"Nasty" strategies :)

[casinoman2000]

To show the damage of my Thorns, Retribution Chant, & the retaliation dmg of my lv 16 sorceror, I posted the screenshots. I play on extreme, my Confessor has Complete Healing & My capt. has Bodyguard.

When I battle achers/spellcasters and AFTER I cast the chant and thorns on both ranks (pets included), I use my back rank sorceror as my bodyguard. I find this a very effective way to dish out the dmg!!

[Immo]

Yeah, Bodyguard is pretty nice skill:) Myself if I was about to use Command, I'd use it to lower enemies Accurancy (Helios Spellstaff -10 and "Afraid" Debuff from Artifact Banner -10 accurancy; light from a Cleric -30 Accurancy is a total of -50 Accurancy. If a Thief gave Distraction (+50 Evasion for entire Row) and Conjuror used Blink, then it'd be a total of +80 Evasion for Conjuror and Nature-camuflage users. Legendary Beasts at 300% mode have 140 accuracy so it's 90 accuracy vs 80 evasion, almost 100% to evade.
https://imgur.com/W9tVP9I
But I'll need to make a good Trickery unit with debuffs... so it wouldn't be there only for Distraction once per 5 rounds... The most OP debuffer would be Trickery+Command, then I'd use it for sure :D I prefer going with 1-3 characters to save time. DivineVigor+Aoint for Conjuror who has -50 Enemy Attention and it's enough, nobody dies and I just use Aoint+AoE from Warrior or Mage and the other one finishes using Exhausting Strike or Incarnate.

[timothybax9]

I don't use too much retaliation because it's really annoying if that one boss makes a copy of your tank and your dps lose almost 50% of their health every time they hit him.

The nastiest strategy is probably lock out play. You have aoe with action removing weapons. Enemies never take a turn. Action removal abilities and items alwas seemed kinda dumb.

I just play the standard tank and spank set up. Only real special thing is I have two decked out dps with +critical damage stacked that obliterate everything with eagle eye and aoe.

[Immo]

Ain't 3x300% opponents too fast to use action removing? If they have 2x attack per 1 yours, then it's kind of not much diffrence :P Yeah tonics ikXD

[Immo]

Hmm my Shattered Stairs has just been reset (sadly I finished it on easy diff earlier and entire endgame it was empty... I didn't know it can be filled with monsters again :D ) so now I can try it again on 3x300%.... and I must admit that I have no chance :O
using dudes like this: https://imgur.com/k58b68U or this https://imgur.com/eTxIH0v or 1000-HP-regen-each-clock Behemoth with 50% resist magic demon Curse XD

thus, I'm going to build 98-evasion Hermit... I was thinking about 118-evasion-Scout in Front Row, but Hermit-dude's going to have 90% armor, 90% magic resist, 90% curse resist... if he furthermore had some stolen-active-skills to lower accurancy by 30... maybe he'll be enough to let 50%-crictal-hit-Champion to kill some front-row monsters and reveal Nexus Engines who strike for 300 in physical damage as I guess... I really hope he'll be enough lol

btw I saw following races: Demon, Human, Construct, Undead, Dwarf - are there any more? Would be nice to see some resists to them Engines hehe. Also is there any way to see what kind of attack does Beholder perform? - is it magic if so which element, or curse, or physical missle? He has the strongest attack among all monsters, 570 vs my Behemoth who's got all resists 50%, armor and stuff :O

About Book of Dread - it's nice but not enough I think... Would be way stronger if Instill Fear mechanics was diffrent: instead of being an active full clock debuff, I'd love to see it being a self-buff: each attack has a chance to Instill Fear to enemies, buff duration 2 rounds - instant action, debuff duration as it is now 2 rounds.

The Hermit I mentioned - I think I'll go full in Dextirity build... it appears that 30 dextirity = 2 Evasion but I'm not sure... I need 140 Evasion including accuracy debuffs..

[Immo]

By now I managed to make only a Scout one... https://imgur.com/ePvXQ0V
with Stolen Talents: Snare, Blink, Holy Light
skills from equipment: Distraction
Each time evade is triggered, gains 0.3 Action.... but it seems it's the doom...
Bodyguard is only 2 rounds. Because it gains full action clock in no time at all, Bodugyard is off BEFORE any other character actualy can move, damm lol
So such a tank is a failure.

