First of all take the time to find a top trading guild. (I wholeheartedly recommend Hlaalu Trading Company if you are in the Ebonheart Pact.) What you are looking for is an ACTIVE guild. They should have close to 500 members and a stall in a major city but even more importantly they should have more than 50 players online even at non-peak hours. This means on the weekend and at peak evening hours they will have 100+ people online. This is what you want. Activity. Now that you have a good trading guild:

1. Collect all Alchemy reagents and sell those in the guild store. Yes, you can sell them in zone chat but I get more for the same items in the guild store. (With less effort too. I have seen people pay 200g each for top herbs. One of the fastest farming grinds in the game.)
2. Gold saved is gold earned. Don’t repair items! Once you are VR it makes a little more sense but from level 1-50 it is petty much a waste of gold. Wear green or blue items you find and when they are broken sell or deconstruct them. If you are OCD like me and can’t stand your character looking like crap then make your own matching armor sets every two levels or so and just decon/sell everything you come across. If you hate crafting, wear your favorite costume so you don’t have to look like the village idiot while being frugal.
3. Don’t pay to fast travel to wayshrines. Run or ride to the nearest one and then you can fast travel between them for free. You can also fast travel to friends and guildmembers for free. (If in a group you can fast travel to a group member as well) Just go to the respective group, contact or guild menu and right click the players name.
4. Deconstruct everything you pick up until your desired crafting skills reach level 50. Then at that point, I would sell all white and green items you pick up, (with the exception being if they are part of a dropped set) deconstruct blue and undesirable purple items and sell good purple and dropped set items in your guild store.
5. Don’t bother trying to sell jewelry in the guild store unless it is purple, gold or part of a dropped set. There is just too much jewelry out there for sale to make an easy profit, IMO.
6. The best provisioning ingredients come from hirelings (tomatoes, oats, red wheat etc…) and provisioning is super easy to level up. All in all, I think provisioning is better as a craft for the food and drink then to try and sell the raw ingredients. With the justice system and provisioning updates though a lot could change about the way we collect ingredients and make food so we’ll just have to see. If one of your crafts is provisioning like me, I personally hoard ALL ingredients and once I am stocked up I do a huge bake off and make a crap load of food. I use my best food for myself, sell the level 50+ foods that people actually pay for and vendor the rest to NPC. I make a good amount of gold this way.
7. Buy bag upgrades. I know it seems counter-productive at first to spend so much on bag space but once you have them you can make more gold, and quicker so it is a worthy investment.
8. The basic motif books aren’t worth much anymore but the rarer styles still go for a bit. Dwemer pages and materials go for a ton right now and purple recipes still fetch a bit too. (Although they have come down a lot.)
9. Hit up all red (Aspect) runes. Most of the time you will get a Ta but occasionally you will get a green, blue, purple or gold Aspect Rune and you can sell these for a bit. (Please note: these prices WILL change over time and only reflect my experience on the NA server.)
   1. Jejota (green) = about 100g a piece
   2. Denata (blue) = about 400g a piece
   3. Rekuta (purple) = about 900g a piece
   4. Kuta = (gold) = about 3000-3500g a piece
10. You can sell stacks of mats but they go for as cheap as 900g a stack in my experience and I like to spend my gold grinding time elsewhere personally.
11. Unless you PvP a ton before level 50 I would wait to buy a horse. I didn’t buy a horse until VR 3 because all I did is PvE and you honestly don’t need it. I had plenty of gold to comfortably buy the 42,000g horse because I waited. (This horse is mainly for speed in PvP anyway.)
12. I like to sell weapon and armor glyphs too. (I just NPC vend all jewelry glyphs as of now.) I only use magicka armor glyphs so I sell all the stamina and health ones I pick up for about 125g a piece in the guild store. Weapon glyphs I sell for a little less. (89g – 110g depending on the effect.)
13. Invest in the Soul Lock passive in the Soul Magic skill line. With 2 points in this passive you will have a 10% chance to trap a soul when killing an enemy with a weapon. Full, Grand Soul Gems are worth a ton and with the removal of forward camps from PvP they will most likely continue to be.

We recommend you also take a look at these 5 easy way to make gold in ESO. They are really beginner-friendly and will make you gold guaranteed.

We hope you found this guide helpful, and if you want to learn more about Elder Scrolls Online be sure to let us know and we’ll publish even more helpful guides!

In Path of Exile grinding experience in Normal (easiest) difficulty is pretty pointless. You’re gaining levels extremely fast and can finish it quite easily without any item or level grinding required. By the time you get to Cruel (second) difficulty you should be over level 30 and you can start farming the first few areas of Act I without much trouble.

Afterwards, you should always try to be at the very least the same level as monsters in a particular area otherwise progression might get difficult, especially if you prefer playing solo and not in groups. Some skill tree builds also aren’t as strong until level 50 or so (dual totems or Freezing Pulse for example) so it’s highly recommended to stay a few levels above the mobs in the zone you’re in. You can take a look at the table below for a quick overview of the monster levels in every zone.

Another note, if you’re looking for specific quest walkthroughs read this article.

Where to grind levels?

Below are my absolutely favorite areas to grind experience, so if you’re looking to gain some quick levels I suggest you do it here.

Act I best leveling area: The Ledge

Probably the best of all areas, The Ledge is really straightforward. Monsters include mostly Skeletons which are slow and really easy to mow down either one by one or with AoE skills. There’s also a waypoint in the middle of the zone so you don’t have to spend too many Portal Scrolls if you wish to clear your inventory.

Tip: the “sharp” tip of the waypoint always points towards Kuduku and the next area (Rocky Climb).

In The Ledge I recommend you simply run from one end to another and clear everything along the way. Reset the instance and repeat. Really easy, fast, and like everything else in Path of Exile best done in groups.

Act II best leveling area: Fellshrine Ruins

There are actually a few areas which are equally good for grinding levels in Act II, but Fellshrine Ruins is probably my favorite zone. Take a waypoint to Church Dungeon Level 1, and take the exit to Fellshrine Ruins immediately next to it. In Fellshrine I found it best to simply follow the road, and once you get to Crossroads exit just reset the instance. Rinse and repeat. If you don’t have Church Dungeon waypoints go to Crossroads and just follow the road east.

Monsters in Fellshrine mostly include skeletons and zombies which are both extremely easy to kill, and when you come across Hulking Titans you can easily skip them if you find them hard to kill.

Alternatively Church Dungeon, Western Forest, Pools and Streams and Pyramid are all just as good for farming, so take your pick.

Act III best leveling area: The Docks

Without a doubt The Docks is the best area for experience grinds in Act III on any difficulty. Another area littered with skeletons and zombies who won’t cause you any trouble. There’s plenty of room for kiting, and ranged classes will certainly enjoy killing monsters from safe spots over ledges.

If you’re level 30 or so after finishing Act II, press the magic “S” button and find a group for The Docks. You’ll be level 35 in just a bit over an hour, making progression through early Cruel difficulty much easier. If you’re trying to go on Merciless, you can easily farm this zone until level 60 if you wish and still get plenty of experience.

Endgame Leveling

If you really wanted to you can finish Merciless by the time you hit level 50, although there’s not much point. You can just open up Docks and farm there until you’re level 74 with ease. It’s the easiest area to farm, has decent drops so you can upgrade your equipment, and you can even get quite a few maps there to get you started. If you’re around level 62 you should still be getting almost 20% of your level by doing just one full Docks run which takes no longer than 10 minutes in the worst of groups. At level 73 if I remember correctly you’ll get about 8% of your level with one full run which is still a decent amount.

Before doing level 66 maps I would recommend you try and hit at least the same level in Docks: it’s extremely easy and even though it’s a grind, that’s what Path of Exile endgame looks like so you might as well get used to it. As for equipment and defenses you should try and max your elemental resistances and get at least 2,000 health (or 3,000 energy shield), otherwise you might end up dying far too often to continuously get experience.

Leveling really slows down after you hit 75, in which case you’ll want to do maps at least level 67, or find a group for Lunaris Temple. By the time you hit level 80 I’m sure you’ll already know what your preferred way of leveling is. Realistically you shouldn’t expect to hit level 100 anytime soon as it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, but in case you’re planning your character skill tree build you can expect to be level 90 at most.

General leveling tips:

1. Try grouping up with other players if you’re having trouble progressing, or find a group that just grinds the same area over and over again and farm experience. Once you’re 3-4 levels above the monster’s level in a particular area you should have no problems clearing it alone.
2. Farming experience in groups for a couple of hours may be boring, but it’s definitely better than dying constantly. Remember that dying on Cruel and Merciless difficulty levels will decrease your experience by 5% and 10% respectively, meaning you’ll eventually have to farm that XP anyway.
3. Also it doesn’t really matter what level you decide to go grind for experience, you will have to catch up in levels sooner or later. Simply progressing through quests in harder difficulties won’t give you enough experience points and you WILL have to grind. I suggest you do it early while you’re about the same level as monsters in order to maximize your experience gain and loot.
4. On Cruel and Merciless difficulties try not to have a full XP bar before you engage bosses. In fact I recommend you go attempt to kill bosses just after you gained a level to make sure you lose as little as possible if (or rather when) you die.
5. It’s always best, fastest and safest to do maps with a full group. If your defenses or damage is lacking don’t be afraid to run in and out of fights and play more passively and safely. Once you figure out you gain 1-3% XP for a full 66 map run dying and losing 10% of your experience is a significant amount of farming.

I do hope this post helps you at least a little bit to powerlevel your characters as quickly as possible, or at the very least make sure you know where to catch up with levels. If you have any other great areas for farming you like or other leveling tips be sure to post them in the comments below.

