You have to try and solve this quest another way. Try taking the book you find at the camp back to L'OwCrey and see what he says.

Ah yes, any attempt of mixing in spells eventually -degenerates- evolves into staff build.

Probably, I just play builds that are fun, doesn't have to be optimal. Haha

Fair. I was thinkink in trying a paladin build with heavy armor 2h mace and magic, since electromancy debuffs their knockback and control res. Donno how good it will be tho.

One is not "stronger" than the other. It just depends on what you want out of your build. Swords are more mobile and balanced in offense/defense, while maces are more offensive while applying alot of crowd control effects to keep pushing your advantage. You would be better off with a shield up to getting "Right on Target", by which then you ditch the shield. One-handed build with magic support: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHzGZIimp9t_oNE

Well, it is not the strongest I have, but it is still strong. This undead dungeon is really challenging, since I came in without taking Paregoric for the miasma. Also, I wanted to try out that unique sword that I used in this video, which is offense-based. I usually use the Knightly Blade, which raises my block chance by alot. Playing as a Spellblade is also very difficult in this game, since you have to balance out casting your spells for that burst of buffs and actually cutting down your enemies. And sometimes, like in this video, you can't do both.

Nice build. Never played this build before. Do you have axe and shield buid with armored combat warfare video? I kinda still confused on the skill tree making it not too effective. Trying to play on counter and adding body damage with 1h axe

@@Megaman90z No i don't. I tried a traditional sword and board build in this update, but I gave up on it due to boredom haha. Off the top of my head, it should probably be effective just with Warfare, 1H Axe and Shield tree. Armored combat would be great for Unyielding defense, Battering Ram and Custom Adjustments, but I wouldn't go for the whole tree. Also depends on your shield. Since you want counter, a light shield is probably your preferred choice.

Those dungeon "conditions" only last as long as that dungeon remains uncleared, once you wipe it out and it resets after some time, it may have a different condition or none at all

No, you can put it in either hand slots. I just think my character looks cooler this way since you get to see the weapon as opposed to holding it upright like you are about to throw a stick for a dog.

@@RenArayamiYT Fair enough.

Theres a hotkey for scrolling through your skill bar. Check the settings menu.

Gear-wise, I wore the Norrheim helmet (light armor) for aesthetics just to look barbarian-ish. You can protect and avoid alot of deaths by wearing a heavy helmet. I also use the Elven Longaxe, which is very offense-focused. Prior to T5 dungeons, out of all my characters, this one has had the MOST deaths. Because I know the build I am doing is 1) very direct 2) only 1 battle plan. Attack. The fact I purposefully do not protect my Head just so I look like a northern viking does not help with my survivability at all. That, and 2H axe skill tree is designed to be very offensive-based, and I did not take any other skill tree to balance that out, instead diving even deeper into offense by taking on Athletics, its why I die so much off-screen. All it takes for this character, is one stun or daze (which you can mitigate better with heavy headgear), and you can die very quickly with my stat spread/gear. Tl;dr: Wear a heavy helmet, consider using something like the Knightly Poleaxe, instead of Athletics, you can consider Armored combat or Magic Mastery+Electromancy to boost your damage even higher without sacrificing survivability.

You will have higher protection and take less damage overall, so its a defense vs offense question. You will also have higher fatigue since you are donning heavy armor, meaning your energy will drop alot faster throughout fights. Worst of all, you also will have insane repair bills.

In all my time playing, when you attack the troll during regeneration, his defense is at its highest (per the skill description). Hence, I rather let him have that 1 tick of regen, then use that chance to do more damage and more importantly, a chance to bleed him (which I did not get lucky for most of the video). Only spears and 2H axes can sort of do this, Staves too.

@RenArayamiYT But he regenerates for 5% of his max hp, so you'd have to do the equivalent of 70dmg to offset it. Not to mention him being able to heal from wounds and other status effects during regeneration.

@@couchpotatoe91 So he heals for 70 hp, I hit him for 50 - 60 hp when I don't fumble, if i proc a bleed, thats 12 hp for 4 turns and worsening his body injuries. He just stopped regenerating, so he can't remove any status effects if I decide to throw my skills after his regen. I see no downside to hitting him after regen as opposed to hitting him before.

