Class Comparison

Class Comparison Table

These are GENERAL notes for the classes. Some Sub-Classes' characteristics run counter to the generalities of their class. There are melee styles with AoE skills, there are magic users with melee attacks, etc. Generally every class/sub-class have some version of every skill type and attack style, which (depending on general effectiveness, enemy combatant, or player style) may or may not be used in any given situation.

See Sub Class Comparison for more details.

• Orientation
  • Melee means uses weapons
  • Magic means uses MP
  • Range means use of long-range attacks.

Name	Orientation	Play Style	Range	Defense	Speed	Notes	Popularity
Slayer	Melee	Balanced melee class	Medium	Good	Fast	Easy to use, difficult to master. Its the basic class that specializes with many weapon masteries. Has a difficult time starting out due to lack of skills, but becomes very proficient at PvE and PvP. Skills are straightforward and highly accessible. Magic skills tend to have a dark elemental attribute.	Very common
Fighter	Melee	High speed movement with powerful melee skills	Short	Good	Fastest	Harder than the Slayer due to shorter reach and lack of variety in skills, but very satisfying damage. Has a difficult time starting out until the first grab skill is learned. Magic Skills tend to have the light elemental attribute.	Common
Gunner (M&F)	Ranged	Versatile ranged attacker	Long	Average	Fast	Very easy to use. Has an extremely easy start by keeping enemies away with ranged attacks but later on many enemies have counters against ranged attacks such as super armor or defensive auras. Excels in a keep-away game, and can harass effectively with low risk. Can temporarily enchant bullets with an element, use grenades, explosive robots and subweapons such as Gatling guns and Flamethrowers. there's a few gender differences while executing some skills.	Very common
Mage	Melee/Magic	Tricky melee attacks backed by magic skills	Medium/Long	Poor	Average	Low HP and defense makes the Mage the most difficult to play and start out with. As more skills become accessible, the Mage's damage output and survivability will start to increase rapidly.	Uncommon
Priest	Melee	Slow moving tank with the strongest attack power	Short/Medium	Great	Slow	Easy to use, difficult to avoid getting damaged. Has an average difficulty starting out. Despite the name of Priest, this is not the traditional healer class. While the Priest can heal, it isn't very effective and has heavy limitations. Instead, the Priest excels in melee combat. Skills tend to grant super armor, protecting the Priest from interruptions. This makes melee combat extremely one-sided; the Priest must spend most of his time chasing players in PvP.	Common
Thief	Melee/Magic	Fast movement and fast attack speed maxed out with critical hits.	Short/Medium	Average	Fastest	Similar dificulty than a fighter but combos tend to be aerial, careless play can lead to a quick death, while this class is like a traditional thief class, some skills are magic rather than physical, long ranged and somewhat defensive. Critical damage can be very high and its natural speed makes Thiefs both deadly and tricky on PvP.	Common

Sub-class Comparison Table

• Range- usual range of attacks
  • Short- Shortest range
  • Medium- Can be roughly two to three body lengths away
  • Long- Farthest range sometimes off-screen
• Source- source of damage, usually referring to the most often used attack
  • Physical- uses weapons to attack; deals physical damage based on Str stat
  • Magical- uses magic skills to attack; deals magical damage based on Int stat
  • Hybrid- uses both weapons and magic skills to attack uses both Int and Str to calculate damage
• Skill type- the type of skills the sub-class specializes in
  • Power- powerful offensive skills
  • Speed- fast/combo/cancellable skills
  • Buff- skills to either improve the character or to weaken the opponent.
  • Nuke- high powered ranged attacks and with wide AoE (Area of effect)
  • Summon- Summons allies to aid directly in contributing attacks most of the time with its own AI
• Difficulty- Minimum level of initial skill required to play the character
  • Easy- Anyone with any level of experience can play this character to good effect
  • Average- Some experience with gaming would be helpful, some learning curve
  • Hard- Should have some experience with gaming and 2D scrollers, there will be a learning curve

