4E Class Survivor - Round 16 (We have the final 3!)

[Wik]

Looks like my original guess of fighter, rogue, and sorcerer didn't go as planned. Still think the sorcerer pulls off the "Arcane caster guy" better than the wiz in 4e.

Anyways. Wizard has to go. It just isn't as fun in 4e. Though Fireball can be a lot of fun to cast... even if it does such a small amount of damage, these days.

 

[awesomeocalypse]

Eh. The swordmage, artificer, and bard went down early; the wizard and sorcerer made the last 4 -- which none of the divine or primal classes managed. The divine were gone pretty quickly; the primal classes stuck around quite a while on the barbarian's merits.

Fighter, why are you still here?

I think its important to remember that this is not so much a contest of who is the most popular as it is a test of who is the least unpopular. Everyone is looking for different things in a class--some want a unique and fun playstyle, some just care about effectiveness, some place the most value on flavor, and others just have one class they always play no matter what, no matter the edition.

For example, I care a lot about cool flavor and an interesting playstyle, but don't care much about tradition and place next to no value on effectiveness past a certain bare minimum. I love warlocks (lots of nifty powers and effects that lets you interact with the battlefield and monsters in interesting ways, plus very cool flavor that meshes well with mechanics), but I hate bow rangers (bland, at-will spamming dpr machines). But if you care more about effectiveness, then there's no denying bow ranger eats the warlock for lunch.

Given this, a contest like this is going to favor a character who performs reasonably well on at least a few of these metrics, and really badly on none of them, and will therefore attract the fewest haters.

Fighters are as traditional as it gets. They aren't the most flavorful, but they are adaptable to a huge number of concepts. They are very effective at both their role and dpr. And they are an absolute blast to play--completely intuitive both to build and to use at the table, great teammates, and lots of well-designed powers that work together to create a whole bigger than the sum of its parts.

I, for one, am happy to see them getting some love. After years and years of getting left in the dust by wizards just when the game started to get to the interesting levels, and despite the large number of players who see damage as the be all end all of a character's existence, its nice to see fighters finally hold their own and do so in a way that fits their role and doesn't rely on obscene dpr.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

The not really a wizard anymore has to go

 

[Almacov]

I'm rather glad my prediction wasn't accurate.
Despite being awkwardly implemented, I like wizards.
The focus on implement specialization is something I like from a flavour perspective.
More importantly, I guess, I really like ritual casting, and they're the only class (as far as I know) that learns rituals free and automatically as they level.
Magic in general is something I find essential to D&D, seperating it from a game in a real-world medieval setting.

I'd like to see them in the top two.

 

[lud]

The Fallen

One more name added to the list...

We have a new "Most Decisive" and a new voting record...

Closest decision: Artificer vs Warlord : 2 votes (round 1)
Most decisive: Sorcerer vs Wizard : 42 votes (round 15)
The survivor: (Tie) Avenger, Swordmage, Warlock, Warlock : Two rounds as the runner up
Run with most votes : Round 16, 299 votes

The last of their role:

                   Last                  First
Roles            Standing     Round      To Go    Round
--------------------------------------------------------
Controller        Wizard       16       Invoker     8
Defender          Fighter      1?        Warden     7
Leader            Cleric        5      Artificer    1
Striker           Rogue        1?       Warlock     6

Round   Victim     Origin  Role   Hit / Total (%)   Runner up (vote, lead) 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1     Artificer  EPG    Leader   31 / 180 (17.22%) [COLOR=Plum]Warlord [/COLOR](29, +2)
  2     Warlord    PHB1   Leader   49 / 211 (23.22%) [COLOR=Plum]Shaman [/COLOR](45, +4)
  3     Shaman     PHB2   Leader   58 / 199 (29.15%) Warlock (31, +27)
  4     Bard       PHB2   Leader   45 / 266 (16.92%) Warden (39, +6)
  5     Cleric     PHB1   Leader   54 / 274 (19.71%) [COLOR=Purple][COLOR=Plum]Warlock[/COLOR] [/COLOR](53, +1)
  6     Warlock    PHB1   Striker  45 / 220 (20.45%) [COLOR=Plum]Warden[/COLOR] (36, +9)
  7     Warden     PHB2   Defender 50 / 233 (21.46%) [COLOR=Plum]Invoker [/COLOR](40, +10)
  8     Invoker    PHB2   Control  58 / 234 (24.79%) Swordmage (34, +24)
  9     Paladin    PHB    Defender 63 / 248 (25.40%) [COLOR=Plum]Swordmage [/COLOR](52, +9)
  10    Swordmage  FRPG   Defender 50 / 207 (24.15%) Avenger (45, +5)
  11    Druid      PHB2   Control  68 / 216 (31.48%) [COLOR=Plum]Avenger [/COLOR](50, +18)
  12    Avenger    PHB2   Striker  83 / 202 (41.09%) Ranger (50, +33)
  13    Ranger     PHB    Striker  82 / 256 (32.03%) Barbarian (78, +4)
  14    Barbarian  PHB2   Striker  90 / 241 (37.34%) Sorcerer (66, +24)
  15    Sorcerer   PHB2   Striker 100 / 226 (44.25%) Wizard (58, +42)
  16    Wizard     PHB    Control 1?? / ??? (5?.??%) Rogue (??, +??)

  17    Rogue      PHB    Striker
        Fighter    PHB    Defender

For those using magic to see the final outcome of this challenge, here are the 3 safest classes of each of the rounds until the end

Round    1st Place     2nd Place     3rd Place    Total Vote
   3
   4
   5    Fighter (2)    Rogue (3)   Many (5) 274  
   6    Fighter (2)    Barbarian (4)     Rogue (4)       220
   7    Fighter (3)    Barbarian (5)     Rogue (6)       233
   8    Fighter (2)    Rogue (9)     Sorcerer/barbarian (10)       234
   9    Fighter (5)    Rogue (9)     Wizard (9)       248
  10    Fighter (3)    Rogue (5)     Wizard (10)      207
  11    Fighter (8)    Rogue (9)    Sorcerer (13)     216
  12    Fighter (10)   Rogue (10)   Sorcerer (18)     202
  13     Rogue (14)   Fighter (16)   Wizard (30)      256
  14    Fighter (18)   Rogue (29)    Wizard (38)      241
  15    Fighter (29)   Rogue (39)    Wizard (58)      226
  16    Fighter (3?)   Rogue (1??)
  17

The number of votes is noted next to each of them.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

Voted Fighter. He is most imbalanced of the 3.
(The wizard is fixed by banning sleep and fixing save-throw penalties)

 

[Stalker0]

How is the wizard liked less the rogue. The rogue is so....meh.

 

[Jaysue]

how is the wizard liked less the rogue. The rogue is so....meh.

+1 :0)

 

[Thasmodious]

Wizard, you have had a good run, but after 30 odd years the fighter needs his moment of glory.

Seconded, especially after the Dark Ages of 3e. The fighter can now hold his head high, drop a "you SHALL not pass" and mean it.

That said, love me me some wizard. My favorite iteration of the class after 1e.

 

[Glyfair]

Note: Round 14 ended early

Note to the note: That just means the next round poll was started before the poll had run its course (by less than an hour). I wanted to get the next poll up before I disappeared. I have no ability to "end the poll" once I set the time limit in the beginning.