Group build feedback and advice thread

[hobiecat]

After a very, VERY long hiatus, I’ve been sucked back into this game. Alas, it’s been so long that all of my old parties are long since gone (including, sniff, this one: startradersrpg.proboards.com/post/125288/thread). As such, I’ve started fresh and wanted to document what I've done and ask the forum some questions on Kjartan.

I've put together a team of Vraes, Kjartan, Fyona, and Tamilin. I didn’t have much of a strategy in picking this team beyond the fact that I wanted two melee tanks and two ranged attackers. It’s not till after I picked this team that I realized how much some of their powers have changed, Tami particularly with Torrent of Steel. So far, the team has been playing very strongly on Normal. I’m almost done with Episode 1 (I’m approaching the final boss battle with Arhaive) with no deaths (granted, it is Normal, but I also haven’t played in ages so I’ve been shaking the rust off and wanted to play to see all the new content).

They're currently all Level 17 and here’s how I’ve built them out:

Vraes – His goal is to draw as much aggro as possible, withstand the attacks, and punch back with some level of effectiveness. I’ve focused his talents on Stone Skin and Natural Mastery, with a few points in Burst of Speed to help with his positioning. He’s armed with a 3AP 2-hand sword because I always think of the classic scene in Conan the Barbarian where Arnold is swinging his two-handed broadsword. I’ve been reading here how Dex Vraes with a 1ap light blade is meta but I’m going to keep Vraes with an OG build for now. I may re-spec him later, we’ll see.

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 15

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 14
Lore 2 >> 5

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 5
Natural Mastery 0 >> 4
Burst of Speed 0 >> 3

Kjartan – He is focused on cursing with Choking Ash and buffing with Pureflame Shield and Burning Blades. He then provides ranged damage through Firebolt (single targets) and Immolation (mobs). I do have a big question for people here regarding Kjartan’s attacks. Should I stay focused on Firebolt and Immolation? Should I also add in Firestorm and have a balanced set of attacks that can fit any situation? Or, should I re-spec Kjartan to move his points in Immolation to Firestorm?

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 9
Intelligence 6 >> 8
Knowledge 4 >> 8

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 10
Conjuring 2 >> 6

Talents:
Firebolt 1 >> 2
Choking Ash 1 >> 6
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 2
Burning Blades 0 >> 2
Immolation 0 >> 2

Fyona – She is my secondary tank, filling in the places where Vraes can’t cover. She is focused on using her buffing attacks, with just Shield of Cortias being the only non-buff attack that she’s poured a ton of points into (to help both her and Vraes with holding the line). She also has one point in Battlefield Devotion to help with curing curses, but that’s it. If there was such a thing as 1AP hammer in this game, I would have her use it. I currently have one Talent point banked for when she hits level 18 so that she can add Reckoning immediately.

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 10
Constitution 5 >> 8

Skills:
Hammer 3 >> 12
Leadership 2 >> 3

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 2
Hammer Blow 1 >> 2
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 2
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 5
Battlefield Devotion 0 >> 1

Tamilin – She’s basically the mobile artillery. I have her using both throwing knives and bows because I kind of want my cake and eat it too.

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 14

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 5
Bows: 3 >> 10
Lore: 2 >> 5

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 3
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 4
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 3

Thanks for reading!

[hobiecat]

It was inevitable... my group of Vraes, Kjartan, Fyona, and Tamilin finally got popped!  I finished Episode 1 with no issues and then marched them north to Braeys lands.  They got deep into the battle to rescue Valent Koda and then Vraes got beat.  (To borrow a Gloomhaven mechanic, I'm telling myself that he got exhausted.  He wasn't killed.  LOL.)  In retrospect, I got a little overconfident and made a tactical mistake - I intentionally allowed the Orcin Warlord to linger longer that he needed to so that I can focus on wiping out the horde.  Vraes was assigned to tie him up while the others used their AOE attacks to thin the mobs.  Everything was fine until about round 12 (I didn't actually keep count, but it was very, very deep into the battle when this happened) when the warlord got lucky and landed two massive 200+ damage blows and then next thing I know, Vraes was a bloodstain.  Lesson learned - don't let high damage dealing enemies last too long or they will eventually get in the big hits and make you pay.  Anyway, I replayed the round, had everyone spin around and focus on the warlord.  Finished him off in the same round with AP to spare to focus back on the horde.  The rest of the battle was academic.

So, now my group all sits at Level 21 with 1 death (sigh).  Here's how they look now:

Vraes – Armored in heavy armor and wielding a 2-handed sword.  Now that he gets 2 MP from Burst of Speed, his full focus is on Stone Skin and Natural Mastery. 

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 16
Intelligence 3 >> 4

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 16
Lore 2 >> 6

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 6
Natural Mastery 0 >> 6
Burst of Speed 0 >> 3

Kjartan – I blew my free re-spec and tinkered him right after finishing off Baron Arhaive.  It wasn't a dramatic change.  I just decided to focus on Immolation as his main attack and re-distribute his Attribute points so that I'm building up Willpower and Knowledge over Intelligence.  I found myself using Immolation more than Firebolt, even on single targets.  Also, I realized that I may be spreading him out too thin, especially as I didn't want to give up building up his Pureflame Shield and Burning Blades either.  (Choking Ash wasn't going anywhere.)

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 10
Intelligence 6 >> 7
Knowledge 4 >> 10

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 12
Conjuring 2 >> 7

Talents:
Choking Ash 1 >> 6
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 3
Burning Blades 0 >> 3
Immolation 0 >> 4

Fyona – Also armored in heavy armor and wielding a 1-handed hammer to maximize her buffing attacks.  For a while, I thought she would be my first death, but she's held out fairly well.  Granted, she's been beaten to an inch of her life more than once, but she's clung on each time so far.  (Also, I realize now that I didn't need to bank that Talent Point when she was still level 17.  For some reason, I thought she wasn't going to get a Talent point when went up to Level 18.  Clearly, that wasn't the case.)

