I play on veteran difficulty.
I was trying: cadence (no AoE and damage), albrecht (mana cost is crazy, damage isn’t that good vs bosses and i have to stay in one place), Aegis of Menhir (cooldown is too long, meh AoE), Phantasmal blades (no cd vs very high mana cost, AoE isn’t that good), Fire Strike (I guess this skill is ok compared to the rest, no mana issues, some AoE with explosive strike), Bloody Pox (I’d say it’s finally a GOOD skill, damage vs bosses isn’t that good but AoE recompensate that, mana cost is high), Word of Pain (worse vs bosses than Bloody Pox but still good), Panetti (high mana cost, clear is ok), minions (no bigger issues), forcewave (decent AoE and damage).
I’d advise to learn to manage energy cost with gear, skills, devotions, gameplay style better. This way you’ll find more skills enjoyable (earlier). I play all skills from the get go personally. This can way it can stop being a factor in your assessment.
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I agree with tqFan. A tip is to use ectoplasm once they get available and also the talisman relic.
My fav early game skills are BWC and RE
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I actually haven’t used these in particular almost at all, there are other things but it just shows that there are various tools available. Focusing Prism, “Of Insight” (drops quite easily from totems), positioning (Phantasmal Blades are even cheaper now than in this video), energy regen here and there.
I don’t remember everything know. I just wouldn’t include Energy consumption in determining whether a skill is good or not. Beginner friendly maybe.
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The saying “no free lunch” applies 
More things to consider: soul shards (energy absorb from enemy spells), phantasmal armor (energy leech retaliation)
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One thing to bear in mind is the way equipment affects skills.
Cadence is an utter pain to level with… until you find a decent Voldrak crusher in Smuggler’s Pass, that gives it much better AoE.
If you don’t mind the “spoilers” you can use grimtools to search for non-legendary items that “modify” a skill, like this
And then check where those items can be found. They will transform many skills literally and figuratively and make them much more effective.
I’d say all masteries are fine to level with:
- Soldier → Force wave with twohander is the obvious easy levelling skill. Cadence and Blitz work later with some items. Blade Arc is also good once you get it.
- Demolitionist → fire strike is okay, but BWC or stun jacks are usually recommended
- Occultist → Dreeg’s Evil Eye spam works nicely and has a lot of easy to find gear support
- Nightblade → Amarasta’s Blade Burst makes melee fun, combine with an auto-attack replacer if you have one.
- Arcanist → Replicating missiles work very well nowadays, though you will lack sustain until the late game so be careful with positioning. Aether ray works only once you find a pulsing shard, and I’m sure other skills could also be used but haven’t tried those.
- Shaman → primal strike spam is the obvious choice, but devouring swarm also works decently if you have something else for bosses, and savagery works once you find a troll club
- Inquisitor → Word of Pain + Stormbox is the easiest way to do the early levels, and even in legendary difficulty WoP kills the trash mobs very quickly if you invest
- Necromancer → No clue, never tried
- Oathkeeper → Aegis works when combined with normal (RF) attacks. Eye of Reckoning is fun but I haven’t tried it too much. To my own surprise Aegis + Righteous Fervour templar turned out to be one of my favourite characters to play even if it’s not the strongest on paper, you have melee and ranged AoE for great flexibility.
Plus there’s levelling with pets, or just using augments on items like Fireblast.
The sky is not quite the limit, but the number of options is pretty large.
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Two other favorite early skills of mine are
- Summon familiar aka “birb”
- Summon Briarthorn aha “busted briar”
For auto-attackers, such as Cadence and Firestrike, it’s best to put a few points into the WPS that are available to you. Many of them have some AoE or multi-target effect (the skill description makes this clear).
Also, skills that buff your flat damage, such as Nightblade’s Lethal Assault, are very helpful in pumping up your DPS.
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Excellent summary! My additions (skipping true pets as I haven’t played them):
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NB & ABB → imo in the 1st act there’s no point yet for melee and it’s just better to use ABB with Francis Gun + Off-hand (Kyzogg’s skull) and destroy groups of enemies by clicking in their middle
and not even waste time / risk taking damage with low resistances to approach them. Later that changes when ABB falls off end you develop your melee better. -
Arcanist → as you suspect, others skills work too. They might not be amazing but they work.
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Shaman → Wind Devils + Storm Totems is another classic
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Inquisitor → WoP + Box is the best starter but later is worth it to add sth with more burst like runes
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Necro → already mentioned RE. DE is more beginner friendly now but from my experience you include RE with both Cold and Vitality DE anyway. Bone Harvest is a bit clunky with its long cooldown.
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Oathkeeper → (Greater) Fireblast from component you mentioned helps it a lot as a filler with some skill choices like Aegis or Guardians.
This is for Veteran as least because for Normal the need for multiple skills and optimizing damage is lower.
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Tip for energymana management early on; some skills have lower cost scaling secondary nodes, or even entirely free ones. If main skill is expensive/makes you go OOM to an unacceptable degree before you get ectos or Scales of Ulcama etc, try 1pt main node and max the cheaper dmg nodes. For EoR soulfire is entirely free energy cost, Disintegration in AAR is cheaper than main node, likewise for FoI, and similar with Torrent in Primal Strike etc
*last i levelled AAR it absolutely obliterated campaign without much energy issue, iirc creamed Krieg at lvl 23 veteran in seconds; caveat being i also didn’t really fully play AAR until like lvl 20 or so, because of the extra skill points to reach Disintegration faster with a lower invested main node
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