Need help - Custom party !

[LuxCifer]

Hello everybody !

 

I need your help. Indeed, I have not replayed since the very first days of the game, preferring to wait for a greater maturity and I would like to try again at the highest degree of difficulty with an optimized custom party.

 

Unfortunately i do not have time to follow all the evolutions of builds and modifications of the game's balance.

 

Could you recommend some interesting builds to create the custom party I have in mind?

 

- Two melee characters (tank / off tank / DPS), with possibility of cleave / magic aoe / synergy

- A sniper at range

- A magic nuker

- A Healer / buff / debuff support

 

Just one limitation please, not a lot of stealth mechanic / abuse...

 

Which classes would best fit this kind of setup?

 

I am also interested in all your suggestions!

 

Thank you in advance for your contribution. 

Edited August 4, 2018 by LuxCifer

[Frog Man]

Tank - lifegiver/goldpact.

Offtank- marauder dual wield

Sniper - rogue / ranger with ice bow. Your bear pet can offtank.

Nuker- helwalker /fury. Dance w/death and storm spells.

Debuffer- zerker/wizard warlock. Enraged and then cast super fAst stuns and blinds.

 

I’d probably switch one character with a single priest or priest/chanter. Devotions of the faithful is huge for accuracy. The Priest chanter can then cast the shield cracks to debuff your foes.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Frog Man

[Dorftek]

Tank - Trickster/Unbroken with Riposte, defensive stance, Warhammer from sandswept

Ruins, reckless brigandine armor and a decent shield.

 

Offtank - Wizard/Monk with spiritlance and defensive buffs

 

Support/Dps 1 - Ascendant/ghostheart with Frostseeker or the red hand

 

Dps/support 2 - singleclass priest of magran

 

Dps/CC - Rogue/Helwalker with Handmortar (like The Howitzer Build) or Rogue/Wizard with Blights. Maxed Int

[1TTFFSSE]

 

Hello everybody !

 

I need your help. Indeed, I have not replayed since the very first days of the game, preferring to wait for a greater maturity and I would like to try again at the highest degree of difficulty with an optimized custom party.

 

Unfortunately i do not have time to follow all the evolutions of builds and modifications of the game's balance.

 

Could you recommend some interesting builds to create the custom party I have in mind?

 

- Two melee characters (tank / off tank / DPS), with possibility of cleave / magic aoe / synergy

- A sniper at range

- A magic nuker

- A Healer / buff / debuff support

 

Just one limitation please, not a lot of stealth mechanic / abuse...

 

Which classes would best fit this kind of setup?

 

I am also interested in all your suggestions!

 

Thank you in advance for your contribution. 

 

Tank - Holy Slayer Bleakwalker/Trickster dual wield Magran's Fury+pukestabber (+10 melee deflection modal) - riposte+trickster and paladin deflection monster with dual wielding full attacks each costing 1 resource in crippling strike and Flames of Devotion, plus you get wizard "fear" spells from Trickster on your tank that way. Secondary Healing from Greater Lay on Hands check, combines tankiness of paladin and dps of rogue

 

"sniper" - eehh the best "sniper" is actually a lightning fast Marauder Streetfighter/Berserker with lion's sprint and escape to run/teleport to mages and priests and annihilate them dual wield Gravecalling+Rusts and switch to Tarn's or Scordeo's + Rust dagger late game Crippling strike+finishing or barbaric blow 2 hit knockout combo on any squishy mage or priest - that's the way I have ai setup. I guess if you want ranged you can go Streetfighter/Sharpshooter Scout but the Berserker does more single target burst damage in melee than a scout at range and burst damage to quickly kill enemy mages and priest is what I want from this toon. Sharpshooter would probably use dual pistols or pistol+blunderbuss. Monk+Berserker or Monk+Streetfighter would work too and is similar.

 

magic melee: Shaman Priest of Magran/Berath/ Berserker fire aoe dps +unamermed with monastic unarmed training. Late game dual wield Sun and Moon+Soulbound priest dagger to trigger repeats of fire spells while casting. Healing capabilty check since it is a priest. You can try Priest/Monk too I guess - it is similar.

