Best Expeditions Rome Skills: Best Skill Trees For Each Class

Wondering what the best Expeditions: Rome skills are? The latest role-playing game in the Expeditions series sees players take on the role of a Roman military commander, as you conquer Rome's enemies and unveil a political plot that threatens the republic itself. There are also several classes which your player character can inhabit, and your companions already have theirs chosen - though you have the option to specialise their skills to your liking in Expeditions: Rome. Each class also has three skill trees to pick from, so it can be hard to know which ones are worth your time, even though you can mix and match freely. So, if you want a breakdown of the best Expeditions: Rome skills, including which skill tree is the best in each class, read on.  

• We also have a guide on the Expeditions: Rome classes, if you need more information on what each one does. 

Expeditions Rome Best Skills: Skill Trees

Before diving into the best skill trees in each class, it's worth explaining how the skill trees work exactly. Each class has access to three skill trees, which have skills that can be upgraded with points you earn for levelling up.

Every skill tree also has four active skills and four passives which either enhance a previous ability or stand separately. You can also mix and match between them, and by the game's end you should have skills across the trees available to your class. What is the best skill tree for each class though?

• Not sure whether to kill or spare the Triarchus early on in the game? Read our guide to the Expeditions Rome Geminus decision

Expeditions Rome Best Skills: Triarius - Flagbearer

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The first class we'll look at the best Expeditions: Rome skills for is the Triarius. This class plays more of a support role because of their ability selection, and their Flagbearer skill tree in particular makes for one of the best in the game for specialising into.

Its first skill, War Horn, is one of the best abilities out of the gate, and boosts all companion and ally damage in a radius, allowing your team to tear through enemies. This tree is also home to the Rousing Speech skill that heals allies in a radius, which is imperative in a game with such few healing abilities. Overall this skill tree is varied in its support options, and lets you boost all manner of allies stats in a fight.

Here are all the Flagbearer active and passive skills that can be unlocked:

• War Horn I - Applies rallied (+25% damage) to all allies in a 6 hex radius.
• War Horn II - Adds another +25% damage to the skill.
• Bolstering Presence - Applies bolstered (characters cannot fail morale checks) to all adjacent allies.
• Guidance I - Downing an enemy awards +3 morale to allies within 3 hexes.
• Guidance II - Grants an extra +2 morale.
• Inspire - Restore an action point to an ally who has spent theirs within 8 hexes, also provokes attack of opportunity.
• Orator - Boosts Inspire by resetting the cooldowns of the target too.
• Ruse - All enemies within the area of effect will move out of the area, with an 8 hex range, and 1 hex radius for the area of effect. 
• Embarrassing Ruse I - Ruse also inflicts -10 morale.
• Embarrassing Ruse II - Ruse also inflicts -20 morale.
• Rousing Speech I - Heals you and all your allies in a 6 hex radius for 25% of their max health.
• Rousing Speech II - Adds another 2 charges to the ability.

• Want to get frisky? Check out our Expeditions Rome romance guide for every character you can flirt with

Expeditions Rome Best Skills: Princeps - Defender 

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Next is the Defender skill tree in the Princeps class, who acts as the tank of the group. Even though all the skill trees for this class involve tanking as the main goal in some way, the Defender tree allows for the most effective tank gameplay to assists your allies.

The main purpose of this tree is to increase the power of your shield for blocking attacks, along with sharing the damage that nearby allies receive - all while drawing in and cancelling negative status effects you might be hit with. They're brilliant when sticking next to squishier characters because of these skills, and complement the Veles class well. 

The Defender active and passive skills are as follows:

• Brace I - Regain 2 stacks of strong (each stack adds 25% to character's shield strength maximum at the start of a turn).
• Brace II - Regain an additional 2 stacks of strong.
• Bastion - +10 to all resistances, and +10 to maximum resistance.
• Fortress - Braces restores 25% shield strength per stack of strong
• Repair - Applies jury-rigged (immune to all negative statuses that affect shields) to self.
• Protect - All direct damage to an adjacent friendly target will be halved and shared with you.
• Guardian Angel - Protected now redirects status effects toward the protecting character too.
• Shake It Off I - 20% chance at beginning of turn to cure 1 negative status effect.
• Shake It Off II - Now a 30% chance.
• Shake It Off III - Now a 50% chance.
• Shield Wall - Applies shield-walled (+250% shield strength maximum) and exhausted (lose all strong stacks), then restores shield strength to full.

Expeditions Rome Best Skills: Veles - Assassin

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Our next class is the Veles, whose Assassin skill tree allows for the highest damage dealing potential in the game, with excellent burst damage to boot. Their whole purpose is to deal high critical damage to powerful enemies and then get back to safety.

This makes them one of the squishier classes, and even a risky one to play at times when using this skill tree, but clever play will reward you with an easy way of dropping the more difficult opponents. 

The Assassin active and passive skills are:

• Cheap Shot - Applies savage (100% critical chance for the next attack) to self.
• Lone Wolf - Characters becomes prowling (critical chance is doubled and extra 20% chance of dodging attacks) when the nearest ally is 6 hexes away.
• Assassinate - +40% damage against enemy leaders.
• Sneak Attack I - Deals damage depending on your equipped weapon, generates 1 focus, and deals +50% damage on first two turns.
• Sneak Attack II - Deals an extra +100% damage on first two turns.
• Focus Master I - +1 focus maximum.
• Focus Master II - +2 focus maximum.
• Marathon - Applies inexhaustible (movement is unlimited until character stops moving) to self.
• Rush I - Restore an action point
• Rush II - +1 skill charge, and -1 focus cost.
• First Strike - Deal 50% increased damage to targets with full health.

Expeditions Rome Best Skills: Sagittarius - Marksman

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The final class is the Sagittarius (Latin for archer), who has the excellent Marksman tree to take advantage of. This skill tree is all about boosting the critical chance of archers attacks, and watching over huge swathes of the battlefield with your abilities, so you can protect allies and stop enemies advancing forward.

They also have good utility for changing damage types on the fly, which is great for dealing with enemies that have certain resistances. 

The Marksman active and passive skills are: 

• Interrupt I - Deals damage depending on your equipped weapon, wait for an enemy to move within an 120 degree cone in front of you then shot them, with a range of 12 hexes.
• Interrupt II - Cone is now 160 degrees.
• Point Blank - 100% critical chance for ranged attacks against adjacent characters.
• Vigilant - Interrupt can now attack 2 targets before it ends.
• Rebuke I - 3 bludgeoning damage, push the target 1 hex away from you.
• Rebuke II - Double the damage dealt.
• Gracing Shot I - Applies gracing (net ranged attacks deals slashing damage) to self.
• Gracing Shot II - Gracing Shot also deals +50% extra damage.
• Powerful Kick I - Rebuke now applies knocked down (unable to take actions until stood up which costs half movement) to target. 
• Powerful Kick II - Additional applies tactical (does not incur attacks of opportunity) to self.
• Steady Hands - 100% critical chance for all ranged reaction attacks.
• Overwatch - Deals damage depending on your equipped weapon, applies overwatching (any enemy that attacks an ally in 6 hexes will be attacked) to self.

That's our rundown of the best Expeditions: Rome skills by the skill trees available to each class.

If you need some further help with the game, here are our Expeditions: Rome tips.