Imo the right class for you is the one you - A: Have the most fun with - and - B: Have planned and feel it’ll be useful.
How can I have fun, when pretty much 80% of the archer tree is broken? You know what the most popular builds are? Archer 2 > Quarrel Shooter 3 > Rogue 1 / Appraiser > Schwartzer Reiter 3 / Falconer 3 > Bullet Marker / Mergen 1 (Mergen mostly for being wallet friendly).
And that’s because the rest of the tree got IMC’ed. Ranger should have no down time to Steady Aim (5 minutes buff), Sapper = 3 ranks for only 1 good AOE skill (Broom Trap), Wugushi got nerfed, Fletcher got nerfed, Scout got nerfed (its signature attack: Split Arrow), Cannoneer and Musketeer are niches (one for AOE and one for bossing) - and Musketeer could have huge potential if he could keep some skills from lower ranks, like Ranger and QS attacks. Currently the most synergy comes from Wugushi and Sapper because of melee. The most popular Musk build is Archer 2 > QS 3 > Rogue / Scout > Musk. I would rethink of becoming a Scout again, if only I could use Flare Shot with a Musket (melee). The last Archer class, which has huge potential, is Hunter, which is crippled by bad pet AI. Premium pets like leaf penguin does sometimes solve the issue when you ride them, but you probably have no idea how annoying it gets to let my controller down, Alt + Up Arrow, get my controller back, so annoying that I let my pet where it is and just hunt without it.
Wizard tree, which was the most functional, got a boost and some nerf (because IMC), like breaking cryo > chrono builds (Frost Pillar gone, Chrono now require lots of SPR to do the same thing they currently do now). But my point is that Wizards, who were already the most OP in the game (I got a Cryo > Kino and I kill almost all bosses in 5 seconds if they don’t hit me, which is easy when I’m in party, but I got big cooldown of ice wall) got boosted, swordies and clerics also got some balancing, while archers will always be 2nd class citizens in TOS, except for the aforementioned QS, Falc, SR and BM. The whole tree needs a rebalance / boost.
I remember when Ranger 3 > Fletcher 3 > Mergen 1 used to be the meta and relatively cheap build to do, until after the first huge rebalance patch. Shortly after, Wugushi and Scouts gained track and were better than fletchers, but also got nerfed meanwhile while I quit the game. Split Arrow was a huge deal, the ricochet arrows were doing more than 1000% of the base damage and poisons were pretty monstrous. My poisons now are pretty bad, since I’m still a Wugushi 3 > Mergen 2.
Another huge problem with TOS, just as somebody else mentioned is that when most classes are broke and you already invested a lot of time in leveling them, you don’t have an easy way to “repair” them, like rank reset (I already bought a rank reset for my Sap3 > Falc 1 > Musk and made it Sap3 > Rougue 1 > Musk and I still regret it, should have taken something like Wugu or Hunter). There is no way to “test” classes and skills to make sure they are what you are looking for, there is no way you can reset your class and most important, it could have been avoided by having 10 or 20 character slots. And I already bought 1 character slot, because I had no idea that a hawk is considered a character - what a stupid engine. In other games, a pet would be an item that could be moved via team storage. I’ve been playing for 2 years (with half an year break) and I bought 9 months worth of Token, 1 character slot and 1 rank reset voucher, which brings my in-game spending to ~88 euros (which is a lot when living by yourself, being a college student and not getting money from nobody in a 2nd world ****hole in Easter Europe). I never spent more than 50 euros on any game. But I’d gladly spend more, if this game would be more enjoyable.
