Team Withering Strikes

[contributor]

Inspired by John Robinson's team write-ups and a team of my own that is very fun to play I thought I might share this group with the forum. This team has what it takes to play well on Nightmare and I think even has what it takes be an ironman contender. The one death they have going into episode 2 was totally my fault, because I just hate backing up, even in the face of overwhelming archers. The main feature of the team is their ability to liberally apply curses and reduce the enemy to quivering sacks of meat just waiting to be skewered. When all curses are applied even Deathkin become easy to manage. I knew it was working when KJ killed Groth with a level 1 fireball. The team is also very melee heavy and could probably be exclusively a melee team.

Kincaid: Dodge-Tank 1, AoE damage dealer and curser
Kc is going to rush to become an AoE death and curse dealing monster. He may appear to be a little fragile at first but others are going to help him survive. He should dual-wield light blades.
Talents: First two go into Cunning Footwork. Then go straight to Crippling Strikes until you get it up to level 6 and AoE, putting a point into Live by the Blade somewhere to get extra MP. After that, switch back to building his defense. Bring Cunning Footwork up to 10 and after that consider bringing up Sure Parry or starting on Flanking Unity.
Attributes: Bring up Dexterity and Constitution. Maybe at a 3-to-2 ratio.
Skills: Straight up with blades, then whatever tickles your fancy.

Selen: Dodge-Tank 2, Light curser and critical specialist
Selly has the most flexibility on this team. To stick with the plan you should put points into punishing blades. Though it’s not strictly necessary, everybody needs to bring a curse to the table and she makes sure that Kyera can do some mean clean up. Otherwise focus on what you want. QsD for being very tanky and DoS and Frenzied Blows if you want to build for Crits. She will also dual-wield light blades.
Talents: Keep Punishing Blades and Quicksliver Defense one point ahead of Frenzied Blows and Dance of Shadows, bringing them all up together. In the beginning you might bring the attacks up first and then catch up with QsD
Attributes: Dexterity and Constitution at a 3:2 ration.
Skills: Blades and Stealth at a 2:1 ratio.

Kyera: Off-Tank, Curser and Dodge Buffer
In the second version of this team Kyera is going without any healing spells (What are pots for after all?). She will focus on Ethereal Anguish and Warder’s shield exclusively. With everyone else’s curses she will still be able to come in and do lots of damage with a good hammer, letting Selen and Kincaid rush ahead. She will also be a back-up tank who can take a few hits in a pinch to protect your mage. Keep her armor and shield upgraded.
Talents: Rush up to get cross-AoE for Ethereal Anguish and then bring Warder’s up. You may want to get EA up to 6 for the bosses at the end of episode 2.
Attributes: Bring up Strength, Constitution and Intelligence equally. Maybe skimping on intelligence here and there.
Skills: Bring up hammers and whatever else you need to take full advantage of EA’s AoE. Don’t worry much about lore.

Karjtan: Ranged Curser Par Excellence
Kj is all about sitting back and making everybody else look good. Though when enemies are fully cursed, he can still make a basic fireball good for a kill here and there. The original plan was to give him Firestorm going into episode 2. If you want to go all-melee you might switch over to pure-flame shield or just bring Choking Ash up to 10.
Talents: Bring Choking Ash straight up to 6 and then save your level 9 talent point. After killing the Shaman bring Meteoric Shockwave up to 6. After that do what you think is best. You might also put one point into Warding Words in order to open the nasty doors in the Storerooms.
Attributes: Constitution and intelligence, maybe around a 3:2 ratio. If you’re going to add Firestorm you might want to bring up knowledge as well. Maybe keep the three equal.
Skills: Conjuring and Sorcery (if planning on Firestorm) or Polearms (if you want to get him into the melee game). Conjuring should be raised to make sure you can hit the maximum number of targets for your curses. Though even when it gets beyond 9 you’re not likely to get that many mobs in a group anyways.

This team may seem like they’re going overkill on the cursing but the nice thing about them is that you don’t need to use them all, all the time. In a pinch though it is nice to have them. With other teams, there are times when I just can curse enemies fast enough, or decide whether I want offensive or defensive curses. With this team, you can really bring everyone down quickly one way or another. Getting Crippling Strikes up to 6 will really raise the damage output of your team significantly. It’s not so expensive that he can’t use it regularly and when he surrounded it’s amazing just to unleash his full fury, even if he’ll need some pots to keep him going. I generally always keep 2, 1-ap blades in the hands of Kincaid and Selen. Since Selen doesn’t have to curse people it’s not worth giving her just a 1 AP blade. She can still do one hit and them move on to let Kyera finish up behind her.

[CdrPlatypus]

contributor I would love to see a polearms kj with support from flanking unity. The wise wizard starts cracking skulls with his walking stick.

