Classes

Hellgate: London allows you to play as six different classes. (Rumors abound of a melee class that can use two-handed weapons that will be made available to subscribers, as well as a shapeshifter class, but they’re not in the game as of this writing.) This chapter will run you down through the various classes and give you a rough overview of their skills and abilities.

We haven’t had the chance to take a character of each class to the maximum level, and some skills are still being balanced as we write this (and will likely continue to be balanced after the game hits shelves), so don’t take all of this as being the gospel truth. These classes will change over time, rendering some of this information moot, but for now, here are some starter opinions on the various choices you have.

Guardian

The Guardian is the tank of Hellgate. Since they have the highest armor in the game, thanks to the fact that they wield a high-armor shield and sword combo, they’ll take a lot less damage in combat than their compatriots, making them handy in any kind of multiplayer game. They don’t skimp on the damage, either, making them effective soloers.

Equipment

The best sword and the best shield you can get are the order of the day here. You’ll want a variety of damage types and weapon speeds in your equipment sets characters that focus on Sword of Reckoning for massive damage will want to find the slowest, highest-attack sword they can get. If you’re focusing on shield bashing, though, you may want to try and get a few different shields with different damage types, making sure that you have a good fire-based shield for Igniting tough enemies.

Guardians are comfortable going up against any creature, big or small.

When it comes to armor, you’ll be more likely to want items with high armor ratings rather than high shields. Since you’re going to be in the thick of things, and your auras will require you to be surrounded by foes, your shields will usually drop fairly quickly, whereas your armor will always be present and helping to mitigate damage.

Skills

Aura of Renewal will be your best friend at the earlier levels, as it will let you recharge a good amount of your health when surrounded by enemies. Sure, they’ll hit you, but if you load up on armor, you should be able to regenerate just as much if not more health than they can dish out. Later on, you may want to shift to Aura of Power and use Prayer of Healing or Health Injectors when you run low on health.

Apart from the myriad defensive and taunting skills, you won’t have a huge amount of offensive skills at your beck and call. Sword of Reckoning is great for quickly bursting down against a tough boss enemy, while Anchor will let you sit still and deal a lot more damage to enemies that are willing to come to you - combine this with Challenge to ensure that everyone gets a taste.

Since you’re going to be using a shield for most of the game, though, you’ll probably want to invest in the Shield Bash tree of skills. Although shields won’t deal as much damage as your swords likely will, they can still be incredibly useful when combined with these skills, especially Shield Turn, which will strike all enemies nearby and increase your chance to inflict a status effect on your foe. While most early shields will deal physical damage (and thus stun your foes), you will eventually start finding shields that deal other sorts of damage, such as spectral and fire. It’s quite fun to spin around and ignite all of the enemies that surround you, then watch them burn up without having to attack them personally. Bosses can fall to these attacks, as well; just find a good fire shield and spam Shield Bash at them until they catch on fire.

Blademaster

The blademaster is similar to the Guardian class in that it focuses on melee combat, but unlike the Guardian, the Blademaster can learn the fine art of wielding melee weapons in both hands, and will usually prefer to do so instead of wielding a sword and shield. As such, they can do an immense amount of up-close damage, but will take more damage than a Guardian would, and as such they’ll probably wind up churning through more health injectors than almost any other class.

Equipment

This isn’t too complicated; pick a couple of swords of different damage types and go to town on your foes. Your equipment will need to have a lot of armor to make up for the lack of a shield, so try to focus on that, as well as stuff like extra hit points and melee attack speed. As far as your swords go, you’ll also likely want to get some kind of shield penetration going on, as that’ll let you bypass some of the tougher enemy’s shields.

Skills

Surge of Restoration will help you keep your health up without having to use Injectors.

There are a lot of skills to choose from here, some of which are useful and some of which aren’t. Surges are the most unique aspect of the Blademaster; as you use them on enemies, you’ll gain buffs that apply to yourself for 15 or 20 seconds or so; you can stack these buffs for bigger effects. Surge of Restoration will be your best friend for the early portions of the game; it’ll greatly increase your health regeneration while you have it active on yourself. You’ll want to use it on every enemy you see until you get three stacks (denoted by three lines of blood that swirl around you); that maximizes its effect. When you have three stacks, periodically hit another enemy with the Surge of Restoration to refresh the timer. Unfortunately, it can be tough to spot the number of stacks on you in the middle of combat, and the countdown timer on the skill isn’t displayed, so managing this effect requires a bit of practice. You can use Aura of Power to ensure that you have enough power to continually use this ability.

Apart from that, your primary damage trees will consist of either Crosscutter (throwing swords), Sword of Reckoning/Charge, or Sword of Justice. Crosscutter and the other throwing swords skills are interesting, but probably not necessary, unless you find yourself frustrated by flying enemies. Sword of Justice is also somewhat lackluster, as it deals three quick strikes with your weapon, but cuts off around 70% of the damage dealt by each swing, meaning that the total damage adds up to be less than a normal regular strike, unless you dump a lot of points into the skill. Still, it can be a handy skill if you’re looking to proc Ignite onto an enemy; three attacks gives you three times the chances of it hitting.

Sword of Reckoning and Sword of Authority are probably going to be your best bets against the tougher enemies, though, as they’ll let you greatly multiply your weapon damage when going up against enemies with high armor or health. (Most normal enemies will fall to simple weapon strikes, anyway.) Charge is also an incredibly handy way to close ground on your foes, or to track down enemies that attempt to evade you, like Dunder Liches.