​@@RenArayamiYT he can easily heal his injury from a single regeneration tic is what I'm getting at. Also by doing only 10dmg when he's regenerating, by negating 70heal, you effectively deal 80dmg AND prevent him healing any injuries. That all said, the troll fight is doable either way, so it doesn't matter in the end and I think we can put this argument to rest.

@@couchpotatoe91 Didn't really see it as an argument, but alright. I know what you mean, but you probably didn't get what I meant.

Undead skeletons are weak to Crushing Damage, so flails/maces are great against them.

Nice. Bring Antidote syringes next time though. They not only reduce intoxication, but provide intoxication resistance by 75% for 360 turns. It should help for the first floor at least. Probably best to rest afterwards once and then do the same thing again.

Its the build I usually do as a battlemage. The build is actually a hybrid, not a pure mage. At T5 dungeons and onwards, melee becomes quite unfavorable even for Geomancers, so you see me casting magic nonstop as if I was just a pure mage. Prior to T5 dungeons (and only in the Vampire dungeon you see in my video), melee was a big part of my fight strategies since the insane Geomancy spells aren't unlocked yet, and at times, I would rather melee for crits to replenish my energy or to just protect myself better. Of course, you can go pure mage and put 20 Per or even 30 Will, nothing wrong with that. I have done it in the past, this is just the build I decided to go for this time around.

Staff skill tree gives a lot of block chance and block power recovery but no raw block power, I am guessing it was mostly to increase the base block power to significantly increase melee survival. With some enemies having dash plus a charge ability and use dash earlier than they used to, staying pure ranged is much harder in R2R. The crit efficiency for the melee side of things doesn't hurt either

Lmao

Right on Target.

Theres a passive skill in the Warfare tree called Right on Target, which grants you a boon of stats provided you only wield 1 melee weapon in either hand slots and the other being empty.

The wiki is managed by the game devs themselves iirc, so be kind and patient since its not easy to constantly update a spreadsheet of ever-changing stats. The wiki does serve as good reference to what you might want to theorize builds around though.

Self-Repair passive helps alot for melee builds, since you can get self-repair materials through your fights. Also, at the end-game, its more economic to repair your armor yourself as opposed to doing it through a blacksmith. At this point, you can/should stock up on self-repair materials and Repair toolkits so your wallet doesn't blow a hole.

I will give it to you straight since you didn't ask for spoiler warnings. Take the book you find near the cave/at Venemist's camp, and bring it back to L'Owcrey. You can read the dialogue between your character and him for some story/lore, ultimately L'Owcrey will mention an elixir from the book. To proceed, you need the 3 ingredients and bring them to L'Owcrey. A handful of amber, mindwort and a crawler's eye. From there, let L'Owcrey brew the elixir. Most (I think all so far) of the side-quests in this game usually has a different path to complete them, which is really neat and good game design.

@RenArayamiYT yeah, thanks for the replies... Appreciated it..

Well, the skills I chose and use are basically the same in all gameplay. I record all the T5 gameplay once I think I am ready to show it. I will keep the order of things in mind, though my reasoning is simply for people who might just want to see some Stoneshard gameplay/people who don't know what Stoneshard is about. I also know some people wish to just skip and see the build/stats, hence I put a disclaimer at the start so you can skip to the timestamp.

@@RenArayamiYT yep its the most efficient way you did it. I am usually very critical about these kind of videos. but your very structured approach is very convincing. good work. I find the game easier and easier the higher lvl I get though.

Geomancy has a passive skill that gives energy regeneration. My equipment also is for mages, so energy regeneration is quite high. Vigor buff also gives energy regeneration as well.

@@RenArayamiYT there's also a sorcery tree skill that allows you to spawn some places of power around you, sitting on one of those gives you insane buffs including stupid fast energy regeneration and lots of magic power (and also prevents bosses from spawning their own runes underneath you).

@@ПророкМухоед Main-hand. I tested it alot in the past because, I noticed if you equip in the other slot, it shows up differently on your character sprite. So I look cooler and I can see my sword design this way

@@Megaman90z It might have to do with your resolution settings? I am playing a 2K monitor, and my resolution is set as such.

