FireMist

Live by the Sword is quite useful later in the game when enemies attack in huge hordes, so he can keep himself healthy while fending the baddies for you. I also suggest you invest some points into Shield Wall because he uses it quite often before engaging the enemies. As for his Master abilities...he seems to use just unbridled wrath. If there were a DS IV, that is one of the first things which should be corrected: AI companions should use the spells/abilities you invest the most. For me, AI Lucas is OK (I usually go that way except that I master my blade dash)...but I got quite disappointed when AI Anjali didn

I used Clockwork Trap quite often, even in the later stages of the game (improved it with Force Magnification). It costs less focus than Geometry of Annihilation and is quicker to cast, thus reducing the amount of time that Reinhart stays vulnerable to enemy attacks. Just drop it in a cluster of enemies, dodge out of the way and have your partner (preferably Lucas or Anjali) cover your butt. Barrier Shield is useful for this strategy because enemies will hit you at least once. It worked well in fast-paced fights with hordes of enemies that surround you (the Dapper Old Gent battle and one of the battles with Jeyne and her supporters come to mind). Drop a Trap, roll, approach another cluster of mobs and so on. Lots of clockwork traps exploding everywhere, and huge damage output.

I

I think Doom goes better with a high-agility Lucas build. However, most gear that favors agility have a penalty in armor and stamina. Im my games, I tend to keep Lucas as a tank (high stamina, high defense, high attack, medium to low agility) and invest in will over doom since he has that nice talent (force of will) that can convert up to 50% of his will into attack dps. And since I always use blade dash with him (as a player character) and have a minimum 50% critical chance, I tend to skip agility unless there is a good gear that does not sacrifice his stamina and armor that much. And yes, Doom adds damage to crits only, while Will adds to base attack (attack dps from talent + ability dps) . Since Lucas already has the potential to do insane crit damage (with the Devastating Crit talent which adds up to 50% damage ) I tend to skip doom weapons also, unless they have good Attack and Will statistics.

Yes, Lucas really loves shield pummel and heroic strike (and so do I), but unfortunately he doesn

I agree, block works best when the enemy has a predictable attack pattern. Also, when the mentioned enemy is slow and not accompanied by a horde of supporters with high attack speed, which happens frequently in mid- to late game. (Azunite Knights accompanied by Azunite Ninjas come to mind). So, when choosing gear, I almost always go for higher Armor instead of Block. As for ranged enemies, there are just a few that are dangerous enough to choose blocking over dodging.

As for your question about stunning, IIRC, there are few abilities with 100% Stunning (spoilers). - Lucas's Shield Pummel ( 100% Stun for 3 secs) - Katarina's Warding Ritual (100% Knockdown, I don't remember for how long) - Reinhart's Lightining Strike with at least 1 point in (don't remember the name, but it adds 0,4 sec stun per rank). Once you assign 1 point to it it is 100% Stun, what differs is the amount of time the enemy stays stunned - Stun and Knockdown don't work for most major bosses though, even with 100% chance. - The Stagger effect in weapons are like the other Chaos effects: chance-based and worst of all, not well defined. Personally, I never use them with characters with 100% Stun/Knockdown unless they have good core stats (attack, agility and will).

As a rule of thumb, when choosing gear for your characters, go for the "core" stats: attack, agility, will, stamina, armor. A weapon which is + 20 Attack is generally better than one with +10 Attack and +30 Fire because the Fire effect is based on a chance (not well defined, as you have pointed out), whereas Attack is *always* added to Attack DPS. And furthermore, if you have a good Attack and Ability DPS your enemies will be long dead before they can taste the effects of poison, fire, lightning or whatever.

I think your level is a bit low for it. I also got my ***swiped by those creatures. I recommend you do the main quest and return there with a companion . (don't worry, you will not miss your new companion because it is linked to the main quest). By then you'll be level 4-6, and with a partner, this fight will be a piece of cake.

