Summary of Combat Classes
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[edit] Summary of Combat Classes
This article is written by a player of the game, and to the best of my knowledge, the views expressed in it reflect those of the general Nexus community. They are not necessarily those of the development team, or the game's creator.
WARNING With the announcement of Straylight (the current version of Nexus War) some of the information written here is likely outdated. Of particular note are changes to the Revenant, this class was warned by jorm (the creator, programmer, and owner of Nexus War) to be on the chopping block for huge nerfs and many new skills to redefine the class. So it is recommended that players do not expect any information in this text about the revenant class to stay relevant. Further you should expect other substantial changes in general gameplay. Some of these changes may require redefining of some of the ideas expressed in this article.
[edit] Unaligned
Available to everyone and can be compared to their angelic and demonic counterparts fairly:
All 3 unaligned combat classes are Myrmidon exits. The myrm is hands down the easiest T2 class to play, coming equipped with Enhanced Senses for a measly 20 CP (should be every myrm's skill they buy at level 10). This means you're going to hit T3 faster then your demon and angel counterparts. Myrms can improve their weapon accuracy and their defenses. Finally of note is the myrm's charged attack. Primarily it is considered a soakbreaker, but many find it more useful for it's mana sapping, especially against active DCs, it's not great (many myrms skip FA--saving their CP for other things) but it is noteworthy.
[edit] Eternal Soldier
Epitomizes the "fire and forget" class. I do not recommend picking an ES for those into the meta game, their power is just lower then any other combat class that has the time and ability to focus on their class's strength. Many believe that the ES is the perfect new player combat class, and while this is true to an extent, the Revenant can function well as a new player friendly unaligned class as well. The ES is not tight with their CP relative to the other classes, so that an ES, unlike it's counterparts, which focus and specialize, can be an excellent jack of all trades. The ES does have a very good innate armor (but not great post nerf) and the best charged attack, they can get good accuracy, and defense, but neither is great. Basically this class is designed to be used with relatively little thought behind it. If you're not into planning your days or your CP uses, or are simply interested in creating a non mystical open ended character type for RP purposes, the ES is a good choice. However if you're into focusing and min/maxing your character, pick something else.
[edit] Nexus Champion
This is in my opinion THE min/max class. In many ways the NC is the total opposite of the ES. If you're into planning out your days actions and CP uses you can have an incredibly strong character with an NC. Their travel skill Wandering Way is awesome, one of the best skills in the game, but very MP intensive. They have decent innate armor which if active and the NC spent the CP to buy sorcery can be augmented with Turtle Shell and Visual Prestidigitation. Also sorcery allows casting from scrolls for awesome utility if they have a friendly transcriber hooking them up with scrolls, as well as combat buff spells they can learn. If they are willing to sink the CP into Tattoo of the Soul they can get good mana support for sorcery and Wandering Way. With Tattoo of Strength they become awesome with bows, and can carry a lot of crap (great for component gathering and general factional support). With Balance the NC can have some of the highest damage output in the game, and if it's topped with Equilibrium they are incredibly dodgy. The NC signature skill Eye of Death helps with hunting and leveling, as well as allows limited tracking for factional support. But all this power comes at a price, you need to really plan out every last CP expenditure and plan out exactly how to stack your spell usage, your Morality, and general play style to really get your bang out of this class. If you are not into micromanaging a character on nearly all levels, The NC will likely be a sub optimal choice.
[edit] Revenant
With the updates that came with Nexus War 2.0 (Straylight), the Revenant has gained innate armor, an innate melee attack, and some pets that are worth summoning in exchange for some of their previously legendary accuracy. The once dreaded Blood Frenzy is now at best a minor buff, while the new Umbral Sword is becoming a class defining skill. The Revenant's Shadow Armor is more expensive than other T3 armors and occupies armor slots, preventing use of conventional armors. Both of the Revenant's alternate forms have gained child skills. Animus of the Bat allows normal flight without the high MP cost of Shadow of the Bat, and also allows detection of invisible characters. The wolf tree has been expanded to include its own animus skill as well as the Howl skills, which allow summoning of wolves. Revenants are still capable of dishing out serious damage with high accuracy, but some of their offensive prowess has been sacrificed in favor of defensive options.
[edit] Good
The two angelic combat classes are Paladin exits. When choosing paladin it's good to compare with your Unaligned counterparts, but they are not comparable to the demonic ones.
