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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 24, 2015 22:05:10 GMT -5
Okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm going to actually get through Episode One with a team. I think. With some help from you guys, probably. I named my team "Mercy" in the interests of doing the "good" decisions in this game with a party made of Vraes, Kyera, Vincent and Tamilin. I'm thinking of the following models... 1: Vraes as a heavily-armored 2-handed Spear (or 1 with shield?) wielding badass with plenty of health and accuracy (I always loved spears and pole arms in real life, and I love the chance of taking them to the Meets hellspawn in this!). He'll probably rely on Stone Skin the most with one of the power attacks coming in for hardier enemies (not sure which yet). 2: Kyera as my mace and shield off-tank (well, as Vraes is mainly a health hole maybe more of a defense-focused tank) who can heal when needed but otherwise handles some situational support-- Piety Ward when magic enemies are seen, Ethereal Anguish until Tam gets her -AP going... I heard her Holy Magic is awesome, but I doubt I'll get there yet. She'll focus on Myshna's Tears for a little bit with points going into Ethereal Anguish and a few in Piety Ward. 3: Vincent will be my staff-holding hex n' nuke skirmisher, lightly armored and quick to punish anyone for grouping up around Vraes. I had trouble in my past games getting anything to hit for any amount of substantial damage worth risking my hide over, but I think I have a better plan this time around. This time, I'll be using Vincent to buff the team with Thundering Blades (amazing!), screw over archers and whatever else with Frigid Air, and make a squad regret their life choices with Eye of the Storm before I bail with Flash of Speed (?). As the team will likely have issues with archers early on, I'm focusing on Frigid Air with Thundering Blades and either Eye of the Storm or Flash of Speed as my secondary priorities. 4: Tamilin will be my doom finger. Finger of doom. Doomstick. I want to test Black Night and see if I can get Black Night to relieve the debuff duties of Kyera, but as level 12 takes time she'll just have to kill everything first. Piercing Shot, and Silent Stalker for the monstrous crit bonuses are all I'm thinking of at the moment. I could toss points in Stealth, and with her dexterity her chances of simply dodging incoming surprise blows should be good but too many bad die in a row will pretty much have me pounding the restart battle button a dozen times. I dunno what else I should worry about for the early game with her. She rarely ever gives me trouble unless I fail HARD at the stealth rolls.  Starting first battle, will report with thoughts and milestones. In the meantime, I'd love some feedback or suggestions, or even just a post saying "How can you see the home screen with those swirly eyes??". |
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Post by fallen on Feb 24, 2015 22:23:32 GMT -5
Officer Genious - I love playing Kyera as an off-tank, glad to see you taking that route!
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Post by CdrPlatypus on Feb 25, 2015 2:48:19 GMT -5
Tam does not have access to a -ap talent. For you selected hero Vincent and Kyera do
For Tam I suggest 2 pts blacknight, 1 pt farsight then DI 3, then silent stalker 1 for her build until lvl 12.
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Post by contributor on Feb 25, 2015 3:32:56 GMT -5
Officer Genious, looks like fun. I'm curious to know if you looked at my team building guide and if it was helpful or not. I didn't see what attack spell you are using for Vincent. Eye of the Storm only adds accuracy and critical % chance which is good once you've got a good attack spell built up. My one thought is that this team could have accuracy issues. The greatest drawback to not having KJ on the team is not having Choking Ash. Nobody on your team really has a great dodge/parry stripping curse. So focusing on accuracy buffs and empowered attacks will be important.