I think you are doing well. Once you get the Hurl Spear ability you can use it as well - very effective ranged attack against single strong enemies (read:bosses) when Anjali is in her Human form. As for Block, use it only when facing 1-2 enemies - if you

The first time I played I also got confused about AI companions' proficiencies/talents, but after having each one for a while I noticed that: Anjali : almost always summons fire jackals before battles ; goy kinda frustrated when I allocated her proficiency points in pillar of fire and she didn

I have played with all four characters and liked them all, but I think the dudes were a bit funnier ( for the gameplaying as well as for the comic bit). Reinhart with his academic quotes are quite hilarious. After you turn off the fans inside the Glitterdelve mines and allow the gases to accumulate in the Deep Well, Reinhart says something about a mixture of methane and other gases - right into the middle of a battle... Lucas has a more "ironic" humor which is also funny. " The less you talk about my bone structure, the better" line when opening the Crypt of Heroes is remarkable...I also found it funny when, inside the Foundry, he sarcastically said " it seems pretty obvious, but I think you shouldn

Some of the dialogue with the automaton constables are pretty funny, especially when they'll criticize things but in the same tone they'd say "hello" to you with. One that sticks out was when you were tasked with deciding the Krug's fate, and the automaton made some kind of almost sarcastic comment about how it makes perfect sense that the council member would put a stranger who doesn't even know the city in charge of the situation instead of automatons who have been running the city for years. I agree. For me the Automatons (and also the Goblins) added a cheerful comic bit to the game. Automaton by Stonebridge entrance: " I see you are a...10th Legionnaire! I am instructed to treat you with tepid disdain and mistrust". Automaton in the city street:" Please do not litter or excrete in alleyways". Automaton inside the Meisters' building: "Welcome, the session is now open to the rabble. Apologies, the preferred term is "public". Meister Fiddlewick just before the Dapper Old Gent fight: "I hate to say that I told you so, but...I told you so". And he also says " Oh the irony! Wait...is it irony the right word for this?" Meister Mudgutter, after you clear the crypts of the thieves in Stonebridge, gives you a reward and says that it is taxable income, and when you question him, he replies that Odo and Marten Guiscard should be included as dependants...LOL!!!

What bothers me is the fact that her voice does not change, regardless of the situation. She has the same voice tone when she says a mere hello or when she is (supposed to be) angry. The only situation where she has a different tone is during combat when she says "die and be judged".

Agreed. The other archons do have a bit of the voice echo effect (like they're speaking in a very tiled-bathroom...) but Anjali has a word for word pacing delivery that I find somewhat.... off putting. I'm not sure if the VO actress did it deliberately or if her line readings were altered later, but to me it's fairly lifeless, and as mentioned, mechanical. Rajani (and even the Stonebridge automotons) have more emotion/pitch delivery pacing, imo. Anjali does....not. heh. Could still be a character "thing", but even if you take out the "echo", the cadence to the words is monotone in nature. Think of how questions sound when ppl don't raise their voice slightly on the last syllable/word of the question. If she was largely raised by Odo/humans, you'd think she would have picked up some humanish speaking habits/accent. For me the poor voice acting on Anjali took away most of the personality she should have. In her dialogue lines, it seems she is the "avenging" type . So I expected her to have a strong, quite agressive speaking, but her voice is quite emotionless. Uhmmmmm, that has absolutly nothing to do with each other. Someone can have a quite calm persoality/raise their voice only when its emotional and still have quite harsh ideals. English is not my mother language, so maybe I might not have made myself clear...What I wanted to say is that Anjali

Agreed. The other archons do have a bit of the voice echo effect (like they're speaking in a very tiled-bathroom...) but Anjali has a word for word pacing delivery that I find somewhat.... off putting. I'm not sure if the VO actress did it deliberately or if her line readings were altered later, but to me it's fairly lifeless, and as mentioned, mechanical. Rajani (and even the Stonebridge automotons) have more emotion/pitch delivery pacing, imo. Anjali does....not. heh. Could still be a character "thing", but even if you take out the "echo", the cadence to the words is monotone in nature. Think of how questions sound when ppl don't raise their voice slightly on the last syllable/word of the question. If she was largely raised by Odo/humans, you'd think she would have picked up some humanish speaking habits/accent. For me the poor voice acting on Anjali took away most of the personality she should have. In her dialogue lines, it seems she is the "avenging" type . So I expected her to have a strong, quite agressive speaking, but her voice is quite emotionless. For me she raises her voice properly only when fighting (the "die and be judged!" speech). That

Maybe that

Yes, I maxed out Lucas

The combat with Lucas is really amazing looking, best in all action RPG. You open up with blade dash charge, then roll behind ranged attackers and slice them in the back, change stance and quickly kill any stragglers, using shield pummel to stun the mob leader or mini boss and later you use wind shear to slow all enemies and use heroic charge to dash from one to the other, especially later where you have pretty much enemies which are mini-bosses instead of common mobs. Has there ever been an action RPG where there is actual flanking of your enemy? Lucas