Early perks hardest to pick - some help please

[revjwh]

I tend to take Colossus and Steel Brow for my Tanks and 2-Handers-to-be..... is this wise???

I struggle with my melee people in general. I always take Brawny and Battleforged once there....and Reach Advantage and Underdog for 2H but I really wrestle with the rest

I wrestle with masteries...I usually take one sword (for 2H), one hammer (for 2H)..... but never know what else to take for the shield "guys"....

I'd appreciate some help regarding frontline??

Archers I'm okay with: Adapt, Bullseye, Anticipate, Bow Mastery, Overwhelm etc.

[Sathra]

Student, Colossus and Recovery are all solid picks. Student is essentially free if they survive till 11. Colossus reduces injury chance.
Recovery helps in long battles/vs undead/close fights.
Rotation or Footwork help with suvivability. Pick one. Rotation is good for 2H since you can have a guy stand in front and "throw" a 2H in melee range. And save them too. Footwork mainly just saves the guy using it, rotation can put another brother at risk.
Macemen are very useful mid-game onwards. The 100% stun if they hit works on everything but Geists and the higher tier orcs (warriors, zerkers and warlords).

[Garmanarnar]

@sathra, I'm not sure I agree with the student pick. Especially with the training grounds and such now.

[Nitroglycerine]

because I tend to stack end-game perks, my perk picking is actually very easy.

For example, my end-game build for 2H characters is currently:
Pathfinder
Quick Hands
Brawny
2H Mastery, Polearm Mastery
Reach Advantage, Underdog
Berserk, Battle Forged
Killing Frenzy

Thus. perk picking ends up being something like:
Pathfinder, Student, Quick Hands, Brawny, 2H Mastery, Battle forged, berserk, reach advantage, killing frenzy, underdog + polearm mastery.

It isn't a big deal how I pick their perks though, since they tend to level up quite rapidly and are fairly hard to kill due to high armour.
However, this only the case in end-game.

If it was early,game, I might build some characters which I don't plan to keep long term. After all, even the worst hedge knights tends to have better stats at lvl 11 than a 2* farmhand and such.

In which case, these characters would probably go for skills focused on early game, such as:

fast adaption or colossus, gifted, nine lives, colossus or fast adaption, steel brow, pathfinder.

[sikker]

I sometimes pick student not for the extra exp but just because I don't want any other starting perk and this way I can get 1 extra perk that isn't tier 1.

Anyway crippling strikes is pretty good too, I give it to most of my characters who don't deal too much damage, such as archers and 1h users. They can inflict the injuries and the real damage dealers get executioner to finish the injured off.

[Sathra]

Originally posted by Garmanarnar:

@sathra, I'm not sure I agree with the student pick. Especially with the training grounds and such now.

That's expensive. Especially early and mid-game. In lategame its not as problematic, but I'd pick student anyways since you want them to level *fast*. Student is the same effect as the low cost option at training grounds, doesn't time out, and only costs the lives of a few bandits/wierdergangers.
Student and training grounds buffs stack in some fashion (I've had them get nearly twice as much XP for much less kills) . Extremely fast levelling.

Also what Sikker said, it lets you skip that tier if you're going for a high-perk build.

[Crax]

Students and a survival perk like Colossus would be better. Early game, you don't really need Steel Brow since it's highly unlikely that the enemy is powerful enough to one shot you even with a Crossbow. It's the early to mid/ mid-game where you need to invest some points into other survival perks since your armor isn't catching up quick enough due to its high cost.

You should also dump/get-some-mercenaries-killed and hire someone better down the line. I got a Level 1 around mid game who cost like 1.5k, but is the equivalent in stats to a 4k Sellsword, has a Tiny trait and all the right stars in the right places. Now it's as tanky as my Level 8 Tanks even though it's just level 5.

Nine Lives is also inadvisable, especially since it's the early game where most of the mercenaries you hire are not really good and just for the sake of bolstering your numbers. Let them get killed and protect your main choices. But of course, let them get killed smartly, or the morale drops are gonna rekt the hell out of you.

[Sathra]

Steel brow is good for archers/crossbowmen. They're the ones most likely to get shot at when they're young, and the ones most wrecked by headshots (due to limits on helmet armour/loss of vision injuries).
They're also kinda harder to find and train. Melee troops have less requirements to be helpful (i.e. they have to be alive and not panicked), since they can provide surround bonuses and act as ablative hitpoints. Ranged have to, y'know, hit targets.

[Barahur]

Student is a solid pick on a character that you plan to keep for a long time, like your starting mercs. The 20% XP gain is nothing to scoff at. You trade a little survivability in the short term for a quicker road to a veteran merc. Training Hall is nice but it's not cost effective in harder difficulty modes because your contract pay is crap and your maintenance costs are high, even if you save scum to minimize casualties.

If it's for "fodder" or mercs you will plan on replacing, good early picks are Colossus, Fast Adaptation, Pathfinder, Recover on the first row. On a "fodder" merc, Gifted is arguably the best pick in the second row as it gives you a free level with maxed rolls to give them a needed DPS/survival boost. Steel Brow or Fortified Mind can be interesting, especially since you'll be dealing with a lot of negative morale checks early on (e.g. people dying, being outnumbered, etc).

Just my 2 cents.

[Cid]

I tend to go with perks that always benefit rather than situational perks at the start. Later on by level 10 or 11 I might take Recover or Adrenaline. So if it's a tank with low hit chance but decent hp go with Fast Adaptation. But if they have both good hit and hp I'll take Crippling 1st. For the 2nd perk Executioner is my favorite for 2 hand weapon users. For tanks if he has low resolve take Fortified Mind otherwise go back up and take Crippling Strikes or Fast Adaptation. 3rd pick I take Brawny for 2h guys and Shield Mastery for my tanks. If you're planning to build him as a duelist and he has high initiative you'll probably want to grab Dodge here. Again these are all non situational perks that always benefit but later on I might come back and grab Taunt or Rotation. I like having Taunt on my tanks, Rotation on my 2handers and Footwork on my duelists. After that it's pretty cut and dry ~ Mastery then Underdog(tanks) or Reach advantage(2h dps) or Overwhelm(duelist) or Lone Wolf (archers), Next tier grab Nimble for Duelist and Battleforged for tanks/2h dps; rear liners like archers and pikes can go with Berserk or Head Hunter here. And finally for the last perk you will always want KIlling Frenzy on everyone (Duelists can take Duelist 1st obviously).

[See you Space Cowboy...]

Remember to get rotation on 2-3 guys just to save people (and/or themselves).

[The Duck Knight]

My frontline is the same exept for one guy with 2h weapon (well, he still gets the first and second the same)
student.
dodge (geez, I love that one, during early game the def added is such a huge thing)
shieldmastery.

the defens from dodge is just such a huge benefit as long as you can afford heavy armor.
In most cases between 10-15 def for both ranged and melee.
close to the same from shields. combine it and you are really save during early game.

[Sathra]

See, many different ways to build. I only take crippling strikes on archers (mainly just crossbowmen). This is due to how I like fighting undead, and crippling strikes/executioner have no effect there.

[Mlohava Kyfla]

I always pick Pathfinder first no matter what brother build I'm going or what playtrough I'm playing.
Spending less fatigue on moving AND being able to retreat in (almost) every situation is a HUGE boon for me.