Armor Supreme: the rise of Pala-Vra

[tran]

After so many furious battles, after so much bloodsheds- from friends and foes alike- one human, one man, one outlander decided that enough was enough
Thus, the Pala-Vra was borned...
Coated in the heaviest armor, enchanted with the wizard's fiery magic and blessed by the paladin's holy aura, the bulking outlander now don the title "Behemoth"
In his left hand is his trusty shield- the thickest of the land, one that is not known for its ability to block, but to withstand blows after blows from the savage attackers
In his right hand, the small mace looks rather unintimidating, yet the distracting daggers and choking smoke provided by his allies always make the landing of the small weapon the most devastating damage one could take.
No more would there be times when the frontline fighter got ambushed and mortally wounded, no more would there be times when a stray arrow bring the mystic to death's door
No more
For all shall have to face
The Pala-Vra 

---

So, after having WAY too many builds that have Vraes as a dodging warrior, I decided to try something new, hm... soaking Vraes would be viable
BUT, simple team wouldn't bring this build to its fullest potential, and so after bringing in Fyona, the outlander was promoted to paladin, no, to Pala-Vra!
I am having a lot of fun with this new team, and having extra hp for the entire team is a blessing from the gods (lol)
Tell me what you think about Phalanx, Stone Skin Vraes with Flame Shield and Fervor, it is a lot of fun, I ensure you!

[achilles73]

HUH?

[tran]

Hah!
(I tried to explain this build with a story like explaination. Basically full armor and con with Phalanx, Stone skin, Flame shield and Fervor while having others lowering the enemies's dodge and parry)

[wascalwywabbit]

What difficulty?

Have you reached the hardest hitting ep 2 enemies?

I'm sure hp is stellar, but how much healing/camping do you need?

I always feel like I heal too much with armor builds. You can nerf dmg thru CS, MS/FA, Reckoning and PBs but then acc is an issue for me. Nerfing dodge (CS) and parry (reck) once each doesn't quite cut it until FU can be raised too in my experience.

Lemme know on your progress, cause I'm still looking for an armor build that doesn't use half the healers time, and can still hit often and hard enough not to double battle turns.

I've found fun builds with it, just in want of some efficiency now.

[tran]

I play on nightmare (real heroes don't go easy!) and yeah, getting hit by Orcrin warriors isn't adviced, but their shaman's blast barely scratch Vraes's iron hide! Healing is only needed when Vraes's health is halved (thank god that the extra health adds to the total hp) and I try not to heal too often because Vraes is almost always fully healed due to the extra hp from the buffs after every battles.
The hilarious thing about this build: dogs, spiders and humans now do minor to zip damage against Vraes. I only have to pay extra care when fighting orcrin and troll (krete isn't so dangerous, just annoying 'cause my ranged characters prefer close quarter battles)
The purpose of this team is to bring Vraes iron hide to its full potential so that he no longer needs healing. Or, in other word, create the "absolute defense"

[tran]

Ah, I usually push my team to the max, so I aim for 4-6 battles before camping, but 2-4 when fighting orcin, they are such a pain!

[wascalwywabbit]

Are you using ToS to help raise acc or maybe PS and strickening? You say ash and daggers, is that Selen or Tam?

[richard]

Is it a str or dex build for the Big Pala-Vra

[fallen]

Dec 26, 2016 9:04:07 GMT -5 tran said:

Hah!
(I tried to explain this build with a story like explaination. Basically full armor and con with Phalanx, Stone skin, Flame shield and Fervor while having others lowering the enemies's dodge and parry)

Lol, excited to see this build come to light! I usually don't share, but it is one of my favorite Nightmare teams The Behemoth is a great name! Fyona + Vraes can deck some amazing Armor and HP ... really mighty!

