Rogue Legacy 2: Class Rankings and Tips (How to Git Gud)

Greetings, gentle reader.

Ranking classes in a game like this is subjective. I’m confident that basically everyone is going to do better with classes from higher ranks than lower ones, but keep in mind that your playstyle make some of these work better or worse for you. The huge variety of classes is one of the best parts of this game, so I encourage you to try everything. There are very few truly bad classes, and you may surprise yourself by doing exceptionally well with one particular class due to your unique strengths as a player.

It is impossible to rate the usefulness of classes throughout the entire game and in every circumstance since so many things change between early and late game. This list is written with NG+2 as the balance point, specifically because this is when crits really shine. You can use it for any point in the game to get a pretty good idea of who you may want to use, though if you haven’t unlocked much that boosts crits or if you have low dexterity then you can ignore the critical damage stats.

Before we jump into the classes you’ll use to become a grandmaster monster killer, we need to talk a little about crits.

Crits start off useless and become incredibly powerful as you upgrade your character. There are three kinds of crits – skill, random, and super. Skill crits are things you can trigger with a weapon by hitting an enemy in a certain way. These add bonus damage based on dexterity (or focus for spells). Some ways to get skill crits are to dash while attacking with the sword, bounce the spoon off walls, or swing the axe on the ground. A random crit happens when you hit something normally while having a % chance to crit on hit through runes or relics. A super crit happens when you get a skill crit and a random crit at the same time.

Crits act as a damage multiplier, and there are a ton of ways to increase that multiplier. There are runes, relics, and equipment that raise your random crit chance, increase the power of your crits, increase the power of super crits, and even increase the chance of a regular crit turning into super crits. They’re multiplicative! The more of these things you get, the stronger all the others become. It is something to build toward in the late game. Early on, though, crits barely do any more damage. The intention of the developers was to get players to learn how to use the weapon in a basic way before encouraging them to go for crits.

What this means in terms of weapons is that weapons with poor crit potential are weaker the later you go in the game, and weapons with good crit potential are stronger the further you go in the game. You can easily do 500% or more of your regular damage if you get a super crit when you’ve got a lot of upgrades.

Here we go! I’ve rated them on several criteria, so I start with a basic rating from 1 to 5. Especially important traits are in bold. Here’s how I define these things:

Health – What their max health is. Simple but crucial.
Reach – How far away they can hit stuff. This is not just range, but also what directions they can attack. Boxers get a lower rank for their range because they attack straight ahead, while Gunslingers get a higher rank for their range because they can attack in every direction.
Ease of Use – How easy this class is to use. You get better with every class the more you use it, but some classes need more practice to even be sort of good in the first place.
Evasion – How easy it is to avoid getting hit with this class while still attacking. Major factors in this score are weapon reach, attack speed, and special ability.
Pierce – Do their attacks go through walls and enemies? Not too important for bosses but an absolute game changer for fighting regular enemies.

To qualify for the A tier, a class needs to excel in almost every situation, do a lot of damage safely, and have no glaring weaknesses. Without further ado, here are the very best classes –

A Tier – Legendary Immortal Heroes

Valkyrie
Health – 85%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 5/5
Pierce – Yes

Valkyries have it all. They do great damage, have a good range that pierces through walls, and can attack in four directions. Their skill is incredibly powerful – they block any incoming projectile and if they block even one with their skill then the cooldown is instantly refreshed. No more worries about missile spamming bosses.

To git gud as a Valkyrie, you need to master projectile deflection and dashing attacks. Deflection is pretty easy, but dashing attacks are harder. The way Valkyries get skill crits is by attacking while dashing. Dashing at an enemy is pretty risky (though than other classes with crit-on-dash), so you need good timing if you do this. It is far safer to air dash above or below an enemy and stab downward or upward. This makes them especially well suited to fighting flying bosses because you’re going to be above or below them most of the time anyway.

Ronin
Health – 60%
Reach – 5/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 5/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Yes

Ronin are probably the best class in the entire game at killing things once you get used to them. Their reach is incredible, you can hit almost anything you can see. You’d think a guy with a sword would count as melee, but this is better classified as a ranged fighter. If you can hit with the edge of your blade then you can crit almost every time. They can clean out a room full of densely packed enemies in a matter of seconds, having better range and damage than even the Valkyrie. However, they are significantly less survivable than Valkyries because they have a miniscule health pool and their skill is only okay instead of fantastic. An overall very solid choice, especially in cramped areas with lots of walls such as Pishon.

