Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Help/Tips/Tricks DKS mechanics and stat builds

Well, I read a lot of the old ED stuff, but I know some things have changed for DKS. Basically, I like to play magic warriors in games. Anyway, I'm a bit fuzzy on how DKS mechanics have changed and so on, so I have a few questions:

1) As I understand it, bonuses from each weapon applied to all attacks and spells in ED. Is this still true? If so, is there really any good reason to do anything but dual-wield magic weapons?

2) Now that intelligence has been nerfed, is it still wise to focus on pure intelligence or should I drop a few extra points into strength to squeeze that damage up a bit?

3) The Priest life conversion spell seems at level 1 to be 10% of your max HP for twice as many points in MP. If I just pumped vitality, could I feasibly use high HP as well as mana leech to refill my MP and more or less ignore Spirit altogether?

4) Is the demon summon actually worth using?

5) Is the Defensive Posture skill enough to shore up some of my weak melee and ranged defense or should I be looking into other options? Alternatively, what armor should I be wearing?

In DKS magic damage bonuses/enchantments on weapons are applied to the opposite weapons (when duel wielding) and to spells (don't know if it is all spells, but each missile in a Magic Missile volley gets the bonus). That wasn't the case in the original release of D2:ED, where there was debate over whether duel wielding or two handed was better; in DKS there is no question duel wielding is better, particularly for a mage or battle mage type build.


Spells get a damage bonus from intelligence in DKS (at least Magic Missile and Fireball; the opponent I tested on was immune to Firewall), and it helps with your mana recovery rate. For melee combat, you can use weapons with magic or balanced damage, so you shouldn't need to focus on strength.

Stat Point Distribution: What's the best way? (for a mage)

class question! (mage advice and links to related topics)

How to make a less fragile hero?


Playing a ranger, Mana Efficiency allowed me to ignore spirit, especially once I started getting armour with 2 enchantment slots (Life Line was pretty much always my first choice, and Increased Mana usually the second, with a couple resistance enchantments if I was particularly low on something at the time).


I found the creature to be enough help, and didn't bother with summons. If that fits with your desired playstyle, though, the demon and ghost summons are generally considered to be the best (the demon being the best melee summon, and the ghost having the ability to heal you or cast a fireball spell at opponents).
When you get access to that spell, save the game, put a few points into it, and go through part of a flying fortress, or something. If it helps, keep going; if not, you can reload rather than waste those points or pay to unlearn your skills.


In D2:ED with a warrior and DKS with a ranger, I learned one level of Evade (higher levels give less of an effect per skill point).
I never tried any temporary boost spells in D2:ED, or in DKS until I got to level 40, and got a Way of the Ranger spell boost on a bow. Normally I don't find those types of skills worth the upkeep (with both characters I used a couple found stat boost potions for tough fights), but WotR was quite helpful (especially heading into boss fights, and/or combined with close range Splitting Arrows). For Defensive Posture, from Lancet's DKS FAQ/Guide:

1) If you're just going for maximum damage, then no, there's no reason to not go for dual-wielding. But if you want to try different styles and weapons, feel free to choose something else.

2) Use whatever you like. Strength gives bonuses to health regeneration, Intelligence to mana regeneration. Over time, that adds up, and your Strength bonus can give you such a boost that it makes you much harder to kill. But that could take a lot of the challenge out of it. I'm planning to make an intelligence-focused warrior just to make things more challenging.

3) Possibly, it depends on what you use your mana for. Warrior skills tend to be light on the mana. Rangers are the ones that have the most mana troubles, I find.

Life Tap is a really great skill for warriors, though, especially Strength-focused ones, because Life Tap drains health, and strength-warriors have higher regen, so they get that back. Intelligence-based classes have little need for Life-Tap because of the inherent high mana-regeneration from Intelligence.

4) Yes, but it's better for ranged classes. It has a high health pool, and it charges enemies and fights them in melee, so it makes a great distraction. It's not great at killing things, but no summon is. If you're having trouble with groups of enemies, the demon is a great help.

