What should I try next?

[PillowWizard]

So, I've completed the first two Acts a couple times now over the past month or so. I've tried various builds, with pure Crit Thief and Spellblade White Mage Valk being two of my absolute favories.

But now I'm thinking of something a little bit different, and I was wondering if anyone could help me decide. I have several build ideas I haven't tried just yet, but could be convinced to do...

Pure Tank - Any class, but most likely warrior because I don't feel like hitting level 9 on white mage to be viable. (looking at you, Vestal Cait)... So, I did kind of try this once, as a Warrior, using Str, Wil, Tou, but I ended up dropping it because the lack of Agility made it very difficult to hit anything. If I do this again I'm likely dropping Wil.

Berserk - Warrior. Pure physical attacker. Heavy weapons and maybe heavy armor, just whatever I can use to put out the biggest physical numbers possible, absolutely clobbering anything in front of me. Until I'm put in front of a ghost, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Maybe. Probably. Might be funny to make it like Guts and show zero mercy to any demons I come across.

Charmer - I was thinking Kitsune Soulbind for this one. Never played a Charmer because their standard levelup set looks terribly underwhelming. They do have a lot of good gear you can get fairly early from what I've experienced... but I'm not sure how to make them work, neither as Tease attackers nor as Support. Either, or somehow mixing both would be appreciated.

Pure Mage - I've done Spellblade. Spellblade has a LOT of skills that just work better than a lot of stuff Pure Mages can put forward, but I'd still be open to trying it, last time I did was somewhere back in 5.X iirc.

So, yeah! These are my four ideas. Builds, gear, stat spreads, desirable skills for any build, all that good stuff, which one would make for a fun playthrough this time around?

 

[Lostname475]

if you're willing to do a charmsword there's a really good guide for it in this thread https://forum.fenoxo.com/posts/477560/

For a damage focused warrior I advise not wearing heavy armour, as that puts veteran into tank mode rather than +25 attack power mode. Eastern greatblade is a good weapon for that sort of thing though and the way half swording works from titan's grasp should help with the accuracy problems it has. Powers you'd want are probably something like Lunge (use steady strike till you get it imo), Whirlwind, maybe double attack as an at will? Bear in mind the weapon has no armour penetration so its probably worth trying to wear gear that increases that (although as a warrior you'd probably be doing that anyway

 

[SeveringCrisis]

I've always played pure mage or spell blade as I've always felt more comfortable using magic rather than pure melee. Helps that there's a lot of debuffs in the game that reduces elemental resistances and now there's even equipment that just outright increases elemental damage, followed by perks that increases damage as well.

If you're going to play spellblade or mage, acquire regal kimono as fast as you can (though you'll have to get pregnant unless you console add item). Regal kimono + grease makes it easy to deal large single or aoe damage using fire element spells or weapons which Kitsune soulbind can grant you an fire element version of charge weapon by training with Nakano. If you don't want fire, there's crackle powder, storm spells and king's thunderblade (which can be upgraded at coastlands) or Chaos Blade from defeating Faceless, another alternative being kiyoko's blight debuff and the various blight spells you can obtain from main quest alongside Blighted Robes/Robes of the forest from coastlands.
Otherwise just focus on equipping spellpower increasing equipment and doing Nina's quest after Winter City at wayfort to get access to Juice.
(I highly recommend savescumming, sensing and using mirror stance against unique enemies or bosses throughout the game)

Tanks are always easy, just pay attention to your resistances and ensure that you have a healer that can remove bleeding.

Charmer support can be good using Powers like song of storms, crackle powder and dawnbreak with a healing or buffing at-will

 

[Lostname475]

is kings thunderblade better than a catalyst weapon? I thought spellpen maxing was the way to go for mage damage

 

[SeveringCrisis]

is kings thunderblade better than a catalyst weapon? I thought spellpen maxing was the way to go for mage damage

King's thunderblade can be upgraded to deal 60% bonus storm damage after hit with power and gain the catalyst tag, also giving spellpower
Alternatively it can gain 30+ storm damage

 

[Lostname475]

oh damn I haven't used it since the upgrade came out. Is it the BiS for a spellblade then?

