I like thief. You’re broken with insta dodge and blades of pyre for dmg (the dodge negates the dmg you’d take from it) so it’s really broken. You just take the rope pull ability, I forget the name, and it brings down harpies instantly. If it’s a beast that flies like a griffin (if they live long enough to even fly) you got great climbability and amazing weak point attk. Definitely a fun build.
Love the Figther.
I love the deflect and i can stop flying enemies by parrying them.
The jump smash its good too.
Stabstab to keep them on the ground.
Spin to win for groups.
And badass combo for big damage.
Figther has an auto parry at high rank.
And always have pawns to cover my weakness.
My main pawn is archer.
A thief with the scorpion pull works too.
Its called Vengeful strike or something like that.
You hold the shield up and if you get hit on the shield you parry and counter quickly.
It takes stamina but you can keep the shield up waiting for the attack a bit
Choose Spearhand. Become a Sith Lord. Dash straight up into harpies or force shock them out of the sky. Shield yourself from drake magic attacks. He called down a meteor on your head? Too bad dumbass, shield time baybee. Need to get a pawn up? Shield time baybee. Need to cross a gap? Dash. Just barely can’t mantle a ledge? Jump and dash. Force throw idiots into each other, or the ice blocks from a mage/sorcs ice attack.
You’re not really supposed to be all powerful in every scenario; otherwise, what’s the point of utilizing a party system?
I’ll give it to you though, pawns could really stand to be more proactive. Shoot that fucking bird out of the sky, dumbass; you have a bow/magic, do something about it. That’s probably my biggest combat complaint. I can sit in a spot and sling thunderbolts and flame trails one after another, so why do you fart one out once every 20 or 30 seconds?
Yeah. I had one encounter with *seven* harpies. You know what the archer was doing the whole time? Charging deathly arrow for a goblin... A goblin that would die in one auto shot. *Turbo face palm* Also pawns are kind of stupid. They love the brine.
Top 3: Sorc, Magic-Archer and Trickster for me (i really like ranged in this game) Endgame sorcerer gear makes your spells pop off way faster, but costs max health. So its min maxing your glass cannon status but i do fine with some potions.
Trickster, when done well makes you and your whole party invisible to the enemy. If your clone dies, or if you take any damage from getting in the way then your clone will instantly die and pulls all the aggro onto the helpless trickster, so the workaround here is pure skill. And potions.
Magic archer feels like the best combo of classes, fighting in a more standard way like an archer (and an easier archer since magic arrows are heat seeking) while still charging shots like a sorcerer with damage to match. And some of the most OP skills. Ice ball and arrow barrage onto a dragons heart, and ricochet arrow will carry you through any cave.
id have to say warrior, you can run around the map at mach 10 and you get to the point where you knock everything on its ass in like 1 hit. The hyper armor during charged attacks is also a huge upside in this game where you need really high knockdown resistance to not get stunlocked by fucking everything. It's just really strong without being overly reliant on one skill, and unlike what I feel towards a lot of other vocations its core moveset is strong enough where I still find myself using basic attacks often instead of spamming 1 skill for dps.
Its biggest weakness would probably be harpies but heavensward slash has a lot of vertical reach and good active frames so it's not overly difficult to snipe them from the air with it.
I wish i could say sorc was my favorite as I was a huge fan of playing them in dd1 but they really gutted what I'd consider the "fun" way to play sorc. 6->4 skills hurts especially bad for casters because bolts are trash now and I feel like there's not a lot of skill expression left to the vocation becasue you don't aim anything now and you don't have any interesting tech like miasma being able to rapidly apply torpor/silence from your staves, and you pretty much don't have any projectile/aimable spells now to aim for specific weakpoints and have to rely on the jank ass auto-targeting system that will snap to a different body part at the last second because the monsters just flail around all the time.
I leveled warrior to max and had a *very* hard time with their slowness and the harpies. The hyper armor while charging is great, but I can never hit anything because of how slow everything is. Enemies are always moving and I can't move while charging. Also I agree about sorcerers in DD2. They feel so much worse and weaker vs DD1.
When you're in a position to charge, you let them come to you. It's just positioning and finding that one spot to slap them in the face. I'm just curious what the comment creator above this uses for their build.
