Dragon’s Dogma 2: Early Career Profession Evaluation and Skill Recommendations
Warrior
As one of the initial four professions, the Warrior perfectly embodies the spirit of moderation. I thought the damage was just average until I tried other professions and realized that the damage output of the Warrior is actually quite low. The biggest issue with the Warrior is its low damage output, but it makes sense as the only profession with a shield for defense and taunting units.
Let’s talk about the permanent skills. In Dragon’s Faith 1, the core skill “Upward Slash” has been turned into a permanent skill called “Blade Rise”, freeing up a skill slot, which received positive feedback. However, the trigger time has been lengthened (long press X), and the resilience or impact has been weakened, leading to reduced effectiveness. This change made the core skill that used to control well and knock small enemies into the air or cause stagger when attacking large enemies a bit less effective. It can be used, but it’s not essential. The remaining three permanent skills are all shield abilities. “Shield Rebound – Strong” is self-explanatory, allowing for rebound without stamina loss, but in most situations, the game doesn’t give you opportunities for one-on-one combat, making it less practical even though it looks impressive; high-level players can rely on this for precise gameplay. “Shield Buffer” allows you to reduce fall damage and stun duration when falling from a height, and due to the game’s strangely high falls, it’s surprisingly useful. Geralt sent his congratulations. “Enchanted Strike” automatically deals damage when defending if there is an attribute enchantment, which is humorous but basically useless.
Among the selectable skills, “Flash Thrust” is a must-have for chasing enemies, becoming more effective at level 2 with increased range, average damage, but indeed useful. “Air Split Slash,” designed as an anti-air skill, but I usually don’t use it because both Warriors and Fighters struggle with airborne enemies, and the damage output isn’t great, so it’s better to bring other skills. “Full Moon Slash” is a small AoE attack, with two stages of damage at level 2, decent feel, acceptable damage and stamina consumption, serving as a constant supplementary damage skill that can be carried. “Heart Piercer” initially seemed trash due to past experiences, but I later found it unexpectedly high in output when climbing on large monsters and poking at weak points like the action of a brute king riding and stabbing with a small knife during mounted combat. Surprisingly effective, I replaced Full Moon Slash with it. However, it’s not effective against small enemies as it requires the fear status, making it a special attack against large monsters. Its versatility falls short compared to Full Moon, so choose wisely.
“Turning Slash,” a rear jump followed by a slash, becomes a double slash at level 2. I’m not sure if it has invincible frames because I always get knocked back, and the damage doesn’t seem great, seemingly lower than Full Moon. Overall, I don’t usually bring it. “Shield Bash” is a resilience-reducing skill that’s supposed to easily disrupt monster balance, but personally, it feels similar to Upward Slash, taking two to three repetitions to knock back a small enemy, making it less practical. However, it seems somewhat useful against Rock Lizards. “Shield Lure” is a taunting skill that the main controller doesn’t usually bring but can be used by followers. “Dance of the Sky Shield” is a humorous skill that launches enemies into the air. Main controllers playing as thieves may consider having followers use this for decapitation? I haven’t tried it. “Perfect Defense” is a must-have! A must-have! A must-have! It’s essentially an invincibility frame with damage and displacement, providing a long invincibility period with fixed stamina consumption, making it the Warrior’s most crucial defensive tool. “Counter Chop” stands still to defend and counterattack when hit. However, as a non-dodge skill, it’s not suitable for this game and has high stamina consumption, making it impractical. “Soul of War God” effect defends against all attacks but consumes a large amount of stamina. I haven’t used it, pass. But I guess it’s not as good as Perfect Defense. “Rage Blade” is the Warrior’s mastery skill, now the only choice for high damage output since Frenzy Slash was taken away. However, its excessively high stamina consumption prevents repeated use, but it’s a necessary means of output, so you have to bring it.
