Elemental Arrowhead tips and how to avoid NPC friendly fire?

[Bacbi]

So just to be honest while I have about 24 hours played I'm still at the very beginning of the game because I'm not very good at it, took me ages to find the right style of play that I liked and the right kind of mods that still makes the game a challenge but gives me quality of life improvements and a bit help. Because I don't like to think about things like inventory management in games like these.

First question is regarding the Elemental Arrowhead skill when I was on the boat I would loot candles so that I could place them on the ground to have easy access to fire arrows, but not been able to do that since I landed on fort joy and besides I can't imagine that is how it's really meant to be played. So could someone give a guide for dummies on how to get the most out of that skill, are there skills I can get that will easily place whatever I need on the ground next to me? It became very obvious that I had been playing it wrong once I entered the battle with Loshe when I placed my main archer on the top to get the bonus damage but I couldn't be of much use until my other party members removed her armor which brings me to my second question.

I had to save scum 15 times during my battle with Loshe simply because the NPC around her would turn on me after they got hit by my attacks. I don't mean I would continue to use firebreath after the first time I noticed that I hadn't aimed it properly, I'm talking I would do certain attacks and then the NPC would walk into it once it was their turn and I'd had to start over because they became non friendly. Is there a friendly attack mod that removes damages to allies or something?

These probably seems like some incredible noobish questions and they are, I really want to get into this game because when I have had moments where I feel like I have a grasp on it. It gives me the same feeling of playing Dragon Age if it had practically unlimited options of ways to play. But it's very much two steps forward once step back and while I have spent quite a few hours looking at guides to help me. Some of the basics I'm still not able to get my head fully around.

[Azor]

Two ways to use efficiently use elemental arrowheads: have a low cost ability that can create a pool to use elemental arrowheads on (flesh sacrifice for elves, breath fire for lizards, rain if you have hydro spells) OR create a pool of some element near your ranger before going to combat (poison, oil, water and blood are permanent so they're your best choices)

If they became hostile that's because
they were neutral, not friendly. Friendly are green, neutrals are yellow. Haven't had much of that issue as it's not hard to not hit neutrals. The AI tends to avoid surfaces so I'm surprised they're walking over fire.

[Azor]

Fossil strike (oil), poison dart (poison), any ice skill (water), vitality damage or blood rain or flesh sacrifice (blood) for permanent surfaces. You can use Ignition (1AP) to turn oil and poison surfaces into fire surfaces. It's better if you have a mage those surfaces, or an elf for blood through flesh sacrifice

[Bacbi]

Originally posted by Azor:

Two ways to use efficiently use elemental arrowheads: have a low cost ability that can create a pool to use elemental arrowheads on (flesh sacrifice for elves, breath fire for lizards, rain if you have hydro spells) OR create a pool of some element near your ranger before going to combat (poison, oil, water and blood are permanent so they're your best choices)

I'm using Ifane cause I wanted to hear the amazing voice acting of my party members so don't have easy access to the first parts of your suggestions. But how do you create a pool of the others that you mentioned? Are we talking about a skill or items like posion or water barrles? Cause if it's a skill and you can give me the name of it I can probably find a mod that will give me access to a signle book I can use in the beginning until I'll be able to find vendors and get enough gold in a legitimate way.


Btw I'm using red prince as a warrior but after my battle with Loshe it occored to me that my entire team will end up doing a lot of AOE damage against him if we are up against a single target. Is it smarter to use red prince as a mage and Fane as a warrior since you could doe AOE poison which would heal fane.

Originally posted by Azor:

If they became hostile that's because
they were neutral, not friendly. Friendly are green, neutrals are yellow. Haven't had much of that issue as it's not hard to not hit neutrals. The AI tends to avoid surfaces so I'm surprised they're walking over fire.

Ok thanks for the clarification, maybe I was just unlucky seeing as there were 3 NPC standing right next to Loshe after she just ran towards one of them and freaked out for some reason which I guess will be explained further down the line.

