In your OPINION What is the Best class and Why?

How long is a piece of string?

I'm finding that the best is a hybrid class built around the gear that you are finding. I've played a mage to lvl 14, but have 4 purple ranger pieces, so respecing to go down that path, while keeping my shadow lightening for those pesky little packs.

Why is this in the player guides section and not in the Player Questions or General Discussion sections?

From my experiences so far, I am unsure if there is a true "best" class. One of the greatest things about this game is the ability to mix and match everything available to suit your personal play style and have it work for you.

For me, I have tried to play a true ranger using XBows, high agility, medium armors, and staying as true to ranger skills as I could. This has worked great for me but I do use a couple outside skills such as Shadow Lightning and the occasional Rightous Stomp. It's good for me but may not be suitable for you.

My suggestion would be to test various things and see what works best and provides you with the most fun. Who knows. You might end up being a plate wearing, spell casting, shotgun shooting terror in the dungeons. It is all in the way you play it that determines how well it will work.

Good luck finding your style.

i like fighter cause you get up close and battle and mage and ranger you stand back and have to stay a distance back

The best class in the game is the one that compliments your style of play the best.

Fighter - For those who like the action up close and personal and enjoy taking massive amounts of punishment.

Ranger - Those who enjoy a slightly more tactical approach to their game play whether it be picking off key opponents from a distance or using insane amounts of agility to hurl numerous dual-wielded melee attacks.

Mage - Those who with to use spells over-all with devestating single bolt or area effects. Those not too concerned with hit points and fans of staffs and shields apply here

Hybrids - Take your pick from the greatest strengths of each particular class and combined them into something that fits what you like. Want to cast shadow bolts from your crossbow? Try a Shadow Ranger. Like dealing massive melee damage and playing with fire? Try a Fire Fighter (hehe) Want to be the cool Mage with the ranged weaponry? I've heard the Manger being used before.

The possibilities are almost endless and can be tailored to your own interests. There is no 'best' in the sense of what will own everything else hands down, there's only what can be deemed the 'best' in terms of the best build to fit your play and be the most useful.

Avoiding the word best I will say that one I like the best is the "Battlemage". High Defense/AOE abilities allow me to run in the middle of a group, not get hit, and nuke the field. What I really like about this build is that it does very well againt zerg like mobs and very well against single target boss mobs.

Normally I favor extreme builds like All-INT mages or ALL-AGI rangers so I can't say if this is the "best".

Meh, everyone avoids the question as usual... But we all know:

Mages/AoE: Best for fast leveling
Agi Rangers: Best for boss farming
Fighters: Best for pvp (in v. 0.82 PST)
Hybrids: Best for having fun and look cool

Yup, just depends on what you want to do then that will answer your question. Peoblem is most noobs dunno what they want to do because they don't know what all the game can do or will do in the future, safe to say you will prolly have a few accts/chars while deciding. Soon you will be able to have multi chars on 1 acct tho.

I agree that hybrid classes are the way to go. The great thing about this game is that you can be whatever you want when you want. All you have to do is change your passives and respec(cost alot but do-able) and re-equip to change classes. I love the mage class but also prefer to play alone because groups slow me down so I was having trouble without a tank. For that reason I focused on endurence as well as intelligence. I am a level 29 mage with a rainbow crossbow that gives me +67 int(higher than my staff and wand/shield combo) and other equipment that focuses on int and end, but I also combined passive skills Gym Freak-a fighter skill(+50% hp per endurence + 5 str +5 agi -25%mp per int -5end -5int),and the mage passives Book Worm(+100mp per int +5 end +5int-25%hp - 5str - 5 agi) and Mental Prowess(+20% magic damage -7ranged and melee speed).So I ended up with plus 75%mp per int and +25% hp per end. With the other add ons and subtractions cancelling each other out. By doing this I sacrificed 25% of my mana (I have shitloads anyway) for hp, so I could farm by myself.

At level 31, my character is a "Divine Inquisitor". Str and Int are roughly 150, End and Agi are 100. Soul Rend, Gaseous Blast, Ring of Fire, divine footstomp, divine damage buff, bookworm, gym freak, mental prowess, shadow lightning.

Three good aoes to thin the crowd, soul rend with two ludicrous one-handers for champions and heroes. Very fun!