Philosopher

Introduction

This page contains the Philosopher Class Guide. You may return to Classes when you are finished reading this page.

Philosopher Class Guide

Equipped with the power of intellect, you crush your opponents mentally leaving them in agony. Your enlightened mind can even grant healing powers.

Philosopher is a magical type class that works similarly to Asssassin. As a magic type class, Philosophers make poor use of melee which has no cost. Some of their abilities combine regular abilities with over time effects. They specialize in offensive aoe attacks with Supernova and Planetary Pain in their arsenals. Philosophers have the most talent abilities that require talent points to unlock and a unique talent tree as a whole. If you prefer to play a caster cast that works similarly to Assassin and do not wish to play physical type classes, then Philosopher is a solid class.

Stat Breakdown

Strength- Buffs Melee :3
Stamina- Increases Health
Agility- Increases Dodge.
Spirit- Increases Dodge (absorb), Magic Crit and Health and Mana regen outside combat. Mana regen is half as effective in combat
Intellect- Increases Magic Damage and Mana

Stat Build

Your gear scales best with Intellect and Spirit
Strength only buffs melee and agility is not worth building.
Stamina scales poorly but is needed. You need just enough to survive a few hits so you have time to heal yourself.

Training (activities > training)

• (2 or 3):1 split between Intellect and Spirit is a good ratio
  • Spirit is a power attribute as you can increase both your crit and regenerate.
    • You only have one healing spell, but it has both regular healing and heal over time
  • Intellect has greater priority as damage is what takes down enemies.
    • More mana (from intellect) also means better scaling with mana recovery items.
    • You also can eventually unlock an ability to circumvent any mana problems
• Train enough Stamina to survive a few hits.
  • Early on the gap between health and mana is barely noticeable
  • Near the endgame you should have at least 6 times more mana than health
• Eventually the training gap between Intellect and Spirit may increase
  • Your healing will eventually catch up to your current health
  • Magic crit, like Physical crit, will become increasingly difficult to raise.
  • Your mana recovery items will eventually outscale regen as well.
    • Again, you also can eventually unlock an ability to circumvent any mana problems

Abilities

Melee- Deals minor damage

This ability deals little damage but has a 1 second cooldown and costs no mana. Since priests do not scale with strength, this ability will be useless fairly quickly. It's not worth investing strength to use.
Unlocked at Start and Rank increases every 15 levels

Cosmic Blast- Charges an attack that deals moderate damage

It's your primary ability and has a 2-second cooldown but requires 2 seconds to charge. That means it'll take a total of 4 seconds between attacks, which is longer compared to Assassin and Titan’s Stab and Bludgeon respectively. This can become a non-issue considering you have Mental Exhaustion and Mental Agony to cast as well. If you press another ability or move before the ability is fully charged it'll end the cast early. This means you'll have to be careful not to press anything else until Cosmic Blast completes casting. Mentioned that Philosopher is similar to Assassin in the sense that both have an Improved talent that increases crit chance.
Unlocked at Start and Rank increases every 20 levels

Mental Agony- Deals damage instantly and again over time

This ability has a 5-second cooldown and isn't an ability you should use on cooldown. To get your mana's worth, Mental Agony's Dot should wear off first. Mental Agony will deal damage 1-2 times (once every 5 seconds) and as with other dots only use it when you can't kill the enemy yet. This Should be a non-issue once you gain a higher mana pool, in which case you could potentially use it every time it's up.
Unlocked at Level 10 and Rank increases every 20 levels

Mental Exhaustion- Deals minor damage over time

This ability deals the same damage as Mental Agony and has a 2-second cooldown. You should definitely not use this ability until the dot wears off. You don't deal damage instantly as Mental Agony does. It deals the same damage as well since deals damage 2-3 times (once every 5 seconds). Time your dots well so you won't waste mana.
Unlocked at level 30 and Rank increases every 20 levels

Cosmic Energy- Charges a spell that recovers health and again over time

The heal is basically Mental Agony or a combination of a Priest's Salvation and Spiritual Rejuvenation. It's your only healing ability and can pose a problem as it also has the combined cost of two different abilities. It's not an ability you can always use as recasting it resets and wastes your dot (heal over time). For example, if you heal for 300 health, you will heal for 300 health again over the next 15 seconds (3 ticks). You can lose up to half your healing if you reset the dot. If you can afford the mana it should be no problem. Again, do not use any other ability or action while it is being cast or it will cancel it out.
Unlocked at Start and Rank increases every 20 levels

