There are plenty of spells to use in V Rising, each with its own niche, build, purpose, and usefulness in PvE and PvP. So, to help sift through the full range of spells, we’ve got a Tier List, broken into each school to help identify the best spells to use for various reasons.
We are ranking a spell tier list for V Rising, covering how each spell fairs, their purposes and niches, and how effective they are. Did your spell make the cut? Image via Stunlock Studios.
Spell Tier List Methodology¶
Before we go into it, please note we are going to rank the spells in each of the school types. It felt more naturally breaking into into each school type after lamenting with our own thoughts over a few cups of tea. It allows us to cover why we think certain magic schools are broken for certain builds and playstyles. In addition, we can compare what spells are competing with each other in the same tree, similar tiers, or for certain playstyles. Expect to see comparisons and our recommendations in a more structured manor. In some instances we can even suggest some nice synergies, and even jewel spell modifiers to help further recommend spells for you.
Note that the V Rising Spell Tier List will examine every spell in the game. If you’re looking for a more condensed best spells in V Rising list, we have you covered in our other guide.
Blood Spell Tier List¶
The main thing to note about the Blood spell list is that it blends between a tank and a support playstyle. Lots of the spells will heal you or your allies. Moreso, you apply Leech with your spells, meaning you heal for a portion of the damage you deal to enemies. It can be pretty good for PvP, and fighting the lower damage boss threats. Keep this context in mind as we rank the blood spells based on how good they are for those types of playstyles.
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Blood Rage is arguably one the best spells in the blood tree. It’s perfect for almost all weapon builds with its 20% attack speed buff and Leeching. You can also gem it to increase its attack speed, leeching, and even remove all debuffs on you when you use it. This makes it incredibly valuable for PvP effects, or fighting V Blood bosses, such as Dracula’s Vampiric Curse. There’s a lot of factors to consider with this spell, making it a solid choice at almost all points of the game for almost all builds, boss and PvP encounters. Combo with 
Power Surge and Veil of Shock for the best attack speed combos. Its movement speed was nerfed but thats fine.
In the A Tier, we place 
Crimson Beam. This is a strong ultimate for healing allies, yourself, and dealing moderate damage for an ultimate. If you’re playing a ranged support playstyle, then this is a fantastic ultimate, but it competes with 
Ice Block, which is something to be aware of.
Sanguine Coil is a fantastic blood spell for that sustain playstyle. You get three charges of a spell that applies strong Leech, heals you, and heals your allies rather well. In addition, the gem effects for the spell can make its leeching better, grant more charges, or do bonuses to enemies afflicted with Leech, considering you have three stacks, thats nice bonus damage. Overall, the customization of the spell makes it fantastic for any blood themed build wanting damage and easy to apply sustain.
Blood Fountain competes similarly with Sanguine Coil. It does better self healing, but its party healing is worse and it lacks charges to make its overall output worse in burst scenarios. However, it does have a win with a jewel modifier. You can get a jewel that modifies it to remove debuffs from allies hit by the Blood Fountain, making it a fantastic ranged support spell, managing annoying debuffs, and party healing. It’s something worth noting for those support players playing coop or in clans as that alone makes Blood Fountain rise up the tier list considerably.
Shadowbolt is the very first spell you get in the game. It does good damage, and applies a snare. It’s very simple to get going for a basic early game spell. You will replace it, but, it’s a good spell for the early game.
Blood Rite is the school’s counter spell. While the spell is nothing special, it can be a good utility spell with its gems. You can increase Immaterium length, add snares, turn invisible in PvP situations, or do better heals. These modifiers make it a much better counter skill giving it some room to fight against Chaos’ and Frost’s counter skill.
Next up is 
Heart Strike. If you’re playing a bruiser playstyle, then this ultimate is good. You don’t deal as much damage as Crimson Beam, but you do get added AOE splash effect, making it better for add fights, not to mention to mass application of Leech on the AOE for big sustain. I’m still not sure you take this over Ice Block for that role, but the option is there.
Now we have the movement spell, 
Veil Of Blood. Honestly, this movement spell is kind of bad in comparison to the higher profile movement spells. The mods don’t even make it compete with the damage bonuses you get. You can get better Leech effects, but that’s about it for its usefulness. Avoid it if you can and go elsewhere for your movement utility needs since Chaos and Frost are generally better, with Shock’s perfect for Blood Lust.
Chaos Spell Tier List¶
The Chaos spell list is a magic school that is all about making you incredibly powerful. Its spells focus on high spell power damage, applying Ignite that deals spell damage over time, and other aggressive spell buffs. We’ll largely be ranking the Chaos tree for its ability to deal damage in all scenarios, and compare them to other spell trees or specific spell types.
