User:Mac Dre/Advocate
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[edit] Dremac's Advocate Guide
I'm just some dude who's been playing NexusWar for a long time. I've maxed every class and I've played in factions of all sizes and locations and styles. This article is merely my thoughts about the Advocate class written down for all to see. Please read the talk page of this article to see what some other people think about Advocates and add your own opinion if you like!
The Advocate is the angel's "pure caster." His counterparts are the unaligned Wizard and the demonic Dark Oppressor. His alternate is the angel petmaster, the Lightspeaker.
The Advocate is traditionally seen as playing a support role, and an excellent choice for characters who just like helping out and aren't particular as to how. Advocates truly are all around good at many things.
[edit] Pros and Cons
[edit] Pros
- An Advocate can learn a devastating AoE attack that generally won't harm your factionmates or your allies, deals a damage type that most evils and unaligneds have a difficult time brewing immunity against, and requires no additional skills to improve the accuracy of.
- Is the only class in the game that can affect another character's morality, which is very helpful for a faction that has an MO requirement, that uses balanced NCs, or that fights other angels. Basically any good faction can find a good use for this.
- Has the highest potential max HP of any spellcaster.
- The only class that is innately immune to Unholy Damage, and the only angel class with an innate immunity. This can result in absolutely hilarious logs of Pariahs trying to Blood Claw you to death.
- A very powerful Healing Aura that is excellent for raid defense and recovery.
- The highest potential to hit percent in the game with a well prepared Eye of Judgment.
[edit] Cons
- Although they can enchant, even with Cosmic Affinity the Advocate won't be able to finish higher end weapons.
- Many of their skills are highly situational. If you don't expect you'll ever be online for a stronghold defense, there is no need to spend cp on skills such as Healing Aura or Sublime Sacrifice.
- Their most devastating one on one attack, Eye of Judgment relies on the Thrown Weapons tree.
- Advocates need 60 cp for Hand of Zealotry, making the skill prohibitively expensive.
- While Song of the Word won't harm your good or neutral factionmates, it won't harm your good or neutral enemies either.
- Advocates also suffer from a lack of overall focus in their skills. As a class they seem more unfinished than any other during this version of the Nexus.
- While classes like the Dark Oppressor or Wizard have enough skill choices that they can be very different, there really isn't that much difference from one Advocate to the next.
[edit] How to Play an Advocate
Keep in mind that any character can be made fun by being in a well-run, active, organized faction and by having a good role-playing angle.
[edit] You are not a Weak Spellcaster
With their very high accuracy Eye of Judgement, highly damaging Song of the Word and excellent healing support, an Advocate can be very powerful first-wave raider.
While most raids will require an "AoE wave" so that members of the raiding party aren't injured, the Advocate's Song is exempt from this as it will not harm those of neutral or good morality. Also, with Stamina and Grace of Blood the Advocate has 96 hp, more than enough to crash through the gate with the big boys while the weaker casters huddle outside.
That said, it's easy to spend too much cp on un-needed skills. While 96 hp is nice to have, if you're in a smaller faction an unlikely to encounter active defense or massive petshields, then you're better off saving those 50 cp.
Advocates don't particularly lend themselves to any weapon tree. I personally prefer the melee Advocate because he can use his ap to help wardbash on raids. Archer advocates are also excellent, due to the abundance of wood in Paradise.
[edit] You are an Excellent Support Character
While Advocates can enchant, it's not generally considered an enjoyable experience for them. A weapons enchanter Advocate is limited to bows, guns, and getting part-way through swords. An armor enchanting advocate is usually rather short on orders in a faction that mostly has Divine Armor in the first place.
Advocates are generally better off sticking to infusion and alchemy as their support functions. Energizing Lightspeakers, eating the sins of the fallen, and keeping the SH healthy are also things an Advocate can do to contribute.
It is definitely worth noting than an Advocate can be both a good raider and a good support character.
[edit] You Should Not Be Out on Your Own
Advocates are exceptionally poor as solo characters. Almost all of their abilities are faction oriented. They are mediocre hunters, unskilled in one on one combat, and exceptionally easy to kill when inactive.
[edit] You Are the Utility Angel
The Advocate is not for a player who will get frustrated by lack of total ownange at any given opportunity. Rather the advocate is for a player who likes to ask "What does my faction need today? and then be able to do just that.
[edit] Comparison
The Advocate, like any other class, can be extremely fun if you have a good character idea and are in the right faction. However, there isn't really a "wow factor" about an Advocate that makes it any more fun than the alternative.
Compared to the alternate class, the Lightspeaker, an Advocate is
- More mobile due to not having to drag pets around.
- A more effective AoE-r with Song.
- Able to have more hit points and magic points.
But...
- Not as effective on a raid against actives or small targets as a Lightspeaker with a Wheel of Righteousness.
- Not able to provide the huge passive boost that a full retinue of Aethersprites will.
As you can see, there's not a lot to go with between the two. Neither is overflowing with flavor and most of what you'll be doing - alchemy, crafting, infusion, healing - won't really be affected either way by your choice.
[edit] Conclusion
You can have a lot of fun with this class, but it won't have anything to do with the fact that your character is an Advocate. This really is the bottom line. Advocates can be extremely fun to play, but there's nothing special about them. So if you want to make an Advocate, be sure to save your CP (mine is sitting on 140+) because if anyone is going to get some cool new skills in the future, it will likely be them.
Last Updated by Mac Dre 04:03, 29 December 2007 (CST)
