Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
You can get them with Adonis and/or Superb but you can't get those in a Rise start. You might still be able to get Crackshot with Sharpshooter (which you can then disable again) I don't remember if that's enough by itself but Deadly Strike is definitely a no without Soldier unless it's an enhanced start so you can pick Adonis/Superb. You cans till get soldier and then remove it after taking wildborn but not deadly strike. Not sure if that's intended or an oversight.
'Brainy,' 'Deadly Strike' and 'Techie' are protected in that you can't run up your attributes or take a skill class and then pick them and lower the Attribute or delete the Skill Class. 'Attractive' is partially protected as you can't raise Charm to take it and then lower it after selecting Attractive, but you can take Slaver -3, choose 'Attractive' and then remove Slaver-3.

'Wildborn,' and 'Crafter' can be selected after choosing a Skill Class and the Skill Class can then be changed. I checked as I hadn't tried it myself and you can use 'Sharpshooter' to get enough RC for 'Crackshot' and then remove 'Sharpshooter.'

I doubt it's intended, I just think Grim has better things to do than rework it again to prevent the naughtiness that's still possible. He did after all prevent some of the...'tricks'...veteran character creators were employing to get what they wanted without paying the whole price, he just didn't get all of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clemency and khumak

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
'Brainy,' 'Deadly Strike' and 'Techie' are protected in that you can't run up your attributes or take a skill class and then pick them and lower the Attribute or delete the Skill Class. 'Attractive' is partially protected as you can't raise Charm to take it and then lower it after selecting Attractive, but you can take Slaver -3, choose 'Attractive' and then remove Slaver-3.

'Wildborn,' and 'Crafter' can be selected after choosing a Skill Class and the Skill Class can then be changed. I checked as I hadn't tried it myself and you can use 'Sharpshooter' to get enough RC for 'Crackshot' and then remove 'Sharpshooter.'

I doubt it's intended, I just think Grim has better things to do than rework it again to prevent the naughtiness that's still possible. He did after all prevent some of the...'tricks'...veteran character creators were employing to get what they wanted without paying the whole price, he just didn't get all of them.
Sounds about right. I suspect the Adonis/Superb options might actually be intended since I get the feeling Grim considers an "enhanced" game basically cheat mode. So why lock everything down for that mode? Any shenanigans that are still possible in a Rise game are probably unintended though I would guess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clemency

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
Unless you spend points on the soldier class, you're almost certainly going to start off with terrible combat stats in a rise start so you're going to be mostly reliant on your followers in combat for quite awhile. Combining that with Ironman really makes the game brutal since you're going to constantly have whoever your main combat followers are dying permanently. That means unless you want to eventually just kill off all the uniques you're going to have to train up a constant supply of random scrubs to just toss into the meat grinder. There is no amount of gear or training that will ever allow you to avoid deaths in an iron man game unless you just never fight anything dangerous.

Personally, for a Rise start I prioritize the traits and don't take any skill classes at all. You can train up stats. You can't add traits mid game other than the master traits. I did try an ironman game for awhile but I found it annoying not to ever be able to take any of my best people into combat. I was curious to see how often people became incapacitated rather than dying outright. The answer is that even in the best armor they usually just die. Since it's not uncommon for the enemy to crit for up to 100 or so you would need armor with soak value close to double what Hulk armor has to be able to reliably avoid deaths.
This is where some of the higher Skill Classes and Expert levels can come in handy. If you do start as an Expert Soldier you're pretty much a top-tier merc yourself and can equip two followers with Combat Armor and add Kate and perhaps Doyle and have a well-armored team that can take on most everyone from the outset and doesn't bury you in negative income. Stay away from the nastiest ones like the Black Guardsmen and Gunner on Marsten Avenue until you have Duraplate.

An Expert Slaver, Businessman, Scholar and Doctor can hire Ayden right away, that pretty much ensures the death/capture of your deadliest opponent. That's the other side of the equation, for virtually all combats you can make sure roughly two of their best never get to fire often leaving you nothing more than Pipegun opposition.

