Bainshee

AVAILABLE ON: Eden, Live

The heralds of a forgotten horrorlived freely among the Hibernian populace for thousands of years, all the while none suspected the dark legacy that their sisters, wives and daughters hid. Millennia ago, long before the arrival of the Celts, a beautiful woman known as Leanansidhe served the Seelie Court. Driven by extreme curiosity, she began to experiment on both the different races of the land and those from beyond the Veil. Elven travellers and dignitaries to the Courts were plucked from the road and taken to secret chambers where they were experimented on, their very essence torn apart for Leanansidhe to study. What she learned would eventually produce several monsters, one of them being the shrieking Bainshee. Eventually, the Elven gods and the Seelie Court had had enough of Leanansidhe’s vile experiments and sought to end her cruelty. Fleeing their wrath, she vowed to remain hidden until all had forgotten her transgression and letting her creations walk the land freely, their corrupted blood mixing with that of the general populace and breeding ever more horrors-in-waiting until the day Leanansidhe would return to claim her army. She eventually chose to reveal herself to the Shar queen and positioned herself as the queen’s advisor. She orchestrated the Shars emergence in Hibernia and followed the queen into an audience with the gathered leaders of Hibernia, intending to strike at them all with her hidden army. She would gather as many Bainshees as she could and offer them as soldiers to the Hibernians. However, she had miscalculated. In her long exile, the blood of her creations had become too diluted for her to control. She had unwittingly aided her enemies and descended into madness, cursing gods and men alike before fleeing the realm, never to be seen again.

Bainshees are Hibernian spell-casters specializing in area-of-effect ranged attacks and de-buffs, primarily cone-shaped but they do also gain several pulsing point-blank area-of-effect spells.

Note that Bainshees are only available to female characters.

PvE:

Bainshees are perhaps the worst spell-caster for attempting to level solo. They lack the stun available to all other Hibernian spell-casters, the pets of Enchanters and Mentalists and the debilitating de-buffs of Eldritches. If you wish to level a Bainshee, it is highly recommended that you do so primarily in a group.

In groups, Bainshees are perhaps one of the easiest played classes, if you so desire. They have access to a pulsing point-blank area-of-effect damaging spells which only requires a single button press to activate once your group’s tank(s) have gathered up all the enemies. Then you simply wait for them to die and cancel your pulse.

RvR:

Bainshees are weak duellists. While they do have some tools that might be useful, such as Mesmerization, Root and Nearsight, most of these spells are short-range cone spells, with the exception of Nearsight. This results in only being able to crowd control enemy spell-casters with Nearsight, which they can simply continue running towards you while you are casting and melee fighters will have to get exceptionally close to you before you disable their movement.

In groups, Bainshees are very strong area-of-effect damage dealers, typically played as either a traditional point-blank area-of-effect bomber by specializing in the Phantasmal Wail skill line or as a ranged area-of-effect bolter by specializing in the Ethereal Shriek skill line.

Positioning and awareness of your cooldown timers are crucial skills for a Bainshee. Bainshees do not have much in the way of counter-play towards being shut down by enemy melee fighters, so keeping an eye on enemy movements and repositioning accordingly is a valuable skill to have. Keeping a mental time table of your utility spells’ cooldowns so that you can re-cast them as soon as they are available will also be crucial for your group’s survival.

Phantasmal Wail gives access to a variety of instant point-blank area-of-effect spells other than just damaging, including a combined Dexterity & Quickness de-buff and a spell which removes a randomly selected buff from an enemy, both of which can greatly reduce enemy effectiveness.

Ethereal Shriek gives access to the only area-of-effect Nearsight spell in the game, which is also given an increased range of 2300 units, compared to the more common 1875 unit range of other Nearsight spells. This is in addition to also having access to the only area-of-effect bolt spell in the game, hitting every target with one of the highest damaging spell types in the entire game.

Character planners:

Eden: https://eden-daoc.net/charplan?c=Bainshee

Live: https://daoc.gg/charplanner/overview#c=BAINSHEE

Suggested starting stat point distribution:

15 Dexterity / 10 Intelligence

Suggested class skills:

50 Ethereal Shriek, 19 Phantasmal Wail, 7 Spectral Guard (Standard / Group / “Bolter”)

46 Phantasmal Wail, 28 Spectral Guard, 4 Ethereal Shriek (“Bomber”)

50 Spectral Guard, 15 Ethereal Shriek, 13 Phantasmal Wail (Solo Levelling)

Suggested realm skills:

Long Wind 1

Purge

Wild Power

Bedazzling Aura

Physical Defense

Passives to fill stat gaps (Augmented Str, Dex, Con, Mastery of Parrying etc.)