MassivelyOP’s 2024 Awards: Best New MMO Class

December 18, 2024 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 Elder Scrolls Online’s Arcanist 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 2024 is…

FINAL FANTASY XIV DAWNTRAIL’S VIPER

Andy McAdams: FFXIV’s Pictomancer

Brianna Royce: FFXIV’s Viper, City of Heroes’ Marine Affinity. It seemed obvious to me that Final Fantasy XIV would be winning in 2024 because it added not one but too major jobs this year. XIV isn’t my home MMO, but I’ve seen enough of the Viper now to know MOP’s Chris and Eliot know what they’re talking about in picking it over the flashier Picto. I understand why GW2’s landspears are getting nods too, but personally, I don’t really enjoy the spear builds – or their current slightly OP dominance (also: It’s wild to me that GW2’s weapon proliferation got no noms, but it happened this year too!). A personal salute to Marine Affinity on Homecoming, too. Easily the most amusing powerset in years.

Carlo Lacsina: Guild Wars 2’s landspears, Black Desert’s Dosa. While all the Kiritos of the world are swinging around two sword and – I don’t know – dying in red circles to maximize DPS, BDO’s Dosa is showing us just how much more can be done with one sword and a free hand. In Dosa’s case, showing how cool smoking is with his pipe. The folks at Pearl Abyss show that they do in fact still know how to make awesome classes with tons of flavour and fun to play with. Does anyone have the time? No? Then I guess IIIIIIIIIT’S DOSA TIME!!!! As for Guild Wars 2, you know it’s a good day for any civilization when they discover that spears can be used on land. It’s like the time fish figured out that they could use their fins to walk on land and that lead to the Roman empire.

Chris Neal: FFXIV’s Viper. Putting aside in-character reasons for this class being perfect, the Viper is absolutely oozing with tons of style and feels mechanically amazing to play. I also think that the Pictomancer is great, but the Viper is just too damn slick to watch and control. It’s magnificent.

Eliot Lefebvre: FFXIV’s Viper. I told Bree that she could easily vote for Pictomancer instead to make me slightly less happy, but that apparently tilted her in the other direction. Think of that what you will.

Justin Olivetti: FFXIV’s Pictomancer. The concept is brilliant and unique, so that gets my vote! Having magic mixed with painting is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking we need from more MMO devs.

MJ Guthrie: Black Desert’s Dosa

Tyler Edwards: WoW’s Frostfire Mage. I’m not overly fond of WoW’s hero talents in general, but I will say I am loving Frostfire Mage. It changes almost nothing about the gameplay, but it’s visually spectacular, and it makes me feel warm nostalgia fuzzies for when I first played and jammed together a terrible frostfire build. I’ve just always liked the absurdity of Frostfire Bolt as an ability. You’re such a powerful mage you literally broke the laws of physics and made something that’s burning and freezing at the same time!

FFXIV Dawntrail’s Viper took our award for Best New MMO Class of 2024. What’s your pick?

Loading ...

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 classes nominated plus a few others we thought should be included.