Most strategically diverse class

[b00mslang]

Refer to title.

[Ace High]

I'd have to say shamans are the most diverse class. Most people normally always try and start with their mals (which can be easily countered with gold rings and all), but if that's not working then they simply switch to good ole damage and pound/harm/demonfire the heck outta their opponent. Sanc, Protection, Cure crit, protective shield, and word also make them very livable which can lead to very bad things for their opponent.

[Sebryn]

Who picks thief?

With a thief it's either:

Blackjack -> Pry -> Steal -> Dual backstab -> Flee -> Hide

- or -

Blackjack -> Steal -> Pry -> Dual backstab -> Flee -> Hide

Maybe you can throw in the occasional 'pilfer' or something, but there's not a whole lot of strategy for the thief class.

[Avendin]

I voted shaman, but I think the reasoning behind choosing thief was that there are so many different brands of thieves, i.e, different ways to play them. There's the straight-up pilferer who runs around stealing shamelessly, sometimes without even bothering to blackjack (usually halfling, elf and gnome). There's the all-purpose thief who'll steal but who doesn't mind the occasional backstabbing (usually human and avian). Then there's the angry thief who thinks he's a warrior, picking off your equipment only to weaken you before he goes for the kill (usually avian and duergar).

[Vines]

Using throw with a thief can yield some interesting results. I've landed a cancellation potion on someone. There are a few potentially useful potions out there, weaken/teleport/plague?. Hell a recall potion thrown on someone probably would work. Though most potions would require your oppenant to be following you. They also need to be of higher level to be effective. Meh.

[divsky]

I said shaman, though I think it's an extremely tight race between them and dark knights.

The fact that paladins are even up there is a joke.

[Insom]

Dark Knight beats shamans easily.

Dark knights need to do the following:

1. Determine what type of gear to wear.
2. Determine what types of saves he needs.
3. Determine whether to dual wield or not.
4. Determine which mob to use as a charmie.
5. Determine which weapons to use.

Shaman only has to :

1. Get a physical mace and a magic mace and a whip for zerkers.
2. Get a kick butt shield, preferably no rem.
3. Get saves for elves and not so much for duergar
4. Get hit/dam eq.

Then all he has to do is look, whatever the other guy is saving he tries to land something else. It is always easier to fight when you don't have to be changing gear in mid battle.

[Lorne]

Vampires.

[Resatimm]

Ok, but look at the recent changes.

The two most versatile classes are now thief and warrior.

With warrior, you can disarm a shamanas shield, slap on a bow with your water arrows (high % of shamans are duergar) then pwn them hardcore style.

Warriors parry arrows as well. They get double enhanced damage with polearms (guess what the current weapon of choice is for warriors?)

And so on and so forth.

Thieves?

Counterbalance, bow, pry, steal.

These days a thief can actually try the blackjack on the fire berserker without using a purple potion. As long as they counterbalance. The berserker is knocked out. The thief pries his shield. Slaps on a bow, trips the zerker while doing pwnage with his arrows.


Out of the two classes, I would chose warrior for most exciting and versatile

[Mind_Flayer]

Ninja need upgrades NOW!!!

[b00mslang]

[Rezakhan]

Resatimm brings up a good point about warriors being more diverse now, but most of the diversity there just refers to weapon/armor selection and use. The basic battle tactics still remain the same--dirt/disarm or shield disarm, lag if you can, flee and murder if you can't.
I say shamans are the most diverse in terms of battle strategy, with the option of a maledictive approach, a straight damage/afflictive approach, or a mental approach, not to mention the ability to set up an opponent with cures/summon/locate object.
Dark knights up to the low 40s are a very diverse class, with the use of different spells vs. more warrior-like tactics.
However, at the upper levels, most dark knight tactics involve getting an uber-charmy, dirt kicking, then either lagging or chasing. I would hazard a guess that in the majority of dk battles, the charmy does between 50-75% of the damage.
I remember with my first DK legion, I fought a lot of Warlords. The first group of battles I would try different spells (fireball, plague, blind, energy drain, etc.) Most of these battles I ended up winning, but with around 30% health left. I soon learned that I had much better success simply dirting, then fleeing behind the charmy and lagging, or even just lagging right off the bat and letting the charmy do the damage. The strength of possible creatures to charm, plus the variety of saves eq out there, limits the diversity of dk combat at high ranks.

[divsky]

Why in the hell would you use a whip against a class that relies soley on dealing physical attacks? Do you actually think a shaman is going to outdamage a berserker?

[Louis]

i choose necros.

[Amdorin]

Why the heck is Druids up there?

This is their technique.

druid staff
thornskin
blessing of myria

Air blessing ------>>TORNADO TORNADO

*yawn* Do I feel like making a potion? ...Nah!

TORNADO TORNADO!!

[b00mslang]

[Trillian]

I agree with Louis. There's so many ways to kick butt with a necromancer. 1) Golem/Zombie style. 2) Acid blast/Golem Style 3) Mal Style and many more ways to play them, long prep time..

Also, Druids are way more diverse than Amdorin makes them seem. Asides from tornado/tornado, 950 hp/950 mana with 25 dex, parry and dodge is really nice. Add in sunblast, curse of the jaguar, winter's wrath and you're pretty much set to take on any class - except necromancers.

[Amdorin]

Heheh, you added three more skills that they use, and included the Halfling race. Basically the same thing, only not evil.