Now that the TPS roster is complete, please rste our newest Vault Hunters in order of deadliest to least.
I know they are rhe best balanced and deadliest yet (excepting broken Sal) so this will be a tough list.
I wouldnt even know where to
Start, so I’ll leave it to you guys!
(I suspect Nisha will be number 1 almost universally)
Oh, and please list your reasons why; the more detail the better!
Tough list indeed.
I doubt there are many players who use all six classes equally, and of course each player is going to decide based on his own criteria. We don’t all like the same things, we don’t handle things in the same way.
So here is my point of view, having played all classes to 60 and taking them to 70.
I’m also going to list them from least to most deadly, whatever that means. I’m assuming gameplay-wise, and not lore-wise.
I will also not give any credit to glitches and bugs. Just what each class can do legitimately, within the limitations of their own skills.
Please do not nitpick my opinion. Or do. I don’t care. I don’t like Nutella that much either.
6- Wilhelm.
This guy is alright. He’s a well balanced pet class. Maybe that’s where the problem is, as far as I’m concerned. I’m so balanced, it gets boring. Probably the reason his top gear thread got populated last, and nobody has taken over it for so long. He has no real synergy with anything. Lasers, you say? A single skill, which is also on a class mod, does not count. And leave Eddie and the Bulwark out, because anyone can equip them. I don’t mind Wilhelm, don’t get me wrong. But it feels like a generic, custom made vault hunter. His survivability is good, his damage output is not bad either, but that’s the thing. He does not sacrifice a little of something for a little of something else. He’s right down the middle. Sure, I don’t die a lot with him, but I don’t demolish enemies either. Power Fist will eventually get boring, not to mention lacking viable range.
I know there are some players playing as Wilhelm exclusively, and kudos to all of them, but I think they are missing out on an awful lot of what TPS has to offer. I do use Wilhelm, but for an equal amount of survivability, I get much more damage, anf fun, with the others.
5- Aurelia.
From well balanced, we go to most specialized. A semi-pet class (cryo bloodwing sure, but it has no health bar) all for Sniping, Cryo, and Multiplayer, with a great crowd control action skill. That’s the gist of it. It is common knowledge that Aurelia is probably the worst when it comes to survivability. Still, she’s above Wilhelm, because if I can one shot pretty much any and every enemy in the game, I don’t mind being as fragile. Limited as I may be, I can still dish out a surprising amount of damage. Niche? Sure. Gimmicky? Sure. But hey, if one-shotting everything is not deadly, I don’t know what is.
4- Claptrap.
Ah, Claptrap. Good times to be had. It’s weird that he is forth, but hey, it was weird he’s playable to begin with. Kinda tricky for beginners, but once you resign yourself to the fact that you’re three feet tall and nobody likes you, you can achieve anything. Sporting a more consistent high damage output that Aurelia, Claptrap may not be up there with her, but has much better survivability than her. Not to mention the action skill being much better in terms of damage and survivability. Most of the time, anyway. Damn you meat-unicycle.
3- Nisha
Well, here’s the big one. Saying she’s balanced is just not right. Loved and hated by many, for the same reasons, Nisha is capable of phenomenal consistent damage output, paired with a very effective survivability skillset. I’m talking about L&O, in case you mistakenly think she’s just a glass canon. Sort of specific and one might say limited, but not to Aurelia’s extent, Nisha is pretty straightforward. Jakobs, Tombstone, Trickshot, The Unforgiven, and some other stuff. When your enemies are reduced to insignificant, short-lived red dots, you know you’re deadly as deadly can be.
I was not a fan at first, but hell. Holding two beautiful revolvers, with no time limits, that’s just fun. All the chaos, that’s just a bonus.
2- Jack
Getting higher on the list of badassitude, the Doppelganger was a sensation from day one. What a truly great skillset. Nevermind the superb voice acting and lines, let’s just talk about the skills. Jack has achieved something no other can: Every single piece of gear works. Torgue, Maliwan, Scav, Tediore, assault rifles, shields, grenade mods. Every single thing can be boosted to either satisfactory, or just mere epic levels, all the while having a massively effective action skill, and an impressive array of skills. Absolute Advantage, Leadership, Sponsored By, Money Is Power, Believe, Potential, Company Man, and many others. Jack is capable of massive damage, with pretty much anything, and can still survive a ton of abuse.
1- Athena
And there you have it. I think Athena is at the top of the list. Having survivability is nice, but when you take no damage at all, while being able to inflict massive damage, that’s just unbeatable. The action skill lasts for a good amount of time, and Maelstrom is regarded by many as the game’s best overall skill. Granted, she does not have as many impressive skills as Jack, but she has all she needs to make you feel like a badass. Plus being the perfect combination of a tank, and gun-melee hybrid. And she’s cute, too.
