Best party for final battle

[Darklord_bg]

Hi,

After playing through the game once, I know now which characters will make it to the end and which are required for the final battle, so I can start preparing for it from the very beginning of the game.

Which characters would you say are the most useful in the final battle? I'm thinking of using the following:

1. Rook (required) - Maxed strength, exertion and break, ideally equipped with a breaking item.

2. Alette (required) - Same as Rook, maximized for breaking armor.

3. Mogr - Best tank in the game (18 armor) - maximized armor, break, exertion.

4. Hakon/Krumr - a damage-dealing warrior, maxed strength and exertion with a little willpower on the side. Equipped with a strength-enhancing item. Gunnulf could also be used but he has lower stats than the other two and he deals the same max damage as Hakon (18) but with lower armor and exertion. Besides, his ability wouldn't be very useful in the final battle where the focus is on Bellower and his minions should be ignored if possible.

5. Iver - Highest stats overall, still wondering whether to build him as a tank and maximize armor/break or as a warrior with max strength. I guess it depends on who the sixth party member is.

6. Here I am wondering who to bring. The above five are pretty much certain given their expected roles. Do I take the other damage-dealing varl warrior (Hakon/Krumr) and build Iver as a tank. This way I have two warriors, two tanks and two archers. Do I take another archer for extra armor break (thus making Iver a warrior)? From the melee humans Eirik and Egil would be most useful for their high break and active abilities, perhaps Egil with aggro-drawing item or Eirik with a willpower-regenerating one. Ludin is only useful against slingers and the trasher brothers and Ekkil I would not have any purpose for.

So I guess the choice is between either Hakon/Krumr, Oddleif/Nid/Yrsa, or Eirik/Egil.

What do you think?

[Aleonymous]

I would definitely pick Oddleif! Both for her being an Archer (Puncture!) and for her trap ability; it can mean the difference between life and death, especially in the second phase of the final battle.

Iver should definitely be there, and at least one more Varl: Krumr is my first choice, for he can have that 4 Break combined with high ARM+STR, at Rank 5.

So, we have: {Rook, Alette, Oddleif, Iver, Krumr} so far, and we need one more hero.

Hmm, that depends on playstyle, I think. One could go with a tank Varl (Mogr or Griss), a bruiser Varl (Hakon or Gunnulf) or a support/multi-purpose human (Eyvind or Egil). My first pick would be Mogr/Griss. But, Egil is also super-OP if you: max his ARM, give him the +ARM/+Aggro item and use his StoneWall ability; that's kinda exploiting the AI though, as it doesn't consider the StoneWall when calculating damage.

Here's my thoughts on the rest of the units considered:

• Eirik -- I don't like Eirik because the only real way to use him is by "straining" another hero; and straining a hero in this last battle usually means his death, before Eirik can buff that poor wreches willpower!
  
• Yrsa -- She is a bit low on hit-points (ARM+STR), so she might be picked off easily by Slingers, unless you are a master is positioning (and lucky). Also, Bello's bellows can easily cripple her STR fast... Her damage output is awesome though.
  
• Nid -- Also low on hit-points, so she can't be brought to attack until late in the battle, when enemies are broken so she can snipe them. You need break in this battle, and she can't be of much help there.

PS -- Here's a table with all the heroes stats: http://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/Leveling#Hero_Comparison_Table

[Joe Montana]

ODDLEIF AND KRUMR!
first of all their abilities are tailor made for this fight, this should be told to everyone at some point....like the game should hint, these guys abilities arent all that useful in most battles but seriously, in the last one they are required

another thing i realized is that if you fight with 4 varl, bello shreiks every time its his turn for the first couple turns. if you fight with 3 he doesnt, he just charges. made a huge difference in my game. i couldnt even beat it (tried 5 times, and i dont suck...the second phase was ****ing unbeatable). my original team was hakon, iver, bersi, and mogr. with all the shreiking bellow did, my team was -3 to -4 everything before even getting a hit. i could beat the first phase by killing everything quickly and getting bellow to pillage mode, but we were hardcore buttraped on every second phase.

then i swapped krumr for iver, and oddlief for mogr and the fight wasnt even that hard. bellow didnt shreik every time (which...omg wtf...), and krumr and oddliefs abilities made it almost a laffer. and heres the kicker.... oddlief was level 2! (i never used her) and krumr was lev 4. this is why some people on here are saying the fight is unbeatable and some are saying it was easy....everyone who says its easy had oddleif and krumr.

[Aleonymous]

Oddleif's ability does take some skill to use properly. But, yes, it's the most useful. I can't help but feel that Krumr's basic purpose (big hits) is wasted if you use him for his ability. But, again, it is very useful in this battle, especially in the first phase.

Concerning Bello's bellows -- I haven't been able to figure out the exact pattern. Also, I very rarely bring 4 Varl to that fight, so I haven't made that observation you did. To the best of my experience, he bellowed every second turn, provided that he had a target in his normal (non-exerted) move-range. Of course, killing somebody would override his bellow turn. So, his turns were typically: (1) bellow, (2) move, (3) bellow, (4) move/attack, (5) bellow, etc.

