Hi Matt!
It's been a few months since I've finished the game, so my apologies if this isn't all too specific.
First off: The Scarecrows. If you've just gotten to Act 2, I'm assuming you're somewhere between Level 9 and 10 (if you're lower, good luck!). The Scarecrows are level 12 if I remember correctly. You can leave them be for now. Generally, if you see anything 2 levels above your characters, I would turn around and find something else to do.
Act 2 is where you will really cut your teeth for the first time, especially switching from Explorer to Normal. I'm pretty seasoned with RPGs, but not a die-hard, and found the jump in difficulty from Act 1 to 2 quite big. Since every encounter and most resources in this game are finite, you can't really grind levels anywhere. You have to find some sort of progression between all the encounters and the attached quests that are available in your level range. I used a comunity-made map that divides the island into regions by encounter/NPC level and found it difficult to play that act without it. I also used a ton of quest guides, but that's up to anyone's personal preference of course.
As far as your character builds, they look okay. Except for Lohse, you're not going "all in" on one class, which is good. A mix of two or three abilities is mostly what you want to go for. Once you've got your head around all the systems it's really fun to just experiment. I used the re-spec mirror a lot. Elemental- and damage synergies are key for disables (via stunnded/frozen/etc statuses, that chicken spell, and knock-down). Once you've figured out how to do it, stun-locking key targets will become a game changer. That and mobility skills (Spread Your Wings, Tactical Retreat, Cloak and Dagger/Backlash...) I found really strong in this game.
Also build a full-on tank - heavily prioritise the Constitution stat, Warfare skill and one magic school (I chose Aerothurge), plus a point in Polymorph here and there for more stats and some sweet utility skills. I don't know if it's just me, but building a tank was very effective and also a hell of a lot of fun for some reason. Finding a new, better shield became a top 3 loot highlight for me. The Bouncing Shield skill lets shields deal damage based on their armor value, to two targets no less. The damage became insane later in the game. Put points in Dodge and Retribution if you're feeling fancy.
By far my favourite build happened on my (non-Origin) player character. Maybe a breakdown of that build (spotty memory notwithstanding) will help you somehow.
The character was a Warfare melee fighter with two-handed weapons and a heavy focus on Pyromancy, built entirely around critical hits. The primary stats were Wits (to increase crit chance and intiative) and Strength (to boost weapon damage and meet equip requirements). Constitution and Memory were second priority. The build needs both, so it's a fine line to walk. Intelligence is sort of useful, but putting points in Pyromancy also raises that damage output.
The Talents are were this build comes together: The core Talent was "Savage Sortilage" which gives your damage spells (sorry, "skills" in this game) the same critical chance as your basic attacks. I tried a bunch of different combinations with other talents and had some favourites. Mnemonic saves you a couple of stat points that would otherwise have to be be spent for memory. Same with Picture of Health which saves you some constitution points. All the saved points went into Strength and Wits of course. Hothead is also amazing, because 8 out 10 times you will be on top of the initiative from your high Wits score, jumping into the fight with 50+ % crit chance later on. It's crazy. Opportunist talent is a super dirty combination for the same reason. The Demon talent seems like a good fit at first glance, but every time I got to spend talent points, I found better options.
The skills I used in this build were badass. Some examples are Phoenix Dive to get in and out of position, Blitz Attack and/or Battering Ram to quickly switch targets (and knock-down disable with the latter). Good old Fireball for some range, as well as Fire Whip and Laser Ray (the shit you can pull with with that spell from a melee position is insane). Not the strongest skill by a long shot, but my secret favourite, was Flaming Tongues, which creates flames around the character that auto-attack enemies that move in and out of melee range. And just like the other fire spells, those flames can crit! Putting out tons of damage by just standing there. Hilarious. There's also a skill that buffs your weapon with fire damage, but I found the more "active" skill more fun.
I might have put some points in other skills than Warfare and Pyro, don't remember, but that's the build in a nutshell.
As I said, experimenting with builds is fun, and and a core part to this game. If something doesn't work out as you expected, fuck it, go use the mirror. It can get quite pricey buying all the skill books you want, depending on if you're just modifying some things or completely scrapping a build for something else entirely (which is totally doable).
I'll post here again if I have more thoughts. Cheers!
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