Best builds for group?

[Tias Terror]

Hi all.

I'm some 80 minutes in (just got the tech-priest in my party while rooting out heretics rebelling against the governor on Ryza prime. I feel like my party is faltering a bit, trait-wise.

My PC is a death world noble officer, who does a decent job alternating pistol and sword while ordering allied mooks and other party members around. Abelard cleans house in close combat, but other than that I feel like I don't do enough damage. Kassia is my best bet with the eye opening and Idira is occasionally good with her staff lightning. Argenta doesn't really put out the bolt damage like she seemed like she would, and Pasqual mostly wiffs his rifle although he does decent board control with his mechanicus powers.

I've just given them whatever talents I thought looked best, but I may have gotten completely off course. What did you do, and what are your best advice for making the characters complement each other? Thanks in advance!

[Morgian]

In my first run I used:
- MC, officer-tactician
- Argenta, soldier-archmilitant, aka the iron broom (for once we get a perfect NPC)
- Cassia, officer-tactician (too good to not include her)
- Pasqal, operator-bountyhunter (you really want one operative)
- Abelard, warrior-vanguard (did not use him much, but anyone will do)
- Ulfar, soldier-archmilitant or Heinrix (same as Argenta, but with the huge drawback of his size)

Having two officers is great, three are overkill. I dabbled for a bit with strategist but did not like it and switched to tactician, who is straightforward. At first everyone in the group tries to do his part and get some kills in. Once Argenta becomes an AM, the whole thing changes. Now everyone is serving her. She gets the single action at the start from the officer, the extra turns, and the buffs. Because an AM can clear a room in one turn if everyone chips in for that.
Most fights end in 1-2 turns, some in 3, like the final boss fight. For that reason, all powers that require several rounds to shine, are out of the window. Any upgrade to a power that works automatically is great: more stacks from operators, debuff for all in Cassia's field of view, and so on. Anything that reduces the cost of actions is good: setting exploit activation to zero, faster reloads, and so on.
Since Argenta is the carry, she picks all the good AM talents like Wildfire and Always ready and anything that grants more stacks faster. The first action goes typically like this: officer hands her 2 AP, she attacks once and does run-and-gun, does her hymn and activates her first ultimate. Both officers can repeat this in round 1 on their respective turns except that she uses her second ultimate next - this is later of course, once she even has it, and when run-and-gun does not fatigue her. I always opt for the AM ultimate first, since she gets the free attack each time she gets Bring it down. But the soldier ultimate is not so bad either to clear up mobs or gather more bersatility stacks. It is useful to let her have three weapons. I go with bolter, sword and flamer, the reason being that it racks up her stacks, of which we want 12 for another free attack. On round two she gets already three attacks per round without doing anything, and all of them benefit from the versatility stacks (critical hit & damage). And that is why most fights end then.
It is important to have as much movement as possible. You need to get around obstacles to hit some foes or to get into a good position. Move, move, move! is helpful, but nothing beats your own movement when you need it. Hitpoints never hurt, so all get It won't die, and Cassia gets her navigator regen/health talent. Grenadier can be helpful sometimes, if you can spare the pick.

I went with burst weapons for everyone except the officers, who went sniper. The bursters with a really big firerate become total overkill later on. The one with 11 shots in act 4 can be bumped to 22 and perforate a chaos marine as if he was a random mob. But only in the hands of a pumped AM...not so impressive otherwise. There are items that improve the firerate, and they are really nice, but they also show the importance of cheaper reloads. And there is the commander's watch later on: whoever wears it goes first ... after officers, of course :)

Back to act 1.
Argenta needs a better bolter than her starting weapon, ASAP. This bit of junk has abominable recoil. You can get one on Rykad Minoris on the Upperway from the roof of a house. You can give her a laser rifle instead for now. There were two better lasguns around somewhere, one of which I gave to her. Laser is harder to dodge and damage is equal to the bolter or better due to the lesser recoil. It is probably a good idea to use lasguns for most of the party, except a sniper or two. There is a good sniper rifle (a laser) somewhere in Rykad, but I forgot where...it was not on Rykad Minoris but one of the other places, maybe the prison planet. In the Electrocenobium is a lightning gun, which is a nice AE weapon for Pascal.

[corisai]

a) Psyker-Officer-Master Tactician. Handmade. Ultimate buffer.
b) Cassia - Grand Strategist (if support) / Master Tactician (if main carry).
if Cassia is not support - you really, REALLY want another character as Officer/GS.
d) Idira - Bounty Hunter (moar buffs, broken OP damage dealer).

e) Main damage dealer - Argenta (Arc-Militant), Yrliet (Assassin-sniper).

f) your xenos pet Skill monkey slot.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Morgian:

Argenta needs a better bolter than her starting weapon, ASAP. This bit of junk has abominable recoil.

Except bolters in Act1 are garbage and Long-las is broken OP. She need that (and probably flamer).

Same in Act2 : bolters are garbage when you're lacking anti-recoil gear. Go for M40 autogun from Fidelio quest as temporary gun, then return & complete mutant lair on Footfall (need to do 1 planet to unlock it) for first anti-recoil gloves.

With them you have several options:
a) best of the best gun is Deadshot splinter rifle (xenos, drukhari weapon). Don't remember either Act2 or Act3. Broken, absolutely broken OP thing.
b) best of Imperial weapons is Calibrated Heavy Stubber.
c) Shuriken Cannon is nice too, but options #a and #b are much better...
d) Heavy Bolter is worst possible "good" weapon.

P.S. I don't care about late Act4 or Act5 weapons as they're irrelevant. Most of the game you will be carried by those 4 guns.

[Morgian]

The drukhari rifle is in act 3, a souvenir from your fights there. There is only one of it :(

The bolters are also good, once your AM has shot someone and is no longer missing, but you might not get the best ones, who are high in the trader list. I got some spectacular penetration kills with them in the fight with the pink demon horde, when I shot the pinkie and his two spawns in one go. Unfortunately can nobody but Ulfar use the Astartes gear :(

I came late to the autorifle and stubber, but they are amazing. The stubber beats any other weapon, but only in the hands of an AM with a few stacks and the right gear (you get between 22 and 30 shots per salvo). I blew away 4000 hitpoints with it in the endfight in one salvo. It is often a waste of bullets to use it really. Few mobs can take a burst from it and live, so it is very helpful in some fights...I one-shot a chaos marine with it, but could not line two up for a double kill :)

[jaqueline lorn]

1 psyker warrior/arch-militant + the rest all officer/strategists
just do nothing but buff the ♥♥♥♥ out of the psyker and give them unlimited turns. they'll wipe the floor with pretty much anything.