[Bacbi]

Originally posted by Azor:

Fossil strike (oil), poison dart (poison), any ice skill (water), vitality damage or blood rain or flesh sacrifice (blood) for permanent surfaces. You can use Ignition (1AP) to turn oil and poison surfaces into fire surfaces. It's better if you have a mage those surfaces, or an elf for blood through flesh sacrifice

Thanks I'll try it out, sadly won't be having an elf in the party, Fane, Red Prince, Loshe and sebille seemed like the best characters to me but I wanted them as team mates because of their voice actors and I didn't want to play a rouge. I also heard Sebilles story kinda clashes with Red prince or fane so it would be best to use her on a second playthrough.

[Fightingsnake]

You can have a barrel of oil/poison/water in your inventory (think of the weight, but it's an option) and destroy it in the battle... or throw a bottle of poison or whatever to have a small area of it... or just use a mage with the element that you need ^^ you can train every element to one of your members (I guess level 1 or 2 should be enough) so that they can help you get the element you need, when you need it :D

(I hope it's clear enough... :D)

[Godwoken Dovahkiin]

Don't forget about flesh sacrifice + contaminate. Elves make a lot of builds possible.

[Chaoslink]

It sounds like you’re using all the companions and leaving them as their presets. Don’t. There’s little reason to keep them as their defaults. They don’t have innate stats that make them better at that class and should you change their class, any items, stats and other specifics will change to suit the chosen class. You generally want to change them to build an effective team.

Before I offer further advice, it might help to know specifically what characters you have, what classes they are and why you believe that class fits into your team.

Based on the situation, you might find it preferable to restart. It’ll be easier to determine knowing specifically what you are working with however.

[Bacbi]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

It sounds like you’re using all the companions and leaving them as their presets. Don’t. There’s little reason to keep them as their defaults. They don’t have innate stats that make them better at that class and should you change their class, any items, stats and other specifics will change to suit the chosen class. You generally want to change them to build an effective team.

Before I offer further advice, it might help to know specifically what characters you have, what classes they are and why you believe that class fits into your team.

Based on the situation, you might find it preferable to restart. It’ll be easier to determine knowing specifically what you are working with however.

Main Ifan ranger summon with 1 extra point in scoundrel

Red prince geomancer warfare with 1 extra point in pryo.

Fane pyro geomancer with 1 extra point in necro.

Loshe aoerthurge hydrosophist with one extra point in necro.

Started off with a few extra points then normal thanks to a mod to make the start a bit easier but didn't change my level or anything game breakingly drastic. Just wanted a slight edge in the beginning until I figure more out and I can easily balance it all out with the difficulty mod I have made ready if things should get to easy.

I got the respec mirror so I can easily fix any builds, also a book mod that will give me the early skills if a build doesn't work out kinda like a reroll.

[Chaoslink]

Not quite as detailed as I might like, but its something to work with at least. Just gonna do a once over and offer suggestions based on what I see and assumptions I'll make to fill in the gaps based on what I've seen.

First thing, Ifan. Ranger summoner... Isn't really a thing depending on what you want it to do. Summoning is generally an all-in skill. Because it doesn't get any scaling from an attribute, the only way to make it stronger is to put more points into the summoning skill. It generally barely covers the curve for scaling by the time you can cap it, where it gets a pretty significant power boost. Overall though it has had issues with scaling since release. For most people, it falls off in comparison to basically anything else around level 13-14 and experienced players generally drop summoning for full dedicated builds after that point since attribute scaling starts to out pace summoning. It isn't that it stops being viable, just that its weak in comparison to a fully developed character. I say all this just to make you aware that it isn't a side-skill.

Should you prefer to make Ifan a full Ranger, only three points in huntsman are needed all game. Warfare is your damage stacker, which scales damage for all physical builds better than anything else you can invest. Geo is a good support skill to pick up for this as you can make a Venom Coating book early on (just combine a scoundrel and Geo book via crafting). Venom Coating stacks with your elemental arrowheads ability and adds even more damage to your attacks. When used together with other elemental talents and effects, your ranger can adapt to a magic damage role as needed while still retaining their base physical.

