Everyone has their own style of play though, so this article will provide you with a beginners breakdown of all classes in TERA, 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.

For more detailed Lancer guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

Warrior

Warrior is the second and last tank in TERA. Warriors 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 plaleveling-guides.comys 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.

For more detailed Warrior guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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.

For more detailed Berserker guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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.

For more detailed Slayer guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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.

For more detailed Archer guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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 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.

For more detailed Sorcerer guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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.

For more detailed Mystic guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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.

For more detailed Priest guides including leveling, PvP tips, dungeon walkthroughs, gold farming, equipment, abilities, glyphs and more click here.

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

It includes every class’ Health Points, Mana Points, Damage, Defense, Movement Speed, Critical Hit, Attack Speed and Range. The stats are color coded so you can more easily see which class has average, below average or above average stats in relation to others. I hope you’ll find it useful.

You’re most welcome to share this image or post it in your guild forums, but please let everyone know where you got it from. And if you have any other info you’d like me to to add to this image, be sure to let me know. Also, do the same in case you spot a mistake or if there were any recent changes.

Below you can find a basic breakdown of class roles and several recommended classes/builds which fit the role: Tanking, Healing, Damage Dealing, Support, Leveling. If you need more details about each skillset be sure to read our classes guide first!

TANKING BUILDS

Though not the most popular role, we’ll start off with tanks. Tanks are focused on holding aggro and absorbing damage from monsters and players, primarily to give damage dealers some breathing room to melt their enemies. Almost all tanking builds have the Defense skillset included. Most popular and viable skillset combinations are:

• Abolisher (Defense, Auramancy, Battlerage) – good tanking and support of allies, with debuffs and melee damage options
• Paladin (Battlerage, Defense, Vitalism) – good survivability and sustain, and decent damage dealing tools
• Templar (Defense, Auramancy, Vitalism) – supportive tank with buffs and heals
• Skullknight (Defense, Occultism, Auramancy) – strong tank with powerful damage-dealing and crowd control options

HEALING BUILDS

Behind every good tank is a good healer. Healer’s goal is to keep their tanks and damage dealers alive in fights through heals and other supportive abilities. In ArcheAge healers are typically capable of doing decent damage along with supporting their allies, and most popular classes for this are:

• Templar (Auramancy, Vitalism, Defense) – heavily armored healer build with good survivability and supporting tools
• Edgewalker (Auramancy, Occultism, Vitalism) – two strong supportive skill trees with strong ranged spell-casting potential for damage and some CC (crowd control)
• Heirophant (Auramancy, Vitalism, Witchcraft) – another supportive build with strong CC
• Cultist (Vitalism, Occultism, Sorcery) – clutch heals while dealing tons of damage

Be sure to also take a look at support builds below.

DAMAGE DEALING BUILDS

Damage dealing classes have the most variety and plenty of combinations you can go for, so we’ll break down DPS builds into a few categories: Archery, Mage, and Melee DPS.

leveling-guides.com/archeage-class-builds/

ARCHERY

With a dedicated skillset called “Archery” building one isn’t overly difficult, but there are plenty of synergies with other skillsets you can combine to make your character more effective. Some of these are:

• Ranger (Archery, Shadowplay, Vitalism) – very strong DPS potential with decent sustain/healing
• Stone Arrow (Archery, Shadowplay, Defense) – also focused on high damage, but with more direct survivability
• Trickster (Archery, Shadowplay, Witchcraft) – ranged assassin build with strong single target and AoE crowd control
• Primeval (Auramancy, Archery, Shadowplay) – one of the most popular builds in the game with excellent damage and assassination potential

MAGE

Mages are some of the most popular archetypes in MMORPGs, and it’s not much different in ArcheAge. You can combine many different skillsets and focus your damage dealing efforts to ranged spell casting, and most players choose some of the following:

• Arcanist (Sorcery, Auramancy, Witchcraft) – excellent combo of single and area-of-effect (AoE) spells with supporting potential
• Spellsinger (Sorcery, Songcraft, Shadowplay) – high damage output class based on burst damage, with a lot of flexibility
• Spellsong (Sorcery, Auramancy, Songcraft) – build focused more on supporting allies but also capable of DPS
• Daggerspell (Sorcery, Shadowplay, Witchcraft) – very popular build with high amount of burst damage and crowd control
• Demonologist (Witchcraft, Sorcery, Occultism) – powerful CC and burst damage, great build for PvP or PvE

MELEE DPS

Melee builds are often different than mages or archers: since you’re on the front lines you need to consider taking more survivability, sustain, or other defensive abilities. Most builds here are focused on either Battlerage or Shadowplay skill trees, combined with some other tree with strong defense, sustain or crowd control. Some popular melee damage-dealing builds include:

• Inquisitor (Battlerage, Shadowplay, Vitalism) – crit-focused PvP build with devastating melee damage and self-healing
• Executioner (Shadowplay, Battlerage, Occultism) – melee DPS with damage and CC spells
• Blackguard (Battlerage, Vitalism, Occultism) – crowd control and healing mixed with melee damage
• Dreadnought (Shadowplay, Occultism, Defense) – burst-based build with increased survivability
• Darkrunner (Battlerage, Shadowplay, Auramancy) – very strong and popular melee damaging build with group utility
• Blighter (Defense, Battlerage, Shadowplay) – PvP-focused build with improved defense and extremely powerful melee attacks

SUPPORT BUILDS

For the most part support builds are based on Songcraft skill tree, often mixed with Vitalism for healing allies, and strong crowd control from several other skillsets.

• Cleric (Auramancy, Songcraft, Vitalism) – full support build with healing and buffs
• Caretaker (Defense, Songcraft, Vitalism) – healer and support build with higher survivability
• Dreambreaker (Witchcraft, Defense, Auramancy) – some damage potential but mostly based on supportive spells and crowd control
• Blade Dancer (Battlerage, Shadowplay, Songcraft) – strong melee DPS with supportive abilities from Songcraft

LEVELING BUILDS

In essence most leveling builds have at least one damage-dealing and one supportive skill set. Vitalism is very frequently found on leveling builds for most players as the self-sustain can help immensely in clutch situations. Though very often any DPS build can work well — if you can take out your enemies quickly enough there’s no need for sustain. Flexibility is also the key with leveling builds, as you will want to have both single and multi target spells, some sort of crowd control, and escapes or heals if things get rough. Some builds you can start with if you lack inspiration are:

• Necromancer (Occultism, Witchcraft, Vitalism) – good mixture of single target and AoE spells, crowd control and healing
• Paladin (Battlerage, Defense, Vitalism) – melee build with decent sustained damage with strong survivability and sustain
• Naturalist (Sorcery, Vitalism, Archery) – ranged damage dealing with flexible mix of spells and abilities good for various leveling situations

This is by no means an exhaustive list of class builds in ArcheAge, and their popularity or viability can easily change between frequent patches. We do still hope this list provided you with some insight into the most frequently used classes and what makes them strong. It’s a good place to start if you’re a beginner and unsure about which skillsets to pick, and you should always experiment and try things out for yourself. Everyone has a different playstyle and simply because a build isn’t popular doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work for you!

Be sure to help your fellow players and share your own thoughts, builds and experiences in the comments section below.

