Can we have a discussion on classes you had played.  As with all mmo classes this topic can always turn into an argument, but I see nothing wrong with giving your personal opinion on what classes you enjoy, hate, find hard and so on.

MY OPINIONS :

MY favorite is a Bear Shaman - Shaman is a healer class that can choose a pet, Bear, Bird or Wolf. I picked Bear.  I like the fact I could have my pet to be my personal tank as I can fight, heal. It can really keep mobs off me, yet I have the armor, and weapons to fight up close.  On the down side, my pet does not seem to hold agro in a duo or group. If I were to do it all over again I would have selected a wolf. But it's still my favorite class.

Disciple -  Great strong healer class that can solo well. However unlike the Shaman it has no pet and fights are close.  I run into trouble in groups because In Vanguard all healing classes are expected to fight and heal at the same time, and I seem to lack the ability to do both at the same time with such an aggressive class ( kind of too hard for me ). Disciple's are somewhat like a Monk. as you develop gin points you open stronger abilities. and as you use combos you can also unlock other strong abilities. VERY HARD CLASS TO MASTER many say that it could be the best class in Vanguard if done right.

Psionicist - I've been warned that this is the most complicated class in Vanguard. And I believe they were right. They can stun targets in several ways for crowed control. I must say they do this well, but like the Disciple I'm not very good at it with playing with others.

Dread Knight - Tank, I've never liked playing a tank in any mmo. My feeling is that you should be an experienced player of the game before taking on this roll. Not just good at playing video games, but know the game well. I must say that I could not even get off the Trial Island with this class. I just felt week.  In viewing open chat, I've seen several people complaining that all the tanking classes were having a hard time soloing. Many would respond with stick with them, they get much better.

MY FACTS :

In playing Vanguard, and using the Social Panel constantly to find groups. I could safely say that I'm right on this at least for the low to mid level game.

Almost 50% of the player base plays a healer class, because they can ALL solo and heal. Fighting and casters make up most of the other 50%, and almost no Tanks.

I would suggest that if you are the aggressive type in finding groups to adventure, or dungeons. I would suggest finding a tank first because they are few and far between. Monks and I believe Clerics and Disciples will work in a pinch.

In closing I would like to say that Vanguard is an un forgiving mmo, it's a hard game. I'll say that I'm not very good, but I do have the strong ability to get groups, and be actively involved. Even if I don't know an mmo well, I'll use the resources like the Social panel to bring people together, then use the Vet's and experts to take over :)

I'm late for work, and really have to go !

I wish Vanguard hadnt tanked. The rogue class was ingenious. In no other game that I have played have I enjoyed a rogue based class that much. Everything from forging other classes spells onto scrolls and making your own poisons, it was a riot!

Blood Mage was my favorite class.  It was different enough to keep me interested and liked the mechanics of the class. If I was a melee type then disciple would have been great.

Ah Arcken. It hasn't tanked. Sure you're semi right in that it now only has 2 servers, but i've been on Telon a week again and have seen a lot of people running around. A healthy community of friendly people still exists in Vanguard, even if it isn't as big as a populated WoW server.

Every time i play in any MMO im looking for high damage and some versatility in a caster class. In VG there are two possibilities for that. Just a note: in most MMOs there are none ;).

Druid: A class which is specced for quick burst damage and still has quite a lot useful group support. He can heal a bit, have really badass buffs, can make berries, which instantly gives mana and hp for the player who eats them, they have some CC, they have forms. All in all they are a fun class. If somone likes really high burst damage - it is the highest of all classes if you count the first 1 min of damage output - then druid is the class to choose. The downside is, that they have a big downtime after the burst, and they are almost useless afterwards. In a long raid boss fights they drop in DPS to the healer levels because of this. But because of the insane damage output they are the king in PVP. Sad theres no more PVP server :(. They can have some weak pets theres an argument if theyre useful or not. Their heal is more like an off heal, its a helpful addition, they have direct heals, and heal over times, they have strong group heal, but it has a big downtime afterwards also. The buffs consist of heavy melee buffs, damage shields, armor class increase and the lovely run speed buff, which again helps in pvp or when running from trains.

Necromancer: My personal favorite. This class has great versatility and high damage and is quite hard to master. Its damage mechanics are completely the opposite of the druid. It cannot burst, tho with a lot of damage over time spells (he has around 7 useful damage over time spells) once he loads all his spells on a mob he owns. If there are 2-3 targets he is the king of DPS if played well, because he can dot all of them, effectively tripleing his DPS. On one target he is still on the top, but not the best, even on the longest fights. He also has the best pets in game and controlling them adds to the challenge and of course to the damage output.  The lovely thing about necro is that you are always active, and running. Since in VG you can cast and run at the same time your gamestyle can be very mobile especially with a necro, always running away from snared/dotted mobs, and dotting/snaring new ones. He is also very versatile. He can heal himself with lifetaps, he can get mana from his own HP, he can CC, he can fear, he has very strong debuffs, he has some useful group buffs, he can resurrect team mates, he has feign death making him the few classes who can save a group from a complete wipe, he can even heal his group quite well with his group life tap. Theres one more thing which adds to the versatility, and its his forms. He has 2 forms, each supporting another role. One supports heavy dotting and kiting, while the other is for Direct damage and life tapping, so you can effectively choose your playstile with necromancer. Choosing the best form, and creating the best set of pets makes him really interesting and hard to get bored with it.  Hell his biggest pet even has an inventory, and he is able to equip body parts which you need to loot from the mobs you kill, making your looting twice as pleasuring as for other classes, because there are rare and ultra rare pet items, which only necro pets can use.

