1. For Stam, most builds use bow/dual wield, so they often fight in melee range anyway. If you want Bow/Bow, this post might help: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/381498/everything-needed-to-know-about-bow-bow-in-pve-elsweyr-update/p1

For magicka, Templars and DKs tend to fight in melee.

2. MagSorc has Liquid Lighting for ranged AOE. For melee AOE, StamSorc has hurricane.

3. Healer support is Wardens and Templars. Wardens have a lot of HOTs, buffs, and fill in the gaps of the Templar, who has targeted burst heals. Healers often buff with their non-class skills and gear, like Combat Prayer, weakness to elements, Necrotic Orbs, and Olorime.

4. Depends on the trial and how the new Warden shakes out with the current meta. In general and in no particular order, tanks = DK, Warden, Necro; healers = Templar, Warden.

5. Depends on the campaign/BG and the group. If you want to tailor a build for a particular group, ask what they need. If you are new to PVP, I'd recommend running a tankier build with some self heals. The easiest class I picked up in PVP that fits that bill is the Stam Warden, who has great defense, burst damage, and stamina heals...but every class can be effectice are fun in PVP.

6. All classes can heal. In dungeons, most healers heal and DPS. That being said, if you want to specialize in healing, Templars and Wardens are the most commonly used.

7. The controversy is overrated and ZOS is now actually teaching players to use animation cancelling like light attacking in between skills. I like Stam Warden burst because their burst skills have a slight delay, which allows players to easily combo skills with Subterranean Assault, but I'm sure there are other good classes if you don't like animation canceling.

Well you might get different opinions on what is best but i will tell what i’ve experienced so far both having 10 characters one or two of all classes and what i’ve seen and know that others use on PvE

Ranged:

Warden is a good Bow/Bow class since all the skills work in tandem with a ranged perspective, low ultimate cost with the bear, good sustain with the netch, good survival utilities , easy to flip from PvE to PvP without changing much. One of my guild mates runs a Bow/Bow Khajiit Warden and we have been running all vet content since he was 300cp and now hes 600cp and finished VMA arena with it.

Magicka Ranged, from all the other classes i've used Sorcerer is the best one to hit both AoE and Single target DPS without replacing many class skills, the standard elemental blockade and either crushing shock or imbue weapon and thats it. Easy to build and to do a parse with just get necropotence/julianos/ilambris with a fire and shock staff and slot the twilight pet (morph depending on what content you are doing)

Stamina AoE, Sorcerers have extra melee distance AoE with the boundless Storm stamina morph and if you top that with the caltrops, endless hail and whirring blades thats a lot of AoE damage.

You didn’t mention tank, Dks are the standard hard to go wrong class for the task with everything you need from skills to passives. As a preference i run warden but i replaced frozen gate for silver leash to pull enemies. The Warden is good at survival in any role.

On PvE forget about the “DPS Healer” unless you are running with a High DPS group that can melt all adds and burn the boss fast enough to cancel out the mechanics or your group is already equipped to run with less healing or you simply will be a pain for the group and i’ve been playing this game for 3 years already and that has been the experience having a “DPS healer” on a group. What damage you should pitch in as a healer? Well i run Templar healer so i will give you an example from that perspective. i launch in Blockade of shock of course it does damage but it also applies the “off balance”, the shards does damage and gives the synergy for resource regain , casting Nova which also applies major maim, Purifying light damages and also heals and a heavy attack every now and then and that is when their situation allows it both to regain and since i run infallible aether it applies minor vulnerability. The templar extended ritual heals and also allows allies to cleanse negative effects. You can’t go wrong with Templar as a healer.

Thank you for all your replies!

I see that I should play sorc, templar or warden.

Then I will make a more specific question:

Which of the three would it be more suitable if I plan to:

- Build a stamina bow/bow or bow/dw build
- Build a pure healer or a support build
- Build a pure ranged magicka build

Thanks!