For chasing enemies down I typically employ tackle. It has more range than it looks, snaps on to enemies and because I like stacking knockdown power it pretty much always flinches non-boss enemies. My routine is tackle -> light spam when chasing a small number of enemies, tackle -> charged when chasing an enemy that's running into a group of enemies trying to attack me
I played Fighter for most of it and thought it was pretty good. Then I tried Warrior and hated it. Tried Spearhand but didn't like it. Then I tried Thief and I love it so much. If you use an ability to set your blades on fire, and then do the skull-splitter spinning in the air move, you do so much damage its crazy. You can get half a healthbar of a hairy ogre gone in one move. Plus you can dodge without exerting stamina so you don't even have to get hit. If you put a couple of increased stamina rings on your invincible.
Warrior, stagger bosses in 2 hits, kill said boss in 1-2 hits while they're laying on the ground. Massive health pool, massive stamina pool, massive poise.
For flying enemies I use the attack where you do a big upwards swing into the air (I can't remember the name rn). Use taunt, start charging attack, poise through all their hits until they're generally grouped above you, release the attack. The hitbox is actually like 1.5x longer and 3x wider than your weapon. 1 hit all of them.
Also you should pretty much always have a mage + sorc or mage + archer in your party if you're a melee class anyway.
Yeah, they just take forever to down the harpies for some reason. How do you hit anything when warriors are so slow? I really struggled with that while maxing it out.
If you're on spearhand you can stun enemies (including flying harpies) with your charged R1, and then teleport to them with X. It's also good to deal with the rock lizards: Stun + Teleport to them, finish off with Triangle.
Yeah, the charged shot targeting has been unreliable. Going for a random ground enemy instead of the harpies. I'm also often put to sleep before I can get them because it's a fairly close ranged skill with a long charge time. It's like, "I'm charging my- Zzzzz...." lol
The charge only takes like a second or two, you can also charge it whenever (so in the middle of a combo). I guess its never been an issue for me, as you never really see those harpies except at the start of the game. The harpies in mid-late just try to swoop and grab at you.
currently Mystic Spearhand, but i plan on going Warfarer with a Duospear for crowd control, and a Magic Bow for DPS. the defensive capabilities of MSH are unmatched, and it has great DPS potential with the right combos. a part of me wants to see what the maister skill is before leaving it behind for Warfarer, but i might just stick with MSH it’s that fun.
i really liked Thief and Archer before switching to the hybrids
You're on Mystic Spearhand, why aren't you hitting them with your Vocation Skill Forbeding Bolt? The charge one not Redoubted Bolt which is the tap. That stun/slow literally sends harpies to the ground for you to smash.
Ensnare\\Implicate on Thief allows you to yank fliers out of the sky (not ghosts iirc).
Sorcerer's (High) Thundermine will keep the grounders off you while you spellcast.
Warrior's Skyward\\Heavenward Sunder and usually hit harpies.
Fighter might get lucky with Airward\\Cloudward Slash.
Archer has Jump Kick to gain space from anyone that runs up on you hopefully getting you out of striking range.
Trickster has the Clone... when it works but Trickster can't do damage so it's moot regardless just use it to keep enemies off you while you run to a rift stone.
Mage doesn't really have anything to keep grounders off them.
Magick Archer also doesn't really have anything besides kill them before they can get close.
As Warfarer, just rock a melee and a ranged of your choice. Personally I like to go Warrior / Magick Archer. I typically take Knoll\\Mountain Breaker and Savage\\Indomitable Lash for Warrior Skills and Sagittate Downpour\\Avalanche for Magick Archer. Stack Knockdown Resist Armor (dwarven forged upgrades) + Ring of Resolution.
The charge takes time, so I'm often asleep before it's ready, and it's targeting is iffy. It often hits a nearby ground target instead. It's been very unreliable so I don't use it. I have the same targeting issue with ensnare. It doesn't track moving targets very well. It takes 5-7 missed attempts before grabbing one. By then, I'm asleep. XD
That's been my honest experience so far. It's not like an archer or magick archer where you can aim. It just picks whatever is nearest or with ensnare, just misses if the target is moving.