No1-Wilhelm: Probably not the expected answer, and there’s probably a lot of bias here but I just love the guy. Aside from being able to one-shot a badass with his melee attack, capable with every gun type in the game (he’s got one skill that boosts lasers, that’s like saying Krieg’s the AR guy) and have an action skill that can become self-sufficient after a bit, he is such a team player! Forget Claptrap let’s look at the stats Wilhelm can give his team
Damage (Laser guided) Shield Regeneration (Energize) Health Regeneration (Zero Hour) Ammo Regeneration, Movement Speed, Reload Speed, Fire Rate (Over Charge) It’s easier to say what he DOESN’T Give this teamates!
Finally if you count the Vengeance Cannon glitch, then he packs some serious heat, who doesn’t want a Laser-Minigun strapped to their shoulers?
2- Jack: I’d like to put Nisha here, but with the “Ruster’s Quad” build he seams to dish out nearly as much damage as her with the get-out-of-FFYL-free card that is Leadership, also shooting forever is just so much fun
3- Nisha: What can I say, She’s Nisha, anything she looks at is blown away, I was killing Level 50 mobs with a level 34 Maggie with no problem at all, the queen of DPS. Really wanted to hate her because of BL2 and Dusty, but she’s just to powerful not to use and is in my Top-3 VH’s across the games
4-Claptrap: This guy just doesn’t die does he? With Points in Kill Bot and You’re going to Love me, he gets nearly all his Health back from a kill, all his health back from VH.exe, Health Regen from Maniacal Laughter, he’s just a Cockroach! Also his randomness can get annoying at times (Clap-in-a-box in Concordia… why is that a thing?) but playing as him never gets old and if you’re enjoying it, he must be doing something right? Also Torguetrap, it’s so awesome
5-Aurelia: Another viable class, down here only because of how awesome they all are, her trees are interesting and she commands some amazing damage but she’s just a bit too weak for my taste, she relies on enemies not being able to shoot back, either because they’re frozen or too far away, and when neither of those is possible (Sentinel, EOS) her limitations start to show
6-Athena: Like Aurelia I want to love her, but she just doesn’t do the damage, at the start of the game with a Shooting Star she was SO OP, and maybe that’s now reflecting on her now but she just doesn’t feel strong anymore, I can still make her work but with decent-ish gear she struggled to kill Shadow-Trap, let alone Eclipse or EOS. Amazing tank but somewhat lackluster damage
^^Haha, the very same list with swapped 6 and 1. That’s truly amazing.
Huh, that is weird. Different players, different definitions of power I guess
impalas list pretty much nails how i feel about the vault hunters. they are all awesome, but when it comes down to it, thats the order id likely put them in. long live athena!
and sorry for not giving my reasoning flames. i would, but as i have not fully lvl’d each character i cant really give a great analysis of each characters combat prowess, and wouldnt want to give an uninformed opinion 
+1
Have not played Jack yet, but I’ve seen things…
Couldn’t agree with this list more.
I’m putting Jack at the top.
I’m 98% invincible and causing insane damage. Admittedly though I haven’t played much of my Nisha recently. I do recall her having similar capabilities. Used Law & Order stacks and such.
I like the list @impala put up. Mine is similar but I think it’s:
Jack, Nisha, Athena, and the rest somewhere after.
Nisha - luck cannon = sadness to things that are not eclipse, EOS or shadowtrap
Athena - Technichaly higher than nisha, but in the time it took to build 999 maelstrom, nisha just killed the raid boss.
Jack - probably deserves higher than athena, but i haven been able to get my hands on an 0440 quad yet.
Clappy Hits like a tank, dies like an immortal tank covered in C4. just not good in the “speed killing everything in the arena” way.
Aurelia - the best for mobbing, but of her 3 strategys, the only one that can kill the sentinel is “let Nisha do it”
Wilhelm - Well balanced. shame the others aren’t
OK…I have only played a Wilhelm so far…getting ready to start another character just haven’t picked one yet…
So I am going to rate this through the eyes of the coop player…and what I see from the other 5 characters in coop.
Best…most powerful…easiest to coordinate with…best synergy. (And let me make this perfectly clear…I LOVE playing coop with ALL the characters…this is just my favorites from best characters to not quite as good.)
Nisha I love her DPS…she loves my Painting, Overcharge, distractions from Wolf and Zero Hour. She is a straight shooter and cause no interference to my play and is durable enough to revive me if needed…and vice versa…and dat DPS with two Luck Cannons and a Crapshooter…OH MY!
