So it’s been a little while since I peeked in on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen in general. You might recall that back when I first tried to play this one for a Choose My Adventure column, the game was just not ready, at least for the column’s format. Now that it’s had a bit more time to bake in the oven, though, I think I can take a more earnest shot at it this month.

Of course, I should make clear that I didn’t get very far into my first steps, and that’s because there were a lot more choices of race and class available to me than there were last time. And that, of course, led me to a bit of decision paralysis. But I did at least dip my toe into a few ponds for a little while.

The last time I was playing this game, I was rolling a Halfling Warrior in the starting area of Wild’s End. It was… not great, honestly: The old school EverQuest vibes were maybe a bit too raw from my point of view and there just didn’t seem to be much to chase down and subsequently make polls. So in the interest of doing a full-scale reset, I deleted the character and started from zero.

Color me surprised when there were more than a few races and even more classes to start off as. Not only were there Warriors and Wizards and Dire Lords, but there were Rangers and Summoners and Necromancers and Paladins and Clerics. All told, it seems like time away was kind to this game indeed in terms of the class choices on offer. So with this sudden smorgasbord in front of me, I decided to pluck out a few class and race combos that seemed to be interesting at first blush, starting off with an Elf Paladin.

This choice once again saw me land at Wild’s End, which was fairly fortuitous since it was the only zone that I felt any sort of familiarity with. Right from the jump, I made sure to use the spell scrolls sitting in my inventory, read the letter that guided me to the quest giver that instructs me about crafting and gathering professions, and took the extremely slow-moving lift to the jungle floor to see how the Paladin operates.

I must say that even in the early levels, this class felts surprisingly good. Maybe too good: I had access to a lightning spell and an attack that did beefy damage, as well as a 30 minute cooldown heal spell that healed the area around me for five-figure numbers. I was also very fortunate in that I arrived to the starter zone at a point when a very kind player was handing out buffs to folks and providing starter gear, so I was kitted out a little bit even before I completed any quest.

The impressive skills just kept piling on as I leveled, which was also a surprise since it felt as if leveling had smoothed out significantly. The last time I tried this game it seemed like hitting level two took an age, but this time around I was comparatively soaring upward, adding more tools to my arsenal like a melee attack that heals me. This, combined with the very kindly offered starter gear, basically made this class feel like easy mode.

Next up was an Orc Shaman that I put together. I admit that I was sort of guided by a few MMORPG tropes in the choice, but it just felt and looked right to me, especially as my boy Greeble (that’s his name, yes) was sort of prototypical in appearance. Creation completed, I was pleased to see that my character would start in Thronefast – and then surprised when I spawned inside of a giant cave.

Apparently the orcs like to hole up in… well, a hole. This starting zone was significantly less orderly than the hub at Wild’s End, as well as particularly devoid of other players. What it wasn’t lacking, though, were enemies. Seriously, the critter ratio in this area feels a bit overtuned.

As I didn’t have a benefactor, it was up to me to just slowly try the Shaman out to see what it’s like, and as near as I can figure, he’s basically a regen healer. The very first spells I got access to were a simple single-target ranged attack, a ramped-up attack with my spear, and a regen spell that last for an astonishingly long time and kept my health topped up when I opened a fight with it. I did have to watch my mana, meaning I had to rest a few times over, and there were a couple of points where I was overwhelmed by powerful enemies, but overall this was… fine? I guess? I was sort of playing this a bit like a soak tank, to be honest. That’s probably not intended design, but it was getting me through.

I think the biggest issue I have is less with the class mechanics and more with the starting cavern area. The same starter quest letter in my inventory was aiming me to a well in a village, but I was having a real hard time finding it, never mind the fact that most of the areas where there is orc civilization felt weirdly spread out. So I just sort of grinded out a few fights, tried to work out how the Shaman operated, and spammed the hotkey that gave me target information all along the way. It’s less a cakewalk here, but not insurmountable feeling; I’ll call this medium difficulty.

Lastly, I put together a boring ol’ Human Wizard, purely because I was curious what the “classic” mage class was like in Pantheon. Here I was treated to another surprise in the Wizard’s mechanics, which appears to be predicated on using and recharging elemental focus points, which in turn keeps mana regen high, but also ensuring to use spells of fire, ice, and lightning enough to gain some buffs to damage output.

It’s a very, very weird dance mechanically speaking, and this class absolutely feels like a glass cannon, only the emphasis on “cannon” should be noted here because she was absolutely spitting huge damage numbers. It feels like a lot to juggle, compounded by the fact that this starting area, while precisely the one that I experienced when I first played this game in a test last year, is also aiming me at the same random village as my Orc character (meaning Greeble has to eventually get out of that cave) and feels very stingy in giving out currency to buy the myriad spell scrolls I need. Or in other words, this is hard mode.

So now that I’ve tried a little bit of columns A, B, and C, it’s time to settle on which class to follow through with. What should we try out first, lovelies?

Which class should I use as the main for this journey?

• Paladin. Enjoy the easy mode and try things out carefully. (43%, 29 Votes)
• Shaman. Figure out the caves and the class. (41%, 28 Votes)
• Wizard. Work your way into more magic power, challenge be damned. (16%, 11 Votes)

Total Voters: 68

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The polls will close at the usual 1:00 p.m. EDT time on Friday, July 11th. I admit that I have some curiosity going into this one at last, and I truly hope there’s enough for all of us to dig into a little bit this time through.

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.