General questions: I read about mages that u need to have your con 2 points above speed to have maximum ap saved for next round, should I use that advice or pump int/speed for maximum round damage? Should I do that on my rouge aswell? Or dex speed?
If you do take glass canon then you have to make sure your AP/turn does not exceed your max./AP.
the formula's are as followed:
max. AP: 7 + con
AP/turn: (speed-1)*0,5)rounded down +4
As far as if you need it on your rogue, (not rouge, please... that is a form of make-up.) the same rule applies to each character that takes up glass cannon.
ome one told that Pet pal is a must for maximum fun on one of the mains and that u should take it on character creation, should I or it can wait for next talent? If I should, shiyld it be on my rogue and skip guerrilla/backstab or take it on the mage?
Pet pal is not a must, however for a first playthrough I would recommend it, because earlier mentioned you wanted to get as much out of the experience as possible. If you do take petpal, put it on your caster. The reason for that is simple, casters don't have many great talent choises.
I think this should answer your two earlier questions, keep in mind this is my opinion and is no way shape or form a fact. I will now give you an idea as to how I would create a rogue/ranger and a mage, I will also add my reasonings and I will also try to add a rough estimate of what is to be expected at later levels.
I should warn you, I look at most of these things from a very tight min/max perspective.
Let's start with your focused caster aka mage/wizard because that's pretty easy.
str5, dex5, int8, con5, speed7, per5
int does not require an explanation I assume, you need speed because it grants initiative, ap/turn and start ap and you need con to offset the glass cannon penalty and to make sure your tunr/ap do not exceed your max. ap.
pyro1, aero1, geo1, hydro1, withcraft1
You want to be mister versatile as soon as possible, so it's best to grab a ton of the easy and good level 1 spells from every school. After this you can focus on the school(s) of magic you want.
starting skills: teleport, summon spider, flare
Teleport because the spell is insanely overpowered, you can teleport enemies away if they are too close, or you teleport them close to your melee instead.
Summon spider because it gives you a great minion, with high perception, good stats and poison immunity.
Flare because you need a bread and butter attack to start of with, something you can cast each turn. Flare also blows up oily or poisonous surfaces and it will save you some scrolls at the start of the game.
Talents: pet pal, far out man
pet pal because roleplaying wise it great as it leads to more quests, quests lead to experience, experience leads to happy player. Aside you mentioned you want to experience the game to it's fullest, so in my opinion the best option.
far out man because it is the 2nd best talent to take for a mage, the best one being glass cannon... but that is the uncontested best talent in the game... it increases your range and the further back you are, the less likely you get attacked or take damage.
Why did I not chose know it all?
At some point in the game you will find a demon in your homestead. This demon will trade an unspend talent for 10 ability points and he trades 5 ability points for 2 attribute points. Even though I am aware that know it all goes over the attribute softcap of 15 I still rather have 2 attributes of choise instead of +1 int which also includes a minor drawback.
Ok this should cover my vision of a focused caster at character creation. from level 1 to level 7 you should work on fleshing out the mage as the versatile spellcaster who is not action point starved. A lot of guides recommend boosting int to 15 before spending a lot of points on speed/con. In my opinion you should steadily increase them as the focused caster advances because I use a mage as a support class that controls the flow of combat rather then that I use the mage as a damage dealer. Ofcourse my mage has damage dealing spells and if the situation is not threatening then he/she will go ballistic aswell, but in most cases I see the mage as a combat controller. He or she makes sure the enemies are cc-ed while your allies are buffed.
So in terms of increasing abilities I can not offer much help other then the following: In case of doubt increase Int. Make sure that you never more ap/turn then max. ap. And take a good look at your gear and depending on your gear increase your attributes. Early in the game you can craft rings that give +1 con. those are great for starters.
Once you are in town, you want to go on a shopping spree for your mage, since he or she has 1 point in each school it is important to get all the great spells asap. (yes this costs a lot of gold, however as you will read further ahead your ranger/rogue will take walk in shadows and he will rob the whole town blind.)
The spells you want to are the following:
Pyro: flare(1), wildfire(1), save spot
Aero: Blitzbolt(1), Teleport(1), save spot
Hydro: Rain(1), Minor heal(1), slow current(1)
Geo: Summon spider(1), Midnight oil(1), bless(1)
Witchcraft: Oath of desecration(1), save spot, save spot
Reasoning:, flare is yoru bread and butter spell, wildfire is a haste, blitzbolt is your alternative bread and butter spell which also synergizes with the rain spell, teleport is insane, slow current synergizes with your rogue/ranger character which will take bully. summon spider see earlier, midnight oil synergizes with bully and you can set it ablaze with flare. bless helps madara and your ranger/rogue with their to hit early in the game, you will unlearn it when you notice that their to hit is fine without it. Oath of desecration is a +50% damage increase and therefore maybe the best spell in the game...
Stats you want on gear: int, speed, con, perception(only if the gearpiece offers atleast one of the previous 3 stats) leadership.
Stats like bodybuilding and willpower are a nice bonus but other then that utterly useless in 99/100 situations when being a mage.
When you reach level, make sure to have the spellbooks ready that you want to be able to cast @ level 4, make sure to have increased geo to atleast rank 2, and preferably pyro aswell.
Spellbooks to look out for @ level 4 are: boulder bash due to it's small aoe knockdown affect which synergizes with bully and it's a poison attack so synergizes with flare. Fireball, because well it's a FIREBALL!! Blind, best cc in the game mostly because it works on bosses aswell. (blind says that the target can only attack adjacent targets.) absorb the elements because resistance is good and this helps you go over the softcap so your melee character(s) will like this every know and then.)
Somwhere along the line you want to have the pyro spell: immune to freezing because it hard counters freeze cc. he same goes for Jahan, who eventually wants the shields from the hydro and aero school because they counter freezing and stun.
As far as talents are concered: # level 3 you get a talent. Do NOT and I repeat do NOT use it right away. Save it untill you hit level 5 and then get glass cannon. Then to me personally you have all the useful talents you can have as a mage, namely glass cannon and far out man. Save all your other talents. Later in the game you will use them. (if you have read the previous spoiler you will know why.)
As far as ability points are considered: Do some research on spells etc. so you know which spells you want to have on your casters. Rank 5 grants you 11 spells slots, so that means you can cast all the spells. Find out which spells are bad and which spells are good and make a list of your top 11. That aside, if Jahan will be your crafter, then make sure this caster will stack leadership through the roof. Leadership is insane as the higher it gets the sicker the bonusus get. Among them extra to hit, extra initiative, willpower, bodybuilding, fear immunity. So if you have spare points, you can dump them into leadership.
As usual my posts are somehwat longwinded...
I will do the ranger/rogue tomorrow, for starters you can read this wall of text :P
With kind regards,
Rashar.
