I can't seem to find a lot of use for source skills

[rasmasyean]

I figured, Source is designed to be used in the very beginning, and hence not let the enemy drain you of it as well. It seems the best way to use it is to use it up on the the 1st or 2nd turn and then use your regular skills, and perhaps use the drain source spell?

But most fights I find I only use like 0 or 2 spells maybe "as needed, and most of the time I just make an excuse just to use it for the heck of it. It seems I find most of the regular spells sufficient or even "better". Maybe I'm just more used to it.

What are some good things to do to use Source? Like perhaps combos or openers, etc. Something that actually makes a difference enough that you wouldn't say..."hmm....should I just save it?" Because then I'm thinking...if I don't use it all up, I might as well save it because then I don't have to refill it...etc. :P

[Chaoslink]

Pretty much all magic source spells are strong. Anything in the 4 elements is good, though the hydro ones are a bit eh... necro ones are good too. Beyond that, most physical ones are iffy and situational. I don’t use them much myself. Some of the combined skill ones are pretty good too though.

[rasmasyean]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Pretty much all magic source spells are strong. Anything in the 4 elements is good, though the hydro ones are a bit eh... necro ones are good too. Beyond that, most physical ones are iffy and situational. I don’t use them much myself. Some of the combined skill ones are pretty good too though.

lol Just as I read this, I did the Witch Alice Alisceon fight where I used the *Hydro* one from the Source Orb armor thing. She damages everyone, kills one, then I did Equalise, *Mass Cleanse Wounds* (which didn't seem to work on my 2 Undead apparently), and one more Source (the Custom: Dome of Protection). All the rest were traditional damage and CC which killed her in the first shot next turn. She only got that one initial strike before CC'ed. So I didn't actually need those Source heals and probably woulda been better off killing her in the first turn with normal skills so the Pain Aura thing wouldn't hit. Maybe a just use a potion or something for 1 AP on the dead guy.

That seems to be a fault of Hydro in general. Doesn't work on all your party members and I suppose it's logical that you should have an Undead for Deathfog purposes. Add the Source stuff and it's a big waste.

[Chaoslink]

I mean, the heals don't work on your undead because healing undead hurts them. So naturally, that'd be bad.

[mainer]

The one source skill that I use consistently is Bless. Many others are very powerful, but I only use them occasionally depending upon the battle.

[rasmasyean]

Originally posted by dransaw:

The one source skill that I use consistently is Bless. Many others are very powerful, but I only use them occasionally depending upon the battle.

How exactly do you use Bless often? I arm it (in case I need it), but I haven't really found a combat use for it.

Do you Bless cursed surfaces? They won't make new ones?

Bless water to fight on?

I found the status bonus on individuals seems to be "very small" and not worth it. So I never use it like that.

[Player 2]

-chain lightning is very powerfull and you can get the book earlier.

-onslaught+rage

-arrow spay hit hard againts bigger monster at close range

-force exchange+living at the edge, also very effective vs boss

-some source skill from original character also very usefull with low AP needed

[rasmasyean]

Can you like drink Poison potions down your health before casting Forced Exchange on a boss?
That sure seems like an exploit if it works.
Then use Piercing damage I guess. lol

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by rasmasyean:

Can you like drink Poison potions down your health before casting Forced Exchange on a boss?
That sure seems like an exploit if it works.
Then use Piercing damage I guess. lol

Don’t even need to do that. Just hold ctrl and attack your own character. Beat yourself to 1hp then go deathwish and double your damage. Or forced exchange them to nothing and pierce damage to finish.

[rasmasyean]

The "Dagger's Drawn" and and "Onslaught" Source Skills seem like they are only good if you use some type of weapon effect. Like perhaps those "% proc" weapons would increase chance of occurring, right? Is that what it's best used for? And maybe when you cast a weapon enchant?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by rasmasyean:

The "Dagger's Drawn" and and "Onslaught" Source Skills seem like they are only good if you use some type of weapon effect. Like perhaps those "% proc" weapons would increase chance of occurring, right? Is that what it's best used for? And maybe when you cast a weapon enchant?

Don’t even know what daggers drawn does off the top of my head, but onslaught is good when you have guaranteed criticals and damage boosting effects like death with and low health. When you can boost the damage per hit to something insanely high, that ability can basically one shot anything.

[Valrynn the Dragoness]

I haven't found the source skills to be super useful. I mainly stick to a handful.

Bless is handy, but I usually use it more for blessing surfaces in order to get healing or make a cursed surface un-cursed so it can be dealt with, such as necrofire.

Chain lightning I've found to be really strong in most fights.

Thunderstorm is very strong as it lasts for three turns.

Dome of protection can be quite handy if you need to keep people alive, since all people need to be doing is standing in it and it doesn't affect enemies. Even if your party members are knocked down for example they still get armor back.

I also found the healing spells that use source to be quite strong, like mass cleanse wounds or steam lance (which is worse tbh since it cant hit allies behind you and doesnt remove as many statuses)

Grasp of the starve is a pain to set up since you need to use blood rain then cast it, but it does a lot of damage and stops people from moving.

Evasive aura was also very strong for keeping the party alive.


Beyond that I haven't found many of the other ones at my disposal currently to be that useful. Hailstorm is quite strong due to how much ice it puts down, much like in the first game, but since enemies have more movement spells in DOS 2, they don't slip on it as much.

Meteor Shower is nowhere near as strong as it was in the first game, quite inaccurate.

Ethereal storm makes random projectiles target enemies and allies, sometimes healing or damaging...could be interesting but kinda meh. Least it has a cool animation.

Pyroclastic eruption is very strong, but you have to make sure each enemy has a clear line of sight since it's projectiles come from you and not from the sky.

I haven't really used the spells like closed circuit, epidemic of fire, but I think they can be good since they deal lots of damage to targets around you.

[rasmasyean]

How do you use something like "Mass Oily Carapace"? This seems like one of those "combo setup" spells.
Do you like have to carry Oil Barrels around with you and smash them before casting the spell?

[rasmasyean]

Does "Mortal Blow" kill a target with armor? Like if you did were to "Force Exchange" your <20% health and then "Mortal Blow".

[Grottowalker]

Originally posted by rasmasyean:

How do you use something like "Mass Oily Carapace"? This seems like one of those "combo setup" spells.
Do you like have to carry Oil Barrels around with you and smash them before casting the spell?

geo spell for turning liquids into oil

[Chaoslink]

Not really. There’s a spell called turn to oil or something and it’ll convert water to oil. You simply cast rain using hydro characters, then convert the water to oil when necessary and follow up with mass carapace to restore physical armor to your party. Niche, and I’ve never used it much, but you could create a setup that uses it as a physical restore option that also retains the possible use of cryotherapy for magic armor using that same water.

Again, never used these spells myself much, but I could see possible uses for them with the right builds. Not the most efficient way to restore armor, nor too practical given you’d not frequently need the same armor type restored to the whole party at once, but still, it’s an option.