Good evening everybody! This is Aifos coming to you alive from Petrichor V! As you may or may not know, Risk of Rain 2 recently released its second DLC, and so in my attempts to get all the new skins & challenges, I've been playing it quite a bit. Since I'm a bit bored atm, I figured, why not talk about it? I've completed the Mastery challenge with every character (no artifacts), and I usually play with Random Survivor on, so I have a decent amount of playtime with every character. So, here we go, my ranking of the Survivors (classes) of RoR2. [quote]Disclaimer: This list is based purely off of how much I enjoy playing as the Survivor in question. Higher ranked Survivors or not necessarily better or worse than lower ranked Survivors, and many factors are taken into consideration beyond gameplay, such as aesthetics. I also mostly play solo, which does play a factor in things.[/quote] 1. Artificer [spoiler]A sucker for mages in general, Artificer was pretty much a shoe in for being my favorite. Even though technically speaking, the Artificer isn't actually using magic, she's clearly designed to be the "wizard" class. Her high burst damage is great, and her ice walls are incredibly useful for taking out tanky baddies. My only complaint with her base moveset is the lack of movement abilities, but this is solved with her alternate ability that just straight up lets you fly. As if I didn't already love her enough already, now I get to FLY?! Yes please! Damage: A Crowd Control: A Mobility: B Aesthetics: A[/spoiler] 2. Void Fiend [spoiler]Ironically, even though the Artificer is using what could be described as "space magic", and the Void Fiend is using something more closely related to regular magic, the Void Fiend by far feels the more sci-fi of the two. But, he's still a mage, and that gives him major bonus points! Besides being a spooky mage, I also just love super forms, and alternating back and forth between a super form is basically this guy's whole gimmick. It feels like they took a look at Anti-Form from Kingdom Hearts and just said "That. That's the new character." and I love it! Damage: B+ (B as regular, A as corrupt) Crowd Control: B (C as regular, A as corrupt) Mobility: A Aesthetics: A[/spoiler] [i](Note: If Heretic were playable by normal means, she'd probably be right here, but she's not, and playing as her is annoying, so...)[/i] 3. REX [spoiler]REX fills the role of the "health is just a resource to be used" type character, and buddy I am all here for it! Most of REX's abilities will damage him in exchange for powerful moves, while also healing him in the process. This does admittedly make him a bit hard to play in a game like RoR2 where your health bar can quickly evaporate, but even if his runs are usually shorter, they're always really fun! Plus, I love his little spider walk. Damage: A+ Crowd Control: A Mobility: D Aesthetics: B[/spoiler] 4. Railgunner [spoiler]I'm gonna be honest, I'm not very good at Railgunner, but swapping between a full auto homing weapon and a high power sniper is just too fun to not love. I feel like she's probably easier to play in multiplayer, where you can just focus on taking out the big guys while your team handles the small fry, but even solo, she's still just so fun to play! Damage: A+ Crowd Control: C Mobility: D Aesthetics: A[/spoiler] 5. Huntress [spoiler]Two words: Homing shots! There's just something inherently fun about not needing to aim. She also probably has my favorite dodge move in the game with her mini-blinks. Not much to say here. Just homing shots. Damage: B Crowd Control: C Mobility: A+ Aesthetics: B[/spoiler] 6. Bandit [spoiler]Back when RoR2 first released, Commando was the only character who used a gun, and he just used pistols. I thought, "man, wouldn't it be fun to use a rifle instead?". Bandit was the answer to that question. Popping in and out of invisibility to shoot enemies in the back with a shotgun, it's a blast. Being able to reliably pull of crits with the backstab is a nice plus, too. Damage: A Crowd Control: B Mobility: C Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 7. MUL-T [spoiler]Your stand in for mainstream FPS players, MUL-T can swap between two guns at any given moment. I use this to swap between long range and short range, and the constant swapping of gameplay styles is really fun. It also sets him up to be uniquely good in any situation. I don't really like his dual wielding ability, but other than that, he's great! Damage: A Crowd Control: B Mobility: C+ Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 8. Commando [spoiler]A simple "point and shoot" character, Commando is really good when you just want to shoot the baddies without thinking too much. Good fun, I like him. Damage: B Crowd Control: C Mobility: B Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 9. Seeker [spoiler]Seeker is designed to be the healer class, and as someone who usually players healers when given the chance, that's