Biggest punch in the face class to start (pre lvl 20)

[Tecmos Deception]

Rogue. Solo is horrible. You need a tank or you get crushed, but all tanks suck until 9 and most suck past 20. Your damage is bad. Your sneak and hide aren't even reliable yet. 1-9 rogue is like a shaman but with worse tanking, worse weapon choices, and no spells. And then 10-20 you're still worse tanking and no spells but with 25 damage backstabs IF youve got someone else tanking. Lol.

I strongly disagree that 1-20 is similar for everyone though. Chanters, necros, druids, clerics all have quite a few useful and powerful spells before 20, even if they can't be used in quite the same way they are later on. Other casters get by. Melees have it rough.

I mean, chanters get a pet at 1 that eats shit alive, their early dots are strong, and by 16 they have basically their full lineup of spells (though many are less useful at 16 than at 40+). Necros have their full array of dot dps spells at 12, snare, fear, etc, and feign at 16. Clerics have nice hp and ac buffs and undead nukes (and decent normal nukes) by 14. Druids' 2 DSs at 9 hit as hard as the average melee swat from a blue con. Etc.

Wizards relative to other untwinked noobs are vastly underestimated imo. They can kill single blues safely solo; not fast but better than trying to solo as a rogue or warrior or something at 10-20. They have invis, root, stuns. Their nukes actually hit fucking hard compared to backstabs and mob hp pools. They're worse off than other casters (except sham maybe?), but they definitely aren't the worst 1-20 experience.