A lot of the fun that you will have in the Hogwarts Legacy game comes from the freedom that you will have when building your own character and shaping your Hogwarts adventure.

Character Builds in Hogwarts Legacy

Unlike the game Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t that strict when it comes to needing to optimise your character;s build, which is nice because you’ll be able to have more fun with the game’s Talent system. 

Before we get into the different powerful builds you can make in the game there are a few things that you have to know about, such as the Talent and character building system, before you begin any customization. 

Talents

Talents

In order to even begin to make your powerful character builds you’ll need to have unlocked the Talent system, which you will get access to once you complete a main story quest called “Jackdaw’s Rest”. As long as you just progress through the game’s main story you’ll eventually get here, you can’t miss it. 

Your Hogwarts Legacy character will have to be at atleast Level 5 in order to start accessing the Talent system, regardless if you’ve completed the Jackdaw’s Rest quest, but you’ll probably be at a higher level when you complete this quest anyways. A good thing about this game is that it uses a “catch-up” mechanic, which means that even if you only unlock the Talents at Level 10 you’ll automatically receive 5 Talent Points to spend once you officially unlock the system.

Max Number of Talent Points

The maximum level that you will be able to reach with your Hogwarts Legacy character is 40, and since you only start earning Talent Points at level 5 it’ll result in you having a total of 35 Talent Points to spend in a single playthrough. 

This may seem like a lot of points still but the bad news is that there are a total of 48 Talents available to you character, which then means that you’ll end up with 13 Talents that you just won’t be able to use for your character. 

Could You Respec Your Character

Sadly, you won’t be able to respec your character because there is no way that you can refund your Talent Points once you’ve spent them. This means that you will have to be careful and sure on what you’re spending them on so that you won’t miss out on any  abilities that you may have wanted to have for your character build. 

Best Character Builds

Overpowered Stealth Build

Overpowered Stealth Build
Major SpellsAlohomora, Disillusionment, Accio, Leviosa
Essential TalentsSpell Knowledge I, Revelio Mastery, Human Demiguise, Sense of Secrecy I and II, Petrificus Totalus Mastery, Invisibility Potion Potency
Recommended Gear TraitsBinding III and Ambush III

If you’ve already played Hogwarts Legacy for some time now then you may have realised that stealth in this game is very overpowered. Although it definitely isn’t the most enjoyable way of playing the game, a fully-levelled stealth player will be able to clear some of the most challenging challenges pretty easily. 

After you have been able to unlock the core talents as well as Binding III and Ambush III in this stealth build, you’ll be able to clear most groups of enemies in the game pretty quickly and even without being spotted a lot of the time. This build will even work very well on some of the more powerful enemies, such as bosses, even though you won’t be able to one-shot them like you’ll be able to do with a lot of the other less powerful enemies. 

The great thing about this stealth build is that there are only four Stealth-focused Talents that you can get in this game. This means that you’ll have quite a lot of flexibility when it comes to how you want to build your character’s strength outside of those core abilities, which is great because you can cater your build more towards your playing style. Focusing on Stupefy as well as Protego is definitely a good idea for when you may need them in combat, but other players may have more fun enhancing their primary control spells instead. This last part really is up to you because you could even go full Dark Arts if you think that that would suit your character best. 

Death Eater Build

Death Eater Build
Major SpellsCrucio, Imperio, Avada Kedavra, Expelliarmus, Arresto Momentum, Flipendo
Essential TalentsImperio Mastery, Crucio Mastery, Enduring Curse, Blood Curse, Curse Sapper, Avada Kedavra Mastery, Swift, Basic Cast Mastery, Focus Potion Potency
Recommended Gear TraitsUnforgivable III and Cruelty III

When Hogwarts Legacy first came out there was a lot of hype and interest around the Dark Arts, and still to this day there are a lot of players who are still tempted by the Dark Arts. This definitely isn’t at all surprising because a Dark Arts build can be extremely powerful. 

There really isn’t too much too it when it comes to a Dark Arts build as you could even just pick up all 14 Talents available in the Dark Arts Talent tree and your character would be very powerful just like that. Picking up these talents won’t just make your Unforgivable Curses even more powerful but it’ll even cause them to work together with your three flex spells, which consist of Expelliarmus, Arresto Momentum and Flipendo. With this setup and some practice you’ll be clearing out multiple cursed enemies at once with a well-timed Avada Kedavra. 