 

[SeveringCrisis]

oh damn I haven't used it since the upgrade came out. Is it the BiS for a spellblade then?

Can't think of anything comparing other than Chaos Blade

 

[Lostname475]

honestly might be BiS for a regular mage too. 60% extra damage is kinda nuts, and storm is a very solid damage type

 

[Punccline]

is kings thunderblade better than a catalyst weapon? I thought spellpen maxing was the way to go for mage damage

It might get edged out by catalysts with crit chance and accuracy if you're already doing bonkers damage. I'm not sure though, too Strength-brained.

 

[SeveringCrisis]

It might get edged out by catalysts with crit chance and accuracy if you're already doing bonkers damage. I'm not sure though, too Strength-brained.

king's thunderblade gets crit chance and accuracy after upgrade as well. I'll post stats

 

[Punccline]

king's thunderblade gets crit chance and accuracy after upgrade as well. I'll post stats

Oh it does? Last time I played the upgrade wasn't implemented yet so I assumed it was just the damage boost and catalyst.

 

[Lostname475]

From the wiki

While equipped, once per turn, any damaging attacks will include an additional 30% of the hit's damage as Storm Damage. If you get the Emblem of True power from Maidensbane, you can upgrade the sword with it.
Putting it in pommel gives it +15 spellpower, +10 accuracy, +10 crit chance, +10 armor penetration, -10 leadership and adds the 'catalyst' tag.
Putting it in the crossguard gives it +30 storm damage, -15 physical damage, +10 accuracy, +10 critical chance and +10 armor penetration.
Both upgrades improve the special effect to 60%

 

[SeveringCrisis]

Spellpower version

Spoiler: Storm King's Thunderblade

Storm damage version

Spoiler: King's Thunderblade of Haste

 

[Lostname475]

the 10 leadership is a bit rough but wow this is a really good spellsword weapon

 

[Punccline]

God DAMN. It was already my favorite spellsword weapon but this is huge.

 

[PillowWizard]

Thanks for all the responses, dang! But now that I think about it, I think my brain is drifting towards a Soulbound to Keros build. I want it to be as Weeby as possible. What sort of build goes best with the suite of skills and perks you get with that? Kitsuneki + Thief sounds hilariously overpowered, giving your poor enemies an 8-turn omnidebuff. If they somehow survive through that, then, fair play, they beat Survival. They are the fittest, and I'll probably just surrender.

Of course, Warrior types could be fun too, using the Eastern Greatblade to lean into a more samurai-like build, though I can't see it being much different than a normal warrior in terms of gameplay, which probably makes it pretty easy to use.

Of course, Charming Courtesan type is always fun, and a lot of Kitsune Den gear seems to love stacking Spellpower onto you, so magic user is good too. And Spellblade. But to be fair, Spellblade is ALWAYS good, so no surprises there.

On the topic of Kitsune Builds (while I ruminate), do we get anything for getting Kiyoko to 9 tails? I spent like 2 months ingame just sleeping, waking up, Sharing Essence with Kiyoko and sleeping. And while the 9 tails sprite is one of my favorites, I don't know if it... does anything, other than giving me a small army of children.

 

[Nynec]

On the topic of Kitsune Builds (while I ruminate), do we get anything for getting Kiyoko to 9 tails? I spent like 2 months ingame just sleeping, waking up, Sharing Essence with Kiyoko and sleeping. And while the 9 tails sprite is one of my favorites, I don't know if it... does anything, other than giving me a small army of children.

Other than an extra dialog from keros after releasing her, no.

