Who's Who in 4e In General

[Darth Stabber]

Since i Just asked About tanks Lets open it up to the whole ensemble. What do the playgrounder's think is the best of the best in each role, and what is the best build for each class.

Tank
Fighter
Swordmage
Warden
Pally

DPR
Rogue
ranger
Warlock
Avenger
Sorcerer
Barbarian

Healer
Warlord
Cleric
Bard
Shaman

Controller
Invoker
Druid
Wizard

[Kurald Galain]

Best tank: fighter, because of movement denial.
Worst tank: paladin, because he can't effectively defend his teammates.

Best DPR: ranger, because of doubling up on static modifiers
Worst DPR: warlock, because they focus on status effects and other gimmicks

Best healer: cleric, hands down.
Worst healer: shaman, probably, because healing one person by a lot generally beats healing two people by a lesser amount. Haven't seen this in play enough to actually judge it, though.

Best controller: probably wizard, because of their huge area effects and the boost they will get shortly in arcane power.
Worst controller: druid, because it tries to be a little of everything, and in beast form it loses much of its control.

In general, most classes have one build that plays to the strenghts of that class, and one build that pretends to be a striker. The latter is almost without exception inferior to an actual striker. My personal build philosophy is that if you're not a striker, don't try to be one.

Best build:
Fighter - battlerager is considered cheesy by the charop board. So, yeah.
Swordmage - assault is the striker build, the guardian one is a better tank
Paladin - the one with righteous cheese of tempus.
Rogue - Depends. Brawny is more powerful, but artful dodger seems more fun to play.
Ranger - If you go archer, there's little reason not to take the animal companion as an added bonus. Melee ranger is more powerful, beastmaster is more versatile.
Warlock - Hellfire is strongest because of the ton of temp HP; fae pact is most versatile because of all the teleportation.
Sorcerer - I consider the wild magic one too annoying to play because it's so gimmicky and unpredictable. I realize that this is a matter of taste, though. Sorc beats warlock as an arcane striker, hands down.
Barbarian - Strong (rageblood) or versatile (thaneborn)
Warlord - tactical is the strongest, hands down. Resourceful seems a decent alternative. The point is that giving a few big bonuses (taclord) is much more effective than giving a lot of small bonuses (spirelord).
Cleric - cha cleric is more effective, str cleric pretends to be a striker.
Wizard - orbizard is also considered cheesy by the charops.

IMHO and YMMV, of course.

[Tengu_temp]

Worst tank: paladin, because he can't effectively defend his teammates.

Care to elaborate?

[Tehnar]

I think there was a 150+ (or maybe 180+) DPR fighter one handed weapon talent build on Charops, Fighter/Kensei/Eternal Defender, I think that may bump up the fighter to the striker area, or maybe even beat the ranger at it.

And I think this thread offers information on the: "paladins are not defenders" topic:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104644

[Asbestos]

Worst tank: paladin, because he can't effectively defend his teammates.

IIRC, the paladin has many more 'I get hit instead of them' powers than any other defender. That seems like effectively defending his teammates to me.

Anyway, not to derail...

Leaders
Wis-Cleric, best healer.
There is more to leading than healing however.

Strikers
Brutal Scoundrel Rogue, most damage.
Has TWF Ranger and Barbarian on his heels however.

Defenders
Fighter; if he's the only defender in the party and you have all other roles covered.

Controllers
This is a weird one because there is so little consensus on what controllers actually do. I have played an Orb Wizard and Predator Druid and can only say that they are quite different from each other. The Orbizard is better at lockdowns and the P-druid is better at striking and killing but... they both have a lot of battlefield pushing/pulling/whatever it is that controllers do.

[Asbestos]

In general, most classes have one build that plays to the strenghts of that class, and one build that pretends to be a striker. The latter is almost without exception inferior to an actual striker. My personal build philosophy is that if you're not a striker, don't try to be one.

