Well title says it all. I'm really curious to hear what everyone says since the great thing about DD is you can change classes anytime.

I started as a strider but quickly wished I could use a shield to block, so when I got to gran Soren I switched the assassin. I was hoping I'd be more punishing to enemies using a sword but that's not totally the case. Still it's nice to do a bit more damage and be able to block and use the bow. I only have these two classes but so far I'd go with assassin as my current favorite.

Also for my pawn, she's still a Mage but I do wanna make her a sorcerer at some point. Anyway how about you duders? What is your favorite?

I am a Strider at the moment but thinking about restarting the game as a Fighter. (I know I can just switch vocation in Gran Soren but eh... I feel like a clean slate, lol.)

I want to become a Warrior down the track because I love being a melee fighter.

If Mage was better, I would've stuck with it but eh...

Magick Archer. Just a lot of fun.

I've maxed Fighter and Assassin, and I've dabbled with Mystic Knight and Warrior. Overall, I think my favourite would be Assassin. Bows are so satisfying to use, and I can still fall back on my trusty sword & shield combo. Fighter's pretty alright, if a little plain, but reliable and easy to use. Warrior is simply far too slow, and Mystic Knight... well, I gotta be honest, I didn't like Mystic Knight because the shields are too big for my character so it looked a little ridiculous :P. Plus all of its shield abilities are useless and I'm not too fussed about staffs.

It's a shame, though, because maces sound awfully painful when you hit something with one as well. The fact that maces have to be exclusive to Mystic Knight I think is pretty silly overall, and where are the axes?

@Sackmanjones said:

@Yummylee that's disappointing about mystic knights. I thought it sounded kinda awesome and I almost got it but it was just hard to part ways with the now do I didn't do it

lol wut

Assassin is my favorite. I'm currently playing as a Mystic Knight and I keep forgetting I have a damn shield. I'm probably going to switch back.

I have given my character ranks in a number of things to get certain passives that seem quite helpful (lvl 1 Warrior greatly reduces physical damage, lvl 1 Sorcerer greatly reduces magic damage for instance). Aside from that I am focused more on the strider, assassin and ranger side of things. Quite fun to leap onto enemies and just hack away.

With some big enemies between having a number of the "stamina dosn't go down for a limited time" items and finding a secure area on the creature where they can't shake me off I can happily infinitely spam the hundred kisses or whatever the really fast knife attack is on them without losing any stamina. Once the item runs out just use another and keep slashing away, etc.

Also I quite like having a bow for certain enemies as it provides a bit of flexibility and a means of attacking from safety.

@Sackmanjones: I haven't been using the Magick Shields enough to say; I'm so used to playing an Assassin with no shield that I keep forgetting to use the skills.

Personally, loving the Sorcerer. Sitting back and charging up a massive spell while your pawns cover you may not be for everybody, but I'm quite fond of the slight tactical requirements of seeing enemies, and having to immediately scope out the battlefield for any higher ground I can reach for cover. Often times, it's that high ground that saves me more than my pawns. And once that spell is charged, the fight is done.

That said, my only complaint is the very limited number of clothing options for the Mage and Sorcerer. And limited number of augments all around.

@Yummylee said:

Plus all of its shield abilities are useless...

I have to disagree, good sir, the Riposte set of skills are very handy when you need to push an enemy back as well as give them a little magic attack to push them away even further!

Plus, when your Ranger main pawn just happens to blast the wolf that you just sent flying out of the sky, well, you can only imagine how that feels.

I originally started as a Mage, but I really wanted to go a Strider, so I started over as a Strider and Have that Ranger and Magic Archer maxed.. With like Lvl 4 in Assassin..

I really enjoy friring off arrows so I stick to the Ranger due to his ability to use the Longbow.. I only wish he had Cloudburst and Downbust Volley, they were my favourite Strider skills.. Magic Archer was still fun as hell to play..