 

[SeveringCrisis]

blue flame blade + grease (either yourself or elementalist viviane)+ regal kimono for kitsune. Searing Arc and deflagrating touch or Hyper Combustion (assuming not using grease yourself). Arcane Mantle for encounter? This build seems pretty spellblade in the end.

No, you don't get anything for getting kiyoko to nine tails, what you get for freeing kiyoko is the senninbari from kiyoko and kinu IIRC.

Just realized hyper combustion is a level 9 spell, The Horror or Soul arrow instead?

Thinking about it, all those spells wouldn't work so well for a Thief huh? Fire rod + triple threat (Weapons use attack power IIRC) and a melee for searing arc instead.

 

[Lostname475]

who else brings grease if the champion isn't?

 

[SeveringCrisis]

who else brings grease if the champion isn't?

elementalist viviane

 

[Lostname475]

ah right, my mage playthrough where grease would have been relevant was before she was a companion lol

 

[PillowWizard]

blue flame blade + grease (either yourself or elementalist viviane)+ regal kimono for kitsune. Searing Arc and deflagrating touch or Hyper Combustion (assuming not using grease yourself). Arcane Mantle for encounter? This build seems pretty spellblade in the end.

No, you don't get anything for getting kiyoko to nine tails, what you get for freeing kiyoko is the senninbari from kiyoko and kinu IIRC.

Just realized hyper combustion is a level 9 spell, The Horror or Soul arrow instead?

It does look pretty spellblade-y... in which case I might try Black Mage Spellblade this time. Funny how White Mage Spellblade was my Lumia Soulbind, then Black Mage Spellblade is going to be my Kitsune Soulbind. Though I might not go Fire, strictly speaking - since I probably won't go Regal Kimono (don't like my character getting knocked up, don't really care that much about Tetsuya, so that's two personal preferences. 20% IS pretty beefy. I could just edit it in, I suppose, if all else fails. Only concern is being utterly gimped versus demons, not to mention Kas herself when the game FINALLY gives us enough levels to face her on even terms.

Blue Flame Blade is strictly stronger than Charge Weapon, and it's Kitsune Exclusive, so I'll end up being a fiery flameblade anyway. Hm. Grease + Whirlwind could be VERY funny. Str+Wil+Agi again = Witless Foxgirl who just keeps winning. Seems about right.

Though a Charmer Build with Pre+Cun+Agi and going full support and leaving the damage to Hexblade Cait (who I will be buffing the SHIT out of) could definitely work for everything except duels. Which means no Dawnblade or Alante, probably, but that's fine.

 

[Lostname475]

Blue Flame Blade is strictly stronger than Charge Weapon

holy vs fire makes it CW better. Plus it has that aoe damage on activate

 

[Punccline]

ah right, my mage playthrough where grease would have been relevant was before she was a companion lol

Sometimes as a warrior I use grease just for the AOE knockdown. Everybody sit down and shut up for a turn, lmao.

 

[PillowWizard]

holy vs fire makes it CW better. Plus it has that aoe damage on activate

True... I think the only enemy type strong against Fire is indeed Demons. Holy is absolutely more reliable overall since nothing resists it as far as I know, and it does do a decent chunk of damage at the start of combat, but BFBis still VERY good, and arguably better after Grease, but that does take another turn to set up.

 

[SeveringCrisis]

If you reach coastlands, you can pick up Soul from the twin swords reward from Maidensbane for Obliterate Demon power, albeit it's a very late power all things considered.

 

[Resawar]

There are many scattered interesting little things to do builds with, you got to figure out what you think would be fun next but I do have a few I know.

You will be limited by your tolerance for combat pace, most people like fact combat done in as few turns as possible but playing the game slower is an option.