ArcheAge features a very extensive class system, where building a character exactly as you want is a very real possibility. The game has 10 available skillsets, 6 of which are primary and 4 secondary ones. Each skill set offers a range of different abilities, and over time you can of course master all spells in a particular skill set. Your first skillset is chosen at character creation.

Upon reaching level 10 players can combine any three skillsets to make a unique class, giving you the option to make 120 different classes (builds)! Combining multiple skillsets becomes available once your character reaches level 10, and skillsets can be changed as you like giving you unlimited room to experiment and find exactly the kind of gameplay you prefer. Of course respeccing (replacing one skillset with another) does come at a price, and it doesn’t automatically unlock all the available skills: you will have to level each skill tree separately, though progress made with skillsets remains permanently even if you re-spec.

PRIMARY SKILLSETS

As mentioned there are 6 primary skillsets available in ArcheAge, and they are:

1. Battlerage – this skillset consists of powerful melee attacks capable of inflicting devastating damage, as well as some buffs and debuffs for your friends or enemies
2. Sorcery – this specialization of course includes powerful elemental spells causing damage to enemies
3. Archery – if playing a ranger is your preference, then this tree is for you
4. Vitalism – Vitalism is the main skill tree for players focused on healing others
5. Occultism – this skill set is for magic-oriented characters, and focused on debuffs, snares and summoned monsters
6. Shadowplay – Shadowplay is perfect for rogue-like builds, and the abilities consist of quick attacks, leaps and snares

SUPPORT SKILLSETS

There are also four secondary or support skillsets you can choose from:

1. Songcraft – focused on playing various “songs” to buff allies and debuff enemies
2. Witchcraft – Witchcraft has a number of magical spells aimed at dealing damage and crowd-control
3. Auramancy – as expected Auramancy is aimed at players who prefer to support others with various buffs and decrease the combat potency of their enemies
4. Defense – the primary skill tree for tanks, many of the abilities in Defense include taunts and shield-based attacks

PASSIVES

Each of the primary and support skillsets mentioned above have over 10 active spells, and 6 or more passives which increase their effectiveness further. To unlock more stronger passive skills you will have to learn a set number of active skills first.

To unlock the first passive you will need to spend 2 skill points on active skills, and later on the best passives may require up to 10 skill points spent in total (in either passive or active skills) to be unlocked.

SYNERGIES

Active skills from your chosen skill sets can also produce different results based on which buffs or debuffs are on your enemies: they are called Synergies. Though most skills simply deal more damage or apply effects like Deep Freeze on Chilled targets for example, some are more specific.

As an example if you use “Drop Back” ability from Shadowplay skillset, your next “Flame Bolt” and several other spells from Sorcery skill set will have no cast time. Synergies make sure you need to put even more thought into picking skill sets for your character.

COMBOS

Combos or combo effects on the other hand are additional effects on your active skills which inflict additional damage, apply status effects, or reduce cast time of other abilities. Most skills have 2-3 combos, with some even having 4 different combos. Essentially skills you use and spells you cast can produce different effects, and using other spells afterwards can result in additional effects, such as increased damage or crowd control.

This system makes combat in ArcheAge quite dynamic and ensures players with superior knowledge and spell rotations can be dominant over others.

SKILLSETS AND LEVELING

Maximum player level in ArcheAge is 50, but you can unlock multiple skillsets way before you reach that mark. Once you create your character you will have to pick one skillset, with a second one unlocking at level 5. At level 10 you will unlock your third skillset. You can also change your chosen skillsets any time at a certain NPC for a modest fee.

As mentioned above every skillset has its own level, which progresses at the same rate your character does. Most spells have certain skill set level requirements (not character level requirements), so you will have to progress from the bottom once you choose a new skill tree. You can eventually level up all skill trees, however you will still only be able to use three at any given time. If you unlearn a particular skillset your experience with it and all the unlocked abilities will remain if you choose to re-learn it.

So as mentioned each skillset levels up independently, but your character level does play a part in the progression since it determines how many skill points you have to spend on active and passive abilities.

RESPECCING

Respeccing or changing your skillsets is done by visiting a “Skill Manager” NPC, or finding one of Nui’s followers at a resurrection site. While changing your skillsets does cost a bit of money, it’s not a significant amount and you should play around with various trees and spells often. If you choose to unlearn a skillset the levels and progress made in it will be saved so you don’t have to re-level any of the abilities if you pick it up again later on!

Additionally, you can reset your spent skill points within a given skill tree by opening the “Skills” menu.

We hope this guide helps you understand the basic of ArcheAge’s class system a bit better. If you have any questions or suggestions for other beginner guides be sure to ask below!

Note that this build (which I named The Shredder) can easily be used on a Marauder as well with barely any adaptations. More on that below.

Important note: the build on this page is outdated. See this post for an updated version of the Shredder after the patch 1.0.0 nerfs to Cleave!

Contents:

• Why Dual Strike & Cleave
• Pros
• Cons
• Passive skill tree
• Recommended equipment
• Skill gems
• Bandits
• Flasks
• Gameplay videos
• Closing thoughts

Why Dual Strike & Cleave

Dual Strike deals massive single-target damage and doesn’t need a 6-link item to be effective. With fairly decent weapons my Dual Strike deals 12k DPS with only 3 support gems (no +quality). You can easily obtain 4-link items throughout leveling and you will quickly notice how fast and easy it is to speed through levels with this build.

My Cleave currently deals 8k DPS, also with only three support gems again without +quality. It’s a good AoE tool to dispense groups of monsters and you will be using it a lot.

I haven’t found any other abilities which would work even nearly as well as Dual Strike and Cleave.

Pros

• Not dependent on gear: you don’t need any specific expensive unique items to make this work. There are a couple that help greatly but they aren’t necessary to make the build work.
• No 5 or 6 link items required: that’s right, you can deal tons of damage without having to spend a single exalted on an expensive chest.
• High survivability: with Kaom’s Heart chest I currently have 5k health which is enough to survive in a majority of high-level maps. My resistances are maxed but with my build you can easily put just one or two points into specific elemental resistance if you’re lacking. I’m running Grace (evasion) and Determination (armor) auras and have 67% physical damage reduction at level 86, along with 38% block chance (dual wield).
• Defensive skill tree build: most points are put into defensive stats for increased armor, health and resists. If you end up hating the build for some reason you could easily change the build to something else entirely with 10-20 regrets.
• Great mobility: Leap Slam and +30% movement speed help you get wherever you want to faster, or even jump out of tough situations.
• Versatility: you can do any kind of maps; you are virtually unaffected by reflect which is the bane of many other builds. Even Blood Magic maps are easily done, you just need to be a bit more careful due to low armor (since you won’t be able to use Determination).
• Fun to play: obviously everyone enjoys different things, but dying constantly isn’t fun for me which is why I prefer this build. Also shredding everything in your path with 8 attacks per second is unbelievably entertaining to watch.

Cons

• Needs high health and resist gear: fortunately these are the only two stats you need to focus on. If you desperately need a specific resistance you can always put one or two points into the skill tree. Nearly all of your gear should have +health, until (or if) you get Kaom’s Heart at which point you can focus on anything else (chaos resist, damage, IIR/IIQ).
• Needs one mana leech item: you will need gloves, ring or amulet with 2% mana leech. It’s not hard to get but you may have to sacrifice more useful stats because of it.
• Half regen maps: you might have somewhat decreased DPS in half-regen maps due to the inability to leech mana at a normal rate (funnily enough no regen maps can be done without issues).
• Low IIQ/IIR: it’s hard to get Increased Item Rarity and Quantity on equipment for this build, but then again every build except dual spark totem has the same issue.

