Today I finished the Early Access with a Solo Retaliation focused tank in Classic Mode. I ended the game with 1 Hydromancy and 10 Retaliation. Here are my stats.
![[Linked Image]](https://i.imgur.com/TBCmkqy.png)
It took a long time to come online. I didn't feel very powerful until I hit Level 6 and got my Retaliation up to 7. If Lone Wolf gives additional points, it will make the process much quicker to come online.
Hydromancy was very important for two major reasons. Until I became sufficiently tanky, I had to make sure that incoming damage did not exceed how quickly I could heal myself. To this end, I used the combination of Rain + Global Cooling to create large patches of ice that I would stand in. Archers and Mages could still damage me, but Melee fighters would often fall down attempting to reach me. I made sure to craft Winter Boots very early.
Since I was so tanky, anytime I was fighting with a friendly NPC, the enemies would ignore the hell out of me and try to smash the friendly NPC. So Restoration, Healing Ritual, and eventually Steam Lance became important for keeping them alive! This was a major reason for taking Hydromancy instead of Necromancy.
As an interesting observation, the AI would actually stop attacking me when it got low on health. It would realize that the next hit or two against me would kill it, and it would go into defensive mode just buffing its allies and healing itself if it had such skills. Once it had some health back, it would try to attack me again, but almost no enemies would suicide themselves against me intentionally.
As a con: It's not a very active way to play, and the fights are not incredibly fast. You might find yourself getting bored. But it does have a certain tempo - a strategy to raising your defenses at certain points to counter the moments when you know the enemy CC is coming off cooldown. Like a proper tank!
As a pro: Even if you do get stunned or frozen, you don't care! Your retaliation keeps on working. You just need the occassional window to Rain + Global Cooling + Restoration.
As a pro: I was completely unafraid of single high powered enemies. They would hit me for 100+ damage at a time, and I would retaliate back just as hard. It's also hilarious watching Hammer Pets and Alexsandar just stop attacking you because they realize they are going to kill themselves.
Necromancy: Obviously, Necromancy is a great combination with Retaliation. You heal for half the amount of damage you take, which would make you almost immortal. But I didn't go that direction for this EA test because 1) there were not enough points. If Lone Wolf offers additional points like it did in DOS1, then Necromancy might become an option. 2) Necromancy doesn't keep friendly NPCs alive. Keeping them alive was one of the hardest parts about this playthrough, because enemies would completely ignore me. I know taunts are going to be in the game at full release, but I doubt it will keep everyone taunted all the time.
