Guardian - The Guardian is near the lower end of the list because of a simple factor that weighs it down quite a lot, the fact that few people actually play Path of Exile in groups. RELATED: 15 Games To Play If You Like Path Of Exile In a game that doesn't hold the players' hand at all, even a simple class tier list can help dealing with the sheer amount of information required prior to building/speccing a character. There are 19 Ascendancies total in Path of Exile, which means three Ascendancies per character for six out of the seven base classes, and the Scion having only one subclass option: the Ascendant. The latter are basically subclasses, which stem from a general common theme and can eventually specialize into some specific paths. To complicate things further, the game features several obscure mechanics, game-changing items, both Active and Support skills, and Ascendancy classes. Thanks to the complexity of its passive skill tree, builds can vary in nature and scope even when choosing the same characters. So the answer is no, if you took a Marauder and a Witch and slotted both for max Int skills and talents, you would not see equal performance.Path of Exile is one of those games where players are able to build their characters in so many ways that even the worst items, classes, and skills can turn out to be a great combination. For example, a Witch (pure Int class) would get more performance out of an Int skill than a Templar. I think it's safe to infer from the above that, again, all things being equal, "pure stat classes" (Witch, Marauder and Ranger) always get better performance out of a skill based on their primary stat than a hybrid. I'm sure that once the game is out and balanced, the min/maxers will be able to tell you what the ideal range is for each build for each stat. However, Chris has stated that they've tried to balance skills and stats such that going purely into your primary stat(s) will leave you in a worse position than doing at least some diversification. This also means that each class gets more value out of their primary stat(s): a point of Int performs better for a Templar than it does for a Marauder. The Marauder can still use an Int-based skill, but it won't be as powerful as when the Templar uses the same skill. The Templar gets more performance out of an Int-based skill than, say, a Marauder (the Marauder is a purely Str-based class). Take the Templar, who is a Str/Int hybrid (iirc). The below assumes that all stats on any class compared are equal (so in the first comparison between a Templar and a Marauder, both would be considered to have the same Int, Str and Dex scores). I think the following is correct, but anybody with better familiarity with the system, please jump in and correct me:
Chris has said a few times, iirc, that there is synergy between your class's primary stat(s) and the corresponding skill.