WASTELAND 3 Party composition planner I should have used before I start

Ultimate WASTELAND 3 party composition guide and planner. Useful if you want a party which able to pass all skill checks and is efficient in combat.
If you have any comments and suggestion welcome to comment section.
The link to the Google drive with Excel table:
drive.google.com/file/d/1grFT...

[@owlygames6666]

What's your favorite party composition guys?

[@petepeterson1240]

your sniper build + your pistol build + 1max xp guy with lockpicking. all others just have social skills and don*'t participate in combat

[@donkzy2406]

1) Big guns all explosive perks (Nidhogg) and explosives + wierd science, 2) SMG (ripper with energy mod) + leadership + weird science, 3) Big guns all pyro perks (flamethrower) small arm (K-cannon) + toaster repair, 4)Brawler with speed perks + healing, 5) Jodie Bell sniper + mechanics + animal whisperer, 6) Scotchmo sneaky + shotgun + melee. The rest of the non combat skills are spread out evenly between party so they have 4 skills each to level, Oh I'm missing survival didn't seem worth it. Not 100% on Scotchmo build but didn't want waste skills points he already has, Sneaky in shotgun as many as possibly, so he close and need a bit of strength so may as well have some melee, then smg leadership kills and buffs rest of party, rest mop up whats left,

[@kamdengianni3352]

i guess Im asking randomly but does any of you know a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost the password. I would appreciate any tips you can offer me

[@jasonmiles5029]

@Kamden Gianni Instablaster =)

[@kamdengianni3352]

@Jason Miles I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and I'm trying it out atm. I see it takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@steelixian1705]

The WoW Dungeon finder audio... Ahhhhh the memories / flashbacks.

[@alfonsomaster98]

Really good video, pretty funny too. I think this is the best guide right now for party composition.

[@owlygames6666]

Thanks for that : )

[@doncorleon8104]

Just the video I was looking for! liked and subbed :)

[@owlygames6666]

That's amazing, have fun with your playthrough : )

[@moonlight2870]

My party so far: 1 character especialized in heavy weapons, explosives and leadership 1 character especialized in small arms, weird science, nerd shit and mechanics 1 character especialized in auto weapons, kiss ass, lockpicks and sneaky shit 1 character especialized in small arms, weapon mod, barter and survival 1 character especialized in brawling, armor mod and toaster repair 1 character especialized in melee, animal whisperer and hard ass.

[@Aquereyas]

Very nice Guide! thx 4 it!

[@DaZugZug]

Useful info. Thanks

[@traviscue2099]

This is a game I know that I'm fucking around and exploring how it works before starting again.. I made a Heavy Gunner and a Melee blunt weapon expert.. And I find them to be awful.. Assault Rifle and the Sniper do great.. But yeah kind of unsure of what would be best with a group.. Since the flamethrower and shotgun feel super situational. I find I prefer using the classic styled weapons from this genre of 1 shot to one enemy, than group stuff (Outside of granades ect) but yeah I love the idea of this game.. Hoping it sets in.. I feel that I'm comparing it HEAVILY to Mutant Year Zero.. Which for me is the best this genre has to offer so far.

[@gurugeorge]

Very cogent analysis, and very handy to have it in a Google doc format too. Thanks for your efforts!

[@Woundedstork]

Taught me a new word today thanks ha. I thought you must have meant coherent or compelling but googled it.

[@gurugeorge]

@@Woundedstork As you get old like me, you start to realize that the old saw is true: you literally do learn something new every day, even if it's just a tiny thing :)

[@jvmoony]

My 4 top combatants are the Sneaky Melee Drunk Swordman, the Draw Incinerator combo, the Shotgun explosive Leader, and The Draw Sneaky Sniper build. I put two other rangers into a passive characters. Which cover pretty much anything that is missing (buff, debuff, healer, skill check, and any other non combat things) with poindexter quirk. Mostly effective on Supreme Jerk difficulty. I love this game, so sometimes I play a random starting characters but still end up into those my top 4 build.

[@piotrk6519]

My best composition I called 3+3. Its two shotgun users plus leader, they fight in front. Other three is two snipers plus another leader. Most of fights I end in two turns, that's on 3rd difficulty level. Will try to use this on higher level. But need to thank you for advice how to use modifications skills, didn't think of that. Also in some builds it's not worth it to go to max 10 in your attributes. One of my characters had only max 9 because of trinket you get from golden scorpion. Snipers I don't bother about strength, you keep them in the back so you don't need hp but also i check that you don't need awareness on 10 to get 95 percent chance to hit target. So I think 8 it's enough, will save you 2 points you can distribute on other attributes.

