Post by varentai on Dec 4, 2017 18:11:40 GMT -5
My first group was all the free characters, and I loved the game so much that I invested in all the chapters and eventually, all the paid characters as well. Here are some of my thoughts on the experience in my second run, both on the group dynamics and general gameplay.
First, SP drain is a HUGE deal. When I look for gear, I look for Accuracy first and SP drain is a close second (generally - I always have boots that increase Stealth and Security on my rogue character). I only take pure damage items when I have sufficient Acc and plenty of SP drain already, which is uncommon. In my first group, I would really have to rest every 2-3 battles, depending on how intense they were. If there wasn't easy resting available, I would burn through potions like crazy, which really mounts up costs. This didn't affect me so much until I hit CoD where I really needed to watch how often I rested.
In my second group, only my wizard character (Vincent) doesn't have good SP gear, which is fine because I keep him in reserve most of the time. I have found that he doesn't do enough damage to make SP drain super worthwhile. Everyone else does damage according to weapons, which means that when I get a weapon upgrade, the SP drain goes up while keeping the skill SP use at the same amount. The wizard characters, however, only do increased dam as you increase their spell skill levels (not including buffs here), so he tends to burn SP faster even with good SP gear on.
By allocating good SP gear, I find I only need to rest once every 6-10 battles, and only as Vincent starts to drop really low in SP. If any of the others start to drop, then I do a bunch of basic attacks and build SP back up (if you are doing spell-based Vincent, he doesn't have a good basic attack to build his SP back up). A few well placed crits can really replenish SP fast, and I find that Selene uses more SP than everyone else what with far sight and the Pinning Shot bow attack which is really expensive as you build it up. Luckily, she has an ability that increases crits, and her basic attack does great damage on a regular basis because of it. I am exploring every other part of Chap 3 before I go into CoD, but so far, I think my ability to keep potion use only for emergencies is going quite well.
Second, I love the combos available in the paid chars more than the free ones. Several things stand out - in the free chars, only Tamlin has a weapon-based area attack. In the paid chars, every single one of them has a weapon-based AOE attack. I don't use Vincent's because I find him more useful as a curser and a backup ranged DPS - to make him viable in melee would take a completely different build. I use his Energy Storm to increase the lightning dam everyone does from his Thundering Blades buff when I need to hit some tough mobs grouped together, and his Lightning Spear is pretty good when you have the right buffs, which I will get to shortly. Having AOE capability on every char is amazing, I absolutely love it.
Granted, Kyrea has an AOE, but it's spell based rather than weapon based, and if you are using her as backup melee, it's hard to make the SP and Talent point cost to get sufficient DPS worth it. I got more traction using her as melee backup, but that's just me.
With solid weapon AOE DPS on 3 out of 4 characters (and Vincent's Lightning Spear is a cheap AOE, so it still works well), you can take down large groups like they are nothing. What's more, due to the second aspect of the paid chars, it makes combat even better. I am referring to the fact that Vincent and Kincaid have the only two group buffs that increase Acc AND Dam. Combine them both and even low level attack skills hit way more often AND do way more damage. Heck, Vincent still only has lvl 1 Lightning spear and I can often do 70-80 dam per enemy. Not bad for a 2 SP spell attack!
I maxed out both skills (Thundering Blades and Flanking Unity) as quickly as possible. Because increasing these skills gave both Dam and Acc, I was able to focus on other skills for the other characters rather than needing to increase attack skills (and thus SP costs/attack) right away. My attacks are fairly cheap (except for Selene's Pinning Shot, but I use that somewhat sparingly, backed up with basic attacks to rebuild the lost SP), and combined with good SP drain, I can use group attacks like crazy to take down multiple enemies in short order. Makes the game exponentially easier than it was with group 1. When both Kincaid and Fyona can hit groups very hard with excellent crafted weapons, softened by precision group strikes from both Selene's crafted bow and Vincent, they go down quick.
With group 1, I would hit individual mobs very hard, but taking them down one at a time was painstaking and I took a lot of hits in the meantime.
I have also found that I vastly prefer Kincaid to Vraes - Kincaid doesn't have the HP or armor that Vraes has, but Sure Parry prevents him from being hit at all for a certain number of melee strikes, not to mention increasing his Parry as well. Add in Fyona's Shield of Cortias which gives a large bonus to Parry and a smaller one to Dodge, and Kincaid is nearly impossible to hit. I work hard to keep him out of missile range or take out distance attackers as quick as possible, but even so, he's a tough cookie. Vreas can take a lot of damage, but you have to HEAL that damage, and even with high armor, 2 or 3 solid hits from the higher level mobs, and he is near dead. Vincent avoids getting hit in the first place and then can ignore up to three strikes that get through. And Sure Parry only costs 1 AP, so it's not a big deal to keep on him at all times. With Vincent heading up the front of the pack, he can tank all melee attackers with ease, and with everyone having AOE, I can take out groups of ranged attackers very quickly. Fyona can run up, smack a group several times, and then back off one space, leaving Vincent still taking all melee attention.
I also really love that every character has options for reducing enemy AP. Pinning Shot (Selene), Flash Freeze (Vincent), and Reckoning (Fyona) are all easy to get. Kincaid gets an AP reducing attack in his Crippling Blow, but that comes after several talent points are invested, so I haven't gotten it yet. The three talents listed earlier are sufficient for my needs.
All in all, I loved playing the game with the first group, but with the experience around SP drain and the better selection of skills, I have enjoyed playing with the second group far more. I even went back to try and play my 1st group again (they are in Chap 4), and I found myself so frustrated by their limited ability to hit groups (both in terms of lacking AOE and missing two Acc buffs)and reduce AP that I've gone back to group 2 and stayed there.
