Which Vocation to Pick in Dragon’s Dogma 2 - Classes Guide

Every RPG has this amazing mechanism of character creation and classes, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 is no different. In this game, the classes you choose are referred to as Vocations, and each one is different from another, changing the path onwards for you in the whole game. So, it becomes essential for a player to first make up his/her mind on which class/vocation to pick. Don’t worry, to help you out, we have here a guide on which vocation to pick in Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Vocations and Classes Explained

Every character from your player character to the pawns that will join your party will have a vocation. Now, during the character creation process, you'll only be able to pick four vocations, but you'll pick one for yourself and one for your main pawn that will join you throughout the entire journey. 

You can always change your vocation at a later time, so it's not a decision that you'll necessarily be locked into, but you'll still want to have a good understanding of the four basic vocations you'll at least be using one of these four vacations for some time.

Do this until you find a vocation master who can teach you some of the advanced vocations, and for the most part, these four are going to be the most common that you'll see from pawns to yourself throughout the game. 

Now, speaking of these starting vocations, there are those advanced vocations you can learn from masters. Advanced vocations represent sort of like higher tier combat styles, like specialist combat styles, a warrior, which can also be learned from a pawn, but then some hybrid vocations can only be learned via the player, something like the magic archer, sort of like a combo between a mage and an archer that is locked to the player only, pawns can't play as that vocation.

Each vocation will have access to a set of weapon skills, core skills, and augments. Weapon skills are linked to a specific weapon type. Now, some of these may be on multiple vocations.

Core skills are specific to that vocation that you are, and augments are passive buffs, mostly specific to that vocation, though there are some common ones like conveyance and opulence that we'll see across multiple vocations, but for the most part, they're the unique parts of the vocations kit, so we'll cover these in a little bit of detail as we talk about the main four. 

Archer Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

We'll start with the archer. Now, the archer and the thief are split from the original strider vocation from the original Dragon’s Dogma, but the archer vocation specializes in long-range attacks using a bow and an arrow.

They perform their attacks from afar and can target enemies in high positions. In addition, they are essential in supporting the front line. For example, by targeting enemy weaknesses, they can create opportunities for your allies to strike.

So, as an archer, you can expect skills like parting shots that allow you to fire an arrow while jumping back after performing a leaping punt or mid-air front kick, or even something like a puncher dart, where you can draw the bowstring to its absolute limit before firing. It makes aiming more difficult but allows arrows to pierce targets with greater impact.

And then you've got more common weapon skills like, say, barrage shot, allowing you to fire arrows in rapid succession, allowing you to concentrate attacks on a single target.

Now, for the archer specifically, you can expect to not necessarily be immediately in the front line. You'll sort of have someone in front of you that can take some of that brunt of damage and you'll be like lobbying arrows over the top on top of them. 

They're also good at ambushing targets with their ambu-scan augment to do additional damage to attacks when targets are not in battle stance or have endurance from having a higher maximum stamina.

So, it'll essentially allow you to fire more arrows in a period. So, you can expect to be sort of sitting back and sort of mid-range firing arrows as an archer. The thief is the other half of the original strider.

Thief Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Now, the thief attacks with deadly speed, deadly rapid, and consecutive strikes with daggers in both hands while exhibiting outstanding mobility. They quickly step away after striking and exploiting openings to cling onto enemies and inflict heavy damage. They may also steal items from NPCs and enemies.

So, as the thief, you can expect to be sort of that stealthy thief character with a weapon skill like a shadow cloak, allowing you to blend into the surroundings, rendering it more difficult for hostile targets to detect them.

Then when the moment strikes, you've got skills like biting wind so you can dash past an enemy with blades extended, followed by further slashes when using the same attack on contact. For the core skills, you've got a lot of movement-based skills, something like controlled fall.

So, you can tuck your body into a tight roll when hitting the ground after being knocked down, allowing the user to swiftly regain their feet or foot pad, allowing you to kick off a wall, allowing the user to launch themselves at a great distance. 

But it's not all about that movement, right? You've got scarlet kisses to unleash a flurry of forward slashes. So, here, you can expect to be moving around a lot.

It's probably going to be a very flashy vocation where, you know, you'll be able to jump off enemies, jump off walls, move around in stealth, steal some things. 

If you like that sort of role-play aspect of characters in classes in other games, then you'll find that success here as a thief. And your augments sort of support that, right? You've got gratification, so you slightly restore health when you deliver a killing blow to a foe, and subtly decrease the likelihood of being targeted by foes.

