Help for beginners to choose their class

Primary schools: BALANCE The in-game description states that balance wizards specialize in "adjusting the rules of combat." In more traditional MMO terms, this translates to buffs and debuffs. Graphically, most of the spells have an Ancient Egyptian theme. While some balance spells deal actual "balance" damage that can only be shielded against by a special "tower shield" spell that requires several points in the ice school to attain, a few of your commonly-used spells deal fire, ice, and storm damage instead. The school requires a good deal of patience and strategy to play. While it's possible to solo as balance, many of their spells are geared for helping members of a group. DEATH Death is known for its life-stealing attacks. These attacks, while accurate, are generally fairly weak on their own, but death also gets powerful buffs that counteract this. Death wizards must learn to use their buffs carefully in order to get big heals when they need them. The graphics are what one would expect for a necromancer: all kinds of undead creatures. Because of their ability to deal solid damage and heal simultaneously, death is very good for those who like to play alone. FIRE A sort of middle ground between storm and ice. Decent damage. Decent health. Low but not terrible accuracy. Fire has more options than any other school when it comes to damage-over-time spells, making them great at taking down shields. However, DOTs keep your enemy alive longer than a single large attack and therefore allow you to take more damage, so relying on them may or may not be the best choice in a situation. On a cosmetic level, there really isn't a theme to fire spells aside from the fact that they all involve fire. Fire is probably one of the most versatile schools, with a playstyle that can vary greatly depending on your choice of secondary schools and your personal preferences. ICE Ice specializes in defense. In standard MMO terminology, they would be considered the "tank" class, with taunts to keep monsters attacking them and extremely high health to soak up the damage. Consequently, they have weak damage, and their fights tend to wear on for a long time unless they have a damage-oriented wizard along to help them. If you're patient and value survivability over all else, this may be the class for you. Ice graphics tend to consist of imaginary monsters that are, of course, built from snow and ice. LIFE Life is the healing school, the only school with a wide variety of options for healing others. Its attacks are weak but highly accurate. Life wizards aren't as fragile as the healing classes in some other MMOs, but their health pools still don't compare to ice. Life is very group-oriented. If you plan on soloing most of the time and want to heal yourself, consider picking up life as a secondary school instead. A skilled life wizard can do very well on his or her own, but the constant healing this requires can become a bit time-consuming. Life spells are themed around stereotypically good mythical creatures, the sort that no doubt makes many dedicated death wizards sick (fairies, unicorns, etc.) MYTH Myth is a "pet" class, relying on summoned monsters to fight alongside of them. All schools get minions, but myth's are more powerful and much more integral to their strategy. Myth also gets a wider selection of minions than any other school. They are also fairly good at removing an enemy's defenses. Myth spells logically depict mythical creatures, mostly of the burly humanoid variety. The best myth attacks actually deal two stages of damage. This can be helpful in that it breaks any shields, but it also means you have to lay down two layers of traps for maximum effect. Because myth's minions are almost comparable to have a second player with you, the school solos fairly well. In fact, since your minion takes up a slot where a player would normally go, you might want to give this class a pass if you plan on regularly playing together with more than two friends. STORM Damage, damage, damage, at the cost of all else. Storm has devastating attacks, but they pay for it with the lowest health and accuracy in the game. Consequently, storm wizards usually scramble to nuke down the enemy as fast as possible. Because their accuracy is so low, storm relies a bit more on luck than some might enjoy. To compensate, you must have either good strategy, good luck, or a nonchalant attitude toward defeat. Storm spells have a hybrid theme of ocean creatures and electricity. Yes, this really is as is as (il)logical as it sounds, but it still looks pretty cool.