Best Enshrouded builds: For Wizard, melee Barbarian, Warrior tank, and Ranger for Melodies of the Mire update

Making strong builds for your character is one of the best parts of any action RPG, and it's particularly fun in Enshrouded. Keen Games' new survival-style ARPG has an incredibly diverse array of skills for players to choose from, with dozens of talents spread out across 12 branching skill trees. 

When chosen wisely and paired with the right gear, these skills allow you to conquer Embervale as a heavily armored tank, a powerful elemental mage, an agile and precise archer, and more. The game also allows — and encourages — you to blend playstyles like these together, enabling the development of powerful and creative hybrid setups.

I've been experimenting with Enshrouded's many skill and equipment options since it launched in late January, and have put together four distinct builds that feature both unique playstyles and more than enough power and utility to crush endgame content. Without further ado, here's an in-depth overview of the best Enshrouded builds, as well as the skills, weapons, armors, and other types of gear you'll need to make them work.

Note: This guide assumes you've obtained all 114 available skill points by reaching Level 25 and clearing every Shroud Root and Elixir Well on the map.

Enshrouded: Best Wizard build

• Primary stats: Intelligence, Spirit, Constitution
• Main skill trees: Wizard, Trickster, Healer
• Fighting style: Staff spellcasting, wands with ward

While every Enshrouded build in this guide is fantastic, you'll want to pick this one if you're looking to achieve the highest overall damage output that's possible in the game right now. Even though the build is rather squishy — the best armor for optimized mage setups offers lower physical resistances, after all — you'll be dishing out a ridiculous amount of damage with it thanks to your high Intelligence, and tons of Spirit means you'll almost never run out of mana while casting spells with your staff, too. When you are low on mana (or spell charges, if you don't have eternal spells yet), you can swap over to a wand.

To get the most out of this setup, you'll need to do your best to take high ground (Double Jump helps with this) and stay decently far away from enemies so you can take advantage of the range that your spells and wand attacks have. If being attacked up close is unavoidable, though, you can teleport away with Blink dodges, or rely on using a shield or a ward in your offhand to block while you have a wand out. The latter — despite having lower block power than shields — also offer resistances to elemental attacks when deployed, making them effective against incoming magic damage.

With the Begone! skill, you'll also have the option of punching mobs while you're not holding anything to knock them back and stun them. Though each of these strikes requires a sizable chunk of mana, they're invaluable in situations where you're close to death and need to get away to heal yourself with Water Aura, healing spells, or consumables like Bandages and health potions. The Terror skill lets you stun enemies when you deal critical damage to them with a spell, as well.

Best Wizard skills

To set up this build properly, you'll need to take the following skills from each of the skill trees listed. In addition to enabling absurd amounts of fire and shock DPS (and melting everything with Acid Bite, until it's inevitably nerfed) with your spells and wands, they substantially improve your damage resistances, provide reliable passive health regeneration, and bolster your mobility both in and out of combat.

Quick Charge is worth taking in any build that incorporates casting spells with a staff, but it's a must-have skill in this one. You'll be spamming spells constantly, and without Quick Charge, they take a painfully long amount of time to cast.

Best Wizard armor, staff, and wands

The following armors, staves, wands, rings, and other types of gear are the best ones to use with this build. Though it functions just fine with more common pieces of equipment, using these items will elevate your power and survivability considerably.

• Elder Set: The best wizard armor in Enshrouded. Offers large buffs to magic crit damage and chance, max mana, and mana regeneration. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Archmage Set: Use this until you get the Elder Set. Has the same bonuses as the Elder Set, but slightly worse resistances. Crafted at the Alchemist.
• Shroud Weaver: Even though it doesn't drop above Level 25 anymore, it's still arguably the best staff in the game, especially when casting fire magic since it buffs it. Found in the Kindlewastes (location here).
  • Best spells: Eternal Acid Bite, Eternal Fireball, Lightning Channel, Shroud Meteor, Eternal Chain Heal, Eternal Light Burst
• Luminous/Ritual Tempest/Frozen Core Wand: The best fire, shock, and ice wands, respectively. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Ethereal Plane: The best ward, mainly because it offers resistance to Shroud damage (something you'll be attacked with alot). Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Shield of Light: Use this shield if you'd prefer stronger blocking against physical attacks at the expense of the magic resist you'd get from a ward. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Commander's Ring: Excellent ring that gives you 30 extra health and mana. Drops from the Fell Wispwyvern boss in Pikemead's Reach.
• Ring of Rapacity: Reduces mana by 20%, but also buffs mana regen by 20%. A must-have for spell-spamming — so good that the developers removed the ability to use two at once in a recent patch. Found on a hidden corpse in Willow Crush in Revelwood (watch this video).

