Gladiator Main Thoughts

[orthostatic]

Starting a new play-through and decided to choose a gladiator. Feels weak as hell with no end in sight, and now I'm thinking I should've just done Triarius again with the pickup gladiator later.

Earned only 3 stat points so far, all into Murmillo. Safeguard*1 and Safeguarding Stance*2. Hoping it gets better as it goes; thinking some of the weakness I perceive may come from lack of abilities on the scissor weapons I've picked up thus far.

Anyone else maining a gladiator? How's it going for you? How'd you start it off spec-wise?

[Trolleur_Durden]

After I guess, in my current playthrough I reached 65% base retaliation chance, which is quite decent with the parry buff.

[kooto]

100% retaliation after first attack. Finally it's fun to be gladiator :) Just watch out for disarming and flanking
https://i.imgur.com/G3xMhHi.png
https://i.imgur.com/q57AcRt.jpg

[PastLow]

Publicado originalmente por kooto:

100% retaliation after first attack. Finally it's fun to be gladiator :) Just watch out for disarming and flanking
https://i.imgur.com/G3xMhHi.png
https://i.imgur.com/q57AcRt.jpg

Apparently I was quite wrong about the gladiator then, if they can reach 90% retaliation than they are usable as a tank. It seems like it takes a lot of RNG to get those equipment stats though.

Also, as far as I'm aware, disarming only affects your primary weapon set, so if you put your main weapons in slot 2 you can still use them while disarmed

[Trolleur_Durden]

With the forge it's not that hard to get some good gladiator gear: simply craft the tier 1 of various equipment pieces in bulk until you manage to roll a retaliation chance bonus mod, and only then upgrade that equipment piece to t3.

[Namelesswanderer]

Took a bit of working but I found the gladiator very useful with the attract and impervious to smoke and such.
The AI tends to group it's people up so what I've done is set up my guys around the gladiator then activate the ATTRACT. This brings them to the gladiator and opens them up to possibly 1-2 opportunity attacks and then my people attack to finish them off.
Another tactic I've used is surround the gladiator with caltrops and a smoke bomb and do the same thing.
Honestly though not my favourite but does bring something new to the table to try out.

[Trolleur_Durden]

Alright, I finally finished the game with a Gladiator MC, on Insane ironman difficulty. I tried various things to make the class work, but sadly at the end of the day, I have to admit that the gladiator, while being playable overall, is nonetheless the weakest of the 5 classes, and the only one that I wouldn't take at all if I had to do another playthrough.

Tankiness-wise, with the Murmillo tree and some well-crafted gear, you won't die during the first round, but tanking is still a perilous endeavor overall. Perilous and unnecessary.

Regarding the other two trees, while they aren't bad on paper, they are made largely irrelevant by the current "meta" of the game, which is using and abusing various ways to get more than one attack per turn and obliterate anything close enough to reach you during the next turn. Simply put, I never had to bother with enemy morale or positioning in the first place thanks to Bestia, Calida and Syneros, who were able to reliably kill a lot of enemies by themselves. And when I mean NEVER, I'm talking about winning the infamous last stand battle in act III without having to bother using my MC.

I still had a lot of fun messing around with various ideas, and the arenas were nice content to do. I especially liked the new twist for the End of the Aedui quest provided by some content of the DLC. So congrats devs, you really made an excellent game, and I'm really eager to play whatever you will do next.

[wizard1200]

I think that two skill trees of the Gladiator should be merged and a new skill tree should improve the offensive tactical items: number of pilum charges + 1, pilum range + 2 / + 4, pilum armor shred + 1, ...

[wirednight]

Publicado originalmente por wizard1200:

I think that two skill trees of the Gladiator should be merged and a new skill tree should improve the offensive tactical items: number of pilum charges + 1, pilum range + 2 / + 4, pilum armor shred + 1, ...

I was thinking something more drastic to be honest.

