Overview
In this guide, we’ll quickly understand the most important basics of the game and upon that knowledge we’ll build some damn good characters.
Intro – Some Insight Into Basic Mechanics & Other Useful Stuff
In this guide, we’ll swiftly go through the best builds of the game, briefly explaining how and why do they work. First we’ll go through the full party builds, then we’ll go through the Lone Wolf builds. They’re the thing that was changed the most in the Definitive Edition so let’s start that.
Previously, Wolves were OP and IMBA, easily dealing 3-4x as much damage as your average full party character would do. That’s per one wolf – two wolves supplied you with two parties’ worth of damage. And I’m not overstating. Now, however, they’ve lost from 30% to 50% of their overall damage output, depending on the build, and suddenly became pretty fair. So it’s much less about curbstomping your path through the game and much more about tactical choices.
On tactician mode (this guide is adapted for that, obviously – anything below is way too easy) all your full party members are pretty much glass cannons, with sole exception of full-Con builds. And even those aren’t really that tanky. So full party play heavily relies on hit & run, divide and conquer and heavy control approaches. Thanks to ability to take the literal Glass Cannon, it will now easily outdamage the Lone Wolf team. However, any mistake would lead to swift and inevitable wipe-out.
Wolves, on the other hand, are killing the enemies much more slowly. Their damage output also became more conditional – wolf mages, for example, are forced to depend on the High Ground usage and that’s not always possible. However, unlike the full squad, they can be actually tanky. It’s their natural state – while their overall health pool is pretty similar to that of a proper party, it’s much more dense in its concentration. So any percentage-based healing you apply becomes god-tier. And, in this patch, Five Star Diner is actually a five star perk. So where your average squad would melt, your wolf will just munch some fries and move on.
So that’s the distinction between these approaches. Keep in mind that Wolves are also smoother to play – the armor system of this game makes your armor scores to be super-important, however, they’re absolutely gear-dependent. Meaning that every two level-ups you’ll have to be fully replacing your party’s gear and, believe me, this is a huge freaking chore. Which does get old fast. Having to do this for half as much people is much more pleasant. Same goes for alchemy and crafting – full squad burns through that stuff just way too swiftly, meaning more busy time for you.
On the other hand, having more people means having more stories ongoing. I guess you’ll have to choose what’s more important for you.
Now let’s discuss certain important basics. Governing stat and weapon skills provide their damage bonus as the initial multiplier. Warfare, Scoundrel, Huntsman and all the magical skills provide their bonus damage as the secondary multiplier. This means weapon skills to be somewhat weak in most cases – max limit for the governing stat is 40, that’s +150% basic damage in total (30×5% – don’t forget that the initial 10 points of the stat don’t count). With an additional +50% from weapon skill, the overall output is 300%. Secondary multiplier, on the other hand, just amplifies that initial bonus by its value. So if we take +150% basic and then multiply the resulting 250% by x1.5, we get 375%. So don’t be surprised when most huntsmen builds will ignore Ranged Weapons in favor of Warfare – warfare just gives them more damage.
Damage bonuses from skill growth is the most important part of the skills. It never takes more than 3 skill tiers to access a certain ability and from the earliest game you’ll just have lots of various +1 Ability equipment. And all of it stacks. So don’t be surprised that we’re not taking that many skillful abilities – why pay anything when you will get everything you need for free? Your damage output heavily relies on amplification so, if you spread yourself thin, you’ll just make everything go much harder for you than it should be. Focus on your build’s main idea while getting all side-effects from your trinkets.
Huntsman works with the spell damage. It also is added in the same layer as critical damage. That’s a bit hard to explain, but if you have 50% Huntsman bonus and do a basic critical, it won’t be (your damage X 1.5 x 1.5). It will be (your damage X (1 + 0.5 + 0.5)). Which is why we’re not doing 7/7/7 builds with Warfare, Huntsman and Scoundrel (triple multiplication is so much better than double).
