What are the best Avowed builds? Obsidian has stuffed Avowed’s toolbox full of powerful abilities, stylish clothes, and monstrous weapons that we can use to live out our biggest power fantasies in-game.
Of course, some tools in Avowed are bigger, sharper, and pointier than others, which is why we’ve done some theorycrafting ahead of the Avowed release date and conjured up the best builds in the RPG game’s early game. Below, we’ll take you through the optimal starting background, the attributes you should be attributing skill points to, and the abilities that make each build tick.
The best Avowed builds we’ve theorycrafted for the early game are:
Avowed Melee Fighter build
- Starting background: War Hero.
- Key attributes: Might, Dexterity, and Resolve.
- Key abilities: 2x Charge, Shield Bash, 2x Toughness, Constant Recovery, 2x Finesse (Ranger tree), 2x Evasive (Ranger tree).
- Weapons: Axe, Mace, Sword.
The perfect Avowed Fighter build eschews magic in favor of brute force. Locate your target and whack them with your one-handed weapon or shield. We’ve only gone with two active abilities, Charge which launches us towards targets, and Shield Bash to break through stubborn enemies who rudely keep blocking our attacks.
Our remaining abilities are passive, turning our character into a hulking beast. Toughness increases our overall health, and Constant Recovery ensures we’re always regaining health as long as we’re in a fight. Switch to the Ranger tree and select Finesse to increase damage dealt with one-handed melee weapons, and tie things up with Evasive to dodge enemy attacks without spending as much stamina.
As for attributes, the War Hero background grants the best start due to the three points in Might and Resolve it offers. If you wish to truly throw caution to the wind, reallocate the two Constitution points into Dexterity for even more efficient weapon waving.
Avowed Stealth Ranger build
- Starting background: Vanguard Scout.
- Key attributes: Perception, Dexterity, and Might.
- Key abilities: Tanglefoot, Finesse, 3x Marksmanship, Evasive, Armored Essence (Wizard tree), Shadowing Beyond, Steady Aim, Quick Switch (Bow or Arquebus), Arrow Deflection (Pistol).
- Weapons: Bow, Arquebus, Pistol.
The Avowed Ranger build takes full advantage of the finesse often attributed to keen-eye bow users to produce a build that is almost as deadly up close as it is at range. Whether you’re using a bow or something less civilized like a gun, you’re going to be dishing out big DPS with precision damage from afar and sneaky shivs in close quarters.
Once again, we’ve opted for two active skills in Tanglefoot and Shadowing Beyond. Tanglefoot ensnares the target making for an easy kill, while Shadowing Beyond opens up stealthy, assassin-y possibilities, or can be used as an escape tool.
Marksmanship is, unsurprisingly, the big passive you want to ply points into due to the massive damage boost it provides. Likewise, Finesse gives your secondary melee damage a bump. Steady Aim gives your power shots bullet (or arrow) time, making scoring precision hits a breeze.
Finally, for extra survivability boons, take Evasive and Arrow Deflection to give you a better chance of avoiding damage. We’d recommend only taking the latter if using a pistol and one-handed melee weapon, as you’ll likely have already been hit before you can switch out of a two-handed weapon and attempt to deflect. Quick Switch is super important for bow and arquebus enjoyers who need to swap loadouts to melee, so we’d advise taking that for two-handers instead.
On the attributes front, the Vanguard Scout background gives you a near-perfect blend of initial stat point distribution to get you started. That being said, you can afford to drop a point from Constitution and place it into Might for extra oomph.
Avowed Frost Wizard build
- Starting background: Arcane Scholar.
- Key attributes: Intellect, Perception, and Might.
- Key abilities: Charge (Fighter tree), Tanglefoot (Ranger tree), Wand Mastery, 2x Chill Blades, 2x Grimoire Mastery, Blizzard, Bristling Frost, Blast of Frost.
- Weapons: Wand and Grimoire.
The Avowed Wizard build takes big inspiration from World of Warcraft’s frost mage, utilizing the Frost Accumulation status effect to freeze enemies in place before blasting them with hard-hitting spells like Blizzard. Word of warning: a Grimoire with frost spells is necessary to make this build work.
With crowd control being the name of the game, we’ve yoinked Tanglefoot from the Ranger tree as a starting point. Chill Blades and Blast of Frost do most of the heavy lifting in the Frost Accumulation department, though Bristling Frost comes into play if you’re rushed by a melee target. Grimoire Mastery is a necessity to access these spells, so take two points to ensure you can use level ten Grimoire spells (Blast of Frost). Wand Mastery is self-explanatory – more damage = good.
The elephant in the room here is Charge, and while it may leave you scratching your head in confusion, we can explain. Charge shatters frozen enemies, dealing bonus damage. This means you can put your foes on ice, finish your sequence with Charge, and then begin accumulating frost on them all over again when they start hitting you with Bristling Frost active. It’s a little unorthodox, but we reckon the synergy’s solid enough to try.
At level 11, make sure you put one more point into Chill Blades so that it can pierce multiple enemies, massively improving your frost accumulation against groups.
And those are the best Avowed builds that’ll kick-start your journey across the Living Lands in the best possible way. As our return to Eora nears, read up on all the Avowed companions who’ll join you on your adventure, as well as the Avowed length so you know exactly how long you’ll be locked into it for.