[contributor]

ha, ha, I love this group. The Shaman in the North Vault Fort had 0 armor and did up to 10 damage. Selen and Kincaid busted out the cards and Kyera pulled out her rosary, while Karjtan used him for batting practice (which he is in sore need of).

[En1gma]

Awesome- that's a pretty useless shaman...

[contributor]

I've taken this team through E1 now on Nightmare with no deaths. I modified Selen slightly and am not using Punishing Blades for her, though it may come into play in late E2. Instead I got her up to Frenzied Blows 3 and Dance of Shadows 3 and then have been putting everything into Quicksilver Defense. It's a pretty epic build in terms of defense with Warder's Shield 6 on her at the same time. I think she might be able to go face-to-face with a Deathkin on her own. Once curses are applied to enemies she is absolutely untouchable and deadly. I find that care has to be taken with Kincaid though. He starts out with better defense, but when he starts putting all of his points into Crippling Strikes for awhile, he becomes pretty easy to hit. The good thing is that as his defense wains Selen's really comes online, you just have to be careful for awhile in the Torrent Watershed and Redhill.

They have a really good dynamic in a fight. They really love finding mobs all grouped up because it lets them apply curses and then Kincaid and Selen move in to reap. Kincaid goes for the center of the group and starts using Crippling Strikes with AoE to curse and kill en masse. Selen's attack is 3 AP so she focuses on the hard to kill mobs. Kyera can come in behind and finish off whoever is left. Karjtan still gets a few kills with Fireball 1. I'm uncertain now of where to go with KJ. Not having put anything into his attack skills so far, the sensible thing seems to be to go with Firestorm for immediate effect. At the same time, he could become a competent little sniper with more Fireball. I could slowly build that up which might be a better fit with overall team dynamics. He's normally busy dropping curses so he doesn't have a lot of spare AP. And after everyone else has made their attacks what I often need most is somebody who can pinpoint kill a mob or two with 10HP.

[contributor]

Dec 3, 2014 21:39:18 GMT -5 CdrPlatypus said:

contributor I would love to see a polearms kj with support from flanking unity. The wise wizard starts cracking skulls with his walking stick.

I was just thinking that if anybody wanted to try the all Melee challenge again this would be a great group for it. They definitely have what it takes to go the distance. There are some interesting staves later on that could make KJ a formidable melee fighter. By late E2 he could be a real melee force.

[CdrPlatypus]

Have kj go pole arms after conjuring 9 and use him as clean up whack a mole after everything has be cursed?

[Cory Trese]

Great post, very impressive build.

[contributor]

Feb 23, 2015 9:29:58 GMT -5 CdrPlatypus said:

Have kj go pole arms after conjuring 9 and use him as clean up whack a mole after everything has be cursed?

That's tempting, especially since it would also help with his defense. I think, that for the moment, I've decided to bring CA up to 10 before I do anything else, then I'll have to make the choice about melee vs. ranged attacks for him (doesn't solve what to do with his skills right now exactly). I already have one all melee team that I'm pretty happy with so that pushes me towards developing some ranged ability for him. I have to decide too about what to do with Kyera later on. I could start bring up another team buff or her melee attack. For the moment I'm going to get Warder's up to 10.

[CdrPlatypus]

contributor what about developing banishment for the holy dmg?

[contributor]

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. A comparison between Firestorm and Banishment is interesting. Firestorm is better in almost every way except that Banishment does Holy Damage which almost nobody resists and key mobs are weak against. Otherwise, Firestorm has slightly more damage, earlier 7x7 AoE and that incredible range to it. But then...for this team, Kyera has more free AP. They also have similar buffs that I would develop on whichever one I don't develop ranged ability for; Pureflame Shield vs. Piety Ward. The trade off between them is additional armor vs. unholy damage protection. I'm thinking that the end game is going to see more and more unholy damage, but that remains to be seen. Ah the choices.

[CdrPlatypus]

I would roll with banishment. Drop the nuke in city of the dead

[Carda]

Kincaid with dexterity? I'll stick to your suggestion but why isn't strength better for him? Thanks for posting your build OP.

[contributor]

Absolutely. I updated the OP to make it clear that he should be dual wielding light blades. You get the most out of going this route because Dexterity adds to two things (accuracy and dodge) while strength only adds to accuracy. It makes your attribute points go that much further because you don't have to split them between so many things.

Edit: Oh and this team is currently sitting at 227,000,000 on Nightmare with no deaths. Teflon tanks, good stuff.

[Carda]

Thanks for making that clear. I'll get him to Light Blades asap. By the way, I picked the 'wrong' spellcaster it seems. I took the lightning mage instead of the fire one. Think that will be a problem later on? Maybe some tips for him too, that would be appreciated.