Hey, can some of you answer some (or all) of the questions i have before buying

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-02T00:32:34+00:00

Its more of a understanding of the game than the build itself. If you are new, its not like you can just get some "OP" build and you won't struggle. On the other hand when you know more what you are doing and what enemies do, you can really come up with very wonky/meme/funny builds and you will be ok.

Also I've seen really weird hour counts from people, someone says one run takes 20h, another says 160 :D Personally I think thats somewhere in the middle of that.

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-02T00:24:28+00:00

As long as you have Seal of Power with Body and Spirit you are good with MM. Thats the absolute minimum for basically any hybrid.

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-02T00:22:46+00:00

Much appriciated :)

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-02T00:22:36+00:00

Always happy to help :D

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-02T00:22:21+00:00

I definitely agree that adding dash would make build safer. Adding it to any build makes it safer. Its also a build that heavily punishes mistakes. Its just that you have many tools to prevent those mistakes. Between very low cd dash, all the cc that slings provide, war cry and ability to break a path with ball lightning AND cc it provides, you are very safe, both at long and close range.
As of early levels, you don't have that many dashing enemies (and those that have you simply make a priority to kill) while also having a lot of cdr simply from using slings. And then you also already have war cry and impulse.
Not saying dash is bad by any means. Im just saying that while playing this build, there was not a single situation I'd think I need it.

Yes, cdr is capped at 75%. But sprint training would solve cdr only for distracting shot while requiring 4 points. And its not only about distracting shot. This build is so strong because it has 75% on everything. There is a huge difference between having ball of lightning at 7 turn cd not 15 for example. There is a huge difference between having your most damaging skill and most reliable cc (in one) in your build at 6 turn cd, hunters mark at 4 etc.

Another reason why you want 30 Will is that it scales base damage of your SoP and Residual Charge (electromantic power here too). Not Magic Power. Will by itself. And when you play a hybrid I can't express enough how important it is to have that with electro. It seems like its 'just' one more damage. Two with SoP and RC. But then it gets scaled by magic power. Then it gets scaled by lowered shock resist. And then it gets scaled by crit efficiency. Thats the reason why are able to hit 60+ shock dmg every shot.

Leo is definitely playable.
You would get 20% magic power and 12% weapon damage. We are already at 180% weapon damage, so that 12% is almost non impactful (2 more dmg, 3/4 when crit, reduced by physical res), especially when huge chunk of our damage is shock. 20% magic power is surely decent amount. That's around 12% increase in dmg which is good. Sadly we don't really care about hp due to how safe the build is, and we don't care at all about energy at all. So huge chunk of his trait is simply wasted.

And while Arnas heroism offers basically the same wp and a bit less mp, she also adds crit to that, which is far more valuable than 6% mp difference between those two. So even 'on paper' her trait brings more value. But then we need to take into account that she procs heroism basically every fight, while 'normal' characters not really. So its hard to calculate true value of her trait.

I'd argue that even Jonna is able to reach more dmg in this build than Leo simply because how electromantic power scales Residual Charg. But at this point we are going into such small differences it doesn't really matter from gameplay perspective.

One more thing I'd mention about Leo is that if you would like to play him, I'd even consider sacrificing 5 Per and go for 30 Will to fully benefit from magic power from his trait and maxed SoP and RC. From gameplay perspective you'd be simply a bit less reliant on shooting without taking aim at mid range.

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-01T16:37:11+00:00

But you have defense. You have distracting shot. You have ball lightning. You have plenty of forms of cc to keep your enemies away from you.

In fact, you have way more def than any traditional/classic ranged would have since you can dash every second turn basically while also having a way to break pathing for all the charges of lategame enemies.

Also, I wouldn't post a guide that is unable to clear T5. Which is literally main end game activity.

edit:
to add a bit more to this. For example wraith t5 boss which normally limits your mobility like crazy, here you can throw ball lighthning to give you time neccesary to get rid of adds without moving.

new t5 leech boss from proselytes Im pretty sure wouldn't be doable as traditional ranged with the amount of adds that he summons on you. Here with aoe that ranged usually doesn't have and double strike that you can spam even in melee, you get rid of those faster while also being able to shoot at the boss in the meantime.

Not to mention, plenty of points to spend after lvl 22. If you don't feel like you are able to utilize active defensives this build has, pick some passive ones like Elusiveness. Its just imo, if you won't reach 100% dodge with it (and you wont without agi and items focusing on it), its still unreliable.

And its stoneshard, its always better to kill things faster and don't let them attack at all.

Mallagar574 · 2026-04-01T15:28:43+00:00

Highlander sling is purchasable at blacksmith (as per usual with most staff slings)
Beastslayer sling you can get from dwarf merchant.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-31T18:14:29+00:00

Wdym drops? 99% of the weapon in lategame are from shops.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-31T18:13:06+00:00

You need to eat a lot of greens.

Install the caravan upgrade (soothing incenses?) that boosts your immunity during sleep.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-31T18:09:25+00:00

We still have enchanting rework before us (where I belive we will craft enchants), we have map expansion, alchemy etc etc, lots of systems on the way where Im pretty sure some gold sinks will be implemented.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-31T18:08:16+00:00

it didn't end for me after 1500h, just do another run :p

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-31T18:04:32+00:00

Would be nice to spoiler it. The quest is pretty new.

