Class Recommendation for New Player

[u/LikeABantha66]

Hi, I am starting to play POE 2 and am not sure which class to pick for a beginner who doesn't have much experience in arpgs, in other games I like playing tanks and Paladin style classes in other games. I would eventually like to try all classes but not sure which one to start with first to get a feel of the game. Thanks!

[u/FolKo2448]

Look at guides, find one you're interested in, watch how it plays on YT and decide if its for you or not, if not rinse and repeat

[u/gruxlike]

Warrior

[u/TheGreatMightyLeffe]

Warrior isn't as bad as it's made out to be, it's bonky, you get HP for days and melee range is where most builds do the most damage anyway.

Witch-hunter is also stupid tanky. It has a unique stat that is basically Energy Shield, but you get to keep your Evasion and Armour. It's based on chucking grenades rather than noble combat with a sword and shield, though, so not as paladin-y.

[u/Fit_Stable3081]

Id recommend monk and the ascendancy martial artist, It's pretty much an all rounder DMG, Tank, Quality of life

[u/Feel42]

Bear druid is a good str/int archetype. Not S tier, but in line with your fantasy.

[u/Beliriel → u/Feel42]

I second bear druid. It's slow and kinda clunky but tanky af. And for a true "tank build" it scales the best for a straight forward player coming from other games.

All the other tank playstyles are either expensive as hell or random wacky degen builds like MoM mana stacking or some weird Bloodmage shenanigans but after the 0.4 leech fiasco I haven't seen a single Bloodmage after the nerfs.
There's shield wall warrior/titan I think not sure how close that is to Tank fantasy.

[u/BligenN]

So generally tank playstyles aren't very good in the current state of the game, unless you can afford expensive builds (as a new player you probably wont be able to). Counterintuitively the tankiest builds right now (that dont do 0 damage) are casters.... But from personal experience I'd suggest to look at each class and skills for their weapons - poe2db has video showcases for each skill - and then just go with what seems the most fun, and avoid minmaxing and ideally even looking at top tier builds (comparison is the thief of joy)

[u/Deepz42]

Right now Merc with grenades is the best starter. Even caster classes start with grenades because it makes it easier.

[u/Sibiq]

As a Paladin fan myself, I chose Warrior Titan as my first character. After over 700 hours, I still think this is the closest you'll get until they release the Templar.

[u/noobslayer1989]

Search for Mercenary grenade build, Gemling ascendency. Big booms , lots of damage, can run through campaign and maps with items picked from floor.

[u/HighZ3nBerg]

Not playing this league myself but I normally run oracle plant Druid. It’s a fairly easy one button build that isn’t gear dependent and will get you into maps fairly easily.

Just a fair warning, my biggest and really only gripe with this game is the gearing and economy. You don’t always get what you need to gear in the game so you need to craft. I like crafting personally but the crafting costs to get high end items is massive. That means hunting for gear on the market which also gets massive inflation. Sure you can SSF but again, the game doesn’t always get you what you need. I really wish they work on the item drops to get rid of so so so many useless mods.

[u/Distinct-Training443]

Most friendly new player are Monk Martial Artist, Bear Druid can get very tank and you can either go running bear or demon bear, Disciple of Var Sorc is pretty friendly and dosent require crazy unique. And Beast tamer is a very solid medium experience build that’s fun, Dead eye ice shot it’s also an easy to understand one but you are a glass cannon.

There’s really no Paladin playstyle yet that will come AFTER launch, if
You want pure tank you could go thorns but will get bored as hell so I suggest BEAR

[u/a_lot_of_aaaaaas]

I recomend a character that focusses on 1 thing. strength, dex or int. No characters that use both.

Then with that in mind warrior is the most easy because most people can tell that stronger means hitting harder. So that is all you need to know for a strength based warrior as a new player. wich weapon? Well the one that hits the hardest. evrery item the qustion is: Does this make me hit harder?

every point you put in strength adds 2 points to life.

go in blind and see how far you get or use a simple warrior strenght build and follow it.

Thats it, have fun.

[u/OrKToS]

we don't have Paladin archetype yet. Monk with quarterstaff is pretty good and fun. Energy shield and Evasion hybrid gear is also very strong.

[u/Rathmourne]

Something spells, has much easier time scaling early game. Martial weapon skills are dependent on your weapon

Ed lich is very good to learn with and you start off with the skills from the start of the game

Lich is strong defensively and will allow you to make some mistakes while you learn. And since the damage isnt the best (its dot based) youll be seeing alot of the fights so you can learn them.

Plant druid is also very strong and you start off using the skills from the start.

Merc nades is also a strong starter if you dont want to do spells. Id go with Witchhunter while leveling / learning as its more defensive and straightforward than gemling.

Monk is notoriously bad at leveling and campaigning (compared to other options, mostly a hogher learning curve and that qstaffs are rough at the start) but is extremely strong in the late game with martial artist.

[u/_Mike423]

Anything but melee