5) I've never really used it, but my view is that no, it's not worth it. Enemies in the game tend to do high amounts of damage, and extra armour isn't that helpful when you could be using Battle Rage to kill them faster.

The upkeep for the damage-boosting spells is worth the trouble. They tend to last a long time, except for Way of the Ranger, but that offers a higher boost.

OK, been toying with things. Have had tons of leeway because of a fortuitous drop. In Sosostra's first prophecy, the chest contained a Perfect Goblin Head. Suddenly, the game went from mildly unforgiving to ferociously easy. As utility began to wane, I found some Fresh Goblin Arms that put him right back in Murderous Battle God Mode. Currently level 19, screwing around in the Orobas Fjords instead of going to Maxos Tower.

Unfortunately, I still can't really do what I've been wanting to do because enemies just plain hit too hard. I'd love to run up and bash some skeleton in the face, but he unfortunately takes off 70 HP at a whack, and I have 300 to work with total. Two enemies at once can grind me into dust in a few seconds. As such, I've been limited to mostly bow and spells. I suppose this will persist until I have sufficient HP, resistances, and battle skills to survive. Aside from using Rush and Whirlwind in conjunction with fireballs and firewall, any tips on not getting clobbered? Playing on Nightmare difficulty, FYI.

Does the Ghost actually use Fireball? I say this because I get enough out of my own and my pet goblin's fireballs, and if I can throw more fireballs, it might be worth using. The more the merrier, especially since those fireballs briefly stun enemies when they hit.

I'm not sure what to do with spells, either. Magic Missile is generally superfluous for a hybrid character, and Magic Blast is absolutely god-awful and pointless early on. I understand it was nerfed, but it's so unbearably useless in its current form that it's hard to make ends of what it's supposed to be doing. It can take off all of half the HP of an opponent 6 levels below me, dealing around 60 damage more than a fireball (which costs less mana and has AoE). Will this improve or will I just be sticking with firewall and fireball?

//EDIT: Now that I test it, level 5 Magic Missile deals 300 damage, just 90 short of what Magic Blast deals, and is on a 1-second cooldown with less than one third the mana cost of Magic Blast. Wouldn't be much of a hybrid build, but might make things even easier to until I can reset at the Battle Tower...

Sosostra's prophecy lead me to a chest with pretty crappy loot.
I didn't get a mage head for my creature until I was level 16, from one of the chests in Lovis' room. I had reloaded a few times there at level 10, but was only offered a warrior head, so decided to try again later.

AFAIK the ghost summon will concentrate on healing if it is safe, and possibly cast a fireball if not. Joram has recommended turning away from opponents before summoning the ghost to keep it behind the character (so it doesn't get targeted, and will focus on healing), but if attacked I don't know how much it will use the fireball spell compared to melee attacks.

I described my playthrough with a ranger (with a little bit of unarmed combat early in the game) in the topic Who's playing DKS on nightmare difficulty ?. Joram and Senior Cinco also described their games, but not playing warriors or battle mages. Stabbey did a very detailed 'Let's Play' for an unarmed monk character in another forum.

Level 19 is right (or slightly over-leveled) for doing the Battle Tower - I assume you mean Laiken's tower, not Lovis' tower in Broken Valley. Orobas Fjords is what I consider "Act III". You're playing on Nightmare mode, and you're surprised that the enemies can be a nightmare to fight? Finish the Battle Tower, it'll help a lot.

I've noticed that Sosostra's chest does seem to give higher-quality creature parts.

The Ghost can cast a fireball spell, but it's really weak. Don't use the Ghost for the fireball spell. The Summon Undead spell has a better fireball, but probably not as good as the creature's.

I usually max Magic blast on my mage characters, but that's because they only have like 4 attack spells, and even then you should only really take three at most. Fireball is probably better that Magic Blast, it does high damage in an (eventually) large radius with the same cooldown as Magic Blast. Magic Blast does stun-enemies for a second or two, though, knocking them back as well.