The scoundrel point needed for this can be good for picking up Adrenaline and possibly Chloroform, Cloak and Dagger as well should you put two points into it. You'll have huntsman and Geo, so you can also combine a book from each of those to get Throw Dust, a handy skill that clears all terrain effects (even the hard to get rid of necrofire) and blinds. The blind can be useful for preventing ranged enemies from attacking or lowering the accuracy of other enemies. You'll also be able to grab The Pawn as a talent, which is important for that free reposition AP to help in moments you don't have line of sight to your target.

Red, is somewhat harder to see where you're going with him. I'm assuming that he's a melee of sorts with Geo as a support skill instead of a combat one, same with that Pyro point. That's fine if so. Just don't try the battlemage concept where you split STR and INT trying to make a melee character also deal magic damage. It doesn't work because of the split attributes draining the damage scaling. Beyond that, it seemed you were using most as they come default. If so, then he's a sword/shield user. Something to avoid. Swap to a 2H weapon for better damage, or go dual wield. Should you want to be tankier, invest out of STR and into Finesse instead, then swap the 1H with a dagger and keep the shield. Finesse armor is more balanced and will help keep that magic armor high. The dagger will be able to deal respectable damage unlike a single 1H weapon and it opens you up to both Warfare and Scoundrel abilities. This gives you more mobility (from things like backlash) and CC while helping keep your damage output somewhat high.

As for the last two, it isn't bad. Though you do have conflicting elements on each mage, it can still work. The thing to keep in mind is that Hydro/Aero builds generally benefit the most when all the enemies are wet (from Rain) and the battlefield is mostly water or steam. The water and steam help to apply extra stacks of shock from Aero spells so you don't have to apply it twice for a full Stun. Wet also increases air damage by 20% and water damage by 10% while having something like a 10% reduction of fire damage. On the other side, Fire will clear wet, turn water to steam and when it burns out the resulting smoke should override the steam above it. Burning enemies are weaker to fire by 10%, 15% for necrofire and they gain water damage resistance. Just keep that in mind using these mages.

Some people split it differently and run Aero/Pyro (or Aero/Geo) alongside Hydro/Geo (or Hydro/Pyro) so that each mage uses the element that benefits the other depending on the enemies and their weakness. This works, but offers you less total cooldowns compared to simply running two Pyro/Geo or Aero/Hydro mages. Running two of the same allows for insane damage output but makes you weak when enemies are resistant or immune to those elements. You can instead build three or four element mages, using just about everything, but that puts a heavier need for memory points that can lower your overall damage output and requires Poly pumping for additional INT points for scaling. The respective magic skill says it gives just 5% damage, however, similar to Warfare that damage is added AFTER other things like attributes and weapon skills, meaning stacking your respective element skill is better for damage than INT will be. That said, any of these builds can work should you try them. You're fine to keep them as is too. I'm just offering alternatives in case the conflicting elements prove problematic for you.

Otherwise, your team overall looks fine. These are just my thoughts and suggestions I would offer newer players so they're aware of some basic concepts the game doesn't really teach you. You don't have to change anything because of all this, they're just things to keep in mind when making choices, to help you make the right ones.

[Bacbi]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Not quite as detailed as I might like, but its something to work with at least. Just gonna do a once over and offer suggestions based on what I see and assumptions I'll make to fill in the gaps based on what I've seen.

First thing, Ifan. Ranger summoner... Isn't really a thing depending on what you want it to do. Summoning is generally an all-in skill. Because it doesn't get any scaling from an attribute, the only way to make it stronger is to put more points into the summoning skill. It generally barely covers the curve for scaling by the time you can cap it, where it gets a pretty significant power boost. Overall though it has had issues with scaling since release. For most people, it falls off in comparison to basically anything else around level 13-14 and experienced players generally drop summoning for full dedicated builds after that point since attribute scaling starts to out pace summoning. It isn't that it stops being viable, just that its weak in comparison to a fully developed character. I say all this just to make you aware that it isn't a side-skill.

