Wartales Basic Classes Guide: Creating the Best Warband Composition

To survive the harsh lands in Wartales, you’re going to have to make many tough decisions, and much of that starts with classes. Do you repair your gear in the field or wait to do it cheaper in town? Do you use medicine or tough it out until you can make it to an apothecary? Do you need a dedicated Miner in the group, or should you have someone that is a one-use novice?

One thing you shouldn’t overlook is the combat composition of your Warband. While certain Wartales classes have their uses, I wouldn’t want a party full of Spearmen, nor would I want one of Brutes. There must be a balance to your class composition, and in this guide, we’re going to talk about that so that you can have a leg up in the rather challenging early game of Wartales.

Wartales Classes Explained

The base character classes in Wartales are as follows:

• Archer
• Brute
• Ranger
• Spearman
• Swordsman
• Warrior

Archer

Archers are your ranged units and work great to inflict damage from a distance, weakening enemies in the early rounds of combat before they close the distance with your more frontline troops.

Archers are a great supplement for moving classes, working well with Spearman who can push away enemies. Utilizing Archer’s ability to use an attack of opportunity whenever someone in their cone moves, this combo can wear down targets before they even get a chance to attack.

It’s worth noting that firing into the fray with a party member in the line of fire can lead to friendly fire, so it’s advisable to position your archer and front-line troops with this in mind.

Brute

The brute is essentially a bruiser-type combatant. This class does best in the thick of the fighting, generally wielding two-handed weapons with sweeping area attacks. Brutes are better suited to heavy armor and fighting smack dab in the center of the fray to maximize their abilities with their crushing warhammer or battleaxe blows.

Because of their arcing attack range, you’ll want to position brute classes carefully in combat so as to not strike your other troops grouped too close to enemy combatants.

Because of their arcing attack range, you’ll want to position brute classes carefully in combat so as to not strike your other troops grouped too close to enemy combatants.

Ranger

Rangers are your quick-hitting class, flexible with good damage output. They are best suited for hit-and-run tactics like engaging other enemies from behind that are already in combat. They work best played as an assassin wielding a dagger and throwing knives, in my experience, and would fall into a support role like the archer.

Rangers can be equipped with Poison dealing daggers, as well as those that have them attack in a circle. Like the Brute, keep an eye on positioning so you don’t inflict friendly fire. 

Focusing on critical hit chance with ranger classes, coupled with a dagger for poison damage on enemies once their armor has been broken by another party member, is an option.

Spearman

Every party should have a spearman in it, hands down. This class doesn’t have the greatest of armor, making them a bit of the squishy side, but they make up for that with high damage and useful abilities, like being able to strike enemies out of engagement with your other forces. This can be used tactically to disengage enemies from your troops to heal them or allow them to heal others without invoking an opportunity attack.

This Wartales class also synergizes well with your archers and can be used to cause some movement choke points with their wide striking range.

Swordsman

Swordsmen are good all-around fighters with useful abilities. They can go the heavy armor route and soak up a lot of damage while also dishing out their fair share with either a sword and shield or two-handed swords.

These classes also work best with the first aid ability allowing them to support their comrades and clear debuffs from battle as they generally have a large movement range matched only by Rangers.

Warrior

Warriors are like a fusion of the brute and the swordsman classes. They have a high damage output and are better suited to an offensive role on the battlefield but can play the part of a “tank” if needed. Warriors are axe wielders, either one or two-handed, and can specialize in area-of-effect damage or more “dualist” fighting.

Pugilist

The Pugilist class is a recent addition to the game with the launch of the Pirates of Belerion DLC. Available for the base game, it’s an offensive class that can get things done and is one of our new favorites. They’re two handed weapon users, though they don’t wield large hammers or spears, but two blades instead.

Their attacks scale off Dexterity and they feature a dual stance fighting mechanic. Depending on the stance, their techniques do extra effects ranging from additional hits, healing themselves, adding stacks of Poison, or earning extra Valor. Their Bravery move, Thrashing, can decimate an enemy with it hitting up to 15 times in Attack Stance. This is a class every team should have at least two of, one the Bruiser specialization and one for Slayer.

Best Team Composition

We personally like to run the following team builds when playing Wartales.

• ¼ team Archers & Pugilists
• ¼ team Brutes
• ¼ team Swordsman & Warrior
• ¼ team Ranger, Spearman & Beasts

We find this composition allows me range, high damage, as well as tanks. Archers can deal damage from the edges, stop anyone from fleeing and heal someone safely, if necessary. Brutes, Swordsman, and Warriors make up the melee ranks. Made to tank hits with medium and heavy armor and high health, they don’t have the largest movement pool but can dish out death.

Everything gets rounded out with the Ranger, Spearman, and Beasts, who take out the fringe combatants or have high mobility to move around the battlefield.

Now you’re armed with the knowledge of the base classes in Wartales and can mix and match until you find your perfect party composition that fits your playstyle. If you’re looking for more Wartales content, check out some of our other Wartales guides on GameSkinny!