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Post by wascalwywabbit on Jan 20, 2017 0:38:13 GMT -5
While I'm here, I've read so many of these threads from 2 years ago to present I can't keep them all straight. Is Episode 4 complete yet or not? Will I reach a natural stopping point after 3 or will 4 just start right in? I've read through that thread at least a dozen times. Thank you! It's really good. It's still a little hard to keep straight sometimes though. I really need to drill down into the damage component before I run my next party through... They are finishing the second to last chunk of episode 4 testing now. Some of episode 4 is available atm, the next chunk soon, and then the final chunk will be built and tested. |
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Post by dagger on Jan 20, 2017 0:47:53 GMT -5
Got it. Thank you!
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Post by dagger on Jan 23, 2017 1:02:39 GMT -5
Ok, done with the Fang quest. All I've got left is the final tower in the City of the Dead. I'm still in Granthorn though and before I make my way all the way back around to the Braeys entry I wanted to ask about buying equipment.
I think I remember someone saying in one of these threads that the score you get for gold maxes out at 500,000. Is that correct? I've got about 340k right now so I'm wondering if I want to save that or if spending about 80k in Granthorn is going to mean I don't get to the max by the end. It's obviously not a huge deal one way or the other but....I'm thinking that I probably won't play this game all the way to completion again on this level (hard) so I'd like to maximize my score this time through if at all possible.
On the other hand, some of that gear is pretty sweet and if I'm not going to find equivalent (or better) equipment in Episode 4 then I might just want to bite the bullet now and buy it. I can add 2 Parry, 8 Accuracy, 8 Dodge, 4 Stealth, 4 Security, and 6% SP drain to my already strong Tamilin. And I can beef up Vraes some too. Very tempting but it's expensive. By the way, I gave back the Heart.....
As always, all thoughts and advice appreciated greatly.....thank you!
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Jan 23, 2017 1:36:16 GMT -5
The loot drops vary (storyline items excepted) so whether you get what you're looking for in a reasonable amount of time is uncertain unless you buy it if possible.
I look at it this way: 80k is less than a quarter of your gold atm, you may get good item drops or only so-so, but you're definitely going to get more gold, and if the gear saves you from death(s) then that's double the reason to gear up.
ymmv
edit: I should say each character will have a chance for a single legendary weapon, possibly a choice of a shield or armor instead, but boots, pendants, rings, cloaks, bracers etc will not be legendaries AFAIK.
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Post by dagger on Jan 23, 2017 11:13:34 GMT -5
wascalwywabbit Thanks for the info. I've got work to do today so I won't be playing for a while. I'm sure the items would help immensely. I had a really hard time even hitting the stupid rats that showed up in the Fang quest. They couldn't hit me either but I went through my entire set of buffs twice before I was able to finally kill them, not to mention all of my SP more than once as well. Like I said, I was just curious to know whether I'll be able to make up that gold over the final episode and if the 500k cap I saw mentioned is indeed a "cap" on points for gold...
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Post by fallen on Jan 23, 2017 11:15:15 GMT -5
wascalwywabbit Thanks for the info. I've got work to do today so I won't be playing for a while. I'm sure the items would help immensely. I had a really hard time even hitting the stupid rats that showed up in the Fang quest. They couldn't hit me either but I went through my entire set of buffs twice before I was able to finally kill them, not to mention all of my SP more than once as well. Like I said, I was just curious to know whether I'll be able to make up that gold over the final episode and if the 500k cap I saw mentioned is indeed a "cap" on points for gold... 500k is the cap on score for gold, yes. Anything about that is not tallied. From my experience in the game, making money is primarily driven by selling magical gear and weapons you find. You're going to keep finding better and better stuff through the game, so you will make the money back, yes. |
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Post by dagger on Jan 23, 2017 14:07:47 GMT -5
Awesome! Thank you for the clarification. I do have lots and lots of gear. I've gone on a couple selling sprees just because I'm sick of having to scroll through so much when I'm looking to upgrade but I can't get myself to sell anything fairly unique in case I need it. With that thought in mind.....I've sold a lot of my lightning gear and kept most of my fire and holy because I'm using Kjartan and Kyera as opposed to the other two. Is that wise? For damage purposes, I'm better off stacking more of a single damage than less of a bunch of damages, right? Especially fire since I'm running Burning Blades 10....?
