Returning to the game after a 1.5 year break. I decided to reroll and just recently got my Shaman to lvl 39. I had planned on going with Overlord, but everything I read tells me the class has been nerfed pretty substatially.
I am looking for some feedback from any Overlords. Also, what have the nerfs been to the class? Does Interlude look to bring anything to help ressurect the class (if it is indeed dead)?
It will be much easier to answer you if you say what exactly you want to do - OLs are very valueable in sieges, but they are incredibly difficult to level.
Well i did not play booth classes my own but i played in partys with booth.
The warcryer offers a lot good bufs for Partys and can do some damage.
The Overlord affects only clan or allience members but if they in range all of em while the warcryer only affects the party and the pets / summons in it.
If you go Overlord u relay a lot on clan / ally partys because ur not that much usefull to ppl outside ur clan/ally.
Pretty much every overlord will tell you to roll Warcrier like everyone else does.
The best XP in the game by FAR is being a part of a small archery insta-kill group.
Buff the archers, they fire at one target and insta-gib it.
Repeat until you have cleared the best dungeons in the game.
Your only problem is finding enough mobs to kill.
A warcrier is part of that small group of classes which is invaluable and thus you get invites independent of clan.
An overlord will get clan/alliance invites only.
They will all love you in a siege, and an overlord is still among the most powerful 1v1 characters in the game period.
Overlords just aren't in style this chronicle...
Maybe next one??
Overlords now have the most powerful sleep in the game, bar none.
Overlords also still have their Area Silence, Area Posion and Area Flame attacks.
Overlords in a party that knows what it is doing are the bomb, but you have to have party members who know what they are doing.
The thing I see mostly is that since there are so few Overlords in the game, most people have never partied with them, so they don't understand the role they play.
The problem is that while an OL is very nice in party they do not increase the XP/time very much. They are very good at crowd control/emergency situations but don't add much damage - you can hunt somewhere that is normally a little too scary but you won't get more xp than without an OL.
I have to agree with this completely. The OL needs to know how to play his toon, and the others in the party need to know their jobs as well. Knowledge of what an OL can do would get more people to invite them to parties even when not in clan/ally.
When I am in a party in the cat's or Necro's I will gladly join a OL to the group. They increase Xp/time as they cut down on the damage done to the party by the mobs. Healers mp last longer when you have an OL that plays well.
Opps lol, yeah the OL really shines at AoE but that seemed so obvious I left it out. :o
All AoE parties should have an OL. Too bad AoE parties are so rare now days. :(
If a party has down time then an overlord helps (especially if it is a clan/ally party) but if the party is already sustaining the OL doesn't add much damage (XP) unless it is an AoE party. I would still take an OL but I don't try to get the absolute most XP/time possible and their CC is very comforting.
Thanks for the feedback thus far. What are some of the nerfs that have taken place on the class? How has this effected your playstyle and interest in the class? Is it easier or more difficult to find parties?
Biggest single nerf was the drain spell. They raised the cost in MP to the point where you can't cast it enough before running out of MP.
Second nerf, less so, was the area of effect stuff. It seems to not go as far and you need to be closer to the mops / players for it to take effect.
The OL has always been a hard one to level. It seems to take a lot longer to level it than anything else I have ever played.
As for loosing interest, nope, not yet. It is one of the most interesting toons I have ever played. You can play them many ways and with a variety of different weapons and armor setups. The other thing, there are very few of them around. If you can get into the upper 60s or above, most of the good alliances will want you to join them. They are loved in seiges, a bit less in Raids.
Overlords now have the most powerful sleep in the game, bar none.
Overlords also still have their Area Silence, Area Posion and Area Flame attacks.
Overlords in a party that knows what it is doing are the bomb, but you have to have party members who know what they are doing.
The thing I see mostly is that since there are so few Overlords in the game, most people have never partied with them, so they don't understand the role they play.
/sigh
I am frequently partied with a 78 overlord with all the trimmings.
Overlords are powerful, and quite useful if archery wasn't so rediculously overpowered. Sleep is completely pointless for such parties.
The problem is that nothing in this game compares to archery parties simply gibbing everything in sight.
I repeat, overlords are quite powerful... but the fast track to 75 and the cross-alliance group invites for insanely efficient parties is simply overpowering.
Don't get me wrong... in sieges, everyone will be your friend as an overlord.... but the rest of the time the warcriers rule the roost.
I honestly hope you have the fortitude to create an overlord and level him to 76+.
I just cannot in good conscience recommend the harder road in this case because it doesn't actually pay off for the majority of your playtime.
Errr well, on my overlord I had some archery party.
We had a SE, about 5 archers, a BD and me. Sometimes a SwS or prophet.
It was in C3, we were in Antharas lair, last room before kariks. The main archer was pulling like mad, when a big group of mobs came close (and it happened often) i used mass root and saved a lot of useless tanking. Me and the SE could buf and heal. Archers with the good bufs were dropping mobs in a few hits.
I think it was my highest XP/time at this lvl I ever had.
