Universalist build

[Malterras]

I didn't really see much on the topic for universalist builds browsing the forums, so i thought i'd post mine for some feedback or discussion on what you might use. These are only the skills i have chosen, your mileage may vary. build is for a level 40 universalist using primarily faeblades, bow, chakrams, and the universalist (Dirge's) armor set.

Build-

Finesse (42 points)

Assassin's Art (6)
stealth kills with faeblades.

Shadow Flare (3)
a good skill but this one for us is mostly just to make it up the tree. feel free to put these into daggers if you choose. We have access to Mark of Flame which kind of renders this skill obsolete by comparison.

Longbow Mastery (6)
the bread and butter of the build, the longbow will be your go to for most situations where your target is not in melee range.

Faeblade Mastery (6)
your go-to melee weapon. fast, hits hard, strikes multiple foes at once.

Drawpower (5)
More bow damage and arrows

Envenomed Edge (6)
sustainable that adds poison damage to your attacks. this will be used to make it up the tree primarily, but once you reach a point where your mana either regens quickly or you've reduced spell costs it can be left on.

Arrow Storm (3)
More Arrows and a decent AOE

Smoke Bomb (1)
this one is more of a personal taste for me for breaking out of combat to tackle the strongest enemy or stealing when there are npc's that can see you.

Barbed Arrows (1)
adds bleeding damage to your arrows. more points would be added to this if available, but we need them elsewhere. once you have +2 to skills it will supplement this to rank 3.

Blade Honing (5)
another sustainable that adds extra damage to your critical hits. this one should be always on.

Might (41 points)

Skillful Defense (5)
good for blocking, but mostly for moving up the tree and getting access to hardy constitution.

Harpoon (4)
point sink mostly but it can come in handy on occasion. feel free to put these in a weapon mastery if you'd like.

Quake (5)
your go-to melee AOE and a source for stuns with its upgrade.

Hardy Constitution (6)
you can never have too many hit points.

Relentless Assault (6)
a must have for anyone using the might tree at all, this allows for 30 seconds of uninterruptible attacks. one of the best might abilities in the game.

Aftershock (5)
Allows quake to stun your foes, works great with the next skill.

Concussive Force (5)
this will make enemies stunned by your quake and storm bolt take up to 80% more damage.

Battle Frenzy (5)
the more enemies you kill, the more damage you do. great for dealing with groups. Works great with Blade Honing to really beef up your damage.

Sorcery (40 points)

Storm Bolt (6)
moderate damage, good range, and can stun for concussive force synergy.

Staff or Scepter Mastery (3)
another skill to simply make it up the tree. if you prefer, these can be used in sphere of protection; however i personally skip sphere of protection in order to run all three offensive sustainables. more on that later.

Chakram Mastery (6)
This gives you another ranged option should you opt to put away your bow for a while. We had to put those sphere of protection points somewhere.

Mark of Flame (5)
Great damage and very low mana cost with no cooldown. Mark everything then detonate to watch the bodies just fall at your feet.

Conservative Casting (5)
Reducing your spell cost is absolutely critical with this build if you want to run 3 sustainables. this is one way to help get to that point.

Chain Lightning (5)
more storm bolt damage, and the possibility for it to hit more enemies. what's not to like?

Healing Surge (5)
Since Faer Gorta and Ice Barrage kind of suck unless you can get to higher tiers, this is your point dump to get to the tier 4 skills. feel free to pump a weapon mastery if you like instead because you'll rarely need this.

Smolder (5)
Increased damage for Mark of Flame and any fire enchanted weapons you choose to craft.

Complete Travellers, Warsworn, and Scholia Arcana quest chains as soon as possible, as these will give you +1 to finesse, might, and sorcery respectively. Scholia Arcana should be especially done right away, the rewards are fantastic for this build.

The Gear:

Khas-ti's Helm
Tinniat's Hauberk
Flint's Hunting Gloves
Ergel's Luxurious Legwear
Dirge's Dancing Shoes

These armor pieces comprise the universalist's set that provides some great bonuses across the board for all three trees as well as +1 to all three skill trees. they are all found in static locations throughout the game world and there are videos available on youtube to show their locations.

