Perfect Ten: My favorite classes
Forget raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens; a few of my favorite classes have nothing to do with such musical nonsense. Of course, now that I've started thinking about that song, my brain has to finish it before I can do anything else. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, yup. Brown paper packages tied up with strings, uh huh. These are a few of my favorite things. OK, can I move on now?
Seriously, how boring was life in the 1940s that tied-up brown packages were worth singing about?
I've played a lot of MMOs over the past decade or so, and in each of them I've agonized about which class I would make my main. Sometimes this resulted in me creating a wide selection of possible candidates, each vying for my affection while I cruelly sentenced the losers to permanent deletion. But in the end, here are 10 classes from 10 separate MMOs that tickled my fancy and totally kicked woolen mittens in the interest department.
1. Anarchy Online: Adventurer
Ever since I stepped into this, my very first MMO, I've been drawn to the Adventurer class to the point that I couldn't fathom playing anything else. It seemed like a perfect Jack-of-all-trades profession, fighting with dual pistols while healing and shapeshifting. I found the self-heals to be quite useful in the early game, although I've never gotten terribly far into this title to find out how the Adventurer functioned at higher levels.
2. City of Heroes: D/D Defender
Speaking of multitasking characters, was there anything more awesome than the DDD, the Dark/Dark Defender in City of Heroes? In a game that really catered to my pet-controlling fetish, the DDD managed to pull my attention away time and again. It was a perfect sauce of awesome in one package: damage, crowd control, debuffs, and even a nifty little pet. Plus I looked totally cool pulling off these powers. Man, I miss that game.
3. World of Warcraft: Warlock
Want to make me the happiest little boy in the world? Give me a DoT-flinging class that comes with a stable of pets. That's all I want to do: toss damage-over-time spells on bad guys and watch them wither because of them while trying to fend off my axe-slashing demon minion. My love of this game was vastly enhanced by just how fun this class was to play, even back when I had half of my inventory clogged up by soul shards. Those stupid shards, always keeping me up at nights with their screaming. Yeah, yeah, pipe down demon batteries. Nobody cares.
4. Warhammer Online: Engineer
I nearly exclusively played an Engineer through my one-and-a-half year career in this game because everyone knows that a small army of Engies can build, demolish, or kill anything in their path. The early steampunk look was nifty, and I never got tired of laying down turrets, but I think it was the fact that I was thwacking people with a giant spanner that cemented my love for this class. It's also how I imagine corporate engineers spend their day.
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Imperial Agent
The big appeal of the Imperial Agent to me was that it didn't quite fit in the mold of the rest of the game's classes. It felt the most original (versus a blatant copy of a character from the films), really grabbing hold of the spy theme and delivering a top-notch story with it. Plus, you can play the IA in radically different ways: as a stealthy, backstabbing rogue; as a combat medic; as a grenade-flinging maniac; or as a long-distance sniper. Plus plus, the IA ship is the best one of the game, period. No, shut up, you're wrong. Just accept it.
6. RIFT: Cleric (Inquisitor)
Picking a favorite class in this game is strange because do I pick one of the four main classes or one of the many souls or a specific soul build? I'll just say that of them all, I probably have enjoyed my time as an Inquisitor (one of the Cleric souls) the most. The sheer number of DoTs that this class has is a joy to work with, and sometimes I work in a little Druid so that I have a pet as well. But I love the Necromancer too! And the Saboteur! And the Bard! And the Cabalist! Why must you make me choose? Whyyy?
7. Dungeons & Dragons Online: Bard
Speaking of Bards, I relished my time with one in Eberron quite a bit. I specced her so that she used a heavy repeater, allowing me to fire off a barrage of arrows while tossing out buffs and other group-friendly effects. Bards were just so group-friendly that I always felt welcome and needed while playing one.
8. Lord of the Rings Online: Captain
The Cappy is probably one of the best hybrid classes I've ever played in an MMO, period. The balance is just so perfect here that it makes me weep when I consider how the hybrid ball's been dropped elsewhere. Heavy armor? Check. Ability to tank? Check. Ability to heal? Check. Ability to buff? Check. Pet? Check. Can use just about every melee weapon? Check. Can turn on invincible "I win" button in a pinch? Check. I think I can count the number of times that I've died on a Captain on just one hand, they're so dang durable.
9. Guild Wars 2: Engineer
There's a lot to appreciate about the eight classes here, but it was never a real choice when I pulled up that character creation menu the first time. This here is the best Engineer I've played in MMOs. Not only do I get turrets, pistols, rifles, and all sorts of gadgets, but the kits add so much variety that it takes it over the top. Grenades are sheer joy for underwater combat, but for my money, nothing beats a flamethrower in daily use. Burn it! BURN IT ALL.
10. EverQuest II: Necromancer
In my excursions in Norrath, the Necromancer was a welcome guide. It wasn't anything radically different -- DoTs, pets, playing with dead things -- but it was satisfying and familiar. Really, any class that lets me fling vampire bats at someone has a leg up on the competition.
So those are my favorites -- now I want to hear about yours!
Justin "Syp" Olivetti enjoys counting up to ten, a feat that he considers the apex of his career. If you'd like to learn how to count as well, check out The Perfect Ten. You can contact him via email at justin@massively.com or through his gaming blog, Bio Break.
