Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Magic Skills Balance/ Scoundrel being too strong?

Been through 3 runs of the early access as an int build and finesse build and I have to say my finesse run was the easiest and quickest run so far.

Some context:

Both runs ended up with finesse/int being around 30 respectively and I ended up going with Memory as my secondary stat with my skill points being 1 each for most of the skills except summoning (lul) and huntsman. Both runs were solo runs.

My experience so far:

With my Int Build:
I went scoundrel and lightning for adrenaline and stuns early on. I had a lot of trouble killing anything that wasn't trash mobs early on. I picked up geomancer/necro for more cc and combos. I couldn't clear some of the fights like the Flenser in the fort without cheesing him. (I covered the entire map in blood pools and electrified it... It was fun to watch but so tedious...). Pretty much did the same thing for the High Judge. I picked up pyromancy/polymorph once I got out of Fort Joy and things really got much better then. My dps shot up a lot and I no longer had to cc stuff as much. The rest of the run essentially went like this adrenaline/flesh of sacrifice -> teleport->impale -> fireball-> acid/fire skills that were cheap to cast->skin graft repeat and then chameleon skin to repeat the whole process from safety...The fight aboard the lady of vengeance was pretty easy but took the whole duration

With my finesse build:
I picked up scoundrel and polymorph for chameleon from the start. Essentially, the entire run was a cake walk... Each round, I gibbed one opponent and chameleoned away to wait for my cooldown resets. When I unlocked skin graft /teleport and warfare, I could kill 2 magic mobs in the first round or cc/severely damage 2 physical mobs. By the 2nd round I could cc 4-5 mobs with my warfare skills... Alexander got instagibbed in 1 round. The fight aboard the lady of vengeance ended in the first round without my origin skill being used... (Turns out all you had to do was teleport to the mast->teleport onto their ship and instagib the mage all in 1 round.)

Essentially, what I concluded was:

1. Mage took 2-3 rounds to kill something while my scoundrel took 1 round with significantly less effort and planning on my part. The dps disparity was pretty huge given the same circumstances.

2. My early game mage was horrid. Certain skill trees did too little damage and IMO not enough information was being conveyed early on/during skill selection to show that and it felt really bad trying to learn stuff blindly.

3. My finesse run on the other hand was smooth sailing from start to finish, zero planning required. Every boss fight was a guaranteed success no matter the level.

4. The scoundrel tree alone dealt massive damage/ gave utility in the form of adrenaline and teleports.

5.Warfare gave as much utility as all my magic skills combined... 3 ccs in 1 tree. Battle Stomp/ Cripple/ Battering Ram. 2 teleports ( phoenix dives/ Battering Ram). AOEs ( whirlwind/ blitz). Enrage was meh...(2 ap was just too much especially given the fact scoundrels had backstab). My finesse build had the same level of CC and greater damage compared to my mage with just 2 skill trees. Plus the fact that the elements surface system did not get in the way due to my spells, made life a lot easier...

6. Polymorph is a must pick skill tree . Skin graft / Chameleon are just too good. Being able to gain armour is pretty nice too( Heart of Steel).

7. Elements combo system felt really unwieldy at times. Fire+poison+oil is pretty much your only dps option but that conflicts with frozen as a form of cc and lightning did not have much in the way of aoe ccs at range without a pool of water/blood. Plus using fire essentially meant you will be stuck with a cloud of smoke later on which could be useful at times but a hindrance most of the time since it blocked you from dpsing effectively.

In short, mage felt weak in comparison to scoundrel/backstab builds.

While my experience was of a solo run, a full party run would not have made much difference imo. A full party of scoundrels would have just insta gibbed 4 ppl instead of 1 in the first round... A full party of mages would have to plan and coordinate positioning/ combos in order to achieve the same thing and this would only be possible later on in the game. A mix of builds would not make much sense outside of RPing reasons since the combat system involves breaking down armour before any form of status effects could actually take place, and who needs survivability when you can kill most of the mobs in 1 round.