Once you reach Mangoth in the underground Immaculates temple, you will first need to open a trap door next to the altar where Mangoth disappears from.

To open the door, use the lever displayed on the screenshot above.

Next step is to take a path in front of the altar that just opened up.

In this room, you need to active four switches, but in a particular order:

Switch #1:

Switch #2:

Switch #3:

Switch #4:

After pressing the four switches, the door to the central room will open in the south side. Once you approach it, you will be ambushed by Mangoth and several of his minions, so be prepared.

Once you defeat Mangoth and his elementals, loot the Vial of Leandra’s Blood and Leandra’s Diary, and go to your Homestead to talk to Icara to combine Vial of Leandra’s Blood with Leandra’s Spell (obtained during Investigating the Mines quest).

Lastly, talk to Icara to finish the Infiltrating The Immaculates quest.

Once you enter the room, the mage will tell you that you need to find a way to disarm the trap in the room, otherwise your character will die.

The character which triggered the quest must not move, otherwise an explosion will kill him and potentially your whole group. This might be a good time to quick save with F5!

To solve this puzzle, unlock another character from the party by clicking and dragging their portrait to the middle of the screen. This will ensure other characters do not move.

After this, use your other character(s) to find the hidden switch and disable the trap.

The location of the trap switch is shown highlighted on the screenshot above.

First, you need to find a hidden switch behind a painting on a wall. The painting says “Painting of a Woman” when hovered over with your mouse.

The switch is very difficult to see from most angles. To use the switch more easily, try holding “V” and rotating your camera as shown on the screenshot below:

The switch should be in the bottom corner of the painting.

Once you’ve clicked on the switch, use the trap door that opens. You can spot the trap door on the first screenshot above showing the Painting from the front – the trap door to the basement is in top left corner.

Once you’re down the hatch..

When you climb down, you will eventually reach a large area with many switches you can interact with. Some of these switches will trigger rewards, fights, or explosions.

All these switches are optional, except one. The Blood-Stained Switch is the one you need to progress further. Expectedly, it’s one of the hardest ones to spot.

Blood-Stained Switch is shown on the screenshot above.

Here’s what other switches do:

• Exotic Switch – teleports you to the beginning of the zone and places mines on the switch platform
• Golden Switch – drops a reward chest, which deals shadow damage to your character when opened
• Coppery Switch – gives you an unidentified amulet with Bartering bonus
• Unlocked Switch – gives an achievement
• Frosty Switch – freezes your character
• Raze’s Switch – spawns a doll item
• Regular Switch – unclear purpose, your character simply says “Wonder what that did?”
• Worm Switch – Attempts to cripple you and break your weapon
• Ominous Switch – teleports your group to another area of the island which is otherwise unreachable. This area has an Ornate chest. There’s a button on the ground which will teleport you back.
• Mysterious Switch – teleports your group
• Warm Switch – fires fireballs
• Rot Covered Switch – inflicts shadow damage and gives you disease
• Glassy Switch – swaps position of your party members (if split)
• Chalky Switch – spawns a pirate skeleton you will fight with
• Vibrating Switch – stuns your character

We hope our short guide helps explain how to open the Black Gate.

If you have any other Divinity: Original Sin questions let us know!

Songflower buff from Felwood is seen with increasing frequency as well. It gives players 5% to critical strike chance on all melee, ranged and spell attacks. This damage increase can be substantial so it’s no surprise players are looking to get it.

Map below includes all Songflower spawn locations in Felwood zone.

Each location has a 25 minute cooldown.

The biggest reason Fallout Shelter is such a time-killer are the Objectives: just as you complete one of them, another pops up just begging you to complete it before you go off. I’m always hopeful the next one will include a Lunchbox as reward, and the excitement of opening one is as fresh as the first time.

The following guide will give you a breakdown of every Objective in Fallout Shelter in detail and explain how to complete them in the fastest and most efficient way. Though it’s not terribly difficult to figure this stuff by yourself after a while, I’m certain you will find some of my tips and tricks helpful so check out the guide if you want to maximize your time (and Caps!) in this game.

Have # dwellers dance in the living room

Simply assign a male and female dweller in any living room, and have them dance with one another. Make sure you re-assign the dwellers immediately after they start dancing if you don’t want them to make babies. Pretty annoying objective, but easy to complete. After you have 150 dwellers you won’t see it appear anymore.

If you want to speed up the process, assign dwellers with higher Charisma stat. This objective has a tendency to appear right after you complete one of the following two, just to make it extra annoying.

Get # females pregnant

Simply get a specified number of females pregnant. Dwellers who are pregnant already won’t count, only those you knock up after you get the objective. After your dwellers start dancing, it won’t take long until they do their thing. Higher Charisma also affects how long you have to wait until your dwellers start having sex, so if you want to speed up the process equip them with some +Charisma gear.

Deliver # babies

Get women pregnant, and have them deliver babies. Sometimes you don’t want to expand your vault too quickly, so if this objective rewards a few caps you may even consider skipping it. If it’s a Lunchbox, don’t skip it.

Worth noting is that once your vault population reaches 60 dwellers, Deathclaw attacks will begin. Until that point you only have to deal with Raiders.

