D&D 5E The New Tiers Ranked

[Tony Vargas]

4E you could definitely do class tiers. PHB classes got more support, had morebuilds?

You could only play one build at a time. The innate versatility of classes in play were very close - comparable numbers of skills, powers, feats, wealth/level resources, same retraining options - prettymuch all Tier 3. The wizard, with the option to prep an alternative to each daily or utility, and a few free known (but not free to cast) rituals was surely "high" in that Tier. Essentials started back in the direction of Tiers, giving Mages more prep options, and curtailing the versatility of other classes, especially martial, (and arguably producing some dysfunctional sub-classes, while 'orphaning' the RunePriest & Seeker) but to nowhere near the extent 5e.

 

[Zardnaar]

You could only play one build at a time. The innate versatility of classes in play were very close - comparable numbers of skills, powers, feats, wealth/level resources, same retraining options - prettymuch all Tier 3. The wizard, with the option to prep an alternative to each daily or utility, and a few free known (but not free to cast) rituals was surely "high" in that Tier. Essentials started back in the direction of Tiers, giving Mages more prep options, and curtailing the versatility of other classes, especially martial, (and arguably producing some dysfunctional sub-classes, while 'orphaning' the RunePriest & Seeker) but to nowhere near the extent 5e.

Probably be more accurate to tier list 4E builds.

5E most classes are decent but they're ery much prepacked so you can't mix and match the best abilities via feats and powers.

I think they overestimate how good fish type stuff is in 5E context hence power creep with bladesinger and Hexblades.

My OP was also a while ago. A tier 2 class is still really good but done archetypes are better than others so wizards in general might be tier two but the better archetypes are tier 1.

Some things are YMMV like how many rituals a ritual caster will have access to.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Probably be more accurate to tier list 4E builds.

Tiers were never about specific (optimized) builds.
But, in the same sense it could be reasonable to break down 5e Tiers by sub-class, maybe, as, until Essentials, 'builds' (mainly, alternate class features & power enhancements) were as close as it came.
But it'd make little difference, it's not like any pre-E build got radically different resources or swapping options.

5E most classes are decent but they're ery much prepacked so you can't mix and match the best abilities via feats.

Especially if you're wise enough to not opt into feats - and MCing, which also didn't figure much into 3.5 Tiers.
But, that also had nothing to do with Class Tiers: wizards weren't bumped from Tier 1 because they MCd poorly, nor were Fighters let out of Tier 5 because they made a great 2-level dip in some builds.

5e really did expand casting as a primary mechanic, and that pushed classes up the Tier structure. That and BA reducing the significance of class skills unless Expertise came into it.

 

[TheLinuxOS]

How does Way of the Long Death monk not make at least Tier 2 if not 1 in the level 11 section, they become nearly unkillable when paired with any sort of healing spell caster due to there 11th level ability "Beginning at 11th level, when you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can expend 1 ki point (no action required) to have 1 hit point instead. "