Contents:

• 1. Tips for New Players
  • List of Acronyms/Glossary
  • General Tips
  • Build Tips
  • Vendor & Economy Tips
  • Gameplay Tips
• 2. Game Mechanics
  • Difficulty Levels
  • Skills
  • Gems
  • Flasks
  • Classes
  • Attributes
  • Charges
  • Additional vs. Increased vs. More
  • Defenses
• 3. Links and Other Resources

1. Tips for New Players

List of Acronyms/Glossary

• Adds – Enemies that spawn during a boss encounter
• AoE – Area Of Effect
• BM – Blood Magic
• B/O – Buy Out
• CI – Chaos Inoculation
• C/O – Current Offer
• DOT – Damage Over Time
• DPS – Damage Per Second
• EA – Explosive Arrow
• EB – Eldritch Battery
• EK – Ethereal Knives
• ES – Energy Shield
• Eva – Evasion
• GCP – Gemcutter’s Prism
• GS – Ground Slam
• GM – Game Moderator – GMs can affect the game to resolve issues; synonymous with administrator
• GMP – Greater Multiple Projectiles
• IIQ – Increased Item Quantity
• IIR – Increased Item Rarity
• IR – Iron Reflexes
• LA – Lightning Arrow
• LMP – Lesser Multiple Projectiles
• LS – Lightning Strike
• Mob – “Mobile”, from old MUD games, but it means “Monster”
• Ninja – A player who takes drops that aren’t theirs (hard to determine in this game because of the loot timers)
• OBO – Or Best Offer
• Reroll – To make a new character or randomize the attributes/stats on an item (depending on context)
• RoE – Radius of Effect
• RT – Resolute Technique
• Toon – A character
• TP – Town portal
• WP – WayPoint
• WTB – Want To Buy
• WTS – Want To Sell
• WTT – Want To Trade

General Tips

• There are three acts and three difficulty types (normal, cruel, and merciless). Completing all three acts on one difficulty advances your character to the next difficulty. Each increase in difficulty and act makes the game noticeably more difficult. In Cruel your resistances are reduced by 20% and in Merciless your resistances are reduced by 60%. Note that this includes Chaos Resistance.
• If you die in hardcore your character will be moved to the regular (softcore) league and you can continue playing them there.
• AOE skills are very important for farming and killing large groups of mobs. (Almost) Every build should have an AOE skill worked in somewhere.
• You can use any gem as any class, so long as you meet the stat requirements.
• There are some reasons to not level up a skill gem – the mana cost of the upgraded skill may be prohibitive or you may not have the stats required to use the upgraded skill gem. If you don’t want to level up your gem, you can right click on the notification that it is ready to level up to hide it. You may later level the gem from your inventory screen.
• Two of the same type of support gem do not stack when linked together. However, you may link any number of different support gems.
• Dual wielding grants +10% more attack speed and a +15% block chance.
• There is a minimap. You can turn it on from the UI options menu. You can also turn on “items always visible” and “hold alt to pick up items” from here.
• To highlight items on the ground, hold down the ALT key. Alternatively, you can toggle the option of highlighting items on ground by pressing the Z key.
• There are no full respecs in this game. You can get respec points from quests and orbs of regret to “unspend” passive points, but in doing this you cannot break any dependencies. It is often better just to roll a new character if you need to make large changes.
• Instances reset between 8-15 minutes. Don’t loiter in town if you have a portal open, as it will disappear when the instance is reset.
• Control + Clicking on the entrance to an area allows you to reset an instance as you enter it.
• To link an item in chat hold control + alt and then click the item.

Build Tips

• When making new builds plan for about 80-85 skill points. You will reach this point around the time you complete Act III on Merciless and begin endgame content. No need to get all crazy with a 120 point build. By the time you have 80-85 points you’ll have a much better understanding of where the skill points should be going. Also, this keeps your head from exploding.
• Path of Exile can be unforgiving for those who neglect defenses (like elemental resistances). Sure you could make a full glass cannon build. But, would I advise that? Absolutely not.
• As a rule of thumb, try to get at least +100% life or energy shield from your passive skill tree into your build (To clarify, that is cumulative from +8%, etc., nodes. There are no gigantic +100% nodes.).
• You need elemental resistances. An easy way to build up resists is through rings. It’s a good idea to carry around different sets of resist rings and swap them out depending on the mobs you encounter.
• Keystones are major, large passives that lie on the outside of the passive skill web. They have the ability to completely change the way a character plays, and builds are usually planned around which keystones will be taken.
• Don’t know how to build your character? Check out the official path of exile forums and /r/pathofexilebuilds for ideas.

Vendor and Economy

• Control + Click quickly moves items between your inventory and a vendor/your stash.
• Shift + Click allows you to split stacks of items.
• Eternal Orbs, Exalted Orbs, Divine Orbs, Gem Cutters Prisms, and Chaos Orbs are the most valuable currencies. Your best bet is to hoard everything until you get a good understanding of values in this game.
• Pick up: all currency items, quality skill gems (hover over the gem, if it has a quality bonus, no matter how small, pick it up), unique items, items with three color links (a red, blue, and green socket linked together), superior-quality flasks, and any item with 5 or 6 links.
• White items can be insanely valuable. This is because some of the best items in the game can be crafted from a white item using the aforementioned currencies. Example: Find a white weapon with good sockets. Increase its quality by +20% using Blacksmith’s Whetstones, then use an Orb of Alchemy on the item to make it a rare with +20% quality!
• Superior items (items with bonus quality) can be hoarded and sold for Blacksmith Whetstones, Armorer Scraps and Glassblower Baubles. Any item with 20% quality can be vendored for a whetstone/scrap/bauble, and any combination of weapons/armor/flasks totaling 40% quality can be vendored for a whetstone/scrap/bauble, respectively
• Items with at least one of each color socket, all linked together, can be vendored for a Chromatic Orb.
• If you don’t have any resistance rings but really need some, you can vendor a skill gem and iron ring to get a resistance ring. Red skill gems give fire resistance rings, Blue skill gems give cold resistance rings, and Green skill gems give lightning resistance rings.
• You can vendor Orbs of Transmutation for four Scrolls of Wisdom each.
• Vendoring white items yields Scrolls of Wisdom, vendoring unidentified magical and rare items yields Transmutation Shards, and vendoring identified magical and rare items yields Alteration Shards.

Gameplay Tips

• Look out for Puncture. This is a skill enemies use that does five times more damage while you are moving. You are effected by puncture if you’re leaving a giant trail of blood behind you, and you HP is dropping like a rock.
• Look out for Viper Strike. This is a skill enemies use that does chaos damage over time to you, and it stacks. Four stacks can kill you very quickly. Run away and wait for the stacks to dissipate if your flasks and lifesteal can’t keep up with your HP loss.
• You don’t have to have an aura on your skill bar to keep it up. It only turns off if you enter town, you remove the gem, or you manually turn it off.
• Weapons/shields equipped in your secondary weapon/shield set (you can swap between two sets) can be used to level up skill gems, though you can’t cast them when those weapons aren’t equipped. You can swap between primary and secondary weapon sets with the “x” key, or from your inventory menu.

2. Game Mechanics

Difficulty Levels

• There are three difficulty levels: Normal, Cruel, and Merciless. You must complete Normal difficulty before you can move to Cruel, and you must complete Cruel before you can move to Merciless. The higher difficulties have death penalties, causing you to lose experience when you die. They are 0% for Normal (no penalty), 7.5% for Cruel and 15% for Merciless difficulty. This is a percentage of the experience needed to gain the next level, not your total experience.
• Losing experience in this way cannot cause you to drop down a level. For instance if you have 11% progress to your next level and die in merciless difficulty, your progress will be reset to 0%. There are also penalties to resistances in higher difficulty levels. In Cruel difficulty, there is a -20% penalty to player resistances, and this increases to -60% in Merciless.

Skills

• Skills currently come in two main varieties: spells, and attack skills. Any skill that uses your weapon damage counts as an attack skill, and everything else counts as a spell.
• Attack skills are dependent on your weapon, and so are affected by attack speed, accuracy, etc.. Bonus damage from rings and other gear is applied when using an attack skill.
• Spells do not draw their damage from your weapon in any way. They are affected by % cast speed, %fire/cold/lightning damage, %spell damage, and critical strikes. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to spells.
• Traps are very similar to spells, but are not affected by cast speed or spell damage mods. They are affected by % trap laying speed, and relevant damage mods. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to trap damage.
• The only exception to this is Town Portal, which is not affected by attack speed, cast speed, or anything else.

Gems

• Support gems only affects skills where it makes sense. For instance, skills that do not already do damage (such as Temporal Chains) will not benefit from Added Cold Damage. Skills that do not already have an area of effect will not benefit from Increased Area of Effect, etc.
• Gems get experience equal to 10% of the experience you earn.
• The number of gems you have equipped has no effect on the rate of XP gain. So having less gems equipped does not cause them to gain XP faster than if you had many gems equipped.
• Gems are not affected by the experience penalty when facing enemies below your level.
• Gems do not lose experience when you die.
• Gems can grant auras which need to be cast outside of town. Once cast, the mana pool is reduced by a certain amount for the aura and this shows up as “Mana Reserved”. This amount can be modified by items.
• When a gem is ready to level up, it shows up on the right side of the screen with a plus sign. Next to the plus sign are the new attributes of the gem. Before leveling the gem, mana pool of the player should be taken into consideration.

Flasks

• Flasks come in four main varieties: life flasks, mana flasks, hybrid flasks, and utility flasks.
• Life, Mana, and Hybrid flasks – These flasks cause you to regenerate life and/or mana when used. The amount recovered is shown on the flask as Life Recovery and Mana Recovery. The time it takes to recover the full amount is shown on the flask as Recovery Time. If you reach your maximum life and/or mana amount before the end of the recovery time, the flask effect will end prematurely. For example: You are at 100/300 life, and 150/200 mana. You use a hybrid flask that has 400 Life Recovery, 200 Mana Recovery, and Recovery Time of 8 seconds. After 2 seconds, you will be at 200/300 life, and 200/200 mana, and the mana recovery effects ends. The life recovery continues, and at 4 seconds, you have reached maximum life, and the life recovery effect also ends. *Flasks can have magic modifiers that provide bonuses while the flask effect is active, for example increased movement speed or resistances. These bonuses end when the life/mana recovery effect ends. *When multiple flasks are used at the same time, the effects are queued. The effect with the highest regeneration rate is always applied first. For example: You have two flasks, one that gives 500 life recovery over 10 seconds and has a 20% increased movement speed modifier, and a second that gives 500 life recovery of 5 seconds with no additional modifiers. You use the first flask and gain the movement speed while recovering life. After one second, you use the second flask. At this point the remaining 9 seconds from the first flask is queued, and the second flask begins its effect. Once the second flask has expired, the first flask resumes its effect for the remaining duration.
• Utility Flasks – These flasks give a temporary bonus for a set duration. Unlike the other flasks, the effects are not queued, each effect has its own timer that can overlap with other effects. The default effects of the flasks will not stack. For example: You have a magic Granite Flask with +25% movement speed, and a regular Granite Flask, both giving +4000 armour for 4 seconds. You drink the first flask, and one second later you drink the second second flask. The result will be that for the first four seconds you will have +4000 armour and +25% movement speed. At the four second mark the first flask ends, but the second flask still has 1 second left. So you will have +4000 armour (but not the movement speed) for another 1 second.
• Flask Charges – Drinking a flask consumes flask charges. Each flask shows how many charges are used per drink in its description, and each flask has a maximum number of charges it can hold. Whenever you or one of your minions kills an enemy, all of your flasks gain charges.
• By default regular monsters grant 1 charge each, magic (blue) monsters grant 3.5 charges each, and rare (yellow) monsters grant 6 charges each. So killing a rare monster causes all of your flasks to gain 6 charges.

Classes

The main difference between the classes is their stating location on the passive skill tree. Classes also start with different amounts of attributes at level 1:

• Marauder: 30 STR, 14 DEX, 14 INT
• Ranger: 14 STR, 30 DEX, 14 INT
• Witch: 14 STR, 14 DEX, 30 INT
• Duelist: 22 STR, 22 DEX, 14 INT
• Templar: 22 STR, 14 DEX, 22 INT
• Shadow: 14 STR, 22 DEX, 22 INT

Scion is the class added at the game’s release and starts in the middle of the passive skill tree.

Attributes

All classes begin with the same base life, mana, and evasion, and gain the same amount per level. These are still affected by the classes’ base stats. For example, a Marauder will start with 50+(30/2) = 65 life.

