The available classes on the online test of Elden Ring were often too well equipped and therefore too powerful for an early game, at least that was the general opinion. Feedback from various sources indicates that the game has 10 starting classes, some already present in the beta, others new, and still others that were missing. A post on the official Twitter introduced 2 new classes among those available on February 25th:
Vagabond: A wandering knight, exiled from his native land. A solid origin, encased in armor.
Hero: An unyielding hero equipped with a battleaxe. He is the descendant from a badlands chieftain.
The Vagabond is the equivalent of the Knight from previous games, and it replaces the Blood Wolf from the beta. He is a character with relatively balanced stats, but mostly favors melee combat traits like Strength, Stamina, and Vitality. He starts the adventure with a set of good quality armor, a good shield and a longsword at the very least. It's possible he starts with a greatsword too, but that's unconfirmed. It is often considered the best default choice for many builds, as well as for beginners. It's also a very good basis for doing a Strength build with a few weapon buff spells, for example.
The Hero is a medium armored character, mixing Strength and Faith (at least on the beta). His wooden axe and shield allow him to fight in relatively good conditions at the start, but on the beta, his dragon's breath made him absolutely devastating. It is unknown if he will start the adventure with this spell when the game releases, and if his stat distribution will be the same. If so, that will make it a really powerful starting choice. Otherwise, it's still an interesting choice for a melee/Faith spell hybrid.
The closed beta for FromSoftware's Elden Ring is officially named the 'Closed Network Test'. Here are the details of the schedules, platforms, and how to participate.
