Here is a cool skill calculator to mess with for those intrested in the game: http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator

u can share builds like so:

http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?26005205065560250620500000&006500056035050055500650000&00000000000000000000000000

Myself im going for a warrior/rogue mix, goin heavy on the damage using posion and critical hits

@azrailx:

Cool - thx for sharing. Likely going deep into Finesse, focussing on Bow and Faeblades - using Gambit and Smoke Bomb from Finesse and Quake and Battle Frenzy from Might as active skills. Blade Honing and Envenomed Edge being the sustained buffs.

Spending time in the Talent Calculator, I really wonder how the whole mana situation will work out for Might and Finesse based characters, since I didn't see any of their armor granting more mana reg or active abilities respective mechanics to do so. Other than potting that is. Guess being a bit of an alchemist is a necessity, if you want to use skills often as a non-mage. Not a huge fan of consumable-driven ressource systems, but so be it.

Then again, that's a lvl cap build and by then I'll be more or less done with the game. I'll likely go pure finesse first. I think I'll switch between talent trees depending on Guild Quests I'm on. But yeah...

Finesse 78 / Might 45 - is what I'd build if I had all these talentpoints to begin with. Pure mage would be sick too. Holy balls their shit is powerful.

I guess true hybrid builds only work if primary and secondary weapons are from another discipline, otherwise it's almost impossible to get to higher talent tiers without some build redundancy due to the 4 active abilities 2 weapons limitation.

Respeccing is going to be fun - I can tell.

i like the build quite a bit, the only problem (if u care about min maxing) is that you wont be able to get a top tier destiny by the end

reference: http://amalur.wikia.com/wiki/Destinies

and respecing seems like it will be fun to do

I will probably pick a destiny that has perks and weapons I like and work backward from there. While maxing one ability tree probably makes for a bad ass character I think there are some benefits of going hybrid as well since the highest destiny in each class seems to have some pretty cool stuff. Jack of All trades destiny is the only way you can build a character that has all the special moves unlocked for every weapon (Mastery of Arms) - so you never have to worry about finding a weapon that your not trained for.

@Lnin0 said:

I will probably pick a destiny that has perks and weapons I like and work backward from there. While maxing one ability tree probably makes for a bad ass character I think there are some benefits of going hybrid as well since the highest destiny in each class seems to have some pretty cool stuff. Jack of All trades destiny is the only way you can build a character that has all the special moves unlocked for every weapon (Mastery of Arms) - so you never have to worry about finding a weapon that your not trained for.

From the first unlocked allrounder destiny on, it reduces gear requirements by half. That's right from 2/2/2. Pretty neat. Mixing armor types should prove to be quite useful.

Does anyone know if going rogue/mage requires using poison? I like the idea of making this type of character, but I've never been a big fan of poisons. I would prefer to be an icy stealth character. Is that doable?

Base build: http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?30012361065560305635100000&000000000000000000000000000&30203661565003555000000000 Still 7 points remaining to top off whatever you need.

It's in my mind the most perfect melee build. The goal is to take as little damage as possible and to dish out as much as possible. 2h warrior weapon damage already scales very well. Almost all pure dmg abilities/spell get ignored, because they don't scale. This relies on stacking an insane amout of passive buffs, plus Relentless Assault as a must have talent for any warrior. So what do we get. Here are the more important points, besides the weapon skills etc:

• Sick buffs from the war/mage destiny Champion (55/0/55): +25% of Damage Received as Mana, +25% Elemental Resistance, +20% Melee Attack Damage, +15% Total Armor. Blink - Short range teleport, replaces Dodge. Harmonic Overload - Chance to produce elemental projectiles per Kill.
• +20% hp, +13% elemental ressistance from Hardy Constitution
• Relentless Assault can't stress this enough, 20 seconds of NO interruptions from hits, this is fucking great, many bosses force you to dodge/block a large amout of time otherwise you get knocked out of those heavy swings, enabling you to just do dmg 100% of the time. furthermore, the biggest drawback of charge up attacks is eliminated you can do insane comboes without worry of gettign broken out of them (for example the greatsword charge move is a 5 hit large AoE attack, it's goddamn insane)
• Bloodlust, only needs 1 point for vampirism, self heal on strikes is great
• Battle Frenzy this is great because you are constantly fighting groups of enemies meaning it's gonna be up most of the time for 20-100% dmg
• +20% piercing and physical dmg resistance from Stoneskin, yes please
• Quake - why? even tho I said no pure dmg abilities, get Quake for Aftershock it's a guaranteed stun at the end
• Concussive force - 60% dmg on stunned enemies, open up with Quake on a boss, proceed to deal insane dmg

In magic tree there are only 4 important talents to talk about:

• Sphere of protection for further 12% dmg reduction
• Smolder/Frostshackle for increasing burning dmg on your weapons by 100% or duration of all freezing effect by 150% to slow down tougher enemies
• Healing Surge to never need to waste healing potions again
• Conservative Casting for that spell cost reduction

Basically since you are wearing plate armor and have shitload of defence buffs you become: super armored, magic resistant, high HP, vampiric, uninteruptible, very high dmg dealing juggernaut.

