Din’s Curse class system is one of the best things about the game yet it may well be one of the least appreciated elements. Despite Soldak touting the 141 possible classes as one of this action RPG’s key selling points, most players will likely stick to one of the six main character classes until they hit the level cap, a process which could take dozens of hours, then shelve the game because they think they’ve experienced everything the game has to offer.
That would be a shame because those who spend time with the character class system and put some thought into creation and development will be rewarded by a flexible system that lets them create a character that best fits their personal playing style. It’s capable of producing something slightly unusual like a wizard brandishing a sword, a more flamboyant mutation like a swordsman who teleports in or out of trouble and even something conceptually absurd yet tactically sensible like a stealthy warrior tip-toeing around in full plate armour.
Pure class
Anyone who’s put in hours into the 3Ds — Dungeons & Dragons and Diablo — will immediately recognise both the classes and the skills in Din’s Curse but, like the rest of the game, both have interesting nuances.
There are six main classes in Din’s Curse: Warrior, Rogue, Priest, Wizard, Ranger and Conjurer. The Warrior is a melee class, capable of dishing out plenty of hurt and soaking up damage with shield and heavy armour. The Rogue can move about unnoticed until it’s time to unleash a devastating attack. The Priest has fortifying buffs and healing spells. The Wizard relies on elemental magic to burn, freeze and zap foes over a large area. The Ranger can set traps and pick off foes from a distance with bows. The Conjurer summons demonic allies and raises dead foes as minions.
(The Demon War expansion, currently in beta, introduces a seventh class, the Demon Hunter, which is capable of dealing damage with sword and spells to multiple opponents at close range.)
Each main class has a total of 30 character skills divided into three specialities e.g. the Warrior’s three specialities are Weaponmaster, Gladiator and Defender and each have 10 skills.
These skills aren’t necessarily unique to particular specialities — the Shield Bash skill is common to both the Warrior’s Defender and the Priest’s Paladin specialities – but, for the most part, each speciality has its own distinct flavour. For instance, the Conjurer class has two pet class specialities which differ in how they go about things: the Necromancer’s Raise Dead spell requires a body before it can be used whereas the Warlock summons demonic allies out of thin air.
Specialities aren’t really a factor when playing a main class since the 30 skills are essentially pooled together and skill points can be freely spent on any one of them regardless of which speciality they are in. The specialities’ primary purpose is to facilitate one of the neatest aspects of the Din’s Curse class system.
2 become 1
The thing that makes Din’s Curse character development system stand out from the systems in other action RPGs is the ability to mix specialities from two different classes to create a Hybrid class.
(It is actually possible to create a Hybrid class by taking two specialities from the same class but anyone who does something that spectacularly stupid should stop playing Din’s Curse and immediately run for political office instead.)
As the six main classes have a total of 18 specialities, there are 135 possible Hybrid class combinations. (The Demon War expansion bumps this number up to 189.)
The advantage of going the Hybrid route is a carefully selected combination of specialities can potentially exploit the strengths of two classes while simultaneously mitigating their weaknesses.
The obvious disadvantage of Hybrid classes is their skill pool draws from only two specialities compared to the three for each main class (i.e. Hybrid classes may only choose from 20 skills compared to the 30 for each main class). This actually isn’t as big a drawback as it may initially seem since characters only need a handful of skills to be viable and indeed, the game’s design discourages focusing on too many skills.
The great danger with Hybrid classes is it’s entirely possible to choose a terrible Hybrid class combination (something that cannot be undone after character creation) and compound that error with poor skill development choices that make progress very difficult at higher levels.
Efficacious D
The main thing to keep in mind when picking specialities for a Hybrid class is every character must possess, at the very least, an offensive mainstay (this will usually be something so spammable it’s mapped to the right mouse button) and some form of defence for when things inevitably go awry.
While it’s tempting to be safe and unadventurous by choosing the Priest’s Healer as a secondary speciality for its powerful Greater Heal spell, character builds that rely on escape and evasion can be just as effective if not more so. Prevention is better than cure in a game with significant cooldowns for healing items and skills.
Some of the better defensive skills in Din’s Curse include Teleport, Stealth, Smoke Screen and Caltrops. These stand out primarily for their value as they confer benefits even with minimal investment.
Other defensive skills may sound great but will be costly to maintain. Take Blinding Flash, for instance. With a single skill point invested, Blinding Flash will daze level 1 foes for 6.2 seconds — more than enough time to make a getaway or wait out the health potion cooldown period — but level 15 foes will only be blinded for a paltry 0.9 seconds. To maintain Blinding Flash’s effectiveness at higher levels, players must regularly pump skill points into it.
As skill points are doled out in meagre amounts at every level-up, it’s very difficult to sustain a character build with too many skills with costly upkeeps.
