[Beginner] Mercenaries build, first skills ?

[SenSx]

Hello,

I'm a beginner, with my first warband : human mercenaries of Reikland.

Almost all my characters now have 2 skill points to spend, but I am completly lost wit the amount of skills, I don't know what to choose.

here is my warband:

- Captain (sword and shield, light armor, might switch to heavy armor later) tank, damage resist build ?

- Wolf Priest of Ulric ( two handed axe, light armor, will switch to heavy armor later): I want him to be a damage dealer, and use buff and debuff spells.
But first I want him to be a good damage dealer, before improving the spells I guess.

- Henchman 1 (mace and shield + light armor, might switch to heavy armor later ) tank parry build

- Henchman 2 (2 handed sword, clothes, migth switch to light armor later) damage and crit, dodge build

- Henchman 3 ( Dual wield sword and mace, clothes, might switch to light armor later) damage, parry build

- Marksman ( bow and one handed dagger, clothes)


Sorry if I seem lazy, I just don't want to do any mistake, thx !

[Warlord]

First skills for any character should be either sidestep for dodge builds or web of steel for parry builds.

[Zorlond]

There's basically three ways to protect each character. Parry, Dodge, and Melee Resist. The latter can only be feasibly used by a very limited number of soldier classes, and I don't think Mercs even have one, so don't worry about it.

Parry: The skills to remember for this are in the Weapon Skill section. Web of Steel gives you 2 or 3 parries per turn for 4 blues. Shield Specialization gives more parry when you're using a shield, as well as a bit more Melee Resist (it helps even if you're not tanked that way). Flash Parry is a plain 10-20% buff to your Parry. You may want Armor Proficient from the Strength section, as Parry tanks are natural choices to wear heavy armor (doesn't help light).

Dodge: Most of these are under Agility. Sidestep is the same as Web of Steel, 2-3 Dodges per turn for 4 blues. Avoid is a nice 10-20% plus to Dodge. If you were playing Sisters (yes I know you're not), they have a faction skill Prayer of Swiftness which gives +15% Dodge for 2 blues. If that doesn't sound like as many skills, don't worry, Dodge goes up faster just from stats than Parry does anyways.

Once your soldiers are more able to avoid damage you can look into damage and debuff skills. Kidney Strike (Strength) is nice to make enemies easier to hit. Prowl (Agi) and Onslaught (Weapon) are variations of Ambush that grant a Dodge or Parry on top of the Ambush effect. Quick Incision is nice for Henchies to have to weaken an enemy's defense. And Strong Blow (Strength) is nice for cranking up the damage output.

[SenSx]

OK thx , I'll check those skills.

What about my Wolf priest ?
His base agility sucks , and I don't think I am going to raise it.
He can't parry.
So the only thing I can use to avoid, or rather limit, damages is armor.
That means I can immediatly give him damage skills ?

[GenericNickname]

So in general, I wouldn't really start spending skill points till you're like level 3. Characters are too flimsy and can go down way to easy to justify spending all that money.

In general, your first skills should be buffing your dodge/parry chance. Sidestep/web of steel isn't a bad choice. I like flash parry or shield specialization since it's cheaper and arguably more useful when everyone is only attacking 2 times a turn.

IF you do go heavy armor, make sure you grab the specializations.

[Zorlond]

Actually Wolf Priest can Parry, though he's not great at it, it's better than his Dodge. He just needs to use a Halberd. But you may want to look into his Spells right after Web of Steel. He's got some really nice buff potential.

[SenSx]

I know he can parry with Halberd, but his 2 handed axe gives him a bonus for spell no ?
I wanted to keep it for that.

[Zorlond]

Great Ulric Axe is a valid choice if you keep him off the front lines. But Devotion (Intelligence) gives a stronger reduction to Divine Wrath chance (yes, they do stack together, so Axe can still be valid).

Also should mention Wolf Priest's faction abilities include Ulric's Chosen, which increases his chance to cast spells successfully.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by SenSx:

OK thx , I'll check those skills.

What about my Wolf priest ?
His base agility sucks , and I don't think I am going to raise it.
He can't parry.
So the only thing I can use to avoid, or rather limit, damages is armor.
That means I can immediatly give him damage skills ?

The Wolf-Priests' signature weapon, the Great Ulrican Axe is great, so I wouldn't use Parry with them. They can get the necessary Weapon Skill for mastered Defensive Stance, but generally I like to use them as armour tanks.

Give them heavy armour, helmet, mastered Armour Proficiency and mastered Guard Stance and their armour absorption can reach 65%, which alone is insane.

If you were playing the Witch Hunters however, you could also have the Warrior Priest cast Armour of Righteousness for up to 20% more. Also Prayer of Absolution for yet another 10%, but IMO that is a less useful spell because it only has 1 turn duration.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Zorlond:

Great Ulric Axe is a valid choice if you keep him off the front lines. But Devotion (Intelligence) gives a stronger reduction to Divine Wrath chance (yes, they do stack together, so Axe can still be valid).

Also should mention Wolf Priest's faction abilities include Ulric's Chosen, which increases his chance to cast spells successfully.

If you want to really cut your DW chance, just Devotion won't cut it, and IMO it's best to have Ulrican Axe with a crit enchant.

Ulric's Chosen is awesome, a must get for any self respecting Wolf-Priest.

[Great Mazinkaiser]

Quick Reload is your first choice for the Marksman for sure.

[SenSx]

Originally posted by GreatMazinkaiser:

Quick Reload is your first choice for the Marksman for sure.

ok thx :)