ZyZ wrote:
I've managed to reach prides a few times with solipsist (madness) so definitely it is not a bad class but it has SERIOUS flaws. No mindstar mastery from escort ? You can start again No ablative armour ? Basically you should start again No stun immunity (mindstars, tinkers etc) ? Start again ...
Well, I got to high peack never escaping and never escaping/using stairs trick as solipsist on Insane. I used some addons (Select your Escorts and Mex start rebalance), but those mostly affect early game. Yet I agree that escort mechanics needs some slight changes, I listed some examples in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=48522. It's simply bad that some classes require certatin escorts to be good.
But solipsist is not one of those.
Both tinkers and mindstars are in no way necessary to complete Insane, with them class just becomes even more powerful. And Mindstars are not even necessary. Sure, I cheesed for some extra talent/class points using Escorts because Solipsist is actually one of the classes who benefit significantly from every point invested. Saves also worked quite well for me, I didn't get 100% stun immunity but I barely got stunned and 10 cd Wild Infusion with Windtouched Speed helped a lot. Also I got around 100 effective saves each (due to specifically itemising mental save), so CC were not a pig problem either.
The main problem with Solipsist was that it required very specific prodigies to be good (Range Amplification Drone and Windtouched speed in particular). I assume without them my run would become incomparably harder no matter what I used instead. And despite using tinkers I never used ablative armor either. I completed all prides without ever dropping below 35% HP and I cleaned up majority of high peak (literally every vault and cave), but still died in the end because I overestimated myself and tried to take on 3 unique 100+ level dragons in intimidating cave without running (simply because I never had to run before). I killed Atamathon without a problem, and 300+ kills achievement in Sludgenest before going to high peak. All on Insane (though, only Adventure, not Roguelike). It was honestly easier run than my TW Nightmare run (because TW started to produce immense lag in late game due to memory leak and that was frustrating).
ZyZ wrote:
List has obvious bias towards arcane but when you assume antimagic is not an option list becomes quite accurate ie arcane blade is much better than bulwark or mindslayer. You also have to keep in mind almost all classes do not have enough damage to finish madness so it doesn't really matter if class is B or D. You can skip a few bosses here and there but you can't skip whole game

I have no illusion about condiring myself good player (I have only one Nightmare win and around 10 or Insane adventure characters who reached High Peak, but due to my stubborness I always die there trying to clear every nook and cranny). And Solipsist felt very powerful to me, not in the least weaker than other characters (like Archmage). That's why I asked what criteria are used to determine class rank. If it's just personal opinion, I'm fine with it.