Athena I love her Aspis and the way she builds up DPS…she loves my Painting, Overcharge and distractions from Wolf. She is a straight shooter and cause no interference to my play and is durable enough to revive me if needed…and vice versa. Good Synergy.
Aurelia I love her long range capability and the Coop Contracts…she loves my Painting, Overcharge, distractions from Wolf and Zero Hour. She seems a tad too fragile in a heavy fight of big badasses and above…and bossfighting with her can be a bit of a chore but if she can stay separated and dish it out…WOW!
Jack I LOVE all his powerful skills and I think of all the characters, he is the most versatile…but hate the Digi Jacks and all the EXPLOSIONS! Sometimes I can’t even tell what is going on and who to shoot, where to maneuver, etc. He is just hard for me to coop with…many times in a heated close up fight. it becomes a bit of a chore. But the good news is that I seldom HAVE to do much because Jack is so powerful.
Clappy I find the absolute hardest to play with…his action skills are so unpredictable and seem to hit me at all the wrong times. When we synergize, it is poetry. But most of the time I just seem to be out of whack with him. The good news for me is that my friends who play clappy are all great guys and I actually like all of the claptrap dialogue.
Other Wilhelm I only list him here because I’m already too prejudiced. I LIKE that he doesn’t have the massive gimmicks…it was the same reason I liked Axton. Beating a boss with Axton and Wilhelm is a challenge…not a 10 second fight…
Played all, tried many builds for each class.
My top list reflects what class I like most for boss fights and tough mobbing (as in, Holodome and Arena)
For regular mobbing, it’s probably more like
6.) Nisha. Haven’t played her much, to be fair. Her action skill is short-lived, and she gets no minions, nor much relief from aggro. For a mostly SP experience, I’m not finding much to like here.
5.) Aurelia. Cool concept, really. Being 5th on a list of 6 is still good, when the rest of the list are all pretty badass. No minion, no real relief from aggro, and one of her three skill trees is USELESS in SP. She’s an awesome sniper, though, and her action skill is quite cool.
4.) Wilhelm. I like this guy. Action skill does minions, though they don’t always succeed at drawing aggro as well as I’d like. Saint adds survivability, Wolf adds firepower and distraction. Willy himself has some good combat skills. Termination Protocols seems a little gimmicky, but FFYL alternates are.
3.) Athena. Haven’t gotten into Maelstrom with her yet, and I don’t do melee. Nonetheless, though it draws no aggro, her action skill is pretty wicked for a SP guy like me. I dig.
2.) Claptrap. I <3 RUBBER DUCKY! Okay, with the exception of Meat Unicycle, the standard VH.exe packages are pretty good. Pirate Ship mode is OP as hell, son! But Clappy gets into second place, if for no other reason, because of personality. This is the single best job EVER in BL of making the skills match the personality. His quotes are awesome. And he’s a pretty badass solo warrior. I run him with a lot of explosives, and a Sapper COM. WRECKIN IT.
1.) TIMMEH! Dude, this character was a dream come true. If the digiJacks could move independently, this would break the game. I do question the choice of FIRE element for the badass digiJacks (because, y’know, 85% of end-game Elpis resists fire), and some of his right-tree skills are weak. But You Have My Shield is great (like Sharing is Caring in Gaige’s skill tree), Money is Power is a God-send for a solo player, Sponsored By makes for endless fun with various combos, and with so much quality Hyperion gear in the game (all Doppelganger COMs, Prismatic Bulwark, Shield of Ages, Bullpup, OmniCannon, T4S-r, 3DD1.E, and so on…), Company Man is a no-brainer. He’s not pigeonholed into one element or one type of weapon by his skills. He has some of the coolest skills in the game, PERIOD (Believe, Synergy, Integrity). Just. YES. PLEASE! Lawrence 2016.
I was a bit reluctant to use Wilhelm for the Sentinel farming coz I thought it’d take ages( unlike Nisha ), but I was pleasantly surprised. With a laser build and a vibrapulse for the shields and laser disker reloads for the other bits ( a quad worked well too) he demolished them far more quickly than I’d imagined. Aurelia is plain awful at the sentinel, (unless you want to waste 40 mins of your life), but deals pretty well with Eclipse/Eos.
Purely talking about efficiency ( dps, survivability, utility ):
The rest is highly debatable.
Now, if we’re talking about most fun class to play…that’s entirely subjective. My vote would probably go to Athena or Claptrap, since they offer the most unique/diverse playstyles.