Coral Necklace- +20% Damage (random drop)
Archsage's/ Savant's Rings- elemental damage, mana, and mana cost reduction (Scholia Arcana questline)

Mastercrafted Prismere Faeblades using flawless crafting materials. focus on fire damage and mana or mana regen
Mastercrafted Ebony Longbow; again fire damage, mana, mana regen

the weapons are kind of a make what works best for you scenario; poison, crit chance, crit damage, extra damage are all sound options as well.

The playstyle uses the bow for your primary workhorse. when the enemies are close enough use relentless assault to avoid being interrupted, quake and storm bolt for stuns, then faeblades and mark of flame to mop up whats left. If there is a certain enemy in the group you wish to take out first, simply pop smoke bomb and go in for the faeblade assassination. This build makes for a fun, fast paced combat style with great damage and utility with an answer to almost any situation. I generally leave Blade Honing, Envenomed Edge, and Battle Frenzy always on, choosing to skip sphere of protection because by the time you are high enough level to really get into Universalist, with hardy constitution and Healing Surge you really dont need it and it frees up more mana for casting while taking up less real estate on your screen (useful as it might be, you will get tired of that big ass aura swallowing up your character semi permanently). Happy hunting!

[76561198017204319]

I too sort of favor the universalist approach, but it my case I use the chakrams as my primary weapon and the bow as the secondary. works pretty good especially if you move around and dodge incoming attacks and hit hard while doing so.

[eyeC]

As shown, there's a problem with your might tree. You only have 19 points in the first two tiers. Easily fixed.

Question: would you try to keep the trees even, grabbing each of the Universalist destinies as you level, or would you choose a different route?

[snake_angel_18]

Other people's opinion will probably vary, but I personally try to keep the ability trees even when I'm leveling up.

I personally prefer chakrams and staves for "close" and bows for distance.

[Rune]

I like to respec regularly when I get tired of a playstyle, keeping the game fresh for me by mixing up my combat style every thirty hours or so.

I usually play a warrior early on, then a rogue or mage/rogue blend, then I'll take the 25-35 level range as a Warrior Rogue, and oftgen pure mage near endgame til I reach 37, at which point I'll fullt spec into Universalist when I can get all the best universalist bonuses like +27 skill points all once.

I play my universalist with the maximum amount of Passive talents and minimum amount of active skills, carriying around all my favorite legendary found, scrounged or crafted weapons, as something of a very versatile "Weaponmaster".

Usually using the Lightning attack as my ranged option, stealth and pure badassery with Greatswords, Chakrams, Staves and Faeblades as my normally favorite weapons.

I find Swords a bit bland, Daggers too single-target, Hammers are mostly too slow, and Guns, er I mean Scepters are just kind of weird and suck up mana way way too fast. I enjoy Archery a lot too, but the Universalist build cuts out the capstone best Archery multishot talent, and therefore leaves you to use Mage spells for range much more efficiently.

[Aqbayli]

Personally, I've never been too fond of the Universalist, There are still some good spells to use (Relentless Assault, Smoke Bomb and Mark of Flames) but the inability to reach tier5 is a major issue.

I remember having tried an all passive setup one time, with all the sustained abilities switched on, combined with maximum investment in the passive abilities, it was amusing.

[Malterras]

Originally posted by Boomer:

As shown, there's a problem with your might tree. You only have 19 points in the first two tiers. Easily fixed.

Question: would you try to keep the trees even, grabbing each of the Universalist destinies as you level, or would you choose a different route?

i would never go Universalist to level, everything is spread too thin and you end up not having everything you really need to make the build come into its own until later in the game. its alot of fun, but i would stick to 1 or 2 trees for leveling up and switch to universalist at endgame or NG+.

[Rune]

Originally posted by Malterras:

Originally posted by Boomer:

As shown, there's a problem with your might tree. You only have 19 points in the first two tiers. Easily fixed.

Question: would you try to keep the trees even, grabbing each of the Universalist destinies as you level, or would you choose a different route?

i would never go Universalist to level, everything is spread too thin and you end up not having everything you really need to make the build come into its own until later in the game. its alot of fun, but i would stick to 1 or 2 trees for leveling up and switch to universalist at endgame or NG+.

Same here. I'd level as any single or double, usually single with a tiny dip into another class for a favorite ability, but respec at lvl 37 which is I believe the first level the top tier destinies could all unlock.