• 50 life, +6 per level
• 40 mana, +4 per level
• 50 evasion, +3 per level (including level 1)

Attributes are required to equip gear and skills. The three attributes also grant some passive bonuses:

• Strength grants +0.5 life and +0.2% melee physical damage per point
• Dexterity grants +2 accuracy and +0.2% evasion per point
• Intelligence grants +0.5 mana and +0.2% energy shield per point

Therefore the +10 attribute passive skills effectively grant:

• +10 Strength: +5 life, +2% melee physical damage
• +10 Dexterity: +20 accuracy, +2% evasion
• +10 Intelligence: +5 mana, +2% energy shield

Life and mana regeneration – All classes have a base mana regeneration rate of 105% of their maximum mana per minute. For example, a character with 100 maximum mana will regenerate 105 mana per minute, or 1.75 mana per second.

• “Increased Mana regeneration rate” modifiers modify the base rate. For example, 20% Increased Mana regeneration rate would result in 105 * 1.2 = 126% per minute.
• Characters do not begin with any life regeneration, but it is available from gear and passive skills.
• The rate at which you gain life from life leech is 20% of maximum life per second. If you have 1000 maximum life, and leech 600 life with a single attack, it will take three seconds for that life to be applied to your current life. You always get the full amount of life leeched, although it may take time to be applied – if you leech a large amount of life during a battle, you may find that the life gain continues long after the battle is over. Similar to flasks, the life gain from leech will end if you reach maximum life.
• The same is true for mana leech, although the rate is 12.5% of maximum mana per second.

Charges

Charges are glowing orbs that represent temporary buffs with different benefits:

• Endurance Charge (strength) – +5% Physical Damage reduction & +5% additional Elemental Resistances per Charge
• Frenzy Charge (dexterity) – +5% increased Attack Speed & +5% increased Cast Speed per Charge
• Power Charge (intelligence) – 50% increased Critical Strike Chance per Charge

Charges are accumulated by the use of certain skills and equipment, and last a short duration—nine seconds by default. Gaining a charge resets the duration of all accumulated charges. Each type of charge grants different bonuses. A charge bonus increases proportional to the number of accumulated charges of that type. By default, characters can have a maximum of three charges of each type active. This limit can be raised by certain passives and equipment.

Additional vs. Increased vs. More

When you are reading the Tool Tip of a node, pay attention to the percentages and the word that comes directly after it. It will determine how that percentage modifies your current stat. In short:

• Additional – adds directly to the base value.
• Increased/Decreased – an additive multiplicative increase in percentage.
• More/Less – a multiplicative increase in percentage.

What this means is that additive increases add directly to your current percentage. Whereas multiplicative increases, increase your current percentage multiplied by that amount.

There are two types of multiplicative modifiers. There are your increases, which are added together, then multiplied, and then there are your mores, which are all multiplied separately. For example, let’s give a character a bunch of additional damage effects from weapons:

a1, a2, a3, ... , aj.

He/She also has a bunch of passives that give you % increased damage. We will call these percentages:

i1, i2, i3, ... , ik.

You also have a few gems/items/etc that give you a certain % more damage. We’ll call these:

m1, m2, m3, ... , ml. 

They all multiply together in the following way:

(Base damage + a1 + a2 + a3 + ... + aj) * (1 + i1 + i2 + i3 + ... + ik) * (1 + m1) * (1 + m2) * (1 + m3) * ... * (1 + ml).

So there is additional, which is added directly to the base value, there is increased, which is an additive multiplier, and then there is more, which is just a regular multiplier.

Defenses

There are a wide variety of defenses in the game, and it is important that you learn what they are and how they work if you want to survive. They are:

• Life
• Energy Shield
• Armor
• Evasion
• Block
• Elemental Resistances
• Chaos Resistance
• Dodge

Life – Run out of this and you die. Your character begins at level 1 with 50 base health, and gains 4 health for each level thereafter and 1 health for every two strength you have. Your other defenses mitigate the impact enemy attacks have on your life pool. More is better, unless you focus on…

Energy Shield – ES works similarly to life, only you don’t get any bonus ES per level, you get it from gear. You cannot replenish it through flasks, and instead it regenerates itself after a short period during which you are not hit. Every 5 points of intelligence increase your maximum ES pool by 1%. Characters that choose to focus this exclusively end up taking the Chaos Inoculation keystone. Some notes: Chaos damage goes directly through ES to your health pool (which is why Chaos Inoculation is so useful), and having any ES at all confers a 50% chance to resist being stunned.

Armor – Armor provides damage reduction from physical attacks. It reduces incoming physical damage by a percentage according to the following formula:

Reduction = Armor / (Armor + 12 * Damage)

So, attacks that do more damage penetrate your armor better. It is capped at a 90% reduction. Armor is excellent for tanking large groups of weak mobs, but is somewhat lackluster against enemies that hit very hard.

Evasion – This is your chance to simply avoid being hit by physical attacks. It rolls against your attacker’s accuracy like so:

Evasion Chance = 1 - Attacker's Accuracy / ( Attacker's Accuracy + ( Defender's Evasion / 4 ) ^( 0.8 ) )

Evasion also reduces the odds that you will be hit by a critical attack, since your opponent must succeed on a second attack roll as a critical-hit check. Technically, PoE doesn’t use an RNG to determine when you do/don’t get hit with Eva, but they have a weird system in place that gives the same results as an RNG with a little more reliability for the end-user (this is buried somewhere in the Mechanics Thread, I’ll find it later). High Eva is great, but focusing only on Eva can be very dangerous as you will be 1-shot by more powerful enemies later in the game. It is capped at a 90% chance to evade.

Block – If you have a shield or are dual wielding, you will block a certain percentage of incoming enemy physical attacks. Against all physical attacks, if the attack hits you get to roll against your block chance. If you succeed, the attack is mitigated. If the attack would have stunned you had it hit, you go through a 350 millisecond block animation, otherwise the damage is just mitigated with no effects. Block chance is capped at 75%.

Elemental Resistances – Comes in three flavors – Fire, Cold and Lightning. Up until now, there has been no mention of spells. Spells (usually) do elemental damage, hit automatically, and generally can’t be blocked or dodged. However, their damage is reduced by whatever percentage your resistances are. If you have 50% resistance to that element, then you take half damage from that attack. Elemental resistances are capped at 75% without certain skills.

Chaos Resistance – Works like elemental resistances, except it’s much harder to get. Chaos damage always does DOT and bypasses ES. Chaos Inoculation provides immunity to Chaos damage.

Dodge – A special defense that only characters with the Acrobatics keystone can get. It provides an additional chance to negate attacks and even spells. It is calculated independently of Eva.

3. Links and Other Resources

• Even more tips and good explanation of controls
• List of Acronyms
• Common questions and their answers
• In-depth Mechanics of PoE
• Path of Exile Wiki
• Quest Reward List
• Accuracy Table
• Mods Compendium Thread
• Direct Link to the Mods Compendium
• Crafting Guide
• Worth Exalting?
• Life Leech vs. Life Gain On Hit calcuator
• Path of Exile currency exchange rates
• Monster Levels per Area and Difficulty

Source: Reddit

If you have any resources of your own to add to our list post them in the comments below.

It should be noted that once you choose a class you can’t change it later on, so pick according to your personal preference and gameplay style. Try to determine whether you want to primarily dish out damage or provide support in the form of healing or crowd control. Also worth knowing is that abilities you get for crafting are referenced as “disciplines” and are separate from the profession (class) system.

GW2 professions are split into 3 main categories: Soldiers, Adventurers and Scholars. Soldiers include Guardian and Warrior and use heavy armor, Adventurers are Engineer, Ranger and Thief all of which use medium armor, and Scholars are Elementalist, Mesmer and Necromancer, who use light armor. Below is a list of 8 different professions in Guild Wars 2 along with their short descriptions so you can hopefully make the right choice.

Guardian

Guardians specialize in protective and defensive magic and wear heavy armor. They are able to use three virtues as their special ability, which provide a passive benefit to them:

1. Virtue of Courage gives you Aegis to block against an attack
2. Virtue of Justice enables your attacks to cause extra burning damage on targets
3. Virtue of Resolve provides you with health regeneration

These virtues may also be activated to give a temporary beneficial effect to nearby allies as well as guardians themselves. While Guardian does have a lower health pool than Warrior profession, they compensate this with their higher health regeneration.

Attribute specific to Guardian is Willpower, which decreases the recharge of virtues and is increased by trait line Virtues. Guardians also have several different special types of skills:

• Chains – three skills that share a single skill slot, which are executed in sequence on a single target.
• Shouts – these instantly buff allies or de-buff enemies when used.
• Spirit Weapons – summon ephemeral weapons to fight alongside the guardian. Spirit weapons cannot be attacked by enemies and can be commanded to inflict a powerful attack before disappearing.
• Symbols – these ground-targeted skills inflict damage to enemies or deliver a benefit to allies. Symbols persist for a few seconds and then dissipate.
• Wards – a marked area on the ground that stops enemies from passing through while allowing allies to move freely.

The guardian has five general trait lines: Zeal, Radiance, Valor, Honor and Virtues. They are used to improve some of your abilities.

As for crafting, there are several disciplines that can create useful items: weaponsmith, huntsman, artificer, armorsmith, jeweler and chef.

Warrior

Warriors are the second Soldier profession, and they rely on their brute force, speed and heavy armor to survive in combat. They have several offensive and defensive auras for both their allies and opponents. Their unique mechanic is Adrenaline, which is built up with attacking and can be spent on powerful burst attacks. Both Adrenaline and skills that consume it have three different levels making them more and more powerful. The burst skills you have depend on which weapon set you use, and Warriors have the largest selection available to them (19 different weapon sets and 2 underwater).

Warriors have three specific skill types:

• Physical – used to control foes and for movement
• Banners – banners are placed on the ground and are used to buff your allies; they can also be moved
• Stance – you gain a specific bonus when you change stances

They also have 5 different trait lines to choose from, and they are Strength, Arms, Defense, Tactics, and Discipline. Crafting disciplines useful to Warriors include weaponsmithing, huntsman, armorsmith, jeweler and chef.

Engineer

Engineers rely on their mechanical prowess to gain an edge in battle. They deploy turrets, throw elixirs and grenades, and have some other devices as well. Engineer specific mechanic is the “Tool Belt”, which appears above your skill bar and grants each of your equipped utility and healing skill an extra skill.  For example if you have the Grenade Kit then the tool belt also allows Grenade Barrage, and with the med kit it adds a Bandage Self ability. Engineer’s unique attribute is Ingenuity which affects how fast your skills recharge.

Special skill types for Engineers are the following:

• Weapon kits – these are a type of utility skill that replaces the currently equipped weapon (and their skills) with a new weapon. There are three weapon kits available: the Flamethrower, the Elixir Gun, and the Tool Kit.
• Device kits — these are a type of utility skill that replaces the currently equipped weapon (and their skills) with more specialized skills. There are three different device kits in total: the Bomb Kit, the Grenade Kit, and the Med Kit.
• Turrets – deploy immobile allied devices that help defend and control an area. The amount of active turrets is limited by the amount of turret skills equipped, though only one turret of each type can be active at the same time. Turrets can be packed up and moved to different locations by interacting with it, and triggered to self-destruct by using the skill again. Each turret also grants a Tool belt skill to improve the turret’s effectiveness; For example, the Rifle Turret’s tool belt skill is Automatic Fire.
• Elixirs – these are a type of skill, which induces a random effect upon its use. These random effects are dependent upon the skill used as the skill determines the pool of possible effects. Tool belt skills are always a modified version of the corresponding elixir, that can be thrown to affect allies as well.

