User:Mac Dre/Dark Oppressor
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[edit] Dremac's Dark Oppressor 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 Dark Oppressor class written down for all to see.
The Dark Oppressor is the demon's pure caster. His counterparts are the unaligned Wizard and the angelic Advocate. His alternate is the demon's petmaster, the Wyrm Master.
The Dark Oppressor is traditionally seen as a "kryptonite" class. A well played Dark Oppressor has a good chance to bring down any other class with surprising ease, no matter how buffed up they are.
[edit] Pros and Cons
[edit] Pros
- Can deal unsoakable damage via Life Vampire and Soul Vampire. Dark Oppressors are the only class in the game with a targeted unsoakable attack.
- Can restore their own or friend's MP via Soul Ice and Soul Vampire.
- Can heal themselves fairly easily via Blood Ice and Life Vampire.
- Can cripple any character with an Agony Curse. This is the best and most effective answer to a Potion of Greater Invulnerability or a Cloak of the Carbon Core. It is also the second most fun skill in the game.
- Has the unique ability to alter pets, including stealing them, but also changing their settings to either passive or aggressive.
- Gains powerful bonuses to damage, attack, defense and soak while in their native Stygia.
- Potentially one of the highest defensive ratings in the game.
- Poison and Agony Curse work very well together.
- The only class that can level up while dead.
- The only non-petmaster class that can level up while their player is away.
[edit] Cons
- While they can enchant, they are mediocre enchanters at best, unable to finish higher end weapons.
- Because most of their skills help others kill people, Dark Oppressors are very slow to gain kill and damage dealt stats.
- Dark Oppressor's skills synch poorly with Salt the Earth.
- Their Stygian boost can lead to a tendency to huddle in Stygia behind the bonus. Playing this way makes the class much more boring than it really is.
[edit] How to Play a Dark Oppressor
[edit] Revel in Sadism
You poisoned your way through Defilerhood now it's time to start cooking with gas. I rate Agony Curse as the second most fun skill in the game. You will understand why when you play a Dark Oppressor. Logging back in to find messages about the screaming souls of those you cursed is a joy you cannot understand until you live it.
On raids, you can be the difference maker. You are the answer to an active character with a ton of potions. Drain their magic. Poison them. Curse them. Turn their soul to ice. You can do it better than anyone else in the game.
If you're in a small faction, consider picking up Caustic Horns to help with wardbashing. As an extra bonus, the Minor Poison caused by the horns and your Poison skill will each trigger an Agony Curse every time the opponent moves, causing at least 19 points of unsoakable damage to a Tier 3.
A lot of people have played around with alternate combat trees for Dark Oppressors. People oooh and aaah over a Long Arms Dark Oppressor in Stygia for instance. However, the fact that you cannot Agony Curse, Life Vampire, Soul Vampire, Banish Pets, or Steal Pets without the Hand to Hand tree is reason enough not to mess with the obvious choice.
[edit] The Hate Triangle
Or, how Demons can Almost "Sorcerer's Might"'
For this recipe you will need on Dark Oppressor with the Soul Vampire skill, one Void Walker who knows Breath of the Dead Child and a Revenant.
When the night begins, the Dark Oppressor uses his Soul Vampire attack on the Revenant. He then gives the resulting Soul Ice to the Void Walker. The next time this faction raids the Void Walker will be able to breathe at least twice more. It may not be Transcribe Spell but it's pretty damn close. The best part is that the night will heal the Revenant's wounds. In a pinch, any unaligned character can be used as the farm, and a faction-mate can simply heal them.
What, you didn't really think the lord of hell was going to sacrifice his own health, did you?
[edit] Stand Alone
Dark Oppressors in Stygia are excellent lone wolf characters. A popular thing to do is start your own faction and use your Corrupt skill to infuse two squares, giving yourself maximum bonuses. Set your primary bonus to defense. With the resulting 8% boost to dodge, most who chance upon your character will simply roll their eyes and keep walking. This is especially true if you have Advanced Smithing skills which can keep your own armor pristine and enchanted.
[edit] You are the Anti-Class
Where the Advocate asks "what does my faction need?" the Dark Oppressor asks "which of my faction's enemies most needs to be humbled?"
A problem with active defense on raids? Agony Curse and Soul Vampire will solve that. Confronted with a large pet-shield? Save up for Dark Face of Chaos and witness the beauty of the "pet explosion." Having trouble getting through wards? You're a solid auxiliary basher with Caustic Horns.
[edit] Comparison
The Dark Oppressor and the Wyrm Master are dramatically different in terms of playstyle.
Compared to a Wyrm Master, a Dark Oppressor...
- Is harder to hit
- Has less soak outside of Stygia, but more inside
- Plays a more valuable support role by creating Soul Ice
- Has more Magic Points with Cosmic Affinity
- Is much better at taking out enemy actives
But...
- Is more vulnerable to Acid Damage
- Is useless in a passive role
- Lacks the defensive aura of a Wyrm Master's Acid Blood
- Is not as good at hiding as a Translucency Wyrm Master
- Gets less benefit from Salt the Earth
- Can't pack the punch that a group of Master of the Pack hellhounds has in clearing enemy inactives.
Overall, I find the Dark Oppressor to be a superior class. The Wyrm Master is certainly useful, but the sheer diversity of ways that a Dark Oppressor can ruin an enemy attack or push a raiding party over the edge to victory or help his faction with supplies makes it the obvious choice. The Dark Oppressor even usurp the Wyrm Master's role by stealing a choice pet during a raid and then using it in combination with agony curse to help clear out a stronghold at the end of a raid, or get maximum mileage out of a good hunting session.
[edit] Conclusion
Before I played a Dark Oppressor I always thought they were a boring, cookie-cutter class because my only experience with them was seeing Dark Oppressors from large evil factions who would show up at a raid, curse a few people, then pretty much be done. Playing a Dark Oppressor helped me see how they can be a ton of fun, especially if you avoid the temptation to huddle in Stygia for all your life.
The bottom line on Dark Oppressors is that they are amazingly good at stopping the other fellow from doing what he wants to do. As raiders they do not make good primary raiders or tanks, but can dramatically amplify the power of a strike team that already has all the basics covered. They are invaluable in a support role, and great fun as solo characters. If you don't have a Dark Oppressor, you're missing out.
Last Edited by Mac Dre 04:06, 29 December 2007 (CST)