Should you prefer to make Ifan a full Ranger, only three points in huntsman are needed all game. Warfare is your damage stacker, which scales damage for all physical builds better than anything else you can invest. Geo is a good support skill to pick up for this as you can make a Venom Coating book early on (just combine a scoundrel and Geo book via crafting). Venom Coating stacks with your elemental arrowheads ability and adds even more damage to your attacks. When used together with other elemental talents and effects, your ranger can adapt to a magic damage role as needed while still retaining their base physical.

The scoundrel point needed for this can be good for picking up Adrenaline and possibly Chloroform, Cloak and Dagger as well should you put two points into it. You'll have huntsman and Geo, so you can also combine a book from each of those to get Throw Dust, a handy skill that clears all terrain effects (even the hard to get rid of necrofire) and blinds. The blind can be useful for preventing ranged enemies from attacking or lowering the accuracy of other enemies. You'll also be able to grab The Pawn as a talent, which is important for that free reposition AP to help in moments you don't have line of sight to your target.

Red, is somewhat harder to see where you're going with him. I'm assuming that he's a melee of sorts with Geo as a support skill instead of a combat one, same with that Pyro point. That's fine if so. Just don't try the battlemage concept where you split STR and INT trying to make a melee character also deal magic damage. It doesn't work because of the split attributes draining the damage scaling. Beyond that, it seemed you were using most as they come default. If so, then he's a sword/shield user. Something to avoid. Swap to a 2H weapon for better damage, or go dual wield. Should you want to be tankier, invest out of STR and into Finesse instead, then swap the 1H with a dagger and keep the shield. Finesse armor is more balanced and will help keep that magic armor high. The dagger will be able to deal respectable damage unlike a single 1H weapon and it opens you up to both Warfare and Scoundrel abilities. This gives you more mobility (from things like backlash) and CC while helping keep your damage output somewhat high.

As for the last two, it isn't bad. Though you do have conflicting elements on each mage, it can still work. The thing to keep in mind is that Hydro/Aero builds generally benefit the most when all the enemies are wet (from Rain) and the battlefield is mostly water or steam. The water and steam help to apply extra stacks of shock from Aero spells so you don't have to apply it twice for a full Stun. Wet also increases air damage by 20% and water damage by 10% while having something like a 10% reduction of fire damage. On the other side, Fire will clear wet, turn water to steam and when it burns out the resulting smoke should override the steam above it. Burning enemies are weaker to fire by 10%, 15% for necrofire and they gain water damage resistance. Just keep that in mind using these mages.

Some people split it differently and run Aero/Pyro (or Aero/Geo) alongside Hydro/Geo (or Hydro/Pyro) so that each mage uses the element that benefits the other depending on the enemies and their weakness. This works, but offers you less total cooldowns compared to simply running two Pyro/Geo or Aero/Hydro mages. Running two of the same allows for insane damage output but makes you weak when enemies are resistant or immune to those elements. You can instead build three or four element mages, using just about everything, but that puts a heavier need for memory points that can lower your overall damage output and requires Poly pumping for additional INT points for scaling. The respective magic skill says it gives just 5% damage, however, similar to Warfare that damage is added AFTER other things like attributes and weapon skills, meaning stacking your respective element skill is better for damage than INT will be. That said, any of these builds can work should you try them. You're fine to keep them as is too. I'm just offering alternatives in case the conflicting elements prove problematic for you.

Otherwise, your team overall looks fine. These are just my thoughts and suggestions I would offer newer players so they're aware of some basic concepts the game doesn't really teach you. You don't have to change anything because of all this, they're just things to keep in mind when making choices, to help you make the right ones.

Thanks I'll check out what works for me and respec a few things