Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Who's playing DKS on nightmare difficulty ?

How goes it now with Joram and with Beatrix ? It's so quiet here .. hope all is still fine and happy breathing ?

I'm still breathing

But I don't have much time right now, and probably won't have much time till... well something like 6 months

I owe my exposure to nightmare difficulty to Joram (the forum member ). I play on nightmare because it was suggested to me and I seem comfortable with it... and also because I have this rpg rule "never ever slide the difficulty down in a character's lifetime, only up."

I can't say the names of my characters since I use my real name for them in-game. I'll just name them generically, "Warrior" and "Ranger". Warrior finished DKS Ego Draconis on Normal, for experimental purposes he also finished the arena and dream fight on Hard. He finished FoV on nightmare all throughout.

Ranger on the other hand started and finished Ego Draconis on nightmare. He had a tough time on the arena being sort of interrupted and had to rely on his undead creature all throughout to divide the enemy's attention. He is now in FoV. He spent his time being a pure ranger (explosive arrows and magic missile) until he came across an epic two handed weapon in one of the flying fortresses. This character is quite lazy and instead of jumping around Ranger enjoys the most hiding behind his undead creature spamming explosive arrows (he also enjoyed explosive arrows in broken valley since he power leveled on the Orobas Fjords to get them early).

Currently, Ranger seems too powerful in FoV (still nightmare), more powerful than Warrior. So, he's no longer power playing but actually role playing and just enjoying the story.

I'm still breathing as well but I too have been more than a little busy so I haven't had much time to come on the forums.

Thanks to the Shadow Archer Set in FoV I first used Way of the Ranger skill and it's a strong skill ! It's a winner for all my ranger attacks with my fully enchanted bow "Invisible Death"

I play a Ranger Priest, it's now my all time favorite build, especially acting like a Priest ... just missing a Robe and other Priest looking cloths ...
But to be honest, the Shadow Archer & Viper Set are really beautiful crafted (designed) !!!

Finally my ranger has finished Divinity II Dragon Knight Saga (Nightmare all throughout). Probably my last play so I finished the game by reading the entire credits.

Afterthoughts:
I was actually disappointed since after creating the character, I planned on playing as a mage. However, the time I have for playing is a bit constrained so it is natural that I play with the most efficient "killing" build as possible (more efficient killing means faster progression).

At some point in the game it became clear that I needed a bow to keep dealing ranged damage when my mana is depleted by magic missile. Then, further on my character became a ranger with explosive arrows. It's still fine, since at least the gameplay is different from my earlier warrior build.

Now, in FoV I got the impression that the bow Invisible Death might be the most powerful bow in game. My ranger cross classed with the dual wield (Deaodatus' mace and tiger's bite IIRC) and still, the damage by the bow paled in comparison with the dual wield.

Still ok since my character is different from the first since he's deadly close range (at most 3 strikes for a kill) and deadly long range (max explosive arrow). Thus, in my final gameplay everything is dying quickly near and far.

What I'm arriving at is possibly, every player is funneled down to a certain build. I mean, Joram wanted to play a priest but somewhere he had to acquire explosive arrows. I didn't want to play a dual wield character again but given the choice of jumping around with explosive arrows 5 sec cooldown against the close range arc damage of dual wield (yes, there's an arc where multiple enemies are struck by melee attacks)... looking at the clock the choice is obvious.

A satisfying gameplay for different classes must have the player feel that he's playing a totally different character BUT that character is comparably efficient to the other classes. Unfortunately, IMO this balance between classes can only be achieved by multiplayer experience. Right now, from the looks of it, if multiplayer is implemented on Divinity II I think everyone at the top tier will have the same build. Not necessarily my build, I'm not implying that MY build is the most powerful (obviously someone can come up with a build that can kill mine).

