Team composition

[nemserultnem]

What team composition do you use in terms of:
-nr of tech priests you deploy (I mean mid to late game when you unlock 4+ ones - do you fill all 6, stick to 5 or just go with 4 better levelled ones?)
-what skill trees do you go for with them?

My idea is to have:
-1 unlock the lexmechanic tree for generating as much CP as possible (this one might be the priority as far as I can see at around mission 17 - ie. early mid-game)
-1 unlock the tech-auxilium tree for the Overzealous skill (free canticle)
-1 unlock the enginseer tree for the Benediction / heal all skill (not sure if this one is needed - so far claws + heal canticle proved to be more than enough)
-1-1 unlock the Explorator & Dominus trees at least until the generator upgrades (I am not convinced that stripping their melee/ranged weapon for the counterpar weapon specialty is worth it overall damage-wise)

Is there anything I am missing?

[Doctor Floof]

I do something different every time. I've actually been growing really fond of the random skill tree setting. Having no say in how they develop makes them feel less cookie cutter to me, I can't fall back on my usual gameplay crutches.

[Mr. Strange]

I've been playing Very Hard recently, which has changed how I appreciate those skill trees. Here's a couple ideas:

1 - First two points go into Dominus. Equip that priest with 2 basic blasters, and get the +1 damage gauntlets with your second point. Two +1 dmg +4 shots every turn makes this priest an early powerhouse who needs zero CP to run. If you get three more level of Dominus, the +2 damage on Machine Spirit (which activates every other turn for basic blasters) is fantastic. Instead of finishing the tree, I like to get 5 level of Explorator as well, for +4 damage with Machine Spirit! Rip it up!

2 - Secutor is the most powerful tree once completed, hands-down. The ability to summon any troop - even a 5CP robot to any location, then buff it with a skull, cog cannister, canticle, then have it attack, and then have it go next in initiative order is AMAZING. Even better, giving other priests the first 3 levels allow each of them to further buff the troop's damage and movement, and make it fire AGAIN. I defeated the boss in a single turn using this strategy. (I killed his 3 predacessors the first turn, the boss showed up at the end of that turn, attacked me once, then I finished him before the second turn was over.) Note that the servo-skull buffs last all level, and stack with one another. It's nuts.

3 - Explorator's first three skills are incredible, especially if you have cognition mechadendrites. The ability to run huge distances, not trigger attacks, and refill CP from adjacent enemies lets you control the flow of battle much better than trying to out-range everything. Learning to spend your CP on movement instead of big weapons is very freeing.

[Gobboman]

Bought the game and started a hard campaign. I'm toying with a team of 4 adepts. 5 or 6 seems too many.

First is Explorator with some useful buffs from other trees, like the first Tech-Auxilium skill to fire more arc scourges. This guy mostly zooms around the map and whacks people with an axe if needed.

Second is a Lexmechanic with Dominus skills to pew-pew and get those sweet cognition points.

Third is a Secutor with some other skills, mainly Dominus. This guy is there to buff the cohorts and pew pew if needed.

Fourth goes Tech-Auxilium for the free canticle and some other useful skills in other trees.

[Torris]

@ Mr. Strange: I had the same idea with the machine spirit. I intended to create a low-gear-consumptive tech priest pistolero with gamma pistols so the armor of the enemy does not effect my damage.

But there are two problems:
1) the gamma pistol is not the best choice for this tactic as the machine spirit needs 2 instances and
2) the most important problem - angry machine spirit does not stack! As I play on iron man mode this makes me really mad. I spent 2k blackstone and now I have a half-uselsess skilled tech priest... -.-

Don't understand me wrong, I really love this game and I'm totally into it! But I would really appreciate it if this would be fixed, or at least if there would be an info at the skill description.

[RobOda]

So far I've only grabbed four tech-priests, but my builds are mostly aligned to how their weapons are:

First two points go to Tech, that gives you the torso (+4HP, +1 Phys armour) and the weapon cost reduction skill - Not urgent at the start, but it is my first pick on new tech priests when you have 3-4 CP weapons in stock.

Then, my melee specialists go all the way down to skill 4 for Explorer; +2 Damage for machine spirit, immunity to opportunity attacks and -1CP cost for +Phys attack backpack items = pretty simple to go for.

I don't go for the final ability because my melee specialist brings along the paintgun for tagging and a flamethrower for more lulz. (He has five attacks, three free, two costing CP, technically four free if he uses the tech ability.)

Extra points go into Enginseer with the aim of the 1HP recovery etc, it's mostly just to tick him along at that point.

My ranged tech's go full into Dominus line, I get the final ability for them because you can forgo the melee weapon, just use the pushback items instead, or your troops for melee support, because these guys should be killing anything before they get into range, especially with the free + energy attacks. Early on, I have two of these, one is a pure energy beam boat, and one is split between energy painting and physical CP weapon. One heals, the other doesn't.

I'm not sure what I'll build my fourth tech into, I'm leaning towards Tech-Aux, because Bless and the free canticles sound very good to me. I'll probably make him a range unit as well, ergo I'll dip into Dominus tree.


The other three all dip into Enginseer up to the 1hp regen, but the ones carrying the curios can go all the way to the fourth skill.

So far, having two of the tech-priests using the best healing arm has kept things going smoothly. I don't find CP generation an issue yet. There're canticles you can use in an emergency, but I find if you kill at a reasonable pace you can stay on top of CP generation. I'm up to the fourth tomb now, so maybe it'll change. I will wait and see.

Whilst I love troops, I don't see the point in Secular tech-priests unless I was confident I could bring troops all the time. Early on, a full fledged tech-priest is just better off with the troops supporting rather than being dedicated to supporting the troops.

Lexmechanic's only real interesting skill for me is the CP extraction one for the skulls and possibly the final one, but I don't know if it is worth going that deep for it? I'll wait for the fifth priest and decide then. :P

[kschang77]

I have one TP as melee expert, one as gun expert, and one as mixed. Later ones will be mixed as well. You don't really have time or blackstones to develope everybody in every discipline, so every TP you field have to be mutli-talented but concentrate on one discipline at a time, and only the most useful ones.

The melee guy should also be the primary guy who grab all the CP. Use the servo skulls to nab the largest deposits, get all the extra-movement mods if possible, which also lets him get close to hs intended target.

[akluis]

I did some 'specialty' but what I found I really liked was to put a point into reducing CP cost of weapons by 2 as a base. Then I found myself finishing off that tree to get the free canticle.

I'd do a blessing to give my guys better armor and then burn CP hard moving and shooting and then guy 3 of my 5 man team would do the "free" canticle to gain 9 CP, repeat. I'd use the man I can't remember the name - they go in the topmost slots, round orb things that give you +2 dam and increased move. I'd use those a lot to buff my damage for 1 CP (also the extra move meant I could often spend 1 CP to activate it then 1 CP to do a 'double move' and cover a lot of ground and get up close to ax someone I shot before moving, axe with +2 dam.

I'd probably reuse the 9 CP canticle 3 times per fight....that and the one that ignored armor. Repeat on that one a lot.