Merge # pairs of rooms together

Normally this sounds like a pretty expensive endeavor, but this objective is actually one of the easiest to complete, unless you’re completely out of caps. Simply build 3 of the cheapest rooms (probably Diner or Water Treatment) next to each other, press the “Upgrade” room button, and destroy it. Repeat until you have combined enough rooms to complete this objective.

Even later on when you need to combine 5 rooms or more, this won’t cost more than 2,500 caps or so which is very affordable. Objective often rewards a lunchbox, and you should never skip it! Just use my trick and you’ll complete it in a minute.

Upgrade # rooms

Just like merging, this objective is extremely easy to complete. Just build a 1×1 room which is cheapest (likely Diner or Water Treatment again), upgrade it, and then destroy it. Repeat until objective is completed.

If you’re asking yourself why destroy the room: the cost to build a room increases depending on how many rooms of the same type you already have. If you need the room, feel free to keep it. Alternatively you can upgrade your existing 3x rooms, but that can cost thousands of caps per room and may ruin your other plans.

Kill radroaches/molerats without a weapon

This one’s easy. Simply un-equip all weapons from your dwellers in one room, and keep rushing it until you kill enough Radroaches or Molerats, depending on which objective you get. Just make sure you have plenty of Stimpacks available to heal your workers, as they will take a ton of damage (you will likely even need to heal them during the incident to make sure they don’t die).

Dwellers will stop incidents faster (thus taking less damage) in rooms which are not upgraded.

Make sure you also have max number of dwellers in the room to make it a bit easier, and keep in mind that Molerats only spawn in rooms directly touching dirt. The quickest way to get Molerats is to just build a 1×1 room and assign 2 dwellers in it. You will only get 1 or 2 Molerats spawned each time, but workers are easier to heal and you’ll use less Stimpacks this way.

Collect # weapons/outfits

This one requires you to send dwellers out in the Wasteland and have them collect a specific number of weapons or outfits, depending on objective goal. The objective is updated or completed once your dwellers get back to the vault and you press the “Collect” button, which is the reason why I usually have 2-3 dwellers standing outside my vault at all times.

In case you get this quest while you have no dwellers exploring the wasteland, you may be looking at over 24 hours of waiting until they collect the required number of items, which is far too long to wait for my taste. This objective often has a Lunchbox as reward so you’ll want to complete it as fast as possible. If you can afford to have a couple of dwellers waiting outside your vault with equipment ready to be collected, that’s the best way to ensure you complete this objective quickly.

Sell # weapons or outfits

Pretty straightforward objective. Unless a majority of your dwellers already have weapons equipped you may want to skip this, or just sell outfits. Weapons are far too important and valuable especially early on, unlike outfits which become fairly obsolete once you start training S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats.

Since after a while you won’t be needing the equipment you will be selling it anyway, so there’s not much point in skipping this objective. When the number of items you need to sell reaches 500+, it will get increasingly difficult to complete it, but it will pop up constantly so abandoning it will only delay the inevitable.

As a sidenote, don’t sell any +7 equipment: it’s hard to come by and very useful. Even if you dwellers have maxed stats, increasing it further with equipment does work!

Send # dwellers in the Wasteland

This objective requires you to send a number of dwellers out into the wasteland. The upside to this objective is that you can send them to explore, and immediately recall them back. Don’t bother even equipping them with any gear or Stimpacks since they won’t spend any.

And that’s exactly how you do it! Just be careful about opening your vault doors so many times: it’s likely you will get attacked by Raiders or Deathclaws while or right after completing this objective.

To minimize the impact of a Raider or Deathclaw attack make sure your dwellers are healed up and have extra Stimpacks ready to be used in a pinch. These attackers will go to every room in your vault until they’re defeated, but make sure you plan building your vault to ensure they never have to backtrack and go to the same room twice! This is very important, as they will take more than 50% of your dweller’s life in the first pass, and if they have to pass through the same room again your dwellers will die (unless you’re quick with using Stimpacks).

Have a dweller explore the wasteland for # hours

Fairly annoying objective which can take a while to complete since it’s not always convenient to send dwellers outside, especially if you already have several exploring. Unfortunately this objective will only track dwellers you send after you get the objective.

Despite the ambiguous wording of this objective’s goal, it updates once your dweller has been outside for a full hour. It will update at 1:00, or 2:00, or whenever a full hour passes.

Also, Objective may say “Have a dweller exploring the wasteland for 18 hours”, but that doesn’t mean a single dweller needs to be exploring for 18 hours, instead multiple of them can explore for over an hour and contribute to the objective.

If it takes too long and you can’t send any dwellers to explore you may even consider abandoning this objective, especially if the reward is a few caps.

Kill # of creatures in the Wasteland

Unless you get this very early on when you can’t send too many dwellers in the Wasteland, this is a very easy objective. Doesn’t even require you to do anything in particular: simply have dwellers out of your vault exploring and they’ll update your objective constantly.

The only way to really speed up completion of this mission is to send more dwellers out in the wasteland. You can send more vault dwellers out for a short period even without Stimpacks and return them as soon as you complete the objective, or once they get low health. Unlike the objective to have dwellers explore for hours, dwellers who are already out do count for completing this objective.

Successfully rush # rooms

You can keep rushing the same room over and over again if you want, but the chance to fail will increase with each attempt so you’ll probably want to distribute rushing evenly across all rooms. Alternatively, you can keep rushing a Clinic/Medbay/Hospital; even if you fail, you can use the produced Stimpacks to heal your dwellers back up constantly.

