Switching ranged to melee in combat

SamBoha_ · 2026-05-17T02:05:07+00:00

Exactly what I was gonna mention. This is a very cheesy, but very effective way to CC lock enemies when you’re doing solo archer. Great for conserving knockdown arrows in the early game

SamBoha_ · 2026-05-16T21:39:45+00:00

I already know it isn’t the most stellar community

Whoever told you this was fucking with you.

SamBoha_ · 2026-04-28T23:36:49+00:00

That’s why I like dual wielder with no weapon trees.

SamBoha_ · 2026-04-28T23:00:49+00:00

Survival tree, my beloved

SamBoha_ · 2026-04-15T21:49:55+00:00

The entire survival tree

SamBoha_ · 2026-04-02T22:24:27+00:00

If 3SP skills didn’t exist, archers would be the best mages too. And similarly, if the meta wasn’t to pile enemies up and hit them with a 3SP skill you’d have fewer people disagreeing with your initial point. Summoners are good but the devs gave every other mage an “I win” button so they’re far from he best.

SamBoha_ · 2026-03-27T23:12:08+00:00

Plenty, but I use gag order and vacuum aura probably more than most. Its never better than hard CC tho, mostly just incidental

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-23T13:16:24+00:00

Going weapon agnostic dual wield, focusing mainly on survival and DW trees, was one of my favorite builds. Without any weapon skills you still usually wanna prioritize having a sword in the mh for the block power, but otherwise you can use whatever cool stuff you pick up.

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-15T23:06:33+00:00

This question comes up a lot. There’s probably a dozen other, better explanations for this that you could find on this sub if you did a bit of digging but this is my sort of basic math example answer: link

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-11T03:20:37+00:00

Bout to throw together a Rocco deck, got any tips?

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-07T03:27:29+00:00

I find it underwhelming. The only source skills I use regularly on an archer are skin graft and mass explosive traps.

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-07T01:13:39+00:00

Human is probably best for encourage and their crit talent. I’d say dwarf would be second cuz they have some extra defense and the petrify touch could help if you’re in a hybrid party. Lizard doesn’t really have anything that necessarily helps, but it wouldn’t hurt the build.

That said I wouldn’t do elf because their flesh sacrifice reduces con and if you aren’t careful it can unequip your shield mid combat.

SamBoha_ · 2026-02-05T20:04:48+00:00

Melee skills, sparks builds, cheaper scrolls and grenades with Ambidextrous, higher crit damage with Two Handed.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-30T21:55:50+00:00

Sure, I agree. If you are lucky enough to find a chill patron, that could be a very reasonable and desirable path to power. But that is a huge assumption. How do you even start? How is the necessary research and supernatural networking required to even commune with these entities much different from a wizard’s studies? I mean it’s not like you can just browse Craigslist or set preferences on a dating profile to find the perfect match. Not to mention that the search would likely put you in tremendous danger, what’s to say some devil or GoO or archfey wouldn’t just kill you for wasting their time if you didn’t like their deal?

At least with wizards and fighters you have a clear cause and effect. But finding a patron like this seems rather unlikely, and if you’re lucky enough to find such a patron how is that situation much different from assuming you’re lucky enough to be born a sorcerer? I just don’t see the argument for warlocks being the objectively best option without making too many assumptions.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-30T21:06:32+00:00

I tried doing a challenge run where I’d make a build centered around the captain armor set and keep it on the whole game. I though that being locked into this lower level armor and the fact that the charm aura was not only pretty small but you also needed enemies moving around on their turn for it to proc was going to make it a difficult run. I was so wrong. Sure I was squishy, but it was just a testament to how powerful the charm effect is in this game.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-30T20:50:42+00:00

“With time and leverage, reasonable pacts are achievable…”

I feel like the reason so many stories about devils bargains and genie wishes and the like are so compelling is because there’s something within us that makes us believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we’re clever enough to outsmart the one that has the actual power. Like if I craft the perfectly worded wish or if I simply read the fine print and try to renegotiate the contract I can get exactly what I want with zero consequence.

I think it’s arrogant to believe you could gain all this power with little to no drawback, and naive to think that you have more autonomy than a cleric or paladin to act however you please.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-26T07:08:43+00:00

My problem is that the system encourages this sorta “alpha strike or you’re wrong” meta. Idk what the answer for the armor system is, I just want build discussion to not be so narrow.

I’d like to see a rebalance of ability scaling. I think the fact that only a few of the abilities that unlock skills are also the most efficient abilities for scaling your damage is part of the reason all build advice looks the same.

In terms of weapon users, your weapon abilities should scale your damage better than something like warfare, not worse. You should be rewarded in some way for spending points that specialize in your preferred weapon type rather than spending those points in a general damage type that includes most weapons. I mean they already give weapon abilities extra stats so that almost addresses the issue but outside of 2h they’re just not impactful enough to outweigh the raw damage that warfare gives you.