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 11
Constitution 5 >> 9

Skills:
Hammer 3 >> 15
Leadership 2 >> 3

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 3
Hammer Blow 1 >> 2
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 3
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 6
Battlefield Devotion 0 >> 1
Reckoning 0 >> 1

Tamilin – She's armed with 1AP throwing knives and a 3AP 8-Range bow. Now that Torrent of Steel is at max AOE, I'm focusing her on Deadly Intuition and Ranged Onslaught.  She continues to be my mobile artillery.

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 16

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 5
Bows: 3 >> 13
Lore: 2 >> 5

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 4
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 5
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 4
Ranged Onslaught 0 >> 1

Thanks for reading!

[Edited to fix spacing issues of original post.]

[crimsonking]

Hello hobiecat ,

as for Vraes and the Orcin Warlord, you might have learned your lesson wrong. A big hitting high health enemy should never have more than one AP. With only one attack per turn he is far easier to control.

As for Immolation vs. Firestorm, choice also depends on the builds of the other characters. If you rely heavily on crits to do significant damage, Immolation plus Burning Blades is probably the way to go.

[hobiecat]

I hear you and agree with you crimsonking. I consider it part and parcel with my taking my "foot off the gas" with the warlord, especially considering that this party only has AP cursing attacks and not straight AP curses. As such, not fully attacking is almost synonymous with not nerfing enemy AP.

Here's a bit more detailed breakdown of the battle and how the whole situation came about. SPOILERS and all for anyone that hasn't played this battle yet:

*****

I approached the fight from the far right side. When all of the orcin spawned, I marched the team up into the alcove in the northeast corner and set up my defensive formation. Valent’s jail cell and an orcin hut helps to protect the western flank, while the edge of the map protects the northern (my rear) and eastern flanks. The warlord spawned near my starting position and so he got cursed from the get go. Vraes and Fyona set up the defensive perimeter, with Tami assisting from right behind them with Torrent of Steel. Kjartan hung in the back to drop Choking Ash and Immolation as needed. That status quo held until the berserk joined the fray. Even nerfed, the berserk has no respect for defensive lines and got behind Vraes and Fyona. Then, two things happened that made me start to lose focus on the warlord. 

First, the berserk decided to use his limited AP to heal and he healed both himself and the warlord. That ticked me off because we had been steadily chipping away the warlord’s health and then the stupid berserk healed him. Second, the berserk moved into a position to directly threaten Kjartan. I realized that I couldn’t let Kjartan get cornered by the berserk because he wouldn’t survive a single hit, so I moved him out of the tight corner he was in and a little more out in the open. Because of these things, I focus fired on the berserk and took him down. (Incidentally, the warlord stayed nerfed during this time because he generally stayed within the AOE of Torrent of Steel or Reckoning.)


As I was taking down the berserk, the flow of battle changed once again. First, because I moved Kjartan, an orcin javelineer decided to target him and was plinking him with a javelin. Second, the shaman finally decided to enter the fray. For much of the early battle, she was content to hang out by the southern part of the map and buff herself. She eventually moved just into combat range and started cursing my team and sniping away with her magic bolt. Since the team was still surrounded by orcin, Tamilin was the only one that could hit the shaman from that range.


So, this was the look right before the fateful hit on Vraes: Fyona was the southern point of our defensive line, single-handedly holding off a horde of orcin. Vraes was holding the southwestern flank, going toe-to-toe with the warlord and drawing some aggro from a few javelineers. Kjartan was playing dodgeball with the one javelineer that targeted him, trading immolations and javelins. Tamilin was laser focused on shooting down the shaman with her bow so that the shaman would finally stop cursing and sniping us. Once Kjartan and Tami took down their respective targets, I (stupidly) didn’t really think about focusing back on the warlord. Vraes seemed to be doing fine and so my only thought was, “gee, I should really thin the horde.” And, so, that’s what I focused on and then the next think I know Vraes got smeared.


As I mentioned in my previous post, when I replayed the turn, I focus fired on the warlord and he went down within the turn. In the end, I definitely got lulled into a sense of complacency regarding the warlord and Vraes. You’re right, if I remembered to refresh Torrent of Steel and Reckoning on the warlord, he would not have gotten the killing blow in, either because he wouldn’t have had enough AP or he would just be dead. But, I let the other things going on in the battle distract me, which is my lesson learned.


Anyway, my team is off to Brunehorn now. I’ll do my next team status check after the big fight there. Hopefully, I’ll do well.


Thanks for reading!

[hobiecat]

It's taken me a bit longer to post this update. Since my last check-in, I finished off Brunehorn with no issues. I then proceeded to go find the druid Erghanna and got Kjartan turned into a pincushion by a bunch of Krete archers. I misjudged their potential range and thought Kjartan was hanging far enough back to avoid being targeted. Nope, apparently not far enough back. Everyone is now at level 27 with 2 deaths.

I'm experimenting with a new table format in this post to see if this better conveys the synergies among my team.

Vraes

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	NM + CB/SaSw	STR + INT	Blades + Lore	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im) + Tamilin (ToS)
Defense	NM + StSk + BoS	DEX + INT	Blades + Lore	Kjartan (PS) + Fyona (SoC)	Tamilin (ToS) + Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buff: SP Drain %

I continue to keep my Vraes simple. He's only focusing on buffs, and specifically Lore-based buffs, until Natural Mastery and Stone Skin are maxed. He'll then add Ferocity as his empowered attack (replacing the default Crushing Blow/Savage Sweep options). I may then toggle between Burst of Speed and Ferocity with my remaining Talent points through the end game. Since Vraes has such a poor SP pool and his Talents are fairly SP-intensive, I've prioritized SP Drain % with all of his equipment. Anything else coming from his equipment is just gravy. From an Attribute perspective, now that Strength is maxed, I've decided to focus on Dexterity to hopefully help make my Vraes a little harder to hit. I waffled between Constitution and Dexterity, but decided to try out Dexterity to see how it goes.