You can decrease the chance to fail at rushing a room by increasing your dweller’s Luck, and another S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute dependent on the production room type: Strength, Perception, Agility, Endurance, or Intellect. Assuming you have dwellers with 10 in main room’s attribute (S, P, E, I, or A) and Luck, you can bring the fail chance to a minimum of 60%. Increasing stats above 10 with equipment can bring the fail chance down even further.

Also worth noting is that rushing rooms uses the average SPECIAL of your assigned dwellers, so if you have one high SPECIAL guy it works better to use him alone.

Use ONE dweller with max proper S/P/E/I/A (depending on the room) in a room and outfit with +7 main stat or luck so you can rush one room twice with 0% incident rate.

Stop # incidents

Molerat attacks and Radroach infestations, fires, and even Raider and Deathclaw attacks count towards completing this objective. Typically you will simply keep rushing a room until you’ve completed the objective. As mentioned above (and explained in more details in my other guide) you can keep rushing a Medbay indefinitely.

Successfully extinguish # vault fires

This specifically requires you to put out fires in your vault, and the fastest way is to create incidents yourself. Once again, you can keep rushing a single room, and top off your dweller’s health with Stimpacks.

You will put out fires more quickly in non-upgraded rooms.

Though it may be 50:50 between Radroach infestations and room fires, whenever you get this objective fires will spawn less frequently. You may need to spend half an hour continuously rushing the same room to complete this mission, but it’s still easy to complete. You’ll even get some extra caps along the way when you succeed a rush!

Assign # of dwellers to the right room

This one can get tricky, but it’s actually fairly easy once you get the hang of it. I actually used to skip this objective every time (even if it awarded Lunchpacks), until I figured out how easy it actually is to complete it.

The correct room for any dweller is the one that corresponds to their highest S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat. As an example, a dweller who has Perception as their highest attribute, any Water room will be the “right” room (“Armory” training room will work as well). Dwellers who are already assigned to the “right” room once you get this mission won’t count towards completion, even if you change their highest stat with equipment.

So here’s how I complete this objective in just a few minutes. Instead of rearranging my entire vault and messing up my plans, I just assign dwellers who are currently training to production rooms. I usually have a few empty production rooms to store extra resources, and I just take a few dwellers currently not producing anything and assign them there for a second. To complete the objective simply check your training rooms, look at which attribute your dweller has highest, and assign them to the correct room: Strength to power production, Agility is for food rooms, Perception for water treatment, Endurance for Nuka-Cola Bottler, and Intelligence for Medbays and Science Labs.

Try to equip dwellers in the training room with an outfit to boost the SPECIAL that is not being trained to be higher than the one being trained at all times (i.e. +7 End or Luck on someone who trains in the Strength room). So when the objective pops, you can just move the person to the proper room which will count toward the objective.

If a dweller has an equal value in two attributes there’s a good chance he won’t count towards completing the objective no matter where you assign him. In that case simply equip them with a piece of gear to increase one attribute above the rest, and you will easily complete the objective. For the purpose of completing this objective, raising SPECIAL stats above 10 with equipment will work!

Kill # raiders/deathclaws without a weapon

You’ll need to unequip any weapons on your dwellers, and get Raiders to attack your vault. Instead of waiting for them to come, you can keep sending your dwellers out in the Wasteland continuously (return them immediately after if you want), as opening your Vault doors will increase the chance for them to attack you. If you know which room(s) Raiders usually die in when they attack you, you can un-equip weapon only on dwellers assigned there.

I only got this objective once or twice in weeks of playing so it seems to be pretty rare. And I always skipped it, as it’s just not worth the effort even for a Lunchbox. There’s also the objective to kill Deathclaws, which is even worse.

Raise any special stat of # dwellers

Very straightforward objective: place your dwellers in training rooms, and wait! This objective can take a while to complete, and has a nasty habit of appearing in the worst time. Sometimes you may just want to leave it over night and complete it the next day.

There’s also the objective to raise only one particular stat on a number of dwellers. This one is clearly even more difficult, but does in most cases involve a Lunch Pack so it’s worth the wait. If you want to speed up completion, make sure you assign dwellers with very low stat value so their training takes less than an hour.

It’s worth noting that raising a stat on the same dweller twice will not count towards completing this objective. In later stages when you need to raise stats on a quarter of your Vault’s population this objective can be very annoying (and unfortunately, frequent).

Collect # food/water/power/Stimpacks

Straightforward objective which doesn’t require you to do anything special; simply go on as usual and collect resources produced by your rooms. The easiest objective is to collect Stimpacks, since as I mentioned before you can just rush your Medbay indefinitely for caps and Stimpacks to heal your dwellers. If you’re looking for quick and easy caps, you’ll be doing it anyway.

Of course you can speed up the process of collecting Food, Water, or Power by rushing rooms. Getting any of these objectives are one of my favorites actually, and quite often you can get a Lunch Pack as reward.

Collect # caps

Another dream objective, especially when it awards a Lunch Pack. The amount you need to collect increases with the development of your vault, but so does your income and this objective is very easy to complete at any stage.

Collecting caps is of course easiest by rushing rooms, and that’s exactly how you should complete it. Collecting 8000 caps only takes me about 20 minutes of repeated rushing so don’t abandon this objective no matter how much you need to collect.