To git gud as a Ronin, the main thing you need to do is master hitting enemies with the edge of his sword. The most important thing to know is that you really need to be hopping around – you’re stuck while attacking on the ground, but can move while attacking in the air. Once you do, you can crit almost every time. Two reasons for this – you do more damage this way, and it trains you to stay away from bad dudes. Getting skilled at aerial fighting is a critical as well, if you dash and diagonally slash you can kill things really quickly. Of particular note is the diagonal down slash – once you get a bunch of air vault runes it is very effective to stay above and to the right or left of many enemies and slash at them, since many don’t have an attack that hits diagonally upward.

Gunslinger
Health – 70%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 5/5
Pierce – No

Gunslingers are another powerful, well-rounded class. They do good damage and are really simple to use – just point and shoot. They are exceptional because it is so easy to attack without putting yourself in harm’s way. Your gun lets you hover as long as you hold attack, even when the gun is empty. It is easy to aim and does automatic skill crits once the magazine is mostly empty. Their main weakness is that while reloading, your character moves while you hit the fire button… which is different from how it usually works, and until you get used to it will cause you some extra pain. Their talent is also not great offensively or defensively.

To git gud as a Gunslinger, you need to be able to keep track of how much ammo you have, and use the skill crits from your last rounds effectively. Typically I keep the gun at the point where it starts getting skill crits, though I will use it with more ammo if I know I am going to shoot something beefy. The other thing you need to get good at is your air game. The ability to hover infinitely is really, really good. Once you master how to use this to stay safe, you will be able to blast through enemies while they can’t even hit you.

Ranger – Bow
Health – 85%
Reach – 5/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 3/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Evasion – 5/5

This class’ main draw is the bow – and exceptional tool. It is harder to use than the gun, but with skill you can get a crit every single time and land almost all of your shots. You can kill the vast majority of enemies before they even get close to you, and with high DEX and crit multipliers you can delete most regular enemies in one well-timed shot. You can attack several bosses in relative safety, and the flying bosses won’t stand a chance since you can hit them from anywhere.

To git gud as a Ranger, the main thing you need is reliable skill at hitting your targets and getting skill crits. It is important to remember that you can fire in the air. It is really useful to jump to avoid attacks and shoot your attacker, especially since you retain your height a bit when you shoot. The ivy platform is well worth getting familiar with as it gives you a perch as well as the very powerful spore burst ability on every arrow you shoot from on top of it.

To qualify for B tier, a class must either have both good offense and defense, or be incredibly effective at specific tasks. Here they are –

Barbarian – Axe
Health – 100%
Reach – 2/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 5/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Yes

This guy is an absolute beast. Swinging the axe while on the ground is a guaranteed hit, as well as having a high base damage to start with. This class benefits from crit damage boosts more than any other in the game. The bonus vitality the Barbarian gets makes the class even tougher than the 100% health would suggest. You have two very different attack modes, too – using your axe in the air lets you spin. While not as powerful as your ground attack, it hits around you constantly, making you dangerous to anything nearby as well as invincible to those black spirit projectiles. Their talent is very good, destroying all nearby projectiles and freezing enemies. The only real weakness is the poor range of the class, which is bad enough to keep it from being A tier. Still, a very solid class that can obliterate enemies faster than almost any other (if not every other) class in the game.

To git gud as a Barbarian, you need to get used to dash cancelling out of your various attacks. The main ground attack is powerful and easy, so apart from dash cancelling there’s nothing to learn about it. The spinning jump is a whole new subject. You will need to get very familiar with the range, and become skilled at air dashing while using it in order to get constant crits.

Duelist
Health – 85%
Reach -2/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 3/5
Evasion – 2/5
Pierce – Too short to matter

The power of this class varies dramatically over the course of the game. While it becomes pretty weak in the mid and late game due to lack of reliable skill crits, before skill crits start to matter the Duelist does an astonishing amount of damage. Surprisingly, the Duelist is not a ground fighter at all, but an aerial master. They attack incredibly quickly in the air, dishing out a lot of damage. Ignore the totem’s advice, attacking in the air and then immediately attacking on the ground an okayish strategy but does far less damage than staying in the air. Their talent is a pretty good defensive trick with a short recharge. Unfortunately, their range is terrible and due to this it is almost impossible to get skill crits without getting hurt.

To git gud as a Duelist, you need to learn to stab the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything while in the air. It is not rocket science. The only other thing you need to do is learn to use their evasive roll effectively. It has a very quick cooldown time, and is vital since the Duelist is otherwise very vulnerable due to their short range.

