What are the top three best classes you have every played in any MMORPG?  Please list the class along with the MMORPG they come from and optionally a blurb on why you liked the class so much.

I'll start it off...

1. Herald of Xotli - Age of Conan.  The HOX was hands down one of the most fun damage dealing classes to play.  Extremely high damage, extremely low health, every fight when fast and dangerous.  They also got tons of cool abilities like the ability to transform into a demon.  Topping everything off was the fact that they had a move called "I eat your heart" in which they rip the heart out of your chest Indiana Jones style and take a bite!

2. Druid - World of Warcraft.  The WoW druid was so much fun because it could do just about anything.  It was a tank with bear form, a melee DPS with cat form, and magic DPS/healing in regular druid form.  Put this on top of a bunch of other shapeshifting abilities and you have a great class.

3. Bard - Everquest 1.  The EQ1 bard was tons of fun to play, and bard classes sadly aren't included in most modern MMOs.  The bard was awesome at kiting, it could even "swarm kite" where it charmed one monster only to have 10 other monsters beat the crap out of it and soften it up so the bard could get to kill.  How cool is that!

Tactician - Asheron's Call 2. Building turrets and walls to slow your enemy while your buddies beat the snot out of them, priceless.

Warden - Lord of the Rings Online. I have yet to play a class in any game that made me feel more like a badass. "What you actually team up to kill these? Pfft, watch this"

Necromancer - Diablo 2. Raising an army of the undead to escort you through war torn lands. Thank you.

1-1000 Best one thousand DDO class combinations.

But if I'd insert DDo into just first position then:

2. Bard - Vanguard. Song composition and the way it combines with musical instruments is grandious.

3. Biotechnican with Medic speciality from Tabula Rasa.

Originally posted by Eighty7

Necromancer - Diablo 2. Raising an army of the undead to escort you through war torn lands. Thank you.

good call. that was such a sweet class.

Dragoon from ffxi was pretty cool

not sure about a 3rd though..

Oh what the heck.. I'll bite..

1) Druid - Everquest 1 (pre PoP) = I loved that ability to travel the world in a blink of an eye.. port here, port there.. SoW anyone?  I loved it..  I could toss out heals in a crunch.. I could group or solo depending on my mood.. It was truely a hybrid jack of all trades class.. As us druids would say back in the day, "If I can snare it, I own it".. How true that was.. LOL

2) Necromancer - Everquest 1 = I'm a pet class fan, and there was no better master to this then a Necro.. I loved everything about being a Neco.. leaching, dotting, pulling, dpsing.. 

3) Hunter - World of Warcraft = Having a tanking pet while I dps from a distance, with the ability to solo almost anything was great.. I was always a fan of pet classes, and it was great to customize what pet you had by what you trained.. KUDO's on this one..

There probably another 3 classes from different games that are close 4th place ties from EQ2, Aion and LoTRO..  However.. ALERT.. I saw some previews of classes from GW2 and hubba hubba .. :)  Top 3 could change..

1. Druid - EQ1. I loved to explore the gameworld, I loved to be versatile and I definitely loved the kiting system. The EQ druid did it all, SOWs Heals, Buffs, invis, decent DPS, quadkiting spells. Got screwed in PoP and quit the game.

2. Mage - EQ1. Loved the classic looking pets, and just the way they played was fun.

3. Bounty Hunter-Carbineer (with some heals)- SWG PreNGE. Loved carbines, loved bounty hunting, and together with a Jedi ladyfriend we owned everything the game offered (except DWB).

Theres many more games and classes I've played and liked/loved, but those three are my favorite memories gameplay wise.

Blade Dancer - Lineage 2. I loved having short buff times, on amazing buffs that everyone needed. I always got parties, and it kept you consistantly paying attention, instead of having to rebuff every 20 minutes it was every 2. Plus they could pull off damage if they wanted in between buffs.

