4-Man Honor Mode: Best Hybrid Physical Damage Build

[Silverborn]

After trying for a few hundred hours I've finally come to the last fight with a new party on Honor Mode. Current build: https://steamcommunity.com/app/435150/discussions/3/1620599015881184508/

Probably going to finish it today, but no victory yet, my last run stranded there as well.

But as this game starts starts getting easier towards the ending, The best parts of gameplay are around Act 2. Act 2 probably tests your build to the max, survive it and you know you are set.

So I've tried a LOT of builds already, and something kinda sunk in. Why not combine a Mage and Melee build combined? But... without losing effectifness against both types of armor. Because my current run has MAJOR hickups against bosses with fire ressistance and 'mage bosses' are a pain in my♥♥♥♥♥because they won't go down. Or fights where you would have needed magic, but it ain't there.

It's a physical damage party, but with a twist and gives some room for spell damage on some fights. This build is for total balance gamewide with survivability over powerhouses. This isn't pure min/maxing, this is building a cheese-free build that is fun and ressiliant.

So this is my result:

Paladin:

Skilltree: Hydro - Necro - Warfare
Class: Support / off-tank
(Best race: Elf, can be undead)
You can go both off-tank or wand+shield build with this one.

Both stats scale from intelligence. Best played by an Elf, because of the free blood puddle with Sacrifice. All heals are outwards, all necro spells inwards. Meaning self healing and healing others are your main job. But you can CC and damage others as well. If needed, Hydro offers great spells for magic damage. Also wise to put one point in Geo so you can Fortify when you get Decay. This character fights in the front. Shackles and Provoke are mean as a rabit dog. So this build can become crazy strong the more you spend time with it.

Gear:
Stack a little strength through gear (enough to wear strength gear). Balance out light and heavy armor so you have flexibility what gear to wear.

Gear isn't a super high priority. Most important stats are the Shield Stats

Top 3 Talents:
1)Elemental Affinity
2)Mnemonic
3)Stench

Why?
Elemental Affinity makes all spells from Necro and Hydro insanely cheap and easy to rotate. Meaning... the damage you lose from stats makes up for it with the optimalized combination. Stench makes you less of a target, meaning more health. Provoke (taunt) suddenly becomes interresting because this character doesn't take aggro that much and often has higher health. Self heals are amazing to heal back up once done.

Summoner:

Skilltree: Summoner - Hydro - Aero - Leadership
Class: Damage Dealer - Support
You are mainly a damage dealer and support with this build

Very easy build. First get summoning to 10 with 1 point in Hydro for some basic heals and magic armor. Once you hit summoning 10, spend points in every school to get all supportive spells. This character lets their Incarnate and totems rack up ALL the damage, never attacks herself. Also... Bone Widow from Necromancer is absolutely insane with high summoner skill. Great backup if your incarnate dies. Also, a few points in Hydro to make use of all the healing spells. They won't be as strong as the heals from the Paladin, but the summoner can help healing in the 3rd turn.

Aero is only used for 2 teleporting spells. Cannot be missed.

Also.. Put one point in Scoundrel for Adrenaline. You can summon a totem, your incarnate and buff it in the first turn (maximum damage) and place another totem in the second. Hands down, best rotation ever.

Gear:
Really up to you, summoning gear has priority over everything else. Leadership next. This character won't do any damage herself, aside from some early game finishers.

Top 3 Talents:
1)Mnemonic
2)Stench
3)All Skilled up

Why?
Talents are kinda waisted on the Summoner since she doesn't really attack. Mnemonic covers the insane amount of spells you will pickup. Stench makes you die less and makes sure your summons survive. All Skilled up gives you one extra point in Summoner.

Knight:

Skilltree: Warfare - Polymorph - (Necro)
Class: Damage Dealer - Tank
(Best Race: Dwarf or Human)
You are mainly a damage dealer and first target

Choose right from the start: Main Tank or Executioner type gameplay? Main Tank is about abuse and NEEDS polymorph to be used smart. Can dish out insane amounts of damage further in the game with insane amounts of health. Yet more difficult at the start. Once you find a shield with 'Set Deflecting' you are basically done. Overpower + two armor buffs and this guy can take down a castle in the first turn.

Two handed Executioner type gameplay is about fast and pure damage. Easy to pick up, insane damage output towards the ending, yet always a bit squishy when you need him/her to survive. The skill Enraged is crucial to this build. More AoE damage than focus damage, but really flexible addition to the team.

