Share your favorite builds!
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Yeah, that'd be fine. I just like keeping cunning high for the crits; there are a couple of dungeons in the game where you won't be able to keep your boons active.
2H warrior is pretty simple
Basic 2H Warrior
Because why complicate hitting people with a big stick
Class: Warrior (duh)
Race: whatever
Stats: Strength, Agility, Toughness (boon Cunning or Presence)
At-Will: Guarded Stance (tank) or Wide Sweep (not-tank)
Recharge: Cleave
Recharge: Steady Strike
Encounter: Bull Rush
Ultimate: Unbreakable
Recommended Gear
-big stick of choice. If you choose the Greatclub from Leorah it can actually be a big stick
-if you're focusing on tanking, use heavy armour. otherwise, use light armour. it'll affect the Veteran perk
Recommended Party
-works with just about anyone
Aside from Wide Sweep, this is all stuff you get from levelling up. There's a lot of room to customise (try learning Thief powers from Garth, or stances from Zo), but this is a barebones build that'll get you where you need to go.
As far as stat boosting drinks, Cunning will give you more crits, Presence will make your companions more powerful. Hell, you can even boon Willpower then give yourself Great Heal or Lay On Hands in the At-Will.
I don't have much experience playing pure warriors, but I still have some advice.
Equilibrium as At-Will, because without a weapon you are helpless, and there is little pleasant in knockdowns.
Recharges: Shell Cracker to reduce enemy armor, Driving Thrust as a powerful attack against an enemy with reduced armor / second armor reduction.
As an Encounter, either Dastardly Trick (powerful attack plus stun) or Drop the Hammer (Can be copied in the battle with Forge Golem in the second Etheryn quest, this is a kind of analogue of Nerves of Steel, somewhat weaker, however, but your concentration cannot be broken by mental damage).
Ultimate according to the situation, either Unbreakable or Assassinate.
As for companions, I'm not sure, maybe you need a tank and a healer, or a healer and another support.
As a tank, either Brint/Brienne in the Gladiator Set or Winter Knight Brint or Hopknight Quintillus.
The healer is either Cait in her default set (Sun Dancer is also a kind of healer, but probably weaker) or Etheryn in her royal garb, the latter may be preferable.
As a support either Agnrimitra or Viviane. The first one buffs the attack and defense of the entire group, adds fire damage to the weapon of one character, and can also act as a second healer with relative success. The second one is a summoner and can add elemental damage to your weapon.
Attribute distribution.
Strength is required.
Agility is a must.
Willpower is useless.
Toughness optional. You can do without this if one of your companions is a tank.
Cunning is also optional, but in this case you can replace Shell Cracker with Acid Flask (sundered effect lasts three turns instead of two, cooldown two turns instead of four).
Presence is optional but highly recommended. After all, it makes your companions' attacks, heals, and some buffs much more powerful.
Thus, two mandatory attributes plus one optional maximum by allocating attribute points, the second optional is raised by boon.
Equipment. I will not list all the possible equipment, I will just briefly note the main ones.
Since you won't have as high damage as spellblades, Armor Penetration is very important to you.
So your weapon is either Poleaxe (not the most powerful weapon, but available immediately at the start of the game) or War Pick (does not give Evasion, but does not have a penalty to Accuracy), then it is replaced with Galon's Griefmaker (even after being hit by a nerfhammer, this weapon is still has the best Armor Penetration of any melee weapon).
As an option for a special occasion, you can use either Spiraled Blade (elemental damage changes every day), or Shield Splitter (one of Vitruvius' special goods, 55 damage and 30 armor penetration in exchange for slightly reduced accuracy) or Cloudforger (as a weapon with fire damage and good armor penetration).
Mail Cuirass isn't the most glamorous armor, but among the body armor you can buy, it has the most physical defense.
Scale Armor has 15 less armor, but gives +25 Ward, and it doesn't have the -5 Evasion penalty.
Lamellar Armor is light armor, so wearing it gives you a +25AP bonus.
If you have nothing against heavy armor, then in the future you can wear either Dragonscale (good physical and magic protection plus fire resistance) or Tiran Paladin Chestplate (worse protection against magic damage and lower holy resistance, but increases Focus and blight resistance).
