Shattered Kingdoms

Looking for fresh input from the player base!

• Please rank all the classes from strongest to weakest in terms of PvP.
• For your top choice, please explain why it is so good.
• For your bottom choice, please explain why it is lacking.

This thread will run all week or until a day goes by without any responses.

If you have issues with class balance, this could be your golden opportunity!

This thread is not about PvE. You can find a separate thread about that here.

mercenary --- best offense in the game and can be virtually immune to magic/prone via gear and char building choices, so should never die
barbarian
warlock
priest
shaman
paladin
scout (moved way down because I expect arrows to suck now, a decent giant scout could convince me they're above shaman)
swashbuckler
hellion
rogue (switched with hellion since it has nothing except damage to offer in pvp)
sorcerer
necromancer
bard --- beats an ethereal sorc in a 1v1 and that's about it, gets owned in groups, songs of sleep blows now and got nothing to make up for that

edited for enhanced damage change, movement from original noted in parenthesis

In response to Shiwan's post, songs of sleep used to be amazing for PvP. I haven't tested it recently, but it used to do better things. Make it stronger

Mercenary is the best class in PvP. With a little waiting the class can specialize in all 3 different types of weaponry, single handers for tanking with a shield, reaching weapons for the ability to be in the 2nd row and still be useful and ranged weaponry. A competent mercenary that focused on expanding the utility of the class is almost untouchable. Retreat+skirmish is completely broken. Mercenaries could probably stand to lose skirmish, as its incredibly frustrating to play against a ranged specialized mercenary that cannot be pinned down and can snipe you when you come within range without putting in any commands.

Then it's probably

Barbarian - Melee is really king at this time in the game's history. This class is also really good for experimenting with different weapon subtypes as fury really gives a great boost.

Shaman - While warlock definitely has a better selection of spells to nuke, call lightning is pretty beastly. But what makes them outedge the warlock is the utility they have. Shamans have a wide selection of maledictions to put on some pain on targets, can heal and have spirit aura and spirit horde, which is really nasty if you get caught in a loop of it. They also come with dispel magic and refresh and all sorts of other goodies which make them way better than priests in PvP. Unfortunately, the reverse is true in PvE.

Warlock
Sorcerer
Necromancer

Hellion
Paladin

These two are pretty much the opposite. The paladin is better in PvE, and the hellion is better in PvP. The paladin has such a narrow focus of enemies to deal with, and their abilities are disabled against anyone else, whereas the hellion has the tools to deal with those enemies.

Scout
Bard

The dumpster tier:

Priest - Priest cannot do anything solo unless joining a tribunal. They also lack the firepower of classes like sorcerer and warlock. Sorcerers get acid blast, and warlocks get magma spray and all the other nuking spells. Harm is kinda meh. It takes too long to cast and doesn't do enough damage. Spear of faith can be limiting. Holy word is good if you're fighting a bunch of guys that are the opposite aura, but there's nothing really impressive that priest has going for them. Some religions have fantastic spells though, like Ain, and Sadr that are really good in PvP, but outside of that the class isn't all that great. And then you'd still have to join a tribunal to get access to a beefy NPC to stand in front of you.

Swashbuckler They lack a lot of utility that other classes do. They're relegated to the front row and are super squish because they don't get to use shields. Their damage is also subpar. Most of the good weapons are not covered in the weapons that finesse affects.

Rogue - Rogues are completely neutralized by anyone that puts a pet behind them. A player of a rogue will waste 3-4 circle stabs killing that pet or NPC, and essentially doing nothing to contribute to anything.

Not sure if this thread still matters.

This is a hard list for me to make, because I have a hard time nailing down a solid metric for "best." On one hand I like to differentiate between classes that can cause others to consume resources without even risking much themselves, and to that end casters will always win. On the other hand, if given proper resources and no holds are barred, there are some classes which, if played well, should be unkillable and will eventually force the other person to recall if they have enough prep and aren't unlucky. I'll try to make this list a bit of a combination of the two.

