ROM: Ding 33 on Magus Gimpus

I hit level 33.5 in Runes of Magic with very little effort.  I spent most of the time standing around in the same few spots slaying mobs.  This is not intentional on the game’s part.  It was me still mucking around with a build for my Magus Gimpus, previously known as Battle Monk.  Using my Priest Talent Point Estimator, I fiddled with full caster build, balanced caster and melee, melee focused and finally, caster focused with minimal melee.  In the end, I went caster focused with minimal melee.  Priests only have TWO direct damage spells.  Rising Tide with a two-minute cast and Chain of Light with a 6-second cool down.

I figured that since I’m stuck with the Warrior side, I might as well make minimal use of Battle Monk Stance for mana-less damage while Bone Chill is ticking, even though its benefits were nerfed, it reduces my healing and hog-ties me to a 2H staff.  I see lots of Priests just bubbling and standing there in between.  I can’t do that after having played this class as multi-mob melee before the recent changes.  You have no idea how sorry I am that I selected Battle Monk for my character.  The Talent Point Reset rune that was given to all players was all well and good.  However, for the depth of changes that showed up in the live release they should have allowed players a ONE TIME opportunity to reset their secondary class.  After reading the Patch Notes, I would have changed mine in a heartbeat.

As a result of the detailed testing and build tuning I conducted, I haven’t done much of anything interesting.  I did manage to jump three levels though by killing over and over and over, trying to settle on something I could stomach as a play style.  I can consistently do 370+ DPS.  I often critical-strike into the 500s on damage.  That’s compared to having done in the low 200s as a Battle Monk while taking down multiple mobs. 

You may be wondering why people are complaining if you can spec to do much better single target damage.  It’s not the overall DPS that we don’t like.  It’s a complete change from having been a melee class that used 1-H and a shield to pull multiple mobs, being forced into a single mob caster class.  That’s a night and day difference.  You can pull multiple mobs lower than you using a DOT-n-bubble method but that’s still NOT what we were before.  It is NOT the play-style or role that I signed up for when I choose to play a Battle Monk.  Besides which, no sane group would take a Battle Monk in a group now either.  *Sigh*

I think I’ve wasted enough diamonds on reset runes. I’m going to stick with this build until I hit max level.  I’d be willing to try healing end-game when I get there.  I would never be the first choice for raid healing.  Priest/Knight would be first.  Priest/Mage would be second.  Me as Priest-only brings nothing special to the encounter.  Me as Priest/Warrior in Battle Monk Stance is a pointless joke. 

I’m considering rolling a Knight and Mage to level 15 then waiting to see about the two new classes we might see this summer.  Knight and Mage are the two that I’d consider as a counter-part for another class.  Having Priest as secondary is always nice but I’m not sure I’d bother having rolled one already.  I’d want to experience a completely new play style the next time around.

Comments

[Sören]

"Priests only have TWO direct damage spells. Rising Tide with a two-minute cast..."

Priest: "Hi tank, I'm just starting to cast rising tide - would you please pull the boss in about 1min 50secs?"

scnr :-)

[Capn John]

Heh heh. Yeah, I saw that, too. With that long of a cast time, Rising Tide must do hellacious damage ;)

I chose Knight as my Rogue's second class, but what I should have done first is what I've been doing the past week or so, that is testing different classes on Alts.

I'll do a write up on my own Blog soon, though, rather than make a Post-sized comment here ;)

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

That's what I did too which makes the changes they made suck all the more because I was careful about the selection of the secondary knowing it could not be changed.

I rolled Knight, Mage, Priest and Scout to level 10. I immediately ruled out the Knight which was my first choice because his DPS was so dang low and slow. Coupled with the Priest slow casts it was freakin' torture.

I hated the asthestics of the Scout and the Mage was only meh. When I tried the Warrior it was good and combined with the priest to be Battle Monk, hellafun.

[erikg]

if you really don't like the class, 33 isn't too late to reroll. it doesn't really make sense to me how you intend to level something you don't want to play.

i had a p/w at 26/25 but gave up on it some time ago. if you like the priest i can recommend p/s, that's probably the best priest soloer now and one of the best healers. i also play k/m, which is fun but not a very strong build. with the game balance the way it is, i'd actually not suggest anyone to play anything but priest or mage right now. :/

[Schmendrik]

Re: rising tide... It's not 2 minutes but the exaggeration sure makes the point. It certainly seems like 2 minutes when you are watching the mobs coming at you. Hey did I mention what a great blog you got going here? Oh I guess I just did.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@ Schmendrik - I meant 2 seconds. Doh. LOL

@Erig - I'm not one to roll a lot of toons and the replay-ability of the ROM content isn't exciting enough that I'd want to do it a third time which is why I want to wait and see the two new classes first.