The best Pagan Online heroes to hack through the horde

Pagan Online classes
(Image credit: Mad Head Games)

There are ten different Pagan Online classes, each of whom encourage wildly different playstyles. In the beginning you can only unlock a single hero, but each additional character costs one hero soul from the increasingly challenging list of assassination missions. 

Knowing which heroes you want to unlock first makes a major difference, so we're here to break down each class in Pagan Online, including their strengths, difficulty, and their best moves to help you hack-and-slash through the endless enemy hordes.

Kingewitch

  • Melee or Ranged: Melee
  • Classification: Berserker
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Beginner
  • Recommended Skills: Whirlwind, Stomp, Execution, Judgement of Svarog

For anyone coming fresh from Diablo 3, Kingewitch is an easy choice. He’s the classic Diablo-style Barbarian, complete with whirlwind and leap attacks—not to mention a glorious handlebar mustache. He’s easy and straightforward to play, making him a fine choice for beginners.

Whirlwind will remain a major part of your arsenal throughout, followed by Execution. Stacking critical chance items will benefit both skills with their Bloodlust and Judgement nodes. Stomp is a useful mobility skill for getting in and out of fights—also grab Quick Recovery for more mobility. Judgement of Svarog rounds out the skills as a useful set-it-and-forget-it buff. Don’t forget to grab the Guarding Strikes node off your primary attack to gain an easy stacking boost.

Anya

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Ranged
  • Classification: Lifeleecher
  • Primary Attribute: Intelligence
  • Complexity: Intermediate
  • Recommended Skills: Swarm, Heartbeat, Blood Spikes, Altar of Gore

Anya’s glowing blood whip is one of the most impressive basic attack animations in the game. Even though she wields a melee weapon, her range is so impressive that she’s classified as a ranged hero. 

Most of her skills leech health from enemies, making her a bit trickier than more standard melee heroes like Kingewitch, Istok, and Morokh. Dump points into her Blood Rite passive to increase healing, add a stacking damage buff, and reduce cooldowns for all the little blood drops we’ll be grabbing. 

Swarm can be used defensively with the Rejuvenation tree, granting some much needed resistances. Blood Spikes provides exceptional crowd control while Heartbeat will give us a large burst of damage. With so many healing skills it’s useful to stack as much health and armor as possible.

Istok

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Melee
  • Classification: Tank
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Beginner
  • Recommended Skills: Overpower, Thunderfist, Rolling Mountain, Sacred Ground

Istok fulfills his tank role with a passive that increases his damage every time he’s hit with his powerful shield. Istok’s Shield of the Righteous also affects allies (to a lesser degree) making him a relatively supportive co-op teammate.

This tanky boy has extremely poor mobility, but a properly talented Rolling Mountain with Bull Rush and Mountain Mastery helps him get around. Overpower and Sacred Ground provides healing and defensive bonuses, and both can be talented to include teammates in co-op. We include Thunderfist because it does hilarious amounts of damage, and who doesn’t like watching the ground perform an uppercut?

Morokh

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Melee
  • Classification: Assassin
  • Primary Attribute: Intelligence
  • Complexity: Intermediate
  • Recommended Skills: Harvest, Horrible Visage, Soul Drain, Decay

The grim reaper wields a big ass scythe, and needs to hit certain combos to get the most from his abilities. His main combo is Cleave to reset the cooldown of Harvest. Morokh deals lots of damage by stacking his Curse debuff on multiple enemies and zipping around with Harvest. Don’t forget that Morokh’s dodge skill Shadow Step also inflicts his curse on any enemy he passes through.

The fear effect from Horrible Visage is a great way to clear some space, as well as following up with The Terror node from Harvest. Once we’ve spread some Curse stacks we can activate Soul Drain with Regenerating Curse for a decent healing boost. For locking enemies down we prefer Decay over Limbo for its damage and shorter cooldown. Then use Claws of the Dead to make sure they stick around inside.

Lukian

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Ranged
  • Classification: Arcanist
  • Primary Attribute: Intelligence
  • Complexity: Advanced
  • Recommended Skills: Sigil of Perun/Mark of Dabog, Lightning Ring/Fire Nova, Lightning Incarnate/Living Sun, Lightning Disciple, Fire Disciple

At first glance Lukian is a typical elemental mage with lighting and fire spells. However, every one of his abilities is a two-in-one, capable of casting two different spells depending on which follow-up basic attack he uses. It makes him a complicated but powerful hero.

