Best Vocation to pick first in Dragon’s Dogma 2

There are four Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2 you can access from the beginning, and all four have a different play tyle to suit all types.

Depending on how you enjoy playing games, especially long action RPGs like Dragon’s Dogma 2, picking a Vocation to match your playstyle and preferred skills is vital for your player character and your NPC ally, the Pawn.

There’s no real wrong answer when picking your Vocation as you can always change it if you don’t like it, but there are some advantages to choosing one over the other depending on what you are after.

Fighter is beginner-friendly

The Fighter Vocation is everyone’s go-to for a first play-through due to its simplistic direction.

It’s standard sword and shield combat with lots of HP and DPS and lets you play it safe as you learn the tricks of the trade. Equally, as a Pawn, a Fighter is a great way to have your NPC become a defensive line.

Fighter does fall off pretty quickly, though, and can be a dangerous Vocation against boss creatures or if you don’t have an ample supply of healers. If you become a Fighter, I advise pairing yourself with a Mage Pawn and equipping it with healing spells. Otherwise, you won;t last in a fight long unless you fully kit yourself out with the best weapons and armor you can buy.

Archer and Mage are good with the right combos

Choosing Archer or Mage as your Vocation usually comes down to playstyles.

Archer is a safe pick if you want to deal damage from afar. If you aren’t good at manually aiming your arrows to hit weak points on enemies, such as a Cyclops eye, you might want to give the Vocation to your Pawn, as they have auto-aim.

As for Mage, you might consider giving this Vocation to your Pawn for those passive healing abilities and massive DPS spells. But if you love being in the background and playing a support role while waiting for spells to cast, Mage might be for you.

Mage and Archer pair well with a Fighter Pawn, as your Pawn can soak up the damage and frontline while you fire away.

Thief is for DPS hack-and-slash button-mashers

For those who are into maxing out DPS and dealing tons of damage like a glass canon, you might find some enjoyment with Thief over everything else.

It has a good range of skills and prioritizes speed, so it feels like you’re playing a hack-and-slash game instead of an action RPG. Thief is also equipped with skills to escape fights you don’t want to be in and deal AOE damage to multiple enemies. It is mainly for those who want to button-mash their way to victory over using skills and combinations.

I would advise anyone using Thief to have a frontline Pawn to tank for them, because after a few hits, you die pretty quickly. Equally, hiring a ranged Pawn to deal with creatures out of reach is also vital.