Rebuilding Lohse - What to do with her?

[David Davidson]

So after doing about everything on Reaper's eye and doing a fair amount of combat the character I like the least is my avatar character, Lohse.
I have Fane as a geomancer and TRP as a pyromancer with Sebille being a ranger, with everyone being able to summon something (incarnate for everyone else but Lohse who summons the kitty) for everyone except Lohse.
I started as a witch with Lohse and I almost never use her necromancy skills. Maybe I'm playing wrong but they just seem pretty anemic, or else they affect everyone in one area (disease for example) then other skills like the one that bonds your vitality to the vitality of an enemy so as you take damage they take damage just makes the AI refuse to attack me.

I like the whole sneaky stabby rogue part so I'll probably keep that but does anyone have a good idea of what I should have her second specialty be? Summoning maybe then remove some of the summoning points from TRP and/or Fane and have Lohse summon totems, incarnates and buff them as well as using dual daggers and rogue skills.

Or do you think there's a better, different direction to go in. I know that two specialties usually compliment eachother, such as geo and pyro or aero and hydro but I'm not sure what I should do with Lohse.

[Knightmage Bael]

I've been curious about making Sebille and archer rogue for my next game.

I took Ben, Lohse, and Sebille with me, so obviously in my case that means I can't chose the others for the rest of the game lol.

As I understand Ben is originally an archer? I turned him into a knight and he does insane damage lol.

Lohse for me is an Aero/Hydro build. Her healing has done wonders, but her electricity and ice damage is starting to skyrocket quite a bit. I've half a mind to chose the perk that gives her max AP per turn at the cost of shielding lol, then pick up the crit perk and the executioner for just laying on damage constantly.

If I do that though I'd NEED skingraft from polymorph or I'd have all my skills on cooldown. I'd also need some more wits in this case to have a larger variety of skill to unload haha.

Fane is great for the geomancer/acid/pyro build. I've seen Fextralife do a build that has him just melt through people's armor. The problem with Fane is that poison surface hurts the other party members standing near him too, which is not ideal in a lot of narrow corridor fights. I'm not sure how to handle that tactically so I didn't pick him up.

If anyone here is an expert with Fane, I'd love to know how they handle him with poison surfaces and everything in combination with the rest of the team.

[David Davidson]

I got into the part between act 1 and 2 fighting dallis on the lady vengeance and we got totally wiped out. Lohse was the first to go. I swapped some points necro to summoner and learned the skills (skills cost money after all) but I'm not sure if it was luck or the totems that saved me.

A good Lohse level 8 build would be great, as her witch build is really lacking.

I suppose I could have diseased the large group of enemies, though before I respecced her she wasn't all that powerful.

Any suggestions for that fight or should I try Lohse out as a summoner? I know that's really Ifan's thing but he won't be in my party this time.

Also if a character dies in that specific battle (and are in your party) are they permadead unless rezzed on the sootz? if you don't res them before it auto resolves, or do they just show back up after alive and well?

[Omertoso]

Have you leveled up Warfare for Lohse? Note that the Necromancer ability only affects the healing you get from damaging Vitality, not the damage of the skills. Warfare boosts physical damage. I'm willing to bet this is why Lohse deals no damage with her Necromancer skills.

Shackles of Pain is kind of unwieldy because enemies tend to not attack that person, yeah. Sometimes enemies will when it's all nice and dandy, but you can't really predict it. With that said, you can always damage yourself, if you want to deal damage that way.

Have your summons been doing damage? I have only tried pure summoners, so I don't know how combining with something else would go, though. I'd imagine they aren't dealing much damage, but maybe I'm wrong.

The black cat doesn't really deal much damage, and in my opinion is only useful early in the game when you don't have many teleportation skills.

You could always keep Lohse as a pure Scoundrel. Level up Warfare for physical damage boost and Scoundrel for better backstab damage (not sure which gives the bigger damage boost). One point to Polymorph for Chameleon Cloak, too. Having four summoners with their own specialty sounds pretty cool, though. However, if any of your characters are dealing sub-optimal damage, Summoning should be the first to go.

One more word of advice: There are three attributes that affect damage output: Strength, Finesse and Intelligence. Choose one, and stick with it; don't divide points on Finesse and Intelligence, for example, which the Witch class does. You seem to be fine on the other characters, though, but if you're going to get rid of Summoning, stay with abilities that benefit from the attribute you have chosen.

As for your last question, I haven't really tested it, but I'm willing to bet the dead characters currently in your party stay with you when the fight ends. I mean, it'd be pretty trolly if they just made them die along the rest of them and then you'd only have three characters, forcing you to hire a mercenary who aren't the most lore-friendly people.

