Masteries

Soldier - The Baseline for Physical Melee and Durability

The imperial-army melee mastery. It scales physical damage with bleed and pierce alongside, and raises its own armor and armor absorption. Its baseline survivability is among the highest of any mastery, and it is the best shield user in the base game. The weaknesses are the worst Spirit growth in the game (energy starvation) and few ways to reduce resistances other than physical.

Physical / Bleeding / Pierce

Demolitionist - Fire, Lightning, and Explosives at Range

A ranged-leaning mastery of guns and bombs, built on fire and lightning with chaos, physical, and pierce available too. Deep area damage and crowd control make it strong against packs, and Fire Strike works with either melee or ranged weapons. The catch: Blast Shield is its only true defensive skill, and it scales health and Defensive Ability poorly.

Fire / Lightning / Physical / Chaos / Pierce

Occultist - Debuffs, Pets, and Acid/Vitality Magic

A witch-god caster mastery covering acid, vitality, chaos, and bleed, with two pet-bonus pets. Its greatest asset is Curse of Frailty, which reduces a wide band of resistances including physical and elemental - which is why it works as a partner for almost any build. The weakness is low health and Defensive Ability.

Acid / Vitality / Chaos / Bleeding

Nightblade - Dual Wielding Without Gear Requirements

A melee specialist that can dual wield without gear support, built on cold, pierce, acid, and bleed. It holds four dual-wield weapon pool skills - the most of any single mastery - and a permanent aura that reduces enemy resistances automatically. Builds tend toward light armor, but dodge, debuffs, and dedicated passives cut how often you get hit.

Cold / Pierce / Acid / Bleeding / Vitality

Arcanist - The Pure Caster: High Damage, the Thinnest Base Durability

A pure caster built on elemental (fire, cold, lightning) and aether. It has the passives casters want - cast speed, energy cost reduction, damage scaling - and raises its own Spirit, Offensive Ability, and critical damage. It has the lowest Physique of any mastery and no health-scaling skills, so it dies easily early; once its permanent buffs and emergency evade are online, durability follows.

Elemental / Fire / Cold / Lightning / Aether / Chaos

Shaman - Two-Handers, Summons, and Pets in One Mastery

Built on lightning, bleed, and vitality, Shaman covers two-handed melee and ranged combat, placed summons, and full pet builds. It raises maximum health and regeneration in both flat and percentage terms and has plenty of sustain. It can also reduce all three elemental resistances at once, so it serves as a secondary for fire or cold partners.

Lightning / Bleeding / Vitality / Physical / Cold

Inquisitor - Dual Pistols, Resistance Reduction, and Few Bad Pairings

An Ashes of Malmouth mastery for mid-to-long range, able to dual wield pistols with no special gear and built on elemental and pierce damage. Instant healing and a placed damage-absorption skill give it durability out of proportion to its low Physique. For elemental builds, the buffed exclusive skill Aura of Censure has made it a pairing that the Japanese wiki calls close to always correct.

Elemental / Pierce / Physical / Aether / Chaos

Necromancer - From Massed Undead to Front-Line Brawler

An Ashes of Malmouth dark-magic mastery led by vitality and aether, with synergies into physical, cold, and acid. It can field up to three kinds of pets, close to ten at once, and a pet-focused build can carry a single mastery deep into the higher difficulties. It also has plenty of weapon-attack skills with attack damage converted to health, so front-line play works too.

Vitality / Aether / Physical / Cold / Acid / Pierce / Bleeding

Oathkeeper - Using the Shield as a Weapon and Turning Retaliation Into Damage

A Forgotten Gods generalist mastery. It puts the shield front and center, but many of its skills use that shield to attack. It defaults to physical plus fire and can switch to acid plus vitality through upgrades. It carries several of the Forgotten Gods "retaliation damage added to attack" skills, making it the core of retaliation builds that deal damage while staying defensive.

Physical / Fire / Acid / Vitality / Bleeding / Retaliation

Berserker - Beast Forms, Dual Wielding, and the Winds of Asterkarn

The tenth mastery, added by Fangs of Asterkarn. Berserkers take the beast god Mogdrogen's gifts to shapeshift into beast forms and infuse their weapons with Asterkarn's freezing winds. They favor cold, bleed, pierce, and chaos, and fight with dual weapons when not shapeshifted - the tier-1 passive Implements of War unlocks both dual wielding and dual pistols. Attribute growth is Physique 3.5 / Cunning 4 / Spirit 1.5.

Cold / Bleeding / Pierce / Chaos