Available trait lines are Explosives, Firearms, Inventions, Alchemy, and Tools, and useful crafting disciplines include weaponsmith, huntsman, leatherworker, jeweler and chef.

Thief

Thieves are of course skilled in stealth and surprise attacks, and are able to burst their targets and hide before they are able to fight back. Thieves can also steal environmental weapons from their enemies, making sure the fight goes in their favor, and they can also set up various traps. Their unique attribute is cunning, which decreases the recharge time of stealing.

The thief basically has no cooldown on his abilities, however the skills he uses spend Initiative: it allows you to quickly chain attacks but you can’t use them for a longer time afterwards. Thief’s special skills are the following:

• Dual wield skills – Available only to the thief profession, these weapon skills are determined by the combination of main-hand and off-hand weapons equipped.
• Shadow stepping – Certain skills allow the thief to disappear from one location and then instantly appear at a different location by traveling through the shadows.
• Stealth – Thieves have access to multiple skills which make them invisible to enemy players and ignore aggro. While in stealth the thief is not targetable, but can still be damaged by AoEs/Ground-targeted skills, and attacking will break the deception.
• Stealth skills – While in stealth, the first weapon skill of the thief’s skill bar is replaced by a special skill only usable while stealthed.
• Traps – Placed at a thief’s current location, they trigger and cause an effect whenever an enemy steps onto one.
• Venoms – apply a creature’s venom to your weapon to inflict conditions with attacks.

Their traits are Deadly Arts, Critical Strikes, Shadow Arts, Acrobatics, and Trickery. Crafting skills that benefit the Thief are huntsman, jeweler, leatherworker, weaponsmith and chef.

Ranger

Rangers are of course skills with using a bow and are best when attacking enemies from a safe distance. They can also use pets to keep their enemies at bay. Ranger’s unique attribute Empathy increases the attributes of their pets.

Ranger’s special skill types are:

• Chains – Up to three skills that share a single skill slot, which are executed in sequence on a single target.
• Survival – Utility skills that enhance survival or offensive abilities.
• Spirits – Summon a nature spirit that influences the area around it.
• Traps – Utility skills that can be placed at a ranger’s current location. When an enemy enters a trap, it is triggered.

Their trait lines include:

• Wilderness Survival – increases Toughness and Condition damage
• Marksmanship – increases Power and Condition duration
• Skirmishing – increases Precision and critical hit damage
• Nature Magic – increases vitality and boon duration
• Beast Mastery – increases healing and pet attributes

Crafting disciplines that are useful for Rangers are weaponsmith, leatherworker, huntsman, jeweler and chef.

Elementalist

Elementalist profession harnesses the power of four basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air. Depending on which weapon set they have equipped and the elemental attunement they choose the weapon skills on their action bar change, allowing for many different combinations depending on the situation. Attunement skills can be changed in combat, however weapon sets can not. Elementalists unique attribute is Intelligence, and they wear light armor.

Skill types that are available to Elementalist profession are the following:

• Arcane – spells use non-elemental magical energy which cast instantly.
• Auras – working similar to boons.
• Cantrips – involve tricks, sorcery and charms, which all cast instantly and break stun.
• Conjures – Summon useful items and potent weapons that the elementalist and other allies can use.
• Glyphs – Utility skills which enhance or modify the natural power of the elementalist. This also includes the addition of summoning elementals based on the elementalist’s current attunement.

Elementalist traits are Fire Magic, Air Magic, Earth Magic, Water Magic and Arcana. Crafting disciplines useful to them are weaponsmith, artificing, tailoring, jewellery and chef.

Mesmer

Mesmers are the masters of illusions and crowd control. Since they wear light armor they rely on their illusions and clones to confuse their opponents while they slowly wear them down. Illusions can also be shattered, enabling them to deal secondary effects such as confusion. Mesmer unique attribute is Guile, which decreases the recharge rate of your shatter skills: Mind Wrack (does damage to nearby foes), Cry of Frustration (applies confusion to nearby foes), Diversion (dazes the target), and Distortion (causes caster to evade attacks).

Special skill types for Mesmers are:

• Illusions – Physical representations of the caster. Most require a target, and are dispelled by being attacked. Up to three illusions can be maintained. There are two types of illusions:
  • Clones – Have the caster’s appearance, main-hand weapon, and name. Clones are attributed with low health, low damage and will use the slot 1 skill associated with the caster’s weapon.
  • Phantasms – Have the caster’s appearance with a purple glow, but take up the name of the skill (e.g. Illusionary Duelist) instead of the caster’s name. They have their own weapons that range in different appearances and behaviors. Phantasms are attributed with higher health and higher damage than clones.
• Mantras – Consist of two skills, similar to sequence skills. The first skill, which has a long cast time (around 3 seconds), is replaced by the second skill which has no cast time and can be cast during channeled spells. Multiple mantras can be prepared.

Mesmer trait lines are Domination, Dueling, Chaos, Inspiration, and Illusions. Crafting skills you might want to go for are weaponsmith, huntsman, artificer, tailor, jeweler and chef.

Necromancer

Necromancers channel blood energy, rend the souls of their enemies and summon the dead to do their bidding. They use a special resource called “life force” which is gathered every time a creature dies in their vicinity or alternatively by using particular abilities. Life Force is used to power up Death Shroud, which is Necromancer’s special form where they are immune to knockdowns and have access to new skills and traits, particularly those that buff and heal their allies.

Necromancers wear light armor, and their unique attribute is Hunger which increases their Life Force resource pool. The profession-specific skills are:

• Marks – These are ground-targeted spells that produce a variety of effects for allies and foes. A mark is placed at a location and will trigger after a foe stands on it.
• Minions – The necromancer summons undead minions to attack foes and do his bidding. Every minion-summoning spell has an associated secondary spell that appears after the minion has been summoned. This secondary spell changes the abilities of a minion, or destroys it for the necromancer’s benefit.
• Wells – Wells are persistent spells that allow a necromancer to control the area around him. Created at the necromancer’s location, wells affect targets within the skill’s range.

The five trait lines available to Necromancer profession are Spite, Curses, Death Magic, Blood Magic and Soul Reaping. Crafting disciplines useful for this profession are weaponsmithing, huntsman, artificer, tailor, jeweler and chef.

I do hope this beginners Guild Wars 2 classes guide helped you understand the basic mechanics and gameplay for each profession. If you’d like to read more detailed information about professions that include skills and abilities, trait line builds, combat tips and more I recommend the following resources:

• Guild Wars 2 Official Website
• Guild Wars 2 Wiki

Everyone has their own style of play though, so this guide will provide you with a beginners breakdown of all classes in TERA than what you can usually find:, their basic gameplay style, an example of a few abilities and their base stats. Hopefully this guide will help you pick the right one. Before we get to it though, there are two things you should know:

1. Every class has a damage and weapon damage rating. There’s no difference between physical and magical damage making damage resistance items obsolete. Instead, you can build resistances to critical hits, stuns, knockdowns and similar forms of crowd control.
2. All classes except the Priest and Mystic have a “Backstep” skill, which is the main dodge skill.

That being said, there are 4 class archetypes in TERA:

• Tanking: Lancer, Warrior
• Melee DPS: Berserker, Slayer
• Ranged DPS: Archer, Sorcerer
• Support: Mystic, Priest

Tanking Classes

Lancer

Lancers are the primary tanks in TERA, though as with primary tanks in most games, they are far and few between. They wield a large shield and lance, wear heavy armor, and have the second highest HP pool out of all eight classes. Their damage rating is the third lowest (Priest and Mystic having the lowest damage rating), but this is off-set by their survivability. And of course, they have an AoE taunt.

Lancers are not only sturdy, but one of their skills blocks 100% of all damage taken from the front and, partially, the sides. In general, DPS classes will attempt to skirt around behind the Lancer, but a good Lancer can simply re-position his or her shield block. Lancers also have a self-heal, which obviously can be a life saver.

This class also has an excellent technique for getting away (or catching up), which is their forward-charging dash. This skill seems to have a high knock-down rate when it hits, but it is also worth mentioning that this skill causes the Lancer to run faster than mounted players as well. So if someone mounts up to try and get away, the Lancer can chase them down and knock them off their horse. Alternatively, they can use it to get away, or to catch up to ranged classes.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 689
• MP: 100/100
• MP Regen Rate: +5 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 49
• Defense: 29
• Movement Speed: 105 in combat
• Critical Hit: 50

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 80
• Root/Hold: 55
• Poison/Disease: 40
• Addiction: 25
• Confusion: 40

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 10
• Armor: 33

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 5M
• Target-Type: Line
• Attack Speed: 0.5
• MP Change: +5 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your lancer’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Energetic Charging Lunge: Speeds the cooldown of your Charging Lunge.
• Energetic Second Wind: Reduces the skill’s cooldown, so you can recover more quickly.
• Lingering Debilitate: Your enemies are weakened by Debilitate even longer.
• Longshot Leash: Increases the range of your Leash skill.
• Threatening Challenging Shout: Your Challenging Shout draws even more enemy attention.
• Threatening Combo Attack: Your basic attack draws even more aggro.
• Threating Shield Counter: Add insult to injury, and generate more aggro with your Shield Counter skill.

Warrior

Warrior is the second and last tank in TERA. Warrior’s wield duel swords, wear light armor, and have the highest HP pool and movement speed out of all eight classes. Furthermore, Warrior attacks are an arc – meaning they are not purely single-target characters. If you and your buddy are in the path of the swinging swords, you will both get hit, instead of just one of you. Warrior’s damage rating is higher than a Lancer, making them third lowest; they are positioned between Sorcerer (lower) and Slayer (higher) on the damage rating.

Warriors are classified as the evasion tanks of TERA. They have fewer taunt options than a Lancer, but their higher DPS, as well as an AoE stun, make them a viable option as a tank. Warriors are a similar play style to rogues and assassins in other MMO’s, but lack the stealth feature. Stealth is a skill that the TERA developers did not want to add to the game for any of the classes, as it is too game-breaking in PvP.

Warriors have a great technique for getting away or catching up to someone, although I personally do not believe it is as good as a Lancer’s. Warrior’s dodge is a great way to get away or chase someone; the simple flaw with this is the animation is different for each race. While a Castanic Female Warrior’s dodge is a fancy leap (which can leap over attacks), other races must suffice with a roll or somersault. Because of this, the majority of Warriors are generally Female Castanics; the smaller hitbox of the female Castanic also plays a role in this, as Warriors are a tank that shouldn’t be getting hit by what they are fighting.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 903
• MP: 100/100
• MP Regen Rate: +5 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 66
• Defense: 24
• Movement Speed: 120
• Critical Hit: 50

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 80
• Root/Hold: 55
• Poison/Disease: 40
• Addiction: 25
• Confusion: 40

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 11
• Armor: 17

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 2M
• Target-Type: Arc
• Attack Speed: 0.4
• MP Change: +5 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your warrior’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Energetic Death From Above: Your skill cools down faster.
• Grounded Defensive Stance: The stance now raises your endurance as well.
• Lucky Battle Cry: Boosts your Battle Cry’s chance of stunning.
• Threatening Battle Cry: Your Battle Cry generates extra aggro.
• Threatening Torrent of Blows: Your Torrent of Blows generates extra aggro.
• Binding Torrent of Blows: Your Torrent of Blows may immobilize those it hits.
• Persistent Evasive Roll: Your Evasive Roll gains a chance to refresh immediately upon use.

