Best Builds - Hogwarts Legacy

Everyone knows that a good witch or wizard must specialize. And, in Hogwarts Legacy, this means using your limited amount of Talent Points wisely, in order to most efficiently make it through your year at Hogwarts. Considering that there are only 36 total talent points in the game, and 48 talents total, this means that you will need to be very careful when considering how to spend those Talent Points — especially because there is no way to respec them later! To add to matters, the different talents all unlock at different levels, meaning you will need to wait in order to invest in some of the more powerful spells.

It can all be very overwhelming, especially if you don’t want to accidentally spend your points in an inefficient way. That’s where we come in to outline the various builds in Hogwarts Legacy you can use in order to make the best possible witch or wizard you can. If you want to know how to earn Talent Points, or get a complete list of them, check out our Talent guide. If you want to make the best possible witch or wizard for your playstyle, though, this is the place to be.

This guide is a work in progress, and will be updated as more information becomes available, and once the game releases.

What’s In a Build?

Hogwarts Legacy is a deep game, with myriad systems within systems — gear, talents, and spells, to name a few — all interacting with each other to create your unique character. Between those different metrics, there is a lot of flexibility for your playstyle, and therefor for a build. In order to make it as easy as possible, we’ve organized our builds into a few different elements:

Talents: The core of a build, and the most unchangeable part of it. Talents are unique abilities which you can purchase with points that you earn by leveling up, and each can drastically change how you engage with the game by improving your powers. You only receive one Talent Point per level, starting at level 5, up to the max level of 40, meaning that you only have 36 Talent Points to spend, out of a total 48 Talents. With our builds, we guide you through each Talent cutoff (Level 5-15, 16-21, and 22-40) so that you are investing in the best possible Talents at the optimal times.
Gear: The thing which modifies a build the most. Gear is any item you equip, including it’s Offense and Defense stats, as well as what Traits it has.
Spells: Which spells you should have equipped at all times to make the most of a build’s unique talents and gear.
Consumables: Which items you should keep stocked up on which will be the most useful for your build, most often potions.

With that out of the way, here are the best builds for Hogwarts Legacy:

The Best Build

Why is this called the best build? Because it gives you the most rounded experience, letting you fully engage with as much of the game as possible while taking advantage of the most powerful talents and gear. While it may not be as effective as some other builds in specific area, this build should be able to get you through the game — even at the highest difficulties — without too much trouble. If you just want to make the ideal witch or wizard for the Hogwarts Legacy, look no further.

Talents

At levels 5-15, you will want to focus on getting your basic functionality as strong as possible, before letting yourself be lured into the flashier talents. However, there is still some room for flair in the best possible build, once you get past the first few levels. You should take the following talents at the listed levels, in order to get the most use out of each:

Level 5 – Basic Cast Mastery: Nothing will ever beat being able to simply attack more often by reducing the cooldown of your main ability.
Level 6 – Spell Knowledge I: You will be using a variety of spells, so increasing the amount you can sift through on the fly — and getting used to doing so early — is very useful.
Level 7 – Protego Absorption: You use protego to block spells for the entire game, and anything that increases your Ancient Magic meter is powerful indeed.
Level 8 – Incendio Mastery: Incendio deals amazing damage, and will become a mainstay of your arsenal from the beginning of the game all the way through it. Especially for players averse to the Dark Arts (and even for them), this spell is essential.
Level 9 – Wiggenweld Potency I: If you find yourself dying often, or realizing that your health is perpetually low in combat, this is a great Talent that can greatly improve your survivability by buffing one of the most used items in the game.
Level 10 – Sense of Secrecy I: This spell will greatly improve your stealth, which will be invaluable throughout the game.
Level 11 – Stunning Curse: Stupefy is a frequently used spell throughout the game, and so cursing your opponents whenever you use it is very useful.
Level 12 – Levioso Mastery: Turns the Levioso spell from a single target into an area-of-effect spell, greatly improving its usefulness.
Level 13 – Invisibility Potion Potency: The invisibility potion turns stealth from a nice option to a great way to clear out entire enemy encampments without them seeing you.
Level 14 – Human Demiguise: As you progress into the midgame, you will find yourself sneaking more often, and so having the ability to move quicker while sneaking will save you lots of time.
Level 15 – Spell Knowledge II: By this point in the game, you are acquiring enough spells that you will want to cycle between for this to be useful.

