Mixed Emotions: The Holy Knight

(Sorry there has been a lack of updates this past week, I usually try to post at least twice a week, but that hasn't been the case.  I've been busy with in-game stuff, game related stuff, and real life issues that it has taken me away from posting... but here's a somewhat emotional update on what's happened this past week.)

{I'll pretty this up with some screenshots later, most of what I have is at home.)

After a LONG and ardous journey, my cleric has finally reached prestige.  It was with great deliberation that I finally decided to make her a Holy Knight.  Up until the other day, I was so sure that I was going to be a Guardian, that it never really crossed my mind to go the HK route.

So what brought about the change?  And why did I want to be a Guardian in the first place?



It's a bit easier for me to answer the second question first.  So why did I want be a Guardian?  The answer may sound silly to some of you, but honestly I just really liked the Rebirth skill animation!  Yeah, yeah, I know... something like that is so minor that it shouldn't really factor in to my decision.  But to me, it does.  A lot of my enjoyment of Fiesta comes from the beautiful environments, the sparkly skills, and the impressive costumes and armors.  I guess I'm a very visual person, I guess you can tell that by scanning my blog or any 'works' I submit on the forums.  Keep in mind that this is now my 3rd character to reach prestige and honestly, the least of my four to play.  That being said, 'playability' wasn't too high on my list of must-haves for this choice.  If we were in a guild war, I'd be better off on my Warlock or Sharpshooter, same goes for raiding or most any other situation.  I'm a good cleric, but my heart just isn't in it.  I can get the job done well, but really to my own displeasure.

Another factor was that I had already accumulated two of the four pieces of the Advanced Protection Set for Guardians from Leviathan's Nest.  I had already picked up the helm and the shirt, I had nothing for Holy Knight as all along I was thinking going Guardian.  I also had accumulated all of the Guardian green armors, I had nothing for HolyKnight.

I also have more Hammer Skins than I do Mace Skins.  I currently have 3 Hammer Skins active on my Cleric, now HolyKnight, a 3k uber cute Stargazer (the one with the sheep! OMG SHEEP!), a festive 25k Wintertide, and a perfect-for-this-time-of-year 10k Lantern, y'know the one that looks like a Jack-O-Lantern?  My only mace skin, while lovely, is the somewhat vanilla Trumpy Hearts variant, pretty, but quite blah compared to what I have on the Hammer side.  Yeah I know I can still use the Hammer skins as eye candy, but still, it would be nice to at least be able to use them all the time, y'know?  Oh!  I also have a 25k Cold Hearted Hammer skin unactivated in my premium inventory... *sigh*

So yeah.... strikingly beautiful Rebirth, half-accumulated LN Blues, fully gathered greens, an abundance of quirky hammer skins.. and yet I went HolyKnight.  Here's why..... though I still second-guess my own conclusions....

As you all now, I'm a Forumaholic, from my computer at work, to my computer at home, to even my BlackBerry, I peruse about the forums at Outspark.com.  I guess to me knowledge is power and I really do enjoy the debates, the opinions, and the criticisms by my fellow community members.  That being said, of course I would take to the forums like a kid chasing down the ice cream truck.  I went through many of the Guardian vs. HolyKnight debates, looked over the various skill empowerments, playstyles and the like and formulated a scientific conclusion.  That conclusion, based on my own playstyle, the appeal of the subclass-specific skillset pointed me in the direction of HolyKnight.

Skillset Comparison:

HolyKnight -
Deadly Blessing... truly a joy, a short duration of pure crit. 
Dispel Purge... disgustingly irritating in a PvP environment when removing all of your buffs.
Purification... a wide-spread, weaker version of Dispel Purge.
Endure upgrades... who wouldn't love those? 
Protect upgrades... same deal here. 
Bash upgrades... great, but not all that necessary, though I do find myself soloing often.

Guardian -
Rebirth... nice skill to have, but not all that helpful in most situations.
Dispel Pillar... removes all the debuffs from a friendly target... great but long CD.
Dispel Field... removes one random debuff from your party...
Heal upgrades.... which are bugged at the moment.
Rejuvenate upgrade.... this would be highly desirable to me.

Weapon choice:  I much prefer the Mace to the Hammer not only for the overall damage output but also just the aesthetic beauty of the weapon.  From level 20 onward, the mace has been a better looking weapon.  There are some exceptions here and there, like the awful 60 mace, and while both level 80 cleric weapons are atrocious (Horse heads? c'mon.......) the mace is worse than the hammer, but in general, the maces are more pleasing to my eye at least.  The hammer swing is aggravatingly slow to me as well.

Alright, so my formulaic method tells me that HolyKnight was the right choice, the consensus on the forums is that the HK class is superior to the Guardian class and just provides a more enjoyable play experience.... so why am I second guessing my choice so much?

I guess the biggest factor is that honestly, I just don't play my cleric and wouldn't play her much anyway.  So skillset and playability aren't really factored in, or at least shouldn't be.  My heart was set on being a Guardian and my mind convinced me otherwise.  It's too early to say that I completely regret my choice, only time, and actually playing the class, will tell.



Anyone out there want to shed some light?