If you're struggling with survivability, you could always swap out a few Elder or Archmage armor pieces for some from tankier sets, such as those that the Blacksmith can craft in the late game. You'll miss out on magic and mana buffs, but the extra physical resistance might just save your life.

Enshrouded: Best melee build

• Primary stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity
• Main skill trees: Barbarian, Warrior, Tank
• Fighting style: Two-handed axe/hammer, one-handed sword/axe, bow

The top Enshrouded builds tend to weave magic and melee together, but this one is notable for its complete lack of any wizardry whatsoever. It can be a bit tougher to play as a result, but the huge bursts of area-of-effect damage you can deal with it are unparalleled, and it even allows you to effectively use a bow to snipe at airborne enemies you wouldn't be able to hit otherwise.

At the core of this build is the Jump Attack, an explosive slam move that'll dish out big chunks of damage to foes near the impact zone and likely Overpower them, if they happen to be guarding. Performed with two-handed axes or hammers and a full Blood Rage Barbarian setup, this attack will hit like an absolute truck — and if you manage to bust through a block with it, you'll proc the Shockwave skill that disorients other nearby enemies and builds up their own stagger meter.

Unfortunately, Jump Attack's animation leaves you exposed for a few seconds, but with investment into the Tank tree, plenty of Constitution, and heavy armor, you'll be able to survive counterattacks, then heal up with Bandages and health potions. You'll have a sword and shield to fall back on for extra defense when you need it, too. 

Best Barbarian melee skills

These are the talents you should use for this setup. While you could skip the bow-related ones to pump up your Strength even more, I strongly recommend not doing so, as you'll want to be able to effectively shoot down flyers that are almost impossible to hit with melee attacks.

You may want to respec into Brute and Hammer Time instead of Slasher and Butcher if you find a few blunt weapons you like. However, most of the top two-handed weapons are axes, and there are even several large maces that deal slashing damage partially.

Best melee weapons and armor for Barbarian

Make sure you seek out these weapons, armors, and rings if you're planning to use this Barbarian melee build. Getting good armor is particularly critical, as you'll be "face-tanking" a lot of damage when using Jump Attack.

• Radiant Paladin Set: Offers the best physical protection in the game, along with strong bonuses to health, health regen, and melee critical strike chance. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Soldier Set: Use this until you find the Radiant Paladin armor, as it has mostly the same bonuses with slightly worse stats. Interestingly, you may want to use the Soldier helmet instead of the Radiant Paladin one, as it has a 12% crit damage buff. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Deeproot Axe: The best overall two-handed melee weapon. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Ignited Hammer: Use this if you'd prefer a purely blunt damage setup. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Wolf's Snarl Longbow: The best longbow for sniping, which is what you'll need to do against flyers. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• White Wolf Sword: Some of the best one-handed damage in the game, and when enhanced, it also deals 20% of incoming damage to the attacker. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Shield of Light: The best Enshrouded shield for physical defense. Use with the White Wolf Sword when you need to recover health and play more defensively. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Ring of Endless Life: This ring has a 3% chance to return all the damage you inflict with an attack as health. Found in chests throughout the game.
• Ring of Health: More health and health regeneration are always good, and this ring gives both. Found in chests throughout the game.

Note that a good alternative to the Soldier set is the Warden one, which offers the same damage resistances but comes with more defense-oriented bonuses like armor point and parry power increases instead of stamina or melee attack buffs. If you want better protection and don't mind sacrificing a little damage, it's worth using until you get the Radiant Paladin set.

Enshrouded: Best Warrior tank build

• Primary stats: Constitution, Intelligence, Strength
• Main skill trees: Warrior, Tank, Healer
• Fighting style: One-handed sword/axe/wand with shield, staff spellcasting

Supportive tank or paladin-style characters have historically been one of the most popular character archetypes in RPGs, and this incredible Warrior setup lets you live that power fantasy in Enshrouded. With proficiency in heavily armored melee fighting, drawing enemy aggro, team-wide healing and damage mitigation, and defensive spellcasting, it's unquestionably one of the strongest builds in the game, and the best one you can take into co-op play.

