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This will be meant as a guide to the 9 single mastery classes, assessing their strengths and weaknesses as well as over all viability.

At the first post, the classes will be lvl 14 and be in Athens.
All characters use the caravan facility to optimize equipment.

1. The Defender

Unique equipment:
Bristlebash – club
Shield of the royal guard
Labyrinthine greaves
Labyrinthine bracers

Skills:
Defense mastery 10/32
Batter 12/12
Armor Handling 1/6
Battle Awareness 3/12
Concussive blow 5/8
Adrenaline 1/12
Rally 3/12
Quick Recovery 1/8
Shield Smash 1/6
Shield Charge 3/12


Strengths: Staying power and health. Slowing enemies attack speed with batter is a good ability, especially versus boss monsters or tough foes, such as limos life eaters.

Weaknesses: Weak main weapon dps and the build is surprisingly endurance heavy. Passives does not activate often.

Playing style: Indentify the toughest or highest threat creature in a given mob and batter it, either killing it outright or slowing its attacks. Knowing the rythm of your attack chain (in this case – 5 attacks then batter is recharged) is important for optimal damage output. Shield charge enemy casters or other bothersome creatures with powerfull abilities (such as centaur elders with battle standard or creatures with earth enchantment).

Future development: Building towards the next tier (16) to get Rend armor to increase the effectiveness of Batter when I’m surrounded.


2. The Warrior

Unique equipment:
Patroclus shortblade
Stonebinders cuffs (+1 to all skills) – green item

Skills (without the bonus):
Warfare mastery 10/32
Weapon training 6/6
Battle Rage 1/12
Onslaught 8/8
Daul Wield 6/6
Dodge Attack 1/8
Ignore Pain 4/6
War Horn 1/10
Battle Standard 3/10

Strengths: Monsters die fast – very fast. High dps and high frequency of critical hits. Passives activate frequently. The build drains almost no endurance. Ability to stun a large crowd of enemies.

Weaknesses: Staying power is poor and the warrior is a potion hog. His repertoire is limited to hitting things and thus relies solely on his dps output. Thus he is vulnerable to creatures that can slow him down.

Playing style: Hit fast and hit hard. Going after spellcasters and rangers first is worth the trouble, but otherwise letting the enemies crowd you will lead to their swift and effective slaughter. If theres a troublesome or dangerous creature among the crowd, hitting war horn will usually give you the time you need to finish it off (or finish off all the lesser creatures if its a hero monster). Throw down a battle standard if its a tough fight.

Future development: Putting more points into the defensive passives, battle standard and war horn to increase my staying power. Also climbing the dual wield tree and the onslaught tree.



The Rogue and The Hunter Coming soon.

The Rogue:

Unique equipment:
None

Skills:
Rogue Mastery 10/32
Calculated Strike 3/8
Blade Honing 2/6
Envenom Weapon 1/12
Throwing Knife 2/12
Disarm Traps 1/6
Nightshade 3/8
Flash Powder 1/8
Lay Trap 16/16
Poison Gas Bomb 1/12

Stregths: When played cautiously, he rarely gets close to dying. Poison gas bomb is strong versus large mobs of weak creatures, flash powder as well. The traps do most of the work though and creatures can be pulled to the traps with a throwing knife. Easy killing so far.

Weaknesses: Will be weak versus large creatures that can easily destroy his traps. So far the only problem has been centaurs with battle standard, but a tactical retreat and a retry will usually solve that problem. It is slow going and the build is not for the powergamer. Its also endurance heavy.

Playing style: When I spot a group of creatures, I lay down a trap within firing range. This takes care of almost all standard creature groups I have encountered so far. If the group contains some heavy creatures (such as a lot of boar-men that can destroy the trap in numbers) I throw in a poison gas bomb to slow them down and do damage over time and then the trap can manage the rest. Hero monsters I have to ‘bait’ into following me around while the trap shoots at them. This is where envenom weapon with nightshade comes in so they will not be to fast for my traps to hit.

Future development: Will be increasing the damage I do myself in preparation for the first telkine and building towards critical strike to take out key creatures while the traps do the most of the work.


The Hunter:

Unique equipment:
Bloodletter – Spear
Storm Strike – Bow
Amber Flask – Artifact

Skills:
Hunting Mastery 10/32
Ensnare 1/6
Take Down 1/12
Wood Lore 6/6
Marksmanship 12/12
Art of the Hunt 6/12
Herbal Remedy 1/6
Call of the Hunt 3/8

Strengths: Kills most creatures in one shot as she is mostly going up against beasts and beastmen. Ensnare can immobilise creatures that does not die in one hit if necessary. The build is very easy on the blue endurance bar so far.

Weaknesses: Weak when getting mobbeb by large numbers of fast creatures. Centaurs are the major threat at this point in the game. So far she is still a two trick pony whos main skills is just shooting and immobilising.

Playing style: Very simple really. Just point and click at the creatures. I try to take down the weakest ones first as they are most likely to go down immediately, and if a tough creature gets close, I ensnare it. As mentioned, fast creatures are a problem, but I plan on getting monster lure to counter the centaur rushing tactic. So far when I get rushed, I either run around alot or chug a red potion and take the beating.

Future development: Going to get monster lure and then I’m going to be climbing the marksmanship tree.


The Wanderer and The Theurgist Coming Soon !