Of all the builds I’ve seen I have to say that this one may very well be the one with least downsides. You have plenty of damage, you’re incredibly durable, fast to level up, works great even with average equipment, and no particular monsters are a problem.

Passive Skill Tree

My current level 86 passive skill tree build (104 points). It’s for the Duelist class but as you can see it goes all the way to the Marauder starting points and can be used by either class.

Key points: take health, dual wield block chance, armor, and resistances. There’s only about 10 points into pure damage and regardless you will have more than enough of it. If you’re needing an extra few points you can always take away a couple from damage and put into a specific elemental resistance (next to Diamond Skin in Marauder section).

Skill tree progression

• Duelist: 11 points (Dervish), 28 points (Bravado), 35 points (Iron Reflexes), 48 points (Resolute Technique), 64 points, 70 points, 80 points, 90 points
• Marauder: 20 points (Resolute Technique), 30 points (Unwavering Stance), 51 points (Leather and Steel), 60 points, 70 points, 81 points, 90 points

There’s no clear benefits to playing either of these classes each one has its own advantages. Marauders can get to resistances and Resolute Technique earlier, Duelist can pick up Block Chance and more damage. I recommend you play whatever class you prefer, you can get to most important skill points early enough to enable the build to work well with either one.

Note that the skill point progression is more of a suggestion or a guideline rather than set in stone. If you’re needing extra armor while leveling don’t be afraid to go for it, it’s always just a couple of points away. If you need extra Intellect you can also pick up Ancestral Knowledge (Marauder) or Wisdom of the Glade (Duelist) earlier, and you can always remove the points if you don’t need them later on. A huge upside to this build is its flexibility, and you will get about 15 respec points throughout leveling from quests which will be more than enough to fiddle around with a few points as you see fit.

As a sidenote, if you want to maximize your experience gain read my leveling guide. With my build you won’t even need a group, they’ll just slow you down.

Keystones:

• Iron Reflexes: converts all your evasion rating into armour. It maximizes the benefits you get from both armor and evasion on gear, passive skill points that further increase it and Grace and Determination auras. Your physical damage reduction won’t be under 50% even with the worst of gear. I mainly prefer armor over evasion due to its consistency: it’s better to get hit for low damage than for high damage every other time. You can always react with flasks, Molten Shell or just run away if you’re taking too much damage, while with evasion you’re typically dead if you don’t dodge several times in a row.
• Unwavering Stance: with this point you can no longer be stunned, and if you have Alpha’s Howl (pictured below with equipment) you can’t get frozen either. You’re literally unstoppable.
• Resolute Technique: there’s no point in worrying about +accuracy and +critical on your equipment or worse in your passive skill tree. It’s a waste of stat, and potential damage you lose from not being able to critically strike is more than made up for by never missing attacks. Try to get to RT as fast as possible. It also makes sure your mana leech is consistent.

Other notes

• Expertise (+30 Dexterity above Marauder starting location): I needed extra +dex to equip a weapon: one of my weapons requires 212 Dexterity and this build doesn’t waste any points into it. If you don’t find the need for it feel free to put a point (or three) elsewhere.
• Just below expertise you can put a point into Ancestral Knowledge if you wish to level up your Hatred aura further, although it’s not necessary. There is already one +30 Int point, Wisdom of the Glade, which is necessary.
• Why no Blood Magic? Because we can’t run three auras with it. Plus it’s not necessary as Mana Leech covers all ability costs.
• Why Celerity (+8% movement speed)? It’s just one extra point and I like to move fast.
• Why 1 point into Lightning resistance? I’m at 68% lightning resistance currently so this point makes up for lack of it on my equipment.

Recommended Equipment

As mentioned very few specific items are required. Once you start farming maps focus on getting as much health as you possibly can and try to max out your resistances. If you need a mana leech item just buy a ring or an amulet for 1 chaos. Using a Mana Leech gem is a possibility, but it will drop your DPS significantly unless you have a 5/6-linked chest.

Two items which are amazing for this build are Alpha’s Howl head and Kaom’s Heart chest.

Alpha’s Howl

Once you get it you will be able to run Hatred Aura, but more important you can’t get Freezed any longer. Getting frozen by bunch of caster skeletons is the number one reason why I died before getting this headpiece so set your goals towards obtaining this: it costs 2 Exalted Orbs at most with a maxed roll, but you can purchase it for just over 1 Ex as well if you’re patient.

Another upside to this headpiece is that it enables you to use a third aura (Hatred) due to its 8% reduced reserved mana for auras, and it also adds 2 additional levels to auras you use in this item so your Grace and Determination are at level 22 and have increased effectiveness.

Kaom’s Heart

Pretty much the bread and butter of every melee build in this game, nothing beats a +1000 health chest. I got lucky and it dropped for me but otherwise you might need to spend even 25 Exalted Orbs or more for this item. It’s not a realistic goal if this is your first character so use a chest with high armor or evasion, high health, and resists. You could purchase one for far less than 1 Exalted, unless you want 5 or 6 linked sockets (which as mentioned isn’t necessary).

With several % health regen skill points and Kaom’s I have over 200 health regen/second in addition to life leech from items (and 2% from passive skill tree). 95% of the time I’m at max health, only in extreme cases you have to resort to using Flasks, Rejuvenation Totem, or escape the engagement.

Weapons

Any kind of weapons will do. Obviously you’ll focus on physical damage rather than elemental, but the upside is they are much cheaper if you want to buy them. Having lifesteal is helpful but not mandatory. I prefer swords (Rapier, Foil etc.) for their higher attack speed.

Priorities/summary

In general your equipment should prioritize resists, health, armor and evasion (in that order). Get one item with mana leech so you don’t need to use a gem, and try to save enough currency to buy Alpha’s Howl: the ability to use Hatred aura will increase your DPS quite a lot.

Skill Gems

* Multistrike is not a frequent skill gem drop and you may have to purchase it (typically around 3 Chaos Orbs). It can not be obtained from quests. As an alternative you can use Added Fire Damage until you can obtain Multistrike.

All the other gems are easily acquired from quests or drops, and if you happen to need one you can easily buy it for as little as 1 Orb of Alchemy.

Gem rewards from quests

Just now when compiling the list above I noticed how Marauders have easier access to most skill gems you need so you may want to try my build with Marauders rather than Duelists. I hope the table helps you plan your quest rewards and figure out which gems to take. However none of these skill gems are expensive and you could buy everything you need for just a few Chaos Orbs.

Alternatives

If you’re running a 5 or 6 linked chest you can use Added Fire Damage as an additional support gem, or even as an alternative to Multistrike if you for some reason prefer. AFD deals less damage than Multistrike but only slightly.

Also you may want to consider using Increased Item Rarity and Increased Item Quantity support gems on Dual Strike once your Cleave is strong enough for fast clears. My Dual Strike linked with Culling Strike + IIQ + IIR support gems still deals 5k damage, more than enough to finish bosses and rare monsters for noticeably increased drops.