In conclusion, the Warrior class actually doesn’t have many major issues and excels in defense and survival strength. However, compared to other classes that can deal massive damage quickly, this survivability will only prolong your battles against bosses, making it not as relaxing as other characters. But because its first few passive skills are very practical, I recommend continuing as a Warrior until unlocking “Muscle Enhancement” for a job change.
Two, Archer
Also one of the initial four professions, the Archer has significantly higher damage output compared to the Warrior. While it also fits the stereotype of being a fragile ranged character, we have the amusing Flying Kick, which is quite powerful and cool when creating distance. If you play as an Archer, it’s best to use a mouse and keyboard. If you let it auto-lock onto enemies by spamming X instead of manually aiming, the damage output is unexpectedly low. Only when you manually aim accurately can the basic attacks deal decent damage, especially when fighting agile enemies like Harpies.
In terms of permanent skills, “Flying Kick” is a must-bring (actually maxing out any profession’s permanent skills is never wrong), the Archer’s few vital survival skills, serving as a lifesaver. “Evade Shot” allows you to shoot an arrow while dodging, more visually appealing than practical. “Quick Draw” is a core permanent skill that speeds up normal attacks, enhancing the handling experience and improving efficiency against small enemies. “Piercing Shot” might sound powerful but is actually quite underwhelming, with significant front sway and difficult targetting debuffs, so it’s best to avoid using it unless necessary.
Among the customizable skills, “Rapid Fire” is a burst skill for early-game clearing, but due to its long front sway and limitation to shooting only two arrows after leveling up to 2, its output is not as strong as expected. When you can upgrade it to level 2, it’s almost time to switch to Torrential Shot, becoming an excessive skill. “Wide Shot” doesn’t feel very practical; I wonder if its multiple hits are effective against larger monsters, but it suffers from long front sway and low damage, making it less useful overall. “Finishing Shot” is a budget version of a mastery skill, charging up a shot that deals decent damage, slightly below the Weak Point damage of the Warrior’s Mastery Skill. It has a high cost-effectiveness ratio and is recommended to carry. “Close-Range Shot” is a sniper mode with a scope. Since I use a controller, I haven’t tried this skill, but I believe its use case is limited, as the game mostly involves close-quarters and underground combat, with rare sniping opportunities.
“Tidal Shot” replaces Rapid Fire and while its damage output isn’t explosive, it’s still decent. Personally, I consider it the Archer’s core output skill. Similar to the Crossbow’s crouching shot, it’s fast and synergizes well with the Wizard’s fireball, making it quite powerful. Even if this skill alone is used for shooting Weak Points, its damage can surpass the Warrior’s Mastery Skill. “Vortex Shot” offers multi-hit damage, but each hit is low, with good resilience reduction, but it’s not very effective; it’s usually not worth bringing. The following are four buff arrows, of which I haven’t tested them all, but apparently Oiled Arrow and Explosive Arrow can be combined? Anyway, I only bring “Explosive Arrow Shot” to release a bomb for a small AoE effect, which deals decent damage but requires consuming explosive arrows. Additionally, among these four, “Chase Poison Arrow Shot” seems to have the highest learning curve; perhaps someone could share if it’s effective or not.
“Ghostly Shot” is the Archer’s mastery skill that depletes all stamina regardless of the remaining amount. With full stamina, it can deal a bit more damage than a Warrior’s Full Moon Slash, but utilizing it costs a lot, has a lengthy front sway, and the more stamina you have, the longer the animation. While it barely keeps up with damage, its usage scenarios are limited, resembling a brute king sniping dragon eggs with eight-times magnification before initiating combat. Shooting once before engaging then it’s rarely used again. Although having followers who can taunt with Warriors or Fighters and firing from the back might work, monsters seem to concentrate their hostility towards Archers, making it challenging to maintain aggro with followers.
