Hey all. Since we still have around a month (or a bit less) of v1.11 left, thought it’d be nice to make a Stat Build tier list for the current patch. Every placement will have a thorough explanation listed below the image. Feel free to debate or comment as you please, but let’s keep things civil.
S+ Tier - Mage
Mage’s placement hardly needs any explanation. Access to Ultimate Art Blasts and Explosions, Blast and Explosion Shapes, a second magic, a 10% damage buff simply for being a pure build, and the single worst designed and most overpowered spell in the history of the Arcane series, Pulsar, cements Mage as the strongest class in the game by a fair, fair margin. 90 Vit / 160 Magic gives access to Pulsar while allowing you to reach staggeringly high amounts of HP due to the Resistance modes of certain magics, all the while retaining your damage buff from being a Mage. Certain sets allow for AoE that takes up half of Ravenna whilst still dealing 400+ damage per spell, and even without devoting any armor to your defense, Resistance modes of heavier magics still make you tankier than you would be even if your entire set was enchanted with Hard.
Braindead easy, insanely powerful, and nowhere even close to fair. Mage is S+ tier, and will be until v1.12 releases.
S Tier - Warlord
Though I’m sure this may surprise some of you, from my own experience playing as and against the class I strongly believe Warlord to be slightly stronger than the other S tier builds, those being Conjurer and Warrior. This is primarily due to the strength of certain Style imbuements, Thermo Fist and Iron Leg in particular, as well as access to the Lion’s Halberd.
Thermo Fist Warlords possess a staggering degree of pressure, being rewarded for their constant ability spam with Heat to further boost their damage and apply Burn to opponents. Striking Gale requires next to no aim, and the sheer speed of these casts due to a Thermo Imbue means that other weapon skills such as Shining Cycle are near-unreactable. All of this on top of downright absurd mobility thanks to options such as Poison-Tooth Dagger’s Spiraling Fury, as well as access to Crash.
Iron Leg imbuement, on the other hand, has weapon skills so large that aiming simply becomes a non-factor, and your damage is increased even further. Though its pressure is not exerted as heavy as Thermo Fist imbued Warlord builds, you can practically sit back and smash your head on the keyboard while your opponent slowly dies from not being able to dodge anything you throw out.
Though Boxing and Sailor Fist imbuements are options, neither is particularly strong as it stands. As far as the previous two imbuements go, however, I strongly believe that they cement Warlord as the best build of S-tier.
S Tier - Conjurer
Conjurer is a very strong build, but is misused by such a huge amount of the playerbase simply due to lack of game knowledge. Many Conjurers refuse to un-imbue weapons that would benefit more from not possessing their imbuement, and many Conjurers also choose the wrong stat allocations for the build. Make no mistake, though: a competent Conjurer is a very dangerous foe.
Every imbuement comes with a sacrifice, but the best Conjurer builds provide much more of an advantage to the user than they do a disadvantage. Light Conjurer builds may reduce the user’s damage with their weapon skills by a noticeable margin, but in return, skills become nigh-unreactable without even having to invest into Attack Speed at all. Crystal Conjurer builds suffer a slight penalty to their speed, but in return, can deal absolutely staggering amounts of damage when their Crystals burst (typically upwards of 600+ damage, depending on the weapon skill used to pop the stacks).
Despite being misused by many members of the community, Conjurer is a build that combines the best parts of Weapons’ mix-up potential with the best parts of Magic’s zoning capabilities, merging mobility, damage, and flexibility into a single, deadly combination. An S-tier pick without a doubt.
S Tier - Warrior
Warrior is a class that has high mobility, high damage, and incredible AoE. There’s not much you can say about Warrior that hasn’t already been said. It’s a fast and unrelenting powerhouse of a build that only tends to struggle in matchups where their opponent has more AoE than them, or can outmaneuver them. Weapons are very strong as it stands, and Warrior exemplifies all the best traits of Weapons tenfold.
Despite its current strength, Warrior is slated for some massive buffs in v1.12, which may solidify the class as ‘the new Mage’, so to speak. Gaining two new statuses and a variety of passive buffs from its new Awakening in exchange for some of its AoE, as well as benefitting from the buffs to a variety of weapons within its arsenal and the direct gutting of Mage, Warrior is practically slated to reign over v1.12. If you’re going to learn to excel with this class, now is the time.
A very strong, yet albeit somewhat lackluster build, Warrior is only beaten out by Conjurer on this tier list as the most optimized of Conjurer builds hold a slight edge over the current arsenal that Warrior possesses.
