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tenshinoakuma) wrote2007-10-31 09:06 am
tenshinoakuma) wrote2007-10-31 09:06 am
Entry tags:
[Gaming] DS2 planning/act notes
You can ignore this. Put in public so I can easily access it when I'm not logged in.
omnomnoms
Human Ranger lvl6/7 NM
Lothar Fighter, lvl 3?8? CM (3 dehydrate, 8 decay armour)
1st Playthrough Planning notes
PC - Human Sniper (Bucky)
Lothar - Melee tank, focused more into physical?
Taar - Healer/Buffer, mostly specced healing, but buffs are good too. Spells are more for slowing than dealing damage.
Finala - Fire/Death mage
Bucky
Crit lvl 9
Biting Arrow lvl 9 (but need lvl 12 for lvl 3 Thunderous Shot =\ Save for later)
Quick Draw lvl 1
Survival lvl 5 (maybe level 9, since I go scouting with him)
Far Shot lvl 5 (may want to increase later due to Shockwave, which is hottttt)
Bleed lvl 1 (the DoT doesn't seem worth it)
Shockwave lvl 6
Penetrate lvl 8
Cunning Renewal lvl 7
Mortal Wound lvl 6 (may want to increase later to lvl 11)
Total Skill points (base, not laters): 57
Therefore, most of the build is likely to be ready by end of Act III boss (merc level)
Lothar
Melee Skills
Fortitude lvl 13
Crit lvl 9
Barricade lvl 12
Overbear lvl 1
Dual Wield lvl 1
Toughness lvl ??? (requires lvl 10 for lvl 3 Provoke)
Alacrity lvl 1
Reinforced Armour lvl 9?
Fierce Renewal lvl 7
Rebuke lvl ??? (requires lvl 5 for lvl 3 Provoke)
Deadly Strike lvl 9
Ranger Skills
Survival lvl 9
Total Skill points:
Taar
Nature Mage Skills
Natural Bond lvl 7 (may bump up higher)
Aquatic Affinity lvl 1
Enveloping Embrace lvl 7 (req lvl 12 for lvl 3 Invulnerability)
Feral Wrath lvl 7 (may bump to lvl 12 to keep up with embrace skills)
Nurturing Gift lvl 9
Arcane Renewal lvl 7
Freezing lvl 8
Combat Mage Skills
Brilliance lvl 10 (maybe less if not needed, currently lvl 3?)
Ranger Skills
Survival lvl 5
Total Skill points (base, not laters): 61
Finala
Coming later.
Okay, so mobs really, really hate Combat mages. Atm, it looks like fire/lightning may be a better choice in speccs, as lightning has pretty fast recovery time, and pierces like Soul Lance, only with more consistent damage and speedier. Drown is pretty awesome. Have yet to test more spells.
Also, mobs don't like being cursed ;;
2 character challenge planning notes
Tank - tank tank tankkkk (human, or half-orc, that is the question. Probably will end up going human since health regen is mostly useless? =\ )
Ranger (Deru?) up until Act II when I can get Finali. As am just doing Act I, I doubt there is a need to take points into Nature Mage. Instead of getting Shockwave, pump Penetrate instead.
Finali - Fire build, FULL firebuild, with perhaps a few points into Debilitation. Detonate is hot kay. Can use lightning at lower levels until I can get that Firebolt or Embers. Plasma Globes is not bad for damage, except environment comes into consideration, and Aman'lu and Snowbrook kind of suck because of mountains. DETONATE IS HOT SHOULD GET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Er.
Dehydrate will need to be cast fairly often, not only to reduce resist to fire, but to reduce physical damage <3
Gaming (notes for 2 character challenge)
Note: There is no restriction on pumping lots of points into a skill as soon as level requirements are met. Save up points and abuse.
CM has significantly less range than Ranger most of the time (most spells have range of 8m). Also, note cast times, while relatively fast, are not anywhere near as fast as Ranger. Kiting will be significantly more difficult. Also, significantly less health.
Mage may need to utilise ranged summons, as will need extra firepower. As they're ranged, unlikely to come directly into the line of fire. (er, the summons kind of suck. DPS of 21, what the hell man. And they suck of lots of mana)
Act I
Nothing special or particularly hard here, AI is mostly stupid. Just don't get mobbed in a couple of areas, especially with Death/Lightning mobs. Kill mages first! Summons are not a problem, just nuke the mage until it dies.