Expert Hunter gives you a decent chance to get the drop on the Highwaymen of Darkmere, which is one opponent I wouldn't disturb in an Ironman mode game. Playing my last Enhanced mode start with Ironman the only real time I got white-knuckled was facing them when they had the ambush, they pounded poor Cassius in his Duraplate pretty hard a few times, enough so I didn't seek them out as much as I might have, it was too close a call a few times before I started demurring. Gorun-Iko is another serious problem, I created my character with a 'Godzilla Protocol' so I could play it Ironman and not fear him, but just for fun I saved and tried it the old-school way with Greatswords and prayer--and needed more of the latter. End result was Truls, Cassius and Ayden dead and buried. Then I implemented my 'Godzilla Protocol' and put everyone in Stealth Armor and dared Gorun-Iko to hit me with my 201 starting Dexterity. Yes, I was naughty during character creation, running my age up, maxing Dex on the Attributes screen, then lowering my age to 18 and taking my Skill Classes and Traits.

It did however work, that sonovabitch never touched me or my team. It was the Highwaymen of Darkmere who scared me the most. I did stay away from everyone else until I could ensure they'd never get much of a shot off with a good gun, the Urban Titans still taunt me, I try to ignore them even though I hate seeing their icon in my city.
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
This is where some of the higher Skill Classes and Expert levels can come in handy. If you do start as a Expert Soldier you're pretty much a top-tier merc yourself and can equip two followers with Combat Armor and add Kate and perhaps Doyle and have a well-armored team that can take on most everyone from the outset and doesn't bury you in negative income. Stay away from the nastiest ones like the Black Guardsmen and Gunner on Marsten Avenue until you have Duraplate.

An Expert Slaver, Businessman, Scholar and Doctor can hire Ayden right away, that pretty much ensures the death/capture of your deadliest opponent. That's the other side of the equation, for virtually all combats you can make sure roughly two of their best never get to fire often leaving you nothing more than Pipegun opposition.

Expert Hunter gives you a decent chance to get the drop on the Highwaymen of Darkmere, which is one opponent I wouldn't disturb in an Ironman mode game. Playing my last Enhanced mode start with Ironman the only real time I got white-knuckled was facing them when they had the ambush, they pounded poor Cassius in his Duraplate pretty hard a few times, enough so I didn't seek them out as much as I might have, it was too close a call a few times before I started demurring. Gorun-Iko is another serious problem, I created my character with a 'Godzilla Protocol' so I could play it Ironman and not fear him, but just for fun I saved and tried it the old-school way with Greatswords and prayer--and needed more of the latter. End result was Truls, Cassius and Ayden dead and buried. Then I implemented my 'Godzilla Protocol' and put everyone in Stealth Armor and dared Gorun-Iko to hit me with my 201 starting Dexterity. Yes, I was naughty during character creation, running my age up, maxing Dex on the Attributes screen, then lowering my age to 18 and taking my Skill Classes and Traits.

It did however work, that sonovabitch never touched me or my team. It was the Highwaymen of Darkmere who scared me the most. I did stay away from everyone else until I could ensure they'd never get much of a shot off with a good gun, the Urban Titans still taunt me, I try to ignore them efven though I hate seeing their icon in my city.
Oh I'm not denying that the skill classes are very helpful. I'm just saying that in a Rise game I consider the non stat related traits more important so I'm more likely to take zero skill classes so I can load up on most of the good traits even if it means I can't have Deadly Strike (which is normally an automatic pick for me). My usual starts do include enough influence for me to pick up Ayden on day 1 so as you mentioned that pretty much makes any early game combat a cakewalk even if everyone else in your party is entirely useless (including MC). Kate is an obvious pickup if you can get Ayden since that gets you 1 merc in better than Duraplate and another in effectively a stealth suit on day 1. Tough to beat that, although Ayden does have a high salary so if you're playing on Dying World no ammo pack for awhile unless you get lucky on events.

I've been taking Mountain Man most of the time lately so 200+ dex is not an option for me. Definitely has it's uses for a fight like Terror but I generally find it not very useful against gun wielding opponents, which is what you're facing in most of the tough fights. Aaron is also a pretty good early game pick up except he takes a lot of training before he really shines. His melee output is eventually comparable to Cassius though and he does not take a salary.