Name	Class	Range	Source	Skill type	Difficulty	Notes
Blade Master	Slayer	Medium	Physical	Speed	Easy	The Blade Master expands on the basic skills and can now cancel attacks into them, can specialize on the 4 weapons for Slayers and its the only class able to wield Beam Swords. Blade Master is allowed to improvise combos fluidly and easily. In PvE, the Blade Master enjoys easy infinite combo setups (while MP lasts) and benefits of Tempered Attack to reduce the durability loss during long runs. In PvP, they have well-rounded abilities and are able to quickly take down a player with their sheer DPS from proper combos. Blade Masters are able to output consistently high DPS with continuous usage of Secret Sword Technique, and have many tools for high-speed mobility in combat. Blade Masters are adept in both PvE and PvP, and are easy to level as they have many tools at their disposal early on.
Soul Bender	Slayer	Medium/Long	Hybrid	Buff	Hard	The Soul Bender wears cloth armor, so he takes more damage when attacked. However, he can easily mitigate it with Afterimage of Keiga and carefully trap his opponents with well placed spirits to inflict status ailments. With tools such as Ghost Step to safely avoid all damage and get the first strike, the Soul Bender specializes in a powerful keep-away to overcome his opponents. Soul Benders possess one of the best AoE damage of all the classes and very impressive single target magic damage. Soul Benders are one of the strongest PvE and PvP classes with the majority of its difficulty coming from grinding to 35 to be able to use all of the AoE skills to control the entire field.
Berserker	Slayer	Medium	Physical	Buff	Hard	The Berserker uses his own HP to activate skills instead of MP, but gains incredible survivability in exchange. At low HP, he becomes more difficult to finish off thanks to increasing parameters and the ability to heal himself back into good shape; The Berserker has gained the nickname "cockroach" by the Korean DnF community. With Frenzy, Berserkers can output similar DPS as the Blademaster, but trades mobility for better AoE and survivability. Berserkers are adept in both PvE and PvP with the majority of its difficulty coming from the grind to 35 to use Frenzy.
Asura	Slayer	Medium/Long	Magical	Nuke	Average	The slowest of the four Slayer sub-classes. The Asura has the highest physical defense due to Plate Armor Mastery, and uses primarily ranged magical attacks. His skills have high burst damage, making the Asura great for crowd control and boss killing, but the slow movement speed gives him a difficult time catching other players in PvP. The Asura is recommended for players who enjoy zoning with projectiles and creating fireball traps. Like the Soul Bender, Asuras possess lots of AoE and high magic attack to bring down entire groups of enemies down fast, but trades some damage for much more survivability. Asuras are adept in PvE, but are very difficult to play in PvP.
Nen Master	Fighter	Medium/Long	Magical	Buff	Easy	The magic user of the Fighters. Shes attacks are light elemental, She can harass effectively with projectiles, and learns many defensive skills to avoid damage. Most notably, Floating Nen Flowers allows an awakened Nen Master to passively nullify any attack once, after which it reactivates when a set period of time has passed by. The Nen Master has the strongest defensive style in the game; she can use her skills to play an effective keep-away game, get into close combat with her buffs on, and is the only supportive fighter sub-class benefiting party play. Nen Masters are one of the strongest PvE classes and are adept in PvP, and are highly desired in groups for her supportive skills, including the ability to heal the party with Ultimate Nen Guard.
Striker	Fighter	Short	Physical	Power	Average	The fastest movement speed combined with the highest burst damage in the game. Strikers aim to land a powerful combo string rather than individual hits, though trading blows are still advantageous for the Striker. Landing a combo is usually achieved by using a temporary Super Armor buff to help close in on an opponent. While the short reach makes it difficult to land a combo against an enemy player, the Striker's naturally high movement speed helps to compensate for it. The Striker is a great choice for players favoring "bulldog" or "rush down" tactics (the best defense is the best offense mindset) as they are able to chase enemies completely unchecked whenever the Super Armor buff is active. Strikers are one of the strongest PvE and PvP classes in the game (when compared to a Nen Master, Strikers are right behind them in PvE and ahead of them in PvP because they bring raw damage instead of supportive skills). The U.S. Street Fighter IV champion Justin Wong is known to play a Striker.
Brawler	Fighter	Medium	Physical	Buff	Average	Brawlers are a versatile sub-class that specializes in afflicting status conditions (such as bleeding, poison, stun, and immobility) on opponents. The Brawler has a lot of tools to deal with a variety of situations. Most notably, they can mount downed opponents for extra attacks. In addition, Brawlers deal increasing bonus damage as opponents are also afflicted with increasing amounts of status conditions. They use heavy armor and claw weapons that allow them to fight on a slightly longer range (negligible) than other fighter sub-classes. They have one of the best tools in the game in the form of Heaven's Net, which allows them to pull and immobilize enemies from across the screen for a free combo. Players who like utility will also enjoy the Brawler's harassing ability and its immunity to poison comes in handy with several enemies or dungeon traps poison based. Brawlers are average in PvE and adept in PvP.
