This guide describes some build examples to help new players get into the game. It does not explain basics, just gives some ideas which work even on last difficulty level in realm mode. Whenever you get a legendary item or are able to select new talent, read description and try to find how it can be useful. For instance, legendary items which give Might on every melee hit work great with Str talents which increase Might bonus.
The game is still being developed (and this is my first guide) so you will not see any skill images here.
English is not my native language so please excuse me for any possible errors.

Roles: support, tank


Jack of All Trades gives all 3 tones, Bardic Expertise gives Critical, Guard and Channels for every Inspiration. The easiest way to get high Inspiration fast is to use several Final Verse cards with any Verse cards which normally cost 1AP. Final Verse makes them cost 0 AP when drawn. Melodic Verse allows to get 2 Inspiration for 0 AP without removing tones and can be used early game when you do not have high energy yet. Later you can pick Hidden reserves (tier 3 Int talent) which increases max draw and adds 30% chance to avoid card being expended which is really great for your multiple Final Verses. You can get hundreds of Guard/Critical for all your units including summons and neutral units. Obviously channeling is great for heroes like Spellbinder, Cleric and Druid. All your heroes can remove all defense cards from their deck, Bard protects everyone every turn.
The highest stat should be Int.

Requires 2 golden skills so should be played as standard support Bard before you can get the skills. Skiffle gives you Inspiration for attack, Multi Pellets gives you attack card for each Inspiration.
The highest stat should be Str.

There is an extensive guide about it by Poknok:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2393276473

Roles: healer, support, tank

Spiritual Precision gives Critical when you heal ally. Spiritual Strength gives Might when you heal ally. Early game you use Mend to heal several allies at once or just Lay on Hands to remove debuff and heal an ally, later you use Answered Faith which heals you and gives a choice of several random healing cards some of which can heal all allies. Cleansing Circle to purge 3 debufs on multiple allies is useful for any Cleric. Pick Int skills like Righteous Blow to earn Channels and AoE damage skills like Righteous Flame and Tempest Bolt to spend Channels. Later you can pick Hubris (tier 3 Int talent) to increase Channel by 2 as long as you are at max HP and you almost always will be at max HP.
The highest stat should be Int.


Use skills like Wide Swing (AoE), True Strike (SP cost), Shield Bash (situational when you do not need Guard) for damage, try to learn some AoE skill like any Finisher in events. You can be a great tank due to Shield Block and Heavy Block. Still it is optimal to use Iron Will (tier 1 Str talent) to increase Int modifier based on Str modifier and add Int cards like Take the Lead and some healing. Cleric has the worst golden skills so you may want to add Deliverance just in case another hero dies and Life Surge just for fun.
The highest stat should be Str.

Roles: summoner, damage dealer, healer

Summon's HP and damage do NOT depend on summoner's stats, they depend just on talents and summoner's experience level. Thus you are not required to choose any stat except Overlord's Will (tier 3 Int talent) somewhat encourages you to have Int 25 to increase base summon stats by 10. Not a big deal, but still can be useful.
There are 3 summons:

• Spirit Wolf uses Dex skills to attack (Warlock's totem can increase Dex of all allies), gets critical for Bleed on enemies. It is possible to get 1k+ Critical this way (Warlock can apply multiple Bleed via own skills and Blood Pools, some legendary items apply Bleed on every melee hit etc.)
  
• Spirit Bear uses Str skills to attack (Warlock's totem can increase Str of all allies), applies Bleed to enemy, gets Critical when attacking Bleeding enemy, applies a nasty debuff which makes enemy attack the bear. Melee/ranged attacks can be completely blocked this way if the bear is out of range. It can effectively disable even some bosses who don't have AoE attacks
  
• Spirit Hawk uses Int skills to attack (Warlock's totem can increase Int of all allies), attacks twice and gives 1 channel for every hit to summoner

As you can see, you may want to have all 3 kinds of summons depending on your needs. Basically Wolf deals the highest damage, Bear is the best tank and Hawk provides the best support for channeled spells. Late game you can use Spirit Walk to become immune to damage or just cycle through Harmonize and Volcano to deal high damage to everyone.
The best summoning skill is Wild Cunning which allows all your summons to attack 1 more time, everything else is too slow or situational.
The highest stat can be any, you need all stats at least 16 for summon talents.