I went nuts with both Int and Manipulation in my current game at character creation to see what effect it has on the option to enslave my mercs later. Some of them seem to be Int based and others are Manipulation based. So my starting int was 170 and my starting Manipulate was 165. My previous game I managed to enslave everyone except the top tiers without too many issues. I even managed to eventually convince Samuel, but the other top tiers were all impossible at my stat levels even with a 50k bribe, undying affection, and negative willpower.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
Oh I'm not denying that the skill classes are very helpful. I'm just saying that in a Rise game I consider the non stat related traits more important so I'm more likely to take zero skill classes so I can load up on most of the good traits even if it means I can't have Deadly Strike (which is normally an automatic pick for me). My usual starts do include enough influence for me to pick up Ayden on day 1 so as you mentioned that pretty much makes any early game combat a cakewalk even if everyone else in your party is entirely useless (including MC). Kate is an obvious pickup if you can get Ayden since that gets you 1 merc in better than Duraplate and another in effectively a stealth suit on day 1. Tough to beat that, although Ayden does have a high salary so if you're playing on Dying World no ammo pack for awhile unless you get lucky on events.

I've been taking Mountain Man most of the time lately so 200+ dex is not an option for me. Definitely has it's uses for a fight like Terror but I generally find it not very useful against gun wielding opponents, which is what you're facing in most of the tough fights. Aaron is also a pretty good early game pick up except he takes a lot of training before he really shines. His melee output is eventually comparable to Cassius though and he does not take a salary.

I went nuts with both Int and Manipulation in my current game at character creation to see what effect it has on the option to enslave my mercs later. Some of them seem to be Int based and others are Manipulation based. So my starting int was 170 and my starting Manipulate was 165. My previous game I managed to enslave everyone except the top tiers without too many issues. I even managed to eventually convince Samuel, but the other top tiers were all impossible at my stat levels even with a 50k bribe, undying affection, and negative willpower.

Oh...I was a Mountain Man in that start too, note the fine print. It's difficult to increase your Dex past 60 (or whatever it is), but if your Dex is already 201 you don't really need to increase it, now do you? Note that you can't take 'Stiffness' and try it as you'll think you're getting away with it until you get to the starting screen and see your Dex back to 70. I did it mostly for the 'Godzilla Protocol' and also because I wanted to create a physical superhero.

I also maxed Manipulation before taking my Skill Classes and Traits, sacrificing starting with mega influence and money to make the early game more of a struggle--and to get the best Traits and Skill Classes. I had Slaver-3, Soldier-2 and Hunting -1. My hope was to be able to strip-em, whip-em and shove a buttplug up their ass from the outset to get their Corruption up ASAP, and it mostly worked, though some (like Mae for some reason) are especially resistant to that butt-plug (it wasn't her traits either, I've tried it with many different Maes and had the same problem).

I get what you're saying about sacrificing Skill Classes to get more Traits, that's my basic inclination as well (don't pay for what you can train, take what can't be obtained later) but was just pointing out in an Ironman game being able to fight from the outset with little fear of permanent deaths is kind of an 'Enhanced' trait as well if you think about it.

By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: khumak

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
Oh...I was a Mountain Man in that start too, note the fine print. It's difficult to increase your Dex past 60 (or whatever it is), but if your Dex is already 201 you don't really need to increase it, now do you? Note that you can't take 'Stiffness' and try it as you'll think you're getting away with it until you get to the starting screen and see your Dex back to 70. I did it mostly for the 'Godzilla Protocol' and also because I wanted to create a physical superhero.

I also maxed Manipulation before taking my Skill Classes and Traits, sacrificing starting with mega influence and money to make the early game more of a struggle--and to get the best Traits and Skill Classes. I had Slaver-3, Soldier-2 and Hunting -1. My hope was to be able to strip-em, whip-em and shove a buttplug up their ass from the outset to get their Corruption up ASAP, and it mostly worked, though some (like Mae for some reason) are especially resistant to that butt-plug (it wasn't her traits either, I've tried it with many different Maes and had the same problem).

I get what you're saying about sacrificing Skill Classes to get more Traits, that's my basic inclination as well (don't pay for what you can train, take what can't be obtained later) but was just pointing out in an Ironman game being able to fight from the outset with little fear of permanent deaths is kind of an 'Enhanced' trait as well if you think about it.
Oh nice. I hadn't tried that. I did try a game where I took the Stiffness penalty and then also boosted my Dex to more than 200 at character creation. If you do that, your Dex gets immediately reduced to 70 right after you click start game. Didn't try it again without Stiffness. Good to know that's an option.