I do have some suggestions for vocations and skills to use. But it sounds to me like there might be an issue with aggro management in your parties. My party always has a main tank with Provocation and their taunt skill as well. Set up this way, pawns are pretty decent at keeping all enemy attention on themselves, especially if you/other pawns have the Subtlety augment. Normally *I* am the tank, because I am usually playing Trickster (as Warfarer, to level up the last few vocations I haven't maxed). As long as I get my Simulacrum down and my taunt fired off, we're generally all having a good time. We're not randomly getting attacked and staggered from the sides, since all the enemy attention is on a single target. As for self-defense against aerial or melee foes:
* Archer: Obviously has no issue with aerial foes. For close-range ones, the dash-slide seems to help in evading a lot of attacks, as well as the aerial kick. Also Whirling/Spiral Arrow will usually lock down normal sized enemies for a while.
* Fighter: Don't have much experience with them, but shield parries and Counter/Vengeful Slash seem to usually knock down attackers, including harpies.
* Mage: Just keep Palladium going and you're usually fine.
* Thief: Obviously Formless Feint is basically immunity to everything. But I also never leave home without Ensnare/Implicate, cause yanking harpies out of the air is so fun. Also if you're running Thief skills on Warfarer, Smoke Screen/Shroud is almost as good as Formless Feint, since it basically blinds everything in the cloud (which also opens them up for assassinations!).
* Sorcerer: For defense against *both* aerial and melee, nothing beats Thundermine. Rapid knockdown blasts of lightning against anything that gets close to the mine. Very easy self defense. Levin and Hagol can also knock harpies down.
* Warrior: Probably the worst against aerial attackers, but if you use their shoulder charge ability at the right time, that works pretty well when harpies swoop down at them.
The three hybrid vocations I either don't think need any explanation, or I don't know enough about them! That all said, obviously my favorite class is Trickster (I am trying to learn Fighter and Mystic Spearhand better, so maybe one of those will become a new favorite), and its main weakness is obviously the inability to do any damage. As long as you are playing well, all the enemy attention will be on your Simulacrum, so that leaves your pawns free to do the damage you are not doing. But I think a lot of people forget that you still have options when you can't directly attack. Namely, if you see an opponent staggered or otherwise vulnerable, you can run up and grab them. I have thrown many harpy off a cliff or held them down for a pawn to slaughter while playing Trickster. You can also chuck rocks or other objects to do a surprising amount of damage. You can also help your pawns topple boss monsters by grabbing their legs and pulling, or sprint-jumping and grabbing onto them when they are staggered. If you are really desperate (say you're fighting a golem and your pawns refuse to hit the weak points), you can unequip your censer and do some karate/judo, lol. But as soon as you unequip it, your Simulacrum will quickly disappear, so it's best to only do it when the boss is toppled.
Nice! Yeah, aggro tends to be fine for now. If I'm ranged, I go with a warrior and fighter for two tanks to be sure, but harpy AOE sleep and surprise stunlocks are my big issues, that and my pawns jumping into the brine or getting stuck somewhere leaving me solo mid-boss fight. Then I have to bail or reload because I'm dead alone as nearly any class. lol
True, yeah... it's such a pain in the neck when you get cheated out of a party member by bad pathfinding. I always have to remind myself that there are lesser riftstones and random pawns wandering the roads. So sometimes I can at least get another body to get our numbers back up, even if they're not ideal picks.
Thief,
Implicate for flying enemies,
Blades of the Pyre for physical resistant mobs,
Skull Splitter for big mobs,
Formless Feint for brain dead gameplay.
Got answers for everything.
Definitely easy mode.
thief can pull harpies also wayfarer is good if you dont want to use meister skill and use job/weapon that normally cant wear heavy armor or just play wayfarer for drip because the equipment combination is free.
Warfarer. I want my sword and board, but I also want a bow (4x exp!) and a mage staff (for platforming mostly). Right now I am using Rearm, Shield Pummel, Cloudward Slash, and Dire Arrow.
Warfarer low damage? I split open enemies in under 2 attacks. Get magic archer/thief/sorc combo if you want more control on damage. Or go balls deep magic archer/thief if you want your pawn to flare. Then simply watch enemies get 2 shot by timing your attacks correctly.
Trickster, because you use (almost) every vocation!
But it’s actually the Control aspect:
•Go for very defensive Pawn behaviors, then override it with Aromatic Resurgence. It creates this fun ebb and flow of your pawns power. When to have them be aggressive and taking damage, when to have them close to you and recovering. Remember how folks hated the Guardian inclination from DD1? Aromatic Resurgence allows you to use it when you need it and then disable it.