Seaweave Shaman's Cape (sundered immunity), Champion's Belt (increasing your attack and physical damage resistance) and Royal Gloves/Gloves of Giant Strength (Armor Penetrating) I would call almost essential items.
Use Lucky Strike if you feel a lack of accuracy or Ring of Fortune if you're facing heavily armored opponents.
I tried out Hexblade Cait and I really liked it, then I realized I could take it further since I could customize. Dawnbreak used to be Deadly Shadow, which is a little less deadly but also more easily accessible.
Alternatively, you could go for Dastardly Trick if you need the stun or want more single target damage. Not that you should need it for damage since Charge Weapon + Power Wave means you have a 1 turn recharge power for single target that hits rather hard.
Viviane, Agni, Hexblade Cait, Bless Ryn, and Spirit Totem Arona are all good party members for this comp, I personally like running Spirit Totem and Hexblade so I get those 3 Charge weapons at the start of battle. That said, this build is all offense and as such could really use some healing support which makes Etheryn a much more optimal pick.
Stats are Agility, Willpower, and Strength as you'd expect of a spellblade, I honestly always forget booze buffs but I assume you'd want Cunning for more Crit since that's big for damage. Class is Black Mage with Arcane Penetration for that free -15 resistance since you don't want to bother setting up debuffs, nothing short of the hardest bosses should be take more than 3 turns.
You could replace Cleave with Holy Shock to alternate single target nukes but Cleave is more useful since if you're clicking a 2nd power after Dawnbreak, it's just to clean up. I don't think anything can withstand this build's offensive power, but it's also very frail. The biggest danger I faced with this build was the Faceless Blade because of the chance that I or party members could get KO'd before even taking a turn because of bad RNG.
I mean, it never happened but hypothetically if she had crit all her attacks and focus fired me, that would've been it since she got like 3 moves before me. Then again, I also didn't have the Ryn initiative bonus, which makes her even MORE optimal a team member. In that scenario you'd want to bring some tank and support members like Witch Cait or Pyro Brienne to force the threat off of you on turn 1. You could also try taking something like Reaping Blade to recoup your HP while also dealing damage if you end up low after an initial barrage.
While having the dual wield bonus attacks on AoE powers like Cleave is nice, you'd probably get more mileage out of a two hander with some armor penetration and spellpower like the War Scythe, Galon's Griefmaker, or Cloudforger. I like not having to worry about being Disarmed though.
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I'd rather believe that you just can't decide which spellblade you like more, Hexblade Cait or Arona with her Spirit Totem. chuckle
I don’t see much point in commenting on the shortcomings of your party composition, since you yourself are aware of them, so I’ll just make a couple of comments on individual points:
1. Personally, I would rather Presence boon than Cunning boon.
2. As far as I remember, the Faceless Blade has 50 blight resistance innately and gets +40 more from Berserkergang. So Reaping Blade won't be very useful against her, I'd rather suggest Soul Arrow.
Also, I'm not sure if you can actually get Reaping Blade before the Faceless Blade fight. My vague memories (the last time I played about a month ago) say no, but I could be wrong about that...
Arona may arguably have the better spellblade powers, but Cait having Twist the Knife and Arcane penetration is pretty neat. Still, I would've been on the fence until Savin dropped this Hexblade Cait design that never got finished to be put into the game, what a loss.
Keep forgetting Presence boosts companion stats by boosting leadership, yeah that's probably the better pick.
You can, luckily the Ring of Fate and Dracia quest lines are independent. Although this means you could end up missing out on a very cool boss battle, very unfortunate.
Edit: After some testing, the standard version of this build and team doesn't fare very well against the Faceless Blade because of her resistances and Blade Block. It's also useful to have a stun for that fight so not having one is tough. For that fight, replacing Cleave with Soul Arrow, Dawnbreak with Dastardly Trick, and then running Witch Cait and Bless Ryn and making sure you sleep to get their sleep buffs is best.
This makes sure that the battle goes very smoothly with no danger at all unless maybe you miss the stun on Dastardly Trick, whereas the fight would be a little touch and go and you'd likely have some party members get KO'd in the initial version. Galon's Griefmaker is also better for armor penetration, so Cloudforger would probably be even better.