The build is pretty easy. Push a few points in Polymorph to use all the skillpoints you want. Everything else in Warfare untill you reach Warfare 10. After that, how you will push out damage. Two-Handed for the two-handed build. Necro for some extra healing, Retribution for a Shield build (less damage) Single-hand for higher weaponskill damage with a shield. Also put a few points in Geo for all the shield enhancing skills.

Warfare is MOST important since all these skills scale on Warfare + Strength. Similar to the Summoner, max this skill out first.
Gear:
Heavy Gear focusing on Warfare and the weapon style for your choosing. Keep elemental ressistances equal. Go Crit with 2-Hand, go Dodge with Shield.

Top 3 talents:
1) Excecutioner
2) Oppertunist
3) Picture of Health

Why?
Picture of Health gives you the most amount of health for when you max out Warfare (30%). Excecutioner and Oppertunist both are crazy important for Melee damage, mostly if you are going to use the Paladin Off-tank. Excecutioner basically means more damage or survivability when you kill someone.

Also... Nearing Act 3, it might be wise to stack up some Pyro as well. Extra damage from that tree combines really well with Elemental Affinity (4th pick?) and more magic damage. Makes using weapons with extra fire damage even stronger. If you play as an Elf (or use a Mask at that point) Elemental Affinity will also work really well with Necro for when you need to cheapen up a few life saving skills.

Ranger

Skilltree: Warfare - Ranged - Pyro - Aero
Class: Damage Dealer
You are the main damage dealer

Rangers need to function in all situations, so all damage is going to be focussed physical damage. Warfare is the most important stat, followed by Ranged. Once you maxed out these two, you reached the last boss. So first Warfare 10 before you stack Ranged.

Only spec huntsmen for the skillbooks. Also get 2 Pyro and 2 Aero for Haste and Clear Mind and the teleport spells. So you can throw people away from you and help others. Haste is great for assisting the frontline.

This class is the LEAST decked in skills. Everything is about positioning, killing and doing damage. This means that you need 2 points in Scoundrel for Cloak and Daggers (extra) and Adrenaline. Also, Humans are often the best Archers, followed by Elves. This means that the ranger has TWO-instant movement skills from 2 trees.

Gear:
Very easy: Finesse gear. All the extra Huntsmen points come from gear. High ground is a bonus, not a nessesary attribute. Probably also your thief, so keep thieving gear around. If you want to make this class a little more supportive? Get the extra points via gear, learn the skillbooks anyway. Also try to stack as much crit as you can. Stats>crit though

Top 3 Talents
With Main Tank
1)Excecutioner
2)Hothead
3)Stench

Without main tank
1)Excecutioner
2)Far Out Man
3)Mnemonic

If you play as an Elf? Ditch Far Out Man or Hothead and pick Elemental Ranger. Blood Sacrifice does extra Physical Damage and gives 1 extra AP


Why?
Excecutioner is essential to this build and allows for insane damage output. You ranger will very likely have eyes over the entire battlefield and can pop everything with low health. If combined with Stench (you will need a dedicated tank for this) your ranger is mostly safe in the back and thus, has maximum health. 10% extra accuracy is great for the damage loss you would get in different scenario's and the 10% extra crit is always useful on the ranger.

The 3 Talents without a main tank will have a % higher damage output than the one WITH a main tank BUT your ranger will lose AP getting rid of people who get close.

Negatives to this build

This build has one big negative side and that is that you lose some damage for flexibility. The Knight and the Ranger focus for 90% of their damage on physical damage to make everything else work. This means that you do spend points in memory and other talents to be able to use spells you wouldn't really need in 20% of the other fights.

YET... you can. Simply focus those spells on the Tank type enemies with high armor and low magic armor.

This build can be a little difficult in the beginning. Your Paladin has low survivability because he simply doesn't have enough offensive spells. The summoner relies completely on the incarnate, without it it really can't do much (give the summon Cat to your summoner for example for extra dps when you need it).

Positives to this build

Only the Knight and Ranger do steady dps. So keep this in mind. EVERYONE can do physical damage, but the Summoner and the Paladin can Push out Magic damage (water being the weak spot, so physical damage on them). Both the Paladin and the Summoner are quite flexible. Both completely able to take enemies with very low Magic Armor. If you add a Bone Widow to the Summoner, she can start with elemental damage and swap to physical damage later on.

The best thing about this build is survivability. Once you get to Act 2 things simply start to go well. Respeccing in the beginning of Act 2 is adviced, also take the Idols. -2 Constitution on all characters for 100% extra HP (at the cost of some gold now and then) is more than worth it.