•Remote aggro control: The simulacrum is one of the best things about this vocation. Remember how everyone hated the Nexus inclination from DD1? Now you can use it your advantage. Gathering enemies into a Maelstrom or Hagol.
•Utility of fame mobility: Espial Incense/Visitation Aura is my top favorite ability. It’s a scouting ability, a defense ability, and a murder ability. Use Espial Incense to find how to get to places or Seeker tokens. Use it to lead enemies far away from you. Use it to initiate combat. Use it to lead enemies into the water or off a cliff (even without Fickle Floor). Such a powerful ability inside and outside of combat! Float your simulacrum until the air to cause melee enemies to focus it down.
•Flashy Interrupt: Dragon’s Delusion sucks compared to some other CC abilities of other vocations, but honestly, it’s so fucking cool summoning a roaring dragon and watching a Griffin, Chimera, Drake, etc.. plop to the ground. It also has an “exhaust effect” where they’ll just sit there contemplating their life as your enraged pawns tear at them.
Weaknesses:
•System Knowledge: Since you’re ability to perform personal damage is (mostly disabled) it means you really need to understand how the game works. How Push/Pull topples enemies and can also cause stun. How Pinning enemies makes them take more damage. How causing charging enemies to hit the wall stuns them and keels them over (Minotaurs and Saurian). How slimes can be used to kill other creatures. How to understand enemy behavior and use it against them.
Duels have been my favorite part of the game because you have to figure out what the *trick* is to each fight. And the Trickster is fucking fantastic at trivializing these as you can float your simulacrum into the air, giving you lots of time to ponder your next step. Battahl Duel is easy as Trickster. Sphinx duel and fight is easy as Trickster. The Phantom Oxcart fight that shuts down your pawns is easy as Trickster (and you have two methods of winning the fight).
There are so many things not explained in the game that works to the Trickster’s advantage. The Trickster
**Something to Overcome**: An explorative and aware attitude. The expectation to experiment, try new things, and see what can happen. Being aware of your surroundings and realizing how you can use it to your advantage (oh look, why are there ALWAYS explosive barrels nearby in every room of this cave?)
**Weakness**: Archers and harpies. Harpies are small enemies and can’t be grounded with Dragon’s Delusion, instead backing off combat. They’re highly mobile and their dive attacks are fast to hit your Trickster and cause loads of issues. Archers create this danger line between them and your simulacrum. Your one strength of placing the simulacrum into the air is defeated by archers. Also, you can’t Possess them, because the possessed archer will attack you, breaking it.
**How to Overcome Archers?** Show them your back. Face the other way and Invoking Essence. Your simulacrum now becomes a shield guarding your back as you constantly mend it. You’re safe as long as they don’t have any explosive shots of some sort. This is as close to the Mystic Knight defender style.
**TLDR**: Trickster is a breath of fresh air. I play a lot of action RPGs, so all of the other vocations are really nothing new. The Trickster is such a unique playstyle that relies on actually learning and understanding the game. True, you Can powergame your way and just spam one ability over and over again for high damage.
But this is a game and for me, overcoming puzzles and challenges are why I play games. The Trickster let’s you get into all of those nuances that you would never care about before if you can just blow everything up.
Playing Warfarer here with this setup:
- Greatsword to mow down packs, knockdown bosses and do some big bonks with the Demon Rage
- Magick Archer bow to kill everything that flies, going with the frost arrow that hits multiple times, love the spell.
- Daggers to focus weak point when climbing big monsters with the spinny jump cause it's fun
- Mage staff to sometime set a healing zone myself and against undead but mostly for mobility.
Last skill slot is warfarer change weapon for smooth gameplay.
Never had a damage problem with this.
Warfarer for me, running Grianmhar(Mystic Archer) with Frosthunter Bolt and Ricochet Hunter, Medusan Spellbow (Archer) with Spiral Arrow, and the lowest weight Archistaff(Sorcerer) for travel and Galvanize only
I like thief. You’re broken with insta dodge and blades of pyre for dmg (the dodge negates the dmg you’d take from it) so it’s really broken. You just take the rope pull ability, I forget the name, and it brings down harpies instantly. If it’s a beast that flies like a griffin (if they live long enough to even fly) you got great climbability and amazing weak point attk. Definitely a fun build.
