When designing a new area, there are a lot of facets of itemization to consider. Primarily, we focus on the main 4 classes (Mage, Thief, Healer, Warrior), although prestige classes do get special gear as needed. Each class and specialization has different needs. Not all needs are required to be addressed in a given map, but a good map will offer at least something to one specialization for each class.

Here are the following things you’ll want to consider for each specialization:

Mage Class

Mage

Primarily energy-focused, as well as wand-focused. Boosts to energy or specific abilities help this spec.

Elementalist

Focuses on Fire and Ice. Has some buffs and placed AoEs.

Evoker

Primarily buff-focused.

Battlemage

Melee/summoner/buff hybrid. Utilizes fire, ice and energy. Can conjure its own items. Has 4 familiars. Has the ability to make heavy armor work on a mage.

Mage Summary

• Is interested in fire/ice/energy primarily
• Has a fair bit of buff potential
• Has summons
• Can use heavy armor (level 40), and is interested in heavy mage armor

Healer Class

Healer

Healing-focused, but has some buffs.

Diviner

Damage-focused, and versatile. Can use necrotic, fire, lightning, or acid.

Druid

Nature-focused - debuff-heavy & DoT-capable. Utilizes poison/disease, as well as natural status effects (stun, daze, snare) and the cures for them. Has summons.

Oracle

Buff-focused. Has a lot of diverse buffs.

Healer Summary

• Utilizes healing, poison, disease primarily, secondarily necrotic, fire, lightning, acid
• Has a lot of powerful buffs
• Has summons
• Has powerful debuffs

Thief Class

Thief

Utilizes darkness, hiding, stealth. Has a lot of power going into daggers and throwing.

Rogue

Trap-focused, but also steals and can loot well.

Shadowsong

Bow-focused, but heavy mana utilization.

Assassin

Melee-focused. Can backstab from hiding, but also utilizes venom and poison. Can also apply debuffs to its weapons.

Thief Summary

• Favors things that boost mana and mana regen
• Likes small weapons (daggers, shortswords, etc)
• Likes poison/venom boosts
• Needs apply-able debuff bottles
• Needs traps

Warrior Class

Warrior

Adds some rage-consuming abilities. Also adds some tweaks to weapons (Firm Grip, Titan Grip). Has some improvements to offensive stats.

Paladin

Focuses on shield/1H weapon uage. Focuses heavily on tanking/defense and supporting allies.

Duelist

Focuses on dual-wielding and stances.

Monk

Focuses on open-hand combat (no weapons), and has stances/buffs that improve usability of this style.

Warrior Summary

• Utilizes melee weapons and shields of all kinds (but focuses on non-small items, which is the Thief focus)
• Needs glove/boot slot items

Overall Summary

It’s hard to nebulously say “create a little bit of everything”, but hopefully this guide explains a bit more of what each class needs. Some of the biggest things to remember, that are often forgotten, are the very niche items like Traps, Applyable Bottles, and claws/gloves/boots that are good for monks. Beyond that, the goal is to create at least a subset of elemental resistance, a subset of elemental boost to cover magical applications. Familiar boosts are another niche subset that gets forgotten, too. Also, “melee-focused” magical weapons (as most things found in Depths are) are not a huge focus, but are another category that goes underutilized.