Hi DOS2 community!
I'm currently doing a playthrough on Tactician difficulty with only one character. It has been working surprisingly well so far and it's a ton of fun and highly tactical! So I thought it would be interesting to share some ideas here.
Very minor starting area spoilers (Act I) ahead!!
Here are some things that I've experienced so far:
* I'm playing Sebille. Since I am completely avoiding any companions throughout this playthrough I thought it would be best to play as an Origin character because their stories and dialogue options are very enjoyable and captivating. So far this has really payed off. I've already gotten attached to her story and ambitions.
* I have killed almost everybody at Fort Joy except Beast, Fane, the Red Prince, the people in the cave, the dwarf and lizard at the camp fire, and some guards in the fortress. I might kill all of them a bit later haha. As of now I just left Fort Joy.
* Usually it takes me about 1-5 approaches to win a fight. There are so many things that you can do within the combat system of this game, so having to reload and start over from the beginning of a fight never gets old. If I feel like a fight is too hard then I simply avoid it and come back later.
* I put most points into Memory which so far is my main stat. This really changes everything in a solo build in my opinion! Having access to so many skills gives me a lot of options and flexibility in every fight. I still have a few stat points left and I'm not sure where to put them, since Memory is already on 24. I put 1 point into Strength for carry weight purposes since I only have one character that can carry loot. I might put another 1 or 2 points into Strength in the future mainly for carry weight.
* Ability-wise I first chose Geomancer and Necromancy, then Hydrosophist, Pyromancy, Scoundrel and Aerotheurge. I have 2 points in each of those now (because Lone Wolf gives you 2 points for every 1 point spent) and I still have a few points left to spend. The only reason why I didn't choose Warfare, Polymorph, Summoning and Huntsman is because me and a friend are playing characters with these abilities in a separate 2-character-coop-playthrough (which is also loads of fun!).
* During most fights I use about 90% of my skills, so having a high Memory stat has really payed off. It's tough to say which skills are most important because pretty much all of them are useful depending on the enemies I'm facing.
* Still haven't decided whether I want to go melee or ranged. They both seem viable for a solo build. So far I tried bows and staffs and they both worked well. Ranged is really nice for kiting groups of enemies and killing them one at a time.
* For my first talent I chose Lone Wolf. Not having this talent would make things a lot harder of course. Haven't decided what to choose for my second talent yet. Any advice is appreciated
* I chose thievery for my main non-combat ability. My basic approach was to first steal skill books from the trader NPCs, learn those skills, and then kill the NPCs to gain more loot and XP haha.
* The Loremaster point that you get from choosing Elf is very useful because you can identify early items right away.
* The Elven ability Flesh Sacrifice rocks and I'm using it all the time. Also the Scoundrel ability Adrenaline and the Pyro ability Haste give me the flexibility to move far away from enemies if I'm surrounded. I can have a very long first turn (9 AP) by using Flesh Sacrifice and Adrenaline, so I usually have a strategic head start at the beginning of a fight.
* Because of the high memory and the thievery ability I already have a lot of protection and healing abilities at my disposal: Fortify, Armor of Frost, Blood Sucker, Regeneration, Mosquito Swarm, Haste. So if things get bad I can always backup a bit and heal/protect myself. The Bloated Corpse summon is also nice to distract and blow up enemies.
* Playing an evil character makes things a lot easier of course because I can gain more XP by killing people and gain more loot by pickpocketing. I think that playing the game solo as a good and lawful character would probably be the hardest challenge of them all. Additionally, if you avoid Lone Wolf then you will get the true masochist challenge.
* Before choosing Sebille I tried an hour or so with Fane as my main character and a Geomancer/Hydrosophist build, but I didn't like that I was using the Rain and Contamination combo every time in order to create a huge poison (= undead-healing) area. It felt a bit like an exploit to me, but maybe that's just me and maybe that combo will get weaker throughout the game. So I started over with Sebille who I enjoy a lot more. If I would play Fane again I would probably avoid Contamination and/or Rain, just to keep it challenging and less monotonous. Again, I haven't played this undead build long enough, so maybe I'm wrong here.
One of the many things I love about this game is that there are so many viable builds. Instead of choosing memory as my main stat I could have gone with any of the other stats or even mix them up and it would still be managable, fun and probably a very different experience.
Have you tried a solo playthrough? If so, how did you approach it and how was your experience? Any fun builds you recommend or tips to share?