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 16
Dexterity 4 >> 7
Intelligence 3 >> 4

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 16
Lore 2 >> 11

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 8
Natural Mastery 0 >> 8
Burst of Speed 0 >> 3

Kjartan

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	BB + CA + Im	WIL + INT + KNO	Sorcery + Conjuring	---	Tamilin (ToS)
Defense	PS	WIL + INT	Conjuring	Fyona (SoC)	Tamilin (ToS) + Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buffs: +MP, +Accuracy, +Fire Damage

Kjartan has evolved into an almost pure support character for me. He's almost always the first to act each turn, dropping Choking Ash and then Immolation to make enemies easier to hit and potentially take more damage. I have to make a conscious effort to get him kills, otherwise the other three will just kill everyone. Perhaps a wishlist item for a future game, but I wish that there was some way to balance the XP kill bonus because as my game goes on, I can see my Kjartan falling behind in levels since he so rarely lands the killing blow (and half the time he does, it's because I'm intentionally maneuvering things to get him the kill, which isn't always that fun).

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 12
Intelligence 6 >> 7
Knowledge 4 >> 11

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 15
Conjuring 2 >> 7

Talents:
Choking Ash 1 >> 7
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 4
Burning Blades 0 >> 4
Immolation 0 >> 5

Fyona

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	ZS + CD/Re/HB	STR	Hammers	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im) + Tamilin (ToS)
Defense	CD + Re + SoC	CON	Hammers + Leadership	Kjartan (PS)	Tamilin (ToS)

Primary equipment buffs: +MP, +HP, Critical %

It's a little micromanagement-heavy, but I really enjoy having access to all of Fyona's different empowered attacks and figuring out which one to use at any given time. Optimally, I try to lead each battle with Zealous Strikes and then Consecrated Defense, but there are plenty of situations where that isn't optimal. For example, starting in the thick of a mob with only 4 AP remaining, then it's usually Consecrated Defense and Reckoning.

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 14
Constitution 5 >> 9

Skills:
Hammer 3 >> 16
Leadership 2 >> 5

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 3
Hammer Blow 1 >> 3
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 4
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 7
Battlefield Devotion 0 >> 1
Reckoning 0 >> 2

Tamilin

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	DI + ToS/RO	DEX + INT	Bows/Thrown + Lore	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im)
Defense	Bl + ToS	DEX + CON + INT	Thrown + Lore	Kjartan (PS) + Fyona (SoC)	Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buffs: +Stealth, +Dodge

Though Tamilin has a decent-sized SP pool, Torrent of Steel and Ranged Onslaught both use a lot of SP. As such, I would love to prioritize equipment that gave Tami more SP Drain, but I hate losing initiative more.  As a result, her equipment is optimized toward buffing Stealth (and Dodge, since those two buffs often seem to go hand-in-hand).  Tamilin does have some SP Drain, but not nearly as much as she could if I optimized toward that. Instead, I just resort to potions to keep her SP up. Beyond that, I enjoy being able to use both bows and knives. I'm certain that I could do more damage if I just picked one and focused on it, but I'm not at all power gaming this.

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 16
Intelligence 4 >> 6
Constitution 5 >> 6

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 7
Bows: 3 >> 16
Lore: 2 >> 5

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 4
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 5
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 5
Ranged Onslaught 0 >> 4

Thanks for reading! Unless something major happens, I probably won't do another team update until I get towards the end game.

[brentaur]

I'm really interested in finding out how your Vraes does. He's the character I have the most difficulty with in terms of deciding how to build him up. I'm not too into power gaming, and I love the idea of him as an agile beast in combat. I also don't want him to die a lot. No Nightmare or ironman for me. I'm playing on hard from the beginning and, once the final story content drops, am looking forward to being able to complete the game with this crew.

[hobiecat]

Apr 17, 2019 12:12:37 GMT -5 brentaur said:

I'm really interested in finding out how your Vraes does. He's the character I have the most difficulty with in terms of deciding how to build him up. I'm not too into power gaming, and I love the idea of him as an agile beast in combat. I also don't want him to die a lot. No Nightmare or ironman for me. I'm playing on hard from the beginning and, once the final story content drops, am looking forward to being able to complete the game with this crew.

So far, my Vraes is holding up quite well (no new deaths since my last update!) and I'm having a lot of fun playing him.  Also, believe it or not, my Vraes is the XP leader of my group!  (Fyona and Tamilin will probably overtake him at some point soon because of their AOE destruction, but for now, he's still the champ!)

I'm now at level 31 and working my way to break the siege at Gholla Outlook.  In my mind, I've somewhat re-imagined Vraes into a zen swordmaster, which I feel that my build reflects.  That said, I am starting to see why a power gamer might not want to play this setup for two reasons:

First, I'm afraid that Vraes' damage potential with a 2H sword may not scale well for the later game.  I think I'm already leaving some of the damage bonus from Natural Mastery on the table because I've already maxed out the max damage of my sword.  I have not researched what 2H swords will be available later in the game, but I can already see how I could be doing more damage per hit now if I just re-speced my Vraes to use 2H hammers (for instance).  Or, if I switched him to using a 1H 2AP weapon and getting one more hit per round.  I want to keep my Vraes on a 2H sword because of my head canon, so my hope is that once I start putting points into Ferocity, his damage will ramp back up considerably.  Also, I'm hoping there are more powerful 2H swords coming up in the late game.

Second, I'm not sure how my Vraes' ability to avoid/absorb damage without using a shield will scale into the later game.  Since my one bad encounter trying to rescue Valent Koda, my Vraes hasn't been too threatened.  But, in my current approach to Gholla Outlook, I've noticed that the Orcin here are hitting him more often and a LOT harder than previous enemies up to this point.  Considering that I've now maxed Natural Mastery and almost maxed Stone Skin, there's not much more I can do with his Talents to avoid significant damage without turning to shields.  My hope is that by putting points into Dexterity and Burst of Speed will help to offset the lack of a shield, but I can only hope and see.

