Crowdsourcing a Combat Guide

[Aliame1950]

I know we all play this game for the combat but as per current patch 0.8 no one has the time or energy yet to craft an in-depth combat guide so I thought we could crowdsource it for now by collecting all our tips/assumptions/theorycrafts/builds in one easily referenceable thread.

Feel free to contribute everything you could think off whether it comes from your big brain or from depths of your ass.

Also feel free to correct me and each other because for pete's sake I needed something like this back during the old Charmer nerf and I was hard transitioning a main character from a lustnuking charmer, having only played that since patch 0.1, to literally anything else.

I also needed a Charline guide as she is somehow even harder to fight than Eysline, only to realize about four patches later than I should stop spamming Fireball and Allure on her and start using single-target damage instead.

Remember: PLEASE feel free to correct me. some of these are genuine ASSumptions

1. You are the best tank/spellblade/AoE/healer if you spec as one and no companion armor set will ever come close
2. it is best to max three stats than spreading points among all of them, even though they all benefit your spec in some way
3. turn economy is best and you will gravitate towards AoE nukes like Fireball or the SoS+Allure charmer combo until you fight someone like Charline or Eyslaine when that turns upside down and blows up on your face
4. it is better to specialize in something that will take advantage of your racial + background bonus. e.g, a noble human scion's bonus to max Presence typecasts you into either a leader/a charmer/a summoner
5. stack temptation over sexiness when given the option to do so
6. Juice practically nullifies the need for Cunning except in stat checks (e.g, learning the Elora Summon)
7. The fire dancer is the best summon because of her constant debuffs although there's like a huge part of the game that's resistant to fire. summon slime comes a close second due to her taking your hits if you play a scrawny weakling
8. kings thunderblade does not apply the thunder to targets that were cleaved. you are better off with the tyrant's axe if you are nuking
9. you want a spammable threatmaker (e.g, shield charge) over a power that passively gains or improves threat
10. twist the knife has been nerfed to the outcry of smiter spellblades everywhere
11. the game has arguably been balanced around charmers as Tease Damage wasn't a huge deal in the other fengames before them. "hit-thing-with-sword" is relatively untouched and is therefore king because magic is less reliable than a good cleave and most summons are basically things that also "hit-thing-with-sword"
12. there is no such thing as a build that can solo the entirety of Dark Mode. solo builds aren't even considered when balancing
13. the wicker shield is somehow the best shield for tanks due to boosting evasion and most of resists that aren't physical (physical resist comes from wearing the heaviest armor)
14. take advantage of the secutor 4 set bonus though i don't honestly know how. Maybe for a Deflection + Bullrush dodge warrior?

 

[PalletTown]

This is least of a combat guild and more of a build guild. It gives a bit too specialized information. However, I would like to engage with the points you state.

1-2. Definitely. The name of the game is to specialize. Your character can fulfill 1-2 roles very well, but if you try to do it all, then you will fail at all. Use appropriate companion sets to compensate on what you don't do.

3. Action economy is critical important. Generally, having something that will Aoe is very important. Most of the bosses and almost all of the encounters have more than one enemy. This also makes it that stances are in general better that at-will powers.

4. This isn't that important. At most, if you focus your character creation towards 1 stat, it will boost it up by 3 which is the equivalent of 1 level up. It becomes increasingly irrelevant the higher level you are.

5. This is another one which I would generally agree with. Temptation is harder to get and is the armor penetration of sexiness. Sometimes it makes sense to max sexiness if you use sexiness to boost powers rather that damage.

6. True

7. Some of the other summons are pretty good, but I haven't tested them out to give recommendations.

8. Never really used that weapon so I'll take your word for it.

9. I would disagree. A recharge threatmaker (assuming you're playing a tank) does take up a valuble recharge slot. I use a stance or lay on hands to get the threat on me.

10. Did Savin get robbed at one point. Why all the hate on thiefs. They have some of the worst powers in the game and they keep nerfing crit builds.

