The Game

Classes & Skillsets

Every character picks three skillsets from ten trees. That choice defines a class. With 120 combinations possible, the realm has room for any archetype you can picture.

Tools: Skill Calculator  ·  Class Meta Tier List (S-D rankings)  ·  Power Builds (skill rotations + gear).

The Ten Combat Skillsets, by Role

Each tree has a primary role: Tank, Healer, or DPS. Click any skillset for full details, signature skills, and recommended pairings.

Tanks

1 skillset

Hold the boss. Mitigate. Hold threat. The reason your raid healer has time to breathe.

Defense

tank

Shield-and-board tanking, taunts, shield-throws.

tank shield melee

A wall in plate. Holds bosses, throws shields, refuses to fall over. The clearing-house for raid threat.

Open skill list →

Healers

2 skillsets

Keep the raid alive. Dedicated group-healing roles, not classes that happen to have a heal spell.

Songcraft

support / buff

Bard support. Buffs, debuffs, sustained party utility.

support buff utility music

A battlefield bard. Plays sustained songs (Discord, Quickstep) that pulse buffs to allies and debuffs to enemies for as long as the music holds.

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Vitalism

healer

Healing. The single dedicated healing tree.

healer support magic

A devoted healer. Mirror Light bounces between allies, Resurgence revives the fallen, Antithesis cleanses curses.

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DPS

7 skillsets

Damage. Burst, sustain, ranged, melee, magic, physical. Pick a flavor.

Battlerage

melee dps

Two-handed melee DPS. Charge in, hit hard, bleed everything.

melee dps two-handed

A frontline berserker who closes distance with a leap and unloads heavy two-handed combos. Survives by killing before it dies.

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Witchcraft

ranged cc

Crowd control, hexes, mobility denial.

ranged cc debuff magic

A hex-slinger who locks enemies in place, drains their will, and chains crowd-control through entire fights.

Strengths

Best-in-class CC chain (Earthen Grip, Bubble Trap, Crippling Mire). Strong group utility. Devour Hope is iconic.

Weaknesses

Low solo kill pressure; needs a DPS partner. Slow to ramp damage without a follow-up tree.

Pairs well with

Signature skills

  • Earthen Grip Lv 1 18.0s cd

    Calls forth a hand from the ground to hold an enemy, inflicting Snare for #{buff_duration}. Deals #{avg_damage}#{detail_spell_damage} Magic Damage on expiration. Being damaged by a direct attack will free the target early, but debuffs that deal damage over time will not end this

  • Enervate Lv 5 24.0s cd

    Deals #{avg_damage}#{detail_spell_damage} Magic Damage and burns #{buff_total_avg_mana_burn} mana over #{buff_duration}. Decreases healing effectiveness |cFFFF9C27-60%|r and increases duration of Stun and Trip |cFFFF9C27+30%|r.

  • Bubble Trap Lv 10 39.0s cd

    Traps an enemy inside a bubble for #{buff_duration} and slowly lifts it into the air. Enemies in bubbles can't attack, but take -50% less Magic Damage. Being damaged by a direct attack will free the target early, but debuffs that deal damage over time will not end this effect. B

  • Devour Hope Lv 10 14.0s cd

    Inflicts a crippling despair on your chosen victim for #{buff_duration}. #{buff_tooltip} Can only be used in PvP.

  • Insidious Whisper Lv 15 45.0s cd

    Inflicts Fear on an enemy and causes it to flee from the caster for #{buff_duration}. Being damaged by a direct attack has a chance to free the target early, but debuffs that deal damage over time will not end this effect.

  • Purge Lv 20 30.0s cd

    Allies: Removes |cFFFF9C271|r negative effect. #{buff_tooltip} Enemies: Removes |cFFFF9C271|r buff.

  • Play Dead Lv 25 120.0s cd

    Allows caster to play dead to escape danger. Caster can revive at any time. Restores |cFFFF9C271%|r of the caster's health and mana every second if they are below 30%. Effect ends with movement.

  • Rising Hatred Lv 25 120.0s cd

    Increases maximum Abyssal Charges |cFFFF9C27+2|r for |cFFFF9C2712 seconds|r. Prevents charges from naturally depleting for the duration, and |cFFFF9C27doubles|r charges gained through using skills. Any additional Abyssal Charges are consumed on casting, increasing the duration.

Auramancy

utility / support

Mobility, dispels, defensive utility.

support mobility magic

A spellweaver of barriers and short-blink mobility. Less a damage tree than a survival multiplier for whatever you pair it with.

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Occultism

ranged dps

Death magic, summons, life-drain, curses.

ranged dps magic summons dot

Necromancer-flavored caster. Summons crows and wraiths, drains life through curses, and answers with Mana Stars and Hell Spear when the trash is dead.

