Build Concepts

[celtic_stained]

I'm having trouble thinking long-term with this game, as any fun or novel way of fighting may not be possible, as enemies (outside of bosses) will die too quickly for a strategy to actually take place... with that said, it just occurred to me that I can change the difficulty, lol.

In any case, the main point is just to discuss less straightforward ways of approaching a character's design. Anything you find interesting, even as far as leveling in one direction just to be proficient with a particular weapon, and then going in a totally opposite direction to the archetype being built.

I'll give my entire setup--as much as I've figured out--for an example, though all may not exactly apply to the topic (and I may litter some questions throughout if you're up to it):


1) MC:

--Defiler:
silence/burn or chill/poison depending on context, and then & viral
--Scholar:
prayer & [damaging elemental spell]
--whip made from accompanying elemental proficiency

Starting with the idea of a dark-themed caster that fights in melee range, throwing out fairly harsh debuffs before focusing on melee attacks to clean up.
Silence casters, spread burn chill/poison
May use [elemental spell] from scholar to address ranged enemies at low cost to damage
Moves around enemy line to draw attacks and separate/distract AI after spreading negative statuses.
Equipped as a evasion tank with a focus on high HP.

1b) Optional Take:

--Remove Scholar, take Unmaker:
Use drain for durability
Use ruin trigger with Stone Savant in place of Scholar's [elemental spell] and whip proficiency for filler damage.
Likely better, but also a little too close to "the obvious choice"



2) Reeve:

--Crossbow Skill
--Rolling Reload passive
--Gate: Shift
--Blunderbuss
--Warpblade
--Sharpshooter

Stay mobile and do consistently high damage with one of the strongest weapons, and all without having to reload.
Very good AOE damage that does not rely overly much on casting time



3) "X"

--Punching Skill
--Thousand Fists
--Iron Hands
--Sage
--Balancer

Another evasion tank that wraps him/herself in an Ice Carapace and then wades into battle immobilizing/killing casters and archers while healing.



4) "X"

--Man of War
--Minstrel
--Swashbuckler
--Crossbow Skill
--Sword Skill

Attack and then reload while attacking. If--and this is a big "if"--I can have this character preform other actions while casting, such as attacking while maintaining concentration, then this will work perfectly.
If not, then I'll switch Minstrel out for Scout and Medic (really strong in its own right)



5) "X"

--Bow Skill
--Fire Skill
--Firewalker
--Augment Charger
--Ignis Knight
--Elementalist

Damage, distracting/luring AI, battlefield control.
If the fire triggers in the bow are present while using Oil Edge, then I can get a fire enchant and oil an enemy on my first turn without taking the enchanter class.
So, attack with Oil Edge with a weapon that has triggers in it, get the enchant, oil the enemy, then attack with enchant for added damage as the fire ignites the oil (worked that way in the previous game for Ignis Knight at least).
Then, when the enemy has committed distance-wise towards this character's attempt to lure them away and separate the group, I'll cast Pyre and force them to walk through fire or return to their previous tactic and have wasted time and HP.
Fire Whirl can also be placed to direct movement.


Thoughts, anything to add as far as your own ideas, or even if I'm getting something wrong, feel free to chime in.

[Nigrescence]

Well I'm only getting started but for now all I do is have everyone max out everything in scholar and keep that as their secondary class. Except for Reeve, she's a melee tank thingy with a spear that stuns and uses scout as secondary class for the ranged rock, heal, and sidestep. She has 70% dodge that goes to 100% when she uses the sidestep skill. Reeve is perfect for closing the gap and tanking stuff and also getting everyone to group up around her so you can just Gust everything to death in one or two turns usually. Works exceedingly well and I've tackled some things that I probably wasn't meant to handle yet.

Keep in mind that I've given everyone wind triggers and magic boosting gauntlet and a bunch of stuff to maximize this strategy. With this strategy, I can easily keep scholar as the secondary class for everyone (all Rasmen so that they're immune to Blind and Silence naturally) and maintain this strategy as I grind up the more advanced classes while I travel the world, make money, and unlock the classes (almost done, have maybe two left, including waiting for the Gatekeeper to unlock, should unlock around the time I am ready to actually learn its skills).

Eventually I will find a better setup, but I'll enjoy it when I unlock it and get there.

Other benefit to this strategy composition is that everyone helps each other regen MP naturally as long as they're together, and everyone has a great MP restore skill that hits a big area when it's maxed out (all of them have all scholar skills maxed completely).

