Team comp without Geo/Pyro?

[Lufster]

Hey! I haven't gotten very far yet and I keep hesitating about team composition. Do you reckon its viable to run without geo/pyro? It seems everything gets lit on fire all the time atleast early game.
Also. is it viable to spread your points over 3 disciplines? or do you become too weak from that?

for reference im trying out warfare/poly - conjurer/huntsman, hydro/aero, and necro/scoundrel

[DrShoking]

It's viable to not build geo/pyro. build what you find the most fun. All those builds you listed will work. It is viable to spread out on disciplines, your spells will be a little bit weaker but you'll have a lot more spells and more adaptability.

after you finish act 1 there'll be a mirror that lets you respec characters so you can play around with it a bit more.

[Arobain]

why cant i ever escape min/maxxing meta players whereever i go, like jesus, its a singleplayer game

[Lufster]

hehe, Im not trying to min-max, Im just pretty bad at the game still :p I'll make it work somehow, thanks for replying!

[Detective]

Also, hydro/Aero are two good discplines to have together - One brings the water, the other brings the electricity.

I am interested in how you are trying to do necro/scoundrel. So far, I've mostly kept my melee-tank and archer walfare or huntsman/ranged focused respectively.

[Revolucas]

is it viable to spread your points over 3 disciplines? or do you become too weak from that?

No, it does not make you weak. In my opinion, you are actually better off to only have 2 points in each skill early on in the game, from either levels or gear. With possibly 3 points in Aero, Pyro or Hydro. Once you reach levels 16+ and beyond, however, you'll want to consider only a single skill branch to max with only a few (3 or 5) going into a secondary magic skill. The main reason is because of how damage formula works.

Skills scale from level and from the damage bonuses you see in character screen. Early levels that damage bonus doesn't out weight the utility you gain by having the AoE spells from each magic skill, like Dazing Bolt, Fire Ball, Laser Ray, Winter Blast, etc. The remainder of your skill points can go into Poly to cap Int earlier. While 16+ you'll have access to powerful source magic that requires 5 ranks in a magic skill. To do the highest damage possible, you'll want to cap the skill. At this point you won't need to cap Poly anymore, either.

By giving yourself access to a good damage skill from each magic school allows you to choose the best spells to circumvent the enemies resistances, not too mention the benefit of being able to combo. Almost all enemies in the game have one or two resistances that are much lower than the others.

So some tips:

• Magic skills can crit if you have Savage Sortilege; Spells do infact benefit from Scoundrel's crit damage bonus.
  
• Magic skills can have the High Ground damage bonus.
  
• You should consider duel wand for the +10% crit chance per wand and Hothead talent for +10% crit and Human race.
  
• Consider gear that has +magic skill +Scoundrel and +Huntsman all at once.
  
• Don't forget most enemies can be charmed once their Magic Armor is gone. Easy to craft from Love Grenades from Honey + Perfume bottle, or if you have ranger, he can get Charm arrows, or the Charm skill from Summoning.

Late game Aero is probably the best magic skill. Thunderstorm and Superconductor are just ridiculously powerful, especially if you keep casting rain (scrolls) each turn to keep the enemies wet. Pyro and Hydro are good too. I don't recommend Geo because there are a lot of undead in the game, especially bosses.

[Lufster]

thank you so much for the tips! <3 happy new year strangers!

[TheWorthlessFellow]

You can make just about anything work. I have a character with 2/3 in most things that does well as a sword/board high crit mixed damage.