Min/Max Guide

[Lucius Kern]

Attribute Points
You get a maximum attribute point of a total of 12 after that you stopp getting any while leveling
this means you can have 2 attributes at 5 and one at 2.
For Staff combat you are going to want Strength
For Technomancery you are going to want Willpower
For Dagger/Gun you are going to want Agility.
For Shield/Mace you are going to want Strength

Consitution is the least useful stat IF you can avoid being hit, a skilled player will most likly ignore this attribute compleatly as all it does is health and carry weight limit.

Tip on Build
The Staff is VERY powerful against multiple opponents and is really nice to team up with Technomancery. First playthrough I was planning on Dagger/Gun but ended up on staff because it is crazy efficent against multiple opponents. Technomancery is also extreamly good against multiple opponents and tough opponents when talented correctly. This is why I went 5 str, 5 will and 2 agility. Constitution is perhaps the biggest joke, unless you are going for shield/mace, i am thinking you want High CON, STR and low Willpower. You will be able to have decent gloves at willpower 2 but nothing with the proper Omph, Electric weapon and Magnetic Shield is all you are going to want in such a build to deal added damage and have a damage reduction shield.

Character Talents
You have Charisma, Science, Crafting, Lockpick/Traps, Exploration and Stealth.
You get a total of 9 talent points after that you stopp getting any while leveling.

A Min maxer will simply have 1 point in charisma, lockpicking/traps, Science and Crafting.
This is because you get equipment that gives +1 bonus and companions giving an additional +1 bonus. However make sure that your favoritt companion gives this bonus that way you will always be at 2 in that skill either by companion or gear, or 3 if you got the time to change armor.

Andrew - Companion Technomancer; when friendly gives +1 to Charisma
Neisha - Companion Rogue: When friendly gives +1 to Lockpick
Amalia - Companion Guardian: When friendly gives +1 to crafting
Scott - Companion Healer: When Friendly gives +1 to science
Phobos - Companion Heavy Hitter: When friendly gives +1 to Exploration

Note: I have not found any equipment with Science +1.

Talent Usefullness

Charisma: Buffs up companions damage, health and lower cost in shops. Also this skill lets you do conversation options releated to charm and intimidation. Mercant type armor gives +1, Andrew friendly gives +1. You only need 1 or 2 points here nothing more.

Science: You can use healing on companions in combat, also this skill lets you do conversation options releated to science. I actually took this one up to 3, because healing the companions myself meant i didnt need to bring with me scott which uses Health Injections like they were tictacs.... it is to costly to have Scott as a healer in the party, better to dodge to a companion hit E buttong and jump into the fray again.

Crafting: You use this to craft more advanced upgrade options to armor and weapons as well as having conversation options to aid people with crafting. You only need 1 or 2 points here nothing more. Amalia will give +1 and Worker type clothes will give +1

Stealth: Get this puppy to 3 it is totally worth it when you can take out heavy armored ASC units at the end of the game with a little love tap of the Technomancer glove during stealth. Ofcourse if you hate stealth use the points on something else.

Lockpicking/Traps: Potentially my biggest love/Hate talent, traps are deliciously powerful if used right but for lockpicking you only need Neisha, Vory clothing and 1 point to lockpick the worst locks.

Exploration skill is NOT worth it, if loot is really important and you are struggling to upgrade gear to you I suggest just hunting mutant animals for poor quality leather and serum, or humans for gear to recycle. There are helmets with +1 exploration bonus and thats about it, you wont need anything else, the items gained from mobs should be more than enough to keep you going.

Suggestions
3 points in Stealth, 3 Points in Science, 1 point in charm, lockpick, crafting.
That will be your 9 points. That way you can heal others yourself, stealth and take down the high end mobs with a single stealth takedown without breaking stealth and by quick saving before conversations you can get the time you need to change armor. With this skill set up
Andrew, Neisha and Amalia will be your primary companions to worry about. When crafting in the cities you take on Amalia and worker clothes and you will be at Rank 3. In conversations with Charm action you take on the Mercant type clothings and I always use Andrew so I always have the added bonus from being his friend. Neisha is kinda the same, you will have 2 ranks in trap/Lockpicking most of the time and when you face a tier 3 lock you simply take on the Full Vory Jacket and woola no lock is going to stop you.

When grinding materials Phobos might be a wise choice to bring due to his Exploration bonus but honestly that skill isnt worth it. Rank 3 is really nice to make injections whenever and wherever but not worth all those points in it.

Ability talents
Electric Fist: This ability is my bread and butter against any opponent, the fact it debuffs their electrical and physical defenses with 25% for 20 seconds means a Electric fist followed by staff hit or another electric fist can easily decimate an opponents health severly.

Overload vs Magenetic Shield
Okay here is a tough one, if you are skilled at dodging enemies and feel that consitution is a joke then yeah overload is far superior. But if you feel that the enemies always manage to get a shot in I would go Magnetic Shield. Personally I used Magnetic Shield in the start when you are fighting alone alot the armor is great especially when surrounded from all sides, but as soon as I got Overload that was no longer the case. With a maximum of 4 Fluid points and overload, electric weapon and magnetic shield takes up a whole point when active it is not wise to have all 3 active at all times. Sure you can still use magnetic shield in tough fights if you want, but as I am pretty much dodging everything and spend my injections mostly on companions I stopped using it all together.