In summary, the Archer aligns well with stereotypes: a long-range, fragile yet high-damage character. However, in this game, having long hands doesn’t offer many advantages since you can’t extend your reach to enhance survival conditions, exacerbating the weakness of limited stand-alone survival skills for Archers. Moreover, with no rolling mechanic in the game and dodging relegated to the Thief profession, the survival capabilities of distance-based professions are further diminished, even though they deal high damage, potentially making them harder to master.
Three, Thief
As one of the initial four professions, the Thief has reached the pinnacle in this game. At least until I unlocked the Sorcerer, Illusionist, and Dragon Selector, the Thief’s damage output is absolutely top-tier, concentrating on melee combat to become the best among equals. Firstly, the innate skill of evasion already surpasses other professions by a long shot. Evasion, a standard technique in action games, has become incredibly precious in the world of Dragon’s Faith, elevating the Thief’s mobility to the level of parallel universes with other games.
Now, let’s discuss the permanent skills. “Hundred Slash” allows continuous basic attacks, considered a common output method but not particularly useful. “Force Unload” is another phenomenal action game skill, further enhancing flexibility, but its triggering conditions are not very user-friendly, often challenging to activate, still exploring its potential. “Instant Steal” has a chance to steal items when attacking, a humorous skill but better than nothing. “Wall Jump” is excellent, but I’ve never triggered it even once; I’d love to learn how to utilize it properly, perhaps aiding in climbing speed and increasing beheading platform height.
Among the customizable skills, “Ferret Wind” resembles the Dual Blades skill Blood Dance of Monster Hunter, spinning while advancing, serving as a follow-up attack for the Thief. However, it’s generally unnecessary as evasion + basic attacks achieve similar results. “Flame Edge” is a low-tier mastery skill, enchanting oneself with fire attribute. Since I had already obtained the mastery skill when I started training as a Thief, I haven’t used it, hoping for insights on any special effects or uses it may have. “Concealment” is self-explanatory, but with follower’s taunting and passive invisibility, this skill is somewhat redundant, so I usually don’t bring it. “Execution Platform” is the Thief’s core output skill, comparable to the Warrior’s Heaven Split Slash but with numerous strikes, extremely high damage, and extensive execution, satisfying and potent; paired with the Wizard’s Flame Cluster, it’s ferocious within ferocity.
“Inferno Line” is reportedly effective, but I haven’t used it, so I won’t comment on it. “Exploding Leap” offers a double jump! Again, another incredible action game technique, but the double jump height is truly unsatisfactory, making its application questionable; does it increase the height of Execution Platform? “Pull-In” is the Thief’s treasure against small enemies, tossing a rope to pull a small enemy over and execute them immediately on the spot. Also, the best-used anti-air skill of the Thief; suggested to bring along. “Smoke Screen” and “Plunder” are both classified as humor skills; Smoke Screen isn’t suitable for controlling enemies placed on the Thief, lacking additional skill slots; Plunder is even more amusing, looting items from monsters, but with inventory limits and material numbers capped at 99, I have to sell a bunch, so what’s the use of these materials?
Next, let’s explain why the Thief is so powerful. Firstly, both of his mastery skills, “Absolute Flame Blade” and “Clear Mind,” are given in the main storyline! Moreover, the effect of “Clear Mind” is extraordinary, acting as the Brute King’s turning cloth but with a time-based sturdiness, unaffected by attacks.
“Absolute Flame Blade” can be perfectly comboed with “Clear Mind.” Using just “Absolute Flame Blade” on its own results in self-destruction, dealing damage to enemies while also self-damaging. Additionally, it applies a debuff and significant rigidity. However, when used in conjunction with “Clear Mind,” it becomes free of cost, deals damage without any recoil, a short front sway with high damage output, and even has an AoE effect.
In conclusion, these two skills are essential to bring along.
The Thief class, although not inherently strong in defense, possesses innate evasion and even invincibility, transforming its high offense-low defense into high offense-defense capabilities.