Grappler	Fighter	Short	Physical	Power	Average	The Grappler is one of the few classes that are timeless in that they remained very good through every major or minor patch. Grapplers specialize in throws which also activates invincibility frames to avoid any kind of damage during the entire throw animation. With well-timed throws, the Grappler can dispatch entire groups of enemies while avoiding all incoming damage. They can even grab enemies who are normally immune to throws (uses an alternate throwing animation). The Grappler can chain throws together to create a combo, and is very dangerous in "okizeme" (the downed opponent cannot stand up safely). One of its notable advantages is that Grapplers are not as gear dependent as other classes as their throws are based on fixed damage which naturally increases at higher skill ranks. Grapplers also enjoy one of the highest stacked physical defense out of all the classes with Light Armor Mastery and the passive skill Iron Physique. The Grappler enjoys immense popularity in the Korean DnF community as the most stylish of the Fighter sub-classes, requiring good execution and judgment to play it skillfully. Grapplers are one of the strongest PvE and PvP classes in the game (when compared to a Striker, Grapplers are right behind them in both PvE and PvP).
Ranger	Gunner	Any Range	Physical	Speed	Easy	Rangers can fight at any range, and are especially dangerous at melee range. The Ranger specializes in juggling opponents in the air. The difficulty listed is rather deceptive; the Ranger class itself is easy to play, but dealing damage is very difficult. If one is adept at juggling, one can bring out the Ranger's strength to deal massive amounts of damage in a single juggle. However, if one cannot perform juggles, one will find the damage output to be decisively behind other Gunner classes. Rangers have the most amount of skills available of all the Gunner classes, so Rangers are required to memorize as many manual inputs as possible (and if necessary, re-configure the inputs) to avoid clogging the hotkey bar. The male and female versions have slight variances with their skills. Rangers are average in PvE and one of the strongest classes in PvP.
Launcher	Gunner	Long	Physical	Nuke	Easy	The Launcher is a huge threat even from off-screen. His skills are mostly nukes, and can quickly dispatch an opponent with successful hits. While skill usage is very MP intensive, it can also deal generous amounts of damage when chained together in a single combo. Despite the heavy armor mastery of a Launcher, it is deadly to be surrounded by enemies like any other gunner sub-class. The male and female versions have slight variances with their skills. It is not recommended to attempt a close-range/cancel launcher build for PvE since its attack speed isn't fast enough to avoid all incoming damage. Launchers output high burst damage, and most of their skills are AoE capable. Launchers are adept in PvE and average in PvP.
Mechanic	Gunner	Long	Magical	Summoner	Easy	The Mechanic is different from the Summoner and the Necromancer in that its summons make a bee-line straight towards the enemy and can fill the screen with projectiles, effectively giving the Mechanic the title of the "PvP Summoner". Despite that title, the Mechanic excels in PvE as well (particularly the Female Mechanic since she can rotate between G1-Corona and G2-Rolling Thunder indefinitely) with their ability to AoE effectively. Since Mechanics wear Cloth Armor, they play keep-away exclusively and put pressure on opponents from afar. The male and female versions have slight variances with their skills. Mechanics are adept in both PvE and PvP.
Spitfire	Gunner	Middle/Long	Hybrid	Buff	Easy	Spitfires are a great class for players who prefer minimal amount of work for high rewards. However, they are also negatively perceived as an "easy" class for PvP in that knockdowns allow them to follow it up with a salvo of enchanted bullets to do extremely high damage. Spitfires are able to zone effectively with grenades, possessing great Z-axis attack with Crossmore, and can lay mines to stay in control of the field; it is a class prepared for all situations and types of enemies. The male and female versions have slight variances with their skills. Spitfires are adept in both PvE and PvP.
Elementalist	Mage	Long	Magical	Nuke	Hard	The Elementalist is a powerful nuking class and is the bane of all Exorcists in PvP. She can play an effective keep-away game with her spells, and flood the field with projectiles. In PvE, the Elementalist can quickly destroy large packs of monsters with AoE nukes. With careful spell placement, the player can put immense pressure on both players and monsters while remaining safe but like any Mage, a slight error of being caught by an enemy and especially a group of enemies may lead to instant death due to the cloth armor. Note that even though the Elementalist can master the four elements, it is recommended to focus on one or two due to its extensive SP costs. Elementalists are one of the strongest PvE classes and are adept in PvP.