The best defence
Similarly, it’s vital to take value and scalability into consideration when choosing a primary offensive skill.
Cost considerations must now include the cost of using a skill in addition to the cost of purchasing and improving the skill because offensive skills are used with much greater frequency compared to defensive skills. In this respect, some skills are much better than others. Compare Arcane Blast and Freezing Trap, for example. The former costs 8 mana to use at skill level 1 and 18 mana at skill level 6 while the latter has a flat cost of 8 mana regardless of skill level.
Another factor to consider is tactical utility. Ranged skills like Shuriken will allow melee-focused characters to pull specific enemies from large mobs and distract rampaging foes from vulnerable townsfolk. Damage-over-time (DOT) skills like Fiery Blast, Gut and Poison Arrow lend themselves well to hit-and-run tactics and as a bonus, can counter the Regeneration ability of some foes.
The best offensive skills are both multipurpose and provide a lot of bang for the buck. The Ice Mage’s outstanding Ice Storm spell works both as a powerful ranged AOE spell and a fantastic AOE snaring skill. The latter is particularly important because characters can’t outrun foes indefinitely.
You got your Conjurer in my Rogue
With all that in mind, it’s time to look at a viable Hybrid class build for Hardcore mode. We’re going with a Necromancer/Trickster hybrid revolving around the Necromancer’s Raise Dead spell. The idea here is to sneak around ghost-like then use mystical jujitsu to turn enemies into allies. Cackling and rubbing your hands gleefully as you do this is recommended but entirely optional.
Bolt of Gloom – This fire damage spell also makes the enemy easier to hit for a short period.
This will be the character’s primary offensive spell and it’s remarkably versatile. It’s cheap, has DOT thanks to its fire damage and softens up foes by reducing their offence and defence. This will be the build’s main skill point sink as it will be necessary to improve it at every few level-ups.
Raise Dead – Raises a dead monster to be your slave. Max count increases every 4 skill levels.
At skill level 5, Raise Dead allows the character to resurrect two dead foes as allies and this will be sufficient. The best thing about this skill is that it gets better as you get deeper into the dungeon because tougher foes mean tougher pets.
The key here is to pick the right foes to raise. (Be warned that some foes — ghosts, liches, orcs and bosses among them — cannot be raised.) Concentrate on getting fast-moving, fast attacking creatures like Dark Elves as minions. Champion- and Elite-rated creatures are preferable since they have at least twice and thrice the health of their normal brethren respectively and sometimes come with bonus abilities like Life Steal and Regeneration that help keep them alive.
Stealth – Left click will not attack when stealthed, and you must remain unseen to stay stealthed. Bonuses last 5 seconds after noticed.
Although Stealth provides increased damage bonuses at higher skill levels, this build will keep it at skill level 1 as it’s being used for its defensive qualities. You can’t hurt what you can’t see.
The caveat is characters in stealth mode aren’t completely invisible. Tarry too close for too long to a creature and it will eventually notice you. Also note that Stealth can only be activated when the character is unnoticed. If you’re being chased, turn a corner then activate Stealth.
Smoke Screen – Creates a smoke screen that confuses your enemies.
Like Stealth, Smoke Screen is immensely useful even at a single skill level. This is an AOE stun that immobilises foes in the immediate vicinity — a life-saver in dire emergencies.
Tactically, the player should activate Stealth in town, head down to the dungeon, sneak around and focus on getting one minion up as soon as possible. The right minions can prove to be devastating offensively but at the start, Bolt of Gloom will do most of the damage and minions will function primarily as lures and walking shields. The player should maintain stealth mode as long as possible, letting the minions draw the attention of foes and uncloaking only when it’s time to strike decisively. Replace minions with superior ones as needed.
In terms of gear, items that boost the mana regeneration rate are recommended as they can double or treble the character’s normal rate of regeneration. This isn’t a mana-hungry build — the Necromancer’s Soul Harvest passive skill provides mana for every kill while the Trickster’s Energetic passive skill increases mana regen during combat — but increasing the mana regen rate will allow players to constantly drive forward without taking frequent time-outs to recover.
The bottom line
It must be stressed there’s no win-button Hybrid class combination in Din’s Curse capable of breaking the game balance or surviving Hardcore mode forever. Players may point to specific skills that seem overpowered in normal mode (e.g. Bone Shatter) but it’s easy to balance that with increased difficulty and self-imposed handicaps. In Hardcore mode, survival is primarily about canny decision-making and no matter how creative and cunning the build, characters will eventually succumb to permadeath.
The main appeal of the Hybrid class system is it gives players the freedom to experience the action in the manner they prefer whether it’s something calculated and efficient or something amusingly eccentric. There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had from playing around with skills and rejiggering builds so players should be a little adventurous instead of simply sticking to the stereotypical main classes when playing this unusual action RPG.