I'll try to remove Griphons Mantle and Deepwood Bow (0.3 action per evade) and replace them with a shield and try to find stolen talent: Shield Wall maybe... but then surely it won't be 142 evasion which is granted by 2 active skills :(((

Maybe a Hermit tank will work better

[Immo]

With buffs the dude is like this: https://imgur.com/H1PpgLS (ofc if he had below 50% hp, it could be over 200) and on 3x300% when each enemy is 2-4 times faster than my attackers, when he become targeted by "Bodyguard", and gets hit by all 6 enemies, he's like 6*4/3=12 times faster (idk when t-->0 then maybe infinitely faster) than any other of my characters, so he can literarly debuff all enemies one by one with -50 accuracy skill (but the durations sukk.. 3 round duration for a 300% faster enemy is 0-1 round of my heroes XD)

cons: 0 attack hehe
and he actualy dies, Nexus has 140 accuracy and due to 140 speed vs 60, not possible to buff debuff and do anything beyond that

[Immo]

It is also possible to make a VengefulStrike+FreeSkillUse Hermit:
Spell Mastery - fighting style +20%
Clear Headed - endgame manual +10%
Faceted Godstone +20%
Sacrificial Cris +5%
Equinox Robes +10%
Illuminated Manuscript Relic +2%
Spear of Savantir as Relic +5%

is a sum of merely 72% :(
and the dude must be Front Row, very vurnerable

other items:
Quicksilver Quiver +5%
GreatHelm of the Crusader Lords +5%
5x Blessed set bonus +10%
so maybe a kind of Retribution+Arcane could push the Free Skill Usage a bit further
[All Armor Types] [Rings] can draw +2% free skill use bonus so it'd be +7*2%=+14%... but the point is that dude is supposed to have 100% crictal hit rate of strength 350% to make Vengeful Strike useful...

217 Intelect appears to be 4% Free Skill Use so to cover this 28% I'd need characters having 189 level.....
I'd love to see some boots, legs armor and rings with Free Skill use stat :P for Arcane users

so the useful classes count imho is now 3, increased by ARCANE+RETRIBUTION

Skill Power Cost:
Armor of Saraji -20%
Veil of the Hidden Relam -15%
Griffonsdown Mantle -5%
(Trickshot Quiver -10% XD)
Rune Etched Ring -10%
Spellstone Resonator -5%
Endgame Manual - Reduce Power Cost of Battle skills -10%

would be a sum of merely 65% so won't work either ;(

[rocsage]

immo, if you want free skill use and are willing to sacrifice choice of weapon slot on an hermit, there's the option of bone trident at lv 20+

[Immo]

Thanks :) I knew about this weapon tho - the point is to make a character with eg. 250 Mana who could use Vengeful Strike each round.
Bone Trident is a staff
Vengeful Strike requires melee weapon, so it won't work ;(

btw I've just tried tank+evasion Hermit who was supposed to use Coup de Grace, but it's no use, opponents have 120-150 quicnkess so instantly all the stuns are gone...
also my Hermit with Coup dG once caught back-line enemy while stunned, but couldn't use this skill, maybe it must be melee for some reason...
maybe I'll try only Archers+Coup de Grace next weekend, they'll have more frequent attacks...

/EDIT
AA sorry I've just realised that I made a typo:
I called Exhausting Strike per Vengeful Strike!!!
So you might not gotten my point (sry for grammar) --
-- Exhausting Strike is the one that consumes all Mana
-- so if it was free-skill-use, the user would be quite useful really. But without 100% chance from regular epic equipment, it's simply better to have more crictal hit....

[Immo]

HELL YEAH MAN I ACTUALY DID IT :O !!!

https://imgur.com/hOGkZnJ

Daaaammmmmmmmmmmmm 88% Free Skill Use !!!

Isn't that strong as I imagined tho... to comparison, Asternath reckts like 2500k on one 75% buff, having only 140 mana (he drunk only a few Tonics) with the Exhausting Strike... If I spent this amout of Gold on Asternath, it'd be like 4k... I guess 21lvl is too low, Skosyr'll show full potential nearly 35-40lvl...

It took me 21x75000 gold (1.575 M), all of those damned items on Exotic rarity (I was lucky with Faceted Godstone lol) and like 300k to reroll "of Ease" suffix (2% for free skill use), gees.... He's the most expensive hero I have ever made!!!

I'm so tired, but the dude is so incredibely epic... near 50lvl he'd be really strong, but the amout of grind would be just insane XD I really hope for a super duper OP mega lord Boss (eg boss fight in Shattered Stairs, the one with Waves and 3 circles instead of 1) who'd be super mega hard to defeat but the reward'd be worth it (xp preferably ^^) lol

the dagger gets dmg from dex and str, so Arcane user won't get much boost; also dagger has quite low base dmg, it's all about the mana and for me, 30lvl is the maximum one can grind, so this 1k Strike is not that much vs 6k HP enemy... due to "of Ease" I couldn't make full Dilarea build and can't remove ANY item (robe nor dagger) for crictal hit so this 17% is really maximum, and there in Shattered Stairs it's all about Crictal Hits... balanced Asternath imo way better, expecialy due to having way better regen, HP and armor besides of crictal and the actual dmg

and still there is 1 round Cooldown for this skill
Retribution + Arcane might be quite nice I think, as I mentioned during theoretical planning of this character :P

some pics:
https://imgur.com/XH56tvj
https://imgur.com/5alh8t6
this amount of time and gold and luck wow :O

[Immo]

Hmm I might have just discovered one of most Powerful set-ups in game ..?.. :O

A squad of mighty Clerics, who posessed Assasination techniques of Shadowcraft
(it's about Shadows, self Aoint, self Combined Assault, huge Cricital Hit %, Debuffs)

The trick is, you need to clear full Shattered Stairs about 100-500 times (idk I weren't counting my clears lol) to get multiple times the same Stolen Talent: Shadow Shift....also Coup de Grace. Other skills that may be helpful: Group Healing (or For the Company), Bodyguard, group "Hide", Divine Vigor, Disintegrate.