When rushing rooms, dweller’s Luck not only decreases the chance to fail but also increases the chance you’ll get extra caps.

Level up # dwellers

Simply tap on a specified number of dwellers when they level up. No real way to rush this objective quickly, except staying online and collecting resources from production rooms. Note that only dwellers assigned to production rooms will be getting experience and levels: dwellers assigned to non-production rooms do not get experience.

Exploring the wasteland also awards XP and the levels gained outside your vault do count towards completing this objective. If you have plenty of level 1 dwellers in training rooms, temporarily assigning them to production rooms will quicken the progress since they’ll gain a level within minutes.

Equip # of dwellers with outfit/weapon

Requires a lot of tapping, but easily completed. Simply equip the required number of outfits or weapons on unique dwellers. Dwellers who are currently wearing a piece of gear can count for the objective as well: unequip their current armor or weapon, and re-equip it right after and you’ll get your objective in no time.

If you don’t have enough outfits or weapons you’re probably not sending enough (or any) dwellers into the wasteland, or you sold all your equipment, but both of this is easily remedied.

The same weapon or outfit only counts once but the same type of equipment will count if you equip multiple of them without taking them off before equipping more. When you take a piece of equipment off it goes “on top of the pile” so the next time you equip someone with that type of gear it will be the one that was previously unequipped.

There’s also objectives requiring you to equip a certain number (usually 2) of rare weapons on dwellers, such as a Gauss Rifle, Plasma Rifle, or Gatling Laser. There weapons aren’t easy to come by, and unless you already have the required number of them I would suggest abandoning this objective. After over 4 weeks of playing the same vault, I still have zero Gatling Lasers and a grand total of one Plasma and one Gauss Rifle, so the chances of receiving them are less than stellar.

Special thanks to redditors Zelfana and Einnoir for their contributions to this guide!

I hope my guide helped you understand Fallout Shelter’s objectives better. If there’s anything else that confuses you feel free to ask in the comments below!

Anub’arak, the undead beetle from Warcraft universe is making his appearance in Heroes of the Storm as well. He’s a Warrior class Hero who excels at tanking entire teams and has a wide range of useful abilities to help his team to victory.

To those who played the Undead in Warcraft III some of the ability names and overall playstyle will definitely be familiar, and my Anub’arak build guide will outline his strengths and weaknesses and show you how to best play him in Heroes of the Storm.

If you don’t want to be Anoob’arak read my guide and learn more about his abilities, heroic spells, talents, and more tips and strategies you can use to dominate your opponents.

Quick jump: Skills, Talents, Heroic Ability, Recommended Build, Tips & Tricks

Disclaimer: the recommended talents are based on my personal preferences and play style, and are by no means the only way to play Anub’arak. It’s intended for newer players looking for a quick guide, and once you start grasping Anub’arak’s basics you should experiment and see what works for you! Choice of talents may also depend on map or team composition.

Spells

• Trait – Legion of Beetles: Whenever Anub’arak casts a spell he summons a beetle for 10 seconds.
• Q – Impale: Shoots spikes in a straight line dealing damage and knocking enemies caught into air.
• W – Harden Carapace: Anub’arak gains a small duration shield which absorbs all damage.
• E – Burrow Charge: Burrow underground and charge in a direction, and stuns enemies around resurface point. Can be activated during traveling.
• R – Locust Swarm: Deals AoE damage every second around you, and heals you for each enemy damaged.
• R – Web Blast: Wraps a targeted enemy Hero into a cocoon, disabling actions and making him untargetable.

For more advice about which Heroic (R) ability to pick, refer to “Level 10 Talents” further down.

Talents

Below we’ll take a closer look at talent choices at levels 1, 4, 7, 13, 16, and 20. If you want to find out which talents are best on Anub’arak and which ones to pick and avoid be sure to take a look at each section.

Level 1 Talents

1. Extended Spikes – Impale (Q) has 25% increased range.
2. Persistent Carapace – Shield (W) lasts 3 seconds longer.
3. Assault Scarab – Beetles (trait) deal 25% more damage.
4. Regeneration Master – Gathering Regeneration Globes permanently increases Health Regen.

Recommended Level 1 Talent:

Extended Spikes and Regeneration Master are both good choices. Most often I prefer taking Extended Spikes, ensuring enemies have a much harder time getting away from you.

Regeneration Master can be very helpful since Anub’arak has little sustain to keep him in action until his ultimate abilities, but since it doesn’t give you any combat stats nor utility it’s often best skipped.

Your Harden Carapace (W) shield doesn’t absorb a huge amount of damage, and the default 3 second duration is usually more than enough time for enemies to break through it anyway. Assault Scarab is not recommended.

Level 4 Talents

1. Underking – Burrow Charge (E) has 20% increased range and 2 second lower cooldown.
2. Superiority – Reduces all non-Hero damage taken by 50%.
3. Locust Needles – Basic Attacks deal 50% splash damage to nearby targets.
4. Legion of Beetles – Anubarak automatically spawns a Beetle once every 8 seconds.

Recommended Level 4 Talents:

Wonderful choice of level 4 talents will require a bit of thinking from your part. Besides Locust Needles which I avoid taking, all other talent choices at level 4 are very good and often depend on your team’s composition, enemy Heroes, map you’re playing on, and whether you’re in lane solo or with another player. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each talent.

