Witch Hunter...are they now over powered - or did I just figure out finally how to play one?

It all happened at about the same time...

The upgrade to skill by the Dev Team and my strategy on playing a Witch Hunter.

First let me say that I never have read any fan site boards on WH - they totally ruined most of my experience in other games and are another whole editroial topic for me sometime in the future. This is the only site regarding War that I visit since you are all my War family and this is where we communicate besides in game chat and Vent.

The only thing I really changed in play style was deciding to not save my accusations - I was letting them build up to 4 or 5 before firing them off. Then after careful reading of the desciption I find my Blessed bullets rely totally on firing off my special shots. This did hit me like a a cast iron skillet up the side of my head by my mammy - BANG. (pun intended - ya know - a gun goes Bang! - ok - moving on)

I decided to try out firing off my special shots when ever I had an accustion up - which is easily every other move but at no more than 3 accusations which comes up a heck of a lot. All of a sudden mobs start dropping like flies during a hail storm. I'm able to move from one to the other even several levels higher than me almost non stop and if I have accustions built up I don't stop to loot until the smell of gun powder is out of the air.

So now I decide to take this new found discovery into orvr but this occurs at the same time they increase the WH damage - I now don't feel gimped in orvr as I did before and with a trait from the one line with a 50% chance of gaining 2 accusations after using them - I find my pistol shoots a lot more and my damage has really increased. After attacking sorcs and magus I now know why a WE 5 lvls lower than me can gut my BW without reproach.

Basically I'm just saying that I am happy now with the WH - a character I once played just because she looked good - now seems functional.

Yep, they modified your executions to be based on your Str rather than Ballistic skill as well. Basically they fixed our issue with having to stack several stats to be effective, and allow us to consolidate one like the other DPS classes. The Abso-spam is a very common technique used to create spike damage, though saving a 5 point abso can be devastating if you are slowly whittling down an opponent. Currently, I'm critting a squishy for 1500-1600 and putting about 350 in bullet damage on top of that with a 5 point Absolution. It's a very very nasty class at this point, much like the Witch Elf. Once you get your stun and silence timings down, along with other nice skills you are capable of killing pretty much anything, though tanks will give you a run for your money. Killing a tank will rely more on them being outleveled or take a lot of tactical thinking. Glad that you see the light! Save a few heretics for me though.

I have to admit I was a tad diasppointed at first. The WH was the main reason I checked out War and after 10 levels I switched because it just wasn't fun. I did play occassionnaly just because she looked cool - really - that was the reason - and she fits "me". I'm an avid shooting enthusiast and have a very bad blade fetish. I was told that after 20 they became really fun - but I didn't see it after I hit 20 - but then the change in play style and the damage boost and I'm enjoying the hell out of her - and she still looks good. Not too mention she has a name that I have used in almost every mmo I've played - Rayvyn.

My personal opinion is that there are no overpowered classes at present. There may be a few underpowered ones, but I don't think there are any overpowered ones. Case in point: Witch Elves are downright nasty if they get the jump on you, and they've got the tools to do it... however, if my Bright wizard, or even my Runepriest, catches one at range, bye bye Witch Elf. So far, the one I'm having trouble with is the Shadow Warrior... she does less damage than my Bright Wizard, and yet, is somehow squishier. It could be just a difference in equipment, or maybe she just doesn't have the levels to mature as far as she needs to for increased surviveability, but she just seems to die pretty fast and annoy people when she's not dead. Same thing, I've noticed, with Squig Hunters, Engineers, and Magi. I've *never* felt threatened by a Magus, on any character I've played. It's not just a matter of perception either... I've ignored them on most of my characters, running around, killing healers or whatever, while they hit me with spell after spell... and they still took like a minute or two to drop me. Squig hunters are the same way... basically no threat there. I'm sure this changes at higher levels... I've only been up to Tier 2 after all. But, for the low tiers, they seem like a little scotty dog... all bark and no bite.

SW is tough to play...This class is hard without macros and stance dancing and timer addons...in PVE when played carefully I've been able to take out melee heroes solo without much problems (e.g. solo kited the 16th marauder hero to death at 17th in Ostland), and I've kited 20th DOKs to death solo in T2 by timing burst damage when he was fully dotted (and being out of reach of course). When surprised, I auto sprint to get out of dodge cause we're just too damned squishy...we have to be good at picking our fights. When in groups, since I'm skirmish specced, I weave in and out of the front usually right behind tanks and mdps. It makes me a much smaller target, and people usually focus fire someone else. In ORVR destro tend to leave me alone while I'm pumping out 100 - 400 damage not counting crits per target per second with split arrow depending on class. For example on stairs in keeps I would sit on the middle and pump out consistent damage per second to everything in lords room or on the 3rd floor stairs and people ignore me...and rack up a ton of kills on soft targets. I use a ton of pots so it helps to have apoth :) Of course, one can argue that you can do the same with other classes and probably easier...we are somewhat underpowered, especially in the scout tree...But I enjoy the versatility of the class, there's just so much options available. I'm sure I'll probably complain more when I get higher in ranks, but so far, I'm having fun.