Good party compositions / builds?

[profestus]

I completed DOS 2 DE several years ago, somehow, on classic mode. Now I want to do it again but I forgot some of the combat mechanics and skills.

I need an approachable party composition that guarantees victory if played right on classic mode. I heard there are some like 4 summoners, 4 physical tanks, 4 rangers, 2/2 phys/mag etc.

Thanks.

[Yojo0o]

Playing four of anything sounds really boring to me. Plus, the gear and skill book competition would be miserable.

I'm a bit unclear on what you're looking for. If you just need a good party comp, then a 2/2 physical/magical split, a quadruple physical party, or double physical or double magical Lone Wolf duos will all take you to victory. All you really need to be avoiding are awkward 3/1 splits, dedicated healers/tanks, that sort of thing.

[Chaoslink]

Personally, my favorite team setup is both effective and fun to play.

Character 1, Elemental Ranger. You can search "Elemental Ranger" on the forum here for a dozen or more posts I've made on the build for details. The short version is, elf is ideal but not required. You basically just build a standard archer but take 1 Geo and 1 Scoundrel and make the crafted spell using books from each one, Venom Coating. Then you apply that, Elemental Arrowheads and all the magical effects and buffs you can anywhere you can. This build deals magic and physical damage at the same time.

Character 2. Rogue. This is your support character. They'll avoid combat early in fights and focus on helping the team be more efficient. They'll cast whatever magic you need based on the elements of your mages in order to set up their Elemental Affinity effects and play damage control as the enemy moves in on your team.

Character 3 and 4. Both will be similar mages using similar elements. Typically either Aero/Hydro or Pyro/Geo, you'll want them both to use the same elements so your rogue can more easily set them up turn 1. Nothing fancy here, just build them normally. I typically have one mage focus Aero and one Focus Hydro (or Pyro/Geo if you pick those instead) so each feels slightly different, but you still take both elements on each mage.

Its a very effective team, works well, is quite fun and is one I've played through the game with more than once.

[profestus]

Thank you! I'll consider your suggestion when making my party. Can I do all physical - 2 fighters, 2 crossbows - with ranged characters being more supportive? For example they use magic only for statuses and buffs while melee fighters focus on doing damage.

[Veritas]

either go all physical or 2 and 2. or 2 lone wolves both doing magic or physical. not following this strictly can be fun for RP purposes sure but the game is just not balanced in a way to support hybridized character builds well (even the Sparks builds have issues, as lots in the game is immune to fire).

I don't recommend 4 magic classes because there's already a huge lack of good itemization for them in DE on top of mages being weaker. The best "wands" for them all game aren't even wands, they're The Illuminator for its +1 Pyrokinetic and 10% crit chance along with the Fang of the Winter Dragon which is anohter 10% crit chance statstick with bonus hydro and int

the exception are rangers, as elemental arrow damage scales up based on your base physical damage anyway, so they are already really good at both damage types without any magic skills.

[baggybaf]

Originally posted by ordinary_person:

Thank you! I'll consider your suggestion when making my party. Can I do all physical - 2 fighters, 2 crossbows - with ranged characters being more supportive? For example they use magic only for statuses and buffs while melee fighters focus on doing damage.

if you have already finished the game, try a 50/50 build

with two rangers you can alternate magic and physical damage so it's still very good but be careful because a physical build requires having weapons at the level and so you will need the same build twice each time and it's a little binding.
try to take a rogue rather than two build forces which are less strong except at the end of the game.
if you take mages with a 50/50 build, 1 strength build is a good choice because there are a lot of very interesting compatible poly skills, in particular Medusa Head and Flay Skin.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by ordinary_person:

Thank you! I'll consider your suggestion when making my party. Can I do all physical - 2 fighters, 2 crossbows - with ranged characters being more supportive? For example they use magic only for statuses and buffs while melee fighters focus on doing damage.

Archers would be dealing far more damage, you'd be better off making the melee supportive. However, with no good access to magic damage there, you'd struggle to find uses for spells to apply statuses with. The armor system in the game requires you deal damage of a type to make enemies vulnerable to status effects of that type.

Better to include proper mages for that.

Keep in mind, mages make the best "tanks" simply because there's little downside to equipping them with wand and shield. They don't use their weapons really, so having the single weapon and shielded off hand doesn't have much effect on them as well as their armor and the shield giving them the best balanced armor profile. You don't want a weapon and shield character using strength really. Even dagger and shield is FAR superior despite it still being a relatively weak build.

[profestus]

I heard 4 summoners is a good build but it's boring, how boring is it?

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by ordinary_person:

I heard 4 summoners is a good build but it's boring, how boring is it?

The buff animations that you absolutely *need* to cast on each summoned incarnate take quite a long time. It can be tedious enough with just one Summoner, adding three more would be quite tedious indeed. Not to mention that Summoning is really strong early game, but less so late game. The only strength it has later on is that the number of opponents can confuse the AI.

[Yojo0o]

I find ONE summoner to be boring as hell. Playing four seems miserable.

[Spicy Camel]

Aren't 4 summoners like 0 CC composition? Sounds more like challenge run, than actual strong setup.

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by Spicy Camel:

Aren't 4 summoners like 0 CC composition? Sounds more like challenge run, than actual strong setup.

Summoners dip into all elements, so they still have access to teleport + worm tremor, electric incarnates and lightning totems. Summoning 4+ of these each turn should provide quite a bit of cc. ;)

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by ordinary_person:

I heard 4 summoners is a good build but it's boring, how boring is it?

Because it's always the same.
Incarnate, Adrenaline, (Farsight) Infusion, (Power) Infusion, (Other) Infusion, (even more) Infusion and if you play an Elf you can add Blood Sacrifice and yet another Infusion.
So it's pretty much the same 6-7 spells just to get an Incarnate out and you'll do this 4 times in a row every single fight.
Of course you can get some variety by setting up a different elemental surface each fight for the other 3...
After act 1 with only 1 summoner I couldn't take it anymore and just went back to the ship reskill.

[Ilúvatar]

I completed tactician recently with a party comp of:

- Summoner Ranger - Sebille
- Summoner Elementalist - Red Prince
- Death Knight/Eternal Warrior - Beast
- Assassin - Fane

It went OK. I did have to use res scroll reloads into the ashen idols, but not that often. The key is to pick common cross build skills that you definitely need no matter your build, so adrenaline, tact retreat, phoenix dive etc etc

My next play-through on tactician honour mode is coming up in a few weeks, and the comp will be:

- Summoner Elementalist Lone Wolf - Sebille
- Summoner Eternal Warrior Tank Lone Wolf- Fane

I have no idea if this is going to work, but we try, and we learn.

[Rokalm]

full tank summoner with retribution x 4 all living armour and comeback kid