Though the damage you're able to deal with this setup isn't as impressive as what's possible with the previous two builds, you'll more than make up for that with impenetrable defenses and invaluable supportive abilities. Between a shield for blocking and parrying, auras around you that constantly heal, reduce incoming damage, and burn hostile mobs, the ability to spawn health, mana, and stamina-regenerating orbs when you land magic weapon crits, and spells like Chain Heal and Light Burst that heal allies and disorient foes, you'll bring a massive amount of utility to any group you play with.

The only real weakness of this build is its mobility, as you can't take skills like Double Jump or Runner without sacrificing some of your defensive capabilities. That's hardly a significant problem, though, as movement talents like those are merely convenient, rather than critically important.

Best Warrior tank skills

To maximize the effectiveness of this tank build, you'll need to choose these skills as you level up. The most important of the lot are the ones in the Warrior, Tank, and Healer tree, as well as in the branch between Tank and Battlemage.

The Bloodletting skill is particularly valuable in tough, drawn-out boss fights, as landing repeated crits with your magic weapon (more on that below) will proc it frequently and create orbs that sustain the health, mana, and stamina of both you and your allies. Life Burst, meanwhile, heals nearby allies whenever you get a kill, which will help your party cut through hordes of individually weak hostiles.

Best tank weapons, armor, and gear

Using the right type of gear is important for every build, but in this case, it's essential. You'll need a one-handed magic weapon that deals fire damage for everything to synergize properly, so farming late game chests for one should be your top priority.

• Radiant Paladin Set: This is, without a doubt, the best armor for tanking. It provides unrivaled physical protection as well as lots of buffs to health and health regen. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Warden Set: Make and use this until you're able to find a full set of Radiant Paladin armor. Notably, the helmet gives you extra parry power, so it's worth considering over the Radiant Paladin helm if you often go for parries. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Nova: This build focuses on fire damage and magic weapons specifically, and this sword checks both boxes. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Lightforged Axe: An alternative one-handed magic weapon to Nova that also deals fire damage. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes. 
• Shield of Light: We're tanking, so a good shield for blocking is a must. This is the best. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Shroud Weaver: While it's the best staff for any magic build, it's a must-use in this one since it improves the offensive fire magic you'll be casting. Found in the Kindlewastes (location here).
  • Best spells: Eternal Acid Bite, Eternal Fireball, Eternal Chain Heal, Eternal Light Burst
• Luminous Wand: Use this to deal fire damage from range whenever your mana is low and you can't cast spells. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Commander's Ring: Gives you 30 extra health and mana, both of which are very handy to have more of as a paladin-style tank. Drops from the Fell Wispwyvern boss in Pikemead's Reach.
• Ring of Rapacity: Use to sacrifice 20% of your mana for 20% faster mana regen, which is a fantastic trade-off. Found on a hidden corpse in Willow Crush in Revelwood (location shown here).

If things ever start to look dicey while you're holding the front line, I recommend casting the Light Burst spell. It will blow enemies back a bit and stun them, giving you some time to get blocking stamina back and regenerate health.

Enshrouded: Best Ranger build

• Primary stats: Dexterity, Strength, Intelligence, Constitution
• Main skill trees: Ranger, Warrior, Healer
• Fighting style: Bow, one-handed sword/axe/wand with ward, staff spellcasting

It's pretty difficult to make a pure archery build work well in Enshrouded, but that doesn't mean bow-focused setups aren't viable. In fact, this one is one of the most powerful in the whole game, and it's also exceptionally versatile since it works archery, melee combat, and the use of wands and spells into one ultra-flexible build.

With investments into a whopping 10 skill trees as well as the branches that connect several of them and 10 points of Dexterity, Strength, Intelligence, and Constitution, this build is perfect for those that prefer a jack of all trades style. Most of the time you'll be using longbows and shortbows for sniping and medium-range combat respectively, but you also have the stats and skills needed to fight up close with sword and shield or dish out burst damage with staff spells. Your massive stamina pool makes it easy to quickly get into the best positions for each of these approaches, as do evasion and mobility talents like Runner, Double Jump, Updraft (amazing with the Ghost Glider), and Blink.

