Good ole, Enchanters: "Mezzing <<<%t>>>!! DON'T TOUCH IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"

Yeah, it's tough to beat that. I would say any class in EQ was more difficult than it's modern day iteration.

The Shaman in DAoC was pretty challenging. I was a hybrid spec, and the combination of rooting, doting, diseasing, and spot healing had me more active than any other class I've played in an MMO. The pure specs all focused on one aspect or the other, but I loved the hybrid and the frantic targeting between enemies and allies, and prioritizing between survival vs damage vs CC on a cast by cast basis.

Hardest class I've ever played was the Warden from LoTRO.  Which actually wasn't even hard, just required a certain gift for pattern memorization.

At least, until Rise of Isengard, at which point the Warden basically went from being a tank class to a squishy meat-bag that had to work harder than most for mediocre DPS.  I don't know if they ever actually fixed that, never bothered to go back and find out.

Intereastingly enough, it was the chosen in Warhammer online, perhaps not so much difficult to play as it was godawfully annoying to have to "constantly" swap auras every few seconds in addition to a dozen tanking abilities. This system was so bad in fact that literally "everyone" used a macro for it. (In fact I think think mythic even recommended it.) God that was annoying.

Vanguard - Blood Mage - EEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwWWWWWwwwww

Powerful, oh so powerful, but.....

A class that expends HP for powers are tough to manage to say the least.

Originally posted by Dalano

Solo pvp minstrel in DAOC.

More than a little OP, but you felt like you deserved it after the onset of carpal tunnel and nervous tics.

In my opinion a Warrior in Vanilla WoW.

Stance-Dance with Shield switching/2h arms, Felwood buffs etc. If you wanted to play this class at high level without macros... god I almost broke my fingers.

Originally posted by Herodes

In my opinion a Warrior in Vanilla WoW.

Stance-Dance with Shield switching/2h arms, Felwood buffs etc. If you wanted to play this class at high level without macros... god I almost broke my fingers.

wotlk feral druid was a bitch to play well.  John $%#@ing Madden

Building Storm Stormcaller in Rift back when Building Storm was a skill.

The optimal rotation was pretty ridiculous involving a ton of toggles and complicated rotations that changed on the fly. On top of that it was impossible to macro 90% of it.

Rift wasn't a difficult game by any stretch of the imagination but that Stormcaller build was maddening to use properly.

Originally posted by Indol

Building Storm Stormcaller in Rift back when Building Storm was a skill.

 

The optimal rotation was pretty ridiculous involving a ton of toggles and complicated rotations that changed on the fly. On top of that it was impossible to macro 90% of it.

 

Rift wasn't a difficult game by any stretch of the imagination but that Stormcaller build was maddening to use properly.

 

 

Actually this in a group setting. Whenever I got it done, let's do some da- ... ... Oh.. they're dead...

Pretty much anything from EQ, most notably though Enchanters, Bards, and Warriors.

Bu1sy C2n not t3alk r1ght no2w.

Pre JTL and pre NGE jedi. During the leveling process when you weren't awesome it was a pain, then you had to either have friends watching your back 24 / 7 for Bounty Hunters or you'd live with your camera turned 180 if you were solo.

Once you maxed, usually something like Master Healer / Master Saber and a little of something else, you didn't really have to worry too much about anything at all.

Holy crap getting chased by Bounty Hunter parties wasn't fun, they'd wait for you to come out of a building for HOURS. Well, it was kinda fun lol.

EQ bards. Twisting multiple buffs with VERY short timers, while on dial-up.

And epic armor that made food in your pants. Let's not forget that.

Enchanters in Everquest, although their difficulty scaled directly with how dumb the group was. If you werent in a random pug, but playing with your guild, then it was just as often a breeze, and added to that, you allways allways allways had a group willing to take you. It did take a certain personality I think. The greatest chanters I grouped with, were very nearly anal retentive about the order and system of pulling and killing. But once you figured their needs out it was great.

In bad groups, mezzing was pretty dicy. Almost like gambling. - Altho they did have some fun mezzing macroes: You break it . YOU buy it.

I might have my games confused, but didnt they add a notation on who broke mezz towards the end of Planes of Power?

Anyway I recall many group dramas about who broke what when.

Wizard in Everquest. Depending in large part on the difficulty in getting a group. Mostly relied on solo kiting, or guild groups. I remember having a hard time finding groups, untill I got into a raiding guild. Then it was just a fantastic experience, and who didnt have a blast on the shroom AA farms in Luclin. However untill I got my first AE snare it was just an annoying hazzle getting groups. Even towards the end of me playing EQ, I often found myself kiting fire giants rather than look for groups, unless one was handed me by guildies.

Oh and Bards.. those timers MY GOD! I never did master twisting properly :( But damn that blue armor - lambent? - was saxay!

RIFT dps warrior

Chanter EQ1 is a good example of a hard class to play. Lots of different things to watch out for; not including those stab happy rogues and rangers.

I think Mage/Assassin build in Shadowbane was hard to build properly and a touch hard to gear due to Shadow Blades being kind of rare unless you were able to set up a shop yourself and set the build. Just looking for stats to make their dmg bolt was a challenge, but worth it when finally your build came together. Way underrated.

I wanna say the Herald of Xotli in AoC, but I roflstomped as one while others had a hard time with it. Plus, I ran into one guy that was just impossible to beat as one. They were the stompingest, squishiest thing ever, and would either be gimp or OP depending on who controlled it.

Other than that, probably Sadidas in Wakfu. Some people know what they are doing, but I just couldn't get a handle on it. Way too much preemptive work to get useful during a battle.

I'd say any 'pure' class in Asheron's Call, in it's earlier days. Such as going pure warrior, pure life or pure bow. If you didn't come up with varied build across multiple specialties, making sure you had a few magic schools in there, you were in for a tough time.