New Player Class Guide

An introduction to classes in Neverwinter

So you’re thinking of playing Neverwinter? Great choice! Your character in the game will have a class. Some classes yield magic, others are more traditional sword and shield fighters. Some fight at range, other get in close. Whatever play style you prefer you’ll find something to try.

There are eight classes in Neverwinter. This primer attempts to give a short description of each class to help inform your choice. The great part about Neverwinter is you can have a different character for every class and play them all. Each class is covered in a tables below. The tables below have information commonly sought out by new players, like, does this class fight at range? does this class heal? as well as personal statements from Cloak Alliance players who play those classes.

Class Basics – Class Role

Each class in Neverwinter has a role for game content with group (aka queue) rules. An example of a queue rule might be “1 healer” being mandatory. Some classes have two roles (see specifics below). Here’s the great thing about Neverwinter: queue rules are only for a small fraction of the game. Specifically, “public” queue runs that award Astral Diamonds (an in game currency). All content can be run in a pre-made (aka “private”) groups where you can run with players with any mix of roles.

So what are the class roles in Neverwinter?

The DPS Role

One role is “DPS” (from Damage Per Second) which is a class that is designed to deal damage. As noted before, classes can do damage via magic, swords, at range, or in-close melee.

The healer role

Another role is healer, which is a class designed to either prevent or restore damage to other players. Dungeons and Dragons fans will recognize that character damage and health in Neverwinter is measured as Hit Points. Neverwinter is a Dungeons and Dragons game after all!

The tank role

The final role is the tank. The tank is tough, which is sometimes expressed as a large number of Hit Points and sometimes via abilities to reduce the damage they take, via the use of a shield, for example. Tanks also have the ability to grab the attention of enemies, often times called “aggro”.

DPS players have always been the most abundant and that makes tanks and healers in demand. As an additional benefit, generally heal and tank characters cost fewer resources to play competitively in that role at endgame.

Finally, you might be wondering if tank or healer role can do enough damage when playing solo content. Absolutely! Every class either has a dps role or can do enough damage to play solo content.

Figuring Out Your First Class

The best way to figure out if you like a class is to play that class. Every class can have fun in the game. Your skill in playing your class can provide results beyond the generalizations below. Said another way, if you take time to learn about your class you’ll have more fun and other players will have more fun bringing you along in group content.

A few final notes on terms you’ll see below which we haven’t already covered, specifically single target, AoE, endgame and BiS. If you’re familiar with these concepts you can skip this paragraph and go straight to the classes. “Single target” relates to effectiveness on a single entity, either damage to a single enemy or healing of a single player. “AoE”, or Area of Effect, notes efficiency for more than one entity simultaneously, either damaging multiple enemies concurrently or healing multiple players concurrently. BiS (aka Best in Slot) for this guide means specifically having gear which produces the maximum effect for the class role. The comments below generally follow up on the earlier idea that healers and tank generally take fewer BiS resources to play their role. The specific definition of which gear is currently BiS is beyond this guide but can be found in class-specific build guides. Finally, endgame here is defined conceptually as the game content which is hardest to complete without factoring for player skill. If you don’t know how to play your class skillfully then all content will be hard to complete.

Here’s the class specific breakdown (in no particular order):