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Rogue Legacy 2’s expansive list of classes is one of its biggest improvements over the first game. While some classes take a while to be unlocked, the opening hours of Rogue Legacy 2 offer a substantial handful to choose from and get to grips with. With so many options available, it can be difficult knowing when to start. Thankfully, we’ve spent quite a bit of time with the game and have put together a tier list of Rogue Legacy 2‘s initial handful of classes, based on how easily accessible and powerful they feel in a newcomer’s hands.
As a point of order, we’re only ranking the classes that are available with a castle level of 30 or less, as anything above that will take long enough for players to unlock that they don’t really qualify as ‘beginners’ anymore.
Rogue Legacy 2: Tier list of beginner classes
Beginner Tier A – Knight
It’s the starting class for a reason! The Knight is perfect for introducing you to Rogue Legacy 2’s mechanics. Its excellent starting health and decent mana pool allow you to take quite a few hits in the early game while being free to experiment with whatever spells you are given. The inherent shield block skill also increases the class’s survivability, while encouraging new players to practice timing in order to negate damage entirely with a perfect block. Add a decently damaging weapon on top of that, and you’ve got a class that will serve you well no matter when it appears as an heir choice.
Beginner Tier A – Valkyrie
A good all-rounder in a wholly different way, the Valkyrie has significant strengths and mechanics that are easy to get to grips with, and minimal weaknesses to offset them. The Valkyrie’s weapon has greater reach than the knight’s standard sword, and you are able to control the direction in which you attack, granting you far greater flexibility in how you deal with Rogue Legacy 2’s enemies, all while keeping at a safe distance. The Valkyrie’s deflect skill also handily deals with projectiles, which can be a real source of frustration and damage in the early game. On top of this, Valkyries boast amazing mana and an inherent bonus to magic critical hits, meaning that they excel in terms of magic as well. Valkyries give new players a wealth of powerful options to choose from while negating several early sources of frustration.
This isn’t to say that the Valkyrie loses efficiency after the early game, however. While their mechanics are easy to grasp for new players, being able to control the direction of your attacks adds a degree of tactical depth that can take time to make full use of. And perfectly mastering the timing of deflect may take some work, but it will allow you to steamroll through projectile-spitting enemies with ease, as you cleave your way through even the game’s toughest biomes
Beginner Tier B – Barbarian
Simple but incredibly strong, the Barbarian is an absolute powerhouse that will leave new players feeling confident enough to progress far into Citadel Agartha and beyond. The Barbarian’s defining mechanic is that their melee attacks always deal critical hits while on the ground. While you may need to be up close to enemies to deliver your powerful blows, the sheer strength of your attacks means that your foes likely won’t be around long enough to pose much of a threat regardless.
The only real downside of Barbarians for new players is the specifics of their Winter’s Shout ability. This move is exceptionally powerful, but the fact that it recharges only when you take damage means that players need to experiment with tactically taking damage in order to activate their most useful resource. This is a balance that is difficult to strike for new players, leading to their health whittling down too fast or one of their most important tools going underused. Thankfully, the Barbarian’s health pool is large enough to ensure that the learning curve never gets too steep.
Beginner Tier B – Duellist
Another class that excels up close, the Duellist is less tanky than the Knight or Barbarian, but they are by no means less survivable. While their health and damage per attack are not quite on the same level as those other melee classes, it more than makes up for it in terms of maneuverability and the speed of its strikes. The Duellist’s talent is Combat Roll, which makes you briefly invincible as you dodge forward, allowing you to escape enemy attacks unscathed and successfully reposition yourself to keep up your own attacks. Having an easy method of escaping damage with a blindingly quick recharge time means that the Duellist feels fun and effective to play almost instantly.
Similar to how the Barbarian’s ground attacks are always critical hits, so too are the Duellist’s dash attacks. This means that the duellist is an excellent class for getting used to spacing and positioning. You are not punished for not making the best use of these features at first but learning to do so is incentivized through extra damage.
Beginner Tier B – Ranger
The Ranger is the first of Rogue Legacy 2’s ranged classes, and it makes a strong first impression. Their primary weapon is the bow, and it deals great damage, albeit at a slightly slower rate than most melee weapons. Where it makes up for that disadvantage is in its flexibility and long effective range, granting you distance from your enemies. This means that you have plenty of space to study their patterns before worrying about how to best dodge their attacks. And the Ivy Canopy skill allows you to create a safe platform to rain down arrows while out of harm’s way, and apply a devastating status effect at the same time.
The only real downside to playing a Ranger early on is that they are in trouble if enemies swarm them. In addition, the class only really excels once you begin to master the perfect shot system. Rangers cannot perform critical hits automatically like the Barbarian, instead, they only trigger when an arrow is released with perfect timing. This may take a little while for new players to master, but it doesn’t take too long to get into the right rhythm.
Beginner Tier C – Chef
The Chef is one of Rogue Legacy 2’s oddest early classes. And while their abilities are exceptionally useful in the right hands, they are slightly out of step with the straightforward gameplay of its contemporaries, taking time to properly master.
The initial damage of the Chef’s weapon is nothing special, but it also applies a burn that deals damage over time, allowing you to back off and wait for your enemies to drop if you aren’t feeling confident. Whilst effective, this ability may be frustrating for new players to get used to, as enemies take longer to drop than expected, potentially leaving you open for a counterattack.
The Chef’s has lower health than many other early classes, though this is more than made up for by its Stew talent. This ability grants three charges of healing ability, allowing you to recover both health and mana on the fly. And picking up health drops also grants you additional stew charges as your run progresses. This allows the chef to keep fighting even across lengthy runs. The chef is a highly useful and survivable class overall. But its initial low power and offbeat mechanics make it something of a difficult pick in the early game.
Beginner Tier D – Mage
In most any RPG, a rule of thumb is that melee classes are easy to play right from the get-go, whereas spellcasters take some time to fully master and make the most of their abilities. This is usually because spellcasters take time to unlock their most powerful magical options. Rogue Legacy 2’s Mages on the other hand feel very powerful right out of the box, with the random nature of the heirs system ensuring that you have no shortage of interesting spells to choose from. But their massive reliance on mana means that new players will constantly dealing with resource management on top of simply trying to stay alive. Add keeping mana drain from your staff active to ensure that you are able to cast your spells, and you have a lot of overlapping systems that – while exceptionally potent – are far from beginner-friendly.
While Mages are no doubt a force to be feared in Rogue Legacy 2, they are also the least recommendable for beginners. But that is no reason to be intimidated by the class forever. Come back after a few hours and try that beard and cloak back on for size, you might find you’ve grown into them.
That does it for our Rogue Legacy 2 beginner class tier list. For more Rogue Legacy 2 content, including in-depth guides to classes, bosses, relics and biomes, be sure to check out our Rogue Legacy 2 hub!
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