Stat-wise, your average distribution will be 4:1. 4 to the main stat, 1 to Memory. That’s for the full party members. Once you feel like you have enough Memory (it depends on your personal preference), just max out the main stat. Rest can be put into Secondary one – that’s Constitution or Wits, depending on what does the character need.
Lone wolves instead go for the 2:2:1:1. That’s main damage stat : constitution : wits : memory. And they probably won’t need more than 2-3 points invested in memory. By the end of the game, they’ll have their main stat & Con maxed out and they’ll have almost full Wits in addition to that. That means that all LW builds will be relying on criticals to dish out the necessary volumes of damage.
You’ll probably finish the game at level 20 – that’s 41 attribute points, 21 ability points and 6 talents. Talents are pretty scarce in this game so these choices matter a lot.
Part I – Full Party Builds
You need only 1 Wits build in your crew – or maybe two. Because of initiative mechanics, more is a waste. You always get layered with enemy: your highest ini – their highest ini. Your second highest – their second highest. So even if you have 4 full Wits characters, you won’t be making all turns before your enemies move.
Your entire party will need to focus itself on either the physical or magical damage. Hybrid crews are doable, but they’re not done by combining 2 physical + 2 magical – that’s a path to nowhere. Instead, you can have one or two specialists and the remaining 2-3 should be hybrid, i.e., equally capable of doing both physical & magical damage. Summoning plays a great role in such parties as its the most flexible ability.
Civil skills don’t matter as much in most cases. Unless the character has a strong stealth play (mostly Lone Wolf prerogative), you just need to have maxed out Thievery, Barter, Lucky Charm & Persuasion in your squad. Persuasion on the main character, rest doesn’t really matter.
Preferred race or origin also is not that vital – don’t be afraid to pick something else.
In terms of ability build-ups here – the number means “bring it up to this level”.
For a good squad, you want 2-3 DDs and 1-2 supports.
1. Rogue – Physical Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Finesse
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Race: Elf or Fane (extra Action Points are golden for damage dealers)
Abilities: 1 Scoundrel, 1 Polymorph > 1 Warfare > 1 Aerotheurge > parallel 10 Warfare & 10 Scoundrel
Talents: The Pawn > Torturer > Unstable > > Morning Person > Picture of Health > What a Rush
Preset for NPCs: the rogue
Explanation: Scoundrel & Warfare provide you with tons of mobility, both through skills and movement stat. Polymorph gives you even more mobility & some nifty disables and guess what Aerotheurge does? Even more mobility & some stealth and cover. So you will always safely arrive behind their backs to slice them as open as it gets. Having all of the best melee skills available to you doesn’t hurt either. Well, it hurts, but not you. With talents, we first go for extra mobility – I can’t overstate how important it is for you. You hate to be running when you could be backstabbing instead. Torturer is here for the Ruptured Tendons + Teleportation combo – that’s one of the best things that Rogue can do right now, reliably disabling one enemy combatant for two turns (or forever). For the rest of our talents, we go for the mini-nuke combo. We won’t be as fatty and blasty as the proper exploder build but, if your character dies (backstabbing often causes you to take unfavorable positions), he does some great damage to compensate for it, at the very least.
2. Swashbuckler – Physical Tank/DD
Main Stat: Strength
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Race: Dwarf
Abilities: 1 Warfare, 1 Polymorph > 1 Aerotheurge > 10 Dual Wielding > 10 Warfare
Talents: Parry Master > Executioner > Unstable > Picture of Health > Morning Person > What a Rush
Preset for NPCs: Inquisitor (no good presets for this one)
Explanation: Requires you to have someone with maxed Leadership in the party – only then it’ll live to its fullest potential. Also benefits heavily from the +Dodge gear, no matter how small it may look – the more dodge you stack, the better it gets. That’s the entire idea of the build and that’s why we max dual wielding first – so we get into optimal dodging ratio swiftly. Dwarf’s racial also matter a lot here – it’s indispensable. Damage output of this build is not as high as for the fully-pledged DD but not too shabby either. And we’re also adding a mini-nuke potential here because, well, it’s just the easiest way to get the most out of your builds.