Here is an example for Hawks:

Animal Companion gives 55 guard to self and 3 Hawks, Master of Hawks gives 78 guard to self and 82 vulnerable to random enemy, Hawks give 6 channels per turn due to Wild Cunning and then you can spend the channels on spells.

Primal Aspect is the bear form skill. While you are bear, your deck will be replaced with a different deck, you will have just attack skills. It means you may want Guard provided by ally. It can be Bard, Golemancer, Spellbinder, Ranger's Sentry Ward or just any hero with Share Guard stratagem. Alternatively you can have a healer or Cleric with Deliverance. Or you can just tank the damage: if the combat ends while you are in bear form, your HP will be the same as you had before turning into bear. To maximize damage in bear form, you may want to apply some Bleed before morphing. If you are lucky, you will find legendary item which makes Swipe skill cleave meaning you can apply Bleed up to 3 enemies at once and get base damage 400+ on level 43:

Late game when you have 6 AP and high max draw, you will be able to use Dominant Swipe 12 times per turn meaning you probably do not need any defense because every enemy dies during your turn.
The highest stat should be Str.

There is an extensive guide about it by Evil_Proctologo:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2512458598



Earthquake, mastered for using SP Natural State and 2-3 Seismic Shatters. Actually criticals are applied only to main target so the first screenshot is a bit confusing. Basically you cast Earthquake, it creates temp rank 1 Earthquake in your hand, then you use Natural State to create more channels and use Earthquakes again and again. I used Bard and Hawk for channeling on the screenshot, but you can go with Int talents as well.
The highest stat should be Str (or Int if you want "+2 channels every turn" talent).

Roles: support, damage dealer, healer

Probably will be outdated soon as Duo Skirmish was heavily nerfed as expected.

Even after nerf Duo Skirmish is awesome and deals (72 + 50% Str mod) to every enemy, especially if you are lucky to find Sable's Needle (legendary weapon). Late game you can spend all 6 AP on Duo Skirmish if not attacked.
The highest stat should be Str.

Outdated as Geomantic Prophecy has Expend tag now.
This Golemancer deals little damage, instead it uses Earth Cover to give Guard to most/all allies and Geomantic Prophecy to place Averts on ground to be used by whoever needs them the most. As any other Golemancer you should have Flow of Earth, passive healing is always great.
The highest stat should be Dex.

Roles: damage dealer, support


Rising Sun and any other Dex cards you want. Bleed does not help to the card, but still can be useful for other cards like Quick Fist and Surging Fist. Quick Fist gives Agility charge while Surging Fist can be mastered to deal 2 extra hits for every Agility charge, Combine it with poison/shock per hit and it will be fun:

Straigh Palm mastered for using SP allows to cast Rising Sun again.
Late game (when having 6-7 AP) I added Overwhelming Will for versatility, it deals nice AoE and allows to draw up to 4 extra cards during current and next turn so having a few cards above deck size is not a problem at all.
The highest stat should be Dex.


It is the trickiest build in the whole game for me. Erupting Tide is an expensive card with nice damage, but it deals zero damage if your discard pile is empty. You want to have as many cards as possible in the discard pile. Fortunately Monk has many cards for deck manipulation: Breath Cycle, Samjna, Harden Body, Inner Strength, Twin Palms, Strength Focus etc. Large deck can be used with small draw size, really unusual.
Later you can reliably get fun damage from single attack: talent for might from 2 handed weapon, talents for increasing might bonus and you will get something like this:

Harden Body can give Tank role as you can see on the screenshot above, but only after a few upgrades and with external source of Armor.
The highest stat should be Str.


Monk has quite unusual channeling mechanic, it can get channels on draw via Luminous Mind and Inner Resonnance. Starting deck contains those skills and even Blazing Will (AoE channeled skill). Inner Resonnance allows to choose one of 4 cards in draw pile which is quite useful. I often find I want Temple's Shelter which grants Guard to all allies (except constructs!):

Temple's Grace gives regeneration to adjacent allies, but sadly not to self, still very useful.
The highest stat should be Int.