[Andminus]

On one of my playthroughs, I went Universalists cause I just can't decide what to be, and each "Re-spec" costs more then the last, so I knew eventually I couldn't keep respecing at will. Once your able to use ALL weapon skills, it definately becomes more viable, a few times, my Faeblades or Chakrams would break on me cause I forget to repair my stuff SO much, and I'd fall back to a Hammer or Greatsword and resume wrecking stuff, especially ONE time in perticular, the first time my weapons broke on me, along with a good portion of my armor, I switched to a Prismere hammer I got lucky and found earlier in that dungeon and just continued on as a "Warrior" type until the end of it.

[Division By Zero]

In my experience, Universalist = sucks at everything because you lose out on the top 2 tiers of each talent tree (where the best talents are).

Even with a dual spec, you're missing out on the top tier which means that you can't nuke enemies well. (for reference, each talent tree has an ultimate nuke skill at its top tier). You could dual spec fighter/mage or rogue/mage and use elemental fury as a lower-grade nuking skill. I've heard that fighter/rogue (blademasters) do ridiculous damage, however they have no good nuking abilities.

My favorite build is a mage with just enough warrior talents to max out the one that prevents you from being interrupted.


Chakrams are the best weapon in the game. Ranged attacks with no ammo limits, no idiotic penalties if they aren't charged up, and near-melee damage. The only downside is that you can't socket damage in them on the bonus material while crafting.

Staves are largely inferior to chakrams. They do lower DPS, have roughly the same close-range area, and significantly decreased range. The only reason to use a staff over chakrams is the shorter regular attack cycle which means you can throw elemental damage over time on enemies more often, however you'r much better off just using chakrams.

Scepters suck. They do incredibly low damage if you aren't charging them up, and low DPS if you charge them up. Even worse, the mana cost doesn't scale down with efficiency gear (anything that decreases mana costs). Avoid, avoid, avoid. If you're a mage, just go full chakrams. Use lightning bolt and meteor if you need more range than chakrams support.

Longswords are also good - Chakram DPS with the option to socket damage while crafting later. Only problem is that they are clumsy and tend to miss enemies that vault behind you.

Greatswords: Good if you unlock the blocking attacks, garbage otherwise. Greatswords arguably have the best blocking attack in existence - a double slam with extra damage. The normal attacks are a wide sweep with a nasty habit of catching enemies that vault behind you.

Hammers: Garbage no matter what. Take a greatsword, add a bit of regular damage, get rid of the piercing damage, and make it even slower. You're likely to get interrupted if you aren't a warrior, and even if you are you might as well use a greatsword for the better DPS. Hammer special attacks are also garbage.

Daggers: Only good if you're planning on a critical build with the timed guaranteed critical. Otherwise, they're better at annoying enemies than DPSing. The charged attack quickly zips between enemies, while the dodging attack launches them.

Faeblades: The only arguably good rogue weapon. Slightly more damage than daggers with built in area damage. They're just as good at launching enemies.

Bows: The other sceptre. Uncharged attacks do half the listed damage. Fully charged attacks have lower DPS. Get the idea? Just use chakrams if you aren't using a rogue destiny (extra bonuses to piercing damage).

[myoptic]

Originally posted by Division By Zero:

In my experience, Universalist = sucks at everything because you lose out on the top 2 tiers of each talent tree (where the best talents are).

Even with a dual spec, you're missing out on the top tier which means that you can't nuke enemies well. (for reference, each talent tree has an ultimate nuke skill at its top tier). You could dual spec fighter/mage or rogue/mage and use elemental fury as a lower-grade nuking skill. I've heard that fighter/rogue (blademasters) do ridiculous damage, however they have no good nuking abilities.

My favorite build is a mage with just enough warrior talents to max out the one that prevents you from being interrupted.


Chakrams are the best weapon in the game. Ranged attacks with no ammo limits, no idiotic penalties if they aren't charged up, and near-melee damage. The only downside is that you can't socket damage in them on the bonus material while crafting.

Staves are largely inferior to chakrams. They do lower DPS, have roughly the same close-range area, and significantly decreased range. The only reason to use a staff over chakrams is the shorter regular attack cycle which means you can throw elemental damage over time on enemies more often, however you'r much better off just using chakrams.

Scepters suck. They do incredibly low damage if you aren't charging them up, and low DPS if you charge them up. Even worse, the mana cost doesn't scale down with efficiency gear (anything that decreases mana costs). Avoid, avoid, avoid. If you're a mage, just go full chakrams. Use lightning bolt and meteor if you need more range than chakrams support.