Frankly there are actually not that many good abilities in all 3 talent trees, almost everything left is marginal or silly static dmg spells. The only good thing mising is Celerity for 15% attack speed increase. But it's a necessary sacrifice for Champion fate card. The tallent trees should always put one in the mindset of: "Oh my god I want this this and that, but there aren't enought points" In Reckoning I feel like the artificail restrictions on what you can take force me to take useless shit I don't want just to get to the next tier of abilities.

@Zithe said:

Does anyone know if going rogue/mage requires using poison? I like the idea of making this type of character, but I've never been a big fan of poisons. I would prefer to be an icy stealth character. Is that doable?

Yes it's possible, ice spells and ice trap, plus a mix of weapon styles and other abilities. Poisons are only 1 branch of the finesse tree.

Something like this could get you started in that direction http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&360063000400500000000000000&30003660525050000500000000

@Tennmuerti said:

@Zithe said:

Does anyone know if going rogue/mage requires using poison? I like the idea of making this type of character, but I've never been a big fan of poisons. I would prefer to be an icy stealth character. Is that doable?

Yes it's possible, ice spells and ice trap, plus a mix of weapon styles and other abilities. Poisons are only 1 branch of the finesse tree.

Something like this could get you started in that direction http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&360063000400500000000000000&30003660525050000500000000

Hmm, I've been playing around in this calculator since I made that previous post and these trees are starting to feel pretty limited. Is there really only one ice spell for mages in this game? I guess this game focuses mostly on weapons?

@Zithe said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@Zithe said:

Does anyone know if going rogue/mage requires using poison? I like the idea of making this type of character, but I've never been a big fan of poisons. I would prefer to be an icy stealth character. Is that doable?

Yes it's possible, ice spells and ice trap, plus a mix of weapon styles and other abilities. Poisons are only 1 branch of the finesse tree.

Something like this could get you started in that direction http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&360063000400500000000000000&30003660525050000500000000

Hmm, I've been playing around in this calculator since I made that previous post and these trees are starting to feel pretty limited. Is there really only one ice spell for mages in this game? I guess this game focuses mostly on weapons?

There is the standard ice spell, then the blizzard type AoE ability at the top, also the elemental rage ability implements ice dammage as one of the 3 attacks.

But yes the trees do indeed feel limited.

The Universalist fate card is amazing but I dare anyone to come up with a good jack of all trades build (might/finesse/sorcery), just eeeew.

yeah u get way to many active skills if u go universalist

btw someone is live streaming the full retail game here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vidya-game-test

Going Rogue/Mage - Spellcloak.

http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&360563606005053005530050000&30063640505553000520500000

Looking to use Faeblades/Daggers + Chakrams. Poisons, Lightning and Ice. No idea if it will work, but that's the fun of it I guess.

I'm going Rogue/Mage - Shadowcaster:

http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&366142056011003454510650000&00060045505550055500050000

I'll be using Daggers/Bows. Poisons, Fire, Lightning, SmokeBomb. I really don't think that Rogue/Mage is going to be an optimal build in this game but it seems so cool that I want to try.

@Tennmuerti said:

The Universalist fate card is amazing but I dare anyone to come up with a good jack of all trades build (might/finesse/sorcery), just eeeew.

The limitations to two weapons and four active skills makes it impossible to really go the universalist route without some redundancy in the talent build. I guess if you are okay with having points sitting idle on 3rd weapons specializations and some active skills specced but 'on the bench', you can do so. I'd have a hard time living with myself. I'm not a wasteful person.

If it was me, I'd put more passive traits in every tree, which aren't associated with a weapon or active skill. Or I'd rethink my button layout to allow for 2 modifiers for active skills, for a total of 8 active skills on the hotkeys. Then again, judging from the ressource mechanics, the combat system isn't ability centric. It's all about weapon combos.

Guess we'll have to see how it all pans out.