@LikeaSsur said:

@Yummylee said:

Plus all of its shield abilities are useless...

I have to disagree, good sir, the Riposte set of skills are very handy when you need to push an enemy back as well as give them a little magic attack to push them away even further!

Plus, when your Ranger main pawn just happens to blast the wolf that you just sent flying out of the sky, well, you can only imagine how that feels.

They're useless because they're not fun to use. Dragon's Dogma has now only been getting easier frankly, so I pick my abilities based on how fun they are, rather than their actual effectiveness.

@Yummylee said:

@LikeaSsur said:

@Yummylee said:

Plus all of its shield abilities are useless...

I have to disagree, good sir, the Riposte set of skills are very handy when you need to push an enemy back as well as give them a little magic attack to push them away even further!

Plus, when your Ranger main pawn just happens to blast the wolf that you just sent flying out of the sky, well, you can only imagine how that feels.

They're useless because they're not fun to use. Dragon's Dogma has now only been getting easier frankly, so I pick my abilities based on how fun they are, rather than their actual effectiveness.

That's different tho. It's invalid to call out ability as useless just because you are not having fun with it imo. Different qualities.

The shield abilities are actually quite useful and effective, for me enemies will frequently kill themselves with a single well timed block of mine. And you can give your weapon AoE/reach in addition to elemental effects. I have not tried the super buff at the last elvel yet as it's quite expensive but i hear great things. (to me it's also fun seeing an enemy fly into the air ad get instagibbed by 3 fireballs coming from my shield while still in the air)

It's totally valid to call them out as not being fun to you, but not to valid call them useless.

PS: And mystic knights sword abilities can get kind of insane in effectiveness too, like the Grand Cannon and the Ruin? Sigil. Grand Cannon especially is great for some major lulz

Mystic Knight and Magick Archer.

Well, they both use really unique weapons and skills, and both are stupidly effective. Grand Cannon is just crazy good and the riposte and fortress skills are fun to use. Killing a drake without trouble when you're like 5 levels too low? Priceless. Magick Archer is just cool, straight up. Plus, MK gives me the opportunity to wear badass Chimeric armor.

I've just stuck to Warrior so far, which kicks a reasonable amount of ass, but only having 3 skills is lame. I might change to mage so I don't have to have pawn mages, because they seem terrible at it.

I just discovered Abyssal Anguish as the Mystic Knight. Now I'm a GOD.

Just went to kill the drake a few times and tried AA. Now it can take me under a minute without the drake ever even lifting off, no potions no nothing my entire party at full health drake dead in about 60 seconds. Insanity.

The thing about Abyssal Anguish weapon buff is that A. like it's predecessor it stacks with any weapon element or other weapon buff B. it makes every strike an AoE effect and the larger somethings hitbox the more connects you will register, making every single strike multiply. The speed at which you take down a drake with an upgraded ice sword and AA just floored me.

Now i am thinking of completely ditching the Grand Cannon and the Sigil, who needs them :P I'd rather have more weapon moves now with AA doing the rest.

And with Holy Fortress on you are pretty much immune to all knockback from even the heaviest of creatures.

I do want to really try out the ranged proffessions especially the magic archer and the ranger but my current power is too tempting to loose and start from null in a new vocation :( Plus I'd have to regear, get a different pawn, eh too much bother.

@Yummylee: How can you say the sheild abilites are useless? You can enchant the entire partys weapons with any element! Which is fantastic because otherwise as a mage you have to buff every person individually. And there is also the ability I think called Holy Boon? That lets you turn blocked damage into health.

@Sackmanjones: Way more powerful. Some of the skills are crazy too like being able to fire 11 arrows at once or shooting an arrow so powerful that when it hits you sends most enemies FLYING across the map from the impact. My pawn was a Ranger for a good long while until NG+ now I changed her to Warrior but she was very effective as a Ranger.

