Group build feedback and advice thread

[achilles73]

Dec 12, 2016 15:07:29 GMT -5 En1gma said:

achilles73 , this is where you want to be for group build meta.

The best teammates for Kincaid's IMO are the three alternate characters, Selen, Vincent, Fyona. There is just so many things they can do it can make your head hurt. I'm happy to talk and help you however I can, but I would advocate spending some time here going through some pages

Ok, I will go through it

[achilles73]

Dec 12, 2016 15:09:48 GMT -5 En1gma said:

And yes, Selen can off tank with the best of them. She eventually will become one of the best tanks in the game, so you have that to look forward to if you use her.

I prefer her as a switch hitter, using a dagger and a bow. I bring her straight to Pinning Shot 5 and start working on her MP and evasion talents.

If Selen isn't used as a tank, then who does off-tanking? Doesn't this basically force you to bring a paladin?

Also, I used bow on the thief character for my first run, and the damage was so mediocre - albeit I didn't train even once before I got stuck...

[En1gma]

Selen peels some mobs from the main tank, and as long as you keep Con up to speed she *can* tank, just not hardcore until you get better gear. She is much bulkier than Tam, and her survivability is much much better. By giving her a bow and going for PS 5, you let her act at close and far ranges, making her presence felt everywhere she's needed.

[achilles73]

Dec 12, 2016 15:26:09 GMT -5 En1gma said:

Selen peels some mobs from the main tank, and as long as you keep Con up to speed she *can* tank, just not hardcore until you get better gear. She is much bulkier than Tam, and her survivability is much much better. By giving her a bow and going for PS 5, you let her act at close and far ranges, making her presence felt everywhere she's needed.

So 1 hand weapon and the other hand bow? I was planning on dual wielding, but if Pinning Shot is tht good, then I should re-plan.

[crimsonking]

Dec 12, 2016 15:38:29 GMT -5 achilles73 said:

Dec 12, 2016 15:26:09 GMT -5 En1gma said:

Selen peels some mobs from the main tank, and as long as you keep Con up to speed she *can* tank, just not hardcore until you get better gear. She is much bulkier than Tam, and her survivability is much much better. By giving her a bow and going for PS 5, you let her act at close and far ranges, making her presence felt everywhere she's needed.

So 1 hand weapon and the other hand bow? I was planning on dual wielding, but if Pinning Shot is tht good, then I should re-plan.

Since you need to raise the appropriate skills, specializing on blades or bows until act 4 helps with accuracy. PS is very good, but Selen can be a brilliant secondary tank, and later on even the primary one.

[En1gma]

On Normal, I level blades exclusively, and have zero accuracy issues. Higher difficulties this would of course change, but the accuracy granted by the talent is more than sufficient, especially when cursing Dodge.

[havnor]

I would like to try party focused on throving knives so Tamillin and Kincaid with knives and Kjartan with armor debuff... Im not sure for cleric slot...And of course it will be nightmare what else ... I would like to ask you veterans if it will work ?

[En1gma]

Kyera is squishy, but can act as striker in E1, and semi tank in E2 and beyond... She could bring AoE Anguish to the table, and nuke if needed...

Fyona gets Strickening to help with elemental damage should you run Burning Blades, and makes a great pivot if you focus on her group buffs and defensive abilities.

I'd go with Fyona for this one, but either could work depending on your style.

[matrim]

Agree with En1gma on this one. Fyona brings more parry (which will suffer slightly because you are not dual wielding) and more damage. With Tamilin going TK (and presumably TOS) AP cursing is covered and Kyera is redundant.

[En1gma]

Busy day on the forums today-- I love it

[achilles73]

Dec 13, 2016 13:54:08 GMT -5 En1gma said:

Busy day on the forums today-- I love it

Sorry, I am such an awful spammer. But it's because I tend not to do anything half-arse and instead try to min-max and get everything "right"

[En1gma]

You don't understand-- I'll spend all day talking about group builds. I have gotten better, but this game used to be an all out obsession for me... Just ask CdrPlatypus-- some day we will stumble across the one group to rule them all.

[En1gma]

Mar 14, 2016 9:59:20 GMT -5 En1gma said:

My newest version of the ancient Electrickening build. The goal? Overwhelming levels of damage demolishing everything in its path. The method? Level 10 Strickening, Level 6 Energy Storm, and 1 AP Kincaid and Selen.

Kincaid: TK curser, and elemental damage dealer. For now he is focusing on Defense, and has put 10 points into Footwork. Next is Parry, then he starts on FU.
Attributes: 10 Dex, 8 Con, 6 Int
Skills: 12 Blades, 5 Thrown, 5 Lore
Talents: Footwork 10, LbtB 1
-- He isn't dealing too much damage as of yet, but he doesn't take any either, which is fine by me... He will be stacking Elemental Damage gear once he gets to SP 4 for the added block. He will eventually get to AoE on his TK to spread even more damage around. Oh yeah, and he's sitting on 19% Crit, so there's that

Vincent: Elemental Damage curser and major source of damage
Attributes: 7 Con, 10 Int, 8 Kno
Skills: 14 Sorcery, 6 Conj
Talents: Energy Storm 6, TB 5. You see where this is going.
-- He will get ES and TB to 10, then work on leveling his FF and EotS to boost crit/acc and allow a secondary AP curse to support Selen before he closes range.