Final playthrough:

Ranger Character build Level 48
Max: Explosive Arrows, Ranger Strength, Evade, Life Leech, Regenerate, Thousand Strikes, Bleed, Deathblow, Dual Wield
(many other stats not maxed and are not worth mentioning except for Level 5 Rush Attack, still used that... )
Stats: 80 Vitality, 11 Spirit, Max: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence

Equipment: Everything that can be enchanted with Healing Aura Level 9 (I never got the level 10). All weapons enchanted with Level 10 life leech.

Gameplay Effect on Academy and Bellegar fight: No potions needed, no healing spells needed, no creature needed.

I think this is my final play through Divinity II, sad though there seems to be a lot of good people here in the forums but it was fun.

Are you really sure you never play again Divinity II ? Oooo ...

I'm sure I gonna start Once Upon a Time a brand New Game, acting like a pure Priest !
So without using Explosive Arrows or Way of the Ranger ... only "try" first with Priest skills only !! Does this mean I play without any weapons, any Mage skill ?
No, one Bow and one 2-handed Sword I will use from time to time. Just in case of emergency and using a bow for breaking barrels etc, I like it more than breaking them via Wirlwind or something else .
Plus: I wish to use the bow for lurking enemy by enemy so my Summon Ghost or Undead (and later on my Creature and after I take over the Battle Tower use Summon Demon) can make sort work of them.

First I love Magic Missile, but it changed: okay, it has a very short cooldown time, but I prefer other skills. So no magic spells except Healing I wish to use.
And starting as a Ranger (Poison Arrows) is for me my best choice since I never use Wirlwind and Fireball I used already so much in DD (Meteore Strike) ...
Poison Arrows also stun an enemy, I like that since I'm a slow player ... so Stun Arrows I like too !

So, to be short: ALL Priest skills possible (free to invest in them) +
Ranger skills : Stun Arrows & Poison Arrows & the passive skill Ranger Stealth.
Mage skill : Healing & maybe Polymorph, it's fun to use the Dragon skill Polymorph, so maybe a nice looking thing for my Priest !
Warrior skills : Rush Attack (fun to suprize an enemy, especially handy by Amdusias, combine the skill with Hide in Shadows !) and later on Thousand Strikes, both 1 or 2 points is enough OR via an equipment item with this skill on! Maybe take Evade as passive warrior skill.
Dragon Slayer skills : only invest in Two-handed W. Exp. and of course Lockpick & maybe next time Encumbrance (reskill later always possible). But never go for Wisdom or put more points into Mindreading, I like the XP dept, it can be useful in some way.

In my current playthrough I bought many many Amulets, Bracelets and/or Earrings with a skill on them because of the skill ! That's fun, but next time I only buy some Yewellery IF it has a Priest Skill on them (or some of the other skills I mentioned).
Now I can upgrade (for example) Splitting Arrows up to 7 or even higher without investing a point in this skill! Just wearing 3 different items, that's all I need ! The same with Way of the Ranger, Explosive Arrows, Firewall and more ... no skillpoints invested, all goes via equipment !!

The good thing about skills on equipment I find is that you first can TRY the skill and if you like it, all the better, if not, just sell the item and forget about it. It's a great way to try unused skills to discover how they work ! I never though I would invest in Rush Attack, but finding a Bracelet in Broken Valley and I love it ...

And so I learned by experience, the best way I think: try & error ... .

Don't mind the criticism I made (it applied to me too ). It was aimed at the developers. Play happily

But if you were able to pull of being a pure priest all throughout at nightmare I'll be here to congratulate you on that

BTW I forgot to mention the result of my build against the Final Boss Ygerna... now why would I forget that... uh... I don't remember much what happened suddenly it was the end cutscene.

So the final fight was a piece of cake with your build, on nightmare mode ? A few seconds and then the cutscene start ?

I will write my adventures playing a Priest down here on the forum in a brand new topic

Note :
I experienced also a BIG difference between fights with my equipment unenchanted (or with low enchantments) < versus > fully high enchanted gear !