Best Dragon’s Dogma 2 Vocations: Every Vocation Ranked Worst to Best

Dragon Dogma 2‘s Vocation system is one of the game’s best features. Essentially a play on the classic “Class” concept, Vocations help determine your player character, Pawns, and Main Pawn’s abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Choosing the right vocation requires you to carefully consider your preferences, gear, situation, and supporting cast. Even then, the game encourages you to experiment by allowing you to easily change your Vocations throughout the adventure.

If you’re looking for a little more guidance than “Play which Vocation you love most,” though, then here is a slightly more comprehensive look at every Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and which are the best of the best for your player’s character.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Best Starting Vocation

At the moment, the best overall starting vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the Archer. 

The Archer’s ability to effectively operate at safe distances makes them the safest choice for the early part of the game when your top priority is simply staying alive. However, “safe” isn’t the best way to describe the Archer class. They are also capable of dealing tremendous amounts of ranged damage right from the start, and they quickly unlock some devastating skills that allow them to effectively manage most early threats (especially if you pair them with an easy-to-find melee Pawn). Unless you hate ranged characters, you can’t go wrong with the Archer. 

If you do hate ranged characters, then definitely go with the Thief. Like the Archer, the Thief excels at avoiding damage due to their various evasive abilities. You may think those evasive abilities come at the cost of their raw damage, but that’s not really the case. The Thief’s high melee attack rate and ability to zip between enemies make them one of the highest DPS options at the start of the game. Just watch out for flying enemies or other ranged foes.

Mages offer the ranged attack benefits of Archers and even bring a few valuable defensive and healing spells to the party. Unfortunately, their versatility can be a bit of a hindrance early on. You’ll sometimes find yourself playing more of a support role than you’d probably like to at that point in the game, and Mage’s long attack times often put them in a bad position. They are viable, but they often depend on powerful Pawns at a time when you’re still building your party.  

Fighters are the worst starting vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2. They are certainly viable, but they rely too much on sticking to the frontlines at a time when you just won’t have the gear or stats needed to effectively utilize that style of play. Perhaps more importantly, it’s easier to rely on a Fighter Pawn to run into battle and soak up the damage than it is for a Fighter to rely on early Archer, Thief, and Mage Pawns to do their respective duties. Even if you love melee, I still recommend the Thief over the Fighter early on.

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Every Advanced Vocation and Hybrid Vocation

As you play Dragon’s Dogma 2, you will eventually gain access to Advanced Vocations and Hybrid Vocations. The biggest difference between those two Vocations is that Advanced Vocations can be assigned to your Main Pawn and player character while Hybrid Vocations are limited to your player character.

Generally speaking, these Vocations are more powerful than the ones that are available to you at the start of the game. However, that isn’t always strictly true. Before we dive into all that, though, let’s take a look at the Vocations themselves.

Warrior – Advanced Vocation

As the name suggests, Warriors are massive melee fighters that typically rely on the biggest weapons to deal the most damage. More importantly, their comically large weapons allow them to deal incredible amounts of AOE damage at close ranges. That makes them the perfect choice for dealing with larger groups of enemies as well as priority single targets.

Just note that those massive attacks come at the cost of equally sizeable attack animations that can sometimes leave Warriors vulnerable. While their slightly higher defenses help make up for that drawback, their slower movement speeds and lack of effective ranged attacks can sometimes make them a bit more reliant on good support Pawns.

Sorcerer – Advanced Vocation

Try to be surprised, but Sorcerers are masters of magic. They are capable of unleashing the most powerful spells in the game. As if their absurd damage potential wasn’t enough, they also have access to one of the best self-healing abilities in the game and can operate from safe distances that even Archers can’t rival. 

However, those spells are also the source of the Sorcerer’s biggest drawback: their long cast times. It takes quite a while to cast this Vocation’s best abilities, and those cast times can quickly expose the Sorcerer’s lack of close-range damage options and raw defenses. You really have to think ahead as a Sorcerer. 

Magick Archer – Hybrid Vocation

Yes, the Magick Archer is essentially the base Archer class with a magical twist. You may think that would make them strictly more powerful than the Archer, but that’s not really the case. Instead, that magical influence grants them access to an array of additional support spells. A Magick Archer can even revive an ally from a great distance, which is certainly one of the most useful support abilities in the game. 

Unfortunately, those new support spells do come at the cost of the Archer’s base raw damage output. A Magick Archer is more than capable of defending itself at a distance, but they naturally tend to focus less on pure damage than their base Vocation counterparts. It can be a worthy trade-off, but it is a trade-off. 

Mystic Spearhand – Hybrid Vocation

Think of the Mystic Spearhand as a twist on the classic “Spellblade” concept. They not only have access to a variety of melee and magical abilities, but they typically utilize both at the same time. That combination of skills makes them some of the most reliable damage dealers in the game. There are no combat situations they don’t have some kind of answer to. They also possess exceptional evasion abilities and a few tricks that grant them access to sneakily powerful ranged attacks that aren’t dependent on long cast times.