Hunter - World of warcraft. I just enjoyed the whole trap / shots system. It was fluid and all of the pvp I did was amazingly fun. Throwing down a trap running back shooting until they hit it and just laughing. Oh man.

Warrior - Cabal. I enjoyed the hell out of warriors in this game. Their skills were extremely flashy, their armor looked cool, they did tons of damage, their gameplay was somewhat varied. It was one of my favorite classes ever.

1.)  Loremaster from LOTRO.  I know a lot of people didnt' really like it because it's not a traditional "mage" class, but it was one of the first usable CC classes in a more modern MMO.  Basically it does a bit of everything and never stops rocking in groups. 

2.)  Controller in CoH.  Love CC classes.  Strolling into a room and mezzing everything in sight was an amazing feeling.  Plus a Mind/Emp troller was the utilmate group class.  It controlled and healed and buffed.

3.)  Bard in DDO.  Control... healing... dps...  I'm starting to notice a trend in what i like.  :)

Bear shaman AOC

Warden Lotro

nightblade or something like that in DAOC

Disc Priest - WoW
Droid Engineer - SWG
FOmarl - PSO

1 EQ Cleric - I loved being a plate wearing support class, that could take a beating and was amazing fun at healing. I've played a healer in every MMO I have ever tried and to this day, Complete Heal is my favorite spell.

2 SWG Combat Medic/Doctor - Another pure support class that was extremely fun in either PvP or PvE and when I just wanted to do my own thing, he was a superb crafter.

3 VG Bloodmage - I just LOVED being able to heal friendly targets by DPSing. It was like playing a Necromancer/Warlock rolled up with a Cleric.

These are more archtypes than actual classes.

1. Debuff and Entropy caster.  WoW's Warlocks (at least back in vanilla), LotRO's Lore-Masters, any sort of shadow/demon spellcaster.  Some necromancers fit into this mold, but not always.

2.  Clothie priests.  Armored clerics are okay, but pure, righteous holy power and unbridled healing ability...  Fantastic.

LOTRO Warden is the only class in any MMO that I believe has offered anything in truly different gameplay.

Warden is like playing chords on a stringed instrument.

Other MMO classes are like playing notes. 

Some have DPS, some have CC, some have healing, but in the end the gameplay is mostly the same you just alter your strategy/tactics some.  Even most non-class based MMO wind up working like this too. 

Does that make Warden the best?  That depends on what you like, but it does make it unique.  Whereas all the other classes listed are not that unique IMO, many of them have one aspect they did nice or some combiantion of tactics that were fun or a fairly interesting premise like the HoXotli but in the end their gameplay makes them all not all that differentiated.  Many variations/types on the same theme.  But only one theme.

Bureaucrat (Anarchy Online) -Charm enemies to fight for you, calm enemies and prevent them from entering combat, root and snare enemies hindering their ability to approach you, nanoprograms and perks that increase experience gains for you and for your team members, wear a suit and carry a briefcase, summon your lawyer Carlo Pinetti...

Originally posted by vajrav

Bureaucrat (Anarchy Online) -Charm enemies to fight for you, calm enemies and prevent them from entering combat, root and snare enemies hindering their ability to approach you, nanoprograms and perks that increase experience gains for you and for your team members, wear a suit and carry a briefcase, summon your lawyer Carlo Pinetti...

Hmm my experience of bureaucrats has never been calming ....

Quite the opposite really.

My top 3 would be from EQ1, as each I played for extended time as a "main" character....

Paladin.....1st character. The "good guy" so to speak, and the way I like to take in a RPG(good path). When PoP hit, Palis and Shadow Knights were unwanted as tanks.  They were deemed "paper tanks", and passed over for PU grps.

Necromancer....2nd character, and one that got the far majority of playtime on. Enjoyed it not for the background, but for the uber-ness afforded to them via the game-system in EQ.  Didnt matter if I didnt get a grp, as could solo if need be.

Shaman...Named after our cat, and for which my MMORPG name comes from. That being Moaky.  Had the best of both Pali/Nec.....could solo/great for grps/always in demand.

