I am going to break this thread up into several sections. First, I will talk about general impressions about this class, my play style, fun and dull moments. Then, I am going to get a little more technical and discuss some of the bugs and shortcomings that I found; discuss some of the combos. And lastly, I am going to make a few suggestions on how I think the class can be improved.
General Impression.
This section is mostly my subjective opinion. I am a melee fanatic and I might be a little biased here.
Conqueror is a very fun class to play, especially in groups; I will touch on why, a little later. From 1 -20, I mostly soloed and grouped maybe once. Tortage was a lot of fun since I had no trouble progressing in levels and the mobs seemed to be balanced. At the time, I had only the general combos available: Enraging Strike, Enraging Wound, Brutal Enraging Strike, etc., but it was still fun to play as I explored the class and learned the ropes of melee combat, which wasn't too hard.
Once I left Tortage, things got a lot more interesting and by that I mean a lot more difficult. I had trouble trying to solo in the Valley. I had to fight one mob at a time of the same level or below my own, and be very cautious in order not to die every five minutes. Heavy armor did not do much for me and my DPS seemed to be much lower compared to some of the other classes that I saw running around. It got so bad that I decided to rethink my whole play style. At the time, using Frenzy stance seemed to be suicide but there was no other choice, my DPS was way too low. After some experimenting, I ended up using the Frenzy stance to burst my DPS when the mob was knocked down, stunned, or otherwise not hitting me. Switching between the normal and Frenzy stance was the fresh breath of air that I needed. Defensive stance is also useful when you need to survive a few extra seconds to run away =). But I never actually fight in defensive stance, maybe I should.
Each time I got a new combo, I was looking forward to the next set of new combos. As my character progressed in levels, I felt like he was getting more powerful, so that RPG aspect is definitely a part of the Conqueror class.
It wasn't too hard to solo and I could have probably gone all the way to 80 without having to group once. But grouping as a conqueror is fun! Why? The answer is Furious Inspiration. I do not know if this buff is working as intended at the moment (more discussion on this in the next section) but it only works in groups (unless you have the feat that procs this buff from Conqueror combos, but even then not nearly as often as in groups). When Furious inspiration procs, it increases the DPS of the Whole Party by 2%. Any melee attack from anyone can proc this buff and it stacks up to 10 times! That's 20% damage increase and happens fairly often if you have 3 melee classes in the group. Accompanied by the Improved Frenzy Stance, Improved Lumbering Hulk, and a few other buffs, the Conqueror's DPS shoots through the roof! But watch out, if you get hit, you will most likely die (because you are in Frenzy stance and take A LOT more damage).
As I was leaving my 20's behind and heading into 30 and 40, I felt a drastic change in my character. I was able to solo mobs more easily, even without having to use my Frenzy stance. My conqueror combos got more powerful and I was able to survive for much longer periods of time (although I think that the bandage bug gave me that illusion). I was able win going toe to toe against 4 - 5 mobs of the same level; but that is while spamming bandaging skill (when it was still broken).
Only at level 50 or so, I discovered that Conquerors are able to buy Conqueror Scrolls and learn spells... >.>. Needless to say, I went off on a scroll hunt. The spells seemed to be the frosting on what is already a delicious cake that is the Conqueror. Buffs and spells are more of a secondary thing for the Conquerors, melee is the priority. In fact, I would say that spells are only 1/10 of the conqueror, which in my eyes, is a good thing. Some nice buffs that are available to the Conqueror are: Inspiration – regenerates stamina in and out of combat for the whole group, Triumph – adds a bonus to attack rating for the whole group, and some others that I will post later. A lot of the spells do not work, however. More on that in the bug section.
At level 80, my PvE strategy consists of using my knock back combos as set up for my frenzy stance. Once I perform a knockback; I stay in frenzy until the mob dies because by the time it gets back to its feet it can only pull off a max of three attacks before my screen is covered in its blood. When fighting multiple opponents I tent to stay in normal stance until the fight goes down to one vs one. Only then do I unleash the ace up my sleeve that is the Frenzy Stance. While fighting, I always use lumbering hulk. This special ability has a cool down that is the same as its duration, thus it can be active constantly if you spam it. The improved Lumbering Hulk (obtained through feats) is a significant bonus to Conqueror DPS. Also, another thing this that I found: alternating Q and E seems to result in a higher DPS than spamming one attack. I do not know if this is true, someone please correct me if I am wrong.
I do not have much experience with PvP at all. I have been in only two CTF matches and can say very little on how the Conqueror fares against other classes. I am hoping to get into more PvP matches, but they are very rare and do not last very long.
After four hours of PvPing I can conclude that classes are not very well balanced at all. As far as the Conqueror goes, it a good class for PvP. My impression is that a Conqueror can win against any class if the player knows what to do and when. The one lesson that I learned is – NEVER FIGHT A BARBARIAN IN FRENZY STANCE. Frenzy stance should be used very carefully in general. Shorter combos are better for PvP because you can deal out more damage quicker. Short combos are especially effective when combined with the Frenzy Stance because you can pull off a short combo while your opponent is knocked down and not take any damage, then quickly switch to normal stance. However, Barbarians can use their No Escape ability even when they are knocked down (at least that was my impression) and that really hurts while you are in Frenzy. So fight Barbarians in Normal stance, they do not have many hit points anyway. Demonologists hurt, but I was able to kill them one on one a few times. Necromancers are alright without their pets – Necro pets hurt a lot… Assassins are very underpowered. Guardians are make for a good fight. Rangers can’t do much in melee range. Most interesting fights that I had were against other Conquerors.
More PvP feedback is to come as I PvP more. I am going to try and set up a PvP day every Saturday just like we did today. So log on and PvP with us!
Overall, I felt that the conqueror isn’t a revolutionary class but there is definitely a uniqueness to it that kept me leveling and will keep me playing at 80 – something I haven’t experience in any other MMO. There is a lot more strategy involved to playing a Conqueror than I thought at first, perhaps it is this way with all other classes as well. I am not an expert on the class by far - I have much to learn and discover.
 |
