Tethren · melee bruiser

Overview

Tethren is a Courage-based starter Pact built around tanking and sustained melee damage. With the highest base Life (+80) of any Pact and Call of the Ancients halving incoming damage, Tethren excels as a frontline bruiser. Fellust rewards consecutive hits with stacking damage, making sustained engagement the key to high DPS.

• Pact: Tethren
• Virtue: Courage (invest all points here)
• Playstyle: Tanky melee bruiser, sustained damage through consecutive hits

Core loadout

• Gathannan — Courage-attuned Polearm. High reach allows hitting multiple enemies per swing, synergising with Fellust stacks. Upgrading from Rook? See Gathannan vs Rook.
• Wulder — Courage-attuned starter weapon. High forgiveness, good for learning the Pact's rhythm.
• Grinn — Courage-attuned sidearm for close-range burst.
• Fellust — Courage Arcanic. Each consecutive melee hit increases weapon damage. Missing resets the stack.
• Call of the Ancients — Spirit Arcanic. Taunts nearby enemies and halves incoming damage. Core survivability tool.
• Clash — Grace Arcanic. AoE shockwave that staggers surrounding enemies. Use when overwhelmed.

How to play it

• Never stop swinging — Fellust stacks reset if you stop hitting. Prioritise weapons with fast attack speed or wide arcs to maintain stacks.
• Call of the Ancients is your panic button and your opener — activate it before engaging groups to halve damage from the start.
• Use Clash defensively — when surrounded and Call of the Ancients is on cooldown, Clash buys time to reposition.
• Invest all Virtue into Courage — this maximises weapon damage and Fellust scaling.
• In co-op, you are the tank — taunt enemies away from ranged teammates with Call of the Ancients.

Koga rotation (community)

Source: Community Koga guide (YouTube, MinMaxMadMatti, Jun 2026). Not official — verify in your client after patches.

• Pre-Fellust setup: Activate Orbit Blades before triggering Fellust — the blades add extra hit ticks that contribute to Fellust stack building.
• During Fellust: Use only light attacks for Rune — charged Rune attacks do not consume Fellust stacks, wasting the stacking window. Call of the Ancients should be kept active throughout.
• Temper restriction: Avoid multi-hit Tempers like Sympathy Pain — these interfere with Fellust stack accumulation.
• Red Smite + Noble Nestling: Community reports this may push Fellust stacks beyond the normal cap (qualitative: "may add one extra stack"). Worth testing in your client.
• Universal habits (Smite prep, main-hand totems, boss charge loop): Runes & enchanting · Totem picks: Totems P15

Recommended weapons (community)

Source: Community pact weapons guide (MinMaxMadMatti, Jun 2026). Subjective picks — not official tier ranks. Links go to our weapon pages for stats and drops.

• Wulder
• Falx
• Needleseye

When to use a different build

• Against enemies that kite or stay at range — Tethren has no gap-closer or ranged Arcanics. Consider Ode Tempest (Atmos Sphere for closing distance) or Sirin (Glamour for repositioning).
• When AoE clearing is the priority — Ode Tempest's Seismor and Astra Sphere outperform Tethren for pure AoE damage.