 

magic nuker: I like cipher still and combo them as ascendant with streetfighter or berserker but a pure ascendant cipher is good too. Evoker or generalist wizard is good too I guess. Pure single class cipher ascendant gets amplified wave early and that usually out-dps wizards. Plus you have good cc. On cipher (pure) you just run The Red Hand Arquebus and Miscreent's Leather or Sharpshooter's Garb. On Witch variant you run Hunting bow either the lightning one which is new or Amiina's Legacy. On Mindstalker you dual wield pistol+blunderbuss as you do more full attacks. On a Wizard you'd probably run Chromo Quarterstaff or Griffon Blade+another weapon to increase action speed.

 

Heals: I run Theurge now Troubadour/Lifegiver  to buff all defenses, aoe heals and summons. It's a frontliner because most druid and chanter buffs are most effective in melee range but considering 4/5 of my party are frontliners I get away with leather armour for good casting speed - I use Fleshmender now as it has extra AR and usually the other frontliners "engage" enemies and the Theurge is not focused. I use Xoti's Sickle+Sasha's SingingScimitarr for extra speed buffs on the Theurge.

 

I have 3/5 party members that have healing abilities. I skip the wizard class because The Trickster Rogue has terrify spells and that's enough. 

[mant2si]

...

 

Too much micro  Party above abuse a lot of meta mechanics, each of this party member can solo game by self

 

Streetfighter/Devoted - Unbending + 2 x Sabers (AI) - Will survive in any situation because of Unbending 

Monk/Paladin - Armor stacking/Small Monk Shield + Fists (AI) - Will survive in any situation because of Armor and Deflection stacking

Troubadour/Paladin - Heal (AI) - Will survive in any situation because of healing stacking and summons

Priest of Skaen / Berath (Death Godlike) - The strongest pure nuker  (Player) - ON L8  skill need single spell to melt anyone

 

If you like some fun combo, pick pure barbarian instead of Streetfighter, and make him survive with Death Door priest spell

 

 

Edited August 4, 2018 by mant2si

[LuxCifer]

Woooo !!! Thx a lot !!! Good material.

[LuxCifer]

....

I have 3/5 party members that have healing abilities. I skip the wizard class because The Trickster Rogue has terrify spells and that's enough. 

 

 

 I am curious to know wich one of them are you PC ?

[1TTFFSSE]

 

....

I have 3/5 party members that have healing abilities. I skip the wizard class because The Trickster Rogue has terrify spells and that's enough. 

 

 

 I am curious to know wich one of them are you PC ?

 

I main the cipher (ranged) mainly. Because ascendant ai is still a problem and otherwise the cipher would attack with weapons when focus is full which is stupid - they should be casting spells at that point. I sometimes manually switch to the marauder just to teleport them to the backline of enemy mages so she can get to work. The healer and tank pretty much run on ai. Actually, the marauder does too once you set them to prioritize target:spellcaster - it's just it is sometimes faster to click on them, use "escape" ability to teleport behind an enemy mage and that point the script kicks in and the marauder start attacking the mage backline. 

 

I mean you can get any ai script to work really well with few exceptions like the cipher focus thing still seems not to work, even with the ai expanded mod from nexus. But I would recommend when leveling a toon to manually "adjust" custom ai script for that toon and not use the default ones

1.) clean up any script by removing abilities in the script that you don't want used.

2.) Puting defensives/ high priority attacks at top and on low cooldown while more general buffs like circle of protection etc off as you want to use those manually in case you run into a boss or hard encounter and need more protection.

3.) if a class needs "buffs" or self buffs through spells like trickster or wizard put those on top of the ai script but make cooldown pretty much the ability's duration length as you don't want them to recast the buff on themselfs when they have the old one.

4.)adjust the ai script as you go through the playthrough as if you see something that can be better optimized or something not ideal tweak the ai script of the character doing something weird in combat.  

[LuxCifer]

 

 

....

I have 3/5 party members that have healing abilities. I skip the wizard class because The Trickster Rogue has terrify spells and that's enough. 

 

 

 I am curious to know wich one of them are you PC ?

 

I main the cipher (ranged) mainly. Because ascendant ai is still a problem and otherwise the cipher would attack with weapons when focus is full which is stupid - they should be casting spells at that point. I sometimes manually switch to the marauder just to teleport them to the backline of enemy mages so she can get to work. The healer and tank pretty much run on ai. Actually, the marauder does too once you set them to prioritize target:spellcaster - it's just it is sometimes faster to click on them, use "escape" ability to teleport behind an enemy mage and that point the script kicks in and the marauder start attacking the mage backline. 

