While our encounters with the Dark Arts mainly came from the Defence Against the Dark Arts Class and the various enemies we encounter in the wizarding world, Hogwarts Legacy also allows us to become a Dark Wizard or Witch ourselves. In this guide, we will teach you how to play a powerful Dark Arts Build. We know that you are eager to join the dark covenant, so let’s get down to it!
Disclaimer: This build was tested on the Hard Difficulty, and it turned out to be quite overpowered! On the lower difficulties it may result in one-shotting your enemies even without the use of Avada Kadavra.
Build Talents
In the following tabs, we will introduce you to the Talent Path that you will want to follow along. We will also offer some explanations behind our recommended Talent picks to assist you in making your decisions.
Your first talent choices will often prove to be the most important. In Hogwarts Legacy, we will be able to select Talents once we get to level 5 and complete Jackdaw’s Rest. More often than not your first talent points will be spent in the Core section, to improve your build’s general functionality. Here is what we suggest for the build:
Level 5 – Spell Knowledge I: You will be using a variety of spells, so you will probably want to get a new spell set slot, especially since it will get rid of a lot of pausing during combat.
Level 6 – Basic Cast Mastery: The most important talent that you can acquire early on! This talent will make your Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of your spells.
Level 7 – Wiggenweld Potency I: You should pick up this talent early on to enhance the potency of your healing potions.
Level 8 – Ancient Magic Throw Expertise: A very powerful talent that can aid you early on, especially since you will be spamming Expelliarmus.
Level 9 – Protego Absorption: Important to have early on, but it can wait until Level 9, since you will probably get here quite quickly. Protego Absorption will grant points to your Ancient Magic meter whenever you use Protego. This talent will be especially powerful for our build, since it will take a while until you get access to powerful Dark Magic.
Level 10 – Stunning Curse: The first talent that kickstarts the Dark Arts Build — it allows you to apply the Cursed Status to your enemies with Stupefy.
Level 11 – Disarming Curse: The second talent that allows you to place the Cursed Status early on. This talent transforms your Expelliarmus Spell into a Dark Arts Spell!
Level 12 – Blood Curse: This is where you will begin to feel slightly inclined towards evil deeds… Now all of the targets affected by the Cursed Status will receive a portion of the damage done to any single target affected by the Cursed Status. This will be the first kind of AoE in your build.
Level 13 – Spell Knowledge II: Adds another Spell Set Slot, allowing you to store additional spells. A very important talent, as we will find ourselves juggling between many Spells, especially early on.
Level 14 – Swift: This talent is a bit contested — some people find it extremely useful for fast relocation, while others just find it to be a nuisance. Use at your own discretion. Personally, this talent has saved me in many situations.
Level 15 – Confringo Mastery: This is the first actual AoE your build gets, being particularly useful against Spiders and Inferi! You will want to get this talent before venturing into the Forbidden Forest.
Once you spend your first 15Talent Points, you will gain access to stronger talents which will enhance your gameplay considerably. Here is the talent path we suggest for the build:
Level 16 – Diffindo Mastery: This talent allows your Diffindo Spell to pass through targets, adding more AoE power to the build.
Level 17 – Bombarda Mastery: This talent will further increase your AoE capabilities by producing a massive explosion around the main target of Bombarda!
Level 18 – Spell Knowledge III: Adds the last Spell Set Slot to your arsenal, assisting you in creating a dedicated utility spell set.
Level 19 – Wiggenweld Potency II: Greatly increases the healing capabilities of the Wiggenweld Potion. It’s a must-have talent, especially on the Hard Difficulty, as you encounter progressively stronger opponents.
Level 20 – Revelio Mastery: Revelio Mastery comes with excellent utility. Some may choose to get this talent right at Level 16 as it will greatly help with questing and exploring. This one is entirely up to you, though.
Level 21 – Evasion Absorption: This talent will be very powerful as it works in combination with Swift. Filling up your Ancient Magic meter faster will always be a great idea.
Once you invest 21 Talent Points, you will unlock the ultimate rank of talents in Hogwarts Legacy, getting access to the most powerful of effects that you can attain as a Wizard or a Witch. These talents are powerful enough to potentially cause considerable change in your gameplay mechanics. Here is the talent path we recommend:
Level 22 – Edurus Potion Potency: As you grow more powerful so do your enemies, making this talent a must-have for any dark practitioner! You will want to abuse the effects of this talent in situations where you are outnumbered, since it lets you simply ignore the attacks of your enemies.
Level 23 – Maxima Potion Potency: Possibly one of the most overpowered talents available in Hogwarts Legacy; indeed, the Maxima Potion Potency will be one of the talents which will allow you to break the game! Yes, you heard me right. You will want to stock up on Maxima Potions, as their effect will stack considerably with the Cursed Status.
