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Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Treeis a strong entry point for those looking to jump into the Soulslike genre. This game will test your skills and overall patience, but it’s arguably one of the genre’s more forgiving titles if you lean into its systems.
The first decision you must make when starting your playthrough is which class you’ll play. Mandragora takes a hybrid approach from Souls titles and more traditional ARPGs like Path of Exile, giving you enough flexibility to experiment without stripping away class identity. Today, we’ll be looking at how Mandragora handles its class system and give a brief rundown of how each class works.
How Classes Work In Mandragora
Classes in Mandragora dictate yourstarting skill, stats, and position on the passive tree.Some classes also grant access to certain weapons—for example, daggers are locked behind the Nightshade class. Armor, rings, and consumables are not locked behind class selection.
Unlike most ARPGs, the skill trees of each class are connected. This meansit’s possible to multiclass by navigating to another class’s skill tree.A Spellbinder could travel to the right of their tree to reach the Flameweaver tree. You could then navigate to the core of the Flameweaver tree to learn how to wield Fire Relics, an off-hand catalyst you’ll need to cast Flameweaver spells.
Class Adjacency
Skill trees are connected laterally, limiting your multiclass options. For example, the Spellbinder is adjacent to the Nightshade and Flameweaver trees. If you wanted to multiclass as a Vindicator, you’d have to navigate through three different class trees.
Skill trees are connected in the same order as their display order in the character creation menu. Keep this in mind when making your character.
Outside your starting position on the passive tree, your class has a surprisingly low impact on build restrictions.you’re able to learn and equip skills from any class, and all classes have easy access to every stat type through flexible tri-point nodes on the passive tree. If you want to play as a Nightshade with plate armor, that’s more than doable. Just keep the multiclass restrictions in mind when making your character.
Passive Tree
The passive tree is broken up into six chunks, one dedicated to each class.All classes start at the bottom of their passive treeand must branch outward. While the tree looks intimidating at first glance, it’s fairly simple. You’re looking at three different node types:
All you’re doing is grabbing stats you want while on the way to keystones that seem appealing. If your build has a weakness you need to address, you can use the tri-point nodes to get a stat you need.
If you’ve filled out most of your tree and want to branch out,you can travel to an adjacent class tree by reaching the left or right-most edges of your current tree.Doing so grants access to that class’s entire tree, including keystone passives. Once you get further in your playthrough, consider navigating to another tree to grab new keystones or flesh out your stats.
Can You Respec Your Class?
You cannot change your class in Mandragora, but youcanrespec your passive tree.This option will unlock towards the end of the first Act of the campaign. Doing so will incur a small Essence fee. The cost of respeccing increases with each reset, so be mindful of how often you’re resetting your passive tree.
The Vanguard is your typical knight in shining armor, amaster of melee combat with access to two-handed weapons and massive shields.This class is the easiest to play in Mandragora, sacrificing ranged skills for enhanced survivability and melee options. Their starting skill, Uppercut, makes short work of fodder units in the early game. Get your hands on a good two-handed weapon, and you shouldn’t have issues against most tougher foes.
Multiclass Options
The Vanguard can easily multiclass with theFlameweaverandVindicator, both of which have solid ranged skills to offset the Vanguard’s main weakness.
Once you’ve unlocked a few skills, the Vanguard can become a powerhouse in melee range. Their skills allow them to dash great distances, perform shield bashes that stun opponents, and unleash devastating heavy attacks that will chunk a boss' health bar. If you’re OK with fighting up close, the Vanguard is an excellent starting class.
Flameweaver is Mandragora’s take on abattle mage class. This class has a mix of strong fire-based spells and strong passives that enhance melee combat. Versatility describes the Flameweaver best. They have solid damage, survivability, and a variety of ranged spells. Their starting skill,Fire Bolt,is great for damaging targets from a distance when fighting up close is too dangerous.
Flameweavers can easily multiclass intoSpellbinderandVanguard, allowing you to further lean into spellcasting or melee combat, respectively.
Once you’ve gained a few levels and spells, the Flameweaver becomes a terrifying pyromancer. Summon infernal tornadoes, engulf your blade in flame, and create walls of flame to disintegrate anything that gets in your way. It’s not the best at melee combat or spellcasting, but it’s the best class if you prefer a hybrid playstyle.
The Spellbinder is Mandragora’s signature mage archetype, damaging foes from a distance through an onslaught of devastating spells.Spellbinders have some of the highest-damage spells in the game, but they lack strong survivability options.Their starting spell, Chaos Beam, makes certain early-game sections a breeze through its consistent ranged DPS and minimal mana drain.
If you want to mix the Spellbinder’s arcane magic with more martial prowess, this class is adjacent to theNightshadeandFlameweavertrees.
Later in your playthrough, you can forgo a melee weapon entirely and become a pure spellcaster. You can summon a barrage of projectiles with Splintering Shards, create a deadly cyclone with Chaos Storm, or manifest an orb of energy that ricochets off hard surfaces. Invest into critical stats and Weakness-related keystones like Unstable Burst, and you’ll burn through any boss that gets in your way.
Nightshade is the dedicatedrogue class, striking from the shadows with a pair of daggers. This is Mandragora’s fastest class, featuring a handful of skills that teleport you or reposition your character in a moment’s notice. Nightshades deal incredible damage and are highly maneuverable, yet their lack of survivability options can prove challenging unless you multiclass or invest heavily into Vigor.
If you want to give the Nightshade some spellcasting capabilities, consider multiclassing with theSpellbinderorWyldwarden.
Instead of using mana or a limited resource, most of the Nightshade’s abilities work offCombo Points. Some abilities generate Combo Points; others spend them. Use your main attack to generate combo, then use them all to dish out some extreme damage. It’s a different playstyle than most classes that might take some getting used to.
Wyldwarden is a druid class that uses the forces of nature to strike down their foes. In practice, most of their skills involve lightning or some form of environmental damage to defeat targets. If you want to fire chain lightning at your foes or root targets into place, the Wyldwarden is the class for you. It sacrifices the raw DPS of a Spellbinder for more spell utility and crowd control.
You can greatly improve the damage of this class by speccing into theNightshadeorVindicatorclasses.
Vindicator is apaladin class, smiting enemies with a holy mace and astral-themed spells. This class is similar to the Flameweaver in that it encourages a melee/spellcast hybrid playstyle. But unlike the Flameweaver, the Vindicator is significantly more tanky at the cost of overall utility. Vindicators have sources of HP recovery and some hard-hitting skills, making them a fantastic class to play for newcomers to the genre.
you may inject some utility into the Vindicator’s kit by multiclassing as theVanguardorWyldwarden.