Magic Missile is best used for a ranged character, but it is the best attack spell if you stay at range. It relies on a lot of smaller hits, which means you need to use it a lot, so you can either hit things in melee or with the missiles. The missiles shoot up and then forward, so it could have problems hitting things right up in your face - I've seen enemy missiles miss me when I was meleeing the caster.

I don't recommend mixing magic missiles and melee, you won't be getting use of half your build no matter which one you attack with.

I actually got a Fresh Dragon Elf Head there, which I'm not using right now. Too bad the only legs I've found are Infested Goblin Legs, though!



How much does it heal, anyway? Is it even enough to be worth using?



Haha, no, no, I meant Maxos Temple, right after talking to Lovis! And no, the Fjords that I can access aren't hard at all, really. Draw enemies up with fireballs and arrows, light them up with Firewall, and that's that for the level 23 opponents who show up there prior to going to Maxos Temple. I'm nearly level 22 now, with two pieces of the Aleroth Archmage set from that Depleted Ore Mine (which I mowed through like it was full of bunnies). Clearly, I am hugely overleveled for where I'm headed. The main issue is just that if I try to run up and clobber my opponents with my maces, I end up buried post-haste. Gotta keep enemies from damaging me, else I die pretty fast. I mean, the same would happen at range if they actually ever hit me -- I accidentally got hit with four green magic balls at once in the Temple of Doom once which ate all 250 of my health (and I died). In melee, though, you can't avoid getting hit, and I'm just wondering how I'm going to get past that...



It didn't take me very long to realize that it was a random drop and absolutely overpowered for where I was. Not that I'm complaining; hell, the game was much harder early on anyway.



Mainly just looking for ways to improve overall damage output so I can kill things fast enough that I can afford to get up close and personal.



Yeah, you don't really have the time to use Magic Missile in melee. At range, though, if you have a ton of magic damage buffs, that spell will do a whole lot of damage at a rather low mana cost. Tempting...

Also, looking up info on it, it seems to me that I should just skip the Aleroth Archmage set altogether (except maybe the belt and a ring for that huge mana regen bonus). The defense it offers is actually weaker than what I currently have equipped, with the exception of magic armor (which is somewhat superfluous due to my high intelligence stat). It also may take forever to collect -- the level requirements are actually higher than the vastly-superior Ulthring set. Should I even attempt to collect pieces of the set or just strip it and sell it off, using superior generic equipment in its place?

//EDIT: I have another question. As I understand, stats are capped at 100. If I want to use the Dragon Wizard set in FoV (which adds +20 intelligence), should I stop at 75-80 base intelligence or can I exceed the 100 cap with bonuses like that?

I don't know how much the ghost heals. Joram stated in another topic somewhere that it is helpful throughout the game if you keep it upgraded. At least early in the game the ghost is the only healing spell you have access to. In the original release of D2:ED and in DKS I was fine with food and potions early in the game (though trying to conserve potions could mean sometimes standing around for awhile waiting to regenerate), and once I hit level 15 I learned the Healing spell (never needed to boost it past level 1).

From Lancet's DKS FAQ/Guide:




I used the Mining Guild set with my ranger for quite awhile (one of the level 15 sets you start with in the Steam version and North American Xbox version), but other than that just used random, unique and purchased equipment. I did collect set pieces, though, and saved to try out a couple of them (reloading being easier than re-equipping all the original equipment).

I'm using the Orobas set right now, but I actually could have better melee and magic resistance (with admittedly-lower ranged resistance) by switching to some great generic gear I've found. I just happen to like how it looks. I might consider using the Aleroth Archmage set for that reason, but it will take so long to get it that I wonder how much I'd be sacrificing in the meantime.

I just edited in another question to my previous post right after you posted your response. Do you happen to know the answer to that?

By the way, thanks to you and Stabbey for the help.

