Sniper

I have played every class in the game, and have multiple 50's. In my opinion, Sniper is the most difficult to play.

How is Operative hard? I have looked over their parses and they only use 4 abilities: Shiv, Backstab, Lacerate, and Rifle shot i guess when energy is low. 25-30% damage is from poison.

 

I dunno about them, but I use these damage abilities in every single fight

 

Hidden Strike

Backstab

Shiv

Lacerate

Cull

Corrosive dart

Corrosive grenade

Orbital Strike when I can spare it and the mob is somewhat stationary.

Rifle Shot

Overload Shot if everything is on CD and I have energy to spare

 

Not to mention, if you get too bursty you'll cripple yourself in short order. It's complex because you have to weave all of these abilities together without dropping your energy too low, and a lot of them are dependent on tactical advantage proccing, which doesn't last for long and can only be generated by shiv (and hidden strike which is only an opener).

Edited May 1, 2012 by VicSkimmr

Why does everyone say marauder/sents? do you long for the feeling of self superiority that comes with saying you play the hardest class?

 

Do you have to regulate your resource? hardly....

Do you have to watch for many procs while you fight? erm, no

Do you have to pay attention to the health of your own party while you fight, guard someone and use taunts properly, erm no.

 

You jump in, you mash some buttons in a fixed-ish rotation without ever having to worry about your energy running down and completely gimping yourself for the next fight..

And if you play the other classes properly, you'll notice you still fill up at least 3 if not more of the quickbars with regularly used abilities aswell......so get off your high horse, its not hard to play because you may have a few more abilities to press......

Edited May 1, 2012 by Madnutter

Sentinel/Marauder is definitely the most complex class in the game in terms of the skill floor. This is especially true f they are running the DoT spec (Watchman/Annihilation), which is quite possibly the most difficult spec in the game to play optimally.

 

None of this was helped by the changes in patch 1.2, which made Watchman/Annihilation harder to play by nerfing the talent that used to reduce the cost of Force Sweep/Smash (leaving fewer options to let a 2-stack Overload Saber/Deadly Saber tick twice) and by buffing Master Strike/Ravage to the point where is necessary to use it to maximize DPS.

 

Here's the considerations for a Watchman Sentinel:

 

-Roll stacks of Overload Saber perfectly so that they last longer than the cooldown. This requires the use of non-melee abilities woven between melee abilities or the stacks will build too quickly.

-Use Cauterize every time it's off cooldown as it's the best Damage/Force attack in the arsenal. Don't forget that there are two abilities that have a random chance to reset the cooldown.

-Use Zen the instant it hits 30 stacks.

-Use Merciless Slash the instant it comes off cooldown.

-Use Master Strike as often as possible without ruining the DoT rotation.

-Interrupt.

-CC Droids.

-Use Awe, Pacify, and Force Stasis whenever possible to reduce damage on the tank.

-Be ready with Inspiration when the burn phase arrives.

-Use Rebuke, Blade Ward, Force Camouflage, and Guarded by the Force to reduce incoming damage.

 

And they have to do that while operating in melee range and dealing with all the hazards such positioning entails.

 

Playing the class is like playing a piano.

 

On top of maintaining 3 stacks of the Annihilator buff within the few second window you have to keep it up (not sure what the Sent equivilent is ) and balancing your Rage/Fury tradeoff when you're building attacks.

 

My first toon and main is a 50 Mara, Anni/Watchman-spec since 11. I've got a 50 Assassin and a Merc, Sorc and Scoundrel all level 30-40. Without doubt the Mara has the most going on and the most amount of info to keep track of although I can't speak for other specs. I can say that learning how to play him properly really helped when it came to playing other classes.

 

After the Mara/Sent, from my experience, Op/Scoundrel.

Edited May 1, 2012 by ALXinstincts

Sentinels / Marauders are effortless to play. I have one and it's smash keyboard rawr rawr bubble something dies.

 

Remember just because someone has 10 extra abilities doesn't mean it's harder.

 

It just means there's 10 more ways to become immune (or do X Damage) and kick your arse.

