Masteries

Grim Dawn's skill classes are known as Masteries. Each Mastery has its own skill tree which represents the various character archetypes within the game. On reaching level 2, a player chooses a Mastery for their character to specialize in. At level 10, a second and final mastery may be chosen to complement the first choice and create a dual-class character.

Skill Points
There are a total of 248 Skill Points available. 237 Skill Points are earned by leveling up. The other 11 Skill Points are from Quests.
 * 3 Skill Points per level from Levels 2 to 50 (147 Skill Points)
 * 2 Skill Points per level from Levels 51 to 90 (80 Skill Points)
 * 1 Skill Point per level from Levels 91 to 100 (10 Skill Points)
 * Quests
 * Kasparov's Experiment on each Difficulty (3 Skill Points)
 * The Hidden Path on each Difficulty (3 Skill Points)
 * The Other You on Ultimate Difficulty (1 Skill Point)

The Forgotten Gods Expansion makes four more Skill Points available, from the following quests:
 * Tomb of the Eldritch Sun (Ultimate) (1 Skill Point)
 * Entering the Shattered Realm (Ultimate) (1 Skill Point)
 * Exploring the Shattered Realm (Ultimate) (1 Skill Point)
 * Conquering the Shattered Realm (Ultimate) (1 Skill Point)

Skills
Mastery skills are first unlocked by investing Skill Points in the Mastery bar. The Mastery Bar is divided into 9 tiers. Filling the Mastery bar up to a particular tier allows points to then be spent on skills of that tier. Each Skill Point put into the Master Bar also grants the character an increase in base attributes. A maximum of 50 Skill Points can be invested in the Mastery bar for each Mastery.

Skill Types
Skills in Grim Dawn can be divided into four types:


 * Active skills require manual activation by the player, and are assigned to the mouse or skill bar.


 * Passive skills activate automatically, and can provide bonuses or chance on attack effects.


 * Modifiers alter the behavior of Active and Passive skills by adding additional effects.


 * Transmuters are a class of Modifier that alters the basic function of an active or passive skill. They can provide interesting trade-offs and a greater range of build possibilities, and give players more flexibility as to how they use certain skills. Each Mastery features 3-5 Transmuters.

Default Weapon Attacks
These are Active skills that serve as auto-attack replacers for melee or ranged weapon use, and can be bound to the left mouse button. In addition to those available from Masteries, several are granted by items.

Weapon Pool Skills
These are Passive abilities that have a chance to proc with auto attacks and default weapon skills. Weapon Pool Skill bonuses are applied on top of the auto-attack replacer's damage, with the exception of Cadence, where the proc on the 3rd hit will over-ride any WPS. WPSs can also be used in conjunction with attack skills with cooldowns, such as Amarasta's Blade Burst and Bone Harvest, where they will proc during the cooldown period.

Many items also grant weapon pool skills.

Exclusive Skills
These are Active skills which provide powerful buffs, only one of which can be activated at any one time.

Respecs
Skills can be unlearned by visiting a Spirit Guide who will refund skill points for a small fee, which will increase the more skill points are refunded. Skills cannot be completely unlearned without first removing all points from passive skills which affect it. Points can also be removed from the Mastery bar, but Masteries themselves cannot be changed.

The Spirit Guide refund cost goes up every 20 points refunded. The initial cost is 25, then 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500, (Not sure after this).

The Tonic of Reshaping can be used to reset all Attribute Points, while the Tonic of Clarity can be used to reset all Devotion Points.