Hello,

I got myself the basic Anniversary Edition this sale. It's my first aRPG. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the class combinations on offer and am wondering if you guys have some fun ones to recommend.

I don't want my first playthrough to be too difficult, but I wouldn't want to play a complete tank with almost no DPS, who takes ages to clear out every single group.

Also, I'd prefer if weapons were my primary method of dealing damage, not magic. I don't mind pets or magic, as long as they're in a support role. As for which weapons, I'd prefer bows, spears, swords or axes, in that order.

I started with bow hunting. I kind of like the bow for now. As for the next mastery, I'm somehow drawn to nature for now. We'll see.

You are probably went through the game already, but might be interessting for the next one:

I wouldnt recommend Nature/Hunting, because both are rather skillpoint intensive - you wont be able to reach the full potential of those masteries or you need a high level
Brigand is item-dependend, so probably not good as first character.

*) Warden (Defense/Hunting) is a one-man-army. Good at taking damage (due to defense and shield) and good at dealing damage (with spear and debuff). Str-based items are more common than Int or Dex, so you will find more items, that you can use.
*) Ritualist (Nature/Dream) - easy-mode, just put your pets on aggro, run in circles and use plague. Pets are tough enough to kill bosses in endgame. Can be played as Str/Dex or Int/Dex.
*) Dragonhunter (Runemaster/Hunting) - "Clex plays" has good video tutorials and one for dragonhunter --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1voJpLljEg - it's a fun class to play and newbie-friendly

Brigand (Hunter-Rogue) is a good play. Start with Hunter and develop Take Down tree first with passive skill Wood Lore then add poison with Envenom Weapon tree from Rogue. Take down is your boss mob killer when used repeatedly while maintaining distance during cooldown. Bow or throwing weapon are secondary for weaker mobs or splitting groups and additional damage.
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Dream is very powerful by itself. Develop Phantom Strike tree first with passive skills Lucid Dream-Premonition and continuous Trance of Empathy activated. If you then added poison damage from Rogue or bleeding damage from Hunter, that would increase your Phantom Strike damage exponentially. Phantom Strike is a boss mob killer as well as tearing thru groups. Again bow or throwing knife are secondary. Dream has a pet Summon Nightmare as well. What I like about Dream is that the best skills are lower level, most attained by lvl 10 so you don't spend points on just raising your skill lvl.

A Conqueror (Warfare+Defense) is a safe choice if you want the experience of a typical "realistic" hero.

I've started a new one just now to replace my Templar.

On level 21 I already have:
- 202 BASE strength
- 66 BASE dexterity
- maxed out "Weapon Training" [Warfare Mastery]
- maxed out "Onslaught" [Warfare Mastery] - Left Mouse Button for me
- maxed out "Battle Standard" [Warfare Mastery] - "2" key for me
- maxed out "Hamstring" [Warfare Mastery]
- maxed out "Triumph" [Warfare Mastery]
- 1 point in :War Horn" [Warfare Mastery] - "3" key for me

For more details check out the Conqueror builds on YouTube and fan forums.

If you find certain portions of the game too difficult, it's more often an issue of your equipment.. I'd recommend you go back to farming a certain boss for a while if that's the case.

I'd also worry more about attributes than skill points, since you can reset the later (but not masteries).

Yup, it was the Pay-To-Win mastery of the first old IT expansion, but it was then somewhat watered down by the Anniversary Edition. It's still rather stronger than others masteries, but no longer shamefull.