3. Piker – Physical Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Finesse
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Warfare, 1 Polymorph > 1 Necromancer > 10 Warfare > 10 Two-Handed Weapons
Talents: Opportunist > Hotheaded > Five Star Diner > Executioner > Picture of Health > What a Rush
Talets 2: Glass Cannon > Opportunist > Hotheaded > Five Star Diner > Executioner > Picture of Health
Preset for NPCs: Knight
Explanation: works best in the party with heavy ground control. Fill the battlefield with lots of pesky auras so enemies are forced to run around, getting into that sweet attack of opportunity range. Chicken Form also combo-es nicely with this approach. Otherwise, you just have a decent damage output. Try to find some +Crit items too – two-handers profit from high crit chance. That’s why the Hotheaded & Diner duo – so we can easily get another 10% of critical chance. Necro is there for some self-heal and summoning, it’s not mandatory and can be any other school of magic. You can even go for the Scoundrel and take an early The Pawn for more mobility. Or, with your longer than average reach and skill mobility, you can go for the glass cannon build. That’s a bit risky but that’s probably the biggest advantage of the pike over other two-handers.
4. Ranger – Physical Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Finesse
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Human or Fane
Abilities: 1 Huntsman > 1 Warfare > 3 Huntsman > 10 Warfare > 10 Ranged Weapon
Talents: Glass Cannon > All Skilled Up > Executioner > Far Out Man > Hotheaded > Comeback Kid
Preset for NPCs: Wayfarer
Explanation: for a rangery character, we surely don’t pay much attention to rangery stuff. Well, let’s see. Elemental ranger is only good in hybrid squads – if you’re one then sure, you can replace All Skilled Up with it. Otherwise, it’s useless. Arrow Recovery is just a waste of a talent – its efficiency is just way too low. And Huntsman skill is just not as reliable – on some battlefields and versus certain foes it’s good. In other situations it’s too difficult to invoke. We’re taking a bit of it so we can use all skills without needing any equipment but Warfare and even weapon skills are just more reliable. Now let’s explain the talents. Your humongous reach allows you to bypass the Glass Cannon’s flaw easily. All Skilled Up is a bit of damage and economy – actually, economy part is the most important here. This build should be maxing lucky charm and this talent just allows you to reach that blessed condition faster. Afterwards it’s just damage, reach, criticals and reliability. Final talent is sorta meh but there aren’t much better alternatives. Oh, and as soon as you can get both +Necromancy & +Pyrokinetic items, this build gets pretty good for using the Corpse Explosion.
5. Wayfarer – Hybrid Damage Dealer/Controller
Main Stat: Wits
Secondary Stat: Finesse
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Huntsman > 1 Scoundrel > 1 Geomancer> 1 Hydrosophist > 10 Huntsman & Scoundrel
Talents: Glass Cannon > Savage Sortilege > Torturer > Elemental Arrows > The Pawn > Far Out Man
Preset for NPCs: Wayfarer
Explanation: this build isn’t really sporting the best damage output ever but that’s one of the few decent hybrids you’ll find. The idea is that Huntsman bonus applies to both magical & physical. Scoundrel crit multiplier acts the same once you get the Savage Sortilege. So, with the high Wits and frequent criticals, we’ll be doing semi-fine in both fields. The basic damage here is quite low so this build crazily benefits from Peace of Mind and Death Wish (fyi, that adds basic damage bonus, not multiplier). It also always goes first so you can just cast some ground control spells to prepare the battlefield for the further combat –you don’t need have to have high magical skills level for those oil & ice generation spells to be efficient. Talents: Glass Cannon for the maximum output. Torturer for the further hybrid-ness and for the Worm Tremor combo – on of the best combos in the definitive edition, just glue a bunch of foes to the ground no matter what. Unlike for the basic ranger, here Elemental Arrows are golden. And then it just movement and reach.