Longswords are also good - Chakram DPS with the option to socket damage while crafting later. Only problem is that they are clumsy and tend to miss enemies that vault behind you.

Greatswords: Good if you unlock the blocking attacks, garbage otherwise. Greatswords arguably have the best blocking attack in existence - a double slam with extra damage. The normal attacks are a wide sweep with a nasty habit of catching enemies that vault behind you.

Hammers: Garbage no matter what. Take a greatsword, add a bit of regular damage, get rid of the piercing damage, and make it even slower. You're likely to get interrupted if you aren't a warrior, and even if you are you might as well use a greatsword for the better DPS. Hammer special attacks are also garbage.

Daggers: Only good if you're planning on a critical build with the timed guaranteed critical. Otherwise, they're better at annoying enemies than DPSing. The charged attack quickly zips between enemies, while the dodging attack launches them.

Faeblades: The only arguably good rogue weapon. Slightly more damage than daggers with built in area damage. They're just as good at launching enemies.

Bows: The other sceptre. Uncharged attacks do half the listed damage. Fully charged attacks have lower DPS. Get the idea? Just use chakrams if you aren't using a rogue destiny (extra bonuses to piercing damage).

thankfully, the game has a large enough skill component that any build is pretty viable with the right player behind the control. Even if you don't min/max you can still play the game through with no trouble.

Unlike some other games I have played where anything off-meta is basically garbage.

[ninetales]

Universalists are incredibly powerful when played right, the problem is that people focus too much on getting flashy skills instead of what makes the Universalist excel - weapon abilities and passive/sustained synergies.

From Might you get Concussive Force (+60% damage against stunned), Aftershock (AoE stun) and Relentless Assault (no interrupts, essential for slow weapons like the Greatsword). That's along with the weapon damage increase passives like Greatsword Mastery (note that Greatswords are edged weapons) and survivability passives.

From Sorcery you get Storm Bolt (a good nuke + also a stun), various utility skills (passive healing + a decoy from Faer Gorta, mana cost reduction with Conservative Casting, Healing Surge) and other useful passives and sustaineds, like Chakram Mastery (note that Chakrams are considered edged weapons) and Sphere of Protection.

From Finesse you get access to finesse armors (+~40% crit damage), Envenomed Edge (bonus poison damage, works on Chakrams and Greatswords), Blade Honing (+30% crit damage, also works on Chakrams and Greatswords), Assassin's Art (works with Storm Bolt for ranged stealth kills), Icy Explosion and Smoke Bomb (more stuns for Concussive Force) and Shadow Flare (5 mana cost AoE skill for destroying consumables, at higher levels this skill is just brutal against large enemies like trolls).

Finally, the Universalist destiny itself keeps the build together. Higher crafting skill levels means easier access to +% crit rate (stacks with the +% crit rate bonus from Universalist itself). Reduced item requirements means you can equip the best Greatswords, Chakrams and finesse armors. Access to all weapon skill bonuses means combat flexibility, extra hits/damage from certain attack chains and significantly increased fate energy generation for Reckoning Mode. You get also a free +%20 bonus damage on top of everything you get from skills, and a free damage resistance bonus.

Altogether, in practice what you get is a character who swings his weapons and stuff dies. With good crit rate/crit damage gear your default weapon attack chain alone will hit harder than many abilities.

Of course this is all from an all-out offense-type Universalist build PoV, more defensive builds will want different synergies.

As far as leveling goes, there are breakpoints. Wayfarer, Prodigy and Polymath are all good destinies and you should aim for these if possible. Doing so gives you a great deal of flexibility when leveling because you can focus on might, finesse or sorcery (whichever skillset/armor set you feel most comfortable leveling with) while skipping Seeker and Adventurer. You can even choose to delay Prodigy if you want, if you feel like rushing Relentless Assault/Concussive Force.

[Malterras]

I realize it isn't a build for everyone, but when played right this was an absolute beast for me. I had a skill or weapon for almost every situation and never felt insanely overpowered by the end of the game like a sorc build. It was never going to be a magic tempest clear-the-screen-in-a-single-attack build, but i didnt want it to be because that got boring fast. The thing that makes uni fun isn't its ability to decimate everything at once, it is the ability to switch your playstyle on a whim between steath, magic, and might with no respec and access to any and all sustainables you want. I too saw the Uni tree after playing for multiple playthroughs and thought "yeah right, this class probably sucks." but after trying it i realized its every bit as fun as the more targeted or hybrid builds and still pumps out the damage. This is my go-to now for end game, despite the others having some great higher tier abilities, this one can and does perform beautifully once tou get everything you need for it.

