Best weapons for Critter immunities

[Anaeme]

With the new changes weapons like the Pike (piercing damage only) are now very risky

 

There are critters immune to piercing and you either have to carry multiple weapons, or spec out into dual damage weapons like Greatsword or Pollaxe

 

 

Does anyone have good experience with dual damage 2-H weapons to share. I am torn btw Pollaxes and greatswords

[AndreaColombo]

I usually go for Great Swords. When I carry a piercing-only weapon (usually an Estoc), I use a dual-damage weapon as backup (usually a Pollaxe.)

 

Only Rain Blights are immune to piercing damage though, if memory serves.

That said, there are more unique Great Swords than Pollaxes.

[Boeroer]

There are some unique weapons that do dual damage where the normal ones only have one damage type. For example there's Bittercut (sabre, slash/corrode) and Stormcaller (hunting bow, pierce/shock).

I also think that Great Swords is one of the best choices generally and Soldier the most versatile Weapon Focus group.

[aweigh0101]

as far as the new affliction immunities are concerned i now think draining enchantment and the -5 on hit enchantment on uniques are the best as no enemies are immune to those.

thankfully there is an estoc with -5 defenses on hit, and there is a great sword with draining, and there is also a scimitar with draining as well, so the three best weapon groups are still... the three best weapon focus groups. heh.

[KDubya]

The big change is with the ranged alpha strike always being piercing. I used to always have my main weapon and then the ranged weapon from the same weapon group, starting combat with a shot and then switch and engage. Now I need to make sure that they are not both piercing.

 

If I am going with Estocs (still the best melee weapon) I have a Poleax on switch instead of the War Bow.

 

Greatswords are probably the most versatile with several good ones available (Tidefall and two that prone on crit) and they let you alpha with the two biggest ranged weapons and not be pierce only. Soldier focus also has the only dual damage type one hander (warhammer) as well.

 

It's hard not to have several Soldier focus melee guys on your team.

[aweigh0101]

kdubya, i'm too lazy to do the math so does the extra -3 DR bypass from drake's bell achieve DPS parity or better versus blade of endless path's speed? not taking its superb into account since drake's bell can also be superb'd if desired.

on this current playthough i'm using drake's bell for it's Rending, it's native -5 DR bypass, and the -5 from VA and the -3 from the Vambrace bracers you get in TWM for -13 dr bypass. i suspect it won't out-dps the BotEP's due to it's speed enchantment, or it migtht i dunno, but i realized that the huge -13 dr b ypass achievable with drake's bell COMPLETELY negates any need for the wilder to pump Might, so it becomes the perfect melee weapon for any unit whose class or build requires a little bit of dumping might.

with 17 resolve you talk alpine dragon down and he gives you the bracers for free. essentially you only need to be strong enough to mow down the ice trolls attacking stalwart and u can make a direct beeline to the alpine and get the bracers before even halfway thru the game.

I usually roll high RES / high CON builds almost universally on martial classes on PotD so it doesn't leave much room for might, so for some cases like say, a 10 might paladin with 16's in con/int/res would normally not really get much out of a speed enchantment on the weapon, due to lower damage spec, but -13 dr is enough to make the tanky unit still able to contribute formidably in the DPS front.

and you can durgan steel that thing too, of course. does durgan speed stack with BotEP's native speed enchant? if it does, then it's a moot point.

BotEP now seems pretty much tailer made for being used by a fighter, doubling-down on speed with high dex, armored grace, pilferer's grip and a speed weapon. they get 2 class ability dmg modifiers so other than the rogue they're the best ones to get good use out of the thing.

a low/average might Chanter would also get very good use out of the -13 dr bypass from drake's bell, since any good chanter has to dump so they can max int, and since they don't heal might is a prime candidate.

tldr i just realized dr bypass makes up for units that lack dmg modifers. 

