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Community Prediction: Which class is going to be underplayed?

maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
It's still early days, but let's hear some predictions based on the combinations!
One month after launch day, which class will be the least played?

Here's the table from the wiki:
Ashes_of_Creation_Class_List.jpg

Reason?

My bets are on High Priest - heals on the heals sounds excessive.
I wish I were deep and tragic
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Comments

  • BricktopBricktop Member, Alpha Two
    edited September 2020
    Usually people don't play bards because the class isn't very fun or engaging in other MMOs. I played a tanky bard in archeage and all I did was ate damage for my group and kept buffs up in PvP.
  • maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    @Bricktop
    Right! Is that coz bards are seen as lesser clerics?
    I wish I were deep and tragic
  • VyrakaVyraka Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I want to say Bard/Summoner.
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  • BricktopBricktop Member, Alpha Two
    edited September 2020
    maouw wrote: »
    @Bricktop
    Right! Is that coz bards are seen as lesser clerics?

    Yeah because bards are typically support instead of direct heals

    In archeage you had really good buffs as a bard but they only lasted like 4 seconds if memory serves best. So the entire time your group was PvPing you would just be rebuffing and sending out the 1 mediocre heal you had. It was very important to the success of the group, but very boring for the bard.

    Hopefully they can make bards a unique and interesting playstyle in Ashes.
  • DamoklesDamokles Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
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  • Probably soulbow and acolyte.
    Ranged classes usually are more squishy and could prefer going tank as secondary over cleric to offset it.
    Getting more tanky usually scales just better than some low level healing.
    It boils down to balancing though so we don't know until release.
  • Ranger and Bard.

    https://www.strawpoll.me/20648367

    But the differences are fairly small.
  • maouwmaouw Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    CaptnChuck wrote: »
    Ranger and Bard.

    https://www.strawpoll.me/20648367

    But the differences are fairly small.

    Oh wow, I did not know cleric was #1
    I wish I were deep and tragic
  • DolyemDolyem Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Battle Mage
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  • The class that will be underplayed is the one that almost nobody plays.
    Or do you mean 'underplayed' as in not promoted or not as important by Intrepid?
  • BluehBlueh Member, Pioneer, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two
    maouw wrote: »
    CaptnChuck wrote: »
    Ranger and Bard.

    https://www.strawpoll.me/20648367

    But the differences are fairly small.

    Oh wow, I did not know cleric was #1

    There are alot of healers in most games but for some reason most of em are "casual" there are very few that pick suppport with the goal in mind of being top ranked. Feels like most play it since its "chill" just press Healthbars and relax.
  • DemidreamerDemidreamer Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Nightshield -hard to imagine combining threat generation with the rogue style combat for being an opportunist
  • Nightshield -hard to imagine combining threat generation with the rogue style combat for being an opportunist

    Rogues could tank in Rift 🤷
  • DolyemDolyem Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Nightshield -hard to imagine combining threat generation with the rogue style combat for being an opportunist

    Dodge tanks my dude
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  • DamoklesDamokles Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited September 2020
    Dolyem wrote: »
    Nightshield -hard to imagine combining threat generation with the rogue style combat for being an opportunist

    Dodge tanks my dude

    DoT tanks my friend.... DoT Tanks.

    Steven said that Daggers could inflict a bleed effect on the target, i can see a tank going daggers for the bleeds on multiple enemies, and if they get some bleed augments from rogues then they go plus ultra.

    It would be nice if Rogue had these four augment-trees:
    -Bleed (Single target dot, reducing healing etc)
    -Shadow (Survivability/Stealth, most likely not stealth but something o do with shadows)
    -Assassination (single target/isolation damage)
    -Poisons (AoE dots)
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  • PromptlingPromptling Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Lol Darkshield is what I've been planning on playing, with Predator / ShadowBlade/ Highsword being the others I am interested in. Problem with Highsword and Paladin though is that there names make it seem likely they will be merging with the life aspect of cleric and I was hoping it would be the opposite - Soul drains, or Blood Tank etc.
  • Its probably still too early to tell. Entirely depends on how they build out the class/sub-class fantasy. A lot of the combinations we've not even seen in an MMO. How will class/sub-classes be visually distinct? Will they have a specific armor type? etc.
  • if I could I would bet bard haha
  • DemidreamerDemidreamer Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Evasion tank could work, all depends on the type of resource the archetype has(is everything going to be mana?). The other hang up is what the stealth augment will do. Most of the time i hear stealth i think of dropping combat(threat along with that). imho
  • Evasion tank could work, all depends on the type of resource the archetype has(is everything going to be mana?). The other hang up is what the stealth augment will do. Most of the time i hear stealth i think of dropping combat(threat along with that). imho

