Most Impactful Abilities

[Wiegrahf]

Hey guys!

I just wanted to get you guys feedback on what you think are the most impactful abilities in the game. We all know all abilities are not born equal, especially in the early game.

I know that before getting access to ultimates (lvl 10), I never specced into 'Taunt'. When I finally got it, I understood instantly how broken of an ability that was. If I had used it from the beginning, the early game would of been MUCH easier.

I'll list here what I think were the best abilities/combo that helped me through the most during my playthrough.

Praetorian (Shield dude):

Taunt: Being able to guarantee enemy movement, even if for a single turn, is sooo good. My favourite thing to do though, is to put my melee in backstab position before ending my turn. Taunted targets WILL provoke opportunity attacks. Taunt is an offensive AND defensive tool. That's I think it's one of the most important ability in the game (especially early). S-tier

Protective shield: Guarantees to block 3 melee attacks. For those attacks you can't mitigate, this is your savior. I like to put it on the centurion when I send him into a solo mission to the backline to assassinate archers. Or after you taunt 10 people unto yourself, negating 3 hits can save your life. S-tier

Tribunus (Main character):

Quick footed: I was really missing the stealth mechanic from the previous game. Having a character focused on back stabbing the enemy, without the ability to get in their backs without getting hit 4 times really sucks. The very first fight after I put points into I felt I could finally play him as he is meant to be played; stabbing people to death. This should be the first 2 points you put in the tree otherwise he's pretty lacklustre. S-tier

Invocation of Mars: Best personal buff in the game.

Step one: Cast invocation of mars.
Step Two: Reserve AP
Step three: Ultimate into some's back
Profit

Sicarius (Javelin Thrower):

Personally this guys is pretty mediocre across the board. I tried to make him work but never reached any height other than the ranged support dude. Not being able to hit more than twice a turn hurts. Heartpiercer is on a 5 turn CD so it's not spamable. Haven't tried the turret but I doubt it's effective. He does do a lot of damage with his basic ability when double damage procs.

I tried to make use of him to poison as many people as possible with volley reset (target 5 different enemies) and equipping + poison damage. It was very effective in the two chapters without undeads. Most of the game though, you will face enemies immune to half of his Kit so it's hard to justify speccing him into anything other than stabbing people with pointy sticks.

Volley: Arguably the only good skill available to him. If you can find 1-2 pieces of equipment with + Javelin per volleys this can become very potent, as with just the minimum ap (2); you can get 4+ attacks. If you can get in the back of a target and get lucky with double damage procs, this is the most value per AP you can get. A tier

Invocation of Mercury: It makes his double damage proc more reliable. RNG sucks, I prefer consistent numbers. The +2 movement and dodge first attack helps him get into peoples back and helps alleviate his weakness to shielded enemies, which there are a LOT. A-tier

Flamina (Fire Lady):

Balance: Most broken ability in the game. Trivialises campfires. Having Flamina in your party means you'll always be full life. S-tier

The rest of her kit is very synergistic, conditional on having a lot of people burning. So it's hard to say which ability is most impactful as I feel it's a combination that really pops off later in the game.

Flame Dash: I'll make an exception here and list an ability that is only available through a relic. The reason is the moment I got that item, it totally changed the way I approached fights. I used to think her Ultimate Flame gate (teleport the party to her) was trash, because she innately does not have movement abilities. With flame dash however...

Flame dash is a 1 AP Teleport with 8 range that goes over WALLS and any kind of obstruction. So many encounters in the game relies on you going through waves of trash mobs buffed with auras from the leaders way in the back. There's even a couple of boss events where they erect walls on turn 0 that you need to deactivate one way or another before getting to the boss.

The flame dash + Flame gate combo allows you to bypass all shenanigans, prioritise kill the aura carries and really choose how you want to engage in a fight. Even if you are being put in an ambush situation, you can relocate for free in any corner of the map! If you find an Item with flame dash it's a must pick if you intend to play with her. S+ Tier.

Centurion (Executioner from hell):

All his abilities are S tier. He is in my opinion, the best character in the game. The moment you get him, he is a welcome addition and complements everything that your team needs. I'll list two abilities, but you can't go wrong with this guy. His passive are insane, all his skills are good one way or another.

Ghost Attack: 8 range teleport that goes through obstacle. Exactly what you needed for those pesky archers! The best thought, is you target AND you choose where to land, essentially giving you an additional 2 range. It is also on a 2 turn cooldown! Hands down his best skill. S+ tier.

Pull: 7 range pull that is not blocked by anything. It's in range? You can pull it! I really like to stack my team in a ball, lead with a pull to get a priority target out of the way on turn one. S tier.

Flamen (Death mage that likes Orcus a little bit too much):

Unholy Chain: This and death Hex combo is the only reason I survived the early game. The ability to kill 2 priority, high health target in one TURN cannot be understated. It made me find ways to reduce enemy mental resist so I could apply the chain. Desiccate helps or the Flamina Strike. If everything else fails, you have death hex - 10% mental resist, but you forgo the application on the second target. In any case, for the early game nothing resists it so it's S-tier.

Death Hex: Half+ of anything's life is gone. Need I say more? S-tier.


Let me know if you guys found any other broken combos or ways to play the game that trivialises the game!

[ComRed]

Good writeup. Used palisade and trap from item with taunt for some nasty obstacle courses. Summons (birds, clones,turret, bone dogo) and very good for the extra AP you have on the table.
Javelin guy is good at spreading poison and one-shoting illusions. I've stacked move points on him so he had secondary skills at 1 AP.

[AvivLobel]

im kinda disappointed with the lack of heroes and they abilities.
there isnt many missions or lvl up to keep getting good items. need to wait 4 mission to restock.
the only champion i like was the fire lady . she seems strong and the jav throwing guy.
other was ok but pretty basic .
the death magic guy was pretty meh to bad.

also after finish the game as human side i lost one 1 guy . and stuck with 5 people to the end game content with no option to enjoy my own party comp like in the first game.

there isnt a lot of missions. and the end game mission is pretty blend and souless . my guys stop talking and there was only one dual the whole game while i keep get dual stat items.

[sandman25dcsss]

If it is like in first game (I cannot check now), then duel bonus has nothing to do with duels. It is just situation when both you and your enemy have no adjacent units except each other. You can see whole description in game dictionary.

[Avallach]

The Tribunus of course does most of the damage, with Quick Footed and Juggernaut being key early, but this playthrough (on Brutal) I'm giving all of the skill books to the Praetorian.


The Praetorian just has so many key abilities that kind of hold everything together. The most important ability for me in the early levels (just up to 11 so far) has been Shield Bash. Being able to regularly knockdown multiple targets is huge. Tangential to that, the ability to reduce Physical Resist by 10 points on Strike is key to enabling knockdown on heftier targets. Protective Shield is amazing of course, and Taunt is great (but didn't work well for me early game on Brutal).


The Centurion... I tried to make a damage ramping build work in my Hard playthrough, but it just didn't. He's good for tying up archers, and of course using Ghost Attack / Pull to enable the team to neutralise a key backline threat, but his skills are kind of all over the place and I've not found a good synergy. In my first playthrough (Hard) I got an item that let him use Pull on allies though, which was hilarious. I could Ghost Attack in, Pull the Flamina, have her run the rest of the way behind key targets (with Protective Shield if necessary to mitigate Opportunity Attacks) and then Flamegate everyone in to commence the Backstabbery.


When I first got the Sicarius, I thought he was pretty useless - I was often using Steal Vigour on him whenever I could to get more out of the Flamen. But I was an idiot who didn't spec Scout / On the Run until probably the end game. With that, and Movement cost reduction, and the shorter range / higher damage attack he held his own pretty well.

Heartpiercer was nice just as an extra stun, and Scorpio is handy as an AP sink for the enemy when they waste their moves attacking it. He has the best early game Ultimate too, with Abyssal Guardian able to one shot some pretty big targets (with a bit of help from the team sometimes to get Physical Resist under 50).


I had the Flamina in end game, and mostly valued her for Purge and Balance. Not much to say really.


The Flamen is a bit of a no brainer with Unholy Chain and Death Hex. In my first playthrough I was putting a bunch of points and some gear into Mental Guard to give everyone crazy high Mental Resist, but I don't think it mattered much in the end. I find Physical Resist is much more important.

Has anyone found a way to get decent value from Necrosis on Very Hard or Brutal? I didn't like splitting Grave Conduit into the 3 smaller attacks, which seems to be the only way to spread it effectively without putting him in melee range. I also haven't tried Desiccate yet, but I'll probably give it a go in another level or two.

[Heroes44]

Originally posted by Avallach:

Has anyone found a way to get decent value from Necrosis on Very Hard or Brutal? I didn't like splitting Grave Conduit into the 3 smaller attacks, which seems to be the only way to spread it effectively without putting him in melee range. I also haven't tried Desiccate yet, but I'll probably give it a go in another level or two.

The thing with dots is (especially on brutal) it doesnt do enough dmg. The highest my necrosis dmg ever was around 60+. And I applied it every turn and I had 2 items that gave faster necrosis ramp up and necrosis weapon dmg too and obviously the necrosis skills. This was before the last mission in campaign when you fight the fomorian champion in the cemetery. I also tried out using the 3 smaller attacks, but it has so pathetically low dmg that it just doesnt worth it on brutal.

The only time I felt like dot is impactful when I was kiting the crystals in the Slumbering God mission early and I was running away while the birds slowly killed the crystals. But then it was burning and not necrosis because you cant even bring the flamen along.

So I dont think its good enough on high difficulties to build around it.

[Avallach]

Originally posted by Heroes44:

So I dont think its good enough on high difficulties to build around it.

Yeah, even on Hard it felt very lacklustre, but thanks for sharing the results of your testing.

I've gone Profane Arts / Gather Essence to get the damage buff and might no Numbness later for some extra Resist debuff against bosses, but that's probably as far as I'll go with any Necrosis skills.

He seems to have a lot of near-useless skills, but his core ones are so good that it almost doesn't matter.