Melee DPS Classes

Berserker

Berserker is the first Melee DPS class I will cover. Berserker’s wield giant axes, wear heavy armor and have the highest weapon damage rating; tied with an Archer. Their damage rating is second only to Archer. Their crit rate is highest; tied with Slayers. Berserkers for some time were mistaken as a third possible tank, due to the fact that they also wear plate armor. This however is certainly not the case, although if pressed a Berserker can tank, it is not a viable options. Berserkers are meant to attack from behind along with the other DPS classes. Despite their heavy armor, they can be blown up pretty quickly whether it’s by a monster or by another player.

Berserkers are the slowest Melee DPS class, with an attack speed of 0.7 which is matched only by Sorcerer. Despite this slow attack speed, Berserkers can crank out a great deal of damage, with their high damage and weapon damage ratings. Their range is only a short three meters, but this is offset by the splash damage effect of their skills, and the spin of their charge-up technique.

Berserkers have become notorious for their ability to one-shot almost every other class, which obviously appeals greatly to many players. Berserkers are quite possibly one of very few classes that can give a Lancer a difficult time, seeing as their heavy armor mitigates much of a Lancer’s already poor DPS, as well as their ability to hit extremely hard.

The splash damage of a Berserker is slightly less than the damage dealt by a full-on hit, but is still absolutely devastating if it crits. As an Archer I personally fought against a Berserker in a 5v5 fight, and was one-shot by the splash damage of a Berserker. This damage hit me for 16,000 which is four thousand HP over what my health would have been if I were at full health. Those who were in the direct path of his hit and were also crit were hit for nearly 20,000 if not higher depending on their armor type.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 650
• MP: 0/100
• MP Regen Rate: +10 per second while in combat, -20 per second while out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 78
• Defense: 26
• Movement Speed: 105
• Critical Hit: 75

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 40
• Root/Hold: 20
• Poison/Disease: 35
• Addiction: 20
• Confusion: 15

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 14
• Armor: 33

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 3M
• Target-Type: Varies
• Attack Speed: 0.7
• MP Change: +10 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your berserker’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Balancing Tenacity: Greatly boosts your resistance to knockdowns and immobility.
• Carving Combo Attack: Your Combo Attack has greater odds of scoring a critical hit.
• Empowered Vampiric Blow: Boost the damage of your Vampiric Blow.
• Energetic Tenacity: Your Tenacity skill cools down faster.
• Fleetfooted Fiery Rage: You both move and attack faster.
• Hastened Cyclone: Your Cyclone skill charges up faster.
• Mindsparked Axe Block: When you block, you regain some mana.
• Slick Thunder Strike: While charging your Thunder Strike, you can move at your normal speed.
• Spirited Combo Attack: Your combos generate even more mana.
• Swift Flatten: Your Flatten attack lands faster.

Slayer

Slayers are the second and last Melee DPS class of TERA. Slayer’s wield giant swords, wear light armor, and have the third highest damage rating. They are tied for highest critical hit rate with Berserkers. They also have the second-highest weapon damage rating! Slayers were also for some time thought to be a viable option for tanking in TERA, but lack of a proper taunt means they must out-damage the rest of their group while also attempting to dodge the majority of incoming attacks. Due to the complexity of tanking as a Slayer, and their squishiness, they are not a viable option as a tank. As with Berserker and the Ranged DPS classes, they are meant to flank their enemies and attack from behind or the sides where they will hopefully not be hit.

Slayer’s are in the mid-range of attack speed, a 0.6 which they are tied with Priest and Mystic for. While they are rather squishy if caught, they have greater mobility than a Berserker. With self-buffs for run speed, coupled with a ranged sword strike; they are a worthy opponent for the Ranged DPS classes, in some cases considered the counter class for Archers and Sorcerers.

Slayer’s damage out-put is slightly lower than that of a Berserker, but their faster attack speed, ranged attack, and movement speed buffs more than make up for it. While a great majority of Berserkers can be kited in circles, Slayers are extremely difficult to outrange, seeing as their ranged attack has a range of fourteen meters; this is only one meter less than the range of a Archer or Sorcerer’s base attacks, and four meters longer than the range of a Priest or Mystic.

Slayers are said to be the closest to an Assassin or Rogue as you will get. Despite their lack of dual wield, their feel, damage, and the way they play are more similar to an Assassin than any other class.

Class Base Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 648
• MP: 0/100
• MP Regen Rate: +10 per second while in combat, -20 per second while out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 71
• Defense: 21
• Movement Speed: 110
• Critical Hit: 75

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 40
• Root/Hold: 20
• Poison/Disease: 35
• Addiction: 20
• Confusion: 15

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 13
• Armor: 17

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 3M
• Target-Type: Arc
• Attack Speed: 0.6
• MP Change: +10 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your slayer’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Brilliant Leaping Strike: Your Leaping Strike costs less to use.
• Empowered Knockdown Strike: Your Knockdown Strike does extra damage.
• Energetic Tenacity: Reduces the cooldown of your Tenacity skill.
• Fleetfooted Evasive Roll: Gain a chance of raising your movement speed whenever you use Evasive Roll.
• Grounded Triumphant Shout: Fortifies your endurance.
• Lingering Startling Kick: Enemies hit by Startling Kick stay stunned longer.
• Persistent Evasive Roll: Your Evasive Roll gains a chance to refresh immediately upon use.
• Powerlinked Knockdown Strike: Substantially increases the damage of your Whirlwind skill when used after Knockdown Strike.
• Restorative Overhand Strike: Recover some health whenever you use Overhand Strike.
• Spirited Triumphant Shout: Your Triumphant Shout regenerates more mana than usual.

Ranged DPS Classes

Archer

Archers are what I like to call the snipers of TERA. Their play style is very reminiscent of snipers, seeing as in PvP and boss fights they tend to snipe the primary target with their charge up shots; Penetrating Arrow and Radiant Arrow. As is typical of Archer classes, Archers wield a bow, and wear light armor. But here is where Archers differ from the norm; they do not require ammo. Archers in TERA have unlimited ammunition, which is explained by the developers as the arrows technically being “magic”. Due to this, bows are classified as magical weapons when it comes to crafting.

Archers have the highest damage rating, weapon damage rating, and range (fifteen meters), but have the second lowest HP pool of all eight classes. Despite their low HP pool, they are not quite as fragile as other ranged/support classes due to the fact they wear light armor, and not cloth. Their use of light armor, as well as their dodge skills increases their survivability greatly; but as always in TERA it is up to the player to make proper use of these defenses.

It is worth mentioning that the 15 meter range applies only to their base attack (left click by default). Skills such as Penetrating Arrow have a range of 17-19 meters, and can have their range increased by Glyphs. At maximum, Penetrating Arrow’s range can be increased to roughly 21 meters with Glyphs. That being said, the farther away you are the less damage you deal.

Archers are a single-target DPS class, although they do have a minor Lock-On AoE. In later levels they will have one or two more AoE options, but the majority of their skills are single-target. That being said, their initial charge up skill that they acquire (Penetrating Arrow) can damage multiple targets if they are bunched closely together or are stacked on top of each other. Thus the “Penetrating” in the skill name. Penetrating Arrow is the first of two charge up skills that Archer gets, the second being Radiant Arrow, which is nearly identical but is purely single-target unlike its predecessor. Due to being purely single-target, Radiant Arrow is capable of putting out even more damage than Penetrating Arrow, but its range is slightly shorter as well to compensate.

As in other MMO’s, Archers in TERA have a variety of Traps. Originally, there were four different trap skills available to Archer. However, with the incredible strength of Poison Arrow on their side already, Archer’s poison trap was removed. The first trap an Archer gets is called Cobweb Trap. As you might imagine, this trap is an AoE snare. The second trap that an Archer acquires is called Incendiary Trap. This trap is pretty simple; it does AoE damage, and that’s about it. Our third and last trap, is Concussion Trap; quite possibly my favorite. Concussion Trap is an AoE stun, and with the use of glyphs, the duration of the stun can be increased by 40%.

Archers are a very mobile class due to their ranged nature. Albeit squishy, their ability to kite, dodge, and their high DPS makes them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. An Archer’s role both in PvE and PvP are to focus the main target; generally whatever the tank is occupying. Due to their single-target nature, they are very useful for quickly blowing up a single target. Coupled with their debuff (Mark of Velik) which causes the Archer to deal 10% more damage to the marked target, and Sniper’s Eye which increases strength by 50, and adds an additional 25% damage in PvP (though decreases attack speed by 30%) they can increase their damage against the main target by a significant amount.

If there is a Lancer in the Archer’s group, the Lancer can use one of his skills to further decrease the target’s defense. This lethal combination can result in the Archer critical hitting PvP targets for all of their HP. Warrior also has a similar skill known as Combative Strike, which is acquired at LV6.

And of course with Close Quarters (melee-range AoE stun), Backstep (dodge), and Breakaway Bolt (dodge with damage), Archers have a wonderful slew of abilities they can use to outrange or escape their foes.

Class Base Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 598
• MP: 50/50
• MP Regen Rate: +5 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 81
• Defense: 27
• Movement Speed: 110
• Critical Hit: 25

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 30
• Root/Hold: 20
• Poison/Disease: 35
• Addiction: 20
• Confusion: 15

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 14
• Armor: 17

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 15M
• Target-Type: Single Target
• Attack Speed: 0.5
• MP Change: -4 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your archer’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Slick Penetrating Arrow: You can charge your Penetrating Arrow skill and still move at full speed.
• Energetic Breakaway Bolt: Your Breakaway Bolt skill’s cooldown time decreases.
• Lingering Poison Arrow: Increases the duration of your Poison Arrow skill tremendously.
• Persistent Close Quarters: When you use Close Quarters, there’s a chance it will have no cooldown time.
• Spirited Rapid Fire: If you hit your target with Rapid Fire, there’s a chance your mana regeneration will increase.
• Fleetfooted Breakaway Bolt: When you use Breakaway Bolt, there’s a good chance it boosts your movement speed.
• Blazing Final Salvo: If you chain to it from Final Salvo, your Penetrating Arrow skill will charge a lot faster.
• Empowered Incendiary Trap: Your Incendiary Trap does more damage.
• Lingering Slow Trap: Your Slow Trap impedes affected targets a lot longer.
• Piercing Arrow: Your basic Arrow skill has a chance of doing double damage each hit.

Sorcerer

Sorcerer is the AoE Ranged DPS class of TERA. Although they do have a wide variety of single-target spells, many of their skills are AoE or splash damage, and as such their damage and weapon damage ratings are slightly lower. In fact, a Sorcerer’s base damage rating is only fourth highest (behind Archer, Berserker, and Slayer in that order), and their weapon damage is higher only than a Warrior and a Lancer. Their range however, is fifteen meters.

Sorcerers, surprisingly, have a higher HP pool than Archers, but this is countered by the fact they wear cloth armor. Sorcerers are incredibly squishy, making it imperative that they dodge, outrange, and when necessary; run away. This class is extremely kite-based, and as such they have not only a snare available to them, but also an AoE sleep. This sleep is easy to dodge however, but can be extremely useful in team fights. 1v1 the AoE isn’t as useful, though some people are stupid and can’t dodge.

