Full vancian party

[PIRI]

2 Druids, 2 priests and 2 wizard. 

So, any advice to composite such party? 

 

 

[Boeroer]

Just make sure that both priests take Inspiring Radiance - it stacks with itself.

 

Besides that I would maybe go with one Cat and one Boar Druid, one melee Wizard with summoned weapons and one melee Priest of Skaen with Firebrand or Berath with Tidefall, one Blast Wizard and one arquebus priest.

[dgray62]

Boeroer, to me it seems that boar druids are far superior to cat druids, with the constant wounding and regeneration buffs as opposed to the 1/rest haste effect. Is the reason for going with a cat druid to have the slash attack, for the relatively many foes who are immune to pierce and shock attacks? What about another boar druid with Wildstrike Corrode and Spirit decay, dual wielding Bittercut and Bleakfang when not shifted, and using Rotskulls as a ranged attack? Regarding the priest of Berath, would The Hour of St. Rumbalt be better than Tidefall, given the high MIG and INT?

[PIRI]

Well it's actually my second try, first was 2 tank druids, 2 blast wizard and... well... priests were quite useless besides of nukes and buffs. 

Worked pretty well, but i felt that i waste druid spiritshift potential.

 

What stats, race and talents you recommend for druids and melee wiz? weapon for nonshift form?

And last question, is arquebus really worth it, i mean why not both, Skaen Firebrand and Berath Tidefall?

[Wolken3156]

Boeroer, to me it seems that boar druids are far superior to cat druids, with the constant wounding and regeneration buffs as opposed to the 1/rest haste effect.

Spiritshift Cat also has an innately higher attack speed than the other Spiritshift forms. Its actually the more powerful option against enemies with low DR. Boars shine best against enemies with higher DR values.

[dgray62]

Spiritshift Cat also has an innately higher attack speed than the other Spiritshift forms. Its actually the more powerful option against enemies with low DR. Boars shine best against enemies with higher DR values.

 

Ah, I see. The Cat would cut through mobs with low DR more rapidly, while the Boar's wounding would work better against the higher DR foes.

[dgray62]

 

Well it's actually my second try, first was 2 tank druids, 2 blast wizard and... well... priests were quite useless besides of nukes and buffs. 

Worked pretty well, but i felt that i waste druid spiritshift potential.

 

What stats, race and talents you recommend for druids and melee wiz? weapon for nonshift form?

And last question, is arquebus really worth it, i mean why not both, Skaen Firebrand and Berath Tidefall?

 

Spiritshift druids can do tremendous damage, and the Boar druid is particularly sturdy due to stamina regeneration while shifted. As Boeroer as outlined in other posts on his "Shock-hog" build, you want high MIG and INT and decent CON and DEX to make him/her sturdy and fast. You can keep PER flat if you're not playing POTD, and can dump RES as much as you are comfortable. I usually play this build (one of my favorites) with STR 16/CON 16/DEX 15/PER 10/INT 16/RES 5. Given the low RES, you can give it items with spell holding effects such as Sanguine Plate. And you should take Veteran's recovery ASAP. I like playing with Boreal Dwarves for this build for the extra accuracy against beasts, which seems to fit the build, and also really comes in handy when fighting nasty beasts and primordials, i.e., dragons and radiant spores.

 

I'm currently playing a melee wizard MC that is truly badass, fighting with a weapon and shield (for extra deflection and reflex w/ the weapon and shield talent), and using summoned weapons for the more challenging fights. This character is a Pale elf for the extra fire/ice DR, and I believe the starting stats were STR 18/CON 10/DEX 12/PER 12/INT 18/RES 8. With the wizards defensive buffs and the spell Infuse with Vital Essence you don't need a high CON, and with Alacrity your attack speed and spell speed is also quick without super high DEX. Overall this is probably the most OP build I've ever played, although it takes more micro to get the buffs off at the beginning of each fight.

[Boeroer]

Yes, cat for lower DR and boar for higher DR. They are equally good I think.

