158 Hours Played - Things I wish I knew at the start

[Whatever]

Use Google when you have a question and avoid any posts from 2014 before EE came out.

Crafting/Blacksmithing are for certain types of players. Don't invest into it until you know you want it. Non-Lone Wolf? Look at Jahan for it since he has Scientist.

Jahan does have Hydro 1. A point, at least one person should have Hydro 1 for Regeneration in your party at all times. Or you're asking for a head ache.

Start Inquisitor at character creation for two wands to make the intro area easier and then Customize the characters. Feel free to respend it all and consider starting one character at 9 Speed and the other at 7 Speed. The extra AP early make a massive difference.

Every odd point of Speed is +1 AP per turn. You need 8 in the primary stat for an Ability tree to reach a 100% chance for learned skills. The soft cap on stats is around 14. The right gear can easily push a 14 to 20 or higher.

If you go Lone Wolf do it at level 1. The extra ability points are ONLY on level up. Respec'ing later will not give them to you retroactively.

1 Scoundrel + the talent Pinpoint makes Grenades awesome. Man at Arms 1 + Slingshot make them OP. Grab every empty bottle in game if you go grenades. The consumable arrows, if you have an archer save a few of your best for boss/lieutenant fights. But otherwise consider using 1 per fight on average that isn't a cake walk.

If you level up and you are not sure where to spend your points. Take a breather and sit on them a bit. 1 point in Willpower, Bodybuilding, and Bartering is always a solid investment. You can get by without, but their bang for their buck is huge.

The Whetstone can be used to improve the damage on any edge weapon. Two sinew crafted = bowstring. Bowstring + Bow = bonus damage. Anvil + armor gets rid of movement penalty.

1 Scoundrel and taking Invisibility means easy gold from stealing paintings. Also it is useful for getting empty bottles for grenades, crafting, etc...

If you want to make an OP team consider going 1 Lone Wolf, 1 Normal, and then taking Jahan or Beirdotr. Make the LW a tank with resists, Will, and BB.

Hold on to items that have +Loremaster, etc... You can swap them on to boost abilities when you need to use them. Always make sure you have 1 repair hammer and one person with 1 Blacksmithing in the party. It's a headache going to town to repair items.

You only need 2 Blood Stones for quests. One opens up a new vendor. The other I don't know cause I let the ♥♥♥♥er die. When you use a Blood Stone it opens a portal in Homestead. So don't sit on 5 of them waiting to use them at a key moment. Get those portals open.

Crowd Control spells are OP. Use them. You are guaranteed to get the Novice Witchcraft Summon and the Adept Pyromancer Summon in Cyseal. Other pets are more rare/RNG. If you want guaranteed pets go Geomancer. You can start with the Spider at level 1 and the Summon Wolf is on a vendor in Silverglen.

Some Adept skills cannot be used until level 9. Most good Master skills are level 15 required, though a few are level 12. Two spell Abilities at 4 are usually better than 1 at 5. Don't invest two Abilities to level 5 without checking how you spend your AP. I got my mage to Aero 5 and Pyro 5 and it was a complete waste of points. She could never cast all 4 of her Master spells in any given fight.

By midgame you should have a Con 7 and Speed 9 on all characters. Somewhere level 10+, but before level 15. The extra HP and AP are well worth it.

Unless you're over level 15-18, don't look ay bringing any Spell Ability to level 5. Exceptions can be Scoundrel, Expert Marksman, Man at Arms (pending the books you find in game).

These are not all the tips you need. But these stand out to me as some of the ones it took me far too long to find out about.



Edit 1

Vendors/Selling

Note: see Edit 5 for additional imporant info.

Do you want to sell for the most amount of gold possible? Follow these instructions.

After you do the Staff quest for the Mayor in Cyseal go to the Captain vendor in the Harbor. Talk to him twice about the Staff being returned. He'll give you +50 rep each time so he'll be a 100 rep vendor (aka max selling price not counting Bartering).

Then pick a second vendor you find convenient to reach that you buy nothing from. I chose the Cheese Vendor in the Marketplace of Cyseal. He's not the most convenient, but he restocks on gold at vendor reset and sells nothing I need.

Now, for this second vendor give him enough gold (you get nothing back, it's a tip to increase your rep with him to 100) to get your rep to 100. Should be 100 gold for each 5 rep (was for me). Test a low amount of gold first to make sure you don't give him too much.

