Concerns

[Natas]

One can only hope Chanters will be foremost buffers with the ability to solo and heal if needed.

btw, if you have not pvp'd against a lvl 75+ Prophet with 75+ sub, you have no idea how deadly they can be...

[Horny]

Hi
well I'm just wondering if a Chanter couldn't be a tank as well?
I mean sure , they've to buff - but some skills are quite good for a tanker imo.
I've got to admit that I don't know about the other meele skills but uhm for example
Will of Failure Reduce the attack rate and hit rate of all enemies that attack the caster
together with
Promise of the Earth(Rank.3) All attacks against the caster reduces the attackers speed by 30%. Duration: 5 minutes
and to heal himself
Herbal Medicine(Rank.2) Restore 500 HP.(Requires an Unspecified Craftable Object.)
He also has the ability to wear chain mail ...

I mean it's just another idea to the meele/buffer combo.
Some facts that bother me are that you can't be the main tank since you have to rebuff after all...
Though it was mentioned before that there could be a problem with those skills at bosses...
yea that might be right , though if i think of
Order of the Guardian Increases all characteristics by 500 for 30 seconds.
it could be like , you cast it , and have to get hit by the boss once(due the huge vit improvement or whatsoever , it might be possible to surive ;p) , then you've to drag him to another tanker~ and the boss atk speed etc. got reduced

Or a Chanter as a first tank - he tanks the mob at first and then passes it onto the other meeles.... so it's easier to tank...


but it's just a thought , i kinda like the idea though^^

[Rathi04]

I wouldn't totally throw out the possibility of a chanter tanking a non boss of some sort as RDM from FFXI turned out to be a tank. RDM did have the help of the sub job system and so far Aion has no such thing. The problems I see with a chanter being a tank are agro control and survivability.

Unless there are some abilities that just have really high threat there is nothing to keep the monster from heading to someone else while they're DPSing and healing. If for some reason we are able to hold agro, I don't see the chanter surviving. There is nothing really to mitigate the damage coming towards them and stacking HP will only last for so long.

It would be a neat turn of events for the chanter class, but I doubt it will ever happen.

[Horny]

no, you get me kinda wrong
I'm not saying that a Chanter is a general tank , just that he's the first to tank a mob for a while so the effects take over and make the mob weaker to let it tank from another class.
It would only make sense in kinda huge mobs and if meeles can drag the agros onto them afterwards, 'cause otherwise it would just take a too long time. Or with high level mobs later in the game.
Also we don't know (or do we? XD) about his max. HP and max. DEF compared to others since he always can get heals from a Cleric as well - so everyone's HP won't last for long without heals.

Besides , if the Chanter would have more magic-support skills (maybe they'll change that), he could make a great team with a Sorcerer. He's the one tanking and the Sorcerer kills the mob while the Chanter helps him by doing some dmg himself.
Since there's not much heal needed, it's enough that the Chanter heals himself.

[Rathi04]

Ah I see, so you're referring to a puller that gets beat on (for the debuffs) then hands it over to the tank. I guess I could see this happening for a boss in a normal dungen as we could most likely survive one to two blows from one. It still seems a bit on the risky side. I don't know the debuff duration of the strength of earth and such but I'd assume at most 30sec, which I doubt will be very useful in party play.

I kinda like the idea of being a puller, but we'd need some sort of range debuffs that don't add a lot of threat to us. As for the max hp/def, we can only speculate atm because the level cap is set at 34. With out the ability to wear plate mail or use a shield we wont have as much mitigation as even an offtank gladiator.

[Horny]

hmn well why should the duration only be 30secounds after the hit?
if that's really the case it really wouldn't make sense to be a puller. The buff lasts 5minutes on the Chanter, so i actually assumed it will last until the death of the monster. That would be a little too long though I guess - um is there anything known from the beta?

About that DEF / Armor problem. I wasn't quite aware that we can't wear a shield... it seems a little bit odd that we can't. (since maces are most 1 handed weapons imo Oo) We'll we've to see how much DEF we can get compared to a gladiator but just 'cause he'll have more doesn't have to mean we can't handle a mob ourselves for a little while.

Well the fact that we barely have any range debuffs brought me to the idea to be a puller in first place , since a lot of our debuffs are only if the monster hits us.
So if we had good range debuffs we wouldn't need to be a puller after all. I'm also aware of the problem that it's quite risky doing the pulling as a supporter , but since there's also the cleric whose business is healing - it wouldn't be dramatic if we die for a while. ;P (but I hope that wouldn't happen often haha - or else it would make no sense anyway)

[chaosdruid]

Your fears seem justified at first, but I think Chanters will actually be quite desirable.

In FFXI, Bard was clutch, and Chanter will most likely be pretty much the same thing. If there was a Bard looking for a party, you invited him because Bards are the freakin' men!

Chanter will probably have AoE buffs that no other class has, and these buffs will be awesome. Things like Accuracy+, Attack+, Crowd Control, HOTs, MOTs, Crit Rate+, the limit of bad***ery approaches infinity, bub.

Trust me, you're totally underestimating the awesomeness of a class that specializes in pumping you up. You would much rather invite the Chanter than a fourth damage dealer.

[Tareith]

Exactly my point Chaosdruid. It's really a game of numbers: buff the usefulness of the other members enough and there ya go.

[Rathi04]

According to Chanter Skills - AionSource.com Wiki we do not have the shield mastery, who knows they might add it before launch. The only reason I would guess 30 sec as a debuff is because they are quite powerful debuffs. 30% attack speed is pretty massive.

[Karnage]

Judging from the fact that Chanters wield staves, they will probably get a parry ability.

[Szaman]

Or much rather be able to scartch our back with this stave...
Don't you think you confuse Chanter with different classes a little? It's not a martial artist, it's a lad/lass with ability to inspire party members with their chanting. Not some kung-fu shaolin choir members who can grab a flying arrow with their bear hands while singing operetta tunes.

[Karnage]

Yeah, but in Tabula Rasa(another NCSoft game), the staff fighter got a passive parry ability just for holding the staff. And a two year-old could figure out how to block something with a stick, and we're talking about someone who is trained in fighting staves. Chanters are a combat support class, and that includes some back-up damage dealing.

[Tareith]

After seeing a chanter in action with that staff on one of the vids, i'm not so sure i'd argue the non-martial artist thing.

[Horny]

yea I would say the same thing.
He looks like he has pretty good fighting skills - at least in the vid.
Also that he's quite a meele class ... at least the time he buffed was more short than the time he hit the monster.
Though it's just a vid after all , might be all wrong. haha

[Ruri_Chan]

I'm thinking a Chanter would be like a Monk in Ragnarok Online
above average melee dps, light heals but instead of light buffs, its heavy buffs in Aion
instead of melee fist, they use bo/staff or maces