However, the Mystic Spearhand just doesn’t have access to the high-end support/healing abilities that other classes bring to the party. Futhermore, while the Mystic Spearhand brings both magic and melee to the table, it’s certainly not the best at either. That may leave those who prefer a specialized class like Warrior or Sorcerer feeling slightly underpowered. 

Trickster – Hybrid Vocation

The Trickster is certainly Dragon Dogma 2’s most unique Vocation. An evolution of the Thief concept, Tricksters rely on magical illusions to generate chaos in battle. Yes, that means they are capable of doing things like conjuring a double of themselves to serve as a taunting target dummy. However, they can also turn enemies against each other, generating defensive barriers, and supporting their Pawns with powerful buff abilities. 

For as fun as Tricksters can be, though, all those abilities mean that they end up sacrificing quite a lot of raw damage output. They can effectively deal with enemies in their own ways, but if you just want to walk up to a monster and get rid of it as quickly as possible, you may find that a Trickster is not for you. They’re actually more of a support class than they first appear to be. 

Warfarer – Hybrid Vocation

The Warfarer is likely the last Vocation that you will unlock in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and with good reason. They are essentially the “everything” class. They can wield any weapons, can learn any spells, and generally allow you to create a custom class over a long enough period of time. Yes, they are quite ridiculous in a lot of ways. 

So what’s the downside? Well, Warfarers are not unlocked until late in the game, so you won’t be able to use one for quite some time. More importantly, Warfarers have lower stats across the board than most other Vocations. In other words, they can launch powerful spells, buff their allies, and then go in for the melee kill. However, they’ll never be able to do any of those things better than other Vocations specifically built for those purposes. 

Dragon’s Dogma 2 – Every Vocation Ranked Worst to Best

Again, ranking the Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2 requires you to consider things like your preferences, gear, available Pawns, and current combat situation. However, here is a rough breakdown of where every Vocation currently stands:

10. Trickster

9. Mage

8. Fighter

7. Archer

6. Warrior

5. Wayfarer

4. Thief

3. Magick Archer

2. Sorcerer

1. Mystic Spearhand

The Mystic Spearhand is the best Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2 by virtue of its survivability skills and raw damage output. It may not be the absolute best in either category, but you’ll have a hard time finding another Vocation that can withstand what it can withstand and dish what it can dish while still being able to access a wide range of skill options. 

Sorcerers take a while to get going, but you’ll have a hard time stopping them once they get there. Some of their late-game abilities (specifically, Maelstrom) are so powerful that they pretty much negate the class’ long cast times. Those cast times tend not to matter when the spells you eventually cast kill most enemies almost instantly. 

Magick Archer is a complicated class, but it isn’t nearly as weak as it may first appear to be. This Vocation excels at dealing with groups of lesser foes, and once you learn to manage this class’ life-draining Martyr’s Bolt ability, you’ll be taking out the largest enemies in the game in record time. Their support skills are also some of the best of any Vocation.  

The Thief starts as a pure DPS machine and never really wavers from that path. Their quick strikes and various evasive maneuvers allow them to effortlessly weave in and out of the fight while targeting enemy weak points with devastating final blows. You do have to constantly consider the timing of their strikes and movements to get the most out of them, but the top-end potential is most certainly there. 

Wayfarers can certainly be a “do-it-all class,” but their versatility can also be a detriment. They will never be quite as good in any one area as the specialized Vocations, so it’s just a matter of how you mix and match their various skill possibilities. Often, they end up being quite good. Sometimes, though, you’ll find that it’s just easier to choose the class you really want to play as. 

As much as I love playing as a Warrior, they often feel like a top-tier Main Pawn class and a lesser Main Character option. They also tend to deal less overall melee damage than Thiefs and Mystic Spearhands and lack the versatility and support skills those Vocations provide. They’re perfectly viable options, but this is where personal preferences really come into play.  

Archer’s effective attack ranges and array of arrows make them invaluable early on, but they struggle to keep up as additional Vocations become available. It just doesn’t take long for other Vocations to match and surpass the Archer’s strengths while compensating for their weaknesses. There is an argument for the Archer class (especially as a Pawn Vocation), but they are a tough sell for your primary class.

The same is often true of Fighters. They’re a fantastic Pawn Vocation, but their biggest draws (specifically, their taunt and defensive abilities) just become less appealing when you consider how much damage they ultimately have to sacrifice along the way. It’s often just easier to kill the enemy outright with another class. 

Mages have it slightly worse than Fighters due to their emphasis on support skills. Again, you want support skills, but there comes a point in the game where you’ll really want your main character to be your top damage dealer while you trust your Pawns to throw out support spells when needed. Sorcerers just have so much more to offer as a pure magic class.

Finally, there is the Trickster. Though undeniably the most amusing and creative Vocation in the game from a concept standpoint, the Trickster is too cute for its own good. You can absolutely justify a Warfarer build that runs a couple of Trickster abilities. When those abilities are all you have, though…well, you’ll soon find yourself being more “clever” than “effective.”