There are two types of skills – active and passive. Active skills refer to ones that you have to actively click to use. Passive skills are ongoing and mainly refer to certain characteristics, such as the ability to wear a certain type of armor or use a specific type of weapon. The passive skills you get upon creation are the ability to wear standard clothing, wear standard cloth armor, and basic spellbook training.
The Level 1 active skills in the skill list are Flame Bolt, which inflicts magical fire damage on a target. It has a two second induction and a one second cool down. Restraint is a crowd control (CC) skill, which immobilizes your target for 20 seconds. (Break on damage?) Although it can be casted on the run, it has a one minute cooldown, so learn the best opportunities to use it. Bandage Heal allows you to recover most of your health if you get injured from battle. This skill requires the use of bandages, which can be purchased from a vendor.
You also get the Return skill, which allows you to return to a specific town. The skill has a six second induction and is on a 20 minute cooldown. First you have to bind yourself to an obelisk, found in many towns and outposts. There is a fee charged every time you bind yourself to a new obelisk.
When you hit level 3, you’ll receive a message to talk to the Mage Trainer. There you can purchase the Ice Chain skill, which slows down your enemy for 12 seconds.