Classes

Alester can choose from three classes: Water Dancer, Sellsword, and Archer. There are benefits for each profession, though if you like to take advantage of your opponents’ weaknesses, choose Water Dancer; if you like relying on stealth and timing to kill your enemies, go with Sellsword; and if you enjoy pelting your foes with projectiles, choose Archer.

Water Dancer

Based on speed, balance, and agility, a Water Dancer’s sword fighting cuts away at an opponent’s weak spots until they fall. Though you wear light armor, your formidable offensive skills overmatch almost any foe. You can adjust many aspects of your class, though you won’t be able to use two-handed weapons without serious penalties.

The Intensity stance begins with the Fierce as a Wolverine ability, a better-than-average attack that reduces the hit chance of your opponent’s next strike. As with all stance skill trees, you can choose to pour more points into the left side or the right. The left side offers more offensive abilities, while the right side focuses on defense.

Your first ability on the tree’s left side is Light as a Feather, which allows you to immobilize an opponent for a short time and deal a moderate amount of damage. If you continue down the chain from Light as a Feather, you pick up Quick as a Snake next, which strikes all enemies surrounding you for normal damage. Beneath that, you gain Calm as Still Water, a blow that deals less-than-normal damage but knocks down your opponent for a short time. Calm as Still Water sets up both abilities connected to it: Opportunist performs an automatic critical hit against a knocked down opponent, and Sting of the Manticore deals double damage and bleeds your foe for a short time.

If you branch off to the left of Light as a Feather, you can learn some passive abilities to improve damage dealing. First, Vicious Circle increases critical hit chance with each critical hit performed. Next, Cocksure increases attack damage after each successful dodge.

On the tree’s right side, you must take Retaliation first. This ability allows you to drop into a defensive position and improve Deflection, increase damage for each incoming attack, and increase damage for each successful dodge. Directly under Retaliation, Strong as a Bear is an interrupt that deals slightly-above-average damage but stuns the target for a short duration.

If you branch off to the right of Retaliation, you can pick up Bully, which taunts your enemies to rush at you. Teamed up with Bully, Smooth as Summer Silk increases your Deflection percentage and your ability to dodge during the Bully duration. Next down the chain, Anticipation further increases Deflection for each attack received, and, lastly, Recuperative Defense enables you to deflect enemy attacks even while using the Recovery action in combat.

Sellsword

A Sellsword’s experience as a mercenary prepares Alester well for most combat situations. They wear the toughest armor of all of his class choices and typically wield a one-handed weapon to inflict precise critical strikes. You can adjust many aspects of your class, though you can’t use two-handed weapons without serious penalties.

The Assassination stance starts off with Sneak Attack, an ability that punishes an opponent with heavy damage if that foe isn’t attacking you. The left side of your skill tree concentrates on poison and stun effects, while the right side has a variety of abilities that range from Bleeding to temporary invulnerability.

On the tree’s left side, Poisoned Weapon sets up the poison chain with Hemlock, an attack that poisons; it also increases attack speed and improves hit chance. Beneath Poisoned Weapon, Apothecary allows you to apply various poisons to your blade. Contagion, the last ability in the poison chain, enables your poison to spread to a second opponent in the area.

Branching off to the left from Poisoned Weapon, Blinding Dust is an excellent defensive ability: It stuns an opponent for a short duration and interrupts any enemy action in progress. Under Blinding Dust, Guile gives a bonus to damage against opponents who are stunned, knocked down, or fighting one of your allies. Continuing down the chain, Savage Strike hits your opponent with a vicious blow for heavy damage, and Pommel Strike deals heavy damage with a chance to disarm your opponent.

On the tree’s right side, Deterring Strike forces your current foe to switch to a teammate. It allows you to avoid damage, but you must have an ally in the fight to use it. Below Deterring Strike in the chain is Assassin’s Dance, a passive ability that grants a bonus to critical hit chance and critical damage. Below that, Thirst for Life increases your dodge ability when your health is low, and Unbowing gives you a short burst of invincibility when you fall under a quarter of your health.

Branching off to the right on Deterring Strike is Vicious, a passive ability that gives you a chance to inflict the Bleeding state on an opponent who isn’t fighting you. Finally, Precision Strike falls under the Vicious ability and causes moderate damage over time.

Archer

Where most of the other classes prefer up-close-and-personal combat, the Archer specializes in fighting from a distance. Because you wear light armor and your melee abilities won’t excel until higher levels, Archers should linger on the outskirts of a battle and let allies charge into the fray. You can adjust many aspects of your class, though you can’t use one-handed or two-handed melee weapons without serious penalties.

The Dexterity stance begins with Paralyzing Powder, a clutch defensive ability that immobilizes an enemy in front of you for a short duration and allows you to put some distance between you before the next attack. Look for more offensive abilities on the tree’s left side and a mix of attacks, defense, and quicker reload abilities on the right side.

On the left side, you start off with Poisoned Missile (apply Hemlock to your projectile and increase attack speed and hit chance) and the must-take Impact (chance to immobilize with each attack). If you continue down the chain under Impact, you can gain Head Shot (major damage to target and knockdown) and Explosive Missile (massive damage to all enemies in the immediate impact area). If you branch out to the left from Impact, you have access to Target Practice (increased attack speed against immobilized targets) and Focus (take time to regain energy while targeting an opponent).

On the tree’s right side, Rapid Fire kicks things off. Your attack speed increases on a single enemy, but the effect ends if you miss your foe. If you continue down the chain from Rapid Fire, you can pick up Smoke Bomb (force enemies to target an ally instead of you), Discourteous Kick (a moderate attack that causes Bleeding), and Chirurgeon (extra critical hit chance on Bleeding foes and each critical hit immobilizes your opponent for a short duration).

If you branch out to the right of Rapid Fire, the passive ability Sequential Shot increases the hit chance for each attack carried out on the same target, plus you score a critical hit every five attacks on that same foe. Under Sequential Shot, Deft Reloads increases reload speed and Skilled Marksman increases aiming speed.

Comparing Alester’s Classes