The Definitive Class Ranking Thread - VOTE!

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by Keza [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How does one even rank power level over a 3 year timeline?

Just average it out mentally: gun to head, life depends on a decision, how do you rank them all? This is all based on each individual's experience, consideration, preference, and gut feeling. There's no way to concretely measure every variable, but if everyone thinks about it and votes, then we will have a community tier list. DSM can submit a ballot too, we just don't want him to write in the thread much, since that tends to ruin the conversation and deter others from participating.

[PatChapp]

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just average it out mentally: gun to head, life depends on a decision, how do you rank them all? This is all based on each individual's experience, consideration, preference, and gut feeling. There's no way to concretely measure every variable, but if everyone thinks about it and votes, then we will have a community tier list. DSM can submit a ballot too, we just don't want him to write in the thread much, since that tends to ruin the conversation and deter others from participating.

You seem to be really hung up on this other person,perhaps consider taking a forum break.

[Tilien]

Originally Posted by Keza [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Next I'm expecting a "Whose the best class at farming floor 3 of Befallen? UPVOTE, COMMENT, & SMASH DAT LIKE BUTTON!" thread.

I assume we are talking level 60 velious BiS right?

[cd288]

Cue 75 page thread filled with 10 paragraph long comments from DSM about how he’s right and everyone else is wrong

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cue 75 page thread filled with 10 paragraph long comments from DSM about how he’s right and everyone else is wrong

[SenoraRaton]

DSM has half the posts in first page. Yup, sounds bout right.

[Troxx]

List first then discussion:

Ench: 3/1/1
Mage: 2/5/9
Necro: 1/6/8
Wiz: 6/13/14
Cleric: 7/2/2
Druid: 5/12/13
Shaman: 8/4/4
Warrior: 14/14/3
Paladin: 12/11/10
SK: 11/10/12
Ranger: 10/9/11
Bard: 4/3/7
Rogue: 13/8/6
Monk: 9/7/5

This was actually super difficult and I find myself disagreeing with myself on a lot of points but this was my first gut impression. Classic favors casters heavily and you’ll see my stratifications reflect this. Some casters stay way at the top, others like druid and wiz take a nosedive. Of the melee, the more “extra” they have to offer the higher I put them.

Warrior most improved. Prior to velious nothing really needs needs defensive and fights are so short you can get by with a lot of other classes. Warrior aggro is just so pathetic that I had to keep them at last. Not sure how I feel about that but I did sling them up to 3rd as they are more or less a raiding requirement for most all content until you are gear saturated and even then they are a requirement for the hard stuff. With new weapons their aggro isn’t so much a pain anymore.

By breakdown though.

Enchanters: start strongish finish strongest. Charm, cc and mind buffs just put them in a class of their own
Mage: OP pets be OP but they diminish with time and end up on the back half but nowhere near the bottom
Necro: they rock at the start with a big toolkit and slowly drift back but stay ahead of mage
Wizard: start off pretty good with ports, mobility, quads and big damage when melee weapons suck. They take a total nose dive at the end.
Cleric: start off middle of the pack but end up right around the top for obvious reasons
Druid: start off surprisingly high. Mobility, ports, quads, buffs, charms heals. Strong in classic before taking a nose dive to the bottomish (for reasons we all know)
Shaman: always good and hard to place them in classic. Can argue they belong above clerics in classic easily. Hard to nail down classic but end up solidly top tier last 2 expansions.
Warrior: this one was the hardest. Classic I put them dead last as most gear dependent and can’t reliably do the one thing they are supposed to do in classic due to shit aggro. I wanted to put them higher in kunark but boss mob hp of 32k … you can get by with a knight tanking and a fast burn more reliably. For better or worse put them at the back. Velious changed everything. Strong weapons, aggro is easier and quite good. Mostly I have them at the top as really anything worth doing to advance self/raid/guild requires them to take point. It is a critical class that cannot be replaced or removed (more than you can say for most other classes). Maybe I inflated them too much but I put them 3rd
Paladin: middling back for all eras. It pained me to do it as they have a lot of value to add.
SK: same as above. Velious I bumped them back behind paladins
Ranger: consistently in the bottom of the middle third.
Bard: depends on the bard but I rated them as if they knew wtf they were doing
Rogue: pretty unilateral class. Gear dependent and ranked low classic. This one was always super hard as dps is very high but still so group dependent and focused it brings total power down. Having said that, total power score I don’t reflects desirability as most any group and definitely any raid would always want to see more of them
Monk: I struggled with this one as well … cause you do obviously need them. Very tanky. Very dps-y. Very floppy. I have a hard time knowing where best to put them but I think I ranked them globally too low.

Oh well that’s my first impressions

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by Troxx [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This was actually super difficult and I find myself disagreeing with myself on a lot of points but this was my first gut impression.

Was nice you started with a breakdown per era! You'll have to do a final ballot still [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I thought to maybe average the scores you gave for each era, but there would be many ties, so that doesn't work.

I would say you overrated Ranger a lot for Kunark though. That era where their skillcaps lag behind and they have no disciplines and no increased spellpower relative to 1999, and still saddled with exp penalty, is very rough for them.

One thing regarding Mage, I put them as slightly better in Velious than Kunark because CotH and Mod Rod become a lot more powerful there. They are also able to make their pet immune to fear in Velious, which is significant, since bosses that feared would always land it on pets.

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Was nice you started with a breakdown per era! You'll have to do a final ballot still [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I thought to maybe average the scores you gave for each era, but there would be many ties, so that doesn't work.

I would say you overrated Ranger a lot for Kunark though. That era where their skillcaps lag behind and they have no disciplines and no increased spellpower relative to 1999, and still saddled with exp penalty, is very rough for them.

One thing regarding Mage, I put them as slightly better in Velious than Kunark because CotH and Mod Rod become a lot more powerful there. They are also able to make their pet immune to fear in Velious, which is significant, since bosses that feared would always land it on pets.

Yeah no it was hard. Reading through my list I still find areas where I want to throw down and bicker/argue … with myself lol

I think on the whole it paints a clear picture.

For the classes ranked lower … I don’t find them independently weak at all. Not bad classes. Across the board I think the classes are fairly well balanced for a game with so many classes you can play while still maintaining uniqueness to each class. Everquest did a good job. Balance got better in Luclin with specific aa’s helping to lift up the struggling classes and fill some gaps

[eqravenprince]

Kunark and beyond, melee got a boost, but still very much behind all the casters. Any group can add a caster, not any group can add a melee. And who cares about raid power.

Pet classes (Enchanter, Necro, Mage, then shaman and druid once they get pet)
Any non pet class caster (Wizard, Cleric)
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any melee class