Of course, your melee strikes and magic casts won't hit as hard as they would in more specialized builds, but your ability to quickly adapt to any situation compensates for that weakness — especially in solo play. The most significant drawback of this setup is that it's very resource-intensive, as arrows are fairly expensive to make and you'll go through lots of them quickly.

Best Ranger skills

The small Ranger skill tree significantly buffs your bow damage for a fairly low point cost, which is why there's room to invest into so many other trees with this build. Choose the following talents with those points to create the ultimate generalist character.

Intelligence points are particularly important if you want to deal effective damage with your spellcasting, as we're not taking any of the damage-buffing skills in the Wizard tree. Alternatively, you can use the points I put into Trickster and Battlemage into something like the Tank or Athlete tree if you don't care about magic.

Eagle Eye or Opportunity will depend on whether you focus on melee or ranged damage in the build!

Best Ranger bows, weapons, and armor

For ranger builds like this one, you'll want to track down armor that offers solid protection and bonuses to ranged damage and stamina, as well as top-notch bows, one-handed melee weapons, a good shield or ward, and other types of gear. The following is what I recommend specifically:

• Eagle Eye Set: Gives you the best balance of physical and magic resistance in the game, as well as major bonuses to stamina, stamina regen, ranged damage, and ranged crit chance. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Deerstalker Set: This endgame set is your best option until you can get Eagle Eye armors. Offers the same bonuses, but with some lower stats. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Oath Breaker: As part of the Mire update, double-daggers were added as a weapon set. Oath Breaker is the best base damage set in the game and pairs perfectly for the ranger class. Giving them a much needed boost in melee damage.
• Falk Fall Daggers: These chicos malos give up a little bit of base damage in favor of increasing Merciless damage by 40%. A good trade off for players with a party, giving you opportunities to use your Merciless attack more often.
• Wolf's Snarl Longbow: The best longbow for sniping from afar in terms of raw damage (Eagle Eye will help you land headshots). Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Ornate Wood Bow: A situational alternative to the Wolf's Snarl Longbow that deals more damage if you're able to hit an enemy in the back with your arrows. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Shadowbane: The best shortbow for mid-range fighting. Has a faster draw speed than longbows, making it ideal for mobile fighting. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Sword of Radiance: Unique for its five straight enhancements to crit chance. Constantly procs Battle Heal, which works in tandem with Water Aura to regen your health effectively in melee fights. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Ethereal Plane: Use this if you don't mind sacrificing some physical block power to gain resistance against Shroud damage. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Shield of Light: The best shield for guarding against physical damage. Crafted at the Blacksmith.
• Shroud Weaver: The top staff for magic damage, especially if you cast fire magic with it. Found in the Kindlewastes (in a chest here).
• Best spells: Eternal Acid Bite, Eternal Fireball, Lightning Channel, Eternal Chain Heal, Eternal Light Burst
• Luminous/Ritual Tempest/Frozen Core Wand: These are the strongest wands for each type of elemental damage. Best farmed from Gold Chests and bosses in the Kindlewastes.
• Ring of Endless Life: Occasionally, this will return all the damage one of your attacks does to you as health. Found in chests throughout the game.
  • Alternative — Commander's Ring: An extra 30 health and mana never hurt, especially in a build like this where mana is a bit lacking. Drops from the Fell Wispwyvern boss in Pikemead's Reach.
• Ring of Rapacity: 20% more mana regen for 20% less mana is a tradeoff that's too good to pass up. Found on a hidden corpse in Willow Crush in Revelwood (found here).

To switch between different bow types without opening your inventory, equip one as your ranged weapon on your character sheet and put the others on your hotbar. You'll then be able to hold Q to prepare to fire the one you equipped, or press a hotkey to pull out other ones.

Enshrouded is available now on PC through Steam Early Access for $30. It's rapidly become one of the best PC games to play right now, especially if you're a fan of fantasy worlds, survival gameplay, and action RPG combat.

Enshrouded (Early Access) — $29.99 at Steam (PC)

This dark fantasy ARPG from Keen Games creatively blends Soulslike combat with open world exploration and survival game mechanics, and has quickly become one of 2024's most popular new games.

Also at: CDKeys