Thrust is your basic attack and is always a reasonable option to fall back on. Thrust has no Initiative cost, and thus can always be used when your target is in range (within 5 yards). However, Thrust inflicts damage only on a single target. You can select that target by clicking on an avatar, or by using Tab to cycle through all nearby enemy targets (within 30 yards).

Sweep is a powerful and expensive attack that you can use to fight multiple enemies at once. Sweep has three distinguishing features (all of which are described in its tooltip):

1. Sweep costs 40 Initiative to use. If you don’t have at least 40 Initiative, you’ll need to use a different skill instead.
    
2. Sweep has a damage bonus of +20%. This damage bonus means that whatever damage you would normally inflict on an opponent will be increased by 20%. For example, a 50 point hit with Sweep will become a 60 point hit.
    
3. Sweep has a 90 degree arc area of effect (AOE). This AOE means that sweep will hit all targets within the 90 degree arc directly in front of your character, usually 2 or 3 targets, but you could hit any number of enemies as long as they’re all in front of you and in range (5 yards). Most attack skills in the game have some amount of AOE, so that you’ll always be able to fight multiple enemies at once.

Shoot is your basic gun attack and it is single-target only. Gun attacks cannot be parried, making this skill difficult for enemies to evade.

Thrust, Sweep, and Shoot have a red icon, which indicates that these are attack skills that will cause you to use a weapon against a target. You also have two skills with blue icons. Blue icons indicate buffs or skills that will put a beneficial effect on you.

Stance: Sprint is a skill that allows you to move around more quickly and conveniently in town. While Sprint is active, it will increase your running speed significantly. However, Sprint cannot be used in combat, and if you enter combat while sprinting, this skill will automatically turn itself off.

Stance: Defense is a skill that makes you harder to damage in combat at the expense of some of your Initiative Regen. In a hard fight, you may be willing to sacrifice some Initiative for better defenses. You’ll have to experiment with this skill to decide if that’s a trade-off you’re willing to make.

Both of Sprint and Defense are distinct in another way: they’re Stances. When you click a Stance, it remains active until (1) you click it again, (2) another Stance is selected, or (3) some other condition ends the Stance (for instance, Sprint ends when you enter combat). Not all buff skills are Stances, so when you learn a new buff skill, read its tooltip to find out whether it’s a Stance or not.

You also start with one skill that has a green icon. Green icons indicate Recovery. These skills will allow you to heal or remove negative effects. Your skill, First Aid, will allow you to recover some lost Health. However, First Aid has two drawbacks:

1. You can’t do anything else while recovering Health. Moving or taking damage will interrupt the recovery process.
    
2. First Aid it requires a Bandage. You may receive bandages as treasure from defeating enemies; bandages can also be crafted by players, so check the Auction House for them.

The last color of icon is purple. Purple indicates Debuffs. You don’t start with any skills of this type. Debuffs will apply some negative effect to your opponent. If you learn a Debuff skill, read its tooltip carefully to determine how to use it. Also note that some of your red attack skills can apply negative effects as well. The purple icon just indicates that there’s no actual sword-swinging or trigger pulling involved.