ArcheAge Chronicles Classes Guide: All 4 Classes, 8 Weapons

TL;DR: Warrior (longsword, greatsword) and Berserker (axe and shield, warhammer) are male-only; Ranger (hatchet, longbow) and Mage (Elemental Staff, Wave Sword) are female-only. Trait points come from bosses near Raeven's Coilstones, not levels. Gladius and a female Warrior are planned for the first update in December.

ArcheAge Chronicles classes at a glance

The game entered Early Access on Steam on November 3, 2026 at $29.99, and its reviews sat at Mixed, 59% positive across 1,965, when we checked on November 5. For dates, editions and the demo history, see our ArcheAge Chronicles release date explainer.

You carry two weapons and swap between them, and the swap changes your skills, according to CrusherX's class rundown. In XLGAMES' PvP post, the developers say all four classes were "playable in the demo, each with two of their weapons," and a creator tier-list video puts it bluntly: "Four weapons, gladius, crossbow, vitality staff, and great shield aren't in the game yet."

How weapons, stats and trait points work

XLGAMES explained progression in an October post. Levels give stat points across "six primary stats: Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Talent, and Endurance." Strength raises physical attack and Intelligence raises magic attack, so a Mage spends differently from a Warrior.

Weapon skills sit on a second track. "Every weapon type has its own trait tree," the post says, and "your longsword tree and your greatsword tree are completely separate." Trait points are split off from your level. "Your trait points come from Raeven's Coilstones, and every one of them sits near a powerful boss." In practice, a character who skips bosses stays thin on skills.

The trees branch inside a single weapon too. XLGAMES' greatsword example: one player takes the damage branch, "unlocking Armor Break and changing sunder into Sweeping Slash so it hits 2 times instead of once." Another takes the defensive branch and picks up pummel strike, an attack "usable while guarding that grants a shield to absorb damage." Exploration also raises your health: Nui Tears, brought to a Nui Statue, "raise your max HP."

Dungeons are instanced "for you or your party of up to four," and "you can take one on solo if you'd rather." That matters for class choice, because a few weapons below are much easier to solo with than others. If you are also playing this week's other online RPG launch, our WoW Forever dungeons guide shows how differently that game handles group content.

Warrior: longsword or greatsword

XLGAMES showed off the Warrior and the Ranger in its PvP footage. In the PvP post, the developer writing it says "the Warrior with the longsword was me, and the Ranger with the hatchets was Producer Ham."

Longsword. TrickTrick's class video describes it as a life-steal weapon: "It's also all about bleeds, critical, and parry," and he names wind as its main element. ZYASO, whose video is in German with YouTube's automatic English dubbing, describes a branch called the Path of Blood that spends your own hit points to raise damage. The tier-list creator rates the longsword C in PvE, crediting "life flame, the self-heal off closing slash," and then S in PvP.

Screenshot: Steam store page (XLGAMES)

Greatsword. Slower and heavier. TrickTrick says the "great sword is big heavy attacks" with ice as its element, and ZYASO's dub describes heavy, chargeable attacks. The tier list gives it an A in PvE for its defensive tools: "Pommel strike throws up a shield off your max HP," and "Frozen veins freezes" targets.

The Gladius, a sword and shield, is the Warrior's third weapon. XLGAMES' October 29 letter says "In the first update we will be adding the Gladius to the Warrior class," and TrickTrick says that with it "you can throw your shield like Captain America."

GODEEPER: Our release explainer covers the Early Access price, what the demo carried over and what XLGAMES promised before launch. ArcheAge Chronicles Release Date and Early Access →

Ranger: hatchet or longbow

The Ranger is female-only for now; VansuM's demo video notes "I chose the hatchet class as a female character."

Hatchet. A close-range weapon. TrickTrick says it deals "mostly lightning damage," and ZYASO points to a skill line for throwing the hatchet. The tier-list creator rates it S in both PvE and PvP, calls the Ranger the "hardest class in the game," and admits that "The hardest boss in the demo took me 3 hours on the hatchet" before the axe cleared it in ten minutes. The producer played this one in the official PvP footage.

