Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Help/Tips/Tricks Suggestions for main character and balanced Party

Hi

I would really appreciate some guidance, am really keen to get stuck in the game which looks amazing, but a bit overwhelmed by the huge number of variables in character creation and party builds options. I've been reading on these forums that mages and to a lesser extent rogues have been nerfed/hobbled. Is this the case and should I concentrate on fighters and rangers?

I am not new to RPGs and have played all previous Divinity games, but this one seems in a class of its own both in terms of quality but also complexity ☺!

So if people are able to share what seems to be working for them (with as much detail as possible please) that would be great!

You should read some guides first, like Sombrero's: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1133139481

Don't worry too much about "classes" nerfed or not. Nearly anything is viable.

Most important to know is that there are two forms of armor, physical and magical, and health is usually only reduced and CC applied after the armor is gone. Most mobs have one armor (much) higher than the other. It makes not much sense to remove both armors on one enemy.

So a classical group, tank (real tanking is really difficult in this game), physical ranged, magical ranged, healer is not the very best composition of a party (but possible). You can focus on one damage to remove one of the armors fast (for example: warrior with one-handed and shield, two-handed warrior (combined with Necromancy for example, a magical school with mainly physical damage), ranger (or rogue) and summoner or split the damage in your group (two physical, two magical damage) and attack two enemies a time, according to their lesser armor.

Choose wisely the difficulty level, you cannot switch back from Tactician, the highest difficulty, to lower ones. Tactician is really difficult, you need a bit (lot) of min/max, item hunt and reloading to master. I find it more a burden than a delight. I prefer Classic, but some might find it boringly easy.

I will try to be detailed. My apology for the wall of text xD

Assuming you won't be using Lone Wolf talent (which boost your stats at the cost of losing one party member slot), you will have a team of 4 members.

From my experience, Crowd Control is more important than damage in this game. That's why knocking down, stunning, or freezing enemies .... are important and in most case, make or break for me. However, for those to work, enemies armor have to be down as soon as possible. (Phys armor block knock down and cripple. Mag armor block freeze and stun).

I'm almost done with my first play through and just sticking with the basic set up:
- A 2 hand weapon tank / Phys Dam knight. Have a couple of point in Geo for physical armor buff. Focusing on knock down and cripple skills. I use 2 handed tank instead of sword and shield because I feel that the extra armor shield provide isn't as important as the extra dam that 2 handed warrior can contribute to bring down phys armor.
- A wayfarer for Range Phys Dam / special arrow / heal and support. They are very flexible with a wide range of special arrows, heal, and armor piercing dam, which can help tremendously if you use them right. My favorite is to use Charm arrow to turn enemies against each other.
- A dual wield rogue for mobile phys dam. Sebille is perfect for this since she has Flesh Sacrifice (add 1 AP, increase dam for 2 turn), and Break the Shackle (Remove all negative effects). Add that to Cloak and Dagger (Teleport) and Backlash (Teleport and backstab), and you have a killing machine with high mobility. I could kill enemies before they could start their turn. Just make sure they are in right position to backstab and they will do wonderfully
- A Wand and shield Enchanter for AoE Magic Dam / Crowd Control / buff. Enchanters have access to a lot of supporting / crowd control spells. Shield give extra armor which help in case enemies push to kill my support. Stay away from Glass Canon though, since it made Enchanter vulnerable to stun lock.

The reason I lean toward physical damage more than Mag dam is enemies type. Typically in a group of mobs that attack your party, there are 3 main type of enemies: Melee with high phys armor, low mag armor; Caster with high mag armor, low phys armor; And Hybrid, which has about equal Phys Mag armor.
I found that casters are pain in the ass, since they will spam skills that stunlock your squad from afar. I've lost count how many time I had to watch my squad die because 4 or 5 caster just spam stun / froze like maniacs and I couldn't do anything. So I always take them down first, or at least knock them down. Because of their low phys armor, my phys dam heavy team can cut through them pretty easily, and able to kill them, or at least knock them down before they could start spamming.
Melees have to run toward you to do anything, so a decent enchanter can destroy their low mag armor, and stun lock them while others taking care of Casters. Hybrid can be taken care of either way, but since they can also cast spell, they need to be dealt with asap as well.

Another important thing you need to have is high Initiative. This decides who's going to attack first. So having high Initiative means that you can start first, and gain an upperhand in battle.

Granted, this is by no means a perfect set up, as I've gotten my butts kick plenty of times. Ultimately, what important is you have to plan your battle carefully, examine your foes before battle, or in your first turn, and if possible, always make enemies run toward you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot to both of you - I'm sure if I experiment I will come up with something that works as well as being fun to play 😊!