Forget it Jake, It's castertown.Follow

I wish I was wrong, but DAoC (classic) NF is basically caster vs. caster, melee vs. boredom.

I have a lvl 50 mercenary, I do good damage, I have high (22-26%) resists. I don't roll 8v8 or solo, I go with the zerg in a group with (usually) at least 2 clerics. The problem is, RvR isn't fun at all. As a melee class, I feel like it's pointless. Zerg will fight zerg, casters vs. casters. range vs. range. I'll stand back and be bored because I have no range. So basically I sit there...and wait...and wait...and casters fight casters...the castle gates fall and huge zergs clumped together cast at each other from afar. I sit there and wait. What happens if I don't wait? I die almost instantly. If you try to get even the closest casters, you are a sitting duck for ALL enemy casters to say "Hey, there's a melee class very close to us, let's ALL nuke him at once."

Basically I seem to have two choices:

1) Sit there and let casters fight casters until albions kill enough mids/hibs to where all classes swarm in (pointless to kill 3 people when it's 100v10, the battle is already over.)

2) Try to kill a caster, thus getting completely nuked the moment I set foot in the frontlines.

3) Sit there to defend the casters from enemy melee classes, only for the friendly casters to ALL nuke the enemy melee guy the second he hits the frontlines.

The battlegrounds I had a lot of fun.
NF? Forget it Jake, It's castertown.

Am I doing something wrong as a mercenary? Is it because I don't have a guild? I really would LOVE a guild that accepts me, helps me out in RvR and occassionally PvE, and actually cares about their members. The community in DAoC is horrible, no one cares about those left out and if you aren't an elite RR5 templated character with a guild, no one cares.

I don't like playing a game where I have to wait 1 hour to find a group, the group suck, and I can't play because I'm not a caster. Is this my fault or is DAoC (classic or ToA) a casters game?

What about ToA? I thought of playing on the non-classic servers.

HELP!

I'll agree that in a zerg, mercs are not that effective, but they have a ton of tools that can be used.

For one, they have the absolute best ML line in the game. It is devastating. Now, in a zerg, one insta button, and you can do 30% damage to every toon in a 1500 diameter circle..that is crazy damage. The banelord line has like 5 interrupts in it. One of them causes all casters to cast at 50% speed for like 30 seconds or a minute. BM's, zerkers and mercs are all very sought after 8-man toons. But if you primarily serf the zerg, then why not play a zerg class? Wizzies and heretics are always popular, but it is banelord that wins any keep push for albs along with zombies (assuming you play ToA). If you play classic, the merc has even less options in a zerg.

There are still things you can do though if you have competent clerics in your group even on classic...being bait and luring people in is very effective. Cast charge so you can't be CC'd, and get into casters range, and then loop back..invest in EM if you have to to reduce damage while you do it. Some will chase you, or other albs will follow you.

If you play solo in a zerg, you picked the wrong toon.


EDIT: Just re-read your post and see you did state you are in classic server. This does limit your options and your class is better suited for 8-man/soloing, but a class with your damage potential still can get kills with competent clerics in your group. They need to be casting single target heals on you while you charge in. Sieging can be boring for all classes. Until recently, there was no cure for NS (except purge). How about being a caster who can't cast for 2 minutes (still happens in battlegrounds which sucks beyond belief). Now, if you are encountering 40+ man zergs, best not to be charging at the start, but in smaller zergs that you may encounter, mercs can be effective if they have a few other tanks with them.

Edited, Nov 13th 2006 at 4:38pm PST by thuri