With the remaining points that you may have after unlocking the whole Dark Arts Talent tree it would be a good idea for you to split them between the Room of Requirement and the Core Talent Trees, and even some in the stealth skills as we’ve seen how powerful that could be. Then when it comes to the Spells tree, this is pretty skippable when using this build, since you’re relying on a very specific set of spells. 

The Ancient Magic Build

The Ancient Magic Build
Major SpellsGlacius, Depulso/Incendio, Arresto Momentum, Expelliarmus
Essential TalentsGlacius Mastery, Descendo Mastery, Slowing Curse, Disarming Curse, Evasion Absorption, Protego Expertise, Basic Cast Airborne Absorption, Protego Mastery
Recommended Gear TraitsAncient Magic III, Disarming III, and Control III

Although the overall idea behind this build is relatively simple, there are a lot of different directions that you can take it in. 

As you could have deduced from the name of this build, it is designed to emphasise the powerful Ancient Magic attacks and advanced version of some of your Control spells. If you have been using these spells, on their own, in the past then you may have noticed that they don’t really do a lot of damage to your enemies, and some don’t even deal any direct damage. Once you combine as well as upgrade them the correct way, you’ll find yourself in control of pretty much every fight you find yourself in. done right, this build is really effective and in some battles your enemies’ feet won’t even touch the ground or the backs won’t even leave the floor. 

When you are using this build you’ll typically want to curse your enemies with Arresto Momentum and Expelliarmus before you build up your Ancient Magic metre to end them with powerful finishing attacks. During these battles you’ll also want to use Protego quite a lot in order to counter attack enemies that are trying to attack you. One way to make your experience with this build a little more enjoyable would be to incorporate the advanced Transformation talent, although this will take some skill to be able to fit into your rotation before you actually finish most of your battles. 

Other than those things, this build will most be up to your personal preference. Glacius is definitely a great option to focus on if you are aiming to isolate larger targets but if you’re looking to take out larger batches of less powerful enemies then a combination of Depulo and Incendio is great. 

Potions and Plants Build

Potions and Plants Build
Major SpellsExpelliarmus, Confringo, Depulso, Bombarda, Transformation
Essential TalentsNoxious, Focus Potion Potency, Thunderbrew Potency, Focus Potion Potency, Confringo Mastery, Depulso Mastery, Basic Cast Mastery, Fertiliser, Edurus Potion Potency, Maxima Potion Potency, Bombarda Mastery
Recommended Gear TraitsHerbology III, Fangs III, and Concentration III

Compared to some of the other Talents that you can unlock in the game, the Talents in the Room of Requirement Tree, which this build is going to rely on, seems pretty boring. However, if you are fully committed and invested in this build then you will be able to pull off some pretty awesome and crazy things. 

This build is unique to most of the other builds on this list and will utilise a lot of items in the game that most other builds would instead just completely ignore. If you are planning to be using this build then it’ll be important for you to stay stocked up on potions and plants, because you’ll quickly realise that using this build right will make your character almost invincible. You will be using your plants in combat to deal lots of passive damage to enemies, while using Thunderbrew to lower your cooldown times, and then also using Maxima in order to guarantee that you are getting the absolute most out of your upgraded damage spells. 

With this build the preparation that you’ll need to do is just as important as the actual battle you’re heading into. In order to make sure you are at your best you’ll need to first drink a few potions, throw your plants into the combat areas and then finally use your suddenly enhanced spells to your best abilities. Although you’ll definitely need to have some patience with this build, since you’ll need to spend quite a lot of time in the Room of Requirement, gathering all of the materials that you may need, but in the end the results are just undeniable. 

The biggest downside to this character build is that you will have to ensure that you are always able to access a pretty large supply of potion sand plants, but if you can get past this then you will find that this is really an enjoyable way to play the game. Once you get the hang of using this build you’ll be able to create complete chaos and would be perfect if you are planning on doing a second playthrough but want to try a different side of the adventure. 

Final Words

Character building

So, there you have some awesome builds that you can try out next time you decide to play Hogwarts Legacy again, but remember that in order to find one that you will like to use you’ll need to first identify what type of playstyle you have and then look at the different build options to see which one would suit you best and enhance your experience. 

Leo Beamers is an aspiring car collector born and raised just outside of the city in Cape Town and his interests include gaming, fast cars and enjoys cycling on the weekends.

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