I’ll admit it. I have a huge issue when it comes to alts and starting parties. I love theorycrafting parties, trying them out and tweaking things until I’m happy. Well, it happened again and I may have come up with a reasonably satisfying party. However, I did a few “tweaks” to deal with the frustration of certain stats but I think the current stat of this party and the “boost” puts me very close to where I was with my last party.
So here’s the latest (and greatest!) starting party that I’ve come up with:
- Male Dwarf Fighter
- Female Elf Valkyrie
- Male Dracon Ninja
- Male Felpurr Samurai
- Male Rawulf Priest
- Male Faerie Mage
I ended up ditching the Elf Ranger in the end because I just knew what was coming. The only other fix that would’ve worked would have been to adjust the Ranger’s stats, namely boosting Scouting and Bow so that the auto skill thing would stop forcing losing out on skill points at each level. At that point, I figured it was just better to re-roll the slot (and Ninja too for that matter).
So far, I’m really liking the Faerie Mage. While the low Hit points sucks (he got slaughtered by that pit snake twice) and lacking good armor blows, the Faerie Mage more than made up with these deficiencies quickly. His spell points regenerate very fast and he’s managed to acquire many mid-game type of spells very early on. I already had Fireball by level 4 which is amazing considering how my Bishops would take forever to receive it.
The only real down side is the simultaneous level up between the Bard, Priest and Mage. Obviously, I’m going to swap their classes at some point during the mid-game but at this time I would get constantly frustrated at reloading the game this early to try and receive the quality stat increases. Hence, I simply said fuck it and ran BaneEdit.exe since I didn’t want to fall too behind my last party and the fact that I’ve made almost no progress outside of what my last group did.
Now, that I’m more familiar with the beginning part of the game, I can cruise through reasonably fast. Just by comparison, I can say with confidence that the Faerie Mage is 100x better than the Elf Ranger. Having group offensive spells makes clearing so much faster and reliable. Also, single target can be really good with Energy Blast. With the Faerie’s high mana regeneration, I find myself casting more frequently and reliably. I know once you get into the Mines the problem of multiple large groups can really dampen a party’s progress if they do not possess good group spells. With a Mage, you get a solid variety of offensive group spells at your disposal. Like my Mage is only level 6 but has Fireball, Stink Bomb, Magic Missile and Iceball. By level 8, those spell school pools ought to be a decent size and I should be able to cast a few of those spells at max spell level.
I wish I could say more for the Rawulf but he’s taken a backseat to the Mage and mostly focuses on healing. That does mean his Oratory skills aren’t as good but I think when he eventually transitions to a Bishop, I’ll be able to give the Rawulf a more active role in the party as an offensive spell caster. Right now, I’ve used him in combat for minor healing and undead turning. It’s still very early in the game but I have more flexibility. Also, Bless is a good spell to help build up his Oratory without jeopardizing a lot of fights that depend on the success of a spell.
The Valkyrie is focused on curative abilities to compliment my Rawulf Priest. I might start building up her other buffs to the party too. But I do want to rush to a second Cure Poison. I managed to pick up Cure Paralysis which I can’t cast at a high level due to a low Water spell pool. This is one of those spells that’s better to do early on since you will start to fight monsters that can paralyze.
Unfortunately, my Gold is a bit down so I need to build up a new fortune. Once I get my party to level 8, I can explore the Mines and pick up a few treasure chests.
From here, the real question becomes when will become a good time to start changing professions. I suspect my Dwarf Fighter will be the first one to make the transition after he boosts his Mace & Flail skills to wield the Vulcan Hammer. He won’t be an active spell caster during combat for a while. But I can see him helping with non-combat healing and buffs. I probably will keep my Bard as a Bard a little longer. It’s too risky swapping him as my Ninja’s Skulduggery is too low. The Priest probably will swap to Bishop though around level 10. I feel roughly around that time you need a second character casting Fireball or some other group wide damaging spell. Blades, Whirlwind and Dispel Undead simply aren’t strong enough on their own and Bless can only get you so far. Not to mention the Mines has that Angel’s Tongue which would increase the Bard’s mid-game value.
At any rate, this so far has been the best party.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.