons and good armour. High skill will be good for you, as youll miss a lot. Whether youre a Ritualist, Tracker or Totem user varies and each have their pros and cons.

Wiccans are nice, lotsa fae but needs a good amount of lessons before you see the really useful fae. Moon and Night offer some neat and fun skills to use.

Guardians, theyre neat. They get angels or demons but can be difficult to pull off. Youll want to think your pacts out for usefulness, or RP if you want.

Thats what little I know, hopefully others will be able to help you. Theyre all fun but they all have their major frustrations.

Fae are just a support, and demesnes are too just a support. Wiccans hit mainly with hexes while mages hit mainly with psionics - both offer a lot of options and are fun. Warrior offense is fun too but rather expensive credit-wise, because you NEED Transcendency in your weaponry skill to be good. Don't know about guardians.

But here are the skill requirements to be decent in PvP:

EVERYONE:
-Potionlist in Discernment (master I think)
-Focus Mind in Discipline is extremely encouraged, but no longer necessary. Still you'd like to have some high discipline for fast focusing body.
-Unless you are a warrior, you NEED shieldparry in Combat. Otherwise warriors will eat you alive.
-Transcendent planar is neat but not needed to win.

Now, archetypes:

WARRIORS:
-At least some good killer moves (mythical-fabled), so you might as well trans your primary weapon specialisation.
-At least Strength in Athletics
-Third skill is good for support but you can fight without it
These people also need weapons and armour, which is far more expensive than a silly shield and greatrobes.

MAGES:
-At least Staff in Aquamancy/Geomancy. It'll help you in hunting too.
-Never was a Psion mage, but I judge that you'd need a decent number of skills in your specialisation (telekinesis/telepathy).
-Illusions are not necessary, but at least getting Phantoms (at adept, maybe?) is good.

DRUIDS:
-Don't know how high Thornrend is in Druidry, but you'd like that.
-Hart/Crow is a very good skill. Invest in that too - Healing Totem in Hart for example is extremely useful, don't know about Crow but it's full of goodies too.
-Ecology/Runes/Dreamweaving is not necessary.

WICCANS:
-DON'T expect to kill with Wicca. It's a good support ability but only that. Well, there is Toadcurse at Trans, you'd like to have that.
-Moon/Night is extremely useful. Invest in that.
-Third skill: hexes are a must for PvPer, rest isn't that good. You'd like Trans too.

GUARDIANS:
-Nihilism/Celestialism - you'd like at least Wrack/Absolve in them. It's rather high... trans I think, in fact.
-Necromancy and Sacraments are good for passive buffs, invest in these too.
-Third skill - Tarot, is useful, but not all cards are. The most used ones are Hangedman and Aeon.

So basically, Warriors are the most expensive credit-wise, followed by Wiccans, Guardians, Druids and Mages. If you want to have a (relatively) cheap archetype with lots of options to fight with, go Mage, and make sure to choose Psionics. But it's just my opinion.

Potionlist is master, but I wouldn't say it's required as long as you have a pack and the time to check how many of each vial you have, etc. Most good fighters have multiple of each vial anyways, so if the top one is low on sips it shouldn't matter much anyways.

Except that Potionlist is right after Thirdeye, which is a must, fighters or not. So you might as well spend a bit more lessons and get that.

Thornrend is about 66% Mythical.

Phantoms in Illusions is around Gifted actually.

To be an effective PvPer as a Wiccan, there is no option but transcendent wicca (for toadcurse, bread and butter kill), waning in moon, and anorexia in hexes (I.E. one step from transcendent, you'll want to transcend for hexaura though). This is required, your offense and methods to kill are basically non-existent if you don't have these abilities.

Yeah, agreed.

Hmm, I just realised that cities are much more "credit friendly" for wannabe PvPers than communes. Wonder was it designed this way, or did it only came out like this? (NOT a flame bait)

Or for escape routes, spores are the best next to cubix should in case, you go head to head with Ixion or a wannabe Ixion

No spores are definitely not the next best thing to a cubix. Empress/Lust or Hermit or maybe even Catacombs, get that title easily by a longshot.

More or less - It's towards the end of Master, I'm petty sure

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Hartstone druid (we kill much more from Thornlash than Sap now)
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Skills
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Trans druidry (for boosted effect times (?) and thornrend (25% mythical, I'm pretty sure) and darkseed (75% mythical, I'm pretty sure)).

Gifted 33% Stag (for stagstomp).

Kills with: demesne + darkseed + thornlash, or demesne + vines + thornlash (to help Vines stick) + sap + stagstomp

Enhanced cheaply by:
Runes to Cen (apprentice) (Runes are considered one of the worst skillsets, but it has useful skills early on, unlike all other druid choices.)
Stag to Trueheart (Gifted 66%) (resist beckon/dominate) or Bellow (Expert 0%) (1-2 second AoE stun)

Pros: Only really takes one trans skill to be really good, very nice in groups.
Cons: Needs a demesne to fight, next to useless outside a forest.