Bit long but hopefully useful.

Ive played all classes to at least 30, half a dozen to end game. Vanguard has more enjoyable classes than any other mmo ive played. I prefered sorceror, disciple, dk and rogue mostly because they had the right button mashing complexity. Some of the others like warrior just had too many situational or reactive spells for me to enjoy. More than 5 chains doesnt fit for the way I arrange my nostromo.

Actually disciples are probably the only healer I've really ever enjoyed in any game. Being able to have macroed defensive targets in VG might have added to that though. 

For the OP about shamans, wolf is a good choice for levelling unless you play with someone else that can speed buff, which negates a lot of the advantages over bear. It's more of a snare and kite style while bear is straight out mellee. Only play pheonix if you have tanking friends. Youre not stuck with the one form btw.

Oh, Phoenix Shaman isnt a too horrible solist either.

They can use their spells, some of which have slow properties, on the opponent, while flying backwards.

As you are in Phoenix form backwards just as fast as forward, the only problem you have with this is that you cant see where you are going. Still you can run in circles so thats no problem either.

Its really a lot like Sorcerer, once those get the levitation ring, except the damage output is of course much lower. Its more of a DoT class really.

I definitely loved my Phoenix and wouldnt have switched to any of the other two choices.

I've played most of the classes available. And choosing a race is just as important as choosing your class. Your racial ability can prove to be most useful, not a lot of games if any has racial abilities similar to Vanguard. That said playing a healer class I would highly recommend being a race that gives you a healing boost, for example the Vulmane, Orc, Goblin(?) and the other cat type race from Qalia cant remember their name. In near death situations they can be your life saver.

But in the end my favorite class to play would be the ranger class. They are so versatile in so many situations. To me they seem to be the best at kiting. Rangers may not be able to kill as fast as some other classes in kite mode, but I can say that they can go non stop with the right buffs so in the long run they level up faster. One of the best thing that I really like to do was being able to charm animal/bug type bosses and pull them out to a safe location and kill it without the worry of dying. Also they can stealth just as good as rogues, collect yourself a good set of hide/sneak boosting armor and you'll dungeon crawl all over the place. The outside world is a ranger's paradise.

My next best class to play would have to be the Dreadknight. The only thing that I hate (the last time I played) is the problem with aggro control. By far they generate the least amount of hate compared to a paladin or warrior, it wasnt the case from the start but it changed a while back. In solo situations the Dreadknight is arguably the better of the 3 tank classes. If you know how to conserve your mana and time your skills correctly, you can almost never die. Also if you play the Orc race, their racial ability is the best since every damage you deal, it tranfers the damage into HP back to you. In raid/group situations I would highly recommend playing the Vulmane race, because their racial ability is the best.  All damage your group does 25% of that damage tranfers into HP to you.

The other class I like to play would have to be the Bear shaman. Also I dont agree with the OP about bear pet not being able to hold aggro. They have a skill similar to all the tanks, that forces the mob to fight the pet aka taunt / force target. Although it doesnt last long, the skill refreshes very quick. And if your duo partner slows down a bit on their dps the pet will still hold the aggro after the force target phase. Bear shamans play pretty much like a paladin. Throw down your dots root, get your pet to tank and just heal. The downside to being a bear is the low dps that comes with it similar to playing tanks. But they out last the wolf or phoenix forms in tough situations.

Vanguard's most fascinating feature is diplomacy, which lets you earn favor with various factions, area-wide buffs, and more by engaging NPCs in conversation. Parleying is a simplified strategy card game in which you play five cards that represent different types of statements, such as flattery and inspiration. A game board with an influence marker keeps track of how you are doing, and as long as you keep the marker on your side for the specified number of turns, you win the parley. As your skills improve, you earn new cards--and even gain the use of temporary cards when visiting certain areas. Parleying itself is pretty simple, although as you gain skill, winning a high-level conversation gets to be quite a challenge.

Well, the classes I played, in order of how much I played them:

Cleric - Definitely one of the most simple classes to play in Vanguard, and a very slow, but nearly unkillable solist. Thats why I prefered them over the Blood Mage. The later is a very fun class, but also fragile, dependent upon first class gear to be really fun (its amazing how much effect that one has on a BM), and definitely not such a great solist thanks to a lack of ability to handle multiple attackers well - they cant kite, and their CC is very limited as well.