As for fighting without deaths in Ironman, the issue there as I see it is the worst case scenarios. Eventually your followers are going to face a situation where they're low on health and then take a big hit. In that scenario even with Hulk armor they're going to die. So I don't think it's avoidable unless you only ever do easy fights. For instance a tier 7 bounty you're going to sometimes face cyber cannon wielding opponents (2 of them in the same battle sometimes in fact). It's not remotely possible to survive that in an ironman game. You can kill and/or capture 1 of those guys in the first round sometimes but there's no way you're getting both of them in 1 round, at least not without miniguns.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
Oh nice. I hadn't tried that. I did try a game where I took the Stiffness penalty and then also boosted my Dex to more than 200 at character creation. If you do that, your Dex gets immediately reduced to 70 right after you click start game. Didn't try it again without Stiffness. Good to know that's an option.

As for fighting without deaths in Ironman, the issue there as I see it is the worst case scenarios. Eventually your followers are going to face a situation where they're low on health and then take a big hit. In that scenario even with Hulk armor they're going to die. So I don't think it's avoidable unless you only ever do easy fights. For instance a tier 7 bounty you're going to sometimes face cyber cannon wielding opponents (2 of them in the same battle sometimes in fact). It's not remotely possible to survive that in an ironman game. You can kill and/or capture 1 of those guys in the first round sometimes but there's no way you're getting both of them in 1 round.

Yeah, I read one of your posts while I was experimenting with that strat and added 'Stiffness' with a smug look on my face (thirty more points to spend!) only to see that starting screen with all my Dex wiped away.

My strategy involved staying away from Tier-7 bounties! Don't fight anyone you can't basically dismantle in the opening round. There is no substitute for absolute victory with minimal risk--that's the Ironman anthem!
 
Last edited:

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
Yeah, I read one of your posts while I was experimenting with that strat and added 'Stiffness' with a smug look on my face (thirty more points to spend!) only to see that starting screen with all my Dex wiped away.

My strategy involved staying away from Tier-7 bounties! Don't fight anyone you can't basically dismantle in the opening round. There is no substitute for total victory with minimal risk, that's the Ironman anthem!
Yeah Tier 6 bounties would even still be doable, but not tier 7. I imagine the rebellion might be a problem though. I suspect for an Ironman game what I would probably do is train up some random scrubs specifically for the rebellion fights to be disposable. Aria is scripted to be immortal in those fights I believe. So if you get all your disposable scrubs killed during the rebellion, no big deal and then you've got some mini guns for your uniques to use.

Regarding Mountain Man and dex, one last thing I still haven't tried is to see if the bonus for solo training as a Lone Wolf is enough to matter. Someone said you can train past 60 as a mountain man anyway and it's just harder but I'm not sure if that means the caps are unaffected or just lower? I usually don't prioritize dex that much so I frequently wind up starting over before I ever do even 1 dex training session.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
Yeah Tier 6 bounties would even still be doable, but not tier 7. I imagine the rebellion might be a problem though. I suspect for an Ironman game what I would probably do is train up some random scrubs specifically for the rebellion fights to be disposable. Aria is scripted to be immortal in those fights I believe. So if you get all your disposable scrubs killed during the rebellion, no big deal and then you've got some mini guns for your uniques to use.

Regarding Mountain Man and dex, one last thing I still haven't tried is to see if the bonus for solo training as a Lone Wolf is enough to matter. Someone said you can train past 60 as a mountain man anyway and it's just harder but I'm not sure if that means the caps are unaffected or just lower? I usually don't prioritize dex that much so I frequently wind up starting over before I ever do even 1 dex training session.
By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.

I think it will still increase, but you might run into a a lower cap as the penalty will make it impossible to succeed past around 80-100, one of the code boffins could probably tell you for sure.

I've not done the Rebellion yet, my old Rise from the Ashes run was almost completely played when you couldn't capture more than one of each sex, as a result I looked at the manpower requirements to start it and whimpered, even if I dissolved my force at Fort Sera I was still something like 500 short, and didn't want to grind it out with that character anymore, since then I've been restarting before I get there. This last one I'll probably give up on now as I think I ran into some kind of cap on Manip as I can't seem to increase it past 208, (even with books) meaning all that pumping Manip in character creation to start with 190 was a waste.

