Easiest class for a first time leveling experience?

[OzBot3000]

Trying to get through my first playthrough of this game and I really don't enjoy where I am right now. I started as a Defender and picked up Warfare. At level 20 now but I feel like killing mobs takes a long time and none of the skills are necessarily fun to use. Is there a recommended class to fly through the game?

[claudius]

Well there are so many combos of dual masteries that even players who have 100s or even 1000s hours logged in have only tried some of the dual mastery combinations.

[ninakoru]

Hunting + [Insert class here], where the other class is whatever seems interesting to you. Hunting is high damage + some great passives, to me a bit OP compared to other classes.

[slayor3000]

Originally posted by ninakoru:

Hunting + [Insert class here], where the other class is whatever seems interesting to you. Hunting is high damage + some great passives, to me a bit OP compared to other classes.

Agree.
Hunting with anything. Only mastery I have finished normal in without any other mastery.
Hunting + Defence great archer or choose spear shield tank, I believe is a good combo for anyone starting the game.
Always start with Hunter to build up speed and defence.

[sarcastic_godot]

Easiest?

Nature petmancer ofc (with Dream, Earth, or Spirit). There's a reason that this game has an achievement for finishing Normal mode with less than 100 kills...

Plus:
- Low gear needs, just those buff jewelries, which can be bought from the in-game vendors.
- Game wins itself, you can casually explore while your doggies do the messy stuff.
- Pets stay strong when hopping to the next difficulty.

Minus:
- Might get boring pretty fast.
- Not the fastest farmer (can do that well enough, though)
- You don't learn that much about the game and its mechanics.

[chris.ferrantegerard]

Hunting is a good option. Good DPS, can be played as spear + shield, bow or throwing + shield easily. Can be comboed with most other masteries without much difficulty. Warden (+Defence) is a good spear build with lots of DA and some projectile avoidance. Lacks a good LMB attack through. Haruspex (+Dream) is a great mix of buffs, debuffs, CC and spammable attacks.

Dream is solid all around. You can clear through normal fairly quickly using Trance of Wrath I think.

Pet builds are another option. Generally not too gear dependent, just get some pet buff rings and / or necklace and some +skill items. Depending on your mastery combos you can play as a support char, caster, ranged or melee. Rogue trappers might be the best pet build for hardcore runs but they need some +skill and level investment to work. Nature makes for a good summoner, with wolves out immediately and extra health from Heart of Oak. Nature is also a perfect support mastery and can be comboed with anything. Soothsayer (+Spirit) is a good support / caster summoner with lots of pets, Champion (+Warfare) is an efficient melee summoner keeping Battle Standard up constantly.

[Renfield628]

I think the Conquerer's ratio of player buffs and enemy debuffs should hang around 30%/70% of your skill pool. So what is that approaching for you at lvl 20, about 60 points?
I think you can dual wield[www.tqcalc.com] with two life leech affixed arms but it might be sketchy. Just wear you some nikes and make sure when you go shopping for steel to keep an eye out for Ravenous, then upgrade to Rapacious and Voracious the higher you level up. If you are going to tank, I'd say throw something like this[www.tqcalc.com] on. Another key thing to remember is, if you are playing solo, any skill that has an activation chance of less than 20% is pure trash. Do not get it. Seek only skill stacks that will imeadiatly press your opponents and keep them on their heels.

[Renfield628]

One last thing, if you got the dex requirement you can throw double throwables on that dual wield also. And for both of those notes I gave you carry a bow. It's good to have options.

[ninakoru]

Originally posted by Renfield628:

Another key thing to remember is, if you are playing solo, any skill that has an activation chance of less than 20% is pure trash.

Not that agree, especially if: the skill relies on you getting hit - Goes off with any kind of attack. Skills like adrenaline in defense or distorion field in Dream get triggered fairly often despite a 5% chance to be triggered off cooldown.

The worst ones are abilities on weapons like: "3% to +100% physical damage".

[Renfield628]

Yes, I should have said "for starters". End game gear with +!, +2 skill mastery prefixes allow you to get all the retaliation skills you want. /opinion