This is the text version of this guide which includes both dlcs Ragnarok and Atlantis. If you'd like to watch the video version, please CLICK HERE.
ENSNARE
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This skill counts as a projectile so enemies that have good chances to avoid projectiles, may avoid this too. From all the stats we see on this skill, the reduction to Defensive ability and the reduction to movement speed of enemies are fixed numbers and they will not change by leveling up the skill. The only ones that will change are the Energy cost, Meter Radius and duration of the skill.
The skill at its natural cap 6/6 will have 9 seconds duration and if you can take it up to +4 levels at 10/6 it will reach 14.6 seconds duration. This is a very nice skill which helps with crowd controlling enemies and making things easier for you. Also the enemies affected by this one, will have their Defensive Ability reduced which means that now you will have more chances not only to hit them but also to deal some critical hits on them (if you have good enough Offensive Ability).
Remember to try different tactics on using this skill, for example: if you have 3 enemies in front of you, one next to the other and you use the skill on an enemy in the left side of the pack, then maybe only that enemy will be trapped, or maybe only that one along with the one in the middle. But, if you use it on the enemy in the middle, then all 3 enemies may be trapped. So, it is a skill working on single or multiple enemies.
The last thing to remember is that some enemies will not be trapped and immobilized by the net of this skill (ex. big bosses) but they will still get affected by the reduction to Defensive ability and movement speed.
BARBED NETTING
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This addon will make the skill apply Bleeding damage over time for the duration of Ensnare. Since the wording of this skill is "per second" it makes it different from other skills that have the wording "over 3 seconds". "Per second" means that every second the skill is active, it deals the exact amount of damage we see on the skill. "Over 3 seconds" would divide the damage by 3 so it works differently.
Of course this Bleeding damage gets affected by items/skills that provide "+% Bleeding damage" and by Dexterity attribute, so there are ways to increase its power. Another way to increase it is to use items/skills that reduce Bleeding resistances of enemies.
STUDY PREY
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This is one of the most powerful skills in the game, some people say! It debuffs 2 types of resistances of enemies, Physical and Pierce. The only thing that changes by leveling up this skill, is the amount of reduction to both resistances. At level 8/8 the amount goes up to -50% and at maximum level 12/8 it reaches -66%.
The reduction of this skill is the type of Absolute. There are 2 types of reduction, Absolute and Multiplicative. Without getting into details now, the Absolute ones can stack upon enemies with Multiplicative AND Absolute ones and reduce enemies' resistances even more. But for these details we will have another guide.
So, the great thing is that this one can stack with both Absolute and Multiplicative ones that we can get from other sources and reduce greatly the resistances of enemies resulting in the total annihilation of them! And this is what makes it so powerful. But there is a detail to remember (mostly a glitch existing up to 2.10 version of the game). When the boss Typhon gets his thorns out on his body and you use this skill on him, the visual effect of the thorns will get vanished and this may cause you to think that his thorns skill is not active any more. This would be a mistake that could lead you to your defeat! Don't forget this detail!
FLUSH OUT
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This addon will only add 3 more types of reduction to enemies, reduction to Defensive ability which would allow you to deal more critical hits, reduction to Bleeding and Elemental resistances. At level 6/6 the numbers of this skill go up to -36% for all 3, at maximum level 10/6 they go up to 54% reduction. Add this skill to the base one and now you have a superb skill to use against the biggest and most terrifying enemies ingame!
CALL OF THE HUNT
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This is one more very powerful skill which becomes truly powerful when we activate its first addon (the 2nd addon too in cases). This is why the skill has a long cooldown of 3 minutes. It is a buff that lasts a few seconds and adds to your weapon attacks some flat Bleeding damage, it provides a buff to attacking speed and more damage against Beasts and Beastmen.
The great thing about it is that it affects a whole party of players and pets so if you play multiplayer, this skill is truly amazing. The duration of the skill at level 8/8 goes up to 50 seconds and at level 12/8 at 64 seconds. The best way to utilize this skill is to have enough Recharge reduction to be able to cast the skill before it wears off. In that case you would have the skill running at 100% of playtime! Imagine that!
