Your Top 5 Classes (in order)

[PMJ]

Hi All,

I'm still a relatively new player, and have yet to win. I've got a couple of potential winners in action who are just about to tackle the ToEF (which will be a good test as to whether they are in fact potential winners).

However, I've really only had 'success' with a few characters, which really isn't enough to judge which classes are best. So, I thought it would be interesting to get a ranked top 5 classes from all the veterans (and non-veterans), and then combine them to create a 'group decided' best 5 classes.

Now, when I say best 5 classes, I don't mean the most fun to play, I mean the most powerful classes and therefore easiest classes to win the game with.

I will then award points to each class based on every player's ranking as follows:

Rank 1 = 5 points
Rank 2 = 4 points
Rank 3 = 3 points
Rank 4 = 2 points
Rank 5 = 1 point

If you realy can't decide between a couple of classes, then you can tie them at a rank, and they will split the points from the related ranks. In other words, if you think paladin and barbarian are tied for 3rd, then they will combine the points for rank 3 & 4 (3+2=5) and divide it between them (2.5 each).

Finally, please don't criticise other's choices. Some of the ease of playing certain classes for some people will be based on personal play style. That being said, I'll ignore obvious fake choices such as people putting farmer as the top ranked choice.

Hope that this all makes sense, and thanks for the input!

To get things started, here are my choices:

1. Priest
2. Wizard
3. Archer
4. Paladin
5. Healer


Cheers!

PMJ

[DumbleDoor]

For most % chance to win with, I'd go with
1. Wizard (Very good, ask someone else)
2. Archer (Ranged attack is really good)
3. Healer (Trollish healers born in month of candle=crazy health regen)
4. Barbarian (Lots of melee)
5. Bard (If you get lucky with skills, they are very good)
I have never really played paladins or priests, so don't ask me.
Since no one else is posting, I'll give some more info.
Wizards find *10 spellbooks, have great learning and mana, start with max literacy. Gray elves are good choices, and dwarfs are also good if you want to be more sturdy.
High elf archers are good, so are hurthlings, they own with rocks. With archers, you should be using mostly ranged stuff.
Trollish healers born in the month of the candle get a crapload of regeneration, along with lots of toughness and strength. Although they level slowly.
Barbarians are awesome. So stylish. I like orcish barbarians because they are strong and get the find weakness skill, which is very good.
Bards probably don't belong on 5, but they are so fun! They get random skills, so you can start with really good skills.

[Sami]

By number of wins:
1. Archer (9 wins, including 1 ultra and 1 challenge game (attacking only with shields))
2. Wizard (5 wins, including 1 ultra and 1 challenge game (attacking only with magic))
3. Bard (4 wins, including 3 challenge games (all finished at level 1))
4. Thief (3 wins, including 1 ultra)
4. Priest (3 wins, including 1 ultra)
4. Healer (3 wins, including 2 ultras)
4. Barbarian (3 wins, including 1 challenge game (illiterate and no corruption removal)
4. Beastfighter (3 wins, including 1 challenge/ultra (illiterate ultra))

By ease of play:
1. Archer
2. Wizard
3. Barbarian
4. Priest
5. Beastfighter

[PMJ]

Cool, glad this is rolling along well, as a quick update of scores (and to show how the scoring works) we currently sit with the following totals:

Wiazrd - 13
Archer - 12
Priest - 7
Barbarian - 5
Healer - 4
Beastfighter - 1
Paladin - 1
Bard - 1

Looks like Archer and Wizard are the early favorites

[DumbleDoor]

I want to see more votes here! I'm curious to see what classes are pretty good. Nice job Sami, a lot of wins there. What is so good about paladins and priests anyway?

[PMJ]

I want to see more votes here! I'm curious to see what classes are pretty good. Nice job Sami, a lot of wins there. What is so good about paladins and priests anyway?

Well, I've found that Priests are pretty much the defensive counterpart to the wizard. They still get bolt spells in all the elements, and they also get a version of burning hands for offense. At the same time they get tons of healing / curing spells which can be pretty helpful. Finally, they get appraisal for the early game which helps them ID items when you may not have access to scrolls of ID and/or alters.

Paladins (for me anyway) get to mix up the bonuses of melee classes with a decent amount priest spells. They don't get as many spellbooks, but they do get enough to be viable casters. Also, I'm probably a little bias, as one of my best chars to date is a pally

[sorear]

I can't speak for *ease*, but:

1. Mindcrafter (10 wins)
2. Paladin (2 wins)
3. Archer (1 win)
4. Priest (1 win)
5. Beastfighter (1 win)
6. Healer (1 win)

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I know I'm strange, but for me in terms of easier classes it would be:

1. Wizard
2. Elementalist
3. Paladin
4. Archer
5. Monk

Wizards are the best class, period. If you get TH and survive the early game (quite easy with for example a drakeling) you will find yourself with a crapload of spellbooks. And once you get a couple of useful spells (teleport, a good bolt, SoA, and possibly invis and darkness) you're set. If additionally you get a good ball spell, a healing spell, plenty of castings of magic missile and farsight, only carelessness can kill you. My only win is with a wizard.

Elementalists are generally frowned upon because they are clearly worse than wizards, but well... every class is worse than wizard. But I have always had an easy time taking elementalists quite far into the mid-late game even when I was a total n00b playing unspoiled. They were the first class with which I reached dwarftown and the first class with which I killed the ACW.

Paladins are just solid, they have decent magic but they are good in melee, so a well-rounded class, quite easy to advance with.

Archers, well, I haven't really got to play them much because I still get bored to hell with picking up arrows and I don't like autopickup. But I have seen other people play them and they seem quite good.

Monks are the class with which I'm likely to get my second win soon. Perhaps a little weak in the beginning but not much more so than wizards. Once you begin to get class powers they become fast killing machines. Additionally, they are good enough at magic to be able to read things like acid ball if you pump up their Le a bit. Seriously, when your PC is a blur that moves at twice the enemies' speed, can even exchange positions with them at higher levels, has good melee capabilities, can fight unarmed or two-handed pretty well, and can use magic as a powerful backup, it's not hard to survive.


I personally don't understand why people think that pure melee chars (like barbarians) are easy. They are among the harder classes for me, harder than, say, a necro (or of course a monk). If you don't use missiles much it's all worrying about being stat drained, worrying about being corrupted, especially worrying about being aged (which can lead to instakill, etc.) And if you use missiles against all the tough enemies, you may as well be an archer or (even better) use magic. I guess it depends on the playstyle, but for me it's really stressful to go around touching monsters and being exposed to all kinds of nasty special attacks.

[Grey]

If we were going just by wins I'd have to include Farmer and Elementalist, which I would have no desire to include. Going by my own experiences (which I must say includes very little play of archers or beastfighters), my votes would be:

1. Wizard
2. Priest
3. Paladin
4. Barbarian
5. Bard

[Silfir]

That's why you use missiles. Duh.

1. Archer (two regular wins)
2. Barbarian (two regular wins)
3. Wizard (one regular win)
4. Elementalist (one ULE)
5. Druid (one regular win)

Based purely on number of wins and how easy those wins were.