Better combo

[havnor]

What is better combo choking ash and meteoric shockwave and Reckoning and the silent stalker or punishing blades... I really don't see difference at low lvls...
And isn't shockwave Reckoning and punishing blades or meteoric shockwave and silent stalker overcurse when maxed?

[En1gma]

Need more clarity... Are you asking what combo is best from those choices?

Don't quite understand the second question either. The only thing all three share is the -Damage curse, but as far as I know, there is a minimum damage that monsters will deal, and what Shockwave/Reckoning/Punishing/etc do is lower the die that is rolled on top of base damage. It is possible to overcurse on some mobs, I'm sure, but I don't think you'll have too much issue stacking these three together, as their secondary effects compliment each other.

[havnor]

Yes I wanted to know if all that -dmg isn't wasted... Or -acc in case of silent stalker shockwave... And I also want to know what is better form these two...

[En1gma]

Some of it may be wasted, yes. As we don't know the minimum damage for each mob in the game (Game text states "X deals up to Y damage", or something to that effect.) it is impossible to tell how low their minimum damage will go without being privy to fallen and Cory Trese's numbers and stats.

I'm interested in your party setup, as I have never had good luck with soak based teams before, simply because enemy damage ramps up so quickly in E2 it's hard to keep up. I would think Stone Skin Vraes, Shockwave and Ash KJ, Ethereal Anguish Kyera, and Punishing Selen would give you the best balance to make it all work.

-Vraes can reliably tank with armor until mid-game, I've done it, and Stone Skin helps tremendously here.
-KJ as Ash/Curse wizard is one of his best builds.
-Kyera I would take over Fyona because of how long it takes her to get to Reck. EA 10 strips 2 AP (Opens up Selen to become a full Melee instead of relying on Pinning Shot for debuff), 7 Acc(stacking perfectly with Shockwave, btw), and 7 Dodge, making things easier to hit. If you must use Fyona, I would go Shield of Cortias and Fervor, investing in Reck once it opens up.
-Selen will need to use Pining Shot if you use Fyona, unless you are a god at handling enemy turns with full AP mobs... Of not, she could dual Curse with Pinning Shot 4 and Punishing Blades.

Hope any of this is useful, and remember that Kincaid gets Crippling Strikes for -Damage as well.

[fallen]

havnor - depends a lot on the rest of your team.

One thing I am always considering when looking at Debuff combos is reliability of getting the Debuff in place. For example, comparing Choking Ash to Punishing Blades ... CA is easy to hit most of your enemies with very quickly -- within 2 turns, you should have them all debuffed once you have the 9-box level of the curse (easy to get). Punishing Blades requires a lot more work to spread around. If you really want to hit lots of targets, you need to build Selen with 1 AP blade and she has to just tag targets instead of trying to kill. Compared again to Silent Stalker, where you can tag a small number (3?) of targets a turn, but you can do them a serious punch of damage in doing so. But, those 3 are at range, so that helps even out a bit.

That might be a way to think about it. If you picked all curses you deliver in a Punishing Blades fashion (including Reckoning) you may find that you can't get enough curses out reliably and that the first few rounds of combat feel a bit more uphill. I would temper that with at least one or two good curses (EA, CA) that you can drop like bombs on the enemy quickly and from a distance.

On wasted Dmg, consider monsters like weapons. The average weapon, blade, will have something like 60/40 or 50/50 in its split of base Damage vs. Damage dice. Some weapons (big brutes, trolls, etc) are more like hammers in that they have 30% base and 70% damage dice. Some enemies are more like spears, in that they have 70% base and 30% dmg dice. That might help you make the decision. In some cases, yes, it might be wasted. In most cases, no, it won't be wasted.

[havnor]

Thank you both for very nice answers

For that soak build I'm started to fleshing it out (don't know if used good words) I do bit ep1 and boost in Ep2 storerooms as training ground... I just need more testing bit these two combos was what makes me unsure... Now i will try probably silent stalker for that minus accuracy and Armor to waste minus dmg less time or use it always to full potetional... I also saw that fyona must have two handed hammer and some points battlefield devotion... And Selen is not needed with one point warding words... But have not tested tamilin that much but I feel I needed her Aoe dmg so much coz that Selen didn't work with this defensive Vreas and fyona and buff debuff kjartan... But with choking ash and silent stalker everyone did not high but stable dmg which is good to plan my attack...

[amongstshadows]

I like using CA, PS, and Immolation. Allows you to have a party of brick walls that tear enemies to pieces. All those curses are AoE as well which makes it even better