Despite the fire and ice elements shown in Sorcerer skills, there once again is only one type of damage: Damage. Because of this, there is no need to match certain elements vs. certain enemies. While you would think using a skill like Fireblast against a lava monster would be a bad idea… there is no penalty for using such skills against monsters. There are no elemental attacks or resistances!

Sorcerers start off fairly weak in PvP at the lower levels, but as they get higher in level they become more and more dangerous. Sorcerer only has one truly offensive charge up skill, which is known as Arcane Pulse (formerly named Blastball). While this skill can do a great amount of damage, it is very slow moving and easy to dodge. Because of how easy it is to dodge, it is usually released early in order to catch enemy targets by surprised; still doing a decent amount of damage when released early. Especially since this skill will hit all targets within a twenty-one meter line.

Sorcerer has of course Backstep, as do nearly all classes, but they also have a skill known as Glacial Retreat. Glacial Retreat is similar to an Archer’s Breakaway Bolt, but on top of doing damage, it has a 70% AoE snare as an added effect. This helps greatly with outranging both melee classes and other ranged classes on the battlefield.

Sorcerer also has two traps at its disposal; Painful Trap, which simply does damage, and Lightning Trap, which is an AoE Paralyze.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 582
• MP: 200/200
• MP Regen Rate: +10 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 64
• Defense: 12
• Movement Speed: 110
• Critical Hit: 25

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 30
• Root/Hold: 20
• Poison/Disease: 35
• Addiction: 20
• Confusion: 15

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 12
• Armor: 10

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 15M
• Target-Type: Single Target
• Attack Speed: 0.7
• MP Change: -1 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your sorcerer’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Persistent Magma Bomb: Gain a chance for Magma Bomb’s cooldown to refresh as soon as you cast it.
• Longshot Fireball: Increases the range of your Fireball spell.
• Spirited Mana Infusion: Your Mana Infusion replenishes more of your mana.
• Numbing Ice Needle: Your Ice Needle skill slows its targets even more than normal.
• Multiplicative Time Gyre: Capture even more targets in your Time Gyre skill.
• Lingering Ice Needle: When your Ice Needle skill slows a target, the chill lasts even longer.
• Lingering Glacial Retreat: Your Glacial Retreat skill slows your opponents down even longer.
• Numbing Painblast: Adds a chance that your Painblast skill may slow the movement speed of those it hits.
• Shared Fireblast: If your Fireblast skill hits more than one target, it does bonus damage.
• Hastened Fireblast: Cast your powerful Fireblast spell faster.

Support Classes

Mystic

Mystics are a strange support class; sporting pets, debuffs, heals, and buffs. I consider them to be a sort of hybrid, although in Korean release they have managed to often take the role of main healer in some groups. This is strange seeing as they only have two or three skills that heal. Mystics use Wands, and wear cloth armor. They have the lowest HP pool, lowest damage (tied with Priest), lowest Critical Hit (tied with Priest), lowest weapon damage (also tied with Priest). Their squishiness of course is offset by the fact they can heal themselves, and their teleport skill.

Mystics are a strange class, in a way they are a jack of all trades, but for the most part their skills are unique to themselves. Mystics have four different pets, known as Thralls. The first Thrall they acquire is the Thrall of Protection, which is a tank pet. The cooldown on the Thrall of Protection is ten minutes, and it lasts for ten minutes unless of course it dies. The Thrall of Protection generates quite a bit of threat, and can knock down the enemy it is fighting. The second is Thrall of Vengeance. This spirit of Lightning is a moderate DPS thrall, with a twenty-two second cooldown.

After this, comes the Thrall of Life. This cute little fairy has the same skills as a Priest as far as heals go; including AoE Heal and AoE Dispel. Meaning, this little fairy can not only heal you, but can also heal your team mates. That being said, it only stays for twelve seconds, and is on a thirty-five second cooldown. Lastly, is Thrall of Obliteration. This thrall will attack once and disappear, which may seem odd for its ten minute cooldown, but one would assume it does a good amount of damage.

Besides the lovely Thralls, another thing Mystics love about themselves (and everyone else hates), is their escape technique; Teleport Jaunt. This skill has a ten second cooldown, and teleports the Mystic fourteen meters away in the camera direction. Already an annoying skill, Mystics can acquire a Glyph which has a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Teleport Jaunt after being used. Personally, when fighting a Mystic; the Mystic’s cooldown reset three times in a row and it is next to impossible to guess which direction they are teleporting in.

Also at the disposal of a Mystic, are snares, poisons, debuffs, buffs, Summon Group, Resurrect, and the ability to bestow Vow of Rebirth on allies; which means once the ally dies, they can resurrect automatically.

I spoke a little of one of Mystics “heals”; Thrall of Life. Another option they have for healing is acquired at LV1, and is called Arun’s Vitae. Tis skill is on a 5 second cooldown, and they simply drop red orbs on the ground which allies can pick up to heal themselves. In later levels, they also acquire Arun’s Tear, which is the same concept; except is blue and restores mana.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 580
• MP: 200/200
• MP Regen Rate: +10 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 32
• Defense: 14
• Movement Speed: 110
• Critical Hit: 20

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 25
• Root/Hold: 70
• Poison/Disease: 90
• Addiction: 70
• Confusion: 90

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 7
• Armor: 10

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 10M
• Target-Type: Single Target
• Attack Speed: 0.6
• MP Change: -3 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your mystic’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Brilliant Sonorous Dreams: Sonorous Dreams costs less mana to cast.
• Empowered Sharan Bolt: Your Sharan Bolt does more damage.
• Energetic Metamorphic Smite: Speeds up the cooldown of your Metamorphic Smite.
• Fortified Thrall of Protection: Strengthens the armor of your Thrall of Protection pet.
• Hastened Mana Infusion: Mana infusion restores your mana more quickly.
• Influential Metamorphic Smite: You can chain-cast Metamorphic Blast for less mana.
• Lingering Volley of Curses: Your curse hangs on your enemies even longer.
• Multiplicative Arun’s Cleansing: Increases the number of targets so you can help more of your friends.
• Persistent Teleport Jaunt: Adds a chance to refresh the cooldown of Teleport Jaunt when you cast it.
• Trebling Corruption Ring: Hugely increases your resistance to knockdown and immobility.

Priest

Priest is the main healer in TERA. They have the lowest HP pool, lowest damage (tied with Mystic), lowest Critical Hit (tied with Mystic), lowest weapon damage (also tied with Mystic), wield Staffs, and wear cloth armor. Their squishiness of course is offset by the fact they can heal themselves (and of course, others).

Surprisingly, Priests are capable of DPSing as well as healing, although it is advised that unless you are a very skilled Priest you only stick to healing. Priests also have an ability which I personally find pretty broken; Ishara’s Lullaby. Ishara’s Lullaby, quite simply, is a Lock-On sleep. With a cooldown of only thirty-five seconds, this is more than enough time for Priest to use it in order to interrupt an enemy’s charge up skill, heal themselves, then begin damaging their enemy again. Priest DPS is a combination of ranged (ten meter) and melee-range skills.

Priest has six different heals currently at its disposal. However, only one of these skills is a self-heal. All other heals (except for HoT’s) do not affect the caster. Priest’s self-heal, which is the first heal they acquire, is called Heal Thyself. From here, you get Sanctuary of Regeneration, which creates a circle on the ground in front of you that regenerates the HP of your allies who are on or in the circle. After this, they acquire Focus Heal, which is a lock-on heal for up to two targets (and you cannot lock-on to yourself). And then, you get Regeneration Circle, which also (obviously) creates a circle on the ground; this one however is a HoT. After this comes Healing Circle, which is a small circle on the ground before you, but is a massive heal for those you manage to hit with it; although it is perilous to use it, so you must time it correctly. And finally, there is Blessing of Balder, which is another (weaker) HoT.

Also in Priest’s arsenal of group-friendly skills, are a group summon skill, and a teleport that takes yourself and your group members to the nearest Campfire. As well as these useful teleports, Priest has a non-combat movement speed buff, a strength buff, an endurance (defense) buff, and a buff that increases resistances to harmful effects for your whole group! And of course there is Resurrect, a damage-absorbing shield, and a skill to make knocked-down group members rise to their feet again.

As I said at the beginning of this extremely long article, Priests do not have Backstep. This was replaced by their self-heal. That being said, Priests do have an escape known as Fiery Escape. This is very similar to Sorcerer’s Glacial Retreat; right down to the 70% snare.

A skilled Priest can keep their entire group alive and maintain a good amount of DPS in PvE scenarios. This does of course also rely on your team’s ability to dodge and stay out of AoE skills. If your team is dumb and gets hit by every skill the mob uses, you may want to consider yelling at them or sticking to just healing.

Base Class Stats

Vitality Stats

• HP: 527
• MP: 250/250
• MP Regen Rate: +10 per second in and out of combat.

Basic Stats

• Damage: 32
• Defense: 13
• Movement Speed: 110
• Critical Hit: 20

Resistance Stats

• Critical Hit: 25
• Root/Hold: 70
• Poison/Disease: 90
• Addiction: 70
• Confusion: 90

Equipment Stats

• Weapon Damage: 7
• Armor: 10

Basic Attack Info

• Direction: Forward
• Range: 10M
• Target-Type: Single Target
• Attack Speed: 0.6
• MP Change: -3 per attack.

Abilities

Glyphs

Starting at level 20, glyphs can be applied to customize your priest’s skills in a variety of ways. Here are some samples:

• Boosted Zenobia’s Gift: Reduces the casting time of your Zenobia’s Gift spell.
• Brilliant Resurrect: It costs you less mana to resurrect your fallen friends.
• Energetic Arise: Reduces the cooldown time of your Arise skill.
• Lingering Regeneration Circle: Your Regeneration Circle skill’s health-restoring effects last longer.
• Longshot Focus Heal: You can reach your allies from further away with your Focused Heal skill.
• Multiplicative Focus Heal: Your Focused Heal skill can touch more allies at once.
• Numbing Final Reprisal: Your Final Reprisal gains a chance to slow your target’s movement.
• Powerlinked Triple Nemesis: Greatly increases the damage of your Metamorphic Blast skill if you use it after casting Triple Nemesis.
• Restorative Healing Circle: Improves the healing power of your Healing Circle skill.
• Spirited Mana Infusion: Increases the mana recovery of your Mana Infusion skill.

I hope this guide helps you make the right class choice. If you have any questions or any information to add, you’re welcome to post in the comments below.

Don’t forget to also add your own tips and tricks on leveling in the comments below.

1. Quests Give Most Experience

It’s nothing uncommon for MMORPGs; doing quests will yield the most and easiest experience points to reach new levels. Storyline quests dish out the most XP gain, so make sure to always do those. Grinding in TERA isn’t all that worth it, and as always it’s tedious and very, very boring. Fortunately you can skip it.

2. Dungeons Give Massive XP Too

Whenever you get to a level and can go to a new dungeon, make sure to take full advantage of that. Don’t just do the instance once: I recommend you clear it 3-4 times at least, as each run can give you one additional level, even post level 30. Along the way you’ll surely pick up some good items, which will further help you with leveling. The downside is that you’ll have to look for a good group to make dungeon clearing as fast and smooth as possible, but it’s well worth it.

