3.1 T1/T2 Black Orc Class Review

Ok, Here is the second installment of Class Reviews from 3.1. The Black Orc, I will be doing a couple of Order classes next, just to be fair.

Quests / Public Quests in all zones
Scenarios in all zones
Open RvR in all zones

Intro:
I had a good time playing the class. The first couple of levels are OMG boring for this class though. Very limited in what you can do. I think Rank 8 (I cant really remember when it was) when your skill selection is getting good, and you have a moral ability, is where it started getting interesting. Da Good Plan - Da Best Plan very interesting mechanic as well. Your first attack can be a high aggro generating attack, a armor debuff or a weapon skill increase. So depending on what you are doing you have to choose. Then your second skill in the chain can be a snare/dot, a armor buff for you, or a weapon skill debuff for your target. Then your 3rd is a big DPS dump.

I am not going to go into when and how to use the skills, but I will say I never hit the same ones in the same order when I am in PvP. They all depend on who is getting hit, and if I am defensive or offensive or any other number of things going on. Man I love that aspect of no rolling your head on the keyboard and being successful.

Solo PvE Leveling via Quests:
I didnt have any problems with very many quests. The couple of quests I did have problems with were the ones that had pretty much instant respawn timers, so I would be fighting 6-8 mobs back to back most of them 2 at a time. The fact that I was able to last as long as I did was a testament to thier survivability. The lack of 2 handers at low levels really limits your options, which I think Mythic is going to change (I think I read somewhere that they are adding a twohander early on to help with this)

Public Quests:
Here is your oportunity to get some gear. As a black orc after you get your taunt ability, you should be coming in first or second in just about every PQ there is. I believe that the calculations on threat and tanking are very favorable to the BO, especially in PQs that only have 2 stages (which seems to be what most people use to max influence). If you dont have a healer you will die and you will not come in first/second. Stage 1 just grab every mob you can. Tank them and let people DPS them off of you. You arent being greedy, this is a TANKS job. Keep as much aggro on you as your healers can handle. Champion and Hero fights should be all the Tanks fighting for aggro, keep aggro the longest and you should come in first. Again, only take as much as your healers can handle. You will get a feel early on in a PQ if shamans are healing (which they should because it counts WAY more in contribution than DPS, this is just my opinion but to me when I Was on the shaman it really "FELT" that way).


PvP Scenarios:
Good place for a Black Orc to get RPs. I did this way more on the BO than I did on the Shaman. I will explain more in the Open RvR part why. Your ability to change your role is very important. If you can learn to do this, you will make a GREAT black orc, and kill many many "stunties".

Role 1: DPS. Pull out that two hander and go to town. This role is most effective if you have a pocket healer. What is a pocket healer you ask? Well, a pocket healer is a friend that you know is going to heal you first and formost above anyone else. Granted, any class with a pocket healer is going to shine. On my shaman, I pocket healed a witchelf one game. End stats were Destruction Damange 36k, Witch Elf Damage 19k. She did more than half of all of Destruction damage. I had 17k healed that game ROFL. On my BO, in T2 Chaos Scenario I had 37k damage. Only one above me was a Sorc (expected). Everyone else was 10k below us.

Role 2: Defensive Tank. Dont discount the amount of DPS you can put out in this role. You can still kill stuff, you just cant pump out the DPS like the other weapon. Your strengh here is your guard ability, and your morale increase regen rate ability. If you are wearing a sword and board and you are not moving your guard from player to play, then I dont think you are being as effective as you can be. In any given engagement I will switch my guard 3 to 10 times. YES that many. Whoever is getting focused gets my guard. Even if I have a pocket healer. at level 11 I had over 2k hits, that is usally over 600 more than any melee DPS and 800 more than squishys. You switching your guard will be the difference between a healer having time to keep someone healed, and someone getting focused down in 3 seconds flat.

Role 3: Offensive Soak. That is what I like to call it. Run out there, get aggro from every Order player and take one for the team. Depending on your healers, you can keep them busy enough for your DPS train to kill off a few squishies.. How do I make sure that they all focus on me? EASY... RUN RIGHT THROUGH AND ATTACK THIER HEALERS. YOU WILL GET FOCUSED WHEN YOU DO THAT. Well unless they suck, in which case you just kill thier healer or lock him/her down so they cant heal anyone but themselves. In which case you are being successful anyways.


Open RvR:
This is where playing the class may become a struggle. Once a keep door goes down and you are fighting the PvE part of it you are fine. But when you are taking it down, or you are trying to push into the Lord Room. You pretty much have to hope your healers can try and keep up with the damage you are taking. Expect to die, but its ok, you are supposed to die. Keep takes arent that bad though and can actually be REALLY fun. The frustrating part is when you are in zerg on zerg standoffs. Man those can be anoying. I usually make it my goal to pick out some "I like to DPS but cant heal" class and kill them before I die. So I basicall find a with hunter, or caster dps and charge them from the side and try and kill them before I get focused down. 4 times out of 10 it will work. Most the time I just die and consider myself lucky to give my orc blood to the gods that demand it.

When I have my peeps around me (peeps being guildies or people who will listen) I will flank the zergs and do some OMG damage to thier support in the back. Man that is fun. When you are able to get small scale stuff in the open, you are able to see why this game will be an amazing game. Zerg v Zerg is fun like crazy when the standoff finally ends and the 2 zergs decide to make an epic battle. During these you do the best you can to use your skills. But it is hard in the heart pounding action of epic-ness. When the cities do get sieged. Man it is going to be NUTZ!


PvP WEAKNESS:
The one glaring weakness of the Orc is one that a lot of Melee classes will suffer during zerg v zerg standoffs. There really isnt much you can do but charge, die, and hope you were able to stop the standoff. Or you can sit back and pick off the one or two melee that charge (can get boring if no one ever charges). If you are not getting heals. You will release often. (kinda true with any class) but even more true of melee in general.
Oh and as a BIG fatty. You make an easy target (which I guess is good since you ARE a tank), however it may just be me, but I feel my Black Orc gets kyted much easier than my other classes. I dont know if it is because my snare is only 30% or if it is because I am a fatty and cant cut the corners like the skinny elves can.

NOTE: If I play destruction, odds are this will be the class I play as my main. And not just because my guild needs me to. Maybe I just like being a big fatty. The key mechanics that makes me love this class are the way the attacks works.

Da Good Plan - Da Best Plan very interesting mechanic.

Again, if this is helping people, I will keep them coming.


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