Struggling to find the right sub-class combination for your character in Expeditions: Rome? Then this tier list is for you!
After tons of hours immersing in this historically inspired turn-based RPG, we share each of the subclasses’ strengths and weaknesses.
It’s unfair to rank the four classes from best to worst because all of them are just as important to bring into a fight depending on the situation on the battlefield.
So we are ranking the subclasses for each class so you will know which skills to focus on once you’ve gathered your best fighters.
Want a high-health defender disabler? A morale-boosting medic? A marksman-hunter? What about an assassin-duelist? You can definitely mix and match subclasses in Expeditions: Rome.
This class tier list of Expedition: Rome will guide you on the possible builds that you can create with your hero or heroine as well as with your companions and legionnaires with each subclass having four skill tree levels.
Check out the game’s system requirements if your machine can handle Expeditions: Rome as well as our review if you’re thinking of adding this to your collection.
Feel free to browse through each of the classes and subclasses below in this Expeditions Rome tier list:
Princeps
The Princeps is the most straightforward class to use in Expeditions: Rome and it’s a beginner-friendly class especially for those who are new to the turn-based strategy genre.
Take advantage of high health and defense to keep your enemies occupied while the other members of your legion find a way to flank them for higher damage output.
Some players might argue that the Princeps has one of the slowest offensive units however, this class is best played in defensive situations and as initiators in the front lines.
The Princeps has its own set of shield skills that you can use to inflict status effects and even break enemies’ shields which makes them an offensive threat.
#1 Vanguard
The Vanguard is the best subclass that you can master from the three choices because of its skill tree boasting a lot of health passives and shield attacks giving you a higher survivability chance against hordes of enemies.
This subclass makes a perfect tank for your other troops to flank freely and take out enemies in a lethal fashion.
Additionally, the first active skill already gives you an ability to lower your enemies’ morale in a large area, resulting in a high chance that they can go against each other and even run away.
Maxing out the Hardened passive and learning Frighten together with combining either Defender or Veteran skills will give you enough offense-defense flexibility for your character.
Most Useful Skills:
- Frightened – Gives -10 morale to enemies in a 2 hex radius
- Taunt – Force an enemy to attack the character at the start of its turn in a 6 hex radius.
- Bull Rush – Move in a straight line to knockdown whoever comes your way, friend or foe.
#2 Defender
While the Vanguard has the most hybrid skill tree in the Princeps category, don’t sleep on the Defender subclass. The first two levels of its skill tree already provide you with enough buffs to improve your shield’s defensive capabilities.
Caseo currently has this as his default subclass and you can practice his move sets or even mix Vanguard and Veteran skills to make him a hybrid fighter-defender.
Most Useful Skills:
- Brace – Regain 2 stacks of strong, giving the character a 25% increase in shield recovery.
- Protect – Protect surrounding allies from a 1 hex radius. Add Guardian Angel passive skill to also redirect status effects to the Defender.
- Shield Wall – Get 250% maximum shield health but become exhausted in the next turn removing the ability to recharge your shield.
#3 Veteran
The Veteran focuses less on defense and more on disabling enemies. The skill tree is not really worth maxing out since you would probably need the Knockdown ability and Headbutt can add Vanguard buffs to keep your character tanky.
This subclass can be a #1 candidate when it comes to its offensive skills but it might take you time to obtain War Cry which gives a 1 hex range AoE stun around your enemies giving your other allies to deliver the finishing blows.
Most Useful Skills:
- Knockdown – Knocked down enemies cannot perform any action during its turn. Movement is halved once he stands up.
- Headbutt – Set enemy movement to 0 and applies weakened while applying 4 to 6 Bludgeoning Damage. If an enemy is already weakened or harried, apply stunned instead.
- War Cry – Stun enemies around a 1 hex radius.
Veles
This is a light class that can deal high amounts of damage and combos if used in the right hands.
The Veles is capable of dual-wielding weapons. However, the downside of having them in your party is its low health and during fights so you need to strategize your placements and attacks carefully.
Do not use these classes to strike first during the early starts of a battle – leave the tanking to your Princeps. Highly mobile and a master of dodging, use your Veles to land critical strikes on your opponents.