6. Paladin – Physical Tank & Support
Main Stat: Constitution
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Dwarf
Abilities: 1 Warfare > 1 Hydrosophist > 1 Retribution > 1 Scoundrel > 10 Warfare > 10 Hydrosophist
Talents: Unstable > Picture of Health > Five Star Diner > Savage Sortilege > The Pawn > Morning Person
Preset for NPCs: Fighter
Explanation: this build is pretty diverse. First, Unstable is constantly good but it’s even better when backed up by the maxed out Constitution with Picture of Health and Dwarven Bonus (those are multipliers, btw). It also gets amplified by the Warfare so eventually you’ll be dealing 75% of your respectable vitality as damage. Second, Throw Shield is one of the best damage dealing skills in the game and it doesn’t scale with Strength – it requires Warfare only. Having good shield helps too. Third, Decaying Touch does physical damage and goes versus physical armour, so even against non-undead foes your healing will be easy to weaponize (and it’s not Int-dependent). Fourth, this weaponized healing does physical damage so it further profits from warfare. Fifth, this character is just a freaking beefcake who’ll take punishment like no one else will. What’s not to like? BTW, that extra point of retribution is so your enemies prioritize this character when targeting – you always want to have a bit of that aggro pulling skill. Talents are pretty obvious: you get your big move first. Then it’s more health, even more health, crits for your battle healing, extra mobility and great resurrection value for recursive explosions.
7. Cleric – hybrid control & support
Main Stat: Wits or Constitution (wits gives better control, constitution provides durability)
Secondary Stat: Constitution or Wits
Race: Elf for Wits, Dwarf for Con
Abilities: 1 Hydrosophist > 1 Geomancer > 3 Polymorph > 10 Hydrosophist > 9 Geomancer
Talents for Wits: Glass Cannon > Torturer > Far Out Man > Stench > Walk it Off > Elemental Affinity
Talents for Con: Unstable > Torturer > Elemental Affinity > Far out Man > Morning Person > Living Armor
Preset for NPCs: Enchanter.
Explanation: Witty build is all about strong control opener & doing lots before the combat really begins. Mostly applying the surfaces & clouds as they’ll have strong effects even against full magical armour. The usual suspects here are oil (slows down), ice (knocks down) and smoke (obscures sight). Then, on first turn, you’re also adding Worm Tremor and some poisonous clouds, all through their resistances. Poisonous clouds over ice are also quite fun as it means they’re running around, falling & suffocating at the same time. That can bring lots of dissent into your enemies ranks, causing them to approach you on a one by one basis and compensating for that glass cannon vulnerability. In later rounds, you just try to recover health & armours from afar for the rest of the crew.
Con build is all about being tanky. You safely stand on the frontlines, diverting attention from the rest of the crew while keeping them as potent as possible. Blissfully, healing & armor restoration are not based on your intelligence so you can be as tanky as possible without losing any support efficiency.
Outside of Decaying Touch combos and unstable explosion, both of these are incapable of doing any real damage. But that’s ok because controlling the battlefield is important. That’s also why they’re hybrid – ground control, heals & buffs are kinda universally good.
