Every Class In Elden Ring RANKED
#10: Confessor
The jack of all trades, master of none. Despite the dark cloak, and ominous title with religious undertones, the confessor’s armor is nothing to praise. As soon as possible you’ll want to replace not only your grabs for something with higher defense, but your actual ace weapon too! The sword given to you lacks luster compared to the other classes’ starting weapons. But, this build is about magic of course! Except your starting spells pretty much suck. The heal is barely worth it, and the stealth-sneak is useless since the regular sneak is generous as is. A Confessor may have faith points to spare, but not much to use them on in early hours. Although designed to be an even mix of combat, stealth, and magic, your best bet is to ditch everything but the fantastic starter shield and become a paladin type. (Even if they learn very powerful spells later on, there’s not much a highly leveled confessor can do that the other magic class can’t)
#9: Warrior
The hack n’ slash berserker, equipped with double swords! But, only average health, stamina, and less than average armor. The only stat the Warrior excels at unfortunately, is the ability to use a few more weapons. Warriors CAN unleash multi hitting chain attacks with their starting swords, but more often than not committing stamina to these big attacks will leave you vulnerable. If you’re picking this class, let’s face it, you want to stick with dual wielding, but despite also including a basic starter shield, this means a lack of defensive strategy in battle. Pluuus, more runes spent leveling your weaponry up instead of much needed stat boosts.
#8: Bandit
The archer, assassin, stealth spec’d experience. Obviously, being a bandit means tremendous stealth damage. Though many enemies won't allow this, it is a LOT of fun to land and prioritize. This class offers you some ranged attacks out of the gate as you’ll will shortly find their bow to be the best part of their upgraded kit. Aided by the multiple flavors of arrow to obtain, complemented by their armor piercing property. Now where the damage from your knife is only ok, more often than not in Elden Ring, you'll be fighting groups of enemies. So it's suitable for quick slashes to whittle down enemy life bars without leaving yourself too open. Finally, keeping the bandit out of the bottom spot is the fact that they start only at level 5, so you have a lot of room to customize initially, AND they'll naturally find much more loot in the game world due to the highest starting "arcane" stat.
#7: Prisoner
The spellsword, the enchanted knight. Anything beyond this point we would classify as a great choice for a class, instead of just decent. Starting with a solid thrusting sword, paired with a helpful glintstone spell, this class is for those undecided! Want a little taste of both physical and magic moves? Want to be able to crowd control with powerful spells, but don’t want to miss out on the cool melee weapons you’ll loot from foes? Choosing the life of chains may be for you! Especially when it includes a weird helmet with impressive defense, one which you’ll be able to hang on to for a good while. However, you may take longer to reach your full potential, being edged out by a couple of other magic users. And the rest of those rags gotta go, honey.
#6: Hero
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The Tank of the group! Lots of stamina meets lots of health (beat by Samurai, and Vagabond, respectively, however). The Hero's kit is perfect for overcoming enemies. Your axe is balanced to deliver average blows at an average speed. Though its weapon skill of Wild Strikes can snowball enemies that would be an extreme challenge ordinarily. You are aided further in damage by a very high strength stat, and although lacking slightly in the magic category, it’s all fixable. All in all, the decent, forgiving class, for mistake makers… like myself.
#5: Wretch
Is it: the “meme-class”? OR: Only the only truly-correct choice for the game? Well, I say, it has value! The Wretch may start with almost nothing but a can-do attitude! It’s saving graces are the completely even stats and a Level 1 base. By the time you reach an average level, say 10, you’ll be more powerful than some of the defaults. Meaning, you can build your character perfectly to your liking, and perhaps most importantly, adapt to the items and monsters you encounter. If you happen to collect powerful magic items, or powerful heavy weapon items, you can tailor your Wretch either way. Not recommended for one looking for a fair challenge but if you’re determined to have the typical souls-like experience, this will condition even a beginner to be more careful and practiced. Ultimately offering more playtime, for more payoff, for this reason it’s smack dab in the middle. Hope that’s OK with you!
#4: Prophet
A Cleric type. You start, with craaazy good spells, check this out. The Prophet can heal to practically full when out of flasks, this takes a second but is so worth it, especially during drawn out boss fights. Then to style on the haters, wipe out small enemies instantly with the fire snal, so cool! The starting weapon of choice is a spear with impressively long reach. Anything that can get close to you can be staggered by this weapon or its skill so you’re always a threat. Every blade has its edge though, for as much damage as you can deal, you’ll only be defending yourself with cloth armor to start and the lowest starting stamina of the classes. You may need to take 1% more care to not run out of resources, but it’s an entertaining balance that makes it all worth it.
#3: Vagabond
Our classic adventurer, All-Rounder. This traditional build is for people not too interested in magic. The shield you come with is the “G.O.A.T”, as they say. Blocking 100% off all damage, so you have that extra bit of flexibility in taking on bigger foes right away. While Vagabonds have no real ranged options off the hop, you do come with a second weapon that offers a little more reach that you can swap to on the fly! You’ll find yourself pretty strong in most stats, namely your health, but with a little less initial damage output than your class brothers & sisters.
#2: Astrologer
The true Mage archetype! There’s no denying certain spells in Elden Ring are massive game changers. And while simple, the starter glintstone spells cheese the foes of this game to a fabulous degree! “Pebble” alone allows you to take down higher level bosses immediately as the game begins, I’m talking fresh out of the spawn. Your starting sword, shield, and staff are just decent. While your armor protects logically from magic attacks rather well. The astrologer's magic stats are immense, and you’re setting yourself up for a smooth ride just by selecting them.
#1: Samurai
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The one man and / or woman army! The visuals this class offers is almost worth it itself. Great starting weapons and armor to fight a wide range of enemies. Both your ranged and melee attacks are equally powerful from the combined efforts of the longbow and katana. "Unsheath" is a hella’ powerful ability to quickly eliminate and stagger a single opponent, plus you feel like an anime character. To top it off, Samurai is barely lacking in any stat for flexibility in playstyle and major fun factor. It’s a little bandit, a little hero, a little vagabond, and always a good choice.
