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Discover the top 10 best Fighter abilities and passives in Avowed, ranked for making your character a melee powerhouse!
In Avowed, the Fighter class is a powerhouse of strength and versatility, offering players a wide range of abilities to dominate the battlefield. Whether you’re charging into the fray with a massive weapon or more defensively with a sword and shield, the Fighter’s skillset plays a crucial role in determining your success in combat. With numerous abilities and passives to choose from, it can be tough to know which ones are the most effective. In this guide, we’ve ranked the top 10 Fighter abilities in Avowed, based on their utility, damage potential, and overall impact on gameplay.
Top 10 Best Fighter Abilities in Avowed Ranked
The Fighter skill tree in Avowed has a total of 4 active abilities and 15 passives that you can choose to unlock and use. Furthermore, each active and passive ability will also usually have 1 to 4 possible upgrade bonuses. You unlock these upgrades by spending another skill point. These passives can sometimes really change the nature of an ability, and turn a good skill into a great one.
Below are the 10 Best Fighter Abilities in Avowed ranked from best to worst:
- Clear Out: best area damage skill that knocks down enemies, even bosses!
- Retribution: increases damage after being hit, passively boosting overall damage.
- Iron Fist: enables monk-style build and gameplay, forgoing the need for weapons.
- Reflect: allows you to reflect any projectile making your tank do damage with perfectly timed blocks.
- Power Jump: turns your jump into a powerful AOE damage skill.
- Stunning Blows: makes hammers and maces deal increased stun, helping crowd control enemies.
- Bleeding Cuts: allows great swords to trigger bleeds, one of the best damage over time in the game.
- Devastating Criticals: Boost critical hits for all types of melee weapons.
- Charge: Strong gap closer that also has utility in exploration.
- Constant Recovery: Combine with food and potions for great survivability.
10. Constant Recovery
All features and mechanics of Constant Recovery Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 5
- Duration: 12 seconds
- Rank 1: After taking damage, slowly regenerate 40% of the last amount of Health lost.
- Rank 2: After taking damage, slowly regenerate 60% of the last amount of Health lost.
- Rank 3: After taking damage, slowly regenerate 75% of the last amount of Health lost.
The basics of our first recommended Fighter ability are simple – when you take damage, you regenerate some of the Health you lost. Constant Recovery is a passive ability that you can unlock early on in the game after reaching Level 5. At Rank 1 you will regenerate up to 40% of the health lost. Furthermore, at Level 8 and Level 10, you can boost this skill again. These upgrades will allow you to regenerate even more health, at 60% and then 75% respectively.
Overall, the Constant Recovery passive helps with health regeneration, and you can combine it with food and potions to have amazing survivability. Especially early on, healing and recovery food is hard to find or afford. Therefore, this helps you stay alive passively by just increasing your health while you explore. Furthermore, it can help you save some of your stock of healing potions so you’re not constantly running out.
However, the downside is that this passive does nothing offensively for you. Significantly, ranks 2 and 3 are less impactful and probably not worth spending more skill points on. This is primarily a beginner skill that is helpful if you are struggling with survivability. Possible alternatives are Shield bash for more stuns or even more health with Toughness.
9. Charge
All features and mechanics of the Charge Fighter active ability:
- Available At: Player Level 1
- Cost: 20 Essence
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
- Rank 1: Dash forward and smash into anything in your way, interrupting enemies and dealing Explosive Damage to break enemy Blocks, destroy walls, and shatter frozen enemies for bonus damage.
- Rank 2: Increases the distance traveled during Charge by 200%.
- Rank 3: Increases the Stun dealt by Charge by 150%,
Charge is the very first active Fighter ability, and it’s a great one to start the game with. This is a gap closer that can not only hit multiple enemies along the way but will also stun your target. Combine this with an ice grenade to free enemies and then charge through the pack, shattering them to pieces. Another great feature of this ability is that it has a very low cooldown of only 10 seconds.
Furthermore, it also has implications for exploration because you can use it to smash through breakable walls and objects. While any class can use grenades for the same purpose, as a Fighter you’ll be able to save those valuable single-use items for combat.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot to upgrade this ability to get more stun at Rank 3. The bonus to charge distance at Rank 2 isn’t really worth it, but you have to spend a point here to open up Rank 3. Moreover, Charge can also bug out, especially if there’s a rock or something in your way. However, this is overall a great risk and worth a top 10 spot on our list.