Act 1 boss. See if I can lure the AoE to tank in the middle/right, while mage/ranger moves far off to the left, out of range of the AoE (do the other heads even attack, aside from the bad breath that doesn't seem to do any damage?). If still getting hit, mage/ranger is to keep to far edge of AoE, run in and out as needed.
Act II
Luring and kiting is my friend here. One area where I may get mobbed by ice resistant guys (watch out, the cannoners? cast encase DDD: ), is a cave, don't get trapped.
Vai'kesh(sp?) are a pain. Melee guys have a kind of AoE, and come at you in droves. Danger point is when prophet first runs =\ May be best to see if can take out earlier so am not mobbed (piss off the guards at the front :D ). A bunch of death magic gets thrown about here, make sure tank is well equipped for that. Take out healers! as may not have sufficiently damaging nukes to kill mini-bosses outright (ha ha ha Bucky ;; ).
Snowbrook is. Annoying. Lots of mobs, extremely tedious to get through them all. By this time, tank should be able to tank everything (given the right equipment). Watch out for archers that may not target tank. Like Act I, nothing special, just. Very. Very. Tedious to get through all the mobs (which also respawn stupidly fast).
Against the dragon with the crossbow, could have some trouble against mobs as may take time to take out without combat mage (they're weak against fire). Er, at the Snowbrook post, when the Commander turns against you, Finala...dies very fast. In fact, the mobs kind of hurt in general. Against the dragon again, mages die very fast in the fire, esp when it directly hits (you...can't get out of the fire wryyy). I noticed Lothar didn't get hit, and neither did Bucky (much). It's possible that if the mage is close enough also (like, right next to the back wall?), they may not get hit.
Aside from fireballs, dragon is really quite easy.
Act III
Spellcasters suck
Boss fight, Dark Wizards is VERY painful. Will spend most of time running. Switch to most damaging in one hit spells/weapons when they're down to two wizards, because it's likely I will only be able to get one hit in before we have to run again.
--
Old plan
PC - Human Combat mage (call him Trian |D), may specc Fire/Death, will need to see how it turns out in first playthrough.
Lothar - Melee tank, will need that +6 str and +5% health regen due to lack of healer, 2 points into Fortitude not wasted. Need to put more into Survival initially due to elemental damage hurting shitloads, esp when there is no healer. 1 point into CM is wasted, perhaps switch to Sartan later?
[insert stuff here]
(should mage take 5 levels in NM to obtain 1 level of Enveloping Embrace for lvl 1 Invulnerability (6 seconds)? May need if situation gets too sticky and need a hasty retreat/someone is close to dying and pots don't heal fast enough. Will likely need due to only having 2 characters. Powers should regen quickly enough due to swapping to faster regen powers + mage damage output. NO ARCANE RENEWAL omg ;__; )
(will I need to take 24 levels in NM to obtain Arcane Renewal? Seems a bit of a waste, but do self-buffs add to gaining levels in NM? Probably not, but multi-classing like this is most likely unattainable in merc level anyway. Probably useless)
OPTION 2 is to have:
PC - Human melee tank. Mayyyybe half-giant.
Deru? (the point in natural bond is a waste, perhaps replace with Vix later? Yum yum +10% magic find) - Ranger with 5 levels of Nature mage just for lvl Enveloping Embrace (for lvl 1 Invulnerability). Can replace with various pets as the situation requires it. Ranger can cast Earthen Embrace buff, although it won't nearly be as effective as a NMs or CMs. Don't level Deru in NM until I can confirm whether she is worth replacing with Vix.
...however, I favour using Ranger powers, therefore I may not have power up when I need Invulnerability =\ Probably won't be a problem later, when I get Cunning Renewal.
On one hand, Ranger has a much higher chance of staying alive, due to drawing less aggro in general, and having more HP. Almost all skills are dedicated to increasing damage output, while CM has more % increase skills for damage, needs to spread out skill points more, not to mention needing to put points into Brilliance and Natural Bond.
On the other hand, it seems many (boss) enemies are somewhat resistant to ranged attacks, and stun does not happen with higher level enemies =\ CM can simply curse enemies (a-and draw shitloads of aggro wryyyyy) to reduce their defences vs element specialised in. On that note, may be better to specialise in one element, rather than two? Fire may be more expensive, but deals high and consistent damage, and mana hasn't been a problem with my 4 character build so far, though that may partially be because the guys are usually dead by the time the 3rd spell is shot. However, even when soloing, mana did not seem to reduce much.
Dehydrate is good as it reduces fire resist + decreases melee damage.