    Dodge tanks are a weird thing, needing to rely on a chance to evade an attack is just not a solid approach.
    Depending on how hard bosses are hitting you can have some really bad damage spikes that are fairly annoying to your healers.
    At least in PvE you can usually differentiate a good tank from a bad tank by how "spiky" his damage taken is.
    In PvP it probably won't matter that much.
  • VarkunVarkun Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Necromancer because edge lords gonna edge. end sarcasm.

    Argent the tank bard, as usual there will be a shortage of tanks.
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    Never write a check with your mouth you can't cash with your ass!.
  • InixiaInixia Member
    edited September 2020
    I was surprised at how many people want to play summoner in the polls, i guess I'm used to players generally shying away from pet classes - but archetypes with more recognizeable class names do better I think (and summoner has quite a few: beastmaster, conjurer, enchanter, necromancer).

    I'm going to guess ranger might be a less played class, and bard (even though its polling low here) will pick up over time. Even though its played more I suspect something like tank or healing (even though it has a strong following now) will end up still in demand more in raiding.
  • RokoRoko Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Varkun wrote: »
    Necromancer because edge lords gonna edge. end sarcasm.

    Argent the tank bard, as usual there will be a shortage of tanks.

    this. It's always the tanks that games are perpetually short on.
    2PXdm1m
  • I'm leaning towards Bard as most underplayed class. But then again I do loves me some Bard, but i'll be rolling a Cleric/Cleric shooting for High Priest. Might roll Bard as my 1st alt.

    "I don't know what kind of soldier I'm gonna make, but I want you guys to know that if we ever get into really heavy combat... I'll be right behind you guys. Every step of the way." :wink:
  • AtiqaAtiqa Member
    edited September 2020
    Impossible to tell yet IMO. We don't even know how augments will work fully yet, apart from some few examples. When we do, it might be easier to predict some classes will be less played.

    Generally though, tanks and support dps are my candidates for fewest players.

    The most safe bet would be a tank class I think, because that's the role I see being played the least, and then you spread those tank players out over 8 classes. I would think there is a least one of those classes that will be pretty rare.

    Which tank class that will be is impossible to say, but maybe tank + bard or something, if that means you won't be a very "tanky" tank, or have decent dps, you just buff others or something. Then I could maybe see that as a candidate, but then again, we will be able to choose between 4 augment schools, so maybe there's one for bard that is super awesome and not just some aoe buff thing, who knows.

    It's just like how I kinda would write off going cleric as secondary if I didn't know much about the augment system, but then finding out that there's a death augment school suddenly made cleric a possible awesome secondary IMO.
  • KhronusKhronus Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I'm stunned that the answer from every single person is not tank. Every single game lacks tanking. AoC might be different if....no it will not haha. Tank will be the most underplayed class in the game...forever.
  • VyrakaVyraka Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    KHRONUS wrote: »
    I'm stunned that the answer from every single person is not tank. Every single game lacks tanking. AoC might be different if....no it will not haha. Tank will be the most underplayed class in the game...forever.

    A lot of people play tanks - just not necessarily good tanks. They shrivel at the reality of being in the spotlight.
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  • DamoklesDamokles Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    KHRONUS wrote: »
    I'm stunned that the answer from every single person is not tank. Every single game lacks tanking. AoC might be different if....no it will not haha. Tank will be the most underplayed class in the game...forever.

    Tank seems actually really fun and viable.
    If they keep the weapon arcs for aoe, thn it could be very well one of the best leveling classes in the game.
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  • Probably the Bard/Bard Class (Minstrel). In most MMO's where I have seen Bard played it is a secondary class, not the primary.
  • lunarskylunarsky Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Any kind of Bard will probably be the least played. You only really need one per party and if they aren't balanced properly they'll just be replaced by another DPS in the meta for faster kills. Which is why I think they'll be the last class we hear about because Intrepid will spend extra time trying to make them fit into the class ecosystem just right.
    Future Py'rai (M) - Shaman, Enchanter, Soul Weaver, Templar, or Necromancer (Pending)
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