8. Inquisitor – Magical DD
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Lizard or Undead
Abilities: 1 Pyrokinetic > 1 Warfare > 2 Warfare > 5 Two-Handed Weapons & Pyrokinetic > 3 Warfare > 10 Pyrokinetic & Two Handed Weapons
Talents: Demon > Executioner > Opportunist > Hothead> All Skilled Up > Elemental Affinity
Preset for NPCs: Inquisitor
Explanation: in case you didn’t know, as long as you wield the staff, all Warfare abilities deal elemental damage. Their debuffs still go versus physical armour (which sucks) but we’re interested mostly in direct damage and mobility skills, those work like a charm. To boost it all even further, you have the Sparkling Swings skill which pretty much doubles your damage output. And, as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also Firebrand skill to dial it all up to eleven. Everything that can burn, will burn. Yourself included – that’s why we go for maxing out our fire resistance with Demon Lizard combo, just so we can chill out amidst the wildfire. With the undead, getting that 100% is a bit harder but, once we’re there, we’re immune to two elements already. For cases where enemy is fire resistant, just keep a watery staff handy – your damage will not be as crazy, but it’ll do the trick.
9. Pyroblaster – Magical DD
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Pyrokinetic > 1 Geomancer > 1 Scoundrel > 2 Polymorph > 10 Pyrokinetic > 5 Polymorph > 5 Geomancer
Talents: Glass Cannon > The Pawn > Elemental Affinity > Savage Sortilege > Hothead> Far Out Man
Preset for NPCs: Wizard
Explanation: in magical party, your main objective is to strip the enemy’s mag armour as soon as possible, leaving them vulnerable to the plethora of disabling abilities. Your supports will provide those galore so the main objective of your DDs is to shred that armour ASAP. And just so happens that Pyrokinetic school tends to sport the majority of truly destructive spells in the game – other schools are just too spread between the damage & support & ground control. Geomancer comes close second but there are lots of undead enemies so staying as pure Poison Caster is not as reliable (too much immunity). Besides, we’re still having a nice geomancy score here. We could’ve maxed it out but I really like the Polymorph splash – gives you delicious Medusa Head early and then it’s Skin Graft & Apotheosis goodness. You’ll understand once the time comes. Polymorph also gives you more wits and thus more Sortilege criticals. Try to find some duals with +% critical chance each and a rune slot – those are a goldmine for such a build, easily pushing you into 60-70% crit chance zone. Talents are pretty obvious here – maximum action speed, mobility and critical boosters.
10. Aeroblaster/Hydroblaster/Geoblaster – Magical DD
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Aeromancy/Hydrosophist/Geomancy > 1 Scoundrel > 10 Aeromancy/Hydrosophist/Geomancy > 2 Huntsman > 10 Scoundrel > 3 Huntsman
Talents: Glass Cannon > Elemental Affinity > Savage Sortilege > Hothead > All Skilled Up > Bigger and Better
Preset for NPCs: Enchanter
Explanation: not as good as the previous one (damage-wise), but hey, I know that other schools of magic have their fans too. As I’ve said, the problem of other schools is that they’re really spread out and thus have the long cooldowns. Therefore, whereas previous build goes for the heavy spamming, this one goes towards infusing every cast with as much power as possible. Which is done by applying the multiplier from Scoundrel (crit chance is not that difficult to ramp up and Scoundrel multiplier applies to the spells) and Huntsman. That doesn’t solve all the issues, but that solves as much of them as possible. These builds are pretty one-sided but when they work, they work like a charm.
11. Witch – Hybrid DD/Support
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Wits
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Hydrosophist > 1 Necromancer > 1 Polymorph > 10 Warfare > 10 Hydrosophist
Talents: Elemental Affinity > Savage Sortilege > Executioner > Hotheaded > Picture of Health > All Skilled Up
Talents 2: Glass Cannon > Far Out Man > Savage Sortilege > Elemental Affinity > Executioner > Hotheaded
Preset for NPCs: Cleric.
Explanation: this build is about intelligent physical damage dealing. Though, as you’re still having access to Ice magic and your intelligence score & critical modifier is quite respectable, it’s easy to categorize this one as hybrid. The idea is to be using necromantic spells like Mosquito Swarm to strip your enemies’ armor fast, to apply the Decaying Touch and kill them with some offensive healing. It’s physical damage everywhere so Warfare does more for your spellcasting than you’d ever imagine it would. And, amidst it all, you still have healing, ground control and summons. You can throw your shield too as that’s a lot of stat-independent damage. This is pretty similar to the clerical builds (it even uses that preset as the “witch” one isn’t too good for the actual witching) but with more offensive edge. If you wish, you can even go full Glass Cannon here.
