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[Naughtydread]

Good day, I just started playing this game and currently trying to build my 1st caster heavy party. Please provide any tips suggestions or guides that might help me with this beautiful game. I am not sure if it will matter but I will be playing turn based.

1) Main character: Wizard

2) Tank: Shieldbearer-Troubadour (found this on the forum)

3) Ranged dps: ??? Thinking bow ranger I have read mixed reviews on this class

4) Healer: Any guidance would help

I was planning to fill out the remaining slot or slots with NPC that I hopefully will find along the way.

[omgFIREBALLS]

I can say that for 4, your tank is already a great healer. Exalted Endurance and Ancient Memory provide constant passive healing, whereas Lay on Hands is a powerful spot heal. Plus being a shieldbearer, it will give a few seconds of death immunity to the target, which is a very nice safety net to have.

[AndreaColombo]

If you want a dedicated healer on top of your tank, a Lifegiver Druid can fork out some pretty mean AoE healing (and bestow Robust in an AoE, which also grants passive healing over time.)

EDIT: for ranged DPS, you could go for a Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster. Boeroer elaborated on the concept in a different thread so I’ll leave it to him to go into details if you’re interested. It was a pretty nasty build, if memory serves.

Edited May 1, 2019 by AndreaColombo

[Naughtydread]

1 minute ago, AndreaColombo said:

If you want a dedicated healer on top of your tank, a Lifegiver Druid can fork out some pretty mean AoE healing (and bestow Robust in an AoE, which also grants passive healing over time.)

Thanks for the feedback. Do you guys think a backup healer is needed or overkill?

[Boeroer]

I'd say it's overkill once you know the game better but can be useful for starters.

Ranged dps: Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster (unique yet early arbalest - or Essence Interrupter bow once the loot destroying bug gets fixed) is great for several reasons. The main one is very, very high accuracy right from the early stages of the game which makes a big difference in "felt" difficulty. Being able to crit rel. reliably on lower levels feels very strong. Reason is the combo of several accuracy-enhancing effects that Paladin + Arcane Archer + Spearcaster can stack. Later also the damage per shot is pretty astonishing (once you use your animal companion for using Takedown Combo).

Other nice ranged dps can include Rogue, Cipher, Ranger or even Monk.  

[MaxQuest]

Lifegiver/goldpact pale elf (cat form, dumped PER, plate, 1h+heavy shield) is a sturdy as hell healer that can tank, heal and buff a lot.

But am not sure if you need one. As it depends on how sturdy is the rest of your party, and how many source of terrify and mass daze/stun/paralyze you have. Not to mention that lifegiver/goldpact partially clashes with your shieldbearer/troubadour, whose healing might be enough if you have a wizard or trickster with Repulsive Vissage.

As for ranger used for ranged-dps, here are a few sketches:

- stalker/wayfarer with dual blunderbusses (or sceptres)

- bleakwalker/arcane archer with Spearcaster/Frostseeker

- bleakwalker/sharpshooter or devoted/sharpshooter with Saint's Omaku / Veilpiercer (and 50% chance to recover immediately on scoring Crit enchant)

- rogue/gunhawk or tactician/gunhawk with arquebuses (and Quick Switch; Dragon's Dowry -> Dragon's Dowry -> Red Hand -> Red Hand -> Fleetbreaker -> Red Hand)

P.S. That said I usually try to make sure that my party has access to Repulsive Vissage, Zealous Endurance (unless there are many sources of Hardy/Robust), Shared Flames (unless all damage comes from DoTs), DW White Flames, Confounding Blind, some way to circumvent the resource limit (because of bosses hp-bloat), and enough  sturdiness/sustain that would allow to stabilize in any combat situation.

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

Why not bear form? I mean if you are going for tankyness? You'll enjoy +2 AR which stacks with Gilded Enmity - even if you will be missing your shield you won't be bothered by attacks as much as in cat form while casting your PL-boosted heals. +2 AR seems to be an advantage over Cat Flurry's faster casting speed since... I guess?

[MaxQuest]

I have taken cat form because:

- I was thinking that Bear Form only gives +1 AR over it

- with Gilded Enmity, Pale Elf passive, Blunting Belt, Pearlescent head item and Tears of Saint Makawo I already had a lot of AR. I've swapped the belt later, because it was overkill.

- cat paws have 3s recovery compared to 4s of bear. So if druid happened to make a melee attack, he would respond faster to my command

- I just like Cat Flurry) Switching to cat (and getting armor recovery penalty reduced to 0) and using Cat Flurry enables some turbo healing mode. For majority of encounters I was using the following auto-behaviour: switch to cat, enable flurry, use Golden Enmity, drop moonwells + aoe robust + aoe form of delemgam. And with flurry, druid could do all this quite before the form expiration. 

- I had 3 fights that resulted in a close wipe, and this druid was the last standing, bringing the last enemy down with his abysmal auto-attack damage and accuracy. So I guess his sturdiness was not a problem) And that's why I am thinking about shifting to more damage-capable healers for my next run (e.g. wayfarers).

