Basic Builds for Newbies

When you create your very first character, the choice you get is Fighter, Mage, or Ranger, the Beginning Classes. To play one of these basic types successfully you need to understand a bit about "Builds", that is how to turn your character from Novice to Buff by spending attribute points wisely and selecting the proper skills and equipment.

Let's look at the four Attributes:

Strength: The main use of Strength is to increase the amount of damage you do with each hit in melee. Clearly it is a vital attribute for a Fighter. However it does not increase ranged damage or magic damage, so Rangers and Mages need little strength.

Agility: Agility basically increases the chance you will score a HIT instead of a MISS, whether swinging your weapon or firing one. It is the principal component of your Attack Rating. Rangers need the most agility, but Fighters need it also.

Endurance: This, of course, determines your Health, or hit points. Everybody needs Endurance! However, Endurance does not increase the potency of any ability.

Intellect: Intellect determines your Mana, so it is THE most important attribute for a mage. It also increases the effectiveness of spell skills. However Fighters and Rangers often use magical skills to so they may want some mana.

So to sum up:

Fighters need Agility, Strength and Endurance.

Rangers need Agility, Endurance and maybe a bit of Intellect.

Mages need Itellect and Endurance.

Points for these areas come from two sources. First, you get 5 points to distribute each time you level up. A common approach is to put all of your Level Up points into two of these areas, and use magical items to build up the third. The exact distribution of points is a matter of much debate and you will have to figure it out for yourself, but many players divide 3/2 or (particularly for mages) 4/1 as they Level Up. See more at Stat Choices.

Secondly, you can get attribute points from your equipment. The better the equipment, the more + attribute points. At the start it is hard to find yellow or purple equipment (much less rainbow) so you are likely to be getting more points from leveling than from equipment. However as you advance in levels you will find that you are constantly acquiring new and better equipment and eventually you will get more of your critical points from the equipment.

Here is an example for each type of character:

Fighter: The Tank. Put your points into Endurance and Agility, with a little strength. But as you advance, look for items that are +Endurance and you can then put all your points into Strength and Agility.

Ranger: The Guerilla. Put your points into Agility and Endurance, 3/2. Look for items that give + Intellect and + Agility. Alternatively, put your points into Agility and Endurance 4/1 and look for items that give + Endurance. Stand back and shoot and try not to get hit.

Mage: The Toaster. This is the no-brainer. Points go to Intellect and Endurance 4/1 as long as you are surviving, or 3/2 if you die too quickly. Items give + Intellect. Stand back and blast spells and stay away from using a weapon.

As you go along you can develope your own fighting style and vary your build attributes to fit the way you attack. A solo character is going to get surrounded by mobs more often and needs more Endurance. A Ranger or Mage running with a group and using some Fighters for Meat Shields will get hit less often.

Now let's consider choice of skills. Each type starts with a pretty good list of skills, but as soon as you get some gold you will want to add more. You have to decide whether you want to be a "pure" type, sticking with your own trainer, or acquire some crossover skills from the other trainers. Most characters eventually add a few extra skills to their basic pack.

Fighters: You can stay Tank, Tank, Tank, getting all your skills from Lothar of the Mound People, the Fighter trainer. Cleave and Butcher skills work well here, and you can add Soul Rend. You want Swivel Arm Action and Retribution. In addition to great armor, get some Resistances. The first elemental mobs you will run into are Poison Whiskers so that Resistance is useful.

Alternatively you can pick up some skills from the Mage or Ranger trainers. Shadow Lightning is a great skill for a Fighter because dealing with masses of fodder mobs one at a time can be frustrating. It is also very handy for a Fighter to have a poisoned weapon. Think about what you want to do.

Rangers: The two most common approaches are the Critical Ranger, building up your Agility and choosing weapons with Critical Hit bonuses, or the Poison Ranger, visiting Gwen of the Tree Folk for poison skills.

Mages: There are lots of choices here. Eventually you will want to see Abel Tukahst and pick up all the Elemental Bolts as different ones work better on different mobs. You can be a Shadow Mage, a Pyromancer, and so on. You will want all the Resistances. Another choice is to become a Battlemage by buffing up with Fighter skills and picking a good weapon.

Check out the List of Equations for more on how attribute points affect your play.

The Beginners Trail now leads to Interface Guide.