 

I mean you can get any ai script to work really well with few exceptions like the cipher focus thing still seems not to work, even with the ai expanded mod from nexus. But I would recommend when leveling a toon to manually "adjust" custom ai script for that toon and not use the default ones

1.) clean up any script by removing abilities in the script that you don't want used.

2.) Puting defensives/ high priority attacks at top and on low cooldown while more general buffs like circle of protection etc off as you want to use those manually in case you run into a boss or hard encounter and need more protection.

3.) if a class needs "buffs" or self buffs through spells like trickster or wizard put those on top of the ai script but make cooldown pretty much the ability's duration length as you don't want them to recast the buff on themselfs when they have the old one.

4.)adjust the ai script as you go through the playthrough as if you see something that can be better optimized or something not ideal tweak the ai script of the character doing something weird in combat.  

 

Thank you very much. I nedd to dig on the AI. Current default behavior makes me mad !

[Theosupus]

I think the swashbucker Unbroken/Trickster is "the perfect tank".

 

Here's why:

Geared appropriately, you can get 6+ engagements while in still in mob stance.

Riposte, and if you don't mind killing huana, the apex shield, along with huge amounts of deflection and AR means he can not only hold aggro like no other, but can put out some decent numbers.
Constant distraction means he sets all mobs he's engaged with up for easy deathblows (for himself & other rogues).

 

Paladins may get cool defenses and all, but I haven't been able to match the tanking prowess of the Ironhammer yet.

 

My Favorite Rogue is dual blunderbuss (Hand mortar + Fire in the hole)

Favorite Monk based is still the Drunken Master, but that build is Super Micro intensive so not fun in a party unless you can automate the rest.

I admit to not having given the ranger a real chance yet though. One day I'll try one. I just like melee too much I guess. (a scout build with the 2x blunderbuss looks like it could be fun though (if driving flight even works with the aoes.).

Edited August 6, 2018 by Theosupus

[Malkoy]

I think the swashbucker Unbroken/Trickster is "the perfect tank".

 

Here's why:

Geared appropriately, you can get 6+ engagements while in still in mob stance.

Riposte, and if you don't mind killing huana, the apex shield, along with huge amounts of deflection and AR means he can not only hold aggro like no other, but can put out some decent numbers.

Constant distraction means he sets all mobs he's engaged with up for easy deathblows (for himself & other rogues).

 

Paladins may get cool defenses and all, but I haven't been able to match the tanking prowess of the Ironhammer yet.

 

My Favorite Rogue is dual blunderbuss (Hand mortar + Fire in the hole)

Favorite Monk based is still the Drunken Master, but that build is Super Micro intensive so not fun in a party unless you can automate the rest.

 

I admit to not having given the ranger a real chance yet though. One day I'll try one. I just like melee too much I guess. (a scout build with the 2x blunderbuss looks like it could be fun though (if driving flight even works with the aoes.).

 

One may even argue that Unbroken/Trickster would not really need a shield. I get plenty of deflection with  Trickster spells and as far as I know WotP's innate riposte with daze effect and  Rogue's riposte stack ( #AOE Ripostes). I would say that 5 engagements (1innate+3stance+1pallid helm) will suffice most of the time.

 

As mentioned above, this is amazing for applying 2 different affliction types to enemies for Deathblows for all the rogues in the party. I am giving a try to Patinated Plate, since this build does not care for recovery/attack speed at all save for the opening 2 sec of the fight for 1st cast of Mirrored Image. Mind you that this is still a tank for me, if I used her as main DPS, stuns from Patinated Plate would hurt damage output.

 

 

Streetfighter+Mortars is a ridiculously strong Combo. My favourite build so far. I am not impressed with any class combinations other than Streetfighter+Golden Pact Pally (FoD + 2 armor) and Streetfighter+Ascendant (self buffs, Ascended dmg buff).

