Best Item, Talent(s) & Second Ability for each Hero

[Aleonymous]

So, let's hear what everybody thinks on this topic.

Items: https://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/The_Banner_Saga_2_items
Talents: https://bannersaga.gamepedia.com/Talents

I'll start with an easy one, and then listing more as they come:

• Bak -> Gem of Vez'nan & Artery Strike + Exploit // Massive 100% Crits
  
• Rook -> The Blackfish // High mobility, 8 break, melee or ranged. I usually used him for break instead of strength anyway.
  
• Alette -> Stravhs' Bond & max Artery Strike + Overwatch // 'Nuff said.
  
• Eyvind / Zefr -> Yrsa's Charms (never seen in SM) or Gaukr's Brooch // High WIL = free high ARM heal every single round, or free lightning or troll stones w/ max ARM healing efficiency w/out resting
  
• Egil -> Mask of Andvettr & Guts // super tank w/ a nasty AoE bomb when surrounded
  
• Folka -> Foulwind Crake + Tighten Straps // turns her into a mini-Varl whose STR can't be touched normally until ALL of her ARM is gone, which regens 1-2 ARM per round.
  
• Eirik -> Gaukr's Brooch (The Artful Dodger) // WIL every turn, chance to ignore 3 ARM/STR damage, chance to dodge/deflect ARM and STR attacks
  
• Derdiu or Canary -> The Blackfish (Seahorse)// Ranged breaker with good armor, high mobility, can still be damaging with the ability Poison Tipped
  
• Oli -> Hagn's Fall (An Actual Tank) // Good armor, longer ranged attack but can also engage in melee, high chance to deflect incoming ARM attacks (or, more fun with Axe Storm)
  
• Yrsa -> Any +BRK item + Slag and Burn // Hit grouped enemies for high break

[voakir]

Rook with The Blackfish. High mobility, 8 break, melee or ranged. I usually used him for break instead of strength anyway.

[Atma]

How has nobody put Alette yet? o.O

Fine, I'll do it.

Alette -> Stravhs' Bond -> max Artery Strike -> Overwatch. 'Nuff said.

Eyvind / Zefr -> Yrsa's Charms (never seen in SM) / Gaukr's Brooch -> High WIL = free high ARM heal every single round, or free lightning or troll stones w/ max ARM healing efficiency w/out resting

Egil -> Mask of Andvettr -> Guts = super tank w/ a nasty AoE bomb when surrounded

Agree w/ Rook + Blackfish

Folka -> Foulwind Crake -> max stats -> Tighten Straps = turns her into a mini-Varl whose STR can't be touched normally until ALL of her ARM is gone, which regens 1-2 ARM per round.

[Aleonymous]

Editing first post to include everybody's suggestions.

[RMoniker]

There are a few set-ups I like playing with:

• Eirik + Gaukr's Brooch - (The Artful Dodger) - WIL every turn, chance to ignore 3 ARM/STR damage, chance to dodge/deflect ARM and STR attacks

By the time you reach Rank 5, you can max out Eirik's ARM, STR, EXE, and BRK if you forgo investing in WIL. By Rank 7, you can put one point each in the ARM talent Hunker Down, and the STR talent Robust. This gives a 20% chance to avoid 3 ARM damage, or 3 STR damage (due to buffed talents from the Brooch). Until you can invest more in the talents Dodge and Deflect, I think this is the better investment, since 3 covers a good amount of absorption and a 20% chance is pretty good.

If you choose to level Eirik to Rank 9, you can invest 3 points each into the EXE talent Dodge and the BRK talent Deflect. With the bonus from the Brooch, this provides a 25% chance to dodge both STR and ARM attacks. Or, if you want to leave him at Rank 7, you can invest only 1 point in Dodge and Deflect, giving a 15% chance to dodge STR and ARM attacks. Anything that gets through is still subject to the 20% chance to mitigate 3 STR or ARM damage.

