I wrote two generalized articles on good masteries / classes to choose as a newer player, let me know what you think

[Strannik]

Battle mage is fine now days. Who dare to claim the opposite?

[x1x1x1x2]

On my Beginner’s BM actually 60-70 levels is a breeze, since you have Lucius Arm, which is crazy good weapon.

How much of a breeze is it compared to dk tho?

[fordprefect]

Sabo is very limited class, basically one good build. Warlock isn’t much better though. Trozan Lock is very cool though. Paladin have synergy for fire but we established there are no top tier Pallys. Templar is still better I guess than the bunch. Deceiver and Defiler are still weird classes. Defiler have bad synergy but abundance of good gearing.

Commando outside of fire FW and retal isn’t looking pretty. Tactician also is worse than it looks.

But even all f these classes have at least one or two very good builds and can be easy to level.

First; I look at the issue as versatility rather than having one top-tier build. Ofc the level of success of possible builds is also important. I know my standarts are a it lower than yours’ but I’m like the middle ground between the casual players and hard-core endgamers. So if a class have one good, a few mid-tier possible builds; it’s better than a class that have only one top-tier build.
Sabo is limited to DW yes but has damage options. How was your Aether Sabo? I’m testing a Chaos Sabo rn, I’ll post it before the patch because it can show people how new set affects the chaos Sabo. It’s a bit defensive version of Senakov’s build and I managed to push to SR 85, I’ll try for 90 if I can.

Templar has one top tier and one good build with different playstyles.

Warlock? Never played but even just checking the compendium showed me one TSS and one AAR top-tiers.

I can’t really comment on the Deceiver but I also made a Defiler to test a meme, then re-spec it to classic one, it was hard to balance the stats in both ones.

I guess Commando got some love with previous patches and may even get more with the new one.

Tactician is the same, and will get a proper set. I made one also, it’s a solid class. I don’t know why no one plays it.

+Archon.

LoL Is it even exist? I must have been forgotten such class exists since we only see one once in a year

oh right, we forgot Pyromancer. It’s kinda like Saboteur in a sense, the saving grace being only that it doesn’t try to be DW melee.

Not quite understood the sentence(sorry) but if you meant pyro isn’t suitable for melee. I theorycrafted 3 different DW melees, leveled the character; wanted to test with the memeiest one and even it is good so haven’t re-speced it yet and I will share it after the patch.

[Stupid_Dragon]

Not quite understood the sentence(sorry) but if you meant pyro isn’t suitable for melee.

I meant that it bears some similarity to Saboteur in being a glassy class that doesn’t really show outstanding performance with any of the builds.

[Nery]

First; I look at the issue as versatility rather than having one top-tier build. Ofc the level of success of possible builds is also important. I know my standarts are a it lower than yours’ but I’m like the middle ground between the casual players and hard-core endgamers. So if a class have one good, a few mid-tier possible builds; it’s better than a class that have only one top-tier build.
Sabo is limited to DW yes but has damage options. How was your Aether Sabo? I’m testing a Chaos Sabo rn, I’ll post it before the patch because it can show people how new set affects the chaos Sabo. It’s a bit defensive version of Senakov’s build and I managed to push to SR 85, I’ll try for 90 if I can.

Templar has one top tier and one good build with different playstyles.

Warlock? Never played but even just checking the compendium showed me one TSS and one AAR top-tiers.

I can’t really comment on the Deceiver but I also made a Defiler to test a meme, then re-spec it to classic one, it was hard to balance the stats in both ones.

I guess Commando got some love with previous patches and may even get more with the new one.

Tactician is the same, and will get a proper set. I made one also, it’s a solid class. I don’t know why no one plays it.

+Archon.

LoL Is it even exist? I must have been forgotten such class exists since we only see one once in a year

You are right about the diversity, it’s always nice to have options. But for any player doing build from scratch it’s better to have some build worth sinking lot’s of hours (if the goal is end game ofc). And I am happy with current options for classes. Perhaps weakest in this regard are Paladin (surprise) and Tacticain? DW Garga Defiler is decent build, tanky and can deal damage. I don’t remember aether Sabo’s performance, chaos look better on paper. I played few weeks ago DW apostate with MI weapon and I love it.

Now Archon is interesting case. I’ve tried redoing my Bleeding Archon and is average compared to rest of my builds. It’s 5:30 build in Crucible and can do 75-76 with your eyes closed.

