Need melee build advice

[Bullett00th]

Doing an Honour mode playthrough with official modifications enabled, including new talents and 8 AP instead of 6.

Our party includes a pure rogue, ranger/summoner, a support mage and a STR melee guy. We all focus on physical damage (I know, boring, tell that to my coop buddies).

I've started trying to build the melee guy around shields but as we all know it's a lost cause, even with the Gladiator talent as it turns out. So now I'm looking for alternatives, given that I don't want a classic 2H Str character because we already had one in a previous playthrough.

An important note is that all of the characters except the Str guy use Glass Cannon, which is absolutely insane with 8 AP per turn. The melee guy only has 4.
Is there any way to make a viable melee guy with glass cannon? And if not, what other options am I looking at? Anything really.


Appreciate any input!

[LukanGamer]

Sort of, ai is easy enough to exploit and they don't always just attack closest guy, but don't care personally for such things.

So just wait for Mr. Min-Max fox to show up and type the "same 5 pages" they typed up countless times. They probably will be helpful.

[12InchParadise]

Lol,
Full party glass Glass Cannon on honour run.
Have fun being stunned/knocked/frozen/shock stunned.
Most of the AI can see your resistance weaknesses.

I had a Glass Cannon rogue locked for 11 turns.

Tell me how far you guys will get.
My bet is lvl 4.

[Chaoslink]

I mean, that 8AP mod is broken overpowered. Especially with Glass Cannon. If you’re not using the talent as well, of course you will feel useless by comparison. You might be better off just playing a support role to cure CC your party shouldn’t ever get since nothing should really get a turn with all that AP they have.

[Chaoslink]

The other problem is that melee kinda sucks in this game. Aside from the two handed setup, no other strength build is going to be all that good without the team all changing to support you, which I doubt they’ll do.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by 12InchParadise:

Lol,
Full party glass Glass Cannon on honour run.
Have fun being stunned/knocked/frozen/shock stunned.
Most of the AI can see your resistance weaknesses.

I had a Glass Cannon rogue locked for 11 turns.

Tell me how far you guys will get.
My bet is lvl 4.

we're at 13 right now

no I'm not kidding. it was originally a throwaway playthrough but here we are, and many milestones we thought would be our party wipe have been dealt with.
granted again that my melee guy isn't glass cannon, but with his AP he might as well have not participated in half the battles at all.

hence my considering doing the mad move)

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

I mean, that 8AP mod is broken overpowered. Especially with Glass Cannon. If you’re not using the talent as well, of course you will feel useless by comparison. You might be better off just playing a support role to cure CC your party shouldn’t ever get since nothing should really get a turn with all that AP they have.

not even dual wield?

[Chaoslink]

Not even dual wield. That setup is better as a hybrid damage with Sparking Swings. It’ll give you a bit more damage, sure, but you’ll still not compete with half the AP as your allies.

Many players felt like 8AP was quality of life or should’ve been baseline. It shouldn’t have and is very much broken. If you’re not a glass cannon, nothing you do is going to fix that inadequacy you feel compared to your allies with that mass AP boost above you. Even a two handed build wouldn’t feel that relevant.

[Pyromus]

Run a dual wielder with 2 swords, looking for cleave damage as a top priority. Get 2 points in pyro. Craft the Master of Sparks skillbook. Grab glass cannon and executioner. Profit.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Not even dual wield. That setup is better as a hybrid damage with Sparking Swings. It’ll give you a bit more damage, sure, but you’ll still not compete with half the AP as your allies.

Many players felt like 8AP was quality of life or should’ve been baseline. It shouldn’t have and is very much broken. If you’re not a glass cannon, nothing you do is going to fix that inadequacy you feel compared to your allies with that mass AP boost above you. Even a two handed build wouldn’t feel that relevant.

good point. the 8AP thing should have also had the base combat AP increased to 6 then probably

Originally posted by Pyromus:

Run a dual wielder with 2 swords, looking for cleave damage as a top priority. Get 2 points in pyro. Craft the Master of Sparks skillbook. Grab glass cannon and executioner. Profit.

sounds like a plan!
might consider getting 2 into aero for the dodge spell

[Chaoslink]

The only problem with the sparks build is that it deals magic damage in an all physical team. Go Glass Cannon and you have no backup character in the event a party wide CC might affect you. Could be run ending. Also, as soon as you pick GC and go into melee range, you’re the only person anything will focus. You’ll spend most of your time CCd. The only thing I can recommend there is have first initiative. Make sure you’re the first one in your party to act.