Roles: summoner, damage dealer, support, healer


Similar to Druid Summoner:
Summon's HP and damage do NOT depend on summoner's stats, they depend just on talents and summoner's experience level. Thus you are not required to choose any stat except Overlord's Will (tier 3 Int talent) somewhat encourages you to have Int 25 to increase base summon stats by 10. Not a big deal, but still can be useful.
There are 3 summons:

• Sentry Turret uses Dex skills to attack (Warlock's totem can increase Dex of all allies), explodes on death
  
• Siege Turret uses Str skills to attack (Warlock's totem can increase Str of all allies), explodes on death
  
• Sentry Ward does not deal damage and does not explode on death.

Unlike Druid's summons these skills are not expended so you can put 2-3 units of the same kind even if you have just a single construct skill. I believe it is optimal to have at least 2 kinds: ward and turret. Ward is too slow for normal fights, Turret is too dangerous for boss fights where bosses often have devastating AoE attacks. Do not forget you can edit your deck before fights. Engineer Support is an excellent card which supports all construct types. As you can see on the screenshot above, ability to purge debuffs can be extremely important.


Perfect Form gives max Agility, Multishot can be mastered as Impulse which decreases its cost for every Agility charge. Equip Agility runes, select Danger Sense (tier 3 Dex talent) to get Agility charge when guarding. Pray to find Dusk Deceivers (legendary gloves) to get 3 Agility charges for 1 AP.
The highest stat should be Dex.

Warning: it is not as strong/fun as Scoundrel's Trapper build so if you are primarily interested in traps, play that build first.
Having multiple Lure cards is a must to avoid dangerous attacks and move enemies into traps. Poison Laced Traps and Steel Trap are ok during early/middle game. Unfortunately their damage does not scale well with stats, golden tier trap skills are weak and there are no multiple traps for single action so eventually you will need to switch to different way of killing things.
The highest stat can be Int.

This build relies on Str skills for damage: Shatter Hit, Explosive Hit, Upshot. Do not forget to select Flamekissed (tier 2 Str talent) for extra damage.
The highest stat should be Str.


Surprisingly Ranger is one of the best support characters: Sentry Ward gives Agility charges and Guard by default, but you can upgrade it with Regen Upgrade for unlimited healing, with Haste Upgrade for extra AP, with Protection Upgrade for even more Guard. Ranger can heal contructs with Repair Contruct and protect them with Take Shelter.

Spotter gives Critical to every adjacent ally when that ally uses ranged attack, that can be several dozens of attacks per turn if you have adjacent Scoundrel with Knives Build.
The highest stat can be anything.

Roles: damage dealer


My favorite build. Fan of Knives, Deadly Gyre, Dagger Profficiency and as many Throwing Daggers as you can put in your hand. You should have all your deck in your hand every turn. Do not forget to take Mobility (tier 1 Dex talent) to increase max Agility.
If you have Ranger in your team, give him Spotter, it can greatly increase damage of adjacent Scoundrel.
Fury is more valuable than Might for Fan of Knives because it affects every hit. Recede mastered for Lightweight can be quite useful as it gives Retain resulting in 3 Fans of Knives for 2 AP after second turn: just retain last Fan of Knives and use it next turn as first card when you still have all Throwing Daggers in hand, then play normal Fans of Knives and then you get copy of Fan of Knives to continue the cycle.
The highest stat should be Dex.



Assassinate (mastered for Agility if used with Dual Wield), Observe (later replaced with Tricks of the Trade), Stealth Attack, Swift Kill, Hidden Blade, Deadly Grace, Stab. Gear with Agility and Critical on move is welcome. Basically you build Critical, kill enemies, gain more Critical and kill more enemies, finally using a Stab or two. Do not forget to have a simple defense skill with Purity rune or root will make you unable to use half of your skills.
The highest stat should be Dex.


Venomous Edge (master it to hit third time), Epidemic will deal huge amount of damage in boss fights, Noxious Bomb as AoE. Expunge is not that good despite being golden tier skill unless you have another hero who deals Poison damage too (Warlock).
The highest stat should be Int.