Outside of that Lightning Cyclone is doable despite Devils nerfed but for Cyclone you have far better classes. And ofc 2H Physical melee character. Other options include Lee’s Acid retal and @valinov vitality Dark One build. For vitality double - RR and CDR from Path of Three is decent but lacks heavy hitters. So Archon is forgotten class but it can be made with some changes to not be forgettable!

[Retal_Abuser]

Technically Sabo also got Harra but

Harra’s Sabo is the fastest Lokarr killer, according to Fastest cleaners thread at least. But yeah, that build was only made for killing Lokarr with a cluster.

Purifier is as straightforward beginner shooter class as it goes.

I honestly think that lightning Canister+ Stormbox or fire Cocktail+ Censure are faster to level than Fire strike. Fire strike really lacks MI’s ( only the Ugdenbog pierce-through one?) and that’s one of the best ways to level chars nowadays.

This breaks my heart because Paladins have been my favorite type of character to play

It still doesn’t mean it doesn’t have builds you can go for. It’s just that other classes have more diversity and perform better.

Dervish, Sorc, Infiltrator are top tier classes, maybe Warlord as well

I think I would put Spellbinder on top of them all, but that’s just my preference.

Deceiver and Defiler are still weird classes. Defiler have bad synergy but abundance of good gearing.

I think Dark one deceiver can be on par with Dark one apostate, but I don’t think anyone has posted it here. Defiler can still go Agrivix for or stun jacks for aether and Blightlord for fire/vitality (?) hybrid.

Tactician also is worse than it looks.

Tactician is a relic of the past. Outside of Valdun ( which Purifier outshines) and maybe retaliation Fol ( which isn’t anything amazing) it has some elemental builds from AoM era. I don’t know how the new set will perform, but we’ll wait and see.

Regarding Paladins, didn’t they some have strong ranged RF retaliation builds on previous patches? Contragor hasn’t updated his and I know that these got nerfed. Perhaps they’re the only retaliation builds Crate successfully nerfed.

[grey-maybe]

I think I would put Spellbinder on top of them all, but that’s just my preference.

tha’t not just your preference, spellbinder is objectively the best class there is, due to insane synergy and practical immortality. contrary to popular belief, it has a plenty of variety when it comes to builds (unlike warlord).

i’d recommend this very detailed guide by banana_peel to every endgame aspiring new player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KZMOeiP5QU

as for the all this discussion which classes are garbage and which are not - just open rankings table in GS, lol.

[Retal_Abuser]

tha’t not just your preference, spellbinder is objectively the best class there is, due to insane synergy and practical immortality. contrary to popular belief, it has a plenty of variety when it comes to builds (unlike warlord).

I don’t know how likely they are to get nerfed, but yeah you can pretty much play every damaging skill as aether and make it work ( and some other dmg types like vit and physical devastation).

i’d recommend this very detailed guide by banana_peel to every endgame aspiring new player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KZMOeiP5QU

I laughed my ass off the first time I watched that.

as for the all this discussion which classes are garbage and which are not - just open rankings table in GS

Class discussion was alive for a day, why’d you have to ruin it REEEE!!

[fordprefect]

I meant that it bears some similarity to Saboteur in being a glassy class that doesn’t really show outstanding performance with any of the builds.

Well, sorry then I misunderstood you. Yes it’s quite squishy but not that Sabo and Pyro are alone in this particular category

[grey-maybe]

Class discussion was alive for a day, why’d you have to ruin it REEEE!!

i’m likely to create yet another class-balancing topic after 1.1.9 lands (hence it’s the last patch), you’re very welcome to REEEE with me of how bad paladins, vindicators and deceivers are!

[Ulvar1]

class X can not do SR 120 and sub 5min cruci even with GD stash gear and mutator fishing hence class X suuuuuuuuuuuucks REEEE

[ya1]

okay since we all know we all wanna do it… ill just go ahead and do it:

1. binder (cuz immortal plus about top 3 dps)

2. conj (cuz best pets and arguably best caster outside binders so tops the ranking in two categories)

3. sorc (cuz idk, good?)

4. witchblade (cuz outside turrian degeneracy best retal thx to fevered rage, but also competitive as your typical blade arc melee and super beginner friendly)

5. infil (cuz infil must be in every top 10 anyway)

6. derv (as above)

7. warlord (cuz warlord)

8. and 9. vindi, druid or mage hunter

9. every other soldier class except battlemage and non-turrian commando

Other classes that got superstrong builds like commando or templar are not included because they got like one or two builds and then nothing. Very strong offensive classes like shieldbreaker or elementalist too glassy for top10.