[Malterras]

Originally posted by Boomer:

As shown, there's a problem with your might tree. You only have 19 points in the first two tiers. Easily fixed.

Question: would you try to keep the trees even, grabbing each of the Universalist destinies as you level, or would you choose a different route?

I just started playing again and double checked this. After a little investigation its 4 points in harpoon, not 3. Updated the guide to reflect the mistake. Either way harpoon isnt a skill I actively use that often and the weapon masteries are just as good of an option here for these. of the Might tree weapons you might want to opt for greatsword or sword over harpoon. the important ones are Skillful Defense, Hardy Constitution, and Quake in the first 2 tiers, the last 4 points can go wherever you feel they are needed more to get to tier 3. Since i focus more on faeblades, bow and occasionally chakrams, the skill was more useful to me over a weapon proficiency.

[Malterras]

Originally posted by Division By Zero:

In my experience, Universalist = sucks at everything because you lose out on the top 2 tiers of each talent tree (where the best talents are).

Even with a dual spec, you're missing out on the top tier which means that you can't nuke enemies well. (for reference, each talent tree has an ultimate nuke skill at its top tier). You could dual spec fighter/mage or rogue/mage and use elemental fury as a lower-grade nuking skill. I've heard that fighter/rogue (blademasters) do ridiculous damage, however they have no good nuking abilities.

My favorite build is a mage with just enough warrior talents to max out the one that prevents you from being interrupted.


Chakrams are the best weapon in the game. Ranged attacks with no ammo limits, no idiotic penalties if they aren't charged up, and near-melee damage. The only downside is that you can't socket damage in them on the bonus material while crafting.

Staves are largely inferior to chakrams. They do lower DPS, have roughly the same close-range area, and significantly decreased range. The only reason to use a staff over chakrams is the shorter regular attack cycle which means you can throw elemental damage over time on enemies more often, however you'r much better off just using chakrams.

Scepters suck. They do incredibly low damage if you aren't charging them up, and low DPS if you charge them up. Even worse, the mana cost doesn't scale down with efficiency gear (anything that decreases mana costs). Avoid, avoid, avoid. If you're a mage, just go full chakrams. Use lightning bolt and meteor if you need more range than chakrams support.

Longswords are also good - Chakram DPS with the option to socket damage while crafting later. Only problem is that they are clumsy and tend to miss enemies that vault behind you.

Greatswords: Good if you unlock the blocking attacks, garbage otherwise. Greatswords arguably have the best blocking attack in existence - a double slam with extra damage. The normal attacks are a wide sweep with a nasty habit of catching enemies that vault behind you.

Hammers: Garbage no matter what. Take a greatsword, add a bit of regular damage, get rid of the piercing damage, and make it even slower. You're likely to get interrupted if you aren't a warrior, and even if you are you might as well use a greatsword for the better DPS. Hammer special attacks are also garbage.

Daggers: Only good if you're planning on a critical build with the timed guaranteed critical. Otherwise, they're better at annoying enemies than DPSing. The charged attack quickly zips between enemies, while the dodging attack launches them.

Faeblades: The only arguably good rogue weapon. Slightly more damage than daggers with built in area damage. They're just as good at launching enemies.

Bows: The other sceptre. Uncharged attacks do half the listed damage. Fully charged attacks have lower DPS. Get the idea? Just use chakrams if you aren't using a rogue destiny (extra bonuses to piercing damage).

I think you savagely underestimate the bow. Most of my charge shots are instakills, if not, it draws them in for stuns followed by faeblade and mark of flame mop up. Rarely does trash get close enough to me that my bow hasn't already made short work of. Also this build allows for Chakram mastery, so you can use either. With faeblades im already covered for both AoE and backstabs, whatever the bow doesnt kill, it aggros to bring it in close. Consider you essentially play all three specs at once in a standard engagement: Smoke bomb/ assassinate or bow opener- finesse. Quake AoE stun/ faeblade melee- might. Lightning and Mark of flame mop up- sorcery.