Moving along at a brisk clip with our Dragon's Dogma class rollouts, today we're happy to bring you this in-depth look at the skills, attributes, strengths, and weaknesses of the Mage and Ranger classes. Read on for details and gameplay videos! 

In case you missed the Strider and Fighter blog, you can check it out here. Also don't forget to check out Dragon's Dogma on Facebook, and the new official website.

Again, be aware that the enemies in the gameplay videos are invincible, so as to amply showcase the classes' various skills. They won't take seven-hundred years to kill in the actual game, I promise.

Now then!

Mage

Masters of elemental magicks, Mages rain down fire on their enemies while keeping their party alive with their restorative magickal abilities. They possess deadly magickal abilities allowing them to control the elements.  From walls of fire to deadly ice storms, mages are truly a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. They can also aid their teammates by casting enchantments on their weapons or curative spells.

Thanks to their levitation ability, they can easily move to high ground and provide support to their team from a safe vantage point. With distance and elemental variety on their side, Mages are a strategist’s class. 

To their disadvantage, however, Mage skills take longer to perform than those of other classes, and as you might expect, they are comparatively weak to physical attacks. 

-Notes from Director Itsuno: Personally, I most often use mages as a starting job to increase my characters’ magick strength before developing them into magick archers or sorcerers. I could recommend setting your main pawn as a mage so that you will always be able to count on getting healed in battle, but I’d guess that a lot of people would think the same thing, so you can probably easily find some mages with great stats online. It could be interesting to use an all-out mage for a support pawn. Minor attacks that have been properly enchanted can become like tailor-made snipes for certain monsters, and since the incantation time is comparatively short it would be good for people who aren’t great at taking actions.

Primary Weapon

Staff

Skills

 - Ingle – Launches a ball of fire that explodes upon contact, engulfing both the target and the surrounding foes.

- Frazil – Creates a concentrated field of cold around the user that freezes solid whatever enemies it touches .

- Comestion – Generates a towering wall of flame; though only modest in power, it ignites adversaries with ease.

Most effective against: Magick-based enemies like witches and wights, enemies weak against magickal attacks such as ghosts, and enemies with a clear elemental weakness.

Least effective against: Close-range human enemies and enemies that attack in groups such as wolves.

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Ranger

Advanced Vocation

No class is deadlier from afar than the Ranger.  Equipped with a massive longbow, Rangers deliver punishing arrows from a distance, taking out enemies before they’re able to come near.  And thanks to their dual daggers, Rangers also make capable opponents up close.

As a result, Rangers are fairly well-rounded, providing powerful cover fire from a distance, but also being able to hold their own in a melee fight. With growth, they can also learn auxiliary skills, such as ones that stun enemies with loud noises or

cause status effects.

Their physical strength, however, is not particularly high, and they are not able to develop their melee weapons as much as can other classes.  

-Notes from Director Itsuno: I use rangers to pinpoint powerful physical attacks on enemies without ever having to get near them. This is hugely effective against certain enemies. Rangers are also very good at bombarding enemies unilaterally from outside the enemy’s attack range. I’m not very good at taking aim at enemies quickly, though, so I tend to leave the ranger role up to my main pawn. Then my pawn can accurately let off powerful shots to enemies’ weak points for me. The accuracy of a well-developed ranger is something to be seen.

Primary Weapon

Daggers

Secondary Weapon

Longbow

 

Skills

- Foot Binder – Pins the target to the nearest wall for a time with a wel-placed arrow.  Quite effective in cramped quarters.

- Dire Arrow – Focuses the user’s gathered strength into a single, devastating shot that grows in power as it is charged.

- Flying Din – Fires an arrow that produces a deafening blare on impact stunning the target though it deals nearly no damage. 

Most effective against: Golems, griffins, and harpies

Least effective against: Phantoms, undead, and saurians