What sort of builds have you been going for?

[spartanspud]

My first time. I plan on playing through this a couple times but I'm interested to hear what some people who have already played through this think are fun and or effective builds to make my first time a little smoother.

[Nordrengr]

I tried a paladin (light/HA/1H/Block) and it was okay but a bit tricky.

I switched over to a barbarian (2H/LA) extreme focus on damage it is substantially stronger in comparison. You're a bit of a glass cannon but that doesnt matter much if everything dies in one swing of your battleaxe.

[Nogge]

2 years back in the old release I played a regular old "big chunky dude that can take a beating and is even better at beating". Was pretty fun and decent but kind of lacked depth, despite stances and stuff.

Right now I'm playing as an Infiltrator/Lycanthrope. Feels pretty strong now ESPECIALLY since unlocking the Throat Ripper Affinity, after getting past the atrocious experience that is sneaking before reaching 50 in it. In my wolf form, things tend to just be 1 or 2-shot by my ridiculous 7.5x claw sneak attacks and the things that aren't, I can usually DPS race to the death. The build takes a while before stabilizing around level 15-20, since Arcane Fever is a huge pain, you have no money for Ambrosia, stealth is as mentioned nearly impossible and your damage outside your wolf form is terrible, since you need to invest into Sneaking and Alchemy early meaning ♥♥♥♥♥♥ one-handed damage, but after those first levels the whole thing really starts to get rolling. Literally. That somersault perk in Infiltrator is hilarious.

[CAT PRIME]

Trying magic knight (2H/HA/Elementalism) But it's kinda clunky.

[Hilleon]

I tried to play a Guts build: Lycan + Vandal... aaaaand it's not working well for me :(

In my next build, I'm gonna go for my personal favorite and classic: Shadow Hunter


Primary skills: Mostly Trickster, and a little bit of Infiltator(Stam)

Secondary skills: Sinistrope(Summon Bow, long-distance battle; Entropy/Psionic, short-distance battle; and a little Mag increase on the side)

...oh yeah, I almost forgot, shop don't sell Summon Bow anymore... I'll think of something in my second playthough.

[DakotaThrice]

Started out going straight up the Elementalism tree focusing on fire buffs then moved on to Sinistrope with a focus on summons. Currently a point or two short of getting the Black Mage affinity after which I'll probably start on Phasmalist for additional summon options.

[Dog]

Some sneak guy+lycan

[Panicsferd]

I went with elemental and trickster so I am like a elemental archer... I mainly use my elemental spells but when low or out of mana then I resort to using my bow and so far it seems to work out pretty good for me.

[Strandforce]

I started as a Heavy Armor, Two-Handed brute, but it turns out that Marksmanship is pretty terrible if you don't put perks in it so my side damage became Elementarism. Then I found out it was best to have a tank so I dipped into Entropy. Slowly became a battlemage. Never meant to,

[spartanspud]

Originally posted by Nordrengr:

I tried a paladin (light/HA/1H/Block) and it was okay but a bit tricky.

I switched over to a barbarian (2H/LA) extreme focus on damage it is substantially stronger in comparison. You're a bit of a glass cannon but that doesnt matter much if everything dies in one swing of your battleaxe.

What was tricky about the paladin? Sounds kinda like it would suit being in Enderal.

Originally posted by Nogge:

2 years back in the old release I played a regular old "big chunky dude that can take a beating and is even better at beating". Was pretty fun and decent but kind of lacked depth, despite stances and stuff.

Right now I'm playing as an Infiltrator/Lycanthrope. Feels pretty strong now ESPECIALLY since unlocking the Throat Ripper Affinity, after getting past the atrocious experience that is sneaking before reaching 50 in it. In my wolf form, things tend to just be 1 or 2-shot by my ridiculous 7.5x claw sneak attacks and the things that aren't, I can usually DPS race to the death. The build takes a while before stabilizing around level 15-20, since Arcane Fever is a huge pain, you have no money for Ambrosia, stealth is as mentioned nearly impossible and your damage outside your wolf form is terrible, since you need to invest into Sneaking and Alchemy early meaning ♥♥♥♥♥♥ one-handed damage, but after those first levels the whole thing really starts to get rolling. Literally. That somersault perk in Infiltrator is hilarious.

Yeah I usually just do heavy armour and smack things about but I'm trying to diversify a bit. That class sounds pretty interesting if maybe a bit tricky for my first go but I'm interested to try it eventually.

