Class Popularity?

[DeusExMachina]

I am wondering if the "war" classes will become longer lasting disapointments, or if they will also look better as time goes on.

I haven't seen a problem so far with the warlocks. The one in our party is pretty kick ass. The warlord doesn't seem to be all that though. It is too dependant on the presence of other characters adjacent to him, but I hope martial power will correct some of that by giving the warlord some powers that don't have that requirement.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Its no big mystery why strikers are so popular. The standard group of 5 has a tank, a healer and 3 DPS. I keep getting images of warlocks, rogues, and rangers sitting around the tavern. Pinned upon the notice board beside the fire are numerous sheets of parchment all claiming :

3 DPS looking for tank and heals for Shadowfell then GTG.

 

[Stalker0]

Rangers are popular because I believe them to be the most powerful class right now.

They have the best skills, the best damage, with a bow you can stay safely out of range in many fights, they have multiple target attacks, good single target attacks, some decent condition powers, etc.

I mean, what's not to love?

 

[Benimoto]

I think part of the ranger's popularity is due to the fact that it's got two popular archetypes cornered. The ranger is the best class with two weapons and the best class with a bow. Other archetypes, like the heavily-armored melee type, have multiple classes, such as the fighter, paladin and warlord. Even the classic "wizard" archetype is now divided between the wizard and the warlock.

Plus, if that's the case, it will get even worse next month. When Martial Power comes out, it looks like the ranger will have competition in the two-weapon melee category, but I'm willing to bet that being the only class with a pet will more than make up for that.

 

[Masquerade]

Interestingly, I have actually never seen a ranger in play. In my experience, warlocks have been overwhelmingly popular, but that's probably because it's a new and shiny class.

In the two games I run:

• Human Star Warlock
• Half-Eladrin Rogue (Infernal Warlock)
• Half-Eladrin Paladin
• Dragonborn Warlord

• Dwarf Rogue->Cat Burglar
• Tiefling Wizard (Dark Warlock)->Spellguard Wizard
• Human Fighter (Wizard)->Blood Mage
• Warforged Fighter->Juggernaut

 

[Kishin]

I've seen a lot of Rangers and Warlocks thus far. Particularly Starlocks, but I think I can pin that on my social circle's general love for the works one of Howard Philips Lovecraft.

The current campaign I'm playing in is pretty straightforward party composition, though:

Dragonborn Paladin
Elf Ranger
Eladrin Warlord
Human Wizard
Human Warlock (Infernal)

 

[Lancelot]

Good mix in my games, with every PH class played at least twice (with one appearance each of the Artificer and Barbarian).

Clerics and Fighters seem to be the most popular (by a slim margin), due to fairly high casualty rates as we came to grips with the system. 18 deaths so far, averaging 1 death per session for the first couple months... and dipping to about 1 death per 4 sessions currently.

The players have learned that Clerics and Fighters are almost essential to their survival, given their "aggressive" style of play.

 

[Eytan Bernstein]

My experiences lead me to believe that there is no pattern of popularity. I've seen the ranger being the least played class, while others see it as the most played. I've seen the warlock as being the most popular, while others think it is among the least. I've played in four 4e campaigns (all with different groups, several still going on) since October of 07 when I started playtesting and I've had the following observations.

- Fighters have rarely been played. We had one player try one and no one else so far.
- Warlords and paladins were about 50-50.
- Rangers were played once and scrapped because the player didn't like them.
- Every party had a wizard and cleric.
- Three parties had rogues and warlocks.

But these are obviously quite different than other peoples', so I can only conclude that WotC has done a good job in presenting a variety of classes people like. There are no runaway favorites or absolute stinkers.

 

[Agamon]

My groups:

I DM, 6 players; 1 fighter, 1 wizard, 1 warlord, 1 ranger, 1 cleric, 1 rogue

I play, 6 players; 1 ranger (me), 1 cleric, 1 wizard, 1 swordmage, 1 paladin, 1 warlock

I play, 4 players; 1 warlord (me), 1 wizard, 1 paladin, 1 fighter

So the first two groups have 2 strikers, 1 a ranger and the 3rd has no ranger or even any strikers. Considering there are more striker classes, it's not an odd trend. Considering there's only 1 type of controller and each group has one, that's more interesting, I think.

Then again, it's been too short a time to see trends yet, IMO.

 

[blargney the second]

In our group of three players, the first two classes picked were ranger and rogue. So yeah, strikers are popular here. I had to ask the DM for permission to run two characters so we'd have a defender and a leader. Interestingly enough, we ended up with a purely martial party.