But it means I'll have more points to spend this next time--yay!
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
By the way, who is Aaron?' I read that name recently but couldn't think of who that was.
This guy. He's the brawler you can pick up at Kymanto hall and is available on day 1. His stats start off low but he's guaranteed berserker, warrior, scavenger and can randomly also get malevolent and brawler. He's also Herculean so you can train him up to 130 strength.

Aaron.jpg

I've not done the Rebellion yet, my old Rise from the Ashes run was almost completely played when you couldn't capture more than one of each sex, as a result I looked at the manpower requirements to start it and whimpered, even if I dissolved my force at Fort Sera I was still something like 500 short, and didn't want to grind it out with that character anymore, since then I've been restarting before I get there. This last one I'll probably give up on now as I think I ran into some kind of cap on Manip as I can't seem to increase it past 208, meaning all that pumping Manip in character creation to start with 190 was a waste.

But it means I'll have more points to spend this next time--yay!
Some of the rebellion fights are on a par with the tier 7 bounties when it comes to difficulty, maybe even tougher. You're not doing those without losing anyone even if everyone is wearing hulk armor and you're packing 2 cyber cannons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
This guy. He's the brawler you can pick up at Kymanto hall and is available on day 1. His stats start off low but he's guaranteed berserker, warrior, scavenger and can randomly also get malevolent and brawler. He's also Herculean so you can train him up to 130 strength.

View attachment 4142834



Some of the rebellion fights are on a par with the tier 7 bounties when it comes to difficulty, maybe even tougher. You're not doing those without losing anyone even if everyone is wearing hulk armor and you're packing 2 cyber cannons.
Thanks for the info. I did look at that guy and he seemed less useful than Truls or Cassius so I didn't bite. I haven't seen anything about Berserker, how new is that and what does it do?
 

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
Thanks for the info. I did look at that guy and he seemed less useful than Truls or Cassius so I didn't bite. I haven't seen anything about Berserker, how new is that and what does it do?
I think he's currently the only NPC who can get it. It's essentially Master Sniper for melee. He gets an extra d20 for melee damage. I like to put both Aaron and Cassius in my A team once I get him trained up because those 2 are by far the best at capturing hulk armored opponents with a whip when I get to that point, aside from MC of course if he's got the right traits.
 

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
I think he's currently the only NPC who can get it. It's essentially Master Sniper for melee. He gets an extra d20 for melee damage. I like to put both Aaron and Cassius in my A team once I get him trained up because those 2 are by far the best at capturing hulk armored opponents with a whip when I get to that point, aside from MC of course if he's got the right traits.
Oh yes, I do see the attraction! Thanks for the info, I'll consider him this next run and for that reason.

Too bad he can't get 'Deadly Strike' too....that would really be a one man capture machine.
 

Fauno36

Active Member
May 26, 2023
576
624
"Estudios GD, publicación: 15116062, miembro: 4380030"
Sold my crossbow, spent all money buying that Scandi girl. Bandit tolls everywhere. Ranged skill 25. All I could do was taking shifts at "The Sludge".

While some choices weren't strategically "perfect", I did eventually rise from the ashes. A very fun playthrough that touched on all early/mid-game aspects. Things that would've passed unnoticed if I'd cheated. (Again, remember these are words from an ironman masochist.)


Speaking of masochists, this week I just started, for the umpteenth time, MoR, in Grimdark mode and Dying World.
I'm obsessed with the idea of achieving the perfect start, for the perfect game!!!
 
Last edited:

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
Oh yes, I do see the attraction! Thanks for the info, I'll consider him this next run and for that reason.

Too bad he can't get 'Deadly Strike' too....that would really be a one man capture machine.
Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...
 

Quickpawmaud

Member
Jul 4, 2019
408
163
I am not sure why you fixate on gameplay benefits as being somehow categorically different from advance access. They are both benefits. If you really believe that Patreon is a marketplace with developers selling products, I think that you misunderstand Pateon and patronage in general.