[StuckInWashingMachine]

I know there is a youtuber who did honor as a lone wolf solo knight. In my time of trying it out, i just used alot of cheese tactics that involved exploiting the AI's few flaws. Often delaying turn when it makes sense to via using abilities such as campelion cloak, and uncanny evasion.
I can't help but notice that fane's time warp is the only ability that support physical based offensive builds. You can probably make something out of sebile's unchained but, that seems like something a character on the more tanky side would use.
All the other characters sort of deal with magic damage.
Ifan's spirit wolf is a bit useless imo.
But fane's time warp if you spend alot of time planning out ambush attacks, keep in mind melee users have alot of AOE. You have bullrush, battering ram, battle stomp, whirlwind, and cripling blow. I dont really include tentical lash because that move doesnt work with enrage... which you should utilize alot.
Also keep in mind that crippling blow does about the same damage as your all in attack for only 2 AP. it also has a small AOE, if the enemy is standing next to the attacked character, it'll usually work. Teleportation skill is helpfull with this.
You have a few options in gaining more action points. Enter the combat and survive the one guy that is after you. Remember that divinity's intiative process works so that only one person on each team can go at a time, meaning that if you just dont care about witts and max out strength, there will only be one person after you in a solo build. You can just examine all the enemies, that extra action point really comes in handy. find the guy with most initiative and move to other side of battle field from him to gain the upper hand.

You can also use things like adrenaline, and use fane's mask to turn into an elf and have blood sacrifice as another option.
I also like having a single teammate partner in lone wolf have skills such as encourage, and the pyromancy skills. Clear mind, and haste... especially haste. Haste works so well when you give it to your character before the battle starts. And the other buffs, give that little edge. Idk maybe you need like 10 or so more damage to just break even and destroy enough enemy armor in a few amount of turns.

It's a bit cheating, but hey. Still impressive.

Hell even just use formentioned camelion cloak, to stop AI in their tracks, end turn twice, then delay turn to get two free moves after one another. You can also use uncanny evasion. Just make sure you use a bunch of manipulation such as movement or whatever you AEO all the enemies with massive damage and knock down status.

You can do things like cloak and dagger, or teleport aerothurg skill to manipulate alot of situations into your favor.

Good luck.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Kitty:

It's a bit cheating, but hey. Still impressive.

I don't see any of what you've described as cheating TBH.
The game's build open-endedness means you can build both an unreasonably bad and an unreasonably good char.

What I do consider as cheating is buffing allies in-dialogue because the status effect timers are paused and you can enter the combat fully buffed. And yes I exploit the heck out of that)

[Palumtra]

If you kill or hard CC enemies before they could take their turns then you don't have to worry about their damage and CC. You can pre buff, use "evasion" (play dead, invisibility, smoke screen/nade) to prevent enemies from hitting you.
Glass Cannon also makes Adrenaline even more broken because it gives you max AP regardless of any modifiers.
Any physical damage dealer should go for Warfare first, along with their main attribute (Str/Fin/Int) because it will scale so well even early on, only put points into your secondary/utility (Huntsman, Scoundrel, Pyro, etc) once Warfare is maxxed, and don't bother with the other combat skills (Dual Wield, Two handed etc).
Ranger is by far one of the best damage dealer in the game next to Necromancer, dont build them as a "hybrid". You want Elemnetal Arrowheads used on simple blood surfaces (be an elf or hit your characters a bit to create pools of blood, or if you run Necromancer as well use Blood Rain) and Ballistic shot, keep your weapons on level and keep yourself buffed with Peace of Mind, Teleport/Swap for Utility, Invisibility (Chameleon Cloak),Tactical Retreat/Cloak and Dagger, Adrenaline and Skin Graft for utility and more burst
Rogue is the same with daggers: Crippling Blow can backstab multiple foes same as whirlwind and fan of knives, and Onslaught can be used to a devastating single target burst. You want Peace of Mind and teleports here too, same utility stuff. He can also knock down multiple foes with Battle Stomp.
Support mage: Two ways: Either reroll for Necro or Geomancer to deal damage, or max Wits to ensure you always come first and use Torturer coupled with Worm Tremor to immobilize enemies sot hey can't reach others. Healing is pointless in general, use potions if needed but otherwise it's better to evade or cc/kill enemies.
Str guy: 2 Handed or 2x 1 handed, 2 handed is overall better. Don't try to be a tank, it doesn't work in this game, especially on Tactician. Use him for damage and CC.

Since your armor values don't worth a damn go for main stats always (Warfare for physical, and main Attribute, Wits and Initiative on others)
4 Man full glass cannon run is viable and doable but does not really allow fun builds on Tactician/Honour mode.

[cl656]

My melee advice is to not use melee. Range allows you to use the high ground bonuses, you won't waste AP closing the gap to get to enemies, and there is literally no downside to using range. melee would only be useful, if ranged weapons took a penalty to their accuracy or damage, if the enemy was too close. The advantage of range is just too good.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by cool-dude:

My melee advice is to not use melee. Range allows you to use the high ground bonuses, you won't waste AP closing the gap to get to enemies, and there is literally no downside to using range. melee would only be useful, if ranged weapons took a penalty to their accuracy or damage, if the enemy was too close. The advantage of range is just too good.

we already have a ranger and a mage and a rogue

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

we already have a ranger and a mage and a rogue

Then why play a 3rd physical damage dealer instead of adding a 2nd magic dealer?
2 mages can combo off of each other.
e.g. one max geo with medium pyro. the other one max pyro with some geo. Surface explosion damage should scale with both levels, the one who created the surface and the one who triggers it with their spell.
(If a geo 10 creates an oil surfaces and pyro 10 explodes it you should get a "lvl 20" explosion.)