New Party advice

[Brutus Aurelius]

I'm creating a new party, with Vraes, Vincent, Fyona and Tamilin. Here is how I am breaking down their focuses (foci?)

Vraes: Pure damage build. 2H Hammers when I can get my grubby hands on them, focuses on Stone Skin for the HP, Beserk Rage, Natural Mastery to make up for loss of PS, possibly Juggernaut. 

Q: Should I focus on Sweeping Strike or Crushing Blow for my base attack? SS adds accuracy and minor damage boosts later, guaranteeing more hits but with a bit less damage, while CB adds a lot of damage, but I will probably miss more often, though NM may offset this. Any tips?

Vincent: Debuff and support damage. He will focus on his debuff talents to cripple enemies and support the party's damage with Lightning Spear. I will probably give him a Staff and mage armor.

Q: Which combo of talents do you guys find best for this role?

Fyona: Tank and Healing. Heavy Armor, Consecrated Defense, Blessed Aura as main heal, Battlefield Devotion for Curses. Hammer Blow as secondary attack. Shields and 1H Hammers .

Tamilin: Sniper and Support Damage. Her primary focus will be killing casters and archers while my other guys do their thing. Focus on Evasion (with her Stealth armor), Aimed Shot,  Ranged Intuition, Silent Stalker and Ranged Onslaught. Fairly straightforward.

Any other suggestions about the new group will be welcome too.

[En1gma]

Personally I only go with CB if I have Choking Ash and or Pinning Shot to increase hit percentages. I would definitely consider SSw , unless you wanted to sub in KJ.

Vincent is fun in an AoE role but it can be difficult to keep his effectiveness up if you don't have a good plan for him. Boost LS until you are comfortable with its damage. I usually stop around 4 (continue as needed to keep damage up), then I start on my support talents- in your case I would go with Flash Freeze because you aren't running Kyera or Pinning Shot Selen- therefore you badly need a -ap curse.

Fyona is a great tank in this group and CD is a great melee talent when combined with SoC- something I would highly recommend for your group because of your adherence to 2h hammers.  Vraes will need all the defensive help he can get. 

Hope I was able to help = )

[hobiecat]

Q: Should I focus on Sweeping Strike or Crushing Blow for my base attack? SS adds accuracy and minor damage boosts later, guaranteeing more hits but with a bit less damage, while CB adds a lot of damage, but I will probably miss more often, though NM may offset this. Any tips?

My experience is that if you invest enough into Natural Mastery, it will more than compensate for the limited accuracy of CB and you'll be able to regularly land high damage blows.  I usually try to max out NM early with my Vraes builds, but I don't think you have to go as far as that, especially if you run Vincent with Thundering Blades.  The accuracy bonuses there will also help your Vraes hit regularly.  If you do go the CB route, and not necessarily go fully into NM, at the very least you need to focus on maxing your Strength and your primary weapon skill as quickly as possible.  If you don't do that at least, then you definitely will miss a lot and would be better off with SS.

Q: Which combo of talents do you guys find best for this role?

Besides Thundering Blades, my recommendation is to give Vincent Flash Freeze vs. Frigid Air.  -AP curse far outweighs the ability to nerf an enemy's accuracy and damage.  Basically, why spend points that might reduce the enemy's ability to hit you when you can spend points to guarantee that they won't hit you for 1 or 2 attacks.  Also, if you're planning for Vincent's main attack to be Lightning Spear, then Eye of the Storm will be critical (no pun intended).  The critical damage will work very nicely with AOE damage as TeeWee explains here.

[Brutus Aurelius]

Thanks for the tips guys!