Andor's Trail

Hi,
New to the forum but not to the game, I played the earlier version before the skills were released and enjoyed it back then.
Picked it up again to enjoy the new content recently.
So I am at level 30 with these base stats:
Max HP: 60
AC: 125%
AD: 12
BC: 15%

I have 2 skills in IF and 5 unused.
I cleared Charwood but did not choose the weapon and armor skills yet.

So the question is where to go now?
I will keep this state as a base save to get back later so I can play with different builds but just now wondering what I should test. There are a lof ot builds possible but I guess the basics are:

- 2 handed swords & heavy armour
- Sword & Shield
- Dual wielding & light armor
- Unarmed & unarmored

Which would be a good build to start with, and which weapons should I specialise in?
Just looking for a character that won;t struggle too much doing all the dungeons available.

Currently using:

- Leather cap
- Hardened leather shirt
- Jewel of Fallhaven
- Flagstone Pride
- Wooden Shield
- 2 polished rings of backstabbing
- Troublemaker's gloves
- Vacor's boots

Looking forward to your advice

Edit: Had the Max HP wrong

Hi, a good choice is combat speed to max to increase your AP and at least on point to exp gain.
I just started a new game and learned Cleave (plus its neccessaries).
Keep on upgrading IF each 15 levels to get your HP up and use your level-points on atk and BCC.
If you hunt for legendaries you can spend points to magic finder, but you need at least ten points to have a visible effect. Or try it with the usual 1/10.000 drop chance.
Your specialty depends on how you prefer to fight.

I was thinking combat speed would suit all play styles as well as always upgrading IF when available, thanks for confirming
Which leaves a few point for weapon style and weapon skills.
At the moment, my character hits pretty consistently but feels under-powered, so I am increasing AD. If I wanted to go for a heavy hitter, would it be more interesting to go the 2 handed sword route for big base damage or dual wielding with crit emphasis.
Also, is it possible to get the bed in blackwater when you choose the peaceful resolution with Prim, or you need to side with Blackwater only?

I consider both levels of CS as essential. With the right weapon(s) it can give you an extra attack per round, and there is no other skill where only 2 levels will boost your damage by as much as that. I also consider at least two levels of IF as essential, and one level of Regeneration. With a level of Re, you can stand in a doorway or other safe place and heal even if you have no potions.

As it stands at the moment, lower attack cost weapons will always do more damage per round than higher attack cost weapons. That's because very little of the damage comes from the weapon, even with big, heavy, ones, so the more attacks you get per round, the better.

If you want the bed in Blackwater you have to side with them, but why do you want the bed? Once you have finished the quests in the BWM area the last place you want to wake up is the top of BWM!

There's a shortcut from Blackwater settlement:

Good point for BWM, I am going to go for the peaceful solution.
Adding 2 in combat speed did make a big difference, thanks!
I am also going Dual wielding considering that heavy weapons are limited by high AP cost

@Firefly8, thanks for the tip will check it out

Dual wielding is just more fun...as you can try different combos. I agree, combat speed times 2 is a must. If you are going to get the blackwater set, very nice by the way, you get some good BC, so add to your AD with level ups. Oh, and I really like cleave as well.especially nice to have in the later on areas where groups swarm you.

Never thought of the blackwater set, just looked at it now, could be a fun set overall
I already have 2 swords and 2 daggers from the Aulaeth.
Would you get cleave before boosting weapon & armour proficiencies?

Well, first of all, make sure you have two levels of Fighting Style Dual Wield so you get the full benefit of dual wielding. I'd get cleave before you get the proficiencies...because if you go blackwater daggers with Combat Speed of 2, and have the jewel of fallhaven (or Marrowtaint) your atk cost will be 3, with cleave level 1, you get 3 AP upon kill, which means another attack.

In my experience, I never needed more than 2 skill points on IF. Even one is enough with several HP level ups, but I love Damage Resistance. So, I guess it depends on your build.

Attacker build is more health regen and offense.
Tanky build has dmg resist and defense.
Crit'ter (glass canon) build has cc and offense.

You can sure have more than 2 or 3 types of skills, be it offense, defense, critical, and/or immunity, but having more than that will decrease effectiveness of the entire build. The real build tie-breakers comes from fighting style, specialization, and Oegyth skills in relation to equipment.

I personally like medium-high offense, medium defense, medium-low immunity (IF & Regen), and light equipment with a hint of critical. For this I use Skullcrusher, Greataxe, etc.. OR, you could shift some offense to critical and use Dagger of Shadow Priest.

I find that, most of the time, your weapon(s) dictate your build and skill choice.