Now that you've done this you sell EVERYTHING to only those 2 vendors. The captain in the harbor and the NPC you chose who restocks on gold. Don't pick a vendor with a few hundred gold. It'll be one that has 1-6k gold on them after a reset.

Vendor resets happen somewhere between 1-3 hours (not sure how long exactly) and when you level up.

Alternatively ----> Since the elemental vendors at End of Time only sell books and essence, you could pick two of them and bypass the Harbor Captain for convenience. Bit more expensive, but more convenient.

If you only sell to your two vendors you will notice you have more gold than you've ever seen after a few loot runs.

Why sell to only those two?

Because good vendors keep your old loot you sold to them. So instead of sorting through all of the loot each time, your trash loot is out of the way.

Who else to tip?

Charla and the other two major NPC's you find later. Just to buy cheaper. Don't sell to them.

Check vendors faster?

Break the party up (break the chains). Send one toon off with a pyramid to the next vendor. Then send the other pyramid user to another. When your primary buyer/seller is done at the vendor then port with the pyramid to the next vendor. Before you check the vendor, send the runner to the next one. Rinse and repeat.



Edit 2

Charla/Skillbooks

Charla has 4 skill books that reset and go up to Master. Constantly checking them can get you rare drops. It's how I got my Summon Ice and Water Elemental skill books for example. Also the woman in Silverglen tavern has 4 books that reset as well, though I never saw her with a rare drop. That might just be bad luck on my side though.

Lone Wolf Ability Point Trick

This relates to the Respec option. If you start with Lone Wolf you get a bonus ability point each level up. Not per level, on level up. That's important. So if you did not start with LW and then respec into it later you don't get those points retroactively.

However if you run 1 or 2 characters with Lone Wolf then when you respec you keep all of those bonus ability points even if you do not take Lone Wolf again. So for those who do not like Lone Wolf a lot you could consider doing 1 character as Lone Wolf and then respecing later. Keep in mind that you lose all skill book abilities though. Specials, like Summon Nick, stay.

I personally am running a LW Wand Siege Cannon build. It's only got 2 level 1 Abilities in Skills so it cost me about 1k gold to get my books again. However for a full blown mage it could run you 10k-30k in buying ability books again. So keep that in mind when planning for a respec.

My Siege Cannon Wand Build

It started with 11 Speed, Dual Wield 2, and Lone Wolf at level 1. It picked up Hydro 1 for Regen, Man At Arms 1 for Slingshot, and Scoundrel 1 for Haste and Pinpoint. And it focused on high Willpower and Bodybuilding.

Boreas was a miserable fight since I was duo Lone Wolf and had a Hydro/Aero mage. So I dumped some points into Str to DW 1H's for the fight. Was not an efficient method, but it got me past the damn fight, which took forever. When I was level 13 I respeced.

Lvl 14 Siege Cannon = Int 8 (1 from book I found, rare drop) for Robe/Wand requirements. Con 7 (+1 from gear), Speed 15. Dual Wield 5, Wand 5 (+1 from item), Bodybuilding 5 (+1 gear), Willpower 5 (+1 Independent), 1 Man at Arms, 1 Scoundrel. Talents: Lone Wolf, Pinpoint, Slingshot, Parry Master, Walk it Off. And I put the two books from the Keeper of Secrets on this character. You do not lose those points on respec, I checked.

With Oath of Desecration and Water of Life from my mage, and Haste from myself, I put the DW Wand in front to absorb/soak all of the CC and the damage by focusing on high armor items and Water of Life. Plus Regeneration is now on 1 round CD due to high Int on mage. It's a ton of fun. You do have to keep lots of back up Wands for different elements. And I shop a lot to try to keep myself DW wands with 7% crit chance on each.



Edit 3

The Death Knights Mine

Just get one character with Invisibility. Sneak + Invisibility + judical use of auto saves and reloading is all you need to get past this piece of ♥♥♥♥ dungeon design. Don't waste points in Sneak or gold on Invis potions.

When you get Tenebrium weapons in here, save one. No spoilers, but trust me. Make sure you have at least one.



Edit 4

Some special items, like skill books, will appear in special rooms. Those protected by barriers for example. And they will not show up when you push the button to show items. Always look for skill books in special rooms.

