Dragon’s Dogma 2 Best Starting Vocation – Which Class To Pick

Out of the four starting Vocations in Dragon's Dogma 2, you should go with the one that can tackle almost every situation.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, you can only have one character, which you can’t delete. You can’t even have multiple save files, so you will need to ensure you choose the best Vocation at the start. All the starting classes have some plus points and perform well in certain situations.

Only four of the ten classes or Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are available when you start: Thief, Archer, Fighter, and Mage. The others will unlock as you progress. But to get to that point, you need to actually first pick the starting vocation that is best suited to help you progress. The best vocation would be one that can handle a variety of situations.

Thief – The Best Starting Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Thief is the most deadly vocation (class) you can choose at the start of Dragon’s Dogma 2. Thanks to its skillset, it has enough damage, survivability, and elemental buffs to make it a jack of all trades.

Thief has access to some amazing core skills, like the Swift Step, which lets you escape the enemy’s attacks. You can use this skill to escape tough situations and counterattack enemies.

You don’t just have this, and the Carve attack but also an amazing follow-up attack called the Twin Fangs. This attack allows you to pin down enemies that are knocked off balance by holding Triangle or Y.

Once you’ve pinned down an enemy, you can follow up with more attacks to deal massive damage. You can spam the carve skill along with other abilities to do that, but you will need to be careful as well. The reason is that you can’t move when pinning down a foe, so enemies can attack you.

Other early-game Thief weapon abilities in Dragon’s Dogma 2, which make it the best-starting Vocation, include Enkindled Blades. This ignites the dagger with flame, buffing up the damage output.

Besides this, Thief’s starting weapon skill, Bitting Wind, is another great skill. You can chain this skill to dodge almost every enemy attack. To deal with airborne enemies, an ability like the Helm Splitter will help you a lot.

You can use it to jump and rotate quickly to knock out Airborne enemies. This class can also handle extra-large enemies. You can jump towards big enemies and use skills like the twin Fangs to literally stick to them and start digging them with your daggers.

The thief’s amazing mobility and abilities allow it to attack enemies and dodge their attacks by staying away from them. This makes the Thief the best starting class in DD2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 starting vocations explained

While we have already talked about what makes Thief the best starting class to pick in Dragon’s Dogma 2, ultimately, this choice is on you based on your playstyle and preference. You might prefer a tank, or if you want to play more of a support role and want your pawns to do all the killing, you will need to select a Mage.

That is why we have broken down what makes the remaining three starting vocations special so you can make an informed decision when starting the game.

TIP

You can change your vocation if you wish to switch up your playstyle or want to try new things. To change your vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2, simply head to a Vocation Guild or talk to the Innkeeper in Melve.

Archer

The main strength of an archer class is its speed and accuracy, which will help you greatly against enemies like Wolves and Harpies in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Archers are great when dealing with enemies at a distance with a barrage of arrows, but things get tough as enemies get close to you.

The light armor and not enough health will make things a bit tough at the start, but you can learn new skills to compensate. For example, you can use Archer’s Steady Shot ability to tackle large enemies and deal more damage to them.

Targeting enemy weak spots like eyes and heads in the Steady Shot mode will help you deal enough damage. However, the Archer in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a bit of a complex vocation because it has many learnable skills, which makes it very difficult to master.

Fighter

The Fighter is the tankiest class in the game and can force enemies to attack you. The heavy armor and high health pool allow them to take a lot of hits while encountering enemies and deal some good damage as well.

However, the fighter is weak when ganged up by enemies. To perform well in this class, you will need to work on both defense and offense. You will need to use your Shield too often and rely on the parry skill to deal with most of the enemies efficiently.

The Fighter is a good starting class for melee encounters in Dragon’s Dogma 2 because of the sword and its ability to take a lot of damage. Skills like Blink Strike allow you to speed through enemies while hitting them.   

If you unlock abilities like the Airward Slash and the Shield Bash, you can use them in many different scenarios for defense and offense. However, if you are looking for high mobility and deadly skills, Archer is not the class for you.  

Mage

As clear for the name, the Mage is the spellcaster in the four starting Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2. The mage staff’s skill, Flagration, will cause a lot of fire damage to the enemies by throwing flames.

However, you will need to charge this up first and can’t use it immediately. The other attacks of a mage are like the Magick Bolt, but you shouldn’t be using it before upgrading it. However, if you want some healing, then you can consider going for a Mage because of the skills like Anodyne and Argent Succor.

It is a good option for a Pawn, but we do not recommend it as it will not help you in many situations.

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Arslan Shah is junior editor at SegmentNext.com, a video games addict with more than a decade spent honing the craft. He is a roleplaying video games enthusiast and loves a good story driven RPG.