Supernova- Deals moderate damage to multiple enemies

A very costly ability with a 5-second cooldown, half that of Titan's Warstomp. Even with a second aoe ability, Philosopher should generally fight one enemy at a time. Even if it only targets 1 enemy it's very mana inefficient. This could work against multiple weaker enemies, taking them out in one hit. For example, farming bear/elk meat. Even if the enemies are a bit spread out you can farm them the fastest out of the other classes.
Unlocked at level 20 and Rank increases every 20 levels

Planetary Pain- Charges an attack that deals damage instantly to multiple enemies and again over time

Supernova, but the aoe version of Mental Agony. Same rule applies. Do not use any other ability or action while it is being cast or it will cancel it out.
Unlocked at level 40 and Rank increases every 20 levels

Balance- Lose health to recover mana

A talent ability that has a very short cooldown of 2 seconds. It's possible to never run out of mana. The health lost can be recovered by casting Cosmic Energy with the mana recovered. The higher the talent, the more percent of mana recovered.

Meditation- Double a target's mana/rage regen

A talent ability that has a long cooldown of 90 seconds. It's not an ability you should cast on Assassin/Titan as they have low spirit values in general. Casting it on yourself temporarily allows you to regenerate mana normally in combat.

Astral Projection- Hide from enemies

A talent ability that works like Assassin but has a very long cooldown of 150 seconds. It can hide you from enemies (as long as you don’t get too close) and can disengage you from combat. The aggro in this game only happens when you move so make sure you can reengage before leaving stealth.

Rotation

1. If you have the Meditation ability unlocked, use it on cooldown.
2. Begin the Attack by casting Cosmic Blast
3. Move in and follow up with Mental Agony and Mental Exhaustion
   • Move away from the enemy until Cosmic Blast can be cast again and repeat
   • Keep using Mental Exhaustion to refresh as long as you can’t defeat the enemy within 10-15 seconds.
   • By extension, keep using Mental agony (maybe wait for dot to wear off first) as long as you can't defeat the enemy within 5-10 seconds
4. Cast Cosmic Energy when you need health
5. If you have the Astral Projection ability unlocked, use it when you're low on health to disengage from a fight
6. Use Food if you are low on health or mana
7. If you have the Balance ability unlocked, use it after a fight to recover mana
   • Use Cosmic Energy to recover the health lost

Tl;dr Unless the enemy is a caster, try to kite your enemies as they usually halt after each attack, repeating Cosmic Blast, Mental Agony, and Mental Exaustion combo. (Forget using melee since it's close range)

Against Tough Enemies

1. If you have the Meditation ability unlocked, use it on cooldown.
2. Alternate between casting Cosmic Blast and Cosmic Energy
   • Make sure to also cast Mental Agony and Mental Exhaustion
   • Keep using Mental Exhaustion to refresh as long as you can’t defeat the enemy within 10-15 seconds.
   • By extension, keep using Mental agony (maybe wait for dot to wear off first) as long as you can't defeat the enemy within 5-10 seconds
3. If you have the Astral Projection ability unlocked, use it when you're low on health to disengage from a fight
4. Use Food if you are low on health or mana
5. If you have the Balance ability unlocked, use it after a fight to recover mana
   • Use Cosmic Energy to recover the health lost

The only difference is that you must always be alternating between dealing damage and recovering health, pre-healing so enemies don't shoot you down right away. Philosophers will use up more mana than priests since Cosmic energy has the combined cost of Salvation and Spiritual Rejuvenation.

Talent Tree Overview

This talent tree is the most unique of the classes since it has a single branch line rather than two separate ones. This makes decision making a lot simpler, both lines being your usual stat and stat training increase talents. At the same time, if you want tier 3 talents you'd have to max out your stat training talents first. I consider the left tree to be the recovery while the right tree is the offensive. Both trees have utility and talent-based abilities.

• It takes 5 points in a tier to gain access to the next tier of talents, but only for one side.
  • For example, if you level up Improved Cosmic Blast to 5 you can begin to level up All Knowingness and Brain Freeze, but not Balance.
• If there is an arrow connecting two talents, you must level up the talent above before you can level up the talent below.
  • Improved Spirit and Improved Intellect must be level 3 before you can learn Spirituality and Pure Vision respectively
• You can reset anytime. but just note the cost to reset (after the first free reset) increases every time you reset.
• You shouldn't worry about the Talent Tree early on as you only start with one point, gaining more every ten levels.
  • There side quests near the second half of the game that rewards you with a total of 5 talent points.
  • I will list all the talents you can learn and the order you should learn them.