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Blacktalon
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Same as Hartstone, except you don't have stagstomp. I'm not sure what early skills in Crow are good, but Stagstomp (arguably the best skill in Stag) is really low, so I'd think Hartstone would be better if you had limited credits. However, at the moment, Blacktalon druidry is better, having two very nice demesne effects. We're trying to balance the two skillsets though *shrug*

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Warrior
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Skills
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Trans weaponchoice

I don't know much about warriors, but I think you can do good with just your weaponchoice against mediocre fighters. To be really good though, you need Athletics to Strength (Expertish, +3 str weight) or Surge (mytichal 50% or so, -1/3rd max mana, max mana loss added to max health).

The problem is though, to be a good warrior, you need weapon runes, which are very expensive, and good weapons to put them on, which are also very expensive. Probably not the cheapest archetype.


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Magi
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Skills
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This is questionable. Everyone says that aquamancy is needed, but I've seen Forren fight VERY well outside of his demesne using nothing but psionics. Psionic mages, with just Illusions to Phantoms (Master or Expert) and trans in a psionic skill seems ridiculously good (and I'm trying to get them nerfed because of it ). Talk with a mage though before going this route if you do want to. I don't know enough to really give advice.

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Wiccan
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Skills
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Trans Moon/Night for Drawdown/Nightkiss
Fabled Hexes for Doublewhammy
Trans Wicca for Toadcurse
Fabled Discerment for Contemplation

Maybe you could do without some of those, but to really fight well, you need them all. Wiccans win through either sleeplock or toadcurse. I can't see Wiccan not taking an absurd number of lessons.

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Guardian
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Skills
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I have no idea. It seems like you need fabled discernment and trans celestialism/nihilism, as well as tarot to aeon (not sure how high that is). I'm not sure if you really NEED sacrements/necromancy to be able to fight well.


Most of what I have said is inaccurate and based on my limited obsevations, as a former Moondancer turned Hartstone druid. Can anyone please correct what I have said?

Guardians and Wiccans are the most expensive classes to fight as (with the exception of damage warrior, since you need massive amounts of weapon runes for that). You really need to have trans or near-trans of all your guildskills, and you also need contemplate in discernment (fabled-ish, I think?) if you want absolve/wrack/toadcurse to be useful.

The class that requires the least credits is probably druid (you can really kill with just druidry, especially now that thornlash exists).

Regarding Wiccans... doublewhammy isn't what you need. Anorexia is what you need and it's even higher.

And Celestines have mid-level options to kill people (Judge/Inquisition... or even just transcending one skill like tarot for soulless). Wiccans don't. They are either transcendent to toadcurse, or else they are going to try to kill someone with 150-500 (500 being very generous) damage nature curses. Or if they happen to have transcendent Moon, then 250-800 Moonbursts.

And yea, contemplate is necessary to use Toadcurse/Wrack/Absolve, seeing as it takes power if it fails.

I can't see a druid killing with just Druidry, although maybe with Thornlash. I'm sure once people get used to it it won't be quite as good as it is now though. I suppose it's easier than many other classes though.

Mages are pretty versatile. We're very inexpensive in terms of daily cost, too. Only problem with mages - we're weak! Prepare to invest in combat, discipline, and resilience in order to fight against warriors.

Mages are also nice and flexible - we're not tied down to a certain terrain. We can be pretty darn offensive, especially with psionics, outside of a demesne.

EDIT: For mages...

Get at least staff in Aquamancy. I don't use the skills beyond it very much. Transcendent psionics for sure. You're going to want to mind/heartburst. However, you can be pretty effective just up to animatedagger in telekinesis. Phantoms in illusions is a good place to get to also.

I wonder if that makes mages more expensive than the rest or not. It does seem that the semi-requirement of weaponrunes for warriors to be effectives means that mages or druids are the cheapest, though I think druids are a bit cheaper than mages, though more people seem to like mage combat than druidic combat.

Duh, you do NOT need runes to be a warrior. Even a damage warrior is possible to pull off without artifact runes, although he'd be very weak. But wound-based ones do not need runes, and no one who has ever been a warrior will tell you anything different.

EDIT: To elaborate. What we are looking at are elemental runes. Others (stat and wounding runes) just give you an additional edge, but they won't make you good by themselves. Now here's the catch - wounding is NOT dependant on whether your weapons have elemental runes or not.

I think Warriors can pack quite a punch even without artierunes. You just have to go for wounding knight rather than damage type. Runes aren't necessary though it will help. You just have to get a masterpiece weapon with high speed and precision - which you can get ingame without credits. Just patience.

What you need is a good system. <-------- THIS IS ESSENTIAL if you want to go PVP.