12. Summoner – Hybrid DD/support
Main Stat: Wits or Constitution
Secondary Stat: Constitution or Wits
Race: Any
Abilities: 2 Summoning > 10 Summoning > 2 Necromancy > 10 Leadership, Geomancer or Hydrosophist
Talents for Wits: Glass Cannon > All Skilled Up > Far Out Man > Comeback Kid > Ambidextrous > Walk it Off
Talents for Con: Unstable > All Skilled Up > Morning Person > Five Star Diner > Ambidextrous > Walk it Off
Preset for NPCs: Conjurer
Explanation: Summoning is the only school that does great hybrid damage without any sacrifices. You summon your incarnate/totem on simple ground or blood – they do physical damage or even more physical damage. You summon them on any elemental damage – they change accordingly. Needless to say, quad summoner party is the best hybrid party. You rush out to max the summoning as level 10 gives you the boosted incarnate and that’s just too good to ignore. Then you unlock necromancy as there are some good support skills there. Finally, you go for the further support – more stats to everyone via leadership or some boosts & ground control through magic. Intelligence doesn’t affect summon’s offensive capacities (nor any other stats) so you’re free to develop into either fast action or great tankiness. For wits build, it’s better to go into magical support, for con, it’s better to go with the leadership. Both options are fine, though. This build is also quite flexible so you’re free to use ambidextrous – often, you’ll find yourself with not much to cast so scrolls will come to your rescue. That’s gonna be especially true for the leadership build.
Part II – Lone Wolf Builds
1. Spellblade – Hybrid Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Finesse
Secondary Stat: Intelligence
Tertiary Stat: Constitution
Race: Dwarf
Abilities: 1 Scoundrel > 1 Pyrokinetic > 5 Warfare > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Pyrokinetic > 5 Dual Wielding > 1 Polymorph
Talents: Lone Wolf > Five Star Diner > Parry Master > Torturer > Demon > Executioner
Preset for NPCs: Rogue
Explanation: Rogues are the class which enjoy the new Lone Wolves rules the least. It’s just that you’re almost forced into investing a lot into your Wits right now and, since Rogues’ criticals are automatical, they’re getting pretty much nothing from that stat. And their abilities are very densely packed and don’t really interact much with other schools of abilities, meaning that it’s impossible to boost their damage by going wide. Yeah, out of all the LW builds, they were nerfed the most. And I’m not even sure if they were the most problematic builds – since in the late game your crits became almost automatical anyways (somewhat less so after enchantment nerfs but still), Rogues’ hitting power (when compared to other physical builds) diminished greatly.
Nonetheless, the only solution here is to go wide, into the hybrid zone. We’re adding pyrokinetic and it’s the only build that does two Damage stats at once – all so you can use both Daggers and Pyrokinetic adeptly. Then we seal the deal with Dual Wielding. It’s not the best offensive skill ever – in fact, it’s one of the two weaker damage schools in that department (the other being wholly atrocious one-handers). But it does give us some survivability so I guess there’s that. If you wish to experiment, you may replace Pyrokinetic with Geomancer – that’ll give you more flexibility overall but certain issues when facing undead. This build also excels at using necromantic abilities so don’t forget about those (items will give you enough skills to gain the access so don’t waste your skills). Talent-wise it’s just durability, Ruptured Tendons combo, more durability and some extra action points.
