What games are out there that's got one or more classes unique to MMOs?

There's Dark Age of Camelot:

*Necromancer: main character fades out becoming a ghostcam avatar, and all actions are performed through the pet

*Heretic: channeled dots that grow stronger and stronger the longer they're activate (probably not too unique, but still rare in these games)

And there's Guild Wars:

*Mezmer: entire tree of hex spells that only activates if the target triggers it by his own actions

Ignoring the click to attack mechanics, Age of Conan still has some rareness:

*Herald of Xloti: Shapeshifting melee mage (not that unique I guess, but still unusual with melee glasscannons that aren't assassin-style classes)

EverQuest 2:

*Defiler: pro-active healing using damage buffer shields or regen spells that trigger on damage taken

City of Heroes:

*All the classes can fly/hover in the air while fighting. Sort of different and fresh.

Please help expand my list. I'm looking for something I haven't played before, and I'm not talking about different graphics or fantasy/scifi. I want a fresh class.

Vanguard  has the most unique and well debveloped classes of any MMO.

The PSI is a fun and great class.

The healers are the most involved healing classes of any game.  The Bloodmage requires great skill as does the Disciple.

The tank classes require more more skill for tanking than most MMO's

The Necro while pretty weak has a pet that you can give equipment.

The Bard class is by  far the best Bard class in any game.  Allowing one to compose their own songs.

The class system in Vanguard was really well done like all the core systems.  It is just to bad SOE has dropped the ball and not developed the game and built on the fine foundation that Sigil created.

Hm, I never looked into Vanguard before because of the combination of bad reviews and it being by SoE. Thanks for the heads up. I'll read up on its classes and see if I dig it :)

*LOTRO - Warden is a medium armor tank that uses a system of "gambits". You activate these gambits by combining three basic skills in a specific order. For example, you get a self heal-over-time if you use your spear attack ("quick thrust"), then shield bash, then quick thrust. You get an AOE hp leech if you use Warden's Taunt, then Quick Thrust, then Shield Bash. The combinations start at 2 skill combos, and work their way up as you level, eventually reaching 5-skill Gambits. Wardens are a challenging class to tank with in a group, but extremely powerful solo. They can tank very well too if you can figure out a good way to do it.

               - Runekeeper is a mage-like class that also has heals. The damage attacks grow stronger the more damage skills you use in a fight, while the heals grow weaker. The more heals you use, the stronger the heals become, and the weaker the attacks become.

*Everquest - Most of the game's players seem to be at end-game now, but despite its age, Everquest still has some unique classes. Beastlords, a combination monk / Shaman with a powerful pet, are still completely unique in the MMO world.

*Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted - also an old game, but dragons are a playable class unique to any other MMO out there. Several bipedal (human / elf / dwarf / etc.) classes, such as Knight of Creation, which is a warrior-type fighter that can summon his own special sword and shield, as well as use other types of conjuration magic, are very unique as well. The graphics, however, are a bit dated. The class system for bipeds allows amazing skillset customization via multiclassing. For example, if you level as a cleric to 50, and then switch to a warrior, to keep most of the skills and spells you learned as a cleric. There is no limit to how many classes you can combine, but some skills (such as the summoned weapons and shields of the Knight of Creation) don't carry over. You can, for example, combine a cleric and a druid into your Battlemage. Most spells and skills do carry over, but there are enough that don't that make whatever class you main as unique, rather than just a glob of every class you've ever played. The downside of Istaria is its relatively low player base, but it is growing steadily.

*Final Fantasy XI - A group oriented game with a great class system and several unique classes. Players choose a main jo (class) but can assume some of the powers of a second job at the same time. Some of the unique jobs include:

                               - Dragoon: A heavy fighter that uses spears and polearms, and jump attacks. The Dragoon fights alongside his wyvern. The wyvern, in addition to auto-attack, has several abilities that change depending on the secondary job of the dragoon. Offensive melee secondaries give the wyvern a breath attack. The element of the breath attack varies depending on the monster you are fighting. The wyvern will usually use the element that your target is weakest against, and is very accurate with it. It triggers every time you use a weaponskill. Mage secondary jobs give you a wyvern that can heal status ailments when you use a weaponskill, and use healing breath to heal hp of you or members of your party when you cast a spell. Other secondary jobs combine the healing breath of the mage wyvern with the elemental breath of the offensive wyvern; though the healing breath triggers at a lower level of health and the offensive breath is not as accurate in targeting elemental weaknesses.

                             - Blue Mage: A mage with some fighting abilities, the Blue Mage learns spells from monsters. After you've killed a monster a certain number of times, the Blue Mage will learn an ability of that monster. So, if you fight a monster that has a powerful move, oftentimes you can learn it yourself if you fight it enough times. There are level restrictions to what you can learn (i.e., you can't learn the goblin's "Bomb Toss" until level 28 or so, while you can learn the giant wasp's "Pollen" at level 1), but it makes for a very interesting class.

                             -Ninja: A light dual-wield fighter with superior evasion. The Ninja can use Ninjutsu to severely weaken enemies by blinding them, slowing their attacks, paralyzing them, and lowering elemental resistances. It also has ninjutsu which allows them to absorb a certain number of attacks, which makes Ninja with a warrior secondary one of the primary tanking classes in the game.

Just some suggestions. Can't speak for Vangaurd as I only played it for the two week trial awhile back. I have played the games you mentioned though :) I personally like Final Fantasy XI's class system the most, but many of the game's storyline missions (storyline is amazing) and landmark quests can be difficult to get help / parties to do if you don't have a good linkshell (guild). You also only start with 6 base classes (monk, thief, warrior, white mage, red mage, and black mage), and have to unlock the rest by doing certain quests at level 30. There are a lot more classes than I mentioned, but only a few more "unique" ones.

Tcos. The combat itself is unique. FPS aim, rotating skill deck,chain skill combos with different output.
WAR has interesting class mechanics. Feedback for mages, rage managment for melee dps, twitching auras for aoe tanks, chains-tree combos for st tanks.