Build balance is pretty bad

[SjakaWaka]

i have done 3 attempt now at a fresh start

First was an instinct build and i ended up getting brick walled on Edwyn because there aren't good instinct weapons you can get early enough
Only the guns seems to scale and you just don't have the bullets to kill a boss with them or even come close to that

Second i tried a strength build
And i blasted trough the game without difficulty killed all bosses in 1 or 2 attempts

Third i tried a mind build and again i got brick walled on Edwyn
Same problem i had with the instinct build except worse because even the spells barely scale
And the spells that do reasonable damage cost so much focus you can only use it like once or twice

i haven't tried dex so no idea there (but seeing as you start with a ok dex weapon i assume it's at least workable)

It's fine that some builds are harder earlier on
But my strength build did 3-4 times the damage the other 2 did by the time i got to Edwyn
And had more HP as well the difference is WAY TO BIG

[Aldourien]

Did you purchase the Blunderblade from Mariano at the Manor for your Instinct build?
You can refill your Focus with Blue Haemolymph stones.

I am not disputing that Strength gets a very clear head start, but I am suggesting the other builds are viable—if a lot more challenging.

[Aeshmah]

Dex is on par with STR, I'd say. Used a DEX build for all of my playthroughs so far, with little to no issue.

The thing with STR weapon is that they may boost big numbers, but they actually attack excruciatingly slow, lowering their actual DPS considerably. DEX is the other way around. Not sure which one is ultimately better in the end, but eh.

[Aldourien]

I'd argue the Severance Reaper is the most powerful melee weapon due to the weapon skill.
Fast as a dagger, impactful like a greatsword.

[Batterkap]

if they balance or remove that greatsword before edwyn 90% of players will never kill him)
and there no point in minmax stats from the start,because there almost no scaling before you get +5 + most weapons have 2-3 stats scale

[Batterkap]

i play mind and just after edwin i got shadow ball spell and just destroy his ice brother at lvl 30 get his ice sword + mind give shadow resist and the alot of shdow mobs and endgame bosses

[dustin1280]

When I did my mind playthrough, I put 30 into vit and 40 into focus then saved points till I got a mind weapon.
I had about 250k souls when I got the first mind weapon and everything got slaughtered (even more so then a strength build)

[SjakaWaka]

Originally posted by Batterkap:

if they balance or remove that greatsword before edwyn 90% of players will never kill him)
and there no point in minmax stats from the start,because there almost no scaling before you get +5 + most weapons have 2-3 stats scale

Wel i killed edwyn with the axe and was hitting for like 150 damage
Didn't have the resources to upgrade the greatsword at the time and i dislike farming

I did use it afterwards tough, that weapon is very good
Esp when you get a bit mind later so you can spam the weapon art in a boss fight

[SjakaWaka]

Originally posted by Aeshmah:

Dex is on par with STR, I'd say. Used a DEX build for all of my playthroughs so far, with little to no issue.

The thing with STR weapon is that they may boost big numbers, but they actually attack excruciatingly slow, lowering their actual DPS considerably. DEX is the other way around. Not sure which one is ultimately better in the end, but eh.

unless dex vastly outpaces in damage output or dex weapons haviing great weapon arts it's definitely strength
Allot of fight require a decent amount of jump attacks and having 1 big swing is much better then

[Ruego Al Alba]

I gotta agree.

I was hoping the starting classes would actually have starter weapons for the stat build path they imply, but they all start with the same weapon and with no guns or spells.

[Mouse...]

For hybrid STR/MIND, as soon as you get spinal chain blade, upgrade it asap.
That thing's special wrecks any medium/big size enemies.

There's also a dark spell (similar to spinal chain blade's special) which you can combo after using weapon.

I killed ice dragon in just under 15sec while he's still transitioning to 2nd phase

[Stone]

Strength is incredibly strong, but honestly the game isn't hard enough that you cant just use whatever and be fine. Leveling instinct is fine if you grab the blunderblade early, in my recent playthrough i was able to afford it by the time i reached the twin pale lament boss fight, its pretty strong and will last you up until you can get the firestriker which is extremely good. The only downside is you might have to to do a little bit of grinding for bullets but this is offset by the increased drop rate of items instinct seems to give. Guns are useless though very expensive to upgrade and the bullets are better off being used for either the blunders focus attack or the firestrikers focus.

[SjakaWaka]

Somehow i missed the Blunderblade so maybe instinct isn't that bad with that weapon
MIND build is still ♥♥♥♥♥♥ tough
But honestly the fact that there are so few weapons in itself is a problem with builds
It's easy to miss a couple of weapons and if those happens to be the ones you need for your build you're kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥ until you do find them
Honestly the more i think about it the more i come to a simple conclusion
The starting class should just give you an appropriate weapon so you van always get by even if you miss something
A Re-spec option would also solve a lot, as that would allow you to adapt your build to whatever spells/weapons you do find

[LotusBlade]

Yes, going instinct / mind early is big mistake, not only spells limited due to mana, range, slow cast speed and elemental defense on enemies, but also don't scale well. Among all spells in the game the most usefull are:
- starter lighting to stun-lock enemies ealy-game;
- ice spikes cus they are homing and freezing opponents;
- fire ball cus it creates 4 spinning smaller balls that can hit same target many times;
- dark jet flame, cus it has 5 jets ticking for damage non stop, killing some bosses almost instantly.
All other spells are meh. Maybe if fatality would activate more often, then sure, with a lot of mana it would be viable, cus spending mana consumables to kill every monster will never pay out.

Bombs, guns, counter - all useless for mind / instinct scaling except maybe last gun which shoot big ball, but you unlock it right before final battle.

Dexterty build is weak, using 50-dex whip even with high scaling produced at best 140-180 dmg (upgraded to +7), compared to some str swords or elemental secret daggers which even non upgraded dealt SAME ammount of damage. Sure whip provided decent range to kill from afar, but being required to hit normal enemy 12 times is dumb.

YES, dex weapons faster than STR, but the problem is - mid to late bosses are even faster, so you won't be able to hit more than 2-3 times anyway. Which means it is much better to hit once - twice with 600-1000 str dmg instead of 2-3 times with 200-250 dex dmg.

[Marshal Amim Kagori]

Originally posted by SjakaWaka:

Originally posted by Aeshmah:

Dex is on par with STR, I'd say. Used a DEX build for all of my playthroughs so far, with little to no issue.

The thing with STR weapon is that they may boost big numbers, but they actually attack excruciatingly slow, lowering their actual DPS considerably. DEX is the other way around. Not sure which one is ultimately better in the end, but eh.

unless dex vastly outpaces in damage output or dex weapons haviing great weapon arts it's definitely strength
Allot of fight require a decent amount of jump attacks and having 1 big swing is much better then

Going strength or dex works perfectly fine. Just did a quality str/dex build using the scythe and rift of blood. No issues. But yeah, most of the weapons are pretty worthless, ngl. It's pretty much rift of blood, ethereal great sword and severence scythe. Literally why use anything else aside to meme?

[Aldourien]

Originally posted by Marshal Amim Kagori:

Literally why use anything else aside to meme?

To be fair, you gain access to the Spinal Chain Blade very soon after Edwynn Yegor & Leena (forgot you need Propulsion Boots too) which scales very well with Mind. Therefore I'd say a Mind build works very well if you use Nighttide's Rout in the early game.