Best Of

I'm a Syssin boy, through and through. I love the theme, love the idea of being sneaky, love eavesdropping, love following and infiltrating. Love fighting in it, too. Everything about Fezzix in character is Syssin.

As for mechanics..

TOP TIER:

Archivist, but mostly because it's new. It's in a weird spot where nerfing some of the more powerful mechanics like Madness or Ethereal or Ameliorate might neuter the class, but as it currently exists, there are only a few class-specific "Achilles' Heel" routes that can counter it, like Carnifex easily pressing Peace into an offense.

Shaman, because every route it has relies on some form of cheese, and you can get blown up out of nowhere. Granted, if you -constantly- play defensively, it's hard to lose, but if you ever expect to win against one, you have to eventually stop diagnosing through the million blackouts and go on the offense. Premonition is easily buried, blackouts can mask almost everything, and Oath of Tranquility/Elder Shaman/Panacea makes them one of the harder classes to kill. Vitalbane is one of the biggest pains in the ass, ever. Ever. Having to halt your offense to diagnose to avoid Reclamation or to pull thorns to avoid Strangle Cheese adds to the frustration.

Luminary, the freight train. Fighting even the most mediocre luminary opponent as a venom-based affliction class is a chore. Fighting one that's optimized (which hasn't been done yet, not even close) is an almost guaranteed loss. The class has the most built in hinder of any class in the game that doesn't detract from its natural progression, e.g. hidden blurry_vision, lethargy, confusion, pacifism, and has access to transfix alongside an unstoppable passive heal and an active that can choose between a random physical or mental affliction. Luminary is nigh unkillable defensively, and offensively it can press both the decongestant and euphoriant stacks simultaneously, then adjust its route easily according to what the target cures.

Monk, because three active cures. Mind Push, Mind Cleanse, and FITNESS. Fitness alone just wasn't enough, I guess. Blackout and blank. A throw that interrupts tumble. Kai Cripple. Banish to reset any fight if you're losing. Also, the best group class in the game. In groups, it doesn't have a single disadvantage.

MID TIER:

Syssin, my bread and butter. It'll sneak up on you if you don't know what to look for, but it's also prone to every type of hinder tactic in the game and has a narrow kill window that, if missed, means the fight is reset. Balace-wise, syssin is in a good spot. Plenty to slow it down, but powerful enough to reliably get kills.

Carnifex. Was at the very top of the top tier before the nerfs. I need to play around with it more. Wraith is one of the best abilities in the game, and the Soul mechanic gives them some momentum that takes a loooong time to recover from, so in a fight you will rarely ever truly "reset" against a carnifex.

Templar, borderline top tier. I'm itching to alt it up and see how far I can push this one, but I don't feel like shelling out the cash for lessons and there's a lot of other stuff demanding my attention right now anyway. They're fast, immune to clumsiness, have a passive heal, fitness, and access to hidden affs. Straightforward and predictable but good.

Sentinel. See Templar. Curious to play around with it, but don't have the time or motivation to mess with resins and ent stacking.

Indorani, super high aff rate, but easily trolled as Toz mentioned and the second-worst active cure in the game. When you lock an indorani, they're probably staying locked. They can give impatience and lethargy on demand, which is a big deal. Sun and Moon tarot are balanced enough in their aff selection to where you can't immediately bury asthma behind clumsiness. The hidden affs can spell doom for the unprepared or inexperienced.

Praenomen, easily trolled, but eventually you have to try to kill them. They require a different curing priority list than other classes, but if you focus on the important stuff, it's mostly junk (but they are able to stick loneliness easier than anyone else). They're like luminary, but it's a slower moving freight train.

Teradrim. Scary, but prone to clumsiness (and now disfigurement!). Great utility, amazing passives, solid class that will tear you up if you ignore your bruises.

Shapeshifter. @Toz said all that needs to be said. Group up and kill everything. Slow moving, but the offense increases exponentially. Go prone and die.

Wayfarer, because the way it pushes venoms AND limb damage at the same time is terrifying. Exhausted is an amazing affliction, they're good at preventing movement, and if you decide to dodge a certain type of attack against them, they can simply swap to another style and keep going. Punish Arms makes me cry.

BOTTOM TIER:

Ascendril. Spec into fire resistance. Cure Dissonance, walk away if you get branded, and part the water or raise icewalls to prevent Tsunami spam. Their saving graces (ANNOYING saving graces) are Tsunami and Reflect, both spammable, and Waterward. If you die against one, it's because you either didn't keep waterbreathing up or didn't cure Dissonance and they stuck loneliness on you from Tone Creeps. Sometimes this will happen because of extremely unlucky procs from vibes/watersprite.

Sciomancer. Spec into cold resistance. Same as Ascendril, but they don't have an ent that strips your blindness so they can get lucky Voidgaze spams.

Zealot. Sure, it's immune to clumsiness and has a better audit, but it has fewer active cures and requires more limb focus on the torso and head to get those cool Infernal Shroud kills. People I've seen lose to Zealot in 1v1 fights usually just never bothered parrying torso or head because they were ignorant of the mechanics. I think it's perfectly preventable though. They also get Telepathy Tether, but moving a single room and touching shield works just as well.

Scariest classes? Luminary and Archivist. Easy choice.