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Watch a hero go to town against the undead in Titan Quest.

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THQ recently was kind enough to drop off the latest preview version of Titan Quest, Iron Lore Entertainment's upcoming action role-playing game. If you've played the single-player demo , then you know that Titan Quest is a fast-paced game in the Diablo vein, complete with plenty of enemies to kill and loot to be picked up. In our previous coverage, we've discussed the gameplay, the settings, and a bit about the story, but this was our first chance to look at all of the class options in the game.

The unique thing about Titan Quest is that instead of forcing you to play one specific class, it lets you select two "masteries" to create a unique class, such as a magic-casting fighter, or a rogue that can tap into storm magic. These masteries revolve around a particular type of warfare or magic, and each is powerful on its own, but when every player is able to combine any two masteries together, it's a good bet that most characters in the game are going to wind up being fundamentally different from one another. Add to this the fact that each mastery has 20 different skills to explore, and you wind up with a considerable amount of customization options and replayability.

No matter what masteries you choose, you'd better be ready to deal with some tough enemies in Titan Quest.

You're able to choose your first mastery when you upgrade your character to level 2 in the game, and at each level-up, you gain three skill points to invest in skills. When you reach level 8, you're asked to select a second mastery, and from there, you're able to combine skills from both masteries as you like; if you want to take a balanced approach and invest in both masteries, then you're free to do so. Or, if you want to create a specialized character, you can focus solely on one mastery to the exclusion of the other. The drawback is that you still only get three skill points per level-up, even after you've picked your second mastery, so you'll have to choose where to place them carefully. The system is set up so that it's similar to Guild Wars, with that game's many unique combinations of classes.

Luckily for those of us that enjoy trying out different character builds, you won't have to completely start over if you accidentally build up a skill that you later wind up disliking. In a few of the cities in the game, you'll run across characters called mystics. Mystics will allow you to pay money to withdraw skill points from your masteries, so that you can allocate them elsewhere. Although this isn't cheap (at 250 gold per skill point) it still allows you to reset some of your character choices without forcing you to make a completely new character.

Thanks to skills like war wind and war horn, warfare specialists excel at fighting their way out of a crowd of enemies.

Titan Quest went gold this week, which meant that development is finished, and the game is scheduled to ship later this month. And without further ado, here are the eight masteries you'll be mixing and matching in Titan Quest:

Warfare
Anyone who played a barbarian in Diablo II will be instantly at home with the warfare mastery in Titan Quest, as it features skills that closely mirror those of the barbarian, with war cries, passive abilities that add to your damage and armor, as well as the formidable whirlwind skill, which strikes multiple nearby opponents in one swift blow. The warfare mastery seems to be the only one that allows you to use dual wielding, as well.

Rogue
Another familiar archetype is the rogue, which concentrates on dealing lots of damage to a single target, but has a more difficult time dealing with multiple foes. This mastery is likely going to be more appropriate for online cooperative play than it will be for single-player games, although you can of course supplement it with a mastery that enables you to better survive in crowds, such as defender, or simply take a more aggressive tack and attempt to build up warfare until you obtain something like war wind, which allows you to hit multiple opponents.

Rogues specialize in poison or bleeding attacks.

Regardless, the rogue is the master of poison and bleeding attacks. Many of the special attacks revolve around either adding poison or bleed damage to your attacks, which go along well with the passive abilities that add to the percentage of bleeding or poison damage that you deal. You can choose to focus on one or the other, or both, although few attacks outside of an upgraded poison gas bomb wind up doing both bleeding and poison damage. Regardless, if you're a fan of damage over time, then the rogue mastery will be right up your alley.

Hunting
Like the Amazon in Diablo II, the hunting mastery revolves around the bow and the spear, ancient weapons both. Many of the attacks here revolve around adding a piercing attribute to your attacks, which helps them ignore the armor ratings of your opponents.

Most of the special skills here revolve around bow attacks, although there are a few skills that emphasize your ability to attack with the spear as well, making this an excellent secondary mastery for warfare masters who wish to handle their spears more effectively. Besides that, though, you can choose to pick up puncture-shot arrows, which allow your bolts to pass through enemies that they hit, monster lures to lure enemies away from weaker members of your party, passive abilities like gouge and volley, which causes you to attack three times in quick succession, or other hunting-themed skills, like study prey and exploit weakness, both of which increase your general efficacy in combat.