The passive tree

One great tree is shared by every vocation. Your vocation only decides where you start. Open it from the passive tree window.

Shape. Five start points sit around a ring in this order: Knight, Monk, Paladin, Druid, Sorcerer. Between them, the tree is built from small clusters of five nodes. Each cluster has a theme, such as damage, defence, speed, resources or spells. Walking a cluster costs one point per node, and a cluster's strong node (its notable) sits deep inside it, so you can stop there and skip the dead-end node beyond.

Node kinds

• Small nodes give a modest bonus: for example more damage, life or a resistance.
• Notables are about three small nodes in one, and often carry a name and a flavour line.
• Keystones change a rule of your build (Keystones).
• Travel nodes are plain connectors.

Off-vocation paths are open. Neighbouring starts are about a dozen nodes apart. A hybrid pays eight to thirteen points of travel, roughly a tenth to a seventh of the points you will have at level 68. The price of a hybrid is points, not a locked door.

Defence borders. The tree follows the three defences (The three defences). Between Knight and Monk you find armour-and-evasion nodes, between Monk and Paladin evasion, between Paladin and Druid evasion and energy shield, between Druid and Sorcerer energy shield, and between Sorcerer and Knight armour and energy shield.

Spell nodes. Some nodes improve spells of one tag (fire, cold, melee, projectile, healing and others), and some raise the rank of those spells (Spell ranks). Others are about flasks, resistances or recovery.

How many points. You get 1 point per level from level 2, plus 22 quest points from the campaign and the atlas, 121 in total at level 100. See Passive points and respec.

Related: Ascendancies, Vocations.