The best way to keep a character alive is still to avoid getting hit. But with Eirik's relatively lower ARM and STR compared to other characters, this gives him more survivability if you want to get him into the fray and not just keep him in the back as a WIL battery.

• Derdiu or Canary + The Blackfish - (Seahorse) - Ranged breaker with good armor, high mobility, can still be damaging with the ability Poison Tipped

The Blackfish is an interesting item since it specializes a character in breaking armor. If you want a character to still do damage, though, you have to find an alternative route. Rook has Mark Prey, Yrsa has Slag & Burn, Ludin or Tryggvi (or Bak) have Impale and movement shenanigans, Ekkil (or Hogun, Mogun, Dagr, Gudmundr and Egil) can probably still use Guts to some effect. Then there are the horseborn Derdriu and Canary with Poison Tipped.

I like Poison Tipped. It has a guaranteed hit for at least 1 STR damage, regardless of the target's armor. If you use the Rank 3 version, the target will take 3 additional damage for several turns (is it 2 or 3?, I have to double check on that). This is like having an archer with Eyeless Rift or Sun Stone and 3 EXE chip off 4 STR from a high armor target, except that the damage keeps ticking if the target stays alive. Plus, it is not hampered by the restriction of The Blackfish.

Both horseborn Cantref can have 12 ARM, which gives them good durability for a ranged unit. While Canary is a slightly better breaker with max BRK 3, using Blackfish feels like it is wasting her potential max 16 STR. Derdriu only has 2 BRK, but she starts with higher initial ARM at 8 and you can comfortably keep her at 10 STR without it feeling like wasted potential.

• Oli + Hagn's Fall - (An Actual Tank) - Good armor, longer ranged attack but can also engage in melee, high chance to deflect incoming ARM attacks (or, more fun with Axe Storm)

Tank in these types of games usually means a character that can absorb, divert, or mitigate a lot of damage. However, when compared to their real-world analogues, Tanks in games are sometimes missing something. Namely, a big gun. Well, Oli has a big gun. It is his arm. It shoots axes.

Oli is a versatile character, and is unique as a ranged character that you actual want on the front lines as part of a shield wall. The limited range of his thrown axe means you have to get closer than archers, but that's okay because you want him up there. But what if you want to hit something farther away than normal? Like those Dredge slingers who are always standing out of range? The boosted range from Hagn's Fall is the answer.

(Note: I've noticed that the boosted range doesn't work with the horseborn ability Poison Tipped, or Allette's Overwatch. It may not work with Axe Storm either, jut regular STR or BRK attacks.)

The additional armor helps, sitting him comfortably at 14 ARM. If you place Oli next to other raiders, you can get him up to 16 or 18 ARM.

The lower max 2 BRK for Oli means that you more easily invest 3 ranks to a BRK talent. If you want him to be tankier, you can put 3 points in Divert and give him a 25% chance to dodge ARM attacks.

If you like playing the Axe Storm slot machine instead, you can invest in Exploit and get a 30% chance to cause puncture and try for the big money. If you're going that route, though, you're probably better off investing in the STR talent Artery Strike. At that point, he may be better served with an Umbr Root, a Tool of Scyldings, or an Oath of Andr.


This post got kind of long. I may have more later, but that's all I have for now.

[voakir]

I just started a human female run, which forces you into 6 characters. I never used Yrsa much in the campaign because of her low strength, but the first item I got was +2 BRK. She's the only archer with 3 BRK, and the initial explosion from Slag and Burn can hit multiple grouped targets for her full break damage, letting her do 5-6 early and 8+ with Blackfish. She's great for setting up the other archers to puncture.

Yrsa -> Any +BRK item + Slag and Burn // Hit grouped enemies for high break

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by RMoniker:

• Eirik + Gaukr's Brooch - (The Artful Dodger) - WIL every turn, chance to ignore 3 ARM/STR damage, chance to dodge/deflect ARM and STR attacks
  
  
• Derdiu or Canary + The Blackfish - (Seahorse) - Ranged breaker with good armor, high mobility, can still be damaging with the ability Poison Tipped
  
  
• Oli + Hagn's Fall - (An Actual Tank) - Good armor, longer ranged attack but can also engage in melee, high chance to deflect incoming ARM attacks (or, more fun with Axe Storm)

Originally posted by voakir:

Yrsa -> Any +BRK item + Slag and Burn // Hit grouped enemies for high break

Adding those to first post.

