Strategies For The New Classes Well, my paladin and ranger are both lv31. The paladin is a great healer, but seems to be incapable of replacing the cleric(i never used the bard much, and i tested against the first three bosses and several regular stages with only the paladin and ranger, and the paladin[even with codex] doesnt recover abilities quickly enough or attack hard enough to keep 2 people alive for an entire round past the spider boss) but his Sentinel ability is a great addition when the cleric is being attacked. Aura of light is very useful for the arenas, if you have multiple melee characters and the other is more injured; and if your weaker defenders are being attacked and would therefore need healing even more. Despite being over lv45, the casters seem to die from 2-5 hits after 50 in arena 3. I absolutely adore Radiance however, because it seems to be similar to Group Heal, but gives time to dish out major damage with a break from harm. it is also extremely effective when training for me(after hours of experimenting i found that the best training level is 'the oozing dark, as with area-effect speels and skills like horror and Wind Walk, once the boss splits up i use the cleric's Infusion on someone with a widely damaging skill, then use everything on everything, and take out the stragglers with cleric's Vengeful Angel, netting over 400 xp for 4 characters in 3 minutes max;Radiance knocks down all foes, buying more even more time to widdle them down.) Wrath is also useful in training, but without a more detailed description i'm not certain of the damage increase/distribution. The Ranger seems to be even more damaging than the wizard. his hit-all ability however is not as useful as the monk's(the monk hits bosses or single targets 3 times, while the ranger seems to hit only once and miss all other arrows for some reason) but his Incendiary Arrow (which i also use in training by aiming for a group, then knocking them down or paralyzing them) is extremley useful when enemies are occupied in 1 place by a melee attacker, witch's horror spell, etc. Aimed shot disappoints me, however, because although when on opposite corners of the screen the damage is immense, the rangers movement isn't so fast, and it takes too long to let him move to the corner or even oh so far away, as when he's being targeted by enemies he'll suffer significant damage, and when others are targeted, they'll take damage. without a little luck, it won't make enough of a difference to be worth the consequences. I do have a question however: is there a proportion for the dog's attack power to the rangers? furthermore, does the dog get attacked and thus have an hp bar? because he seems to vanish and not return sometimes. As for item strategies, i cannot say for sure as i have focused mostly on leveling, but i believe if one is using more than one character with lower defense, Paladin should have 2x sharkul's skull to further increase the effect of Sentinel. Otherwise, cooldown-affecting items might be a good choice, because the healing abilities are always useful. Now, for things i hope to see: along with attack and defense stats, and HP stat would be nice, as i dont even know if it goes up with level ups or if certain classes have more than others. Because you did this with the rogues, i hope for a % ratio on other skills' damage increases as well. this would help a lot with strategizing and choosing characters altogether. More character slots needed in the keep, because i MUST have at least 2 characters in my party now. That's all i have right now. After further testing, i will try to update this.
I also level the 2 new chars up to about level 30+ just to see how their new skills are like and did some playing. After that got bored and stopped. I really hope to see new levels/boss/monsters. Perhaps I grinded my previous party to too high a level (1 knight @ 90) so the game does get a bit boring for me... And also have to say, the paladin's healing cannot compare to my bard, but basically that's becoz my bard is at level 89-90...
The last boss is a probably the best grinding area. I have my guys at about 45-55 from doing that boss so many times. With just my rogue, knight, and bard, I was capable of beating him in about 1.5min. I got every other class to 30+ to test them all out this way. My take on the Paladin and Ranger: I have say that I love both the Paladin and Ranger. The Paladin, in my opinion, is the best tank in the game. The ranger does insane damage and the dog does a great job, too (That is to say...he doesn't get stuck outside the map/run off on me...) The misdirect helps the Paladin quite a bit and is EXTREMELY good with two Codex of Jabe (did I remember that trinket correctly?) and Barrage. You can use this skill every 18 seconds (less if you have your Bard on your Ranger with Prestissimo). You basically have a "taunt" for the Paladin all the time using Aimed Shot in between Barrage. As far as damage goes compared to other classes, I have to say that the Ranger and his furry little friend have the greatest potential to do damage. Just have your tank mob everything up and sick your pet on some guys. With the Paladin's Wrath, Ranger's Incendiary Arrow, and Fluffy's Thrash (I named him Fluffy), you can take out any group of skeletons in a few seconds. My Ranger is as high as my Rogue, but as far as I can tell, he's definitely more effective than the Rogue. I haven't really had the need to use CCs (crowd control) with the Ranger and I'm pretty sure they're useless. If I need, I use Incendiary Arrow on the mob and have my paladin use Radiance to keep them in the fire for a few more seconds...Incendiary Arrow is... awesome. I have my Paladin set up as a pure tank except Radiance, which I've found more useful. An extra heal + knockdown effect is, in my opinion, much greater than absorbing all the damage being given out. This is mainly due to actually STOPPING damage output from mobs and healing whoever was about to die. Oh yeah, and you definitely want Word of Asylum. It'll save your Paladin...or whoever is most damaged. When it comes to crowd controls, I think that this build is lacking. If you have both mages and Wynter (witch) with cooldown resets, you can pretty much stunlock anything. However, I find this to be quite "cheap" and it doesn't work on bosses...so good luck with that. You really don't need that much CC, though, as long as your Ranger is setting people's faces on fire and your Paladin show's her Radiance when things get a little too messy. Let me know what you guys think! I'd love to read what combinations other people are using and the pros/cons of each as well has have feedback on my build. Oh, and for those of you who are interested in attempting "hard mode" (or something to that extent) here's some ideas to make it more interesting: 1. You CANNOT use the Merchant to BUY items; only SELL. 2. You can BUY any Hero you want to use; whatever is comfortable. 3. You can ONLY use items that you receive via "Spoils." 4. You cannot play a level twice (ie: no level grinding) 5. You ONLY play the levels required; there are 5 levels in the game that are completely unnecessary to play; you cannot play these levels. 6. You have 3.5 hours to beat it. 7. You have 3 Retreats/Defeats. If you use more than that, you have to start over. If you have any other ideas, let me know. I have done this (my guys were level 18-19 when I beat the game like this to give you a rough estimate).