For reference, here's how my Vraes looks currently:

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 16
Dexterity 4 >> 9
Intelligence 3 >> 4

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 18
Lore 2 >> 13

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 9
Natural Mastery 0 >> 10
Burst of Speed 0 >> 3

Hope that helps?  Happy to provide further updates if my team hits any major developments (or I have any epiphanies).

[brentaur]

Those seem to be the 2 big issues with a Dex-centric Vraes. I go with 2H spear, but I will definitely hit that parry/dodge wall. The only solution at that point is team synergy. I'm also playing Kjartan and Fyona, so some combination of their defensive buffs will have to be good enough. My first long playthrough I had like 150 deaths on brutal in episode 4, which doesn't feel very impressive. I'm also coming back to the game after a long break, so I decided to go with hard.

[hobiecat]

Fully agree with the team synergy brentaur! I finished Gholla Outlook last night and I think I'll finally stop lollygagging and go into the City of the Dead. Let's see how my Vraes and the rest of my team fare through the end of that. Once in there, he'll max Stone Skin and then add Ferocity, so I'll see how he scales there. From a synergy perspective, Fyona will be pumping more points into Shield of Cortias and Reckoning, while Kjartan will be adding to his Choking Ash and Immolation. As such, the City of the Dead will be a good test to see how the whole team scales up.

[AMiCuBS Kitteh]

I look forward to seeing the results of that. I have always written off 2h Swords, mainly due to the damage scaling on the weapons later game that I have seen.

[hobiecat]

I did it! After 9(!) deaths and many weeks, I finally cleared the City of the Dead and finished Act 3. I’m officially on all new content that I’ve never seen before. *Rubs hands gleefully* The entire team is now at Level 38.

Despite the wheels seemingly falling off the bus (i.e., the 9 deaths), I’m still very happy with my team. Four of those deaths were challenging, thought-provoking ones where I re-looked at my moves and reconsidered how I played the last turn. One was when the team got pinched tightly on both sides by overwhelming forces and a bunch of undead archers all decided to target Kjartan instead of the tanks that were closer to them. The other three were ones where I (over)aggressively played Tamilin as a third tank to try and buy Kjartan more breathing space (to try and avoid that previous scenario) and she failed her Dodge/Parry roll.

As for the other five deaths… chalk those up to a series of, mind-numbing, face-palming user errors like:

• Leaving camp and completely forgetting to buff first, or
• Fat fingering one of the buttons and, instead of opening the intended window, I click the map and send someone to their doom by marching them right into the waiting blades/claws of the enemy

*** Spoiler Alert for anyone that’s reading this and hasn’t completed the City of the Dead after it first becomes available -- I found the final boss(es) battle to be very easy (on Normal, which is what I’ve been playing) which helps reinforce my belief that I have a decent team. Even after both Tamilin and Kjartan got captured, I didn’t break too much of a sweat. I buffed everyone with +Holy damage and cast a bunch of Tomes of Sustainment to keep it up. I then just kept the enemy’s AP nerfed. When Tamilin got plucked, I compensated by buffing Fyona with +MP so that she could better get Reckoning on more enemies. After that, I just kept my focus on the boss enemies, particularly the two Seer Lords at the end, and that was that!

For the record, I may have had more trouble if the other enemies didn't all disappear after I defeated both Seer Lords, but thankfully, that's not how that battle was designed. Also, I think I had an easier time because the enemies don't start right on top of you and, with some easy maneuvering, you can easily position it so that the enemies are really only approaching you from one direction. Plus, counter-intuitively, snatching Kjartan mid-battle helps me as well. Defensively, he's my team's Achilles Heel so if he's not in the fight, he can't be killed. Sure, I lose out on all of his Immolation goodness for the rest of the fight, but by mid-battle he's already buffed the team and spammed Choking Ash across anyone that matters, so it's not as big of a loss as it could be. 
End Spoiler***

Vraes

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	NM + Fe	STR + INT	Blades + Lore	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im) + Tamilin (ToS) + Fyona (Re)
Defense	NM + StSk + BoS	DEX + INT	Blades + Lore	Kjartan (PS) + Fyona (SoC)	Tamilin (ToS) + Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buffs: SP Drain %, +Dodge

My Vraes ended up landing the killing blow on both Seer Lords (in the final City of Dead boss battle) as his capacity for single damage has dramatically increased now that I’ve maxed Natural Mastery and have been putting points into Ferocity. Also, between his equipment, Talents, Attributes, and Skills, my Vraes seems to finally be turning the corner on being a Dodge tank. I’ve noticed that since hitting Level 38, he’s noticeably getting hit less by ranged attackers. Up until then, ranged attackers were pretty much auto-hitting him and I had to depend on Stone Skin + Pureflame Shield (plus his naturally high HP) to absorb the damage. He's still getting hit, but not EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. We’ll see if this keeps up as I get deeper into the Final Act and I keep putting points in Dex and Burst of Speed.

If you’re interested, Vraes’ current Ranged Defense calculation = 18s + 20 = Evasion (-2s) + Dodge (20s+7) + Dex (13)

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 16
Dexterity 4 >> 13
Intelligence 3 >> 4

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 18
Lore 2 >> 18

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 10
Natural Mastery 0 >> 10
Burst of Speed 0 >> 4
Ferocity 0 >> 2

Kjartan

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	BB + CA + Im	WIL + INT + KNO	Sorcery + Conjuring	---	Tamilin (ToS)
Defense	PS	WIL + INT	Conjuring	Fyona (SoC)	Taimlin (ToS) + Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buffs: +MP, +Accuracy, +Fire Damage

Kjartan continues to be my “setup man” whose main role is to soften up enemies for the other three to take out (and he does this role very well!). However, I’ve been getting him more kills now that I've realized that I don’t have to hit everyone with Choking Ash. Once I convinced myself of that, Immolation comes out more frequently and the kills have ramped up a bit. I still use Choking Ash pretty liberally, but I’m not as fixated about making sure every enemy has been covered by it.

