How much does stat growth matter?

[Ahriman]

I've been playing Strider for the past 41 levels. If I continued playing Strider until 100 and decided I wanna play a Magick Archer now would I be playing a "gimped" version of that vocation or would it still do well?

[Grr. [SG CMD] Majah Lazah]

gear matter far more than stats. stats are pretty crucial for breaking specific thresholds however. but literally 75% of your power will come directly from gear.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Do well.

Elaborated response:
MA needs lot of stamina to be played confortably, but not much magic attack since it can abuse magic rebalancer.
Strider has a high stamina growth (second to ranger) and a perfectly squared/balanced growth of all his defensive and offensive stats.

[Edelgris]

Magick Archer is a very powerful vocation. Don't worry about it.

[Deckire]

It matters some and in some of the niches, like how Several of Mystic Knight's Skills actually priorities Base Stat over Weapon Stat,

But for most part weapon stats overall are better Priority,

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

Ever since release I found that even tho it doesn't matter, there was still a lot of butthurt and regret from players about not being able to respec and get "optimal" builds.

So the answer is you can't really nerf hard but you still might be ocd about it anyway.

[Vic]

You can live without optimized stats, you'll experience FOMO if you aren't hitting as much damage as you think you should be. The difference in attack or magic by the time you have reached 200 with preferred levelling schemes is around 300-350?

This then goes through the stat multipliers, so you're really missing out on what would amount to a level of forging on your weapon that exceeds the goldforged version, because that's more of an increment by itself than any single forging level that exists on a weapon. That is significant and changes the game in a way which can be measured, but is not that important for people who aren't speedrunning in a very specific way.

[Ahriman]

Thank you everyone for the thorough answers, I guess I won't worry too much about it then

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

I remember a funny argument where someone was arguing with me that end-game builds "aren't builds", "builds" to them mean early levels (and not end-game ones) when no youtube video showcasing "builds" excludes end-game builds from the conversation.

This mental gymnastics was to ensure he didn't lose a conversation that states "the game is lenient with builds". Quite funny how he dug his heels in on that one, trying to find a wedge somewhere where the leniency doesn't apply to discount the whole phrase. Since you become overpowered at higher levels, he just erased higher levels from the conversation like thanos snap. lol.

The game doesn't even let you lock your build, unless you basically just stop playing and never earn xp or just straight up use third party hacking tools. Everyone is going to reach a high level build if they keep playing past 1 loop.

[Vic]

So the thing is, building in Dogma is usually pretty simple. You can use this calculator to see what you have in stats for any given amount of levelling up:

https://stackoverflow.github.io/dragons-dogma-stat-planner/

Most sites will only bother listing two builds, the damage builds, they're the easiest build ever. You play sorcerer from 10-200 for a magic build, this results in the highest magic stat growth. In the most extreme circumstance possible, this would result in a build that has:

866 Magick at level 200 assuming the initial class is mage. If we invert this with the class that has the least magic growth of all (fighter, into an assassin pure) you'll end up with 956 Attack, and 258 Magic. For an attack oriented build, that doesn't matter because you just don't use magic.

The difference is 608 Magic.

What does 608 Magic mean in reality? It means the difference between using an unupgraded https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Sanguine_Stalk

And its goldforged variant, you would be getting an entire goldforging worth of stats on the highest tier magic weapon in the game by switching to the magic based build, and this also has consequences on your multiplier.

That said, at level 200, you can still complete all content with the attack build whilst using a magic build that has the goldforged staff, especially so with periapts and augments, it just won't feel like it has quite the same punch as the pure build.

But this discounts defensive builds which are 'comfy', those don't often get looked at despite viability because they farm slower in exchange for something interesting; damage mitigation.

A damage mitigation build will take advantage of 90 Levels of sorcerer and 100 Levels of fighter from 100-200 to get MDef and Def, this when paired with the right armour results in an absolute tank that doesn't take damage even on hard mode, which can still deal enough damage at level 200 to pull its weight, in fact, it can do damage on both magic and attack builds. Giving you the option to play ANY build in the game, and do so comfortable in the fact you'll rarely be one hit by some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, so if anything, the hybrid tank build is probably the best option from the standpoint of giving the player options.

[zadymek]

I suggest actually playing as one path, either pure magickal or pure physical, for few levels.
Then changing to direct opposite, and playing this for some time.
And THEN jugding for yourself if stat growth actually doesn't matter.

[Edelgris]

At level 160, my Magick Archer feels seriously OP. My ranged offense sits at around 2500 with about 1500 of those points being due to the bow I use. Everything dies very quickly and the damage contribution from my pawns feel comparatively insignificant.

I did not care about building my character correctly at all. I just played enough of the other vocations to get the augments I wanted. In my opinion, min/maxing a Magick Archer is a complete waste of time.

EDIT: to clarify, I played strider, mage and sorc for augments

[JHarlequin]

Before 100, all classes give a bit of everything with a focus on their favored stats. After 100, each class only gives stats that are good for their class, none of the opposite.

So after 100 magic users only give magic attack and defense, and physical users only give physical attack and defense.

If you feel like your stats aren't what you want as you get to 100, then make sure to pick the right class after 100 to focus on specific growths to try and get a bit of adjustment.

[no1schmo]

Strider is great precisely because it's so balanced; you can comfortably go anywhere from there. The only time you'll really be all that put out is if you deliberately level the exact wrong class, like playing a Sorcerer until level 100 and then trying to play as a Warrior. Then you might feel gimped. If you play the balanced classes or bounce around throughout the game, you'll be fine.

[Vic]

Originally posted by no1schmo:

Strider is great precisely because it's so balanced; you can comfortably go anywhere from there. The only time you'll really be all that put out is if you deliberately level the exact wrong class, like playing a Sorcerer until level 100 and then trying to play as a Warrior. Then you might feel gimped. If you play the balanced classes or bounce around throughout the game, you'll be fine.

90 levels of sorcerer at the start is not really gimped on any build, because warriors have absolutely trash MDef and it acts like a gaping hole in their defences. Even if they don't benefit from the magic attack, sorcerers are still the best for MDef early in the game.

[no1schmo]

Originally posted by Vic:

Originally posted by no1schmo:

Strider is great precisely because it's so balanced; you can comfortably go anywhere from there. The only time you'll really be all that put out is if you deliberately level the exact wrong class, like playing a Sorcerer until level 100 and then trying to play as a Warrior. Then you might feel gimped. If you play the balanced classes or bounce around throughout the game, you'll be fine.

90 levels of sorcerer at the start is not really gimped on any build, because warriors have absolutely trash MDef and it acts like a gaping hole in their defences. Even if they don't benefit from the magic attack, sorcerers are still the best for MDef early in the game.

Well, it depends what you mean by "gimped", of course. As I've made clear elsewhere, natural stats aren't that important; the further you get in the game, and therefore the bigger differences there are between builds, the more powerful gear is anyway, ultimately minimizing those differences. But if you absolutely must min/max, a warrior after 90 levels of sorcerer is clearly not going to hit as hard, except for the charging moves where the base power absolutely dwarfs all other numbers. That's really all I'm trying to say; you have to actively TRY to sabotage yourself, and you'll still get over it with a few more levels or better equipment.