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Post by dagger on Jan 31, 2017 2:18:54 GMT -5
Ok. I've taken my first crew into Episode 4 and I've decided to wait to get too far into it until at least the next content update hits. On to playing the other four characters on a Brutal level Ironman run. So far I'm through the Great Shaman and into the Torrent Watershed. Wow! This group needs a LOT of SP! I'm liking the Talent options but....they really suck up the SP in a hurry. It's hard to use the drain equipment when you do these low damage levels early on. I feel like they're going to grow into it but....any advice on synergies I should be looking for in the early game? Or is it just a survive and advance until the damage levels get high enough that SP drain actually starts kicking in? I actually spent money and bought potions for these guys before going through the Ratkin tunnels. I'm glad I did but with the original four (on hard, grant you), I never bought a potion and actually rarely even used one. This group I'm using them basically every time I try and do more than one battle in a row. Am I alone on this or is that a fairly common theme for people? Interested to hear....
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Jan 31, 2017 4:20:11 GMT -5
Buffs expire faster at higher levels due to end of turn cool down. That can be mitigated a bit by stringing battles together, sending a tank to start the next group before you've quite finished the current, but if you're already having issues of needing pots at just 2 battles that won't help very often yet.
Analyze where your sp is being spent fastest and see if you can find a different attack strategy to work around that.
Is it heals? Raise the healers talent and lore, or better yet, find a way to be hit less, positioning, gear, both, leveling defense stats preferentially or whatever.
Is it curses? If you can hit 'em, straight up kill them asap rather than overcursing. Some defensive cursing is absolutely necessary for many parts, IMing especially and always includes acc gains (except some dmg cursing) - offensive cursing i.e. of armor, res and crit vulnerability makes every subsequent attack hit harder, especially for low ap weapons and helps with the next problem...
Is it empowered attacks? curse their dodge/parry and use basic attacks or a sp cheaper empowered and/or use higher ap weapons so you hit harder every expenditure of sp.
In the last case of buffs being the sp hogs, that's when battle stringing works out nicely.
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Post by dagger on Jan 31, 2017 14:19:50 GMT -5
wascalwywabbit Thanks for the reply. I guess I wasn't aware of the fact that higher difficulty levels had shorter buff times. That makes sense but thanks for pointing it out. I'm doing okay with the group so far. In fact, I really like the damage they are able to do. It feels like its a lot better than my first group at this point in the game. The trade-off is obviously the SP it takes. Like I said, I feel like they'll grow into fairly good self-sustaining characters when I can do enough damage per hit to use some of the SP drain gear. Also, I'm hoping to get some better gear fairly soon as well. I've only got a couple 4% drain items. The rest is 2% and when your max damage hits (without crit...which is understandably low at this point as well) are usually between 10-20 its hard to get much SP back. I'm getting there though. It's fun! The other piece of advice/suggestions/feedback I would be interested in hearing is on building Selen and Kincaid. Right now I've got Kincaid going with the throwing knives and a 1AP light blade. He's got: Lunge 1 Sure Parry 1 Darting Steel 5 Cunning Footwork 1 Live by the Blade 1 Flanking Unity 2 Crippling Strikes 0 Flashing Blades 0 Am I going to be able to get him to a decent duel-wield point or by running up his Darting Steel early have I kind of pigeon-holed him into the throwing blades for a long time. I stopped leveling Darting Steel because the SP is just getting too costly. My plan is to run up the Flanking Unity for the Accuracy and Damage buff it gives my entire team. I'll throw in an occasional Darting Steel as my SP tank gets bigger and also mix in a level or two of Cunning Footwork and Live by the Blade. I also need to get Sure Parry to 4 (I think) for the extra autoparry. So, I look at that plan