Warrior, Mage or Rogue: Which Class Is Best in a Mobile RPG?

Evil Lands, a mobile action RPG from Rage Quit Games, has its own version of the trio: Warrior, Mage and Assassin. This RPG class guide for mobile compares the three archetypes through what each Evil Lands class can actually do.

Most mobile RPG character classes start from the same classic split. The warrior stands in front and soaks damage. A mage hits from range and slows enemies down. Rogues, which Evil Lands calls the Assassin, trade armor for burst damage and tricks.

Warrior class: tanking and melee damage explained

The Warrior class is the one built to stand in front. In genre terms a "tank" is a character that can take damage for the group, while melee damage means you have to be within reach of the enemy to deal it.

Some class guides for mobile MMORPGs point beginners to the warrior for that reason. A BlueStacks guide to Black Desert Mobile, for example, recommends its Warrior as the entry-level pick because it deals solid damage while also tanking.

The Evil Lands Warrior fits that description. Each basic attack starts with a small dash into the target before the hit, so you close small gaps without thinking about it. The class dash is a slide. Its skills split into three kinds:

• Attacks. Smash deals heavy area damage to every enemy around you. Bleed is a slash that keeps hurting the target. Charge jumps at a target for an area smash.
• Boosts. Shield cuts all damage you take for a short time. Elemental Shield raises your resistance to poison, fire and cold.
• Specials. Mighty Rain summons a storm of swords that pierces nearby enemies.

Shield and Elemental Shield are the tank side. With Shield up you can stay in melee range of a champion while your group hits it. Call To Arms raises the maximum health of nearby teammates, so a Warrior helps even when it isn't the one being hit.

Damage Boost and Sprint push the class toward the damage side. Sprint raises both movement and attack speed for a short time.

Mage class: ranged magic and crowd control

A Blizzard dropped on a champion in Evil Lands deals cold damage over an area while slowing everything hit by it. That slow buys time for everyone else in the fight.

Crowd control, or CC, is the name for effects like this: freezes, slows and roots that stop enemies from going where they want. The mage class in most RPGs combines CC with heavy damage from a distance.

The Mage in Evil Lands fires a fast magical projectile with medium range as its basic attack. Its dash is a teleport instead of a slide.

Fire and cold

Its spells use two elements. On the fire side:

• Fire Bolt deals small area damage around the target.
• Fireball is a massive ball of fire with a larger blast.
• Armageddon calls a meteor shower down on the enemies in front of you.
• Mighty Fire is an aura that burns everything around you.

Cold is where the control comes from. Freezing Bolt slows the enemy it hits. Frost Arrows fires five piercing arrows in a cone that freeze their targets.

Two cold auras sit next to them. Mighty Frost freezes enemies around you. Arctic Embrace does a similar job with lower damage taken for the caster.

Heal and escape

The Mage also carries a heal. Fountain of Vitality gradually restores health to every ally standing in its area. Teleport is a long-range jump in the direction you're moving. When a fight turns, it's your way out.

Positioning is the trade-off. Melee classes walk into the fight. A Mage has to keep choosing where to stand between casts.

Assassin class: speed, poison and burst damage

The Assassin is the Evil Lands take on the rogue. In most RPGs the rogue class hits hard in short bursts and relies on tricks more than armor. The Evil Lands version keeps the burst. Poison, traps and totems fill the rest of the kit.

Like the Warrior, the Assassin opens each basic attack with a small dash before the hit. It also slides as its dash. Its attacks focus on single targets and damage over time:

• Deadly Strike is a fatal hit aimed at one target.
• Poison Hit and Viper Bite leave enemies poisoned.
• Life Steal hits one target and takes part of its health for you.
• Daggers throws five daggers spread ahead of you.

Set-up is the other half. Chains is a trap that holds a target in place. A Mine explodes when an enemy touches it. Freezing and poison versions exist as well.

Totems are placed on the ground. The Arrows Totem shoots at enemies in its area. A Life Regeneration Totem heals allies in range.

Area tools round out the class. Nitrogen Bomb is thrown a fixed distance ahead and bursts into cold damage that freezes everything nearby. Acid Rain leaves a poison area on the ground. Against a crowd, those two give you time to line up Deadly Strike on the one enemy that matters.

Runewords can change a single skill here. Viper's Curse, for example, adds a leap and an extra charge to Viper Bite.

Choosing a class for PvE questing vs PvP combat

PvE questing and PvP combat ask different things from a class. Monsters follow patterns, so area damage and sustain carry you through most quests. People dodge. Against them, crowd control and burst count for more.

PvE

PvE in Evil Lands means the campaign on each map, Daily Jobs, champions and Contracts, the daily boss fights that open in the middle of the fourth map.

Quests that ask you to kill a set number of monsters favor area damage. A Warrior with Smash and Mighty Rain clears those quickly. So does a Mage with Blizzard. Champions and Contract bosses reward sustain and support instead: Shield, Fountain of Vitality or a Life Regeneration Totem.

PvP

PvP takes place on a separate map where two teams fight, each starting from its own den. You face other players from the same three classes.

Slows, freezes and traps matter more here, since a slowed player is much easier to catch. The Mage's cold spells, the Assassin's Chains and Freezing Mine are the obvious tools. Warriors bring Shield and Elemental Shield to survive long enough to land Charge.

Here is how the Evil Lands classes line up side by side:

How Evil Lands approaches character customization

Character customization in Evil Lands has two layers: how your character looks and how it plays. The look comes first. When you create a character you choose the class, gender and hair. Cosmetics then add suits and weapon skins.

Each cosmetic belongs to one class. Suits come in male and female versions. A weapon skin replaces how your weapon looks in customization and in gameplay without changing the weapon's stats.

The build is the second layer. Skills level up in the skill tree. Gear has quality. The Blacksmith repairs and reinforces it.

Legendary weapons and runewords

Legendary weapons bring extra skills of their own, different for each class:

• A Warrior's legendary weapon can carry Shockwave, a strike that leaves targets in range shocked, or Blood Dance, which raises damage reduction while making nearby enemies bleed.
• On the Mage side there are Blessing of Ice, a field that raises damage reduction for allies in range, plus Flaming Meteor for instant damage over a large radius.
• Assassin weapons bring Venomous Burst, which poisons every enemy in a medium radius, or Vampiric Smite, a ranged attack that steals health from several enemies.

Runewords, crafted at the Runemaster from runes and dust, either give your class a new skill or change one you already use. A Mage with Frost Echo can recast Frost Arrows after a kill. In a room full of weak monsters, one cast can turn into three.

Your class is not a permanent lock either. You can keep characters of different classes on one account and switch between them. Trying a second class later doesn't mean starting over.

Which class should beginners start with?

The Warrior is the easiest first pick in Evil Lands. The dash on each basic attack closes the distance for you. Shield gives you a panic button when a champion lands a few hits in a row. You can learn each map's layout before worrying about range.

The other two each suit one kind of player:

• Pick the Mage first if you already know you like ranged classes. Keep moving between casts. Teleport and the cold spells give you the room to do it, while Fountain of Vitality keeps a group on its feet.
• Pick the Assassin first if you enjoy preparing a fight. Lay a Mine and a Chains trap, put an Arrows Totem down nearby and fight the enemy on that spot.

Still undecided? Pick the class whose dash you like most. A slide keeps you in the fight. The Mage's teleport takes you out of it.

For your first champion, find a group. Seeing the other two classes next to yours is the quickest way to tell if you picked the right one.