[David Davidson]

Originally posted by Foreigner:

Have you leveled up Warfare for Lohse? Note that the Necromancer ability only affects the healing you get from damaging Vitality, not the damage of the skills. Warfare boosts physical damage. I'm willing to bet this is why Lohse deals no damage with her Necromancer skills.

Shackles of Pain is kind of unwieldy because enemies tend to not attack that person, yeah. Sometimes enemies will when it's all nice and dandy, but you can't really predict it. With that said, you can always damage yourself, if you want to deal damage that way.

Have your summons been doing damage? I have only tried pure summoners, so I don't know how combining with something else would go, though. I'd imagine they aren't dealing much damage, but maybe I'm wrong.

The black cat doesn't really deal much damage, and in my opinion is only useful early in the game when you don't have many teleportation skills.

You could always keep Lohse as a pure Scoundrel. Level up Warfare for physical damage boost and Scoundrel for better backstab damage (not sure which gives the bigger damage boost). One point to Polymorph for Chameleon Cloak, too. Having four summoners with their own specialty sounds pretty cool, though. However, if any of your characters are dealing sub-optimal damage, Summoning should be the first to go.

One more word of advice: There are three attributes that affect damage output: Strength, Finesse and Intelligence. Choose one, and stick with it; don't divide points on Finesse and Intelligence, for example, which the Witch class does. You seem to be fine on the other characters, though, but if you're going to get rid of Summoning, stay with abilities that benefit from the attribute you have chosen.

As for your last question, I haven't really tested it, but I'm willing to bet the dead characters currently in your party stay with you when the fight ends. I mean, it'd be pretty trolly if they just made them die along the rest of them and then you'd only have three characters, forcing you to hire a mercenary who aren't the most lore-friendly people.

Thanks. I'll try a few different combinations with Lohse. Her summoned incarnates and totems did a little damage, however the biggest boon they have is drawing attention away from enemies who just try and kill them while ignoring you.


I'll have to find something that works with her as witch just doesn't seem to work all that well. Probably because I've put almost all my points into finesse too. Two mages a ranger and a rogue sounds like such a boring party selection though, which is why I wanted Lohse to do something a little different.

[Knightmage Bael]

The fight on the Lady Vengeance is literally just a "heal Malady and keep her alive" fight. If you keep her alive long enough, you'll win by default, because she channels some super powerful sourcery that wins you the fight haha.

Dallis is far too strong I don't expect anyone's actually managed to kill her. Unless you threw like 20 explosive barrels at her? IDK even then. There's a couple soldiers on the Lady Vengeance I'd have like to have saved, but it was too much to handle. Keeping Gareth and Malady alive alone was hard for me, since the AI hyperfocused Gareth and killed him within two turns, or hyper focused Malady and killed her with two turns. I couldn't divide up attacks and defense abilities, and when I did, they still lost.

I basically had to just RR that fight and hope to get lucky. I dunno Larian seems to make some of their fights unnecessarily difficult.

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soapbox moment:

I've noticed specific spells, sourceries, etc, that are just there for "lol plot". Some of these abilities and things don't feel right because it messes with the game's balance in a "well if this exist why doesn't everyone use it?" sort of way.

Its why I prefer Dark Souls. Enemy stats follow the game's own rules. They don't get a bs stat spread of 27 across the board at level 13, they don't have an ability that instantly kills you, or an ability that chain cc-webs you to drag you somewhere else, etc. Enemies all have stamina, resistances, weaknesses, stats that make sense, and follow the rules. Its balanced, and there's a way to over come every problem, instead of just "lol plot"

The fight in the cavern with the four voidwoken that chain-web you is unavoidable and uncounterable and exists for the sake of a plot. I don't like it because if it exists, then it would be in widespread use considering how powerful it is.

Multiple enemies have different quest-objective-related-skills that knock you out or would kill you to force an outcome. I don't like this either.

Tough enemies? Bring 'em on. I welcome tough enemies. FromSoft bosses are MERCILESS. Sword Saint Isshin is brutal, but doable, and follows the game's rules. You can beat it with skill. You don't need luck or a plot device. Same with Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls, or Darkeater Midir and Slaveknight Gael in Dark Souls 3. Even Sister Friede obeys the in game rules.

Games need to make their own rules, then FOLLOW them, not make quest specific spells or abilities or stats for the sake of a quest. It makes the game feel incredibly contrived, and its a big issue I see with many studios, not just Larian. It turns me away from Larian's games quite heavily, and its a trend I'm noticing a lot.

Breaking your own game's rules for the sake of the story is bad writing and should be avoided.