and I don't see much room for duel-wielding for quite some time. Is this a viable plan or am I missing out on some serious fun (and big damage numbers+easier self-sustainment) by nerfing his swordplay somewhat? Also, one more thing....I'm assuming the Cunning Footwork crit buff applies to his throwing knives as well. Is that correct? For Selen I've got a 2AP bow as her main weapon and the highest parry weapon I can find for her other weapon. She never uses the blade but I'm assuming she gets the Parry stat for whatever she's holding, right? Talents are: Sly Look 1 Frenzied Blows 1 Pinning Shot 5 Dance of Shadows 2 Quicksilver Defense 1 Punishing Blades 0 I've got the same issue with her that I have with Kincaid. I ran up the Pinning Shot first, because its awesome, and second, for the AP curse. But, man, it's expensive on the SP again. I'm now going to run Dance of Shadows and Quicksilver Defense up with Dance being the first priority since I need the Stealth and because once the first turn of battle is over, she doesn't get hit much so the Defense isn't vital yet. I just got Vincent to Flash Freeze 6 so he now also has a 2AP curse but at 50 SP a whack...!!! that's expensive to use too often. I really need to make sure I'm hitting at least 3, preferably more, enemies before I cast it. Otherwise, he's basically done being helpful after one turn. Anyway, those are my thoughts on this build. If you see any holes in my logic or suggestions on ways to be more efficient on these two, please let me know. Also, if you need more information on what I've got, feel free to ask and I'll get you more details. Thank you! By the way, my team again is comprised of the 2nd four....Selen, Kincaid, Vincent, and Fyona....and they are all level 14 although I haven't found a waystation I can spend their latest points at yet so I might hit 15 before I do...in the Excavation Site in the Torrent Watershed. Thanks again....
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Jan 31, 2017 15:11:53 GMT -5
Yes, TKs with DS are great.
No, it doesn't combine well with dual wield since you can only use one setup without requiring equipment changes AND extra talent points. You CAN do it though, first use DS on everything for acc boost it gives your team from the curse then switch the TK to another blade (requires 2mp/ap to switch a single piece of gear in combat) to use on the remaining high armor enemies. You can get away with a single talent point in SoS for an AoE in dual wield mode, if you kill everything but one or two targets before switching then lvl 1 lunge is perfectly sufficient. But if you level Strickening and use magical damage gear/buffs, the one ap AoE with range of DS can potentially do more damage per turn than dual wield anyway...
Yes, CF buffs DS too.
Your Kincaid is built really strong for a future 3-4 range AoE and party acc buff master, but is lacking defense.
As for PS Selen, having vicent use TBs and energy storm to buff lightning dmg and nerf enemy lightning res would help her do more dmg per PS use and hence less PS uses before combat completion. Same is true, possibly more so, by using Strickening and magical dmg gear/buffs as suggested above. Otherwise, higher ap bow may make sense, you'll lose an attack per turn, but gain dmg per use and be more sp efficient. That won't be worth it if you spend that sp on heals because 1xAoE-group less ap being removed per turn.
Yes, you get the parry of your primary weapon when using a ranged weapon - only Tam has a ranged as primary...
FF Vincent is a bit harder to deal with sp needs atm, but if you kill things faster to remove enemy ap from the battle that will help take some pressure off. Or you can minimize the number of enemies in striking distance as much as possible the reduce its need. Also raising int is always a possibility. Otherwise you need enough dmg and sp drain to gain it back after everything is cursed.
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Post by anrdaemon on Feb 1, 2017 10:53:49 GMT -5
I wasn't aware of the fact that higher difficulty levels had shorter buff times. That's not strictly true. Higher difficulty levels have higher aftermatch penalties. Every time combat ends, the game plays a number of extra rounds, which counts against buff time. You can manage this penalty by chain pulling enemies. |
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