Conquest question.

[suksas]

Do you think it's best to just help one side during conquest to get the most of the side you will join?
Making a new character and am curious if I should just stick to disfavoured as my previous one was judging based on his own story and ended up doing stuff that Chorus likes and disliked.

[Oenone]

It's entirely up to you. I went very heavily for one faction and the other hated me from the start. Which made it easier in some sections, harder in others.

[Ash]

I would say yes, though there is alot of different variables that can take effect on your game depending on your choices, i.e receiving items, access to locations and npcs.

Here are my findings though based on my current playthrough (So Far) where i wanted to try and have all factions like me to some degree.

During the Conquest mode, i heavily favored Scarlet Chorus, I chose Apex in the second year to get favor gains with Vendrien Guard and the third year i chose Vellum Citadel as it gives the most Scarlet favor if you side with them compared to Azure and Stalwart (I would argue that Stalwart is the best route to take if you plan to be Disfavored and Azure if you want more neutral)

So my idea was i would stick with Scarlet Chorus in the conquest mode so i had large gains with them and then when i made my choice a little bit further into the game to join Disfavored, the hit to my Scarlet Chorus reputations would still leave me with them liking me to a certain degree...

I made a save just before the final battle in Ascension Hall, basically the point where your actions would be set in stone according to the game.. i had the following Favor/Wrath with

Chorus Favor 3(65%) Wrath 0(38%)
Vendrien Favor 4(45%) Wrath 2(23%)
Voices Of Narat Favor 3(3%) Wrath 2(56%)

The moment i was teleported to the top of the tower my Favor/Wrath read as follows.

Chorus Favor 0(1%) Wrath 1(21%)
Vendrien Favor 0(3%) Wrath 3(70%
Voices of Narat Favor 0(2%) Wrath 5(31%)

So as you can see its a complete turn around in all 3 basically hating me with only the Chorus within redemption at this point.

Now i could swear on a previous save where i made no effort to be as biased towards Scarlet Chorus and actually sided on Disfavored's side most of the time, i ended up with less wrath from Voices.

So yeah on my next playthrough ill most likely be a complete ♥♥♥♥ to the side i have no interest in siding with.

[Aducan]

I would also recommend sticking to one side, mainly beacuse the sides you don't side with will hate your guts anyway, so it's best to maximise favor and wrath for those sweet reputation abilities.

A note on that tho, I would definently take the disfafored option for taking the b astard city (the third choice between Dis/Chor/Neutral), regardless of who you chose to ally with.

The health regen is a nice "Oh crap" failsafe and the neutral ability does basically the same thing only much more poorly. I ran my first game with it and used it maybe once in ACT 1.

Fire magic you can find normally, I'd presume. Someone please correct me on that if I'm wrong (even so, I don't see why frost and lightning wouldn't suffice, especially early on when one is available literally in the first area of the game).

[sycoman2]

I worry less about the disfavored vs chorus then getting favor and convo with companions.

Apex will affect Eb
Vellum Citadel affects Landry and Sirin
Azure affects Verse
Stalward obviously affects Barik

With the right conversations and conquest choices its possible to have near maxed fear and loyalty from Eb before you even get her.

[Aducan]

Originally posted by Qirin:

Originally posted by Arbiter:

Fire magic you can find normally, I'd presume. Someone please correct me on that if I'm wrong (even so, I don't see why frost and lightning wouldn't suffice, especially early on when one is available literally in the first area of the game).

Yes, you can buy it in Act 2 from several places. The most accessible is probably the Forge-Bound at Lethian's Crossing

I do like taking fire magic on a pure mage though, since it significantly increases the number of attacks you can do in the early game - the hardest part while you have low lore/spellslots/variety. And in the later game you'd never need to use either of the other abilities since you'll be raining down the elements before anyone can get to you.

Touche. A mage might definently enjoy the benefits of fire magic more than a self heal.
Now that I consider it, healing magic would be a fine substitue for the Conquest ability. I still feel the conquest ability is a better choice for a melee fighter tho, as you'll mostly be using autoattacks and ability to deal damage, so more spells isn't as necessary.

