The best class abilities to pick first in Avowed

You don’t choose a class in Avowed the way you would in typical fantasy RPG. Rather, your class is defined by the abilities you choose to invest in.

There are three classes of ability trees in Avowed: fighter, ranger, and wizard (which correlate respectively to archetypical warrior, rogue, and mage classes). Fairly early on, you’re directed to choose which tree to invest your first ability point in, though you’re free to mix and match abilities across all three classes.

Here’s our recommendation for the best class in Avowed, plus our thoughts on the best class abilities to get first.

Best class in Avowed

Though all three class trees have powerful abilities, we’d say ranger is the overall best class in Avowed. And that’s the case right down to the very first ability you pick.

During the “On Strange Shores” mission in the main story, you’ll have to choose a starting ability from the three skill trees:

• Charge (fighter): A dash attack that deals high melee damage.
• Tangleroot (ranger): A spell that locks nearby enemies in place for eight seconds.
• Minor Missiles (wizard): A spell that fires three homing projectiles at nearby enemies.

This choice isn’t a commitment to a class. But the ability you choose here sets the tone for your character.

Charge is fine if you’re planning on focusing on a melee build, but otherwise ineffective. Minor Missiles, in our experience, is indeed incredibly minor: the 1o-second cooldown is too long to make the most of its damage output. Avowed fights tend to be challenging because you’re overwhelmed with a high number of enemies, or because you’re facing a singular large enemy who can rapidly close the distance between you. Tangleroot solves for both.

Even beyond that initial choice, the skills in the ranger tree tend to be a bit more broadly applicable for all builds than those in the wizard and fighter trees. Passive ranger abilities cover damage boosts for five weapons (maces, swords, dagger, bows, and guns), compared to two for the fighter tree (greatswords and greataxes) or one for the wizard tree (wand). And its active abilities allow you to both slow down time and turn invisible.

Best abilities in Avowed

Whatever you choose for your first ability doesn’t lock you into a class. You’re free to invest ability points across all three class trees. You can reset your ability points at any point for a small fee, though that fee increases as you level up. You’ll get one ability point per level and can also earn additional ability points by rejecting the Voice’s power at various junctures throughout the main story.

At first, only a handful of abilities are available for each class. You’ll unlock the second tier of abilities at level 5, the third tier at level 10, the fourth tier at level 15, and the final tier at level 20.

Beyond that, there are minimal requisites — for example, to unlock spells in the wizard tree, you need to find a grimoire with that spell first — but for the most part, once you hit the level threshold, you’re free to invest ability points into the skills you want to prioritize.

The best builds are the result of mixing and matching abilities across all three skill trees, in response to how you find yourself playing the game. Still, the abilities that apply to most builds in Avowed are:

• Toughness (fighter, level 1)
• Arcane Veil (wizard, level 1)
• Steady Aim (ranger, level 1)
• Evasive (ranger, level 1)
• Arcane Veil (wizard, level 1)
• Shadowing Beyond (ranger, level 5)
• Quick Switch (ranger, level 10)

Toughness boosts your health by 20%. Considering each attribute point you put into Constitution only increases your health by 5% per attribute point, by that logic, Toughness alone is worth four Constitution points. (And that’s before you rank it up: You can eventually scale Toughness to increase your health by 45%.)

Also in the realm of “staying alive,” invest in Arcane Veil, a wizard tree spell that cuts the damage you receive in half for 20 seconds. If you unlock Arcane Veil as a skill on its own, you don’t need to equip a grimoire just to cast it.

Evasive, a ranger skill, reduces the stamina cost of dodging by 25%. If you run out of stamina, you can’t attack, can’t dodge, can’t do anything, really. Pair that with Quick Switch to speed up how quickly you can switch weapons in battles, allowing you to make the most of Avowed’s two loadouts. These two abilities together allow you to stay nimble in combat.

If you plan on using any ranged weapon, Steady Aim is essential. When charging up your power attack with a ranged weapon (basically, holding the “shoot” button), time slows down by 25% or up to 75% at higher ranks. Think of it as Max Payne mode, but without the dramatic diving.

Lastly, Shadowing Beyond turns you invisible for a brief period, contingent on how much essence you have in reserve. There are a number of instances in Avowed where you’re highly encouraged to take a stealthy approach, with failure typically resulting in a difficult battle. It does not take much playtime to realize Avowed isn’t exactly a finely tuned stealth sim. Shadowing Beyond is essentially a cheat code for some of the game’s more frustrating missions.

For more Avowed guides, prepare for the game by seeing how to unlock all companions, the best background to pick, the best attribute points to assign, or see our full Avowed walkthrough.