Lukian’s auto-targeting, multi-hit Lightning Strike basic attack is one of the best in the game. Sigil of Perun’s Brand of Perun node makes it even better. Lighting Ring/Fire Nova is outstanding for clearing large groups of enemies, while Lighting Incarnate/Living Sun provides big damage as well as some much needed mobility. 

Top it off with the Disciple; not for the weak summon, but for its Restless Spirit node, granting a substantial damage buff.

Valeria

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Ranged
  • Classification: Huntress
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Beginner
  • Recommended Skills: Trueshot, Leash Trap, Smoke Bomb, Chakram

Valeria has learned the secret art of never having to reload her auto-crossbows, making her a mobile death turret. She possesses one of the more enjoyable dodge skills with Jump Out, with the option of turning it into a temporarily invulnerable AOE attack as she leaps over enemies.

Consider grabbing all three nodes for Barrage: you'll be using her basic attack a lot. Leash Trap is useful for hindering enemies, as the squishy archer needs to kite as much as possible to be effective. Throw a Smoke Bomb with Shadow Kill on top of them, leap on top with Jump Out, and follow with Chakram. Trueshot is our only burst damage, but it’s a workhorse. The Clutch node provides a rooting option when Leash Trap is on cooldown.

Dameer

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Ranged
  • Classification: Wildborn
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Advanced
  • Recommended Skills: Call to Action, Bearserk, Feral Souls, Ring of Thorns

Dameer is a druid with a permanent AI bear companion named Vavvan; he's one of the most challenging Pagan Online class. Instead of a dodge, Dameer can merge his soul with Vavvan to heal, while his right click changes the bear between offensive and defensive stances.

Bearserk lets us temporarily take control of the bear, which is also a good way to escape danger. Call to Action is tricky to use—as it changes its effect based on the bear’s stance—but all three nodes bestow useful abilities. Ring of Thorns is our primary AOE attack, while Feral Souls becomes more effective once we unlock the Tenacity node and summon an entire wolf pack.

Masha

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Melee
  • Classification: Fortune Teller
  • Primary Attribute: Intelligence
  • Complexity: Intermediate
  • Recommended Skills: Soundwave, Bladestorm, Twirl, Tendon Slash

A character employing weaponized tambourines is certainly a first for us. Masha’s unique dodge skill throws a random tarot card, giving her one of four buffs. Then she relies on her innate Wind Weave passive to keep her alive by dodging attacks.

Bladestorm is an obvious choice for this melee hero: the Prophecy of Doom node provides bonus damage from tarot cards, and Lethal Performance adds a nice stun effect. 

Twirl grants some helpful mobility, with all three nodes worth pursuing to add additional damage and charges. Then take Tendon Slash as a debuff, with Lethal Choreography to reset your Twirl. Finally Soundwave’s Dazed and Confused node will combine nicely with the stun from Bladestorm.

Elden

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Both!
  • Classification: Weaponsmaster
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Advanced
  • Recommended Skills: Impalement, Shatter, Glacial Armor, Hammerfall

Every other hero in Pagan Online is either ranged or melee, but the frost elemental Elden boasts both with his unique ability to switch stances from dual-wieldin swords to throwing ice javelins. Like Lukian, all his skills are two-in-one, with their effects changing depending on his stance.

Impalement instantly freezes enemies, with the Frost Nova node providing even more crowd control. Use Glacial Armor in the melee stance with the Winter Soldier node for damage reduction. Once your freeze and frostbite effects have been spread, use Shatter, with all three nodes granting useful buffs. Hammerfall brings a large source of burst damage, and combos well with Impalement’s freeze effect.

Hector

(Image credit: Mad Head Games)
  • Melee or Ranged: Ranged
  • Classification: Junker
  • Primary Attribute: Strength
  • Complexity: Beginner
  • Recommended Skills: Flamethrower, 2-Rats, Oil Spill, Scrap-O-Tron

Ever think a shotgun would be useful in an action-RPG? Hector does, too. He’s a ranged hero, but one that needs to get in close to deal maximum damage with his primary attack. As if operating a bunch of tech devices wasn’t enough, Hector also has two rat companions that can operate their own adorable turrets.

Despite its low range, Flamethrower is ridiculously powerful, and the Sorry Not Sorry node creates a hilarious chain reaction of exploding bodies. Flamethrower combos nicely with Oil Spill’s Yuck and Action Hero nodes, dealing additional sunfire damage. 

Rat fans should employ 2-Rats skill along with Scrap-O-Tron’s Rodent Revelry node to create a rapid-firing rodent death squad.