8. Devastating Criticals
All features and mechanics of the Devastating Criticals Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 5
- Rank 1: Critical Hits with melee weapons deal 30% more damage.
- Rank 2: Critical Hits with melee weapons deal 50% more damage.
- Rank 3: Critical Hits with melee weapons deal 60% more damage.
The great thing about the Fighter’s Devastating Criticals passive ability is that it affects all universal melee weapons. This includes weapons like great swords, swords, spears, hammers, and even daggers. Consequently, dual-wielding Rangers can benefit from unlocking this passive, as well.
The downside is that in the early game of Avowed, your critical chance is very low, even with this passive boost. Therefore, you need to build it with gear and by also unlocking the Ranger skill in Level 15 called Critical Strike. Once you have higher levels then it’s easier to take advantage of these buffs.
7. Bleeding Cuts
All features and mechanics of the Bleeding Cuts Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 5
- Rank 1: Power Attacks with axes and great swords deal Bleed Accumulation
- Rank 2: Increases the Bleed Accumulation dealt by Bleeding Cuts.
- Rank 3: Greatly increases the Bleed Accumulation dealt by Bleeding Cuts.
In Avowed the Bleed Accumulation condition is a passive damage over time that you can inflict on enemies, and that makes the Bleeding Cuts passive ability take the number 7 spot on our ranking. Furthermore, you can unlock this fairly early in the game, after reaching Level 5.
The downside is that this passive only applies specifically to axes and greatswords. Therefore, you’ll need to make calculated choices with your equipped weapons to really make this worth spending a skill point on.
Bleeding Cuts makes these two weapon types incredibly powerful because you can charge a full or partial attack, and let the damage over time melt their health away. Then you can use a fire grenade for another debuff or the companion Yatzli who has multiple status effect debuffs. This helps keep damage high even when you’re having to dodge or retreat for a moment because of stamina drain.
6. Stunning Blows
All features and mechanics of the Stunning Blows Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 10
- Rank 1: Power Attacks with maces and two-handed hammers deal +40% Stun.
- Rank 2: Power Attacks with maces and two-handed hammers deal +70% Stun.
- Rank 3: Power Attacks with maces and two-handed hammers deal +90% Stun.
Similar to Bleeding Cuts, the Stunning Blows Fighter passive gives you additional Stun when you are using maces and two-handed weapons. The benefit of stuns is that you can lock a target in place and follow up with an animation that does huge damage. During the animation the enemy can’t damage or dodge away, so it’s free damage and the enemy is knocked down.
Furthermore, the extra stun stacks on other weapons and buffs so you can stun targets in 2-3 hits if you build right, locking them in place on the ground dead. The best way to get the bonus on this and Bleeding Cuts is to equip a great sword like The Philosopher’s Riddle as your main weapon.
5. Power Jump
All features and mechanics of the Power Jump Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 10
- Cost: 15 Essence
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
- Rank 1: Press crouch while in the air to slam to the ground, interrupting nearby enemies. The area of effect and amount of Stun dealt increases based on your fall height.
- Rank 2: You are immune to non-lethal fall damage while Power Jumping. The damage dealt to enemies scales with the height of your fall.
- Rank 3: Power Jump costs 0 Essence.
The Power Jump passive earns the fifth spot on our 10 Best Fighter Abilities in Avowed Ranked list because it easily turns your jump into an are-of-effect damage skill. At first, you use Essence and have a 20-second cooldown, but each rank is useful. Negating the essence cost is incredible at Rank 3, and this basically gives you a free extra AOE damage skill.
However, there is a downside in that the radius of the power jump is small, the cooldown is a bit long, and the essence cost is high. To make this skill really worth it you need to put all three points into it. Since you can’t do that until Player Level 15, it might be better to wait until this and respec your points.
4. Reflect
All features and mechanics of the Reflect Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 15
- Rank 1: A perfectly-timed Block with a shield or wand reflects arrows and similar projectiles back at the attacker.
The Reflect passive is simple, with only one rank, and unlocking it will allow you to reflect arrows or projectiles with your shield or wand. This is essential for high-survivability tank builds that depend on blocking as much incoming damage as possible.