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In the S Tier, we have Power Surge. Power Surge has all the benefits that Blood Rage has, with more damage via Ignite. Throw in the removal of negative debuffs gem, and it being a T1 spell, and you have yet another perfect spell early on. S Tier for early game PvP, and heavy weapon combo themed builds. It did get its movement speed nerfed, but its duration is slightly longer, which is fine trade off considering how strong the spell is.
Veil Of Chaos is the tree’s movement skill, and it’s incredible. The extra cast to move twice, for the cost of a slightly longer cooldown allows players to do heavy kiting in boss fights. It’s great for end game combos from V bosses, and the outplay potential in PvP makes it a top tier choice for movement.
In the A Tier, we have a range of amazing spell choices for damage. 
Chaos Barrage is the main ultimate from the Chaos tree. It fires four Chaos bolts, dealing around 200% spell power each, meaning you can land 800% magic damage. It’s one of the strongest ultimates for raw power in the game. You can miss and or be outplayed with it, so it’s not quite S Tier. You’re largely deciding to run this, Arachnid or a Shock themed ultimate. If you want simple ranged missiles that do the big damage, then Chaos Barrage is your option.
If you want Chaos Bolt but not in ultimate form, then 
Chaos Volley is the play. This only fires two missiles at 110% spell power, but that’s a base spell at 230% damage if both land. It’s fairly strong, and can be made stronger with the right gems for hitting multiple targets or flat damage improvements. You can also get some self sustain via the gems, which Chaos tree does lack, which is also handy. Overall, a decent ranged Tier 1 spell.
Void is probably the single best CC tool in the game outside of the Chilled and Frozen mechanics of the Frost magic school. You get two charges, each dealing damage and dragging all enemies in range to its center. This includes players. Void can be used to setup for almost all spells in the game because of its two charges and cc duration. That can be Skulls from undead for guaranteed hits and free hits from minions, chilled bats for the longest CC chain possible on void into frozen targets, or to simply batter enemies with Chaos Barrages. The possibilities here are endless for Void, hence its high rating. The only downside is that it can be avoided in PvP with movement skills, and some bosses can get out of it fine.
In the B Tier, we have 
Aftershock. For a Tier 1 AOE spell, Aftershock is kinda lame. It does decent damage and applies Ignite, but at this stage of the game, it is fighting for a slot on your bar with spells like Chaos Volley, 
Bone Explosion, 
Frost Bat and Skull (when you read about each of these abilities you’ll see where we are coming from). You also don’t really need it for dedicated Chaos builds either. So, it gets B Tier in relation to its AOE counterparts. Some of its gem options make it better for control, like the fading snare or the knockback modifiers, but that’s all that really pushes it as a competitive spell for the V Rising Spell Tier List.
Merciless Charge is the school’s second ultimate. The spell is good for PvP with its 1.5 second stun, control with the charge, and does okay damage. Its damage is kinda poor to be worth it for boss killing ultimates. So, you’re ideally using it to stun an enemy player against a structure and burst them down with damage spells or weapon combos.
Now we have the school’s counter skill, 
Chaos Barrier. While it lacks defensive utility, you can block a few attacks, that create a Chaos bolt. You can block up to five attacks, and each block during its 2.2 second counter window means you make an even stronger chaos bolt to fly from your character to the mouse area. If you can use it well enough, that’s some big damage, but it is easy to miss-play it or not get the most out of it. In PvE you’ll need good game knowledge to know which bosses to cast it and when, the same is said for PvP. Consider it S tier defensive when you can utilize it the most, C Tier if you can’t use it properly. If you can’t reap its full benefits, go the frost or blood counter for easier use.
Unholy Spell Tier List¶
The Unholy spell list is perhaps one of the strongest spell school in V Rising for PvE, period. The good thing about Unholy is the minions that it creates, which in almost all difficulties are very relevant. However, if you’re playing on Brutal, minions are a little weaker. So, keep in mind that Unholy in general is a little fluxy with its rankings. Smarter play and certain spell modifiers make it more balanced for Brutal difficulty, such as 
Bone Explosion’s modifier that heals minions, making that spell climb the tier list a little, or the minions shield gem. Keep this context in mind for now. We are also heavily focusing this section on the PvE, since minions can be slightly weird in PvP, so keep this context in mind too.
