Concerns

[Kitten]

Chanters in my theory, are going to be amazing support, buffs, heals, etc.. As well they will be able to sit back and enjoy doing some damage when they are not needed to help heal, or their buffs are casted.

As for main healing, there was a class called Red Mage in FFXI, and they were considered the same thing, buffs, heals, debuffs, and some damage. Everyone loved them, even more than the White Mage! Red Mages could main heal if they were good, and depending on the party makeup..

I believe Chanters will be the class that everyone wants, as someone above posted. ^_^

[danstaff]

Originally Posted by Tareith

God, reminds me of being the only paladin in 40 mans back in the day. Really, just make it party only

lol ...thats one thing i didnt envy about palys back in the day. I liked buffing/healing as a paly more but no one could ***** about my totems.

Originally Posted by Kitten

Chanters in my theory, are going to be amazing support, buffs, heals, etc.. As well they will be able to sit back and enjoy doing some damage when they are not needed to help heal, or their buffs are casted.

As for main healing, there was a class called Red Mage in FFXI, and they were considered the same thing, buffs, heals, debuffs, and some damage. Everyone loved them, even more than the White Mage! Red Mages could main heal if they were good, and depending on the party makeup..

I believe Chanters will be the class that everyone wants, as someone above posted. ^_^

I agree somewhat. The reason i want to DPS so bad with a chanter is because i have never found any appeal in the warrior/gladiator, assasin/rogue, or hunter/ranger/archer classes.

I liked casters... but loved enhancement shaman. If chanter is the closest thing i have to that in aion then ill make it work. It gives me a goal to work towards.


if it wont work.... youll see one more lvl 1 SM spawn.

[Mystletein]

Originally Posted by danstaff

"The Chanter is one of the eight advanced character classes of Aion. Their specialty is in healing and fortifying magic, but they can also use a magic staff to great offensive effect. The Chanter uses mantras to strengthen allies and raise their morale. "

"While fortifying allies is its greatest strength, in an emergency a Chanter can transform into a powerful soldier and can fight in close range combat using their magic staff. "

"The Chanter will be a skill based class, but will be able to cave in heads with a Mace."

The Chanter will depend on Maces to destroy their enemies. Other one-handed weapons are possible. To be effected, a Chanter will need to stay fully buffed.

Lots of interesting ideas on the chanter's role so far. The thing I'm curious about is what the developer's vision is for the class. We have a description of the class, but that is subject to multiple interpretations (and possibly changes as well). From my interpretation of the skill tree, they want chanters to be able to do more than buff. I mean, some of the buffs have a 45 minute duration. Assuming that auras don't need to be constantly flipped, that's a lot of spare time. And, dare I say it, there are quite a few damage-dealing skills in the tree. It will be interesting to see how chanters play in CBT3.

[Tareith]

Originally Posted by Kitten

Chanters in my theory, are going to be amazing support, buffs, heals, etc.. As well they will be able to sit back and enjoy doing some damage when they are not needed to help heal, or their buffs are casted.

As for main healing, there was a class called Red Mage in FFXI, and they were considered the same thing, buffs, heals, debuffs, and some damage. Everyone loved them, even more than the White Mage! Red Mages could main heal if they were good, and depending on the party makeup..

I believe Chanters will be the class that everyone wants, as someone above posted. ^_^

Ya, RDM could main heal, as long as the spoony bard was supporting them. I was in a set on my brd doing that and god, I wanted to swap him out for a different RDM some days. lol

Honestly, from the abilities I read and the general vibe I got so far, it seems like chanters are going to be a mix of EQ2 bards and LOTRO Minstrels. I'm really curious as to how strong the melee abilities are going to be. Hopefully, they are just on-par with clerics and we trade off effective healing for buffs. Considering we are from the same base tree, it seems most likely.

[Kitten]

Originally Posted by danstaff

I liked casters... but loved enhancement shaman. If chanter is the closest thing i have to that in aion then ill make it work. It gives me a goal to work towards.

Did you mean to say enhancement? Like.. Melee dps?? I'm not sure the Chanter class is going that way, although from some of the videos it does seem they kick a lot of butt with staves... ^_^
I'm picturing more of a FFXI Red Mage feel, buffs, debuffs, heals, minor damage.. But we'll see. :]

Originally Posted by Tareith

Hopefully, they are just on-par with clerics and we trade off effective healing for buffs. Considering we are from the same base tree, it seems most likely.

