I feel the server has been pretty active no matter when I log in.
I got on at 4am est the other night, and there was all kinds of action.


European players now play on the US Servers.

Being new to the game it may take a while before you are able to get in a decent 8v8 group, but you should be able to find action either cost guarding or running with a zerg.

Stick with it. Take note of which guilds are active when you play. (you can check out buff bots for guild names).

I think the action has been a lot better over the last year then it was in 2010 and 2009.

Again stick with it.

The new user hubs and battlegrounds are especially helpful when just starting out as far as gearing up a toon and getting your feet wet. As for healing classes, levelling up a druid is a real PITA, they have very little offense. Spec nature until you're high enough to get to Molvik, you can always respec later. My main is my druid, and I love playing her.

Smite Cleric has been a blast in the bg's, I do plan on respeccing her later but she does some pretty decent damage out there.

With both of those classes and specs you can still offer up some healing. I don't know much at all about healers, I haven't tried Midgard yet.

 

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DAOC is a well polished, somewhat balanced and very intense PvPvP aka RvR aka WvWvW game. The graphics may remind you of
games you played on the Pentium 2 but thats ok.

Go cleric. Bard is most challenging class of all to play.

be prepared to shell out 30+ month to compete

 

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Thats bs, you only need 1 buff account to like 4+ ppl. If he finds a decent guild there were be enough buff bottage from everyone who does shell out 30+ a month that he won't have to. Even then you don't need one, they're more of a luxury now.

With that said, being that he wants to play a pure healer he will again need a guild to do anything pve related. If not, he will need at least 1 more account.


Anyways to the OP. Having played all 3 main healers at lvl 50, I suggest a Druid. Out of the 3 main healers it feels like it has the most utility while still being a pure healer. Clerics have profanity cc which gets frustrating fast. Otherwise they are great and come equipped with lightning bolts. Healers, have essentially too much utility for someone starting out. Its great if you have an 8man to run with. But, if you find yourself running random pugs (which you will be, at least at the beginning) you will be asked to cc more then heal as healers play the roll of the main cc class. This is frustrating if all you want to do is hit celerity and throw out some hp. Druids are like a cleric with roots, disease and a pet instead of stuns, nukes and crappy pbae mez/snare. As a Druid you have lots of nice utility but at the end of the day you are still a healer. And I also loved my commando in TOR. The only reason I quit was all my friends I was playing TOR with decided if they are going to mmo they might as well daoc lol.

As for be a Warden...Just don't. Yes they are a good healer but they are merely a substitute for when you can't find a second bard. Sorry.

 

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lol at my 2am non-proof read grammar. Looks like an ESL student wrote that.

 

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Yes there's plenty of people.

Play all 3 realms.

My suggestions for what you describe would be Shaman on mid, Warden on Hib, and Friar on alb. But keep in mind that healing at lower levels is vastly different than it is once you start getting into ToA+ stuff (read past Molvik/lvl 39+)

 

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Wardens are essentially mirrors of friars now, and good alb groups have run with rejuv friars for a long time. Wardens are not substitutes for a second bard, they are a replacement for the second Druid in a Hib group.

 

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Replacement for when you can't find a second Druid. Or if you can rationalize that the gains from pbt and extra resist buffs are worth dropping spread heals, insta heals and all the other utility you get from druids. But most groups would rather have a second druid instead of warden.

So my whole point for this guy trying the game out is: why put yourself in a position where you may or may not be wanted/needed for a group setup when you can be a must for every group setup.





He wants to be the main healing support. That is a druid (or cleric or healer). Only recently have wardens been given the role of sit back and heal... the thing is that's all this new role does. And it doesn't do as good of a job as Druids.

 

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I've played all 3 realms at 50, and I suggest you play a Cleric in albion. Hibernian players at 50 are very cliquey and generally refuse to group people they don't know. Midguard players tend to form "perfect" groups and won't group you unless you are exactly the type of healer they need (mend or pac; also midguard healers are even harder to play than most primary healers as they have so many jobs to do). In albion (zerg at least, which is what you will be playing to RR [realm rank] up on) people will form groups of 2 clerics + anything, including stealth. Though if you play a druid you could probably play hib and get groups regularly.

About primary healers: the one thing you NEED to know about DAoC is that it has a hard interrupt system. If you get attacked by something (meaning virtually any damage at all) you are LOCKED DOWN. You CAN NOT cast without special realm abilities like mastery of concentration (30 seconds on a 10 minute timer). Primary healers in DAoC are an EXTREMELY skill based class. You will find that leveling up in zerg warfare you will very rarely be hit directly be hit (assuming proper positioning), but as soon as you graduate to 8v8 you will be required to learn all sorts of positioning skills including pre-kitting, range evaluation, proper extending, and EXTREMELY fast reflexes. If you do are not able to do these things well you will get a rep as an "ok" cleric and not get good group invites. This will relegate you to zerging or poor PuGs (pickup groups) that will die every fight. However, if you think you are a potentially high skill player who can master these abilities I assure you, you will have no gaming experience like DAoC. The first time you heal a 5 minute 8v8 fight that goes back and forth and your group finally wins through superior coordination and player skill your adrenaline will be pumping and you will lean why DAoC has such a rabid following and is still, 10 years later, hands down the best PvP game on the market.

-MacAran

P.S. If you end up rolling a cleric, or indeed any primary healer, you can PM me here on VN, or find me in-game on "Romeo," and I will tell you some tips on general playing and specific primary heal tactics.