@lecarl said:

I'm going Rogue/Mage - Shadowcaster:

http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?00000000000000000000000000&366142056011003454510650000&00060045505550055500050000

I'll be using Daggers/Bows. Poisons, Fire, Lightning, SmokeBomb. I really don't think that Rogue/Mage is going to be an optimal build in this game but it seems so cool that I want to try.

like it, but i think u should try to max enduring agony, maybe gettin rid of a level 3 weaponry since that only gives u extra fate

http://amalurfoundry.com/calculator?06045005560565055605563660&000000000000000000000000000&00060063505040000000000000

This is most likely going to be my build. I am going to use Sword and Shield so no points in any heavy weapons is necessary. Using the rest in the magic tree for some ranged elemental stuff and more survivability.

@azrailx: Right. I hope to not have to take level 3 on any weaponry skills. I'm just not sure how much of a role fate is going to play in leveling quickly and/or annoying boss fights.

I have a few questions if anyone here can answer them:

1) Poison damage would be considered elemental, correct? So boosts to elemental damage on a destiny would boost poison damage?

2) Can you use "attacks from dodge" if your destiny uses a blink to replace the standard dodge?

3) Anyone know how powerful the mage's Faer Gorta pet is if you max him out?

only can answer 3 from wut ive seen from the stream

he seems to be so so but the health drain is handy

Warping thief

@Zithe said:

I have a few questions if anyone here can answer them:

1) Poison damage would be considered elemental, correct? So boosts to elemental damage on a destiny would boost poison damage?

2) Can you use "attacks from dodge" if your destiny uses a blink to replace the standard dodge?

3) Anyone know how powerful the mage's Faer Gorta pet is if you max him out?

1. doesn't look like it, elemental seems to be only ice/fire/lightning
2. yes you can
3. no idea atm

@lecarl said:

@azrailx: Right. I hope to not have to take level 3 on any weaponry skills. I'm just not sure how much of a role fate is going to play in leveling quickly and/or annoying boss fights.

Don't neglect fate, the reckoning mode makes any fight a cakewalk and it gives you mroe XP to boot. Bosses interrupt you a lot with attacks, forcing blocks/dodges, with the extra dmg and the time slow you can make short work of bosses, plus they give yout the most xp, making reckoning even more usefll. Those talents basically allow you to get fate faster significantly, but only if you use the actual special moves they are for. If you are just mashing attack they are useless.

My first crack at a hybrid mage: Might 16, Finesse 21, Sorcery 86

• Might: Harpoon, Hardy Constitution, Adrenaline Surge
• Finesse: Shadow Flare, Assassin's Art, Envenomed Edge, Frost Trap
• Sorcery: Arcane Weaponry line, Chakram and Staff Mastery, Protection line, Flame line, Summon line, Healing Surge, Elemental Rage

I'm not so sure about Finesse. Those points could unlock another spell line instead.

@Bane: My only issues with your build is it's preventing you from unlocking a higher tier of destiny card. The bonuses on those are pretty powerful. For a high level hybrid you'd need at least 55 in two of the three disciplines or for a high level pure mage you'd need 109 in just Sorcery (but you actually would still have 14 points left to spend elsewhere).

@Dark_Lord_Spam: No melee weapon specs at all, that's actually an interesting build going for all ranged attacks. Could be fun. As far as the mana thing goes, be aware that what the calculator shows is just base mana that you get from the skill tree points. You will have way more from levels and gear. So you should be able to use Tempest with envenomed edge just fine.

@Dark_Lord_Spam: really like that build idea, good synergy between the two trees

also i believe that the mana and health levels are totally correct, so i think keeping the points in tempest would be a good idea, not that u will hit 40 thats fast...

Alright, last update guys. I swear. The build calculator has a bug in that you can take points out of lower skills after you unlock new tiers, and apparently I did so without realizing it.
 
This is the build's actual final iteration (I hope). All I did was take a point out of the Scattershot and put it into Assassin's Art to allow the fifth tier of Finesse skills to be unlocked.

Going with the build that I posted before the game release. Level 18-19 atm and even with the game turned to hard almost everything is a cakewalk.

But I think this is mostly due to combination of blacksmithi/sagecrafting since you can make incredible gear better then almost anything you can find. As an example a standard greatsword that drops at my levels does 55-65 dmg. I was able to craft one that did 140 dmg.
That said some boss encounters can still surprise me on hard and actually start digging into my health bar either making me use 1-2 health potions or just go into reckoning mode and win.
And I'm not even at the OP part of the build when getting the paladin fate and mage shield.
 
Just like predicted the pure dmg abilities get outpaced by warriors swing dmg. At my level the sword swings are already doing 200-300 per swing. And when enemies are stunned I'm reaching into the 600 area. that's at lv 18 only several zones into the game. So mages ultimate abilities that cost shitload of mana for 700 dmg that you get in your 30s start looking meh by comparisson especially with a cooldown (granted they will also be boosted by +elemental dmg)

Both amalurfoundry.com and 38watch.com are gone. Anyone know of another calculator?