In general...good classes and classes i should avoid?

[Deathshadow]

Like FunkMast3r here my first class was also Battlemage. I also made a guide some time ago for the very same class. It is fun to play, but it's one of those classes which is very difficult to master. My suggestions read guides, and tips before venturing deeper with it.

If you are first timer, you should maybe try mixing the much hated Defence build with much loved Warfare build. Going with shield and weapon, while having massive health and damage is just what a new player needs. On the other hand if you are expirienced in world of ARPG's then pick some caster, or ranged. My suggestion here is Ranger (Nature + Hunting), and Soothsayer (Nature + Spirit). Both of those have pets which will help you a lot with taking away aggro from monsters and giving you space to shoot, or cast spells onto the enemies.

[defboy99]

My personal favorites are any archer builds (Hunting + whatever). I just dig the bow. I've currenty got 20 toons comprising 19 different combos, but have been focusing on a Warden as of late. It's pretty straight-forward (Hunting/Defense), relying on spear/shield with some bow support tossed in. I've got a Diviner that was a blast to play (Poinas's "Pwning with Spirit" Harrowing/Ternion version). Really enjoyed a bow Haruspex, too. But, as Deathshadow said, all combos are feasible and can be fun. It mainly depends on what type of toon you prefer: ranged, melee or caster. I'm not big on casters so I only have a few. There are guides for pretty much all builds here, so check some out and see what you think. And if you have any trouble, don't be afraid to post your questions. We're always glad to help.

[kalimon]

Ok, do something for us. Would you rather...

a) Use a sword?
b)Use a bow?
c) Use a staff?

If you answered a), start with Warfare. In Normal Greece, you will not need the Defensive perks of Defence right away, so increase your power with Warfare. Then choose either Defence (if you use a shield, if not its not so great, you'll be very Warfare-orientated), Rogue, or Hunting (if you are using a spear, if not i'd advise against this).

If you answered b), you MUST start with Hunting. Hunting is quite versatile with what you can pick with it, so at Level 8 when you get the second mastery you could pick Warfare (but stay away from the melee stuff like Onslaught and Dual Wield), Defence (although there is very little skills for bow users here, so id advise against this), or Rogue. But as the Hunter is a naturally lonely build (no pets or whatnot), maybe choose Nature. The wolves are powerful when given lots of points and the Plague spell is great for any build.

But if you answered c), then you are one of my own. I love casters (staff-users), and I have a natural liking for Spirit. As mentioned earlier, the Liche King is probably the best pet in the game, although unless you go directly for him he won't be powerful enough at the end of Normal difficulty. You can do anything with Spirit, but if you want massive damage go with either Storm, Earth or Nature; as all of them increase Intelligence. The main thing to do as a caster, which i learnt the hard way with my main (i.e. lots of deaths) is that you HAVE to put up Dexterity. Trust the masteries to up your intelligence, and put a lot of Dex when you can.

If you want a challenge, however, go with Warlock (Spirit / Rogue). Cool name, I want to try this class, haven't got round to it but have planned it. I'd go caster, so Ternion Attack and Arcane Lore; and combined with the poison tree of Rogue it has massive crowd control capabilities. If you stick with it, you should be around level 40 by the time you finish Normal, here is my suggested build http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-1-0-8-0-0-0-0

Enjoy!

[serivius]

After messing around with some melee builds involving rogue (to only lvl 15/20 ish) I found summoner (Earth/Nature) to be a nice and easy starting platform for farming telkines or doing typhon runs.

My goal quickly became making an invincible core dweller, rushed straight to core dweller with every point and all its synergies (only 1 point in wild fire to help make sure the opening engagement draws him the agro) At level 8 took nature (duh) and got 1 point in heal and heart of oak asap.

My stat focus was purely int (dex just came naturally from the earth mastery) and stacking as much total speed, attack speed and int% items to boost my dps; with staff as my primary attack and heal on RMB.

Set him to aggressive - shoot the stuff attacking him and heal him; not the most fun build for some people - but you can drink and play at the same time because you only need 1 hand through the entire normal difficulty. Once the core dweller skills were maxed I just spent my points in heal and lowering its recharge time (almost at max I heal about 1700 hp with only a couple seconds of cooldown - which is my entire health bar at lvl 35 btw xD)

With this build, as long as you keep your heal skill advancing a point or two every few levels - your pet will be essentially invincible all through normal (with heals on tough fights ofc) He will hold agro well as long as you let him engage first and you are an unstoppable boss killer (and excellent X mod boss farmer for first toon), not even having to move during typhon (yes he tanked typhon right off the bat [summoned with mastery shrine] with his huge resistances, armour, damage reduction and hp - coupled with rediculous heals)

It got pretty stale towards the first 1/4 of the expansion act, but by then you are pretty much done with those skills so you can start branching points away from healing into the damage spells; or start maxing heart of oak etc. and make your dweller even tougher.

If someone was considering starting this build, I would recommend getting the MONSTER X2 or X3 custom game mod found on this forum - and playing the whole game like that (even the bosses) because you wont have any challenge otherwise, and with all the extra kills you will level up much faster than I did; thus having points to throw into some more fun spells of your choice.

It started as more of an experiment to me - because I wanted to see what I could do with the pets in this game, and didn't even realise how easy it made every boss fight until I started trying to make petless heroes. (I didnt even realise typhons meteors were supposed to be an instant kill lol) He is almost immune to some of the things I found pretty deadly on other heroes (cyclops' come to mind lol) - and only some engagements were really hurting him, mostly frost/lightning type sorcerers or those super fast lancing guys in act 3.

That's been my experience with the game so far, keep in mind I have only done normal (most of it anyway) so I cannot guarantee this build in higher difficulties. Apart from that - my advice is to just play a wide range and mix of heroes to see what you enjoy, I find myself collecting a tonne of items to pass on to other characters; so every time you play through - you will naturally be collecting a whole level range of gear to pass on and level into - making your later playthroughs that much more exciting