(Updated version in a new thread here.

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Trying to compile all the newbie knowledge, and then some.  Feel free to add your own, may become more than an info dump then.

 

General Info (includes race, items, or game effects).

 

[One defensive modal + multiple offensive modals]  You can have one defensive modal on like Cautious attack, but can have multiple offensive ones on like Savage and Vulnerable.

 

[Highest bonus:  Weapon/shield + Worn items (helms, armor, gloves, rings, boots) +  Spells (includes Paladin Auras) + Talents + Per encounter + Chants + Racials]  PoE pulls from the various effects for your character to have the highest bonus in each.  For example, I could use a +2 might weapon, and wear a +1 might glove, and have +3 total.

 

[Wood Elf + Any ranged attack or spell]  Unlike Marksman, this works on any ranged attack/spell.

 

[island Aumua (optional) + Quick Switch + Slow weapons]  With weapon swapping, the slower weapons like guns bypass much of their recovery issues.

 

[Moon Godlike + Dumping Con] The endurance heals will make health more of an issue than dropping in combat.

 

[~+100% damage modifiers + Dual wield + Two weapon fighting talent vs 12 DR] Roughly when dual wield starts to gain ground next to a big 2 hander for dps.  Before then its a pretty non optimal choice for dps, but good for the speed of attacks and lack of overkill.  12 DR is what most monsters are at as well.

 

[(Pale elf) + Shades, phantoms, spirit + Freeze DR]  Pale elf does it easier, tho wizards or paladins can also do it well enough via spells or darcozzi.  A lot less damage from one of the most annoying monsters.

 

[Low Might Companions + Guns]  Just my opinion, but guns are higher average damage and your companions tend to have low might scores giving an inflated "slowness" to combat a lot of times.  Reload animation can be interrupted with skill spam, but the low might is never overcome by weapon selection easily unless you're talking about guns.

 

[Companions + Roles + Party composition]  1 tank, 1-2 bad off tanks, and 4-6 dps/support are roughly the numbers of what builds are possible.  Also there is no rogue, barbarian, or monk class.  So it might be encouraged to make an offtank.

 

[Dexterity + Animation times]  Dex effects the actual attack animation AND recovery time.  Where as attack speed is only on the recovery time.  Reload (guns + crossbows) is never effected by either, except by Gunner, Surehand illa chant, and swift aim (ranger).

 

 

 

Class (Includes anything that involve a class specific skill).

 

 

[Ranger Swift Aim + Wounding Shot + Melee + (Stalker's Link)]  They all work for melee.  Wounding shot seems odd, but hobble effect is stronger than prone for -reflex which can help your casters or similar.

 

[Ranger + Accurate Wounding Shot + Its a TRAP!]  Only effects the fortitude accuracy, not the initial strike.

 

[Ranger + Engage item + Hold the line + Pet] Can have as many 5 engagement slots total, just as good as a Fighter.   Though the pet will die if its holding all the agro.

 

[Ranger + Guns + Swift Aim + (Swift/steady) + (Surehand Ila from Chanter) + (Gunner)] Best in house dps with the big hitters like Arquebus and reload time.  Lacking +dmg modifiers, they rely on the heavier base weapons.

 

[Ranger + Lion]  Bear is arguably one of the best of the worst pets, but Lion has a per encounter fear, along with faster movement that can come in handy for pulling or debufing.

 

[Ranger + Backrow pet in formation+ level 5+]  Your pets tend to die, or get in the way of real melee.  Sometimes, its easiest to manage by keeping them out of the action or when others have firmly engaged.  OR keep them in the last row for formation so they have to "catch up" when a fight starts to easily manage them.

 

[Ranger + blunderbuss + driving flight + ITS A TRAP]  2 bullets instead of 6.  BUGGED

 

[Monk + Turning wheel + Transcendent Suffering + ITS A BUG!]  Turning wheel will overwrite the monk unarmed damage bonuses occasionally with no way to fix it except to go back to a previous save.

 

[Monk + Stunning + Enervating + Two weapon fighting +(Rogue)] See here:  http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79105-105-monk-intresting-synergy-stunning-fist-enervating-blows-while-dual-wielding/  Or basically, you stun on first blow, then enervating blows has a much higher chance due to the debuff.  Rogue is nice for the synergy of sneak attack dmg.

 

[Monk + Moon Godlike + Wounds + Torment's reach (or any wound using ability)] More wounds = more heals = more beatings that will continue until things are dead.

