Stormquake's Character Tier List V 1.0.2

Miner plus Wicked Ring, Crit Glasses, Scepter, Low Ceiling = Everything dead in less than a second and unlimited flying. Just use his Starbound skill...CONSTANTLY.
I absolutely love the miner.

 

Am I to assume Han-D will be at the bottom primarily because of his heavy reliance on drones to survive, and some situations that don't allot him any (Final Boss)?

 

Indeed, I am posting Tier 5 tonight and all my reasoning shall be posted then as well.

EDIT: Tier list complete!

 

Anyone who thinks this tier list is "biased", you will probably continue to do so. However, do note that his favorite class, the Enforcer, is in tier 4. This is the very opposite of bias.

Mine, the Sniper, is at the goddamn bottom and I agree with it.

 

I mostly agree with the list, as far as game mechanics are involved.

However certain characters have a higher skill ceiling then others, for example: the huntress while having the strongest baseline game mechanics, has quite possibly the lowest skill ceiling. Unlike, say, the Miner where looking at just his mechanics may make him seem sorta average, if you take into account skill ceiling, he has the potential to be quite possibly one of the best characters (due to all of his skills being fantastic at avoiding damage, dealing damage and being 100% AoE).

It might be interesting to devise tier lists not just for characters from a game mechanics perspective, but also from the perspective of how much they can improve with skill.


A bit more on-topic, I feel that Mercenary should switch places on your list with Acrid (even though i like Mercenary more). Looking at it from purely a getting to level 6 and winning perspective based on character strength from game mechanics, I feel like the Ccrid has an easier time accomplishing this, especially on Monsoon.

For retrospect, my favorites are Miner and Enforcer, and I do agree with them being where they are on that list (even though it hurts my heart) from a game mechanics perspective.

 

Put as cons for HAN_D 'Worst at vsing last boss'. I think we can all agree he is the worst, you kind of mention it with his healing drones though. Sniper is the 2nd easiest to solo boss as for me, as hard as it is to get up to him, it was hilariously easy. Just get him into the spot where he can't attack you or teleport to you, and BOOM headshot, BOOM headshot, BOOM HEADSHOT! Wurms were... KINDA difficult but you just charge up after they both attack.

EDIT: I thought of a good idea for HAN_D's drones, instead of each kill, every so many hits with Z or V, every so amount of damage (would scale for levels), or every so many seconds in combat. Wouldn't be THAT exploitable seeing he's still slow AND you lose them on next level.

 

The problem is that his drones can be activated freely while he attacks. After getting enough procs, you'd be able to spit out a constant stream of drones for unbelievably high DPS and massive healing. Trust me, Han_D is not a bad character at all. If there's anything I'd like for him as someone who plays him primarily, it's for Forced_Reassembly to do a bit more damage. Right now, using it is pretty much always lowering your damage and survivability versus just using Hurt repeatedly.

 

Maybe killing with FORCED_REASSEMBLY gives two drones?

 

I'm not entirely sure I agree with HAN-D's placement. He's quickly becoming my favourite class as I've never failed a run with him without doing something extremely stupid that would have gotten me killed on any other character. While I will admit his ability to kill Providence without any drones (Item drones, not X drones) is pretty much non existent I think his abilities through the rest of the game put him up a little higher... Issue is now that I'm writing this and seeing that my other best class, the Bandit, is directly above him and above that is the enforcer I begin to realize honestly, aside from the Huntress, Merc and Sniper, all the classes are fairly close together. I honestly don't know how I feel about the list as a whole but I think it's rather accurate.

 

Having unlocked every character and played them, I agree with that list for the most part.
Only thing I would change is maybe bump Merc down two spots and Acrid + Engineer up one.
I find Acrid and Engineer much safer picks in spite of Merc's many, many invincibility frames just due to the nature of enemy spawns and late game hazards that melee has difficulty avoiding.
That, and they just have phenomenal kiting ability between Turret distractions and that Sludge.
(Imp Fire is a colossal pain in the ass. It's always waiting for me when I come out of a dash or omnislash)

EDIT: My personal evaluations does not take items into account, because items are very, very random and not consistent. A merc getting something like a Wicked Ring will make him OP as sin, as will a Behemoth on an Engineer or Huntress.

Not a bad idea, though I'd probably take it a step further and grant HAN_D a drone every time he hits with Forced Reassembly (max one drone per activation; not per hit). This way he would have an incentive to better aim his Forced Reassembly (it has a windup time, making it quite risky to use, especially vs Providence), and fighting Providence wouldn't be quite so teeth grindingly obnoxious.

 

Acrid and Mercenary had a very tight race for the spot in tier 1. Mercenary took it because he's so very hard to punish, while Acrid has a few easily punishable times. (screwing up your C being the main thing)

 

I'm sure when Stormquake made this list he envisioned each character being played to their absolute best, leaving only room for errors where their disadvantages are concerned. That said, this list probably covers the difference in player skill as well.

I mean, again, Sniper is my favorite character. I feel like I make a pretty badass Sniper and I CAN beat the game as him. But I do agree and accept that he has some very punishing flaws that need to be corrected. This is not a result of lack of player skill (though some people will continue to claim so), but a lack of innate survival abilities.

 

It is tough. Personally I'm not fond of either character, however I just feel from a purely mechanics perspective that Acrid wins out barely. For several reasons:
1) Acrid does far more damage at less risk early on. This helps him get off the ground early and blast through levels, I feel they are both equal against providence (Merc worse on worms).
2) Mercenary is hard to Punish, if your good at him. If we are looking at this from a mechanics perspective, although Acrid does have a few easily punishable times due to the nature of Merc being in the middle of big groups of enemies all the time I feel that Merc is actually easier to Punish at lower skill.
3) For Acrid the first few levels pretty much all enemies can be easily killed with incredible ease, you can avoid most of the really dangerous mobs pretty easily while still killing them at a good speed. Whereas Merc has to really be careful of getting slammed by Rock Golems/Sand Crabs/Parents.