Magic Archer. chk chk chk chk chk chk chk chk chk chk psheowwww!

@Tennmuerti: @Demoskinos

They're useless because I never needed to use them.

EDIT: Hell, shields in general are pretty useless really. Only reason I like to have one equipped is because of how I look wielding a shield; going on the complete offensive has always worked out and I never actually have much use for shields besides the added cosmetic badassery.

@Yummylee said:

@Tennmuerti: @Demoskinos

They're useless because I never needed to use them.

EDIT: Hell, shields in general are pretty useless really. Only reason I like to have one equipped is because of how I look wielding a shield; going on the complete offensive has always worked out and I never actually have much use for shields besides the added cosmetic badassery.

By that logic every single ability in the game is useless. I am only using a few skills and everything else is useless too :/

Just because something is useless to the way you play your character doesn't make it a useless ability in general.

I don't use bows or staffs does that make their abilities useless?

...

Also Abyssal Anguish which is a shield ability pretty much destroys any significant larger creatures in seconds due to a multiple hit detection. It makes 1 weapon hit into 2-6 simultaneous weapon hits.

@Tennmuerti: I was really hoping this wouldn't fall into semantics. But fine, shields are useless to me. IMO shields are useless. I found that there was no point for me to use shields. I tried them out, didn't like them and figured I'd get more out of using a bow or even regular shield for my secondary weapon slot, therefore they are completely useless to me. I personally am never going to use one again.

This entire thread's purpose is asking about your experience concerning the different vocations. I gave mine. I really don't know why this had to go any further than my original post. Oh, right, because this is the Dragon's Dogma board. =/

@Yummylee:

What? This has nothing to do with what board this is. If you think my reply has anything to do with defending Dragons Dogma somehow, better think again and stop assuming when someone is arguing a point they are are somehow suddenly doing it because of such shallow reasons as fanboyism to a single game. I have criticized the game plenty.

It went further because semantics are whether we like it or not are important. It's one thing to make blanket concrete statements like "X is useless" period, compared to "I find X useless" or "X is useless to me". I would take no issue with the last 2. But you can expect people to disagree with the first statement.

@Sackmanjones: Yeah pretty much.. it also looks cooler

Also you have less mobility with it.. When you use your charge shot or whatever it is called you can't move until you've fired

Assassin so far seems like a waste given my play style. I never use the shields or swords, and all the augments seem to only kick in at night which blows because night-time is fucking dangerous and I'm in bed before 9. I'm slogging through anyway, because being able to throw bombs and shit is too much fun.

I LOVE the Ranger! Shooting an arrow from miles away, with the sound of a .50 caliber sniper, and seeing the head of an enemy fly to bits is just priceless! Meteor Shot and Great Gamble even further enhance these awesome moments and Deadly Shot has sometimes a beautiful slow-mo second upon firing. Plus, longsbows are as big as your own body. That last one was already enough reason for me to begin with.

I played the majority of the game as a magick archer but I recently switched to Mystic Knight and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Changed over to Ranger from the Magic Archer last night, that 10 arrow shot is like having this insane automatic shotgun. I took down that dragon in the northwestern part of the map just by sniping it out of the sky with two shots from that attack and then going nuts on it's heart.

@Mesoian said:

Magick Archer. Just a lot of fun.

Magick Archer is awesome

@Rolfgang said:

I LOVE the Ranger! Shooting an arrow from miles away, with the sound of a .50 caliber sniper, and seeing the head of an enemy fly to bits is just priceless! Meteor Shot and Great Gamble even further enhance these awesome moments and Deadly Shot has sometimes a beautiful slow-mo second upon firing. Plus, longsbows are as big as your own body. That last one was already enough reason for me to begin with.

Exactly this. Also being able to shoot 10 arrows at once makes killing a Cyclops or any other "elite" monster extremely easy.

Guys, High Bolide is pretty fucking cool.
  