 

[Monk + Turning wheel + Rooting Pain + ITS A TRAP]  Rooting pain is AoE damage, and does NOT get increased by Turning wheel

 

[Monk + Offhand weapon + Unarmed main weapon] Attacks with offhand only, but with increased accuracy for "both".  This means for Torment's Reach, you can hit a bit harder/accurately at the cost of auto attacks.

 

[Monk + Torment's Reach or Rooting Pain + (Cone) AoE + Turning wheel] is unaffected by +Turning wheel modifiers or accuracy as its aoe and a spell effect.

 

[Monk + Might + Transcendent Suffering (aka unarmed damage)]  Might does double duty giving more +dmg for both the class passive and base damage.

 

[Wizard spell lvl 3 Combusting wounds + Any Damage over time effect]  Each tick of the DoT will make Combust go off for more damage.

 

[Wizard (druid) + Self buffs/weapons + No recovery time]  Self buffs have no recovery time and cast in less than a second.  Buffing is pretty quick.  Druid technically has spiritshift like this as well along with Firebrand.

 

[Wizard spell lvl 3 Alacrity + Summoned weapon]  Comboing with the above, the weapons also swing faster as of 1.05 and with Alacrity wizards become even better beatsticks.

 

[Wizard spell lvl 3 Alacrity + spells]  Alacrity effects recovery for everything.. spells and weapons.

 

[Wizard spell lvl 4  Essential Phantom + spellbind items] has your "worn spellbind" items with full charges on cast.  For example, using a minor gloves of light endurance, even if the player had 0 charges, the phantom gets 3.  Note:  weapons/shield slot not included.

 

[Wizard spell lvl 3 Minor Blights + Blast + (Penetrating Blast)+ (Dangerous Implements)]  The wand created by the spell does aoe damage,  and then blast does it again.  Becomes a crazy nuker this way and raw damage to self is neglible.  Also see Alacrity for faster attacks.

 

[Paladin + Darcozzi + Fires of the Palace + Vulnerable attack + Scion of Flame]  Retaliation is a little harder to gain now, but the low damage of the fire retaliate means the above taken in that order will at least deal decent damage.  Also targets reflex which is good for shade killing.

 

[Paladin + Flames of Devotion + Enduring Flames + Burn Lash]  The way it checks vs the reduced DR, its more effective to have a bigger bonus to one category, specifically, fire for the paladin.

 

[Paladin + Darcozzi + Inspiring Exhortation + Spells that provide accuracy]  One of the few ways to stack accuracy with other spells or effects.

 

[Chanter + Any buff]  Chants can stack with any buff with similar effects unlike spells where the highest overrides.

 

[Chanter + Chanter(s) + Come Come Swift Winds of Death]  These stack up on enemies and start to melt faces at the beginning of the game.

 

[Chanter + Frost Chant + (Fleet foot)]  Probably the only class that can reliably kite due to how monsters chase you and you drop frost traps.

 

[Cipher Focus gains + (Fire Godlike) + Retaliate ] Burning/Retaliate up for your focus below 50%

 

[Cipher + Front line position + Antipathetic Field + Targetting back row enemy] Is extremely high dps, like 30 to 60 every second to things in front of you and in melee with you even with 10 might.  Consider making Grieving Mother this build if you have enough CC and support effects as her stats are a bit odd and as a human, she gets some racial +dmg/accuracy when below 50% where melee tend to be.

 

[Cipher + (Rogue + Escape) or (Monk + Longstrider)  or (Any tank + Fleet foot)+ Ectopsychic Echo]  The rogue can teleport behind the enemy line producing a huge echo effect much like the above.

 

[Cipher  (Wizard)+ Opening with Confuse] Tenuous Grasp lvl 1 (Cipher) or Bewildering lvl 2 (Wizard), the effect is enemies engage the confused monster and beat them down.

 

[Priest + Mechanics skill + Seals] They get higher accuracy, so consider making your priest the trap guy.

 

[Priest + Inspiring Radiance + Spells that provide accuracy]  One of the few ways to stack accuracy for the entire group/

 

[Priest + Painful Interdiction + Barbarians with Threatening presence/Brute force + (Fortitude spells)] One per encounter (painful interdiction) and the barbarians in your group can hit much better along with fort effects.

