Best Class for Reliable Consistent Damage for Long Fights?

[yuzhonglu]

There's a lot of "burst damage builds" where a sorc or a paladin blows through all of their abilities or metamagic to do like 500 damage in one turn. Sure, that's great, but then you're mostly useless for the next 20 turns.

I want a reliable consistent damage dealer. I think the best is the throw barb. But I'm open to other ideas.

[Drake]

Fighter barb, warlock and ranger. Like always. Fighter is a forgotten gem. It's maybe the most reliable class in the game.

[Ruinous]

Barbarian for sure. You can also get your burst up with a dip of 2 levels of fighter.

[Mr Fred]

You dont need to last 20 turns when everything is dead in 3 rounds (last 2 being to clear thrash) the scenario you describe simply never happen if you do bring a pally and a sorc.

[sarang]

Barbarian. You can get like 3-4 hits off with a great weapon every turn. Tons of damage and tanky as hell too.

[yuzhonglu]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

You dont need to last 20 turns when everything is dead in 3 rounds (last 2 being to clear thrash) the scenario you describe simply never happen if you do bring a pally and a sorc.

Not true. There are some fights that can last a long time. Like killing half a city and all of its robot guards.

[HumanNinjaToo]

Rogue with a bow is doing very consistent damage for me. I use Wyll and Shadowheart for CC and my rogue and Laezel clean up.

[Mr Fred]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

You dont need to last 20 turns when everything is dead in 3 rounds (last 2 being to clear thrash) the scenario you describe simply never happen if you do bring a pally and a sorc.

Not true. There are some fights that can last a long time. Like killing half a city and all of its robot guards.

That would be 100% on you to trigger such an avoidable fight.

[SoloQ]

So far the only class that hasn't been super on the damage has been cleric (out of cleric, rogue, druid, sorcerer, and barbarian.) But the one's who's damage are low have solid utility.
But any class that is more focused on "auto attacks." Barbarian, rogue, and druid in owlbear form are solid consistent damage. Druid is less so because of all the magic utility they bring, but still some solid damage and solid tanks since shape shifting is a buffer health pool and you can still self heal in forms.

You end up having so many camp resources if you loot everything that you can full rest after each fight. So you can go ham every single time.

The monk NPCs I fought pumped out decent damage. And i'm having one in my next play through's party after seeing all the "unarmed" gear that's in the game.

[Strandly]

Any melee character really since they don't run on bullets; I tend to favor fighter or barb. Ranger is also usually good.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Rogue gang rogue gang rogue gang rogue gang.

[Muu]

Only answer is Barbarian. Extremely tanky, 3 high damage melee attacks a turn and if hasted by a magic caster it becomes 5.

[A Wispy Willy]

Even spellcasters can deal constant damage throughout a fight, if you keep their concentration going and don't want it for other things.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

You want a class, or combination of classes, that require as few resources and preparation to deal it's damage and also has survivability.

Fighter, Rogue, Ranger and Barbarian all more or less fit that bill (Barbarian least of all since you have to expend Rage charges).

Rogues have to use Sneak Attack to get the most damage out of them, which is prep, and can occasionally fail (although, let's be honest, shouldn't), and also means they're difficult to multiclass since Sneak Attack dmg is directly tied to your Rogue lvl.

Ranger's deal decent damage at range with Sharpshooter and either Gloomstalker or Hunter, and you can also main Str and make a melee Ranger. Since they only get Extra Attack once they are easiest to multiclass with other classes, and go particularly well with Assassin or Champion.

Fighters, at lvl 11, get a third Extra Attack which multiplies with Haste and Action Surge, potentially giving you 9 greatsword attacks (and then a tenth for a kill) per turn. If you take Champion you'll have a higher crit threat too, but if your party has lots of ways to knock enemies prone or Hold or Paralyze them somehow then Champ isn't really necessary because you'll be autocritting anyway. If you go Fighter-11, you can dip into Light Cleric 1 lvl to get Warding Flare and a small heal, increasing your survivability.

The Champsassin is also pretty dope, as you will not only be attacking a lot every rurn, but a guaranteed Sneak Attack every turn (because you'll always be fighting side by side with a companion) makes you a little more bursty, but you'll have to give up Extra Attack at Fighter-11th and you'll also have to go sword n' board since you'll be using a rapier.

For consistent, resource and prep free dpr, nothing really beats Champion-11 with probably a 1 level dip into Light or Tempest Cleric (Tempest will get you some consistent reaction dmg every turn).

For progression, go Fighter until 5th level, pickimg up the Champion subclass and Greatweapon Mastery feat at 4th.

At sixth level pick up Cleric-1 (either Light or Tempest), then go the rest of the way with Fighter until end game.