Underking is very good if you’re looking for even more reliable crowd control in fights. Paired with the talent Extended Spikes at level 1, you can catch up to anyone if your cooldowns are up, and easily get to the enemy team’s backline damage dealers to keep them busy.

Legion of Beetles can be extremely useful for fast pushing structures. Summoning Beetles once every 8 seconds quickly expends tower and keep ammo and helps with damage, albeit slightly.

Lastly Superiority is possibly the best choice. Anub’arak is all about tanking and soaking damage anywhere he can, and with this one talent his becomes incredibly durable when taking down mercenary camps, bosses, and even structures. It’s usually the superior choice and if you don’t think you make the most out of other talents go for Superiority.

Level 7 Talents

1. Shed Exoskeleton – Increases the Scarab’s movement speed for 3 seconds after using Harden Carapace (W).
2. Urticating Spines – Casting Harden Carapace (W) deals AoE damage around you.
3. Bed of Barbs – Casting Impale (Q) leaves a trail for 3.5 seconds dealing damage and slowing enemies standing on it.
4. Leeching Scarabs – Nearby Beetles summoned by your passive trait heal you for 50% of their damage dealt.
5. Mercenary Lord – Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries around you deal 50% more damage.

Recommended Level 7 Talents:

Shed Exoskeleton or Bed of Barbs are top choices on level 7, with the former being my most common choice. Since your W shield only has an 8 second cooldown you can constantly speed yourself up allowing you to both catch up to enemies or escape from them.

Bed of Barbs can be helpful for additional crowd control capability. Notable choice are also Leeching Scarabs, which can in fact heal for a decent amount especially if you have Legion of Beetles level 4 talent (spawning Beetles every 8 seconds), or if you didn’t take Regeneration Master talent at level 1.

Level 10 Heroic Ability

Locust Swarm: Damages enemies around Anub’arak and returns health for each enemy damaged. 100 second cooldown and 8 second duration.

• Makes you incredibly durable, and unless focused by an entire team you can absorb a ton of damage all the while dealing damage to everyone around you.

Web Blast: Wraps target enemy Hero in a cocoon for 8 seconds. Cocooned enemy is unable to act and can’t be targeted, and his allies can attack the cocoon to break them free early.

• Strong single-target CC, can easily take out an opponent out of the fight and make it essentially a 4v5.

When used on a support or squishy damage dealer this Heroic can easily swing the fight in your favor, but Web Blast is best used in coordinated teams who can properly take advantage of this 8-second duration CC.

For everything else there’s Locust Swarm. It has immense healing giving you more than enough sustain during teamfights, and considering the overall durability of the scarab lord this ultimate will make everything think twice before focusing their damage on you. Paired with a level 20 talent you can also have a near-permanent Locust Swarm giving you constant heals.

Level 13 Talents

1. Burning Rage – Continuously deals damage to enemies around you.
2. Chitinous Plating – Increased Hardened Carapace (W) shield amount by 40%.
3. Symbiotic Armor – Using Hardened Carapace (W) also gives a shield to summoned Beetles.
4. Spell Shield – Reduces consecutive spell damage once every 30 seconds.

Recommended Level 13 Talents:

Burning Rage is what I do with in most matches. Due to Anub’arak being so durable you can usually stay in fights very long, and Burning Rage can continually melt enemies around you. With various forms of crowd control and gap-closers at your disposal you can easily stick to your desired target, and Burning Rage makes you a much bigger threat to them.

Alternatively if you’re feeling too squishy you can go for Chitinous Plating, increasing your W’s shield by 40%. Or, if caster assassins are causing you issues Spell Shield can also be a good alternative as it helps tremendously in decreasing potential burst damage you take.

Level 16 Talents

1. Epicenter – Increases Burrow Charge (E) area and damage.
2. Beetle, Juiced – If a Beetle kills an enemy it heals to full health, gain double the normal damage and health, and has refreshed duration. Only occurs once per Beetle.
3. Imposing Presence – Passive skill slowing enemy attack speed by 50% whenever they attack you.
4. Blood for Blood – Active spell stealing 15% of target Hero’s max health, and reducing their movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

Recommended Level 16 Talent:

I never take Beetle, Juiced, and Epicenter is sub-optimal in my opinion as well. Blood for Blood or Imposing Presence are much more useful, and the choice depends on your and enemy’s heroes picked.

If they have Assassins such as Valla or Zeratul who’s damage is almost entirely based on Basic Attacks, Imposing Presence is incredibly powerful. Taking it against ranged spell-casters like Jaina wouldn’t make much sense, but otherwise the usefulness of this talent can’t be overstated.

Blood for Blood is an active spell many champions have access to and it can be very useful, though on Anub’arak I haven’t felt much need for taking it. Imposing Presence is definitely superior, but if you don’t require it Blood for Blood can make you even more annoying.

Level 20 Talents

1. Hive Master – You passively gain a permanent life-stealing Locust Swarm (R), dealing damage to nearby enemy and healing you once every 3 seconds.
2. Cryptweave – Channeling on a Web Blasted (R) target increases the cocoon duration by 4 seconds.
3. Hardened Shield – Active ability reducing all damage taken by 75% for 4 seconds.
4. Rewind – Active spell resetting cooldowns of your Basic (non-Heroic) abilities.

