Plain and simple folks, just wondering what is the hardest hitting melee class in the game. Spells to buff oneself are legal. No multiclasses.
If I had to pick one, probably Fighter, especially if it gets decent use of AoO.
I would like to throw out another candidate that I've made extremely effective use of: the dread striker rogue build. It takes a few levels to get going but by mid levels its damage output is pretty crazy. It does rely on the intimidate skill feat tree but as a rogue you've got plenty of them and the intimidate feats are some of the best at the moment. You can go either the strength or dex rogue build. (I don't think the charisma build is worth it right now.) The strength build probably does better DPR at low levels but I prefer the dex honestly. It is less MAD so you can easily afford having charisma secondary and once precise debilitation comes into play they pass strength builds easily. You can intimidate at start of combat, every time you hit something and every time you kill something. Intimidated targets count as flat footed with dread striker and with your enemies pretty much always having a -3 AC you effectively are at a higher to hit than the Fighter and have the sneak attack damage to make up for your D6 weapon. I only flank for my ally's benefit. The only problem you'll ever have is fighting things immune to fear, then you flank, or precision damage but those aren't super common. Also, I'm currently playing my Rogue in DD7 and Scare to Death is kinda broken in the funnest way.
I wouldn't be surprised if this build gets nerfed a bit by the time Core comes out but hopefully not too hard. I want it to remain viable and fun.
My experience is mostly that it depends on RNJesus. Everyone's chance to hit mostly depends on rolling well, and that what enables you to deal damage.
Fighters have the highest chance to hit, so should do the most damage...but if you're rolling poorly and the other person is rolling well it may feel like it's not as good.
Another vote for fighter. Higher attack bonus and certain strike give them more consistency than the other classes. At the end of the day there may be other classes (Monk is a contender) that can exceed the average DPR of the fighter, but you'll still be pretty close and that added consistency tips the scales in your favor anyways.
My experience is mostly that it depends on RNJesus. Everyone's chance to hit mostly depends on rolling well, and that what enables you to deal damage.
Fighters have the highest chance to hit, so should do the most damage...but if you're rolling poorly and the other person is rolling well it may feel like it's not as good.
True, technically, but I mean EVERY melee character is going to rely on their rolls to deal damage, it doesn't really have any effect on which class hits hardest.
And I mean, Fighters actually rely on their rolls less than other classes due to better accuracy and Certain Strike. XD
Yes, which is why I was giving fighter the edge since they are going to be the most accurate class. No one else has a damage bonus high enough to mitigate the the accuracy bonus of the fighter.
I was merely trying to explain why at times it might feel like one class "hits harder" than another.
And Certain Strike is an okay consolation prize. At high levels, doing 10 ish points of damage instead of nothing is okay, but its really just a consolation. Since average damage on a hit would be something like 34 damage.
"Hardest hitting class" make me think Barbarians. I don't think anyone else can get their static damage numbers up as high. They don't hit as often as the fighter, but they hit hard when they do. They've got a 7 point lead before you factor in any additional bonuses from totems or rage. They didn't seem THAT far behind the fighter for DPR expectations before the update bumped their proficiency up by 1. Not sure where the DPR calculations land now.
Now, I could see someone preferring the consistency of the fighter, but "hardest hitting" still feels like it should go to the class who does the most damage on a hit.