Help with classes setup / battle

[Moester]

Hi everyone, new poster here! I'll start by asking if anybody can give me a good stat setup for all the classes?

 

When I get points per level up I normally concentrate on the following stats:

Sorceress - Dex/Int

Sevilin/Shima - All stats except Int

Jenelle - ??

 

I'm still confused about Jenelle, I'm not sure whether she's a melee/magic hybrid. When I took her to Khemeria I had a hard time using her (and it didn't help that she had a lousy weapon as well) that I went back and took Shima instead.

 

Also is Dex really good for the Sorceress? I've always thought Dex = Spd but when I checked the description I was wrong.

 

And can you use items from your inventory during battle? I tried several times but it won't let me The battle setup can be really confusing at times.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Jerakeen]

You should pump INT for your Sorceress, not DEX. Eventually she will develop very high resistances, so you won't need to worry about her getting hit. Meanwhile, just protect her as much as possible.

 

Jenell doesn't do melee. You can play her as an offensive character, but she's not as effective as Nathalie, largely because some of her spell damage is based on INT, and some on DEX. So you either have to pick one or gimp her on both. Alternately you can focus on her right column skills and play her as a support character. Summoned pets don't always do a lot of damage, but they can soak up quite a bit, which can be useful.

 

For Sevilin and Shima, you should pump STR if you're going for melee, DEX if you're going for ranged weapons. There's at least one discussion on the relative merits of both, somewhere on these boards. It's counter-intuitive, but Sevilin makes an awesome archer, and Shima's best attack is the melee back-stab.

 

To use a consumable item from your inventory (during battle or otherwise), click on the little starburst symbol in the lower left corner of the icon. You can also put up to four items in your quick-use slots (on the lower left of your inventory screen). After you exit the inventory, you will see those items in the lower right corner of the screen when that character is active. Just click on the icon to use that item.

[Alorael at Large]

Pumping Dexterity will make your characters very hard to hit, which is helpful. It's mostly helpful for ranged shadowwalkers and blademasters, though.

 

Sorceresses and shamans need intelligence, and not much else.

 

Stamina is helpful for everyone, but not essential. Just have enough so your characters don't die too easily.

 

—Alorael, who will add one last little tip: scarab powers are based on Strength for shadowwalkers and blademasters and Intelligence for shamans and sorceresses. Having a high-Dexterity blademaster will mean reduced scarab power.

[Aoslare]

Sorry, Alorael -- scarab powers are based solely on DEXTERITY for the physical classes. Strength will not boost them at all. This is one of the reasons Dex is so much more attractive.

[Earth]

I have pumped few pts to strength even on casters (due some weap/armor requiring certain strength) and bit on dex and rest to int (and still they miss on some battles) and hitpoints.

[Alorael at Large]

And I almost looked up the reference to make sure I had it right, too.

 

—Alorael, who will go ahead and give some shaman tips. One, they're not melee classes, and they shouldn't be using their javelins, really. Two, while they have acceptable damage spells, they shine in healing and summoning. They're not as powerful as sorceresses in many short and easy battles, but in the really long slogs you'll want to have the extra healing and the extra meat shields. In long battles, the fire-breathing summons will get to fire more than once, and you can also use them to set up backstabs.

[Aoslare]

Three, Intelligence does absolutely nothing for healing and summoning, and since they do have a few Dex-based damage spells, it is a totally acceptable Shaman build to pump only Dex. Their incidental, minor damage output will be lower, but their survivability will be higher.

[Moester]

Thanks everyone!

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Nephils vs. Sliths NO RUSH

And I almost looked up the reference to make sure I had it right, too.

—Alorael, who will go ahead and give some shaman tips. One, they're not melee classes, and they shouldn't be using their javelins, really. Two, while they have acceptable damage spells, they shine in healing and summoning. They're not as powerful as sorceresses in many short and easy battles, but in the really long slogs you'll want to have the extra healing and the extra meat shields. In long battles, the fire-breathing summons will get to fire more than once, and you can also use them to set up backstabs.

By the way, don't rely too much on damage output from summoned creatures, because it doesn't scale very well as the game goes on. Call Hellhound is as good as having an extra character in your party if you get it as soon as possible, but even Drakes aren't good for much beyond taking hits by the endgame.

[Alorael at Large]

The damage output isn't great, but between their low damage melee attacks and two shots of breathing fire, they do more damage than almost anything else you can do with one turn.

 

—Alorael, who has never found shamans to be fragile enough that they require high dexterity. (He does not play on Torment.) They get enough bonus health that if they're in trouble, your other party members are in worse trouble.

[Randomizer]

On torment the shaman suffers when faced with physical damage, so a high dexterity would help there.

[Superba]

Lilith@ you should try Jenell's Salamander at level eleven (cheated, of course) :-)

[Aoslare]

Originally Posted By: Nephils vs. Sliths NO RUSH

They get enough bonus health that if they're in trouble, your other party members are in worse trouble.

This may be a play style thing (keeping shamans out of the fray, as makes sense) -- but it has been pretty conclusively shown that despite the bonus HP, shamans are a lot more fragile due to their glaring weakness to physical attacks.

Alorael's point about cumulative damage output from summons is an important one. The summons don't feel strong, but between the hits they soak up (they DO quickly accrue massive piles of HP) and the damage they deal, they are really some of the best skills in the game.

[Earth]

so far while I've been playing enemies have targeted main char (especially at dragon + charmed soldiers vs player's group) and meleehitter.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Sanity Knocking

The damage output isn't great, but between their low damage melee attacks and two shots of breathing fire, they do more damage than almost anything else you can do with one turn.

—Alorael, who has never found shamans to be fragile enough that they require high dexterity. (He does not play on Torment.) They get enough bonus health that if they're in trouble, your other party members are in worse trouble.

Playing on Torment significantly hurts summons in the later parts of the game, because they start missing things, a lot.