Special MMORPG Classes Ever Encountered?

[colorfulsky]

As a diehard MMORPG gamer, I grow tired of the stereotypical classes in the MMORPG world. You know, every time they presents new characters, it's always the one on the list, such as, Priests, Mages, Warriors, Archers, Cavaliers, Assassins, yada yada.

So I've been thinking, are there any other new and creative classes you've seen from other MMORPGs? Melee type or Area of Effect type, whatsoever!

[Deleted]

I've moved this over to video game discussion since it's not asking about WoW.

[Deadite]

The Mesmer in GW2 is pretty interesting. I have not really seem anything like it in the mmos i have played in the past.

'Mesmers are magical duelists who wield deception as a weapon. Using powerful illusions, clones, and phantasmal magic to confuse and distract their foes, mesmers make sure every fight is balanced in their favor and their opponents can’t believe their eyes.'

[Mysterymask]

Mastermind in City of Villians....dear god never seen a class in ANY MMO as fun as they were...you literally had an army of whatever you could muster at your beck and call and it was GLORIOUS

[Skulljin]

I really liked the basic ideas for class design of Star Wars The Old Republic. Not the Jedi/Sith classes though, the really interesting ones were the classes that were no force users.

The Powertech was a close to mid range class who was pretty tanky and utilized flame throwers and tech as his main weaponary. Imagine yourself out running after or around your enemies in your thick armor while frying them to death with your flame throwers. One of the few classes in any MMOs I have seen that is true to the "mid range" theme imo.

The Mercenary was looking great aesthetic wise, but from a gameplay perspective, he was nothing special. Imagine a mix of Pyro Mage and Elemental shaman and exchange the spells with a whole lot of rockets and dual wielding blaster pistols. (Let's be honest, that piece of coolness alone makes the whole concept much better, doesn't it?)

The Operative was a very cool class indeed because it actually really offered very much for so little. You basicly were a stealth class (thanks to tech, no more "I just turn halve invisible because reasons", hate that about MMOs) and you were either able to be a healer, utilizing drones and scans to heal your allies, an Infiltrator who would be the typical rogue or, my personal favorite, a very dot intensive class who spreads poison over masses of enemies which you can then melt with a few special abilities, all of that with a similiar concept of close to mid range like the Powertech.

[Deleted]

If you call yourself a "diehard MMORPG gamer", you should be aware of the fact, that the number of available stereotypes is naturally limited, and therefore, certain classes simply HAVE to exist.

There is always "Big strong slow guy", "small swift guy" and "very clever but physically weak guy".

That's it. Sometimes there are limited combinations or slight variations, but even they boil down to these three in the end. What makes games interesting, is how these three archetypes are implemented, but you can't escape the trinity. Wheter "big strong slow guy" is called "Death Knight", "Powertech", "Warrior" or "Chosen", its always the same basic concept. The details of the implementation make it interesting.

[ParanoiD84]

The Bear Shaman and Dark Templar in Age of Conan.

[Deleted]

I really enjoyed Warden class in Lord of the Rings Online. Shield and (mostly) spear/javelin medium armor class, built around 'gambits'. You had 3 base attacks (spear, shield, shout) which could be mixed into various 2-3-4-5 attacks combinations and then unleashed as gambit (finisher). It was quite fun to memorize various gambits and had added benefit of reduced button bloat (with so many abilities being gambits). I also enjoyed their short term stealth which could be used for strong ambush attack opener.

[Skulljin]

The Bear Shaman and Dark Templar in Age of Conan.

Never played the Dark Templar but I also liked the Herald of Xotli. I think Age of Conan had some very interesting class design ideas in general.

[ParanoiD84]

Never played the Dark Templar but I also liked the Herald of Xotli. I think Age of Conan had some very interesting class design ideas in general.

Totally forgot about the HoX never played one but they looked awesome, classes and raids where definitely the best part about AoC.

[unholytestament]

Mastermind in City of Villians....dear god never seen a class in ANY MMO as fun as they were...you literally had an army of whatever you could muster at your beck and call and it was GLORIOUS

Getting a group of them together was interesting.

Especially if they all had robot minions. You might wanna turn your sound down...

[Deadite]

I thought Mesmers were a cool idea until I realized they're really just another DPS caster with "illusion bombs" or "pets" as a damage dealing mechanic.

Yeah i guess but in the end you will either be healing,tanking,controlling or Dps'ing. What ever window dressing they can add to said activities to make it more fun is good enough for me. The Mesmer is different enough for me to set it apart from norm for me.

[Nirawen]

I enjoyed the pet classes in DAoC, not so much special but just different from the norm. Cabalist mainly but Theurgist, Bonedancer and Necromancer were fun too.

[Fencers]

Guild Wars 1 had some very interesting classes which could be dual classed: Paragon, Dervish, Mesmer, Ritualist.

The Secret World- the whole game. There are not classes, you just pick skills that adhere to certain types; range, melee, spells, support, healing, etc. But they can be combined in any manner.

Dark Age of Camelot had some good ones too. Bonedancer, Cabalists, Wardens, Reavers, Heretics, Valkewalkers, Theurgists, Thane, Skald... I don't even recall them all. Most were mirrors but there was a lot of them and effort was made to make them feel/logical as belonging to each faction. '

I played an Armsman, Valkyrie and Bonedancer and Champion in DAoC. Very cool class concepts, IMO.

And Everquest II. I guess EQ2 has a lot of tropes. But there is so much to every class and so much specialization that it's hard to call a Paladin or Berserker in EQ2 standard fare when considering the whole of the game.

[JUNK de LUXE]

EQ1 was probably the game with the most "out there" roles I've ever played.

An enchanter was a class specialized in crowd control. He did very little damage but if you had one on your team you knew it was going to be easy.

The Druid was basically a runspeed enhancer with uber buffs (and again very little damage/heal).

[Lysah]

Valewalkers

[Yossarian]

Druid in WoW is a pretty unique type of class, isn't it? did they copy from somewhere else?

[kail]

Druid in WoW is a pretty unique type of class, isn't it? did they copy from somewhere else?

TBH, I can't think of many. My own addition would be the Shadow specialization of WoW's priests, at least before Wrath where group support was blended heavily into the caster dps role. I'm sure it has been done several times, but I still found the concept of the spec unique.

[Regalbeast]

what about the warror i'd say it's original

[mickybrighteyes]

eh.... most variations on character builds have been done. In the end it seems to come down to a basic theme....
Oh... it has a title and some nifty tricks that you'll NEVER use cause your build can't properly meld them into the attack style as the game currently demands in a group.

It's all going to be a variation of:

- tough guy who stands in front
- less tough guy trying to flank
- 'cunning' (maybe) dude who sits back with a ranged tool
- 'wizard' aka 'heavy artillery' aka ultra glass cannon
- support

Some might try to mix things up and put in some weapon restrictions... but in the end it doesn't matter if it's a mace, axe, dagger, or sword... or even fist.

Choose your favorite fluff.. i'll go with Nightblade or ESO's 'sorcerer' where the former was mostly an illusionist with a penchant for blood based magic (absorbing life through killing others if set up right) and the latter was a lightning imbued being that channeled the storm. Played both as tanky dps or uber glass cannon melee builds.