I've been having lots of fun with the Magick Archer. Not only are the magick bows super cool weapons, but they're really fun to use. Locking on to fools is awesome! I've also been finding myself using Magickal Gleam a lot (despite the long charge) not only for icing undead dudes, but as a stationary bright, long-lasting light source. It's pretty great. Plus, there's still the option of going all stabby when you want. And climbing on dudes and Hundred Kisses-ing them in the face is pretty great, too. Damn, what a fun game!

@Spoonman671: lol my main pawn has had High Bollide for ages now and is yet to cast it even once despite having a scorcher as primary

Gave ranged combat a shot during a newgame+

The ranger is very satisfying indeed, great damage and some nice knockback. However I'm not too pleased with the shot variety, it's there sure but most of them are useless. 90% of the time it's all about the Tenfold Flurry putting a bushel of arrows into a dude and evaporating them. It's the rangers equivalent to Abyssal Anguish, tho not as potent and requiring stamina for every use.

Then again my perception could be skewed since my charter was already high level and had a bad ass bow. Maybe all those crippling arrows and fearful dins would have been more useful if Tenfold didn't just one shot most things.

I have a plan in mind to make the ultimate Ur killing class atm, only need to level up assassin for a 140% boost in damage and a mage a bit for longer lasting buff. Abyssal Anguish of Mystick Knight can already take out Ur down to a few last pips of health in one go, so with the additions of those 3 Augments from assassin and mage I want to see if I can just kill offline Ur in one fight for shits and giggles.

Warrior and my Pawn a Strider.

I still need to work on my Ranger, its just I don't like using bows in these kinds of games.

used Assassin during most of my first playthrough, fairly diverse and can use lots of different weapons, passives kind of suck since alot of them boost your abilities during night time... and i never really do my questing at night.

started with mage, now im a sorcerer and LOVING the big spells.. even if they take forever to cast... will eventually try magic archer i think.

Assassin, easily. Tenmeurti kills a drake in 60 seconds with his full team, I kill a drake in 2 attacks by myself. The only night abilites seems bad, except for one of them. Bloodlust. At high end gear it gives huge damage bonuses, like I get over 800 more strength with a 1 star Dragon's Dogma, don't even ask about how it is with a maxed ascalon. I slot that and autonomy and go out alone and I can two shot a cyclops from a mile away with lycaen sight, grab a drakes chest and kill him in one, yes one, dire gouge with my sword, I can actually do visible damage to online ur dragon. Nuff said.

It is definitely an all offense sort of class, it is simply put the best class at outright killing stuff. But it has no party support and the lowest defense growth of all vocations.

@Karkarov:

My team has nothing to do with it :P They just kind of hang out, 95% of the damage is from me alone.

Also to be fair my MK killed a drake in 60 seconds when he was in swaddling clothes and just got AA too. Now it takes about 15-20 seconds :D

But yea I just discovered the OP of assassin, it a really great class. And Dire Gouge is potentially way more effective then Abyssal Anguish on bosses. But a lot of that comes from the 2 assassin augments that give stacking 70% damage. Abyssal Anguish does it's damage without needed to rely on night and being solo, it also works with all attacks and is great not only for boss weak spots but for every type of enemy period plus extra range plus aoe, whereas Dire Gouge can only be done while grappled. Disadvantage for AA is that it has a prep time and a limited duration requiring recast. Also don't think it's quire fair to judge DG as a single attack lol it is after all quite a bunch of stabs. If I had to take a big phat guess then AA and DG are about comparable for boss weak spot damage if they are on equal footing in terms of passive Augments.

I'm currently working on getting the last assassin augment to combo together with AA for ultimate destruction. My only regret is that you cant use Abyssal Anguish together with Dire Gouge, now that would have been ridiculous.

My new love for assassin also stems from just how many other fun and actually useful abilities he has, and it's great all around class able to use daggers, swords, shields, bows having a great time while leveling it. Too bad the actual definition of night in DD is quite short when you are looking to maximize that 70% damage buff. Only enough for a few rooms in Everfall until it runs out.

