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Cortex
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Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 2:40 am

EDIT: After hearing of some people still using this guide, I'll post it here for all to see:

THIS LIST IS OUTDATED, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

If you want something up to date, I HIGHLY recommend you join the Arelith 3.0 discord instead, there's people there who will guide you far better than a static guide ever could.

Please do not post in this thread so I can keep some form of organization, if you've questions or want to call me stupid, do it via PMs or create a general discussion thread for it.

Git Gud Guide
by Cortex


Introduction

The goal of this guide is to teach people how to "git gud", build suggestions(not necessarily complete builds), PvP/PvE tactics, how to use classes and their powers, etc.

Table of Contents

1. Classes and their Functionality
...1.1. Base Classes
......1.1.a. Barbarian

......1.1.b. Bard
......1.1.c. Cleric
......1.1.d. Druid
......1.1.e. Fighter
......1.1.f. Monk
......1.1.g. Paladin
......1.1.h. Ranger
......1.1.i. Rogue
......1.1.j. Sorcerer
......1.1.k. Wizard
Last edited by Cortex on Sat May 04, 2019 4:04 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 2:59 am

1. Classes & Their Functionality

1.1. Base Classes

1.1.a. Barbarian

Overview

The barbarian right now excels at being hard and dangerous to kill, unlike most other melees, the barbarian's damage also comes from his biteback damage, which makes them less high burst damage characters, and more of enduring attrition combat based warriors.

Unique Skills: Special powers during rage, including: biteback damage, bonus will saves, expeditious retreat speed, bonus HP, bonus damage on hit(which is piercing, so piercing weapons are weaker on barbarians presently).

Building a barbarian

The more you invest on barbarian levels, the stronger his innate abilities become, there is not a lot to gain from just taking a few levels of barbarians unless you want some niche build with high CON that'd benefit from the biteback and speed, but I can't think of a case where this would be better than something else.

The barbarian is also lackluster when off rage, so good options for multiclassing and feats involve extra survivability or offensive tools to make use of. Feats such as Expertise/Improved Expertise can easily boost the barbarian's AC to 50-60 depending how buffed they are, which is really good and will help you survive for that one minute you can't rage. 4-6 fighter levels is also essential in order to obtain heavy armor proficiency, extra feats, and epic weapon focus/specialization.

The barbarian gains more from bard than from rogue when taking the 3 level dip, rogue will give them sneak attack and evasion, but they don't have enough reflex to make up for it, bard will give them spellcraft which is essential as a tanky character.

Lastly, one handed is still superior to two handed, on the grounds that the bonus damage is not worth the AC you can otherwise get. If you ever wish to be hit for the biteback damage(like against a monk), you can just drop the shield, but you'll be thankful you got AC when fighting a weapon master.

Example build:
21 barbarian/6 fighter/3 bard, a barbarian level will give you +30 biteback damage, and just over 1000 HP at level 30 while having mid 40 AB.

Essential Feats: Toughness, Epic Damage Reduction 1-3(must have!), Terrifying Rage.

PvE

In comparison to WM, the barbarian is significantly slower in PvE, in order to kill monsters in a fast and successful manner, you have to rage and have low enough AC for them to hit you and take damage, if you rely on your melee damage alone, it will be quite slow. You may feel useless if there is a tank(like a PM) and a DPS(like a rogue or WM) in your party. Some epic monsters also have high #/+1 DR, and will block a fair amount from your biteback damage, while others have on hit effects that can be dangerous.

PvP

The barbarian right now is a scary mothertrucker in PvP when played and built right, he has enough HP and power to charge in at a moment's notice, and buffs only empower them. Their lower STR, however, makes them vulnerable to discipline checks if they don't have epic discipline or a fair amount of gear. Full heals(prays, greater restoration, mass heal) are immensely powerful due to their HP pool and biteback damage, you'll find yourself to not be able to kill a good barbarian without heavy burst damage or crowd control effects.

