Smuggler is easily the worst hands down. The story fails on many levels to capture the Han Solo feel, and it completely lacks any sense of gravity. The story feels utterly trivial.

I got that impression... Of my many toons, I haven't got a Smuggler toon further than Coruscant.

Also, I would agree with those saying that the Knight is top Rep story... While the "B" story or planet arcs are rather cliche and predictable, the personal stories with companions, allies and adversaries is where the Knight story really shines big, and perhaps bigger in this area than any other class, including the much hailed IA story. Also the JK ending is suitably epic.

I've done them all, and to my thinking this is how it rates, best to worst...

Imperial Agent (IA and SW could be considered a tie)

Sith Warrior

Jedi Knight

Sith Inquisitor (interesting but better love interests are needed)

Smuggler (smug and bh could be considered a tie)

Bounty Hunter

Trooper (especially bad if you're a female trooper. No good love interest, dull companions, no interesting subplot like male Troopers get)

Consular (dull dull dull dull omg my eyes are bleeding from the dull.)

We can play Republicans? I get Ronald Reagan!

 

Just a joke, man. Please don't take it personally.

 

Several of us actually got an infraction for using the word pre-launch. We contested it though, got an apology, and the infractions were withdrawn. It's now a perfectly safe word to use again! \o/ Just like sockpuppetry, the newest awesome word I've learned on these forums.

From those I finished

1. IA
   
2. Consular (maybe a tie with Agent, but I guess that is because it was my first char and my main, so I love it)
   
3. Hunter
   
4. Smuggler
   
5. Knight
   
6. Trooper
   

Inquisitor is going probably somewhere between Consular and Smuggler. I am not even past Dromund Kaas on warrior, so I can't guess there

1.) Agent: I'm not finished, but it's very well done and I don't know how it's going to end yet (I'm in the 40's).

2.) Sith Warrior: I think it's mostly because it's my favorite voice actor, but it's generally solid, although I knew how things were going to go down to soon.

3.) Knight: I liked the vast majority of it, thought the end was pretty bad though.

4.) Bounty Hunter: When played like a serial killer, it's fun, less so when not.

5.) Trooper: It is boring at times, but I found it to be very well done. My favorite companion group by a landslide. It also may have my favorite ending so far.

6.) Inquisitor: Thought the first act was good, i thought the rest was garbage.

7.) Smuggler: Mine is in the mid 30's and I haven't cared about the story line in awhile already. I'm not done though so it may move up.

8.) Consular: Worst voice actor by a mile. My least favorite opening companion by a mile. And since I played this at release I looked like I was wearing a dress for 50 levels. I think the voice actor largely killed this story for me though, elements of it were clever, should have played it with the sound off.

8.) Consular: Worst voice actor by a mile. My least favorite opening companion by a mile. And since I played this at release I looked like I was wearing a dress for 50 levels. I think the voice actor largely killed this story for me though, elements of it were clever, should have played it with the sound off.

I honestly quite like "Desmond" (from AC series) doing the voice over on my male consular. Not sure about female consular (cant really remember hearing her that much in FPs).

Also, Qyzen is pretty cool, once you get to know him (he is sort of like Khem Val, but without constant muttering about how great Tulak Hord was, he is all about honor and honorable hunting, so take you pick).

And as for dress code, I think I got a nice set of pants pretty early on, and tried to keep pants all the time (I hate skirts).

However, this thread is not about ranting at design, but about story. And consular's story of solving things by finding ancient secrets or through some crazy diplomacy is pretty cool...

1.) Agent: I'm not finished, but it's very well done and I don't know how it's going to end yet (I'm in the 40's).

2.) Sith Warrior: I think it's mostly because it's my favorite voice actor, but it's generally solid, although I knew how things were going to go down to soon.

3.) Knight: I liked the vast majority of it, thought the end was pretty bad though.

4.) Bounty Hunter: When played like a serial killer, it's fun, less so when not.

5.) Trooper: It is boring at times, but I found it to be very well done. My favorite companion group by a landslide. It also may have my favorite ending so far.