Straightforward build. Use whatever traps you like the most, but do not forget to hold Ctrl to see damage formula as some traps are superior to others despite being in the same tier and it depends on your stats. Dynamite Bola is your answer for enemies who cannot be moved.
If you are tired of using Lure to move enemies into traps, consider Heavy Boomerang or just ask Druid to cast Tornado...
The screenshot above is from older version where Frozen status used to decrease enemy damage by 75%, now the trap build is not as broken.
The highest stat should be Dex or Int depending on which talents/skills you prefer.


Red Scoundrel sounds weak, but it is surprisingly powerful. Twin Shakram hits all enemies in 2 adjacent lanes and it hits them twice applying Bleed with each hit. 150%Str modifier is good enough and it can become very high with Walock's totem, you can see something like 82 damage and 34 Bleed to every enemy in adjacent lanes on level 22:

Then red Warlock can take care of surviving enemy with Blood Shot (+4 damage for each Bleed), add red Druid for Wolves/Bears or red Cleric for survival if you want to maximize totem's benefits.
The highest stat can be either Str or Dex, you will need talent to have high modifiers in both Str and Dex.

Roles: damage dealer, support


The most important skill is Double Cast as good tier 2-3 fire skills have Expend modifier. Master Fire Storm to apply burn 4 times, use multiple Triple Cast and Double Cast cards to clone it and channeling skills. Channeling skills include Mana Charge, Flaming Grasp mastered as Channel Generator and Absorbing Fire (optimally ranked to level 3 to create 2 Channels per burn). Fire Storm is slow vs bosses so you will also need Incinerate. Flame Shield provides excellent defense.
The highest stat should be Str, but you should have Int 25 for Arcane Battery talent. +3 max charges is like +3 AP when Absorbing Fire brings your current channels to max every time.

Quite similar to Fire build in regards to Triple Cast and Double Cast and channeling spells, but you use Blizzard as main damage spell and you do not have Flaming Grasp or Absorbing Fire . There is one caveat though: Blizzard does not apply damage so enemies with Guard are not affected by Chill. You will need Glacial Spikes to remove Guard (or have another character like Druid with Earthquake act first). Unlike Fire build, you may want to use Glass Cannon, especially if you can dispel Fragile debuff. Lightweight Heart of Winter and lightweight Frost Wind are no brainers (free damage without requiring any energy or draw).
Greater Barrier can protect all allies. Before that you do not need more than a single Quick Barrier because you can clone it if needed.

Magic Missle can be useful for dealing with high HP targets who survive Blizzard

The highest stat should be Int


Again the same approach: Triple Cast and Double Cast to clone spells, this time we use Arc Lightning mastered for Channel Generator, Lightning Shatter and Chain Lightning. Shock build is the trickiest among the three as you want every enemy shocked and the shock propagation is somewhat random. Lightweight Thunder Herald is no brainer (free damage without requiring any energy or draw). Greater Barrier can protect all allies, a single Conduction is great for own defense.
The highest stat should be Dex, but I still recommend Int 21-25 for tier 3 talents, they are superior to tier 3 Dex talents for this build


Triple Cast and Double Cast to clone Gravity Surge. You do not need Channels here. Force Sphere allows to protect everyone for almost free when you have a single Mana Charge. Put Fury rune on Gravity Surge and select Might talents together with Glass Cannon for consistently high damage. In one of my games I was extremely lucky to find 2 Blackwakes (one-handed legendary weapon) and actually was earning AP after casting 0 AP Gravity Surges.
The highest stat should be Str


Fun early/middle game, but lack of AoE late game so you will need to add channeled spells unless other heroes cover the weakness. Fortunately we have Energy Tap which adds AP for casting Magic Missiles as long as you have at least 2 Channels so Magic Missiles cost you 0 AP and Multi Missile actually increases your AP while doing extra damage. Currently multiple Multi Missiles are triggered by single Magic Missile so you can get your current AP pool much higher than max AP this way. Early game you can use Ardent Mind (tier 1 Int talent) to start combat with 2 Channels. Also Magic Missile can be mastered as Channel Generator. Conjure Barrage is good early game because later you have some ranked Magic Missles. Mana Burn (master it for extra damage from every Channel, see screenshot above) allows to deal high damage with those AP you saved while casting Magic Missiles. If you do not need such high damage, your Greater Barrier can provide decent guard to everyone and you will still kill one enemy:

