Low investment class

Vel

I've been browsing the forums for the last few days and I haven't been able to find a thread that has answered my question.. I'm looking for a low investment light side class that would be effective mainly in group combat and bashing. While I do enjoy 1v1s I understand that to compete at any reasonable level it would require quite abit more than I can afford. I'm coming from Imperian and have competed there on a mid-top tier level without artifacts.

Mephistoles

If you're not looking to buy any credits at all, I'd recommend ascendril. You can deal some damage in a group fight and since you can only have one set of vibrations in a room, you don't have to bother with crystalism, so you can just pour everything you have into Elemancy. That's probably the 'lowest' investment option there is.

If you're looking to buy credits so you can dual or tri trans your class skills, there are other suggestions but what I just said is definitely going to be your cheapest option.

Nalor

Luminary .. and just learn spirituality!!

All luminary skills are in spirituality (granted devotion and illumination has skills to help too but not really needed past adept in devotion) .. Also its good for bashing, and helping in lessers..

Luminry are similar to priest in Imp give or take, or its what Aetolia priest was turned into.

Vel

In theory, since credit prices are lower here and I'm told the gold drops aren't all that bad between that and the newbie lesson packs I should be able to come up with duel trans with scattered helpful skills. A month of Elite here and there isn't out of the question either.

Vel

I currently play a fast priest w/ a L1 Mace in imperian.. Its quite lolzy honestly. Originally Templar or Sentinel was suggested to me and I went with Templar. I did notice that Sentinels can combine toxins, are they able to vlock? I was never one for affliction tracking even in imperian until recently but I've always had pretty decent success with limb damage classes. Just not sure how effective that is here with pre-restore.

Nalor

Shamans - need eq arti and trans 2/3 skills as far as im aware, mainly vision to track afflictions better.

Daru you need Tekura and illumination to be tanky.

Templars personally needs credit investment plus tritrans (Could be wrong but from a personal view)

Ascendril are good but for bshing plus combat in group its not all that good / tanky

Luminary needs Spirituality, as now ALL the shield attacks are within that skill set, angel care/empathy too. You can easily track afflictions... Illumination is nice but not needed as it only adds buffs to defense, same with devotion. Adept is all good as you get bliss.

Sentaari is similar to Daru but, instead of illumintion its Kaido (which is monk in imp)

I bet someone will point me to be wrong but all in all personlly Luminary you just need Spirituality and just work on the others slowly. When I first game from Imp, its what I did.. as is so similar to Priest class in that mud.

Mephistoles

If you're going to dual trans with no artifacts, the most effective class for group fighting and bashing is probably going to be Daru. Trans illumination and tekura (tekura first). You'll tank and bash well, and in group fights you'll have good limb damage and be able to BBT to finish people off.

Luminary is going to be good too, Spirituality transed and then the rest split between illumination and devotion. You'll probably get a few more kills as a Daru. Chaining BBTs in a group is one of the most effective ways to kill someone. Someone might suggest Monk (it's very similiar to Daru) but you'd need a much larger credit/lesson investment because it's significantly less tanky.

Areka

Templar is a lot of fun, but requires tracking afflictions for venom routes (as well as limb damage for blunt routes). You can also afflict with blunt weapons via empowerments.

With the change in statpacks, you can get away with investing less, as well as new forging that has diminishing returns on weapon stats (so artifact weapons are less of a requirement, but an empowering weapon rune is still awesome for split-grade weapons). I would not recommend Templar, despite how much I love it, if you're looking for low investment. If you want to fight, you need to at least dual trans, through tritrans is best as Righteousness has all of our survivability skills.

Irruel

Ascendril makes sense because the third skill is enchanting - a craft skill.

Shapeshifter also makes sense because vocalisation is barely usable in groups, and shapeshifting has loads of utility stuff that you otherwise get from learning survival, so you can put your lessons first into ferality and then into shapeshifting.

If you particularly like venom classes, consider sentinel. I'd love to test how crossbow accuracy is pre-trans, but if you can hit people then you only need gauntlets in tracking, trans dhuriv, and then work on woodlore - but in group pvp you'll do fine purely with dhuriv and a bit of woodlore to give you a couple of animals. The crossbow is fun - but only "necessary" in single pvp, and even then purely for quickshot.

It depends on your playstyle. Ascendril is probably the best choice, but I've given you three options there - venom, limb or magic.

Moirean

Shapeshifting you can get most of the way based on your primary class's skills. Ie if you are trans, you get like up to fabled in shapeshifting.

Mephistoles

Yeah, but the problem with a low credit investment shapeshifter is that they're going to be extremely squishy. Same problem with Ascendril. Of the ones offered Daru and Luminary are best if you're just going to dual trans and not do much beyond that. Reasonable resistances and good offensive capability in a group.

If you're a dual trans shapeshifter without resistances you're getting stomped in a group fight. You'll die from damage too fast for you to ever really be effective and you'll always end up as one of the first targets. Plus, you'll have a hard time bashing.

Vel

As I said, I will probably be able to swing the newbie lesson packages if I get into it so duel trans is very likely at the least.

E: I think I've settled with giving Luminary a try. It seems to have both solid solo and group combat abilities. Thanks for the help!

Irruel

Daru is an excellent suggestion.

Ascendril remains good as well. Don't worry about the squishiness so much - you'll hit dual trans and then be able to work slowly on resistances etc. The frustrating part is probably vibes in unstable zones (i.e. lesser battles).

Shapeshifter group squishiness? Quietus (feign death), neckdrag single people out of the room. Nothing encourages a team to focus fire someone else more than guerrilla tactics.

Sentinel group squishiness? Step out of the room and shoot crossbow. Basically, same deal as for lycan except that you're practically made for this style.

Shaman could be good if it wasn't for the willpower investment. I don't recommend anyone taking up shaman if they aren't able to max their willpower regen. Having said that, a large portion of that willpower drain comes from stuff that is unnecessary for group pvp, so maybe it isn't out of the question - I'd be interested to hear from people that have played shaman with that level of investment.