My thoughts and recommends on Characters(can be spoiler)

[cluefake]

Gwyn: Gallant-Reaper or Seeker-Ellisant are suited for this character.
I think Gwyn is pretty mediocre. Not good, and not bad. Good characters are better than Gwyn, and bad characters are worse than Gwyn.
Reaper is a good class but can struggle at Gallant level cause Gallant fall hard at mid-late game until you get t3 promotion item enough.. I think Seeker-Ellisant is more stable choice but she won't carry at late game.

Riordan: Ranger or Quickdraw.
I don't write T3 class cause proper use of this character is using for some chapters and put him in bench. Using him for dealing will be easily outclassed by other characters like Zanele Tamer and using him for tank will fall hard from mid game.
I prefer him using Ranger for few chapters and put him in bench quickly. Stun can be useful in early chapters.

Arthur: Geomancer-Cosmician.
Best mage in the game with no doubt.
He already has good deal skills lunar, so I prefer promoting him into Geomancer which gives him nice utility and good mastery growth. Making him Warlock can give him more dealing potential in late game and no utility, so this can be an option(I prefer Geomancer though)

Saxon: Monk-Ascendant
He is maybe best character in this game. He is good for any adept class but Monk-Ascendant class tree is so powerful and that makes me no other choice. He will carry your entire game.

Cassandra: Ritualist-Hemomancer
She does other class well too but maybe Ritualist is the best, famous Nosferatu-tank.
She can carry until mid or mid-late game, and she falls a little cause she becomes a little more risky to tank in late game, and Hemomancer gives you little upgrade of Ritualist compared to other good T3 class. Although She doesn't fall hard and do her job in late game too, just not super carry unit.

Alden: Aegis-Relic Knight
He's good for Scholar-Loremaster too, but can carry early game with Aegis.
He has really good DEF/FORT growth and it is hard to see good FORT growth in other characters. His personal skill makes enemy weakened so hard and that makes synergy with Aegis too. This character/class is maybe the only good class with sword so he will not compete with other characters for runes.

Valeria: Nightblade-Ancarant.
A girl who does everything, jack of all trades except dealing.
Keep her as Nightblade and use her for versatility, she will add poison usually, but she can heal and she can dodge for once. Not a great dodge-tank, but that is not her main role so it is ok.

Benji- Gallant-Champion or Reaper.
Actually I think the best way to use his character is use him for just Gallant in some early chapters and put him in bench. Slow characters with heavy armor and high might falls hard from mid game.

Khamari: Juggernaut
His defensive stats are pretty nice, nice for Juggernaut.
He is not suited for Ritualist, Cass and Laurai will do that job much better.
I don't think Dreadnought is a good class so it will be good to retire him whenever in mid or mid-late game.

Zanele: Tamer-Beastmaster.
I don't think she has other class choice. She is born to use pet skills and Tamer is her soul class(I don't know why she comes in Quickdraw class, maybe to teach class changing system?) She is a good one-shot killing unit until late game with good mana cost efficiency. And her gold inflating is really good, especially in Demonic cause you will give up more objective and rootings. She can make you train more often too if you are ok with lots of trainings.

Zuhair: Conduit-Stromkeeper
Of course Monk-Ascendant class tree is amazing itself but other 3 Adept characters are better monk than him so I don't think we need to make him monk. He has great mastery growth so it's good to make him Conduit. Conduit is not a broken class but it is a good, solid class so he does ok. I don't know why he comes in Frigillan. He doesn't have good DEF growth.

Eve: Cutthroat-Slayer
I think I don't have to explain this characer, maybe the best character in this game.
Totally destroys the Deity and she can do the same in Demonic if you become more careful, and some invest.(You need to be more careful though cause enemies have higher stats)

Haoran: Waveseer-Tidecaller
He is born to be this class so I don't have much to say about class choice.
I am not sure about he is strong or not cause Tidecaller is so powerful class, I cannot decide whether he is good or just Tidecaller is good, but he is the most suited character for Tidecaller in Shaman so I think he is good.

Mashal: Monk-Ascendant
She has good stats for monk, good personal passive(although you need to invest enough exp to use it though). She is a little fragile cause her defensive stats are not good but when you succeed to promote Ascendant, that is cleared by Divine flow.

Aya: Warlock-Cosmician or Scholar-Loremaster
Her skills are saying like I am Warlock but using her as Scholar is viable too since she has good stats for that(good luck stats) But I don't like her cause her basic mastery is not good for dealing mage, you need to stack some poison to overcome. Few turns are enough for stacking but I don't think unit which needs time is good.

Tusk: Ranger-Warden
If you really want to. But I really don't know why do I have to use Ranger at this time.

Laurai: Ritualist-Hemomancer
Good stats for Ritualist, even better than Cassandra. So she will be a good choice if you didn't use Cassandra or your Cassandra's stat is messed up by bad RNG level. I prefer Cassandra because of her mana passive but I think that can be changed by playstyle.

Tal'Dera: Monk-Ascendant
Too many Monks? But she is very good monk, good stats and good passive for monk class. And her stats are not suited for other class(low DEF, FOR, Mastery). She doesn't have choice except monk and She is an excellent Monk.

Vissarion: Seeker-Ellisant
Pretty terrible stats, only use for DEF/FOR buff to ally, but I don't know why do I need DEF/FOR buff at the cost of one teammate. He needs to become Ellisant if you want to use him cause he is buffer, not a frontliner.

Calith: Geomancer-Necromancer
Pretty average stats. You can use her for Aegis but Alden will do that much better.(She can boost her defensive stats by her passive but often Alden will even surpass that)
So she needs to do other things, and I think Geomancer-Necromancer would be good, working for utility. She will do her job ok. I think she is a little above average using like this.