It was an alliance only party, we had to sit down after every bufround to regen some mp, and we could almost clear the room.
A WC wouldnt have been a better healer, so the SE was still needed to help with heals/bufs, and archers used alac or gsap, and mass root was really nice.
Don't get me wrong, I don't say an OL was better designed for this party than a WC (I didn't experience it enough, just 3 or 4 whole afternoons), but an OL isn't useless in this setup.
Back to the OP question, if you remember OLs from C1, their seals are about the same. Suspension and Scourge dont land 100% anymore (too bad I loved suspension), buf range increased (about 2x) and affect the whole alliance, drain was nerfed, and OLs can now upgrade sleep (useful), confusion and fear like WCs do.
Playing an OL I can give some advice. YOU have to be in an active clan or alliance. If you are, your set to lvl.
Your play style will get refined as you learn your role. You aren't leading the charge. You need to keep your eyes on the room/area your in.
I love it when a train comes through in a Cata and I slam on mass root and it stops 90% of the mobs. Seal of Winter, Slow, and Confusion really help out the Tanks and DDs not take as much damage. I'm happy with the success rate with sleep.
It fits my personnality playing an OL in PVE groups.
PVP 1v1 I've not been successful in. I'm always out matched there. B grd vs S and A grd I just can't do anything about that. Group PVP I do better in, warring clans seem to target other ppl first.
If anyone has PVP suggestions I'd love to hear it.
No offense, but it seems all the replies have been from 5x-6x overlords who, frankly, have yet to experience the gimpness that is OL. :P
At around 70 your seals become pretty much useless, all of them. Not that they dont get used often, just they dont land often.
Croud control you can do pretty well, I remember when I was in my 60's I loved rift parties because I felt useful as the main cc, no other time (before or after) have I felt useful in pve. The reason for this is pretty obvious in my eyes. While it is true that you can save your party from an "OMG WTF RUN!?@" situation, it doesnt allow you to level in a harder area or for a longer amount of time. If you cast a seal and there are 4 mobs there, you can expect it to land on 1-2 of the mobs, rarely 3 and pretty much never 4. There is also the fact that orcs are the slowest casters and mobs run a lot faster these days, if they run out of your aoe range they are not effected.
There is also the absurd mana issues that come along with overlords, I mean, really. . . Its way too much of an issue. I can literally drian my whole pool of mp in 30 seconds. People act like you can just spam seals like healers spam root or sleep, it doesnt work that way. At all.
Another thing is the fact that the seals are the same as the single target versions, that many, many classes have. Seal of winter = wind shackle. When is the last time you saw someone use wind shackle? Its not as useful as its being made out to be. Infact, I never use it in pve for any use other than an aoe hate (its a pretty good hate though, because you can spam it and it pulls a lot of aggro :p)
Gurduul, an ol does not fit into any good party. A good party has no use for unreliable cc, over-time heals, useless buffs that are easily buffed by other healers/buffers and sub-par melee dd.
by Inglorion1
I have to agree with this completely. The OL needs to know how to play his toon, and the others in the party need to know their jobs as well. Knowledge of what an OL can do would get more people to invite them to parties
What exactly does the ol need to do in an aoe party? And why do other people need to know what they can do? Id rather keep them in the dark and make them think im being useful.
The perfect AoE group has no overlord in it, the root cannot be used to help you, it fails on well over half the mobs, the dots take a long time to do damage and have pretty much the lowest landing rate of any spell in the game (on the mage with the lowest matk) wind shackle and chaos.... Well I would laugh at that if I thought you were being serious. They are the same as the single target versions, when was the last time you used those in pve? Maybe when they lasted more than 30 seconds. . . but not now. The perfect AoE party has a healer, if the healer cant handle the area you're in an overlord wont help, you will end up dying because the seals dont land consistently.
To the OP, I would go warcrier. When people say overlords are hard to level, they're not stressing "hard" enough. Leveling a warcrier is very much the opposite though. A warcrier DOES fit into a perfect pole party, also a perfect archer party and melee party.
If you have your heart set on overlord, make sure you have some friends that will always party you.
Heres a list of good things about overlords. :P
-Every clan will want you
-You are rare (for a **** good reason)
-At 77 you get empower (with zerk and acumen = mage buffer)
-You are very useful in sieges
When archers pull like crazy and you often see half a dozen of mobs running to you, mass root is really not useless.
We didn't have a real tank either, so most of the tanking was done by a SR lvl ~70, and after a mass root failure, by my OL who was lvl ~56, and at lvl 56 with a top C staff and empower3 mass root wasn't bad.
As Korea said, OLs are <<<hard>>> to levelup. Someone who just wanna lvl his class to 75 fast won't play an OL.
But if you really love its playstyle and are good at it, don't give up. Just find a better clan in case you don't have any support from your current clan.