Note: A chunk of the reason why Bucky did so much damage was Wrath of the Bear (req NM lvl 6), currently ~+60% crit damage, bumping normal (uncrit) damage from ~70 to a crit of ~250, or something of the like (ocassionally 300? homg). It may be worth taking an extra point in NM just for the early bonus (possibly stacks with Mortal Wound?), which starts off at ~20% i think.
PC - Human Sniper (Bucky)
Lothar - Melee tank, focused more into physical?
Taar - Healer/Buffer, mostly specced healing, but buffs are good too. Spells are more for slowing than dealing damage.
Finala - Fire/Death mage
Bucky
Crit lvl 9
Biting Arrow lvl 9 (but need lvl 12 for lvl 3 Thunderous Shot =\ Save for later)
Quick Draw lvl 1
Survival lvl 5 (maybe level 9, since I go scouting with him)
Far Shot lvl 5 (may want to increase later due to Shockwave, which is hottttt)
Bleed lvl 1 (the DoT doesn't seem worth it)
Shockwave lvl 6
Penetrate lvl 8
Cunning Renewal lvl 7
Mortal Wound lvl 6 (may want to increase later to lvl 11)
Total Skill points (base, not laters): 57
Therefore, most of the build is likely to be ready by end of Act III boss (merc level)
Lothar
Melee Skills
Fortitude lvl 13
Crit lvl 9
Barricade lvl 12
Overbear lvl 1
Dual Wield lvl 1
Toughness lvl ??? (requires lvl 10 for lvl 3 Provoke)
Alacrity lvl 1
Reinforced Armour lvl 9?
Fierce Renewal lvl 7
Rebuke lvl ??? (requires lvl 5 for lvl 3 Provoke)
Deadly Strike lvl 9
Ranger Skills
Survival lvl 9
Total Skill points:
Taar
Nature Mage Skills
Natural Bond lvl 7 (may bump up higher)
Aquatic Affinity lvl 1
Enveloping Embrace lvl 7 (req lvl 12 for lvl 3 Invulnerability)
Feral Wrath lvl 7 (may bump to lvl 12 to keep up with embrace skills)
Nurturing Gift lvl 9
Arcane Renewal lvl 7
Freezing lvl 8
Combat Mage Skills
Brilliance lvl 10 (maybe less if not needed, currently lvl 3?)
Ranger Skills
Survival lvl 5
Total Skill points (base, not laters): 61
Finala
Coming later.
Okay, so mobs really, really hate Combat mages. Atm, it looks like fire/lightning may be a better choice in speccs, as lightning has pretty fast recovery time, and pierces like Soul Lance, only with more consistent damage and speedier. Drown is pretty awesome. Have yet to test more spells.
Also, mobs don't like being cursed ;;
2 character challenge planning notes
Tank - tank tank tankkkk (human, or half-orc, that is the question. Probably will end up going human since health regen is mostly useless? =\ )
Ranger (Deru?) up until Act II when I can get Finali. As am just doing Act I, I doubt there is a need to take points into Nature Mage. Instead of getting Shockwave, pump Penetrate instead.
Finali - Fire build, FULL firebuild, with perhaps a few points into Debilitation. Detonate is hot kay. Can use lightning at lower levels until I can get that Firebolt or Embers. Plasma Globes is not bad for damage, except environment comes into consideration, and Aman'lu and Snowbrook kind of suck because of mountains. DETONATE IS HOT SHOULD GET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Er.
Dehydrate will need to be cast fairly often, not only to reduce resist to fire, but to reduce physical damage <3
Gaming (notes for 2 character challenge)
Note: There is no restriction on pumping lots of points into a skill as soon as level requirements are met. Save up points and abuse.
CM has significantly less range than Ranger most of the time (most spells have range of 8m). Also, note cast times, while relatively fast, are not anywhere near as fast as Ranger. Kiting will be significantly more difficult. Also, significantly less health.
Mage may need to utilise ranged summons, as will need extra firepower. As they're ranged, unlikely to come directly into the line of fire. (er, the summons kind of suck. DPS of 21, what the hell man. And they suck of lots of mana)
Act I
Nothing special or particularly hard here, AI is mostly stupid. Just don't get mobbed in a couple of areas, especially with Death/Lightning mobs. Kill mages first! Summons are not a problem, just nuke the mage until it dies.
Act 1 boss. See if I can lure the AoE to tank in the middle/right, while mage/ranger moves far off to the left, out of range of the AoE (do the other heads even attack, aside from the bad breath that doesn't seem to do any damage?). If still getting hit, mage/ranger is to keep to far edge of AoE, run in and out as needed.