Just keep killing the last boss. Actually, I had the average of my party at 70+ (rogues), 50s (wizards), 60s depending on the frequency of usage. As almost every party has a tank and healer, i'd decided to rotate my characters during grinding with 2 part time and 2 full time. The 2 full time always on ones are the death knight and the bard, so their level are highest.
wow, i had found the final boss to take too long(for me usually more than 5min) but i guess it depends on the xp and the vast amount of time spent grinding. personally my regular team is: Monk, lv46 Wizard, lv44 Witch, lv45 Cleric, lv52 i suppose i'd better try out the bard more; with his healing and buffs combined with the paladin's im sure i'll last longer in arena 3(my record currently is 72). I could definitely use some of those tier 9 items to train faster. but i wonder if more levels will ever come... Actually, i would like to hear opinions as to who my ranger should replace(witch or wizard) overall the witch does can do more damage and can survive longer, but the wizard can teleport and has some wonderful skills. I also just found a glitch with the ranger: when on 'the oozing dark' if you target a minislime just as they are about to morph back into the boss, and the arrow flies but doesnt actually hit the slime, the ranger will hit nothing, and continue to fire at the same spot, doing nothing apparently but the fancy effect. i don't know if this can happen with regular enemies, but it doesnt seem to cause a big problem as he can retarget just fine.
I would say keep the Wizard because teleport saves when you've got Red Slimes all up yo' face. Wynter is great and I would consider using her for her healing. The great thing about this game is the simple fact you can customize your party to fit your play style. Are you good with micromanaging each unit? Go with the Wizard. Do you need a little more healing to help your cleric as well as a CC to keep mobs contained? Go with the Witch.
Levelling Up Tips: I find that if you have a mid range party (40s-50s), the following combinations work quite well for levelling: Boss Fight Essential: 1 healer : Bard/Cleric and perhaps the new paladin but I doubt he will be as useful as the 2 original healers, 1 Tank: Any knights, your monk if he is high level enough The rests are classified as damage dealers, with rogues and barbarians, wizards, and ranger. Essentially, your healer keeps healing the tank and the rest of the party attacks the boss. One of the more useful one I found was Bard's Song of War (+25% damage for 15 sec) + Rogues' Expose Weakness (increase damage taken by 50% for 10 sec). Activate this 2 and let your tank and damage dealers attack at the boss. You should be able to repeat this 2 spells and attack for a while before he disappears for the first time. If you are high level enough, he will die before he disappear. Read the first few pages of this thread and you can find more tips and variations to this as well.
That means you are not doing enough damage to him over time. From previous posts in this thread, the most damage dealt belongs to barbarian and rogues. Wizards and Witch in general is 2nd as compared to them. As such having 2 of them in your party will means longer time to kill boss. Try out Bard's Song of War and Rogue's Exposed Weakness. I never timed the round but confirm he dies before he disappears and spawn the skeletons, regardless of the other 2 parties members...
