Beginner-friendly class?

[Mom]

Looking over the classes and discussions, it looks like my normal go-to's might not be beginner-friendly.

I tend to play Rogues, Warlocks, Paladins, and Druids in online games, but they look like they play differently than I am used to in other games. Can anyone recommend a class that is less punishing than others to get my feet wet?

[Moridamn]

Cleric isn't too hard to play. I would not recommend rogue to someone new, as they are very squishy. Fighter is always a solid first choice as well.

[Blaze Shadowflame]

Fighters and barbarians are very straightforward.

[former]

Just started yesterday and picked rogue, I'm having a great time on it. I am playing with two other friends (ones a fighter, others a ranger) so if you're soloing then maybe not a great one to start with but honestly once you figure out the pve combat it's pretty easy to kite and kill stuff. First run I did I killed some dude then a few later when I was lvl 5 I wiped a 3-man squad. Went invis and they walked into me, granted I got help from my friends but the kills were all mine.

If you've played tarkov then this is basically the less complicated tarkov but D&D themed.

[evolgenius]

Cleric.

You get two healing spells that you can cast 5 times. (heal minor wounds x3, sanctuary x2)
You recover spell casts while resting so you can essentially gain those back for infinite heals.
You have multiple buffs from defense buffs, attribute buffs, and weapon damage buffs also right of the bat and they stack (not the same spell but you can cast all 3 buffs one after antoher and have them all active at the same time.)
Heavy armor, shields and maces, spears so get tanky gear.
Your special attack Q can kill an entire room of skeletons or undead in one shot and is available every 40 seconds which is very useful.
Also this is the easiset caster class AND if you learn this you will know how to play all the other more complicated casters: Druid, Wizard, etc.

[Handbanana]

Fighter is the easiest to start and play. I wouldn't play cleric as its a lot slower and more technical. You can ignore punishment when getting hit by healing but once you fight someone who knows how to deal with clerics you will have no chance of actually winning.

[Oku]

If you like Casters I'd go with Warlock, combining Torture Mastery perk with Curse of Pain is one of the most powerful sustain combos in the game and it offers you a lot of room for error as a new player.

[Mom]

This is all very helpful to hear. Thank you so much.

I'll mostly be queuing solo. So there's that.

I was eyeballing Warlock, Cleric and Hunter, but there's stuff I like about most classes. Not sure how I feel about being slow as a Barbarian, but Fighter might be a good alternative. They sound versatile. I KNOW I'm gonna be tempted to play rogue eventually.

What are the hardest classes to play?

[mimi]

fighter, barbarian are good for solo learning

[Raesha Moondancer]

Fighter is prob the friendliest because of the block size of shields, the amount of weps you can use, etc.

Ranger if you can aim, most caster classes require a bit more of awareness and skill, specially wizard and druid.

Rogue and Bard are probably two of the hardest to play overall, either because the class is underpowered, or requires more mechanic skill.

Barbarian is indeed W+M1, but you need to go for melee headshots.

[Ogg z Kosicoch]

Go barbar most broken

[Lucius Caesar]

I'll also say Fighter is the best beginner class. I started with Bard (because I love Bard in Dungeons n Dragons) But found the constant buffing and debuffing in the middle of combat to be too complicated, and decided to shelve the class until I get more experience. Made a Barbarian, which was much more beginner friendly, especially in PvE, but I still struggled with PvP because you don't have many options beyond walking forward and smacking them with your axe, so anyone with a bit of speed and you really struggle. I made a rogue and found the PvE to be MUCH more difficult... than a fighter and after watching a video about how to block effectively, I've been enjoying it the most. I feel nearly unstoppable in PvE, and while I still get my butt kicked in PvP, I've had a few kills, and feel like I stand somewhat of a chance.