MassivelyOP’s 2023 Awards: Best New MMO Class

December 10, 2023 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 Guild Wars 2′s Mechanist last year. 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!

And the MassivelyOP staff pick for the Best New MMO Class of 2023 is…

ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE’S ARCANIST

Andy McAdams: ESO’s Arcanist. Weird year for new classes, in that there wasn’t much happening. Arcanist stood out (as soon as I remember it was a thing). I bought the most recent ESO expansion on sale, but it hasn’t come back up in my gaming nomad rotation yet for me to play. That said, Arcanist looked fun, different and not quite as “samey” as every other ESO class.

Brianna Royce: ESO Arcanist, LOTRO Mariner. I had a hard time with this one because I actually played the Mariner, and it’s cute! I mean, who doesn’t want to play a pirate hobbit! On the other hand, I am not sure I will keep playing it forever because the mechanics were a bit clunky. It was the aesthetic and vibe I liked rather than yet another melee-dance toon in a game that already has a bunch of them. The Arcanist, however, is widely regarded as something that filled a huge hole in ESO, and the class fantasy of it fits Elder Scrolls so perfectly. I could easily see it going to either of them.

Carlo Lacsina: LOTRO’s Mariner. I recently got into baseball, and when news came out that I can live my fantasy of being a Seattle Mariner in the Third Age, this was an instant win. (Don’t tell him, guys. -Bree)

Chris Neal: ESO’s Arcanist, LOTRO’s Mariner. I can’t claim to hold any personal experience with the Arcanist, but its whole vibe seemed like something wholly divergent for ESO in specific and the Elder Scrolls franchise in general that it’s hard to not stand up and take notice. Plus I’m always a sucker for classes that let you be a tanky mage.

Colin Henry: ESO’s Arcanist, LOTRO’s Mariner. The Elder Scrolls Online has long had a problem that, once you get past the flash of different particle effects, most of its classes feel pretty much the same. Throw down your AoEs, maybe a debuff or two, use a heal or a taunt if that’s your thing, and spam your spammable until it’s time to refresh your AoEs. The new Arcanist finally feels like a departure from that, with a builders-and-spenders mechanic that you’ve probably played some variation of in a dozen other MMOs’ classes, but is quite unique in this one. Plus, all that lime green magic looks pretty spiffy.

Eliot Lefebvre: LOTRO’s Mariner. Look, this year I’ve been in my sea shanty era. So that’s my vote.

Justin Olivetti: Elder Scrolls Online’s Necrom expansion flung the Arcanist in our faces — and some people gobbled that green-magic-using class right up. It wasn’t a completely fresh mage class, but ZeniMax did tweak the formula to give us something that felt different.

MJ Guthrie: Warframe’s Dagath, Elder Scrolls Online’s Arcanist. I have to go with a class I have played, and that would be Warframe’s Dagath. Her origin story is very compelling, and her skills and weapons are so much fun! But the uniqueness of ESO’s Arcanist intrigues me as well, as does the idea of a Hobbit swashbuckler.

Elder Scrolls Online’s Arcanist 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 2023?

Elder Scrolls Online - Arcanist (37%, 192 Votes)
Lord of the Rings Online - Mariner (29%, 149 Votes)
Lost Ark - Aeromancer (2%, 10 Votes)
Warframe - Dagath (3%, 15 Votes)
RuneScape - Necromancer (4%, 22 Votes)
Albion Online - Shapeshifter Weapons (3%, 16 Votes)
Mortal Online - Elementalist (1%, 5 Votes)
New World - Flail (10%, 51 Votes)
Zenith - Cyber Ninja (1%, 3 Votes)
Black Desert - Woosa and Maegu (6%, 30 Votes)
Vindictus - Charon (0%, 2 Votes)
Aion Classic - Revenant (1%, 5 Votes)
Something else (tell us in the comments!) (3%, 14 Votes)

Total Voters: 483

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