Zennistrad
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I don't think that classes beyond Tier 3 are feasible. Tier 3 classes (or 3.05, as you put it) are already not just viable in the endgame, but based on the current state of Paladin it looks like they will be some of the strongest armors in the game, period. Paladin might not have nearly the same damage output as WKZ or Lumenomancer Bloodmage, but it has a level of sheer versatility and utility that makes it definitely the best all-around light-element armor. Necromancer and Archmage might be more specialized, but having a whopping twenty skills will definitely make them top-tier armors in their own right regardless. Going beyond Tier 3 would just bring even more power creep to AQ, and we've already had plenty of that in recent years.
That said, I do agree that classes should have their own mechanical identity. I've actually posted quite a few class revamps and new class ideas in my suggestions thread, and one of my goals with each class was to give each of them a distinct mechanical identity. This is what I've got so far:
Tier 1:
These are the basic classes, and give a good idea of what each different playstyle in the game can do. Their abilities are simple: while I've designed them so they can scale to Level 150 and be effective, most of what they do is done either better or more efficiently by Tier 2 and Tier 3 classes.
Fighter — A starting class focusing on melee attacks. Has a few simple weapon-based skills and damage-enhancing skills, and can switch to a fully-offensive lean at level 10.
Mage — A starting class focusing on spells. Can cast spells of every element, though these spells require a slight SP cost in addition to the normal MP cost. Can also increase the damage of spells for more MP at Level 10 (though not to the same degree as the Wizard).
Rogue — A starting class focusing on dodging attacks and hitting accurately. Can steal health potions from the foe and then use those potions for attacks, and at Level 10 can switch to a special armor lean that inflict bleeding.
Ranger — A starting class for defensive characters focusing on 100-proc weapons. Has multiple skills to become more effective with 100-procs, and can select a "favored enemy" to deal extra damage against.
Scholar — A jack-of-all-trades starting class. Can gain a special resource called "insight" each turn to pay for abilities.
Tier 2:
These are the midgame classes, and have a more specialized role. Here you start to see a lot more variety and power in what the classes can do, as well as a more focused thematic and mechanical identity.
Ninja — A tier 2 rogue class centered on kiting, with skills to improve dodging and deal extra damage after evading enemy attacks. At level 10 it can lock its attacks to wind for elecomp damage, and also ensure its attacks auto-hit.
Wizard — A tier 2 mage class with more powerful spells and MP regeneration abilities. Has specialized variants for each element.
Berserker — A tier 2 fighter class focusing on inaccurate but powerful attacks, dealing more damage as your HP lowers. At Level 10, it can change its lean to a "super-offensive" lean, taking and dealing x1.5 damage but being locked to only normal attacks for three turns.
Hunter — A tier 2 Ranger class. In addition to being to its 100-proc abilities, it has the ability to set traps which trigger when hit by a melee, ranged, or magic attack, and can reduce enemy attack power with a light-element skill.
Dracomancer — A tier 2 class equally usable by fighters, mages, and hybrids. Has the ability to lock its attacks to melee or magic, depending on the option the user selects. Has a transformation ability at level 10, similar to vampire/werewolf level 10 abilities.
Beastmaster — A versatile advanced class for characters that use pets and guests. Can summon a wide variety of guests, and can toggle between offensive and defensive leans.
Savant — A Tier 2 Scholar class. Still a jack-of-all-trades class, but with somewhat weaker abilities than other Tier 2 classes. However, these abilities are "free," having cooldowns instead of SP costs.
Tier 3:
The top tier of classes. Having 20 abilities instead of 10 grants them vastly more utility and power than most other classes by default, and they almost always have the ability to modify their Armor Lean in ways the other classes don't. Their thematic and mechanical identities are tied to a very specific theme which is reflected in their abilities.
Gladiator — A Tier 3 fighter class. The theme of this class is "blood, sweat, and tears." Has especially powerful attacks and skills compared to most classes, but has higher SP upkeep than normal on most of its skills. Some of its skills automatically drain SP from you each turn and can't be turned off, and drain HP instead if you don't have SP. Several abilities help it regenerate SP faster, and it gains "gladiator charges" which can be spent on powerful attacks.
Assassin — A Tier 3 rogue class. The theme of this class is "win by any means necessary." Inherits many of the kiting capabilities of the Ninja, as well an instant-death skill at Level 20 which deals extra damage if it fails to kill. However, its main is on an extremely wide variety of debilitating status effects, meant to ensure that no opponent it faces can fight back effectively.
Archmage — A Tier 3 Mage class. The theme of this class is "mastery of space, time, and the Void." In addition to the expected ability to boost spell damage, the Archmage specifically gains the ability to deal more frequent and damaging lucky strikes with spells, reflecting its ability to skew the laws of the universe in its favor. However, all of the Archmage's built-in spells exclusively deal Harm damage, lowering its ability to exploit elemental weaknesses.
Warden — A Tier 3 Ranger class. The theme of this class is "prepared for anything." Has a wide variety of triggered abilities to boost damage, and at max level can gain a +10% damage boost trigger against foes with INT, STR, or END (+30% if the foe has all three.) Its level 5 ability "Elfshot" is the signature ability of the class, allowing it to lower the damage it deals with 100-proc weapons by 20% in order to inflict a equivalent status effect based on the the category of monster you're fighting (Disease against weres, defLoss against Dragons and Dragonkin, Elevuln against Demons, etc.)
There are a few others I'm drafting right now as well. Pirate will be a Tier 2 Rogue class with an emphasis on LUK in its skills, and Treasure Hunter will be a Tier 3 Rogue class with a theme of "fame and fortune" that uses gold to pay for some of its skills.
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