Best PvE class!

Blademaster, they can easily get high APS for single-target damage, have a wide variety of AOEs, are in high demand for squads due to their buff and damage doubling ability.

The topic's title is quite misleading since you're basically asking what's a good class for general AOE damage; that could be a Wizard, a Psychic, an Archer, a Seeker or a Blademaster. All those classes are good for pure AOE damage.

This really, really depends on what you want to do in PVE. For support DD, I would say psychic, wizard or archer. If you want to solo bosses, then a blademaster is nice if you can get BP. If you want a bit of both, perhaps seeker.

I would say BM, seeker, or even barb for solo play. They can mob large groups of melee monsters and just let the AOEs rip. (even better if they have bp)
You can do that with the arcane classes as well but, usually not until they have very high end gear or just over leveled for the mobs. Would suggest wizard before psy on that front.

Archers have BOA (constant AOE, for the most part) and a couple other AOE type skills, but not to the extent as the other classes. Wizards have DB (another constant AOE), as well as a nice amount of regular AOE attacks.

Really depends on what you're going for. If you're going for solos PvE, I would suggest what I said above, BM, seeker, or barb. If you're more into the support, then maybe wizard, psychic, or even archer. The HAs work well in the 'support' roles as well with buffs, nice damage as well as debuffs.

bm's hands down, well a good bm tht is, we can AoE the **** out off monsters when needed then know when to go aps mode as well, ultimate PvE Troll b:thanks

Seekers


AOE grinding didn't even exist until this class came out, and without seekers who would pull groups of mobs in fcc and kill them all?

Nobody thats who <

Longknife - Harshlands wrote: »

Psychic.

Don't listen to anyone saying wizard or archer or the like. Those two have nice AOEs, sure, but they can't really SPAM AOEs. Psy, Seeker and BM are gonna be the only ones that can AOE WITHOUT STOPPING.

What?? Wizards have Dragon's Breath, we are the only magic class that has a nonstop AOE. When I'm doing some hardcore grinding I will set of DB and my auto-potter then read a book while I use an alt to pick up the drops. I have pick-up on my shortcut and will just continuously click that button. I look up occasionally at the screen to make sure everything is ok, then go back to reading.

WarpSpider_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Seekers


AOE grinding didn't even exist until this class came out, and without seekers who would pull groups of mobs in fcc and kill them all?

Nobody thats who <

I actually laughed when I read this. They were doing fcc long before seekers were even introduced to this game. I do it all the time on my wizard. I can't handle as large of groups as a seeker can, but since I deal more damage it barely takes more time. Seekers are not as irreplaceable as they like to think they are.

WarpSpider_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Seekers


AOE grinding didn't even exist until this class came out, and without seekers who would pull groups of mobs in fcc and kill them all?

Nobody thats who <

Ehmm how about barbs who do that all the time ?

And yes even the killing that is. with a little support from other classes for HF and some healing its a breeze really regardless of how low level or unequiped they are. Solo it is not a breeze until your high level and well equiped, but far from impossible.

I know, you dont see many barbs triple sparking before they start AOEing, but believe me, it works and it kicks FCC mobs *** pretty well.

And thats also what a barb can do

Sorry, i just really like barbs

one moment the barb is this
the other moment he can be this

Very similar to the BM really with the exception that in APS mode he has a bit more HP and a bit less dmg and in axe mode he has a lot more HP and gains unlimited chi from mass mobs attacking him, so he can AOE also triple sparked and then use his sunder for 100% crit followed by armageddon. And for that reason alone i actually dont agree with the sentiment that the BM is such a superior AOEer. The combination though, triple spark, 100% crit and HF....

WarpSpider_ - Sanctuary wrote: »

Seekers


AOE grinding didn't even exist until this class came out, and without seekers who would pull groups of mobs in fcc and kill them all?

Nobody thats who <

Funniest thing I've read all day. No one could mistake you for anything but a fcc nub who probably joined the game 6 months ago tops.

BM's were the first aoe grinders. Back before FCC and BH, BM was the class you went to for fast mob leveling. There were entire guides written on aoe grinding Seaweed thieves and bladewolves with charms and eso's. Good BM's were also tanking FCC's with under 5k hp well before seekers ever existed. The only real use seekers have over other classes in fcc is high aoe damage and solo'ing exp room pulls with bp without the need for extra support, for power leveling nubs.

