Best starter class for a newbie?

I haven't played an Action RPG in the vein of Diablo since....the original Diablo. Having been out of practice for so many years puts me in a bit of a tough spot when jumping into the deep well of character classes and skills that is Path of Exile. My question is; what do you guys that have been playing PoE for a while believe is the best starter class for a person looking to just jump into the game and learn it's mechanics? I created a Duelist as my first character because I thought that it would be fun and I just wanted to get started.

Marauder is probably the 'easiest' class to start. They get a ton of HP and defensive skills at the start while combat is pretty straightforward in the sense of just smashing people's faces in. Hope this helps- welcome to Wraeclast, hero.

Templar is the best for new players. They can run almost any build effectively be it melee, ranged, or caster. Plenty of health and resist nodes near the starting area as well.

Id imagine templar. As stated they can do nearly anything.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll probably give the Templar a try the next time I get the chance to play!

I would say none. If you want your first character to at least make it you merciless,you will have to do a lil bit of research on your character first. If you just want to jump in and play with out research, then the marauder as long as you make a build that takes every HP node/life regen node possible.

With all the knowledge I know of the game, IMO I believe any kinda ranged class(caster or bow) is easiest for me. because you can judge your fights from afar and plan ahead if your in an area that is dangerous for you. Where as melee, at some point, you have to jump into very dangerous situations and it just sucks when you HAVE to go through a pack you don't want to fight.

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Pi0neer wrote:

Id imagine templar. As stated they can do nearly anything.

One notable exception is wearing pants.

I started with a duellist and found by level 30 I was dying way too easily. I re rolled a templar and now have quite a hardy elemental battlemage. I tried the marauder too so I look at it like this: Marauder = HULK SMASH, Templar = Thor, Ranger = Dead eye.

I would disagree with the previous answers. Instead of asking what class you should start as, you should be asking about play styles. You can pick a Marauder thinking it's the tank class, build it poorly and end up dying a lot because you're not picking the right passives. Any starting class can be built tanky.

In my opinion, necromancers are the easiest to play and safest..not to mention fun. I would try one of them out.

Hello

There is a very friendly marauder guide at
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/73072

It is very similar to Mouze's build (which he posted too).In case you don't know the name he's the top Marauder in default level (he was #1 for till late 70's, I think sleep claimed him).

If you're looking at starting and what gems to use or quest rewards to take and such its great.

I am using it to support loot for my templar (Aiming on making a templar based on Kripparians Wand Templar but its insanely gear dependant and more tricky thus the Marauder first.)

Enjoy.