Edited August 7, 2018 by Malkoy

[MikeMikeMikeMikeMike]

I created a
Fighter Tactician + Rogue Streetfighter Dwarf Tank

Paladin The Steel Garotte + Barbarian Furyshaper Aumaua Melee DPS

Ranger Ghostheart + Cipher Ascendant Elf Sniper
 

Druid Ancient + Wizard Evoker Nature Godlike Human Magic AOE Nuker

 

Chanter Troubadour + Priest of Eothas Orlan Healer and Buffer

 

Also i put an entire roleplay around this group. Their first initials together spell the name of my son.

[Frog Man]

Their names are Ferranas, Rhygor, Arethan, Nilledemas, and Kronos.

[Marigoldran]

I recommend this party: 

 

Tank: Paladin/chanter (the best tank in the game)

Off-tank: paladin/chanter (the best off-tank in the game)

Healer: Paladin/Chanter (the best healer in the game)

Support: Paladin/Chanter (the best support in the game)

Utility 5th Party Member: Paladin/Chanter (provides the best utility in the game).  

 

I'm serious.  

[MikeMikeMikeMikeMike]

I recommend this party: 

 

Tank: Paladin/chanter (the best tank in the game)

Off-tank: paladin/chanter (the best off-tank in the game)

Healer: Paladin/Chanter (the best healer in the game)

Support: Paladin/Chanter (the best support in the game)

Utility 5th Party Member: Paladin/Chanter (provides the best utility in the game).  

 

I'm serious.  

 Lol which subclasses would each have then?

[heldred]

 

Hello everybody !

 

I need your help. Indeed, I have not replayed since the very first days of the game, preferring to wait for a greater maturity and I would like to try again at the highest degree of difficulty with an optimized custom party.

 

Unfortunately i do not have time to follow all the evolutions of builds and modifications of the game's balance.

 

Could you recommend some interesting builds to create the custom party I have in mind?

 

- Two melee characters (tank / off tank / DPS), with possibility of cleave / magic aoe / synergy

- A sniper at range

- A magic nuker

- A Healer / buff / debuff support

 

Just one limitation please, not a lot of stealth mechanic / abuse...

 

Which classes would best fit this kind of setup?

 

I am also interested in all your suggestions!

 

Thank you in advance for your contribution. 

 

 

If you want to play the archetypes you suggest (ranged, tank, nuker, etc.), there are plenty of great suggestions on this board and thread.

 

The one thing I realized is with the possible exception of the twin-mortars build, nothing shreds mobs faster than a group of casters.

 

A fun combo for a group, on any difficulty is:

 

One defensive class (Fighter, Paladin, Rogue/tricks, Priest/wael, or Wiz/self-buffer)

 

Combined with...  

 

One offensive/utility casting class (Cipher, Druid, Chanter, Priest, Mage)

 

You really can't go wrong, but here are some ideas (using all different):

 

NUKING/CC/SUMMONS...       meets...       DEFENSE

Druid/fury---------------------------------------Wiz/blood (endless resources via WIz/blood)

Mage/evoker-----------------------------------Priest/wael (tons of spells... also max this character's Arcane skill to 15 for scrolls)

Priest/magran----------------------------------Fighter/tactician (endless resources via Fighter/tac)

Cipher/ascend---------------------------------Paladin/gold (endless resources via Cipher)

Chanter/troub----------------------------------Rogue/tricks (endless resources via Chanter)

 

Other Thoughts:

*Grab spell range extension skill for everyone, keep relatively high INT, and blanket the field of battle with firepower - in SSS every single match is a walk in the park with 5 casters unloading CC followed by Nukes...  or just Nukes

*Grab spell shaping to take advantage of terrain, obstacles, or situations

*After level 10ish... Wear lighter armor and only put on heavy armor for longer battles (like bosses / mega-bosses)

*Dual-wield skill and sword+shield skill for all - Keep shield up on everyone (nuking) and switch to dual-wield (for melee fun)

*Heal from potions and scrolls, but you can grab some healing on Priest and passive healing from Chanter/Paladi...  However, if enter battle CCing/nuking, you don't need to consider healing until megabosses.

