Like most RPGs, you need to level up the skills of your Envoy before you embark on tougher expeditions. There is a lot going on when it comes to the skill branches in Avowed, and you will be spoilt for choice while creating your perfect build. Some skills hold more value than others, so you should work on unlocking them first before you move on to the others. This guide details out what I found to be the best skills to unlock first in my Avowed playthrough.
Best Starting Skills to Unlock First in Avowed
The first time you get your ability skill after leveling up, you get numerous skill choices under each skill branch that you are allowed to upgrade. There are 3 main branches of skills that you can unlock: the Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard. There is a separate section with the skills for Godlike, but those cannot be unlocked using normal skill points. Rather, those are story-related, and you will get these abilities while playing the game.
I have put up the best two skills to unlock first under the Wizard, Ranger, and Fighter skill trees, such that they give the best balance of offensive and defensive abilities in combat.
Fighter
Charge
One of the best early-game offensive attacks, this move can break the enemy’s defensive barrier and even shatter them if frozen. With each upgrade, you increase the power of the Charge attack to deal even more damage. We think that this should be your first pick when choosing a skill to assign in the Fighter category as it is great for dealing with tougher opponents who have their guard up at all times. You can also use it to disrupt them mid-attack, making it easier for you to get an opening to attack.
Constant Recovery
If you are looking for early-game health regeneration, then you should pick Constant Recovery as soon as you get an ability point. This regenerates a small amount of health lost, which will help you out as you will face enemies in every corner. The first level has a 40% regeneration of the last Health lost, and investing in this further increases this to 100%.
Toughness
Increasing your max health at the earliest will be highly beneficial, and luckily you can do that by unlocking Toughness as early as possible. With this, you get you max health increased by 20%, which is quite a lot for early gameplay. With each upgrade of this ability, you can increase your max health by 35% and 45%.
Barbaric Shout
This ability is great for offensive playstyles, as it can cause stun and interrupt enemies during their attack. You can also get empowered and your weapons can deal better damage. Upgrading Barbaric Shout will help in regaining health to the user, and you can also increase the duration of the shout at max upgrade.
Ranger
Survivalist
Very early in the game, you would be dependent on food to help in healing and acquiring essence to cast spells. But the amount of health or essence regeneration might not meet your expectations unless you happen to find a consumable that offers a higher HP and essence regen. Hence the recommendation to pick Survivalist and help regain more HP and essence just by consuming food. Initially, you get a boost of 20% higher health and essence regeneration, as well as 20% higher bonus effects duration.
Tanglefoot
This might be the best offensive Ranger skill if you don’t have Marius in your party yet. With this skill, you can temporarily hold down enemies for a limited time, giving you a window to deal attacks. With each upgrade of this skill, you not just increase the duration of the hold, but you also deal poison attacks simultaneously. You can’t go wrong with this one especially early on in Avowed.
Shadowing Beyond
Stealth builds will definitely prefer to use this ability, as it offers invisibility at the cost of essence reduction. This skill stays active till you perform a combat action or your essence has been drained, and upgrading this ability to the max will decrease the amount of essence it takes. You can also increase your movement speed and stealth attack damage rate once this skill is upgraded.
Evasive
If you use the dodge skill a lot, then you would definitely need to unlock this ability at the earliest. Since dodging takes up a lot of stamina, this ability will help reduce the stamina cost by 25%. The further you increase this skill, the lesser stamina it takes.
Wizard
Minor Missiles
This one is a must-have offensive ability while branching out the Wizarding tree. This ability fires three homing missiles that can deal a ton of damage after it seeks out a target. We had a hard time trying to deal with multiple stronger enemies and found that this skill in particular helps deal with several of them at once. Each upgrade increases the number of missiles, and hence the damage output for Minor Missiles.
Grimoire Mastery
Your wand alone will not help you out much, and you might have picked up the Grimoire of the Elements while exploring the early game quests. By picking this ability, you get to unlock higher-level spells, and as a bonus, you get a reduction in Essence spent while casting a spell. So, you get a chance to cast much better spells at a fraction of the Essence cost, which is a win-win situation in our book.
Wand Mastery
Since the Wand is a weapon in itself, you might want to increase the damage output of this weapon at the earliest. With the Wand Mastery unlocked, you can increase damage by 25%, and subsequent upgrades will increase wand damage by 40% and 50%.
Increasing any of the Active Spells
Placing ability points in any of the level 1 and level 5 active spells will enhance that skill’s damage output. There are 6 Active Spells for level 1 and 5 Active Spells for level 5. Assigning an ability point on a spell depends on the which spell is frequently used, but if you are aiming for a wizard build, then it is best to focus more on upgrading your spells first.
These options are especially handy during very early gameplay since the majority of Avowed’s gameplay has you fight tough enemies with each area you discover.
