Epic failure's challenge!

[matrim]

phaze The challenge is on! We are currently close to tied on the leaderboards but with all the awesome changes that the TBs have done there is room to get an even higher score. I am extremely comfortable with my ironman lead group of KVFS and would love to have another go with them. You seem comfortable with your group as well. The challenge can be to get the highest score with the group we have already tried and tested. If you want though the challenge can also be to try each other's group and see how far we can get. It would be really hard for me as Fyona is the cornerstone of all my groups, poor Kyera has seen no action in about a year. We can also do a challenge where we pick each other's group (as in you say who I should bring and vice versa) and see how that goes. Posting in Adventure's journal was also not a mistake. I am not sure how you are with story writing but I would love it if we could story in some of the most harrowing moments of the group. Also, we would of course have to write in the moment that spelled the team's demise if it happens. What do you think?

[phaze]

Awesome. The first choice is straightforward and would let both of us seek absolute high scores. The second option would be fun. Fyona and Vincent are my weak spots. The third option sounds the least fun. My inclination is to go with choice 1 as we can demonstrate pushing the score boundaries.

I am happy to do occasional write-ups; I just don't get a lot of free time.

Maybe we could do initial write-up for our plans and then make posts at major content milestones. Or an unfortunate demise.

I can start my new party today and let the chase begin!

[matrim]

It has begun! The challenge shall be trying our original groups to see if we can shatter the iOS boards! I shall be making a team of KVFS.

Kincaid - primary tank till about the end of episode 1. It will be at this point that Selen shall take the mantle from him so he can focus on his more damaging talents. He will maintain the offtank role in order to provide support, especially for the feared Orcin Warlords, Spider Hosts, and Ghoul Lords that may land a blow upon Selen.
Flanking Unity - 8, Sure Parry 4, Cunning Footwork - 10, Live by the Blade - 1, Darting Steel - 9, Storm of Steel - 1. With any points after this going into Sure Parry till 7 and then either Flashing Blades for more damage or Live by the Blade for more mobility.

Vincent - sword artist extraordinaire! His focus is cursing first, damage second. Key to this team as archers are a huge weakness that his curses counter nicely. His sword is death incarnate, wiping swathes of creatures away with elemental sundering.
Thundering Blades - 10, Charged Speed 2, Elemental Sundering 1, Frigid Air - 10, Flash Freeze - 6, Eye of the Storm - 10. Good crit, good AE, awesome cursing. Any left over points will be invested into Charged Speed to make him even more mobile, although I may put 2 more points into FF to get the range increase. It all depends on what the TBs throw at us in the end.

Fyona - the Strickening paladin. First her focus is to bring team defenses to nigh unhittableness with Shield of Cortias. After that she turns into a curse machine that causes all evil that stands in the way of the chosen of death to immediately regret it.
Shield of Cortias - 10, Reckoning - 1, Strickening - 10, Righteous Fervor - 10, Zealous Strike - 10. This takes her to level 60ish I believe. Not many points to spare but each point is pure gold. The key to the team and if she has any spare points I suspect they will go into Reckoning to give that a bit more punch.

Selen - tank and ranged specialist. The rest of the team has a 3 range max (Vincent, with EotS 10, can bust out an occasional level 1 LS when the situation is dire but he would rather just slice things up with his sword) while Selen will boast a 6-7 range 2 AP bow for most of the game. She will also be matrix tanking everything, laughing at the clumsy orcs who try to lay a spear upon her person.
Pinning Shot - 5, Quicksilver Defense - 10, Dance of Shadows - 10, Sly Look 4. This is all I have for her currently. She will finish this build quite early compared to the others and I am undecided on the distribution of points after. With - armour being made official, Punishing Blades looks very attractive however with Strickening being the mainstay of this group I have found PB to be a little lackluster because of my elemental damage focus. I will probably get Frenzied Blows to 10 to take advantage of the crit that it offers as I think that will pan out better than PB. PS will of course be raised to 8 as well after the base build is finished (you will notice that Selen may be the only one with an empowered attack level'd. This group has 0 accuracy issues and uses basic attacks for virtually the entire game. The exception of course is when SP drain reaches a point where they may use their level 1 empowered attacks at absolutely 0 cost).

[fallen]

Other forum members are welcomed to join in the on the challenge!

[phaze]

Game on!

It has begun! I will be playing KKKS.

Kincaid - primary tank and ninja all the way through game. Avoidance to let the enemies stack around him while he then obliterates with critical hits and SoS with a 3 AP set up that delivers major damage.  Sure parry guarantees safety in melee while maxing Dodge (plus using Kyera and Kjartan with -acc) makes nearly all missile attacks harmless.  
Flanking Unity - 8 (10), Sure Parry 7(10 in my old game but may adjust with new equipment bonuses), Cunning Footwork - 10, Live by the Blade - 1, Storm of Steel - 1. Flashing Blades or SoS or added damage at the end.