On topic, thread is confusing. Op asks for the best class, then specifies no veno's, sins and aoe only. Is this a "best class overall in PvE" or just a best "aoe dd" thread. Despite my above comments, seekers are pretty beast aoe dd. Crazy damage along with bp heals is rather op. If it's PvE in general, it's a whole different story and aoe has little to do with anything.

I feel like the answer the OP is looking for is a BM. Here are my (abridged) thoughts...

tl;dr version: BM has best options for spamming AoE skills and crowd control -- unless you like to sit in the same place and "spin to win" (seeker/wiz/archer) -- while still able to do lots of damage 1v1 and take a lot of damage.

Options:

Seeker
Pros: self buff worth up to 35 defense levels (sage). Able to purify yourself without needing chi (quid pro quo and demon unfetter). Continuous AoE. Extremely high damage possible. The best overall PvE debuffs (heart shatter is as good as amp for physical damage and lasts 10 minutes; soul shatter paired with a wiz or psy is capable of absolutely ridiculous damage -- as a million+ of damage per hit). Edged blur not affected by the "bless" buff that some bosses have which reduces all damage they take. Ability to deal magic damage with a handful of skills. Most skills are ranged and work with bloodpaint. Able to teleport to mobs/players/npcs like assassins.

Cons: Very slow to build chi, especially since seeker APS is capped at 2.86 (demon spark). AoEs are not spammable due to cooldown times and chi requirements. No real options for crowd control. No effective antistun (sage unfetter is 4s, no antistun for demon). Unless you've got bloodpaint and chi for vortex you are pretty vulnerable against groups of mobs, especially magic mobs. Tanky against bosses, but no skills to build agro (bloodthirsty blits is like Roar or alpha male in that it resets agro but doesn't build it).

Barb
Pros: Able to take lots of damage. Able to deal (not much) magic damage. Very very high physical defense in tiger form, effective anti-stun, high speed (mobs can't keep up when chasing you so they don't hit you often). Invoke the spirit can get you out of a tough situation. Build chi by being attacked, demon barb builds chi for the entire party when buffing. 5aps possible.

Cons: Need to be in human form to do significant damage which significantly lowers survivability, especially if you get purged.

BM
Pros: Multiple running skills, enough AoEs that they can be continuously chained virtually non stop (i.e. constant healing from bloodpaint). Heaven's flame is second only to soul shatter in terms of damage amplification, but has shorter cooldown and area of effect. Physical marrow and bell put physical defense on par with a tiger form barb with no reduction in DD ability. Magic marrow adds high survivability against magic damage. 5aps possible. Higher sustained damage over time compared to magic classes, seeker, or barb.

Cons: AoE damage is pretty low compared to other classes (made up for my spammability of AoE skills and CC)

Archer (I've never played an archer so my observations here are limited)
Pros: Continuous ranged AoE. Highest sustained damage over time (with bow and full APS gear, unless there is still a way to get in fox form on a veno with claws or fists, but I think that was patched), even higher than assassins with same grade of weapon. Highest range of all classes (able to glitch and kill some bosses solo). Spirit blackhole (weapon addon for g15 and r9 bows) for rapid purging. Magic damage skills and self-buff adds magic damage to physical skills. Stealth.

Cons: Can't get bloodpaint. Fairly squishy in rank gear. Incredibly squishy in aps gear (defense like a sin, but no healing from bloodpaint). Won't be effective at tanking a lot of mobs without a cleric.

Wiz
Pros: High magic defense from arcane armor + high physical defense from stone barrier with protection ornaments (fully buffed I have slightly higher physical defense than magic defense). Continuous AoE. Ability to heal (albeit very slowly). High damage skills and AoEs. Very very very high earth, fire, or water defense. With the appropriate barrier, able to pull huge numbers of magic mobs and kill them while taking very little damage.

Cons: No effective CC, no antistun or damage reduction/immunity skill (other than purify on recast r8 or r9), very very slow channeling on most skills even with lots of channeling gear, very poor damage over time in a 1v1 setting (i.e. it is possible to solo most ranged magic bosses but don't bother because it takes forever)

Psy
Pros: Semi-effective CC through self buffs, damage reduction/immunity through self buffs. AoEs much more spammable than wiz or seeker and also do good damage. Voodoos to balance attack and defense as needed. Able to heal entire party / healing over time effect allows you to attack and recover health at the same time.

Cons: Soul of silence/stunning are reactive defense rather than passive (they don't passively protect you from damage, but rather react to damage you take by stunning or sealing the enemy), making you vulnerable to anything that does high physical damage.

