Let me begin by saying: The last thing I want from Sony is another nerf to
any class. I benefit from the uberness of the uber.

Secondly: What in god's name possesed them to introduce another dps melee?
Can anyone think of even a BAD reason to do so? Monks and rogues are almost
dead as a class, it is CLEAR they're having real problems thinking of stuff
for pure melee's to do, WHY compound it by adding yet another class to this
fallen category?

Thirdly: I am a 65/101 shadowknight who caps out at 7,474hp. I consider
myself fairly average for a 65 SK on my server. I state my class and status
to clarify my viewpoint more than anything. This is important to note as my
comments will be WAY off base for both (Eg) level 30 characters, and
full-time raiding folk who are now Elemental, Time, or GoDing it up. I will
of course be delighted to hear from other viewpoints.

Lastly: following is a list of classes and my thoughts, in many cases
ill-informed (those of you who play those classes please step forward and
swipe away :).

Monk: A guildie of mine is a monk. Aside from him, I rarely see monks at all
anymore. When monk tanking was nerfed, at first I felt vindicated - and then
I realised they weren't just put behind plate classes - they were put back
so far they cannot tank at all. I also regularly out-dps this monk. We have
a comparable number of AA's. Monks, like SK's *used* to have the benefit of
FD pulling, however this has been more or less arbitrarily erased from the
game. Monks cannot solo. Monks have poor applicability to groups, and monks
are no longer terribly useful on raids. Their tanking and pulling abilities
are next to dead, and their DPS is behind every single class that considers
itself DPS, and in many cases behind hybrids as well.

Rogue: I haven't logged a rogue recently. Last time I did, I wasn't that
impressed, but they certainly left monks for dead. I can't *Really* comment
here, but for the sake of completeness, I *imagine* these guys are barely
behind of monks in the "forgotten class" stakes.

Shadowknights: Like monks, we used to FD pull. I literally have not used FD
to pull in *six months*. It is useless in any time-limit situation, and even
where my guild raids, we're either pulling hordes to clear them - in which
case a shammy with AOE slow pulls for us - or taking on a single mob. My
tanking is quite rightly below that of a warrior, however I no longer am
really ahead of a similarly geared warrior in agro generation. A warrior can
generate agro more or less well enough for any group not to consider an SK
over a warrior. Further, I have been arbitrarily f.cked in tanking VS
paladins, who now have an extra spell that stacks with V+Brells, giving a
pally with identical gear several hundred HP more than I do. As is
mathematically evident, a few hundred HP is *irrelevant*, however the
in-game fact is that in people's minds, a few hundred HP is enough to decide
one over the other. I simply do not tank on raids except in dire
emergencies. Further, paladin tanking is easier to bring up than
shadowknight - stuns are more readily available than *useable* vampirism. My
earlier vampiric joy at using Bond of Death has vaporised - 80/tick is now
irrelevant and the spell is not replaced with a useable one. My lifetaps
began being irrelevant at level 9, and could be now removed from the game as
an entire spell line without any effect on the class whatsoever. I will
require many more AA's to build up lifetap-procs into something I can
vaguely mitigate with. My DPS, although too high in comparison to a pure
melee, lags so incredibly far behind other hybrids and especially casters as
to vanish into total irrelevance. As an incredibly difficult and
disheartening class to level to 65, I feel shadowknights should be at least
on par balancewise, to any class. I'm also at a total loss as to why my
ability to Solo, never a threat to anybody, has been arbitrarily removed
from the game. My hybridness with necros is *Still* not realised, as I am
still paying Necro mana costs for old necro spells, without necro mana
regeneration (or five seconds out of any minute to med). The interesting
thing is that I can generate almost FT10 for a group, and with another spell
from GoD I might get in the next 12 months I can extend that to FT20 -
however I would have to spend 20 minutes with a spreadsheet, sliderule and
whiteboard proving this to a prospective group. Frankly, this
irrelevant-to-the-sk-theme ability has come too late to save us from total
obscurity. The inevitable response to this 20 minute discourse is "ok... but
what is a 'shadowknight'". In skelly form I am invariably mistaken for a
necro by any stranger (even in my own guild) who groups with me.

Paladins: Only slightly less forgotten that shadowknights, these hybrid
tanks enjoy the single worst DPS in the game, save for clerics and mebee
druids, and except of course against undead (if you have more AA's than your
local uberguild has a.sholes). Elevated slightly above shadowknights in
tanking via stun-mitigation and a few extra HP, my knight brothers are still
too far behind warriors to be noticed, and are only in use in my guild
because we have only one warrior who turns up regularly to raids. This
class's hybrid clericness is *Still* far from realised in-game; their heals
are *Still* so far behind as to be near irrelevant - occasional mana savers
at best.

