Which class to play?

[KnugenK]

So I'm planning on doing a playthrough of this game. I have played a little bit of it before but never very far.

To get to the point, what class should I play? I'm thinking either fighter, paladin or ranger. But I have been hearing Ranger is bad, is this true?

[masterty66]

So I'm planning on doing a playthrough of this game. I have played a little bit of it before but never very far.

To get to the point, what class should I play? I'm thinking either fighter, paladin or ranger. But I have been hearing Ranger is bad, is this true?

No. All classes are good and useful. Rogue is probably the weakest, but even it is playable.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Fighter seems the easiest to play. Paladin are more tank/one hit wonders. Rangers are excellent.

 

Solo or party?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So I'm planning on doing a playthrough of this game. I have played a little bit of it before but never very far.

To get to the point, what class should I play? I'm thinking either fighter, paladin or ranger. But I have been hearing Ranger is bad, is this true?

There's no class like a BG pure class thief or bard, so you should be fine on most difficulty settings. Those you listed are good, Fighter will deal consistent melee damage and have high survivability, Paladins get auras for allies and support abilities as well as a smite attack that deals fire damage, and Rangers have access to one of the greatest weapons in the game in addition to having the best modals for damage and a pet.

[scythesong]

Hardly a good comparison since the BG thief can force higher level NPCs to spawn earlier and can surround himself with them thanks to faster level progression. They can jumpstart party XP/progress with thieving skills, can steal nice items from stores, can block doorways with stealth, can backstab annoying casters and can trap everything to death if you feel like cheesing stuff. The bard can do a lot of that as well as cast spells, use wands and has on-demand fear protection with his song.

Even the vanilla versions are much higher on the power tier than your average fighter, as long as you don't actually play them like fighters.

 

Anyway PoE is much more combat-heavy and in that respect classes all have their specialties as well as pros/cons, so that everyone has the potential to be useful. Some classes are trickier to figure out than others though... the learning curve is an important factor especially for classes/builds that are ability-reliant. In that respect, at least, there are classes in PoE like the BG thief/bard.

Edited May 10, 2017 by scythesong

[Caeyrii]

A Chanter is pretty easy to use but will remain powerful throughout the game, either to summons, CC, or to constant rain of fire and slash. Sure there's resource management, but it's minimal. Chanters don't rely on auto-attacks so wielding a hatchet and shield is a great way to survive in the frontlines, which you want to keep doing so that your chants are always applied to enemies.