Group build feedback and advice thread

[matrim]

The misspelling on Kincaid's name has me thinking someone plays jungle in League of Legends. This is a lot like my party although I find with enough sp drain Fyona can cast strickening on everything, you just have to save a mob or 2 for her to fill up on.

[sennett]

I have an idea for a team i would like input on. It will have salen vincent fyona and vraes. Salen will be a jack of all trades with pinning shot. Vincent will be a lighting spear nightmare. I am building fyona into a tank. The main thing i want input on is the big V. Would making him a dex tank work. My idea is this. Stone skin to 10. Natural mastery to 10. Juggernaugt to at least 5 with twin 1 ap blades. I think with lighting spears intial damage and pinning shot and fyonas buffs a juggs vraes would roll. Any input is welcome.

[En1gma]

sennett-- I'm sure a Dex tank could work, but I think the question is if he would be best. I would think that a Berserk Rage build with Stone Skin and Natural Mastery would be better. Run him with a 2AP weapon and use a shield, but not Phalanx. The shield offsets the Parry loss from BR, and gives you a major boost to offense, justifying the use of only running one weapon.

If you're going with Fyona as a main tank, and Vraes + Selen as off tanks, then go with defense for Fyona, mixed attacker/dodge tank with Selen, and full offense with Vraes. This gives you a great amount of flexibility when it comes time for tactical maneuvers, and seriously Vincent is going to fry most of the battlefield anyway, so I think you could make it work.

[Ash]

Great thread!

As a brand new player reading this thread has been an enormous help in getting my head around this complex game.

I started a hard game using cypherzj setup on page 54. Its smooth sailing and I can see that setup being crazy powerful in the future as well. However, this being an Rpg there are certain abilities I find more fun than others. Lightning more than fire for example. So having looked over all the abilities I have settled on some I would like my team to have.

Enigma, you seem to love dreaming up teams. In your response to sennet above you name a team that is close to what I would like to try. Would you mind fleshing it out a bit in terms of ability points, skills, weapons etc.

For example, what would I take for Fyona to be the main tank? Will BR Vraes also be able to take juggernaut later? How should I build Vincent apart from 10 LS? Can I build a pure melee Selen in this setup since I'm not thematically fond of ranged weapons?

Such a complex game, looking for some help for my inexperience.

Thanks

Ash

[En1gma]

@ash welcome to the forum, I hope you consider making an account and hanging around for a bit!

As I'm sure you've seen over these 55 pages, group crafting is kinda my thing, so I'd be more than happy to help you out! Give me a little time and I'll come back to answer as best I can (it's 730 am here so let me get some coffee )

[ashnana]

Excellent!

Look forward to your advice and joining the community.

Enjoy the coffee

[En1gma]

A bit longer, sorry-- 3yo takes up a ton of time. I'll read over that group post you mentioned and write something up once he goes down for his nap

[ashnana]

Ha, no problem. I have 1 and 6 year olds myself. Part of what is cool about this game is you can play it in small spurts anytime you like, even ducking out in the middle of combat. The story and strategy is waiting for you when you come back.

Part of why I want to get the team just the way I like is I probably only have time to play through the whole epic once. Very little free time with the little ones, so I'll be playing slowly over months.

Just to clarify, the cypherzj detailed group post is what I played before. That is a great team, but I wanted different abilities and characters for thematic reasons. It is the posts just before mine with sennet and you that is close to the team I was looking for. Tank Fyona, LS Vincent, and melee DPS Vraes and Selen.

[fallen]

@ash - welcome to the forum! Glad you enjoy the "stop whenever you want" style of the game. It is perfect for quick pick up and play.

[En1gma]

Alright! Sorry it took me so much time, but let's do this!

Vraes is easily one of the most versatile characters in the game, hands down. From what I've gathered, you're looking for him to deal as much damage as possible.
- Since you're not running Kyera for Sacrifice (I would recommend a FEROCITY build if this were the case...), then you need Vraes to multiply his own damage. Berserk Rage (BR) is perfect for this build, and I would recommend using a 1H weapon of your preference alongside a shield. Though you want Vraes to deal as much damage as possible, he will absolutely need to be able to take a few hits. Parry from your shield is untouched by the negative effects of BR. BR also allows a 1H weapon to deal plenty of damage, as it increases both max damage and Crit output.
-Main attack will end up being Juggernaut. Until then, he needs to work on Savage Sweep (Maybe 3) as he will need to have an accurate attack. Consider investing points into Stone Skin 3 or 4, then banking points for BR.
-He will need a sweet spot for BR, as he doesn't want to get ahead of his own buffs and leave himself vulnerable.
-Almost everything into Constitution. He wants as much HP and Toughness as possible. Points into STR will help his base damage and accuracy.

Vincent goes straight to Lightning Spear(LS) 10, then goes into Flash Freeze(FF), Charged Speed(CS), or Frigid Air(FA) depending on the needs of the party. If AP removal: FF, if you need ranged suppression, then FA. He should grab a few points of CS until +2 MP.
-If he isn't dealing enough damage, then consider using Eye of the Storm to up his Crit damage and overall Lightning damage.