Kjartan - Wizard with buffs/debuffs and incinerating enemies with glee.
Burning Blades - 10, Firestorm 5 (and higher after), Choking Ash 10, Meteoric Shockwave- 2 , Pureflame Shield - 4 (and higher later). Awesome debuffing. CA is king for making all things hit and increasing damage.  BB adds fire damage and critical hits to all party members.  I think fire damage is the second best element for natural enemy weaknesses in the game.  Increased crits are glorious for all.  MS is a tasty supplement in the early game to bolster secondary tanks and take the bite out of dangerous enemies. Pure flame Shield increases the effective HP pool of all characters and frees up equipment to never needing resistance. I stress HP first and accuracy/damage second.  He is able to stack really good damage equipment easily to make Fireball 1 and Firestorm painful for enemies with minimal investment.

Kyrea - Pain with Hammers and Holy. First her focus is to bring team defenses, especially Dodge to max levels with Warders Shield. After that she turns into a curse machine that makes entire battlefields serene with enemies stripped of AP, accuracy, and Dodge for a steal at 2 AP.  Long term, take it to 10 for glee.  Supplement with Smite for accuracy and PW for added elemental resistance as needed.  Between PW and PS, I can easily reduce all elemental damage from enemies that have + all magical damage.
Warders Shield - 10, Smiting Blow - 3, Etherial Anguish - 6(10) into Ep 3, Piety Ward - 3, and Banishment 7. So...in the initial party, I had Sacrifice and Lore built in Ep 2 for reducing camping.  This may not be needed due to SP drain equipment, thus freeing up 2 talent and 14 skill points to use with ranged damage.  Possibly, I may skimp on secondary talents to raise Banishment in time for the CoD to clear groups faster.  She may benefit most from the Necklace.

Selen - ranged stealth specialist and secondary tank late game. Selen will boast a 6-7 range 2 AP bow for most of the game choosing to win stealth and maxing damage and critical hit percentages. With early AoE, CA, and specializing in damage, Selen is the main damage dealer for the game, easily clearing enemy groups if I unload with PS.
Pinning Shot - 8, Quicksilver Defense - 10, Dance of Shadows - 10 (priority for stealth and Crit), Sly Look 2(4). Punishing Blades late game.  With - armour being made official, Punishing Blades is being rethought as I use CA and could stack damage for a good portion of the game.  PS will be raised to 8 once I can get her SP neutral, usually in EP 3.

Overall, I use stealth for the game to control battles and stress critical hit percentages building over time to deal massive damage.  I use Kincaid to avoid all damage while Selen brings AoE pain.  Kyrea uses hammers effectively to point target enemies.  Kjartan is mainly a curse machine until later game, using Fireball 1 most of the game until Firestorm comes online.

With FU, PS, and CA, accuracy needs are minimal allowing the party to focus on damage and adds great utility to Kyrea and Kjartan, letting them focus on staying staying alive attribute/skill/equipment or damage as safety allows.

[matrim]

Of course any other member is welcome to join! I would especially enjoy the storied tales of xdesperado or Rashar. Maybe contributor could grace this challenge with his sage advice (and well made maps) or CdrPlatypus bring one of his many well made and planned parties to the fray and leave us all in the dust as he uses his gundam as an unofficial 5th member of his party!

[samopop]

matrim - My most successful party consists of the same characters although with some different talent choices. If Vincent is going to be a curser/melee sword user . . . why do you go with Eye of the Storm 10? My Vincent is a a curser/melee sword user, but I level up elemental sundering instead. Combined with Vincent's relic and the talent's built-in SP drain, I rarely have SP issues. Combined with holy strickening, the damage is awesome. Finally, since he is often on the front lines, all of that additional parry/dodge is very useful.

[xdesperado]

I'm currently on NMI with Deathstalkers IV clearing the West Road outside of Oskahold.
Kincaid, Kjartan, Fyona and Selen. Really hoping this time I can make it past at least the Great Shaman without Kincaid dieing.
Trying to be extra cautious with everything I do but...stuff happens.

I wrote up the team concept elsewhere but highlights for it are as follows.

Kincaid; Party shield for most part with Sure Parry and Cunning Footwork. That said he's got SP4 at present and is in process of bringing Crippling Strikes up to 6 to help reduce incoming damage. Once that's at 6 he'll start splitting Cunning Footwork and Sure Parry till SP7 then add Live by the Blade.
Kjartan; Choking Ash is on fast track straight to 10. After that it's Burning Blades Time. Eventually he'll add some Firestorm. CA10 is key to party strategy of reducing enemy defenses as much as possible.
Fyona; Holy Strickening going to 10 with only a point or two dropped into Blessed Aura along the way. Level 18 she'll start on Reckoning. Again HS is a key to party build. Still undecided on exactly where to go with trains after HS10 will either be Shield of Cortias or Righteous Fervor. Currently leaning towards RF with the announced change for it coming soon.
Selen; Pinning Shot 5, then she'll start splitting points between Dance of Shadows and Punishing Blades. PB will be going to 10 eventually but with Kjartan taking CA straight up there is less urgency for her there and she may mix in some Quicksilver Defense.
Party works well together and the stripped defense of enemies helps keep most fights short. Will be much more comfortable once Kincaid gets Crippling Strikes up to at least 5 and can start helping remove AP.