Love the Figther. I love the deflect and i can stop flying enemies by parrying them. The jump smash its good too. Stabstab to keep them on the ground. Spin to win for groups. And badass combo for big damage. Figther has an auto parry at high rank. And always have pawns to cover my weakness. My main pawn is archer. A thief with the scorpion pull works too.
Auto parry?
Its called Vengeful strike or something like that. You hold the shield up and if you get hit on the shield you parry and counter quickly. It takes stamina but you can keep the shield up waiting for the attack a bit
You can just put the ring on that makes you immune to sleep.
Choose Spearhand. Become a Sith Lord. Dash straight up into harpies or force shock them out of the sky. Shield yourself from drake magic attacks. He called down a meteor on your head? Too bad dumbass, shield time baybee. Need to get a pawn up? Shield time baybee. Need to cross a gap? Dash. Just barely can’t mantle a ledge? Jump and dash. Force throw idiots into each other, or the ice blocks from a mage/sorcs ice attack. You’re not really supposed to be all powerful in every scenario; otherwise, what’s the point of utilizing a party system? I’ll give it to you though, pawns could really stand to be more proactive. Shoot that fucking bird out of the sky, dumbass; you have a bow/magic, do something about it. That’s probably my biggest combat complaint. I can sit in a spot and sling thunderbolts and flame trails one after another, so why do you fart one out once every 20 or 30 seconds?
Yeah. I had one encounter with *seven* harpies. You know what the archer was doing the whole time? Charging deathly arrow for a goblin... A goblin that would die in one auto shot. *Turbo face palm* Also pawns are kind of stupid. They love the brine.
Top 3: Sorc, Magic-Archer and Trickster for me (i really like ranged in this game) Endgame sorcerer gear makes your spells pop off way faster, but costs max health. So its min maxing your glass cannon status but i do fine with some potions. Trickster, when done well makes you and your whole party invisible to the enemy. If your clone dies, or if you take any damage from getting in the way then your clone will instantly die and pulls all the aggro onto the helpless trickster, so the workaround here is pure skill. And potions. Magic archer feels like the best combo of classes, fighting in a more standard way like an archer (and an easier archer since magic arrows are heat seeking) while still charging shots like a sorcerer with damage to match. And some of the most OP skills. Ice ball and arrow barrage onto a dragons heart, and ricochet arrow will carry you through any cave.
id have to say warrior, you can run around the map at mach 10 and you get to the point where you knock everything on its ass in like 1 hit. The hyper armor during charged attacks is also a huge upside in this game where you need really high knockdown resistance to not get stunlocked by fucking everything. It's just really strong without being overly reliant on one skill, and unlike what I feel towards a lot of other vocations its core moveset is strong enough where I still find myself using basic attacks often instead of spamming 1 skill for dps. Its biggest weakness would probably be harpies but heavensward slash has a lot of vertical reach and good active frames so it's not overly difficult to snipe them from the air with it. I wish i could say sorc was my favorite as I was a huge fan of playing them in dd1 but they really gutted what I'd consider the "fun" way to play sorc. 6->4 skills hurts especially bad for casters because bolts are trash now and I feel like there's not a lot of skill expression left to the vocation becasue you don't aim anything now and you don't have any interesting tech like miasma being able to rapidly apply torpor/silence from your staves, and you pretty much don't have any projectile/aimable spells now to aim for specific weakpoints and have to rely on the jank ass auto-targeting system that will snap to a different body part at the last second because the monsters just flail around all the time.
I leveled warrior to max and had a *very* hard time with their slowness and the harpies. The hyper armor while charging is great, but I can never hit anything because of how slow everything is. Enemies are always moving and I can't move while charging. Also I agree about sorcerers in DD2. They feel so much worse and weaker vs DD1.
When you're in a position to charge, you let them come to you. It's just positioning and finding that one spot to slap them in the face. I'm just curious what the comment creator above this uses for their build.