Longbow. The ranged option, with fire and ice arrows and an "aim shot" per TrickTrick. ZYASO highlights its fire attacks, and the tier list singles out Rapid Shot. XLGAMES says it "reworked the Longbow's Fire Arrow" before launch. Looking at the Ranger's menus in the demo, VansuM notes the character will eventually have "hatchet, bow, and then crossbow skill tree points"; the crossbow is the Ranger's third weapon and is not playable yet.

Mage: Elemental Staff or Wave Sword

ZYASO's video offers "the Elemental Staff or the Wave Sword" as the two Mage weapons. TrickTrick calls the second one the "spell blade," and CrusherX describes Mages who "throw fire and lightning from a staff, or get in your face with a frost sword."

Elemental Staff. Fire and lightning at range. The tier list rates it A in PvE, built around "wall of fire or lightning storm," calls it the "King of farming" for groups of enemies, but warns that "on a solo boss, he's exposed." It rates the staff S in PvP. Since then, XLGAMES' October 29 letter says it "Reduced Wall of Fire damage" before Early Access, so that rating may not hold.

Wave Sword. Frost melee. ZYASO's dub describes fast melee attacks mixed with frost magic, and the tier list singles out Glacial Arc. XLGAMES "Rebalanced Wavesword attack power and growth scaling" in the same pre-launch letter. ZYASO also calls the Mage good for solo play because it has range and melee in one class; the tier list disagrees for boss fights, where its pick is "Solo bosses, the axe."

The missing third weapon is the Vitality Staff, which TrickTrick calls the "healing weapon." The Mage also splits players. On Steam, rupert wrote on November 4 that "Combat, especially as a mage, feels extremely dull," while finnzley, a day earlier, wrote: "I read one review that said that mages were weak and kept dying, which was not my experience."

Berserker: axe and shield or warhammer

TrickTrick calls the Berserker the "most tank designated class" and says it has the "highest HP pool" in the game. It plays with an "axe and shield or a two-handed war hammer," as CrusherX puts it.

Axe and shield. This is the tank kit. ZYASO's dub mentions pulling enemies toward you with a chain, a skill the tier list calls Reel In. TrickTrick describes a middle-tree skill where you cannot be staggered for 15 seconds and "you cannot die," and the tier list confirms "death ward makes you immortal" while "Battle cry heals you" and staggers bosses. It is that creator's top PvE pick.

Screenshot: Steam store page (XLGAMES)

Warhammer. Fire and thunder on slow swings. XLGAMES says each weapon's trait tree branches into paths, and TrickTrick says the warhammer gets just one path, "unlike all the weapons that have left, middle, and potentially right." The tier list ranks it D, "the least recommended pick at launch," partly because "you only get five HP potions per fight" and a slow weapon struggles to avoid damage. XLGAMES says it "Tuned the Warhammer" before launch without giving details. The Great Shield is the Berserker's third weapon; TrickTrick isn't sure it will replace the axe and shield as the main tanking weapon once it arrives.

Which class to pick first

There is no official ranking. The one tier list we used was made on the October demo, before XLGAMES' October 29 letter listed balance changes: "Reduced Wall of Fire damage," "Rebalanced Wavesword attack power and growth scaling," "reworked the Longbow's Fire Arrow," and "Tuned the Warhammer, Hatchet, Elemental Staff lightning skills, and the Berserker's Forceful Lunge." With that caveat, here is how the creators' picks line up:

The tier-list recap sums up the same way: "Grab the hatchet if you're not scared of complexity or the axe or gladius if you want power without the pain."

Since stats are separate from weapon trees, you are less locked in than the class screen suggests. Two players with the same weapon can end up "fighting in very different ways," per XLGAMES. For a class-based Early Access game that handles roles in a different way, see our WARDOGS classes and progression guide.

TrickTrick's walkthrough of all classes and weapons, including the third weapons that are not out yet.

What changes in December

XLGAMES' October 29 letter from the producer names two changes. First, "with the female Warrior planned for our first update in December," gender selection arrives one class at a time, and "Our goal is to remove gender locks from every class by full release." Second, "a third weapon type for every class," also one class at a time, starting with the Gladius.

That leaves the other three third weapons without dates. If you want to play a female Berserker or a male Mage, nothing has been scheduled yet. The developers had already said in September that "the current gender-locked class system will remain in place" at Early Access.

