|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 2:34:51 GMT -5
Kincaid - 1AP/1AP is pretty middle of the road and should do good damage on everything. 3AP attacks I find limits movement (very important on a tank, you need to be in the right spot to draw as many attacks as possible) while producing inadequate damage on lightly armoured (most shooters, who are top priority kills) foes. Preferred is a fickle term as well. Some groups might favour 3 AP attacks on Kincaid, however, this group does not...you need something that can gut low armour targets, you have nukes that can damage high armoured things. Selen - She can be a good tank too if you use her that way. Give her some dodge and parry gear. The Krete in that swamp represent a difficulty spike, the difficulty in episode 3 goes down considerably, you just need to get over this hump. Vincent - I am unaware of a consensus on the potency comparing LS and ES. From personal use I have found each has its own advantage. LS is very strong damage at a cheap price. ES is more moderate damage with an amazing curse. Perhaps you are unsure about what a lightning res curse does. Any lightning damage done to anything first has to get by resist. Once it has been soak by resist then it has to get by lightning resist. If this number is positive it acts like resist in all ways. If you cause lightning resist to go negative then it instead doubles lightning damage point for point till you reach the cursed amount. An example, ES curses an Orcin's lightning res to -28 (its maximum potency) and does 140 damage (as it does not get the benefit of the curse till AFTER the hit is applied). In swoops Selen to finish the Orcin off. She has TB 10 and 2 pieces of gear that give lightning damage, bring her lightning damage to 1-56. She attacks the Orcin and rolls 32 lightning damage. The Orcin has 13 resist. He absorbs half automatically and rolls a 3 on his d6 for the rest of the absorb. 10 lightning damage is taken off and 22 points roll into the Orcin. Now, because of the curse, each point of lightning damage is doubled up to 28 points (-28 lightning res). So Selen ends up doing 44 lightning damage in the end plus any physical damage that went through. If she were to get 32 lightning damage through res then 28 of that would double and the rest added unilaterally so a total damage of 60 would be applied. This damage doubling is applied to all attacks regardless of their AP usage. So when you have enough res curses on something lower AP attacks become more potent because they can dip into this double damage so much. ES is VERY strong especially when paired with TB and can dramatically increase damage output of the entire party while only decreasing Vincent's personal damage by a bit compared to LS. Kyera - with proper tactics hits should be rare. If you can funnel points that would have gone into healing talents instead into WS then hits become even more rare. It is a trade I have found is worth making. I will try 2 1 AP weapons on Kincaid then. As for Selen: I did respec just now and absolutely owned the Kretes. I cannot believe it. It seemed impossible with my old build; with the new build, I did it with surprising ease! Literally the only difference was getting Selen up to 5 on Pinning Shot. The Pinning Shot plus Kyera's massive one-shot nuke cleared the archer swarms with absurd ease. Just unbelievable. Thank you and En1gma! The only issue for her is now that she has no levels on melee talents, so it will take a while for her to hit things with regularity in melee again. But since I leveled Selen's movement talent to 2 AP and maxed out Quicksilver Defense, I can immediately start working on Punishing Blades starting level 29. I am just stupefied how simply giving her Pinning Shot to 5 was enough to completely change this fight! And she has a crappy bow, too. On Lightening Spear v. Energy storm: It's just an impression - probably a premature one - that I gleaned from just a few threads. |
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 2:43:41 GMT -5
achilles73 TB is most useful combined with energy storm. Splitting the difference between the two is common. e.g. 7 lvls of each if you have 14 talent points. Others may have more specific advice. Note w/o ff and/or FA that will put the pressure on EA, WS and PS all the more. As always, try to have a 2ap and a 1ap curse. Given how well the Selen respec went, I am tempted to try to respec and switch out of Lightening Storm and incorporate both Thundering Blade and Energy Storm. But I still cannot imagine getting rid of the 2 curses on Vincent, so having both TB and ES will have to be a late game thing - probably at least not until mid- or late- level 30s? Or perhaps I should wait until I can get Selen's Pinning Shot to 8 and then respec Vincent and remove Flash Freeze? Since Pinning Shot can miss, I am just very leery of relying primarily on Ethereal Anguish - especially since Kyera doesn't have MP talents, as far as I can tell. (Are there MP gear with decent stats later? Everything I've seen so far has crap stats.) |
|
matrim
Star Hero
[ Patreon ]
Posts: 708 
|
Post by matrim on Dec 20, 2016 3:14:04 GMT -5
Leave PS at 5. It is best there. Selen has tons of other things you can invest in.
|
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 3:27:31 GMT -5
Leave PS at 5. It is best there. Selen has tons of other things you can invest in. How do you use her as a melee? Do you switch the off-hand to melee weapon as well or keep the bow on the off-hand? Her damage is abysmal when she connects with just 1 min 1 AP weapon - along with the fact that she cannot currently hit anything in melee anyways. Also, I cannot believe how serious accuracy issues are already. I don't think I'd ever from now on use a team without either Kincaid's Flanking Unity or Vincent's Thundering Blades from now on. Anyone else provide a similar accuracy buff for the group? |
|
matrim
Star Hero
[ Patreon ]
Posts: 708
|
Post by matrim on Dec 20, 2016 3:46:27 GMT -5
I assume you invested in bows...my write up said specifically to get blades to 16 and leave bows at 0 as all the other buffs make it accurate enough. Without blades investment you will have a hard time hitting in melee, on top of the fact that she loses parry by not levelling blades. Just shoot with her bow now if you want damage and move in to tank some things after shooting when needed.