Recommended Level 20 Talent:

If you took Locust Swarm ultimate, then you definitely should pick up Hive Master. This constant passive heal is yet another incredibly useful weapon in your tanky/damage/sustain arsenal, giving you enough sustain to even solo Boss monsters on the map.

I wouldn’t recommend taking Cryptweave even if you have Web Blast heroic spell. Both Hardened Shield and Rewind are more useful alternatives and either one will be a great choice, so choose whichever one you prefer or require.

Recommended Build

Below is my recommended talent build for Anub’arak:

• Level 1: Extended Spikes
• Level 4: Superiority
• Level 7: Shed Exoskeleton
• Level 10 (Heroic): Locust Swarm
• Level 13: Burning Rage
• Level 16: Imposing Presence
• Level 20: Hive Master

This is the build I go for in majority of my games. Sometimes I’ll go for full sustain build taking every health regeneration and life-stealing talent I can just to be extra annoying, but in most matches the build outlined above will work very well.

As explained in more detail in section about every talent, you should consider all the factors when choosing talents, including the map you’re playing on and your team’s and enemy heroes picked. Anub’arak is a versatile and scary tank with a great choice of talents, and you can and should always adapt to the match as needed, rather than focusing always on certain talents.

If you need a quick talent guide or if you’re ever in doubt, simply go for the recommended build above and I’m sure it’ll work well for you.

Tips & Tricks

• Don’t forget you can unburrow while traveling with Burrow Charge (E). You don’t need to travel the full distance.
• Try to target Burrow Charge slightly behind enemy target, making sure you stun them and get a few basic attacks in while you’re at their escape path.
• Harden Carapace (W) has a fairly low cooldown and mana cost, don’t be afraid to use it whenever you can.
• Always chain crowd control from Burrow Charge (E) and Impale (Q), don’t use both at once.
• Locust Swarm makes you incredibly hard to kill, but that doesn’t mean you’re indestructible. You should make sure enemies focus you in teamfights, but still try to stay relatively safe and make use of your sustain and shield to live as long as you can. Being alive longer and throwing another stun can make all the difference.
• Don’t forget you can use Burrow Charge as an escape tool, and you don’t always need to engage with it. You can also travel across walls with it.

If you have any tips of your own for playing Anub’arak, be sure to tell us in the comments after the guide.

Final Thoughts

Of all the melee warriors in HotS, Anub’arak is potentially one of the most durable ones. He has amazing utility, survivability, sustain, and crowd control. Although not often considered a top-tier pick I always like having (or playing) Anub’arak and I believe he brings a lot to any team composition.

Do you have your own way of playing Anub’arak? Let everyone know how to make the most out of this hero in the comments below.

Zombies, spiders, toads, and other nefarious summons are his trademark and if you want to curse your enemies (outside the chat, of course), Nazeebo could be a great hero to purchase in Heroes of the Storm.

Below we’ll take a look at Nazeebo’s spells giving you a breakdown of how this hero plays out, and of course we’ll go into detail about which talents you should be leveling up.

Quick jump: Skills, Talents, Heroic Ability, Tips & Tricks

Disclaimer: the recommended talents are based on my personal preferences and play style, and are by no means the only way to play everyone’s favorite witch doctor. It’s intended for newer players looking for a quick guide, and once you start grasping Nazeebo’s basics you should experiment and see what works for you! Choice of talents may also depend on map or team composition.

Skills

• Trait: Voodoo Ritual – Basic attacks deal damage over time, and enemies afflicted by Voodoo Ritual will restore Health and Mana if slain.
• Q: Corpse Spiders – Area of effect spell dealing damage upon impact and summoning spiders which attack enemies.
• W: Zombie Wall – Conjures a ring of zombies which trap enemies caught within it and deal damage to them.
• E: Plague of Toads – Cone-shaped AoE spell summoning several “toads” that deal damage to first enemy hit.
• R: Gargantuan – Spawns a Gargantuan who deals damage upon impact and continues attacking for 30 seconds. Deals extra damage to structures.
• R: Ravenous Spirit – Channeled spell which creates a spirit dealing area damage.

For more advice about which Heroic (R) ability to pick, refer to “Level 10 Talents” further down.

Talents

Below we’ll take a look at all Nazeebo’s talents and give you a guide on which ones are best to choose.

Level 1 Talents

• Blood Ritual – Voodoo Ritual (Trait) returns more Health and Mana.
• Death Ritual – Minion kills give permanent health and mana bonus.
• Demolitionist – Basic attacks against structures destroy ammo and deal extra damage.
• Bribe – Active spell allowing you to instantly “bribe” mercenaries to fight for you.

Recommended Level 1 Talents:

In most cases I pick Demolitionist: it allows you to do what Nazeebo is good at doing even quicker: take down turrets and keeps. Since turrets will also attack your zombies (W) you can quick expend their ammo.

Bribe is also a choice I frequently go with. Though not nearly as popular among players, I’ve found it very useful on certain maps with important team objectives, such as Haunted Mines or Garden of Terror. Quickly grabbing a Siege mercenary camp right before these map objectives spawn can cause a ton of pressure to the opposing team, and usually at least one player will have to deal with it therefore not joining a teamfight in time.