If I had to pick just one, I dont know that I could. Each was a great experience.

Honorable mention goes to COH Mutant scrapper w/ claws. A Wolverine take off true, but was a lot of fun with combat. Shame the game was boring as Hades.

Herald of Xotli (Age of Conan)

Warrior (Guild Wars)

I've got several, so here goes:

1. Warden - LoTRO

    The warden is an awesome class that transcends the auto-attack nature of most MMOs. You can heal yourself (with the proper gambit), go stealth, backstab, can melee strong with a shield, and have both offensive and defensive gambits. It takes some paying attention to get the gambit you need in a given situation. 

2. Shaman - Dark Age of Camelot

    The shaman in DAoC is the quintessential multi-purpose class. You could spec in cave - DPS - and still get a wide range of healing and buff abilities, plus you could handle yourself in a melee situation. Best all-around useful class I've ever played.

3. Agent - Anarchy Online

    The agent in AO is the epitome of cool. You get some sweet shades, cool clothes, and a flying vehicle and you got it made. You look like someone from the Matrix. The sniper and debuff/root skills were awesome, and even though the first 60 levels or so were fairly tough without a ton of cash for better equipment, the agent is a blast to play.

4. Metaphysicist - Anarchy Online

    The MP is an awesome multi-pet class that was good with nanos (basically spells) and could have up to 3 (IIRC) pets that were physical manifestations of your own emotions. (one of the first you get is a DPS pet called the Anger Manifestation) You could have a healing pet, a mezz pet, and a damage pet. At lower levels you had one, and worked your way up. Very fun to play. 

5. Marksman - Hellgate: London

    HG:L was not your traditional MMO, but it falls in the MMO genre just as well as any big-name like WoW, IMO. THe marksman was a flat-out awesome ranged killer. He was a blast to play with all the different elemental weapons with the usual array of rocket launchers, snipers, SMGs, rifles, and so on. Marksman armor looked downright cool, and in spite of lower health than the melee classes, could hold his own very well. A blast to play. I had a lvl 28 one before the servers shut down.

I could go on, but I think that's a fairly good list.

insanex

1- Enchanter EQ1, took real skill to play well. A true master of the class could handle a terrifying number of mobs while the group did their thing. Better early on in eq1 than later. It is hands down the most fun class I've ever played bar none, it takes a lot to give me an adrenaline rush (I like coasters, scuba, and such) and there were times when I was locking down 7-10 mobs that would kill me in a single turn that it was flowing quite nicely :) I miss that. Later bard kinda overtook them in some circumstances, but psh, they had plate... not cloth.

2- "OG Mage" - AC1, what a fun template to play. Had a serious ball with it. AC1 is hard to explain, but the og was a great mage template for getting going and really ripping it up in pvp and pve.

3- Thane - DAOC, *BLAM**BLAM**BLAM* God the LIGHTNING! From the sky! I just loved it dearly, it had a flavor for a bardic class that no other game has had and the lightning was just RAH! A bit underpowered at times, but just fun to play.

Edit:
Honorable mention 1 - Witch Hunter, Warhammer, I got a sword... and a gun... and seals.... muahaha. God that was a fun time in pvp too.

Honorable mention 2 - Early COH Fire/SS Tanker, Muahaha puny wolfies fear me! *smash* Herding literally THOUSANDS of mobs to a single point to obliterate them in seconds. Probably personally solely responsible for 40-50 other peoples max level chars. lol. Over powered to an absurd level, but still a complete great time. They wayyy over nerfed it.

1. Thane (DAOC) - Hammers of DOOOOMMMM! Seriously, I love this class and is still my favorite to date. I have rarely seen a class like it since.

2. Shaman (WOW) - I love the versatility of the class and there is always something to do. Cleanse, drop totems, cast shields, etc....

3. Merc (DAOC) - My first class and still some of the best combat styles. Lightly armored DPS class with many positional styles. It was great fun.