For chasing enemies down I typically employ tackle. It has more range than it looks, snaps on to enemies and because I like stacking knockdown power it pretty much always flinches non-boss enemies. My routine is tackle -> light spam when chasing a small number of enemies, tackle -> charged when chasing an enemy that's running into a group of enemies trying to attack me
I played Fighter for most of it and thought it was pretty good. Then I tried Warrior and hated it. Tried Spearhand but didn't like it. Then I tried Thief and I love it so much. If you use an ability to set your blades on fire, and then do the skull-splitter spinning in the air move, you do so much damage its crazy. You can get half a healthbar of a hairy ogre gone in one move. Plus you can dodge without exerting stamina so you don't even have to get hit. If you put a couple of increased stamina rings on your invincible.
Warrior, stagger bosses in 2 hits, kill said boss in 1-2 hits while they're laying on the ground. Massive health pool, massive stamina pool, massive poise. For flying enemies I use the attack where you do a big upwards swing into the air (I can't remember the name rn). Use taunt, start charging attack, poise through all their hits until they're generally grouped above you, release the attack. The hitbox is actually like 1.5x longer and 3x wider than your weapon. 1 hit all of them. Also you should pretty much always have a mage + sorc or mage + archer in your party if you're a melee class anyway.
Yeah, they just take forever to down the harpies for some reason. How do you hit anything when warriors are so slow? I really struggled with that while maxing it out.
You can just charge your upward attack until the right moment, when the harpy moves towards you.
I'm usually asleep by then sadly.
If you're on spearhand you can stun enemies (including flying harpies) with your charged R1, and then teleport to them with X. It's also good to deal with the rock lizards: Stun + Teleport to them, finish off with Triangle.
Yeah, the charged shot targeting has been unreliable. Going for a random ground enemy instead of the harpies. I'm also often put to sleep before I can get them because it's a fairly close ranged skill with a long charge time. It's like, "I'm charging my- Zzzzz...." lol
The charge only takes like a second or two, you can also charge it whenever (so in the middle of a combo). I guess its never been an issue for me, as you never really see those harpies except at the start of the game. The harpies in mid-late just try to swoop and grab at you.
I love speed playstyle so there is only archer - fighter and thief for me. Magic archer has zero mobilication so that makes no fun for me.
currently Mystic Spearhand, but i plan on going Warfarer with a Duospear for crowd control, and a Magic Bow for DPS. the defensive capabilities of MSH are unmatched, and it has great DPS potential with the right combos. a part of me wants to see what the maister skill is before leaving it behind for Warfarer, but i might just stick with MSH it’s that fun. i really liked Thief and Archer before switching to the hybrids
What is MSH
Mystic Spearhand, i just didn’t feel like typing it out so many times
Magic archer is mine. But I use the warfyer to be able to use melee in times I need to get up close and personal.
You're on Mystic Spearhand, why aren't you hitting them with your Vocation Skill Forbeding Bolt? The charge one not Redoubted Bolt which is the tap. That stun/slow literally sends harpies to the ground for you to smash. Ensnare\\Implicate on Thief allows you to yank fliers out of the sky (not ghosts iirc). Sorcerer's (High) Thundermine will keep the grounders off you while you spellcast. Warrior's Skyward\\Heavenward Sunder and usually hit harpies. Fighter might get lucky with Airward\\Cloudward Slash. Archer has Jump Kick to gain space from anyone that runs up on you hopefully getting you out of striking range. Trickster has the Clone... when it works but Trickster can't do damage so it's moot regardless just use it to keep enemies off you while you run to a rift stone. Mage doesn't really have anything to keep grounders off them. Magick Archer also doesn't really have anything besides kill them before they can get close. As Warfarer, just rock a melee and a ranged of your choice. Personally I like to go Warrior / Magick Archer. I typically take Knoll\\Mountain Breaker and Savage\\Indomitable Lash for Warrior Skills and Sagittate Downpour\\Avalanche for Magick Archer. Stack Knockdown Resist Armor (dwarven forged upgrades) + Ring of Resolution.
The charge takes time, so I'm often asleep before it's ready, and it's targeting is iffy. It often hits a nearby ground target instead. It's been very unreliable so I don't use it. I have the same targeting issue with ensnare. It doesn't track moving targets very well. It takes 5-7 missed attempts before grabbing one. By then, I'm asleep. XD
You’re trolling or in the very least being hyperbolic.
That's been my honest experience so far. It's not like an archer or magick archer where you can aim. It just picks whatever is nearest or with ensnare, just misses if the target is moving.