3. Some Classes Level Faster

Obviously, damage dealing classes will level up at a faster rate than say, Priests. Of course it’s up to you which class to play depending on your play style and personal preference, but it’s something you should keep in mind; if you want to level up to the cap as quick as you can, pick something that can dish out more damage and farm with as little downtime as possible.

4. Group Up With Friends

If for example you are playing a Priest, you’ll quickly notice that you aren’t the best farmer in the game. Grouping with a Warrior for example can tremendously increase your leveling speed because you’ll be killing monsters with nearly no downtime at all. If you don’t play with any friends, joining a guild might be worth it.

5. Join a Guild

Fortunately joining a guild in TERA is incredibly easy. The game interface allows you to list all available guilds out there, whether they are recruiting, their praise level, guild level and more. Your guild might ask you to help complete some guild quests, but fortunately you can benefit from that as well by gaining various elixirs, for example those that increase your experience gain from doing quests.

6. Group Gathering

A weird concept, I know, but in TERA it works extremely well. You can group up with your friends and guildmates and harvest ore and herbs together. This is particularly useful at level 11 when you’re doing the quest to obtain a mount: gathering 10 resources is much faster if you group up with someone instead of trying to outrun them to the node.

7. Don’t Forget Glyphs

Glyphs are kind of like talent trees: they make your character more powerful in various aspects and you should always use them when available. First glyphs are available at level 20 (a whooping 10 points), and after that you will gain one glyph for each level, so be sure to open up your skills menu and use them. Improving your skills is, needless to say, beneficial. But I said it anyway.

8. Long Queues Give XP Boosts

That’s right: waiting in a queue to get into the game gives you an experience boost. I’m actually surprised other games didn’t think of that, as it’s nearly inevitable in the first few weeks after a game gets released. Some servers might have lower populations and queues are usually not that long (if there are queues at all), but on high population servers the situation can be quite different. After waiting in a queue for 10 minutes, for every additional minute you receive a 10% XP boost helping you catch up. This buff persists through death and will even be available if you log out.

9. Use LFG Tool

The “Looking For Group” tool is very useful, and you should make sure to always use it when you are, well, looking for a group. You can access it with the “Y” hotkey (default), and write your own message in the dialog, or browse other player’s messages. You can also publish your message on the LFG chat, which other players can click there to view details and message you.

10. Use Chain Skills

At level 4 (I think) you should already have a basic understanding of chain skills and how they work. By accessing your chain skills menu in your skill list (“K” hotkey) you can setup your skills for use immediately after another. It effectively works like macros and is very helpful.

Hopefully these few tips will help you with leveling your characters in TERA. They aren’t class-specific so you can use it on any class you play. And a second reminder: add your own tips in the comments below so other players can benefit as well. Thanks!

There are three different killstreak packages or “pointstreaks” for Modern Warfare 3 called Assault, Support, and Specialist. The Specialist Strike Package doesn’t have any killstreaks, but it allows you to choose 3 additional perks. The Support Strike Package allows you to die without having your streak reset.

1. Assault Pointstreaks
2. Support Pointstreaks
3. Specialist Pointstreaks
4. Death Pointstreaks

These perks operate in addition to the standard 3 assigned to the custom load out chosen at the beginning of a match.

Assault Pointstreaks

Similar to the killstreak reward system in MW2 and Black Ops having things like the predator drone and helicopters. The pointstreak count resets upon death.

Note: the numbers next to the pointstreak name means how many kills are required to unlock it.

UAV – 3

The Modern Warfare 3 UAV Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in an unmanned aerial recon vehicle that gives the player a mini-map for 30 seconds that details the location of any opponents. It shows their locations even when they are not firing a weapon unlike the regular mini-map display.

Care Package – 4

The Modern Warfare 3 Care Package Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in an air-dropped crate that contains a random benefit for the player. It might be anything from ammo to the most powerful killstreak.

IMS – 5

Intelligent Munitions System Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain is a ground based mine that fires an explosive projectile vertically.

Predator Missile – 5

Predator Missile Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in a AGM-114 Hellfire missile that is deployed from an aerial vehicle and is remote controlled by the player until it explodes upon impacting a target or running out of fuel. Players can accelerate the missile by using the fire button. It can be used to take out aerial vehicles.

Sentry Gun – 5

Sentry Gun Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain is an unmanned turret mounted machine gun that automatically targets and fires upon enemies using thermal detection technology.

Precision Airstrike – 6

Precision Airstrike Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in three F-15 fighter jets to make a bombing run on a location of the players choice.

Attack Helicopter – 7

Attack Helicopter Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in a helicopter that automatically targets enemies from the air. It has a large firing range and moves quickly making it harder to target than some of the other choppers in the game.

Strafe Run – 9

Strafe Run Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain will call in 5 attack helicopters that sweep a player designated area twice then leave.

Little bird Guard – 9

Little Bird Guard Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in an AH-6 helicopter that follows the player and fires on any enemies encountered.

Reaper – 9

Reaper Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in an armed Reaper UAV which allows a player to spot targets from overhead and launch up to 5 rockets at them with the help of a laser guidance system.

Assault Drone – 10

Assault Drone Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in the airdrop of a player controlled drone armed with a 50 round MK46 light machine gun and a single shot rocket launcher. It lasts for one minute or until it has taken too much enemy fire.

AC130 – 12

AC130 Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain allows the player to take the control of the guns on and AC-130 while flying over a map.

Pave Low Chopper – 12

Pave Low Chopper Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in the MH-53, a heavily armored assault helicopter. It is more difficult to take down and has more fire power than other choppers in the game.

Juggernaut – 15

Juggernaut Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain gives the player enhanced body armor along with an M60E4 light machine gun and an MP412 handgun.

Osprey Gunner – 17

Osprey Gunner Killstreak /Assault Strike Chain calls in a V-22 Osprey Helicopter and gives the player control of the guns while delivering four care packages plus one booby trapped care package.

Support Pointstreaks

Offers rewards such as UAVs and Sam Turrets. Unlike previous versions of the game, this package will not make the players killstreak / pointstreak count reset upon death. Instead, it will accumulate over the course of a match.

Note: the numbers next to the pointstreak name means how many kills are required to unlock it.

UAV – 4

UAV Killstreak /Support Strike Chain calls in an unmanned aerial recon vehicle that gives the player a mini-map for 30 seconds that details the location of any opponents. It shows their locations even when they are not firing a weapon unlike the regular mini-map display. It can be shot down or jammed with a Counter UAV.

Counter UAV – 5

Counter UAV Killstreak /Support Strike Chain disrupts maps and mini-maps of your enemy.  Also blocks any radar or maps associated with killstreaks. It can be shot down. It is a 5 point strike package reward.

Ballistic Vests – 5

Ballistic Vests Killstreak /Support Strike Chain supplies a duffel bag with vests that increase overall health by 30 points. They are available to teammates but they must pick up one from the duffel bag.

Airdrop Trap – 5

Airdrop Trap Killstreak /Support Strike Chain deploys a booby trapped care package. If an enemy attempts to capture it, a violent explosion will occur killing all within range.

SAM Turret – 8

SAM Turret Killstreak /Support Strike Chain is an unmanned missile launcher that automatically locks on to enemy aircraft and destroys them. It is called in via air drop and is vulnerable to ground attack.

Recon Drone – 10

Recon Drone Killstreak /Support Strike Chain gives you a small UAV helicopter that can fly around the map and tag enemy players revealing their locations.

Advanced AUV – 12

Advanced UAV Killstreak /Support Strike Chain grants the use of an Orbital Reconnaissance Satellite that show the position and direction of enemies on the player’s mini-map. Since it is a satellite it cannot be seen and cannot be shot down.

Remote Turret – 12

Remote Turret Killstreak /Support Strike Chain calls in a turret mounted machine gun that the player can remotely control.

Stealth Bomber – 14

Stealth Bomber Killstreak /Support Strike Chain calls in a B-2 bomber over the map and carpet bombs a designated area. It is invisible to radar and cannot be shot down.

EMP – 18

EMP Killstreak /Support Strike Chain is an Electro-Magnetic Pulse that disables enemy air support and electronics.

Juggernaut Recon – 18

Juggernaut Recon Killstreak /Support Strike Chain calls in an air drop of enhanced Juggernaut armor equipped with a riot shield and a USP .45 handgun. It grants enhanced damage resistance and acts as a mobile motion sensor.

Escort Airdrop – 18

Escort Air Drop Killstreak /Support Strike Chain calls in a V-22 Osprey helicopter that drops four care packages and one booby trapped care package. The chopper still also automatically fires on enemy players while it is on screen.

Specialist Pointstreaks

Specialist Pointstreaks will reward players with perks instead of strike packages. After every 2nd kill, the player will receive new perk options. The streak count will reset each time a player dies.

• 2 Kills: Choose 1 extra perk
• 4 Kills: Choose 2 extra perks
• 6 Kills: Choose 3 extra perks
• 8 Kills: Get all perks

Deathstreak Rewards:

• Juiced – Available after 4 deaths. Allows you to move faster for a few seconds after respawning.
• Final Stand – Available after 4 deaths. Once killed, you can still crawl around and use your primary weapon. One hit from the enemy ends Final Stand.
• Martyrdom – Available after 4 deaths. Drop a live grenade once killed.
• Revenge – Available after 5 deaths. Shows the position of the last enemy that killed you on the radar.
• Hollow points – Available after 5 deaths. Works like Stopping Power by giving extra bullet damage.
• Dead Man’s Hand – Available after 6 deaths. Like Final Stand, but instead you will have two C4′s in your hands.

By learning the best strategies to use each perk for, you can select better perks. When you pick better perks than your opponents (and some are indeed better than others), you will have a strong advantage over the enemy, allowing you to get more kills and suffer less deaths.

There are three tiers of perks; you can select 1 perk from each tier. The descriptions below will tell you a bit about each one and help you pick the best ones according to your playstyle.

Notably missing from the MW3 list are Last Stand, One Man Army, and Commando from previous versions of the game.

• Tier 1 Perks
• Tier 2 Perks
• Tier 3 Perks

Tier 1 Perks

	Perk Name	Effect	Pro Effect
	Sleight of Hand	Fast reloading	Fast weapons change
	Recon	Explosive damage shows target on mini-map	Bullet damage shows target on mini-map
	Blind Eye	Undetectable to air support and sentries	Fast lock-on for rockets. Increased bullet damage to vehicles
	Extreme Conditioning	Increased sprint time	Climbing speed increased
	Scavenger	Get ammo from dead enemies	Get more ammo

There are a lot of good perks here and I can see myself using all of these perks in different game situations. Tier 1 perks tend to all be pretty good, so you have to choose carefully.

First off there is Sleight of Hand. This is good if you are using a gun which runs out of ammo really quickly (SCAR-H from MW2, anyone?). The Pro effect, which lets you swap weapons faster, is good if you are using a Overkill and swapping between a Shotgun and long-ranged gun. It also works for Snipers who want to swap quickly between their Rifle and pistol.

Personally, my favorite of the Tier 1 MW3 perks is Recon, which makes players show up on radar more often. I think that anything which makes players show up on radar more often is practically an unbeatable perk.