I hope they don't just copy and paste the Clerics abilities onto the Chanter, and I'm sure thats how majority of the people wanting to be Chanters feel as well. ^_^

[danstaff]

Originally Posted by Kitten

Did you mean to say enhancement? Like.. Melee dps?? I'm not sure the Chanter class is going that way, although from some of the videos it does seem they kick a lot of butt with staves... ^_^
I'm picturing more of a FFXI Red Mage feel, buffs, debuffs, heals, minor damage.. But we'll see. :]

Yea, enhancement shaman were mostly melee based with a few instant cast spells to mix in. What made me think of them is they had one of the most desired buffs in the game for melee. Its pratically identical to the ..? promise of wind or w/e, Chance on hit that youll do an additional attack. Only differance was that the proc rate was a little lower in wow(after getting nerfed) and it only effected your party.

Chanters could possibly be caster dps too... theres another 10 lvls of spells at least right? so we may have to see. Im curious as to if they will add the special about being able to "transform into a soldier" near lvl cap.

Honestly 3 melee DPS and 3 ranged is ok but id be happy if they made chanter a hybrid so you could either heal, melee, or dps/cast.

Just looking at the warrior/glad and the assasin/rogue... it just kinda feels like somethings missing.

I think if chanter is going to be BUFF oriented then we should have buffs that we can only use on ourselves. for example...

shaman had that winfury also BUT when they used it on themselves it gave them TWO additional attacks instead of the single add. attack it gave other players. it was a buff you put on your own weapons if that makes sense.

Enh. shaman didnt have but more than 2-3 melee attacks so you were basically praying for a windfury proc and hoping they would crit. It was a lot of fun imo but a bit overpowered in pvp until it was fixed later.

[Rathi04]

After looking over the skill list again, it looks like a lot of the chanter's nukes are similar to a Shaman's shocks. They're instant cast and have a pretty niffty after effect, like stun, reduced armor, slow, etc.

[danstaff]

yea i think itll be possible and not unfair in the least as long as melee chanters, who will most likely stack melee stats, cant heal worth a damn.

i think people took it the wrong way and thought that i wanted chanters to heal AND dps at the same time with equal ability.....no, far from it.

[Perforine]

I think we will have a nice role to play in Pvp.

Buff and off-healing... When cleric is under assist who gonna heal him ? Chanter .
But, we can do FFA et use our stun to break heal or spell. I think we could play him like a Shaman in DAoC and try to interrupt.

[Casino]

to everyone saying chanters are buffers only with minor heals, do you really envision that role as enjoyable? the durations of these buffs are far too long to need to be constantly rebuffing. say you are in a 6 man dungeon. you buffed everyone with the 45 minute buffs, then buffed melee with the extra attack buff that lasts 5 minutes and rebuff those 2-3 people every 5 minutes. what do you do between those 5 minutes? stand there and hope you need to switch auras? don't say your 'minor heals' either cause if they are as minor as you say they won't even be worth casting, plus the cleric you brought, since chanters obviously couldn't main heal, should easily be able to handle the healing load, essentially you become worthless IF you bring nothing else to the group. you also become bored out of your mind having nothing to do except rebuff 2-3 people every 5 minutes.

my stance would alter completely if they 1) shortened buff times drastically 2) made the best buffs require some sort of channeling 3) chanter buffs were nearly required to down bosses (more specifically raid bosses and main tank buffs). this would be the ideal pure-buffer, not what they currently have in place.

[Rathi04]

^Trust me, 5min buffs are too short. As for other things to do in a fight, if someone doesn't need a spot heal we can melee or probably nuke just fine. If you look at the skill list, chanters have some pretty nasty nukes.

[Casino]

Originally Posted by Rathi04

^Trust me, 5min buffs are too short. As for other things to do in a fight, if someone doesn't need a spot heal we can melee or probably nuke just fine. If you look at the skill list, chanters have some pretty nasty nukes.

people are already dismissing a chanter's dps potential so in their minds those 'nasty nukes' you describe would amount to nothing.

i'm very much advocating specialized chanters in at least 2 roles, melee group dps/buffer and solid healer with buffs. solid enough to solo heal a 6 man dungeon and to heal beneficially in a raid environment, nothing to replace clerics, just another healer thats not as powerful, but can bring more than just heals to a raid.

[danstaff]

Originally Posted by Casino

people are already dismissing a chanter's dps potential so in their minds those 'nasty nukes' you describe would amount to nothing.

i'm very much advocating specialized chanters in at least 2 roles, melee group dps/buffer and solid healer with buffs. solid enough to solo heal a 6 man dungeon and to heal beneficially in a raid environment, nothing to replace clerics, just another healer thats not as powerful, but can bring more than just heals to a raid.

My thoughts exactly. I can't see the devs refusing to give us that. I think thats what they may be aiming for.

[Rathi04]

I honestly wasn't saying the nukes or the melee was good or bad coming from a chanter. I was just saying those are the things that we'll be doing in between buffs and spot heals. I'm sure that the DPS won't be amazing, but any added damage will be better for the group instead of just watching buff timers waiting for them to run out.

[danstaff]

I would definately look forward to some "chanter only" buffs to help us out. Just a few select buffs that were self cast only.