Knight – Pizza
Health – 100%
Reach – 3/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Yes

The pizza Knight is a straight upgrade from the sword Knight. Same general style, but the pizza has better range and does a lot more damage because it crits on the way back. The pizza is a simple weapon, just through it and watch those nice skill crits. However, if you’re feeling fancy you can learn to dodge the pizzas to get a spinning swarm of them around you. Not all that useful during most of the game, but very powerful against some bosses.

To git gud as a pizza Knight, you need to figure out exactly how the pizza boomerang mechanics work and use them to your advantage. This is still a quite simple class though, as apart from the boomerang everything here is straightforward.

Mage – Rod
Health – 70%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 2/5
Damage Potential – 5/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Pierce – Yes

The Mage is a very high damage class. Like, face-melting high. Don’t be fooled by that wand of blasting being a wizard tool, it scales with STR and DEX and because of constant skill crits it can do a hell of a lot of damage. This is combined with their spells, which are stronger than normal due to their INT bonus and they can spam them due to their mana drain special. They have one severe problem, though – they are heavily dependent on getting good spells. They are also pretty squishy at 70% health. Some spells to look for are the orbiting fire shield since it drains mana (and thus activates skill crits) constantly, as well as anything else that fires off instantly. You can take something brutal like gravity beam or prismatic spectrum as well to destroy things that are out of range.

To git gud as a Mage, you need to master the timing and range of the rod of blasting. It can hit twice if you time it right. Unfortunately, to really excel at this class you’re going to need to get to know basically every spell in the game. The good news is that you get two of them, so you have two chances to get one you are really good with.

Chef – Spoon
Health – 70%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 2/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 5/5
Pierce – No

Yes, really. While the spoon looks silly and is hard to use, once you get the hang of it you can do a tremendous amount of damage. It does damage based on both STR and INT, it sets enemies on fire, and best of all it auto-crits when it hits on a ricochet. A hard class to learn, but very rewarding to master. Like the regular chef, the self-heal talent is decent. They are one of the safest classes to use, since they have so much range. The biggest threat, unlike basically every other class, are enemies right in front of you.

To git gud as a spoon Chef, you obviously need to master using the quirky spoon. You need to learn the angles and range especially. Understanding how much burn damage you’re going to do is also important as you can often stop attacking enemies that will burn to death on their own.

Boxer – Enkindled
Health – 100%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 2/5
Damage Potential – 5/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Evasion – 1/5
Pierce – No (but there is an explosion)

So dramatic! This class is the premier boss killer in early-mid game, doing more sustained DPS at ranged than anything by a large margin. You can constantly crit if you get the range down, and the range is so far you can even hit enemies offscreen with it. Unfortunately your talent is not very useful without the huge combo stacks of a regular boxer, but it is useful to just get stuff out of your way. This tremendous damage comes with a tremendous drawback… the glove explosion hurts you too! This is a huge deal early on, and surprisingly gets much worse as the game goes on.

Eventually your offensive stats will be so high that you can (and will) kill yourself in two hits.
To git gud as an Enkindled Boxer, you need to become a grandmaster of those explosions. Remembering that your character can slip past most enemies is very important too, and tough because no other class works this way.

Pirate
Health – 100%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 2/5
Crit Potential – 1/5
Evasion – 5/5

This is a very versatile class. It has both a melee strike (with a lot of knockback) and a ranged cannonball. The melee strike is nothing special, but the cannonball really is. It does good damage, has a useful arc, and has a small area of effect radius. The Pirate is very survivable due to its ranged attack and 100% base health. Their special skill is also possibly the best in the game, summoning an airship that not lets you fly on it if you like but can also just float there and shoot cannonballs. The main drawback is the terrible crit potential – you can only get a skill crit with a dash attack, which is even harder than normal since the cannon has a short delay between when you push the attack button and when the attack actually starts.

To git gud as a Pirate, you need to git gud at that cannon. It has a significant arc, and you will need to get practice with shooting in that arc as well as figuring out the radius of the explosion where it hits. The timing of your melee attack is weird too, since it has a delay before it hits. I wouldn’t recommend even trying to get skill crits since your weapon timing is clunky and the weapon itself is short.

To classify as C tier, a class must have no real strengths or a very significant drawback.

C Tier
Astromancer
Health – 60%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 3/5
Evasion – 4/5
Pierce – Yes

While I’ve always wanted to harness the power of a black hole, the Astromancer really doesn’t quite live up to my expectations. While the black hole is cool and his talent is very good, the Astromancer is crippled by abysmal health and a main attack with a significant windup. They can become better if you get good spells, though, as they drain mana really quickly. This class also has amazing synergy with relics that need you to hit quickly, such as Serqet’s Stinger or the Boxing Bell.

