For people struggling to make a dps/tank or healer

[UndyingRevenant]

I'm straight awful at math and theorycrafting, and the game's development is changing a lot of what's good, bad, and nerfs, AND the wikis kinda stagnant and ran by like one person. (which is to be expected, you probably can't run out and ask most people "Hey man, you beat winter palace yet?", and if people look up what coc2 is you might lose puritan friends) I usually play healers, they're simple, dps are kinda simple, tanks not at all. but i know general comp rules, i know "hey, arona tanks pretty well for what i do and my class", so i look at aronas set and notice most of it's copyable, so badabing. you can start a orc warrior barbarian, max toughness, strength and presence, take a shield and any one handed weapon, take g. stance, dominance, cleave, prime target, and your choice of ult, replace or upgrade when needed (preferably sticking to similar abilities, ie generate high threat for tanks), and boom, solid tank that can work both with solid tease damage or very good physical damage. results between classes are definitely not the same with all characters, but you can get pretty close, and some, like hexblade cait, seem "inspired" already by tactics used to beat kass at winter palace. might not help anyone, but i have bad character creation ocd, so having templates helps me not realize i've wasted time with what might be a junk build. arona's in particular is very solid and very easy to get online.

also, for bonus points, you can swap gear around to match party members' stats, you'll probably surpass them fairly easy, and have to take unique effects into account, but it can help make sure your stats are solid for your role, or is a solid starting point. by all means, all class combinations can do fine currently, but for harder content it can really help make your character contribute more, and also not be exploitative of the combat system to succeed. also helps you learn how mechanics work, especially if you do full auto and watch ai commands on your character to know when to activate stances or other more complicated abilities (generally, but ais not always the best), which allows you to make your own characters and setups. it also gives you a idea of what to use to make complicated sub classes like atugia.

might not help anyone but ive had a lot of fun with it myself, if it helps anyone else im glad.

 

[TheGSone]

The problem is that some companions don't really have a good stat spread. And if they have, you are as susceptible as them to their weakness

Looking at Arona, at level 6 she has 14 accuracy. She has more spellpower than accuracy. I cannot expect her to land an attack against enemies at her level, so will hold no aggro unless I lower mine on purpose.

Atugia has better accuracy, at 36 (always talking at level 6), so she will hit stuff, but her Strength is 7, and her attack power is 21. Brint has the same accuracy, but 21 Strength and 63 attack power. Brint will do more damage, and probably hold more aggro, but his defenses are lower.

Some companion try to do a lot of stuff at the same time, and end up doing nothing great, like Berwyn.

And after all of that, powers end being probably more important.

I really think focusing on one thing is the best option to build a character. And if you have troubles, just change your focus.

Take Strength to do more, and take less, physical damage
Toughness to have more health, and try to avoid nasty effects like prone, disarmed, stunned...
Agility to hit your enemies, avoid most blows, and generally act faster
Cunning is to do BIG crits more often, and to resist some magical effects
Willpower to deal more magic damage and to resist lustful attacks
Presence to deal tease damage, and to have stronger companions

 

[Savin]

and the game's development is changing a lot of what's good, bad, and nerfs,

Don't worry we're doing another huge sweeping balance/mechanics tweak patch this year

 

[UndyingRevenant]

The problem is that some companions don't really have a good stat spread. And if they have, you are as susceptible as them to their weakness

Looking at Arona, at level 6 she has 14 accuracy. She has more spellpower than accuracy. I cannot expect her to land an attack against enemies at her level, so will hold no aggro unless I lower mine on purpose.

Atugia has better accuracy, at 36 (always talking at level 6), so she will hit stuff, but her Strength is 7, and her attack power is 21. Brint has the same accuracy, but 21 Strength and 63 attack power. Brint will do more damage, and probably hold more aggro, but his defenses are lower.

Some companion try to do a lot of stuff at the same time, and end up doing nothing great, like Berwyn.

And after all of that, powers end being probably more important.

I really think focusing on one thing is the best option to build a character. And if you have troubles, just change your focus.

Take Strength to do more, and take less, physical damage
Toughness to have more health, and try to avoid nasty effects like prone, disarmed, stunned...
Agility to hit your enemies, avoid most blows, and generally act faster
Cunning is to do BIG crits more often, and to resist some magical effects
Willpower to deal more magic damage and to resist lustful attacks
Presence to deal tease damage, and to have stronger companions

I do agree, I was primarily just meaning good as a base. Hard to explain, but kinda like playing a moba character and being inspired to make a d&d character. Maybe not the best idea to do so and less min maxy but good for starting or even succeeding to a point. In my example, copying Arona showed me you don't need a ton of threat abilities to keep aggro very well, so you can keep a few dps or resolve damage abilities, too. Kinda basic but good info.

Don't worry we're doing another huge sweeping balance/mechanics tweak patch this year

I didn't mean anything bad by that either, I'm excited to see the changes. I enjoy the combat system quite a bit and probably will continue to do so wherever it goes.

 

[Erzulie]

Don't worry we're doing another huge sweeping balance/mechanics tweak patch this year

Any insight into archetype winners, losers, and new abilities you suspect might well shake out?

 

[Prent]

Any insight into archetype winners, losers, and new abilities you suspect might well shake out?

Attack strength will be tied to height post rework. The shorter you are, the more powerful you will be.