They Cost Not Lots

The first 10 levels of my Black Orc have been very enjoyable ones. Thus far, it seems pretty obvious that this class is all about the tanking. It is NOT the equivalent of a WoW fury warrior. The bulk of the skills gained in these first ten levels are geared towards defensively buffing yourself or, on the more offensive side of things, debuffing enemies and being a right royal pain in the arse to them. There are very few pure DPS skills though. By the end of level 10, Black Orcs have the core skills they need to be an effective PVE and PVP tank. They have the ability to taunt mobs and enemy players and a number of useful skills to help defend their allies. There are however very few skills of the type that include "causes addition threat" in the tooltip. I'm sure these will come later. Overall the class has a feel of survivability > damage, and when it comes to survivability the Black Orc has it in spades. "Da Toughest" is the coolest skill ever (gained very early on too) and goes a long way to making the Black Orc the survival machine that he is. Each weapon swing gives a 25% chance to proc an increase in Wounds and a self heal. It is awesome and if it gets nerfed I think I will seriously roll up into the fetal position and cry!

In PVE I have found myself to be one very tough cookie. Using the right buff/dps rotations I am able to take on a surprisingly large number of same level mobs without too much of a problem as well as take on single target higher level mobs (3-4 levels higher)without breaking a sweat. Holding aggro on Champion/Hero mobs in a group setting is easy enough so long as the DPS give you a few seconds to establish aggro. It does seem however that at least in the initial threat building phase that "Clobber" has to be spammed. If it is left out of the rotation in favor of other skills it seems that the DPS can catch threat up rather quickly. Overall, I don't feel like a DPS powerhouse in PVE, but I do feel extremely tough, knowing that I can wade into almost any danger (within reason) and have the skills available to survive it.

The most fun that I am having in these first ten levels though is not from the PVE experience, but rather, the PVP. PVPing as a Black Orc is just plain fun! Whilst not able to do burst damage at all, I can take an absurd beating and still stay standing. If I am fortunate enough to have a pocket healer, I am nigh invincible unless focus fired by a number of DPS classes. One on one battles can last forever and a day though. I think one fight I had with an Archmage lasted for over 5 minutes. With "Da Toughest" healing me along the way and his lack of pure DPS he was unable to kill me, and with his healing and my lack of burst damage it took a very long time before I was able to kill him.

Group battles are where the Black Orc really shines. The Black Orc's job seems to be all about being a pain in the arse and protecting his allies, not so much the killing (though there is still plenty of that going on). It is a huge amount of fun to wade into a large group of Order players and annoy the hell out of em, knowing that there is some nerd on the other side of a computer screen swearing and throwing his keyboard at the wall! Snaring healers as they try to run from being beaten down by the DPS, taunting enemies off of our own healers, getting in the face of DPS and giving them a reason to wail on you rather than your team-mates, is all par for the course. Unlike tanks in other MMO's, in a group PVP situation we are extremely dangerous if ignored and left alone. We force enemy opponents to take notice of us, leaving the DPS and healers free to do what they do. If we are ignored on the battlefield, it usually comes with a hefty cost.

In summary, in these first 10 levels I do not feel overpowered, nor underpowered. I do feel that the black Orc is tough. PVE and PVP are enjoyable and the class has been given a decent tanking skill set even at this low a level. I look forward to seeing what the next ten levels have in store.