6.) Inquisitor: Thought the first act was good, i thought the rest was garbage.

7.) Smuggler: Mine is in the mid 30's and I haven't cared about the story line in awhile already. I'm not done though so it may move up.

8.) Consular: Worst voice actor by a mile. My least favorite opening companion by a mile. And since I played this at release I looked like I was wearing a dress for 50 levels. I think the voice actor largely killed this story for me though, elements of it were clever, should have played it with the sound off.

I played the male consular for about 15 levels then deleted him because I couldn't stand his voice. Just too mamby pamby

1) Imperial Agent - Best all around story from beginning to end.

2) Sith Inquisitor - You start off as a slave and become a sith. That alone deserves praise. I also loved the power struggle within the sith empire. The story involves a lot of power plays with a dark and ruthless touch.

3) Sith warrior - To me the first chapter of this story is the best of them all. It's so great that the rest of the story , which is good as well, just can't compete with chapter 1.

I've done Knight, Trooper, and Warrior to 50. Smuggler to mid 40's, Inquisitor to mid 30's, Bounty Hunter and Consular to 20ish.

Knight - male, mostly light - definitely has to standard heroic story book feel to it, something straight out of a script or a novel. Generic, yes, but also still manages to feel epic for the most part. This was probably #2 or #3.

Warrior - female, uh yeah - ...well my personal goal was to see how many people I could kill through dialogue options. *laughs* Also kind of generic Sith fare. However, to me, done in an enjoyable manner. #2 or #3, between Knight and Warrior, can't decide.

Trooper -male/female, light/less light - is not a class story for everyone, that's for sure. I myself found it quite enjoyable, but it kind of fits my style. Enjoyed it so much, I made a second trooper... Sad, I know. I did it as both a male and female, as a Commando and as a Vanguard. As well as a 'by the book' character and a 'smart posterior (it just doesn't have the same ring) maverick'. This I'd have to say was MY #1.

Smuggler - female, firmly entrenched in gray - not done yet, but it's been okay. Yet to hit tier 1 light or dark, closest I got was -750 dark side. Currently at about 600 light side. It's an okay story, but it is one that hasn't really suited my personal tastes. I'd put it at #5 for me.

Inquisitor - female, light gone dark - I started her as a slightly ethical and moral slave, who through the Sith story has slowly begun to go increasingly dark. I figure by 50/55 she'll be almost as bad as my Warrior. That has actually made it kind of fun despite the story being a little boring to me, thus far. #4 for me.

Consular - female / light gray - Made this character to be something like the reluctant hero. Mostly does the right thing for the right reasons, but not always. Making the story a little more involving, which otherwise could be an awesome story, just not one to my tastes. Some people like rock and roll, some like country, same difference. #6

Bounty Hunter - female / light - so far, it's what you expect from a bounty hunter. Nothing that stands out and awes you...or at least me. This my #7.

Agent, not going to rate since I have yet to play it. I get a feeling this one is based a lot on personal story preference. Which for me could be #1 or #8, I'll find out eventually.

I can only comment on what I have played so far.

Sith Warrior: Predictable Sith stuff.

Sith Inquisitor: Fun and interesting up until chapter 2.

Bounty Hunter: "Kill this guy. Good job, hunter. Now go kill this guy!" Rinse and repeat for a prologue and three chapters. I understand that this is what being a bounty hunter is all about, but it got stale. This could have used a less linear story more than all of the others.

Smuggler: Not very interesting at all. "You're going to be rich, captain. All you have to do is go on these non-stop fetch quests for various people in order to find the treasures." Come on.

1. IA

2. JK

3. SW

4. Smug

5. RT

6. JC

7. SI

8. BH

We can play Republicans? I get Ronald Reagan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a joke, man. Please don't take it personally.

 

I'm a little over half-way through the BH storyline and I'm having a blast. While it may not have a huge over-arching plot like the JK, the individual characters are fun and IMO it has some of the best moments of the game. Almost better to think of each planet as an episode of a show, rather than chapters in a story.