Fyona: STRICKENING-- (AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)
Attributes: 10 INT, but who cares?? STRICKENING!!!!!
Skills: 9 INV, SO SHE CAN HIT MOAR THINGS WITH STRICKENING!!!!!!!
TALENTS: STRICKENING 10!!! (Who cares about Blessed Aura 2?!? NOT ME)
--AHHHHHHHHH!!! This talent is the SH!!!!!!T. Nothing like blasting the fear of the 9 Faithful into something then watch them get impaled by Selen and her AoE Pinning Shot. I watched her get a triple crit to kill a trio of spiders and each hit was over 135!! On one arrow!!!! Screw any other way to play her, STRICKENING 10 is the way to go. I don't even want her to see combat until waaaay later, as I'm working on SoC until it hits 10, then she can join the fun with RECKONING, after she bitch-slaps a group with STRICKENING!!!

Selen: Full on Elemental Damage build.
Attributes: 11 Dex, 8 Con, 5 Int
Skills: 12 Blades, 2 Bows, 6(10) Stealth (I don't know if I need to win every Stealth roll, especially against mobs that I want to come closer to me so Fyona can roast them...)
Talents: PS 5, QsD 5
-- No time for DoS, she needs to get her defenses up to par so she can forgo winning the Stealth Roll. Who needs it when you want them to come within range of STRICKENING 10?? On a fully debuffed mob, she is dealing 70+ damage on a 1AP swing, and her bow hits for 100+ every time. She is the engine of slaughter that will bring the enemies of mankind to their knees. I will show them all why you don't MESS with Death's Chosen.

**************

Seriously though, this group, and I know I say this all the time, is my favorite one I've made yet, and I plan on actually working my way through to the end of the game with them. CdrPlatypus , I honestly think the secret to this is to go full in on Strickening with Fy... Go full defense on the frontline, and let the mage and the pally develop so that the others can do their thing with less investment into their attack talents. It's like shooting derpy fish in a tiny little bucket. They line up, Kincaid and Selen dodge everything, then they die. All of them. Nothing is spared.

You want a fast and furious group to play that rewards ambition and and reckless focus on building damage? check this one out.

[achilles73]

Dec 13, 2016 14:08:09 GMT -5 En1gma said:

You don't understand-- I'll spend all day talking about group builds. I have gotten better, but this game used to be an all out obsession for me... Just ask CdrPlatypus -- some day we will stumble across the one group to rule them all.

Ah, ok. Got it. I just didn't want to irritate too many veterans by asking too many stupid questions

[achilles73]

Dec 13, 2016 14:10:56 GMT -5 En1gma said:

Mar 14, 2016 9:59:20 GMT -5 En1gma said:

My newest version of the ancient Electrickening build. The goal? Overwhelming levels of damage demolishing everything in its path. The method? Level 10 Strickening, Level 6 Energy Storm, and 1 AP Kincaid and Selen.

Kincaid: TK curser, and elemental damage dealer. For now he is focusing on Defense, and has put 10 points into Footwork. Next is Parry, then he starts on FU.
Attributes: 10 Dex, 8 Con, 6 Int
Skills: 12 Blades, 5 Thrown, 5 Lore
Talents: Footwork 10, LbtB 1
-- He isn't dealing too much damage as of yet, but he doesn't take any either, which is fine by me... He will be stacking Elemental Damage gear once he gets to SP 4 for the added block. He will eventually get to AoE on his TK to spread even more damage around. Oh yeah, and he's sitting on 19% Crit, so there's that

Vincent: Elemental Damage curser and major source of damage
Attributes: 7 Con, 10 Int, 8 Kno
Skills: 14 Sorcery, 6 Conj
Talents: Energy Storm 6, TB 5. You see where this is going.
-- He will get ES and TB to 10, then work on leveling his FF and EotS to boost crit/acc and allow a secondary AP curse to support Selen before he closes range.

Fyona: STRICKENING-- (AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)
Attributes: 10 INT, but who cares?? STRICKENING!!!!!
Skills: 9 INV, SO SHE CAN HIT MOAR THINGS WITH STRICKENING!!!!!!!
TALENTS: STRICKENING 10!!! (Who cares about Blessed Aura 2?!? NOT ME)
--AHHHHHHHHH!!! This talent is the SH!!!!!!T. Nothing like blasting the fear of the 9 Faithful into something then watch them get impaled by Selen and her AoE Pinning Shot. I watched her get a triple crit to kill a trio of spiders and each hit was over 135!! On one arrow!!!! Screw any other way to play her, STRICKENING 10 is the way to go. I don't even want her to see combat until waaaay later, as I'm working on SoC until it hits 10, then she can join the fun with RECKONING, after she bitch-slaps a group with STRICKENING!!!

Selen: Full on Elemental Damage build.
Attributes: 11 Dex, 8 Con, 5 Int
Skills: 12 Blades, 2 Bows, 6(10) Stealth (I don't know if I need to win every Stealth roll, especially against mobs that I want to come closer to me so Fyona can roast them...)
Talents: PS 5, QsD 5
-- No time for DoS, she needs to get her defenses up to par so she can forgo winning the Stealth Roll. Who needs it when you want them to come within range of STRICKENING 10?? On a fully debuffed mob, she is dealing 70+ damage on a 1AP swing, and her bow hits for 100+ every time. She is the engine of slaughter that will bring the enemies of mankind to their knees. I will show them all why you don't MESS with Death's Chosen.

**************

Seriously though, this group, and I know I say this all the time, is my favorite one I've made yet, and I plan on actually working my way through to the end of the game with them. CdrPlatypus , I honestly think the secret to this is to go full in on Strickening with Fy... Go full defense on the frontline, and let the mage and the pally develop so that the others can do their thing with less investment into their attack talents. It's like shooting derpy fish in a tiny little bucket. They line up, Kincaid and Selen dodge everything, then they die. All of them. Nothing is spared.

You want a fast and furious group to play that rewards ambition and and reckless focus on building damage? check this one out.

Elemental damage melees require getting lucky with elemental damage gear though, right? I have yet run across one yet - and I doubt shops sell them.