EXPLOIT WEAKNESS
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This will add big buffs to Pierce and Bleeding damage you deal to enemies. These are percentages which means they buff not only weapon attacks that apply these 2 types of damage but also spells/skills e.t.c. It can truly give you great amounts of power when used in the right builds. Of course if your build doesn't deal any damage of these types, then it is useless. Remember though that this also effects the whole party of players including pets so even if your characters deals no damage of these 2 types, it can still be useful when you use pets that deal these types or in multiplayer where other players do these 2 types of damage.
FINESSE
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This is a great skill which came to the game with Atlantis dlc, you need that dlc to gain access to it. When you use it, the stats of the skill remain active for the duration of the base skill. The 2% chance to reduce Enemy's Health means that every weapon attack of yours and your pets or other players', has this chance to trigger the effect. This works with melee attacks only. Also, in general this stat doesn't really work on bosses because they have great special resistances to this effect so do not count on it to kill them, the same can be said about Hero enemies.
The Offensive ability buffs of this skill increases greatly the chances to inflict critical hits but it works only with melee attacks and only 2 types of damage can deal critical, Physical and Pierce types. So, if you play a bow build and you have no pets/no allies, then this skill is actually useless unless you want to have a 2% chance per bow attack to reduce Enemy's Health. This would be a waste of a skill point. The only thing that changes when you level up this skill is the flat amount of "+ Offensive ability", at level 8/8 it goes up to 450 and at 12/8 to 650.
MARKSMANSHIP
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This skill can be used only with a bow or thrown weapon. It adds a flat amount of Piercing damage to your attacks and also increases the projectile speed. Projectile speed is not a part of Total Speed so don't make the mistake to rely on Total Speed to increase it. The great thing about it is that it uses a weapon to attack with so, for example, if you have another item like an artifact that provides flat Elemental damage, this flat damage will work at the same time when using the skill (the same applies to all skills that use weapons directly).
Now imagine if you have multiple items providing flat types of damage or even effects such as "attack damage converted to health" or "life leech over time" e.t.c. This skill can become really deadly. Projectile speed doesn't have a limit in this game overall and other sources would stack with this skill which has a limit. At level 12/12 the projectile speed is at 140% and at level 16/12 it goes up to 180%.
PUNCTURE SHOT ARROWS
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This addon gives a chance to your projectiles to pass through enemies and hit enemies behind them which is a powerful effect. It also buffs up the Pierce and Bleeding types of attacks you do if you use weapons that do those types. But even if you don't use these types of damage it can still be useful because projectiles hitting enemies beyond means that the base skill now becomes something like a narrow area of effect skill since it hits more enemies per attack. So, to get the most out of the base skill, you should use this too.
At level 12/12 the Bleeding buff will stop at "+50%", the Pierce buff will be at "+33%" and the chance to pass through enemies will be at "55%". At level 16/12, the Pierce buff will be maxed out at "+45%" and the chance to pass through will get up to "75%". Also the 1 energy cost is fixed, it doesn't go up by leveling.
SCATTER SHOT ARROWS
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This is truly a magnificent skill. It turns the base skill to a true area of effect skill and it feels great too when it triggers. It releases fragments that hit multiple enemies and deal damage and helps killing packs of enemies faster. The numbers of damage may seem low but remember that they get increased by attribute points and items providing percentages to these types of damage. One important detail is that the buffs from Puncture Shot Arrows do NOT affect this addon, they affect only the projectiles from bows and thrown weapons.
At level 12/12 this skill releases 7-9 fragments and at level 16/12 it releases 8-10. If you decide to make a build based on Marksmanship skill, then it is a good idea to max out this skill.
TAKE DOWN
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This is one of those which sometimes we call "movement skills". This is because every time we use it, the character runs very fast to the enemy we clicked on and then hits with the spear. It works only with a spear type of weapon and it is a nice skill for running faster through maps in general.
The movement speed number of the skill is fixed and will not change by leveling ups, only the 2 other stats change along with the energy cost. Initially this applies Piercing damage and a very good percentage of reduction to enemy's health. As we said before though, this stat works at a fraction on bosses and hero enemies, but Piercing damage works as usual.
Let's not forget that since this skill uses a weapon, it also applies other offensive stats that we get from other item slots (except from shields), such as flat types of damage, life leech over time e.t.c. So, it can become much more powerful than what it is on its own. Also, increasing character's movement speed also affects this skill and you would also want to increase attacking speed for the animation of the attack to work faster and hit the enemies faster.