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 25, 2015 19:37:24 GMT -5
Officer Genious - I love playing Kyera as an off-tank, glad to see you taking that route! Oh good, I was quietly terrified I was going to be judged for not loving Fyona hard enough. XD She handled archers rather well last time I played with that shield of hers, but I ran into a bit of a problem getting her to hit anything without simply tickling it to death. I even called in Vincent a few times to poke a rat to death with a sword skill I never developed to help bring it down for her. It was both hysterical and humiliating... But that's why I'm hopeful everyone here can help me out this time around!  Tam does not have access to a -ap talent. For you selected hero Vincent and Kyera do For Tam I suggest 2 pts blacknight, 1 pt farsight then DI 3, then silent stalker 1 for her build until lvl 12. And you're right. >.< Why did I think there was an update to an old talent that allowed for AP or MP stripping from an enemy!? Bah. Anyway, what you suggested for Tam is pretty much what I have written down for her myself-- I might invest a point or two more in Farsight and less in Blacknight (simply because I'll be forcefeeding those Bow skills directly into her brain!) as I've had one too many occassions of having a blue flare with enemies crawling everywhere, but we'll see how it goes.  Officer Genious, looks like fun. I'm curious to know if you looked at my team building guide and if it was helpful or not. I didn't see what attack spell you are using for Vincent. Eye of the Storm only adds accuracy and critical % chance which is good once you've got a good attack spell built up. My one thought is that this team could have accuracy issues. The greatest drawback to not having KJ on the team is not having Choking Ash. Nobody on your team really has a great dodge/parry stripping curse. So focusing on accuracy buffs and empowered attacks will be important. I just took a look at your guide and realized that I read it before-- back when you first put it up. I even remember nodding along with it. XD I think I have a few of the things covered, but I'll be going more into detail as I realized I mistyped the names of the skills I wanted to invest in (which is what I get for trying to recall skills from a game I haven't played in over a year...). This build is the same as my old one with a few tweaks now that I have a better idea of what's going on in terms of game mechanics and how the skills work (all hail John Robinson and Sweet Polly Purebred!), but I still have a few concerns I'd like some insight on as well. Here's my team with their (updated) skills... 1: Vraes (Tank, 2-Handed Spears for a tight range of damage and solid accuracy), Focus: Polearms, Strength, Constituion, Lore -Crushing Blow for bonus damage to nudge me over the edge -Stone Skin for the extra health and armor -Burst of Speed to move him around the battlefield when needed 2: Kyera (Off-Tank/Support, Mace and Shield to boost her armor against enemies, including archers), Focus: Mace, Stregnth, Constitution, Conjuring>Lore -Myshana's Tears for obvious reasons, but this time I'm going to use the health potions instead of hoarding them -Etheral Anguish to strip AP from enemies -Piety Ward for the gods-forsaken Krete bastards (also, they're jerks) -Purifying Breeze OR Sacrifice to support Vraes up front/Vincent with spellbombing, depending on how everything goes. I don't think I run into a lot of nasty curses in Episode 1 until after Watershed, though... [I'm not quite sure if I want to invest in Smiting Blow as the damage bonus is quite small (and Vincent will be buffing team Accuracy anyway), and I don't know if I want to invest in Holy Retribution. Another issue I had with my old team was that aside from debuffing and healing (of which there wasn't particularly much of it to do), Kyera more or less stared into space while Vincent ate my SP and Tam/Vraes did the real work. I want Kyera to either be able to hit above 6-9 pts of damage (which is what she currently does) with that mace or to seriously mess up a single high armor/low(ish) resistance target. For this, I'd be willing to inject something into my last slot (replacing Breeze/Sacrifice) for a while. 