Fyona will take some time until she can tank effectively. She is easily the slowest burning character of the 8, IMO.
-She will need to go Blessed Aura(BA) 3, and Shield of Cortias(SoC) 10.
-Once she has this, she will need further investment into BA (Both because she will need the health and so will a Berserker Vraes.), and then she can begin to drop points into either Righteous Fervor(RF) or Consecrated Defense(CD). Take RF if the group as a whole needs to be more tanky. If the group itself is fine, then she can invest in CD for her own protection, just bear in mind that its effects will only be applied if she makes the blow.
-VRAES (or Selen) WILL NEED TO TANK until she is all set. Leaving her to take the brunt of an enemy attack will be the death of her until she is capable of standing on her own.

Selen is awesome, and can even act as a primary tank later in the game.
-I prefer a switch-hit Selen for almost all of my games, especially when running Vincent. Because Vinnie will be restricted to a range of 4, it can leave archers and shamans far out of reach where they will tear Vraes/Fyona apart. By running Pinning Shot(PS) 5 first, then points into Dance of Shadows(DoS) the Quicksilver Defense(QsD) allows her to hit at range and dance around enemies and the battlefeld. PS 5 will help overall group accuracy as well, by dropping enemy Dodge/Parry.
-Totally understand if you want a full melee, however. How I would run her in this case is heavy investment into Punishing Blades(PB) and DoS until QsD opens up at level 9. Alternate between these three until the cows come home (or until +2 or 3 MP from DoS). Ignore Steel and Shadow-- entirely. You can invest in Frenzied Strikes, but this group wants her to curse as much stuff as she can, to either strip Armor with PB or AP/Dodge/Parry with PS
-Melee Selen wants 2 1AP weapons. Switch-hit Selen wants a bow and 2AP dagger.

I hope any of this helps!

(P.S. To tag someone, just put an @ before their name)

[Someone]

Natural Mastery for acc for Vraes, ssw should not go above 2 imo if you're going juggernaut...

[En1gma]

NM doesn't need more than a single point until later unless it's going to be the primary focus of his build. Honestly the returns it gives are not worth passing up on his other talents.

As far as SSk is concerned, It's a matter of preference and build. If you're skipping Berserk Rage then you should be putting points into Phalanx or focusing on SSk. If you're going BR you're going to want something to offset the negative effects, which is where SSk or Fervor would come in. When using BR, Vraes can use Phalanx, but because BR sucks armor and Parry , the only real benefit to it becomes the ranged auto-block. By using SSk and a shield, he still gets a great HP bonus and only loses out on a measure of armor, as Phalanx doesn't touch shields.

Vraes likes to be as self sufficient as possible unless he's running FEROCITY, then he relies on Kyera for Sacrifice.

Best part about this game are the different ways to play it

[Swami]

Jun 20, 2016 13:50:54 GMT -5 En1gma said:

(P.S. To tag someone, just put an @ before their name)

Cory Trese is @ admin without the space.

[ashnana]

So many thanks for this discussion. Its really helping find the group I want.

I see the pure melee Selen is going to really miss Pinning shot. If I dont take that and go pure melee, then I suppose Vincent will have to take Frigid Air to deal with the ranged enemies. Also, Vincents Flash Freeze will be the only AP remover, so it turns Vincent into a mostly debuffer, which makes sense I guess since pure melee Selen becomes full damage and tanking. Then LS gets used less often. Hmmm decisions....

If I do run PS Selen to keep the original team idea, is there any reason to do melee at all? Should not one eventually take PS to 10 and just use that all the time? And if she is spamming 10 PS with its -1AP debuff, would it still be worth it for Vincent to Flash Freeze for the -2AP debuff?

Fyona as main tank looks to depend upon 10 SoC and CD. That would give her combined +20 parry and +15 dodge from what I can see. Are there any diminishing returns on dodge and parry? Seems like she would be very hard to hit, and if she is can heal it back quickly.

Finally for Vraes, the Guest poster above I think was questioning Savage Sweep, not Stone Skin. Since Juggernaut gives accuracy he was saying to put those three points from Savage Sweep into natural mastery which will eventually stack with Juggernaut, whereas Savage Sweep is just a low level sub till Jugg comes, correct? Stone Skin can be raised depending on how much damage Vraes is taking. For skills should Vraes put much into leadership for BR duration? Or all into the chosen weapon. By the way, any suggestion on weapon type? Im fine with any of them. Are any weapons superior for this build?

Thanks again for the help.

[En1gma]

For Selen: PS 5 will be sufficient for the majority of the game. Level 10 will be far too expensive to use regularly. She does very well in a dual cursing role, so if you focus on PS 5, PB, QsD, and DoS you'll have a real powerhouse.

Fyona will also get gear to help. Depending on your difficulty you can have more than enough D/P, but if you want her to be your main tank she'll need it. If you find yourself over protected, you can break from your intended path to drop a point elsewhere (like Reckoning), but that's up to you.

I see that he was indeed talking about SSw, sorry for the misunderstanding. If you're going with PS, then accuracy will NOT be as big an issue, so SSw could sit happily at 2. Still never bring NM past level 1 unless there is literally nothing better to spend it on.