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Starting off with arguably the best ability is 
Corrupted Skull. This spell is incredibly good for a T1 spell, and is in the same boat as Frost Bat. Essentially, you have a spell with decent damage, can spawn skeleton minions per charge, and applies Condemn. Condemn increases the damage they take, and if you hit an enemy with Corrupted Skull below a certain HP threshold, then it takes more damage. The snowballing damage potential is there, and the added minions is always nice to flood combat with threats for tanking, or more damage. It is simply a great spell for all situations in PvE.
Next on the list is the 
Volatile Arachnid ultimate. This spell is very strong, with its snare, big spell damage, followed by other spiderlings for even more damage. Throw in a Condemn debuff and you do even more damage. It’s simple and easy to use, and does a lot of damage. Arguably one of the best ults in the game.
Another fantastic spell is the 
Ward of the Damned. This is very likely one of the best channeled skills in the game. You get a two second window to block up to five attacks. If you absorb an attack, you get a skeleton, with every subsequent attack you have a 50% chance to get a skeleton. With the right practice and game knowledge, that is a lot of skeletons that can spawn. Throw in a knockback, Condemn and some minor damage, and this is a fantastic spell for defensive needs. Further jewels can turn them into Mages, or you can add more defensiveness to it. Either way, it is a great basic skill to use for defensive and offensive needs.
In the A Tier, we have Bone Explosion. It’s a decent early game spell, which is a nice way of getting Condemn spread across enemies. It also has decent AOE damage too, which makes it a good spell. On harder difficulties, this can be modified via a jewel to heal minions that spawn, making it a more attractive spell to stick with. It has its niche for a strong minion build spell, but you don’t 100% need it unlike Corrupted Skull.
Next up is 
Death Knight. Death Knight fights for your second spell slot in minion builds with Bone Explosion. The reason why is because Death Knight is harder to use, but can be more effective than Bone Explosion’s damage. Furthermore, jewel modifiers can cause Skeleton mages to spawn once the Death Knights expire, making it even better for flooding the board with powerful minions. This gem makes this spell better than Bone Explosion in our opinion, but if your minions need survivability on harder modes, then Bone is better. Just some food for thought.
In the B Tier, we have ~Army of the Dead. The ultimate spawns a lot of undead warrior and mages. They last slightly longer than the regular minions too. It’s pretty good if you want the heavy minion build fantasy, a mixture of damage threats, tanking threats, useful in all situations bar counter spell moments against bosses or players. But, it’s nothing special. Hence the B Tier. You absolutely need the minion damage passive if you’re running this ultimate, by the way.
Another niche spell is 
Soulburn. While this spell was very strong in the Gloomrot update it did get nerfed in full release. It’s nice for getting Condemn on enemies while using a tanky build, such as blood builds, or for pairing with Ice Block and it is pretty strong in PvP for sustain. Outside of that its niches are not too great since minions work better for PvE defensiveness anyway.
Now we move on to 
Veil Of Bones. The movement spell is okay. You get another minion, you deal some minor damage and restore some life. It’s certainly no Chaos, shock or Frost movement spell. If you want another way to get a minion, go for it, but that’s about the only use for it.
Frost Spell Tier List¶
The Frost spell list is often filled with the best CC (crowd control) tools in the game, along with some of the better defensive tools. This is important as you’ll find the frost niche is great for fighting in the open world, against players, and for certain types of bosses that are not CC immune, have annoying adds, or are very good at dodging your attacks. You’ll easily find great ways to deal damage and get control using this tree.
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In the S Tier, we have the best ultimate in the game for defensive playstyles. Ice Block grants the strongest shield in the game at 450%, alongside hard CC immunity for a period, and will deal decent damage around you while the shield lasts. You can cast it on allies and yourself, making it the best support ultimate in the game for players who like that style. You also can’t argue against it as a tank ultimate too!
Next up is ~Veil of Frost. Again, this movement skill has a very generous shielding capability, which is also stronger when you take the shield buff passives via the frost passive upgrades in your Stygian tree. It also applies a 25% damage bonus to your next attack, and that attack triggers Frost Nova, which inflicts Chill on nearby enemies and deals somewhat decent damage at 50% spell power. It’s perfect for spreading early chill, it does good damage, and has great defensiveness. What is not to love about this spell? You’re either choosing this or Veil of Chaos for most situations.
Next in the S Tier we have Frost Bat. This skill unlocks in the tier 1 V Rising bosses, and comes with two charges. They do moderate damage at 110% spell power each, but, they offer a way to inflict Chill, and will Freeze already Chilled enemies. You’re guaranteed to Freeze at least one enemy using this with no other spell involved. Moreso, with the right gems, you can Chill multiple enemies in an AOE, or do more damage to Chilled or Frozen enemies. This spell can become a monster no matter how you like building it. From there, you can set up another damaging ability and go to town with your weapon combos and skills. This spell beautifully synergizes with everything in the game and is one of the best spells in V Rising for its damage, spell synergy and weapon combo potential.