[Ichthyic]

it makes a difference as to how the factions view you to START with, and that can lead to interesting dialogue, minor discounts on items, and some other things.

you can in fact, balance your starting favor fairly well, and STILL choose who you want to side with.

I used a guide someone posted on reddit a couple weeks ago, and it worked out wonderfully.

the only thing I thought about changing was the very end... choosing to have both factions attack cairn instead of just one, but it has a minor effect in the longrun either way.

here was the conquest path:

"Coquest path is Baistard City Infiltrate (C), Containing the fire (C), Betrayal (C). Apex Battle (D), Swords (D), Fall (D), Azure Destruction (D), Fray (D), Archon (D). I've found that quite a favourable background in regards to dialogue choices."

[Grungi]

On a spoilery note; when I sided heavily with the disfavoured in Conquest, I had the option of an additional dialogue with Graven Ashe after reading the first edict at the beginning of the game. In other playthroughs he simply dismisses me and tells me to talk to his generals.

The conversation eluded to the possibility that Nerat had found and murdered Ashe's son and staged it to look like he was killed in battle. There was an additional dialogue option when meeting Ebb to ask her about how they dealt with prisoners but no further payoff.

Wondering if I missed a vital quest trigger somewhere along the way since I then went down the rebel path on that playthrough.

[Aducan]

Originally posted by Grungi:

On a spoilery note; when I sided heavily with the disfavoured in Conquest, I had the option of an additional dialogue with Graven Ashe after reading the first edict at the beginning of the game. In other playthroughs he simply dismisses me and tells me to talk to his generals.

The conversation eluded to the possibility that Nerat had found and murdered Ashe's son and staged it to look like he was killed in battle. There was an additional dialogue option when meeting Ebb to ask her about how they dealt with prisoners but no further payoff.

Wondering if I missed a vital quest trigger somewhere along the way since I then went down the rebel path on that playthrough.

SPOILERS




In the final confrontation in the tent (choosing who to ally with) if you act like enough of a jerk to everyone there, Nerat will speak with the voice of Ashe's son and gloat on how he killed him. Naturally, Ashe gets pissed. I don't think there's any quest associated, just that one exchange. I'm actually not that sure regarding the trigger. I was siding with the rebels whilst pretending to side with Legion. Mayhaps you were too civil in that discussion.


Eh, who knows.

[Grungi]

That does make sense. I was playing the diplomatic route. Shame the "payoff" to an interesting plotpoint is such a missable one-liner though. I was hoping for a righteous revenge side-quest later on down the road.

[Federok]

as other mentioned faction favor is irrelevant (for the most part) because the ending of act I overrides everything

But companion loyalty is helpful, what is more i only can reach Sirin loyalty 3 before act 3 if i go to lethians crossing and the Vellum because it has Sirin choices.

Another thing worth metioning is evidence, some choices count as evidence againts one of the two archons so it can be helpful to pick decissions where you have seen one of the two factions doing something suspicious or outright againts Kyro's Law

This is heplful because some people have dificulties colecting evidence for the archon that they didnt supported on act I

Originally posted by Arbiter:

SPOILERS




In the final confrontation in the tent (choosing who to ally with) if you act like enough of a jerk to everyone there, Nerat will speak with the voice of Ashe's son and gloat on how he killed him. Naturally, Ashe gets pissed. I don't think there's any quest associated, just that one exchange. I'm actually not that sure regarding the trigger. I was siding with the rebels whilst pretending to side with Legion. Mayhaps you were too civil in that discussion.


Eh, who knows.

still big SPOILERS




so in my case it happend for having high wrath with nerat and high favor with ash, he claimed that i was sidding with the disfavored and in that moment i had the option to remain silent making ashes son to take over for a moment.
For the most part just adds some extra dialogue BUT it counts as an evidence againts nerat on "The Trail of the Archons" so its helpful if you are low on evidence againts nerat and you dont want to do the Burning Library.