There are only 6 levels in this spread, and yet 17 new Talents to choose from, so you need to be very careful about which you pick. You should take the following talents:

Level 16 – Protego Expertise: As mentioned before, you will be blocking a lot. Why not weaponize that?
Level 17 – Slowing Curse: This is an easy way to curse big enemies while also keeping them at bay.
Level 18 – Enduring Curse: Now that you have several methods of cursing enemies, make that last longer.
Level 19 – Bombarda Mastery: Big explosions are very good against groups of enemies.
Level 20 – Maxima Potion Potency: This turns the Maxima potion from “nice to have” to “absolutely incredible” by letting you break shields with spells.
Level 21 – Evasion Absorbtion: You need to evade attacks often enough that it is very worth it to get some Ancient Magic when you do.
Level 22 – Spell Knowledge III / Wiggenweld Potency II: At this point, you should decide whether you need to additional survivability given by improving the Wiggenweld potion, or if you would benefit more from having even more spells at your immediate disposal.

Now reaching the endgame, you can take some of the most powerful Talents in the game, as well as grab a few from the previous level that you will have missed.

Level 22 – Protego Mastery: Protego is great and ever-useful. Now it can be just as offensive as it is defensive.
Level 23 – Crucio Mastery: Increase the number of enemies you can curse easily while dealing lots of damage.
Level 24 – Avada Kedavra Mastery: Remember all that cursing you’re doing? Now it is lethal, eliminating swaths of enemies all at once.
Level 25- Curse Sapper: You might as well heal while you are killing scores with enemies with a single cast.
Level 26 – Spell Knowledge III / Wiggenweld Potency II: Now that you need an entire spell wheel mostly for curses, you’ll need Spell Knowledge, and now that you are in the late game, you’ll want stronger Wiggenweld.
Level 27 – Petrificus Totalus Mastery: Turns Petrificus Totalus into an Area-of-Effect spell, letting you really control combat.
Level 28 – Ancient Magic Throw Expertise: Something you missed all the way back at Level 5, but now it will be much more effective than it would’ve then.
Level 29 – Revelio Mastery: You are going to start wanting more high-level gear by this point, and Revelio can help you find it.
Level 30 – Transformation Mastery: I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to turn their enemies into explosives?

By Level 31 and beyond, you will have all the necessary Talents for an amazing build. You will also have developed your own preferences for other spells and mechanics that you prefer, so you can use the Talent Points you get from Levels 31 to 40 how you see fit, secure in the knowledge that you already have a build strong enough to face the endgame.

Gear

This section will be updated in the coming hours or days, once our tinkerers are sure of the best gear for this build.

Spells

From early on, you will want to be using Incendio to deal damage and Levioso and Stupefy to disable enemies. Once you unlock the Unforgivable Curses, you will want to cycle those into rotation (especially Crucio), as well as any spells that can apply curses with Dark Arts Talents, like Arresto Momentum. Later on, Petrificus Totalus is an excellent stunning spell. Of course, you will want a spell wheel with utility spells like Accio, Revelio, and Lumos ready to go for outside of combat.

Best Build – No Dark Magic

While the Best Build is what we believe to be… Well, the best build in Hogwarts Legacy, it does involve you using the Dark Arts, up to and including the Unforgivable Curses. However, there are many players who would prefer not to use Dark Arts, and stick to regular magic. This is a modified version the Best Build for them, replacing all Dark Arts with other, less wicked magic.

Talents

Level 5 – Basic Cast Mastery: Nothing will ever beat being able to simply attack more often by reducing the cooldown of your main ability.
Level 6 – Spell Knowledge I: You will be using a variety of spells, so increasing the amount you can sift through on the fly — and getting used to doing so early — is very useful.
Level 7 – Protego Mastery: You use protego to block spells for the entire game, and anything that increases your Ancient Magic meter is powerful indeed.
Level 8 – Incendio Mastery: Incendio deals amazing damage, and will become a mainstay of your arsenal from the beginning of the game all the way through it. Especially for players averse to the Dark Arts (and even for them), this spell is essential.
Level 9 – Wiggenweld Potency I: If you find yourself dying often, or realizing that your health is perpetually low in combat, this is a great Talent that can greatly improve your survivability by buffing one of the most used items in the game.
Level 10 – Sense of Secrecy I: This spell will greatly improve your stealth, which will be invaluable throughout the game.
Level 11 – Swift: Get out of the way of spells quickly and improve your mobility in battle.
Level 12 – Levioso Mastery: Turns the Levioso spell from a single target into an area-of-effect spell, greatly improving its usefulness.
Level 13 – Invisibility Potion Potency: The invisibility potion turns stealth from a nice option to a great way to clear out entire enemy encampments without them seeing you.
Level 14 – Human Demiguise: As you progress into the midgame, you will find yourself sneaking more often, and so having the ability to move quicker while sneaking will save you lots of time.
Level 15 – Spell Knowledge II: By this point in the game, you are acquiring enough spells that you will want to cycle between for this to be useful.