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 14
Intelligence 6 >> 7
Knowledge 4 >> 15

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 18
Conjuring 2 >> 11

Talents:
Choking Ash 1 >> 10
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 5
Burning Blades 0 >> 5
Immolation 0 >> 7

Fyona

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	ZS + CD/Re	STR	Hammers	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im) + Tamilin (ToS)
Defense	CD + RE + SoC	CON	Hammers + Leadership	Kjartan (PS)	Tamilin (ToS)

Primary equipment buffs: +MP, +HP, Critical %, SP Drain %

I burned a re-spec on Fyona since my last update just to tweak her a little. With the addition of more SP Drain % to her equipment, I found myself not using Hammer Blow since my primary use for Hammer Blow was to conserve SP when the added powers of Zealous Strikes, Consecrated Defense, or Reckoning were unnecessary. Since I’m no longer as worried about conserving SP, Hammer Blow became moot and I gave it up. In addition, since I was re-specing anyway, I also decided to give up Battlefield Devotion. I almost never cast it anyway, and depend on potions/scrolls, so it was just a wasted point. I took the points in Hammer Blow and Battlefield Devotion and redistributed them to her three remaining empowered attacks.

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 16
Constitution 5 >> 13

Skills:
Hammer 3 >> 18
Leadership 2 >> 10

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 5
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 6
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 10
Reckoning 0 >> 5

Tamilin

	Talents	Attributes	Skills	Supporting Buffs	Supporting Curses
Attack	DI + ToS/RO	DEX + INT	Bows/Thrown + Lore	Kjartan (BB)	Kjartan (CA + Im)
Defense	Bl + ToS	DEX + CON + INT	Thrown + Lore	Kjartan (PS) + Fyona (SoC)	Fyona (Re)

Primary equipment buffs: +Stealth, +Dodge

As I mentioned up top, I’ve become more emboldened with using Tamilin as an additional tank when needed (usually to protect Kjartan). It doesn’t always work out, but she holds her own more often than not so I like doing it whenever I need a little extra defensive help. Along those lines, even though I prize her flexibility for using both bows and knives, I’m going to max out her Thrown Weapons skill first as that also adds to her melee defense. It’s also why I’ve been dumping points into Constitution now that she’s maxed Dexterity. From a Talents perspective, I’m going to put one more point into Torrent of Steel so that she nerfs 2 AP and then I’ll be putting points into Ranged Onslaught to increase AOE.

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 16
Intelligence 4 >> 6
Constitution 5 >> 12

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 16
Bows: 3 >> 16
Lore: 2 >> 5

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 4
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 7
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 10
Ranged Onslaught 0 >> 4

Thanks for reading!

[hobiecat]

***Spoiler Alert -- There will be several spoilers about what happens in Act 4 embedded with my latest party breakdown. If you haven’t gotten to Act 4 and want to remain unspoiled, then don’t read this post.*** You’ve been warned. 

I finally made it to Fierhold and the end of the current game content! And… it was SO. MUCH. FUN! It kind of felt like I was sprinting downhill with the team. I was just steamrolling through battles. The whole party is now at level 56.

The final City of Dead boss battle that ends Act 3 was, in many ways, the turning point. Up to that fight, there was always a sense of danger and the larger set piece battles (like the fights in each tower in Ember) were often nail-biting affairs. As I mentioned in my last post, I found the Act 3 COD boss battle to be very easy for this team. That ease continued through my subsequent fight out of Ember and all the way through almost every battle in Act 4. In fact, the only Act 4 battle that I found to be a significant challenge was the 2nd time you fight the Seer Lords after returning to Ember. More on that below when I discuss Kjartan specifically.

Beyond that, I felt that this team synergized incredibly well in the late game. With their Talents fully developed and their key Attributes/Skills maxed out, their battle roles are much more defined in this last act. It’s in this act that I started using and then perfected my “3-1” formation with Vraes, Fyona, and Tamilin as my 3 front-line tanks and Kartan as my 1 rearguard support.

Unless the enemy is right on top of me, I’m always pulling back in the first turn to let more enemies approach and bunch up for me. Then Vraes, who has the most MP, will launch himself deep into the middle of the enemy pack, particularly to draw aggro from any ranged attackers that aren’t on the front lines. Fyona, who has the least MP, will position herself in front of the closest enemies (and try to be adjacent to any upfront ranged attackers so that they target her). Tamilin will move to some midpoint between Vraes and Fyona where she can target as many enemies as possible with Darting Steel. Her priority, however, is to cover Vraes since Fyona can Reckon, but Vraes can’t AP nerf. Also, if there are any ranged enemies that aren’t adjacent to either Fyona or Vraes, she’ll try to move next to them so that they target her.

Kjartan will then target either the largest group of enemies or the champions (e.g., Wraiths, Deathkin, etc.) with Choking Ash and/or Immolation. Depending on how much AP Fyona has left after her move, she’ll charge up Consecrated Defense, lay down a Reckoning, and charge up Zealous Strikes. Tamilin will then hit any enemies within Darting Steel range that haven’t been Reckoned, prioritizing ranged attackers first. Vraes will then try to annihilate whoever he’s standing next to. From there, it’s more-or-less rinse and repeat, though Tami may then switch to Ranged Onslaught based on how the enemies are grouped.

Vraes

So, for those that were wondering (brentaur , @amicubs Kitteh), a strong, agile, 2-hand sword wielding Vraes is 100% viable and can dominate through the late game. He does not need a shield (and Phalanx Shield) to survive and thrive. Instead, I feel that there were five keys that helped make this work for me:

1. Going all in on Vraes’ Lore-based Talents: Stone Skin, Natural Mastery, and Burst of Speed.
2. Layering in his teammates’ defensive buffs: Shield of Cortias for more Parry and Dodge; and Pureflame Shield for more Armor and Elemental Resistance.
3. Pumping DEX along with STR. When Vraes hit DEX 13, I started noticing a real improvement in his ability to avoid ranged attacks.
4. Picking a heavy armor that doesn’t penalize Evasion too badly. I’ve been sticking with a crafted Relliat Bone Plate. It has 102 Armor and only a -2 Evasion penalty.
5. Having Fyona and Tamilin also draw aggro from ranged attackers, as well nerfing their AP.