@Tennmuerti: Oh yeah if you want to get insane with it I could always whoop out my shield just long enough to do showdown, switch to dagger to do the move that augments my speed (something something gale), and then go back to sword and go to town with moves like great windmill or intimate gambit both of which are just as capable of doing insane damage to enemies really fast. All the while I am moving super speed with an insane buff that weakens my defense but also lets me hit for like 50% more damage on top of the already existing 140%.

To put it even more in perspective on how crazy assassin can be in my most recent Dogma video I went out during the day and not alone which gimped me on damage. Then proceeded to use lycaen sight to drop a cyclops to like half a bar of health from full in 3 shots. At that point I could have just fired a fourth but I wanted to get fancy ;p. Later I fight a drake too but I sort of sucked it up and again the fight happened during the day.

But yeah, alot of the damage is augment based but the assassin can use it's skills to make it easily the most mobile character class and is effective in basically all fights short of one where the enemy is immune to physical damage. Even then they can use enchanted weapons or fire blast arrows or something.

Now I'm in the end-game I'm trying everything out, and max-ing out all the vocations, it's been a lot of fun. My 'proper' route through was mage - sorcerer - mystic knight, and mystic knight is absolutely ridiculous really. So powerful and a lot of fun.

I've gone through strider, ranger and I'm on to assassin now. It's been a lot of fun too although I feel I might have screwed myself over a bit stick with magic classes all the way so far - in other words, I feel a little weak and squishy to be playing these roles now. But it's been great and everything takes on a different feel, have certainly taken down bosses a lot quicker than before as well with the greater precision.

What I'm really looking forward to though is going onto magick archer ... I think with my high magic stat and bringing in some abilities/augments from the ranger/strider etc. it's gonna be pretty damn powerful. Only just started assassin though so I'm gonna follow that through all the way, as I hear it's kind of joint top for most over-powered with mystic knight but as I say, because of how I've levelled so far I might not be able to get the most out of it.

So ... favourite vocation? I have no idea, they're all awesome so far.

@Karkarov:

Does the speed buff also affect attack speed? I though it only worked for movement.

Also I've tried the assassin shield buff that is supposed to increase strength but I am not seeing any difference in stats at all.

And lycean sight that good? I read the description for it's basic version eagle sight and it said nothing about extra damage, gonna have to give it a try couse otherwise the bow has been a bit underwhelming for the assassin and i'm using the top one fully upgraded.

Give us a link to the videos while you're at it, cause i have no idea what your channel is.

I found out how good the Assassin class was quite late, so I had a ridiculous amount of stamina, the Invisibilty skill is totally nuts when I realised it makes you invincible to 'everything' even if enemies swing near you or AOE spells, dragons breath, crazy business.

I found out how good the Assassin class was quite late, so I had a ridiculous amount of stamina, the Invisibilty skill is totally nuts when I realised it makes you invincible to 'everything' even if enemies swing near you or AOE spells, dragons breath, crazy business.

@Tennmuerti: @Karkarov: since you guys are talking assassin - are there any really helpful augments from either fighter or warrior to bring across?

@drag said:

@Tennmuerti: @Karkarov: since you guys are talking assassin - are there any really helpful augments from either fighter or warrior to bring across?

For sure.

From fighter you can get Sinew for convinience especially if you are a solo assassin as it gives you a bunch of extra carry weight, making you lighter hence more agile too. Prescience is great if you like to roll with a shield and works for all classes with them even MK magic shields. Vehemence for 10% str boost.

Warrior is a treasure trove of augments for almost any build. Bastion you can get super early and it gives good protection. Clout is amazing at 20% extra str. Proficiency is nice for your first game when you are quite limited on stamina. Imact is a decent slot in if you have augment slots to spare from other worse skills.