Lone Wolf is a way to make the game harder btw. It does not make it easier. You get less total hp, less total AP, less options, etc... If you run a really tight build with exactly the right combos they can get more powerful quickly. But a well rounded 4 man team is more powerful.



Edit 5

Vendors Redux

I noticed some new things I honestly never noticed before or forgot to mention.

Vendors in the End of Time it cost 1000g per 5 rep. Vendors in Silverglen cost 250g per 5 rep. Vendors in Cyseal cost 100g per 5 rep. So plan on selling Cyseal and buying rep there for selling vendros.

Whoever you sell Tenebrium too (except in special places) will contract Rot. It won't kill them so don't worry. They also only take damage when you're there. Leave and it stops.

I tested something on the fish vendor and noticed I had 90 rep with and was like "Dafuq?!" Maybe because I made the fish thief stop? Not sure. Anways check her to save gold. She's across from the Cheese Vendor.

Auto Save Cheese

If you don't mind cheesing your game, save before Rock/Paper/Scissors moments and Quick Load after the result till you win. If you win you get exp. So say you want to kill someone. But winning only gives exp and no fight? You can win, get the exps, then jump them from out of combat and kill them anyways (at least 90% of the time).

Dual Wielding is a TRAP

"It's a trap!!"

You need 5 points in it to get to the 3 AP cost. And it looks and feels awesome. Get a decent Speed and you're attacking 3-6 times a round. However you are also getting their resistances/armor applied twice. Whereas Crossbow and 2H only apply once against resistances.

Wands can be strong with DW if you take the time to keep all 5 elements and swap as needed per creature type. Examine mobs with high Perception to check. However a Crossbow/2H with 5 points will crit in the 30-40% range and do 300% damage. Add in they get Ability specific abilities to boost their damage modifiers.

I personally am running a DW LW Wander, but that is due to personal preference. Not the OP'ness of it. Though, there is nothing like carrying the right wand versus mobs that have negative resistances.

[M]

okies and thanks a lot for the info provided.

[Singrave]

Nice one, thanks!

[Singrave]

I can add a bit about skillpoints in spells.
It could be the waste of SPs when you go level5 skill. Think if you'd like to spend 5 points for one master ability.

[Digstar]

Cheers for the advice /thumbsUp

[Whatever]

Posted more about making money and buying/selling. It's under "Edit 1" in the original post. If you want more money and loot, check it out.

[KennetH]

Thumbs up! I guess this will help a lot. I usually don't play tactical games like this but I find this game very addicting but sometimes very frustrating (maybe coz I start in Tactician mode haha).
I'll do few of your tips especialy the earning rep with vendors hence earning more gold. Cheers mate!

[Whatever]

Edit 2 added to end of post for more.

[Whatever]

Edit 3 added to end of post for more.

[Tatanka]

Loved the first divinity, have this game for over a year now, only played to first city, so not long :D Didnt like it much compared to the first divinity.
Gonna try again.
Reason i didnt like it, multiple characters ... cant get into games that has you control more then one char.
Is there a way to go solo?

[Ssenkrad_II]

Can go duo (two) but not single without moding something...

[Whatever]

You can go duo like he said. You take the Talent Lone Wolf at character creation. This will cut you down to just your two main characters. This does make the game more difficult, but it is how some people like it. Currently I am playing duo Lone Wolf myself.

If you do that may I suggest one of a few combos?

1 Mage and 1 Physical DPS
For the Mage Hydro/Aero is incredibly powerful due to the CC you get. The alternative strong pick is Pyro/Geo because they synergize well. For the DPS I'd suggest Crossbow bc the crits are insane once built up. Also you get a lot of consumable arrow drops.

2 Mage
Can be really strong, just be aware Summons (micro management of pets too) become more necessary here.

Grenades
You need Man at Arms 1 and Scoundrel 1. Then the Talents Pinpoint and Slingshot. But drop a Firestorm Grenade followed by a Poison grenade? Fire boom. Burning dot. Poison explodes on the fire for boom. Poison dot. And then smoke screen so they cannot see you.

There are a lot more duo combos out there. But for your first run with minimal headaches these above will work well.

[Tatanka]

Aw, ok, well i did start with two lone wolves. thx for the tips

[Shiηовι]

Bumping for visibility.

[Whatever]

Edit 5 in, noticed some things about vendors and a few things I didn't think to mention before.

[Teralitha]

Nothing in this game is overpowered.