 

[Rogue + Faster attacks] As damage modifiers can get pretty high on this class, faster = better.  While most of the others prefer slower weapons for the better base damage.

 

[barbarian + Fire Godlike + Carnage]  Burning up for aoe melee attacks.

 

[barbarian + Threatening Presence + Brute Force + its a trap]  A NON COMBO:  as fortitude actually is higher for most monsters with high deflection.  That said, it helps land Fort effects like stunning blow from monk, but only gets "ahead" by other debuffs.

 

[barbarian + Human or Nature Godlike + Vengeful defeat + Second chance item]  +dmg or stats and kamikaze aoe damage

 

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Some things weren't included like Rogue sneak attack as the in game description is accurate enough.  This thread purpose was more to gather information that's a little off the beaten path, or frequent asked questions I've seen.

 

Thanks for reading, and please comment/add to the thread below!

Edited May 9, 201510 yr by LadyCrimson
An updated thread was created, making this one redundant.

I thought attribute bonuses from weapons stacked with those from worn items? They are pretty rare, only occurring on a few items (Jena's Lance, Godansthunyr, Prey Maker). I can check later. 

Ya you can have a weapon attribute bonus and one from a worn item. In this case you will see might from Godansthunyr and Pensiavi mes Rei:

.. [barbarian + Threatening Presence + its a trap]  A NON COMBO:  as fortitude actually is higher for most monsters with high deflection...

You're missing "Brute Force" in that line..

 

I actually like Threatening Presence on its own .. It reliably lowers fort saves by 24, making targets more susceptible to things like monk stunning fist and knock downs from fighter and ranger's animal companion, enervating blows (weakness)  etc ..etc .. 

Edited May 7, 201510 yr by peddroelm

Thanks ^_^ you two.  editted the OP

1a) Nature Godlike Barbarian + Blooded (+One Stands Alone)

1b) Vengeful Defeat

1c) Second Chance equipment, either Edér's armor or the Ring of Wonder (or something, can be bought from the guy near where you meet Pallegina)

 

1a) Get the Barbarian to below 50% Endurance = massive damage increase + might + con + dex. One Stands Alone adds massive damage while you're throwing your Barbarian into the fray to get his endurance down (until they fix the skill, but should still give you hefty amounts of extra damage after fix)

1b) Should he happen to die ---> massive AoE damge upon death. Not 100% sure that the Nature Godlike racial ability is still at work when this happens, but it should be

1c) omg, he wakes up again! below 50% endurance and ready to continue butchering.

1a) Nature Godlike Barbarian + Blooded (+One Stands Alone)

1b) Vengeful Defeat

1c) Second Chance equipment, either Edér's armor or the Ring of Wonder (or something, can be bought from the guy near where you meet Pallegina)

 

1a) Get the Barbarian to below 50% Endurance = massive damage increase + might + con + dex. One Stands Alone adds massive damage while you're throwing your Barbarian into the fray to get his endurance down (until they fix the skill, but should still give you hefty amounts of extra damage after fix)

1b) Should he happen to die ---> massive AoE damge upon death. Not 100% sure that the Nature Godlike racial ability is still at work when this happens, but it should be

1c) omg, he wakes up again! below 50% endurance and ready to continue butchering.

I like human's Fighting spirit 15% damage mod and +7 accuracy better for this sort of thing .. It has limited duration but provides a bigger damage spike ..And you can hear hats while doing it .

Edited May 7, 201510 yr by peddroelm

 

1a) Nature Godlike Barbarian + Blooded (+One Stands Alone)

1b) Vengeful Defeat

1c) Second Chance equipment, either Edér's armor or the Ring of Wonder (or something, can be bought from the guy near where you meet Pallegina)

 

1a) Get the Barbarian to below 50% Endurance = massive damage increase + might + con + dex. One Stands Alone adds massive damage while you're throwing your Barbarian into the fray to get his endurance down (until they fix the skill, but should still give you hefty amounts of extra damage after fix)

1b) Should he happen to die ---> massive AoE damge upon death. Not 100% sure that the Nature Godlike racial ability is still at work when this happens, but it should be

1c) omg, he wakes up again! below 50% endurance and ready to continue butchering.

I like human's Fighting spirit 15% damage mod and +7 accuracy better for this sort of thing .. It has limited duration but provides a bigger damage spike ..And you can hear hats while doing it .

 

Wellspring of Life gives +3 might, +2 con and +2 dex. I'd take that any time over the human racial ability, especially cause this one is sustained until the battle ends.