Murmillo: Tank Tree. The skill choice to use heavy armor should also allow them to use shields. Historically a Murmillo used a scutum and a gladius. Why they suddenly decided to let a tank tree not use a shield, when it's historically accurate is beyond me. You could still use retaliation since shields in Expeditions Rome do damage as well.

Cestus: DPS Tree. The second tree should be the one related more improving retaliation and using the off-hand weapons. High DPS through retaliation.

Retiarus Tree: Crowd Control Tree. The third tree should concentrate on using nets in the off-hand. Lower DPS, but it's retaliation will allow a net to entangle or trip up enemies that attack it, as well as using the net on offense to do the same thing.

[wizard1200]

Publicado originalmente por wirednight:

Murmillo: Tank Tree. The skill choice to use heavy armor should also allow them to use shields. Historically a Murmillo used a scutum and a gladius. Why they suddenly decided to let a tank tree not use a shield, when it's historically accurate is beyond me. You could still use retaliation since shields in Expeditions Rome do damage as well.

Cestus: DPS Tree. The second tree should be the one related more improving retaliation and using the off-hand weapons. High DPS through retaliation.

Retiarus Tree: Crowd Control Tree. The third tree should concentrate on using nets in the off-hand. Lower DPS, but it's retaliation will allow a net to entangle or trip up enemies that attack it, as well as using the net on offense to do the same thing.

Your suggested changes to the Murmillo and Cestus tree are great in my opinion, because retaliation would be much more useful if you could use a shield.

Limiting the Retarius tree only to nets would be a wasted opportunity in my opinion, because the game has no class which improves the offensive tactical items.

[wirednight]

Publicado originalmente por wizard1200:

Your suggested changes to the Murmillo and Cestus tree are great in my opinion, because retaliation would be much more useful if you could use a shield.

Limiting the Retarius tree only to nets would be a wasted opportunity in my opinion, because the game has no class which improves the offensive tactical items.

Actually I fully agree with you. However, I was trying to keep a gladiator theme going here.

I suppose we could go with a Velites tree, but with the limited amount of pilum not sure how well you could make a dedicated Velite, even with +1 pilum or even two or three. After a few rounds, it's benefits would be wasted, and since you have to go all the way back to camp to replenish them mostly, if you're in a multi-battle scenario (like chapter ending sieges) you'd have to use it super wisely.

[wizard1200]

Publicado originalmente por wirednight:

I suppose we could go with a Velites tree, but with the limited amount of pilum not sure how well you could make a dedicated Velite, even with +1 pilum or even two or three. After a few rounds, it's benefits would be wasted, and since you have to go all the way back to camp to replenish them mostly, if you're in a multi-battle scenario (like chapter ending sieges) you'd have to use it super wisely.

The pilum was only an example. The tree could also improve smoke bombs, caltrops, ...

[Atma]

Publicado originalmente por wizard1200:

Publicado originalmente por wirednight:

I suppose we could go with a Velites tree, but with the limited amount of pilum not sure how well you could make a dedicated Velite, even with +1 pilum or even two or three. After a few rounds, it's benefits would be wasted, and since you have to go all the way back to camp to replenish them mostly, if you're in a multi-battle scenario (like chapter ending sieges) you'd have to use it super wisely.

The pilum was only an example. The tree could also improve smoke bombs, caltrops, ...

All of this sounds a lot more like something up the Veles' alley rather than a Gladiator to me.

But I may also be biased because I'm super fond of net and trident lol.

[wizard1200]

Publicado originalmente por Atma:

All of this sounds a lot more like something up the Veles' alley rather than a Gladiator to me.

Good point, perhaps the 'offensive tactical items' tree could be moved to the Veles and one skill tree of the Veles could be moved to the Gladiator.

[Trolleur_Durden]

The class is the worst among the 5 available, but you can play anything you want nonetheless, because your companions classes are set and allow them to carry you without issues.