Blind Eye is for advanced players; you need to stay alive if you are going to be using any number of Aircraft or Sentries. Taking down enemy planes and vehicles also is a bit of work. Definitely not for new players.

Extreme Conditioning is an okay perk, but really only useful for big maps. I don’t really like it for most maps. If you do use it, it needs to be combined with Steady Aim, so that you can recover quicker from sprinting. Otherwise, you will find yourself on the losing end of a sprint very often.

Finally, there is Scavenger. This is another perk which is reserved for really good players – newbies will not stay alive long enough or win enough battles to actually run out of ammo. If you are running out of ammo, you are wasting bullets a lot (and giving away your position in the process).

Tier 2 Perks

	Perk Name	Effect	Pro Effect
	Quickdraw	Faster aiming	Faster recovery from using grenade/equipment
	Blast Shield	Increased explosive resistance	Resistance to flashbangs and stuns
	Hardline	Killstreaks require 1 fewer kill	Two assists count as kill towards killstreaks. Deathstreaks require 1 fewer death.
	Assassin	Immunity to UAV, portable radar, thermal, and heartbeat	Immunity to CUAV and EMP, no red crosshair or name over you
	Overkill	Carry two primary weapons	Second primary can have attachments

Like Tier 1, Tier 2 has some of the best perks on this Modern Warfare 3 perks list, and it is hard to choose between all these good perks.

Quickdraw is a good choice for Snipers, as aiming faster will net you more kills. I consider Blast Shield to be fairly worthless and I cannot see a reason for using it over some of the other MW3 perks on this list.

Hardline is an excellent perk. Killstreak rewards are very good, and this makes rolling together 3 low-hanging killstreaks very easy. This is simply one of the best perks in the game. Getting two kills means you get a UAV, which can then roll into a few more kills, and you can quickly go up the ladder. My favorite for any mid or long-ranged gun.

Assassin is the best Tier 2 Modern Warfare 3 perk for classes using submachine guns or shotguns. You need to get close to use these weapons effectively, so being able to stay off the radar helps a lot. I recommend combining these with a suppressor (no sound) to stay off the radar entirely. Add in Steady Aim and Sleight of Hand (small maps) or Extreme Conditioning (big maps) and you have a winner.

Overkill is an interesting combination, but I find it hard to justify using this over Hardline or Assassin. Should you be on a map with very small rooms and larger areas, it can be helpful. This way you can pull out your shotgun for close-quarters fighting and then switch to an Assault Rifle when you get out in the open area.

Overkill is also good for Snipers who want a better secondary weapon to defend themselves with for close-quarters combat. Combine with Sleight of Hand for best effect so you can switch between the two easily.

Tier 3 Perks

	Perk Name	Effect	Pro Effect
	Marksman	Identify targets at more distant range	Hold your breath for longer when sniping
	Stalker	Increased movement speed while aiming down the sites	Add delay to enemy claymores before exploding
	SitRep	Detect enemy explosives and tac inserts	Opposing team’s footsteps make more noise
	Steady Aim	Increased accuracy while firing from hip	Weapon ready more quickly after sprint
	Dead Silence	Quieter movement, recon does not work as well against you	Do not take any fall damage

Compared to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Perks, I’ve always found Tier 3 to be particularly underwhelming. I think that there is a lot less competition between perks here and it is easier to pick the best ones.

Marksman is obviously a great perk for Snipers. However, the best Snipers do not need to aim for very long – so the pro effect is fairly useless. You should be able to aim and shoot your target very quickly if you want to be a good sniper.

For everyone else, I would consider Dead Silence and SitRep to be fairly useless. Footstep sounds are hard to detect, as footsteps can be a player in front of you, behind you, above you, or below you. It is not like in real life where you can easily hear the direction of the sound (perhaps this works on surround sound – I don’t have one so I can’t tell for sure).

I do however consider Steady Aim to be an amazing perk for anyone using a submachine gun. This way you can strafe side to side very quickly while shooting from the hip. It significantly increases your accuracy in this regard. If there are too many players using ranged classes and camping out, I like to use a Submachine Gun with a suppressor, Assassin, and Steady Aim. It is a great class for taking out long-ranged players. No need to aim – just shoot from the hip and take people out while you strafe. It is hard to keep up with a Sniper Rifle on a console when you do this.

For everyone else, Stalker is your best bet. You can strafe faster this way when aiming, which can make it harder for your opponent to take you out if you meet in head to head combat, but are too far away to actually shoot from the hip.

Conclusion

By using the information and strategies on this list, you now know the best Modern Warfare 3 perks and the top ways you can combine them to have a winning class. By picking these perks, you can win more fights, level up faster, and have a lot more fun in CoD MW3!

If you care about getting levels quickly in Battlefield 3 and unlocking all weapon customizations as fast as possible, you’ll surely be interested in the following few leveling tips. While some of the following 8 tips are well known to a lot of players, those of you who are new to the game might want a little guidance, so this leveling guide will provide you with the necessary tips and tricks for exactly that.

1. Stick with your squad

The most important tip. I’m sure you already know this. Yet I bet a part of you will always try to act like Rambo. You might think that you’re doing better off when solo, but that’s only K:D wise. The XP points you earn when playing with your squad and assisting each others in kills is much higher compared to that you get when soloing.

2. Use a mic

I don’t think this really needs explanation. Using a microphone will help you communicate better with your team/squad, and having one is crucial to doing good in BF3.

3. Know your role and play your game

I can write so much about this. One of the major reasons a lot of Battlefield 3 players struggle is because they don’t really understand what they are supposed to do as a class. Every class has a role and responsibilities. Learn what are yours and try to stick to those and you’ll see yourself doing much better.

4. Suppress

I’ve written in several of my guides how important it is to suppress. Not only you get to save your team mates in help, it can work really good when you’re trying to push as well.

5. Spot

Very important. If you see an enemy and just kill directly you don’t earn much XP points. Instead make it a habit of pressing Q first to spot the enemy. This will make them flash for 5 seconds on your teams map. You earn points if your team member manages to kill that enemy and double if squad member does.

6. Be your squad’s spawn point

When you die you should always check where your surviving team mates are. If they are close to the objective, then spawn and assist them. This way you can help them when they are in need and earn those precious assist XP points.

Also when none of your members are alive, it’s up to you to stay alive so that they can respawn on you.

7. Learn to follow as well as lead

As a squad leader you can get to earn a lot of points by giving attack or defend order. As a member you can earn by following these orders when you kill all the enemies with in the radius set after tagging a location for attack or defend. Just like spotting this is also a really good way of earning XP.

8. Plant bombs & secure/defend objectives

Don’t play too safe. Take risks, take chances. Push when others won’t.

• Arm or Disarm a bomb in rush – 50 XP
• Capture location in conquest – 150 XP
• Kill an enemy while defending your base – 50 XP
• Win rush mode – 100 XP
• Win conquest mode – 500 XP

If you note the first three, all the major XP points are where you accomplish an important objective or do something for that team that is more than just a kill.

Be sure to also take a look at the tips we have for leveling as each class. Hopefully you’ve found these few quick leveling tips useful. If you have any more, be sure to post them in the comments below.

All weapon mods have some sort of a benefit, but some also have drawbacks (for example, limiting vision or increasing recoil). Be sure to familiarize yourself with all pros and cons before you attach something to your weapon.

• ACOG Sight
• Extended Mags
• Grenade Launcher
• HAMR Scope
• Heartbeat Sensor
• Holographic Sight
• Hybrid Sight
• Rapid Fire
• Red Dot Sight
• Shotgun
• Silencer
• Thermal Sight

ACOG Sight

The Modern Warfare 3 ACOG Sight Attachment adds a 2.5x magnifier to your weapon which is more than double the zoom in of the iron sights or any of the dot sights. It is very useful for extending the long range capabilities of any MW3 weapon, but on many of them it increases aim down sight time, idle sway, and recoil.

Extended Mags

The Modern Warfare 3 Extended Mags Attachment increases the size of the magazine used with a weapon resulting in more bullets fired before reloading is necessary. The amount varies by gun but generally there is about a 50% increase in size. It is best used on weapons that have long reload times but not on guns that you’d frequently reload anyway.

Grenade Launcher

The Modern Warfare 3 Grenade Launcher Attachment is an add on available for assault rifles that adds an under-barrel grenade launcher to the weapon. Grenades have an arming distance of 5-6 meters and will not detonate unless they have traveled this distance. Shooting at obstacles too close to the player will result in the grenade just bouncing off the surface. However nearby enemy players can be killed if the grenade directly impacts them without exploding.

HAMR Scope

The Modern Warfare 3 HAMR Scope Attachment is a dual purpose hybrid sight. One scope is similar to the red dot sight or the holographic sight in that it uses an LED to create a red dot within the reticle for precision aiming while looking down the sight of a gun. The other sight is similar to an ACOG with a 3x magnifier. Players can toggle between the two when this attachment is mounted to a weapon.

Heartbeat Sensor

The Modern Warfare 3 Heartbeat Sensor Attachment uses an electromagnetic field to discern enemy locations and displays them on a screen that is side mounted on a weapon. It acts much like a UAV but only displays enemies that are in close proximity to the player.

Holographic Sight

The Modern Warfare 3 Holographic Sight Attachment uses an LED to create a dot within the reticle for precision aiming while looking down the sight of a gun. It is in many respects just like the Red Dot Sight but it is mounted slightly higher on a weapon and therefore reduces the amount of muzzle flash visible during firing. However, it also slightly limits peripheral vision due to the way the scope blocks out portions of the screen while aiming down the sight.

Hybrid Sight

he Modern Warfare 3 Hybrid Sight Attachment allows a player to have two sights or scopes mounted to the same weapon at the same time. One is a holographic sight and the other a magnified sight which can be used in conjunction by pressing the left arrow on the D pad.

Rapid Fire

The Modern Warfare 3 Rapid Fire Attachment increases the speed at which a weapon fires by one third. It therefore raises a weapon’s damage per second capacity but consumes ammunition much more quickly and also makes the recoil more difficult to control.

Red Dot Sight

The Modern Warfare 3 Red Dot Sight Attachment uses an LED to create a red dot within the reticle for precision aiming while looking down the sight of a gun. It is in many respects just like the Holographic Sight but it is mounted slightly lower on a weapon and therefore increases the amount of muzzle flash visible during firing. However, it also slightly improves peripheral vision due to the way the scope does not block out portions of the screen while aiming down the sight like it’s holographic counterpart.

Shotgun

The Modern Warfare 3 Shotgun Attachment is an add on available for assault rifles that adds an under-barrel shotgun to the weapon. It is useful as an addition to guns that do not have good short range capabilities and has a faster switch-up time than going to a secondary weapon or reloading.

Silencer

The Modern Warfare 3 Silencer Attachment makes it much more difficult to hear shots fired and it also prevents your gunfire from showing up on the enemy’s mini-map. It also has the benefit of reducing muzzle flare when firing a gun. However, it often has a down side that affects a weapon’s range or accuracy making this attachment more appropriate for mid and short range use.

Thermal Sight

The Modern Warfare 3 Thermal Sight Attachment allows a player to see enemies based on body heat signature. When looking through the scope you will see other players as sold white against a gray background. In this manner the sight can be used to see through smoke. It is more difficult to use on snowy maps and bright muzzle flare is also a consideration with this scope.