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Having previewed Dragon's Dogma 2 about a month back - with the game due to launch on March 22 - it didn't take long for us to figure that the game has a complicated relationship with its predecessor, Dark Arisen, and the action role-playing game genre/niche in general. In many, many ways, Dragon's Dogma 2 is simply a re-envisioning of the original game. In taking this approach, Capcom makes it obvious that this game's goal is not to innovate, necessarily, but to polish and develop the original concept. Character classes, for one, are the centrepiece of this idea.
We've come to realize that Dragon's Dogma 2's so-called Vocations perfectly encapsulate the game's approach to balancing novelty and innovation. The vast majority of them are about as straightforward as a 2x4, and it should be extremely apparent what they're about. The kicker, though, is that the Archer is exceedingly agile and jumpy, and that Mages can conglomerate matching spells into superpowered versions of them, just to list a few examples. In other words, each of the game's Vocations has a unique twist to it, and over the next couple of section, we'd like to explain a bit about all of them.
READ MORE: Dragon's Dogma 2 Vocation Gameplay Spotlight
Dragon's Dogma 2 Vocations Explained
Down below, we've featured the full repertoire of Capcom's own short video featurettes depicting each of Dragon's Dogma 2 Vocations. Our description is, obviously, a good explanation of what's up with each of these character classes, but if you've got even just a minute to spare, we also recommend watching the videos. These will help inform you of what to expect in the full game and, perhaps, let you decide what your first character ought to be!
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Fighter
Look, we get it: the Fighter is about as generic-sounding as it gets. The image of an armour-clad knight wielding a one-handed melee and a buckler is, indeed, the epitome of the fantasy warrior archetype, but Dragon's Dogma 2's Fighter is incredibly brutal and agile. The interplay between your blade and your shield are the name of the day here, and though this Vocation won't necessarily surprise, it is chunky and satisfying in every encounter.
Archer
Games have always tried their best to emulate the ridiculous agility and grace shown by Lord of the Rings' Legolas in action, only to very rarely succeed. The Archer Vocation is, in our book, the epitome of this trope. Slide, backflip, and zip around the battlefield in general with the Archer: become the ultimate mixture of delightful showmanship and impeccable precision, all the while delivering brutal damage from the backfield.
Thief
Take the bow away from the Archer and give them a dual set of daggers, and you get the Thief vocation. Quickstep and evasive behavior are the key abilities of Dragon's Dogma 2's Thief Vocation, and as a bonus - they can steal items from both enemies and regular NPCs. Tricky trickters, these lot, but boy are they satisfying to control in combat.
Mage
Dragon's Dogma 2's first spellcaster is the Mage, and they are effectively the support specialist in this game. Mages channel their magic through staves, and they can cast healing spells, buffs, and a variety of damaging spells through the incantation process. If you stack a few Mages together, you get to combine their incantations to execute powerful spells extremely quickly, making this Vocation key for certain complex combat strategies.
Warrior
The Warrior is, essentially, the berserker Vocation in Dragon's Dogma 2. Equipped with extremely powerful two-handed weaponry, Warriors don heavy armor and dish out some of the most powerful attacks of any of the game's 10 Vocations, making them the ideal choice for DPS-focused players. Curiously, Warriors remind us of Monster Hunter gameplay, as they need to correctly take advantage of the enemies' weak spots and attack openings to make the most of their charge-up abilities.
Sorcerer
Whereas the Mage is the generalist spellcaster in Dragon's Dogma 2, Sorcerers are essentially the super-weapons of the setting. With the ability to cast magical nukes, as it were, Sorcerers need to be kept out of harm's way to dish out their long incantations correctly. Sorcerers, too, use magical staves to channel spells, but they are essentially glass cannons that need support from other classes in many cases.
Magick Archer
If you combined the extensive skill-sets of the Mage and the Archer, the Magick Archer is what you'd get - obviously. You trade some of the Archer's extreme agility for ridiculously potent ranged healing and revitalization spells, as well as auto-aim abilities and similar goodies. Highly technical and rewarding to play, we reckon there will be a lot of Magick Archers running around in Dragon's Dogma 2.
Mystic Spearhand
The Mystic Spearhand is the melee equivalent of the Magick Archer, as the Vocation's name implies. Equipped with the Duospear weapon and a satisfying assortment of combat spells, Mystic Spearhands can leverage paralysis and telekinesis spells to overpower their enemies, or simply channel elemental pain through their stylish weapons.
Trickster
Focusing on illusions, hypnosis, and generalized trickery to commandeer the battlefield, Trickster characters use the Censer weapon to buff their Pawns and dish out damage-over-time, as well as to deftly avoid enemies wherever possible. Deceit is the name of the Trickster trade, and we expect many players will absolutely revel in it.
Warfarer
Finally, the Warfarer is a true wildcard, even in a game as strange as Dragon's Dogma 2. This all-new Vocation trades some of its base stats to multi-class into several different Vocations at the same time. The Warfarer can thus be built into a claymore-wielding mage, or a duospear trickter, or any other strange combination you could think of! If you're not keen on limiting yourself to a particular weapon class or skill set, the Warfarer will be your go-to Vocation for sure!
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