1. Not all classes have striker as their secondary role, or at least, their only secondary role.

2. This is entirely dependent on party makeup. If you're joining a party that has a single striker, but no controller, than being a primary controller/secondary striker is pretty good. If you're joining a party and no one is the striker, than be a striker. If you're joining a party that is already striker-heavy, as in at least two primary strikers or a primary striker and two secondary strikers, than don't be a striker or secondary striker. This could pretty much go for any role. Its all about what would work best in the party.

[Hexprak]

Leader's
Cleric for healing throughput.
Warlord is my second favorite for all the cool stuff it makes others do.

Worst
Hard to say bard and shaman are just trying to hard to be secondary controllers I think.

Strikers
TWF Ranger and Avenger(especially Avenger of Righteous Rag of Cheese)

Worst
Both Arcane strikers are bottom of the barrel imo sorceror being slightly better then warlock. Really if you don't have a weapon in hand your dmg scales too poorly compared to those that do. Wizards seems to think its a good idea to continue increasing this gap ala adventurers vault stuff.


Defenders
Fighter its just really hard to see another defender being better but Swordmage gets honorable mention if your DM really goes out of his way to avoid the fighter.

Worst
Paladin just doesn't ever seem to do enough to discourage disemboweling of his teammates.

Controllers
I like the druid best doing a little bit of everything seems to be what I think controllers should do best if its all AoE. Prefer the elemental not beasty druid.

Worst
Wizard probably it's just really hard to say this category all seems to be bad at doing stuff but wizards seem to do worse damage then the other controllers at least which is some area they could be helping the party more in I think.

[Artanis]

Both Arcane strikers are bottom of the barrel imo sorceror being slightly better then warlock. Really if you don't have a weapon in hand your dmg scales too poorly compared to those that do. Wizards seems to think its a good idea to continue increasing this gap ala adventurers vault stuff.

How so? Somebody with a d8 weapon doing 3[w] is doing 3d8 damage, and somebody with a 3d8 power is doing 3d8 damage.

[Darth Stabber]

So which class do you think is the best (i.e. Performs it's role the best. Yes it's kind of comparing apples to yogurt, but I'm after which class is the closest to it's role Ideal) and why? My answer Fighter, It Gets peoples attention and holds it, and it stays alive while holding attention, particularly battle rager build. You get a hold of people and keep them tangled up with you, preventing them from getting to the team. In a 15' wide hall way, you can hold back an army for days with your stickiness, except against kobolds, darn their shiftiness. Add to that cleave and it's Minion Autodead if you can hit something else, and you have a recipe for a good fit. That being said I have been partial to fighters (or their equivalent) since I first played a game with class distinctions.

[Asbestos]

Worst
Both Arcane strikers are bottom of the barrel imo sorceror being slightly better then warlock. Really if you don't have a weapon in hand your dmg scales too poorly compared to those that do. Wizards seems to think its a good idea to continue increasing this gap ala adventurers vault stuff.

Dude, the sorc adds two stat modifiers to ALL of its damage rolls. Every time it rolls damage dice for an attack it adds its str/dex in addition to whatever else the power says. Its doing a static 5 or 6 (depending on your beginning stats) damage with every single attack roll that hits at 1st level. Compare that to 1d6(8) or 2d6(8) once per round. Also factor in that they have a significant number of powers that hit more than one enemy. The Warlock might be the worst at strictly doing damage but the Sorcerer is amazing at it, easily up there with the weapon users.

[Enlong]

Worst tank: paladin, because he can't effectively defend his teammates.

Hahahahaha.

[Grug]

What's a "Sword Mage"? I own PHB and PHB 2, and it's not in there. You guys refer to it as a fully developed class, and I want to see what an Arcane Defender looks like.

[Oracle_Hunter]

What's a "Sword Mage"? I own PHB and PHB 2, and it's not in there. You guys refer to it as a fully developed class, and I want to see what an Arcane Defender looks like.

It's in the Forgotten Realms Players' Guide