[@owlygames6666]

Cheers, what a nice setup 😄👍 I agree with most, except of max attributes to 8-9, the 10th point in most attributes give you mad amount of bonuses, like each previous point adds +3% dmg and the last 10th point add +10% dmg 😵. It's also should be noted that to hit reliably character needs more than 100% hit chance, as foes have natural evasion and use cover as well.

[@piotrk6519]

@@owlygames6666 I agree but I with all my characters with awareness on 10 got more than 150 percent chance of hit. Went back to hq create characters who got hit chance around 120-130 and didn't see any difference in combat. Problem in my play on 3rd difficulty level was that sometimes the low hp characters were attacked and then they died to quickly. So I think if you managed to save some points and put them in strength till lvl 5-6 it will help. Just need to do some tests on that. Also I need to check what is the easiest starting build, to get as easy on early game. Last play I did one character as a sniper with max awareness at beginning and other one with max intelligence to get są many skills like lock picking or nerd stuff etc to be able to open all boxes, locks, terminals. Wasn't bad but the other character wasn't useful in combat for like 3rd part of the game until aspen

[@owlygames6666]

@@piotrk6519 My advice for easy start is to create max CHA main character with lockpicking and mech/expl as main skills (this skills provide ton of exp early game), he will level up 2-3 times faster than the rest of the team and you can make next trick here, lets say your main is lvl 8 and others custom characters lvl 5 you just kick them from party and take back and they will be leveled up ~ to lvl 7.

[@piotrk6519]

@@owlygames6666 that's nice trick, I thinking of playing the game on highest difficulty with all rangers with 10 charisma, sorry one with 9 because of trinket you get from golden scorpion. Will see how it goes

[@COREcasual]

My best starter is one with sneaky shit, sniper, and explosives. I open with a rocket and usually take out half the baddies before the fight even starts. And if there's only 1 guy, I can reliably take that 1 guy out before combat starts

[@owlygames6666]

This one is definitely good, can do staff without risk of being spotted :) But i also find that combine mechanics and sneaky shit is very beneficial to deal with generators before the combat.

[@COREcasual]

@@owlygames6666 good point. I've generally had my first aid person also have nerd stuff and lots of combat speed so I can hack the turrets. Usually there are only a couple of turrets and by turn 2 i have them both. And because of extra combat speed, I can get to anyone quickly to heal. I'm amazed at how many viable options there are in this game.

[@QeepingItReal]

Casual User our sniper and medics seem very similar

[@sasmith]

Toasty Repair is good on a flame thrower build because on of the perks add to fire damage.

[@owlygames6666]

You are right, that's why i put it as a secondary skill for damage dealers with Weird Science , Mechanics and Survival. But also, as the damage perks for Toaster repair buried so far in the skill tree i have highlighted an option to allocate this skill to off-party dudes meaning that early/mid game you do not wont to have active character with this skill cause party already overloaded with other skills to rank. Honestly i have never tested the impact of "Toasty" perk on output damage, is it significant?

[@DeeDoublee]

@@owlygames6666 really effective if you have a minigun aswell, mod it for flame damage and with max awareness and plus 20 damage mod you deal 85-99 × 19 and that's without crits. This along with a jackhammer devastation build are super effective

[@owlygames6666]

Adding AOE -15% CON per turn debuff sounds fun, thank you for a tip : )

[@MrMcFattyfat]

Ive been toying with the idea of an automatic weapons or big guns build centered around the incendiary damage mod. Slap it on one of the end game meta weapons then spec heavily into weird science and toaster repair for the bonuses to fire damage. Keep a plasma weapon in the secondary slot in case of robots, which will still be getting a sizable damage boost from weird science. I want to finish the game first so i know what weapons would be best to base it around, but it seems like it could be kinda nutty.

[@owlygames6666]

@@MrMcFattyfat Nice idea, can you share your conclusions after you try it? : )

[@alenkodzoman2682]

why would you go with melee brawling big guns and small arms on the same character?

[@Linkfans99]

then the dungeon finder sound went off i actually alt tabbed thinking i was playing wow.... got a thumbs up just for that

[@owlygames6666]

there were a queue to the deadmines that you've missed : )

[@Linkfans99]

That explains my leaver buster ;-;

[@Bandoolero]

what are good backgrounds for these characters?

