The Turn-Based Combat Tactics, Strategies, and Builds Thread

Oh yeah Black Jacket/Ranger mix would be fun maybe

Oh yeah Black Jacket/Ranger mix would be fun maybe

 

That could definitely work. Guns for most enemies and bows that do slash/pierce against enemies that are pierce resistant. And Rods for things that need to be hit by crush damage. And of course you could still use your other niche weapons like the Eccea's Arcane Blaster against enemies that have very high damage reduction. 

 

My Black Jacket/Priest has been rolling so far. Wael buffs make him tanky and Black Jacket abilities let him always be penetrating (that sounds wrong lol). 

 

Other general impressions I have are that high dex is actually not a bad thing. I went 16/16/16 might/dex/int on my guy, and being able to go early in rounds is nicer than I thought. The reason for that is I can get positioned, get some hits in, and get arcane veil up. If I were to always being going later in a round I'd want more defenses since you can take a lot of damage before going. And the high dex lets casts finish earlier which is also nice for getting those buffs up.

 

I think dex is less important for characters that don't cast or have high natural defenses. But if you do, it's quite nice. I've also been using the pet which gives lower initiative (think it was sold by the custom merchant you get w/ Berath's blessings) so I often go first in rounds.

 

The only thing that worries me about going early in rounds all the time is that I imagine later on Arcane Dampener might become an issue so if I buff in my first turn and then an enemy goes I might get hit by it. I assume Arcane Dampener is a cast and not free action though so interrupting it should be possible and will be a high priority.

Grimoire switching appears to eat 1 round,from what I could tell last night. Makes it harder to do as part of a wiz rotation. Wiz does have a lot of free action buffs, VS other casters (druid, priest, cipher). The level one cipher spell that creates a toxic beam seems to be doing very high damage in 1 round.

Edited January 28 by brasilgringo

Does BlackJackets. Action ability allow grimoire switching?

 

Edit#1: It does. Strangely enough, you do not use your full action, though all of your spells are disabled for the turn.  You can still attack or use another classes abilities.

 

Edit#2: Switching Grimoires is a free action... it disables all wizard spells however. Other Class spells/abilities appear to work fine.

Edited January 28 by mzum

Does BlackJackets. Action ability allow grimoire switching?

 

That's actually a really good question. I haven't tested it. If they did, that would make it extremely attractive for a Battlemage. 

Tested.  You can switch Grimoire's without using your action for the turn... all of your spells are disabled though.

 

Bug?

Did you guys notice that the Rogue's Escape is a free action? There has to be a way to use that. Teleporting all the way across the field, attacking, then teleporting back. You'll just run out of Guile quickly.

is it me or is the AI button missing on turn-based?

Cause you control every move in tb iirc, no ai used. At least that was my thinking. 

This image in the update thread says there will be no AI in turn based. But it also says there is no re targeting, but people are using it.

 

I found turn-based to be a big drop in difficulty, too. Not sure what the exact reason is, it's just plain easier. I think a big part of it is the fact that enemies behave differently and will stop in front of your tanks much more readily instead of pouring right past to cuddle your casters. At level 9 now, my druid has taken literally 0 damage. Every fight just pans out the same: combat starts, every enemy runs up and starts hitting my two tanks, and then I calmly kill them with my damage dealers while the bad guys miss and graze the tanks. In RTwP, getting things to stay on your tanks is a much bigger hassle and you routinely have to use doorways and other bottlenecks. In TB they seem to just stick to whomever they first make contact with.

     Turn based is making me realize just how critical accuracy and penetration are in upscale PotD party. RTwP it is easier to see past it because 1 miss or no pen doesn't seem to matter as much when there's several hits over a few seconds to a minute depending on how fast you run. Casting seems to be at somewhat of a disadvantage because you can only cast every other turn for most spells. It seems like effectiveness of spells will have to be tweaked for balance??

 

     I'm currently trying an Ancient/Stalker (bear/bear.) I haven't had the animal companion go down once. (yes I know solo guys don't like rangers, but turn based is as tedious as I can tolerate. Solo would put me to sleep.) Not even close to going down for that matter so there is something to be said for controlling every single move in TB play. The sporelings are nice to add bodies but they don't add much damage except the trash mobs they can hit and penetrate. The animal companion does a nice amount of damage though. I've waltzed through the first section of the game fairly easily with it (with a few naps in between because TB is so slow it puts me to sleep.)

 

     I'm considering re-rolling Shifter/Stalker. The DPS output should be better and it exchanges a couple of bodies for some added healing. Seems like a win. Basically any combo that compliments the animal companion by giving it pen and/or armor and putting DoT and afflictions on mobs will work.  Of course I am running a party so I wouldn't need to limit myself. Anyone have any good stalker builds? I can see that a chanter, priest, or paladin would work well with it. Anything that grants tenacious, energized, or just + pen comes fairly late so it doesn't pay to build strictly around it so even a cipher would work. 