2. Crusher – Physical Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Strength
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Tertiary Stat: Wits
Race: Human
Abilities: 1 Warfare > 1 Two-Handed Weapons > 5 Warfare > 5 Two-Handed Weapons > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Hydrosophist or 5 Polymorph
Talents: Lone Wolf > Five Star Diner > Executioner > Hotheaded > Picture of Health > What a Rush
Preset for NPCs: Knight
Explanation: Your most straightforward physical melee damage dealer. And probably the best at this job. Unlike with the full party build, here we go with the short-ranged strength two-handers – after all, Lone Wolves are absolutely sturdy so they don’t care about having to stay close and personal. Another thing is that Dinner (your staple restorative dish that coincidentally provides lots of Strength) is much easier to prepare than Elven Dinner (Finesse-giving version of Dinner). It may not sounds like much but that’s a strong advantage early on. Two-handers also benefit from having three multiplication skills – Two-Handed Weapons is the only weapon ability in the game that’s actually good. Warfare multiplies all your physical damage (as usual) and Scoundrel gives you much needed mobility and additional critical modifier. That’s also why the race of choice here is human – you’ll be investing a lot in Wits here and you’ll be trying to gather as much +Critical items as possible, meaning that you want to be getting the best payoff possible for all the effort. Final skill is a bit of a free choice. Let’s start from the baffling option – yeah, Polymorph doesn’t get doubled by the Lone Wolf. Ability points that it provides, however, do. So we just pick 5 points of it to receive additional 10% Critical chance. Or we go for the Hydrosophist for some healing and Decaying Touch potential. Mostly decaying touch potential – Five Star diner gives you all the regeneration you’ll ever need. Talents should be pretty obvious. What a Rush may seem like a bad combo with Diner & Hotheaded but it just gives you an extra AP to eat your sadness away. It’s just a safety valve.
3. Sharpshooter – Physical Damage Dealer
Main Stat: Finesse
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Tertiary Stat: Wits
Race: Human or Fane
Abilities: 1 Huntsman > 1 Warfare > 5 Warfare > 5 Ranged Weapons > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Huntsman
Talents: Lone Wolf > Five Star Diner > Executioner > Hothead > Far out Man > What a Rush
Preset for NPCs: Ranger
Explanation: amongst all the builds, ranger is the one which has suffered the least Definitive Edition lone wolf nerf. It’s just because he has the access to four different damaging Abilities, most of them have nice synergies and all of them have some sort of multiplication going. So, whereas crossbowmen were previously weaker damage dealers than axemen and swordsmen, now they’ll be dealing quite the same damage while having a humongous range privilege. And having something humongous is always good. And yes, of course, they do depend on the higher ground being available. But once they have the higher ground… You don’t mess around with the higher ground. Some people have literally paid a limb or two to learn this lesson, you know. Anyways, this build is simple and efficient – good shooting, good durability.
4. Crusader – Hybrid tank/dd
Main Stat: Constitution
Secondary Stat: Wits
Tertiary Stat: Intelligence
(here, stat progression is different – first you dump everything into Constitution and, as it’s maxed out, you evenly level Int and Wits)
Race: Human or Dwarf
Abilities: 2 Summoning > 5 Summoning > 5 Retribution > 5 Hydrosophist > 5 Warfare > 2 Necromancer
Talents: Lone Wolf > All Skilled Up > Five-Star Diner > Leech > Picture of Health > Savage Sortilege
Preset for NPCs: Conjurer
Explanation: unlike with the basic edition, you can’t really go 100% tank with the Definitive one. It’s the same as with Scoundrels – you have too many stat points and it’s a waste if they’re not working fully. However, Summoners are much more flexible in their builds so this problem doesn’t really shake them at all. You start with your summoning and you max it STAT – that’s just the way to go. This is also why you’re getting All Skilled Up – with it your custom character will be getting 10 Summoning as early as level 3. That’ll make your life rather sunny. Then you’re going for Retribution – it’ll attract more aggro to you, allowing your pets and your second companion to do their business unhindered. You follow with Hydrosophist – more healing (and thus durability for you). This also gives you access to the Ice magic, thus really rounding up your hybrid part. And you finish it all with the Warfare so you can use that Healing offensively and so you can Shield Throw whenever you feel like it. Talents are pretty obvious except maybe Leech – generally, it’s bad. But here you have the highest vitality pool possible (leech healing is percentage-based so it makes it to be most efficient) and the biggest healing modifier possible (so Leech is even crazier). Whenever you’ll get hit physically, you’ll let out a bloodpool and instantly absorb it. In this build, that’ll negate the majority of the damage taken. Meaning that you’ll be able to endure that incoming damage for a lo-o-ong time, constantly dealing Retribution in the process. And, btw, we’re not taking Unstable because this build doesn’t really die all that often.