At later stages when your Cleave reaches about 10k DPS or above and you get your Kaom’s, you can consider completely removing Dual Strike. Four added gem slots will enable you to switch Grace for Haste (or even Purity) aura in your head piece, and use Grace, Anger and Wrath with a Blood Magic support gem. That way you can run 6 auras for increased damage at the cost of only 600ish health.

As a bonus you can also run Clarity for increased mana regeneration if you have problems in half-regen maps.

Curses

Rejuvenation Totem and Molten Shell are definitely not mandatory in this build. It’s just the way I like to play but you could switch them with some curses if necessary.

• Enfeeble – affected monsters have reduced Accuracy, Critical and Damage. Even a rank 1 Enfeeble reduces monster damage by 25% so if you have trouble surviving in some situations or against particular bosses feel free to consider it.
• Vulnerability – increases your physical damage by 25%-34%. Be careful about leveling it fully as level 20 Vulnerability requires 151 Intelligence.
• Warlord’s Mark – you gain increased life and mana leech on affected monsters: 3%-7% life leech and 1-3% mana leech depending on gem level. You can easily level it to 20 as it only requires Strength. If you need extra life leech or can’t get mana leech any other way consider using Warlord’s Mark.

Bandits

• Normal: help Oak and get +40 health
• Cruel: help Oak for +18% physical damage
• Merciless: kill them all (+1 skill point)

Flasks

I prefer using a setup of 2 health flasks, 1 hybrid (for cases if I run out of mana), 1 Granite and 1 Amethyst. You can see the flasks that I currently use below:

They aren’t perfect rolls (except the Hybrid one) but they serve the purpose. I think it’s very important to have one “instant recovery when on low life” flask for situations when you suddenly drop near death, due to my low Chaos resist I like having an Amethyst one in case it’s needed, and the Hybrid one helps in case you happen to run out of mana and need to Leap Slam or use a Rejuvenation Totem.

I also like all my flasks to have either bonus Armour or Evasion on use which is further scaled with the passive skill tree. Doubling your armor for nearly 5 seconds with a Granite Flask is crucial to surviving things like Vaal’s smash and such.

With the high movement speed and overall mobility of my Shredder build I never felt the need to use Quicksilver Flasks, although I did notice that many players often use 3-4 of them for reasons unknown to me.

Gameplay Videos

I recorded several map runs so you can watch the build in action. My full gear at the time of recording it is here. As you can see besides the two unique items my gear isn’t anything special.

• Dunes (66) map solo run
• Crypt (66) map solo run
• Thicket (67) solo run (no-regen mod with physical reflect)
• Cells (73) group run

You can watch many more of my boring map runs in this playlist, also embedded below.

If you have any specific map run requests or something else let me know!

Closing Thoughts

From all the builds I’ve seen the Shredder is the most versatile in my opinion. There’s no monsters or skills you need to be afraid of and unlike many other builds it doesn’t require 50 Exalted Orbs to be viable, in fact it doesn’t require any specific gear. It’s very flexible while leveling and enables you to overcome shortcomings on your equipment with a few skill points into armor, resistances or health which are always conveniently placed. The build’s extremely high attack speed (I’m currently doing 8 attacks per second) is a thing to behold and you’ll probably spend the first few hours laughing your ass off at how ridiculous it looks.

In all my Wraeclast adventures I came across one or maybe two dual-wielding Duelists with (possibly) the same build so this isn’t extremely popular among players. If you’re looking for a fun, effective, fast leveling, low-cost melee build that isn’t used by every other player than this might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Questions? Feel free to ask me anything about the build and I’ll do my best to answer it.

It contains very detailed information on pretty much everything you want to know about ArcheAge: world, combat, classes, leveling, ships/vehicles/mounts, PvP/factions/sieges, crafting, housing, trading, piracy, economy, PvE content, gliding, exploration, user interface and addons, and graphics.

The most important game features you should definitely read in the review are those about the classes and the skill system: there’s basically 120 class combinations and there’s bound to be some interesting discoveries to be made even now.

The leveling part basically explains how questing is more rewarding than grinding in ArcheAge, and further in the review it mentions some leveling instances which are apparently insanely hard.

Furthermore there’s a decent chunk of content about various vehicles and mounts as well as ships, included of course are excellent screenshots and videos so you can see it all in action.

Many players are of course looking forward to PvP combat as well and a review of the system is included. It explains the basics of the player versus player battle and shows off several PvP Warzones and areas. ArcheAge also has battlegrounds which are 5v5 instances areas which you can enter every 2 hours. PvP also rewards you with Honor Points which can be used to purchase equipment, mounts and other special rewards.

Another hugely popular game feature is of course crafting. As the author mentions it’s currently a controversial topic as it used to be a system aimed at hardcore players who love crafting, but after recent changes it became overly simplified. Worth noting is that the best equipment you can get in ArcheAge can still only be obtained by crafting which gives you more than enough reasons to delve into it.

There are of course also professions in this game which include Fishing, Mining, Composing (as in composing music, believe it or not: see video of player-made songs), and also trading, harvesting and construction which further add depth to the game.

Trading is basically farming or harvesting various materials which you craft into packages and are required to deliver to certain trading outposts for profits. On the other side of the coin is Piracy which is a huge factor in the game: other players can attack you while delivering packages and steal them from you. Pirating isn’t easy but you have to admit it’s one of the most fun systems that exists in any MMORPG and will certainly get your blood pumping.

A feature often missing in many MMORPGs is player housing and ArcheAge doesn’t disappoint in this aspect: it boasts a pretty powerful and customizable housing system that has benefits other than vanity.

Overall it’s a lengthy read so I recommend you take the largest cup of your favorite drink and be prepared to spend an hour amazed at the amount of information provided in the review. It also includes tons of beautiful screenshots and some useful gameplay videos to provide you with more context.

Do remember that ArcheAge is still not released and many things are subject to change, but judging by this and other early previews this might very well turn out the best MMORPG you’ve played in years. It has amazing potential and it’s up to XL Games to make the most out of it.

Be sure to check out the post and share your thoughts about the review or the game below. Did it meet your expectations, and are you looking forward to playing ArcheAge? Let us know!

1. Follow a skill tree build

The first thing you should do when you make your first character (or preferably just before) is to find a good skill tree build and follow it. I know we all want more damage but in Path of Exile building a glass-cannon character simply doesn’t work in endgame. A majority of your points usually need to be in defensive talents, because simply put a dead character isn’t dealing any damage.

If you’re confused with picking a class you can take this as a basis:

• If you want to play a ranged caster mage pick a Witch
• If you want a ranged archer pick a Marauder or Duelist
• If you want a tank pick a Marauder or Templar
• If you want melee DPS pick a Marauder, Templar or Duelist
• If you want a melee caster pick a Shadow
• If you want a dual-wielding melee beast pick a Duelist

Also worth noting is that having good weapons will increase your DPS more than having a majority of damaging skill points in your passive tree, so once again, focus on building defense via the skill tree. Additionally having 3 or more support gems linked to your main damaging ability will immensely increase your DPS.

2. Don’t throw away skill gems with +Quality

They are valuable and can be traded to other players, or even vendors in bulk for very valuable currency items called Gemcutter’s Prism. Most gems with less than +12% quality are best to simply sell to vendors (in bulk for Prism, not single!). The recipe works the same way as other +quality items: sell gems with a combined quality of 40% and you’ll get a Prism. Anything over 12% quality should be either used by you or traded to other players.