#1 Duelist
This subclass has the most versatile skill tree under the Veles category. They can generate Focus at the start of battle giving them a lot of actions during a turn through Born Ready.
Take advantage of giving them the last hits to increase their damage output via Bloodthirsty. They also have a Kill On Ground skill that can lower the morale of surrounding enemies by delivering a killing blow to incapacitate targets.
A good example of practicing your Duelist abilities is through Bestia, one of your closest companions. You can also combine Duelist with the Assassin subclass giving you plenty of ways in eliminating your opponents.
Most Useful Skills:
- Shiv – Make a quick hand off attack at half damage (4 to 5 Piercing Damage)
- Kill On Ground – Finish off an incapacitated enemy and inflict -10 to enemies in a 5 hex radius
- Duel – Challenge a specific enemy. Your next attack against the challenged enemy doubles and applies stunned and bleeding. Do not mistake this for Taunt.
#2 Assassin
The first two levels of the Assassin skill tree are very useful for taking out enemy leaders because you get a high percentage of damage outputs once you assign points to these passive skills.
At early levels, you might have a hard time learning the Rush skill because it’s one of their ultimate skills at the fourth level of its skill tree where you have a chance to restore an action point.
Should you choose this subclass, expect powerful single target blows while sacrificing the chance to hit multiple combo attacks early game while patiently waiting to acquire Rush at the late game of your campaign.
Most Useful Skills:
- Cheap Shot – Applies savage adding a 100% critical chance for the next attack.
- Sneak Attack – Deal 7 to 10 piercing damage plus another 50% on your first two turns.
- Rush – Restore your action point.
#3 Brawler
We can’t see this as the strongest subclass that you can use from all the Veles choices in the early game because you can have other subclasses that have more useful skills. The first level of its skill tree gives you the ability to avoid Attacks of Opportunity which can help whenever you want to scout the battlefield.
The Brawler also excels in unarmed combat so you may want to take advantage of its passive skills to make the most out of this subclass.
Additionally, this subclass is more of a late bloomer compared to the others as you can take advantage of its skills in the third and fourth level of the tree giving it high-risk high reward skills like Boast.
Max out this subclass and you’ll become unstoppable with the Reaper skill where your action points are reset and you have more creative ways of dealing with enemies.
Most Useful Skills:
- Tactical Advance – The character will not incur Attacks of Opportunity.
- Boast – If the character kills an enemy, gain +10 morale to allies. If no one dies in that turn, enemies gain +10 morale.
- Reaper – Replenish an action point, restore used skills and movement once you kill an enemy.
Sagittarius
This class focuses on archery and ranged attacks making them one of the deadliest classes in Expeditions: Rome. They blend really well with whatever party combination you can think of.
Depending on which subclass you choose, you can create a Sagittarius that can excel both in long and close-range combat. These soldiers have also light defenses similar to the Veles so be careful when positioning them on the battlefield.
#1 Marksman
The Marksman is a hybrid subclass where you can deal massive damage both in long and close-range. Its skill tree is very crit heavy making it a good finisher along with the Veles.
This is also Calida’s default subclass in Expeditions: Rome so you can explore her capabilities.
Most Useful Skills:
- Interrupt – Strike at the first enemy your character sees in its hex line of sight.
- Rebuke – Push the target 1 hex away from you. A vacant hex is required to pull this skill off.
- Overwatch – Every time an enemy attacks an ally within the character’s 6 hex radius, the character shoots that enemy. However, he can only hit that enemy once per turn.
#2 Hunter
This subclass highly excels in short and midrange offensive attacks. It has a very powerful active skill that lets you hit two targets. The downside is this starting skill has a slight chance to miss so keep that in mind.
It also has an ultimate skill at the bottom of the skill tree called Barrage wherein you have the chance to hit enemies multiple times whenever they start to move which will also cost lower accuracy for every successful attack.
On the other hand, if you’re aiming to master another subclass then at least have Quick Shot in your arsenal so you have multiple chances to kill your enemies.
Most Useful Skills:
- Quick Shot – 6 Piercing Damage; Hit 2 targets with 30% less accuracy and 30% chance to miss
- Arrow Stab – Stab an adjacent target for half damage and apply bleeding. If he’s flanked, he also becomes stunned.
- Barrage – Everytime the character shoots a target, restore an action point but get a 33% reduction in accuracy.