[tran]

I max Vraes's con first, then str and finally will. Kjartan uses ash, Tamlin uses torrent and Fyona put some point into strickening.
Vraes has low acc as he is designed to be a tank (a REAL TANK!) but with choking ash, I actually manage to land a lot of strong hits. However, the main damage dealer is Tam! Let me tell you this: torrent of steel + choking ash + holy strickening + deadly intuition + elemental damage gears = STEEL SHATTERING DAMAGE!!!
I find this build great beacause it is versatile: tanks like trolls or veteran orcrin can be dealt with using choking ash, low armor enemies stand no chance against torrent of steel, and scripted fights that have a bunch of foes swiftly meet their end once holy strickening is actived (and I used it when it only gave -2 elemental, yet the result was devastating!). I found archers to be a nuisance, but after Vraes charge ahead (with little to no scratch to his iron hide) the whole team could then progress!
Overall, it is quite fun and safe, I am looking forward to maxing ash and strickening for those lovely damage, the Crits are simply delicious!

[mlw]

This build is really interesting to me. A lot of builds are avoidance on here and there's not many that is based on soak. I tried one with the original characters when I started playing, but after getting the new characters, I never went back to this type of build. Your post has somewhat intrigued me into starting one again.

For Vraes soak build, after Stone Skin and Phalanx, will you be going with Berserk which lowers all the defence you've been building? Which attack talent is your main one?
I've played a Vraes with max Berserk and Juggernaut and it's so amazing and fun whacking all your enemies left and right. But it's a bit brittle and it's easy to die if you're not careful. 

If you max Shield and Skin, there's not too much points left to build an attack talent well. By level 50, there are 33 points to spend. So out of the 14 points, a few goes into Speed, and then which talent to invest in? Interested to see which way you go. Also, what weapon types are you using?

[tran]

One thing about this team is that Vraes will ALWAYS be a tank, which means, unfortunately, no berserking!
After maxing stone skin and phalanx, I intend to go full on natural mastery to get better acc and damage, then put some point into burst of speed and finally, ferocity
You need to remember that Vraes will be a TANK, who can stand toe to toe with the biggest baddies that can hit up to 1000 damage and beyond (ep 4 is soooooo good!) and having his armor stripped (even by a small amount ) wouldn't be favorable (but then again, the final choice is yours)
Another thing that is very important is that Tam will be the main damage dealer, not Vraes. Sure, missing out on 500-800 crit from the big guy is certainly sad, but, Fyona is there for a reason! Her strickening will bring down the enemy's elemental defense, this synergize with Tamilin's torrent of steel amazingly (remember to use the 1ap dagger and equip element gears) for it increases the elemental damage being dished out TREMENDOUSLY! (in ep 4, after I used strickening on a group of necros and skellies, I was able to deal over 1000 damage to EACH of them with Tam's torrent, and that was when I DIDN'T have Kjanrtan's choking ash!)
Another fun thing for this group is Kjartan's presence: usually, people would give Fyona damage boosting gears, but with Kjartan's burning blade, a CRIT dealing Fyona is quite viable (I am playing one with 2-handed hammer and loving it so far)
As for weapon, I imagined Vraes as a paladin, so I gave him light maces (lol)

[tran]

This build is quite safe and I found myself rushing a lot without having to worry too much. It is certainly safer than avoidance builds (as they only reach their full  potential in late game and can still be risky at times) but... here are some horrible, horrible drawbacks:
+) your only ways of stripping the enemies's ap are through Tam's torrent of steel and Fy's reckoning, and they have to connect... needless to say, bosses that have range attack will be a pain, but most of the time there would be no problem...
+) Gods help you with the fight involving the 2 Seer Lords though! (better pray Fyona doesn't miss her reckoning then!)
+)The wonderful gang of Cortias... it brings chill upon my spine!

[richard]

For big tank Vraes, would you be better off using dex instead of str.
Since Vraes is not for damage, I would think that getting dodge from dex would be a great help.

[tran]

Dex Vraes is my main and favourite of all time, actually. Berserking bulwalk in ep 4 is simply too good! (all those crit and  no one could scratch you) However, from ep 1 to 3, dex Vraes build could be too risky at times, especially on a bad day (with a bunch of heavy hitting foes)