3. Don’t spend currency on low-level items

And by low-level I mean anything below 60. I know it’s tempting to turn those “useless” white items into rare (yellow) ones when you’re level 30 or 40 but you will out-level them very quickly. Orbs of Alchemy and Chaos Orbs are much better used for high-end items so save them, you will need every single one.

Blacksmith’s Whetstone and Armorer’s Scraps on the other hand are fairly easy to come by and if you find a decent piece of gear you will use for awhile feel free to improve its stats, but don’t go overboard. Just remember you’ll replace those items pretty quickly.

4. If you don’t know the value of an item, don’t trade it

I still don’t know the value of a lot of items and sometimes it’s hard to determine it, but if you think something is really good don’t just sell it for an Alchemy Orb. A good example is the aforementioned +Quality gems: high-level characters often prey on lowbies in Normal difficulty and try to buy out their gems for Alchemy Orbs. If a gem is 6% quality or less you can trade it away for an Alchemy Orb, but anything above that is more valuable (look above at tip #2).

Once you hit the endgame knowing the value of items becomes even more important. Check out some of the trading sites like poe.xyz.is or poexplorer.com and search for an item with similar stats to yours to get an idea of how much it could be worth.

5. Pick up all orbs

I must admit I haven’t made this mistake myself (I still pick up most Wisdom scrolls even though they are pretty much useless), but don’t skip picking up any orbs that drop for you. All of them can be traded for higher valued currency items and once you figure out what their value is you’ll start probably need as many as you can get your hands on. In fact even Wisdom Scrolls can be traded, but if you’re building a high MF character you might even need to buy them off of other players.

Even common currency items such as Orbs of Alteration and Chromatic Orbs are worth picking up. Once you get your hands on a 6-linked item you might end up spending hundreds of Chromatic Orbs to get the socket colors you want. Even lower-value orbs like Chance can be used much more efficiently at endgame so don’t skip picking them up.

Another thing I’d like to say is that you should never use Divine or Exalted orbs before endgame. They are extremely valuable and hard to come by and best used on the highest quality gear, or even traded for decent items.

6. Pick up items with linked 3-color sockets

If you see an item drop that has 3 LINKED gem sockets of different colors pick it up and sell it to a vendor for a Chromatic Orb. Even though Chromatics are fairly easy to come by chances are you will need a lot of them, and of course you can trade them for something more useful if you have extra. If you don’t pick them up, you won’t have any extra.

Once you approach level 50 or so and start grinding Merciless be sure to re-read this loot guide and remember all items you need to pick up. Never forget to pick up items with 6 sockets (even white ones), and you better click like a madman when you see one with 5 or 6 linked sockets. They are extremely valuable.

7. Grind experience in groups

You get more items, more experience and you’ll kill monsters quicker. Path of Exile was built for playing in groups so take advantage of it. If you need advice on where to grind experience read my leveling guide. If you’re having trouble picking up your own loot in groups and hate ninjas just find a group with Permanent loot allocation, or create your own.

Grinding in groups is also helpful when you’re undergeared or underleveled for a particular area so just hit up that Social panel if you’re having trouble.

8. Be prepared to spend money

Although it’s admittedly not a very helpful tip, I’d just like to point out that you will need to spend a few bucks on this game after awhile. You can’t buy items or anything like that, but you will need stash tabs. If you intend on leveling multiple characters you will run out of inventory space in your stash fairly quickly so be prepared to spend about $20. I know a couple of people who loathe spending money on online games and this is a deal breaker for them, which I honestly think is sad, but to each its own.

I currently have about 80 stash tabs — it’s way, way above what an average player will ever need but I’m a hoarder. 20 stash tabs should be more than enough for an average player, but fortunately it’s not overly expensive.

9. Not all areas have waypoints

Before you search the same area three times looking for a waypoint, you might want to take a look at my list of zones which have waypoints, it might just save you some unnecessary searching. In most cases you don’t even need to bother finding waypoints (in Normal and Cruel difficulties) as you’ll simply progress further quite fast and won’t really have a use or need for them later on. Just remember to always try and get to a waypoint before you finish playing as it’s the only way to save progress.

For the completionists out there who always want to fully clear an area before moving on, remember to use the /remaining command in chat. It will show you how many monsters are left in a particular area before you move on to the next. Also you can type /help for a full list of slash commands.

10. Trade low-value currencies with a vendor

Vendors are more than just bots where you dump your trash. They can actually exchange (some) currencies for you so you don’t have to bother spamming the trade channel if you’re missing a few Fusings. You can take a look at the table below for some of the trading ratios:

This is actually one of the basic ways how low and mid value orb prices are determined on the market. If a vendor exchanges 2 Orbs of Scouring for 1 Orb of Regret it’s a reasonable assumption players won’t exchange them for a different ratio, unless someone is trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge about the pricing system.

As you may notice some trades are definitely not worth doing at vendors since you can trade with players with a better ratio, but if (or rather when) you find yourself with hundreds of Alterations rather than bothering with finding a player to trade with for something more valuable you can exchange them at vendors for Jeweller’s or Orb of Fusing: they are also more sought after and thus easier to find players to trade with, not to mention you might need them yourself as well.

You can take a look at my other post for the currency values to get a better understanding of them, but do note that the in-game prices among players vary often and can be either higher or lower, so it’s more of a guideline than a rule.

11. Check vendors for items

Vendors sometimes sell items that can be sold back for Chromatic Orbs (see tip #6) for a measly Orb of Augmentation which has a much lower value. Even though a Chromatic isn’t a very valuable orb, it’s still a good trade. Also pay attention to items with 6 sockets and as previously mentioned more importantly 5 and 6 linked sockets, as you can trade them to other players for a whole lot more than they cost. Do note that vendors sell these rarely, but if you check it every once in awhile you may come across one.

Other resources:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/wiki/faq – really helpful and organized general information about the game
• Item mods spreadsheet – probably better for more experienced players, you don’t need to pay attention to this until endgame
• Accuracy and Evasion table – how much hit percentage you have with a certain amount of Accuracy (quick tip: consider Resolute Technique passive node and you’ll never miss)
• Currency values – current trade ratios for various forms of currency in Path of Exile
• Official forums – you might want to take a look at it from time to time, there’s often useful information you can find or even ask other players
• PoExplorer – if you ever want to buy an item this is the place. Also useful for determining prices in case you want to sell something.
• ExaltingPoE – when adding additional stats to an item with Exalted Orb this helps you figure out what mods you can get

If you have any of your own tips or resources, by all means you’re welcome to share them in the comments below.

Main contents:

• Skill gems & sockets
• General gameplay tips
• Skills
• Classes
• Items
• Combat
• Parties
• Instances

Skill gems & sockets

Sooner or later you will get your hands on some skill gems.

• Gems must be socketed in your gear to grant access to the skill.
• A gem will only go into a socket of matching colour
• Gems can be socketed and removed from sockets as much as you like. Right click a gem to remove it from a socket
• Sockets appear randomly on items. The rarity of an item does not affect how many sockets it has.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.
• Gems you have socketed in gear you are wearing will gain experience and level up, even if you are not using the skills they grant.