The paladin is the most rugged of the T2 combat classes. Able to purchase Divine Armor, Strong Attack, Elite Attack and Lesser Smite, they look almost like T3 combat classes in their own right, though being angels they must strictly obey the morality rules in order to use their powers. Like the Pariah they lack Enhanced Senses and will level noticeably slower then their myrm counterparts as a result. However for a Hand to Hand based T2 the added damage, especially with Strengthen can make them far more satisfying to play then H2H myrms. The Paladin's charged attack is very strong, which during T2 is a great soakbreaker. However most experienced player's question Lesser Smite's value, since when a Paladin exits to either a Seraph or DC, they will generally get little use out of the skill (Seraphs because it is superceded by Greater Smite, and DCs because the heavy MP cost of smiting is very restrictive for them).
[edit] Seraph
The "fire and forget" version for angels. Incredible base damage with Infinite Attack (The highest in the game--Other classes can get higher damage, but they need to trigger it somehow, the Seraph hits friggin' hard innately). Enhanced Senses make them easier to level in general then their Divine Champion counterpart, as well as giving them immunity from shadow dancing. They also have access to a decent damage aura which opens up the clockwork skills. They are incredibly resilient and can have the highest HP in the game. Their main drawback is a simple and dehabilitating one: accuracy. No other class can be as frustrating as the Seraph. They can hit hard for sure, but that means jack squat if they can't hit shit. Which unfortunately for seraphs happens far more often then they'd like. Also their clockwork innate weapons [1] [2] [3] are very CP costly for what they grant, and the guns are far too MP intensive to really get their bang for their buck. Seraphs are great from a factional perspective they are awesome in the meatshield and for ward bashing. They don't take much thought to use, their charged Greater Smite attack is almost as awesome as the ESes and is the bane of many an Infernal Behemoth, but their poor accuracy is a real killer. This class is highly recommended for folks in a good faction that want to not have to over plan and just be able to tank and smite evil.
[edit] Divine Champion
Like their NC counterpart the DC can become an awesome min/maxed powerhouse, and like the NC this requires planning, both in AP/MP usage through day to day play, and in terms of CP investment. Hand to Hand DCs with carbon core can hit some of the highest damage in the game. Tornado allows them to move around with no AP expenditure (but at the cost of heavy MP usage), and with Cloak of Air combined with Cast Spell they can make good use of combat buffs such as Tiger Claw and Turtle Shell. The DC is renowned for being an awesome stronghold defender or attacker. Great for ward bashing, soaking up enemy damage and just in general laying down the hurt. The cloaks they have at their disposal can be truly awesome for certain situations (and one could write an entire article just on this alone), but they are so CP tight you can't play the field, you are forced to focus on certain cloaks. Be aware though almost all the DC abilities and strengths rely on MP. A Defiler can and will ruin your day. From experience I can tell you it's really frustrating to be pwning at stronghold defense and have a level 14 defiler sap you dry and make you a de facto T2 paladin again. Oh, so frustrating, I can't emphasize this enough. Overall the DC is an awesome combat class (arguably the most powerful) for those willing to deal with the effort and planning necessary to maximize their strengths.
[edit] Evil
The two demonic combat classes play entirely differently. They are unlike their unaligned and angelic counterparts in that you can't really say one is "fire and forget", ie easier but weaker, and the other is more for min/maxed planning. They aren't set up like that, instead they are entirely different monsters, both very powerful, but their power comes from extremely different style of play. Both demonic T3 classes are pariah exits, and can be compared fairly with their unaligned counterparts but not the angelic ones.
The Pariah is one of the best lone T2 classes to play. They lend themselves to Hand to Hand combat, and can live with little or no support whatsoever. For a solo T2 they are actually easier to level then a myrm, as death means absolutely jack all to a hand to hand pariah. Many players revel in this by using the Pariah's signature Explosive Murder ability, which while fun to use, and denies any would be attackers a kill, is not significantly effective in combat. Their Blood Claws are solid and Weaken helps with soak breaking, as does Hellfire (though Void Walkers to be generally forgoe Hellfire as it is usually too MP restrictive for them). If a pariah wants to invest in Corrode Claw they are also good for ward bashing. Finally Blood Taste allows the pariah to heal with their claws in combat, this is very useful since being demons pariahs cannot rely on external sources such as faction mates or good semeritans to heal them. A pariah that decides to use weapons is giving themselves a tough time for T2, the majority of their "good" skills are H2H based, though weapon based behemoths can be a beast, and the travel skills associated to Void Walkers can make them good too. Just be aware that if you forgo H2H on a pariah in favor of a weapon based build, you are intentionally crippling yourself through those tuff T2 times.
