Avadon 2 early party balance for newbies

[Coach]

Late to the party here, but I couldn't find this in the forum, so...

 

In character levels 1-15 on hard/torment, what are some examples of good party balance? Right now I'm favoring Tinkermage, Sorcerer, Blademaster, but that seems kind of conservative. The old model of tank+range fighter+spellcaster is obsolete, obviously.

 

This is before any of them get the awesomely powerful buffs and spells at the later levels.

 

Suggestions for balanced parties?

[Randomizer]

There is no best balanced party, but having a Tinkermage is a good idea because you can create two turrets to act as shields and extra attackers. Range attackers are best since you can hit at their maximum range and sometimes pick off the edge of a group before closing with the rest. There are several boss fights where you take extra special damage if you close to melee, so range attacks work out to be better even if less damaging.

 

Personally I use a Tinkermage, Sorcerer, Blademaster or Shadowwalker. I never liked the Shaman class, although at high levels the healing and summoned pet is useful.

[Coach]

OK, good, so I'm on the right track. I figured out the usefulness of the Tinkermage right away, but I was wondering about the other two. It's good to know the value of ranged attacks in this one. I was leaning that way, but early on the melee attacks are more efficient. Sounds like I want to make sure I distribute points favoring range, as well.

[Slawbug]

Tinkermage is the clear standout in Av2, in pretty much every way, at any point in the game. Once you get the Blademaster mega-haste ability, they are an obvious addition, but the other classes are all fine as well.

 

The strongest party is pretty clearly PC Tinkermage + Tinkermage + Blademaster. I personally find Alcander and Khalida to be the most interesting companions anyway, so I'm okay with that, but YMMV.

 

Of the non-Tinkermage classes, Shadowwalkers have the fewest problematic weaknesses, and Shamans have the most. They are all viable though.

 

In addition to what Randomizer mentioned, ranged attacks (for the three physical classes) are also better because they let you focus on Dex.

[Coach]

So another question: if ranged attacks are the strongest, but two tinkermages can only create two turrets between them in a given fight, what's the use of a second tinkermage over a sorcerer?

[Randomizer]

Each Tinkermage can create 2 turrets, so you can have 4 turrets with 2 Tinkermages.

 

Turrets can act as a shield to take damage instead of a party member as well as doing damage, healing, or buffing nearby party members. So they increase the total number of targets, plus the Tinkermages can do their own actions, either attacks, repairing turrets, and/or using items.

[Coach]

Ah. You are correct. Now I have four turrets. For some reason, I thought I could only produce two turrets total regardless of the number of Tinkermages. * whistles casually *

 

That makes more sense, although it does throw the balance heavily in my favor, not that this newbie is complaining.

[lordhoff]

Duplicate; sorry.

[lordhoff]

Methinks I'm alone here. The low level turrets hardly do any damage so in the early stages, I tend to go with a shadow walker trained to the left, a blade master trained to the right, and a sorcerer. I prefer trained to the left but since our boy is so against killing, I always train him to the right.

[Lilith]

Early in the game, it's much better to unlock higher-tier turrets than to try and level up low-tier turret skills. You can beeline for freeze turrets within just a few levels, and those are good enough to last you through the first half of the game.

[lordhoff]

Early in the game, it's much better to unlock higher-tier turrets than to try and level up low-tier turret skills. You can beeline for freeze turrets within just a few levels, and those are good enough to last you through the first half of the game.

 

I've been generally building to threes to go up the tree so, yeah, it took a bit longer to get to the freeze turret then I switched. Still, gotta keep turrets away from the final battle with the wondering eye - I found that out the hard way

[Coach]

Switched over to a build with freeze turrets as top priority. Wow. Now that's powerful. Maybe a little too much so, but to advance the game, I'm hardly complaining. Good plan.