Summoner or Warlock?

[Jinyuo]

I've noticed both pros and cons in both classes, and I have & am leveling both classes currently. I was just wondering, in your opinion, which class is stronger/more reliable, more fun to play? More difficult to master? Again I know I should play what I think is fun but I want the communities opinion.

[TheBlazz]

If we are only comparing the warlock and the summoner class. The summoner would be the most reliable class of the two for PVE content for the following reasons. Their kitty companion does not have a time limit like the warlocks thrall. Plus if you spent skill  points towards the kitty skills it can tank just about anything.

 

I find the warlock does more damage then the summoner but there is some downsides to the class. First the thrall summon will only last a max of 32sec if two points are spent in summon. To do the most damage in a short time you got to follow a skill rotation so you can do instacast of the skills.

 

I have both a summoner and warlock at lvl 45 which is geared just about the same right now. My warlock does more damage then my summoner. As for for the difficulty for playing both classes I find summoner easy to play. While warlock is some where middle of summoner and force master.

 

I have a force master as well.

[Hanano]

Summoner. Like TheBlazz said, the Warlock's Thrall lasts only 32 seconds, while the Summoner's Familiar lasts until it dies, and reviving it costs nothing but 5 seconds.

 

Overall, I found the Warlock strong and VERY fragile (seriously, you easily die in one hit from almost anything until about level 40), but at the same time predictable and boring. You don't have as many skill as a Force Master, so there aren't many things you can do with the character, and you don't have many evasion skills like a Summoner. You'll have to trust your many snare skills to force the enemy to get stuck in place. Almost every skill has a cast time, which can drive you crazy, and you can cancel skills if you overlap them by mistake before finishing the cast time. Basically, you'll find a circle of skills that will shorten the casting time of each other and cast them in the same order, over and over again.

 

While with other characters I had at least three different approach tactics to fight in different situations, the Warlock always fight the same. Warlocks are currently very expensive to make if you want to buy their weapons, and you cannot customize you Thrall, while you can customize your familiar in the big three towns via a special cat NPC.

I have a Blade Dancer, a Force Master, A Summoner and a Warlock, all level 45, and the fun of the character is much more important to me than the final damage it deals. The most fun I had was with the Force Master. The Summoner afterwards. Then the Blade Dancer, which was ok, and finally the Warlock, which felt like an unoriginal and uninspiring character.

[Alkyra]

I'm not pro, not a hc grinder just your usual "mrcasualguytryingtoplay", but here's my 2cents:

 

I have a lvl 45 kfm, 38 Summoner, 27 ForceMaster and currently levelling the Warlock. Gf has a lvl 45 quite well geared Summoner.

 

Leveling and Instances:

 

WL and Summoner is the same level, so far WL feels extremely...squishy yet powerful. I can oneshot almost everybody, can do all of the instance bosses with my gf (wl same lvl), but in greater dungeons if shit hits the fan you are in a bad spot. Not to mention you have to move around a LOT and most WL skill require to stand still...

So if you can pull out a rotation you deal tonsofdamage, but considering how BNS works most of the time that's not as easy to do. In the other hand Summoner is more like a " enemy does this - > then I answer with this". A lot easier to manoeuvre around and most of your skills are instant cast too. Leveling with Summoner is a breeze since it's 2vs1 from the start.

 

PVP:

 

In terms of how hard the class is summoner is a lot easier, while WL feels harder if you want to get the same results as other classes. Especially in PVP. With Summoner its really easy to start, gives high reward for little skill in the beginning, but after 1800 if you don't know how to play\counter\bait etc other classes they will mop the floor with you.

PVP with WL is extremely hard, in terms of effort and beginning I mean. It punishes you hard for any mistake, even more so than FM. (FM has a lot more defensive skill than WL for example) If they defend\disrupt your rotation then you are pretty much *cricket*ed for 20-30 seconds. Hint: Most classes can easily defend against your awesome looking dragons. :P

 

Design:

 

Summoner is more of the "imacuteandmahcatrapesyoface", while WL is more on the cool side. Animation for WL are sick, my gf says you can feel the "Hmpf! U die NAO *cricket*!" from every move they got. (we play Jin females). Well polished and very flashy. This is kind of a negative in pvp though ....(enemies can see what are you doing from a mile away..)

Most costumes look really good on Jin characters, while Lyn is mostly...funny or odd, rarely any outfit is good for them. However lyn summoner can outfit their pets too, while WL pet is more like a sideskill. You don't give a shit if they die, while a Summoner using her\his skill, named "Wish" trying to resurrect the cat and weeping buckets while doing so is one of the cutest things in BNS we think.

 

 

TL;DR: Summoner is cute, hard to kill and easy, WL is cool,  squishy and flashy.

 

 

 

 

 

[BlackstarSoul]

My main will be Summoner (SMN) since it is a jack-of-all-trade class. Warlock (WL) looks visually more appealing so it will be my alt for PvE, and Blade Dancer (BD)  is my alt for PvP. All three classes are level 45.

 

For arena PvP, I'd go for Summoner because Warlocks have some difficult hard counters (Force Master and Destroyer imo), they are squishy and only have two escapes.

 

For PvE, you'll be fine with both - just keep in mind that SMN = defensive support and WL = offensive support. SMN has a higher DPS than WL, but SMN's combat might feel more repetitive ("boring").