Also, I wanna add that making such rankings is kinda hard. As a returning player, I see that (outside certain outliers like reta or limiting the access to defensive stats to certain (not at all weaker) dmg types and also too much cc effects imo) GD is very well balanced. There are no “bad” classes. All classes are kinda “good.” It feels kinda “unfair” to me that I include a vindicator but not oppressor in my list.

The title says “as a newer player”, and Battle Mage shines in that case.

Not really. Battlemage doesn’t do anything for a beginner that a witchblade, deathknight or warlord don’t. And witchblade, warlord and deathknight do it all better. Lack of the ~30% early game rr basically disqualifies battlemage from any kind of rankings.

Sure there are (kinda) competitive endgame battlemages but they crutch on gear mods to make up for the masteries’ terrible lack of synergy. And gear mods - that’s strict endgame.

class X can not do SR 120 and sub 5min cruci even with GD stash gear and mutator fishing hence class X suuuuuuuuuuuucks REEEE

If most other classes can do all that then yeah the “class X” does suck. Rankings are about competitive strength.

[CaiusMartius]

It still doesn’t mean it doesn’t have builds you can go for. It’s just that other classes have more diversity and perform better.

Yeah I know. I’ve got one in SC and one in HC. Also played one during the “season”.

[Ulvar1]

Rankings are about competitive strength

How about a legit ranking? How many points would alkamosHaters warlords get if they did not have “Seraphim of blades” on every item?

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We should create a new thread getting all the people’s subjective class rankings.

[Retal_Abuser]

I would rather have half of the comments from this thread moved to another ( typical Forum threads lol). Thread was about articles for beginners and now it has moved to class-balancing discussion and I am to blame for that.

[Nery]

We should create a new thread getting all the people’s subjective class rankings.

Yes and add these points and make table of all tables, called ‘‘ultimate table’’

[x1x1x1x2]

I’m starting making the thread now with that exact idea. Should also help decongest the off topic responses from here.

[AlkamosHater]

How about a legit ranking? How many points would alkamosHaters warlords get if they did not have “Seraphim of blades” on every item?

If we refuse to use these 2 items with these affixes it would be 2-3 points less due to slighty higher crucible timers or 0/+2 if I would convince Banana_peel to grind some runs for me. I did not post few retalitions too (acids mostly), Warlord would be 1st/2nd place in GS.

About my tier list, pretty much same as Grey’s list.

1. Spellbinder - huge variation, still could have much more points on the list. Some no-set meeles, aether diviner or oblivion variations are not posted and every binder build can be unkillable with proper defense cycle use.
2. Warlord - people says it’s all retaliation but we can as well say that binders are all aether with few exceptions. Build variety outside of many retal setups (both acid and physical) is good, EoR, FW, some meeles maybe. Probably easiest class to play but gear demading.
3. Sorcerer - very strong aoe and dots, a lot of builds possible to make with good performance both in cr and sr (with proper piloting, like binders), hard to really fail making it. Canisters are broken.
4. Conjurer - vitality and pets king, good in all-round content and broken in SR if we go for summoners.
5. Dervish - in tier list it’s 2nd due to new found diversity (and many builds posted by Grey who seems to love this class) but I feel it miss really broken builds. Just overall performance and diversity boost it.
   6/7/8/9/10 with no particular order -> Death Knight, Oppressor, Infiltrator, Druid, Sentinel (because retal variations).

Directly for beginners it would be just Spellbinder, Death Knight, Conjurer/Cabalist/Ritualist. Rush krieg/dark one, farm 75 sr for week or two and do every other build then.

[x1x1x1x2]

[1.1.8.1] Grim Dawn SUBJECTIVE Class Rankings - Post your personal rankings here and we'll pool it into a singular list of sorts

What’s this? Over the past day there has been some discussion in another thread about what the best classes in GD are and why Battlemage isn’t one of them and it quickly became apparent that people have different opinions and stuff like that. Since everyone has their own tierlists I had the idea of trying to collect what the community thinks what the best classes in GD are as of the current patch. You can use any criteria you want, which will be explained in the next section. How do I submit…

Made the thread. @Nery @AlkamosHater @ya1 @grey-maybe