3: Vincent (Witchdoctor of Buffs, Debuffs and AoE punishment, using 2-Handed Staff for SP mayhem), Focus: Sorcery>Conjuration with a small bit of Lore -Frigid Air to help with archers and pretty much everything in a two-mile radius -Flash Freeze to also strip AP from enemies -Charged Speed to get Vincent in and out of range in few turns as possible (learned my lesson last time!) -Energy Storm for AoE damage with stacking benefits for other buffs/attack spells -Thundering Blades to boost team accuracy, add some damage and maybe stack with Energy Storm. >:] 4:Tamilin (Doomfinger, 2-Handed Monster Bows to pick off the weak (saving Vraes' AP) and irritate low-armor mages/archers), Focus: BOWS, dexterity, some Stealth and a little bit of Lore) -Aimed Shot for the stubborn fools who don't get that they're dead (just a few at first, more later on I think) -Blacknight for that lovely buff that lasts for a good while -Deadly Intuition because nothing makes Tam smile like a critical -Silent Stalker in the event that I actually win a stealth roll and see that one enemy that seriously needs some 'airing out' immediately... I just got past Thurgrim. Man, I hate that guy. I forgot he had 3 AP, and at one point I accidentally hit the "End Turn" hourglass when I was trying to look at Vraes' weapon damage. ;_; I had Vraes lure Thurgrim and friends around the corner into the hall, where Vincent and Tamilin could sit back and cause hell with his friends while Vraes slashed away at Thurgrim and Kyera held the front door. Unfortunately, one result of ending the turn too early was that I was too close to cast Etheral Anguish and so had a spearman wail on Kyera twice every turn. Fortunately, the door made it so that the spearman and the archer were the only things I had to worry about, and the lone, brave fool to try to split from Thurgrim to reinforce the fellow spearman was severely harmed by Tamilin and finished by Kyera. Vincenet used his Frigid Air to great effect, keeping archer damage at a minimum (important given my awkward positioning in the hall) and generally making a nuisance of himself with Lightning Spear. It didn't do a lot of damage, but it helped with bunched enemies between turns so Vraes could focus on Thurgrim first and then simply finish off any who survived 5+ rounds of electrocutionings. I also had to send someone to help Kyera as, by the time I finished of Thurgrim and all but the two spearmen Kyera was blocking at the door, Kyera had JUST killed one of them by only doing 6-9 damage per turn. >.> Still... in all, not bad. |
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Post by En1gma on Feb 25, 2015 19:42:50 GMT -5
What difficulty you playing on, OG?
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 25, 2015 19:53:07 GMT -5
I'm playing on Normal so I can say I played through it at least once.  I was on Hard before and I think that was part of the problem-- jumped in head-first without really understanding the most basic mechanics. So this time, I'm going on Normal with a better idea of the mechanics while recognizing that I am definitely the noob on the board. XD |
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Post by En1gma on Feb 25, 2015 20:08:04 GMT -5
Nah, don't worry about the perceived 'noobishness', we all start somewhere I would strongly recommend Warder's Shield for Kyera, I didn't see that on your list of talents. She can smack the hell out of things, but I'd you don't focus on her defenses, as well as Constitution, she will crumple like paper. You can make it through the intro and even to Oskahold using only big V as a tank, so don't feel like you need to include her as a tank yet- she is still relatively fragile. If you do go with Piety Ward, I wouldn't go too deep with it- you don't have anything other than Krete using elemental damage until the short Hellhund fight, and later when you come up against the elemental spiders. I rarely use PW and I do just fine on normal, where I live. If you really want to use her as an off tank, I would forget Retribution and go with a point or two in Smiting Blow. Maces have decent accuracy, but without a parry curse, she needs the accuracy from the empowered attack. Just wait until you get to the CoD and see the jaw dropping maces in store for her. My Kyera ended up being a second off tank to Kincaid and Selen, and she hits bloody hard. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 25, 2015 22:09:09 GMT -5
Piety Ward with dodge and parry... I see some appeal in parry, but won't Kyera's dodge numbers be low to begin (and end) with? I'm just scrutinizing the skill to see where it fits best. It'll probably be one of those skills I'll stumble on again later and say to myself, "I wish someone told me of this BEFORE the giant ratkin ate Kyera like chicken pot pie!".
I will definitely be keeping that skill in mind as I push through the dungeons and figure out what's going on!
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Post by anrdaemon on Feb 25, 2015 22:13:07 GMT -5
It fits everywhere, since you don't have Pureflame Shield.