1. Enforcer - 2 hand melee -- damage
2. Scout - bow - front row -- debuffer&buffer; Disintegrate Stolen Talent
3. Nemezis - 2 hand / Bow but still he'd need to be front row to use Point Blank -- damage
4. Cleric - full rerolled "+5% stun" and Cold Iron Pulverizer as weapon; 1 stolen Talent "Eagle Eye" and stunning-Stances with stunning Relics -- back row -- Healer + Buffer + Stunner (Litany of Pain)

equipment: Jugernaut Palludrions or Steel Sentinel's, Golden Cloak and Fanatic's Robe for every squad member possible; except Griffonsdown Mantle+Deepwood Bow+Thyison's Bandolier for Scout.
Every squad member to posess Coup De Grace (4 times) and Shadowshift (3 times)

In result, each time one guy used Shadowshift, everyone else got full action (except for Scout) and Aoint buff. This way it may be possible to be FAST enough to use Coup de Grace while opponents were stunned.

Front row melee Nemezis would have the highest % crictal hit in game (29% easily and more if you have Shards of Dilaera).
4. Cleric may be replaced by another Nemezis this time ranged, but you'd need stolen talents for healing: Divine Vigor etc.
Besides, the tank is back-row so if you have some Bodyguard stolen Talents, most of enemies may skip round due to not being able to attack back-row tank.

Stun combined with "cancels 0.5 Action on crictal hit" may be enough speed up to catch up 3-5 times faster enemies...

3 Team Members would have 200% stun ability which works when enemy is below 50% HP...

Coup de Grace and Stun are just an addition, to kill bosses as Executor on 3x300% faster. The problem is 3-5 times faster enemies are stunned for just a short moment, it almost never happens to have a full action clock during enemies are stunned. This is why there are so many heavy crictal hit hitters 2 handed in front row, to push HP of one enemy to 0.5 to allow everyone to stun and then to 0.3 and to allow using Disintegrate.

[Kosiciel]

Originally posted by rocsage:

immo, if you want free skill use and are willing to sacrifice choice of weapon slot on an hermit, there's the option of bone trident at lv 20+

What is this bone trident? Can you post a screenshot?

[timothybax9]

Originally posted by Kosiciel:

Originally posted by rocsage:

immo, if you want free skill use and are willing to sacrifice choice of weapon slot on an hermit, there's the option of bone trident at lv 20+

What is this bone trident? Can you post a screenshot?

It's a pole arm that has scaling % free skill. It should probably have a cap but it goes all the way to 100%. I have an exotic version in my bag but haven't found an excuse to use it over other weapons yet. I imagine some exhausting strike character could put it to use.

[Immo]

Originally posted by timothybax9:

Originally posted by Kosiciel:

What is this bone trident? Can you post a screenshot?

It's a pole arm that has scaling % free skill. It should probably have a cap but it goes all the way to 100%. I have an exotic version in my bag but haven't found an excuse to use it over other weapons yet. I imagine some exhausting strike character could put it to use.

Nope, as I pretended to explain somewhere, Exhausting Strike requires melee weapon, so only way is to make 88% free skill use Hermit using a dagger. -- if I'm not misstaken:P
https://imgur.com/ZNw68fZ It's a Staff not a polearm :D
I don't use it, only classes that require lots of mana is Resurectioner and a tank... (Shield Wall 60 mana or so, Resurection 75 mana)... my paper-mage uses N-Dimentional Cube. Also warrios sometimes burn out, if they don't have any +action.

[Kosiciel]

Originally posted by Immo:

Originally posted by timothybax9:

It's a pole arm that has scaling % free skill. It should probably have a cap but it goes all the way to 100%. I have an exotic version in my bag but haven't found an excuse to use it over other weapons yet. I imagine some exhausting strike character could put it to use.

Nope, as I pretended to explain somewhere, Exhausting Strike requires melee weapon, so only way is to make 88% free skill use Hermit using a dagger. -- if I'm not misstaken:P
https://imgur.com/QyuQTMK It's a Staff not a polearm :D

First time I see it, and I thought I saw every single epic item and most of artifacts already. Staff means it's not melee, what a pity.