Accuracy is always a thing that needs to be addressed. Those 2 things are the buffs that add accuracy. You can also curse parry and dodge for the same effect. Choking Ash, Darting Steel, Strickening, Ethereal Anguish, Torrent of Steel, Pinning Shot, among other do this too. There are many ways to address accuracy, you just have to choose 2-3 (4-5 on nightmare).
Kyera - at EA 6 and it only costing 2 AP you should be able to curse all shooters that are threatening you. You can definitely rely on EA as your primary curse with PS backing it up. Don't sell Kyera short, she's up to the task. Curse shooters first, melee are much lower priority.
|
|
|
|
Post by wascalwywabbit on Dec 20, 2016 3:48:31 GMT -5
Leave PS at 5. It is best there. Selen has tons of other things you can invest in. How do you use her as a melee? Do you switch the off-hand to melee weapon as well or keep the bow on the off-hand? Her damage is abysmal when she connects with just 1 min 1 AP weapon - along with the fact that she cannot currently hit anything in melee anyways. Also, I cannot believe how serious accuracy issues are already. I don't think I'd ever from now on use a team without either Kincaid's Flanking Unity or Vincent's Thundering Blades from now on. Anyone else provide a similar accuracy buff for the group? Switching gear in combat costs 2mp/ap per change. Did you keep some blade skills for extra parry? Don't forget to use the best parry blade in the main hand at least until you get PB to a usable level at which point you may prize acc and dmg more. If you continue to have trouble with acc consider respecs for better FU and TB, and/or energy storm if you're having trouble keeping dmg high enough on high armor/res targets. Kjartan's CA is a great curse of dodge/parry/armor with guaranteed effect and no LoS required (just need to be in range) for teams that use him instead of Vincent. |
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 4:14:10 GMT -5
I assume you invested in bows...my write up said specifically to get blades to 16 and leave bows at 0 as all the other buffs make it accurate enough. Without blades investment you will have a hard time hitting in melee, on top of the fact that she loses parry by not levelling blades. Just shoot with her bow now if you want damage and move in to tank some things after shooting when needed. Accuracy is always a thing that needs to be addressed. Those 2 things are the buffs that add accuracy. You can also curse parry and dodge for the same effect. Choking Ash, Darting Steel, Strickening, Ethereal Anguish, Torrent of Steel, Pinning Shot, among other do this too. There are many ways to address accuracy, you just have to choose 2-3 (4-5 on nightmare). Kyera - at EA 6 and it only costing 2 AP you should be able to curse all shooters that are threatening you. You can definitely rely on EA as your primary curse with PS backing it up. Don't sell Kyera short, she's up to the task. Curse shooters first, melee are much lower priority. She maxed Blades. Prior to respec, she had levels on both of her main melee strikes, so she got accuracy boost there. But until I start leveling Flanking Unity on Kincaid and possibly Thundering Blades on Vincent, I don't think Blades 16 alone is sufficient. I could go get plus accuracy gear, but I didn't have any on her or on my inventory before, so I have to farm them. Ethereal Anguish is at 4, so I will have to level it to at least to 6 to get wider AoE cloud, I think. |
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 4:17:41 GMT -5
How do you use her as a melee? Do you switch the off-hand to melee weapon as well or keep the bow on the off-hand? Her damage is abysmal when she connects with just 1 min 1 AP weapon - along with the fact that she cannot currently hit anything in melee anyways. Also, I cannot believe how serious accuracy issues are already. I don't think I'd ever from now on use a team without either Kincaid's Flanking Unity or Vincent's Thundering Blades from now on. Anyone else provide a similar accuracy buff for the group? Switching gear in combat costs 2mp/ap per change. Did you keep some blade skills for extra parry? Don't forget to use the best parry blade in the main hand at least until you get PB to a usable level at which point you may prize acc and dmg more. If you continue to have trouble with acc consider respecs for better FU and TB, and/or energy storm if you're having trouble keeping dmg high enough on high armor/res targets. Kjartan's CA is a great curse of dodge/parry/armor with guaranteed effect and no LoS required (just need to be in range) for teams that use him instead of Vincent. Ouch, 2 AP is too much. She maxed out Blades, as I am trying to create a true hybrid. Am I using a 1 AP or 2 AP weapon on main hand? I assume 1 AP, right? Kincaid will get Flanking Unity starting next level probably. I am also cosidering respec of Vincent down the line to get Thundering Blade, but not sure at the moment. If I stop both of his curses at 6 each, then perhaps I can max out Lightening Spear next and go to Thundering Blade as well? |
|
matrim
Star Hero
[ Patreon ]
Posts: 708
|
Post by matrim on Dec 20, 2016 4:20:54 GMT -5
You should be hitting consistently with your dagger with 16 blades. Maybe you just got a few unlucky rolls. You should definitely be hitting things that are cursed with PS. Make sure to remember that that move is a huge accuracy booster as well. You can still use Level 1 FB and it will add 3 strong dice to the attack accuracy, should be more than enough.
