Character builds: Pros and Cons

[Tim]

My hope with this thread is that we can discuss the different builds that are popular in the game right now and the pros and cons of each. This is not meant as a "my build is better than yours" or a "this build needs to be nerfed" discussion, but an honest opinion of what builds are currently good at what or ideas for builds that players have tried. I understand if some players may not want to share the secrets of their character builds (this game is competitive after all), but any knowledge you are willing to share will help 1) new players come up with their own plans and 2) help me see where things might need leveled out. Things can be kept somewhat vague, so you don't need to say pick this class and raise skill this high or make sure you have at least +x poison or something like that. Just general talk.

For this discussion, please only weigh in on builds you personally have tried in the recent versions of the game, not builds you have seen others using. I'm looking for first hand impressions of how different builds have worked.

Here's a clean template if someone wants to use it for theirs.
Stats to focus on:
Stats to splash on:
Strength:
Weakness:
Good vs NPCs?:
Good vs Hordes?:
Other notes:

[Tim]

To get things started, I'll post an example of one of my builds I've tried:


Critical dodge
Stats to focus on: Dodge, Dodge and more Dodge
Stats to splash on: Poison or taint for some damage. Defense and % defense to cut damage received if someone hits you.
Strategy: Get your Dodge as high as possible. This lets you avoid getting hit by most attacks, limiting the damage taken from both straight damage and especially poison builds. Late in the game when your dodge gets over 100, most players and NPCs will critical miss almost every turn.
Strength: Great against poison builds (unless they pack a large amount of accuracy). Okay against straight damage builds (more likely to have high accuracy stacked on to counter your dodge)
Weakness: Damage builds with really high accuracy, Taint builds
Good vs NPCs?: Early on can be a little rough, but late game most won't even touch you
Good vs Hordes?: Not great damage, so don't expect to be much help dropping hordes
Other notes: This is definitely more a late game build. Until your dodge gets up there you'll likely be taking a decent amount of damage that you need to deal with somehow while still dealing enough that you win. Pretty flexible though on what other stats to combine with your dodge.

If anyone else has tried a similar build, please feel free to add your own experiences with it.

[Seitaarin]

I'll not be participating in this one thanks Tim. I'll just work whatever system is put in place without telegraphing my moves, and let the all knowing Forsaken gents who can't conceive of these things on their own parrot them and then call them OP 5 minutes later without exploring them properly, then whine for a nerf until we're all hitting each other and cheering on how clever we each were to mix up our first strike that time for a win.

[Tim]

No pressure on anyone. Sounds like it's best you sit this thread out anyways.

[gerdonat]

Horde Smasher
Stats to focus on:
damage and more damage gun for your base damage to be similar to your % bonus
Stats to splash on:
stun, you want around 25 stun, whatever poison, accuracy, wound and speed you get its a bonus
Strength:
its the best to fight hordes and armies
Weakness:
not a good dueler
Good vs NPCs?:
yes, though early on you will want to go defense and poison or taint to make your life easier, later you can bash them fast
Good vs Hordes?:
the best
Other notes: Wolf Brother is the best class for a damage dealer, I consider it a must for the horde smasher, look for any other class with high damage, like warder, and some splashes for stun and accuracy could come handy.

[gerdonat]

Damage Dueler
Stats to focus on:

damage and first strike
Stats to splash on:

stun and luck, any wound, speed, accuracy and poison you can get is a bonus.
Strength:

Will beat other damage focused builds, and still do good horde damage.
Weakness:

health gain + speed builds will defeat him.
Good vs NPCs?:

yes, though early on you will want to go defense and poison or taint to make your life easier, later you can bash them fast

Good vs Hordes?:

pretty good, depending on how much damage you sacrifice to get the splashed stats.
Other notes: I see two different ways to get high fs and high damage, go a traditional damage build, but take duelist at some point, check duelist nationality requirements, or go aiel weave focus, and gun for chief and ashaman, warder is very good in both cases. As a rule of thumb get the splashed stats from classes, and the damage bonus from TAs, its more efficient that way.

[gerdonat]

Poison-Speed-Health Gain
Stats to focus on: the ones from the name of the build
Stats to splash on: luck and stun, any defense and dodge you can get is a bonus.
Strength: Very good at dueling.
Weakness: Not a heavy horde hitter.
Good vs NPCs?: Its the easier build to defeat npc's, and allows you to strip the most and still defeat them.
Good vs Hordes?: Not at all.
Other notes: In the early levels when you cannot get much health gain, focus on speed and defense, with whatever poison you can muster. Later when "of tinkers" becomes available its when the build shines. You will want to switch some tinkers for more luck poison and speed to duel other poison users.

[gerdonat]

Those are the 3 builds I play this age

[Seitaarin]

OK I decided to participate after all, more the merrier.


