Post by achilles73 on Dec 12, 2016 15:34:43 GMT -5
It depends on difficulty and goals. Kjartan built with Choking Ash makes the beginning of the game a breeze. He ups the damage of everyone else by a ridiculous amount and lets them virtually ignore accuracy. CA starts to fall off at about end episode 3 (it's still very strong but because it's damage increase is linear it is adding 20ish damage on to the 50 you're doing at that point as opposed to the beginning where it is adding 20 damage onto the 5 damage you are doing). Vincent can bring great AoE damage or good cursing with SP free sword attacks. At the beginning he is strong if built with lightning spear but sword takes a while to flesh out. Both mages are similar if built for magic damage in my opinion, with Kjartan being cheaper, safer, single target and Vincent being more damaging, risky, AoE damage. With proper support a sword Vincent is very terrifying to behold, cursing enemies with high level curses and following up with devastating sword strokes that drain all the SP just used back.
Kyera is a good healer. She has better healing, more SP, and better initial cursing than Fyona. Built for maces, she can basically match Fyona in effectiveness (a little behind if you develop Fyona's buff attack), she does respectable SPless damage. Built for magic damage takes a little bit to come into its own but is very effective, especially given the amount of dangerous enemies in this game that are weak to holy damage. Her Ethereal Anguish is one of the best curses in the game, it takes all the fight out of almost everything you will encounter. Fyona is more late game than Kyera. At the start she has the ability to equip 2h hammers which are far more effective against beetles and giant rats. Her real value is not apparent until you develop Strickening. With proper elemental damage builds, Strickening increases damage by a stupid amount. At level 10 power with about 20ish elemental damage across the board you will see 160-220 damage regularly, with 350 damage crits (1 AP weapons). It is IMO, the best curse in the game. It's presence in Fyona's arsenal basically ensures that I don't even consider benching her for Kyera.
The others you have looked at in depth.
Summary (this is subjective understand, there are many ways to build every character, this is how I like to build them)
Vraes - more damage, more HP, dex based Vraes is very dodgy, still good damage
Kincaid - more versatile (ranged attack, group buff), less damage, guaranteed block of melee attacks *my choice*
Kjartan - better early game, more crits make late game really fun, higher SP usage
Vincent - late game presence, able to build curse and still do damage, way more risky as you have to be closer to mobs *my choice*
Kyera - more SP, better heals, EA takes all the fight out of everything, option for SP battery build
Fyona - strickening *my choice*
Tamilin - less defense, 1 AP range option, great cursing with ToS, extreme damage *my choice*
Selen - can build as tank, versatile damage (dual wield or bow and sword), great cursing with PS or PB, extreme damage (but no 1 AP, AoE option)