However, playing with a sword and shield means you have to forgo tons of offense for it and spec into the Shield Bash passive to build stun. Moreover, the Unbreakable skill is a required passive for sword and shield users, as this will decrease the stamina cost of blocks.
Overall, the benefit of this skill is that it only costs you one skill point, but it’s limited to a one-hand and shield playstyle or a wand.
3. Iron Fist
All features and mechanics of the Iron Fists Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 10
- Rank 1: Unarmed attacks are Fine quality and can break wooden barriers and explosive barrels.
- Rank 2: Unarmed attacks are Exceptional quality.
- Rank 3: Unarmed attacks are Superb quality.
- Rank 4: Unarmed attacks are Legendary quality.
Iron Fists takes a top three spot on our 10 Best Fighter Abilities in Avowed Ranked list because it makes playing as a monk in Avowed possible. The strength to this passive is that it allows you to completely forego the hassle of having to upgrade your weapons. The weapon and armor upgrading system in Avowed means that weapons found in the first area can still be viable in the end game. However, upgrading all of your gear will require a massive amount of crafting materials.
Using Iron Fists means that you can cut out using and upgrading weapons entirely. On the other hand, you will miss out on some of the powerful enchantments that weapons have. Some of these can be incredibly impactful in combat, so it will be a partial sacrifice to not use them.
2. Retribution
All features and mechanics of the Retribution Fighter passive ability:
- Available At: Player Level 15
- Duration : 5 seconds
- Rank 1: After taking damage from an enemy, your next attack within 5 seconds deals +20% of the original damage you received.
- Rank 2: After taking damage from an enemy, your next attack within 8 seconds deals +30% of the original damage you received.
- Rank 3: After taking damage from an enemy, your next attack within 10 seconds deals +35% of the original damage you received.
The Retribution Fighter passive ability is the second-best skill because it boosts your damage anytime you take hits from enemies in combat. This is a simple condition to fulfill in Avowed because when playing in melee this is constantly happening. Multiple enemies will be targeting you regularly, so you’re just boosting your damage passively without having to think about it.
Even as a tank, this can make you lethal simply by taking damage and attacking in return. Moreover, there is no cooldown so it resets constantly. Taking extra ranks is also useful because it not only increases the damage percentage but also adds time. Therefore, you can play as a tank and still dish out decent damage.
1. Clear Out
All features and mechanics of the Clear Out Fighter active ability:
- Available At: Player Level 20
- Cost: 45 Essence
- Cooldown: 25 seconds
- Rank 1: Spin in a dangerous whirlwind, becoming Uninterruptable and hitting all nearby enemies with your currently equipped melee weapons.
- Rank 2: Clear Out lasts for 2 full rotations.
- Rank 3: Clear Out lasts for 3 full rotations.
The best Fighter ability in Avowed by far is Clear Out, which you won’t be able to unlock for the first time until you reach Level 20. When triggering this skill you will spin in a massive area, hitting all enemies in a radius around you. Additionally, you are uninterruptable during this action, meaning that enemies cannot stop it.
Moreover, the Clear Out ability is capable of knocking down even big boss enemies, therefore just destroying every single target or AOE. Each upgrade adds a rotation and once maxed out, usually you just need to hit the skill once and everything is dead and or stunned.
However, the downsides are a high Essence cost and a 30-second cooldown. But that aside, it’s easily the best AOE damage skill and stun if you are playing a melee playstyle of any kind. Unlocking this will radically increase your damage, making you more powerful as you head into the end game.
FAQs about Fighter Abilities in Avowed
How many active abilities does the Fighter skill tree have?
There are four potential active abilities you can unlock on the Fighter skill tree, with each new one becoming available every five or ten levels.
How many passive abilities are on the Fighter skill tree?
There are 15 possible passive abilities you can unlock on the Fighter skill tree. Four are available at Level 1, four at Level 5, four at Level 10, two at Level 15, and one at Level 20.
What are the best active Fighter abilities in Avowed?
Charge (the very first active ability) and Clear Out (the very last) are the best active abilities you can unlock in Avowed. Charge is a great gap-closer, and Clear Out is a powerful AOE spin with your weapons.
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