Edited May 2, 2012 by TheNinjaboy

Well a perfect example is Marvel Vs Capcom 3 that game's trend died off within a few weeks.

Why??? that game is is too easy to play even a 5 year old kid just randomly smash the buttons can come out a complete 2 digit combo. Heck I hit 3 digit combo by rolling my face on the joystick, I lost interest in the game within a week becuz it way too simple. Anyone can pwn without any skill.

 

Now compare that game with Street fighter 4 and Mortal Kombat 9 over the years they are still one of the best fighting and still they are tons of players on the internet and in arcades, Why? becuz it requires a high degree of skill to play due to it complex mechanics and moves. HECK you compare Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (combat moves and power list) to Mortal Kombat 9. you'll know what I mean by complex. And that is just the tip of the iceberg

 

Street fighter 4??? Home console players and arcades owners dun mind spending money on every "new edition" that Street fighter comes out with.

Mortal Kombat 9, ppl are willing to pay for any DLC till now

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 are trying very to sell in games shops that they willing to sell it for 20 bucks.

 

Guilty Gear > Blazblue > Street fighter = Mortal Kombat 9

Stop saying Sentinels already, its a lie you / we dont have to keep energy above xx % , we dont have to maintain buffs , dots are added easily when off cd and is applies with pretty much all melee attack and you dont even have to worry about it running out, cause you just pop it when its off cd.

 

Anyone who have both sentinel + scoundrel and still thinks sentinel is harder in pve/pvp please explain why.

 

Scoundrel

Keep dot running

Keep power regen up

Pugnancy up

1 stack of upperhand.

Armor penetration

 

Backup healing during some fights.

 

Sentinel

Juyo form , passive just works no need reason to maintain or watch for it.

Merciless is used when possible thats about it the buff lower cd thingy just works.

Overload Saber, same thing used when its up.

Cauterize used when possible

pop zen when possible.

 

Use defensive cd's as needed cloak for deaggro, inspiration for dps boost.

 

Low on energy ? use either of the 2 skills to create some.

I am surprised nobody has mentioned a Deception/Infiltration spec'd Assassin/Shadow. I just rolled an Operative only level 14 now and have to agree with the comments concerning Imperial Agent. However, let me make a few comments about Deception/Infiltration specifically (from a PvP perspective)... Go to the forums and in-game NOBODY wants to play these spec's because there "Squishy" so they spec Darkness/Kinetic Combat or they don't do high enough damage #'s so they spec Madness/Balance...

 

My main is a valor 68 Deception Assassin so I will offer my thoughts in that view.

 

We are spec'd for Burst, but we only have true burst when our 1:30 (1:15 set bonus) CD is up or an enemy is less than 30% and when our CD is up even that is not good enough to take down a healer unless we properly time 2 - 3 interrupts to stop them from healing through it. Not to mention our most damaging moves require execution of previous moves to get situational proc's that are necessary for burst and force cost management to continue a burst sequence.

 

As far as I know Force at least compared to an IA's Energy resource (& Darkness/Madness) is far more difficult to manage for DECEPTION/INFILTRATION.

 

We have the least amount of armor of any class and have to also be selective of our targets. The amount of situational awareness necessary to play this spec effectively is ridiculous. I love it though because it is challenging and hardly anybody play's it.

 

This spec is completely UNFORGIVING, you have bring your "A-game" FTW in each encounter, because your "B-game" or less will result in annihilation/absolute frustration.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Defdaddy

In PvE, out of the classes I have played, Operative dps is the hardest (both specs), followed by lightning sorc dps, then the rest of the possible specs/classes in my sig. This (op dps) is simply due to the complexity of the resource system and managing TAs. Jugg dps is fairly easy and hybrid sorcs are close to faceroll.

 

Healing wise, Operatives are harder then Sorcs, but neither are terribly difficult.

Sniper

 

I personally find Marksman Sniper to be a lot more challenging than Tank Juggernaut in both PvE and PvP.

