Rune Priests

The blog wherein Ardy stops giggling like a loon and actually discusses his desired class, Rune Priests.

At the risk of reiterating anything I may have stated before here or elsewhere, I have always found when starting a new MMO I gravitate to whatever represents the support classes. I was a Jenquai Explorer in Earth & Beyond, a good corp miner in EVE, my first City of Heroes character was a Forcefield defender (before the global defense nerf and ED, I was epic). In any other games I go the same way.

So having read the original career choices when I was pointed back at Warhammer Online, I found myself drawn to Dwarves, and the Rune Priest in particular. Finally though, with a release date set and beta drawing ever closer for me, the newsletter has released the Masteries details.

Rune Priest Career Masteries

Path Of Grungni
A master of this path focuses on powerful and direct effects, learning to both restore his allies and smite his enemies with equal skill. The path of Grungni is for those who prefer to focus on a single target at a time, be they friend or foe, and unleash powerful effects upon them.

Follow Grungni, learn to heal the crap out of your friend. Blow up the other guy. This does sound like an interesting path, and I am sure for duo play or in particular situations it will shine through. Main tank getting a little ragged? Bam! Healed up to the gills.
Add to this the little thing we got from the Gamespy Beta preview, you can target an enemy and an ally at the same time, and the various powers will only affect the appropriate targets. You become a frontliners best friend, debuffing and healing/buffing the same one on one combat.
Not for me though, though I am sure there are fantastic options in it.

Path Of Valaya
An arguably more subtle mastery, the path of Valaya is focused on effects which continue to linger after they've been invoked. A master of this path prefers to stick to tested, tried, and true slow-and-steady abilities, whether he's building up his allies' strength until they become unstoppable, or whether he's grinding his enemies down with inevitable and unescapable doom.

Valaya the Healer. Valaya the DoT path. Valaya the Siege preferred mastery. When time isn't an issue, endurance is. Again, probably not for me. There are those who like subtle effects and gradually changing the course of things. I though, I am called lemming in City of Heroes. No, my path seems to be...

Path Of Grimnir
This path is concerned with runes which affect large, sweeping areas as they unleash their innate power. A specialist in this path is an expert at changing the ebb and tide of combat by either bolstering his allies' entire front line, or by sending vast swaths of crushing power across the enemy masses.

If this works how this reads, I've found my path. I'm going to get stuck right in there and help change how things are going. I think it was Boatarious who blogged about how it can be just as much, if not more so, fun to lose the battle. To have to fight for every step, even though the fight is doomed. This is where I'm going to try and be. The last desperate defenses, the first mad rushes, the front line of the battle. Doesn't matter if we're winning or losing, I'm getting stuck in and having fun.

And who knows? I may even be able to change the tide of the battle once in a while.