Wellspring of Life gives +3 might, +2 con and +2 dex. I'd take that any time over the human racial ability, especially cause this one is sustained until the battle ends.

 

3 might is 9% damage .. 2 Dex is an insignificant attack speed boost .. The +7 Accuracy is massive IMO ( difference between miss and hit is a LOT (0 damage to graze damage  , graze -> hit -> crit 50% more additive damage ) .

Missing with the main attack cancels all the potential carnage rolls ..

Edited May 7, 201510 yr by peddroelm

Barbarian + Threatening Presence + Brute Force + its a trap

 

I don't know what you mean by "It's a Trap", but painful interdiction grants weakened status to enemies, which combined with sickened is a total of -40 fort in an AOE.  If that's not enough for the barb to start doing serious damage, you could always ask a accuracy-boosted mage for a ring of death encore =)

Barbarian + Threatening Presence + Brute Force + its a trap

 

I don't know what you mean by "It's a Trap", but painful interdiction grants weakened status to enemies, which combined with sickened is a total of -40 fort in an AOE.  If that's not enough for the barb to start doing serious damage, you could always ask a accuracy-boosted mage for a ring of death encore =)

 

Mostly its there to mention that fortitude is higher than deflection for most monsters.

 

Think of it like this, there's 2 classes now that enable -fortitude, but they took 2 talents/levels each to get there, and then barely get above what most debuff/cc spells would do anyway.  4 talents/abilities to hit ~20% better (even with -40 fort) for 1 character is a little rough.  By then, with the debuff provided by Painful interdiction, most characters would rather pour out chunky dps.

 

The painful interdiction is a priest enabling synergy though, so I'll add that in for them.  Multiple barbarian beatsticks is a good party theme.

[Wizard spell lvl 3 Minor Blights + Blast + (Penetrating Blast)]  The wand created by the spell does aoe damage,  and then blast does it again.  Becomes a crazy nuker this way.  Also see Alacrity for faster attacks.

Thanks for this; didn't know that! Looks like blast and penetrating blast might actually worth taking when combined with minor blights. Aloth starts with blast, so I think I'll take minor blights on him now.

Edited May 8, 201510 yr by Zwiebelchen

Forgot the other optional talent of Dangerous Implements = increased damage for the above.  Good chunky damage then.

This is great! Thank you!

 I'm at work so can't confirm 100%, but i'm still pretty sure that sickened is -10 fort/will, not -20. Also weakened is -20 fort/will. And then very importantly, that they don't stack, if both only the biggest applies, so it's -20 fort/will total. And then also also also, blind and hobbled are rather easy and inexpensive to apply and keep aplied, while weakened is not. And furthermore (urg), fort is generally 20+ points higher then reflex/will.

 

 Fort is by pretty far the worst defensive stat to attack.

Sickened: –20 Will, –20 Fortitude, –1 Perception, –1 Constitution, –1 Intellect, –1 Dexterity, –1 Might, –1 Resolve
Weakened: –2 Might, –20 Will, –20 Fortitude, –2 Move Speed, –2 Constitution, Allows Rogue Sneak Attack

That's from the wiki.  If you have better information than the wiki, especially information about debuffs not stacking, please consider creating an account there and updating it for the good of the new players.

 The wiki is getting more outdated by the patch, for the numbers you can go in game and hover over those debuffs or check the encyclopedia, here's what the game says:

- weakened: might -2, constitution -2, movement -1, fortitude -20, will -20

- sickened: all attributes -1, fortitude and will -10

 

edit: in game test on trolls

- no debuff: 40 will

- dazed: 36 will

- dazed+sickened: 24 will

- dazed+weakened: 16 will

- dazed+sickened+weakened: 14 will

- miasma: 12 will

- miasma+sickened: 2 will

- miasma+weakened+dazed+hobbled: -8 will

Edited May 9, 201510 yr by Narla

Since you have a list of what dexterity affects, what about what armor malus affects?

[Priest + Mechanics skill + Seals] They get higher accuracy, so consider making your priest the trap guy.

 

Mechanic skill has no effect on priest seals. Tested in game.

Thanks adaxe and Narla for the testing.

 

Edit has timed out, moving thread to new one:  http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79252-info-synergy-of-abilities-v1/

 

Mods:  Feel free to delete this thread.

Edited May 9, 201510 yr by MoxyWoo