A Tier - Warlock and Berserker
I’ll be going over these entries together as they’re practically interchangeable. When played in the traditional Rushdown manner that Strength was build around, neither of these classes would make it above B tier. Berserker probably wouldn’t even make it above C tier. However, with this being a tier list on the current meta, the current meta has to be taken into account, and the meta way of playing Fighting Styles as it stands does not involve any form of Rushdown play.
20% size Shot is the name of the game. Typically close to 400 damage, with additional burn ticks if you’re running Thermo Fist, and a low cooldown to boot. Using Crash solely as a tool for vertical mobility allows you to become untouchable to a lot of builds, and with proper aim you can beam people from the heavens. Magic blasts, well-timed Smashes, and Axe-Slash can all be used to cover landings with huge amounts of damage, making both of these classes excel at punishing any halt in mobility with insane bursts of damage.
Very punishing, very deadly, and nigh-untouchable if played right (aside from Mage fights loool), but much harder to use and learn than other stat builds out there. Both are a solid A-tier.
B Tier - Paladin
As we move onto Vitality builds here, everyone should remember that these classes are fundamentally incomplete, and will be massively expanded upon by the introduction of Spirit Weapons.
Paladin, as it stands, is a Mage with more health, but far, far less options and fairly pitiful damage. Though far worse than Mage, Paladin doesn’t exactly struggle to find its place in the meta. It is the definition of ‘outlast’. Though your only options against classes with any form of actual mobility are to attempt to cover landings with Blasts and push your raw health advantage using self-Explosions, Paladin is the most capable of the current Vitality hybrids when it comes to simply outlasting their opponents. The greatest advantage of Vitality builds is not the HP itself, in my opinion. It is your HP regen. By pushing your health advantage when you have HP to spare and playing safe when you start to get low, a lot of the time you can take down less agile opponents by dragging on fights as long as possible.
However, it should absolutely be stated that mobility in general absolutely destroys this class, making Weapon and Shot-based Fighting Style players its soft-counter. Your only options for real damage on Paladin are Blasts and Explosions, both of which are relatively easy to deal with for either of these builds by maintaining generous space, not to mention all the weapon skills like Tempest and Primal Swipe that eat projectiles. When faced with either of these, Paladin practically crumbles.
Though somewhat underrated, Paladin’s lack of options and its incredibly underwhelming Awakening make it a situational class at best. It has its moments, but leaves you feeling helpless against certain builds. For now, I’ll give it a somewhat generous B-tier placement.
C Tier - Knight
Knight’s mobility and health provide great survivability, but the damage is absolutely pitiful. Blast-cycling on Paladin provides at least a tangible source of consistent damage, but this consistency is just not something that Knight possesses. If you ever thought that Paladin’s damage was low compared to Mage, try comparing Knight to Warrior.
Thought its mobility gives it more options for survivability, Knight suffers from many of the same problems that Paladin does, suffering even less consistency in return. When Spirit Weapons are added and more weapon skills are unlockable, this class may end up in a much better spot. But, as it stands, Knight is hardly worthy of being called C-tier.
D Tier - Juggernaut
Juggernaut is one of the most utterly useless classes in the game as it stands. Due to the innate damage debuff resulting from investing into Vitality, this class cannot effectively use the 20% size Shot playstyle that is strong on Berserker and Warlock. It is instead forced into the already-weaker playstyle of Rushdown, has a pitifully useless Awakening, and the only mobility in the entirety of its arsenal is Crash. No Airstep, no Axe-Slash, nothing.
Juggernaut is in desperate need of a level cap increase and Spirit Weapons, moreso than any other Vitality hybrid in the game. This class, as it stands, is an utter joke. D-tier.
F Tier - Savant
Savant is a class bogged down entirely by two factors: One, it is even moreso unfinished than Vitality hybrids. Having to ration the allocation of stats in the way that you are currently forced to due to the low level cap leaves you with so little in your entire kit that you can hardly be called a ‘jack-of-all-trades’, as the class was meant to be. Second, its Awakening is absolutely useless, and the class would have benefited far more from having its first and second Awakenings swapped.
Savant may be horrible as it stands, possessing none of the flexibility that the class is intended to have, but this build will only grow stronger with each increase of the level cap. Later down the line, I honestly think Savant may be one of the most popular builds in Arcane Odyssey, due purely to the absolute flexibility it provides. For now though, its fate is in the pits of F-tier.
Let me know your thoughts on the tier list below. I’m always open to discussion and criticism, and if you have any questions I’d be more than happy to answer them.
