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Skills

Forty skills are loaded on the server. Thirty-nine can be cast by players; one belongs to monsters. You reach them by slotting skill gems into your gear menu, and you improve them by spending the skill point you get each level.

How skills work

A skill is not something you pick from a menu at level one. It lives on a skill gem, which is an item you find. Slot the gem into one of the gear menu's nine active or seven passive slots and the ability becomes yours on the spot. Pull the gem back out and it is gone again.

Casting
What you wantHow
Open the skill menu/skill
Cast one directly/cast <name>, for example /cast Fireball
Bind to the held item/bind <skill>
Enter cast modePress F. The action bar swaps to your bound skills
Cast a bound skillPress 19 while in cast mode
Leave cast modePress F again

Most skills cost mana and run a cooldown. Out of mana means the cast simply fails, and mana regeneration scales off Intelligence and the Mana Regen attribute. Skill points raise a skill's level; most cap at 20, while Energy Bolt and Icy Grasp scale all the way to 100. Passives are always level 1. They do not scale, they just apply.

Common skills

Foundational abilities that suit any build. Low cooldowns, moderate damage.

12 common skills
SkillTypeManaCooldownMaxWhat it does
Angel KissEnergy66s20Blows a homing kiss that damages on contact
BlessBuff540s20Raises health, mana and resistances
BombFire55s20Throws a small bomb for area damage
DartProjectile53s20Shoots a single dart forward
DashMovement54s20A short dash forward
Energy BoltEnergy53.5s100Shoots a small energy bolt. Scales to level 100
EruptionFire55s20Spawns a fire eruption at the target
GattlingProjectile22.25s20Rapid-fire small projectiles
Icy GraspProjectile55s100Holds a target in place with ice. Scales to level 100
RageBuff040s20Self-buff, free to cast
SmiteLightning57s20A homing lightning projectile
StrikeMelee55s20A short-range slash

Uncommon skills

Bigger effects, generally paid for with more mana or a longer cooldown.

8 uncommon skills
SkillTypeManaCooldownMaxWhat it does
Blade FurryMelee55s20Swings at every enemy around you
CorruptionChaotic73s20A wave of corruption that blinds, then explodes on a second cast
FireballDynamic54s20A projectile fireball
Flash FlameIce32s30A wave of fire
Frost BombIce75s20Places a pulsating ice bomb
Holy StrikeEnergy33s5A holy melee strike
Ice ShardIce54s20Shoots a shard of ice forward
SnowfallDynamic1010s5Area-of-effect snowfall

Passive skills

Always on, and always level 1. Slot the gem into a passive slot and it applies. There is nothing to cast and nothing to invest.

7 passive skills
SkillWhat it does
AOE BoostWidens the radius of your area skills
Damage BoostRaises your damage output
Health AmpRaises your maximum health
Mana AmpRaises your maximum mana
Movespeed BoostRaises your movement speed
RabbitMovement and jump bonus
Skill VampirismHeals you when your skills damage an enemy. 5s internal cooldown
One more skill exists that you cannot use. Thrust is triggered by an item rather than cast, and a further ten skills are development tools bound only to the staff testing class. They are counted in the total of forty because the server loads them, not because you will meet them.

What scales your damage

A skill's type decides which attributes make it hit harder. This is the single most useful table on this page when you are deciding where to put points.

Skill type to attribute mapping
Skill typeBoosted by
MeleeMelee Damage attributes, and Strength
ProjectileProjectile Damage attributes, and Dexterity
FireFire Damage attributes, and Vitality
IceIce Damage attributes, and Agility
LightningLightning Damage attributes, and Wisdom
EnergyEnergy Damage attributes
ChaoticChaotic Damage attributes
DynamicDepends on the individual skill's damage components
Buff / MovementDeals no damage, so damage attributes do nothing for it

Note the pairings that catch people out: Fire scales off Vitality and Ice scales off Agility, not off Intelligence. If you are building a fire caster, Vitality is a damage stat.

Next: how to spend the attribute points that make these numbers move, or where skill gems come from.