You can say that I’m experiencing some choice paralysis. After reading, watching, and mulling it over for more than a day now, I am stuck on what I want to play as.
Here’s what I’ve come up with as of now:
Likes: 2H weaponry (melee or ranged), little bit of tankiness, somewhat engaged fighting, bit of flashy skills, good mix of AoE and ST.
Dislikes: Totems, pets, excessivly complicated rotations/micromanaging, braindead/one button rotations, excessive kiting.
I like the look of how Warder plays, but been dissuaded by several people saying “What Warder does, any other class can do better”. Same with Battle Mage. Other classes that include Shaman look good (flashy Lightning) but usually incorporate Totems/Pets which I want to avoid. Not opposed to being a caster either, so Sorcerer seems like fun as well apart from being squishy.
That is more of an decked end-game perspective. For easyness of gameplay and free tankyness, Warder is good. I made guide for it for beginners. Remove Totem if you want but the wind devils are needed for resistance reductions. Otherwise just do 2H forcewave Warlord. Here you can find guides: ☄ Collection of malawiglenn's Beginner Friendly builds good luck
How much kiting you need to do is a combiation on what boss it is, what your gear is and what your playing skills are.
Btw, you are thinking too much, this is your first char, just play and test things around. You say you do not like totems, how do you know you wont like them if you have not played the game? Try to play pure Shaman up to level 40 on normal (Should take you like 5 hours?) and test how each skill feels and plays out.
Thanks for the tip. What should I expect when playing a Warlord?
I like the look of Arcanist/X, Oathkeeper/X and Shaman/X, just not interested in the Totems and pets. So it’s narrowed down to Elementalist, Sorcerer, Warder, Vindicator, Warlord and Templar… Getting there!
In @malawiglenn guide there’s excellent Warlord build. Forcewave is excellent skill, scales with cast speed and deals damage in range. Also Warlord class is good defensively and very versatile. If you find better items someday, there’s very good end game build posted by me.
A final question though: With the no totem/pets (except perhaps wind devil) in mind, what kind of differences (Gameplay, builds, endgame etc.) can I expect with Warder VS Elementalist VS Vindicator VS Druid?
You are thinking too much Hopefully someone will take their time and answer in more detail, but gameplay is obviously extremely similar: Place totem, cast wind devil, and with inq place seal and with soldier war cry, attack with primal strike and charge up with savagery now and then.
Warder: Pros - lots of free armor, life saver, lots of extra attack speed, OA and DA. Damage reduction. Cons - no elemental resistance reduction.
Druid: Pros - lots of elemental damage, OA, damage absorption, panic immortality skill.
Cons - no elemental resistance reduction. No extra armor or defensive ability. No extra attack speed.
Vindicator: Pros - lots of flat damage absorption and conditional OA. Damage reduction and resistance reduction in an aura skill. Lots of flat damage.
Cons - no attack speed, no extra armor.
Elementalist: Pros - extra attack speed, OA and DA, resistance reductions, can get reduced physical damage on monsters. Good life saver in Blast shield.
Cons - not any crowd control resistances.
Then you also have conjurer Primal Strike…
Remember that builds are pretty item dependent in this game, you can’t really talk about builds without also taking into account what items they have.
One of the major reasons I made warder guide was because I think it is the easiest for a beginner to play with since you get so much defenses for free. You can’t really sit and theorycraft hours and hours before you even play the game. Just play it and learn as much as possible. In the end, if you like the game you will make dozens of builds. You will also save some time and such if you are following a guide and will probably make you learn more in the process. You do have an old guide for Elementalist by stupid dragon. You could then just that one together with some devotions and item tips from my warder guide
Elementalist was my first character to complete game (second overall, Witchhunter got stuck on ultimate Log). Later I made a druid because I found it difficult to use Thermite Mines and I didn’t like the clash with my lightning theme and it is basically my main character now… I just recently bought the AoM expansion and the Druid is the first character I did the expansion with but now that Thermite mines has been changed I may try the Elementalist again.
Sorcerer is a fun class too. Demo is one of my favorite masteries thematically. I actually leveled two Sorcerers, one caster and one gunner
I have not tried them yet since the update but I like the looks of it. I haven’t tried cause I need to move Ultos over I want to have good gear when I try it.
Go Vindicator, 2H gun, the WPS from Inquisitor on the top line + Savagery from Shaman from your attack, Wind Devil purely for resist reduction, and Inquisitor’s Seal for tanking.
Pro tip:
Go to the FG area once you hit level 40 and get yourself one of those lightning damage halberds that also mod Primal Strike. Those are OP as hell and will easily carry you through the game. The lvl 40 one is a much better weapon than 90 % of all legendary weapons you will find until you hit level 70 or so.
I would go with a shieldbreaker/sorcerer fire/burn build, or perhaps vindicator. Vindicator has a lot of build options, my favorite one being primal strike 2h ranged.
In the end I’ve decided to go for Druid! Arcanist’s fun skills (Sphere of protection, TSS and other fun stuff) combined with flexibility made it the deciding factor. Having a lot of fun so far!
With this new patch, druid is actually one of the more interesting mastery and have quite good build variation, though all of them will be mostly spellcaster. Sorcerer also the same. So congrats that you finally have chosen your first!
Trozan druid is always good for first timer, you can use the epic Eastern set while levelling, and iskandra or trozan set as end game. Don’t forget to experimenting with wind devil and storm totem too. Both are a very good skills.
I have never tried a Druid myself and experimenting with builds (but rarely taking any to the end game) is my fortay!
Im curious to know what your build is like, and what skills youre enjoying! Dont let anyone convince you not to go a certain direction with it if its what you want to do! Part of the strength in this game is the astounding amounts of build diversity, allowing you to build something truly unique!
Try to play pure Shaman up to level 40 on normal (Should take you like 5 hours?) and test how each skill feels and plays out.
Hopefully someone will take their time and answer in more detail, but gameplay is obviously extremely similar: Place totem, cast wind devil, and with inq place seal and with soldier war cry, attack with primal strike and charge up with savagery now and then.