Class Guide: Witch Hunter Mastery Paths

There are three mastery paths available to the Witch Hunter career for the Empire. Players begin to earn points that they can spend on Mastery Paths starting at level 11. Mastery Paths allow the player to not only enhance their core abilities, but also "purchase" additional abilities from the tree. These mastery paths enhance various parts of the class, including his stealth abilities, direct and immediate damage, and also damage over time abilities. In addition they also add various tactics, morale abilities, and actions. The player should choose their path based upon their own preferences, playstyle, and also on what activities they most commonly engage in while playing, be it solo questing, group PvE, or RvR. We will discuss the benefits and purposes of each available path, and the activity they are most suited to.

The Empire's Witch Hunter mastery Path of Confession is focused around the executioners direct damage abilities - fast, single-target attacks that deal their full damage payload in one destructive hit. This path is suited for all different activities, be they PvE or RvR, because it does not require specific situations to be useful. Being able to unload into a single target has its advantages in RvR as well as PvE. In fact, it is preferred for solo PvE simply because the Witch Hunter does not have significant armor enough to sustain a continuous barrage of attacks while DoT abilities tick.

The Witch Hunter mastery Path of Inquisition is focused around abilities and attacks that slowly damage and weaken the enemy. While, at first, these attacks may seem weaker, they deal their damage payload over time, hiding their true damage potential in short fights. The overall damage payout, however, tends to be larger, and it grants the Witch Hunter opportunities to compliment his DoT attacks with instants and specials built up by his combo points. This path is better suited for RvR because it allows the Witch Hunter to change targets as needed and still be dealing a significant amount of damage. It is less useful for solo PvE because it allows monsters more time to attack them, and their low armor typically cannot sustain those attacks long.

The Path of Judgement is the one that enhances the Witch Hunter's sneaking, subtlety, and assassination attacks. Witch Hunters following the Path of Judgement avoid face to face confrontation, preferring to take targets by surprise, and tend to prey on the weak. These attacks deal a significant amount of damage quickly, debuff the target, and are designed to devastate the enemy before they have the opportunity to mount a defense. While useable in both PvE and PvP, this path can be a dangerous one because if they Witch Hunter is taken by surprise instead of the other way around, they do not stand a chance.