Yes EA 6 is the best spot for that move for a long time.
FF is totally unnecessary with EA levelled (not to mention PS makes it further redundant). An argument can be made for FA but I believe you will get more mileage from TB and LS or ES.
|
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 4:57:24 GMT -5
You should be hitting consistently with your dagger with 16 blades. Maybe you just got a few unlucky rolls. You should definitely be hitting things that are cursed with PS. Make sure to remember that that move is a huge accuracy booster as well. You can still use Level 1 FB and it will add 3 strong dice to the attack accuracy, should be more than enough. Yes EA 6 is the best spot for that move for a long time. FF is totally unnecessary with EA levelled (not to mention PS makes it further redundant). An argument can be made for FA but I believe you will get more mileage from TB and LS or ES. I've had quite a lot of fights since the respec, and Selen consistently hits at maybe 50 percent. I don't know what the issue is. Her connect rate seems on par with Vincent's Lightening Spear - which is bad. But next level, I get Flanking Unity 1 and Punishing Blades 1, so that's 5 accuracy increase. If that's still not enough, then I will slap on an accuracy gear. But at the moment, it's just awful. The reason I want to keep Flash Freeze is because I want Kyera to start throwing down Banishment on turn 1. So she will only cast 1 max Ethereal Anguish per turn, and that's not going to be enough to keep everything suppressed MP-wise. Once again, someone with a better knowledge of encounters in the game - as well as someone who is intuitively better at positioning without having that knowledge - won't need so many curses, but I just don't think I can survive without a curse overkill. But again, if I go Pinning Shot to 8, then perhaps it's a different story. |
|
matrim
Star Hero
[ Patreon ]
Posts: 708
|
Post by matrim on Dec 20, 2016 5:09:21 GMT -5
Pinning shot 8 is not really going to help (you can build to it if you want, but I assure you the extra SP costs will be limiting, not to mention 3 talent points that are so valuable for so little gain). You should be cursing fully first round and then damaging subsequent rounds. Priority 1 is getting AP down to control damage, a bunch of half dead monsters are going to tear you apart. Maybe 1 point in FF to spot curse something that is troublesome. That might occasionally open up Kyera to do a round 1 Banishment. A lot of fights don't include ranged attackers as well which means that AP cursing is less priority and you can get some good nukes in. Lastly, skeletal archers have 1 AP naturally so EA is not going to be cast on them but they are weak to holy so Kyera will work them over.
Try using FB 1, it should bump your accuracy up a lot with no talent investment.
|
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 5:33:08 GMT -5
Pinning shot 8 is not really going to help (you can build to it if you want, but I assure you the extra SP costs will be limiting, not to mention 3 talent points that are so valuable for so little gain). You should be cursing fully first round and then damaging subsequent rounds. Priority 1 is getting AP down to control damage, a bunch of half dead monsters are going to tear you apart. Maybe 1 point in FF to spot curse something that is troublesome. That might occasionally open up Kyera to do a round 1 Banishment. A lot of fights don't include ranged attackers as well which means that AP cursing is less priority and you can get some good nukes in. Lastly, skeletal archers have 1 AP naturally so EA is not going to be cast on them but they are weak to holy so Kyera will work them over. Try using FB 1, it should bump your accuracy up a lot with no talent investment. Ok, I will hold off on Pinning Shot 8 then and get the other useful talents first. I hope the feared Ghoul Lords aren't going to be too difficult when I enter the City of the Dead. I have been fearing these reanimation-type of battles for a long time now  |
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 10:33:57 GMT -5
By the way, Storm of Steel sounds like a neat ability, and I love AoE melees. Is there any way Kincaid can squeeze that in at the end game? Or is he too talent-starved with other goodies to really look in that direction?
|
|
|
|
Post by En1gma on Dec 20, 2016 11:09:25 GMT -5
One point in Storm of Steel is always helpful, especially if you haven't invested in Crippling Strikes. Easy way to increase his presence on the battlefield.
|
|
|
|
Post by achilles73 on Dec 20, 2016 11:31:07 GMT -5
One point in Storm of Steel is always helpful, especially if you haven't invested in Crippling Strikes. Easy way to increase his presence on the battlefield. Thanks; I will do that then. By the way, Matrim (I think) said melees should invest only in one main melee strike heavily. And he specifically recommended Punishing Blades over Frenzied Blows for Selen. So how does Crippling Strikes v. Flashing Blades compare for Kincaid? I will choose Flashing Blades anyways for this game, because I have enough debuff power as is. But I'd like to know for future parties where I won't have as much debuffs. |
|
