AION 2 Class Tier List

Launch Week Brought the First Rankings

Until October 5, this page deliberately showed no rankings: nothing measurable existed. The global launch changed that. Within days, guide sites that played through Advanced Access published the first class rankings — Game8 (updated October 7), PlayerAuctions (October 6), Space4Games (October 6), ExpCarry, SkyCoach (September 28, pre-launch), and MMOEXP (September 3). This page now tracks them as labeled community opinion instead of an empty table.

What has still not arrived: an official NC ranking, combat-log aggregators, or a widely used damage meter. Every list below is editorial judgment from guide writers, built on their own play time during Advanced Access (September 30–October 4) and launch week. Treat them as a starting point, not a verdict.

The roster itself is unchanged: eight launch classes — Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Chanter, Cleric, Sorcerer, and Spiritmaster. Brawler exists only in the Korean and Taiwanese service and stays off this page.

DPS Tier List: The Launch-Week Snapshot

The damage question splits by content. For PvE damage, SkyCoach’s pre-launch list names Assassin and Sorcerer as the standouts, while Game8’s post-launch list names Gladiator, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Spiritmaster as the best PvE classes overall, crediting fast clears across most content.

For PvP, the lists agree more: Game8 ranks Gladiator, Ranger, and Assassin on top, crediting lockdown and crowd control; SkyCoach puts Gladiator and Assassin in its S tier; ExpCarry’s arena snapshot leads with Sorcerer and Cleric while naming Assassin, Gladiator, and Chanter as the top roaming picks.

Read the two columns together: a class can top group PvE through utility and range (Ranger, Spiritmaster) while the pure-damage crown sits with melee burst (Assassin) and sustained casts (Sorcerer). Gladiator is the only class that appears at the top of both columns in every source.

Where Every List Agrees

Gladiator is the universal pick. Every source above places it first or in its top tier for PvE, PvP, or both, and Space4Games credits it with dominating Nightmare-difficulty content. Its mix of cleave damage, knockdown chains, and off-tank durability makes it the launch-week default answer to “which class?” — and the Gladiator build page shows the setups behind the ranking.

The group-content pillars also point one way: Templar (tank) and Cleric (healer) are described as essential for group PvE by MMOEXP and sit in ExpCarry’s S tier for exactly that reason. Group finders need them whatever their solo damage, which is why pure-DPS lists and group-value lists rank the same classes differently.

Assassin’s PvP standing is consistent too — Game8 and SkyCoach both place it top-tier, on the strength of the same lockdown profile that leads Game8’s PvP column.

Where the Lists Disagree

Chanter is the widest split: ExpCarry and Space4Games place it in S tier (arena dominance and buffs), while PlayerAuctions puts it in C. The gap is a values question — the first two score group utility and PvP influence, the latter scores solo damage output.

Assassin’s PvE rank moves for the same reason: top damage on SkyCoach’s damage-focused list, absent from Game8’s PvE top four. Ranged and utility picks (Ranger, Spiritmaster) rise in the post-launch lists as group content gets documented.

None of this is measurable yet. When damage meters or combat logs appear for the global client — or NC publishes class statistics — this section converts from sourced opinions to numbers, and every older snapshot keeps its version label.

How to Read Launch-Week Tier Lists

Check the date first. A September 28 list describes pre-launch play; an October 7 list includes launch-week group content. No balance patch has landed yet, so all of it describes day-one tuning.

Samples are small and writer-dependent: each list reflects one site’s playtime, not aggregated data, and two lists published the same day can disagree — above, they do. Rankings also inherit early-server conditions: queues, congestion, and unoptimized gear.

Use them the way the class overview intends: shortlist classes whose playstyle fits you, then test in your own client. For the specifics once you pick, the builds hub maps every class’s launch guides, and the Gladiator page carries the deepest build breakdown this wiki has published.

When This Page Re-Ranks

This page re-checks every ranking after each balance patch, and immediately if NC publishes official class data. Each update keeps the source name and date beside its ranking, so older snapshots age visibly instead of silently.

The likely inflection points: the first balance patch, the October 13–27 server-transfer window reshaping server communities, and the first Nightmare-difficulty raid clears producing real logs.

Until measurements exist, the table below stays a sourced snapshot of community opinion — the same discipline this page kept when it showed nothing at all.

Official Class Overview Media

The collected official class playlist describes eight classes able to fight on the ground and in the sky. It does not rank them, so this verified Gamescom video is included only as official global media. No combat scene is converted into a performance statistic.

Measured Rankings Still Pending

The opinions above are sourced and dated; the measurements below do not exist yet. When they do, this page converts from a snapshot of lists to a snapshot of data.