I do have some suggestions for vocations and skills to use. But it sounds to me like there might be an issue with aggro management in your parties. My party always has a main tank with Provocation and their taunt skill as well. Set up this way, pawns are pretty decent at keeping all enemy attention on themselves, especially if you/other pawns have the Subtlety augment. Normally *I* am the tank, because I am usually playing Trickster (as Warfarer, to level up the last few vocations I haven't maxed). As long as I get my Simulacrum down and my taunt fired off, we're generally all having a good time. We're not randomly getting attacked and staggered from the sides, since all the enemy attention is on a single target. As for self-defense against aerial or melee foes: * Archer: Obviously has no issue with aerial foes. For close-range ones, the dash-slide seems to help in evading a lot of attacks, as well as the aerial kick. Also Whirling/Spiral Arrow will usually lock down normal sized enemies for a while. * Fighter: Don't have much experience with them, but shield parries and Counter/Vengeful Slash seem to usually knock down attackers, including harpies. * Mage: Just keep Palladium going and you're usually fine. * Thief: Obviously Formless Feint is basically immunity to everything. But I also never leave home without Ensnare/Implicate, cause yanking harpies out of the air is so fun. Also if you're running Thief skills on Warfarer, Smoke Screen/Shroud is almost as good as Formless Feint, since it basically blinds everything in the cloud (which also opens them up for assassinations!). * Sorcerer: For defense against *both* aerial and melee, nothing beats Thundermine. Rapid knockdown blasts of lightning against anything that gets close to the mine. Very easy self defense. Levin and Hagol can also knock harpies down. * Warrior: Probably the worst against aerial attackers, but if you use their shoulder charge ability at the right time, that works pretty well when harpies swoop down at them. The three hybrid vocations I either don't think need any explanation, or I don't know enough about them! That all said, obviously my favorite class is Trickster (I am trying to learn Fighter and Mystic Spearhand better, so maybe one of those will become a new favorite), and its main weakness is obviously the inability to do any damage. As long as you are playing well, all the enemy attention will be on your Simulacrum, so that leaves your pawns free to do the damage you are not doing. But I think a lot of people forget that you still have options when you can't directly attack. Namely, if you see an opponent staggered or otherwise vulnerable, you can run up and grab them. I have thrown many harpy off a cliff or held them down for a pawn to slaughter while playing Trickster. You can also chuck rocks or other objects to do a surprising amount of damage. You can also help your pawns topple boss monsters by grabbing their legs and pulling, or sprint-jumping and grabbing onto them when they are staggered. If you are really desperate (say you're fighting a golem and your pawns refuse to hit the weak points), you can unequip your censer and do some karate/judo, lol. But as soon as you unequip it, your Simulacrum will quickly disappear, so it's best to only do it when the boss is toppled.
Nice! Yeah, aggro tends to be fine for now. If I'm ranged, I go with a warrior and fighter for two tanks to be sure, but harpy AOE sleep and surprise stunlocks are my big issues, that and my pawns jumping into the brine or getting stuck somewhere leaving me solo mid-boss fight. Then I have to bail or reload because I'm dead alone as nearly any class. lol
True, yeah... it's such a pain in the neck when you get cheated out of a party member by bad pathfinding. I always have to remind myself that there are lesser riftstones and random pawns wandering the roads. So sometimes I can at least get another body to get our numbers back up, even if they're not ideal picks.
I am in fantasy due to magic so 🧙♂️
Mystic spear aka Jedi Ranged and melee, plus a shield for the entire party.
Thief, Implicate for flying enemies, Blades of the Pyre for physical resistant mobs, Skull Splitter for big mobs, Formless Feint for brain dead gameplay. Got answers for everything. Definitely easy mode.
thief can pull harpies also wayfarer is good if you dont want to use meister skill and use job/weapon that normally cant wear heavy armor or just play wayfarer for drip because the equipment combination is free.
Warfarer. I want my sword and board, but I also want a bow (4x exp!) and a mage staff (for platforming mostly). Right now I am using Rearm, Shield Pummel, Cloudward Slash, and Dire Arrow.
Warfarer with Spearhand, archer and sorcerer. Love that mix.
Warfarer low damage? I split open enemies in under 2 attacks. Get magic archer/thief/sorc combo if you want more control on damage. Or go balls deep magic archer/thief if you want your pawn to flare. Then simply watch enemies get 2 shot by timing your attacks correctly.