FWIW I'm playing her dark grey. Not a baby-eater like my Sith Warrior, but she doesn't hesitate to kill people who tick her off either. Currently floating between Dark I-II

What's funny is the different strengths of each story. Some have a good plot, others have good companions, still others the classes are fun to play.

I think what happens is the wrong person gets the wrong story. A player who wants a Game of Thrones-level tale may hate the standard hero stuff of the JK story, while the player who wants the classic Star Wars experience may friggin' love it. Another guy thinks the Bounty Hunter is the best class gameplay wise and doesn't even care much about the story, so he says it's the best. Different strokes for different folks, so it's the challenge of finding the right mixture of class gameplay, story you're interested in and companions who you like to adventure with.

For myself, I absolutely loved everything about the Smuggler (gameplay, companions) but hated the story. As it's been stated above, the villains aren't great and the gravity's not there. The story (imo) should have been very personal, yet it seemed to try and force a heroic, JK-esque auro over you, especially in chp 2 and 3. It seemed directionless, honestly. I'm currently playing the JK and even though it's standard hero stuff, I appreciate it more than Smugs because at least it has a focus. The story knows exactly where it's going to take you.

1. Sith Warrior -Tie for first

1. Imperial Agent -Tie for first

2. Jedi Knight

3. Smuggler

4. Sith Inquisitor - distant 4th

5. Trooper

6. Jedi Consular

7. Bounty Hunter

8.) Consular: Worst voice actor by a mile.

Nolan North is not impressed.

What's funny is the different strengths of each story. Some have a good plot, others have good companions, still others the classes are fun to play.

 

I think what happens is the wrong person gets the wrong story. A player who wants a Game of Thrones-level tale may hate the standard hero stuff of the JK story, while the player who wants the classic Star Wars experience may friggin' love it. Another guy thinks the Bounty Hunter is the best class gameplay wise and doesn't even care much about the story, so he says it's the best. Different strokes for different folks, so it's the challenge of finding the right mixture of class gameplay, story you're interested in and companions who you like to adventure with.

 

For myself, I absolutely loved everything about the Smuggler (gameplay, companions) but hated the story. As it's been stated above, the villains aren't great and the gravity's not there. The story (imo) should have been very personal, yet it seemed to try and force a heroic, JK-esque auro over you, especially in chp 2 and 3. It seemed directionless, honestly. I'm currently playing the JK and even though it's standard hero stuff, I appreciate it more than Smugs because at least it has a focus. The story knows exactly where it's going to take you.

you nailed it dead on, here here!

1.Imperial Agent - Love all the chapters, characters, companions and different outcomes

2.Sith Warrior - Love the characters, love the companions, chapter two was a bit iffy but the rest I really enjoyed. Choking people is too fun.

3.Sith Inquisitor - Liked the majority of the companions, Loved the first chapter, second again was meh. Third was pretty good. Khem is pretty funny at times and found the study of the Dark side interesting.

4.Jedi Knight - Im not really keen on the majority of the companions but I found Scourge interesting and the ending was pretty cool if you were light but picked the darkside choice. I just don't like the whole 'chosen one' vibe from it. Also Im not keen on the male actors voice which is weird because I loved it in Solid Snake...

4.. Smuggler - It has some funny dialogue and w t f moments but I found the story quite boring. The characters are interesting and I liked most of the companions but the story just feels kinda forced to me. The ending is fun if your Dark Side, but I don't remember anything from the story that happened except the last part.

5. Jedi Consular - A lot of people rate this story quite low, which I agree for the first chapter (*falls asleep*) but I found the second chapter quite interesting but it kinda fell on its face at the end and didn't feel quite as epic as the other stories. I only like one of the companions which kinda sucks.

6. Bounty Hunter - This is quite sad actually. It had very fleshed out characters and companions (liked Mako's side story and I really want a Blizz plush) but the story is very very boring and repetitive. I get that your a bounty hunter and you go after targets but I just found it really uninteresting. The first chapter was quite fun but the second and third are awful with the ending being one big 'meh..' and it really didn't make me feel like a Mandalorian.

I have yet to finish the Trooper story.

