Early game skill build priorities and Adrenaline Rush?

[Hrafnskald]

When planning and building your characters, how much focus do you put (if any) on getting the Adrenaline Rush Battle Discipline?

 

I ask because I've noticed what a large boost this can be in combat, and I find myself focusing on it above other options, at least for two of my four characters (the melee and archer types). The challenging part is with the priest/mages: Do I go for combat skills and delay the stronger spells? Or go for spells early, and wait on the action point buff of AR? 

 

I'm not saying one approach or the other is best, but given some of the awesome theory crafting and number crunching posts, I would love to hear what other players choose and prioritize. 

 

What do you focus on getting in the first 10 levels? What tradeoffs do you make to get one thing earlier? 

 

-Hraffy

Edited July 8, 2020 by Hrafnskald

[Randomizer]

Fighter types boost their combat skill for the extra damage and for melee types I go for parry to avoid getting hit. Getting extra attacks are nice, but not as helpful as being able to hit and do damage since if you can kill with one hit, then you don't need that extra attack as often.

 

Mage and priest have some useful spells where if you have the money you want the levels to cast them. Getting more levels than the spell level  does give you more damage, but getting resistance to decrease damage is nice and I hold off on fighter skills until later.

 

Depending upon your game difficulty level you may want to spend skill points first to get to 10 and then use the trainers to maximize the the last 2 levels.This doesn't apply to arcane and cave/nature lore skills that you spread out through the party.

 

 

[Slawbug]

The answer differs for each game in the trilogy, but Adrenaline Rush is definitely one of the most impactful abilities.

 

Hardiness especially is an incredibly strong skill for everyone, so there's no reason not to have mages and priests get Adrenaline Rush.  How soon it's worth doing this depends on part on how easily available +weapon skill items and trainers are.  In A:EFTP, there are several available very early, so you can easily dash to AR.  In the others it's more of an investment.

 

That said, the difference between AR and no AR is far more significant than the difference between early/mid AoE spells and mid/late AoE spells.