Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
Rit is the weakest class, followed by Derv. Both are strictly inferior to other options for their roles.
Monk is now strictly inferior to Ele at being a monk, but most people haven't noticed yet.
Ele and Ranger are both one-trick ponies, Ele at being a monk and Ranger at dazed.
The remaining classes are all capable of strong builds.
Monks are inferior to elementalists at healing? In what way? The special attribute of an elementalist, energy storage, gives you more energy yes, but any monk that knows what (s)he's doing will tell you that energy doesnt = win. I AVIDLY play my monk, with my other characters basically around to bring in some extra coin, and as of now, I can honestly say I have little to no trouble keeping a party alive with the energy I have. To be candid, I'd take the extra ~30 health per spell of divine favor over 20-30 extra energy any day.
But on to the matter at hand; To be honest, I think Anet did a fairly decent job at keeping all of the classes even in terms of skill to play. However, never having played as a ritualist or a paragon in HM, I couldn't accurately tell you if they would be as balanced. Out of the classes I HAVE played though, I find the assassin to be one of the most challenging. Fairly squishy to begin with, the assassin is, in my own personal opinion, inept at killing multiple enemies in quick succession.
With the exception of any perma-sin builds (and the odd Moebius or Assassin's Promise setup), the assassin's need to use dagger attacks in a certain order renders quick kills nearly impossible, as the assassin in question would have to wait for the recharge of the first skill to begin killing again. Assassins have their place in PvE, but to me it doesnt seem to lie with the killing of mobs that is demanded.