#3 Sniper
This subclass is probably one of the hardest to master from the Sagitarrius category. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that the Sniper is the weakest but they are the best range support to have because they have the ability to mark enemies for maximum damage.
The challenge of playing as a Sniper is the time it takes for the negative effects to set up because you will risk an action point to mark the target and you may need to wait for another turn to execute your attack.
That is why it is handy to have a Triarius nearby, specifically a Flagbearer, to give you an additional action point (through Inspire) so you can recover an action point immediately strike before the enemies come closer to you.
Most Useful Skills:
- Ranging Shot – Give spotted effect to enemies which will give them full damage from other ranged attacks regardless of distance.
- Marked Target – Give double damage to an enemy on your next ranged attack.
- Eagle Eye – Get full ranged damage at maximum range.
Triarius
The Triarius boasts as the best hybrid support attacker in the game. Although they can’t equip shields and don’t have the best defense output like the Princeps, they do pose a great threat if used correctly.
They have the ability to strike multiple enemies at once with their staff weapons making them a formidable opponent. In fact, whenever you’re faced with this support class, it’s highly recommended to incapacitate them first in battle when you have the chance because they can serve as healers as well.
With all this in mind, here’s how we’ve ranked its subclasses according to their utility.
#1 Medic
If you want to save your infirmary slots in your world map explorations, then this may be the best path to take as a Triarius. In fact, this is one of the default subclasses of your trusted companions, Syneros.
Later in the game, you can unlock the Revive skill which gives you an opportunity to remove Incapacitated status from your squad giving them another chance to fight.
The Medic also gives you an AoE skill that can boost the movement speed of your allies giving it a high mobility trait. We’ve placed this as the top spot because of its ability to revive your squad on the battlefield up to three times.
Most Useful Skills:
- Cure – Provokes attack of opportunity and removes bleeding, burned, poisoned, and burning status effect from allies.
- Revive – Bring an incapacitated ally back in action with 50% health. However, the revived ally cannot spend any action points but they can use any available movement points to move around the battlefield.
- Curse – Apply weakened to enemies in a 6 hex radius giving them -50% damage.
#2 Flagbearer
While the Medic focuses mostly on healing and debuffs, the Flagbearer can serve as your additional support when it comes to running your offense. It doesn’t have any offensive skills but this subclass is very useful in boosting your party attacks through Warhorn.
Additionally, it can make a perfect partner with any legionnaire through its Inspire ability restoring them another action point to do another skill.
Its last active ability in the skill tree Rousing Speech gives away an AoE healing effect so this subclass may take some time to level grind and is well suited for the late game.
Most Useful Skills:
- War Horn – Give your allies 25% damage in a 6 hex radius.
- Inspire – Restore an action point to an ally who has used theirs.
- Rousing Speech – Gives you 8 healing and a 25% health recovery to your allies in a 6 hex radius.
#3 Destroyer
The Destroyer is the most unique subclass in the Triarius category because it’s the only one that doesn’t have any support skills. Think of it as a Veles but catered to beat armored and shielded enemies.
Deathblow can be a problem once you’ve maxed out the Destroyer skill tree because the Finisher passive gives you a chance to a stationary enemy, letting you perform another attack combo.
In situations where the Destroyer is surrounded, he can utilize weapon skills to lower the surrounding opponents’ health, and if it kills a target, your Deathblow ability can reset giving you the chance to chain more killing combos.
Most Useful Skills:
- Deathblow – 6 to 9 Piercing Damage; 2 Armor Shred; +50% Damage to Stunned, Stuck, Knocked Down, or Sundered.
- Sunder – 6 to 9 Piercing Damage; 2 Armor Shred; Sets enemy shield to 0 before inflicting damage. Shield strength will not be restored in the next turn.
- Finisher – A passive skill that can heal you 10% to 20% health (if maxed out); Delivering a killing blow to an enemy will cause Deathblow to reset.
Conclusion
While a lot of us have different playstyles when it comes to turn-based RPG games, no strategy is ever perfect. So it all boils down to your perception of the battlefield.
We hope this Expeditions Rome class tier list has been helpful in giving you an idea of what kind of legionnaire you plan to build. What’s your favorite subclass combination in the game so far? Leave them in the comments section.