In general though I'd say this confirms Cait and Ryn as the best companions in general for this build because of their ability to pivot between damage dealer and support. In general I'd say you run Hexblade Cait and Bless Ryn then switch Cait to Witch when you really need the durability. You can mix and match Soul Arrow/Cleave and Dawnbreak/Dastardly Trick as necessary to deal with single targets vs groups, the benefit of a spellblade build is flexibility after all.
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Since I realize I haven't actually shared any of my builds, let me fix that:
Lady of War
Valkyrie (Human)
My main Champ Airgeade's paladin-esque build, geared mainly towards Leadership-boosting of allies and smiting. She's not at all well balanced, but works just fine in most cases. Her At-Will, Recharge 1 and Ultimate slots are basically fixed for thematic reasons. Recharge 2 and Encounter vary, the former with Power Wave/Blessing/Celestial Smite and the latter Smite Evil or Dawnbreak, depending on current needs. She used to be a bit better at tanking, but Caranbrot's damage shield nerf took a bit of that away. She went with Cleaving Strikes for her Lv7 Perk to give her some multitarget damage when other Powers are on cooldown.
Gear-wise, she originally had Helm of Heroes for the extra Leadership but when your girlfriend suggests that the newly-repaired crown would look really good on her consort, you don't have a choice.
Lady of War
Valkyrie (Human)
Gear-wise, she originally had Helm of Heroes for the extra Leadership but when your girlfriend suggests that the newly-repaired crown would look really good on her consort, you don't have a choice.
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Great build. its been a while since i've played, what did you mean by "Boon" when discussing the 4th stat you maxed?My favorite build is probably the offensive black mage, the "pure" caster that avoids weapon attacks and weapon powers (even if those attacks are complemented by magic), only magic (weapons only apply if I don't have spells available), in most cases AoE.
Probably my build is not quite "standard", but still it is an ordinary AoE controller and damage dealer (according to the ideas of about four years ago), which can hardly be called an unusual build (except that it is the classic idea, even some obsolescence, that can be called unusual).
What a pity that this build in some cases is inferior to a pure warrior, not to mention optimized spellblades...
View attachment 30415
Starting Bonuses: Willpower +3.
Maximum Agility, Willpower, Cunning and Presence (Three by points, fourth by Boon).
As for the level 7 perk, I prefer to defeat enemies on my own and that's why I chose the Arcane Penetration.View attachment 30416
I won’t dwell too much on the equipment, I’ll note only two points:
1. Yes, Metal Rod is weaker than Control Rod. But Metal Rod is one of the few options available to use the power I need. Also, it's a magical damage type weapon (enemies are usually better protected from physical damage than magic), plus it's a ranged weapon, so I can use it to finish off flying enemies if necessary.
2. I'm much more afraid of physical damage than magic or mental damage, which is why I wear a Fluffy Scarf, Shaman's Cape (immunity to sundered), Lamellar Armor (the best physical protection among all light armor) and the Champion's Belt (resistance to physical damage). If necessary, a shield will also be added to this set.
What, using a tank? Well, I've noticed that even when using the Rogue's Ring, my Threat Level periodically exceeds the tank's Threat Level. That's why I keep using good armor instead of this fancy gear with a bonus to spellpower.
Oh, one more thing, I recently decided to use Royal Gloves to boost my weapon damage. By the end of the dungeon, I remembered why I didn't do this earlier... it only helps if your weapon has physical damage, but in the case of weapons with magical damage, Armor Penetration won't help you much.View attachment 30417
At-Will: Equilibrium, because I am very annoyed by knockdowns at inconvenient moments for me.
Recharges: Grease + Fireball is a classic combo... but I would argue that fire damage isn't always relevant. So my daily set is more Crackle Powder+Arc Cannon than Grease+Fireball (especially since some unique opponents have knockdown immunity, but not a single enemy with stun immunity comes to my mind).