Level 24 – Focus Potion Potency: This effect allows you to cheese the game, quite literally. You will want this talent, as it will allow you to endlessly spam your Spells. We have a visual demonstration at the end of the guide on how broken this one is.
Level 25 – Crucio Mastery: And so, with the Crucio Mastery talent the real fun begins… this is where you will truly embark on your dark journey. It allows you to apply the Cursed Status effect to large groups of enemies in mere moments.
Level 26 – Enduring Curse: To add salt on the wound, quite literally, this talent will increase the Cursed Status‘s total duration. Now your enemies will get to enjoy some long-lasting curses!
Level 27 – Curse Sapper: One of the talents that can turn you into a walking fortress, the Curse Sapper talent will heal you whenever a Cursed Target dies in your presence. A worthy replacement for Wiggenweld Potions, in case you happen to run low.
Level 28 – Slowing Curse: A talent that is useful when Crucio is on cooldown — it will allow Arresto Momentum to apply the Cursed Status.
Level 29 –Knockback Curse: Another talent that is useful when Crucio is on cooldown — it will allow Flipendoto apply the Cursed Status. Particularly useful when fighting Trolls!
Level 30 – Avada Kadavra Mastery: This is the talent folks, the one that every young Dark Wizard or Dark Witch aspires to master! This, my lovelies, will allow you to use Avada Kadavrato one-shot all of the enemies that are afflicted by the Cursed Status effect. AoE instant Death!
Level 31 –Stupefy Expertise: Bored with instant-death spells and your usual dark shenanigans? Don’t despair, your Stupefy now deals damage as well. A stun effect and a way to kill, two muggles with one stone!
Level 32 – Protego Mastery: Ever fought in the South Feldcroft Arena and encountered the Dark Mongrel round? Well, this talent allows you to use a perfectly-timed Protego to create a massive shockwave that breaks Shields and knocks out enemies at the same time. No more shall you suffer being flanked by wolves!
Level 33 – Stupefy Mastery: This talent increases the duration of your Stupefy stun. Enjoy toying with your foes!
Level 34 – Protego Expertise: As if one Stupefy isn’t enough, you can now cast two with this talent!
Level 35 – Transformation Mastery: And, to finish on a fun note, when you are a bit bored and want to get creative, you can now use this talent to transform your enemies into inanimate objects… that explode! Using Bombarda after casting Transformation is highly recommended for the full experience.
The remainder of 5 Talent Points can be applied to any talents of your choice. We suggest you spend them on spells and traits that favor your own playstyle or make exploration a little easier! Check out our main guide on Builds for some ideas.
Gear
Make sure that each of your Gear Slots has a Legendary Gear piece in it! This will allow you to get the most powerful Stats and Traits. It does not particularly matter which Legendary Gear pieces you obtain, however, the Traits you pick will be quite essential towards maximizing your damage.
You will want the following 5 Traits on your Legendary Gear:
Unforgiveable III (Significantly increases damage dealt to Cursed Targets)
Cruelty III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Crucio)
Concentration III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by All Spells)
Manipulation III (Singnificantly increases the damage dealt by the Imperio)
Ancient Magic III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Ancient Magic)
The last Trait is entirely up to you — it can be Defensive or Offensive. Here are a few suggestions:
Explosive III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Bombarda)
Laceration III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Diffindo)
Destruction III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Confringo)
Control III (Significantly increases the damage dealt by Ancient Magic Throw)
Protego Shielding III (Significantly reduces the damage taken from Dark Wizards)
Goblin-Silver Resistance III (Significantly reduces the damage taken from Goblins)
Spells
The Dark Arts Build is a lot harder to play than most of the other builds in the game, mainly due to the fact that its spells and effects are either locked behind specific quests or talent points that can only be gained at a much later point in the game. What this does is enforce the idea that we will need to make use of our “normal spells” until we manage to actually learn any form of useful Dark Arts.
The build ends up going through multiple changes as you level up, each phase of it requiring a different set of Spells and a different mindset. First of all, if you look at our Talent Points, you will notice that some of the more overpowered ones are locked behind the Level 22 Requirement. This forces us to rely on other spells until we can reach the level threshold. Secondly, the build will have multiple forms of AoE available and multiple ways to apply the Cursed Status to a target, so we will likely find ourselves favoring different spell combinations during different parts of the game.
Though, the most powerful aspect of the build (especially so on the Hard Difficulty) is the fact that the Unforgivable Curses will break through any type of a Shield, allowing you to skip a few steps that would have been required for other builds.
We know how tired you all are of your professors droning on and on that the Dark Arts is the absolute worst possible path you could pursue as a Wizard or a Witch… so, we will now teach you how to become a master of Dark Magic and show them all, once and for all, what the Dark Arts are actually capable of!
