What are the best classes for each role in 4th edition?

[Mengu]

My personal picks would be Weaponmaster, Marshall, Scoundrel, and Hunter.

Weaponmaster and Marshall have been discussed to death.

I picked Scoundrel over ranger (needs a new name) or thief because I feel Scoundrels are more versatile in what they can do, covering more aspects of the striker role than just dealing damage.

I think Hunter is the best representative so far, for what a controller should be doing. Again this is personal taste but I like the simplicity, and the at-will (or near at-will) access to the condition of choice I want to inflict as a Hunter, not to mention the accuracy and reliability with which I can inflict that condition. My only complaint so far would be the lack of a true AoE, to exploit swarm vulnerability. They will undoubtedly get better once they can get their power swap feat. A Mage is probably a more rounded out class, Invokers are a fantastic class, and I think the upcoming Bladesinger may have great potential, but my current favorite design for the role remains Hunter largely because of the secondary striking focus and accuracy.

I also think unfortunately, the current support for martial classes (and more generally weapon users, particularly melee) is greater than the support for implement users, which biases my choices.

 

[aurance]

Aside from the usual "campaign / party dependent" caviat -

Defender: Fighter
Leader: Warlord
Controller: Wizard
Striker: Ranger

 

[Estlor]

These seem to be the general consensus at the WotC CharOp board (and why):

Best Defender: Fighter (Weaponmaster). Why: Stickiness through Combat Superiority. Lots of ways to buff their mark and their opportunity attacks that demand attention. Insane feat/power support that only the wizard comes close to reaching.

Runner-up Defender: Paladin. Why: Divine Power saved this class. Lots of multi-marking powers and feat support that turns Divine Challenge into a beast. A Cha/Wis paladin can out heal/save grant some leader builds. Erathis paladin's hand out resist all for free.

Wardens are also considered very strong defenders.

Best Leader: Warlord. Why: Action granting. They have lots of powers that can grant 2 or more allies attacks on their turn. The only class that can get a 4th use of their healing power. Easy to get lots of bonus that stack from using inspiring word on someone. Combat Leader breaks initiative. As a hybrid, warlord makes every other class better.

Runner-up Leader: Bard. Why: Strong forced movement and control on top of solid healing. If the warlord is one side of the coin with action granting, the bard is the other with action denying.

Best Striker: Two-Weapon Ranger. Why: Minor action attacks. Prime Punisher. Twin Strike. Immediate actions. Rangers hit, hit again, then hit on everyone else'ss turn. They are the definition of the nova turn.

Runner-up Striker: Any charge-oriented melee striker multiclassed into fighter with the Kulkor Arms Master paragon path. Why: Knock Prone = no action bonus melee basic attack. With the right build, this spawns multiple attacks every round.

Best Controller: Mage (Enchanter|Illusionist). Why: Sick dailies that simply break a fight (that haven't been nerfed yet). Sleep = game changer, and that's just 1st level.

Runner-up Controller: Invoker. Why: CoMies get things like stun at really early levels. Great defenses and very durable for a squishy, especially CoWs.

 

[Breaks]

I don't disagree with what is generally being said, but the biggest thing is that the choice of classes should not be in isolation. If you're really trying to optimize you need to build a party as a group, looking at the interactions between characters.

Very little point being a Warlord who grants basic attacks if you have an Avenger and Rogue as strikers. Conversely a warlord would work very well with a Barbarian and Thief as strikers.

Also, when you talk of optimization, you're talking about combat; if the campaign has more out-of-combat action, perhaps other classes can be more useful?

Avengers are actually one of the better classes to hand out basic attacks to - if they pick up power of skill. Which, if they're in a party with an attack-granting leader, they should. I generally find it worth taking just for being able to charge.

They're not as heavy hitting as some classes (though, with painful oath in paragon, they hit pretty hard), but their accuracy is pretty phenomenal.

I love ardents and psions because of the sheer number of options available to them at any given time. Hunters have some of this too, with getting to choose the riders on their powers. Since effecting leading and controlling is all about choosing the right effect for the moment, this makes them very strong (well, not so much the hunter, his control options are still relatively weak. unless you optimize him pretty hard.).

 

[Raunalyn]

Avengers are actually one of the better classes to hand out basic attacks to - if they pick up power of skill. Which, if they're in a party with an attack-granting leader, they should. I generally find it worth taking just for being able to charge.

They're not as heavy hitting as some classes (though, with painful oath in paragon, they hit pretty hard), but their accuracy is pretty phenomenal.

I'm playing a half-elven Avenger who took Twin Strike as his dilettante power. He's an Retribution Avenger, so I play the martyr type and run through all of the enemies invoking OA's (Avengers have a nice DR trick they can throw out) and stacking a bunch of bonus damage modifiers. When he hits his oath target and novas, his damage is simply disgusting.

 

[Ahwe Yahzhe]

These seem to be the general consensus at the WotC CharOp board (and why):Best Controller: Mage (Enchanter|Illusionist). Why: Sick dailies that simply break a fight (that haven't been nerfed yet). Sleep = game changer, and that's just 1st level.

Amen- the only thing my Mage has to do each morning is to decide whether to lock down the lead bad guy and put the rest to sleep, or just push everyone into a Area Burst 1/2 and lock them down for the entire fight. (Push 6 on an at-will? Encounter powers with AoE/zone damage and slow/immobilize effects? At 1st-3rd level?) My Mage ends fights before they start, then waits for the strikers to clean up the mess.

 

[Herschel]

As others have said, it's very dependent on the whole party. A Warlord/Assault Swordmage/Avenger/Barbarian/Invoker party is very nifty, for example, but each of those classes might not perform as well in other configurations.

 

[babinro]

Leader: Ardent - While not the best at actual single output healing numbers. They get far more actual healing power uses than any other leader class while being able to really impact monster effectiveness. A clear winner in this department if you ask me.

Defender: Fighter - High damage and great all around defending capabilities. I've not yet seen a Warden play though which could be a strong contender.

Striker: Fey-Warlock - Not the best damage dealer but extremely hard to hit and has a strong controller feel to it. Probably the most powerful class build in 4e.

Controller: Psion - Dishearten is broken and far too overpowered. This is the most game breaking controller I've seen played but also the most boring by far. There are seldom any reasons not to dishearten. For a fun controller that is also effective, see wizard.

 

[MadMaxim]

Thanks for all your thoughts, guys, keep them coming I know that 4th edition is basically meant to level the playing field for all the classes and give everybody something to do on their turn, but I was just wondering if some classes just weren't better than the others at what they do and there seems to be. Just like 3.x had classes that were just downright better than others (Clerics for the win!), I thought there had to be game mechanically better classes than others.

I was wondering how nobody mentioned the Monk for striker, but perhaps it's just plain bad? I thought it looked pretty nifty but perhaps it's because it's an implement user that it just doesn't cut it? It sure does look the most mobile of the classes.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I have found the monk to be very, very fun, but it's not the "best striker."

I built mine as a very controller-y striker, and I'd call the class a good hybrid, but not purely good at one role.