Charmer is my class of choice and running a support charmer is great as you can always fall back on a strong power option in Allure, other powers can be anything really from a heal to a support move. Any of the four Cun, Will, Pres, and Agi can be picked from, Cunning helps with powers like Acid Flash which can apply Sunder for your teammates or any of the flasks and vial powers as they are good support. People say Twisted Pyre is a good At-will but FoxFire still maintains one of if not the highest burn damage statuses in the game and is helpful chip as it deal triple the base damage over three turns, At-Will is a good slot for support powers.

When in the Coastland if you pick up the Pestilence weapon set here is my thoughts on it:

Spoiler: text

Fami and Pest are a good pair. Sun and moon are the damage guys. Soul is weaker then Gladius. Fire is kinda meh but Fury is nice and defection is cool.

Funny stuff from blue flame blade with Fami and Pest, as with eye of weakness the attacked enemy gets six turns of on fire while the others gets 12 turns.

This double, doubling mean that the status is first doubled and then the applied effect to the other enemies is then doubled. Any multihit power or duel wielded attack with a weapon power is going to inflict crazy debuff duration on multi enemy encounters.

But hitting more then one enemy such with cleave or whirwind only takes into account hitting the first enemy once for the ability to spread. An example is as the following:
[Enemy one and two are hit by cleave/whirlwind. The spread procs and target one is inflicted with six turns of debuffs and target two is given 12 turns. Target two is hit in the same effect but spread does not proc for that hit or any after.]

Spread also respects current duration rather then what duration the power inflicts normally, this makes sense but I wanted to point it out anyway.

Some single target multihit attacks or weapon powers could be quite good in battles such as boss fights now as the extended debuff duration means they are still effected after three turns or a whole round.

Other fun little things to try and build around:

Spoiler: text

Kiyoko and her Reactive Ward it a fun little interaction to pop on enemies, can pair it with Crackle Powder to make it deal more damage. If you have the Kunai equipped then the powder will stun and make all enemies bleed as well.

Melee Charmer is funny due to Sneak Attack, doubled buff duration means that it will gain plus on next attack plus 300ish attack power.

Blue Flame Blade with a Kunai, high Cunning, and AoEs is funny to do as everything will be Bleeding and Burning. Pair with Grease for extra damage.

Strength Wizard is also a thing you can do with Hailstorm, Gravel Shot, Wyvern Queen's Frost, Storm of Crows, and Dragon's Breath in a level. Very endgame lineup but still funny it can be done.

 

[SeveringCrisis]

Strength Wizard is also a thing you can do with Hailstorm, Gravel Shot, Wyvern Queen's Frost, Storm of Crows, and Dragon's Breath in a level. Very endgame lineup but still funny it can be done.

I prefer pairing flesh to stone with kiyoko for strenght wizard as coastlands enemies have a lot of turns which ends up frequently killing them on the same round I proc it, even better if they live long enough for pestilence to spread it.

 

[PillowWizard]

There are many scattered interesting little things to do builds with, you got to figure out what you think would be fun next but I do have a few I know.

You will be limited by your tolerance for combat pace, most people like fact combat done in as few turns as possible but playing the game slower is an option.

Charmer is my class of choice and running a support charmer is great as you can always fall back on a strong power option in Allure, other powers can be anything really from a heal to a support move. Any of the four Cun, Will, Pres, and Agi can be picked from, Cunning helps with powers like Acid Flash which can apply Sunder for your teammates or any of the flasks and vial powers as they are good support. People say Twisted Pyre is a good At-will but FoxFire still maintains one of if not the highest burn damage statuses in the game and is helpful chip as it deal triple the base damage over three turns, At-Will is a good slot for support powers.

So Charmer can be pretty flexible with how it plays...

For Support, do I just want to stack buffs/heals and let Hexlet Cait/Spirit Totem Arona go to town on enemies while I keep a tank in the wings to absorb a few hits?

And with Melee Charmer, that seems a bit more specialized, but in a good way. For my first foray into Kitsune Charmer, do you have any suggestions for what sort of charmer set would be better to play with, assuming I keep Kiyoko in the party for Flavor reasons?