by David Piner on Jul 22, 2015
Talents are a method in Skyforge to customize your character and are earned directly through the Ascension Atlas. There is two types of talents, talents which are class specific, and symbols which are global. Abilities are either actual abilities, or modifications of the basic abilities you already have.
No matter what your goals are in Skyforge, you'll likely want to max every atlas and put points in everything, but sometimes it's good to understand the method to the madness and focusing on specific talents, abilities, and symbols can make navigating the atlas a bit easier.
Talents are obtained through the class atlas and change whenever you change your class, as they're class specific. There are ten slots that open up through the "Developing Talents" quests from Flavius as your prestige increases. As of right now, it's not known how much prestige is needed for all ten, but you'll unlock three of them around 1,000.
You slot talents by going to your character page and dragging a talent into an open slot. You can reset your talents by spending Sparks of Transformation, so once you slot something in, it's there forever, until you spend your SoT. Our currency page goes over sparks and the SoT, while our Ascension Atlas guide goes over how to utilize the ascension atlas and move around.
Abilities are unlocked on the class atlas. You'll usually get two or three choices of each ability to slot onto your bar as you unlock the tree, with only one choice for your ultimate (R ability). There is some oddities, like for instance, Paladins can slot all four of their skills in one of the tiers at the same time.
Some classes, like Beserkers, have multiple stances, and you can adjust your abilities for the stances / alternate forms on the same screen.
There are a few abilities that are just alternate forms of an ability you already have unlocked. You can also unlock higher levels of the same abilities through the atlas.
Symbols work similarly to talents, but they're unlocked on the upper atlas. You'll unlock your first rather early on. They work exactly the same as talents, but to unlock additional symbol slots you'll need to max an entire class atlas to receive two additional ones. You only need to worry about unlocking the talents / abilities, the rest of the extra nodes aren't necessary. Symbols DO NOT RESET on class change, unlike class talents, which are not interchangeable with other classes.
Maxing an atlas is actually full of rewards, like a new costume for your class, and well the fact you really don't have to touch it again or level its specific atlas again. You'll also get the class symbol, which as of launch, the best one is the Paladin symbol due to the insane damage mitgation while farming maps. These class specific symbols are usable by all classes, as they're symbols.