Every journey into the depths of Faelduum begins with a choice. Who you are and how you fight will shape your survival. Whether you favor strength, sorcery, or rely on summoning the forces of nature, there’s a path for every fledgling Inquisitor.
Here are five beginner builds to help guide your first steps, from the tried and true to the bold and demanding. Each offers its own rhythm of combat, from steady strikes to blazing spells. Choose the one that calls to you, and remember, your blade alone may not be enough.
1. The Vanguard
For those new to the Inquisition, the Vanguard offers a sturdy and straightforward path. Built for close combat and high survivability, it excels at standing firm and striking back… hard.
Whether you’re wielding a Greathammer or Greatsword for wide swings and heavy stagger or pairing a one-hander with a shield for blocking and stunning, the Vanguard is full of options. Skills like Uppercut (bleed), Shield Charge (stun), and Enrage (damage boost) form a reliable Entropy-proof kit.
In the early hours, your biggest allies are patience and positioning. Focus on mastering basic attacks, spacing, stamina management, and reading enemy patterns. Starting with a one-handed weapon and shield helps you learn the timing of blocks and dodges; shielding through heavy attacks and punishing openings is key to survival. Prioritize Talents that boost survivability, like Veteran (max HP), Lifeblood Surge (on-kill healing), and Armor Breaker (effective against armored foes), for immediate benefits.
It’s a simple class on the surface, but there’s depth for those who seek it. Bleed-focused Talents offer healing and passive damage over time, while dipping into fire or chaos paths along the Talent Tree can add status effects and utility.
Example Builds:
Bleed Focused: Specialize in maximizing Bleed damage and healing through the Deep Wounds and Blood Craze Talents.
Shield Charge/Stun: 1H + Tower Shield, focusing on Shield Charge to stun and create openings for follow-up attacks.
Hybrid Flameguard: Combine Vanguard's melee prowess with Flame Weaver's combat focused Talents like Fury for attack speed, Burning Blood for health recovery and Warrior’s Might for extra Physical damage.
Master stamina, learn when to block and dodge, and you’ll be near-unstoppable, a wall of steel and strength.
2. The Spellbinder
Glass cannon, master of arcane forces, the Spellbinder is a fragile ranged caster built around Chaos Magic. This Class excels at ranged damage and battlefield control, but demands careful mana and positioning management to survive. The Spellbinder offers multiple paths to domination, so long as you keep your enemies at a distance.
Starting with a one-handed weapon and a Chaos Relic, you’ll juggle high-impact spells with fragile defenses. You’ll begin relying on a mix of basic attacks and spells like Chaos Beam, with mana being your primary limiter. Cloth armor doesn’t forgive mistakes, so focus on spacing, pick off enemies from range, and finish them with spells. Tools like Shadow Wisp offer crowd control and chip damage until your mana economy improves.
Example Builds:
Full Caster: Max out Chaos Beam, Splintering Sparks, and Chaos Storm for long-range chaos control. Stack Talents like Cripple to weaken and slow down enemies, Inspiration to gain freecasts and Power Vacuum to convert mana into pure destruction. Use Chaos Dice to roll the odds in your favor with random power boosts.
Mage Assassin: Get in close, hit fast, and disappear. Use Shadow Shards, Dark Echo, and Shadow Wisp for short-range burst attacks, making you elusive, mobile, and lethal.
Chaosblade Hybrid: Mix spells with melee attacks using a crafted Duskblade and Talents like Shadowmelt, Inner Fire, Controlled Explosion and Fury. Use Chaos Storm to beat down your targets before finishing them off up close. Ideal for players who like the best of both worlds.
The Spellbinder doesn’t brute force; they dismantle. Precision, timing, and knowledge of enemy patterns are key to unleashing your full power.
3. The Flameweaver
For those who command fire and fury, the Flameweaver offers unmatched destructive potential. Focused on ranged spellcasting and area control, this Class ignites the battlefield and turns heat into havoc.
You’ll begin by focusing on fire damage and applying the Burn status, picking up Fire Bolt early and upgrading it as your primary tool. Pair it with the Burning Blood Talent to boost your survivability and form a versatile kit that works just as well against clustered mobs as it does in drawn-out boss fights.
But there’s more here than just fireballs. The Flameweaver’s Talent paths let you amplify the Burn effect, increase crit chance, and even convert flame into healing effects. The Class rewards players who can manage space, mana, and momentum.
Example Builds:
Pure Pyromancer: Invest heavily in the Flameweaver tree with Talents like Burning Blood, Heating Up, and Elemental Efficiency to maximize your damage over time. Take Phoenix for self-resurrection, Scorching Shield for ranged defense and pull from Spellbinder or Vanguard nodes for extra damage or defense.
Flameweaver Caster: A high-damage hybrid build that mixes fire and chaos magic. Start in the Flameweaver tree to focus on fire spells, picking up Talents like Burn for extra Burn damage and Burning Blood for sustain. Then branch into Spellbinder to add Talents like Shadow Burn and Shadowmelt and debuffs like Weakness for burst damage and control. Cast from a distance, manage your Mana carefully, and invest in talents that reduce Mana costs or boost regeneration to keep the pressure on.
Control the battlefield through heat and attrition. Flame Weaver rewards timing, spacing, and knowing when to turn up the heat.
4. Nightshade
For those drawn to speed and precision, the Nightshade takes the path of relentless momentum. Built around dual-wielding weapons and Dexterity scaling, it's a class that specializes in navigating through enemies and striking where it hurts the most.
While incredibly agile and deadly in the right hands, the Nightshade is less forgiving than other classes, demanding quick reflexes, smart positioning, and mastery of momentum-based combat.
Light on defense but heavy on offense, the Nightshade excels at hit-and-run attacks. Skills like Detonate Toxin (explosive poison) and Shadowstep (mobility and invulnerability) give you the tools to keep moving and strike your enemies’ weak spots.
Smart use of Poison and Bleed Talents enables sustained damage over time, while investing your Entropic Essence into movement skills and critical strike scaling opens up high-risk, high-reward build opportunities.
Example Builds:
Poison Rogue: Focus on stacking poison with Envenom, Reactive Blast and Detonate Toxin to maximize damage output in short bursts. Use daggers like Hechima’s Claws or Dragonfly to further increase your poison damage. Pick Talents like Toxic Cuts and Noxious Amplifier to reach maximum poison stacks faster.
Shadowstep Focused: Build around upgraded Shadowstep’s invulnerability and Backlash. Reposition yourself with these abilities to escape danger, deal damage to multiple enemies or to use the benefits of the Opportunist Talent
Hybrid Nightshade: Mix in Chaos or Wyld Talents to trigger status-based weaknesses and damage over time amplifiers. Pick Talents like Dark Focus, Dark Venom and Netherblades for a Chaos Hybrid build or Venomous Thorns, Boons of the Hunt and Splinter Swarm for a Wyld Hybrid build.
Play aggressively, keep moving, and stay just out of reach. The Nightshade isn’t about surviving damage, it’s about never getting hit.
Each build here offers a unique approach to combat and survival. Your journey is shaped not just by the weapons you wield, but by the choices you make. Adapt your playstyle, master your strengths, and embrace the challenges ahead.
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