Four, Warrior
Now, onto my favorite segment – the big sword warrior. The Warrior in Dragon’s Faith 1 left me feeling heartbroken; while everyone had six skills, he only had three, and while others had their own bursts of power, he spent ten seconds charging for minimal damage compared to other classes. But in the second generation, the Warrior finally stands tall! With everyone having four skills now, our big sword brother went from three to four! Pure strengthening! Can anyone else do this?
Firstly, the innate skill “Iron Mountain Relying on Accident” is excellent. It speeds up drawing at the start, cancels back sway and front sway during combos, and provides resilience damage reduction—this key skill enhances the handling experience significantly.
The permanent skill “Strength Tolerance” reduces damage while charging, a divine skill known for the big sword brother. As we all know, the Warrior’s damage comes from charging attacks, making damage reduction during charging equivalent to constant mitigation, a crucial aspect of his sturdy build.
“Instant Strike” allows you to release maximum damage when releasing at the right moment. The Monster Hunter big sword brother commends this skill for its similar setup, with similar charging times and lenient judgments.
“Connected Slash” reminds me of Siegfried due to my recent experiences in GBF, my mind instantly goes to Red Sun, isn’t this my Red Sun brother? After swinging, pressing attack at the last moment dodges then speeds up the next strike. The big sword borrows the warrior’s attack speed, but the damage is average; my evaluation is that it’s not as effective as charged basic attacks.
“Bullet Block” has a guard point upon releasing a charged attack, a serendipitous discovery, no need to force it.
I’ll mention that almost all of the Warrior’s customizable skills can be charged and benefit from Instant Strike bonuses; pay attention to this.
“Sky-Cutting Slash” is the official anti-air skill, and before leveling up to 2, I initially thought it was a lax skill like the Warrior’s, until one time after leveling up, I hit a giant troll with it, and what I thought was an ordinary small skill vaporized half of its health bar. The king of cost-effectiveness, although lax against airborne enemies, has many judgments against large monsters and is easy to hit, resulting in explosive damage.
“Horizon Slash,” compared to Sky-Cutting Slash, seems mediocre; the damage returns to the level expected of a small skill, dealing AoE damage, moderate range, and damage output. Overuse is possible, but it can be brought if desired.
“War Cry” is a taunt skill, usually not brought unless for followers.
“God of War Pierce” is the warrior’s mount skill, useful for map running and stringing together kills against small enemies, good usability but falls under functional skills.
“Dance Leap Shoulder” is the same as the Warrior’s aerial skill, not recommended for main controllers but potentially useful for followers.
“Piercing River” sounds cool, akin to the Warrior’s Heart Piercer, but haven’t used it, so no judgment, skip. If any pros could share whether this skill is useful or not.
“Rising Spirit” grants self-purification, removing all debuffs. This is another tangled bar skill, seemingly useful but doesn’t align with the character. Leave debuff removal to supporting characters within your team; as long as there’s a Wizard, purification is unnecessary to burden the big sword brother with.
“Demon Slayer” is a low-tier mastery skill, charging a sword strike for pure damage. Looking purely at the damage, it’s okay, falling into the average range, but once I discovered Rising Spirit, I stopped using it because it couldn’t match up in cost-effectiveness.
“Mountain Collapse” is a lackluster skill, resembling Attack on Titan, but far from being imbalanced like in the anime. Since the big sword itself already has high imbalance, it’s unnecessary for small enemies and ineffective against large ones. Not recommended to bring.
“Retreat” is a bullet-deflecting skill that pairs well with the master skill, a parry move for coordination. In itself, it’s a reasonable skill, with a lenient deflect window and the warrior’s heavy attack speed, effectively enhancing counterattack opportunities, but not mandatory. However, if you plan to bring the mastery skill, it’s essentially a must-have alongside it.
“Fierce Wind Slash” gives off vibes of seeing Flowing Slice on Dawn early, rushing forward for a flurry of strikes, representing the warrior’s attack speed, but the damage is average—it’s a humorous adaptation of the constant Strafe ability.
