All Wayfinder classes and their abilities explained

Wayfinder ditches the idea of passive perk trees and freeform character building that many MMORPGs espouse. Instead, the eponymous 'Wayfinders' are individual heroic characters with their own abilities, similar to Warframes. Unlike a Warframe, a Wayfinder's abilities operate on cooldowns rather than a secondary energy resource. After you select your starter Wayfinder, all the other additional characters can be crafted with in-game resources.

There are six total Wayfinders in the game available at launch, out of which three are accessible from the start as a beginner class. Even though the niche roles their kits fulfill can have some overlap, each of these six classes varies greatly in play style.

All Wayfinder characters you can craft in Season 1: Gloom Break

Wingrave, the Seeker

Wingrave is the paladin Wayfinder (Image via Digital Extremes)

The starter of choice for a tanking-oriented playstyle, Wingrave checks all the lists you would expect from a Paladin archetype. This includes the classic melee sword-and-board approach which his abilities are designed around. Any finisher attack landed by Wingrave passively provides a squad-wide heal.

Righteous Strike is a spin-and-slash combo with a light-imbued sword that generates homing healing orbs that seek out Wingrave and his allies.
Radiant Pulse provides a shield that buffs physical and magic defense stats and blocks all projectiles in a wide frontal cone.
Enemies marked by Judgement heal allies proportionate to the damage dealt to them.
Divine Aegis heals all allies and provides a brief period of immunity from damage within its area of effect.

Silo, the Tactician

Silo fits the bill for an engineer class in Wayfinder (Image via Wayfinder Twitter)

Even though he can use melee weapons, Silo synergizes best with a ranged kiting playstyle. All his abilities are meant to manipulate the battlefield to his advantage with lingering damage, crowd control, and nukes.

Fire Bomb explodes on contact with enemies and deals additional damage over time. Additionally, if thrown on an active oil field from Oil Bomb, the range and damage increase significantly.
Oil Bomb creates a puddle of oil on contact that slows enemies and makes them more vulnerable to all sources of damage.
Radiant Clone is a dash ability where Silo retreats backward and creates a hologram decoy in his former position to draw enemy aggro toward it.
Ground Zero temporarily summons Silo's companion drone, EGG, who deals damage over time and slows enemies with shock damage.

Niss, the Shadow Dancer

NIss is the assassin class in Wayfinder, even though she is categorized as an 'arcanist' (Image via Digital Extremes)

Wayfinder's version of the assassin archetype, Niss, is all about high physical damage nukes at the cost of defenses. As an incentive for her elusive playstyle, Niss gains extra attack power after dodging.

Shadow Step is a dash ability that damages all enemies on its path. A Gloom Clone is left at the initial position and dashes to Niss' position after 2 seconds, dealing another instance of damage on its path.
Umbral Aura provides a buff to Niss and nearby allies, making their next 3 dodges also deal gradual damage to nearby enemies.
Vengeful Shade throws daggers in a frontal cone, damaging enemies struck by it and providing Niss an i-frame. Niss can follow this up with an attack to deal further damage or a backflip to retreat.
Gloom Shroud grants Niss 10 free casts of Shadow Step.

Venomess, the Alchemist

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The Wayfinder Venomess has a lot of parallels to Saryn from Warframe. Her central mechanic is her native capacity to apply venom stacks with any weapon. Stacking this debuff 5 times on an enemy creates a poison cloud that can individually apply venom stacks of its own to nearby enemies.

Transfusion shoots a volley of 5 homing poison needles that damage enemies and then generate healing orbs that seek out a nearby Wayfinder. The amount of healing depends on the stacks of venom on the enemy.
Vampiric Cloud launches a bomb that absorbs nearby poison clouds to explode for additional damage. The damage increases with each poison cloud absorbed (up to 5).
Venom Thrusters is a dash ability that leaves a series of poison clouds in Venomess' trajectory.
Deep Breath applies 5 stacks of empowered venom to all enemies in an area, dealing increased damage over time than regular venom stacks. These count as regular venom stacks for combo potential with other abilities.

Kyros, the Battlemage

Heroic Kyros is a variant of Kyros obtainable by purchasing the Exalted Founder pack (Image via Digital Extremes)

Kyros is the archetypal nuker Wayfinder with a stat spread that leans towards offense over defense. Passively, Kyros gains a unique Wayfinder resource called Arcane Fragments for each melee finisher and his second ability.

Savage Rake is a close-range nuke that can be spammed thanks to Arcane Fragments. Arcane Fragments are automatically consumed to cast it at no cost.
Siphon Radiant sends out a pulse of arcane energy around Kyros that deals a token amount of damage to his enemies, but more importantly, grants Arcane Fragments and reduces cooldown on other abilities.
Arcane Focus casts an arcane mark on enemies in an area, which stores damage as they are hit and detonates when the timer expires or when it reaches its possible damage cap.
Hand of Reckoning is a nuke dealing significant damage in a medium range around Kyros.

Senja, the Champion

Senja is the greatsword-wielding berserker Wayfinder (Image via Digital Extremes)

As the moniker of the 'champion' may imply, Senja is a melee-centric Wayfinder that can both withstand and dish out damage up close. She fits the berserker class archetype, an MMORPG staple.

Gladiator Pummel makes Senja punch her target with her bare fists. The ability can be held after the initial attack to charge two follow-up punches, increasing the damage on her next weapon attack.
Gain Favour taunts enemies around Senja, granting defensive buffs to herself and her allies.
Lightning Grasp pulls all enemies into Senja's melee range and stuns them briefly. Does not affect bigger enemies that cannot be crowd-controlled.
Grand Finale is a dash ability that doubles as a powerful nuke to bumrush enemies and deal significant damage.

All of her abilities, save for Lightning Grasp, also grant her 'Crowd's Favour.' Senja gains passive attack and ability damage buffs with each stack of Crowd's Growth, further empowering her brute-force playstyle.