[pristine20]

Very reasonable. What difficulty did these work on?

[cluefake]

Originally posted by pristine20:

Very reasonable. What difficulty did these work on?

Mainly Demonic. I played a few chapters with Deity and others were Demonic. Demonic, with turn limits, linear level(fixed growth)

[pristine20]

Originally posted by cluefake:

Originally posted by pristine20:

Very reasonable. What difficulty did these work on?

Mainly Demonic. I played a few chapters with Deity and others were Demonic. Demonic, with turn limits, linear level(fixed growth)

Nice. Completely replicable results then. I'm on deity and linear too. The only different choice I've made so far is for Rio where I went tamer. Wondering now if quickdraw or ranger were better but I suppose it doesn't matter since he's not a long term prospect. I didn't use Zuhair at all because he was getting doubled and couldn't take a hit posing as a "tank" in his forced chapters. Thats the only character I ditched immediately.

Thought's on optimal ring/weapon setups?

[Frostfeather]

Huh. Zuhair was consistently my MVP (on Linear) as a Conduit/Stormkeeper.

I'd actually *try* to get him killed just to test him but that wouldn't even work, lol.

[cluefake]

Originally posted by pristine20:

Originally posted by cluefake:

Mainly Demonic. I played a few chapters with Deity and others were Demonic. Demonic, with turn limits, linear level(fixed growth)

Nice. Completely replicable results then. I'm on deity and linear too. The only different choice I've made so far is for Rio where I went tamer. Wondering now if quickdraw or ranger were better but I suppose it doesn't matter since he's not a long term prospect. I didn't use Zuhair at all because he was getting doubled and couldn't take a hit posing as a "tank" in his forced chapters. Thats the only character I ditched immediately.

Thought's on optimal ring/weapon setups?

I think Zuhair is not a very good character(Not bad but not so good, maybe B tier around? plain normal) so not using him would be no problem I guess. Other 3 adepts are better I think(They are surely better at being monk, and I can surely say Monk-Ascendant is the best class in this game.)

I couldn't craft all rings because of material problem(I didn't want to do all bond stuff) so I am not sure about rings. Lava ring and Charged ring for Arthur, Two rings with dodge(Depth, Diplomat) for Eve, Rings with mana gen or mana(I prefer give those to monks cause I want them to spam Divine flow mor often), Dominator ring, Kindling ring, Bloodied Ring(I gave it to Cass cause she has biggest HP since she is Ritualist. but I think this ring is so powerful and everybody will want it from mid game.), Farseer ring, Blazing ring, Companion and mastery scale ring or Archmage ring for Zanele(I think she can use Archmage ring better than mastery scale but that ring is pretty expensive (3 amethyst)) Inferno ring if you use warlock, Aquatic ring and Brightening ring for Tidecaller, I think those will be steady choice. I'm not sure about other rings cause I couldn't use every rings and every comp. This will vary from playstyle like FE engage rings.
Since crit value is pretty high in this game so I preferred crit runes and high crit weapons.

[farhorizon]

Zuhair as Conduit/Stormkeeper with heir ring (%10hp -> mastery, cap 10) and mystic ring (+25% mastery scaling for abliities) will let him do incredible lightning damage at range. His Lightning Strike is at 63 damage right now w/8 tile range at level 32 & I had developed him a lot as monk actually, before deciding he'd be better as a caster. So he could have 2?4? more mastery if he had been conduit more.

I am playing a deity random recruit game with Tal as my required char, so I made her Stormkeeper as well & can drop two lightning strikes on groups and obliterate them from way outside their range.

Perhaps with a bit more dedicated levels as Conduit & with mastery potions Zuhair can 1 shot enemies with Lightning Strike?

[cluefake]

Originally posted by farhorizon:

Zuhair as Conduit/Stormkeeper with heir ring (%10hp -> mastery, cap 10) and mystic ring (+25% mastery scaling for abliities) will let him do incredible lightning damage at range. His Lightning Strike is at 63 damage right now w/8 tile range at level 32 & I had developed him a lot as monk actually, before deciding he'd be better as a caster. So he could have 2?4? more mastery if he had been conduit more.

I am playing a deity random recruit game with Tal as my required char, so I made her Stormkeeper as well & can drop two lightning strikes on groups and obliterate them from way outside their range.

Perhaps with a bit more dedicated levels as Conduit & with mastery potions Zuhair can 1 shot enemies with Lightning Strike?

Using Zuhair as Conduit makes him better than any other class Zuhair but using Tal as Conduit is not. Her base Mastery growth is worst in all adepts. I don't know why she comes in Conduit;;; Her base growth is focused on Might, Dex, Luck which is perfectly aimed for Monk.

[farhorizon]

It depends on your goals. She's the MC in my run & keeping her way back and using Lightening Strike works well for her + Zuhair to twoshot groups of up to 5 at 6+ range. I have many enemy phase characters that can clean up 2-6 enemies already (Eve, Aya, Laurai, Cassandra, Saxon), so I don't need another ascendant right now.

I plan to reclass her to ascendant eventually, but I want to get the growths to ~40 as Stormkeeper. She also can use the ring that swaps might & defense and have hilariously high defense while using lightning spells.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by farhorizon:

I am playing a deity random recruit game with Tal as my required char, so I made her Stormkeeper as well & can drop two lightning strikes on groups and obliterate them from way outside their range.

Yes, this exactly, but with any Conduit/Stormkeeper, usually Saxon for me. I just alternate who gets the kills to spread out xp.

Or use Chain Lightning to setup kills for anyone else, 2-4+ enemies at a time. Just works fantastic.