Best class with arties

Nexes

Everyone always asks the opposite question, but what about for the arty crowd? What do people think are the best classes with artefacts?! What class do you pick when you want people to throw their computers out windows?

Addama

Monk.

Dat damage doe.

Austere

Magi op with arties. 

Kresslack

Thought monks got nerfed significantly recently. I've always heard Magi was the strongest with artefacts.

Mishgul

artied magi is v. ridic.

Austere

Artied mage really does outshine everything else in pure stomping power. It is obscene with straight damage,  and if for some dumb reason you can't out damage them(level 3 sip and crazy hindrance),  drop retardation in full vibes and use torc while your two amnesia pets goes bananas on them.  No reason to ever lose.  Cataclysm is by far the best ranged attack if you have 2 or more magi. Some of the best healing around, and with reflection/lyre you can completely shut down offense. 

Xith

Depends how many arties but maxed out artied mage is a contender, since the next beefiest artie class is usually monk and a monk can't really beat a magi. Only thing to beat an artied mage is probably occultist or jester, possibly even shaman depending how fast they get their fashions.

Jovolo

I'd say it's between artied magi and artied jester, but artied serpent stands a very good chance in any matchup. So those would be my top three.

Atalkez

Full artied BM should be unkillable (I am nowhere near artied enough)

Jovolo

Artied Magi would give artied BM a very difficult time. Depends on the playstyle of both, though

Nexes

Interesting to see Magi mentioned so often. Guess that diadem/sash/collar combo must be more effective than I imagined.

Edit: I also imagine knights are going to become strong contenders come next week.

Makarios

In terms of pure damage, it is definitely magi. That's giving us no end of problems when trying to replace enchantment.

Mizik

Blademaster.

Nothing really kills one. Can stop evade. 

Artied Paladin is a nightmare. 

Monk, of course. 

Only their limb damage took a hit. End game, damage, and survivability still off the charts. 

Evvi

Artied Magi and BMs are definitely pretty horrible to deal with, that and Monk, as other people have said.

As Jovolo said, honorable mention for Serpents, especially because I think a full artied serpent can probably kill an artied Magi before being killed. I could be wrong, though.

Micositu

Druid

Valaria

maybe next classlead bout that yall should focus on nerfing blademaster or magi. heh.

Xith

I always found blademasters kind of lame. Primarily cause 98% of them have no idea what they're doing. 
Probably doesn't help that I've mostly only been Magi and Jester which they suck against. But the new blademaster parry thing is supposedly OP enough that things have changed vs magi.

Atalkez

Will fight Jester over Magi 10/10 times

Jinsun

@Makarios‌  ( Mac-attack, Big Mac, Mack daddy, Mack truck, and/or Big Mackin') I've heard rumors that we may see more mobility and more need for magi to control their vibes in the near future, sort of like new occie over old occie. Is there any truth to this? I can't tell you how boring a rank spar against an Artied magi is.

Mishgul

Micositu said:

Druid

Before bees through shield nerf would back this. Defensively druid is right up there though. Druid with bow and meteors is still retarded to fight if they can land their mauls.

Xith

Jinsun said:

@ Makarios‌  ( Mac-attack, Big Mac, Mack daddy, Mack truck, and/or Big Mackin') I've heard rumors that we may see more mobility and more need for magi to control their vibes in the near future, sort of like new occie over old occie. Is there any truth to this? I can't tell you how boring a rank spar against an Artied magi is.

magi is getting new stuff, which means new direction, so most likely. 

Hint: The crow flies at midnight. 

Rangor

Sylvan and monk

Makarios

The magi changes will not be like occultist, in that vibes will be remaining passive. You can expect to see both tradeoffs and fairly significant damage cuts from the passive side of things though, given the introduction of a third combat-focused skill.

Austere

Makarios said:

 You can expect to see fairly significant damage cuts from the passive side of things though, given the introduction of a third combat-focused skill.

Noooo! Don't take my Loldamage, why me! @Makarios‌ I thought we were friends! 

Xinna

Don't worry. He only said "cuts." It's impossible to take the loldamage out of artied magi.

Ernam

Surprised to see nobody mentioning Runewarden.  I mentioned Runewarden as one of the best classes without artefacts, but it's also one of the best classes with high-end artefacts.  The damage output and pure affliction speed with 25 strength and ~2 second DSLs is mind boggling, and combined with high-Int Thurisaz, it's particularly terrifying.

Also, assuming all artefacts, any knight on an artefact (invincible) mount is nearly unkillable.  It's been essentially "proven" (in theory) that in 1v1 combat, it's impossible for most classes to kill someone with two invincible pets, without significant defensive play error.  For most classes, fighting mounted can come with some drawbacks, but this is (as intended) not the case for knights.

While Magi "loldamage" at the high-end of artefacts can be pretty outrageous, it's balanced out well enough by the fact that they have no meaningful hindrance aside from retardation (which significantly slows their potential damage output, taking their opponents' attacks into account).  Runewardens, on the other hand, have several powerful hindrance abilities at their disposal, on top of lunge/engage, which only adds to the damage onslaught.

Monk, is no longer the best artie-whore class, even though it still (for no reason I have ever been able to determine) has dramatically more class-based artefacts than any other class.  It is really good since it does draw on both Str and Int (where most classes only have one, or zero, main stats), so it benefits from even more artefacts, but all of the abilities that those impact have been nerfed dramatically in recent years, in addition to the crippling effects of diminishing returns.

I find it odd that Sylvan got left out, though.  Benefits from both Str and Int, scales massively with stats, and has access to the same loldamage as magi, sans vibes, but has amazing hindrance, and a much more powerful defense.

Addama

The big difference is that cutting damage can be mitigated to a very high degree - pretty much anybody worth fighting has a set of high-cutting armour, and Knights especially will mitigate huge amounts of it.  Plus there's avoidance and parrying and evasion. 

There's far less mitigation for magical damage, you can't parry it, you can't dodge it, so it doesn't particularly matter what class you are, a Magi is going to do a hilarious shitload of damage.

Ernam

There's actually a ton of things for magic (and other damage) mitigation, just most people don't have and/or use them.

There are also ample ways of "mitigating" (read: preventing) magi damage via shield tattoo, offensive hindrance, or simply leaving - all of which are far more easily accomplished vs magi, compared to other classes.

Tharvis

Post-Change, runewardens will probably be the strongest class out there. Unless it's made impossible for them to use a Shield of Absorption

Ernam

Tharvis said:

Post-Change, runewardens will probably be the strongest class out there. Unless it's made impossible for them to use a Shield of Absorption

S&B was specifically designed for use of SoA, and alternate SoA "types" (it currently functions as a "banded" shield) are potentially going to be added.

Achilles

Runewardens can't get to 25 strength.  Paladins can if they get jera and if Cyrene or Targossas actually had icons.

Strength base spec - 15 str
Improved Physique - +1 str
Level 3 Gauntlets - +3 str
Jera - +1 str
Fury - +2str
Icon - +1str

Most they can get to is 23 str