Vraes almost never gets hit by a melee attack and gets hit roughly 50% of the time by ranged attacks, which he can easily absorb. He probably still can’t withstand a fully sustained barrage, but he never takes one because he’s not the only tank. Instead, his role is to use his massive MP bonus to move into the thick of things, destroy whatever the biggest threat is, and then move again (often to take on the enemy’s rearguard).

From a damage-dealing standpoint, Ferocity is fantastic. Paired with Crit % bonuses from gear and Burning Blades, he can really do some serious damage with just two swings. Along those lines, I obviously chose to make Vraes’ special weapon, Bhevellis, into a 2-handed sword.

Attributes:
Strength 7 >> 19
Dexterity 4 >> 19
Intelligence 3 >> 4

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 22
Lore 2 >> 22

(Note: 7 Skill points are still banked. If I recall correctly, the Skill maxes go to 24 when I hit level 60, so 4 points are reserved to re-max Blades and Lore when that happens. I’ll probably then dump the rest into Leadership.)

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 10
Natural Mastery 0 >> 10
Burst of Speed 0 >> 10
Ferocity 0 >> 8

Kjartan

There’s no other way to put it. Defensively, Kjartan is the team’s Achilles Heel and the battle that fully exposes that fact is the big boss battle with the Seer Lords after coming back to Ember. For every other battle, my “3-1” formation works well in that it fully shelters Kjartan from attack, but still allows him to Ash and Immolate with impunity. This battle busts my “3-1” almost immediately. This fight is a free-for-all melee from the get-go with enemies starting up close and surrounding me on three sides. On top of that, both Seer Lords closed in on me quick. So, in addition, to the usual undead horde to keep back, I had two ultra-powerful, unkillable bosses to deal with almost immediately (and they’re coming at me from opposite directions). It was barely all I could do to just react to enemy movement. Most of the time, I was just trying to figure out how best to hide Kjartan from attack and not always succeeding. The early battle was a grind as Kjartan just kept getting popped. Eventually, with some luck and multiple tries with different positioning, I was able to thin the hordes enough to get room for Kjartan to do his thing without being in constant danger. There was an amusing point where I had to move Kjartan around Vraes and one of the Seer Lords (who were going toe-to-toe). It reminded me of the scene in Game of Thrones when Cercei scootches past the Mountain and the Hound when they square off. (You guys fight, don’t mind me.)

Despite the results of this battle (which accounted for most of my deaths in Act 4), Kjartan is still an integral part of this team and the other three would not be nearly as successful without him:

• Pureflame Shield is the perfect complement to Stone Skin and Consecrated Defense (and Death's Mantle!) to make Vraes and Fyona (and Tami!) better tanks. This is especially true in the mid- to late game when a maxed Stone Skin just isn’t enough to protect Vraes.
• Burning Blades gives everyone the all important Crit % (and extra fire damage). This makes Tami, particularly, incredibly dangerous as she now starts with a 33% crit chance (Burning Blades + Deadly Intuition) before any equipment buffs!
• Immolation and Burning Blades work incredibly well together. Not only does Burning Blades give more heat to Immolation, but Immolation helps ensure that whenever anyone crits, they’re going to do even more damage.
• Lastly, Choking Ash is just an indispensable spell from start to end. Every fight would be so much harder if I couldn’t spam this everywhere.
  

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 18
Intelligence 6 >> 7
Knowledge 4 >> 20

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 22
Conjuring 2 >> 16
Lore 2 >> 5

(Note: It’s not obvious from this write-up, but I started pumping up Lore to increase the duration of Soulless Channeling.)

Talents:
Choking Ash 1 >> 10
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 9
Burning Blades 0 >> 10
Immolation 0 >> 10
Soulless Channeling 1

Fyona

Fyona is the lynchpin of my “3-1” strategy. She’s the slowest of my 3 tanks and so the starting distance between her and the enemy side is what dictates what I do in my first turn or two. Generally, if Fyona can’t reach the enemy vanguard with at least 4 AP remaining, then I’m pulling the team back just out of range to draw more enemies closer. But, once she’s able to get to the enemy vanguard with at least 4 AP, then she, Vraes, and Tami will all charge.

So, why 4 AP? Basically, I want to guarantee getting Consecrated Defense off and so I have two shots at that. Preferably, I land Consecrated Defense with my first hit and then I can use my second hit to launch either Reckoning or Zealous Strikes, depending on how the enemies are grouped and/or what else is happening in the fight. From there, she will just methodically hammer her way through the enemies until she meets back up with Vraes (who has charged to the back of the enemy lines and is slowly working his way forward).

One last note, based on my DEX experience with Vraes, I decided to stop putting points into CON for Fyona. Instead, I’ve been dumping Attribute points to DEX instead. If I had thought about it when I last re-speced her, I would have lowered her CON some and raised her DEX further. But, I didn’t and I don’t feel like re-speccing her again. Maybe I’ll re-spec her when the Act 4 finale comes out.

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 20
Dexterity 4 >> 9
Constitution 5 >> 13

Skills:
Hammer 3 >> 22
Leadership 2 >> 19

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 9
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 10
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 10
Reckoning 0 >> 9

Tamilin

It is very apt that Tamilin takes on the Mantle of Death in this Act. By the late game, she is by far the most powerful damage dealer on the entire team. Between the fact that all her attacks are AOE and that she has an amazing 45% crit chance (after all buffs are applied), she can mow down enemies like a thresher through wheat. Unsurprisingly, she now leads the team with the most XP.