Cleric
Overall: Not a lot of effective AoEs, nor high base defenses. Able to rebuff self and also has plume shell and wings of protection. Able to take a stream of continuous damage while building chi (just stand there and repeatedly heal yourself). Able to spam ranged physical damage. Appropriately geared, they can pull large numbers of mobs and kill them solo, it just takes a little while.

I'm not familiar enough with Mystics to make any real kind of assessment.

Assuming you aren't going to be solo aoe grinding, BM wins hands down for pve.

Why? Because you are always always needed, in any squad ever. AOE and non aoe all want HF. AOE want the stuns. Their AOE DD on its own is low compared to others, but they will amp everything else so much that them being in squad has huge effectiveness for aoe anyway.

They can tank, they can single target DD.

In any highly effective squad you can get away without having any of the other classes, but you will always always want a BM.



Re: Other gumph in thread. Random psys saying they are better aoe DD'ers than wizards... its either nub talk, or just a simple case of "rawr, my class is the best".

We have DB, which is pretty much the nuts compared to psys for constant aoe. Then we have hailstorm, Will of the nix, emberstorm (k, emberstorm isn't one I use much, but its there lol) if DB goes down.
The psy saying we need extra gear compared to them needs to look at more aspects of the game. I used to solo the big room in FF (pulling the whole room) in TT90 gear with an FF weapon while levelling from 90-100.
Now as a wizard with R9S1 armour, and a S3 weapon (+8 refine) I'm able to run 4 PV's in the 15 minutes, killing every single mob not just running to the end.

Seekers.... yeah... Vortex is crazy powerful and they are tanky and can use Bloodpaint. They win on aoe DD.

Knightblayde - Raging Tide wrote: »

What is a seeker?

Seekers are adept swordsmen, capable of manipulating a squad's damage output and reducing the amount of damage the squad receives, mainly through the use of their three stances. Their primary role is to support the squad through their debuffs, damage, and control skills, but they can also be a secondary puller and/or tank. They possess the most powerful AoE in the game, Yataghan Vortex, which potentially annihilates mobs in seconds, making them a highly desired class where AoE damage is needed. They can also adapt their combat distance from melee to ranged, which makes them a versatile fighter.

That's why seekers are the best pve class.

HrunsPanda - Archosaur wrote: »

Its hard to say who is best aoer really, they all got something going for them

Seeker has constant output and can keep it going as long as it ever wants, having enough survivability to take reasonable beating, but, it cant move, it cant spark or do anything else while its vortexing, so it just keeps vortexing for a moderate amount of damage per second.

BM is versatile, can run around while using his many aoe skills, choose between excelent defence against physical or magic. Triple spark or combine double spark with HF, or with some help from a potion or cloud eruption even combine triple spark and HF for damage bursts that far outdo the seekers vortex dps.

The barb can do the same. Has unlimited chi and thus can easilly stack his spark with 100% crit demon sunder and if he wants to sacrifice mobility, invoke for the ultimate defence. Combination of spark, sunder, armageddon and any other attacks you like to do within your spark and 100% crit duration creates insane damage outputs during those 5 seconds. After that, he is pretty much done for a while though as all he may have plenty chi, but all his skills will be in cooldown. Fortunately, everything around him is likely to be dead anyway.

So yes, i would agree that the seeker may seem like the king of aoe as it provides the ability for zhenning and such as it can keep its constant damage output for hours and hours and its also very easy to execut. but this is mostly for the easy to play aoe and special tasks like zhenning. Espescially if you combine the barb and BM, the damage those 2 do in 5 seconds would take a seeker like a minute or so to produce with its vortex. And in most practical situations, you prefer that short damage burst since it is enough to kill everything.



archers, wizzies and psys i have never played. >lvl 60 But i must admit that my seekers skills are also very limited and i dont well know their non vortex aoe capabilities. I just feel confident stating that vortex is not the skill that will make the seeker shine for aoe in non-zhenning kind of situations.

......so basically you are saying SEEKER?

best pve class = sin

switch on CotD trip spark mire subsea earthen rift, bramble rage if your genie supports it

switch off CotD and aps

BM was the original phys aoe class, and I still do my FCs mostly seeker free

Few things beat demon sunder-ToP-Arma zerkcrit in single hit phys aoe damage

the advantage of vortex is that it's so easy and reliable with paint

edit: always assuming OP gears ofc