Introduction
Disciplines are the abilities a player can use in combat. The disciplines you can use depend on the mastery (or masteries) you have chosen.
Each mastery has 10 different disciplines that can be increased in rank to make them more powerful.
Through the attack panel (see Interface) you can determine which discipline to use in which situation. Adapting your attack strategy to the different foes will make you a better player.
Damage Types
There are 2 basic kinds of damage i.e. Physical or Magic Damage. Physical Damage is reduced by armor, while magic damage is reduced by resist.
There are 3 specialization within Physical Damage based on the weapon you choose: Sword Fighting, Mace Fighting, Close Combat.
Magic Damage has 4 specializations: Dark Knowledge, Holy Wisdom, Fire Dominance and Frost Dominance.
Scale of Difficulty for new players
by Frostblight
In my opinion, Dark Knowledge, Mace Fighting, Close Combat and Fire Dominance are the easiest to learn to play with. They do not require an in-depth knowledge of the game. You need just once cycle and you are ready to go.
Sword Fighting & Holy Wisdom are of mediocre difficulty but they have the highest utility. They are slightly difficult because they are reactive schools and hence the player will need a variety of attack plans to counter the enemy. Using the wrong spells will lead to a poor or mediocre player.
Frost Dominance is the toughest school in my opinion but if the player is very good at game mechanics and kiting then this school of magic is by one of the toughest to beat.
Picking more than 1 mastery
You can pick more than one specialization but that will give u 10 extra disciplines at the cost of another usable skill in combat. As you start out, it will be easier to pick only 1 discipline and those are also how the basic classes are set up.
However as you progress and get a look at other disciplines, you might see that some other school's disciplines would work well with your each other. This might be the time to try out new combinations and sometimes, this will give incredible results.
The base classes
At the start of the game, you get tot choose your starting role in battle. This will determine the skills you will be raising at the start and hence also what disciplines you will use.
For an indepth look at each mastery and its disciplines check the class pages:
Warrior | Sword Warrior | Mace Warrior | Dagger Warrior
Mage | Fire Wizard | Frost Wizard | Dark Wizard | Holy Wizard