If you don't plan on taking Right on Target from the Warfare skill tree, 1H + light shield is better than just 1H. Right on Target is a skill that buffs just 1H playstyles.

@ wow i used to think that more is more 😅 didnt realise it have that kind of skill

also build with bakler pretty powerful because of counter attacks

1h sword + light shield can be very very tanky if you build it right

@ Oh for sure. Shield builds are tricky in this game since they provide sustain/defence so so well, but its hard to deal damage especially in the late game. Fatigue also builds up insanely fast for a shield build.

Dual Wielding is stronger because you are limited by the quality of items, and 2 endgame daggers or else with good enchantment are better than 1 endgame sword. Also, Dual Wielding is not a dueling build, it specializes in killing many enemies.

Depends. Dual Wield can tear through insane crowds of enemies and get health and energy back while doing it. Your skill build will have to be much more selective though, since you will be juggling through alot of skill trees and you can't have it all. The build I showed in the video excels at tearing through enemies, but mostly 1 or 2 at a time. It's largely strong in my opinion because the amount of skill investment you need in each tree is just nice at Level 30, so it feels like a match made in heaven.

@@RenArayamiYT No, you can have insane dps and immortality at the same time with DW. DW by itself doesnt need weapon skills

@ Hence, you will be more selective in your skill choices. I am not saying you can't have insane DPS lol. I am saying you will likely sacrifice something to achieve another.

@@andregas347 DW by itself has lackluster defence. The block skill is nice as it gives you nearly guaranteed defense but even with top end weapons, gear and skills. 2h mace enemies can do like 1 point of damage to your head with Skull Crusher, through your block, and stun you for 2 turns. DW needs its defense to come from elsewhere or just annihilate/debilitate the enemies on the first turn, like what Weakening Jabs from daggers gives

I like Spear for the skill design, but its a slightly boring skill tree in my eyes. I like rushing enemies or having options to change up my situation, Spear's focus is to just hold a position and poke down anything that comes. Its fun the first time I played it, but I quickly realised its really not my thing haha.

True, the battle mage with staves has too much going on for them. The crit draining 100% energy and hitting multiple enemies is already too strong. Then there is the massive stacking of crit chance, damage, block, dodge, and counter chance when coupled with magic mastery and electromancy.

Fair choice for an overpowered build. Staves have a very decked out loadout of a skill tree, I ran it too before.

I hope not, though I can understand if they do. First Aid by itself isn't overpowered, since if you use it for its main purpose (Stabilize injuries and improve healing efficiency) mid-combat, chances are the enemy is still going to maim you afterwards. Its a solid survival skill, especially if you plan on going melee purely/alot. Using First Aid in chain sequences though, is like 1 vivifying essence per fight, which isn't OP either, but most people wouldn't carry that many vivifying essences while I am spamming something similar like its free healthcare.

Finisher is strong, but going so deep into Warfare to pick up Thirst for Battle too means you'll struggle to get either the lightning melee damage skills (5 points needed) or Seal of Reflect (3 points) In the end, pure melee requires top grade weapons, no matter what weapon style you go with, while lightning melee gives you excellent leeway due to its armor piercing magic damage.

@@Pilvenuga Would it surprise you if I have tested both variants before, and in my opinion, this one comes out on top since you have a much more efficient action economy to get things running. The spellblade build you suggested specializes in burst damage and versatility, which I like alot. This build, however, leverages Finisher alot more efficiently to keep strong buffs going and becomes more like a blade dancer, without the need to keep magic and blade in balance. Don't get me wrong though, the spellblade build is my favorite build (and one that I have played so tirelessly that I am playing other builds with this big update) and it has advantages, but raw efficiency goes to this build.

You can. Go to the Settings menu under Controls.

Its time to leave that dungeon, and come back sniping them one at a time.

@@RenArayamiYT you can't always leave distant brigand dungeons: the portcullis can drop shut

@@wiglaf5640 Well in that situation, that sucks.

I put it at the end of the video. Hope it helps!

Page up page down button

@ This. Also, you can rebind those buttons from the settings menu. I put mine at F (next moveset) and V (previous moveset).

@@RenArayamiYT I see, thanks for the information, it was very helpful