Chakram/Longbow build/gear?

[caelcyndar5]

After playing around for a while, feel like Chakram and Longbow are the weapons I like the most. What would be a good build and gear (without any Blacksmithing or Sagecraft)? Just dislike I have to spend ability points on abilities I can't use in order to get the ones I want.

[mpnorman10]

I love the build that specializes in those plus fae blades. The dodging defense is very fast and effective, often with aggressive combinations including that along with counterattacks.

[Blackwall]

Chakram/Longbow is an excellent combo. Powerful ranged attack with the Longbow; massive close damage with Chakrams.

You'll need to go Sorcery/Finesse to get the most of this combo. I'd suggest putting points in Might as well. Might's earthquake skill works regardless of the weapon you have equipped and the additional health you get from Might is well worth it. Sorcery ice and lightning spells are just fun to play with. And then there's the Heal that's helpful.

I suggest Stealth, Lockpicking and Persuasion as good core skills, but you really should not ignore Blacksmithing and Sagecraft. With these two skills maxed you can make very powerful weapons and armor. Crafting in KoA is definitely worth it. With Blacksmith skill you can Salvage every random drop and then rebuild with the pieces exactly what you want. With Sagecraft, you combine gems to the highest quality and socket them in equipment to give you additional resistances, regen, and attack. I think you'll be gimping yourself if you don't take advantage of at least Blacksmithing. Both my weapons, longbow and chakrams, are crafted and far superior to any drop I've found.

You can put a few points in Detect Hidden and Dispell. Mercantile is a meh, and Alchemy is helpful, but not critical, unless you happen to be a pot person. I'm not; I rarely use pots.

[mpnorman10]

The above is good advice but a pure Finesse approach also works well. The bonuses at higher levels, expecially 108 (points in the finesse tree) are very powerful, and with a pure Finesse approach you get the earlier ones quicker.

To be clear, I am not criticizing a blended approach but purely going one tree works well, also..

[caelcyndar5]

Was looking at the unique and set gear, really hard to determine what would actually be best. The Ascendant armor set gives a huge bonus to critical hit chance. I read that Chakram's are considered melee weapons and so benefit from the Might tree. I greatly dislike crafting where, as it seems in this game, all the stats are probably completely random. Plus it means know what areas to farm when at what levels. also means most of your inventory is taken up by the crafting mats.

[mpnorman10]

I like the Bow in the Finesse branch. I make no claims about it but really liked it. Up close I preferred Fae Blades over Chakrams. Chakrams operate at range, even if they also operate in melee range as you have heard, but there is a trade-off cost for that. Still, they were my sister's favorite weapon on her run, and, by the way, she did a blend of all three trees for her build.

Bottom line it is all your decision. You can re-spec in game so give it your best shot and if you want to re-spec and try something else, do so. Good luck.

[Blackwall]

Re crafting randomness: Not at all. Salvage is random--you don't know what you'll get off an item. But crafting is not at all random. You chose each piece (there are 4 if memory serves). Each piece is a piece you've salvaged. Let's say you choose pieces that contain +80 health, 1.2 health regen, 7% crit and +20 ice damage. You'll see the actual results of this before you craft it. Oops, you wanted fire damage not ice, you go back, pick the piece that has fire damage attached to it and once again see a window of what the finished piece will look like, now with fire instead of ice damage. Then craft.

I agree that nearly all crafting in most games is a stab in the eye. Effort equals disappointment in most games when it comes to crafting. I feel this is not one of them. There's no RNG element.

The advantage of a Might/Finesse/Sorcery build is the plus to skills, +3 at the top tier. You can go into Destinies in-game and see what the perks are for each level of your build. Essentially, what perks you'll unlock once you have invested sufficient points in an ability line. The downside of the M/F/S build is that you don't have enough ability points to get the higher skills of any line.

I'd say take a close look at Destinies, decide what perks you like, and try to aim for that point spread when assigning ability points rather than just looking at the abilities themselves. Some of the destinies are quite powerful.

[caelcyndar5]

Originally posted by Blackwall:

Re crafting randomness: Not at all. Salvage is random--you don't know what you'll get off an item. But crafting is not at all random. You chose each piece (there are 4 if memory serves). Each piece is a piece you've salvaged. Let's say you choose pieces that contain +80 health, 1.2 health regen, 7% crit and +20 ice damage. You'll see the actual results of this before you craft it. Oops, you wanted fire damage not ice, you go back, pick the piece that has fire damage attached to it and once again see a window of what the finished piece will look like, now with fire instead of ice damage. Then craft.

I agree that nearly all crafting in most games is a stab in the eye. Effort equals disappointment in most games when it comes to crafting. I feel this is not one of them. There's no RNG element.

The advantage of a Might/Finesse/Sorcery build is the plus to skills, +3 at the top tier. You can go into Destinies in-game and see what the perks are for each level of your build. Essentially, what perks you'll unlock once you have invested sufficient points in an ability line. The downside of the M/F/S build is that you don't have enough ability points to get the higher skills of any line.

I'd say take a close look at Destinies, decide what perks you like, and try to aim for that point spread when assigning ability points rather than just looking at the abilities themselves. Some of the destinies are quite powerful.

I've even been considering just Chakram, going Might/Sorcery and using the second day weapon just for a buff (possibly Bow of D'Nargel).

The leveling in this game reminds of the first Ys game on the Turbografx where every non-boss mob in the game was worth only 1 single XP.

And , like I whined in earlier posts, greatly dislike how you have to waste ability points on nodes to unlock higher tiers and get the nodes you want. With a level cap of just 40, a Universalist would only be able to get to Tier 3 in each Destiny. Considering how level scaling works, wish I could get a trainer to level faster since there's a mod on Nexus that causes mobs to scale with you rather then be locked to a specific range.

[mpnorman10]

Originally posted by Blackwall:

RThe advantage of a Might/Finesse/Sorcery build is the plus to skills, +3 at the top tier. You can go into Destinies in-game and see what the perks are for each level of your build. Essentially, what perks you'll unlock once you have invested sufficient points in an ability line. The downside of the M/F/S build is that you don't have enough ability points to get the higher skills of any line.

The Jack of All Trades bonus of +3 to all skills is indeed impressive if it was necessary, but it is not. You can, via taking a bit of care to not waste trainers, bring every skill up to 10 in the main game minus only two levels (two skills at 9 instead of the maximum of 10) and those can also be topped off if desired in one of the DLC.

So, when looking over the attributes, do not feel tied to a jack of all trades +3 bonus to skills. You can instead focus on any one for the focused bonus there, or any combo of two, for that bonus instead and not lose anything. That is six choices other than jack of all trades.

[Leeux]

I did multiple playthroughs with Chakram as weapon, one full Sorcery, one half Sorcery/Finesse and yet another one half might.

I'd say it's by a long far my fav weapon in this game... I also did a main bow playthrough, but I respecced at the end of the game to do the DLCs that time... and I was surprised of how effective bow is end game (main end game, not DLC, I mean...) when fully specced.

But I almost always use Blacksmithing/Gemcrafting at end game, sadly... you can't really count on set drops at all, and at the most some unique drops are fixed and always in teh same spot, but they are less powerful relatively speaking compared to fully crafted gear set, as sad as that is :(

[Blackwall]

Best case scenario, the remaster allows for higher level cap than 40. Unlikely, but still, would be nice.