As stated previously, the Dark Arts Build goes through different stages as you level, meaning that you will have to use a different set of spells at different points of your journey. So, you will probably find yourself dispatching foes in the early parts of the game with more trivial spells, such as Levioso, Incendio, and Accio. Rest assured, that won’t be the case for long!
Then, we will need to learn our options for Offence and Defence with this build. For the Defence, you can rely on a mix of Dodge, Protego, Swift, and Edurus Potion throughout the majority of the game, with an emphasis on Edurus Potions later on, when you acquire the Edurus Potion Potency talent.
You will always want to use Protego when you are prompted.
Keep in mind that you can use either normal Dodge to escape unblockable attacks and fill your Ancient Magic Bar, or you can use Swift to just reposition yourself.
Now, let’s dive into the Offence and the destructive, deadly instruments offered by the Dark Arts. Here we will need to break things down into sections, since many of our main toold will be gated behind quests and talent points.
Early Game (Level 1-15 or 20)
The first 15 to 20 levels of the build will be quite chaotic, as the dark path often is. You will learn how to place the Cursed Status on your foes with two spells: Stupefy and Expelliarmus. Both are quite powerful early on, as they both incapacitate your foes — the first one simply stuns them, while the other disarms them.
Try to synchronize your Protego blocks perfectly to negate any damage, and then apply the Cursed Status with Stupefy while using Expelliarmus on another enemy.
After reaching level 15 and onward, you will get some AoE capabilities with Confringo and Bombarda, but you will not have any means of cursing multiple opponents at the same time just yet. Depending on how you acquire your levels (that is, by completing main quests and side quests or by completing challenges and fighting random enemies), you may already have access to Crucio or you may yet require more time to learn it.
Between Levels 20 and 29, your build will begin to stabilize and finally gain the powerful effects you have been coveting all this time… you can now finally start to call yourself a proper Dark Wizard or a Dark Witch! With the talents you unlock you will increase your overall survivability, starting to add potions into the mix. You will also gain multiple ways of applying the Cursed Status and you can now get access to all of your Dark Arts Spells (provided you complete the quests for them from Sebastian).
Now here is the part where your playstyle begins to shift — where Stupefy and Expelliarmus were your main ways of applying the Cursed Status early in the game, Crucio will now replace them. Thanks to the Crucio Mastery talent, our first Dark Spell can now send bolts of dark magic to both curse any enemy hit, while also dealing damage! This means that we now have some potent AoE capabilities, considering that all Cursed Targets receive a portion of the damage dealt to any single Cursed target. You should also begin to make use of Imperio by turning the most powerful foe that tries to attack you into an ally.
If you already used Crucio and more enemies appear, you can now apply the Cursed Status with Flipendo and Arresto Momentum as well!
Depending on whether you have acquiredAvada Kadavra by now, you will always want to use it on the strongest enemy — especially Trolls or Dark Wizard Duelists.
Towards the endgame, you will entirely master the Dark Arts and make full use of your potions to become a real menace, a destructive force! Your playstyle will once again shift; now you have two choices during battle: you can either destroy any enemy group in mere seconds, or… you can choose to toy with them a little bit.
If you decide to be a merciful Dark Overlord, you can choose to murder everyone in your sights in mere moments by using the following combination:
Thanks to the Avada Kadavra Mastery talent, our Avada Kadavra will now affect alltargets afflicted by the Cursed Status effect. Yes, young dark practitioners, you heard me right — you can now instantly AoE murder everyone in just a few seconds. This combo can be done on any enemy type, no matter their level or type! However, this won’t work on bosses.
If you choose to toy with your enemies… well, that will still be quick as well, only now you get more options! The last parts of the build emphasize the buffs from Protego and Stupefy that make you a walking fortress. In addition to that, by adding the effects of our previous talent choice, such as Edurus Potion Potency, Maxima Potion Potency, and Focus Potion Potency, we can effectively become immune to damage, spam our spells, and have increased overall damage on top of our Cursed Effect. Your spell combinations will be the same as for the last two stages if you choose this approach in combat.
For the second option, we would like to show you how our build would deal with a boss, The Absconder.
A demonstration of the Dark Arts against a powerful foe (Hard Difficulty)
Now that you are on a path of mastering the Dark Arts, we hope you will find joy in tormenting as many of your enemies as possible. Enjoy the dark side, my lovelies. Let us know in the comment section below which powerful foes you managed to instantly vanquish with the Dark Arts Build!
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Nevermore
Hey there folks!
I am Nevermore, a passionate gamer that is here in the hopes that you will tag along on many adventures! Here to share my experience and any valuable knowledge that may make your day better.
