Tips for tactician mode?

[GansitoSlim]

I'm playing through this for the first time. I started my game in Tactician Mode because I've played through a lot of brutal strategy RPGs before (Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2)

I already hit level 7 and I'm about to leave the island so maybe I'm asking this a bit late. But what should I know to make completing the game possible?

[Yojo0o]

Most immediately relevant tip: Fully clear the act, explore every corner. This game has a finite amount of XP to gain, so you don't want to rush through it, especially on harder difficulties. Act 1 is very reasonably ended at level 8, so if you're level 7 and have the opportunity to leave, you've missed some stuff.

Other than that... focus on offense over defense. You don't want to be trading blows in this game. Strong offensive scaling means you can consistently destroy enemy armor, which means you can consistently land turn-denying hard crowd control effects on enemies, which means they don't get a chance to touch you, which means your armor remains intact, which means they don't get to deny turns to you. More damage = more turns = more wins.

[Chaoslink]

Hit level 8 before leaving the island since you'll want to level up on the ship to 9.

That's a start anyhow.

Team comp and how you build them make the biggest difference. Even if your team feels good up to now, the scaling is about to kick in real time and if you're not investing in good places or have a good synergy between characters, you might find yourself struggling.

Congrats on getting through the tutorial though. The first act is basically one big one.

We can go into details with your team if you wish, you'll have infinite free respecs on the ship once you're out to change things up. I wouldn't try to change your team if you don't wish to, I'm fully willing to tweak your current setup to work better if that's all you prefer. Just know that some builds don't really agree with Tactician too much and others I'd recommend against (though they can still be very viable for completing the game, they're just not ideal).

It isn't a min/max thing necessarily, though knowing what min/max looks like is VERY helpful for understanding how to tweak your team to work best.

For example, were you aware that your Rogue should be stacking Warfare above all else? Same goes for your archer too. Warfare. You also want to avoid the weapon skills like Ranged or Two-Handed as well as the Defensive skills like Retribution or Leadership. They just don't scale like you think they might and aren't worth it unless you can stack them to max (the defensive ones specifically there).

Tanks are also something I recommend against simply because this game favors offense over defense. You want damage dealers that hurry to break armor and CC their targets fast. You need to tip the action economy in your favor as fast as possible since you'll never be able to just trade blows. Damage evasion is better than mitigation, which is better than absorbing damage. This means you want to use Invisibility or evasion for avoiding damage primarily, resistance potions afterwards. The last thing you want to rely on is Healing and Armor Restoration spells. If you can not take damage, that's the best, otherwise lower the damage being dealt. Just healing it after its taken is the worst method. Go down that route and you start to lose more and more AP to defense and the enemy wins the action economy and usually wins in the end.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Most immediately relevant tip: Fully clear the act, explore every corner. This game has a finite amount of XP to gain, so you don't want to rush through it, especially on harder difficulties. Act 1 is very reasonably ended at level 8, so if you're level 7 and have the opportunity to leave, you've missed some stuff.

I'll note that you don't actually need to get every scrap of experience in a min/max sense, you just don't want to skip questlines if you don't need to. If you lack any quests, just explore. There's always something you miss. Even I miss things and learn new things after having played some 1000 hours.

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Most immediately relevant tip: Fully clear the act, explore every corner. This game has a finite amount of XP to gain, so you don't want to rush through it, especially on harder difficulties. Act 1 is very reasonably ended at level 8, so if you're level 7 and have the opportunity to leave, you've missed some stuff.

I'll note that you don't actually need to get every scrap of experience in a min/max sense, you just don't want to skip questlines if you don't need to. If you lack any quests, just explore. There's always something you miss. Even I miss things and learn new things after having played some 1000 hours.

Yeah, that's a better way of putting it.

You don't need to 100% clear the act, but there shouldn't be large unexplored areas on the map when you change acts.

[Senki]

Tactician can actually feel like the ''normal mode'' of the game as long as you have decent builds so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Other than what builds to make the tips are the usual like in any other rpg. Don't skip too much exp, keep your gear updated and don't try to fight enemies that are too high level unless you're confident.

One very important tip is have at least one character with high wits and always try to get the first turn in a fight. Getting a first turn in this game can instantly win the fight often.

Also never keep your party grouped up in places that might look like a combat arena/ambush. Or against enemies that look extremely dangerous. They can have very dangerous AOE spells.

[squat_instructor]

The main tip regardless of your builds/approach - disable autosave in the menu, it alone can screw you up big time

I would suggest going double LW party, with both characters having every possible 'cheat death' tool you can get, namely:
- 'Death Wish' skill
- 'Comeback Kid' talent
- Resurrection Idol
- Chamaleon Cloak + invis potions
- Five Star Diner + resist/dodge potions to get 100% effect

Prebuff as much as possible, always try to get tons of initiative to go first and deny enemy turns completely with CC. You can also load your save preemptively when you feel like something is going wrong + remember you can flee combat

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Senki:

Also never keep your party grouped up in places that might look like a combat arena/ambush. Or against enemies that look extremely dangerous. They can have very dangerous AOE spells.

Yeah, this is a good one. I assume you may have dealt with Radeka the Witch? Its a good example, walking into the back of a cave which the map clearly might show is a dead end. Combat is very likely there, so instead of keeping your party chained together and walking up to her in a clump, you should separate them all and have your ranged characters take positions on the high ground around the room and such. Spread out a bit and even consider putting surface effects like oil on chokepoints to slow the enemy trying to approach you.

Even many of the "ambush" fights where enemies just pop out of nowhere and fight you can be predicted if you're watching the area carefully and thinking about all the details of the area around you. The game (in my opinion at least) was designed around a party of four players, not singleplayer. So the concept of the party always being chained in a 4 man clump is often detrimental to the solo player. Make sure you're starting as few combats as possible as a clump unless you have a reason to do so.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by squat_instructor:

The main tip regardless of your builds/approach - disable autosave in the menu, it alone can screw you up big time

I would suggest going double LW party, with both characters having every possible 'cheat death' tool you can get, namely:
- 'Death Wish' skill
- 'Comeback Kid' talent
- Resurrection Idol
- Chamaleon Cloak + invis potions
- Five Star Diner + resist/dodge potions to get 100% effect

Prebuff as much as possible, always try to get tons of initiative to go first and deny enemy turns completely with CC. You can also load your save preemptively when you feel like something is going wrong + remember you can flee combat

Sounds more like you're advising for Honor mode rather than just Tactician.

I also can't say I agree with randomly suggesting a level 7 party change to lone wolf. If the OP is already playing a 4 man party, there's no reason to switch off that just because its easier to play lone wolf or anything. Technically speaking, 4 man parties are stronger through just the mathematics of action economy and damage scaling anyhow.

[squat_instructor]

oh, that's right, I was thinking Honor for some reason

on the subject of LW, I just think having more AP per character gives you better opportunities to get out of tricky situations if they happen and less management, which is probably a 'me' issue

[canuck250]

Originally posted by squat_instructor:

oh, that's right, I was thinking Honor for some reason

on the subject of LW, I just think having more AP per character gives you better opportunities to get out of tricky situations if they happen and less management, which is probably a 'me' issue

There is always the adren>skin graft>adren for big turns if needed for those tricky situations.

[surreptitious]

make sure you hit lvl 9 before leaving island.
Before you go .....

Go to the well one time too many!
Trust me

Each character can use the wishing well 5 times by using shape change helm, use every npc , you will have 20+ lvl9 rings and 20+ lvl 9 belts