[@Vikn01]

Man i got lucky with this game. Ill lay down some context and give a rundown of my party comp that's been able to EASILY handle every encounter on ranger, despite my experienced but average skill level. While this video is great and I'm sure the party is even more OP than mine, if anyone wants an alternate composition that still handles everything with ease, maybe try something like mine. I tend to find this genre of RPG (Baldurs Gate,, POE, Divinity) to be pretty average in terms of difficulty... tougher than many simpler RPGs but nowhere near a souls-like or some of the heavy realism FPS RPGs like Kingdom Come or STALKER on higher difficulties...I always go in with expectations of a hearty but surmountable challenge that tends to dissipate as I get used to my party and the gameplay...basically, I'd never be the strain of nerd that transparently brags about how easy they are (Im more an earnest, respectful species of nerd). I tried WL2 years back but it didnt grab me. I have always thought of this series as much higher on the difficulty scale than BG or Divinity OS just based on second hand knowledge. My hesitance and expectation that this was gonna be a jump in difficulty from similar RPGs led me to perhaps over prepare, but it didn't feel that way. Having tried almost every cRPG like this, Wasteland 3 felt more overwhelming to start than most aside from something like Kenshi (whose scope barely fits into the genre anyway). As I was learning about the stats, unconventional classes and party composition, it seemed very easy to gimp a playthrough with poor allocation. Maybe my over-preparedness made it so that, after the initial learning curve, I've basically steamrolled through every encounter. I certainly haven't missed any checks that aren't well hidden either. I'm on ranger difficulty...I tend to avoid the highest difficulty and always go 2nd highest because most "legendary" difficulties are entirely artificial challenge (rolls and metrics intentionally skewed against my favor). I have little respect for difficulty settings that can only be overcome with time and that don't require any skill besides patience. If higher difficulty means lower HP, better AI and tigher resources (within reason...scouring simply isnt a fun challenge bc anyone can do it) then I am all for it....but most games tend to just stack the values against the player so that luck becomes more a factor than skill. So yea, ranger difficulty and I'm certainly not someone who usually pretends these types of intensive RPGs are "easy", I'd say my skill level is average for a player with my experience. One fight gave me hell and made me wipe over a dozen times but I haven't wiped in any other fight. I was still getting used to the game and my party was coming into its own but not there yet. It was the fight in the bizarre exterior preceeded by a long bridge, I think players are tasked with saving refugees. I forget the guy's name but his gang killed me a TON. I'm at the end of the game rn where... *SPOILER* ...I'm wiping up gangs outside of Liberty's fortress. So basically, my first two Rangers were, first.... 1st, A full sniper focused entirely on sniping and lockpick with a secondary focus on sneaky shit (checks seem pretty uncommon for sneaky shit early on). He's become the backbone of my DPS. Five rangers skirmish my foes and engage them long enough for me to snipe em all dead in 1-2 hits ea. Definitely get Death Wish...if your sniper needs armor to take hits then you're already losing or disadvantaged. 2nd, a Medic/Leader. When I began, he didnt even have weapon skills and instead was medic/leader/hardass/nerdstuff...eventually I got small arms but his utility isn't in his damage or gunplay. 3rd, I made a heavy weapons and explosive SCIENTIST (weird science). Keeping his strength high despite being ranged allows him to endure while dishing out great DPS, second only to the sniper. There are LOTS of great heavy science weapons you're gonna wanna utilize. I initially designed him for pyro but simply found machine guns and rockets superior focus, although I do keep a flamethrower in my inventory, just in case. The STR is necessary for the armor as well. Oh, and Toaster repair too. I tried to limit it to 4 stats per character but strayed to 5 with my medic. 4th, an assault mechanic with a secondary barter focus. She started out feeling very average but has become a huge reason for the late game ease Ive experienced. I use an smg and deployables with her. I try and limit how often I use the latter bc they feel very OP. She's just a very solid techie trooper that feels like the foundation of my team, and the deployables help even the numbers when there's absurd enemy numbers. I messed around with all the followers for my last 2 spots, using some as skill dumps and others as required members for any challenging encounter. 