MassivelyOP’s 2022 Awards: Best New MMO Class

December 14, 2022 11:00 AM

Welcome back to Massively Overpowered’s formal end-of-the-year awards!

Today’s award is for the Best New MMO Class, which was awarded to Black Desert’s Corsair class last year for its inaugural run. The award is intended to highlight MMOs that are still focused on this quintessential MMO character content, and it’s open to all live MMOs that introduced a new class, archetype, profession, or skillset this year. Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

And the MassivelyOP staff pick for the Best New MMO Class of 2022 is…

GUILD WARS 2’S MECHANIST

Andy McAdams: Guild Wars 2 Specter. I do love me a healy, shadowy rogue-like.

Brianna Royce: Guild Wars 2 Mechanist. I really didn’t love the new elite spec for my main character in End of Dragons, but I did love the Engineer’s Mechanist both thematically and mechanically, so I’d call it my fave out of all the new ones added this year. My runner-up would be the new Symphonic powerset in City of Heroes (Homecoming).

Carlo Lacsina: Guild Wars 2 Vindicator.

Chris Neal: Lost Ark Machinist. Big gun go brrrrrrr. Also, the fact that this class cares so little about the overall lore of Lost Ark is kind of magical to me. While this is the only new class I played this year, it’s also one of the more fun, in my opinion.

Colin Henry: Guild Wars 2 Mechanist, Virtuoso, Specter. End of Dragons had such a great set of new elite specs (which aren’t classes, but close enough for award purposes) that it’s hard for me to pick. I can’t say all of them, so I’m going to pick two:

First is the Mesmer’s Virtuoso spec. Mesmer already has two support-focused specs, and Mirage has a high output damage spec. The problem is, it is (debatably) the most difficult DPS build in the game to play optimally, yes, surpassing even the Elementalist. The Virtuoso may not parse quite as high as the Mirage, but its mechanics are easy to grasp and the rotation is buttery smooth. Plus, you can build it for either direct damage or DoTs and do almost identical DPS, so you’ve got options to customize your play and still remain within the meta. I’ve had more fun with this spec than any previous Mesmer, and I actually liked both of the previous ones!
That said, the Engineer’s Mechanist is possibly one of the best elite spec designs this team has ever put together. Depending on your gear and build choices, you can spec it for heals, for buffs, for condition (DoT) damage, or for power (direct) damage. In other words, depending on how you build your mechanist, you can fill basically any role. And it’s not a difficult class to play, either. Some might say it’s a little overpowered, especially given its simplicity, and I’m not sure they’re wrong, but the versatility built into this class is second to none. Plus, robots are just cool.

Eliot Lefebvre: I’m actually a little on the fence over whether or not the new elite specs in Guild Wars 2 really “count” to me as new classes, but there aren’t a whole lot of options out this particular year. And the ones that definitely count aren’t ones that really should count, you know? I couldn’t vote for Evoker, I actually played one, that wouldn’t get a “best new class” vote if the only other option was Black Desert releasing a class that literally fried your RAM. But the Mechanist gets you a robot buddy with building options, so it’s basically Puppetmaster from Final Fantasy XI with a cooler robot, so that is sure as heck my vote.

Justin Olivetti: Lost Ark Machinist. It felt like every other week we kept getting a new (or imported) Lost Ark class, and each one looked flashy and fun. It’s hard to pick one in that crowd, but I’ll go with Machinist because if I was playing, that’s what I’d pick.

Tyler Edwards: Guild Wars 2 Willbender.

Guild Wars 2’s Mechanist took our award for Best New MMO Class. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: What was the best new class added to an MMO in 2022?

GW2 Mechanist (24%, 218 Votes)
Lost Ark Machinist (2%, 18 Votes)
GW2 Specter (7%, 59 Votes)
GW2 Virtuoso (10%, 93 Votes)
GW2 Vindicator (4%, 40 Votes)
GW2 Willbender (3%, 25 Votes)
CoH Symphonic Controller/Dominator (4%, 33 Votes)
WoW's Evoker (11%, 100 Votes)
Blade and Soul's Musician (1%, 7 Votes)
PSO2's Waker (1%, 7 Votes)
Trove's Solarion (1%, 7 Votes)
Black Desert's Drakania (3%, 26 Votes)
New World Blunderbuss (2%, 19 Votes)
New World Greatsword (4%, 36 Votes)
Vindictus Letty and Latiya (0%, 1 Votes)
Elyon's Soulbringer (RIP) (0%, 1 Votes)
Black Desert Mobile Buccaneer (0%, 2 Votes)
Zenith Cyberninja (0%, 0 Votes)
Lost Ark's Arcanist (1%, 6 Votes)
Lost Ark's Glaivier (1%, 8 Votes)
Lost Ark's Destroyer (1%, 11 Votes)
Lost Ark's Reaper (1%, 5 Votes)
Lost Ark's Summoner (1%, 6 Votes)
GW2's Bladesworn (6%, 53 Votes)
GW2's Untamed (1%, 13 Votes)
GW2's Catalyst (5%, 46 Votes)
GW2's Harbinger (4%, 39 Votes)
Something else (tell us in the comments!) (3%, 23 Votes)

Total Voters: 771

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How does MassivelyOP choose the winner?

Our team gathers together to nominate and discuss candidates and hopefully settle on a consensus winner. We don’t have a hard vote, but we do include commentary from writers so that you can see our thought process. The site’s award goes to the staff selection, but we’ll include both it and the community’s top nomination in our debrief in January.

How does MassivelyOP populate this poll?

Poll options include all MMOs nominated plus a few others we thought should be included.