I'm currently playing through the game on each class, and I will be sharing my thoughts with regard to character builds. Today we will be looking at the last of the three currently available classes, the Bandit. This class is your typical "rogue" archetype, with an emphasis on mobility, evasion, and hard-hitting physical skills. Their dedicated weapons are katars (two-handed) and bows (also two-handed).
To become a Bandit, you must reach level 10 as a Novice and obtain the quest "Devious Pact" from Sally, then read the tome she gives. This cannot be undone, so make sure this is the class you want.

I've decided to introduce a 5-point grading system for each skill to give a better idea of what I think of each one. A 1 (●○○○○) means it's almost never worth taking, and a 5 (●●●●●) means it's almost always worth taking.

I will be updating these guides as my opinions and the game itself changes. If you have any criticisms or thoughts of your own, please feel free to share them.

In games with limited available slots for active abilities, I find that there's one primary rule you need to follow: Use your abilities, or lose them. If you find that you aren't using an ability often, it's almost always better to swap it out for another ability you will get more use out of.

Experiment. Try different stuff. Learn what you like, and what you don't like.

Your choice of race is largely inconsequential as it only dictates what skill you start with permanently unlocked in your book. All racial skills are able to be learned via scrolls.

For this character, I picked Byrdle mainly because I like cute birbs, but also because their racial, Inner Focus, is very good for Bandit.

As a Bandit, your primary stat is dexterity, which is what all of your class skills scale off of. So, you should primarily invest points there. I also recommend investing at least some points in vitality to have a decent health buffer. This is more or less important depending on if you focus more on melee or ranged.

Mind is generally useless to you, and you might think about investing in strength for extra stamina, but don't. You only get +1 stamina per 5 points and you get plenty of extra stamina through gear and levels.

●●●●●* Venom Shot - Bread and butter single target damage. Requires a ranged weapon.

●●●●●* Killer Jab - The melee equivalent of Venom shot.

●●●●○ Volley - Vastly improved in the recent update. The area is bigger and I think the delay is lower too. Also does a LOT of damage.

●●●●○ Pay Day - Melee stun that dashes through enemies and drops currency. Stuns are very useful. Just make sure you use them.

●●●●○ Bomb Trap - Drops a bomb on the ground that will explode, dealing AoE damage. Very good ability, but how you use it will depend on if you're playing with friends or not. You can't really kite enemies into your bombs if a fighter is holding all the aggro.

●●●○○ Caltrops - It's good. Just good. But hey, since it's a persistent AoE it allows you to stack em with Volley to make a blender, so go nuts.

●●●○○ Mist Veil - Defensive ability that turns you invisible and heals over its duration. Very useful, the healing was also improved in the update (I think it scales now?)

●●●●● Devious Signet - As I stated in my Mystic and Fighter guides, buff skills are pretty much mandatory picks unless you have someone else in the party that already has it.

●●●●● Avoidance - Free survivability (as long as you have the points).

●●●●● Agile Technique - Gives crazy mobility. Highly recommended.


*Unless you are planning on running both melee and ranged and use them equally, I only recommend grabbing one of these. Now that we have an action bar for each weapon now however, this playstyle is more viable.

Classless skills are currently generally weaker options compared to class skills. For instance... oh, huh. Guess spread shot is the only dex scaling one currently. Anyway, here are a couple worth considering:

●●●●○ Inner Focus - Guaranteed crit on your next hit. Pairs very well with any of your active abilities due to them being one and done instead of multi hit.

●●○○○ Leg Up - If you really want to go crazy with the mobility, this gives you even more. More of a meme than anything.

●●●○○ Spread Shot - Actually a halfway decent alternative to Volley if you want an AoE skill but don't like how Volley works.

There are two skills you can obtain from Sally via a quest that gives you skill scrolls:
●●●●● Dexterity Mastery (formerly Weapon Masteries) is just an easy good passive. Increased weapon damage and a charge attack. Bow and katar charge attacks are especially potent because it's essentially just a flurry of attacks that do far more damage than a single hit would. Though the bow charge attack is more useful because using katars means having to stay in the enemy's face.

●●●●○* Focus Shot - Really good damage on both single and multi target, and a medium length cooldown. Pairs incredibly well with inner focus (almost feels like fate, huh?).

*If you're running a ranged weapon.

In no particular order:

Actives:
Venom Shot
Bomb Trap
Volley
Focus Shot
Mist Veil
Devious Signet
Inner Focus

Passives:
Devious Signet
Agile Technique
Avoidance
Dexterity Mastery

I use ranged exclusively (because I'm a coward). Keep signet up. Venom shot on cooldown, drop bombs on cooldown, Focus Shot when you've got enemies bunched up or just to hit the boss in the face (combo with Inner Focus if it's off cooldown). Take advantage of your mobility to kite enemies and charge shots while moving. When I'm playing solo I use that extra mobility from Agile Technique to dash around and kite the enemies. Mist Veil if you get into trouble.