A patron is paying so that a product can be made. Not for them (paying for exclusive access is just purchasing) but for everyone. Patron patronize because they want to see the products of their clients finished, not because they get products for their own exclusive use. I'm a patron of Grim because I want to reward developers that focus on making games fun and interesting all the time. Those developers are extremely rare here, where most developers rely on grind or twitch minigames to pad their slender storytelling.
I have been a patron of people who paint 40k miniatures for one month so they would paint a mini for me and send it to me. I have also been a patron for one month for other services like that for different things. People sell and pay for a variety of things for a variety of reasons. If it was for zero reward or benefit then yeah it is purely to support development and the creator. When benefits and rewards are involved then a lot of people will be paying for those rewards rather than purely for support. I think this is very easy to understand.
 

Gunner Rey

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2018
1,093
956
Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...
Try Rebecca, savescum Brawler if you want but she's still a melee menace without it, and train her Strength to 120. I do it about every game. Bitch hits harder than me if I don't get a crit.

She starts with a Discipline of 70 so she's easy to train and is guaranteed to get Malevolent and Warrioress. You can run into many randoms with better starting melee and strength, but you'd probably have to savescum forever to get a combination as good as Rebecca in the long term. Even Kate and the ex-Arena champ seldom start with a decent Discipline.
 

Quickpawmaud

Member
Jul 4, 2019
408
163
Yeah no kidding. My last game I tried an all girl Crackshot squad as my A team and that was fun but none of them were strong enough to consistently do more than 0 damage with a whip on Hulk armored opponents so I was pretty much entirely reliant on MC for that. I also had issues with advanced tactics deciding that MC is the main tank pretty often. If I have Cassius, he's usually the main tank over MC. The girl boss squad was still fun though. Combat focused wife, Kelly, Milou, and Iona. The other issue there is that only 1 of those is guaranteed to be available early and she's not guaranteed crackshot unless you save scum her. 4 crackshots with miniguns though (5 if you count MC) is a LOT of damage...
How can you have a "tank"? Enemies target whoever they want no? I don't know about any sort of aggro mechanic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tooldev

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
Try Rebecca, savescum Brawler if you want but she's still a melee menace without it, and train her Strength to 120. I do it about every game. Bitch hits harder than me if I don't get a crit.

She starts with a Discipline of 70 so she's easy to train and is guaranteed to get Malevolent and Warrioress. You can run into many randoms with better starting melee and strength, but you'd probably have to savescum forever to get a combination as good as Rebecca in the long term. Even Kate and the ex-Arena champ seldom start with a decent Discipline.
Yeah Rebecca is guaranteed to be good in combat from a trait standpoint. Combat focused wife is actually an absolute beast if you save scum her since she can have Crackshot, Brawler, Warrior, and Malevolent. Strength is her only problem. I don't think Kelly can get Brawler but I believe she's a guaranteed Crackshot and can be trained up as a warrior if she doesn't have it. Milou is a Crackshot, Warrior, and has Ammo pack. Too bad she can't get Malevolent or Brawler. I forget what Iona gets other than Crackshot and since she's only obtainable as a capture during the rebellion fights on the mastersphere she's really not a save scum option. Even moreso than Milou (I think her traits are set in stone anyway). So of the above, combat focused wife can actually get to where she can capture Hulk armored opponents if she has all the traits, especially if she's an Aesir worshipper but most of the others aren't really going to get to that point consistently.

Aria you actually MUST take on the rebellion fights so if you wanted to you could save scum her to have brawler, malevolent and warrior but she won't be a crackshot.

I'll be interested to see what the new paragon, Clea has when she's available. I would assume she'll have some nice combat goodies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey

khumak

Engaged Member
Oct 2, 2017
3,741
3,780
How can you have a "tank"? Enemies target whoever they want no? I don't know about any sort of aggro mechanic.
For normal fights it's just random. For advanced tactics fights they target based on threat level and the armor everyone is wearing. I'm not sure about the exact formula, but in my games Cassius is consistently the main tank most of the time for advanced tactics. He's the first one taken out in an advanced tactics fight every single time. The 2nd in line behind him is harder to pinpoint since most fights I don't lose a 2nd person but it's usually my combat focused wife if she's properly trained up. I would assume this is because she's basically a female version of Cassius from a stats and traits standpoint. He's stronger, otherwise they have the same stats and combat traits. Most other people are missing at least 1 of those traits.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gunner Rey
4.50 star(s) 138 Votes