Screenshot: Steam store page (XLGAMES)

Launch-week fixes matter for class choice too. XLGAMES' November 4 notice says that progress "may become blocked" if a party leader leaves mid-dungeon, that "some key items are not shared among party members," and that movement keys can't yet be "freely reassigned." The same notice lists "class depth" among the feedback the team is reviewing, and says "Linux and Steam Deck are not officially supported at this time." The maintenance that followed "Improved the overall attack hitbox detection across Krogal's combat patterns."

GODEEPER: If you are weighing ArcheAge Chronicles against other new Early Access games this autumn, our running list compares what each one ships with. Best Early Access Games Worth Buying Right Now →

What players are saying about the classes

The loudest complaint is depth. Corpus, in a positive Steam review on November 3, still wrote that "classes feel limited at the moment." That lines up with the developers' own list of feedback, and with the warhammer's single skill path.

The two reviews quoted above disagree about the Mage. The Ranger's hatchet is the one creators praise and warn about in the same breath. Expect balance to move: XLGAMES has already said the feedback covers "combat feel, class depth, and character progression."

For other co-op action games with class choices, our guides to Farever's Early Access launch and the Samgood Chronicles DragonFall classes cover how those studios split roles.

Our take

Pick by the weapon, then live with the body type for now. The axe and shield is the safest first character for group PvE and solo bosses, the Elemental Staff looks strongest against groups of enemies, and the hatchet rewards practice more than any other weapon here. We would hold off on the warhammer, which has a single skill path, until patches or player results say otherwise. If the gender lock is a deal breaker, waiting for the December update is reasonable, as long as your class is the Warrior; nobody has a date for the others. And since the tier list predates launch and XLGAMES' pre-launch balance changes, treat it as a starting point and expect the first patches to reshuffle it.

Related reading

• ArcheAge Chronicles release date and Early Access: price, editions and the road to launch.
• WoW Forever release date and packs: the other big online RPG launch this week.
• Best Early Access games worth buying: where ArcheAge sits against other new Early Access games.
• Steam Next Fest October 2026 best demos: the fest where many of these games first showed up.
• Mewgenics classes tier list: a class ranking from a very different game.
• Valor Mortis weapons guide: another action game where the weapon defines the build.
• Romestead weapons tier list: eight weapon types ranked in another survival-combat game.
• Steam Next Fest co-op demos: the co-op picks from the same October fest.

How we checked this

On November 5, 2026 we read XLGAMES' Steam posts on progression, PvP, the producer letters of September, October 18 and October 29, the launch-day issues notice and the November 4 maintenance notes, plus the Steam store page for price, reviews and platforms. We read the transcripts of three creator class breakdowns (TrickTrick, CrusherX, and ZYASO, whose German video we read through YouTube's automatic English dub), VansuM's demo gameplay video and one tier-list video. Details that come from a single creator are credited to that creator in the text; details XLGAMES states are credited to XLGAMES. We read Steam reviews posted on November 3 and 4, sorted by helpfulness. Nobody at GameBrief has played ArcheAge Chronicles, so there are no damage tests or hands-on rankings here. Skills and balance may change with patches.

References

• ArcheAge Chronicles on Steam: price, platforms and user reviews
• How Progression Works in ArcheAge Chronicles, XLGAMES: stats, trait trees, Coilstones, dungeons
• Let's Talk PvP in ArcheAge Chronicles, XLGAMES: demo classes and weapons
• Producer letter of October 29, XLGAMES: female Warrior, Gladius, third weapons, pre-launch balance changes
• Key Issues on Early Access Launch Day, XLGAMES: known bugs and feedback
• Temporary Maintenance Completed, XLGAMES: Krogal hitbox fix
• ArcheAge Chronicles official site
• All Classes + Weapons Explained, TrickTrick on YouTube
• Alle Klassen und Waffen vorgestellt, ZYASO on YouTube: German, read through YouTube's automatic English dub
• Classes, Progression and the Steam Demo, CrusherXGaming on YouTube
• ArcheAge Chronicles weapon tier list on YouTube: made on the October demo, posted November 3
• Trying Out Different Classes, VansuM on YouTube
• Steam reviews by Corpus, rupert and finnzley