Let’s talk about builds that mitigate the need to dodge or parry

[romerojj]

I’ve seen some people mention that they have been building their characters in such a way that they don’t ever really need to dodge or parry. I’m interested in this as I have otherwise stopped playing since I cannot get by the defensive QTE mechanic. I also do not want to play on easy and have the rest of the game be a cakewalk.

It seems like pumping defense and vitality is the way to go. Anyone doing this? Is it viable the whole game?

Also, do you need to do this for every character or can one of them keep aggro for the most part letting others spec for more damage?

Anyway, it seems like there are a lot of people who are frustrated with the difficulty of the party mechanic so we can use this thread to talk about building the party for more traditional rpg combat.

[Marius]

2-1 ratio wrks well. Most damage comes from your weapon. Luce the caster needs a bit of luck, tho. Around level 5 and thrird member its getting better. I thik most complaints come from fighting Lancer earlier, and Maelle in Prologue

[JCKLNTRN]

If you want to do that you should probably also choose weapons which scale with defense and/or vitality so you don't lose out too much on offense.

Outside of optional bosses like the Chromatic enemies, which are supposed to be much tougher than main story content, there is actually plenty of room for error anyway. I miss plenty of attempted dodges and parries, especially when learning new enemies, but am still progressing just fine. Use your revive items (they are not limited so do not worry about "wasting" your battle items, you recharge them every time you rest at one of the flags).

Beyond that, you can consciously build around defense and healing. Gustave has an early skill which allows him to deal damage and heal himself at the same time, Maelle has an option to guard other party members from damage, and there are also buff and debuff skills which can be useful. Don't worry too much about making the wrong choice, as you will find respec items to use if a particular build isn't holding up later in the game.

[Bran]

Maelle is third party member, she has skill egida that allow here take dmg instead companions and she has defence stance soo she can be tank or glass cannon, latter you can find pictos that give +1AP when you get hit, but noo AP from parry
there are also weapons that scaling with def and vitality
second party member is healer

soo yes it is posible

but when i play glass cannon and i end most fights in first or second turn for that kind of build it can be marathon

and to handle early game it will be better to litlle grind few lvls to boost vitality for first big boss

[romerojj]

Thanks for the comments so far. I bet there will be a guide on this soon. At least I hope.

[asdf]

I've been playing a no dodge/parry/jump playthrough on expert difficulty - there's still a long way to go and I have no idea if the entire playthrough will be possible or not (I'm going into it completely blind), but I've gotten through act 1 so far. The builds I use will almost certainly change a lot over time, but this is my most recent fight vs. the lampmaster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdsUwRtSa0I

[Vectus Valorian]

Originally posted by romerojj:

I’ve seen some people mention that they have been building their characters in such a way that they don’t ever really need to dodge or parry. I’m interested in this as I have otherwise stopped playing since I cannot get by the defensive QTE mechanic. I also do not want to play on easy and have the rest of the game be a cakewalk.

It seems like pumping defense and vitality is the way to go. Anyone doing this? Is it viable the whole game?

Also, do you need to do this for every character or can one of them keep aggro for the most part letting others spec for more damage?

Anyway, it seems like there are a lot of people who are frustrated with the difficulty of the party mechanic so we can use this thread to talk about building the party for more traditional rpg combat.

I am level 20 so far and full sent all points in Defence. damage isn't an issue and while mostly do max defence so i can survive if i fail to parry, i'm sure adding 2-1 ratio with hp would make it better to not dodge but it's really not that hard to dodge/parry to begin with.

[radmuskai]

I built Lune as a healer and I'm getting everyone up to 15-20 vitality and maybe more. You also have to explore to get flasks upgrades. To kill that boss in rocky area to recover the stone for your big friend and big stuff happens, I had to rely on the last breaths of Sciel. Wild fight but it worked. More vitality and more defense is the way to go. But if you can get 50% dodging you will probably need a lot of grinding.

[RakataEpsilon]

There are Pictos that you can get eventually that can balance out things if you cant get parrying down (you should really be dodging then as the game has told you to do since it has a longer window). Things like Attack Lifesteal - 15% of HP on base attack, Second Chance, SOS Shell, etc. Or you can min-max Maelle by dumping all points in to VIT/DEF and turn her into a tank and use her skill that takes damage for party members and have her use fire based skills and equip her with Healing Fire, Attack Lifesteal and Double Burn and just keep using her Shell skill to keep buffing the party. Then everybody else can use glass cannon pictos and just take the boss to flavortown

[RakataEpsilon]

Originally posted by radmuskai:

I built Lune as a healer and I'm getting everyone up to 15-20 vitality and maybe more. You also have to explore to get flasks upgrades. To kill that boss in rocky area to recover the stone for your big friend and big stuff happens, I had to rely on the last breaths of Sciel. Wild fight but it worked. More vitality and more defense is the way to go. But if you can get 50% dodging you will probably need a lot of grinding.

GET OFF MY LAWN

[Dotsforlife]

99 Luck and a prayer all you need bb. No but seriously 99 defense pretty much turns any attack into a wet noodle. Or just run proper Pictos.

[Necrolite]

And lose a chance to miss out on these kind of epic battles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZdaF0LiyZE
Have any idea how sweaty my hands were getting? you can't put a price on that kind of thrill and excitement.