In the A Tier we have the two hard CC spells, both Cold Snap and Ice Nova. 
Cold Snap is a defensive counter spell, that when it successfully blocks an attack, it will trigger a frost nova that freezes enemies for 2.5 seconds. That’s very strong for both PvE and PVP. Note the block only lasts for 1.5 rather than the typically 2.2, so if you’re looking for non CC answers for a defensive counter spell, there are better out there.
Meanwhile, 
Ice Nova will deal moderate damage, and freeze enemies already afflicted by Chill. If you’re running an ice build already then this spell works well to CC even vampires for 2.5 seconds. If not, then this spell goes down to D tier as you won’t get its main benefit out of it.
In the B Tier we have 
Crystal Lance. This is a worse version of Frost Bat to be honest, and comes much later in the game. You only get one charge too, so you’re forced to run another frost spell to make the chill to freeze combo work. It does do more damage than Frost Bat, but, you lose build viability so it might not be worth it. Some powerful gem modifiers, like increased damage to chilled targets, or reduce cooldown via scholar gear with some phantasm thrown in for good measure from the Illusion tree make it more viable.
Now we have 
Frost Barrier which will counter attacks over 2 seconds, do minor damage, and apply chill when you do black attacks or recast it. There’s better ways to apply chill from frost basic skills so we rate this lower. But, it can make for annoying defensive builds in PvP, which is where this spell’s niche remains.
In the C Tier we have 
Arctic Leap. This ultimate was once amazing, however, with nerfs through EA to launch, this ultimate fell off hard. The Frost tree has lots of ways to easily Chill and Freeze enemies, and the length of the CC this ultimate brings to enemies, including vampires is not that much longer than Cold Snap’s. It doesn’t feel worth it to have a movement ult that does a long CC on a 120 second cooldown compared to comboing Veil of Frost and Cold Snap together, which you will do a lot more of in fights, since they have normal cooldowns. The only exception is if you want to take this ultimate to dip into frost’s cheesy effects and you’re not already running a frost build when running PvP. And even then, 
Raging Tempest, Merciless Charge, and the Arachnid ultimate is arguably better suited for the movement PvP cheesery.
Illusion Spell Tier List¶
The Illusion spell list offers players two main benefits, Weaken and Phantasm. Weaken reduces damage enemies deal by 15%, which can be a savior for hard boss fights, or in PvP. Phantasm can also be used to reduce cooldowns of your spells for free casts. Throw in the annoying mechanics and its creative slippery mechanics to avoid and gain advantages in both PvE and PvP. We’ll be ranking the effectiveness of the skills based on damage comparison, potential for cooldown resets and things of that nature.
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Starting with the S Tier spells, we have 
Wraith Spear. Wraith Spear has one of the longest ranges in the game. This spell can easily snipe opponents, dealing 170% spell power to the first target hit. Enemies hit after the initial strike take 75% spell damage. Throw in some jewel effects to grant sustain, shielding, healing or further empower damage makes it even better. It’s a pretty solid spell, especially if you’re fishing for the Weaken and Phantasm feature procs.
Our other S Tier spell is 
Phantom Aegis. In terms of base spells, Phantom Aegis is arguably the best support spell for defensiveness. It has the highest spell power shield at 200% for 2 seconds. It can be applied to yourself and allies, hence its appeal as a support build. Furthermore, it mass applies Weaken to enemies surrounding the shield. It’s the perfect defensive buffer spell. You can also remove all negative effects, or grant knockback, or fear enemies when its dispelled via jewel modifiers. The PvE and PvP coop potential for this spell is incredibly good and should not be underestimated by support players.
Moving into A Tier we have the 
Mist Trance. Mist Trance has a 1.5 second counter window. If you can land it, then you get Weaken and Phantasm based on enemies hit. You also can modify it for fearing enemies, knockback, or empower a weapon’s secondary ability, which can be huge for certain melee weapons you love using. It’s creative for sure, but it’s hard to utilize properly compared to other spell counters.
Now we have 
Veil Of Illusion. The trick here is the spell offers a unique hologram that can distract enemies, similar to minions. Furthermore, it applies Weakness and Phantasm. It can be ideal for stacking Phantasm for all builds ability to reset, but it is a personal choice. It’s good but not a must.