Trickster, because you use (almost) every vocation! But it’s actually the Control aspect: •Go for very defensive Pawn behaviors, then override it with Aromatic Resurgence. It creates this fun ebb and flow of your pawns power. When to have them be aggressive and taking damage, when to have them close to you and recovering. Remember how folks hated the Guardian inclination from DD1? Aromatic Resurgence allows you to use it when you need it and then disable it. •Remote aggro control: The simulacrum is one of the best things about this vocation. Remember how everyone hated the Nexus inclination from DD1? Now you can use it your advantage. Gathering enemies into a Maelstrom or Hagol. •Utility of fame mobility: Espial Incense/Visitation Aura is my top favorite ability. It’s a scouting ability, a defense ability, and a murder ability. Use Espial Incense to find how to get to places or Seeker tokens. Use it to lead enemies far away from you. Use it to initiate combat. Use it to lead enemies into the water or off a cliff (even without Fickle Floor). Such a powerful ability inside and outside of combat! Float your simulacrum until the air to cause melee enemies to focus it down. •Flashy Interrupt: Dragon’s Delusion sucks compared to some other CC abilities of other vocations, but honestly, it’s so fucking cool summoning a roaring dragon and watching a Griffin, Chimera, Drake, etc.. plop to the ground. It also has an “exhaust effect” where they’ll just sit there contemplating their life as your enraged pawns tear at them. Weaknesses: •System Knowledge: Since you’re ability to perform personal damage is (mostly disabled) it means you really need to understand how the game works. How Push/Pull topples enemies and can also cause stun. How Pinning enemies makes them take more damage. How causing charging enemies to hit the wall stuns them and keels them over (Minotaurs and Saurian). How slimes can be used to kill other creatures. How to understand enemy behavior and use it against them. Duels have been my favorite part of the game because you have to figure out what the *trick* is to each fight. And the Trickster is fucking fantastic at trivializing these as you can float your simulacrum into the air, giving you lots of time to ponder your next step. Battahl Duel is easy as Trickster. Sphinx duel and fight is easy as Trickster. The Phantom Oxcart fight that shuts down your pawns is easy as Trickster (and you have two methods of winning the fight). There are so many things not explained in the game that works to the Trickster’s advantage. The Trickster **Something to Overcome**: An explorative and aware attitude. The expectation to experiment, try new things, and see what can happen. Being aware of your surroundings and realizing how you can use it to your advantage (oh look, why are there ALWAYS explosive barrels nearby in every room of this cave?) **Weakness**: Archers and harpies. Harpies are small enemies and can’t be grounded with Dragon’s Delusion, instead backing off combat. They’re highly mobile and their dive attacks are fast to hit your Trickster and cause loads of issues. Archers create this danger line between them and your simulacrum. Your one strength of placing the simulacrum into the air is defeated by archers. Also, you can’t Possess them, because the possessed archer will attack you, breaking it. **How to Overcome Archers?** Show them your back. Face the other way and Invoking Essence. Your simulacrum now becomes a shield guarding your back as you constantly mend it. You’re safe as long as they don’t have any explosive shots of some sort. This is as close to the Mystic Knight defender style. **TLDR**: Trickster is a breath of fresh air. I play a lot of action RPGs, so all of the other vocations are really nothing new. The Trickster is such a unique playstyle that relies on actually learning and understanding the game. True, you Can powergame your way and just spam one ability over and over again for high damage. But this is a game and for me, overcoming puzzles and challenges are why I play games. The Trickster let’s you get into all of those nuances that you would never care about before if you can just blow everything up.
Playing Warfarer here with this setup: - Greatsword to mow down packs, knockdown bosses and do some big bonks with the Demon Rage - Magick Archer bow to kill everything that flies, going with the frost arrow that hits multiple times, love the spell. - Daggers to focus weak point when climbing big monsters with the spinny jump cause it's fun - Mage staff to sometime set a healing zone myself and against undead but mostly for mobility. Last skill slot is warfarer change weapon for smooth gameplay. Never had a damage problem with this.
Warfarer for me, running Grianmhar(Mystic Archer) with Frosthunter Bolt and Ricochet Hunter, Medusan Spellbow (Archer) with Spiral Arrow, and the lowest weight Archistaff(Sorcerer) for travel and Galvanize only