5th is Kwon, who I wrote off as another Carth/Kaiden type. Thankfully, he is more interesting and you get him so early that you can make him into powerhouse. I made him into my second "trooper" ranger, along with my mechanic. Assault, kiss-ass and a backup medical focus have allowed me plenty of leeway with HP and I've never felt even close to running low on health items. One item that I used on Kwon to GREAT effect was the "Meat Maker" assault rifle. It uses bolts (which literally became extinct for me mid game and I had to subsist on the 5-10 id sometimes get from random encounters) and by itself is a decent gun with high dmg single hits that're heavily offset by it's single shot nature...BUT, when modded with one of the better magazine mods (4+), it became a hugely powerful gun that would often be able to 1 hit grunt type enemies. At points, Kwon would be able to clear the basic chaff in 1-2 turns (12AP, 4 per shot w/o reload. 2-3 weaker enemies down per turn when the gun hits well without any synergy or special abilities). Kwon became the only follower that's 100% required for my party setup with very rare exceptions. My last spot had a few contenders. I began the game with Lucia. She was the only companion that just SUCKED in both personality and fighting. She would crumble after 1-2 hits. She would miss far more often than anyone else despite points in small arms and using revolvers. Plus her quasi-moralist, petulant rich kid with "a whole ton O' spunk" personality was just cringe. Eventually she became my modding dump. Its a bitch to return to base everytime I wanna mod, but its better than wasting SP on those skills on good characters. Jodie was a major upgrade in every way but I didnt really need a sniper. The follower who became my staple #6 was Ironclad....melee focused, heavy armor, cyborg skills and dumped leadership as a backup for my medic leader (I cant imagine MORE leadership being a detriment in any way). Brawling felt WEAK at first, comically so, but he was tanky and his ability to use the eye laser made him preferable to the higher damage members like Scotchmo and Fishlips. I don't like shotguns very much so the I don't use the former often but now that I am at the end game and Ironclad just disappeared on me (I'm sure they explained when I wasnt paying attention), Fishlips has become a worthy stand in. Whereas end game brawling was amazing and made up for the prior weakness, melee is a decent replacement if necessary. Fish lips isn't quite on the level of late game Ironclad but, for me, he is the only other option now that my cyborg best friend up and ditched me. Ol' Cordy (what his friends called him) is a real ornery sonofabitch and broke my heart when he just stopped showing up in my available rangers menu. Sure, he SAID we weren't friends and that my insistence that we wear matching pajamas for our tri-weekly slumber parties that I forced him to do were going to drive him to escape and rally his gang to murder me....but that's just how Ol' Iroco (his other nickname only his best friends know) communicates! Ya gotta learn to read between the lines with him.... When he says: "If you try and make me wear those fucking footsie pajamas again,I swear I will return to flay you slowly over several weeks!" He REALLY means: "I love and cherish our traditions and I know our bond is stronger than the Sun's pull on the Earth but it hurts my heart to see you worry so much about my nocturnal warmth and style." Yes, he was never explicit in saying this or anything remotely similar, but when you develop such a bond that transcends even mother-child you don't NEED words to communicate. The last thing he said was: "MARK MY WORDS, I will return with an army to spread your entrails across this land in return for the humiliation I have endured in these matching pajamas and unwarranted comfortability you feel around me!" Which meant: "I hate to be without my bestie for even a minute but I must attend my business. Fear not, I shall return for my beloved triweekly slumber parties. If I seem cagey it's only because I have to maintain my image as a manly man but eventually I will give in to your forced attempts to hug me!" His exaxt words (somewhat paraphrased). So Ironclad will be back but if your Ironclad unwillingly is torn from his best friend while pretending that he wants to escape and murder you (for his image's sake, ofc), Ol' uncle fish lips is a serviceable stand in. But ya, Sniper (lockpick, sneaky) Leader medic (Hardass, nerd) Assault mechanic (Barter, any) Heavy Weapon Scientist (Explosives, toaster, weird science) + Assault/Kiss ass Kwon And either Ironclad or Fishlips... This party comp has really cut through everythjng without issue. Im sure the original vids comp is more technically proficient but if you wanna try an alternate comp that's also very fun, consider trying this!

