Basically i am wondering how benefical is a SB in a decently formed group.
With this support
WC/OL/BD/EE/SWS
Playstyle of a SB is a daggerlike swordsman with magic nukes and utility skills, basically a guy with multiple tricks up his sleeve to handle several different situation, hard class to master but potentially powerful.
+4buff yes its worth it since everyone has a +4 or higher weapon at this time in the game
SB is more benefial to kamaels with pride of kamael, but it has good CC skills and it useful in group PvP and can do very well in 1v1 PvP
with that support, anyclass except prophet can own.
It's definitely one of the more hybrid play styles in the game. Most of the second class change is using the melee abilities except in certain situations where your magic skills can help tip the balance in you and your party's favor, such as silence and root skills and Dark Weapon for fighting angels. On the third class change your nuker abilities become more pronounced as almost all 76+ skills are nukes or related to your magic skills in general. You don't abandon your melee skills, you have to use all your skills to be effective. Thankfully you have a really deep mp pool and lower skill cost compared to fighter classes.
The +4 Maximum Ability is entirely worth it and is one of the reasons I won't give up my +4 Kesh/Military Fleurette until I get a +4 FB with Focus for parties. With the proper buffs you can sometimes keep it up during an entire raid boss fight and your party will love you for it as their skills cost 0 mp and the extra damage for some classes becomes huge.
Just about any support class duo works out great, as they'll either enhance your magical or melee abilities or keep you anywhere near from dying due to your low HP or keep your MP up for spamming skills.
The only funky thing is the rather large %50 damage range for min and max damage from regular attacks, but your attack speed and crit rate more than make up for it. You'll hit for 300 dmg one hit and then 150 the next, but you'll do it so often that you'll more than keep up with any other melee damage dealer.
The only ability right now that is almost worthless is Spread Wing due to its rather odd damage area, however it's being changes to a circular aoe in part 3 similar to Blazing Circle.
Soulhound is alot of fun. Yes, get your weapon to +4. Make sure you keep a buffslot open for it.
Soulhound has the tools to beat any and every class.
Playstyle? For OLY closed comp, nuker style is currently my style until my opponents figure it out.
For regular pvp, you are a hybrid. Really pay special attention to Steal Divinity and what buffs you steal. They can certainly impact the results of pvp.
Some tips. When fighting tyrants, keep an eye out on the totems you steal. Rabbit is great, BIson is great, Ogre is nice if you are planning on Meleeing them. If you wish to get away, click off Ogre.
If your fighting a Phantom Ranger and you steal their buffs and you can not move. CLick off Deadeye.
If you steal buffs and your runspeed drops, you prolly just stole a Phrophecy buff. This is good, it means your enemy is now without it.
Soulhound has the tools to beat any and every class.
Not true. Soul hound has no means to beat a berserker(tried about 100 duels with a good zerker, won only 1... and i'm not bad at playing a soulbreaker)
If your fighting a Phantom Ranger and you steal their buffs and you can not move. CLick off Deadeye.
The class would be Hawkeye and the according skill is Snipe. Deadeye doesn't affect movement
Other than that yeah its hell of a fun class to play and can kill nearly everyone in pvp when well played. As aforementioned pay attention to buffs you steal and time your Painkiller well.
True, stealing snipe is like killing urself. And I agree with londo too that facing a zerker is hard yeah, but it's not like you have to lose more times... The thing is to have all your skills available and pay attention to disarm. If you use painkiller properly you don't even have to use SS to beat them. I have beaten higher lvl doombringers (I'm still a soulbreaker).
SoulHound is actually a great class, and it does have the tools to beat any other class. :)
Wow, you must be either woefully underleveled, undergeared, or just plain suck to lose 99 fights out of a 100 to a Doombringer. He will certainly beat you more times than you beat him but that's just plain ugly. I have fought many Zerkers and have one friend who can gank a 4-man S grade group and take them all down.
He doesn't suck by any means and the day he consistently beats me 10 times in a row is they day he wakes up from a dream and finds himself dueling with a B grader. He still wins more of our fights though for sure. (Grrr ^_^)
Wait a sec, you're the guy in Blue Wolf right? Anyways Kronk knows what he's talking about for sure, the Soul Hound can beat most classes, Doombringer included. You just need to know how.
