What build would synergise well with a hydrosophist? (Tactician)

[colma]

I'm planning to make my first attempt at tactician difficulty. I'm sure I want to have a hydrosophist as my main character (think fextra's tidalist build). What would be the best build to acompany the hydrosophist? (2x Lone Wolf)

[Alio]

If you're looking at Fextralife builds the Eternal Warrior + Crystalline Cleric are an amazing duo. I'm currently using these two and breezing through a Tactician playthrough like it's ez mode..

[Alio]

Oh and since it's Lone Wolf, you can even throw extra Aerothurge on the cleric for even more lulz.

Throw an extra Rain+Blood Rain on the Eternal Warrior as well. It will come in handy for the Elemental Affinity bonus. Can save you that 1 AP you may need to do a full rotation on magic spells. The warrior usually has 1 AP to spare during his turn.

[MULTIPASS]

I've had fun playing a ranger to support a fire/geo mage, and it would work just as well with hydro. As long as you can get comfortable with crafting/buying elemental arrows, the duo can work surprisingly well.

The damage of your elemental arrows is equal to the physical damage of your basic weapon attack, just converted into an elemental damage type. This means you can build a focused physical damage build (finesse, warfare, ranged, hunts, etc) and your elemental damage will benefit from all the physical scaling as well as critical hits.

Note that the tooltips for elemental damage arrows are incorrect - the damage will appear to scale with the elemental damage skills, when in fact they scale with warfare and finesse. You can confirm this through testing, but basically you need to trust that the damage you get through your basic physical attack is what you will get for your elemental arrows.

For starters, you can craft as many water and poison arrows as you want, using ooze and water barrels placed next to a waypoint. Your ranger can hit targets with pure water damage from the high ground to break armor and apply the wet status before your mage takes their turn. For water resistant enemies, start with poison arrows. Also, poison attacks do not break the frozen status.

Shock arrows are fairly easy to come by - all the "teeth" you find can be made into shock arrowheads, and combining the shock arrows with a water source (barrel or well) will create AOE shock cloud arrows. With the hydro mage making everything wet, your ranger can deal air damage through the broken magic armor and stun everything.

Frost arrows are a bit harder to come by - only through water essences or bought in shops - but they can freeze wet enemies.

Starting in Driftwood, you should shop for arrowheads and shafts, fire/air/water essences, antlers, teeth, and other arrow crafting materials every time you pass through town. All of these items are fairly cheap, especially since you'll have a lot more money as a lone wolf duo.

While you're in Act 2, you should also craft a large supply of charm arrows using the re-usable honey jars you can find throughout the zone. Charm arrowheads are made by combining an arrowhead with a jar of honey - and unlike the rest of the crafting system, you get the empty honey jar back after using it to make the arrow. These can then be refilled at a beehive. You are limited only by the number of arrowheads you can procure, so try to stock up on at least 100 of these before you head to Act 3.

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During Act 1, your supply of special arrows will be a bit thin. By the end of Act 2, I had 75+ poison, water, and charm arrows, and around 30 of all the other types. I was never short on the arrows I needed after reaching Driftwood. When you just need to deal elemental damage to break armor, use poison or water. Save the others to apply status effects after armor is broken or exploit elemental weaknesses.

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Essentially, a lone-wolf ranger is strong enough to solo enemies with low physical armor, and can also deal surprisingly high elemental damage through elemental arrows. They can support hydro by applying wet, stun, and frozen effects using special arrows. Starting in Act 2, you will have access to a very large supply of charm arrows, which are resisted by magic armor and useful in a magic-focused team.

Here is a list of materials to look out for as an arrow-crafting ranger:

* Log, long branch, short stick, arrow shaft
* Arrowhead, sharp rock, sharp piece of metal, bone
* Fire, water, and air essence
* Jar of honey and empty honey jar (Act 2)
* Oil, water, and ooze barrel (put one of each next to a waypoint in town)(oil barrels convert fire arrows to explosive)
* Antler (knockdown arrowhead)
* Tooth (carve into shock arrowheads, then combine with water to make shocking clouds)

[Palumtra]

Necromancer. Apply decaying and blow them up with healing spells. :D

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

Melees with Decay Touch, Rogues have Corrupted Blade which also applies decay.

Use a Ranger, they help a lot, specially knock down arrows, can also help with stuns from shock arrows on wet enemies.

Aero mage, if you're lacking front lines he can take a spot since he will be kinda tanky with Uncanny evasion, will synergize well with hydro and you'll have an extra rain user and small heals.

WARFARE INCREASES THE DAMAGE OF HEALS WHEN AN ENEMY IS DECAYED

I'd probably go for:

Hydromage (You can make it hydro summoner too tbh)
Aero Battlemage (Remember to get bull horns for mobility, can use decay touch since you need 1 necro for vacuum touch)
Ranger
2 Handed Warrior, Rogue, Melee Necromancer (Nothing more satisfying than Decay Touch + Blood Rain + Bloodsucker.

I don't know if healing tears works on decayed enemies, might want to test it. Although from how it's written it seems like it wont, then again healing ritual targets decayed enemies so...

[Chaoslink]

Given that most advice seems to either be suggesting two builds not including the one you’re looking at or suggestions for a 4 man party...

First you want to decide if you want to have all magic or a mix of magic and physical. Both work. If you go for both, having a physical that can adapt to dealing magic when needed it beneficial. Nothing does that better than an archer, particularly elemental archer.

One thing I generally dislike about fextralife builds is that they’re somewhat RP in mind, where you focus on just what that “class” would do. However, with how adaptable the character building is, that tends to make players a bit limiting on what they build. That said, you’re trying to build a Hydro/Aero mage. You’re going to have too many skill points as a lone wolf to just focus Hydro. Aero is the logical pairing because it synergies well with Hydro. So expect to take both.

Beyond that, just about anything pairs with anything when playing lone wolf. You might find a fire mage annoying because of the fire/water conflicts, but beyond that, just about anything will work for you. An archer would be slightly better than other physical builds, but anything can work.

[Alio]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Given that most advice seems to either be suggesting two builds not including the one you’re looking at or suggestions for a 4 man party...

First you want to decide if you want to have all magic or a mix of magic and physical. Both work. If you go for both, having a physical that can adapt to dealing magic when needed it beneficial. Nothing does that better than an archer, particularly elemental archer.

One thing I generally dislike about fextralife builds is that they’re somewhat RP in mind, where you focus on just what that “class” would do. However, with how adaptable the character building is, that tends to make players a bit limiting on what they build. That said, you’re trying to build a Hydro/Aero mage. You’re going to have too many skill points as a lone wolf to just focus Hydro. Aero is the logical pairing because it synergies well with Hydro. So expect to take both.

Beyond that, just about anything pairs with anything when playing lone wolf. You might find a fire mage annoying because of the fire/water conflicts, but beyond that, just about anything will work for you. An archer would be slightly better than other physical builds, but anything can work.

Every reply was a recommendation to what can compliment a hydrosophist character lol.