EVISCERATE
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All this addon does is to add a big flat amount of Bleeding damage to the base skill. This number can stack with the one we get from Call of the Hunt and they will be applied together to the enemy so it is a nice addon in case you care about damage over time. You can increase the damage of this one by using attribute points on Dexterity and buffs to Bleeding damage AND "+% Total Damage"! At level 14/10 the damage you get from this skill is 503 Bleeding over 3 seconds. Not bad at all.
GOUGE
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This is a passive skill which has a low chance of triggering every time we attack with the right types of weapons. The good thing that it's a flat number of damage which means it stacks with skills such as Eviscerate/Call of the Hunt and others that provide flat Bleeding damage to our weapon's attacks.
Usually this skill should be considered a suplementary skill and not be given priority because most builds would kill enemies much faster than what this skill could do. So, a good idea would be to spend points on this one if you want Bleeding damage to be a main thing for your build or if you have already activated and taken to the desired levels the other more important skills of your character.
VOLLEY
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This is a great one because in a way we could say that it turns your weapon attacks to area of effect attacks since with ranged weapons it releases more projectiles than one that can hit multiple enemies. It is also great because with melee weapons it releases 3 hits on an enemy per attack instead of one.
The greater thing though is that there is an awesome synergy between this passive skill and other active skills from other masteries. When this skill triggers it counts as 3 attacks instead of one IF all 3 attacks actually hit enemies and don't miss. These 3 attacks count as 3 charges to other skills such as Psionic Touch of Dream mastery or Calculated Strike of Rogue.
So, for example, Psionic Touch requires 3 charges before it triggers its effects at the fourth charge. Each charge is an attack with the skill. So, you hit 3 times and when you hit once more, the effects of the skill trigger. Now, if you have Volley active and you attack once with Psionic Touch on a single enemy with a melee weapon, and Volley triggers, it will hit 3 times instead of one so the next (2nd) attack of yours will release the Kraken. Hhhmm, the effects of Psionic Touch i mean. This skill is awesome, it is a good idea to use it.
ART OF THE HUNT
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This is a constant buff which provides very nice effects. If you use a Pierce or Bleeding based build then it can benefit nicely from the buffs of this skill and you also get a flat number of physical damage against Beasts and Beastmen. This number of damage will not be a big one even if you max out the skill but this is not a bad thing and here is why: there is a mechanic that makes flat numbers of damage against specific races of enemies to be applied even by using spells that do not utilize your weapons!
For example, if you play Spirit + Hunting and you have this one active, then, if you attack an enemy with Life Drain spell of Spirit, that spell will also deal these flat numbers of damage, but it will deal those only to these types of enemies (Beasts/Beastmen). This is a particular mechanic specific to races of enemies. So, this skill is more powerful than it looks at first sight!
The only things that go up when you level up this skill, are the buffs to damage, both percentages and flat numbers. At level 12/12 you get 75% Pierce, 48% Bleeding, + 30 to races and at level 16/12 you get 115% Pierce, 60% Bleeding, + 51 to races. This skill with its addons affect your whole party including pets and other players.
FIND COVER
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This addon provides good chances to avoid projectiles. The great thing is that you can get this effect at the same time from this skill and from other skills/items so we could say that it stacks. The chance to avoid projectiles caps out at 80% so if you don't have a good amount of this effect from other sources then it is a good idea to use it. At level 8/8 you get 25% chance and at level 12/8 you get 35%. The energy reserved is a fixed number and doesn't go up by level.
TRAIL BLAZING
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One more supportive addon. You get a buff to movement speed and immunity to entrapment effects which means that if an enemy throws a net similar to your own at you and get you, then the net will not immobilize you, it will instantly be gone. It is a good idea to spend only one skill point to this one just for this effect if/when you don't need the movement speed buff it provides. At level 6/6 the movement speed is +18% and at level 10/6 it is at +33%. The energy reserved is a fixed number and doesn't go up by level. Also the reserved energy of this addon and of the FIND COVER are added to the energy reserved of the base skill so now you need to take care of your energy points.
SPEAR DANCE
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This is one more skill that came with Atlantis dlc. It is an area of effect skill that uses the spear to hit multiple enemies at every single attack. The minus Physical damage means that your attack will deal less damage to each enemy hit. The good thing is that as you level up this skill, the reduction to physical damage gets reduced so your damage goes up! At level 6/12 this reduction will be zero and from level 7 you will start getting a +% physical damage, at level 12/12 the number will be +24% and at 16/12 it will be +40% physical damage. This is a strong skill and nice to look at.