I've not completed all the class arcs yet, so I can only rate the ones I know for sure (I've done 2 Sith Warriors, Jedi Consular, Bounty Hunter, 2 Smugglers, and 3 Troopers).

#1. Trooper: So fun that I keep on making new Troopers to play through it again. Eventually my account will just be a Trooper of every race and gender. Dark Trooper, Light Trooper, Loyal to the Republic, Rebellious Upstart who plays by his own Rules, basically any take on the Trooper provided it's own fun experience. There is only one choice that I always make the same.

#2. Sith Warrior: It was the second time through this story that I decided it was actually really good. The first time I was trying the narrow-minded "always pick the Dark Side choice" and my Sith was doing stupid stuff like betraying the Empire in order to get a handful of credits. Playing through it as the "I'm evil, evil, Eeeeeeeviiiiiilll" Sith Warrior was really blah, but playing through it more mixed, where my character aspired to power and would do anything, good or bad, in order to attain it, now that actually felt like an excellant Sith Warrior story.

#3. Jedi Consular: Kinda the generic blah Jedi story. A bit too linear and goody-two-shoes for my taste; it can really only play one way without feeling sort of awkward. Doesn't have the replayability of some of the other classes, but overall it's worth a watch. You can probably get most of the fun just from clicking your way through the Youtube Class Mission videos though.

#4. Bounty Hunter: It starts so strong and then falls really flat towards the end. I loved the initial Bounty Hunter storyline; you know, the Bounty Hunter who is actually sorta hunting bounties. But later on their is this really forced push to try and make the character into more of an Imperial stooge, and while I don't mind doing paid work for the Empire, I don't like being thought of as a permanent fixture on their payroll. Boba Fett helps Vader in Cloud City, but that doesn't mean that Fett is bowing to the Emperor and swearing loyalty; it's just a paycheck. The BH class story loses it's luster as it goes.

#5-7: Can't rate the Jedi Knight, Imperial Agent, or Sith Inquisitor yet, though I've heard good things about them and they don't expressly fall in here. I'll shuffle around appropriately as I finish those out. Just needed to establish that...

#8. Smuggler: The least enjoyable of the Class Missions I've done, and I've finished it twice just afraid that perhaps I had missed out on something by being a female the first time. Nope. It's just a lousy story. Where the Bounty Hunter stumbles in later acts with being pigeonholed into a spot of "too loyal to the Empire", the Smuggler does the same for the Republic. They try and justify it by having you work your own agendas on the side, but it never captures the feel of a smuggler. I guess the beef is that you end up more of a Lando-style Scoundrel instead of a Han style Smuggler.

In the films, Han rejects the Republic's call for help, and only ever returns to save the day because of his love for Leia. Lando betrays the Republic and assists the Empire, but later redeems himself because of his guilt and his friendship to Han. The classic sci-fi Smugglers (Han Solo, Malcolm Reynolds, etc) all actually seem to be universally poor; the claims to be in it for the money are just an excuse because none of them ever seem to actually end up rich. It's mostly about freedom. And the only reason they end up loyal to anything larger than their own ship is in order to help the people they care about.

The Player Smuggler never has that really good reason to help the Republic. The Male Smuggler's romances are either with a profit-driven criminal who frowns on any sort of charity work for the good of others, or else the Male Smuggler goes for the ruthless, violent Mandalorian Imperial who enjoys the suffering of others. Neither of them is exactly encouraging you to help the Republic. Rather than Han or Lando who begrudgingly accept the Republic in order to defend their loved ones, the Player Smuggler sets themself at odds against their loved ones in order to support a Republic that opposes everything he stands for. (Or course, the female Smuggler gets Corso who is actaully a bit more Republic Loyal, but he's just such a redneck that I hated him too much to actually romance him.)