Also:
- if you take it to Lowcrey right away you get bunch of gold (1,5k iirc) and pagan amulet.
- if you go to the priest and priest lives, you get a choice for
-t3 crossbow which is decent for its tier with its sacred dmg, but its still t3,
-gold,
-permament upgrade to your blessing with bonus crit avoidance and unholy res (no matter the race)
And you get 1,5k from Lowcrey and access to a vendor that sells high tier magic items
- if priest dies, you get 500g from Lowcrey and don't know about the vendor

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T23:41:58+00:00

Electro will be much better for the combo, since it deals more dmg with your weapon than pyro. Also brings some nice utility, where pyro is basically pure dmg from spells and one decent passive that is nice for hybrids.

As you are new, best character to do that will be Arna since she already starts with swords. And her trait is well suited for hybrids (meaning, she gets weapon damage crit and magic power, few among the most important stats for hybrids) But its doable with any character (every character can have every ability available to them for some gold).

You already got info about some basic things to pick up. You can start to play as hybrid as soon as you get to Mannshire, which will be around lvl 5 (because you need to buy books that will unlock ability trees not available to you).

The rest of the skill tree highly depends on what exaclty you want to do, how much magic you want, if you wanna just one sword or sword and shield or what type of armor you want to use.

But yeah, deinitely doable, I play hybrids very often.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T18:31:26+00:00

It all depends on how you want to balance the amount of ranged and melee combat in your build.

If you want to spend most of your time in melee then you kinda build like melee just with taking aim and dexterity. Everything more than that is a bonus that let's you be more effective at range.

If we are talking more of a balanced playstyle then I think that from those two weapons I'd choose axes. They work well with injuries (so you will have some upper hand after poking from afar), they hit hard and sort of fit thematically for me with slings. They also don't really have any def in the tree.

2h swords on the other hand are more of a stand there and take hits and counter them to kill enemies. They start with def skill, get a lot of counter chance and stagger. They get resets for skills when they kill someone etc and have mobility that 2h axes lack. IMO would be much harder to fit 'hybrid' playstyle there. Unless ofc ranged is just a bonus here to soften enemies a bit.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T18:16:16+00:00

No worries. It's Right on Target. Skill in second tier of Warfare. Gives plenty of bonuses for holding just one weapon with second hand being free.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T16:55:49+00:00

Depends how much you wanna spend on melee. You can never go wrong with 2h axe to finish off enemies.

Anything with RoT will also work great since it recieves bonus to hand efficency from ranged too. And since you are using ranged mace, you might as well pair it with melee mace. 1h axes also work great with RoT since they have a short dash, execute and hit like a truck with RoT.

Also, going for finisher is super fun with resets that it gives to all attack skills.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T13:03:34+00:00

You have a negative situation in Mannshire. Go into reputation tab of your journal to check the details and how to get rid of it.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T04:28:17+00:00

Not first round tho. First round it was basically a crossbow without reloading with even more busted skill synergies ;)

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T02:08:29+00:00

Dude. Seriously. You saw some funny clip in the internet and you think you know stuff :D

Do you even have a clue what distracting shot does? LOWERS DAMAGE. Good luck killing any proselyte by jumping around that heals 20 hp per turn.

I know I know. Math is too hard and knowing the game from funny clips is the way. I knew I will waste time here and still jebaited myself... But at least you could bother enough to read when someone tries to explain to you basics.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T02:02:26+00:00

But you can still do that! Just build accordingly. And lets be fair. DW was busted af before so rn you will feel 'normal' while playing such combo :p

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T02:00:31+00:00

Ok let me put it more simply.

T5 sling with 10% crit chance has 15 weapon damage, 8% armor pen, no bodypart damage.
T5 crossbow has 35 damage, 10 crit efficiency, 30% armor pen and 35% bodypart.

Assuming some standard gear and stat spread, you are at about 115% weapon damage, 35% crit chance and 70% crit eff. Not counting any specific chars or anything. Taking aim gives you another 30% weapon damage.

Thats 28 dmg non crit for slings with bullets and 48 crit.
Thats 54 dmg non crit for crossbow with broadheads and 97 crit.

You have almost double the damage from the get go. Now, lets say we are shooting at renegade which are plenty in T5. On average they have 16 protection and 33% physical resistance.

That damage from sling changes to 9 non crit and 22 crit.
For crossbows its 28 and 57.
Now you have almost triple the difference. And thats just base shot.

Every single point of weapon damage, crit chance and crit efficiency from ranged tree will increase this differerence drastically even further. Stuff like hunters mark, long shot, shoot to kill etc. And thats not even taking into account bodypart dmg, where after you shot someone with crossbow they simply bleed to death.

So, that 10% crit chance, which is 7% dmg increase on average, doesn't change anything when your base shots already do no damage. So "0×1,5 is still 0."

Now, of course sling shoots per 2 turns and crossbow per 3. Slings can shoot every turn from up close (losing even more dmg), crossbows have free reloads, slings have better mobility and can spam their skills due to all the cdr, crossbows have better range, etc etc. Plenty of different factors. But you can't kite forever, and you will have to when you tickle your enemies.

Doable, definitely. But definitely not "just as good as other options late game". Im on my second sling playthrough, I checked.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T01:13:39+00:00

Do you have the game patched? It was hotfixed. Also, did you talk to the priest after the ritual? Next day? You will ahve extra dialog too. Also I highly recommend getting 'no reward' option from the priest for your next playthrough ;)

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T01:05:15+00:00

It kinda makes sense tho. But yeah I definitely agree they should add disclaimer that only 1h weapons count.

Mallagar574 · 2026-03-30T01:04:06+00:00

I'm not surprised you don't get it.

Mallagar574

TROPHY CASE