[@owlygames6666]

Cheers, great ideas mate 😉

[@saansardar1215]

I know i am replying late Nick.I just started the game two days ago.I followed your tips.Its really working great.Btw is it absolutely necessary to have all different types of skills among all the characters??

[@Woundedstork]

Lucia is arguably the best companion in the game, certainly the most versatile, with her +5% strike perk. You can go handguns for nonstop strikes, shotguns for group handling, or take her small arms to 7 for Draw, then max snipers and she can shoot twice in a term potentially 3 times if you rly max out the setup. Also she doesn't have many worthless points, 2 in survival isn't ideal but at least increases dmg output on occasion. The weapon modding is convenient at times and barter is not rly. As far as your taste on her attitude, that's fair, but her outlook makes sense to me, based on where she comes from and it really shifts throughout the game as she starts to realize the actuality of the unforgiving wasteland. Personally I enjoyed seeing her turn into a pessimist as things became increasingly grim. I guess I can relate to it, as someone living in a ridiculous doomed world myself. Khan is a solid pick. Ironclad is a great choice too. Fishlips is the worst companion tho, even worse than Jodie. Him having 7 points in armor modding is just atrocious. As stated in the video here, which you apparently didn't watch, armor modding should be maxed on 1 character that stays in base and you only let them out to mod your gear then put them back in their prison. My ideal perfect party includes Lucia and Scotchmo. Scotchmo is just a rad alcohol worshipping drunk dude. I like to think Jim Lahey is with me in the form of Scotchmo. Rip. But yeah just leaving these thoughts for others who may wander through these parts. There's also nothing "different", exciting, or unique about your build so it's strange to see you come on this wonderful video, not watch it, then proceed to type a novel about your different idea. But I can tell you're just passionate about the game and mean well so we can still be friends. Edit: just now saw owlys comment asking "what's your favorite compositions guys?" so maybe you meant to reply to that which makes you explaining your composition make a lot more sense. Sorry I was hasty in my judgement! I meant no offense. I will leave my comment up as is for posterity. And owly this was a super solid video, you really broke a complex system down and explained it in an easy to digest, succinct way. Earned a subscriber, I'll check out your other content soon. Bonus points for not being overbearingly hyper and zany like many are on yt lol.

[@slimesoup7944]

I seriously don't know anyone who dosent just use kwon and Lucia for the whole game

[@QeepingItReal]

i swapped out kwon for ironclad

[@xcolmanrickx3027]

Um scotchmo and ironclad. They are must haves

[@theruski8265]

Sniper + level 7 explosive perk + rocket launcher of any kind = instant crit with a rocket launcher

[@owlygames6666]

I guess you can swap "Sniper" to any other weapon skill and still have the same result. What's the synergy between explosive and sniper?

[@thisguy35]

@@owlygames6666 lvl 10 perk from sniper i think

[@Bierserker]

The level 7 small arms perk (a free shot after each reload) works with rocket launchers too. Probably the most broken synergy in the game right now.

[@sourkyle]

my SJ team comp rifleman (hard ass) death wish sniper heal leader sneaky shotgun demoman marshall kwon (kiss ass) jodie bell (mechanic sniper) *and a glitched weaponsmith/armorsmith barterer

[@owlygames6666]

Sounds reasonable. The more i play the more i realize that with current balance I dont need medic and more than 2 fighters in the party. If you tweak damage dealers right they just wipe out enemies in the first turn.

[@rail7646]

thats kinda bad advice, better have 2-4- skill monkeys and the others focus on full dps, which results in much more party dps than splitting especially in the early game, theres a glove that gives 2 ap to others and crit and hit chance buff with no cooldown that you can run on those deadweights to make them absolutely worth it

[@jaujaujauuuuur]

It is Borat speaking??

[@nguyenvien1987]

2:03 lmao

[@maxdaviid]

How do you shoot in first person? D: I cant find the answer anywhere else Like in 4:22

[@owlygames6666]

Cheers ✌, you will have it when you try to do Precision Strike 😉.

[@demonspawn5164]

Check for a blue meter rising up. When it's full you get to shoot in first person

[@ongbak190]

4:15 😂😂😂

[@Mike-il2vr]

lmao

[@ClintEastwooodPS3]

combat is too easy. i play with a squad size of 2, maybe +2 unarmed civilians for noncombat skills

[@owlygames6666]

That was the general idea of my next two videos 👍

[@ClintEastwooodPS3]

@@owlygames6666 i`ve thought about honestman rules to improve the combat, like permadeath, no switching equipment no inventory in combat ... But maybe the next update brings hardcore mode with this kind of game mechanics,?

[@owlygames6666]

@@ClintEastwooodPS3Hope so ✌, "no switching equipment no inventory in combat" - I think that is how it was intended because a couple of perks based around the number of quick slots, but what's the sense to count slots when u just can switch items during the combat 🤷‍♂️.

[@ClintEastwooodPS3]

@@owlygames6666 a bethesda bug. its in the game but its not, because of reasons :D . Hardcore mode is confirmed, but they only talk about permadeath

[@bestsnowboarderuknow]

I only understand like every third word. Combo trolls? huh?

[@owlygames6666]

Cmon 😅