Twilight Strap (legendary belt) and Heliotrope (legendary gloves) are intended for the build I believe.
The highest stat should be Int


Previous build naturally transforms into this build for late game. Mana Burn, Mana Charge, Double Cast. Increase max Channel as high as possible, get Str 25 for Might bonus talents, put a Fury/Might rune. Since it requires just 5-6 cards, we still can put Blizzard and Greater Barrier to be safe.
The highest stat should be Int

Conjure Blades skill is good early game, later it becomes even better with Invoker of Blades and Bladewards, but if you have too many Magic Swords, you risk drawing just them so eventually you need to stop using Conjure Blades.
Magic Sword can be mastered as Channel Generator, basically you cast Invoker of Blades, then mastered Magic Swords and finally either Greater Barrier or Mana Burn depending on what you need.

Note the screenshot above is a bit confusing, 121 damage for every Magic Sword is not really possible at this point without Dex totem, I had "just" 76 damage normally. The increase is quite easy to get because Invoker of Blades uses 300% Dex modifier.
Arcane Sheather (legendary belt) is awesome item for the build, Ataraxia (legendary body armour) is nice too.
The highest stat should be Dex, but you may still want Int 25 for channeling related talents.

Note about The World skill. Decreasing AP cost by 1 for 2 turns is very useful, but then you cannot earn SP during those turns and it usually means you finish combat with zero SP so you are forced to remove it from the deck for next combat. Spellbinder uses huge amount of AP every turn due to channeling and it means you also get large amount of SP which can be used to get more channels from Mana Charge which somewhat compensates lack of cost decrease. The World skill is fine in boss fights though.

Roles: tank, damage dealer

Battle Tempo, Pivoting Slash, Battle Formation. It is actually starting deck. It is viable all game as long as you have Purity rune or Jugernaut (tier 3 Str talent). Later you add Agility runes and hope to find items which give bonuses for movement. Battle Manuever is useful too. Having many attacks in deck means you are encouraged to pick Blade Flurry and Calculated Actions (tier 1 Int talent). Riposte should be taken by every Swordhand.
Late game you may want to use quite a different deck: Heroism is reliable source of Might and Critical and together with Guillotine and Diving Zone you can deal high damage to single or multiple enemies. Just make sure Swordhand acts last so every other hero moves it as much as possible before his turn to gather some Critical to be multiplied by Heroism.
AoE damage:

Single target damage:

The highest stat should be Int, but you still want Str 25 for Might-related talent.


Blade Flurry, Phantom Edge, Keen Strike, Double Slash, Flash Cut, Blade Mirage. The build is fun, but not very powerful. That Flaying Strike which you see in my hand on the screenshot above affects 2 units and deals more damage to each despite my Dex modifier is higher than Str modifier and I have 5 other attack cards in hand.
The highest stat should be Dex


Solid Defense, Diving Zone, Flaying Spike, Devastate, Weapon Throw.
You deal high AoE damage, high single target damage and get hundred of Guard from 1 SP.
The highest stat should be Str

Roles: damage dealer


Hemophilia, Blood Shot, Blood Gush mastered for extra hit, Power from Blood, Blood Lance, Cicle of Agony if high on energy. Lightweight Stained Ground is a no brainer. Haemmorrphage is nice early game. Strength Totem (if other heroes use Str too) or Fury Totem (otherwise). Having all your deck in hand and cycling Hemophilia/Improvise allows to quickly reach high Bleed on bosses.
The highest stat should be Str


Worked fine together with Scoundrel's Poison Build, rather weak otherwise. Caustic Orb, Hemophilia, Necrosis, Burning Blood, Black Lightning, Haemmorrphage, Speed Totem. Abyssal Strike deals very nice damage when enemy is affected by Bleed, Poison, Shock and Burn.
The highest stat should be Dex

Note: I tried Voodoo build with Voodoo Curse skill, but it looks too weak for torment difficulty level.

I want to thank Donkornleone and Moep for some corrections and suggestions.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions/corrections, feel free to write in comments or on forum.