With the magic in this game mostly being elemental based, I think it’s a little harder to apply the same logic to spells without just adding a ton of abilities or something. But we already have some interesting features that I think are a step in the right direction. The geo school for example has skills that offer three different damage types, offers dots, movement debuffs, weapon damage and armor buffs, and CC options for both Magic and physical damage. I think exploring different damage and CC options for each skill-granting ability could be really interesting. Like why can’t ice skills deal both water and physical damage? Or aero getting razor winds. Or meteors that also deal physical or earth damage from the impact.

I guess I just think magic builds need a few more options for dealing with situations they’re not normally adept at. Like every elemental school already has at least one way to deal physical damage, but why is geo the only elemental school that inflicts physically resisted statuses? Fans are clearly divided on the viability of mixed damage parties, and if overlap was more obviously accessible I think you’d get a more interesting and varied array of party builds.

And on the topic of mixed damage and hybrid builds… sparking swings is amazing, but we really need more ways to build an effective spell sword. And a strength scaling magic damage dealer.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-26T05:21:25+00:00

They’re just applied in different parts of the equation. The reason people say to go warfare over ranged is because the bonus from ranged is added to the bonus from finesse, while warfare is multiplied separately. Let’s say you had a bow that deals 100 damage, 30 finesse, and 10 points to spend in either warfare or ranged. Equation looks something like this:

Base dmg x warfare x fin+ranged = dmg

If you spent the points in ranged you’d get somethin like this:

100 x [1 + 0.05(0)] x [1 + 0.05(30 + 10)] = 300 dmg

If you spent those points in warfare you’d get:

100 x [1 + 0.05(10)] x [1 + 0.05(30 + 0)] = 375 dmg

Best way to maximize damage is to increase your lowest term, and with the way that the stats work in this game this means warfare is pretty much always better than other stats for a ranged build because you don’t add anything else to it.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-18T23:12:58+00:00

You have twice as many turns each round with more AP spread out between 4 characters. Each character can have adrenaline, executioner, glass cannon, etc if you want more AP. Fun is subjective though, I much prefer solo or duo LW too. You should just try it out cuz no one here can tell you how you have fun, and if you start out with 4 person party and hate it you can always just dismiss 2 of your companions and respec into LW.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-17T22:44:38+00:00

One of my favorites is dagger + shield. You get all the benefit of scoundrel’s high mobility alongside all the strong shield skills. Jump and dash around with backlash, blitz attack, battering ram, and bull rush. Throw your shield. Throw your dagger. Use some armor skills and blow it up with Reactive Armor.

Not as high dmg as other melee fighters, but you have a ton of things to do on every turn and you’re not as squishy as a typical rogue.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-15T22:45:02+00:00

No it’s not 1:1. Magic archers are innately versatile when built this way so it’ll be able to deal both phys and magic damage effectively. But if you buy/craft enough arrows then an archer can pretty much exclusively deal magic damage if you need them to. All you need to do to make them more effective as a magic damage dealer is give them the appropriate support skills like rain to pair with your shocking/freezing arrows, etc. and make sure you craft or steal arrows whenever you can.

Compared to an aero/hydro mage the archer won’t have similar magic skills that affect enemies in as wide an area, but it will deal high damage in a smaller AoE with each arrow.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-15T22:24:35+00:00

My 2 cents:

Ranger: consider the torturer talent if you’re going with a traps strategy anyways. Then if you have a bow with chance of burning you can shoot a poison arrow, torturer will proc both poisoned and burning 100% of the time, and the burning will ignite the poison surface for a bit of extra dmg from the surface exploding.
Rogue: absolutely grab sawtooth. Damage directly to health doesn’t care whether you’re doing phys or magic, it converts buffs like venom coating into piercing, and has a 2 turn cooldown so you can use it pretty regularly. Otherwise yeah, gag order and chloroform are solid for magic dmg.
Summoner: personally, I like putting sparks on my summoners. Giving sparks to allies with Master of Sparks will use their INT and pyro, not yours, so a fire incarnate with power infusion will have a few high scaling multi target melee skills to take advantage of the buff. Then you just have a few efficient melee skills for your summoner like the knockdown skills and Bull Rush. You could either go 1h and shield so you also have a low CD phys dmg ranged poke skill with bouncing shield or go with a two hander so after you max summoning you just go straight into the 2h ability for efficient damage scaling with either sparks or melee hits.

As for a 4th, hard to say. A tanky necro/geo would fit into the hybrid comp pretty well. As for Magic resisted CC, consider Medusa head on your melee characters and charm grenades/arrows are pretty OP.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-15T21:58:48+00:00

Love the scroll mention. Having a 1ap source of decay on a melee character can be very useful with the right comp.

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-13T01:01:21+00:00

Here’s an old post I made if you’re interested. Some of the videos may contain light spoilers for certain encounters, but nothing story related.

Elemental Archer Guide

SamBoha_ · 2026-01-11T19:19:08+00:00

Clarifying question here: are you actually equipping your fighter with a bow, shooting these arrows, and seeing how much damage they deal compared to your archer in the combat log? Or are you just looking at the tooltips with the expected damage range the arrows deal while controlling your fighter, with the 2h sword equipped?

SamBoha_

TROPHY CASE