Anyhow, those are my thoughts, hope they are helpful! Its says something that I am STILL playing this game almost exclusively on my phone after months of playing it. The depth and quality are very high! Well done, Trese Brothers!
First, SP drain is a HUGE deal. When I look for gear, I look for Accuracy first and SP drain is a close second (generally - I always have boots that increase Stealth and Security on my rogue character). I only take pure damage items when I have sufficient Acc and plenty of SP drain already, which is uncommon. In my first group, I would really have to rest every 2-3 battles, depending on how intense they were. If there wasn't easy resting available, I would burn through potions like crazy, which really mounts up costs. This didn't affect me so much until I hit CoD where I really needed to watch how often I rested.
In my second group, only my wizard character (Vincent) doesn't have good SP gear, which is fine because I keep him in reserve most of the time. I have found that he doesn't do enough damage to make SP drain super worthwhile. Everyone else does damage according to weapons, which means that when I get a weapon upgrade, the SP drain goes up while keeping the skill SP use at the same amount. The wizard characters, however, only do increased dam as you increase their spell skill levels (not including buffs here), so he tends to burn SP faster even with good SP gear on.
By allocating good SP gear, I find I only need to rest once every 6-10 battles, and only as Vincent starts to drop really low in SP. If any of the others start to drop, then I do a bunch of basic attacks and build SP back up (if you are doing spell-based Vincent, he doesn't have a good basic attack to build his SP back up). A few well placed crits can really replenish SP fast, and I find that Selene uses more SP than everyone else what with far sight and the Pinning Shot bow attack which is really expensive as you build it up. Luckily, she has an ability that increases crits, and her basic attack does great damage on a regular basis because of it. I am exploring every other part of Chap 3 before I go into CoD, but so far, I think my ability to keep potion use only for emergencies is going quite well.
Second, I love the combos available in the paid chars more than the free ones. Several things stand out - in the free chars, only Tamlin has a weapon-based area attack. In the paid chars, every single one of them has a weapon-based AOE attack. I don't use Vincent's because I find him more useful as a curser and a backup ranged DPS - to make him viable in melee would take a completely different build. I use his Energy Storm to increase the lightning dam everyone does from his Thundering Blades buff when I need to hit some tough mobs grouped together, and his Lightning Spear is pretty good when you have the right buffs, which I will get to shortly. Having AOE capability on every char is amazing, I absolutely love it.
Granted, Kyrea has an AOE, but it's spell based rather than weapon based, and if you are using her as backup melee, it's hard to make the SP and Talent point cost to get sufficient DPS worth it. I got more traction using her as melee backup, but that's just me.
With solid weapon AOE DPS on 3 out of 4 characters (and Vincent's Lightning Spear is a cheap AOE, so it still works well), you can take down large groups like they are nothing. What's more, due to the second aspect of the paid chars, it makes combat even better. I am referring to the fact that Vincent and Kincaid have the only two group buffs that increase Acc AND Dam. Combine them both and even low level attack skills hit way more often AND do way more damage. Heck, Vincent still only has lvl 1 Lightning spear and I can often do 70-80 dam per enemy. Not bad for a 2 SP spell attack!
I maxed out both skills (Thundering Blades and Flanking Unity) as quickly as possible. Because increasing these skills gave both Dam and Acc, I was able to focus on other skills for the other characters rather than needing to increase attack skills (and thus SP costs/attack) right away. My attacks are fairly cheap (except for Selene's Pinning Shot, but I use that somewhat sparingly, backed up with basic attacks to rebuild the lost SP), and combined with good SP drain, I can use group attacks like crazy to take down multiple enemies in short order. Makes the game exponentially easier than it was with group 1. When both Kincaid and Fyona can hit groups very hard with excellent crafted weapons, softened by precision group strikes from both Selene's crafted bow and Vincent, they go down quick.
With group 1, I would hit individual mobs very hard, but taking them down one at a time was painstaking and I took a lot of hits in the meantime.
I have also found that I vastly prefer Kincaid to Vraes - Kincaid doesn't have the HP or armor that Vraes has, but Sure Parry prevents him from being hit at all for a certain number of melee strikes, not to mention increasing his Parry as well. Add in Fyona's Shield of Cortias which gives a large bonus to Parry and a smaller one to Dodge, and Kincaid is nearly impossible to hit. I work hard to keep him out of missile range or take out distance attackers as quick as possible, but even so, he's a tough cookie. Vreas can take a lot of damage, but you have to HEAL that damage, and even with high armor, 2 or 3 solid hits from the higher level mobs, and he is near dead. Vincent avoids getting hit in the first place and then can ignore up to three strikes that get through. And Sure Parry only costs 1 AP, so it's not a big deal to keep on him at all times. With Vincent heading up the front of the pack, he can tank all melee attackers with ease, and with everyone having AOE, I can take out groups of ranged attackers very quickly. Fyona can run up, smack a group several times, and then back off one space, leaving Vincent still taking all melee attention.
I also really love that every character has options for reducing enemy AP. Pinning Shot (Selene), Flash Freeze (Vincent), and Reckoning (Fyona) are all easy to get. Kincaid gets an AP reducing attack in his Crippling Blow, but that comes after several talent points are invested, so I haven't gotten it yet. The three talents listed earlier are sufficient for my needs.
All in all, I loved playing the game with the first group, but with the experience around SP drain and the better selection of skills, I have enjoyed playing with the second group far more. I even went back to try and play my 1st group again (they are in Chap 4), and I found myself so frustrated by their limited ability to hit groups (both in terms of lacking AOE and missing two Acc buffs)and reduce AP that I've gone back to group 2 and stayed there.
Anyhow, those are my thoughts, hope they are helpful! Its says something that I am STILL playing this game almost exclusively on my phone after months of playing it. The depth and quality are very high! Well done, Trese Brothers!