Summoner	Mage	Long	Magical	Summoner	Average	The Summoner suffers from poor minion AI, high SP costs; a lot of skills are required and they all have high MP costs. It is interesting to note that the Summoner can flood the field with her minions and can even cause players to disconnect from the ensuing lag (much like Diablo II's Necromancer). In PvE, she is able to solo while avoiding all damage, but she solos very slowly due to how attacking with minions work (target must be set using a skill). Summoners can enjoy mild success in PvP since they have different minion attack patterns that inexperienced players are unable to deal with. Summoners are average in PvP and are literally a coin flip of "one of the strongest and one of the weakest" in PvE; the minions may do extremely well, or end up completely useless.
Witch	Mage	Medium	Hybrid	Speed	Hard	Several skills are based on chance, with a possibility of failure, success, and sleeper success (critical). Uses weapon buffs and close-range attacks to perform damaging juggle combos, while using AoE skills to trap enemies. They are able to air-dash and air combos due to unique movement skills related to the broom, making them the most mobile of the Mage sub-classes and with the skill Befriend Florae, Ancient Library can affect party members as well as increase Intelligence. Witches are average in PvE and PvP, with their difficulty coming from having too much versatility and not enough of a strong, reliable playstyle.
Battle Mage	Mage	Medium	Hybrid	Speed	Hard	The former top tier PvP class in Korea, the Battle Mage enjoyed unrivaled attack and movement speed (via Chaser buff) at high levels of play. Now, they are significantly weaker due to the Chaser nerfs, falling in with the "average" classes. They specialize in combos much like the Ranger, but are not limited to air juggles. They use Chasers, which are generated automatically upon landing certain skills and are manually launched at enemies to inflict AoE damage, stun effects, negative attributes, and most importantly, to continue combos. The Battle Mage is equipped with strong survivability as well with maxed Mana Shield. Players who are adept at combos and juggling will find the Battle Mage to be enjoyable. After the Chaser nerf, Battle Mages are average in PvE and PvP.
Crusader	Priest	Short	Magical	Buff	Easy	The support class of DFO that is able to tank and mainly buff anything in its sight with skills that heal, protect, and buff. Offensive melee attacks tend to be short-ranged, but Crusaders do have ranged magic skills. Careful skill allocation is needed due to multiple available builds, and healing skills can be casted for only a set number of times in a single dungeon run. Depending on the number of party members, MP usage can be light to very heavy. This is also the most uncommon class played due to its niche role. PvP Crusaders can be found online, but are a rarity due to the bigger advantages of PvPing as other classes. Crusaders are average in PvE and PvP, but are desirable in parties (if a Nen Master isn't available).
Monk	Priest	Short	Physical	Speed	Hard	Will Driver allows the Monk to plant his weapon in the ground to use a special boxing style move set, sacrificing staying power for incredible speed and powerful burst damage. The Monk uses high speed dashing and dodging followed by a combo to take down enemies. Fast reflexes and quick thinking is essential to mastering this class. The Monk is recommended for players excelling in "footsies" (dancing in and out of opponent's attack range) as they are able to punish misses with deadly precision. Monks are average in PvE and adept in PvP, with their difficulty coming from the grind to 35 and the danger of attacking from close-range (super armored enemies are a problem).
Exorcist	Priest	Short/Medium	Hybrid	Power	Average	A very versatile sub-classes, both skill types (physical and magical) are well represented with either high damage potential or utility. Very careful skill planning is necessary as there are many build options, such as physical-based (focus on raw damage) or magical-based (focus on AoE and zoning), or hybrid (focus on PvP utility). Physical exorcists are famous for being able to kill other players in a single combo (though at great expense since they are unable to deal with keep-away play styles). They also tend to spend the entire match trying to catch the other player. It is notable that Physical Exorcists almost never win against Elementalists, while hybrid builds allow the Exorcist a chance to trap them with spells of his own. Exorcists are adept in PvE and PvP.
Rogue	Thief	Short/Medium	Physical	Speed	Hard	One of the fastest damage dealing sub-classes in the game, leather armor mastery and weapon bonuses fully enhances the effects of critical hits for extremely high damage output, skills are both aerial and very mobile. Very careful skill planning is necessary as there are many skills and skill points can be tight. It is important to connect combos successfully to do high damage, similar to the Ranger. In PvP, they're glass cannons mainly because being caught by a Rogue is extremely dangerous but they are also fragile to attacks. Rogues are one of the strongest classes for PvE and PvP in the game, and their difficulty comes from starting out as a melee class, as opposed to a Ranger who starts with ranged skills.
Necromancer	Thief	Medium/long	Magic	Summoner	Easy	The Necromancer is aided by a few summons like Nicholas Rapport; who can summon zombies and drain health from enemies, and Vallacre the Slaughterer; who works as a buffer/debuffer. While the Necromancer's gameplay tends to be tactical in both PvP and PvE when compared to the Mechanic, their skills can also inflict enemies with damage over time. Necromancers are adept in PvE and PvP.