What faction for a melee build?

[DaLagga]

So I just picked the game up a few days ago and am at the point where I want to join a faction but can't decide on which one. I've mainly been going shield + mace without any magic, relying on traps to soften up tougher enemies. So what faction gives the best buffs for my character?

Also, I did pick up a couple of breakthrough skills but can't decide on a 3rd. I went with Feather Dodge (love spike traps) and Survivor's Resilience (more HP and combat skills). So what should I go with for a final pick? Is it worth maybe getting a tiny bit of magic for some basic spells or just stick to melee/traps at this point? Thanks!

[Aigle1705]

faction doesnt rly matter since you probably wont do their quest the correct way the first time anyways. :D

however:
go here: https://outward.fandom.com/wiki/Factions
click a faction and scroll down to "exclusive Rewards"

blue chamber has flat stat increase for health n mana
holy mission has alot of defense perks
heroic kingdom has offensive perks
sorobro is more of a support line ( movement speed, carry weight, sale/buy prices )


there is not rly a need for magic
yet its still kinda nice having the elemental boons as a spell.
( cold, warmth, ... )

breakthough wise... i would probably go with the warrior monk tree,
Steadfast Ascetic ( +40 stamina ) and Master of Motion ( +10 all rezi )
or
the Speedster tree ( https://outward.fandom.com/wiki/The_Speedster )
if you have the sorobor DLC

[Naryoril]

Originally posted by Aigle1705:

sorobro is more of a support line ( movement speed, carry weight, sale/buy prices )

Sorobor also has a 10% cooldown reduction

[wordsbringer]

Hey, I’ve chosen Heroic Kingdom, as they have best offense perks. I also play pure melee character – I’m using Marble Claymore with Whiplash enchantment (+10% physical damage) and Ash Armor set with Cocoon enchantment which gives me +2 protection per armor piece (+6 in total) and hot/cold whether protection – I finally don’t have to worry about carrying separate cloths for desert and winter conditions (!) Besides, Ash armor does not slows me down nor has stamina penalties. Originally my character was a speedster and I took perk making me 10% faster + 40% less stamina cost for sprinting (Levant). I also took +40 Health and +40 Stamina breakthrough perks. In Harmattan there’s a trainer who will give You +25 stamina which is VERY helpful for melee character. In fact Stamina is even more important than health. I was fighting with many strong foes and in time I’ve learn to fight pretty well but often lack of stamina was my problem and on several occasions it was the reason I was defeated. Claymore costs quite a bit stamina but has a very nice impact stats which is important for interrupting opponents attack. Right now I’ve finally got a Comet Incense (I’ve created it but finding all required materials was quite a trip) and I will enchant Brutal Knuckles with Crumbling Anger. When I’ll do that, I think I’ll put away my Marble Claymore (8 kg). We will see 😊
Oh, regarding the Mana – yep, I’ve got 40 mana for myself (which gives you 20 usable mana points – half of its reservoir is always burnt by sleeping) for boons. It comes handy sometimes. Right now I have 155 points of both health and stamina and 40(20) mana.
Have a Great Fun with this Amazing RPG game 😊

[DaLagga]

Thanks for the responses. So I looked over that wiki and to the best of my ability made a list of the advantages of each faction as far as skills/passives go.

Blue Chamber:
-Mana +25
-Health +40
-Infuse Blood (Imbue)
--Decay +10 Damage
--Extreme Poison 35%
--Extreme Bleeding 35%
--Life Leech +10%
--Costs 20 Hp

Heroic Kingdom:
-Physical Damage +30%
-Health +25

Holy Mission:
-Weather Resist +8
-Stamina/Mana Costs Reduced 10%
-Decay Resist +20%
-Physical Protection +7
-Barrier +2
-Infuse Light (Imbue)
--Damage +25% As Lightning
--Lightning Damage +6
--Emits Light
--Costs 12 Mana

Sorobor Academy:
-Cooldown Reduction +10%
-Movement Speed +5%
-Pouch Capacity +5%
-Better Prices/Deals
-Infuse Mana (Imbue)
--Damage +25% As Ethereal
--Ethereal Damage +10
--Costs 35 Mana

Does that seem right? I combined some perks so I only had to list the stat bonus once and ignored lesser possible rewards or those which are mutually exclusive, dropping the lesser option.

So based on what I can see, the Sorobor Academy looks rather meh when it comes to useful abilities as most are fairly minor and Infuse Mana costs a whopping 35 mana to cast so that's pretty much out for my character. The cooldown reduction is nice, but 10% seems far to little to make much of a difference.

Heroic Kingdom has a nice damage bonus but it's only Physical so I don't know how great that will really be seeing as how most of the weapons I like using have partial elemental damage. The health is nice, but Blue Chamber gives more.

The Blue Chamber seems great with a massive +40hp buff. The lantern of souls seems useless as a reward since you have to carry it to get the resists so I guess I'd go for the mana bonus but I'd have to first get some mana for it to be useful. I was thinking of grabbing 40 mana anyway but with this perk I'd only need to sacrifice 5 hp/stamina for 20 mana in order to have 45 total, so it's basically saving me 5hp/stamina. The main thing that appeals to me however is Infuse Blood which seems like the best imbue in the game (from a noob's perspective). The damage bonus is nice, but the ability to inflict 2 massively damaging DoTs at once seems incredibly powerful and the life leech is just gravy. To top it off, you cast it by spending HP which I will have plenty of (205 if I go Blue Chamber).

Holy Mission also seems fantastic as the bonuses to defense are rather crazy. The weather resist on top of it is nice and while I like the looks of Infuse Light, it does take 12 mana but that's at least manageable for my class, unlike the massive 35 casting cost of Infuse Mana.

I didn't include gear because none of it seems all that amazing unless I'm overlooking something. So does this pretty much cover it? In which case, it seems like the Blue Chamber and Holy Mission are the obvious choices, depending on whether I want to go pure defensive or a mix of defense and offense.

[Naryoril]

Levant isn't +30% physical damage, it's 15% all damage and an extra 15% physical damage.

The blue chamber boots and armor are really good if your build focusses on ice damage. There are hardly any other options for boots and armor with a bonus to ice damage. Namely the rust lich boots, with offer more 4% more frost damage, at the cost of -30% physical damage. For armor your options are an adventurer armor with the spirit of cierzo enchantment (4% more frost damage, various other advantages, but less defense) and the scarlet robes (various advantages, 6% less frost damage, less defense, drop from the boss of the three brothers DLC).

Also keep in mind that you will be about 2/3 through the three brothers DLC (or even later, depending on your luck and necessities) before you get infuse blood (blue chamber), infuse mana (sorobor), the 15% physical damage and 25 health (levant) or the 2 barrier and 5 protection (holy mission). So they will only be available for a small fraction of you playtime with that character.