(Best) Classes for LDoA?

Mesmer/Ranger is best.

Empathy and backfire makes it OP...along with a pet and regen skills from ranger.

After 30+ in Pre I tend to gravitate towards Ele with Ranger temp secondary. At lvl 2 you've got the skills and you just start wiping out Oaks, at lvl 4 or 5 you can manage to pick off one or two charr before everything goes dark. You don't worry about survivor, you've convinced yourself the karma of dying means more purple drops next run. At Lvl 7 you're pulling the charr healer boss up first with a long bow, and once he's down the whole shrine is just a few recharges away from being ashes. Lvl 14 or 15 you pick up Farmer Hamnet and when you get tired of that a few quick boss hits puts you up to 16. 45 minutes of the quests you hoarded puts you a few runs away from 17, and now you have troll unguent running at +5 and you feel torn between grinding hamnet to 19 in a couple hours, or farming charr and finally finding that dual mod offhand you surely deserve after spending 5 or 6 afternoons creating this killing machine with cruise control simple skills and flamboyant dancing skills.

I agree with these posts about lots of things can be tweaked to feel OP in Presearing, but if you just want simple uncomplicated power Ele is hard to beat. For me consistency beats nailing perfect pulls and techniques over the long term. I subscribe to the more kills/longer run school of thought, and a 7 or 8 minute clear to the back gate typically nets a handful of purples that sell for a few k each, and maybe something special to drop in the prize pool for another event.

If you'd like to see my stripped down run in person add Incandescent Anon and give me a yell anytime you see me online.

I've heard a lot of Ranger and Ele from people, but I've been doing it with Mes. It might be a slightly slower start but it rips through the Charr stuff and anything higher up. Once I got healing breeze it was pretty much a cake walk.

I'll just add that I've also heard people knock the Mes healing ability, but it's pretty awesome.

R/W or W/R - Get Frenzy and a Pet while going bow. Takes a little bit longer to get the bow damage going on warrior for a /bonus bow weapon but well worth it due to the armor penetration. Also both have great armor.

ok, I am not part of the hardcore, but my first LDoA was a monk (with a pet--otherwise solo'd), and my 2nd, 3rd, 4th...were all necros... with a pet (I like the extra minion :P). I am not a melee person so warrior just never worked for me. But that is just me. I like the casters much better and while ele is a good starter, just never could get one past level 10 ---just not as strong as I wanted (again, that is just me). Didnt try it on mes ...that should be fun to though.

If you go primary Ranger you should probably take Warrior as your secondary just to get Frenzy (and Healing Signet I guess).

I have a monk going through pre and she's a total badass, ele secondary. The only issue she has in the beginning is energy management, but if you can suit up a few energy runes/insignias, you're good to go. The ele energy glyph works great with zero points added, there isn't much in pre that costs more than 10 energy anyway.

I just realised something crazy.

I don't have a Ranger, and I've never played a Ranger as primary.

Actually stunned, I've got over 1000 hours played and have done every other class, but never noticed this.

I have two LDoA chars: r/W, and Me/E. Next two will be Mo/E, and E/Mo.

I went for a monk with secondary ranger (Mo/R) because it's awsome to have a pet walk with you as you can deal out damage and still heal yourself. As in the one that deals most damage, would be either the elementalist or the mesmer.

Funny fact: I spent over 5 hours taming the black bear with multiple willing players to help me out :D it's pointless, but it's a sign of significance, taming the bear is REALLY hard unless you got lucky on your first try or something.

Mesmer@11 domination magic.

Thanks for all the comments and insight!

I chose a Ranger and will probably go for that Warrior Second Class, the AoE Explosive Shots are fun already.

here's my own rating :

• S Tier : Mesmer & Ranger (at level 14, for Charrs Boss runs)

• High Tier : E/Mo & Mo/E + Necro

• Low Tier : War :(

Mesmer & Ranger (w/ frenzy) can kill each boss in less 10sec, make them superstrong, especially mesmer with the reset spells.

EL/monk or Monk/E are the best & fastest for clean Charrs pack, especially with some pcons (cupcakes & eggs)

Necro is average, slow at start, really fast at end. Safe class for Survivor title (imo)

Warrior is really slow and requires a decent/good stuff for starting to be fast.

PS : getting /R on all class is really a bad choice. The pet is really compare to the Imp in term of tanking. Except Ranger who need frenzy (and so R/W) and EL/Mo , all others class can be done without secondary class and still performing well.