The biggest change with Tami is that I’m now officially using her as a third tank with impunity (i.e., the “3” in my “3-1” strategy). Whereas in Act 3, I was only doing it in a pinch, in Act 4, she is a full-time front-line tank. Her defensive dice pool is quite high now that she has max DEX/max Thrown Weapons and it is further supported by max Shield of Cortias from Fyona and high Blacknight from herself. Her tankiness is further supported by a bulked up CON, along with Pureflame Shield from Kjartan and her new Death’s Mantle adding more Armor and Elemental Resistances. By being the 3rd tank, she really lets me spread out Vraes and Fyona, while still giving Kjartan the space that he needs in the back.

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 20
Intelligence 4 >> 6
Constitution 5 >> 17

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 22
Bows: 3 >> 20
Lore: 2 >> 11

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 8
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 8
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 10
Ranged Onslaught 0 >> 9
Death’s Mantle 1 >> 3

Thanks for reading! At this point, there won't be any further updates until after the Act 4 finale is released. Can't wait!!!

[hobiecat]

I completed the game with my team and, to put it simply, this team kicks butt! I crushed my way through the final content, with only one speed bump, which I inflicted upon myself as an experiment.

Basically, I hit Level 64 (i.e., max level) near the beginning of Castle Ascent and I realized that I had over 120 moonstones sitting in my inventory. As such, I decided to fiddle around with Vraes and Fyona and change them around toward some of the builds that other forum-ites were raving about. Specifically, I switched Vraes to having a max Juggernaut as his main attack and Fyona to have a fully maxed Strickening. I also gave Vraes a shield, switched him over to a 1H hammer, and maxed out his Phalanx Shield too since many folks seemed to be sold on a shield Vraes.

This may be a highly unpopular opinion, but I HATED both setups. Sure, a maxed out Juggernaut would let Vraes get in an extra attack once in a while, but he was doing so much LESS damage with Juggernaut and a 1H mace than when he was with wielding a 2H sword with Ferocity. In fact, even with a 2H hammer/sword, Juggernaut’s AP/MP bonuses just don’t overcome the pure damage of Ferocity for me. And, TBH, I didn’t feel that Vraes was avoiding that much more damage with a maxed out Phalanx Shield than when he was just a pure Dodge tank.

Meanwhile, on Fyona’s side, I can see Strickening helping, HOWEVER, each cast of Strickening is 3AP less of smashing someone with a hammer. And, anecdotally at least, Strickening didn’t seem to be adding an overwhelming amount of damage with each hit to make me feel it was worth casting in the first place.

Now, before the rotten tomatoes come flying in my direction, I will concede that I didn’t change my tactics too much when I changed both Vraes and Fyona around. I can very conceivably not be using them to their fullest potential in their new builds. Plus, the Castle Ascent board is the one with all those confounded Drake Eggs. There’s nothing like experimenting with a new team build while you’re being overwhelmed by Drakes. But, in the end, I really did not enjoy these builds at all. Nope, not one bit.

So, I used my moonstones again and converted them both back to the builds that I’ve grown to know and love. With Vraes back to being a 2H sword/Ferocity/DEX tank and Fyona being the hammer queen, I honestly cut through the final content like a warm knife through butter.

As I mentioned in my last post above, my tactics are all about using Vraes, Fyona, and Tamilin to set up a forward screen and Kjartan staying in the pocket to drop Choking Ash and Immolation. V, F, and T can all tank, so I can spread them out and really tie up the entire enemy line. The only close call I had was with Evesse, mainly because I heavily underestimated her ranged attack. Wowza, she can shoot pretty much across the board! Beyond that little surprise, I slowly, but steadily crushed my way through each battle. The biggest challenges were the length of the battles (I’m looking at you Barbican! But, also Castle Mounts and the final battle too!) and making sure all my buffs stayed up. As long as they did, the enemies would fall.

Here’s what my final team looked like…

Vraes

Attributes:

Strength 7 >> 22
Dexterity 4 >> 22
Constitution 6 >> 7

(Note 1: I originally had added 1 point in Intelligence. When I re-specced Vraes, I moved that point into Constitution as I didn’t need the added SP and figured the added HP and toughness would be better.)

(Note 2: I love that, in the end, it didn’t matter whether you focused on a Strength-based or a Dex-based Vraes. There are enough Attribute points to max both.)

Skills:
Blades 3 >> 24
Lore 2 >> 24
Leadership 1 >> 12

Talents:
Stone Skin 1 >> 10
Natural Mastery 0 >> 10
Burst of Speed 0 >> 10
Ferocity 0 >> 10
Berserk Rage 0 >> 3

(Note: Two Talent points remained unused. I intentionally soft-capped Berserk Rage at 3 because the Parry and Armor penalties at this level were perfectly offset by Burst of Speed’s Parry bonus and Fyona’s Righteous Fervor’s armor bonus. When I first leveled him up, I put Berserk Rage up to 5, but the Parry and Armor penalties made Vraes MUCH more vulnerable. So, after I experimented with him and put him back to the build I liked, I kept Berserk Rage at 3 to get the right balance of crit/damage bonuses without hurting his tankiness.)

Equipment:
Reliat Bone Plate (Heavy) - crafted
106 Armor
-2 Evasion
+400 Max HP, +80 Max SP, +10 Holy Dmg, 2% Critical, +20% Crit Dmg

Bhevellis, the Storm Maker (2-H Sword)
Uses 3 AP, relies on Strength
12 Accuracy, 12 Parry
97 – 187 Dmg, +160 Max SP, +22 Elemental Dmg (Fire, Ice, Lit, Earth), 10% Critical, +80% Crit Dmg, +8% SP Drain

Right Hand of Soul (Bracers)
4% Critical, +6% Crit Dmg, +4% SP Drain

Longclaw Boots (Boots)
+1 Move Point, +4 Parry, +4 Dodge, +4% SP Drain

Farlost Ring (Ring)
+8 Parry, +8 Dodge, +12 Armor, +4% SP Drain

Kjartan

Attributes:
Willpower 7 >> 22
Intelligence 6 >> 7
Knowledge 4 >> 22

Skills:
Sorcery 4 >> 24
Conjuring 2 >> 16
Lore 2 >> 10

Talents:
Choking Ash 1 >> 10
Pureflame Shield 1 >> 10
Burning Blades 0 >> 10
Immolation 0 >> 10
Soulless Channeling 1 >> 7