Edited November 3, 2015 by aweigh0101

[Teioh_White]

Speed enchant on a 2hander will be about 13% post Mod+DR damage. Rending on a 2hander is 3 damage/.175 mod. The break even point is about 24 damage final damage per hit, which a 2hander be breaking with relative ease, though it's a bit close due to neither having a Lash. A conservative mod at endgame for 2hand is about 2.3 on 2hand base average of 17, so adding in Rending an Estoc is starting out at about 45.

 

So, I'd say on targets below 20 DR, Endless Paths is better. And likely a smidge higher as well, as it saves you a dragon eye, and gets the somewhat hard to calculate boost of marking. (Which varies in effective damage added based on your team set up.) And the more buffs/debuffs you include will push it even further in the Endless Blades favor, of course, making it a pretty narrow market for Drakes Bell.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Teioh_White

[aweigh0101]

i added up the total dr bypass on drake's bell wrong, it's a total of 16. 3 rending + 5 estoc + 5 VA + 3 vambrace bracers. in any case, wow, thanks a lot for doing the match man! much appreciated. i'll just direct anyone interested in this dr business to the paladin stats/build thread, as it's off topic from immunities.

did you do the match for the mistaken 13 i quoted? cos it's 16...

as for marking i use this drake's bell on a paladin usually, they can pick class ability coordinated attacks and if your pc paladin + pallegina cheese it up coordinating each other. but yeah, off to the other thread.

as for best weapons for critter immunities? i STILL think draining and -5 defenses are the best. the benefit barbs, and all other martils equally well and draining is on tidefall and -5 is on the white spire estoc. there is a spear with -5 def's, the vile loner spear, but i can't imagine anyone ever using spears for anything worthwhile, as even a dual-wield setup for disabling there are better 1-handed weapon choices with debuffs on hit than the vile loner spear, like godynsthur stun-on-crit warhammer and we-toki prone-on-crit battle and also thre's draining sabre purgatory and draining flail too but i never use fast weapons.

however, disregarding for the moment prone-immunities on a fair few enemies, there is absolutely no better setup than having 3 dudes in the frontline each one with prone-on-crit weapons (great sword temaperacle, great sword hours of st. rumbault, and pike tall-grass, all 3 from same soldier focus weapon group)

great swords do slash/pierce, so you'll only need to switch weapons very rarely only when facing wind blights that are only weak to crushing, and the normally estoc-stumping Adra animats will taste your slashing type from your great swords. 

fun fact, the great sword justice is i do believe the only weapon in the game with all 3 damage types, slash/piercing from great sword itself and it's unique crushing lash enchantment. there is only 1 other weapon with a unique crushing lash enchant which is actually... a spear, ritezzi's needle, or something like that. can't remember the exact name.

not all that useful in the endgame but neat none theless, 1 weapon having all 3 types. soldier focus, as was mentioned above by the other educated posters has warhammers to switch to when in need of crushing, and the group also includes arquebus and arbalests... if it weren't for the 3 unique estocs being so great, there's really no point arguing about which weapon group reigns supreme in versatility and effectiveness.

in the estoc group, wanderer, since estocs only do piercieing you'll have to switch to either flail (yuck!) or pollaxe (better!) which does slash/Crushing, since animats and a ton of other stuff is imm. to piercing. unfortunately there is only 1 magical pollaxe, half-mast and you can only get it AFTER encountering the adra dragon. not necessary to kill him tho, just meet him to trigger appearance of an NPC in a specific map that has the thing.

Edited November 3, 2015 by aweigh0101

[KDubya]

I'm with Teioh-white with regards to the Blade of the Endless Paths being the better weapon. Drakes bell is great until you get the Blade but once you do its just better. Speed and Superb are great and marking is not terrible/quite good at times. 20% faster is powerful and affects your total damage output.

 

I usually get lazy and don't swap out of my main weapon unless something is immune, especially if my main weapon is jacked with Durgan.