There are only 6 levels in this spread, and yet 17 new Talents to choose from, so you need to be very careful about which you pick. You should take the following talents:

Level 16 – Protego Expertise: As mentioned before, you will be blocking a lot. Why not weaponize that?
Level 17 – Headache: Mandrakes can very effectively disable opponents who seem to be closing in a bit too quickly.
Level 18 – Descendo Mastery: Enemies are in the air often enough for you to get frequent Area of Effect damage with this.
Level 19 – Basic Airborne Absorption: A lot of combat sees you hurling enemies into the air, and this makes that more effective.
Level 20 – Maxima Potion Potency: This turns the Maxima potion from “nice to have” to “absolutely incredible” by letting you break shields with spells.
Level 21 – Evasion Absorbtion: You need to evade attacks often enough that it is very worth it to get some Ancient Magic when you do.
Level 22 – Spell Knowledge III / Wiggenweld Potency II: At this point, you should decide whether you need to additional survivability given by improving the Wiggenweld potion, or if you would benefit more from having even more spells at your immediate disposal.

Now reaching endgame, you can take some of the most powerful Talents in the game, as well as grab a few from the previous level that you will have missed.

Level 22 – Protego Mastery: Protego is great and ever-useful. Now is can be just as offensive as it is defensive.
Level 23 – Stupefy Expertise: Why only stun an enemy when you can stun and damage them?
Level 24 – Confringo Mastery: Get more use of this spell by letting it target more enemies.
Level 25- Focus Potion Potency: The Focus Potion can let you rain down much more punishment onto enemies, and this increases that markedly.
Level 26 – Spell Knowledge III / Wiggenweld Potency II: Now that you need an entire spell wheel mostly for curses, you’ll need Spell Knoweldge, and now that you are in the late game, you’ll want stronger Wiggenweld.
Level 27 – Petrificus Totalus Mastery: Turns Petrificus Totalus into an Area-of-Effect spell, letting you really control combat.
Level 28 – Ancient Magic Throw Expertise: Something you missed all the way back at Level 5, but now it will be much more effective than it would’ve then.
Level 29 – Revelio Mastery: You are going to start wanting more high level gear by this point, and Revelio can help you find it.
Level 30 – Transformation Mastery: I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to turn their enemies into explosives?

By Level 31 and beyond, you will have all the necessary Talents for an amazing build already. You will also have developed your own preferences for other spells and mechanics that you prefer, so you can use the Talent Points you get from Levels 31 to 40 how you see fit, secure in the knowledge that you already have a build strong enough to face the endgame.

Gear

This section will be updated in the coming hours or days, once our tinkerers are sure of the best gear for this build.

Spells

From early on, you will want to be using Incendio to deal damage and Levioso and Stupefy to disable enemies. Confringo and Bombarda can nicely supplement your damage as you progress. Later on, Petrificus Totalus is an excellent stunning spell. Of course, you will want a spell wheel with utility spells like Accio, Revelio, and Lumos ready to go for outside of combat.

And there are our builds for Hogwarts Legacy. More will be added as our Magic Theorists are able to test their hypotheses and create them.

10 Comments

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Vasco

#13891

1 year ago

Why enduring curse on the second build?

Graves(@graves)

Author

#13892

Reply to Vasco

Small mistake in editing. Fixed now (replaced with Descendo Mastery, a truly great AoE spell)

Arlo

#13894

Great guide, can’t wait to see the rest of it!

Maxi

#13901

Thanks for the builds! Is there a way to respec?

Furious(@furious)

Admin

#13914

Reply to Maxi

Currently there is no way to respec unfortunately.

Nazzami

#13911

some small mistakes with trait names at level 7 it would be Protego Absorption instead of mastery and Stupety expertise instead of mastery at level 23 on no dark magic.

Steven

#13918

Could you share your spell wheel setup ?

#13919

Reply to Steven

And the playstyle ? Really like the build so far

AcidSnake92

#13948

If I decide to use the build that doesn’t involve dark magic/unforgivable spells, can I still do Sebastian’s questline? I know those questlines apparently have you learn those spells, but can I learn them and just completely ignore them afterward?