To git gud at using the Astromancer, you need to master the black hole. It does good damage and is unique in that it is a damage-over-time attack. You also need to get comfortable using spells at the same time as you’re attacking. Once you set up the black hole it just sort of does its thing, and during that time you need to be casting spells.

Barbarian – Hammer
Health – 100%
Reach – 2/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 3/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Yes

This is more or less a straight downgrade from the regular Barbarian. The difference between the two is that the hammer replaces the incredibly damaging ground attack of the fighter. This is fun, and Barbarians are supposed to spin to win, but losing your best attack hurts the class.

To git gud as a Fighter (aka Hammer Barbarian) you will need to get familiar with the range of your hammer spin. You also need learn how to use constant air dashes to get crits by dashing back and forth above or below enemies.

Knight – Sword
Health – 100%
Reach – 2/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Damage Potential – 3/5
Crit Potential – 2/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Too short to matter

Ahh, the character from Rogue Legacy 1 is back! Unfortunately, this class is pretty outclassed by others. The Knight has poor damage and range, and its skill crit involves a risky and hard-to-spam dash. The class talent is pretty weak, strictly inferior to something like the Valkyrie or Dragon Lancer. It has no particular strengths other than good health and mana pool.

To git gud as a Knight, you’ll have to become skilled at dash attacks. That’s just about the only thing you can learn with them that makes them better, they have a low skill floor but also a very low skill ceiling.

Cook – Frying Pan
Health – 70%
Reach – 1/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 2/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – Too short to matter

Another very interesting class with a lot going on. Unfortunately, all of the Chef’s quirks don’t really combine to make something all that great. You can set enemies on fire and reflect projectiles, but both of those things rely on hitting things with your very short range pan. Incinerating enemies is very good, but requires INT which is usually secondary to STR and even DEX. The self-heal talent is pretty nice. This class has a pretty high skill cap since you need to learn how to play tennis with projectiles, so if you really git gud with it you can consider it to be bumped up a tier.

To git gud as a Chef you need to figure out a lot of things. First, you need to get familiar with exactly how far away your frying pan can hit because the range is so incredibly low. The next thing is to understand exactly how much fire damage you do, since bonking an enemy and then retreating while they burn is a very valid strategy. Last, you need to get a handle on is how to deflect projectiles back to their source.

Boxer – Gloves
Health – 100%
Reach – 2/5
Ease of Use – 5/5
Damage Potential – 3/5
Crit Potential – 2/5
Evasion – 4/5
Pierce – Too short to matter

A really cool concept but not great against regular enemies in practice due to the very low damage output. The Boxer attacks straight ahead and usually stunlocks opponents. This class relies on building up combo through attacks, but due to their short range it is pretty tough to keep the combo going without putting yourself in danger. This class is much better against bosses though, since you can build maximum combo and keep it there because the bosses are so large and slow. They excel against flying bosses since while they are punching they hover in place.

To git gud as the Boxer, you need to master their air game. Floating while punching is important, and while this is best against bosses it can be helpful for some specific enemies as well. The flying ones are the most obvious targets, but the spear maidens for example can be attacked while you are too high up for their spear throw to hit. You’ll also need to get used to having such a short range with no overhead option.

Ranger – Ballista
Health – 85%
Reach – 5/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Evasion – 3/5
Pierce – No

This is a significant downgrade from the regular ranger. It has no arc and a significantly stronger attack. However, it also suffers from severe drawbacks. It is slower than the bow. More importantly, it must be fired from the ground and you cannot dash or jump out of it – once you push attack you have committed to taking the shot. It sure is fun, though, as shooting a harpoon-sized projectile at things on the other side of the screen in the Tower exterior is very satisfying.

To git gud at the ballista Ranger, you need to master the timing of your projectile. You’ll also need to accomplish the significantly harder task of determining when it is safe to stat an attack, which requires knowledge of basically every enemy in the game. This class requires a lot more strategy than most.

Mage – Scythe
Health – 70%
Reach – 5/5
Ease of Use – 2/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 3/5
Evasion – 2/5
Pierce – Yes

This is a strange fellow, and very different from the basic mage. Your mana siphon is going to be a bit slower but still pretty good. The scythe seems like an awful weapon at first, but the trick is to use it while above enemies and just go back and forth slashing them each way. As your base class is still Mage, you still have awesome spellcasting abilities. Your range is unreal, and your attack covers more area than anything else in the entire game. You can hit basically anything you can even see. Unfortunately, your attack makes you so vulnerable and your health is so low that this is a pretty squishy class.
To git gud as a scythe Mage, you need to git gud at using that scythe to dash back and forth above stuff. You also need to recognize how far through barriers you can hurt enemies. Everything applicable to the basic Mage still applies, but you don’t get crits for your main weapon anymore. You’ll need to get familiar with every spell to truly excel at this class.

