don't ignore priest's seals, they all do decent damage and provide limited cc, also, u can boost a priest's accuracy really well if u combine his diety talent with a focus. For example, Wael gives 10 and peasant focus gives another 10 acc for staff.

 

my personal pick would be:

fighter - plate, estoc

druid - plate, staff

priest - plate, staff

chanter - plate, arquebus

rogue - leather, war bow

wizard - scale, sceptre

 

 

I don't think you want more than one or two guys (your front line) in plate. Ideally at least, your back row isn't bearing the brunt of the attacks!

 

At this point the composition I'm leaning towards, given that my first run will be with the prewritten companions:

 

Front Pair: (tanks)Fighter and Paladin in plate, ideally with Estocs.

 

Middle Pair (offtanks/support): Priest and Chanter, Chain, Pike OR Qstaff, Ranged Weapon (probably magran arquebus, whatever the Chanter uses well)

 

Back Rank: (artillery/cc): PC cipher with blunderbuss and stilettos, in scale or breastplates, and wizard (druid? I realize wizzy is sub optimal, but I hate druids), also in scale or breastplates, with an implement and some backup melee weapon.

 

Plate's good for the front row. Most corridors seem to be two columns wide so you generally don't need more than two front liners (and if you do, the chain wearers can pinch hit). Back row you don't want to go TOO light in case they get jumped or hit with ranged damage, but scale seems to be a nice sweet spot between too weak and too slow. Breastplates might be a good choice also depending but I like the look of scale more.

I feel like for non tanks doesn't really matter the armor. If they are getting engaged they are going to have a bad time. 

 

Being naked would arguably be better... but armor enchants seem balance out a 20% speed loss

I like padded armor since it has higher DT vs. pierce [8] than its base, and if you're getting shot at range it's probably piercing.

Edited March 7, 201510 yr by Odd Hermit

I heard 6 rangers was the optimal power build...

I like padded armor since it has higher DT vs. pierce [8] than its base, and if you're getting shot at range it's probably piercing.

 

Yeah, I think that's the reason to go breastplate honestly, it has a really good piercing resistance. In practice it'll probably be determined by the armors I find.

 

I feel like for non tanks doesn't really matter the armor. If they are getting engaged they are going to have a bad time. 

 

Being naked would arguably be better... but armor enchants seem balance out a 20% speed loss

 

Believe you can theoretically enchant basic clothing.

I've been doing a 4 man party today:

 

Fighter: Uber tanked w/War Hammer/Shield

Fighter: 2h, still decently tanky

Chanter: Max int/might, decent resolve for some melee presence

Druid: Elemental talents, maxed might/int (Dwarf from Old Vailia = 20 might, 19 int)

 

 

Strategy for taking out lots of enemies w/out resting:

 

Step 1: Pull some enemies.

Step 2: Leave 1 enemy alive.

Step 3: Summon a phantom with your chanter. Send it out to pull more enemies.

Step 4: Druid casts returning storm.

Step 5: Clear a comfortable amount of enemies, summon a new phantom(clear engagements) and pull more into your druid's storm.

 

Rinse repeat. Phantom takes a pretty good beating and absorbs some of the more dangerous stuff like Adra Beetle lightning.

 

It's quite effective for clearing beetles / spiders early on, allowing me to get to the Ogre quickly and level up w/4 people, then fill the party out having an overall higher level party than if I'd started w/6 hired adventurers, making up for them being a level behind the starting BB characters.

@in reply to the OP

 

Your feedback is worthwhile but I believe it strongly reflects your personal playstyle, thus you come out with such opinion about the various classes. I believe there are many more 'power-gaming' options.

 

However, I always enjoy reading such info, even if I'm not a power-gamer

Edited March 7, 201510 yr by constantine

 

What really makes it hard to take Monk or Paladin though is their engagement limit. Fighters get +2 along with +5 deflect in a single modal that they can buff further. Other melee have to spend a talent on a single +1 and it doesn't really cut it for me. 

I suspect we have vastly different estimations of the value of engagement then. In my experience the AI is simple enough that simple positioning dictates who gets targeted, not engagement.

I suspect we have vastly different estimations of the value of engagement then. In my experience the AI is simple enough that simple positioning dictates who gets targeted, not engagement.

My experience is the same. Engagement was never needed to dictate who targets who.

Barbarian+Fighter+Paladin (Shieldbearer) frontline combo is pretty strong too. Lots of combinations can be placed behind it, and I think that's a key element to consider. 2 Necro-Chanters (Skeletons as frontal shield, summons) and 4 Wizards  or 2 Chanters and 1 Wizard, 1 Cipher, 1 Druid, 1 Priest

Got to try it brb.

I suspect we have vastly different estimations of the value of engagement then. In my experience the AI is simple enough that simple positioning dictates who gets targeted, not engagement.

 

 

My experience is the same. Engagement was never needed to dictate who targets who.

 

 

But engagement also affects flanking, no? A fighter w/engage limit of three can have 3 targets on him w/out being flanked it seems.

 

Maybe the -10 deflection isn't worth worrying about?

If you properly position your characters at the beginning of combat they'll attack the party members you want them to attack, usually. You can also run other characters back. In Lle A Rhemen one of the Crystal Eater spiders usually tries to target a ranged character, I simply run that ranged character back and the Crystal Eater wanders around herpa derp for a while before selecting a new target. The targeting updating is too slow ATM.