General gameplay tips

• Flasks recharge slightly every time you kill an enemy. So don’t be afraid to use flasks that are full to keep your life and mana topped up – your flasks are only replenishing their charges when they aren’t already full.
• Items with great stats might seem like the best choice at first, but don’t neglect sockets. As long as they are socketed, skill gems gain experience whether you are using the skills they grant or not, so keeping them socketed will mean they get more powerful sooner. A good socket arrangement on an item with mediocre stats is sometimes a better choice than a great item with bad sockets.
• Spend some time looking at the passive skill web, it can appear daunting at first, but it will soon become familiar. Skill points can be refunded, but refund points are hard to come by, so choose wisely.
• If you’re just starting out and are unsure how you wish to play your character, try to avoid specialising too heavily. For instance, stay away from skills that improve one handed weapon damage if you feel you might end up liking to swing a two-hander.

Skills

Skill Types

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 – 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 – 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 – 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 spells.

The only exception to this is Town Portal, which is not affected by attack speed, cast speed, or anything else.

Support 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.

Skill gem experience gain

• 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.

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: Dex/Int: 14 STR, 22 DEX, 22 INT

Life/mana per level

All classes begin with the same base stats, and gain the same amount per level:

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

Attributes

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 regeneration rate of life gained from life leech is capped at 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, it is only the rate at which it regenerates that is capped – if you leech a large amount of life during a battle, you may find that the regeneration continues long after the battle is over. Similar to flasks, the regeneration from leech will stop if you reach maximum life. The same is true for mana leech, although the cap is 12.5% of maximum mana per second.

Items

Attribute requirements

Most gear has attribute requirements that must be met in order to equip the gear. These requirements come from the base item type and are unaffected by magical modifiers, quality, or number of sockets. A complete list of gear and attribute requirements can be found here.

Level requirements

Some items have a level requirement that must be met in order to equip the item. There are two factors that affect level requirements:

• The level of the base item type. This is the level that the item starts appearing (and is separate from the itemlevel that affects which magical modifiers can spawn on it). See the item data link above for a list with all item levels. Some of the very low-level base items do not come with a level requirement.
• The level of the magical modifiers. The level requirement for magical modifiers is equal to 80% of the level of the highest-level magical modifier on the item.
• The highest level requirement of the two listed above is the one that appears on the item.

Drop rates

There is a penalty to the chance of currency items (scrolls, orbs, etc.) dropping in areas with a monster level more than two levels lower than your character level. For each additional level that you have compared to the area’s monster level+2, the chance of a currency item drop is reduced by 2.5%. So if you are level 30 in a level 20 area, you will see 20% less currency item drops on average:

2.5*(30-(20+2))=20

A level 30 character in a level 28 area will see no penalty. Currency item Drops are not increased or decreased in this way when fighting in areas above your level. For the purposes of this penalty, your level is never considered to be higher than 58. Therefore a level 70 character receives no penalty in a level 56 area.

There are two modifiers that affect drop rates in the game, increased item rarity, and increased item quantity. There are three potential sources of these modifiers:

1. the player (skills, passives, gear etc.)
2. monsters (such as bosses and champions)
3. party bonuses

Modifiers from the player stack additively with each other, and are subject to diminishing returns. Modifiers from the party bonus and monsters stack additively with each other, and are not subject to diminishing returns. The total player bonus stacks multiplicatively with the total party & monster bonus.

Increased Item Rarity

Increased Item Rarity % modifiers increase the chances of an item being magic, rare, or unique. For example with a total of +100% increased item rarity, you’d get twice as many magic items, twice as many rares and twice as many uniques from normal enemies. This modifier has no effect on the number or type of currency items, scrolls, or gems that drop. When in a party, only the modifier from the player who lands the killing blow on an enemy is counted. If one of your minions gets a kill, the minion’s IIR is added to yours and the total is used. Magic, rare, and unique monsters have an Increased item rarity modifier for drops.

Increased Item Quantity

This modifier increases the average number of items that drop from monsters and chests. It does not affect the type, quality, or rarity of item dropped, only the chance that something will drop. There is no cap on the usefulness of this modifier, as monsters can drop more than one item at a time. The base chance for an item to drop from a normal monster is 16%. This varies between monster types, and special monsters have higher drop chances. When in a party, each player in the party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops.

Quality

All weapons, armour, flasks and gems can randomly receive between +1% and +20% quality. This value can be increased by Whetstones, Armour Shards, Flask Quality Upgrades, and Gem Quality Upgrades, but is capped at 20%. The effect of quality depends on the item:

• On weapons, increased physical damage
• On armour, increased Armour rating, Evasion, Energy Shield, and Shield Block Chance
• On flasks, increased life and mana recovery
• On gems, the bonus is specific to each gem. For instance, Frenzy gets increased damage, while Cleave gets increased attack speed.
• On maps, increases the item quantity bonus from monsters in the map area.

Modifiers

Modifiers are split up in to two main groups, prefixes and suffixes. A magic item can have only one prefix and one suffix, never two prefixes or two suffixes. Rare items can have up to six modifiers, it is unknown if there is a limit on how many of these can be prefixes/suffixes. A randomly generated rare item (from a drop or Orb of Alchemy) receives between four and six modifiers randomly, with the following odds:

• 1/12 chance of 6 mods
• 4/12 chance of 5 mods
• 7/12 chance of 4 mods

All modifiers have a level associated with them, and will only appear on items whos item level is greater than or equal to the modifier’s level. Lists of available magical modifiers are available in the item data section. The “Culling Strike” modifier (found on some unique items) causes monsters to die if you strike them down to 10% or less life.

Modifier Stacking

In general, integer modifiers are applied before percentages. Percentage modifiers using the words “% increased” or “% reduced” stack additively with one another, while “% more” and “% less” modifiers stack multiplicatively. When dealing with weapons, some modifiers that are listed on the weapon itself are applied first, before mods from other pieces of equipment, skills, and so on. This includes anything affecting physical damage, such as increased physical damage, added physical damage, quality etc., and also attack speed, critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier, and accuracy. It does not include elemental damage mods.

Similarly, when dealing with armour, evasion, and energy shield on armour, any modifiers affecting those stats that are listed on the piece of armour are applied first. This includes quality and any other mods directly affecting armour, evasion, or energy shield amount. It does not include mods affecting the energy shield recharge delay or regeneration rate, only the amount of energy shield.

Imagine I have 100 life, and two passive skills that increase total life by 15%. The total bonus will be 30%, resulting in 130 life. Now imagine I am wearing boots that give +40 life, and have a passive skill that grants +20 life. The integer bonuses are applied first, giving me 160 life, then the percentage bonuses are applied to that subtotal, for a final total of 208 life.

Quality behaves differently on armour and flasks than on weapons. On armour and flasks, it stacks multiplicatively with other modifiers on that piece of equipment. Quality on weapons stacks additively with other % modifiers on the weapon.

Sockets

There are three types of sockets:

1. Strength (red)
2. Dexterity (green)
3. Intelligence (blue)

Sockets appear randomly on most equipable items. Higher level items can appear with more sockets than lower level items of the same type. The maximum amount of sockets that can appear on an item also varies by the type of item:

• Two handed weapons and body armour can have up to 6 sockets
• Wands, shields, and one handed weapons can have a maximum of 3 sockets
• Everything else can have a maximum of 4 sockets

One exception to this is the starting weapon that appears on the beach at the start of the game. Its item level is 1 but it always has one socket of each colour.