Yes, I met the opinion that Crackle Powder is worse than Grease and this is not even completely groundless (among the abilities of companions there are much more fire attacks than storm attacks, besides Crackle Powder limits you in the weapons that you can use), but... usually you don't need other companions with the same abilities that you have, more often you will need a companion that covers the area where you are not very effective (for example, a single target damage dealer with physical damage and good armor penetration). Oh, one more thing. The advantage of Crackle Powder over Grease is that it's NOT a SPELL, so it can be used even when I'm silenced (I'm not afraid of disarming thanks to Equilibrium).
Leaping Bolts instead of Arс Cannon? Well, I don't really like this power because of its instability, it deals uneven damage and can miss. Although after getting a new powerful AoE (Dawnbreak) I started to think about this idea a little more, but I'm still not sure.
Encounter. According to the situation, but most likely Dawnbreak:
View attachment 30418
Very good attack, also buffs the party a bit.
It might be worth considering the option to summon creatures as well, but I like this option much less than the above... it's not at all a fact that such creatures will provide a lot of help, after all, they may choose the wrong ability or the wrong target for using that ability (Talsenne, Why did you use Song of Storms on me? Such a buff looked much more appropriate on Arona!), besides, I would notice that many summons have accuracy somewhat on the low side.
That's why I would prefer Dawnbreak or Vitality Reap almost any day, rather than summoning some creature.Etheryn in her royal attire as a healer and buffer, especially since at level 7 she gains the Expert Inspiration perk, making her Blessing last two turns instead of one.
A third companion depending on the situation or my mood. Any decent damage companion should work reasonably well, but overall I would say that a single target physical damage dealer would complement my abilities the best.
I'm not sure what kind of damage dealer is best paired with your tank (tanks don't work very well in my opinion, so offense is the best type of defense), but as for the healer, I would advise you to try taking Etheryn in her royal attire to the group , in addition to healing spells, she also has the Blessing spell (upon reaching level 7, the effect will last two turns instead of one), this buffs your attack by about 50% (not only attacks, however, increasing spellpower has a beneficial effect on the power of buff spells) . Etheryn also has decent durability and a good Ultimate.
As for information about companions... I'm shamelessly linking to my old (but updated today) comment:
Companion Combat Tier List
Sorry if this is dumb it just something that came to mind. I really like to know where you all rank the companions in terms of how useful they are in combat. And I mean Set by Set like Onmyodo Kiyoko and Queenly Raiment Etheryn.forum.fenoxo.com
P.S. By the way, I don't like tanks also because a "tank versus tank" fight (when you have three or four Imp Shankers in your opponents) without high single-target damage can turn into a nightmare. I ran into this once while experimenting with a warrior build (it took me a LOT of rounds to finish Imp Lord, probably more than twenty) and I don't want it to happen again...
UPDATE. Now my build is described in much more detail.
EDIT Nevermind figured it out via google/ the wiki. for anyone else its from consumables. Thanks again.
I have not played the game in awhile but plan to start over some time soon. I basically always go for a tank warrior and sometimes try to become a Paladin type as that is what I always did in CoC 1. Need to find some time to look through all the items and such. Took a break from the game months ago because the wiki was so out of date and I rely on it a lot . I also really like Pyro Brienne. My favorite companion is Ryn but I never really found her that good in combat. She was not as good at healing as Cait and not as good at damage as Brienne. Probably going to try to make another tank character but maximize presence as much as possible and see if it helps any.
I definitely would try this but sadly pretty sure it is female MC locked which I don't like to play. Cool build though thanks for sharing.Since I realize I haven't actually shared any of my builds, let me fix that:
Lady of War
Valkyrie (Human)
My main Champ Airgeade's paladin-esque build, geared mainly towards Leadership-boosting of allies and smiting. She's not at all well balanced, but works just fine in most cases. Her At-Will, Recharge 1 and Ultimate slots are basically fixed for thematic reasons. Recharge 2 and Encounter vary, the former with Power Wave/Blessing/Celestial Smite and the latter Smite Evil or Dawnbreak, depending on current needs. She used to be a bit better at tanking, but Caranbrot's damage shield nerf took a bit of that away. She went with Cleaving Strikes for her Lv7 Perk to give her some multitarget damage when other Powers are on cooldown.
Gear-wise, she originally had Helm of Heroes for the extra Leadership but when your girlfriend suggests that the newly-repaired crown would look really good on her consort, you don't have a choice.