EDIT -- Now that I think about it: Does Bello ever move in the turn in which he bellows? I think he never moves + bellows...

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Since I finished final battle with Alette only level 2, with only one varl in the party, with only two party member level 5,

I conclude anyone can come up with a party composition that would work out eventually.

However, after reading those posts

What is the "best" party anyway?

1) Finish final battle in shortest time?
2) Finish final battle with no casualty?
3) Guaranteed to finish final battle without reloading saves?
4)?
5)?

[Joe Montana]

the fight i did he did not bellow at all in the first phase. i believe i was able to nail him with silver arrow on turn 3 with krumrs ability. on the last phase i only lost hakon and that was because that frikkin silver weapon item he had didnt hit on double damage. im gonna replay now with all this knowledge and wipe the floor with this game -_- i bet i can win every battle now without ever losing a guy

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

I dont even have hakon and Iver in the team.

Krumr's ability is pretty handy in this game.

[Darklord_bg]

The first time I beat the game I had Iver, Rook, Hakon, Eyvind (Level 5) and Alette and Krumr (Level 4). I don't remember whether he used bellow a lot - I think a couple of times. I beat it on the second try and only because the first time I could not figure out how the silver arrow worked. I did not prepare specifically for the fight - just took my best fighters and it worked out well, although I think I got lucky since Bello got stuck in an infinite loop between Iver and Krumr trying to hit Krumr and getting deflected all the time. This time I want to level up everyone properly, instead of just spreading points to all stats and try to get through the fight strategically without many casualties.

I used Oddleif a fair bit, though I think I had her just at level 3 - I never figured out how to use her ability properly, since it only affects one square and I thought the enemy could just sidestep it. However, it seems like the AI is not that smart and frequently steps over it. Maybe I will use it more often this playthrough.

In any case thanks for the various suggestions - all good options. I'm currently on chapter 4 having just upgraded both Mogr and Hakon to level 5, so the first phase of my plan is done at least. Let's see how the rest of it goes.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Oddleif is the best tactic character for she enables two tactics:

1)
The game uses a fixed turn based system until pilage phases.

Which means, powerful enemys gets more turns if you chop their minions off too fast.

(ever get attacked by a 18+ stoner twice before your char's turn comes up?)

This often leads to a scenario that you have a bunch of wounded character get chopped by one small creep, because the creep gets more turns than you do.

Thus, more injure happens.

Alternatively,
Oddleif's skill can be used to direct combat in such a way that she can kite one or more powerful
creep and you guys can have a good time chip the minions to 1 str,

and then jump the powerful creep (which is already damaged by oddleif)

Kill the powerful creep, and then the rest of junkies.


2)
position is everything.

Because retarded drege has a weird nerf such that if you damage them with 3+ armor damage, they will have a chain effects.

Therefore, naturally, you want those stones gather together and "one hit two stones."

Oddleif can use her ability to cause those stone guys to block each other's way and thus better damage chain.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Joe Montana:

i bet i can win every battle now without ever losing a guy

Hehe, that's how I ended playing my last playthrough! On Hard, of course. I found it a bit more difficult than I first though, keeping everyone alive, I mean. I suppose that the only way to do this is to abuse the turn-order-mechanic, i.e. always field only 3-4 of your strongest heroes (never 6; never bring low ranks) to take double turns etc.

[Darklord_bg]

So I just completed my second playthrough and I've got to say the final battle was much easier. I did not lose a single character, except Alette obviously since she was carrying the arrow. Here's the party I ended up using.

1. Rook with Farthingjörd (+3 break) with maxed exertion and break was doing 9 dmg to armor.

2. Alette with Dundr's Hand (+3 strength) with maxed strength, exertion was able to do 12 dmg. I would have finished Bellower in one turn just with those two if he were not running away so much.

3. Mogr with Godscale (+3 Armor +1 drawing Aggro) with maxed armor, exertion, break. He had 20 armor and even Bellower could not touch him.

4. Iver with Five Ring Necklace (+1 drawing Aggro, +1 Strength, +1 Armor, +1 Willpower, +1 Armor Break) with maxed strength, exertion could hit pretty hard and had decent armor.

5. Oddleif with puzzle box (1 Willpower per Turn, +3 Willpower), maxed everything expect willpower. I didn't get the chance to use her ability in the final battle though.

6. Krumr with Scarlet Feather (+2 Movement,-1 drawing Aggro) with maxed strength, exertion. He's the only one I could only level up to lvl4, but I guess it was enough.

Overall, I really enjoyed this party, especially the items that I got. I think it's probably the best party for the final battle.

[Aleonymous]

Formidable, indeed. with all those Rank5 heroes and items :)

[Joe Montana]

i just finished second playthru too, so much easier this time. (obviously) i did get a couple injuries in odd battles but never really even broke a sweat. the last battle was a laffer, bellow stepped on an oddleif arrow in the first phase and if the game didnt protect him i couldve killed him outright in one turn.
also, if you can keep Egil alive, he really can hold his own with that shield wall ability. give him an aggro item and he sucks up a bunch of enemy turns while taking zilch damage