I guess you could drop electric weapon and use magnetic shield instead of that, but I prefer to be all out offensive than defensive in this game.

Thats it, hope it can be of use when you are planning your character.

[WeylandYutani]

Ok that sounds good, so many say "your first playthrough" does that mean theres a new game plus ? I read that there isnt a new game plus avaible for this game but i would really love a new game plus to play with more skills on higher difficulties.

[player1]

Well, just because there is no new game+ mode does not mean there is no reason to play again (if you liked the game). Try different build, specialize in different combat stance and change some story choices.

[player1]

OK, I investigated a bit, and it seems after hitting level 35, the next level label does not show next level for getting skills. Similar how it happens for abilities and talents, when they stop leveling anymore.

Still, getting to 36 and later levels gives more skills.

So there is some kind of bug here.

So maybe at some point game had 35 level cap, but was removed without fixing next level label?
Or maybe cap should apply but it does not?

Anyway, just something to keep in mind. There is always possibility for patch to actually create 35th level cap, so it would be good to know that in that case 34 skills are the limit.

[Revolucas]

Technomancy with all damage upgrades on the skills, avoiding the Magnetic Shield path and Rogue with the gun upgrades is pretty good. In Act 1 and 2 you will insta-kill groups with the AoE skill. In Act 3 you can use electric fist to debuff ASC enemies then shock or gun them. Pretty much everything dies quickly after an electric fist, like the Shield Toad and the last boss.

Originally posted by Pu3Ho:

As companions you should use : Niesha and Phobos due to them being most useful - Niesha cuz lockpick+1 and poison attack and Phobos cuz he got most dmg/tankiness among them and also gives free 250 weight. While Scott being completely useless(zero dmg/zero tankiness), Amelia = Guardian - worse then any others in general and Andrew simply being shi ttier version of Niesha with useless bonus and less dmg.

I would argue Andrew with technomancer set is better then Niesha. But honestly it doesn't matter who you use. People should use whatever they like, it's not really going to affect the outcome of a battle.

Well, just because there is no new game+ mode does not mean there is no reason to play again (if you liked the game). Try different build, specialize in different combat stance and change some story choices.

I'm a fan of Spiders games, but the Technomancer is probably the least replayable title they ever made. I can't tell you how many times I ran across Ophir in all three Acts. You would be out of your mind to replay this game. I thought people were just being nitpicky when complaining about back-tracking. The back-tracking is real and by Act 3 you will never ever want to set foot in Ophir again but on the last quest there you are forced to run all over the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ place.

[Karjus]

Originally posted by Alundaio:

I'm a fan of Spiders games, but the Technomancer is probably the least replayable title they ever made. I can't tell you how many times I ran across Ophir in all three Acts. You would be out of your mind to replay this game. I thought people were just being nitpicky when complaining about back-tracking. The back-tracking is real and by Act 3 you will never ever want to set foot in Ophir again but on the last quest there you are forced to run all over the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ place.

Amusingly, I thought the same. About respawning enemies too. While playing Act 1, I was all "This really isn't that bad" but by Act 2 it starts getting a bit much. The back tracking wouldn't be too bad with reduced respawn, but there we go. It's giving me a lot of levels at least I guess! (and totally a minor flaw for me to a game I'm really enjoying)

[player1]

To me, first return to Ophir, in Act 2 was really great. After that, I needed exactly one trip back to finish the rest of the quests there are go to Act 2 with 100 quest completion (with careful planning), so backtracking was not that painful (DA:Inquisition, on the other hand, was way worse for me with ridiculous amount of filler content that never ends).

But I won't disagree, in Act 3 I stopped counting. But it probably was just bad planning by me, when to do quests there. I've could've probably done less trips to there.

Also, I think it would help a lot if respawn rate was toned down. In Underworks, you can clear one or two sections get back to first one and get new enemies. Not that fun.

Most optimal way is to do everything outside that city, in order to get as many as possible quests there, to minimize the number of trips needed.

Also, there is elevator there in Underworks, that goes to two locations. It took me to get to Act 3 to realize that. It is really missable, and is just right there near exit from the city.

[dustin1280]

I really really wish I didn't max stealth. Those points could be SO much more useful elsewhere. Gonna try to hack my points away and redistribute them. The simplest way might be just to hack 3 additional points and never use stealth again.

[Anax]

I like min/maxing *after* imposing roleplaying/flavor/challenge rules on my characters. My Zachariah is a Rogue through and through, so I'm obligated to go 3 Stealth and 3 Lockpicking/Traps. Also playing on Extreme on my first playthrough because a Rogue doesn't feel like a rogue when you never actually *need* to be stealthy, sneaky, and crafty. Of course, I'll take the information presented here into account when it comes to the rest of my build.

Thanks a million, Redhotviking! :D