Author: neoelasticman
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I've decided that, on a regular schedule of whenever I feel like it, I'll hand out my two cents on the basics and sometimes more advanced concepts found within professions. I'll be the first to admit I'm not right all the time, but that's why comments are so great! Feel free to start a discussion down there; I always love to see what our awesome people out there have to say! I'm not writing this as a guide because of that reason, because this is a matter of discussion, and I'm not actually telling you how to do anything in particular with what I'm presenting here.
Our first topic is the matter of primary versus secondary professions, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and whatever else I think of as I type, so long as it relates to Primary or Secondary. Let’s start by skimming the more obvious parts, for completeness, and then I will go into more detail for each.
There are a few basic differences that a player must consider when choosing his two professions. Firstly, decide which two you want. Let’s assume that you have that figured out. Now, you want to decide which one will be your primary and which is your secondary. Many aspects of your character are affected by this choice. To start, your armor is that of your primary profession. You must also consider which Primary Attribute you would prefer to have. Back on armor, you can only apply runes that affect your primary attributes. Thus, skills are similarly suited to be stronger, indirectly, when they belong to your primary profession. What many players may overlook, though, is considering the roles within your party you are likely to have, and their effects on your character. Now let’s go into more detail.
All characters have the exact same intrinsic characteristics, e.g., a Monk’s natural defense is exactly the same as a Warrior’s. The same is true of offense. Accuracy with a weapon is likely the same as well. Essentially, all these intrinsic equalities between characters means that your armor, or the level thereof, is the only difference between how much damage you take and how much your enemy takes. Anything beyond that that applies to a specific armor will be designed to be helpful for your Primary, which is also something you must consider, but we’ll get back to that later. Armor level should be weighed into what you intend to do with your character. Some don’t need much armor, but others require a slightly higher Armor Level.
While we’re in the realm of the obvious, let’s get detailed about another more obvious effect your choice of profession order has on your character. I hope you have a general strategy picked out for your character, because this will be what helps you choose which Primary Attribute is more effective for you. If you were to choose R/Me or Me/R, you would need to choose between Fast Casting or Expertise. Will you be casting spells? Will you be using more non-spell skills? Will you even need to use the Primary Attributes? This can weigh heavily on your decision or not at all.
Runes are another factor that may weight into the equation, as was mentioned our brief intro. You are only allowed to apply Runes that affect attributes from your Primary Profession. If you rely heavily on runes to achieve your goals, this important to consider. Even if you don’t, it is still a necessary consideration because of your skills.
Let us now consider the less-than-obvious idea of your role in the group. This is, of course, assuming that there is a group. Let’s assume that there is. Your role is very much dependant on your Primary Profession. Monks are supposed to protect and heal, warriors are supposed to tank. Each profession’s identity is fairly well-defined within the game. This can affect you in one of two ways. The more common by far is to adhere to your assigned position, and do what is expected of your character. There are advantages to this method as well as the second method which we will come to shortly. This one is by far the easier to play method.
The alternative is to go against the grain, and I would only recommend this for advanced players. We might play, for example, a character that is geared toward healing others, but is not a Primary Monk. He might be an Elementalist, with a Secondary Monk. In this case, the E/Mo must sacrifice Divine Favor and instead have Energy Storage, perhaps choosing this for the larger amount of energy provided. He may also choose to be an Elementalist Primary because of the Elementalist’s role in the game. Normally, an Elementalist is expected to shoot massive spells at the enemy. They will first target the group’s Monk instead. Meanwhile, the Elementalist is going unnoticed while he’s healing his allies. This “Secondary Primary” Profession idea is a very effective one, and extremely devastating when used correctly.
That’s it for now, folks! Discuss, enjoy, and strategize! If you have any ideas for my next lesson in Professions 101, feel free to PM me or write a comment here.
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