Sorcerer - Massive dps especially after the overhaul. Got some nice tricks on self only and could dispel all kinds of stuff. And had the best straight dps in the game, of course. --- But damn, I miss the times when you could get qalian gear and boon of health items for massive healing from spells, and the ... I forgotten the spell name already. Anyway, there was a spell that got better and better over time, the more you cast it, but it also increased how much it wounded you. Combined with qalian gear and Boon of Health it was super amazing fun, the closest I ever got to the fun I had on my Spellhowler in Lineage 2 (who had a spell that dealt more damage the lower your health are, death link curse or some such, and a spell that transformed health to mana, leading to very dangerous but very fun games). After the overhaul, I was just a bad sorcerer, because everyone else had raid gear and I wore quite frankly crap, plus I probably still missed some points about my class.

Shaman - I was a phoenix and it was a fragile but fun class. Thanks to levi and speed I could get away from most mobs except for the few ranged ones. Large arraw of buffs and debuffs too. In group, if I really applied ALL debuffs I had, the mob would already be long dead. Main reason I choose Phoenix is because of the Mana regen buff.

Ranger - I never was much of a fan of ranged classes. Of course, the class played a lot like Sorcerer in the end. Most annoying part was - I specifically built my ranger to craft arrows and bolts for other classes, yet they changed those to soulbound in the end. GAAAAAAH ! Thank you so much, SOE.

Blood Mage - Oh yes I enjoyed that one a lot. Not a great choice for first character, though. Simply too fragile to solo at some places. But a ton of tricks and an amazing musthave in a raid force. Not that I managed to join any raid force with anything but my Cleric and Sorcerer, ever (and I sucked on the Sorc).

Paladin - It took me years to decide which tank class to play. Sadly. In hindsight, Paladin would have been a much better choice for me that Cleric as a main. They are equally easy to play, they are better solists - better dps than Cleric, better defense, not as good healing but thanks to the better defense its no problem - and they have some special tricks for insane spike dps and stuff. When I finally picked up my Paladin, the game was sadly already dying. Damn. Otherwise Paladin would have ended up being my new main. It was also the most beautiful of my characters, a sweet female Highelf. Oh well.

Warrior - I started this one as my primary tank first. But I soon lost interest. Reason ? Well the guy was simply too complicated to play ! I wanted an easy going tank and what I got was a special ability monster. Much too much circumstantial crap. This guy was more complicated than a damn Blood Mage ! And for all this complexity you got nothing in return. Warrior is the worst of the worst solists, no runspeed, no snare, no fear, no fake death, no emergency teleport, no stealth, no nothing ever. Just defense and dps. In group, he's not that useful either. Yeah his dps is good, if he's not tanking. But if he tanks, his dps is hardly better than any other tank, without any other advantage.

Classes I only tried a little:

Bard - The last of my original 8 class choices, before they allowed 12 characters per account. A fun class and in retrospect this would have been a great choice instead of Ranger - but how would I know Ranger will get his main feature killed later in the game ?

Monk - Second worst solist, but kinda fun. Gave me a bit of a Lineage 2 Tyrant feeling. Sadly was completely sucking at the beginning of the game. Never found much time to play this guy.

Dread Knight - Would have been also a great choice for tank. Objectively even better than Paladin. Definitely one of the best solists in the game. Also later had to get only ONE weapon - instead of two weapons for Warrior and weapon plus shield for Paladin. Paladin is still a good choice, too, though.

Disciple - Never found much time to try the fourth healer option. Definitely a good class too, but I disliked that they didnt get much buffs. The rest of the class was fun though. Healing without mana is great, but they really sucked on special mobs that didnt allow to hit them.

Psionicist - Hmm I'm not much of a "pure CC guy". Definitely was fun too, though.

Necromancer - Tried it very early, but removed the character later. Pet class ... not bad, but not my passion.

Rogue - Also tried it very early, but removed that character as well. It simply did not have much appeal.

Classes I never tried:

Druid - Only class I never tried, and I never wanted to.  I simply dont like this combination. I heard they had the best spike dps in the game, though. Even better than Sorc.

I play a dread knight and it's very good at soloing. Which is why I play it. I found it easier than the paladin.

Lately I tend to go for the defensive melee classes over dd classes because of the survivability.

Yes, Necromancer, Dread Knight and Disciple are considered the kings of soloing in Vanguard.

I've enjoyed all of the classes I have tried, which is all of them except Warrior and Paladin to any real extent.

The ones I have most enjoyed would be psionicist, sorcerer, blood mage, and monk. Psionicist was really the best fit as I love cc and debuff , plus I love the illusions though I was hoping early on that they would eventually become useful for infiltration or spying or something like that.