Also, I gave the main character two of those crest unlocks. I have a third but not sure I want to use it yet. Probably going to give it to Reeve since she's a permanent crew member (can't dismiss her). It was tempting to make her do the same tactic but I feel like that would be dishonest to her character.

While this is great for handling swarms of enemies, what I really need is to find some good skills to do great for single target focused damage. Just one skill would be perfect, so that it can be in the third or fourth class slot (only gives you one active skill).
I thought the sorcerer shock bolts would have done it but no, you only get one missile per target so it's only good for doing aoe damage while not damaging your party.

[frowningmirror]

My recommendation is to have a Ferren or Wilderi as Warren/Sage (or Sage/Warden) with Balancers Counter Mirror. You can stack +5 life on your equipment to be near invincible. I went Berserker first to pickup Imposing. The reason it works is because you can focus on things you'll always use: HP, MP, Life, Hammer and Shield. You also get a really powerful spell list. I also recommend Minstrel with a long range weapon as a backup who can revive on the other side of the planet with your paladin. This is a powerful defensive core that allows 1 more melee and two more ranged attackers.

I noticed a lot of teams are focused on a single element. Ignis Knight team with fire whirls oil and explosions....Condensate Lightning teams with Krakenslayer and volskarver. Or an ice team with wet triggers, sailor abilities and ice weapons.

[Nigrescence]

Like I said, haven't gotten to the advanced classes really yet. Currently training sage on everyone so they have full recovery access kits too. I gave Reeve my third ability crest so she can keep that rogue dash skill (doesn't use an action, great to get her to reposition in an emergency), and she'll probably get the fourth too. Might even get her to take Sage as her secondary. Considering giving her the Blunderbuss and using the ranged classes too, instead. If Blunderbuss can be given an augment, I can give it the Stun Trigger and then every Blunderbuss shot stuns.

[EAiscool]

You can pretty easily break over 100 physical evade and 50 magic evade using the shiftcloak, parrying dagger, barrier shield, spidersilk armor and the blood and dark mantle. If you combine this with the passive from the gatekeeper? class, that doubles your magic evade when you get hit by a spell you're only ever in danger of dying from back attacks and huge nuclear damage spells. Using a rasmen for this makes it even stronger.
For self sustain you can use first aid + medic and warmth to regen your mana.

[frowningmirror]

Originally posted by EAiscool:

You can pretty easily break over 100 physical evade and 50 magic evade using the shiftcloak, parrying dagger, barrier shield, spidersilk armor and the blood and dark mantle. If you combine this with the passive from the gatekeeper? class, that doubles your magic evade when you get hit by a spell you're only ever in danger of dying from back attacks and huge nuclear damage spells. Using a rasmen for this makes it even stronger.
For self sustain you can use first aid + medic and warmth to regen your mana.

Did you know you can trigger the resistance ability without damage? You can cast a buff on yourself like warden's guard and it will activate.

[Meeky]

Maybe I have tinybrain syndrome, but for me the most fun I had was tricking out my main character as a Shiftcloak/Blade... and then stealing the Krakenslayer passive for extra damage, the Blade passive for dual dagger damage, Melee Momentum from Shiftcloak, and then as extra abilities taking Rage from Berserker and Dash from Rogue.

A max morale, raging character built like this can start off way off on one side of the map, zip across the board with movement + dash, then Shift Cloak a Wet enemy with an Ironice dagger (Shiver) in the main hand and some high damage dagger in the offhand. It is an awesome, once in a lifetime moment to get the perfect conditions for maximum damage, but it is a thing of beauty. Bonus points if the character's race is Fareem or Ferren for just that teensy bit of extra move distance.

It's *also* cool to do still ridiculous amounts of damage to a group of enemies in a similar way using Shiftcloak's Backstep Shot or Blade's Flash Cut.

It's probably easier and more reliable to just throw an angry Berserker or two at the enemy, though.

EDIT: For actually fun builds, I'd have to say that any composition can be improved by judicious application of the Warden's "Barrier" ability. Have at least one character in the group equipped with Barrier. It can split up enemy groups, distract the AI, and otherwise make impossible fights more than manageable.

[EAiscool]

Originally posted by frowningmirror:

Did you know you can trigger the resistance ability without damage? You can cast a buff on yourself like warden's guard and it will activate.

I actually didn't know this. That's hilarious.