Hybrid - Melee Poisoner

Stats to focus on: poison, speed, damage%

Stats to splash on: stun/wound, luck, first strike, accuracy

Stats to neglect completely: None

Strength: applying damage reduces enemy defense% and damage%, thus damaging aids both tanking and damage ramping. Poison secondary effects also aid in cutting enemy poisoner defense%, mitigating enemy effects. Very strong vs NPCs, easily modifiable to down gear for exp bonus. Strongest synergy for mercenaries/madness TA's

Weakness: getting damage to competitive levels requires sacrificing health gain, leaving the build vulnerable to pure poison/healthgain

Good vs NPCs?: yup

Good vs Hordes?: yup

Other notes: Damage application required for damage mitigation almost requires first strike to be upgraded to a primary focus, but with it being variably useful depending on your opponent, itemising for this to increase stat efficiency further reduces potential health gain stacking and/or damage potential. I consider this only a situationally strong build for duelling only certain opponents, but also slightly lacking in the horde damaging department in comparison to a pure damager, and thus not a likely candidate for a primary build.



Tainter

Stats to focus on: Taint, First Strike, Health Gain

Stats to splash on: Dodge, luck

Stats to negect completely: speed/stun/wound

Strength: Dodge Immune, super strong vs Poison builds (luck dependent)

Weakness: Everything other than poisoners will eat it for breakfast

Good vs NPCs?: Mostly good, though occasionally you just do a fight where you apply 0 damage. Can be very frustrating. Can be somewhat mitigated by building some speed into an NPC bashing kit to gain some turn advantage (more useful for special damage application than luck) or by kitting poison, basically doubling your damage application chance, though poison is pitifully weak when used in a non speed set.

Good vs Hordes?: The absolute worst.

Other notes: The idea is to apply big fat taint stacks on turn 1 and then let the speedy poisoner kill themself. The only class that benefits from opponent taking taint on round 12 wrt health gain calc. Completely unreliable even in this role however, as it's highly luck based. This leaves taint currently in a virtually unusable position, or extremely niche at best. Dropping some speed and ramping poison damage basically nullifies this build as well, so it's not only unreliable, but highly counterable.



Hybrid - Poison/Taint Shadow poisoner

Stats to focus on: taint, poison, speed, healt gain

Stats to splash on: dodge, stun/wound

Stats to neglect completely: accuracy

Strength: Taint to mitigate last hit health gain

Weakness: taint damage suffers as speed rises, so you are basically sacrificing either poison or speed to attempt to machinate a last hit win

Good vs NPCs?: Ridiculously good

Good vs Hordes?: moderately, with gear swaps for damage ramp

Other notes: basically this is where a Shadow poisoner is at by default (assuming darkfriend base class), which with the alignment classes taken into consideration gives a shadow poisoner probably about a 60/40 paper advantage, over a Light poisoner.



Jack of all trades 1 - Melee dueller

Stats: Variable, see other notes - Damage%, speed/stun/wound, accuracy, dodge, poison, health gain, even some defense%

Strength: Offensively adaptable

Weakness: Highly player dependent, can fall or win to any build

Good vs NPCs?: Highly

Good vs Hordes?: Moderately - build sacrifices damage for utility

Other notes: aim for 50-70% required stats in ACs, with itemisation malleability to adapt to a given opponent. Not a good build to aim for if you prefer linear character builds.



Jack of all trades 2 - Kinder Surprise

Stats: ACs - defensives, Items - Damage (variable type)

Strength: Adaptable, complete malleability in damage type, super easy to NPC win at low gear scores, should be able to take any fight to 12 rounds, Good duelling against moderate builds

Weakness: Not strong damage potential in any arena, will suffer in duelling against extreme builds

Good vs NPCs?: Excellent

Good vs Hordes?: Moderately - high survivability but damage potential lacks

Other notes: Not really viable in the current game, at least not at the top end - extreme damage cuts through extreme defense (unless it's ramping defense eg poison secondaries on top of defensive stats). Would benefit from taint changes, and opening armour/shield focuses to startup selection as selecting those focii as advanced class choices gimps your skill point expense allocation efficiency fairly significantly.

Hopefully I didn't mess any of that up, putting my thoughts down in a coherent fashion can be a trial sometimes. Chaos rules.

[Seitaarin]

I didn't bother writing up a melee/taint hybrid, because it's a waste of effort. That's another potential build if you're really wanting a comprehensive list, it just doesn't work in any meaningful way.

[Siuansong]

Have many of these changed much with any changes to the game?

[terrisg]

I think wound may have been changed before last test.So yes,wound is better now than before.

[kaldar]

main changes are wound stuns in addition to decreasing opponent speed , so for example if i wound you for 10, it decreases your speed by 10 and stuns you for 10 on the round it is dealt.

Also, wound no longer is randomly based on whether it hits or not, it always hits for between 0 and your max.

Taint was changed to no longer be healable since it was pretty worthless when people could instantly heal 75% of the damage the same turn it was dealt.