You should stop boosting Intelligence around 70-75 to allow for the Dragon Wizard set bonus (there is also a mindread in FoV that will give +5 Intelligence). Equipment or set bonuses, etc, will not let you go over the stat cap.

Got it, thanks. Already moved it to 73, unfortunately. If there's a +5 in FoV, then is taking Allen better in ED so I don't waste the stat points or do you think it even matters?

I don't think you need to worry about going over the limit by a couple points. Your other equipment may change before then, so you may loose intelligence boosts, etc. Even if that 73 is your base intelligence, using the Potion of Wisdom will give you a boost from that part of the fjords onward, with some points 'wasted' only towards the end of FoV when you have the full Dragon Wizard set (I forget when you get the last piece; I only tried the 3 FoV sets when I had all of them, and was almost done in Aleroth).

The more points you spend on Summon Ghost the more powerful his healing ! So the SG heals you more 1 one turn each time he heals you (more HP recovering) !

But only spend 1 point in SG hoping he's a good help when you're already level 20 or so, it's not because it's important to keep this kind of skill updated, so to say

To be honest: I love this Summon Ghost skill most of all because of his Healing power and all the rest is extra plus (the Ghost forms a distraction like all other summons can do and use fireballs in ranged combat and NO fireballs if enemies attack the Ghost up close and personal ! Then you can see the Ghost try to defend himself by moving his arms or something like that, not sure if the Ghost is dealing damage to the enemy ... ).

But because I find the Summon Ghost important, especially playing a Priest build, I always look around me to see my Ghost and if he is under attack I always "try" to kill those who attack my Ghosty Ghost or, as a Priest, I run to my Ghost and use Fear, Blind or Charm that enemy ! It's big fun, I can asure you !

Good luck

If you're only in the Maxos Temple, you are terribly overleveled for the main plot. If you're having trouble in Orobas Fjords now, go do the main plot, you should be able to breeze through that pretty easily. You are not meant to be doing the fjords that early, and there's only so much you can do there anyway right now.

***

Defense doesn't matter all as much as other stats. Enemies hit so hard that defense is less useful than offense. Sets are good for the cumulative bonuses you get for wearing more and more pieces, and those tend to outweigh the downsides.

Bonuses do not exceed the attribute cap. I would definitely stop putting points into Intelligence around 60-70 points or so, until your end-game gear is more finalized. There are a couple extra bonuses to intelligence you can get later on. If you're worried, hold on to any +5 Intelligence Charms and keep some attribute points in reserve.

I carefully planned my most recent character (a warrior), and I got a lot of use from attribute bonuses, enough to max out strength and vitality, and get middling scores in Intelligence and Spirit as well (I probably put too much into Spirit, but I was thinking of Thousand Strikes).

***

I'm currently trying out a priest build, and while the Ghost does work well, it will fall behind and become worthless very quickly if you neglect to upgrade it. Keep the Ghost skill as high as you can for your current level and it should do fine. The healing scales well, too, even towards the end. I specced a build using a maxed ghost on a character entering the expansion, and a properly leveled ghost can heal several hundred HP instantly.

But even properly leveled, the Ghost is NOT a worthwhile attacker, it does negligible damage.

That's thrue, but for me all in a RPG is more imporant than "how can I do/deal the most possible DAMAGE" !

And the Ghost is a real Health potion saver too.

I am your Ghostly Ghost ...

Booo oo !!

I suppose I just don't have the points to dump into a ghost summon. Keeping up with my spells alone is difficult.