Spectral Wolf is a cool ability, with decent cleave damage. It’s a great spell for easily hitting adds or multiple enemies in the world or in PvP. The wolf can bounce multiple times, and get more charges with jewel modifiers. If you need early game cleave or single target, the wolf is good. Keep in mind you’re competing with Chaos Volley here, so it is a matter of if you prefer Weaken and Phantasm over Ignite and better damage.
Wisp Dance is an ultimate that does rather low damage if you use it as an orbiting barrier of defense. But, you can fire three wisps, that deal 100% Spell power each, with each applying Phantasm and Weakened. That’s three Phantasm stacks. This is where the spell gets creative for your spell and weapon combos. If you’re cooking then this is the ultimate you want. It is hard to use properly though, so keep it in mind. We give it an A for its potential rather than practicality.
Now in the B Tier we have 
Mosquito. The spell will deal nice damage and attract enemies towards it in PvE. It works similarly to Void in that way, albeit, much less practical in PvP. You can use this to get a decent PvE setup for Phantasm and Weakened spread though, which is its play here. There’s also combos such as the Wraith Spear Jewel modifier where you get bonuses for hitting targets already hit with Weakened. This is where Mosquito has its practical implications in builds for setting up that combo, but, it is only in those situations. For general area based CC look to Void or Cold Snap options.
Now we have 
Spectral Guardian. The spell doesn’t hit enough for what it should do in our opinion, but its knockback and Shielding is nice. It’s the type of ult you want to use in boss fights with big add phases that you want to manage. But there’s other ultimates out there that can dispatch lots of enemies quickly.
Shock Spell Tier List¶
Before we go deeper, note that the Shock spell list has a few notable strengths. The first is that it has some very niche utility spells. These can be pretty poor, or incredibly effective when using certain strategies. The other is that it can do some of the highest damaging spells and effects in the game, rivaling Unholy and Chaos for those high damage themed spells. So, keep this as the framework moving forward.
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Starting off the Shock Spell Tier List is 
Ball Lightning. It’s one of the strongest base spells in the game at maximum 450% spell power, and its ability to proc static a few times makes it even better. If you’re going a deep shock build, or like using weapons that repeatedly and reliably proc Static effects, Ball lightning is often a must-have spell.
Veil Of Storm is another must have if you have an attack speed melee build. This is the only movement spell that grants attack speed. Not to mention applying static and big bonk on your next hit. You can see why it’s perfect for attack speed weapon combo builds. Pair this with Blood Lust and Power Surge for the ultimate attack combo build.
In terms of ultimates, Raging Tempest is loved by many. It has lots of damage for an ultimate, comes with guaranteed cleaving and movement, and more. It’s pretty perfect for fights with lots of adds, cheese boss mechanics, or even fighting multiple enemies in PvP. There’s a reason why people love the spell no matter what they are doing.
In the A Tier, we have 
Lightning Curtain. For the most part, this is a niche spell. But, when you have fights with lots of projectiles, this spell is an excellent counter. Moreso, if you are aware of any notorious PvP players on your server, such as those using pistol builds, or running heavy spell builds etc, then Lightning Curtain is a fantastic spell. It did get its movement speed and jewel movement speed nerfed on the June 3rd patch, so its another reason it falls down to A Tier.
Lightning Typhoon is a very strong ultimate for PvE with its incredibly high damage ceiling. When used correctly, in the perfect setting, this can deal an incredible amount of damage. However, it can be used poorly where you don’t get that much out of it as you would hope. For the most part, Chaos Barrage or the Arachnid can be more practical ultimates for this one. But, it deserves recognition for its potential for higher skill players.
Discharge, in our eyes is a B Tier spell. The reason for it is that its three applications of Static are good, and the pull towards you is pretty good. It does have a nice second cast gem to make it a great defensive counter spell to use for attack speed builds too. Yet, the pull towards you is fairly niche, only useful against ranged PvE enemies, and the odd pistol or whip build in PvP.
In the C Tier we have 
Cyclone. This is a decent spell, but it’s fairly hard to use properly with it projectile going out and back in, followed by staying still. If you can use it well that’s great, but Ball Lightning is so much better, as are most other basic spells themed on damage for that matter.
Finally, we have 
Polarity Shift. While this spell is not terrible, it is extremely niche. You can use it to get away from chasing enemies by swapping positions. Maybe you use it on a enemy player and teleport them into your gank squad. Perhaps you save the spell for when an enemy player uses their movement or defensive skill and pull them back to where you set things up? Lots of really low profile niche moments to use it in PvP, but that’s about it.
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