The Smuggler story has two things going right for it, which is not at all enough to redeem it but is enough that if you want an endgame Smuggler for Ops or PvP, you can make it through. The Smuggler has one of the best Act One final bosses. I hated that guy more passionately than I hated any other Act One final boss, and when you think of the good job done with the Trooper and Warrior Act One finishes, that was no small feat. Unlike the other classes where I could almost empathize with my antagonist, for the Smuggler your opponant is believeable enough that he's engaging, but is vile enough that I had nothing but hatred. And second, the Smuggler is actually a really fun class mission on Correalia. Once you get to your final planet, there is a twist and the story is able to perk up for a bit before the end.

For Smuggler motivation, what the story needs is either a really good villain for Act 2 and 3

or it needs a better love interest to push you more towards being loyal to the Republic. If only there was some sort of Republic loyal romanceable towards the end of Act 1, like perhaps on Alderaan right before the end of the Act, who had a reason to be loyal to the Republic. Like perhaps he or she is of a royal family, but has been deposed from their throne and is now only informally protected by House Organa. Maybe you could start out by just working for them, helping them to get their fortune back, but then be drawn in closer to them either through romance (light side) or greed (dark side). Oh wait...

Then just have Act Two begin with their kidnapping, and you spend Act Two busting in and out of Imperial Prisons and bases trying to get your love/meal-ticket back. I would have killed thousands of Imperials to save the damsel in distress, but to stop an Imperial Naval Captain just because he has a bad reputation, nah, not motivation enough.

#3. Jedi Consular: Kinda the generic blah Jedi story. A bit too linear and goody-two-shoes for my taste; it can really only play one way without feeling sort of awkward. Doesn't have the replayability of some of the other classes, but overall it's worth a watch. You can probably get most of the fun just from clicking your way through the Youtube Class Mission videos though.

Funny, I thought that the Consular's story is much less "goody two shoes" than Knight. However, all Republic Dark Side are pretty much more "Mass Effect Renegade" than "muhahaha, im sooo evulz". But it might be cool to see more impact from choices (you make some pretty big LS/DS choices), like meeting the characters again, or them helping you at some point...

1. Imperial Agent
   
2. Jedi Knight
   
3. Sith Warrior
   
4. Trooper
   
5. Bounty Hunter
   
6. Smuggler
   
7. Sith Inquisitor
   
8. Jedi Consular
   

Imperial Agent - Everything just fits so well. The story and its plots twists are really cool and your companions all feel like they belong and have a real reason for being with you on your adventures.

Jedi Consular - Oh I wanted this story to be good but alas it felt really dull. I understand the concept of the class was being like Obi Wan and working negotiations but sheesh there was just a little too much emphasis on politics for my taste and things really don't start to pick up until Act 3.

1 Consular (diplomacy, sacrifice and stuff)

2 Warrior (male voice actor - the guy is just perfect!)

3 Agent - (I have to finish this one tough.)

4 Trooper - (Yes sir!)

5 Inquistor - (Ashara romance - what the hell is that?!)

.

.

.

.

.

Smuggler - (act I is great. later it goes ughhhh)

I have yet to try the BH.

Only rating the stories that I actually did finish:

1. Jedi Consular (closest to feeling like a true Jedi as known from the movies)

2. Smuggler (lovely conversations and I like the overall "first me, then my crew, then something else and some later the republic")

3. Sith Warrior (might have been #1, were it not due to the unacceptable fact to be forced to accept a traitor)

Last: Trooper (No matter how many other stories I will still play, trooper will always be last. The story and the companions made it real work for me to keep going on. Trooper is the only story, where I am actually happy, that it does not continue beyond chapter 3)

1. Imperial Agent - So much fun with all the espionage and conspiracy themes.

2. Sith Warrior - Epic rise to power story with a dash of revenge.

3. Jedi Consular - My first character was a Shadow so I'm partial to this storyline despite what others say. This is the story of a wise diplomat so it's not for everyone, but I liked the feeling of having the power to influence Galactic affairs.

4. Trooper - The beginning of this story is great. I liked the whole having to assemble a squad to fight off evil.

5. Smuggler - Could have been better. Still fun, and the Smuggler has great lines.

6. Sith Inquisitor - This story just feels less focused than the others, and it's not as exciting.

Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter I can't rank yet since I haven't completed them. I'm getting close with Knight though, and it is a lot of fun so far!