So I'm through the Battle Tower and have been slaughtering the remnants of the Broken Valley. Murdered Stone and got the second upgrade to my Necromancy Ring, but there's something I noticed. If I respec for Magic Missile, I honestly need nothing else. It deals thousands of damage per cast due to the damage stacking from the magic damage. I can't even come close to how much it deals by using melee attacks, and each upgrade level to melee skills adds so little it's incredible. I can dump a bunch of points into Rush Attack to add double damage. I can pour points into Whirlwind to get pretty much nothing at all. I can add points to Thousand Cuts and ultimately double its damage, wile I can add points into Fireball and increase its damage a hundred fold. Add to that the damage enemies do and the inability to back off effectively and I can't help but think that melee combatants are vastly, vastly, vastly gimped. I can make it work by now (level 30), but I also have essentially infinite mana (Aleroth Archmage ring and belt) and 750 HP. Oh, and huge resistances whenever I dunk a Brew. Still, enemies regularly clobber me for 150 damage, and if I haphazardly charge into a fortress, I'm dead within 10 seconds. Is there any way to actually make the warrior part more effective or is it simply inherent in the game's design that they're... just plain bad?

//EDIT: Also, any reason to put anything but +100 magic damage and +100 normal damage on my weapons? It seems life Life Leech is so rarely of use and Mana Leech so superfluous that I'm at a loss for what else would go on there.

Some things in the game are really poorly balanced. You can dump 15 points into Firewall, and it's 372 damage/second will barely scratch an enemy in Flames of Vengeance.

On the other end of the scale, 15 points into Splitting Arrow on a Ranger built for Critical hits will do about 50,000 damage spread out to a crowd.

Build a character the way you want to, and you should usually find a way to make it work. If you want to play in melee, then play in melee.

My most recent melee build is an unarmed character focusing on Strength, with points into Vitality and Spirit as spares. The skills she used were Unarmed Expertise, Battle Rage, Thousand Strikes, Whirlwind, Life Leech, and Death Blow.

Whirlwind might not do a lot of extra damage, but it adds your normal damage to the swings as well, and it hits every enemy around. The cooldown goes down with points as well, gong down to 1 second.

Battle Rage is an excellent multiplier for melee damage, Thousand Strikes is usually a one-hit kill on normal enemies, use that as often as you can.

Don't underestimate Life Leech: It is extremely powerful, almost-game-breakingly so. It is an instant restore for a good percentage of your health, and every hit can trigger it. It can make healing almost unneeded in most battles because you'll recover most of your health from fighting normally.

What level are you at when entering a Flying Fortress? You should be at least level 26. Even then, it's extremely dangerous. A level 26 Black Ring is much harder than a level 26 enemy of another type, which is appropriate. The Flying Fortresses are the toughest challenges in the game, and you're rewarded for completing them - enter at level 26 and clear one, and you should gain four levels worth of experience.

Spells may do more damage, but as Stabbey said you can certainly make a viable warrior build.
My ranger had 819 hit points at level 30, with enough stat points saved up (none used since level 15) to max Vitality and bring my hit points to 1211.

There aren't really any obvious third enchantment choices for melee weapons; go for Poison or Fire Curse for a little extra damage, or Life/Mana Leech if you could use either. Butcher is a good choice for a bow; in the original release of D2:ED I never worried about critical hits with my warrior.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I wasn't having any trouble with them unless I go ahead and try to rush in (which I know not to do). Standing back and hurling fireballs seems to do the trick for the most part, and I can otherwise just step back and set up a firewall at a corner if they come after me en masse. I actually dive-bombed Keara's place to abuse that respawn bug before I get back to completing quests. I suspect I'll make it around level 38 or so before the river runs dry. Those dragon-killing structures don't seem to have a level and give fixed EXP, so I thought I'd exploit that by leveling myself on the things which give diminishing returns and then go back to the things which give fixed EXP.

Battle Rage increases melee damage rather than magic damage, and my gear right now is magic. I do wonder, though: can I use both Battle Rage and Way of the Battle Mage at the same time? Also, is the normal damage enchant modified by Battle Rage and strength? I wonder if I could go into some ridiculous battle mode and crush everything with 1500-damage weapon swings. 'Course, I'd need a lot more skill points for that...

Casting a second temporary boost spell will end the first one; you can not have more than one active at a time.

Battle Rage gives a bonus to your total normal melee damage, so would be effected by that enchantment. The enchantment and strength damage bonuses are independent.