i had the barbarian as a main for awhile, until he was lv24. but by that time i was in Doomvale and he died so fast i had to heal on him while (at the time also on my main) my knight took damage. because with the cleric i can only really heal one member at a time, i realized that having more than one melee user required too much micromanaging, so i went with the wizard and witch. however, atm im still leveling the bard(never used him much) but hes now lv32 and i'm very pleased with his powers. i've found that with only 3 ppl(bard, paladin lv45, and ranger lv47) i can take out the final boss in just a few minutes(he only gets to summon skeletons once) and yield(with eggs) around 1000xp for everyone. Another note on my previous main team; it wasnt really made for damage, it was made to last a long time. when im in the third arena, i would get to around 50-55 kills and the monk dies from being targeted and the clerics healing no longer exceeds damage. then the cleric dies quickly, leaving me at around 60-65 with just a witch and a wizard. so i have the wizard(who tends to attract more attention) teleport after every attack, and the witch simply walk around and use her abilities depending on which enemies are out. with both their slowing/paralyzing abilities i can stop enemies and use Drain Life to heal the ones that got hit. this would work for quite a while, but unfortunately archer skeletons come out by kill 75 or so, and own me(theres a big glitch i noticed that the arrows from the archers dont get affected by wizards magic shield OR phasing lodestone(cuz together its 40% miss and ive been hit by the archers 10 times in a row before. im not sure if its only in the arena though) and as such because of the very high damage and def/hp of the archers by this time, even with both casters working together and horror i can't take them out before being wiped out. if people just want the tier 9 items, i suggest this strategy, but as of yet i dont have any others.
Let's do a quick review of my keep, kekeke. Tanks: Black Knight (91), Heleth (31), Shepherd (51), Feung (72) Wizards: Bromswell (50), Thistle (58), Wynter (63), Rogues/Bars: Gustav (75), Robin (77), Baelrosh (50), Garrick (56) Healers/Rogue: Lucille (52), Edwardo (90), Oaklay (34) As such, almost all combinations of mine will work in terms of killing boss/arena as their levels are quite high.
What would make the better tank on my line up? Paladin or Black Knight? I really like the paladin, but I THINK the knight has better stats. My knight is currently a few levels ahead of the paladin, so atm, I am training my paladin. I guess I can compare stats after, but for the skills, thats another story. If I use the black knight, I would use the cleric. Bard for the Paladin?
regardless use the paladin. the knight has good defensive abilities but not so good offensive; the paladin has great def too but pretty good offensive and excellent healing, along with the Sentinel ability, which passively applies 25% of paladin's def onto the whole party, basically tanking everything.
Is there any way to improve the healing granted by leveling up or do you have to rely on trinkets? What I mean is, if you use a healing ability, does it heal a percentage of health or a set amount? If it's a set amount, does it increase with level? If its a percentage, does it depend on the caster or the reciever of the health?
I personally like use this build a lot, for XP farming and the Arena: -Knight -56- Cleave,Might,War Cry,Sunder Armor,Fortress -Paladin -38- Aura Of Light,Swift Justice,Divine Intervention,Bastion,Word of Retribution -Witch -47- Debilitate,Piercing Shadow,Horror,Terrifying Presence, Crushing Despair -Bard -53- Song of Vigor,Gusto,Song of War,Healing Chors,Echo of Renewal They're all equpied with Tier 9 weapons and armor. Except for the Paladin, she carries the sword of M'ir, which is Tier 8, but it just feels right. -The Knight is my favorite Tank. I use Shield Wall as much as I can (not that he needs it) and Cleave to cut through crowds. No matter who it is, I use War Cry when many enemies show up and Tank them. I never kite. -The Paladin is my Melee support (kind of). I use her mainly to buff the guy that needs it the most (Word of Retribution) and to help dispatch enemies (she is actually pretty strong). BUT, she is also a life saver. Whenever a party member is low on health or a red slime appears (not to mention the last boss' lighting) I use both Aura of Light and Divine Intervention and BOOM! Party immortality for 10 seconds. Long enough to heal everyone and to kill all the slimes by spamming skills. -The Witch is a remarkable damage dealer and is also a pretty good with CC thanks to her Horror skill. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to 1HKO red slimes and green Ogres by using Horror when she is standing beside them. I equip her with 2 15% chance for no cooldown trinkets so I can use her skills plenty of times in a row. -This is it. The Bard is the one and only hardcore healer and buffer in this party I equip it with 2 codex of Jabe so theres a difference of about 2 seconds between the end of effect of his 2nd and 3rd skills and end of their cooldown. This means perma-heal and perma-25% damage buff. The Echo of Renewal heals everyone a bunch and it has a cooldown of 8 seconds. Edwardo keeps everyone up and running, so that's why I ignore the rest of the party's healing skills and let them do other things. He is just plain awesome.
I believe MikaMobile said the heals scale with your attack power. And both stats increase as you level, so your heals do get better.
One character build that could be really useful is a vampire build on one character. One that can lay down decent dps is best. Robin (with any skills of your choice) -Best weapon available -Best Armor available -2x Choker trinket (red pendant)
All heals (skills too?) or just from the cleric's auto attack? Also, i've noticed the attack and defense stats go up when leveling but do they ALWAYS go up by 1? Some party members of similar classes have a lead in 1 stat, though they were off by 1-10 when hired