  

Edited May 1, 2019 by MaxQuest

[heldred]

1) Main character: Wizard

>>> A great choice and some suggestions: 1) Use a shield, at least until level 10ish, 2) Use heavier armor, at least until level 10ish, 3) grab key buffs at level-up, like Spirit Shield, Infuse, and Llengs Image (low level defenses), 4) grab a damaging grimoire, that has all offensive (damage, dot, cc) spells, and 5) think about a specialization for keyword (Ice, Fire, Poison/Decay, etc., but usually Fire or Ice) and select the appropriate weapons (e.g., Magran's Ax = fire), and regarding specialization, 6) go Blood if megabosses in your future, or Vanilla for broader spell access, or Evoker for chance to double-cast.  

 

2) Tank: Shieldbearer-Troubadour (found this on the forum)

>>>Another solid choice, that can still provide some offensive options.  This combo's power ranking starts to subside slightly in the outer levels, due to slower DPS/Casting.  However, renewable resources are great for longer battles (megabosses) and the survivability, coupled with renewing chants/spells is ideal.  

 

3) Ranged dps: ??? Thinking bow ranger I have read mixed reviews on this class

>>>There is nothing wrong with any class (I like Ranger-Arcane / Wizard), but for pure Ranged DPS power...  I would take a pure Druid or Fire Priest (since you already have a pure Wizard for main)

 

4) Healer: Any guidance would help

>>>You really don't need a dedicated healer, especially with your Shield/Troub in the mix.  If you did want a dedicated healer, a Lifegiver Druid is quite possibly the best option...    To give your Druid some additional firepower, a multi-class Lifegiver/Monk might be interesting, since it give you renewable resources for outer levels...  especially if you have another pure caster for your #3 spot. 

 

Just remember, there are no bad decisions and often times the "most uber" class may not be the most fun to actually play.  Any of the choices above (made by everyone) will be fun.  Enjoy!

[Naughtydread]

Thanks for the responses, I decided to re-roll my party some of the builds are not fun so far in turn based. The two classes that I enjoyed and performed well are Ranger, and Wizard. I did not enjoy the Shieldbearer-Troubadour most likely playing it wrong.

Can anyone suggest another tank that would work well in turn based?

[Woopee]

Ghostheart/Ascendant is pretty nice, with Frostseeker (warbow from near Neketaka) and Driving Flight you have an extremely powerful dispel that also causes you to ascend and be able to spam Cipher powers. 

 

There's also a companion that can be a ranger/wizard, might be a good one to take with you if you like both classes. 

[JackalTornMoons]

On 5/1/2019 at 9:05 PM, Naughtydread said:

Can anyone suggest another tank that would work well in turn based?

To me, the best tank in turn-based is a Black Jacket/Skald.  Skald lets you AoE Paralyze/Stun every other turn, which is very important in turn-based (particularly now with the nerf to Relentless Storm).  With Black Jacket, you can swap to a high damage setup when you attack and then immediately swap to you shield setup before you end your turn.

[Lampros]

On 5/1/2019 at 5:17 AM, Boeroer said:

I'd say it's overkill once you know the game better but can be useful for starters.

Ranged dps: Bleak Walker/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster (unique yet early arbalest - or Essence Interrupter bow once the loot destroying bug gets fixed) is great for several reasons. The main one is very, very high accuracy right from the early stages of the game which makes a big difference in "felt" difficulty. Being able to crit rel. reliably on lower levels feels very strong. Reason is the combo of several accuracy-enhancing effects that Paladin + Arcane Archer + Spearcaster can stack. Later also the damage per shot is pretty astonishing (once you use your animal companion for using Takedown Combo).

Other nice ranged dps can include Rogue, Cipher, Ranger or even Monk.  

 

Is the Arcane Archer sub-class necessary for this build? Or can any other Ranger sub-class with Bleak Walker work? The reason I ask is because I do not like unfamiliar or complex classes, and Arcane Archer was not around when I stopped playing. I am also having a difficult time understanding what it exactly does by simply reading the description.

Also, going with the simple multi-class theme, what generally works better as a multi-class complement to the Ranger - Devoted Fighter or Rogue? Seems to me both possibilities are simple enough for me not to need baby-sitting much in turn-based. I've used Ranger/Devoted Fighter but not Ranger/Rogue combination.

 

On 5/1/2019 at 5:24 AM, MaxQuest said:

As for ranger used for ranged-dps, here are a few sketches:

-stalker/wayfarer with dual blunderbusses (or sceptres)

- bleakwalker/arcane archer with Spearcaster/Frostseeker

- bleakwalker/sharpshooter or devoted/sharpshooter with Saint's Omaku / Veilpiercer (and 50% chance to recover immediately on scoring Crit enchant)

- rogue/gunhawk or tactician/gunhawk with arquebuses (and Quick Switch; Dragon's Dowry -> Dragon's Dowry -> Red Hand -> Red Hand -> Fleetbreaker -> Red Hand)

 

 

1. Same question I asked Boerer: Does the Spearcaster multi-class build require Arcane Archer? Can other Ranger variants do?

2. Do you have the Devoted/Sharpshooter build written out elsewhere? I'd very much like to use it. I've done Devoted/Ghost Heart before, but I figure I can manage pets in turn-based! That build also used Aamina's Legacy - rather than a war bow - and I'd want a harder penetrating weapon for this run.

3. What approach among the ones you've listed would do the most damage over time in turn-based?