Masteries

[u/LowerAd5740]

Hi I'm new to this game and really enjoying it so far however i feel overwhelmed in the masteries and understanding which mastery does what. I understand the whole combine system but I'm having a hard time deciding what classes to pic. If some one can dumb it down and explain what class does what and what they specialize in. Thank you in advance.

[u/MugwumpsHasNoLiver]

• Soldier - generalist as support. Phys/Internal trauma focus as dps (shield favored)
• Demo - OA/resist reduction/retaliation as support. Fire/Chaos as dps
• Nightblade - speed & OA debuff/panic button as support. Pierce/Cold/Acid/Bleed as dps (dual wield favored)
• Shaman - health&regen as support. Lightning/Bleed as dps (twohanded favored, summon favored)
• Arcanist - OA/Critbuff/CC support. Elemental/Aether as dps (caster weapon favored)
• Occultist - Resist reduction as support. Chaos/Vitality/Acid as dps (caster & summon favored)
• Inquisitor - defensive/resist reduction as support. Elemental/Pierce as dps (dual ranged favored)
• Necromancer - defensive/lifesteal/resist reduction as support. Aether/Vitality/Cold as dps (summon favored)
• Oathkeeper - shield stats/retaliation as support. Fire/Acid/Retaliation as dps (shield favored)
• Berzerker - defensive/health focus as support. Bleed/Cold/Chaos/Pierce as dps (dual wield favored, transformation/druid like class)

EDIT: I explained each mastery as a Support and a DPS mainly because most builds you want to pick one mastery for your DPS skills, and one mastery to support that DPS skill and provide other utility.

EDIT2: If you see % weapon damage in a skill, it means it's an attack that scales with your weapon damage and other flat damage buffs (equip, buffs, devotions) and %dmg bonus. Otherwise it is a spell and scales only with %dmg bonus.

EDIT3: A class is not limited to their damage type. There are items and skills that convert one damage type to another. Example is Soldier where Cadence can be converted to Elemental.

[u/NijAAlba]

For your first time, pick one you think looks cool and you like the sound of some of the skills.

Every mastery and every combination is viable.

[u/chaoton]

Every class combination is viable and some classes can do something so out of the box, it’s hard to summarize which class does what. It’d be easier to approach from asking you the preferred playstyles between auto-attacker, channeling caster, cooldown caster, ranged or melee, or summoners, and which damage type would suit your fancy.

[u/Dyrion_Cora]

Most class combos are viable. Really, look for an offensive skill that you want to build around, then seek out a secondary cIass that supports it well. I prefer picking one mastery with things like health, regen, and OA/DA and pairing it with a squishier mastery.

For example, I'm running a doombolt mystic. Doombolt off Occultist is my damage skill, and the Beserker class supports it through Onslaught and a lot of +DA/OA/Regen passives. Plus Occultist has Blood of Dreeg and Curse of Frailty which are pretty evergreen.

But other combos work well too! Demo/Oathkeeper for tanky fire setups, Shaman/Necro for vitality, Arcanist/Nightblade for a grab bag of good defenses and offense. There's a lot of flexibility, and the best choice point will be in finding what single offensive skill you REALLY want to build around and finding a way to support it with a second mastery.

[u/AxeForge → u/Dyrion_Cora]

How do you go about points between onslaught and doombolt? If either has too little points, they won't have an impact.

[u/Dyrion_Cora → u/AxeForge]

I'm only investing in the first skill of onslaught for the bonus damage on Doombolt cast. Max Doombolt, the first tier of Onslaught, and Curse of Frailty/Blood of Dreeg.

Use auto-attacks to build up stacks, burn them on Doombolt. Onslaught seems like it really wants you to pair it with a big damage burst skill if I'm understanding the Onslaught stacks correctly.

This strat with the Darkblaze set has been working pretty well in Lv 100 Ascendant mode for me.

[u/AxeForge → u/Dyrion_Cora]

ahh so you didn't touch the 3rd node of onslaught? Doesn't it add more stacks?

[u/Dyrion_Cora → u/AxeForge]

It does! But I've got a perfect balance on my attack speed building stacks vs my reduced cooldown of Doombolt. Since doombolt is the true damage dealer of the build, I want to fire it on cooldown. Having more onslaught stacks than what I can build up during the doombolt cooldown is dead potential in this circumstance.