 

Tidefall's wounding scales with MIG and nobody can achieve higher MIG than a priest - and although wounding's dps goes a bit down with high INT, in this case it can be benefical to have a longer DoT time: Cleansing Flame doubles the damage of all DoTs, including Tidefall's. So if you cast Cleansing Flame on an enemy and hit him with Tidefall, the wounding ticks get doubled. And because you can't do it all simultaniously the longer DoT gives you a bit more time to cast/attack. And also the damage of the wounding does not simply go away - it just takes a bit longer to get applied. So dps is a but lower than with low INT, but overall "damage dealt" stays the same.

Hours of St. Rumbalt is also good. Less damage but a nice CC effect.

 

Rot Skulls is very strong. If you want you could retrain a shifter into an implement user once you get Rot Skulls. Unfortunately it comes pretty late.

[PIRI]

Still don't know how to build frontliners,

Min dex on druid, flat int on wiz? Resolve Vs con? They both should tank, main problem with them.

[dgray62]

Heldred in another thread gives great advice on building a party that is tanky, strong on defense. Generally, you want to give everyone, including casters, Veteran's recovery and the weapon & shield talent ASAP. You also should avoid min-maxing and dumping CON and RES. While wizards are often build as caster/blaster glass canons, for this party you'd want at least one, and maybe both, to be melee oriented. Properly built, a buffed melee wizard is really tough. The same is true of priests, with all of their great defense buffs. Druids are a bit more squishy. You probably want to arm them with dual hatchets or a hatchet and shield so they're tankier while casting. Once they have their spells unleashed, and the enemies are stunned (perma-stunned if have two druids!) from returning storm/ relentless storm, then they can spiritshift and decimate the mobs.

[Boeroer]

Please don't give your shifters Weapon & Shield Style. It hurts my feelings.

 

Veteran's Recovery and a focus on (self) healing is enough to keep them alive if you go with three frontliners (2 druids, one priest), a reach weapon user (wizard) and two ranged (priest & wizard). 

 

Quickly you will have so much (hard) CC that enemies won't hit you a lot anyway - if you use them correctly. The early levels will be a challenge, but that's aloways the case with casters. After a few level ups the game will become so easy because of the powerful arsenal of spells that it's not necessary to tank. And if you need to: drop some summons or use mind control (wizard).

 

Just follow the simple rule "buff ACC --> do CC --> deal damage" and it will be a breeze. Your two priests can start every encounter with dual Inspiring Radiances, buffing your party's accuracy by +20 in a second. No spells used! The wizards and druids can start casting CC effects right away because the attack roll's ACC will be determined when the spell hits - and Inspiring Radiance will have gone off already. No time loss, no wating for the bonus ACC. A horde of disabled enemies, ready to nuked/pummeled.

 

I'd also advise to pick Painful Interdiction with the ranged priest. It's a great debuff preperator because it has +15 ACC, a BIG AoE and is 1/encounter. You weaken all enemies in range and the wizards'/druids' CC and DMG spells that target fortitude will crit even more reliably.

 

Also Frighten and Daze stack with Devotion's debuff of enemies' ACC - giving them a really hard time to hit you even if your own defenses are not so great.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

Stag Druid is also very fun. Better defense is quite solid and AoE Carnage, even 1/ rest is the very strongest Druid Ablity when used with Avenging Storm.
Sure, it is not as straightforward as Cat or Boar, but you have 2 druid slots, so why not ?

[dgray62]

Please don't give your shifters Weapon & Shield Style. It hurts my feelings.

 

I agree, with the shifter druids you definitely want to dual wield!

[heldred]

 

Please don't give your shifters Weapon & Shield Style. It hurts my feelings.

 

I agree, with the shifter druids you definitely want to dual wield!

 

My thought is to go with both

 

Weapon and Shield for when you are alone or in trouble.

Two Weapon to bring the pain.

 

No reason you can't focus on both styles by max level for most casters (at least for the way I tend to play).

[Boeroer]

Druid Shapeshifters run short of talents.