“Sacred Demon Slash” is a romantic gesture, unleashing a full stamina sword strike, delivering high damage, with a much shorter charging time than the previous version. The character shrugs when charging, reminiscent of Fury Wyvern’s cut, and six charges finish the process. However, in the previous version, movement was possible, whereas in this one, charging is stationary. This is where Retreat comes in handy because immediately attacking interrupts the charge-up action. If you’re playing without it, what kind of warrior are you? A must-bring skill.
To sum up, efficient, beloved, sturdy stance charging, you do your thing, I just move a bit, calling it a satisfying profession. Low skill threshold, catching up with other professions (everyone finally has the same number of skills). Easy to pick up, enhancing game enjoyment, a perfect profession.
Five, Spellblade
The perfect weapon! As a user of the insect glaive, the Spellblade was my first profession to reach max rank.
Firstly, his profession skill is Magic Bullet, making small enemies fearful. However, for a profession skill that shouldn’t have front sway, its front sway is too long, rendering it practically useless. Charging the Magic Bullet can transform it into Seal Magic Bullet, acting like a bind, which is very useful, but charging the Magic Bullet stops stamina recovery, requiring careful management.
The permanent skill “Dispersing Magic Bullet” transforms Seal Magic Bullet after hitting into an AoE with wide control but is challenging to execute effectively.
“Instant Approach” teleports you to the target hit by Seal Magic Bullet, offering little practical value due to difficulty in execution and lack of significant combat impact, especially considering the Spellblade already has the best chase ability in the game.
“Extension Magic Bullet” extends the range of the Magic Bullet shot at Level 1. Useless; moving on.
“Spiral Slash” spins in place with a dual-headed sword, providing output through charging. As a perfect weapon, burst damage is limited to basic attacks; keep in mind that continuous pressing requires rapid and continuous pressing to deal with tense QTE moments, or else you won’t be able to execute it. Who designed this thing, it’s exhausting to press every time.
Customizable skill “Dragon Fly Thrust” is the game’s strongest chase ability, suitable for all surfaces and skies, resembling the aerial maneuver of the insect glaive, offering extended displacement range, allowing the Spellblade to navigate inaccessible areas and proving useful for both exploration and combat scenarios—a highly practical skill, a must-bring.
“Track Magic Blade” is one of the few additional damage skills for the Spellblade, but the damage is comical and requires continuous key presses, increasing operational difficulty with minimal output; not recommended to bring.
“Sacrificial Offering” throws nearby small enemies into the air. Alas…what if you’re facing a large monster alone?
“Loot Magic Hand” is the indispensable gear for the Spellblade, swiftly draining stamina; it appears amusing but pairs directly with the subsequent skill, making the Spellblade invincible.
“Rebound Divine Armor” creates an invincible shield for yourself and nearby teammates. Truly invincible, with no cooldown in this game, only stamina consumption, synergizing with the previous skill for infinite invincibility. By level ten, the Spellblade is already invincible; with patience, you can tank any enemy without taking damage.
“Tooth of the Sky Dragon” or better known as “Descending Dragon,” but skips the jumping process, teleporting directly above the monster’s head before thrusting down. It feels good, allowing for mounting moves while hitting enemies directly, recommended for bringing along.
The remaining skills weren’t learned due to a lack of space in the skill slots, including the mastery skills, so I won’t comment on them to avoid speculation. If any experts can assess whether these skills are useful or not.
In conclusion, the Spellblade is simple to use, but output is weak, relying heavily on basic attacks. There are no bursting moves, truly reflecting the same mentality as the insect glaive. In essence, the Spellblade is equivalent to a low-grade Thief, stress-free survival, even more superior, with invincibility throughout, but struggling with damage output—it can be compensated by supporting teammates. Additionally, being the only one who can fly solo in the game, making for an exceptional early exploration experience.