Hehe, not in bw anymore, got my maje set completed. Tho yeah i was heavily undergeared and lower level... (also after bout 10 fights he had learned all my tricks... i can beat other zerkers but not the ones i constantly fight with)
Ah I see. It can be tricky if your patterns are obvious. You have to mix things up and watch your casts. You need to stay in melee range at all times. This is hard for any SB, and even worse for a female (no UD, no Strike Back)... Yet it works.
The real trick is mixing things up, casting carefully, and simply out-lasting him. In duels I guess it's actually even harder as you can't use CP pots (well it's kinda sad :P). If you can remove enough buffs from him, stupid stuff like root and fear start to land.
Just remember to get right into his face as soon as the thing starts. If it's a duel and he doesn't suck he will be pre-kiting backwards before the thing starts. Don't let him do this. With practice you'll get your win percentage up for sure.
At S grade, Soul hound damage is just dangerous. Giving one the opportunity to chance a mage crit or Checkmate spam or crit is not a good idea for any class, so basically he may not keep trying for a rush, giving you his back (in pvp tats, +dex + hardmarch you will be a good deal faster than him, especially if your female). Basically if he begins to simply swing at you, theres a good chance you will win. The smart ones wait a bit then try and catch you off-guard and run away. :)
Unlike fights with other classes, the longer the fight goes on for, the more likely you will win. You have more hp+cp than a typical zerker (I use +5 con + Health Laevateinn, while they mostly go Focus) and you have better evasion (+ dex). On top of that he will be without 7 buffs initially. More if it drags on. You can simply out last him. The funniest thing is when Maximum ability Triggers it's just lol. No other pvp situation will have this happen except in dangerous fights with zerkers. ;)
Not true. Soul hound has no means to beat a berserker(tried about 100 duels with a good zerker, won only 1... and i'm not bad at playing a soulbreaker)
The class would be Hawkeye and the according skill is Snipe. Deadeye doesn't affect movement
Other than that yeah its hell of a fun class to play and can kill nearly everyone in pvp when well played. As aforementioned pay attention to buffs you steal and time your Painkiller well.
Thanks for the correction on Hawkeye snipe. I have never played an archer. The archer I fought was a sub class, so I did not know what it was exactly to be honest. I just know I was stuck in place. I remembered a skill called deadeye, so I thought it was deadeye. Sorry, just a simple mistake. I will research stuff like that further in the future.
As far as Fighting a Berzerker, I have to correct you. People think the berzerker is the stronger class out of the 2 kamaels. This is absurd.
How to beat a berzerker 101? Ready for class kids?
First of all, I keep my weapon on my hotbar. How about you ?
Why? in case of disarm.
I steal their buffs, kite , root and nuke.
That is basically how I kill berzerkers I fight. Including the Hero berzerker on my server. We have great fights, he beats me sometimes and I beat him.
So, like I said, SoulHounds have the tools to beat any class!
Root does land and so does silence. Sure, if you cast a root or silence right at the beggining of a fight, it will probably not land. Why? crappy land rate. But once you use your tools given to you properly, Steal Divinity anyone?, then the land rate of a root or silence goes way way up.
I always, cancel first. If I pull their Prophecy buff, that means 2 things, I have it and they do not. That means my root will probably land. If I cast steal divinity a second time, they r in big big trouble.
Oh yes, stay on top of the berzerker when you fight them. Like glue, it feels odd at first, but it negates their charge skills.
Always keep an eye on your weapon.
I also use this strategy versus daggers. Root is the answer to Mirage if you do not steal it first of course.
Lastly, land rate is so lvl dependent, if your enemy is higher level then you, your skills fail more often. If you are higher level then your enemy, they land more. If you lose consistently to the same guy, one of two things are happening, he outlevels you, outgears you or you do notknow how to play the class. I do not mean to sound harsh, but 9 times out of 10 it comes down to lvls or knowing how to play the class properly. THe soulhound is not an easy class to play, we have a vast array of tools to handle many situations, but I sometimes feel as squishy as a robe user. We take too much damage imo for a Light armor class compared to other classes.
Goodluck have fun