Equipment:
Adept’s Greatrobe (Mage)
32 Armor
+2 Evasion
+1 Move Point, +40 Max HP, +40 Max SP

Bane Staff (Staff)
Uses 2 AP, relies on Dexterity
7 Accuracy, 9 Parry
37 – 44 Dmg, +14 Magical Dmg (Fire, Ice, Lit, Earth, Holy), +16% SP Drain

Snakescale Boots (Boots)
+1 Move Point, +4 Ranged Accuracy, +8 Dmg, 2% Critical, +8 Armor

Thunderseam Mantle (Cloak)
+40% Crit Dmg, +16 Resistance, +40 All Resists, +10% SP Drain

Heartstone Clasp (Ring)
+22 Ranged Accuracy, +100 Dmg, 5% Critical, +25% Crit Dmg

Fyona

Attributes:
Strength 5 >> 22
Dexterity 4 >> 21

(Note: I originally had pumped up Constitution. But, when I re-specced Fyona, I decided to dump all those points into Dexterity instead based on my positive experience with a Dex-heavy Vraes.)

Skills:
Hammers 3 >> 24
Leadership 2 >> 23

Talents:
Zealous Strikes 1 >> 10
Consecrated Defense 0 >> 10
Shield of Cortias 0 >> 10
Reckoning 0 >> 10
Righteous Fervor 0 >> 5

(Note: Righteous Fervor is a great complement to Vraes’ Berserk Fury. If I had the points to max Righteous Fervor, I would’ve re-considered spending those 2 unused Talent points for Vraes to raise his Berserk Fury.)

Equipment:
Reliat Bone Plate (Heavy) - crafted
106 Armor
-2 Evasion
+400 Max HP, +80 Max SP, +10 Holy Dmg, 2% Critical, +20% Crit Dmg

(Note: Yup, it’s the exact same armor that Vraes has. I like it because it has a minimal Evasion penalty.)

Hurlscarl’s Soul (1-H Hammer)
Uses 2 AP, relies on Strength
8 Accuracy, 10 Parry
99 – 146 Dmg, +220 Max HP, +40 Holy Dmg, 8% Critical, +50% Crit Dmg, +6% SP Drain

Legionaire Shield (Shield) - crafted
13 Parry
Auto-blocks 5% of ranged attacks, +240 Max SP, +10 Holy Dmg, 2% Critical, +6 Dodge, +8% SP Drain

Seventh Ward Cloak (Cloak)
+6 Parry, +6 Dodge, +6 Armor

Flashing Ring (Ring)
+1 Move Point, +2% SP Drain

Sedollian Step (Boots)
+2 Move Point, +160 Max SP, +10% Crit Dmg

Tamilin

Attributes:
Dexterity 6 >> 22
Intelligence 4 >> 6
Constitution 5 >> 21

Skills:
Thrown: 1 >> 24
Bows: 3 >> 22
Lore: 2 >> 14

Talents:
Blacknight: 0 >> 8
Torrent of Steel: 0 >> 8
Deadly Intuition: 0 >> 10
Ranged Onslaught 0 >> 9
Death’s Mantle 1 >> 10

Equipment:
Underplate Weave (Stealth) – crafted
63 Armor
+9 Evasion, +7 Stealth
+160 Max HP, +8 Lightning Dmg, +4 Parry, +5 Dodge

Keen Great Bow (Thrown Weapon) – crafted
Uses 1 AP, relies on Dexterity
13 Accuracy, 5 Parry
44 – 147 Dmg at 3 Range, +26 Lightning Dmg, +4% SP Drain

(Note: Despite the name, these are throwing knives! LOL! This was logged as a crafting bug already.)

Kiresh Bolter (Bow) - crafted
Uses 3 AP, relies on Dexterity
13 Accuracy
121 – 168 Dmg at 8 Range, +16 Ice Dmg, +22 Lightning Dmg, 7% Critical, +6% SP Drain

(Note: I want to see if I can replace this bow with something better, but waiting for the FIX ME bow fix to hit Google Play.)

Spidersilk Tred (Boots)
+1 Move Point, +8 Dodge, +12 Resistance, +12 Stealth, +12 Security

Wise Blood Ring (Ring)
10% Critical, +5 Parry, + 5 Dodge, +10 Stealth, +10 Security

Webbed Cloak (Cloak)
+180 Max HP, +180 Max SP, 2% Critical, +8% SP Drain

And, that’s all she wrote for this party and this run through. In sum, I loved this team. Thanks all for reading!

[matrim]

What difficulty were you playing on? I find it hard enough to keep a shield Vraes alive. I tried a 2h Vraes on Ironman Nightmare and he died in episode 2 at Underforge. I don't know what I am doing wrong but I just can't get him to survive although he does good damage.

Strickening did not add that much damage because your items have no elemental damage. I can tell you that I was doing 350 damage hits and 600 crits with 1 AP attacks on Tamilin and Vincent was doing 550 hits and 900 crits with level 3 Sundering with a 1 AP blade. You need elemental damage to make it work. My items would bring me to about 45ish of each element and 70 of thunder. Each build is only going to really shine with supporting items. I suggest trying an early strickening Fyona (1 in SoC), just pump strickening and whatever mage you have pump their elemental blades. It has never been so fun to fight giant rats and deathkin. The nice thing is that you don't need any more defense till 25ish which is when you can start leveling SoC. Really fun build for me.

[crimsonking]

Strickening only really shines with high multi elemental damage 1AP attacks, like +30 to all elements in E3, +50 in E4. Vincent it predestined to work with Fyona here, and Tam is really the only other character that can potentially pull that off without losing too much other stuff.

As for Juggernaut, I never used it, but my guess is that you only get mileage out of it if you're delivering finishing blows for the most part, which means you need to use everyone else to soften up targets for Vraes.

In general, it isn't sufficient to build a single character a certain way. You need to build the whole party in a way that synergizes most.