Act II
Luring and kiting is my friend here. One area where I may get mobbed by ice resistant guys (watch out, the cannoners? cast encase DDD: ), is a cave, don't get trapped.
Vai'kesh(sp?) are a pain. Melee guys have a kind of AoE, and come at you in droves. Danger point is when prophet first runs =\ May be best to see if can take out earlier so am not mobbed (piss off the guards at the front :D ). A bunch of death magic gets thrown about here, make sure tank is well equipped for that. Take out healers! as may not have sufficiently damaging nukes to kill mini-bosses outright (ha ha ha Bucky ;; ).
Snowbrook is. Annoying. Lots of mobs, extremely tedious to get through them all. By this time, tank should be able to tank everything (given the right equipment). Watch out for archers that may not target tank. Like Act I, nothing special, just. Very. Very. Tedious to get through all the mobs (which also respawn stupidly fast).
Against the dragon with the crossbow, could have some trouble against mobs as may take time to take out without combat mage (they're weak against fire). Er, at the Snowbrook post, when the Commander turns against you, Finala...dies very fast. In fact, the mobs kind of hurt in general. Against the dragon again, mages die very fast in the fire, esp when it directly hits (you...can't get out of the fire wryyy). I noticed Lothar didn't get hit, and neither did Bucky (much). It's possible that if the mage is close enough also (like, right next to the back wall?), they may not get hit.
Aside from fireballs, dragon is really quite easy.
Act III
Spellcasters suck
Boss fight, Dark Wizards is VERY painful. Will spend most of time running. Switch to most damaging in one hit spells/weapons when they're down to two wizards, because it's likely I will only be able to get one hit in before we have to run again.
--
Old plan
PC - Human Combat mage (call him Trian |D), may specc Fire/Death, will need to see how it turns out in first playthrough.
Lothar - Melee tank, will need that +6 str and +5% health regen due to lack of healer, 2 points into Fortitude not wasted. Need to put more into Survival initially due to elemental damage hurting shitloads, esp when there is no healer. 1 point into CM is wasted, perhaps switch to Sartan later?
[insert stuff here]
(should mage take 5 levels in NM to obtain 1 level of Enveloping Embrace for lvl 1 Invulnerability (6 seconds)? May need if situation gets too sticky and need a hasty retreat/someone is close to dying and pots don't heal fast enough. Will likely need due to only having 2 characters. Powers should regen quickly enough due to swapping to faster regen powers + mage damage output. NO ARCANE RENEWAL omg ;__; )
OPTION 2 is to have:
PC - Human melee tank. Mayyyybe half-giant.
Deru? (the point in natural bond is a waste, perhaps replace with Vix later? Yum yum +10% magic find) - Ranger with 5 levels of Nature mage just for lvl Enveloping Embrace (for lvl 1 Invulnerability). Can replace with various pets as the situation requires it. Ranger can cast Earthen Embrace buff, although it won't nearly be as effective as a NMs or CMs. Don't level Deru in NM until I can confirm whether she is worth replacing with Vix.
...however, I favour using Ranger powers, therefore I may not have power up when I need Invulnerability =\ Probably won't be a problem later, when I get Cunning Renewal.
On one hand, Ranger has a much higher chance of staying alive, due to drawing less aggro in general, and having more HP. Almost all skills are dedicated to increasing damage output, while CM has more % increase skills for damage, needs to spread out skill points more, not to mention needing to put points into Brilliance and Natural Bond.
On the other hand, it seems many (boss) enemies are somewhat resistant to ranged attacks, and stun does not happen with higher level enemies =\ CM can simply curse enemies (a-and draw shitloads of aggro wryyyyy) to reduce their defences vs element specialised in. On that note, may be better to specialise in one element, rather than two? Fire may be more expensive, but deals high and consistent damage, and mana hasn't been a problem with my 4 character build so far, though that may partially be because the guys are usually dead by the time the 3rd spell is shot. However, even when soloing, mana did not seem to reduce much.
Dehydrate is good as it reduces fire resist + decreases melee damage.
Note: A chunk of the reason why Bucky did so much damage was Wrath of the Bear (req NM lvl 6), currently ~+60% crit damage, bumping normal (uncrit) damage from ~70 to a crit of ~250, or something of the like (ocassionally 300? homg). It may be worth taking an extra point in NM just for the early bonus (possibly stacks with Mortal Wound?), which starts off at ~20% i think.
omnomnoms
Human Ranger lvl6/7 NM
Lothar Fighter, lvl 3?8? CM (3 dehydrate, 8 decay armour)