 

Juggernaut -

Auto-debuff when you build rage

Defensive cooldowns (time with obvious visual queues)

Too low on Rage? Hit Assault once or twice

 

Sniper -

Have to actively time your debuff

Offensive cooldowns (time with other abilities) + you have personal defensive cooldowns + raidwide shield

Ran yourself out of energy? You're screwed if Adrenalin Probe is down

 

Obviously there's a lot more to the comparison, but playing both classes at 50, I think Sniper is a lot more complicated. That's not to say that I dislike my Juggernaut, though.

How is Operative hard? I have looked over their parses and they only use 4 abilities: Shiv, Backstab, Lacerate, and Rifle shot i guess when energy is low. 25-30% damage is from poison.

 

This person speaks the truth

Guilty Gear > Blazblue > Street fighter = Mortal Kombat 9

 

Right.......You get the point.

Sentinels / Marauders are effortless to play. I have one and it's smash keyboard rawr rawr bubble something dies.

 

Remember just because someone has 10 extra abilities doesn't mean it's harder.

 

It just means there's 10 more ways to become immune (or do X Damage) and kick your arse.

 

ya you wan to nerf Sentinels / Marauders till your OP Scoundrel steam roll mara with your face.

Gunslinger/sniper w/out a doubt.

 

especially SharpShooter or MarksMan

 

same damage as other DPS specs with less than half the survivability.

 

Easily the most group dependant (guard/heals etc...) class in the game.

 

With a crap ton of binds and very unforgiving.

 

 

I have one of every class or it's mirror and I feel like I'm in godmode compared to my GS when I play them.

The fact is most classes are about the same. Certainly some classes you can play better as a monkey but to really maximize the class you still need to think. Most classes have about 29 abilities that are useful at least situationally except the sorcerer might have less... Thats probably why they have so many players!

 

Many people say marauder are hard and have lots of abilities but they always count the abilities that are worthless and or redundant... like your not going to be stance dancing too much as a mara. I would consider jugg more complicated in terms of pvp if your playing the class to its full potential.

 

Most people say that BH mercs are easy mode and they are in a way. However when your actually pvping and you have to manage heat, worry about interrupts, use your cool downs effectively its different. I have a guildy merc that I've seen get 580k after the nerf beating everyone else by 200k including another merc. So the difference between him and alot of other bh I've played with is quite large. The saying easy to play hard to master comes to mind.

 

Some people say snipers but if your not being attacked its about as complicated as playing whack a mole since its the active survival abilities that add a dimension to the class.

Sniper/slinger. All the complexity of the sentinel/marauder, no defenses to speak of and therefore no margin for error. Most demanding rotation to put out par damage with sorcs and mercs and cannot match sentinel/marauder DPS even with the most optimal possible rotation and best gear. Edited May 4, 2012 by dcgregorya
typo

Whats the fewest amount of abilities you can dumb a marauder or a operative down to for PvE? I know PvP is a different monster and you need all those situational abilities. For example on my Assassin I use around 25 abilities during WZs but when doing quests I only use about 3-4 core abilities and a few cooldowns/interrupts. I find that relaxing as who wants to get stressed out when trying to level because you have 20 abilities to worry about? Can the same be done for marauders and operatives? I really wanna try one of those for their stories and also something new to play but not if its more work than fun.

All classes are easy to play in this game, a good player will make the toon look OP a bad player will make the class look complex and hard. Out of my 6 50s I find the sentinel the most fun dps class to play but I can't say it's challenging to play coming from age of Conan and its combat system. Scoundrel healers are stupid easy and fun as well. I'm a fan of instants that can be used fluidly, I hate classes with long channels and casts. Edited May 5, 2012 by Traxv

I would actually have to say Operatives/Scoundrel DPS.

 

Now hear me out. Although the basic skill set is not that hard to master (infact there are basically only 2 variations on combination) it is the fact that a scrapper needs to adapt the most.

 

This is mainly because they are

- squishy

- Need to tailor the fight to them to win

 

If you are missing having the fight to your hand then you need to adapt quickly or face the music in the form of a 1 hit KO in most cases.

Edited May 5, 2012 by CarthOnansi