Epitome Advanced Path Rankings

Necromancer and Elementalist are the two advanced classes on the Steam store page. You do not pick them the way you pick Warrior, Ninja, or Shaman. Steam says you unlock them later by developing Morality Metrics in specific ways. This page still ranks their four paths because players plan mains years early. Every letter is speculative. Combat is unfinished. The game is Coming soon, not shipped.

Some pre-alpha builds have let backers create a Necromancer as an extra character alongside the starter trio. That is a test-build convenience, not proof that Steam launch will put death magic on the first screen. If your friends “proved” Necromancer is a starter because they clicked it in a backer client, they described a sandbox exception. This wiki follows the store page for launch intent and flags the test exception in the FAQ.

Read how Morality Metrics unlock advanced classes before you treat any rank here as a reroll plan. Then keep the Class Path Tier List Hub disclaimer in mind: one map, two cities, four biomes, and a level cap testers often cite around 20 is not an endgame to balance summons against.

What Steam actually publishes for these kits

Necromancers use one-handed weapons and magical items.

• Path of Blood spends blood to activate abilities. Dead Reckoning summons a Dark Knight. A Great Ghoul is the group-pull tool in the public kit.
• Path of Decay leans on decay energy. Decay Infusion charges a sword for damage over time. Rending Shadow is the piercing lance.

Elementalists use one-handed and two-handed weapons.

• Arcane Path of the Ancient Elements is the damage fork. Infernal Breath turns a hand into a flaming blaster. Fury of the Winds is the tornado.
• Arcane Path of Balance is support and defense. Holy Protection creates orbs that heal allies and harm enemies. A Hydrosoul Guardian defends you and attacks nearby foes.

Those skill names are store copy. Pre-alpha may rename, stub, or omit them. Rank the job, then verify the button still exists in your build.

Speculative ranks if you can play them

S — Path of Blood, for solo testers, if summons actually hold aggro. A Dark Knight plus a Ghoul is a second and third body on a map that may not always feel populated. If summons clip, stand still, or ignore commands — common pre-alpha failure modes — this path falls to B immediately. The letter is a bet on pet AI, not on lore.

A — Arcane Path of the Ancient Elements. This is the “I wanted a damage mage” button. Breath and tornado are easy to evaluate even when combat juice is missing. It will look better than Balance in a solo PvE slice and worse than Balance in a coordinated party. We still put it in A because Epitome’s public pitch is an action MMO, and damage identity is currently easier to feel than orb support.

A — Path of Decay. Melee-shaped death magic with a DoT infusion sits between Warrior Body and a true caster. On a short level cap, DoTs lose to burst. In open PvP, a lance that pierces a line is a different story. Decay is the path you pick if you like Necromancer theming but hate relying on pet pathing.

A / B — Arcane Path of Balance. Orbs plus a guardian is the advanced Light Shaman. In a real group it can be the highest-impact Elementalist route. In a lonely pre-alpha session it feels like you brought a raid tool to a tutorial field. We refuse to print a single letter that pretends those two contexts are the same.

None of these four is “C” on identity. The only C-rank move is planning your entire Steam launch around an advanced class you cannot create yet, then skipping the starter path rankings entirely.

Planning ranks for a Steam create you do not have

If you are still on Warrior, Ninja, or Shaman, use this page as a destination, not a day-one pick:

• Want pets fighting for you later? Blood, via morality work described on the morality guide.
• Want lingering damage without a pet? Decay.
• Want to throw fire and wind? Ancient Elements.
• Want to be the reason a party lives? Balance, or stay on Path of Light until unlocks exist.

Morality Metrics are a play-style and reputation system in the public pitch, not a cash shop toggle. Archon Seals appear in coverage as cosmetic and utility currency under a no pay-to-win claim. Do not budget Seals as an advanced-class skip. If a later shop or test says otherwise, this page will change; it will not invent that skip now.

Factions still sit beside the kit. Aria versus Zetia is about which Archons you back, not about which advanced path is legal. If testers later find a morality-plus-kingdom gate, we will write that as a gate, not as a secret S-tier.

Why Kickstarter coverage confuses this list

Some campaign recaps counted four playable characters — Warrior, Ninja, Shaman, Necromancer — because that is what a given pre-alpha create list allowed. Steam still prints three basic plus two advanced. Elementalist is easy to forget in those recaps. This page keeps all four advanced paths even when a trailer only shows a ghoul.

Gear totals in those same recaps disagree (older “over 70” language versus later larger counts). Enemy totals also wander. None of that changes whether Blood needs working summons. We will not pick a fake official loot number to justify a letter.

Online play is MMO and PvP-shaped. Summons that look overpowered in a quiet field can be crowd-control bait when other players arrive. Balance orbs that look weak in a screenshot can win a three-player pull. Rank with a party in mind even if your test shard feels empty.

Track whether these classes even stay behind morality on the Kickstarter roadmap and pre-alpha status pages. If the studio puts Elementalist on the create screen in a later test, this ranking’s “advanced” frame becomes historical.

Until Steam ships a public create screen that matches your client, treat Blood, Decay, Ancient Elements, and Balance as destination kits. Play a starter path that teaches the same job — Body for melee pressure, Light for group care, Assassination for openers — and only then spend morality attention. Advanced letters that skip that step are fan fiction with nicer names.