• Items are more likely to receive sockets that match their attribute requirements. So an item requiring only dexterity is more likely to have green sockets than red or blue sockets.
• You can only put a blue (intelligence) gem in a blue socket, red gem in a red socket, etc.
• Sockets can be linked. The links are shown as gold bars between the sockets. Support gems affect any skill gems in sockets that they are linked to.

Additionally, two skill gems of the same type can be used in separate socket groups, resulting in more than one usable version of that skill. Skill Gems are only affected by support gems in the same socket group. For example, imagine a piece of armour with 5 sockets. The first two sockets are linked in one group, and the remaining three sockets are linked in a separate group. If you put Cleave and Faster Attacks in the first group, and Cleave, Added Fire Damage, and Added Cold Damage in the second group, you would have two different versions of cleave available – one cleave skill that attacks faster, and another cleave that does bonus fire and cold damage. Small letters appear over the skill icons for each support gem you have attached to that skill. This allows you to differentiate between the different versions if you have more than one of the same skill gem equipped.

Item level

Each item has a level associated with it that is equal to the monster level of the area it dropped in. The monster level is shown on the map overlay. Rare and unique monsters have +2 to their level, and will yield items with an itemlevel two levels higher than other monsters in the same area. You can check an item’s level by picking it up on the cursor and typing /itemlevel in the chat box. This item level determines which modifiers it can receive, and how many sockets it can receive.

Vendor Item levels

Items obtained from vendors can have an item level up to character level + 1, but will not exceed the following maximums:

• Normal Act 1: 16
• Normal Act 2: 25
• Cruel Act 1: 31
• Cruel Act 2: 35
• Ruthless Act 1: 43
• Ruthless Act 2: 48
• Merciless Act 1: 50
• Merciless Act 2: 50

Item level needed for number of sockets (research ongoing)

• 1 socket : 1
• 2 sockets: 1
• 3 sockets: 15
• 4 sockets: 28
• 5 sockets: 35
• 6 sockets: 50 (lowest seen so far)

Combat

Level scaling

1. Effect of level on PvP Damage

Level itself does not affect any combat calculations outside of PvP. Damage in PvP is scaled based on level as follows:

damage multiplier = 1/(1+(attacker_level/8))

For example a level 30 character will have their PvP damage reduced by 79%, while a level 60 character will have their damage reduced by 88%.

2. Effect of level on experience

Level also affects the amount of XP you gain from killing enemies. There are two penalties that are applied, one when in a party, and another based on the relative level of the player and monsters. Both of these are applied at the same time if you are both in a party, and too far above or below the monster level.

The multiplier for XP while in a party is players share (Level+10)^2.71 divided by the total of all players shares. For example, if a level 10 player was partied with a level 30 player:

• Level 10 player’s share: (10+10)^2.71 = 3355
• Level 30 player’s share: (30+10)^2.71 = 21957
• Total Shares: 3356 + 21957 = 25313
• Level 10 player would receive: 3355/25313 = 0.132 = 13.2% of the XP
• Level 30 player would receive: 21957/25313 = 0.867 = 86.7% of the XP

The player also suffers a penalty to XP if they are too far above or below the monster’s level. There is a safe level range where no penalty is applied, which is equal to three, plus one for every sixteen complete player levels. Any additional level difference in excess of this safe range is called the Effective Difference.

The formula then applied is:

((PlayerLevel +5)^1.5) / ((PlayerLevel+5+(EffectiveDifference^2.5))^1.5)

So a level 24 character has a safe band of 3+1=4 levels. So from Monster level 20 to 28, there is an effective level difference of 0. At Monster Levels 19 and 29, the Effective level difference is 1. The Effective Difference matters in either direction. Here are graphs of the experience multiplier by monster level and by effective level.

3. Effect of level on currency item drops

See the drop rates section above for details on how level affects currency item drops.

Dual wielding

Dual wielding grants a +10% attack speed bonus, and a 15% chance to block. The attack speed bonus is applied multiplicatively with other attack speed modifiers. The default attack and certain other skills will alternate between each weapon, striking with each hand in turn. Some skills (such as Cleave and Dual Strike) attack with both weapons at once, while others only use the main-hand weapon.

Hit & damage calculation order of effects

There are a number of steps involved in deciding whether an attack hits or not and how much damage is done:

1. Avoiding the hit:

• At this stage there is a chance to evade attacks (accuracy vs evasion)
• Any chance to dodge from acrobatics or phase acrobatics is also checked here

2. Avoiding the damage:

• Blocking is checked

3. Mitigating the damage:

• Physical damage reduction and resitances are applied

4. Taking the damage:

• Non-chaos damage is removed from energy shield until it’s depleted.
• Any remaining damage (including all chaos) is removed from life.

Stuns

Whenever a player or monster takes damage, there is a chance they will be stunned. A stun interrupts whatever that creature was doing while a brief animation is played. The default length of stuns is 350ms. The duration of stuns can be altered by reduced block and stun recovery, increased stun duration, and similar modifiers.

The formula used for determining whether or not a stun occurs is:

stun_chance = 200 * damage / defender_effective_max_life

Where defender_effective_max_life is the maximum life of the creature being hit. Increases to monster life from a party of more than one player do not affect defender_effective_max_life. For a player with Chaos Inoculation, their defender_effective_max_life is whatever their max life would be if they did not have Chaos Inoculation. Reduced stun threshold modifiers reduce the value of defender_effective_max_life.

For example, 25% stun threshold reduction means you treat their maximum life as only 75% as much as it actually is, meaning you stun them easier. If the stun chance would be less than or equal to 25%, it’s ignored, so you need to deal more than 12.5% of effective maximum life to have a chance to stun.

Accuracy

Accuracy is compared to enemy evasion when determining if an attack hits or misses. The complete formula is below:

chance to hit = attacker_accuracy / ( attacker_accuracy + ((defender_evasion/4)^0.8))

Chance to hit can never be lower than 5%, nor higher than 95%.

Evasion

Evading an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Only attacks and attack skills can be evaded. Spells cannot be evaded.

Blocking

Blocking an attack prevents all damage and other harmful effects from the attack. Usually, only attacks and attack skills can be blocked, but there are some passive skills that allow you to block spells. Chance to block is capped at 75%. When an attack is blocked, the game first calculates if the attack would have caused a stun were it not blocked. If it would have caused a stun, the blocking animation is played, stunning you briefly. If it would not have caused a stun, then you get a “free” block with no animation. Faster Block and Stun Recovery and Increased Block Recovery modifiers reduce the length of the blocking animation.

Armor / Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction reduces physical damage taken. Elemental damage and damage-over-time are not affected. The amount of damage reduction depends on the defender’s armour total, and the attacker’s attack damage:

reduction = armor / (armor + 12*damage)

The amount of reduction is capped, it cannot be more than 95%.

The fact that damage reduction scales with the amount of damage means it is difficult to know exactly how much damage is being reduced. An easy to remember rule of thumb is that to achieve 50% damage reduction, you will need an armour rating equal to twelve times that of the damage being dealt. For example, to achieve 50% damage reduction against a 100 damage hit, you’ll need 1200 armour.