11. Don't get me wrong, Cleave/Whirlwind is really really good, but some magic builds can be absolutely devastating (they're just a bit more finicky).

12. True, but there are some crazy people on this forum

13. I disagree. Shield of Absorption synegizes with a lot of different builds, and the shield orb works really well with some spellcaster builds.

14. The secutor set always seems kind of meh to me. In order to take advantage, you have to give up 4 very valuable armor slots and two of the armor pieces are heavy some you either have to be a warrior or eat a -10 initiative penalty.

 

[mbezzo]

6. Juice practically nullifies the need for Cunning except in stat checks (e.g, learning the Elora Summon)
8. kings thunderblade does not apply the thunder to targets that were cleaved. you are better off with the tyrant's axe if you are nuking

Juice doesn't add crit damage like cunning does, making cunning better for damage. And I'm pretty sure king's thunderblade applies to all hits, maybe you just cleaved a resistant enemy and mistook it for the damage not applying?

My 2 cents for combat is: the most annoying thing about combat is enemies that can stun/silence/disarm you, and the best way to deal with them (and efficiently win every encounter in general) is to stun them first (preferably grease/crackle powder with eye for weakness, or use Vivianne's set that lets her use a 2 turn stun grease) and nuke them before the stun ends, or use a tank to take all the debuffs so your damage dealer can continue to nuke them, or both. This is also why playing your champion as anything other than a damage dealer is suboptimal, because the champion has by far the greatest damage potential so you don't want to be taking stuns for weaker companions.

 

[Anonymous Bat]

One of my favorite tidbits for party optimization is this: Because Leadership applies its full bonus to attack power and spellpower simultaneously, spellblade companions double-dip on your Leadership. This makes companions like Hexblade Leathers Cait and Spirit Totem Arona stronger than I think they're necessarily supposed to be when you're playing a high Leadership champion.

 

[Aliame1950]

9. I would disagree. A recharge threatmaker (assuming you're playing a tank) does take up a valuble recharge slot. I use a stance or lay on hands to get the threat on me.

AH now I know why I said this

Companion tanks are just that in need of reliable threatmakers. Stance threatmakers on them are practically worthless if you're running around with nukes

10. Did Savin get robbed at one point. Why all the hate on thiefs. They have some of the worst powers in the game and they keep nerfing crit builds.

Which is weird because he mains a spellblade

14. The secutor set always seems kind of meh to me. In order to take advantage, you have to give up 4 very valuable armor slots and two of the armor pieces are heavy some you either have to be a warrior or eat a -10 initiative penalty.

Probably why I don't know how to use it. I know four maxed stats are a godsend but I just don't use it as much as I would like to as a non-warrior main

Juice doesn't add crit damage like cunning does, making cunning better for damage.

Pretty sure juice did something for crit damage but i'll take your word for it now. Guess i'll be back to training my Cunning

And I'm pretty sure king's thunderblade applies to all hits, maybe you just cleaved a resistant enemy and mistook it for the damage not applying?

Guess i'll test it again because it doesn't working on my SoS + Allure combo

My 2 cents for combat is: the most annoying thing about combat is enemies that can stun/silence/disarm you, and the best way to deal with them (and efficiently win every encounter in general) is to stun them first (preferably grease/crackle powder with eye for weakness, or use Vivianne's set that lets her use a 2 turn stun grease) and nuke them before the stun ends

This is enlightening. I'll bring Vivianne around more, especially for those Charline fights

One of my favorite tidbits for party optimization is this: Because Leadership applies its full bonus to attack power and spellpower simultaneously, spellblade companions double-dip on your Leadership. This makes companions like Hexblade Leathers Cait and Spirit Totem Arona stronger than I think they're necessarily supposed to be when you're playing a high Leadership champion.

WHAT. IS THIS WHY MY CHARMER MOPPING THE FLOOR WITH THOSE TWO IN TOW?

Again this is all great. Keep em coming. Does anyone have like a rating of "best of" quest reward items. My dumbass took the Izkanti Dress and I still regret it