Some of the Most Popular Class Builds in ArcheAge

ArcheAge features over 100 classes built from 10 skillsets favored by the gods and heroes of the Great Expedition. After reaching level 10, you can combine any three skillsets to make a unique class. So, many players have been looking for advice on what skillset combinations and class builds to go for. ArcheAge-Store.com share this guide will give you a quick breakdown of some of the most popular class builds in ArcheAge which will hopefully give you some ideas about your characters.

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

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.

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. Have fun.