pretty swell. If I played in co-op more, I could see her being my main. As a solo player, though, she doesn't feel particularly amazing. She's still fun enough, but not particularly notable. Damage: C Crowd Control: B Mobility: A Aesthetics: A[/spoiler] 10. Acrid [spoiler]A melee/ranged hybrid character, with a unique debuff. As you can probably tell from this list, I'm not terribly fond of melee characters (none of them have showed up yet!), but Acrid is definitely my favorite of the bunch. Their poison allows them to rather effectively take out flying enemies, and since it's percentage based tanky enemies fall pretty quickly, too! It's great. Damage: B- Crowd Control: B+ Mobility: B Aesthetics: B[/spoiler] 11. Engineer [spoiler]I love the idea of the Engineer. Putting down turrets and mines in strategic locations to destroy your enemies! Great! The problem is, with any good Engineer build you're kind of, like, not doing anything? Your turrets just take out all the baddies for you. I don't mind playing him for a round when he comes up as the random survivor, but playing an entire game as him is [i]so boring![/i] Damage: S Crwod Control: A Mobility: D Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 12. Mercenary [spoiler]Mercenary is a melee character, which inherently puts him at more risk than other Suvivors. Still, he can quickly take out crowds of weaker enemies, and smaller flying enemies are no match for his dash, so he's pretty fun. Kinda stressful to play, though, so I don't like playing as him often. Damage: B Crowd Control: B Mobility: S Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 13. Captain [spoiler]Captain has an interesting gimmick, where his RB can only be used twice per stage, calling down beacons with a variety of effects. One is a healing field, one is a stunning field, one hacks chest, and I forget what the last one does. The problem is, this means you effectively only have 3 abilities. Combine that with his LT being practically useless and you only really have 2. This makes him feel very not fun to play. Oh, and that's not to mention the fact that his LB and RB are disabled in any of the special zones, which while it makes sense from a lore perspective, really only leaves you with your primary attack. It's very uggh. I don't like Captain. Damage: C Crowd Control: D (B with stun beacon) Mobility: D Aesthetics: C[/spoiler] 14. The False Son [spoiler]Another melee/ranged hybrid like Acrid, the False Son is shockingly bad at dealing with flying enemies. His ranged moves just kind of totally suck. He makes up for it with some superb melee damage, but still, going up against anything flying is a pain. And there are a lot of flying enemies. Still, his neat gimmick of swapping between having extra armor or extra regen is fun, and his superb melee damage is fun to play with. Damage: B (A against grounded enemies, C against airborne enemies) Crowd Control: B (S against grounded enemies, D against airborne enemies) Mobility: B Aesthetics: A[/spoiler] 15. Chef [spoiler]Chef is... Fine? He exists. Kinda boring, though. He feels like he was meant to be a melee character, but doesn't have any of the extra perks that help melee characters survive. His Yes Chef ability is probably the only thing I particularly like about him, but it's not enough to salvage the character. Damage: B+ Crowd Control: B Mobility: C Aesthetics: D[/spoiler] 16. Loader [spoiler]Loader is just not fun to play. She deals way too much damage, and obliterates everything in the early game with no problem. My guess is she was designed to be a "speedrun" character, breezing through stages really fast, and I wouldn't be surprised if her effectiveness drops off in the midgame. It's been a hot minute, but I think I got her Mastery achievement by rushing the teleporter every stage, because that's the most effective way to play as Loader, and just... Uggh. It's a shame, honestly, because her moveset seems like it could be fun otherwise. Damage: S Crowd Control: A+ Mobility: S Aesthetics: D[/spoiler] 17. Heretic [spoiler]Now, I've only played as Heretic once or twice, admittedly, and honestly both times I have played as her, I've actually totally loved it. Her moves are really fun, I like her triple jump, and she's a MAGIC BIRD! But, unless you're using the Artifact of Command (which I very much do not like) it's practically impossible to play as her reliably. You need a specific set of four items that you have to come across by complete chance. It's so annoying. I would be fine if this is how you unlocked her the first time, and then she was playable as normal, but that you have to find the four items every time is just not fun. I hate these kinds of "special characters" in Roguelikes. Bleh. Damage: Who knows? Crowd Control: Question mark? Mobility: S Aesthetics: S[/spoiler] (note: Take all stats with a grain of salt) And there we go. That's the thread. I'm done talking now. That's all folks! Jambuhbye!