 In TB they seem to just stick to whomever they first make contact with.

 

I'm not finding this to be the case. It is however easier to snag them with the tank as they go by because you can control every move.

The 'line-fire' weapons are pretty fun in TBM.

 

Currently running a Debonair/Tactician playthrough. Infinite multi-target Blinds are quite satisfying.

Edited February 1 by mzum

 

Man, I'm getting absolutely pulverized by the Engwithan ruins drake fight on turn based. Even luring them up top I still keep dying. The early accuracy issues on Potd are just brutal. Was playing a Waelite Priest/Assassin.

 

I think I'm gonna restart and make sure to grab at least one Wizard henchman (assuming I myself don't choose Wizard). Chill Fog got me close to winning a few times and is a hugely powerful spell on potd.

 

I also don't think I liked having Xoti as monk/priest or Eder as pure fighter. So both of those are getting changed by me also.

 

I do still want to stick with the Wael Priest theme but maybe not go Assassin for my first run through on potd turnbased since it's a bit squishy even with the buffs.

I find that an Ancient druid henchman makes that section much easier. Charm Beast trivializes that fight and you get Aloth immediately after.

This. Charm/Hold Beasts and Summon Sporelings.

So I found one niche use for having a high dexterity build as an Ascendant Cipher (or high enough).

 

Disintegration damage ticks right when you cast it, and at the start of the enemy's turn. If a Cipher goes early in the turn order and manages to cast it before the enemy target's turn rolls around, they essentially take two ticks in the same turn. I am unsure if this means going first means one extra tick of Disintegration damage, or if it just means the final tick is delayed one turn.

 

Nothing lives long enough for me to really test this.

 

(I also don't think the tooltip for Disintegration is any accurate. It usually says anywhere from 200-450 damage inflicted over 2-4 turns, but I've seen a fully buffed Disintegration tick for upwards of 150-180 damage each, even though the hit result says 450-something damage over 4 turns.)

Edited February 1 by Saito Hikari

Could anyone recommend me a fun cipher multiclass for turn-based? This will be my first go at the game, and I was a cipher in PoE1, but it seems like single class cipher is not so hot in this game. I’d prefer something that actually gets to use cipher powers, but I’m not totally opposed to soul blade.

Tactician/Cipher can be a lot of fun.  Cipher has a number of abilities that lead to Flanked for the opposition. Once you have flanked, you Regen Focus every turn. 

 

Beguiler + Rogue is fun.  Your Deception Cipher abilities restore focus on characters who have an Affliction or are flanked. Cast an AoE deception spell, and now your focus spending abilities generate focus. Casting from stealth will also allow you to generate focus.

 

Beguiler will actually work with anything. It's a very self contained combo.

Thanks mzum! Beguiler/rogue sounds like a lot of fun. Would it be better to go ranged or melee for that build?

Whatever comes your way!

 

Its not weapon/play- style specific

Edited February 4 by mzum

Perfect! I think I’ll go Beguiler/Trickster for full flavor. Now I just have to stare at character creation for two hours trying to decide if I’m going to stick with my Orlan from PoE1 or retcon to Aumaua for all the unique interactions. :D

Been finding that Escape is now a solid tanking ability because the +50 Deflection lasts a whole round. Or it might just be less finicky to use it in this way than in RTWP. I teleport my rogues into the middle of mobs and they enjoy +50 deflection against a whole round of attacks against them.

Edited February 24 by Lamppost in Winter

Been finding that Escape is now a solid tanking ability because the +20 Deflection lasts a whole round. Or it might just be less finicky to use it in this way than in RTWP. I teleport my rogues into the middle of mobs and they enjoy +20 deflection against a whole round of attacks against them.

 

Escape is fantastic just for setting up attacks. I use it all the time with Eder. I use it with Shadow Step which is a very expensive ability but which helps me lock a caster down for a round which I've found invaluable on turn based.

 

 In TB they seem to just stick to whomever they first make contact with.

 

I'm not finding this to be the case. It is however easier to snag them with the tank as they go by because you can control every move.

 

Later in the game, there are few enemies who would just Leap to your backliner. Im not sure if it is specific to me, but I always start the first round buffing, meaning my team will always still clumped together. Learn the hard way when all enemies suddenly just Shadow Leap, Blind and Stunned everyone. 

 

Some Spirits enemies like Shade would also teleport behind the line and attack whoever has the less AR or Deflection, which is most of the time caster and backliner.