Tier 1

In the first tier you have Improved Spirit and Improved Intellect which increases your stat. You need all 3 points in this in order to learn a second-tier talent called Spirituality and Pure Vision respectively. At max level, you can gain up to 10 percent more of a stat through training. Once you max that, you gain access to Tier 3 talents Astral Projection and Meditation. Both are abilities unlocked through the talent tree. While both are equally important, Intellect has a slight advantage as damage is what takes down enemies. By that extension, the Astral Projection talent has a slight advantage over Meditation as well.

Next you have Understanding and Deep Thought which both decrease mana costs, up to 20% for healing spells and 10% for damage-dealing spells respectively. Deep Thought is a superior Talent by far. You only have one healing ability, cosmic energy, compared to 3 single target offensive abilities alone. Even with the increase reduction with Understanding, Deep Thought is the better choice.

You have Improved Cosmic Blast which increases the crit chance of your Cosmic Blast by up to 25%. This is similar to Assassin's improved stab and can be unlocked at Tier 1. While it has less crit chance than Assassin's 30%, it can be unlocked right away. This should be the first Talent you unlock. You scale with magic crit as you scale with spirit, so this is an additional advantage over Assassin and possibly makes up for the 5% difference.

Finally, you have Unlimited Knowledge which increases the chance your healing crits by up to 5%. Again, since Cosmic Energy is your only healing spell, it's inferior compared to Improved Cosmic Blast. Magic crit from spirit also increases your Healing crit chance so this talent is a bonus rather than the only way to get healing crit.

Tier 2

To reiterate, You need all 3 points in either Improved Spirit or Improved Intellect in order to learn a second-tier talent called Spirituality and Pure Vision respectively. At max level, you can gain up to 10 percent more of a stat through training. Once you max that, you gain access to Tier 3 talents Astral Projection and Meditation. Both are abilities unlocked through the talent tree. Intellect (Pure Vision) has a slight advantage preferred over Spirit (Spirituality) and by extension, the Astral Projection talent has a slight advantage over Meditation as well.

For some reason, this ability does not exist. Avoid this talent like the plague for now.

An ability unlocked through the talent tree, Balance recovers mana at the cost of health. As I mentioned earlier, a 2-second cooldown on this ability is big. It's not a talent you should prioritize first, as damage is ultimately an advantage. But once you unlock this talent, mana will absolutely be a non-issue with Intellgence boosting both magic damage and mana.

Similar to Assassin Pain, All Knowingness increases your crit chance by up to 6%. A slight 1% advantage over Assassin's Talent. You can actually unlock this right after you max Improved Cosmic Blast, so you unlock both offensive talent with just 8 talent points compared to Assassin's 13 talent points.

Finally you have Brain Freeze which increases the chance to stun enemies by up to 3%. This not apply to dot damage. A chance to stun is always good, so you can take one point early on for that. This may or may not change in the future, but as is the chance to stun is relatively low.

Tier 3

Meditation is an Ability unlocked through the talent tree and can only be unlocked once you have both Improved Spirit and Spirituality maxed out. Like I mentioned earlier, Meditation doubles a target's mana/rage regeneration. It's only worth using it on yourself or another Priest/Philosopher. Again, it essentially allows you to regenerate mana normally in combat. It's nothing to fret about if you have Balance already. This is another reason the right tree has an advantage.

Finally, you have Astral Projection which is also an Ability unlocked through the talent tree and can only be unlocked once you have both Improved Intellect and Pure Vision maxed out. Like I mentioned earlier, this ability works like Assassin Stealth does but with a much, much, longer cooldown. With a 150 second recast time, you should think twice before using it. You might not even need it, so you have no rush to unlock either talent.

Talent Order

This Talent Tree works very differently, in the sense that there isn't much order to level your talents.

Improved Cosmic Blast
All Knowingness
Improved Intellect
Brain Freeze to 1

With this, you already have all the offensive talents you need. Adding just one point to Brain Freeze will also give you a chance to stun enemies on any attack. Of course, I'll mention the talents you should max last.

Understanding
Unlimited Knowledge
Improved Planetary Mending

Understanding and Unlimited Knowledge only reduces the cost and increases the crit chance of Cosmic Energy respectively and Improved Planetary Mending does nothing. You still need 2 points in either Understanding or Unlimited Knowledge (granted you have also maxed Improved Spirit) to unlock the left tree's tier 2 talents.

I've mentioned earlier how tier 3 talents require you to max out your stat and stat training to increase talents, but I have also mentioned how you don't need to rush to unlock either talent as well. The maxing requirement is therefore a non-issue. Unlock the talents with your own preference (unlocking and avoiding the talents I mentioned first of course).