Bard – Electric Lute
Health – 85%
Reach – 1/5
Ease of Use – 2/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 5/5
Evasion – 2/5
Pierce – No

Not to be confused with the Bard using a regular lute, the electric lute bard is strange yet powerful. You need to kick off an enemy or object to charge your weapon, then blast them with a bolt of music. Every hit with your weapon is a skill crit, and as a Bard you build up stacks of Dance whenever you spin kick an enemy. This is a very fun class, and honestly should just replace the regular Bard completely. It is a high-risk, high-reward class. Although a blast fully boosted with crit enhancements and five stacks of Dance is very powerful, the spin kick you need to use to get there has the shortest range of anything in the game.

To git gud as an electric lute Bard, you will need to excel at jumping around kicking stuff. That’s the real challenge while playing as this class, shooting something with your weapon is relatively easy. It will be easier to get stacks of Dance while fighting bosses than regular enemies most of the time, so I recommend beginning there.

Assassin
Health – 70
Reach – 1/5
Ease of Use – 4/5
Damage Potential – 5/5
Crit Potential – 4/5
Evasion – 2/5
Pierce – Too short to matter

The basic problem with the Assassin is that it is a very short-ranged class with very poor health, and the attack is kind of wonky and hard to time. Their talent is great – it will let you navigate sections of the map much faster and more safely than otherwise, and is a “get out of jail free” card against bosses. Assassin is still basically a straight downgrade compared to something like the Valkyrie, having lower scores almost across the board. However, this is a good class to use if you’re bad at getting skill crits with other weapons – it gets them automatically just by attacking. It shreds slow bosses pretty easily, and you don’t have to know or time anything.

To git gud at the Assassin you need to get the timing of your attacks down. This is the bread and butter of the Assassin, and you need it to make the class work. This is easier said than done since their range is so short, but with enough practice you should be decent at it… once you memorize most enemies and their attack patterns.

To be stuck down here in D tier, a class must have no real strengths and be bad in most situations, or crippling have a weakness that makes it borderline unusable.

Dragon Lancer
Health – 100%
Reach – 4/5
Ease of Use – 3/5
Damage Potential – 2/5
Crit Potential – 3/5
Evasion – 1/5
Pierce – No

An incredibly cool class that is mechanically pretty sad. Their charge attack does decent (but not great) damage if your STR and INT are high, but not so much damage if you have only one or the other. It makes you vulnerable to anything you can’t hit, too. The basic stab does low damage with no way to skill crit. Their main advantage is their toughness – they have high health, bonus armor, and a good defensive talent. This really can’t make up for how little damage they do and how dangerous their most powerful attack is.

To git gud as a Dragon Lancer, you’re clearly going to have to master that lance. The range and angle are important to understand clearly. To be great, you’ll need to know the charge time and attack time too. While there aren’t many things you need to learn, there’s a lot of room to grow into mastery of that lance.

Classes that have a place in the disgraceful F tier must be awful at almost everything and have extremely limiting weaknesses. Fortunately, for now only one class in the game is this bad.

Bard – Lute
Health – 85%
Reach – 3/5
Ease of Use – 0/5
Damage Potential – 4/5
Crit Potential – 3/5
Evasion – 0/5
Pierce – Yes

Here we have it, the weakest class in the entire game. The gap between the Bard and everything else is huge – this class is terrible at everything in the game without a huge amount of practice. In order to do its main attack, the Bard has to first set up a note, then jump up on the note and kick it. If there is anything bad above you, or even platforms you can go through the bottom of, you are screwed. If there are spikes or other enemies, forget it. I gave them a 3/5 for reach because, while the note explosion is big, “Reach” is also about how easy it is to hit enemies, and the Bard takes longer to hit something with a note explosion than any other weapon in the entire game.

To git gud at using the Bard, you need to pick up a different weapon. If you are tricked into using the Bard, you can improve your damage a lot with air dashing right after you hit notes. Playing a note and dashing into it, kicking it, then dashing and kicking again can actually do pretty good damage in an area. Like all other classes, the Bard can be pretty strong with practice, but the skill level to even make this class work at all is insane, and it will always be more vulnerable than something with a non-insane weapon. Classes are tools that you use to help you get through the game, and if their job is to make getting through the game easier, Bards are a very, very bad class.