Level 4 Talents

• Spider Cluster – Corpse Spiders (Q) creates even more spiders.
• Gathering Power – Passive spell giving you increased Ability Power.
• Envenom – Active spell dealing damage over time to a single enemy hero.
• Promote – Gives increased health and damage to a friendly minion.

Recommended Level 4 Talents:

Envenom is my favorite level 4 talent. Nazeebo is capable of quickly controlling and bringing down his enemies, but very often I lack a bit of damage to finish off opponents so Envenom helps a lot to bring their health down.

Promote is a viable option as well, giving you even more tools to push down structures as fast as possible. It has a short cooldown and even holds 2 charges, and paired with Zombies, Bribe and Gargantuan you can quickly summon and strengthen an entire army to fight at your side.

I’ve seen players taking Gathering Power quite often as well, though I typically tend to stay away from it.

Level 7 Talents

• Gidbinn – Empowers your Basic hero abilities (QWE). Corpse Spiders (Q) and Wall of Zombies (W) lasts 25% longer, and Plague of Toads (E) has an increased explosion area.
• Fresh Corpses – Your zombies have increased damage.
• Mercenary Lord – Siege and Bruiser mercenaries near you deal 50% more damage.
• Calldown: MULE – Summons a mule which repairs structures and replenishes their ammo.
• Clairvoyance – Active spell giving you vision of targeted area for 10 seconds.

Recommended Level 7 Talents:

Gibinn, Fresh Corpses, and Mercenary Lordare the best choices. The choice very much depends on your playstyle and opposing heroes, so Gidbinn is best if you need extra crowd control duration, Fresh Corpses for slightly more damage, or Mercenary Lord if your voodoo army needs even more potency.

Level 10 Heroic Ability

1. R: Gargantuan – Spawns a Gargantuan who deals damage upon impact and continues attacking for 30 seconds. Deals extra damage to structures.
2. R: Ravenous Spirit – Channeled spell which creates a spirit dealing area damage.

Gargantuan is almost a no-brainer here, at least for me. He’s strong, deals plenty of damage to enemies, and most importantly helps you take down structures in record time. Leaving Nazeebo unchecked while Gargantuan is up usually means you’ll end up with dead turrets and a downed keep in no time.

Ravenous Spirit, while fun as an occasional channel-your-inner-troll spell, is just not nearly as versatile or helpful as Gargantuan is. Although I must point out, many players would disagree with me completely on this one, so don’t sweat about it and simply test which ultimate works better for your play style! The damage of course does work on buildings as well so it can fill in Gargantuan’s role as well.

Level 13 Talents

• Dead Rush – Upon expiring your Zombies will uproot and attack enemies for 3 seconds.
• Toads of Toughnes – Toads gain damage and size with each hop.
• Sprint – Active spell giving you a 75% move speed boost for 3 seconds.
• Ice Block – Place yourself in stasis and become invulnerable for 3 seconds.

Recommended Level 13 Talents:

Dead Rush can be good for extra damage, and can further help to spend enemy tower’s ammo. But, Dr. Nazeebo being as defenseless as he is I often tend to pick up Sprint or Ice Block for more survivability in a pinch, with Ice Block being my most common choice.

Level 16 Talents

• Specialized Toxin – Voodoo Ritual (Trait) deals double damage to enemy Heroes.
• Leaping Spiders – Corpse Spiders (Q) leap at enemies and do increased damage.
• Infested Toads – Plague Toads (E) create Corpse Spiders upon exploding.
• Stoneskin – Active spell giving Nazeebo a 5-second duration shield equaling 30% of his maximum health.

Recommended Level 16 Talents:

Leveling to 16 is not particularly exciting for the Witch Doctor, as the choice of talents is more than often not much of a choice at all. Stoneskin is always good to have, and other talents don’t add nearly as much utility to be considered in majority of games.

Level 20 Talents

• Humongoid – Gargantuan (R) deals double its previous damage to structures, and lasts until killed.
• Annihilating Spirit – Increased range and movement speed on Ravenous Spirit (R).
• Fury of the Storm – Passive ability making your Basic Attack deal extra damage and chain to other targets once every 5 seconds.
• Bolt of the Storm – Active skill teleporting you to a nearby location.

Recommended Level 20 Talents:

Contrary to level 16 talents, on leveling to 20 does add a bit more variety. Humongoid and Fury of the Storm are both quite fun to have, and when I’m doing quick A.I. games for daily quests choosing between these two is quite difficult. If you took Ravenous Spirit heroic spell, then Annihilating Spirit can really help out with dishing out damage from even further away.

However, in normal games nothing beats the usefulness and often the necessity of having Bolt of the Storm. This spell helps you bolt away from danger at a moments notice and is likely to keep you alive more than once during a match.

Tips & Tricks

• If you can’t push in your own lane, roam to another and go do a quick few hits on the turret or use Zombies to expend tower ammo.
• Always do your best to keep your passive trait up on dying minions. While it may not seem like it restores a lot of health and mana, it adds up to quite a lot for an entire minion wave.
• You can also use your trait to help you push minions faster: since it deals damage over 4 seconds, keep attacking different minions to stack the damage on all of them (just make sure to keep in mind the above tip as well).
• Use Wall of Zombies (W) to expend tower ammo whenever you feel safe enough to use it.
• Always try to combo your Q and E ability when enemies are caught in Wall of Zombies (W) to make sure they can’t avoid the damage.