Fighter Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

So, you can slip around the battlefield without actually being the main, like, aggressor in combat. If you do want to be that main aggressor and sort of take some of the brunt of that damage, the fighter's probably the class you want to look at. The fighter vocation excels in melee combat, definitely wielding a sword and shield.

Fighters can slice through enemy ranks and deliver powerful blows whilst using shields to protect themselves and their allies. Now, it's not all about defense here. You have got weapon skills like Blind Strike, so you can rush forward towards a target and deal powerful blows.

But you can expect to play a bit more of that support-protective role, right? With something like True Deflect, you can deflect attacks back toward the target with impressive might. 

Or Enchanted Counter, so when using Defend while Enchanted, automatically counter with an elemental attack corresponding to that enchantment. 

On the other side, in the Stealed Foundations, you can use your shield to ease the impact when falling, reducing your fall damage received and hastening recovery after the fall.

So, it's a blend of a sort of traditional sword and board protecting allies, deflecting, countering damage, and sort of keeping everyone topped up while dealing a little bit of damage out yourself. 

It's not all about defense, but you can expect to be a bit more of a protector role. Just like with their augmentations, provocation to increase the being targeted by foes, and metal to augment your physical defense.

If you don't want to play as a fighter, the fighter class will be a very common pawn class, especially for your main pawn, to have enemies attack this specific type of character that's supposed to be attacked, right? 

So, they can take all of that damage without you having to suffer it yourself. And lastly, we have the Mage. 

Mage Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Now, the Mage wields a staff. The Mage offers support to their party in various ways, from launching magic attacks, and offering enchantments that bolster their weapons, to casting healing spells. 

So, similar to an Archer here, you can expect to be playing a similar role where you're not going to be in the front of combat. You'll be sitting back a little bit and pressuring enemies from a distance.

That may be by casting your damage spells, like Flagration, to unleash a swirling jet of flame straight ahead for some time. Or even healing and protecting allies, like Halidum, to conjure a magical sigil that cures the caster and their allies of certain debilitations. 

But as a Mage, you've also got Levitate, which allows you to manipulate the caster's weight through magical means, allowing them to float temporarily.

You can use Quickspell, to hasten the incantation speed, so you can actually sling more spells faster, which you definitely will want to be doing. The more spells you can get out, the more damage or protection you can do. 

And you've also got more just damage-focused spells. Like Focus Bolt, to fire a condensed Magicka Burst that differs based on the active enchantment.

The Augments for the Mage will increase your magic defense, as well as Betatude, to increase the amount of health recovered from Curatives and Curative Magick. 

So you've got a little bit of extra support there to help you as a bit of a glass cannon in combat, as well as a support character to deal damage out. 

Now again, this is probably another one that you'll see a lot of Pawns play as if you don't want to play these classes, to be able to provide that support, those healing aspects, as well as being able to enchant allies' weapons with different Magic types, which will help with targeting weaknesses or just being able to deal extra damage in combat.

Which Vocation to pick in Dragon’s Dogma 2?

Now, we've touched on it a little bit, but what vocation should you pick in Dragon's Dogma 2 as your pawn? Now, there isn't a right answer here, but what we would say is, to pick something that complements your main character.

Let's say you're playing as a Fighter, you probably want something like an Archer or a Mage to be a bit more of a ranged character, to give you a bit more flexibility in combat, and then vice versa. 

If you're playing as a Mage or an Archer, you probably want someone to protect you, like a Fighter, in those instances. 

Now, there will be Pawns that won't just be these four initial vocations as we touched on earlier in the video, and you'll be able to change your Pawn's vocation in the same way that you can change yours over time.

So you'll have that flexibility in terms of what they're going to be playing as, but just thinking about it in that way, as to what synergizes best, and don't just pick two that are the same, as you'll often be finding equipment that you both want to use, or you might be sort of stepping on each other's toes in combat. 

Conclusion

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has this amazing vocation and class-picking mechanism where you have 4 basic classes to pick. Then, after mastering one, you can enter the advanced vocations, or you can also go for hybrid vocations where you can pick a combination of two basic vocations. We have all the details sorted out on which vocation to pick in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Before making any decision, go through the details, and pick the one you will enjoy most. Also, you can change vocations or classes later on, so nothing to worry about here.