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Archery

ranged dps

Ranged physical DPS. Crit-stacked, kite-friendly.

ranged dps physical bow

A bowline killer. Stutter-steps backward at exactly the speed an enemy charges and stacks Charged Bolts into Endless Arrows.

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Sorcery

ranged dps

Elemental magic. Flamebolt, lightning, frost, AoE.

ranged dps magic aoe elemental

Elemental caster. Charges a Flamebolt, chains Thunder and Lightning, drops Searing Rain on whatever survives. Scales with magic gear and burns down the field.

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Shadowplay

melee dps / stealth

Stealth, daggers, openers from invisibility.

melee dps stealth dagger utility

A knife from the dark. Stealths, opens with a stun, finishes before the target finishes its emote.

Open skill list →

Named Class Archetypes

Pick three skillsets, you've made a class. 122 of the 120 possible combinations have community names that every ArcheAge veteran knows. Bucketed strictly by primary role: a class is a Healer only if its job is keeping a raid alive, not because it has heal spells.

Tanks — 31 named builds

Skullknight (Raid Initiator)

Defense Auramancy Occultism

The single most important class in organized 3.0 large-scale PvP. Vicious Implosion pulls the enemy ball; Hell Spear → Crows → Mire AoE-CCs it; Revenants delete what's left. Cloth-Int variant maximizes Occultism damage.

Skullknight (PvE Tank)

Defense Auramancy Occultism

PvE dungeon and raid-boss main-tank. Same trees as the raid initiator but plate gear, threat-rotation focus, and Fortress for raid-wide DR. Trades AoE pull for aggro generation.

Paladin

Battlerage Defense Vitalism

1v1 PvP duelist and self-sufficient open-world bruiser. Beats CC-reliant classes (Daggerspell, Darkrunner) because anti-stun / cleanse / shield-block is layered. Defy Death is the iconic save.

Templar

Defense Auramancy Vitalism

Large-scale PvP 'Survival King.' 40% block rate, self-heal regen, Invincibility 12s damage immunity, anti-CC kit. Best 1v1 PvP healer (almost unkillable vs mages). Cloth-armor counterintuitively for Spirit + healing power gemming.

Healers — 28 named builds

Hierophant

Vitalism Auramancy Songcraft

Primary raid healer — best throughput in the game via song-bounce Healing Hymn + Vitalism direct heals + party crit buffs. Mana-sustainable. Note: 3.0 community guides call this combo 'Cleric'; Rookery keeps the 'Hierophant' name for clarity.

Cleric

Vitalism Auramancy Defense

Survival-oriented healer — plate variant of Templar. Trades song throughput for Defense mitigation. Can off-tank trash mobs while healing the main-tank. Standard pairing with Hierophants in raid healer cores.

Soothsayer

Vitalism Auramancy Shadowplay

Most mobile healer in the game. Stealth gives revive-from-safety and pre-combat positioning. Six escape tools — best among healers. Healing-power scales Vitalism damage skills for off-DPS while healing.

DPS — 63 named builds

Darkrunner

Battlerage Shadowplay Auramancy

The defining solo PvP melee class of 3.0. Stealth, gap-close, burst combo, reset. Highest mobility of any DPS — six chases plus escapes.

Primeval

Archery Shadowplay Auramancy

Ranged mirror of Darkrunner. Most-played ranged class in 3.0. Stealth-loaded Charged Bolt + Snipe execute window; kites with Drop Back and Shadow Step.

Daggerspell

Sorcery Witchcraft Shadowplay

King of 1v1 and 1v3 arena. Witchcraft CC chains hold targets through the entire Sorcery burst window; dagger gives weapon-attack-into-spell scaling. Highest skill ceiling mage.

Revenant

Sorcery Occultism Auramancy

Mass-PvP backbone. Drops Sorcery elemental AoE on stacked balls pulled by Skullknights; Occultism debuffs and curses provide DoT pressure; Auramancy keeps you alive in the backline.

Hexwarden

Battlerage Auramancy Witchcraft

Melee disrupter and raid peeler. Vicious Implosion pull + Witchcraft hex chains hold the line. Scales better than Darkrunner late-game because damage isn't the primary purpose. Note: 'Hexblade' is a different class (Battlerage+Witchcraft+Defense).

Spellsinger

Sorcery Songcraft Shadowplay

Caster with party buffs and bounce-heal Hymn. Late-game answer to high HP targets. Staff/lute weapon swap is the build's identity.

Skillset metadata curated against the AAEmu 3.0.3.0 client. Skill lists drawn from compact.sqlite3 (80 signature skills mapped). Last refreshed 2026-05-24.