Final Thoughts

Of all the Specialist characters in Heroes of the Storm, Nazeebo is likely my favorite one. Though dark and mysterious, he’s also quite entertaining and playful and he certainly fits my somewhat trollish style. He’s great at quickly raising an entire army of minions and mercenaries to help him demolish structures, and taking timely advantage of missing or dead enemies is crucial.

He’s great at causing chaos when everyone else is focused on something else, and is particularly useful in backdooring the enemy base while they’re off grabbing skulls, seeds, or other map objectives.

Do you have your own way of playing Nazeebo? Let everyone know how to make the most out of this hero in the comments below.

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.

Like a great deal of other things, transportation is also a bit more complex in ArcheAge than most players may be used to from other MMORPGs. The game offers many different ways of traveling and transportation, and they are: mounts, gliders, ships, carriages, airships, trains, and portals.

In this short guide we’ll take a quick look at various modes of transport in ArcheAge, so keep on reading to learn a bit more about how you’ll travel around.

MOUNTS

Unlike in most other games, mounts are easy to come by in ArcheAge. You should get your first mount even before you reach level 10 from a quest and a small fee of 10 silver. Each race has access to a different mount of first: Nuian has horses, Firrans have snow lions, Elves have elks and Harani get leomorphs. Other than the visuals the first mounts don’t differ much in stats like speed.

In most cases mounts are obtained as babies, and you will have to fee and otherwise take care of them over time. They also have separate health bars, experience and levels, and even equipment slots. They have abilities which can be used while you’re riding them, and can be attacked by enemies. It’s interesting to also note that some mounts can carry more than one player which is very useful for trade caravans/packs. Additionally, you can equip various stat-boosting gear on your mounts such as saddles, masks or leg armor.

Later on in the game you can get unique mounts, including a donkey, sled cow, or bloodstock horses. Some mounts like Stormdarter are purchasable with Honor points, and there’s also Roar of the Earth which is obtained by killing a world boss.

GLIDERS

While ArcheAge doesn’t have flying mounts, gliders are the next best thing. The basic glider is obtained through a very early quest and can be further upgraded later on through the crafting system. While flying a glider you can change your height, direction or speed by using movement keys.

As mentioned gliders aren’t the same as flying mounts you might be used to: you will need to start your gliding adventure from higher ground and build speed and height. Unless you’re flying over them, it can’t take you over world obstacles. Flight time and the distance you can travel varies also depending on the type of glider you have: basic ones have very low flight speed, gliding ability, turning speed and initial speed. Later on you can get stronger gliders capable of up to 10 minutes of flight time, and they can also have special abilities such as dropping explosives on enemies beneath you, or leaving a trail of smoke behind you.

CARRIAGES AND AIRSHIPS

Both carts and airships can be found by looking for a Transportation/Bench icon on your map. They are the only automated transport routes out of player control.

Carriages (also called carts or coaches) are a method of public transportation and they are available in most zones of ArcheAge. If you’re looking to transport yourself within a zone or want to travel to another area they are a very convenient way to travel. What’s best about carriages is that they’re unhindered by your character’s load, so they are very good for transporting goods over distances. You can jump on and off carriages at any point.

Airships fly between different zones and travel slightly faster than carriages. You can also use them to safely travel to another area, or to carry trade packages.

WORLDGATE PORTALS

Likely the fastest way to travel in ArcheAge, portals are a very popular but costly means of transportation. When you visit new areas or cities you will unlock their locations (Memory Tomes), which is recorded in your Teleport Book, also used for easier travel in the future. Opening a portal however requires a reagent called Hereafter Stone if you’re traveling within your continent, or a Refined Hereafter Stone if you’re traveling to another. Worldgates can also be used to travel to your house.

There are also static portals you can find throughout the world which have fixed locations and are always open.

GROUND VEHICLES

Ground vehicles include farm wagons and cars. Farm wagons are slower than mounts, but also capable of carrying a large amount of storage, which can dramatically increase the efficiency of your trade routes. Cars are also available in ArcheAge, though they require a sizable investment to build and maintain. They can also transport two trade or resource packs in their storage compartments.

BOATS

The extensive oceans in ArcheAge require an appropriate way of transportation! To get a boat of your own you will first need to acquire plans for constructing one, and having the necessary amount of materials beforehand is highly recommended. You will need to build in open water where your boat will be constructed, and you only have three days to bring the necessary resource packs to complete the construction. Once built you can summon and de-summon your boat as you please.

The first boat you’ll come across will be a very simple rowboat — capable of getting you across short distances, though not safely nor quickly. A bit later on you’ll come across Clippers, small speedboats which are excellent for exploring the oceans either by yourself or with another friend. They also have harpoons and side cannons for basic defense or attack. There are also fishing boats, with improved storage that can hold several large fish and a sonar capable of detecting large fish schools.

Merchant ships are long and fast vehicles used for transporting up to 20 resource or trade packs. Furthermore there are Warships (Eznan Cutter and Lutesong Junk), powerful ships with heavy firepower also capable of taking quite a beating. They are largely unaffected by sea monsters and smaller boats they come across, and most effective when manned by a larger crew. They can take up to 4 trade and resource packs, so they’re best used for protecting or assaulting smaller vessels.

Lastly, the most powerful boat is The Black Pearl, however also the most difficult and expensive to obtain.

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!