Warriors: Much as these amiable gentle giants seem to be delighted with the
prospect of being top-tank again in all areas (a position I in no way ever
wish to threaten again - the cost is too f.cking awful), I still think their
overall balance within the game is just barely above the totally screwed
classes I have just finished w.nking on about. Or perhaps it is the mind
numbing one-dimensionality of this class that gives me waves of nausea
trying to stack them up against almost anything else? Still - being top-tank
isn't THAT great in a game where almost half the population are tanks of
some sort, and 99% of groups want... one. And warrior soloing is never a
credible option. On the other-other hand, it can't be all that bad being a
warrior; as the lvl-65-population of them seems to outnumber SK's and
pallies combined.

Wizard: After 65 levels and 100AA's these guys can nuke noticeably better
than mages (hooray). Who have beaten them to death all along with their pet,
and continue to beat them at this level. Manaburn may's well be deleted, as
can porting and even evacs - by the time you've done casting it, the
Death-Touch-Quadding mobs have eaten your friends. And you. Another
one-dimensional class now that their utility has been reduced to a quick way
back to the Brotherhood camp after your LDoN adventure. Nevertheless, their
ludicrous high-end DPS, especially in bursts on raids, keeps them well above
the "forgotten" crowd. A case of 50% of the character being forgotten, and
the other 50% being so uber they're kinda balanced now - if a little one
dimensional.

Druid: The great root-rotting soloist is a mediocre nobody in the world of
30-second fights and 80% group bonuses. His abrupt re-re-re-training as a
healer has saved his grouping neck, and charm soloing remains a cool
option - but he's the bottom of the top rungs.

Necro: Another great soloer - now reduced to mana-factory status in groups.
Lusted after still for slightly-better-than-useless-DPS, quite good at
single-mob crowd control (A group which can handle one mob per member is
bloody awesome) and rarely turned down by folks who don't like running OOM,
these guys are off their high horse and up sh.t creek with the rest of us,
but they sure have a paddle.

Zerker: wtf?

Shaman: These guys aren't currently stuffed, but they're definitely on the
way back down. They can solo, they're *lusted* after for groups, they're
critical on raids... but they work their reeking a.ses off to get (and stay)
there, and have very little to look forward to right now.

Ranger: If you can save up 50k, or sell ALL of your gear to reach it, you
can be stark naked except for your stonewood and still out-dps most classes.
You can kind-of-tank exp-PoP but why bother? With so many unemployed tanks
out on the streets begging for food... And hats off to you, you ate sh.t for
60 levels getting there!

Cleric: We're in the top rungs now. Any group that doesn't already have a
cleric will take a cleric. A lot of groups who do already have a cleric will
take a cleric. A raiding guild with 97 clerics will take another cleric.
They can't solo for sh.t, mostly because of all the tells they get, begging
them to join a group or guild. Who could be alone with all that lust raining
down on them?

Enchanter: A slight fall from total king of the pops has not mitigated this
guy's top-notch solo, group and raid desireability. Also a wonderfully fun
class to play, tons of dimension, no shortage of options. A bit papertanky
for me, but I still adore my little chanter alt.

Beastlord: Any group, guild, or park bench that says 'no' to a beastlord
should be shot, hung, drawn, quartered and made to watch reruns of the brady
bunch. A monk with some nukes and a necro-level pet - and shammy spells from
3 levels ago. Plus your very own stacks-with-C mana regeneratorernator.
These guys have never worked an honest day in their life :o)

Mage: Highest DPS class in the game - but NOT a pure DPS class (how's that
for unbalanced?). I group regularly with a mage who has 300AA's.
Essentially, grouping with a mage means pulling fast enough to feed him a
steady steam of mobs to shred. This guy's pet tanks almost as well as I do,
better if you count the fact that his owner can heal him, whereas I don't
have an owner. Or healing worth a damn. His pet almost eclipses my damage
too. The 2nd best nuker in the game, and for argument's sake capable of
soloing. NO group who has a healer and slower will turn a mage down. No
guild will turn a mage down if he's in their league. The life of a mage:
take a break from DPS only long enough to completely shame tanks with your
pet, or do some CC, or summon something jaw-dropping and vital. Or CoTH, or
pull, or DS, or modrod, or...

Bard:  Still absolutely crapping on everyone else, but remaining rare due to
the fact that people who play bards hands come off and jitter around on the
floor in their mid 60's. Or earlier.

Ok so there you gottit. Maybe tomorrow I'll stop whining and post some
positive suggestions :)

Cheers,
James