5. Grand Inquisitor – magical DD
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Tertiary Stat: Wits
Race: Human or Lizard
Abilities: 1 Pyrokinetic > 1 Warfare > 1 Scoundrel > 5 Two-Handed Weapons > 5 Pyrokinetic > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Polymorph, Geomancer or Leadership.
Talents: Lone Wolf > Demon > Five Star Diner > Executioner > Opportunist > Hothead
Preset for NPCs: Inquisitor
Explanation: not that different from the average Inquisitor builds. The only intricate thing here is the final ability pick. Just like in the Crusher build, ability will provide Grand Inquisitor with 10% extra chance, allowing to bring that stat rather close to the 100%. Geomancer will add a noxious attack angle with some obvious fire/poison explosion synergy. And Leadership is probably only worth it if you’re having Summoner companion – in this case it’ll provide some much needed durability to the party. Talents are also pretty obvious – fire protection, durability, criticals and better damage output. The only weird thing here is Opportunist – attacks of opportunity don’t happen that often but any attack is devastating while under Sparking Swings so I rather like it on this build.
6. Blastmaster – magical dd
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Tertiary Stat: Wits
Race: Human or Elf
Abilities: 1 Main Elemental > 1 Huntsman > 5 Main Elemental > 5 Huntsman > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Second Elemental
Talents: Lone Wolf > Five Star Diner > Savage Sortilege > Elemental Affinity > Hothead > Living Armour
Preset for NPCs: Wizard or Enchanter (fire/earth & air/water)
Explanation: previously, you’d have more specialized elemental nuker builds. Now, because you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in your search of damage output, they’re spliced into one mega-build. Not that the build is that, though – you’re having lots of damage with full access to two distinct elemental schools, thus having the greatest tactical flexibility. And, like every Lone Wolf out there, you’re still an unbreakable tank. It’s efficient and simple. Simple in terms of build, not of play – full caster mages remain to be the most intricate (and thus, probably, fun) characters to play.
7. Warlock – Hybrid DD/Support
Main Stat: Intelligence
Secondary Stat: Constitution
Tertiary Stat: Wits
Race: Human or Elf
Abilities: 2 Summoning > 5 Summoning > 5 Elemental > 5 Scoundrel > 5 Huntsman > 2 Leadership
Talents: Lone Wolf > All Skilled Up > Five Star Diner > Savage Sortilege > Elemental Affinity > Hothead
Preset for NPCs: Conjurer
Explanation: this is really similar to the build above only it exchanges the extra magical flexibility for summoning potential. As, as it’s always with summoning, an extra effort is made to master it as quickly as possible. On one hand, it’s more limited build. On the other hand, given the adaptability of Summoning tree, it has even lesser chance to stumble into unbreakable resistances and it can even go all physical.
Outro – Shameless Self-Promotion
First, I’ve commissioned some strange DOS 2 fanart – Pokrovski as the Bard (if bard class was voted in instead of the summoner – I’m hoping for the DLC):
[link]
Second, If you liked this guide, you can always visit our youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NerdCommandoGames
There, we have more guides, indie reviews, Let’s Plays and in-depth game design analytics (because we’re indie game developers – just remember our name, only good stuff will come out under it).
I’m also a game designer so you’re always free to check out my personal projects: