Witch Hunter Heroes

[MilkyJoe]

I bought the Witch Hunter DLC recently, I'm really loving their aesthetics but can't seem to make them work as well as Mercs (my favourite warband), maybe because I'm confused about the Heroes.

The knight seems pretty great, he carries my warband along with the Flagellants. It's the WH Captain, the WH and Warrior Priest I'm having trouble with. I've got the WH Captain specced as range and the WH as a 1h damage dealer wearing cloth and using dodge, they're not bad but I can't rely on them. WP seems very weak and is a total liability, think this might down to him being a lower level than the rest of my warband rather than any inherent weakness.

Looking at the stats of the WHC and WH i.e high agility, weapon skill and alertness they seem like they would be perfect melee resist tanks rather than range or DPS? Plus, when taking into account all WH henchmen are very lightly armoured it seems like a good idea to take as much heavy armour as possible on your heroes to make up for it, flagellants can then be the two handed crit machines.

I know it's possible to have many different builds in this game but is there a generally agreed upon way to build Witch Hunter warband heroes in single player?

[CaisLaochach]

I was unlucky with some injuries to my WP (when I finish my UD band I'll go and level up a level 7 one) but like most casters their value becomes apparent the more they level up.

In particular, with all your points going into Int, you'll be able to get Knowledge:Mordheim and lash the WP in heavy armour. With a shield and flail that's a ton of survivability and melee capability.

In addition, mastered Heal is bloody amazing. 160 damage undone a turn will keep a Temple Knight tanking away quite happily.

For the Witch Hunters, spec them as dodge tanks and focus on Sidestep with as high accuracy as you get with their WS. Will make them hard to put down and they'll pack a nasty punch.

[MrPyro]

With basic Witch Hunters I went the Melee Resist/Crit route; with max Weapon skill you can get to 12 Accuracy which is the key to Mastered Fatality. Max Agility as well, and max Alertness to get Awareness.

The WHC makes either an excellent Dodge tank (with that nice starting passive helping out) or pretty good ranged as well. I went with ranged, using crossbow pistols with Misfortune to either let the Captain crit himself or make things easier for the Witch Hunter to score his crits.

I found the WP a bit weak again but suspect I just went with a bad build. Mostly he's a support caster for me (along with my Wolf-Priest), keeping my Heroes and Henches on their feet and hitting hard.

[Notoko]

I like the Witch Hunters, with dual weapons of ranged and meele they are great at ambushing. I never had any luck with Warrior Priest(s) they were always brain damaged, then dead before Lvl 4 even with the best gear.

[Kernest]

I like the Witch Hunter heroes as ranged units.

You can either go the damage route and just take 3 shots per turn, but I built mine with Head Shot + Vital Shot combo.

With Duelling Pistols of Havoc (or Pistols with hit chance rune), I usually leave at least 1 enemy stunned, ready to be charged to death by my Flagellants that have just a little less initiative.

Warrior Priests are kinda hard to build. You could go the tanky route with 1H + shield, but then you'd probably rather take a TK.

Mine are support casters with mastered Healing Hand and Armour of Righteousness (which is an amazing spell).

I deck them with heavy armour and mastered Defensive Stance for survivability, though they usually move last and thus get to pick their target, and then are covered the next turn by my Flagellants. For offense I go with a simple Sigmarite Warhammer of Perforation and teach them basic Burn the Witch to mess with any casters I might run into.

[Cast Out Devil]

My WP is front line tank/buffer. Buff team with Armor of Righteousness / Prayer of Absolution as needed and put him up front to soak damage. Works well for me. I use Healing Hand once in a while as well. Still has tons of points unspent and plays against the AI just fine. He's not as pivotal as my Knight Templar, but he is solid support and can shore up a line or lead a team and tank the hits. Needs to be held back initially and put into combat once the Knight and henchmen have engaged.

My WHC is ranged. Crossbow pistols, 4 attacks per round with one being a special, either Trial by Pain or Vital Shot. Never gets into melee. Typically first or near the top in move order (AI and their dagger builds...) Crossbow pistols could probably take a range nerf and still be solid. He can drop a non-heavy armor enemy to half health before they engage in melee.

My WH is a 2h dodge tank. Probably my weakest link, but I tend to over extend him and put him in bad spots. When I play him smart, he wrecks. Gave him a Greatsword, no reason other than he looks cool wielding it.

My Knight Templar and Flagellants (only use 2) carry so well in melee and my WHC softens up from range, the rest of the warband just fills in and mops up.

[Summanus]

I used the WH Captain and WH hero as dual-wielding cloth dodgers with high crit. They can do some serious damage and hardly ever take a hit. I also had a WH hero as ranged, just for the hell of it and because I wanted to use some guns, but the Zealots can really handle that role quite nicely with bows.

Then I made my Warrior Priests into heavily armoured parry tanks and they're pretty awesome at that, especially alongside the main tank - the Templar. Plus you want them to be in the thick of it so that they can heal away to their hearts' content.

The whole thing worked pretty well. Never lost a mission and only ever had a small handful of injuries at the start when the warband was low level. Mostly Flagellants and the occassional Smuggler when I tried to use one (didn't like them).

[Warlord]

Warrior Priest is amazeballs. Parry tank and throw out heals.

[MilkyJoe]

Thanks for the replies. My Warrior Priest died pretty much instantly after I made the original post so I don't need to worry about him anymore haha!

I turned the WH into a tank, gave him a shield and shield specialist and he's doing pretty well now. Decided to stick with range and crossbow pistols on WHC with trial by pain. Might try a WP again if i can get one at a decent level as a hired sword.

[cantila1]

Warrior Priest always seem to die early game. Once you get them to lvl 6 or so they start to shine.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by cantila1:

Warrior Priest always seem to die early game. Once you get them to lvl 6 or so they start to shine.

Like any hero.

[Llch]

Originally posted by Warlord:

Originally posted by cantila1:

Warrior Priest always seem to die early game. Once you get them to lvl 6 or so they start to shine.

Like any hero.

Knight always seem to rock hard early game. Once you get past lvl 6 or so they not so hot anymore.