Might & Magic X

[Blarghagh]

Continuation of topic here.

 

Last discussion was Uplay integration.

[Gorgon]

That pointless achievement like thing that spawns a badge on screen, ruining immesion. Kill it with fire.

[Enoch]

Interesting coincidence that this was bumped back to the top of the forum right around when I started getting back into the playthrough that I was quasi-blogging on the old thread.  (I was in the mood to play something a little more management-gamey for a few weeks.) 

 

Anyhow, the group is now locked inside the Tomb of 1000 Terrors.  (And, of course, the XP lump you get for completing Act 2 just as the door seals behind you was enough to push 3 of my characters into needing training in the tertiary skills they're presently leveling up.)  My attention wandered after I had achieved the goal of promoting all my characters and getting GM training in all their primary skills.  When I came back to the game, I set out completing some minor quests and poking our heads into a few dungeons we had found that we received no quest to investigate.  As far as I can tell, these mostly relate to promotion quests for other classes, as a couple of them had the vestiges of some interactivity that I could do nothing with.  I also went through the Fortress of Crows, which was apparently a DLC addition.  That one was a lot of fun. 

 

Additionally, I had never found the Shard of Light.  I will confess that I resorted to the internet to remind me that there were parts of Falagar's mansion that I hadn't cleared out when I passed through there when first entering Karthal.  So I checked that one off, too, before ending Act 2. 

 

One thing I haven't bothered to do yet is pray at all the shrines on the correct day.  Is the payoff for that worthwhile?  Not having paid much attention to the days of the week (it took me rather a long time to find where that information is actually communicated to the player), I'd pretty much be camping out at each shrine until the day when praying does something, which feels lame and gamey. 

[Humanoid]

Shrines:

 

 

Reward is relic heavy armour, so it depends on your party composition. Note that the final shrine won't be usable until last, but the game doesn't actually give any feedback as to that fact, so if you've camped out for a week at it and it never responds, that's probably why.

 

[Llyranor]

Anyway, I picked it up during the (now ended) Steam sale. Might be a while before I get to it, though. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but there are too many RPGs on my backlog and upcoming, hahahaha.

[Llyranor]

Ok nerds, before I jump in:

 

- How generous is the game re: skillpoints? Is it wise to invest in 3-4 magic schools for a spellcaster, or is that going too far? Likewise, Are hybrids (ie. adding magic to melee or ranged characters) viable?

- Does the higher difficulty mean a good challenge or a tedious grind?

[Enoch]

It's probably best not to plan on GM'ing more than 3 skills per character.  You might get 4 skills there there around the very end and/or DLC content, but by then it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.  My casters are pretty close to the endgame, and the Archmage has GM'ed Air, Dark, and Magical Focus, with Expert-level investment in Prime and a toe dipped into Water & Earth, while the Runepriest had GM Earth, Light, and Fire, plus some support-skill investment (armor proficiency; the spell-point boosting skill)

 

I think hybrids are viable, but they're best when built as a roughly 80-20 Might-Magic split.  E.g., get one spell school to Expert or Master for backup healing or to provide a utility spell the rest of the party lacks.  The exception might be the Crusader, who works best as a Light magic caster who happens to wear heavy armor and who can be a okay-ish melee character when not healing/buffing. 

 

I jumped right into the higher difficulty, so I don't really know whether the lower one makes the game feel less grindy.  It's a grindy game by any standard, but it was fairly rare that I found it tedious. 

[Humanoid]

Yeah, it takes 25 points to GM a skill, and without DLC, you typically end up in the low-30s levelwise. At 3 points per level, you will end up just shy of 100 skill points overall, and therefore are only able to GM three skills (and get to Master in one). With DLC you should be able to get the four GM skills comfortably, but I never did get around to doing the DLC.

[Llyranor]

I rolled a party. Dwarf defender with axe/shield/heavy armor/warfare (maybe a tad of fire magic later on?). Orc hunter with spear/bow/dodge/air magic (with some medium armor later on). Human freemage with magical focus/mysticism + primordial(GM)/dark(GM)/fire/light. Elf druid with mysticism + water(GM)/earth(GM)/light. Enough to cover all the schools of magic, but without GMing them all

[Enoch]

I rolled a party. Dwarf defender with axe/shield/heavy armor/warfare (maybe a tad of fire magic later on?). Orc hunter with spear/bow/dodge/air magic (with some medium armor later on). Human freemage with magical focus/mysticism + primordial(GM)/dark(GM)/fire/light. Elf druid with mysticism + water(GM)/earth(GM)/light. Enough to cover all the schools of magic, but without GMing them all

 

I think most party combinations can work, but you're pretty light on folks who can do serious damage.  The best melee damage-dealers have GM in a weapon skill, and GM in either Dual-wield or Two-handed.  (If the Hunter class can GM or Master two-handed, I'd put points there before I would Bow or Dodge.)  The best magical damage-dealers GM either Fire or Air, plus Magical Focus (although, for the most part, melee damage is more efficient). 

 

It'll be a very durable party, with the best damage sink (Defender) and the best damage-mitigation caster (Druid), but expect some fights to last a long time. 

 

I'll add that the benefit from GM'ing a skill is disproportionally large.  A character with 3 GM skills is usually measurably more effective than one with 2 GM skills and Expert level in 3 others.  (With a possible exception of utility casters, where access to particular spells like Burning Determination (fire), Purge (dark), and Identify (primordial) are sufficient to justify expert-level investment all on their own.)

Edited July 15, 2014 by Enoch

[Llyranor]

Dodge is just there because it's a default skill. I was planning on going going spear-heavy and investing in two-handed for extra blocks anyway. Hunter can't even GM bow anyway, so it'd have been a backup weapon.

 

I guess I should recheck everything and see what's worth GM'ing, especially for the spellcasters.

[Humanoid]

Even if you go for a hybrid class, which is plenty viable, you're more or less still compelled to specialise them, instead of halving your skill points pursuing multiple weapon skills. The concept of a backup weapon never really comes into it, especially with a hunter which has the Harpoon skill to specifically overcome any potential issue with enemies at range.

 

But yeah, just don't expect much in the way of heavy lifting done by your melee team there, the defender is a very niche class, and while it can be gamebreaking in some situations, it's somewhat tricky to exploit its strengths. Doubly so when paired with a relatively defensive melee partner on top of that: dual-wielding on at least one character is strongly recommended so as to be able to eat up block charges (and dual-wielding does more damage anyway).

[Keyrock]

I rolled a party. Dwarf defender with axe/shield/heavy armor/warfare (maybe a tad of fire magic later on?). Orc hunter with spear/bow/dodge/air magic (with some medium armor later on). Human freemage with magical focus/mysticism + primordial(GM)/dark(GM)/fire/light. Elf druid with mysticism + water(GM)/earth(GM)/light. Enough to cover all the schools of magic, but without GMing them all

That party will work fine it's 3/4 the same as the party I first beat the game on.  I had a shaman instead of a druid, the rest of the party was the same.  You should have no problem beating the game with that party, on whatever difficulty, I didn't with my nearly identical party.  The game actually gets easier once you hit about level 20 and even easier once you're nearly maxed out.  As others have written, don't try to be a jack of all trades, pick a handful of skills for each character and specialize in them.  Magic is actually not very good in the game used purely for offense, I find it;s best used for defense and to debuff enemies.  You'll want to get access to burning determination and regenerate as soon as possible as both those spells are extremely useful.  Whispering shadows is great too for finding secrets, but you could always use scrolls and later a companion for that purpose.