 

PROS of this type of party:

+FLEXIBILITY -- Every single fight can be dealt with, from mobs to mega-bosses... post level 10 everything will melt (even with melee, but slower)

+CONTROL -- If you have a large number of deadly foes (Fampyrs for example), you can layer 5x CC-spells

+SURVIVABILITY -- everyone can buff to the extreme if in a bad spot (like mobs teleporting in your back row)

+EFFICIENCY -- you technically have 4 classes with endless resources and the 5th has 28 spells + scrolls

 

 

CONS:

-MICRO MANAGEMENT -- to milk this cow for all its worth, you will need to both hands, giving instructions to each member, every action

-TOO FAST -- I play the game on the slowest setting with a caster heavy group, just to enjoy the fireworks or it is over too quickly

-FLAVOR -- I suppose you can make some combos ranged and play up some characters as more nukers or melee, but overall there is some homogeneity in the play-style 

 

 

The reality is, within each columns there are slightly better classes and when you don't care about some redundancy your might want to drop some combos.  Finally, this setup really isn't maximizing melee and focusing on nuker+defense, so Rogue/street and Monk/hellwalker aren't mentioned.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited March 2, 2019 by heldred

[Verde]

I feel like a lack of Empower is a huge disadvantage of a Blood Mage since you can usually get off a devastating Empower AoE prior to combat starting. For a nuker, it's a deal breaker for me.

 

Also, a Druid with Great Maelstrom is prob the best nuker, bc Meteor Shower has meh range the Missle Salvo is powerful but small AoE. Maelstrom is a hilariously powerful ability that in my experience kills almost everything when Empowered. My take on the subject.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Verde

[heldred]

I feel like a lack of Empower is a huge disadvantage of a Blood Mage since you can usually get off a devastating Empower AoE prior to combat starting. For a nuker, it's a deal breaker for me.

 

Also, a Druid with Great Maelstrom is prob the best nuker, bc Meteor Shower has meh range the Missle Salvo is powerful but small AoE. Maelstrom is a hilariously powerful ability that in my experience kills almost everything when Empowered. My take on the subject.

 

I know this will sound crazy, but I never use empower (after my first play through).  Maybe I have thing against resting, I don't know why I dislike the empower mechanic.  You don't need empower on any of the regular fights (with a well developed team) and I don't believe empower would be very helpful in long megaboss battles.  I know the game has multiple skills to enhance empower, but I just don't use it, preferring to gain a few levels through PL stacking items for some improvement.

 

I do agree Maelstrom is a great spell, but oddly enough, it is available on scroll and it is cheap to make (like 2 primals and a palm slat or something).  Arcane 15 and anyone can cast it.  I know it is a perception thing, but it feels faster to cast from scroll.  

[Verde]

I've wondered...what is the difference between casting from a scroll vs. innate spell abilities? Is there much of a scaling difference?

[Woopee]

I've wondered...what is the difference between casting from a scroll vs. innate spell abilities? Is there much of a scaling difference?

If I'm remembering right, scroll power level is half the character's arcana skill. 

[MaxQuest]

I've wondered...what is the difference between casting from a scroll vs. innate spell abilities? Is there much of a scaling difference?

There is a big difference.

 

When casting from scroll:

- you don't benefit from MIG, INT (which is quite important for DoTs and periodic damage) (although this is slightly compensated by scrolls being considered PL0, and thus higher relative_power_level_bonus)

- you don't benefit from PER

- half of your arcana is used instead of your class power level

- but scroll's base cast/recovery time is often faster than that of a spell. E.g:

> Pull of Eora: 6s cast and 2s recovery.

> Scroll of Pull of Eora: 1.6s cast and either 3.0s or 4.0s recovery (I don't remember exactly).

 

Here's an example of Shining Beacon vs Scroll of Shining Beacon:

 

 

Special attention to accuracy:

- scroll accuracy gets: only half of arcana, while

- spell accuracy gets: perception_bonus + ability_level_bonus + relative_power_level_bonus

 

where:

ability_level_bonus = 2 * (ability_rank - 1)

relative_power_level_bonus = power_level - ability_rank

 

So generally we could say that:

- spell accuracy gets: perception_bonus + power_level + ability_rank - 2

 

And a caster with 9 PL, casting a rank 9 spell, with 20 perception and a perception inspiration, already gets +31 accuracy.

Meanwhile you would need 62 arcana to get such accuracy bonus.

Edited March 4, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Verde]

Wow thanks for that info, very helpful!