Can someone explain stacks?

[HughJainus]

Ive been playing for a while and have a couple wins but Im still not exactly sure how stacks work? How should I be going about looking for good combos? How do I increases stacks? thanks.

[Arcanochromatic Detonation]

If you are talking about buff stacks, then every time a buff is applied, some number of stated buffs are added to the target, which remain. I think they degrade over time, or are outright removed based on willpower(you) or some flat value (enemies)
their effect generally is multiplied by the stack count.

Some skills scale on number of buffs on you or an enemy, and all buffs have an effect anyway, which can include extra damage, accuracy, reduced defenses, or damage on event.

If this is not what you mean by stacks, I dunno.

As for combos, the basic idea is to find a trigger (on attack, on hit, on damage of type, etc) and chose multiple abilities, items, and class choice that use or cause that trigger to occur, and have the effect multiplied. So if you have an effect that gives 100 damage per hit, finding something that gives you an extra hit per attack gives an extra 100 damage from that effect. And since there are often ways to get 10 or 20 or 50 events, this can explode in effectiveness.

[SDSkinner2011]

Good combo example
Master Charge (lightening) gives you +x Charge per hit and +1 speed per charge. Herja (lightening) gives you extra attacks on initial attack. Pugilism (Martial) gives you extra hits on attack. Tengu (Culture) gives you extra charge per attack. Nartaka (Class) has an item which gives you +charge for Dexterity per attack if bare handed.

These combine very well and let you melt enemies.

[HughJainus]

Thanks!