[Rashar]

matrim, would love to join the challenge but I will stand at the sideline. Spend 220 hours in 1 month on my 1st playthrough on easy and only really know the original 4 character by heart. I am currently experimenting with the new 4 guys but it's a bit slow even with a boost in. Once I feel secure about my knowledge I will do a nightmare run to get accustumed to level differences etc. and from there on I will surely try to grab atleast a top 10 NMI ranking.

samopop, vincent's relics are not as great as they might seem. when it comes down to raw power a 2ap lightblade can not win from a 1ap lightblade. Comes to an impopular thing but I'll take those 7 aoe attacks with a good crit% over 3 attacks. Now I have not played much with Vincent yet, but aslong as you have +%crit and +dmg the best buyable 1ap lightblade will be better then the 2ap lightblade relic. Sad but true.

[matrim]

samopop I have elemental sundering to 10 in my current group. I feel that the SP drain and defensive stats are not really worth as much to me as the 20% crit. It was a pretty even choice IMO but Vincent is never really a concern with 2 tanks if you are careful so the parry and dodge are throw away stats (although things happen and Vincent can be targeted). In the end it takes 1 item to get to that SP drain and 2-3 items to get to that crit. Not to mention that often the new armour offers SP drain on it which is just a bonus. The ranged accuracy is largely wasted but there are situations where a ranged unit is left alive with 50 health and no one to reach them. Vincent can step in with a level 1 LS and the added accuracy means he can get that hit and kill him. This occurs a surprising number of times for me. In the end I feel it is a close choice, one more defensive, the other more offensive (also, 1 AP blades are my weapon of choice and 10 ES makes him pretty SP hungry. I see that with the relic this would be reduced significantly but the relic reduces my damage by too much to really consider it).

[Rashar]

matrim curious, does this mean you're going for the heartbeat of spring?

[samopop]

Rashar, matrim - well, you learn something new every day. I never realized that the crit from Eye of the Storm actually applies to all attacks, not just the ranged spell ones! There may be a respec in my future . . .

matrim - I have no where near the requisite play skills to be able to say that the extra parry/dodge for Vincent is not that useful with two other tanks in my group. I use that extra parry/dodge all the time. I depend upon it! However, with extremely careful play and crazy skills . . . I can see how it might not be useful.

[matrim]

samopop I am extremely careful now with Vincent as his death has probably cost me the most ironman nightmare attempts. The reason I am not as concerned about the dodge and parry is that by the time I build ES to 10 it would be episode 4 and having Sly Look 4 lets me be very cautious with Vincent. If ES was an early thing I could build then the dodge and parry would be invaluable in surviving those times when Vincent has to get hit. I feel there are good arguements for both talents but in the end I have to choose one. It speaks to the balance that the TBs have obtained that 2 talents can be so different yet neither is clearly better than the other.

[matrim]

Rashar I will be getting the Hearbeats of Summer for this game and it will be my first time trying it. I am hoping that Tavensa's wintery wrath does not spell the end for my heroes.

Vincent's SP drain requirements are not the only reason for me to do so but because this is a score challenge I will be aiming to spend as little money as possible. Wyatt tells me that he has forsaken his greedy ways but the prices at his shop tell me a different story!

[Rashar]

Heartbeat of spring is completely retarded frigging overpowered, my 1st thoughts about have changed, originally I was like... it's good but... No buts anymore that item excisting and being a 100% justified my Vraes build with rank 4 ferocity. (and still have unlimited sp) The item in itself justifies that 1 hero can go for an outrageously expensive sp heavy build and completely kick arse.

The +300 max sp is icing on the cake and with enough %sp becomes redundant but it is still might handy, much more then I originally said/thought.
The +42 holy damage is completely retardedly overpowered, especially with 90% of the enemies in act 3 and 4 having problems with holy and then there is the synergy when you give this to characters that can aoe... and then if they have a high % crit it will be ridiculous. The synergy with tanilin who lowers res by 10 is kinda iffy but I imagine that combined with Fyona this thing will wreck faces.
The 14% SP drain is godly and aslong as you score high enough dmg most attacks will refund for a big part if not all and critical hits are like using spirit potions.

Tavensa´s wintery wrath was a pretty sick fight for me on easy (did not die though) but then my party setup wasnt perfect, only had 1 tank and they attack from 2 sides very heavily and Tavensa can pack a punch and so does the big bad wolf... they managed to hit Vraes a few times back then. For me most annoying on that fight was a caster was behind a pillar and kept cursing -30% crit on my vraes so had to keep on using items to decurse etc. And I couldnt reach the little bugger without risking another hero dying.

On average I would say the item is like having +15 intelligence and a free rank 8 talent.