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Post by En1gma on Feb 25, 2015 22:38:24 GMT -5
Meh. The 8 resistance is piddly compared to blocking a 60 point attack. I have a normal group in the CoD, and they didn't start on PW until E3. PW helps take some of the bite out of an attack. Personally I would rather not even have the attack land in the first place. I almost always establish a strong defensive dice pool, then focus on reducing enemy elemental damages, on normal it just isn't too big a deal. If you're really concerned, put one point into it then wait until E2. So many different ways to play, and I love the different takes- so many paths that all end in the same place |
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Post by CdrPlatypus on Feb 25, 2015 23:15:08 GMT -5
Don't invest more in farsight it does not increase the accuracy of detection. The best return on investment is farsight 2.
Silent stalker got updated and it now strip armor as well as accuracy which is great because it stacks with both of kj s curses
I just remembered you are runningVincent so you may want to invest heavily in silent stalker for the -armor. Will make taking down bosses and high armor mobs much easier
I wouldn't bother with more than 1 pt in piety ward until you have warders shield 10
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 26, 2015 9:26:08 GMT -5
Meh. The 8 resistance is piddly compared to blocking a 60 point attack. I have a normal group in the CoD, and they didn't start on PW until E3. PW helps take some of the bite out of an attack. Personally I would rather not even have the attack land in the first place. I almost always establish a strong defensive dice pool, then focus on reducing enemy elemental damages, on normal it just isn't too big a deal. If you're really concerned, put one point into it then wait until E2. So many different ways to play, and I love the different takes- so many paths that all end in the same place I was wondering why you mentioned the stats for Piety Ward and realized I said Piety Ward instead of Warden's Shield. Then I knew I needed some sleep. X.x Sorry about that... CdrPlatypus- Thanks for the heads up, I'll watch that investment. I haven't played more yet, but hopefully I'll figure Farsight out. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 26, 2015 18:54:38 GMT -5
SO, I have some minor battle updates...
I cleared out the Officer Quarters while taking 0-5 points of damage. ^-^ I got some good positioning going and had Tam kill single targets in line as Vraes pulled them into a doorframe for one-on-one slaughters. It worked quite nicely!
The following ambush if you ignore the underdeep caverns-- "They've got archers! CHHAAARRRGGEEE!" Hell no Vraes, get your butt back in the door and pick the heavy guard off in the doorframe like you got some sense, fool! o.o Steamrolled that one with minimal damage as well, even though I had to come out and lure some soldiers out to trap them properly.
But anyway, all in all a success. At the moment,
Vraes: Tanking as always. I'm buffing him at the end of combat as well just in case with Stone Skin.
Vincent: I'm weakening enemies with Lightning Spear rather than trying to kill enemies with it, and being able to mess up ranged attacks makes life much easier for everyone else.
Tamilin: Got a bow upgrade in the Officer Quarters that does something like 11-17 damage. The range in damage is wider than the starter bow, but it has a higher base damage (the starter had 9) for the same bow range and AP. Quite happy about this!
Kyera: Focused on Etheral Anguish and rearguard. She still doesn't hit for much, but there isn't much I can actually do about it until I reach a leveling camp (which I remember taking forever, but that was several updates ago)
I also picked up the ring from the jail cells and gave it to Kyera as she's spending the most SP at the moment. Oh, does unlocking doors to the jail cells still give you experience even when no one is there? Just wondering if I wasted SP there... Eh, whateves.
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Post by CdrPlatypus on Feb 26, 2015 19:31:56 GMT -5
Yes, ALL lock picks and trap disarms give your stealth character exp
Re kyera. the starting hammer sucks so best way to fix her damage is loot a better one or switch to ranged holy damage once you start lvling
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I was on Hard before and I think that was part of the problem-- jumped in head-first without really understanding the most basic mechanics. So this time, I'm going on Normal with a better idea of the mechanics while recognizing that I am definitely the noob on the board. XD