Basic builds & gameplay tips

knarfling

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30/03/2023
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6
My one issue with Mage Barrier is trolls. In my first few runs, I got it early. When I tried taking on trolls, I would hit them with fire damage, not quite killing them. The trolls would run into the Mage Barrier and "die" from shock damage. They would then regenerate and attack again.

I was faced with the choice of not using Mage Armor, or wait on the trolls until I could reliably kill them quickly before they could shock themselves to "death" on my armor.

Now I wait on Mage Barrier until later in the game. I still get it because of its usefulness in the Ark, but I wait until trolls are easy kills.
 

Kakost

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06/12/2022
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I have a new build for Warriors

Build Name - Bow and Dagger (Moderately Difficult)
* This is a build with a lot of flexibility depending on desired outcomes. Being a sort of hibrid, it's a Jack of all Trades and master of none; it deals less damage than the Rogue Archer, but at the same time it has more defense capabilities and dont struggle as much when they are up in close; it can fight on meele, but not as capable as the 1H/Shield Warrior, but has the capability of softening enemies from afar and from safety.

Typical playstyle: Hibrid Meele/Ranged, Balanced Offensive/Defensive, Crowd Control

Critical basic skills: Bash 1, Charge 1, Whirlwind 1, Fury

Helpful basic skills: Cleave, Shield Expert, Resilience

Critical advance skills: Rapid Fire, Precision Shots, Massive Criticals

Helpful advance skills: Flurry, Battle Rage, Infantry Training, Duel, Precision Strikes, Heavy Hand, Body Development

Trait priority: Agi (High), End (Mid), Awa (Mid)

Helpful tips:
1) You must always have a Bow and a Light weapon on a quick slot for swift changing weapons
2) You'll primarily use your bow for dealing damage safely from a distance, however when enemies get close, you quickly switch for Shield and Light Weapon for close quarters fight
3) Try to avoid fighting in Meele and instead giving preference for Ranged combat; in order to do that, make use of your skills Charge, Bash and Whirlwind as "Crowd Control" skills in order to disengage from enemies and to reposition yourself more favourably to switch back into Ranged mode.

Common variations:
- Ranged Focused: invest heavily into Rapid Fire and Precision Shots, Body Development may be useful for extra defense.
When forced into Meele, it is best to invest into Defensive skills rather than offensive ones, as to add survivability while you try to disengage and reposition to return to Ranged state. Shield Expert, Resilience, Infantry training and Battle Rage are the ideal choices here. This is the more defensive build.
- Meele Capable: this variation sacrifices defense and survivability while on Meele stance for some extra Meele offense. High Cleave, Duel, Precision Strikes and Heavy Hand replace the defensive skills for the Ranged Focused variation.
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My one issue with Mage Barrier is trolls. In my first few runs, I got it early. When I tried taking on trolls, I would hit them with fire damage, not quite killing them. The trolls would run into the Mage Barrier and "die" from shock damage. They would then regenerate and attack again.

I was faced with the choice of not using Mage Armor, or wait on the trolls until I could reliably kill them quickly before they could shock themselves to "death" on my armor.

Now I wait on Mage Barrier until later in the game. I still get it because of its usefulness in the Ark, but I wait until trolls are easy kills.
Just hide behind Griss and dont let them hit you.

But yeah, I can see how this would be a problem if you're playing the "Nuclear Mage" build and using MB as your main vector of DPS...
 

Neponde

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27/03/2022
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157
It deals less damage than the Rogue Archer, but at the same time it has more defense capabilities and dont struggle as much when they are up in close
Have you played rogue archer at length? I have zero troubles with up close enemies. Evasion, stab, and at worst, trap and sprint to recover makes it a durable rogue build.

Most experienced players (I've seen) have found warrior to be lacking as an archer. Its a viable build, it just kind of does everything worse.
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@Kakost I will include this as a variant to the shield warrior. Agility based shield warriors would be able to get rapid fire and get some use from it.
 
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Kakost

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Have you played rogue archer at length? I have zero troubles with up close enemies. Evasion, stab, and at worst, trap and sprint to recover makes it a durable rogue build.
Yes. I find Rogue Archer to be pretty easy to play with. I dont use Stab with it at all thou. Evasion, Trap and Sprint are the only things I ever use with it.

I agree that overall, Warrior Archer is a worse version of Rogue Archer but you know, people might want to try it out regardless. And it's feasible, it's playable and fun, it would just be a little subpar compared to the Rogue, which is why I felt it worth to be included.

I think it should be a build on it's own, since the playstyle is rather different from Sword and Shield, specially if you're going to focus on archery instead of Meele. Sword and Shield can instead have massively defensive skills, but also pretty decent offensive ones, which I personally would NOT recommend for an archer focused warrior. The idea of this build would be to indeed avoid Meele confrontations as much as possible, but having the defense to survive them if necessary.

That's why I believe this should be a separate build
 

Neponde

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27/03/2022
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157
I agree that overall, Warrior Archer is a worse version of Rogue Archer but you know, people might want to try it out regardless. And it's feasible, it's playable and fun, it would just be a little subpar compared to the Rogue, which is why I felt it worth to be included.

I think it should be a build on it's own...
I'll consider it. But the stated goal of this guide is this:
This thread is designed to be a starting point for new players, or if you are looking at a new class and not sure where to begin...

For this reason, I hesitate to include a build that has known issues (in this case, its just a weaker version of a better build). I want the primary featured builds to be known, accepted, viable, and solid by the community, so that new players, or struggling players, can pick them up and go.

Once the core builds section is completed, I could possibly add another section for "suboptimal" builds; that is where I would put the 'fury archer'. Things like a mage barrier based build would go in there too. Viable, but with glaring flaws. But, @Apocalypse has a similar thread to that with his challenge build compendium.
 

Nivarian99

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09/03/2023
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59
Come to think of it, trolls have created trouble a few times with mage barrier! I have had them regen on me a couple of times! And still not having fully cleared Gurguth's cave, I guess there is one more lot of regen trolls ahead! Good point about getting it a bit later in the game!
 

Kakost

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06/12/2022
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375
I'll consider it. But the stated goal of this guide is this: (stuff)
Fair point brother. Fully agree.

In this case, all the builds that you already put in place I'd say that fully close the possibilities for viable and well round builds.

By the way, I begun a Cleric diary on another thread, the goal is to build it as a Shaman (Summoner Cleric). Hella of fun so far, super viable, super strong, strongly recommended.

(Trying to play 2 Classes at once with so little time will be a hell of a ride).

And I still want to play a "purist" Death Knight (no Arcane Blade) after those...
 

Neponde

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-Updated formatting a little bit
-Added Stab rogue (thanks Kakost for the framework, saved me a lot of time)
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I had been considering writing up a cleric guide with 3 options: Summoner, Caster, & Paladin. I thought the guide would be great for primary and secondary skills (and optional advantageous skills like Gate). I'd be glad to help with Cleric write ups.
What are the differences between summoner and caster? I'm having trouble envisioning a 'caster' cleric
 
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Poith

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Joined
24/04/2023
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1
Wow thanks for this great basic build compendium.
I am a brand new player and looking for a sword and board build for the warrior.
I have no problem whatsoever playing with a lot of passive abilities instead of active ones. In fact, I would prefer a lot of passive/proc abilities.

Greetings Poith
 

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