Every Guardian picks a class, then a specialization — one of eighteen. A spec fixes your element and hands you a signature mechanic to build around. What it does not fix is your role: that stays a rebindable build choice, so any class can tank, heal, or deal damage no matter which spec it runs.
Six aspects of the Light orbit the Pyre as equals — no element out-damages another. A spec's element is locked, but every engine is normalized to the same average output; it only chooses the delivery curve: burst, sustained, damage-over-time, or control.
The seventh, Corruption, is the Darkness itself — carried only by the two specs bold enough to turn it back on its makers.
Each class has a role it does best out of the box, shown on every block below. But role is scaled by a damage multiplier applied on top of an otherwise element-neutral kit — a 20-point band from DPS to Tank — and it is a rebindable build choice. Re-spec on the fly: your spec and element come along; only the multiplier and specialty change.
The powerhouse. The whole kit points downrange, top of the band — the number every DPS-check is measured against.
Keeps the fireteam alive and empowered — and still a real damage dealer. Healing output is never scaled down.
Controls the room, holds aggro, survives — trades the least damage for the most team-enabling power.
The chassis is flexible. Natural role is a class's default and best-supported role — never a lock. Any of the six classes can build any of the three roles; the spec and its element ride along unchanged.
Three specs per class, each locked to its own element. The element-coloured badge on every card is that spec's fixed damage type; the mechanic beneath it is the signature you build around.
Raises a Void Wardwall that overshields the whole fireteam. Anything that strikes the barrier is Suppressed, and overshielded allies leave a Devour trail on their kills.
Banks incoming fire as Scorch stacks on a molten shield, then vents them all at once as a ring of Ignition that clears everything pressing the line.
Freezes the frontline into a Stasis rampart. Every block Slows the room around it, and shattering the wall detonates the Frozen crowd caught against it.
Slips into a Void cloak. Breaking invisibility with the first strike primes Volatile across the target, and a Devour kill refreshes the vanish for the next mark.
Blink-strikes chain Jolt between marked foes, so each hit forks lightning into the pack. Every kill returns you Amplified — faster blink, faster reload.
Grapples target to target on a Strand line, Suspending them mid-air on arrival and Severing their outgoing damage as it swings past to the next.
Plants a Solar dawn-rift that Restores and cures allies standing in it. Overhealed teammates radiate Scorch, turning the fireteam's aura into passive Ignition.
Strings an Arc conduit between allies that keeps the fireteam Amplified, while anything that closes into the current is Jolted and staggered back.
Weaves a Void well that shields allies and Devours on their behalf — kills near it siphon life back to the team, and the well Suppresses any foe that wanders in.
Feeds on the Severed. Each Suspend-kill knots fresh threads that lash out at the next target on its own, snowballing the frenzy across the pack.
Burns hotter the more it takes. Damage taken banks Scorch on the Revenant itself; triggering the Ignition converts those stacks straight into lifesteal.
Channels the Darkness itself. Kills spread Unravel to everything nearby — but the wound it opens bleeds back into the Ravager, health for havoc.
Deploys an auto-turret and overclocks the fireteam's Kinetic weapons — no status verb, just guaranteed Precision damage and reliable stagger on every marked target.
Fields Arc drones that patrol the killbox, Jolting anything that steps in. Every arc kill they land feeds ability energy back to the whole fireteam.
Locks a chokepoint with a Stasis emitter. Foes are Slowed the moment they enter, Frozen if they push, and shattered into the next trap in the chain.
Reads the Void to Suppress a whole pack at once, cutting their abilities dead — then Devours the opening, funnelling the kills into healing for the fireteam.
Bends the pace of the fight. A Stasis timewell Slows enemies toward a Freeze while accelerating allied cooldowns and recovery inside it.
Marks the doomed. The Unravel it seeds spreads between cursed targets, and every point of Corruption damage it deals is siphoned back as healing to the team.
Every spec, laid across its class and element. No class monopolizes an element, and no element is the answer — the meta lives in gear and builds, not in the column you pick.
| Class | Kinetic | Solar | Arc | Void | Stasis | Strand | Corruption |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titan | — | Cinderguard | — | Aegis | Bastion | — | — |
| Specter | — | — | Voltaic | Umbra | — | Weaver | — |
| Vanguard | — | Dawnward | Currentcaller | Nullward | — | — | — |
| Revenant | — | Pyreborn | — | — | — | Reaver | Ravager |
| Artificer | Gunsmith | — | Arcwright | — | Cryotech | — | — |
| Oracle | — | — | — | Nullseer | Warpmind | — | Doomsayer |