**** KoreaPL, you make me want to cry and go back to my SR and never look back. Well, maybe not quite that bad.
I do believe in the OL character. I think they are one of the neatest kinds of toons ever created. Your points though, are well taken. In C3, C3, C4 I felt like I was more important and could level a lot faster. Now, even with a buff bot, I am still not putting out the damage I need to, nor are the seals working anywhere near as well. Their Damage over Time value is quite low as compaired to level. When I think of using them back in the 40's. the Mop would be almost dead with one, sometimes two of them and a sleep or root. Now, you can't even see it move the hp bar that far at all.
My mana has become a real issue, even when I use a maj. set and I am setup for mana use. I use DC w/ and SoM or a dagger depending on need.
I have also hit a serious wall. At 65.70% it has become increasingly hard to get 5% per night at times, where a pp friend is now going into pagons and rapidly moving thru the levels. I know he is most wanted and is sought out but I am yelling for party all the time anymore.
I won't quit the toon. I love her and continue to find her a challange to play. I do think that there needs to be some work done to bring this toon back into the game play before they become all but extint. I also agree with your WC comments. More and more I have thought about the day I made the decison to go OL vs WC. Some days are better than others....
If anyone is is still looking at this thread and still wondering if the OL class is worth anything. On my server that was a raid party working over 50 ppl. A clan they were warring shows up with two parties. Their two high lvl OL's and a DA stroll down and blast the party and sent over half running away and the other half rooted. Two OL's distrupted 50 plus ppl enough that thier parties came through and suffered no losses. (This is not to show how bad the raid party is, just how bad @@@ the OL's are). **** impressive. Viva la OL
Unless you have a lot of friends, expect to be soloing most of the time. Alliances don't usually cut it: they expect you to be at raids, sieges and pvp, but they'd rather solo their nukers with a few rechargers than help you level up.
I have a 71 OL and with empower 3 I don't see what all the fuss is about the "gimped seals". On dark red monsters root landed probably around 3/4 of the time which is often enough to make the difference between a group wipe or clearing the bad pull / train.
In a PvE party, OLs are more about security than anything else. Usually if your party can hunt somewhere non-stop, you can make sure everyone survives a train or a bad pull, and if things go terribly wrong, you can solo 2-3 red mobs at a time without too much trouble.
With alliance CP cures, heart of paagrio, Empower 3, DW, Acumen, Zerk, M.def and the incoming alliance max CP and CoV buffs, Overlords are very well-liked by alliances.
In mass PvP you can keep main nuker buffs up and help keep everyone alive.
In defensive sieges you can also hide behind a door or around a corner to bind/flame/poison/winter/slow/silense/suspension/chaos your ennemies and wreak havoc in their forces.
In 1 vs 1 PvP and olympiad you eventually get empower, acumen, zerk, m.def, shield, and with your drain (although it costs more mp than it used to) you can survive most 1 vs 1, even more so self-buffed 1 vs 1.
Oh, and with both soul cry + soul guard, you can even kill some melee characters by meleeing them to death :)
Drain is less efficient mp-wise since C5 for both ork casters, but at least since a while now OL alliance buffs cost the same as WC party buffs and the OL buff ranges have been increased to be much more decent.
If you can manage to level an OL up, it's probably worth the trouble. On the other hand, you can expect a WC to level much quicker. So if you enjoy soloing (or duoing with a buffer), OL can be a good option, but if you're looking to hit 75 or 80 quickly, WC is probably best.
An other advantage is OLs can't be subbed by anyone, so we're rather rare, as opposed to nukers or archers which over 50% of the players end up subclassing.
The two characters (OL and WC) share some things in common (skills, stats) but have two main differences. First, in solo gaming, WC gets some really good offensive buffs (crit.rate/damage, ch. of vampire) that help him level faster than an OL using his debuffs. The use of both soul guard and soul cry could balance that but it is too mana consuming. The second, is the dependency an OL has, on an active clan/alliance for parties. An OL has very specific usages (AOE groups, mass PvP) while a WC is always needed in any kind of party. Maybe not in a pure mage party, but all other (melee, ranged or mixed) has a spot for a WC. That is what makes WC not better, but easier to level.
STAY AWAY from 0L. The only way to enjoy this char: you have some friends who dont care if you delay their xp and always party with you because you are friends!
I play 0l 6 months 10+ hours everyday no botting.I can tell you i already lost my patience and i am not yet 75...:((.Extremely slow lvl up ,seals dont work easily or not at all against buffed chars, so what's the reward? Maybe cp heal+hp heal if you like to heal,maybe the visual effects when you do ally buffs,maybe the privilege that nobody can sub to overlord,maybe watch your seals fail when you are among 50 enemies during a castle siege and try to disable them( at least you tried to do a ninja attack....)
In PvP c5 chronicle you can kill all daggers,archers if flames work,sps+sorcerors if sleep+ silence/suspension work before you die,some melee chars are easy to kill.Sadly mp is not enough,so if someone want to kill you he gets 150-200 cp pots and he kill you when you run out of mp(you can't win even if you have 300cp pots :pp). THIS SUCKS.NCSOFT FIX IT !