@RMoniker -- I think that +range atttribute from items only affects regular ARM or STR attack-range, not ability range.

[Jaden]

For Eyvind I prefer Puzzle box of the Twin Rivers over Gaukr's Brooch. Same Wil/Turn and 3 Wil more

[joshdep]

I find Björg av Leander (lvl 5 headband from BS1) even better suited to Folka, it loses the +2 STR bonus, but is not hampered by -1 MOV, and more importantly,sports a massive 2 ARM / TURN (better than any BS2 item) which, coupled with Tighten Straps and a mender, transforms Folka into a nigh invulnerable breaking/sweeping machine (especially in smaller parties where the ARM regen procs more often).

Needless to say it synergizes extremely well with Bolverk.

[johnny_r]

Originally posted by joshdep:

I find Björg av Leander (lvl 5 headband from BS1) even better suited to Folka, it loses the +2 STR bonus, but is not hampered by -1 MOV, and more importantly,sports a massive 2 ARM / TURN

I agree.

Another absolutely deadly combination is Alette -> Solvi's Method + Lucky Shot (Artery Strike on top makes it even more OP) + Overwatch. At lvl 3 Overwatch you have basicalley guaranteed knockback-hits on even the most heavily armored units.

It probably works with any Str 3-Knockback-Item, but the range increase of Solvi's makes it a cheat code. I actually went to my savegame to mod Lucky Shot out, because it was getting boring having everybody just grouped around Alette and resting (in really hard fights with Eirik now and then sprinkling in a Rally to freshen up her Willpower), and watch enemies break themselves against her Overwatch. Not even ranged enemies can make it into striking distance. You could probably just surround her with lvl 1 chars and still be golden. o_O

It's also the only reasonable use I found for Lucky Shot, but in this niche it's plain nasty topping on unfair cake.

[disnegativ]

What am I missing?

Alette Knockback + Overwatch only comes together at level 10 (for the 3* overwatch) in my mind. I finished my playthrough (on normal) with all around 7, 8, 9s, but not one of my heroes was level 10. That was with no deaths and a little bit of wasting renown on a 7th hero. How is Alette ever level 10 early enough that this combination merits all the praise heaped on it?

Anyway, I used Egil (all, but 33), Eirik, Eyvind, Mogr, Krumr and either Oddleif (most of the time) or Yrsa (33 + finale). I like Egil with any aggro+2 item, ideally Mask of Andvettr, Yrsa with the Blackfish, Krumr with Namejs Ring (outclasses many notionally higher level items). Not many surprises. I often found more points in will better than the talents. Is anyone building around the talent bonus items?

[Troll]

Originally posted by disnegativ:

What am I missing?

Alette Knockback + Overwatch only comes together at level 10 (for the 3* overwatch) in my mind. I finished my playthrough (on normal) with all around 7, 8, 9s, but not one of my heroes was level 10. That was with no deaths and a little bit of wasting renown on a 7th hero. How is Alette ever level 10 early enough that this combination merits all the praise heaped on it?
...

It's mostly true for Survival Mode.
It's also true for those who focused on leveling her instead of spreading the love.
And those who imported their games with lots and lots of renown.

[Atma]

Originally posted by Troll:

It's also true for those who focused on leveling her instead of spreading the love.
And those who imported their games with lots and lots of renown.

This right here.

Level 10 Alette wins entire games. She's worth rushing to 10 and letting her carry the whole rest of your group, whether it's Survival or normal mode.

W/ that said, it also gets super boring, so after you've witnessed the absurdity of Alette's power, it's probably better to just play however you feel like. :P