[edit] Infernal Behemoth
This is the Rawrrr! Smash! demonic combat class. They are simply awesome at dishing out the damage when in Bloodlust. While bloodlust requires a kill to trigger, this is generally accepted as trivial to accomplish (in fact it's not too uncommon for IBs to trigger lust off of low level or wounded faction mates preceding a raid). If a Behemoth is traditional H2H based they can get good damage with their Tailwhip, and like the pariah can just shrug off death. Decent innate armor, a Burning Aura, access to Infernal Frenzy (which allows them to shrug off and dissolve formidable pet shields), and high HP makes them excellent tanks. If the Behemoth has corrosive claws they become devastating ward bashers when lusted. In a sense they are a "fire and forget" class but they aren't inherently weaker then their VW counterparts by any means. They are however somewhat CP tight, you really have to plan how you want to strengthen your tanking, you can't have it all, but you can really put a hurt on in 1v1 combat. IBs also can dish out incredible damage with enchanted weaponry, but to effectively build an IB to utilize this, you're really going to have a tough time through T2 and it's not recommended for a new player. Though an accurate bloodlusted +5 rifle dishes out the pain.
[edit] Void Walker
Think stealth assassin. The Void Walker was voted the "best class" period on the forums for many reasons. The Void Walker is incredibly versatile with hands down the best traveling abilities[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. They also have Enhanced Senses which combined with their awesome travel skills makes them possibly the best hunters and T3 levelers out there. But to really get your bang out of being able to go anywhere, anytime, it takes a huge chunk out of your CP. Just to get stepping stones (arguably the best skill in the game) takes a whopping 180 CP! Same with Master Invisibility, you can basically go anywhere and be unkillable, great for component gathering factional support, badge grinding, etc but it as well costs 180 CP. The void walker is one of the hardest classes to plan your CP expenditure on, with so many expensive goodies you will want to buy.
The Void Walker is arguably one of the best stronghold defenders. I've seen a single Void Walker take out a dozen raiders just from breathing, before they could do any real damage (to be fair this was before the attack throttle). Because of VWs it's now considered necessary for the tanks in a raid team to down death immunity potions when attacking a large evil faction. Now that's power, making your enemies go out of their way just to deal with you. Breath is also utterly awesome for offense. I've seen people make statements like "If you want to dish out damage go IB, if you want to support your faction go VW" This is utter hogwash. The VW can be even more devastating and deal out way more hurt then an IB with breathing. But it's a different form of damage dealing, AoE vs targeted.
Now the VW is a glass cannon, and the VW is going down in a 1 on 1 fight. Sure they can use Ghost Tendrils and Whisper of the Thousand Teeth, but these aren't as good as they appear, as your VW will often be crippled by MP usage anyway. This MP dependent nature is very obvious when you look at standard VW builds. Cast Spell is available to NCs, DCs, and VWs commonly referred to as the combat casters. While most NCs and DCs use it, it's relatively uncommon to see on VWs. It's a useful skill don't get me wrong, but you have no MP regeneration or cost lowering skills, you're very CP tight to begin with, and most of your skills eat up MP. Cast spell just isn't the no brainer for a VW like it is for an NC or DC. Furthermore the VW has no combat buff skills available, making them poor in live combat or with helping take down a ward, and they lack an innate armor. Void Walkers are mana whores with no MP supportive skills and are fragile yet extremely lethal glass cannons. If played properly the VW can dish out more pain then any other class except a Wizard, and they are designed to go anywhere and collect needed things for themselves or their faction (which is especially good for weapon based VWs). They are also great for hunting as they can do decent damage against sleeping targets and excel at traveling and finding hidden characters. Overall it's hardest to summarize the VW of all the combat classes. In many ways the VW is an enigmatic class, exceptionally lethal, yet very fragile, loved by some players, and despised by others (players often complain about how the VW fights "just as good as a pariah"). In the official character class descriptions the VW is described as a stalking demon who smothers babies in their sleep, tortures cuddly little animals, and causes nightmares; this is a good summary of how the VW plays out in the nexus.