The chance to Fear enemies means that when this triggers, your enemies will start running away from you so now you will probably need to chase them if you don't have any pets or allies, and this could become annoying. A good way to deal with this problem would be to use the Earthbind skill from Nature mastery (if you play this combination) which immobilizes enemies and then use Spear Dance on them.
The slower attack effect means that it will slow down the attacks of enemies that get hit by the skill. This is good because it helps with survivability. The -50% of this effect is fixed and doesn't change by level ups.
WOOD LORE
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A passive skill to save the day! This one works only with bows, spears and thrown weapons and provides the very necessary attack speed buff and Defensive ability. Spears and Bows are not fast attacking weapons so this skill is a must and it is a great idea to max it out especially if you don't have other sources of buffs to attack speed. The same can be said about Defensive ability.
At level 6/6 the skill provides +222 Defensive Ability and +24% Attack Speed, at level 10/6 the numbers are +350 and + 33%. If you start a new character from level 1 and select Hunting mastery in the beginning then make sure to spend at least 2 points here within the first 8 levels of your character.
HERBAL REMEDY
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This is a constant buff that helps your character survive better. One thing to remember is that almost all constant buffs like this one can be dispelled by some enemies and be turned off, so when this happens problems may arise. It is a good idea when you start a new character with this mastery, to activate this skill as soon as possible. At level 1/6 you will get 30% poison resistance which is good enough for the whole normal difficulty! The more you level up this skill, the higher stats go up, at level 6/6 you get 480 seconds duration, + 6 Health Regeneration and 72% Poison resistance.
At maximum level 10/6 the stats will be 720 seconds, + 8.4 Health regeneration and 100% poison resistance. Don't let the 100% confuse you. The cap of main resistances is 80% but this doesn't mean that 100% of this buff is a waste because in higher difficulty levels you get penalties to primary resistances, so if you reach Legendary difficulty and don't have another source of Poison resistance, this buff will keep yours at 0%.
The penalties to resistances are -40% in Epic difficulty and -60% in Legendary! Of course, you can stack Health Regeneration from other sources with this buff which is one more advantage of this skill.
MONSTER LURE
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This doesn't look like it but it is a pet and can be affected by some pet gear and skills that affect allies and parties. Its job is to provoke enemies and make them hit it instead of you and make your life better. To get the best out of this idea you need to level up this skill because level ups provide more health to it and it can stay active longer and be more effective this way. Honestly, it is not the best skill to help you do what it's supposed to be doing if you can only summon 1 Lure because quite a few times enemies ignore it, especially bosses, but if you want to give it a try go ahead. As a new character leveling up, just spend a couple of points on this one and test it to see if it works for you.
SUPREME TIP: If you equip items that provide as bonus to all pets a type of damage, this pet now will attack the enemies in front of it and may help a bit at killing them! There is no animation of the attack though. This happens because of the inner workings of Provoke skill of the pet. (this mechanic works at least in 2.10 Public beta of the game).
DETONATE
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This addon is more interesting than the base skill. When enemies destroy the Lure, with this one active, the Lure explodes dealing the types of damage we see here. For the explosion to happen though, the energy bar of the Lure has to be full, if for some reason its bar is not full, then this skill doesn't go off.
One way this Lure could lose energy would be some enemies using Energy leech effects on it of the Lure itself using Provoke which costs some energy and if it gets destroyed after it used its skill then the Detonate will not work. This skill can be really fun if you can build a nice character to support it but that would probably require more specific gear so for beginners it wouldn't be the best option. Pet gear providing more damage to pets would also buff up this skill but only the percentages to types of damage would work, not the flat numbers that Bonus to all pets provide. A single skill point spent on it, as you level up new characters, just for the fun of it, wouldn't hurt (but i wouldn't spend even 1 when leveling up).
Of course let's not forget that when you reduce resistances of enemies to the types of damage of this skill, then this deals even more damage than the numbers it shows. At Level 12/12 the numbers are 114-158 Physical Damage and 228-316 Fire damage and at level 16/12 the numbers go up to 142-194 and 284-388 Fire. The duration of Stun effect, the meter radius of effect and number of projectiles are fixed, they don't change by level.
Release the Kraken.
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