Curse

wingedcoyote · Jul 02, 2005, 06:12 PM // 18:12

I'm level 14, and tonight I'm going to attempt Frost Gate (for the second time, but at least I got the bonus).

Here's my build as-is:

Swordsmanship 8
Tactics 3+1
Strength 3
Curses 5
(21 free attribute points, and 24 refund points)

"Watch yourself!"
Sever Artery
Gash
Parasitic Bond
Mark of Pain
Faintheartedness
Resurrection Signet
Sprint

It serves me pretty well. Mostly I look for big groups and tag the toughest monster (preferably the healer) with Mark, then focus-fire it 'til the rest of the group is dead. For single targets I use Faintheartedness stacked with Sever>Gash to make short work. Parasitic Bond is for using on dying foes when I need a health top-off, and I almost constantly spam Watch Yourself 'cause god knows the henchies won't keep themselves alive without help. It works well, but I've just gotten some new skills and I'm thinking about fitting them in.

The most pertinent is Distracting Blow. Every once in a while I meet an enemy who really makes me want some disruption, so this seems like a good bet.

Also, I'm tempted to tweak my necro skills. Shadow of Fear looks nice... but I'm not sure because in the situations where it'd be useful (enemies grouped up tight), I tend to have little trouble due to Mark of Pain. Only rarely do bunched-up melee-ers live long enough for this to matter... although when they do, it's a nasty situation, so maybe. The same pros and cons apply to Suffering, more or less. And I hear a lot of good stuff about Weaken Armor, but 3 seconds seems like a long casting time for a frontline fighter.

I could be convinced to add Death or Blood magic if there's something really good I'm missing. Also, while I think I've settled on Sword, if Axe has some big advantage I might switch to that -- I certainly seem to find more good axes! One other thing I've considered is pumping up my Tactics a bit and using Signet to heal, in place of Parasitic -- didn't work well for me before, but they've changed it a bit and I figure Watch Yourself could offset the penalty. Also, pretty soon I'll get Flurry and Bonetti's Defense, either of which might be really handy -- the former to make Mark of Pain work faster, and the latter to help me spam out curses.

As for what to remove... well, that's the tough part, innit?

Wow, long post. Anyway, I'd love any comments and suggestions. This game is getting more and more fun, but also more and more difficult, and I want my gal to be a fine-tuned fighting machine.