[Vorad]

Blade of endless paths is ok but since you might face some immune to pierce perhaps weapons with dual damage might be prefereable. Sadly Poleaxe are not really special their enchantements are prety average so the other 2 hander I would consider is the greatsword. If you go with Tidefall you got a decent 2 hander that hits hard enough adding the raw damage dot into the equation plus the extra survivability with heal drain not to bad and you get dual damage slash/pierce just in case. If you go with weapon focus soldier you got a realy versatile arsenal to pick from since appart from greatsword you get also warhammer which is realy nice 1 hander solution taking under account also critter immunities.

 

I would really like to see some better Poleaxes in the upcoming expansion though... the ones so far are mediocre to say the least.

[AndreaColombo]

Josh confirmed on Twitter that MOAR pollaxes are coming in TWM pt. II.

 

That said, only Rain Blights are immune to piercing damage that I know of. You can use the Blade of the Endless Paths in all encounters, and an Exceptional pollaxe (or the Half Mast) against Rain Blights.

[Mocker22]

Really messing with my brain here guys. LOL. Been working on starting a barb and also planning on something like the Lady of Pain build, and now do no idea what to use. For the fighter, I won't be too torn up if I give up the ranged capabilities.

[aweigh0101]

Adra Animates, regular Animats, and two of the elemental blights are imm. to piercieing, off the top of my head. The animated Crucible Forge Knight-Suits in that one setpiece as well; they're animat knock-offs. A few primordials are imm. to piercing now, but primordial oozes are so bleh you can just keep whaling till your estoc's enchantment kills it off.

i sort of guessed guls and revenants and skeletons would be imm. to piercing but i steamrolled them without even remembering to check. oh well. 

there is one blight only vulnerable to crushing, i THINK it was the earth one?? one of 'em. so far i don't really have any balance complaints about 2.03 immunities. my game plan hasn't changed much, if at all. all the mob immunities i've encountered make perfect sense, yet to run into one that makes me nerd-rage. i don't care about the dragons tho, so tat point about the dragon fights being even MORE reliant on cheese tactics now is no matter to me. i admit tho i WILL miss prone'ing drakes on my way to grabbing tidefall

[Wolken3156]

Animats are not immune to Piercing.

 

Here's a mostly complete list -

Adra Dragon: Burn, Shock

Algul: Corrode

Alpine Dragon: Freeze, Crush

Animated Weapon: Freeze

Earth Blight: Corrode

Flame Blight: Pierce, Burn

Frost Ooze: Freeze

Greater Earth Blight: Corrode

Greater Flame Blight: Pierce, Burn

Greater Ice Blight: Crush, Freeze

Greater Rain Blight: Pierce, Shock

Greater Wind Blight: Crush, Freeze

Ice Blight: Crush, Freeze

Lich: Freeze, Shock

Rain Blight: Pierce, Shock

Sky Dragon: Shock, Corrode

Steelspine Magus: Freeze, Shock

Wind Blight: Crush, Freeze

 

Only enemy missing is Ancient Death Guards (The ones in Cragholdt, not the regular breed). IIRC they're immune to Burn and Freeze. I may have missed the Slashing immunes too since, my codex won't have them. I don't really use any slashing weapons =/

 

Ailments immunities are going to be headache to list, but for most part only Blights, Ghosts and Undead have them. The big three dragons have them too. Sky Dragon is immune to Blind, Adra Dragon is immune to petrify and the Alpine Dragon is immune to Stun and Paralyse (Eugh!). All three dragons are also immune to fear effects and prone.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Wolken3156

[Vorad]

Regarding ailment immunities if you spam wall spells with high interrupt build that's more than enough to keep the dragon's and any other "boss" technically cc-ed during the entire fight without actually stun/prone/paralyze/petrify etc. I did a test from an old save I had vs Adra and I could just keep her busy with 4 wall of fire(damage immunity to fire is not important she still get's hit hence interrupted) and 4 wall of force, That's 8 checks vs interrupt per time-stamp. Adra dragon couldn't use most  of her abilities during the fight, my paladin was keeping her busy while the wizards cast Citzal's lance and finished her off, her minions adding to the fight aren't really a problem.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Vorad