1. Warlock. I place warlocks here because of all classes, warlocks can cause others to have to consume the most resources (in prep work and healing vials) in-rom and from range while having to risk virtually nothing in the process. At range, a warlock can cast cone of cold and fireball, and is only "weak" to other warlocks doing the same, as their stone skin is extremely effective at nullifying ranged combat. In-room, a warlock can spam magma or cone of cold and easily zap ethereal or recall as soon as their front-line gets weak: And they should always have a strong frontline given conjure elemental. While there are other classes that can, if they consume enough resources, force a warlock to recall, there is no single class besides swashbuckler that even threatens a warlock, and even if they do manage to taunt the warlock, it's usually very difficult to follow-up with a kill once the warlock goes ethereal.
2. Swashbuckler. I place this class second for one reason only: They are the single class in the game with the most guaranteed way to secure kills. They are not perfect, however, and unfortunately will usually require help in order to win some fights. However, with the advent of bash no longer being able to secure kills and charms no longer being able to taunt, swashbucklers by far provide the only reasonably reliable way to actually get kills.
3. Mercenaries. Mercs provide in room and out-of-room combat options and have access to retreat, which is one of the most effective PvP skills in the game. In addition, mercenaries (and barbarians with them) -should- be unkillable except when severely outnumbered now provided they have enough saves and enough double healing potions. However, I do not place either mercenaries or barbarians at number one, because while they are the most difficult to kill while dealing damage, they are always risking the most compared to casters or even swashbucklers, and a mercenary with subpar gear or any less than 10-20 double healing vials is not going to attain to that level of competition. In addition, they do not possess any way of locking down kills themselves. Playing a mercenary or barbarian well is less about winning by killing your opponent and more about consuming enough resources to force your opponent to recall, and that is simply not very enticing.
4. Barbarians, for the above reasons but they don't get retreat or out-of-room combat options.
5. Sorcerer. Sorcerers always provide threat with petrification, however, again with the advent of reflex's buffs, if a sorc petrifies someone with a lot of reflex it doesn't even guarantee a kill when the person is depetrified. In addition, sorcs are highly vulnerable to bows and crossbows, though perhaps less so with the recent nerfs.
6. Necromancer. Necromancers are still able to dish out a lot of damage against single foes. In a strict 1v1 class comparison in neutral territory, they're not bad. I still think they are still way too weak for their RP and in practice, however, because necromancers are the most vulnerable class, both personally and in their animates, and their RP dictates that they are very rarely going to be fighting just one person.
7. Shaman
8. Hellion.
9. Paladin.
10. Priest
11. Rogue
12. Scout
13. Bard

Bard is the weakest because they lose 1v1s to practically every other class and are almost wholly dependent on having others to help them battle. I would have not placed them this low before the severe songs of sleep change, but bards are simply not that versatile: There are very few situations where I would rather have a bard than any other class.

Edoras, before I even finish reading your post, I just want to say that it definitely still matters. But you should make sure to consider any changes that have been made over the last several weeks.

1. Sorcerer - 2 charms beat any warrior and can rule the world with locate + etherealform + scrolls
2. Mercenary
3. Barbarian
4. Warlock
5. Necromancer
6. Paladin - locate
7. Swashbuckler
8. Rogue
9. Hellion - rift
10. Priest
11. Shaman
12. Bard
13. Scout - There is no situation in which you would ever say 'I wish I had a scout with me.' If you ever really did desire to do range pvp you would play a merc or warlock instead.

Somehow I think Gilgon's list is based off SK 10 years ago.

Hey my drow GM sorc was WICKED. About 13 years ago. That was the days of "c summon fool" "c pet fool", and it happened. Oh the good old days

When did Wudan crush the mud? How about Syn's sorc? When the mud has competent sorcs they crush everyone and can solo pvp with etherealform. Just because we haven't seen a competent sorc in a while does not mean they are bad now.