Proven build(s)?

[DanTheTimid]

So when I picked up the game I was unaware this is one of those annoying games that makes you distribute your own stat points. I understand some people like that, me personally, I HATE it, instead of level ups being this awesome event I look forward to where I feel stronger for having reached it, level ups become this stressful time where no matter what choice I make, I come away feeling sick to my stomache with worry that I just screwed myself over irrepairably and yet I won't realize it until I've invested another 10 hours into the game and thus have wasted a good 2 weeks of my free time.

Having said that, I've gotten around it in many games by finding proven solid builds posted by other players who've played the game several time and found the optimal distributions. With such a guide I can remove the stress and sick feeling, cause I know my choices are proven to be good ones. Unfortantly, for some reason I can't seem to find builds for this game, as such, as much as I was loving the beginning of the game, I've been unable to proceed since I hit level 2 (well maybe not unable but more unwilling as I just can't enjoy myself when put in these sort of situations).

Does anyone know where I can find some proven or optimal builds, I really just need 1 known good one I can follow so I can hopefully proceed and actually enjoy the game (or have a chance to do so). I wouldn't post asking for this, but I was really enjoying the beginning of the game before that level up, so I'd really hate for this issue to kill my experience less then an hour into the game...

[FDru]

There is no optimal build. Where you put your stats depends on how you play the game and what difficulty you're playing on.

If you want to use magic, you put your points into staves, robes and 3-4 magic skills. If you want to use weapons, you put your points into armor, your weapon of choice and a few points into magic support skills.

In general you want to maximize 1 weapon skill (or staves for magic), 1 ranged skill (whether it be bows, fire or cold magic) and one of the armor skills (armor for melee/bows, robes for magic). Get enough stats in armor to use the armor you want.

Remember not to waste skill points if you don't need them. Don't put points into armor / wands / potions / etc if you don't need to have those at a specific level to use a recipe or item. It's okay to max your weapon or offense magic skill because more damage is always useful.

If you're worried about getting deep into the game and finding out your skills aren't working out for you, there's a quest that gives you an item that will refund your skill points. There's another item you can buy with UN points that refunds skill points. If you still need a cookie cutter build, there's a topic here for build that work in Hard++ that has a few. These are just builds that work, but they aren't the only builds, and if you use them you're going to be pigeonholed into playing a certain way... and that's going to kill your experience more than anything if you ask me.

[Brother Lish]

I might be a little way off as far as my time to reply to this message, but what kind of build are you going for? As in, what kind of goals do you plan to use such as melee or ranged? Also, something else to note is that the harder the difficulty, the more skill points you get for leveling. While the game is easier with monsters not doing a whole lot of damage and not being able to take a whole lot of damage as well, you do get less skill points which can hamper your decisions. Hard++ mode isn't really harder by any means and you get the most skill points for leveling up, the only downsides is that the game doesn't save automatically and there's no hit immunity after being hit meaning you can take several quick hits and be killed if not paying attention.

[DanTheTimid]

I never really had anything in mind, just looking for a proven build so I could have something to look at and go "okay, at this level I pick these, at that level I pick those" essentially removing the need to decide that I hate so much. I still own the game, and yet have no played since hitting level 2, so you're not too late to respond by any means, this level up system definitely crippled me and ruined the game, so if since I posted this there have been some build orders posted I'd love to give the game another shot.

To me there's two ways you can do level ups in a game, either let them choose which type of character they want, but no matter what they pick they are then given the appopriate stats to make an ideal build thats as good as any other, OR make them choose points but allow frequent changing of points for free, such as at save points, allowing the player to experiment and learn what they do and don't like with out feeling punished by their choices when they find builds they don't care for. Not doing either is the sort of thing that kills games for me, and a single one time reset is little help since I'm stuck slogging through the game painfully with a terrible build until i reach that reset, and theres no guarnetee the new stats I pick after the reset will be any better, but I can only do it once.

Again I hate to whine and moan, but the only reason I even posted at all was because before finding out what the level up system was like, I was really enjoying the game, I really want to feel this wasn't a wasted purchase, but so far that is something I can not say.

[Tacet the Terror]

For single player:
Bow + sword + armor
Bow + axe + armor
Bow + mace + armor
Everything else is optional.

Multiplayer is a bit more complicated. I would advise just testing around yourself and then at around level 10-12 try to afford a orb of rebirth to reset to a focused build. The easiest build for multiplayer if you don't feel like making a build is to put all 6 points every level into sword, armor, bow, alteration, healing, and constitution.

[Brother Lish]

Honestly for the single player game, I would think Polearms over Swords are a better way to go. Because of their reach you can stun lock an enemy from a safe distance away. But true, as long as you pick a melee skill and a ranged skill (bow, fire, or frost), along with armor, you should be alright. Constitution is always a good fall back but I would only suggest a point every other level as you don't really need a huge health pool and the extra points you have left over can be used on something else you see fit, such as either Potions or Healing.