Here are two graphical representations of the armor formula:

1. Effect of X Armour on Damage
2. Effect of Armour on X Damage

Energy Shield

As long as you have greater than 0 Energy Shield, you have a 50% chance to avoid stun. Energy Shield acts as an additional hit point pool on top of life. If you have any Energy Shield remaining when you take damage, the damage is subtracted from the Energy Shield first. Damage is only applied to life once all Energy Shield is depleted. The exception to this is Chaos Damage, which ignores Energy Shield.

Energy Shield will recharge if you do not take any damage for a certain period of time. The default delay is 6 seconds. This time can be reduced with reduced energy shield delay modifiers from passive skills and gear. The formula for the recharge delay is:

100 / ( 100 + reduction )

So 100% reduction is halving the delay, not removing it entirely.

Critical Strikes

Whenever you use a skill or attack, you have a chance to deal a Critical Strike. Critical Strikes are rolled on a per-action basis, not per-monster. So each time you use a skill, the Critical Strike roll is made once and only once. If you roll a Critical Strike, you will deal Critical damage to all enemies hit by the skill.

Critical Strikes do more damage than normal, based on your Critical Strike Damage Multiplier. All characters have a base Critical Strike multiplier of 150%, meaning a critical strike does 150% of normal damage. This multiplier can be increased with various skills and modifiers on items. For instance, with a multiplier of 250%, if you deal a Critical Strike with attack that normally does 100 damage, you will instead deal 250 damage.

The chance to deal a critical strike is taken from the weapon used to perform an attack or attack skill, and in the case of spells, each spell has it’s own critical strike chance, which is listed in the skill gem’s description.
This value can be increased by increased critical strike chance modifiers from spells and gear. For example, if you are using a weapon with 5% chance to crit, and you have 50% increased critical strike chance, you will have a 7.5% chance to score a critical strike.

Critical chance can not be less than 5% nor more than 95%. Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Multiplier are calculated separately for each spell and weapon attack. All weapons and damage-dealing spells have a base Critical Strike chance listed on them. This only affects your chance to critical for attacks made with that weapon or spell. For instance the critical strike chance on a wand does not affect your chance to critical with a spell.

Damage Types

There are currently 5 main types of damage, they are Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Chaos. Fire, Cold, and Lightning are collectively known as Elemental Damage. Damage reduction from armour only affects physical damage. Each of the elemental damage types has it’s own resistance value (eg “Fire resistance”) which is viewable in the character sheet. Resistances reduce damage taken, and are capped at 75%.

Fire damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals fire damage, the enemy begins Burning. Burning causes damage over time. Humanoids, Monkeys and Sea Witches will flee while burning.
Burning lasts 4 seconds, and the amount of damage over time is 1/3 of the fire damage dealt per second. So a total of 4/3 of the original damage, over 4 seconds.

Cold damage

Hitting an enemy with cold damage can cause the enemy to be Chilled. Critical hits with cold damage can also cause the target to be Frozen. Chilled enemies move, attack, and cast 30% slower, while frozen enemies cannot do anything except drink flasks.

Lightning damage

If you land a critical strike with an attack or spell that deals lightning damage, the enemy becomes Shocked. This can be stacked up to three times on one target. In this state, monsters or players take 40% additional damage per instance of Shock. Shock stacks additively with itself, for a maximum of 120% with a stack of three. The damage multiplier itself applies multiplicatively with your final damage, since it it increasing the damage the enemy takes, rather than the damage you deal.

Chaos Damage

Chaos damage ignores energy shield, reducing life directly.

Burning, Chilled, Frozen, and Shocked are collectively known as Status Ailments. The duration of the chilled, frozen, and shocked statuses is related to the amount of cold/lightning damage dealt.
If the duration based on the damage would be less that 300ms, it’s ignored entirely.

Charges

Some skills grant Endurance (strength), Frenzy (dexterity), or Power (intelligence) charges. Each charge lasts a short duration before it disappears. Gaining a charge resets the duration of all accumulated charges.

• Endurance charges are related to the strength attribute and grant +5% physical damage reduction, and +5% to elemental resistances (fire, cold, and lightning) per charge. The physical damage reduction stacks with the damage reduction from armour, so that they are both applied at the same time. For example, if a monster deals 100 damage, and you have 10% DR from two endurance charges, and enough armour to prevent 30 of the 100 damage, the incoming damage would be reduced by 40.
• Frenzy charges are related to the dexterity attribute and grant +5% attack speed and +5% cast speed per charge.
• Power charges are related to the intelligence attribute and grant +50% critical strike chance per charge.

By default characters can have a maximum number of 3 active charges of each type at one time. This maximum can be increased by certain passive skills.

Parties

The maximum party size is 6 players. In order to play with your friends, you’ll first need to finish the first zone called Twilight Strand (takes about 5 minutes). To group up with random players use the message board in towns, or open the social window (“S” hotkey) and click the “Public Parties” tab.

Monsters in party

Monsters gain 50% extra life for each additional party member after the first. For example, against a party of 3 players, monsters have double life. The original life amount is used for the purposes of determining the length of stuns and status ailments from elemental damage – this means monsters will not be harder to stun/ignite/etc. when fighting in a party.

Loot in party

Each player in a party after the first gives the equivalent of +50% item quantity modifier on drops. So a party of three will see twice as many drops as a lone character. Increased Item Rarity & Quantity modifiers are only counted from the player who lands the killing blow.

Experience in groups

For a description on how experience is shared between players, see the level scaling section above. Only party members actually in the instance count toward getting XP. If one member is in town he gets no XP. Experience is only shared with other players who are near you (roughly two screens). Monsters are still made harder by players elsewhere on the level. Being in a dungeon with a party member grants you a 30% experience bonus. Monsters give +50% base XP for every party member after the first.

Flasks in groups

Only the character landing the killing blow on an enemy will gain flask charges. The same is true for all +life and +mana gained “when you deal a killing blow” modifiers. Flasks have a +75% charge recovery bonus for each party member after the first.

Instances

All areas in Path of Exile are instanced. When you enter an area, a new instance is created. Once you leave the area, the instance will remain in its current state for 15 minutes – if 15 minutes passes with no players entering the instance, it will be closed. Entering the same area again will create a new instance with a new randomly generated map. Areas without side areas attached (any area with two or less exits) has a shorter timer, and will only last 8 minutes while empty.

Instances you create are private, and cannot be entered by other players unless they join your party. However, once a player has entered an instance, that instance remains associated with the player even if they leave the party. So it is possible to share an instance with non-party members in some circumstances. The exception to this is towns, which are always public, and cut-throat leagues, where all instances are public – meaning anyone can enter your instances at any time.

Some areas have waypoints. Once activated (by clicking on the waypoint), waypoints allow you to travel instantly to any other waypoint you have activated. Ctrl-clicking on a waypoint destination in the waypoint menu, or an area transition will bring up the instance management screen. This screen lists all available instances of the area you ctrl-clicked on, and the time remaining until they are closed. It also allows you to create new instances, and enter existing ones.

Using the instance management screen you can have more than once instance of the same area open at one time, and choose which available instance you want to enter.

If you know any other good video guides for Path of Exile (or if you made one) be sure to let me know!

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