I do agree its close, but due to the incredible ease that Acrid has with the biggest early threats thanks to being able to use his 3rd and 4th skills to kite and still do insane damage (as well as increasing his clearing speed by a ton, thereby making future levels easier), I think he is above merc from a game mechanics perspective. However the second decent amounts of skill comes into play Merc catches right up, because there isn't much room for skillful play in Acrid's kit, having higher skill doesn't vastly change how you use his skills.

 

If every character was being played to their absolute best, this list would need some serious revamping Enforcer and Miner would be much higher on the list for sure. I think he is looking at it from a perspective of purely game mechanics (character skills and abilities and how they interact with the various enemies/levels). I'm pretty sure he mention in his OP that he was grading it off their innate ability to get to the last level and beat the boss.

 

I suppose you're right if you consider Enforcer's PROTECT AND SERVE. Ideally, on a perfectly skilled player, they would only activate it when it was beneficial and not end up in a position where they got hurt I guess?

 

I like both of these, myself. While I'm sure just straight-up buffing Forced_Reassembly is the easiest route, getting bonus drones for killing with it means that there is a definite time you want to use it (though it'd still stop mattering later on when there are so many enemies, with so much health, that trying to lasthit with a hammer on a bunch of enemies whose health bars you can barely see is probably not worth the effort when drones are constantly flowing in anyway), and getting drones for using it would give you a reason to try and position for it as often as possible, rather than hiding under a banner and using Hurt until the gigantic pile of enemies is dead.

 

Thanks for the write-up. I agree with the general observations, although I'm not convinced that exact placement or the methods used are ideal. Framing the list around a solo, single loop run was a smart choice, but limiting tiers arbitrarily to two characters per tier with order relevant leaves much to be desired as it fails to accurately communicate performance gaps (or lack thereof) between similarly ranked characters.


Specific criticisms and comments:
I think the RoR community as a whole gives the Huntress far more credit than she deserves. She is certainly the easiest class to play -- as optimized Huntress play is not significantly different from using every ability on cooldown every cooldown while attacking from max range with negligible need for jump-shots -- but easy bears little sway on the claim of best. Huntress' damage output scales poorly once she has to deal with more than four or so enemies at a time, and her attack angles are some of the worst in the game (X-Axis only). Perhaps these limitations can be masked by a lucky map pool (Sky Meadow -> Ancient Valley -> Hive Cluster), but Huntress' prowess is inevitably snuffed at Temple. I would not consider her a bad character, only one undeserving of the title that is Best-in-Game.

Regarding broader placement, I would say that Tier 2 and Tier 1 appear to have been mixed up at first glance; that is, that Engineer and Acrid should be in Tier 1 while Mercenary and Huntress should be below them. While Engy and Acrid may lack more obvious defensive options, map structure more than allows these characters to be played safely while outputting considerably higher damage to equally-sized or larger packs. The Engineer in particular is able to attack at more ubiquitous unorthodox angles than any other character: while running away, while on a rope/ledge, while under/over a bridge and while off-screen. This aptitude at relentlessly attacking off-axis is an attribute so decisive that no other character in the game can reasonably claim equivalence.

HAN-D's placement is correct, although I feel the heart of his issues were not succinctly explained: HAN-D is a momentum character that was not provided the tools necessary to maintain said momentum. Without drones, HAN-D cannot sustain himself; it is therefore no surprise that HAN-D bends easily once he loses his drone pool -- assuming he is even able to build up that pool when entering a fresh stage. As others have mentioned, this issue could likely be addressed with additional synergy between Forced Reassembly and drone generation... but that is another topic.


All in all, the reasoning behind the list is sound and it's clear that it never set out to be a community-supported list; I see little need to push for "corrections" due to criticisms. Others will write their own lists over time and the debate will perpetuate itself for the entirety of RoR's lifespan, particularly as balance changes are made (Enforcer should come to mind). When the time comes again, I encourage those that pen them to structure their divisions as carefully as was done here, if not more so.

Again, thanks much for taking the time to craft this tier list. It was a solid read.

 

The reason she is at the top and she belongs at the top is because she is so easy.

If this were about multiple loops or about getting as strong as possible, she would be a lot lower tier, however this list is focused around going to the final boss as soon as possible and beating him. Due to huntress being such an easy character, the first 4 levels are made much easier then they would be on most other characters, yes she dwindles a bit on level 5... however level 5 is considered much easier then level 4 most of the time (magma has the oh-so-lethal bisons and can have turtle boss, hive can have spitters, purple wisps, and parents... level 5 has... archer bugs and elder lemurians) so even though she starts to have less of an easy time, she still doesn't really have to break a sweat. As for the final boss, she is probably one of the easiest characters to beat him with, as all of his forms heavily punish not moving when they do most of their attacks, and she is the most mobile class (can attack while moving).

She facerolls the game on drizzle and rainstorm, and has a pretty easy time on Monsoon. The reason she is at the top of the list is because from a purely game mechanics standpoint when the objective is to beat the game with no detours (loops), she is the best at it (when you don't factor in player skill).

You can have the first two levels give you multiple copies of headstompers and spikestrips (in other words, useless items) as the your only items, and still be able to beat level three without that much trouble. How many other classes can do that?

 

I find her amazing for 4 rows of items, can eat anything in seconds from bosses to elites and does it all without stopping or turning around, and holding in attack button maintains an excellent attack speed with the right items, I can't see anyone being better. Bandit got my Z finger sore!