Originally posted by Mizar:

Trying magic knight (2H/HA/Elementalism) But it's kinda clunky.

Yeah switching between 2hands and magic seems like a bit of a stop and start fest.

Originally posted by Hilleon:

I tried to play a Guts build: Lycan + Vandal... aaaaand it's not working well for me :(

In my next build, I'm gonna go for my personal favorite and classic: Shadow Hunter


Primary skills: Mostly Trickster, and a little bit of Infiltator(Stam)

Secondary skills: Sinistrope(Summon Bow, long-distance battle; Entropy/Psionic, short-distance battle; and a little Mag increase on the side)

...oh yeah, I almost forgot, shop don't sell Summon Bow anymore... I'll think of something in my second playthough.

Hmm. I have heard that loot is hand placed so if you remember seeing one it should be in the same spot still I guess. Sounds like an interesting build though.

Originally posted by DakotaThrice:

Started out going straight up the Elementalism tree focusing on fire buffs then moved on to Sinistrope with a focus on summons. Currently a point or two short of getting the Black Mage affinity after which I'll probably start on Phasmalist for additional summon options.

Does elementalism have the problems destruction had in the base game? In the base game after a while it becomes near useless because the enemies keep scaling to your level.

Originally posted by Strandforce:

I started as a Heavy Armor, Two-Handed brute, but it turns out that Marksmanship is pretty terrible if you don't put perks in it so my side damage became Elementarism. Then I found out it was best to have a tank so I dipped into Entropy. Slowly became a battlemage. Never meant to,

A battlemage sounds like it could be good. Though I always felt like I wasn't pulling it off properly in Skyrim if I ever tried it.

[DakotaThrice]

Enderal doesn't have level scaling, all enemies have fixed levels. The only issue I've had is mana management against higher level enemies that I shouldn't be facing at a given time.

[Magmakojote]

Dont know if it is that efficient, but I am playing an Assassin, basically blade dancer and infiltrator combined. I am quite good at sneaking and killing enemies from the shadows, but I also do quite a lot of damage in a real fight. Sadly I get killed rather fast, so either I kill faster or I do well at blocking enemies. High Stamina is really important with this playstyle.

I dont really use magic, except a summon once in a while to distract enemies, so I can concentrate on a weak enemy first.

I am sure there are more effective classes and playstyles, but I want a good challenge, and thats what I am getting :D

[Midnight]

I went elementalism/sinistrope and have currently maxed elementalism tree and the game honestly became too easy.

Shock nova alone wipes most enemies, you can freeze anything at or below your level at will and sinistrope allows me to control any enemy for a long time. What's the point of frenzy/fear spells when you can outright control any enemy for 20s (base) on 30s cooldown while boosting their damage.

And that's just talents. Then there's the continuous spells that do 70+ points of damage per second at this point.

Mage is by far the strongest build, then there's rogue and the warrior is last. It's more about the talents than skills themselves. Doing 30% more damage for X seconds while taking more damage hardly beats freeze spam or a time stop.

[Prolific Avocado]

I went full elementalisim and rerolled around level 30 simply because the game was too easy. No tactics, no positioning. Run up, blow your load in the enemies faces, and keep moving.

[Arukai]

I went for phasmalist and entropist first and foremost, with a little keeper and bladedancer thrown into the mix. It is somewhat fun, at least the heavy armored, death magic wielding part of it.
So far I found the apparitions the phasmalist has rather disappointing - even when given gear and repositioning them constantly, I never feel they do anything better than my regular entropy summons. And those don't rack up my arcane fever constantly.

But maybe I am missing something ... I will still continue to invest in it, because I've been told that the apparitions are rather strong later on. Even though I hate skills/classes that only become viable after reaching the endgame.

[Nogge]

Originally posted by Arukai:

I went for phasmalist and entropist first and foremost, with a little keeper and bladedancer thrown into the mix. It is somewhat fun, at least the heavy armored, death magic wielding part of it.
So far I found the apparitions the phasmalist has rather disappointing - even when given gear and repositioning them constantly, I never feel they do anything better than my regular entropy summons. And those don't rack up my arcane fever constantly.

But maybe I am missing something ... I will still continue to invest in it, because I've been told that the apparitions are rather strong later on. Even though I hate skills/classes that only become viable after reaching the endgame.

I feel like both new classes are mid-lategame focused. Lycan, while definitely being busted damage early, is also almost impossible to handle in the beginning due to resource issues.