PvP Match-Ups

vs. Barbarian: Mirror match involves a lot of luck, and whoever gets most criticals, unless one side has a better build or outplays the other.
vs. Bard: Focused bards are especially dangerous due to their songs, they can make your discipline negligible, and hurt your AC badly(if you're investing on it), if your discipline score is too low, they may be able to KD spam you(or someone else), but rarely they'll have enough damage to kill a barbarian so long they don't pin them down. Remember to use silence to avoid the curse song, it'll save you.
Scurvy Cur: Ethereal Visage can reduce the biteback damage to 10, so the barbarian should be careful.
vs. Cleric: Clerics are a skill-match up, a barbarian can give a cleric plenty of trouble, but the cleric has the sustainability needed to survive and kill a barbarian, interrupting their spellcasting(with damage or a silence wand) is vital, and how they use their heals will decide the battle.
vs. Druid: Non-dragonshapers do not have many weapons to use against a barbarian other than some crowd control spells, they've not the damage. Dragonshapers are nigh impossible to kill as a barbarian due to the dragon DR(no biteback damage), so better use them doorways, Conan.
vs. Dwarf Defender: Weaker barbarian, the barbarian is inherently stronger in every aspect.
vs. Fighter/WM: Skill match up, a fighter/WM has the burst to kill a barbarian, but the biteback will hurt them severely. Standing down against the barbarian and trying to outlive their rage will only work if you got stealth/invisibility(and they don't have true seeing), massive AC to afford being able to be flat footed;
vs. Monk: Monks can barely deal any damage to barbarians, but barbarians can't touch monks, it's a stall.
vs. Paladin: Smite evils are not very useful even if you're evil, unless they manage to triple smitecrit you. However, they can be dangerous due to divine might piercing your DR.
Scurvy Cur: paladin 16/CoT 10/Rogue or Bard 4 can be dangerous still, if you're evil. Assuming a scimitar, normal smites will hit for ~225-250 damage, with crits ticking in at close to 500 damage. If the pally knows what he's doing, he'll have a 9 point crit range, which means on average, you'll be soaking at least one crit if he blows everything on you. Even if he doesn't, he can often get your HP down to the point where he can trade with divine favor/divine might/divine wrath all running. A LoH can extend a paladin's effective HP to the 600-700 range, so a barb should be careful here.
vs. PM tanks: A good PM tank can afford to sit back on their massive AC while their rage wears off, so long they don't spam true strike, but even then, they won't be able to do much damage.
vs. Dex tanks: Dex tanks, on the other hand, cannot afford to stay flat footed, and will be hit reliably even under improved expertise.
vs. Ranger/AA/Archers: So long you got your discipline in check and they don't called shot spam you, you should be able to beat them, but beware of falling into traps and chasing after kiting archers.
Scurvy Cur: Divine Might archers can pierce through the barbarian DR with divine/magic damage, and have strong mobility.
vs. Rogues/Assassins: Their crippling strike can be... well, crippling, but on their own, they'll struggle to kill a barbarian in melee due to their lower HP pool. Their high fortitude keeps them mostly safe from assassins as well.
vs. Arcane Mages: Barbarians have too much HP to burst down, the only reliable way mages can defeat barbarians are with crowd control spells(the most useful one being Bigby's Forceful Hand), followed by a damage over time spell on top of more burst(Incendiary Cloud is excellent here).

General Tips

Death Armor, Acid Sheath and Elemental shield do not stack with each other, but they do however stack on top of barbarian's bite back. Death Armor is good for PvP/PvE both, while Acid Sheath can be useful for short PvP.
Barbarians are excellent runners, don't be afraid to run from a dragonshaper or large groups of monsters/people.
Don't forget to invest on taunt, that's -6 AC vs no/low concentration targets.
+2 heal gear will be massively useful both for PvP and PvE.
While double weapons get a larger damage bonus during rage, the amount of feats and DEX needed along with the AB penalty is extremely painful.
Investing on saves means your only weak save during rage is reflex.
Last edited by Cortex on Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 3:42 am

1.1.b. Bard

Overview

I rarely see focused bards, but they're immensely powerful, they're able to stand on their own decently, and makes other melee oriented classes into absurd power houses. The bard song is their bread and butter and something no other class can give.

Unique Skills: UMD, bard/curse song.

Building a bard

There's three usual routes to take as a bard, 16 levels to obtain most of the song buffs and powers, 20 in order to get Lasting Inspiration(10 minutes long songs) or 25 for +1 AC and large skill buffs/debuffs. Classes that mesh well are the ones that make up for their lack of martial skills/melee damage, such as fighter and paladin/blackguard, granting the proficiencies needed and enough BAB to get 4th attacks per round. And never go 2-handed, unless you completely want to rely on CON/STR+wounding whispers.

On ability scores, a bard can focus on STR/CON(DPS), DEX/CON(dex-tank but low damage), CON/STR(for EDR+Wounding Whispers), focusing on CHA for divine might/shield is good, but you'll have to split on other stats or sacrifice CON.

Example Builds:
16 bard/4 paladin or BG/10 fighter: Save boosts, plenty of fighter feats, and divine might/shield.
20 bard/4 paladin or BG/6 fighter: Same as above, but slightly lower AB, less feats, but more powerful and lasting song.
26 bard/4 fighter or paladin or BG: Strongest song, but weaker everywhere else.
27 bard/3 paladin/BG: suicide CON build with a focus on Wounding Whispers, Ethereal Visage and heal kitting.

PvE

Early on, you're weaker melee, if you rush Improved Expertise, you can be a good tank with -guard, but your bard song is short lasting, weak, and has few uses. As you gain levels (especially between 11 and 16), your bard song will become far more useful and with more uses. Your solo abilities will never be amazing, but when accompanied by other melees (especially WMs), you'll turn them into monsters that can clear through otherwise hard dungeons with significant ease. Don't forget bards also get plenty of useful spells, such as (mass)haste.

PvP

The bard is not as deadly as most other melee classes by his lonesome, he can get good AC and taunt the opponent, but smart enemies will use Silence which denies Curse Song against them(and your Bard Song on yourself if you don't use it before they Silence). Again, in party PvP is where they shine the most, unless the enemy can afford to cast Silence(giving your other party members time to act), the bard can destroy the enemy's AC, AB, saves and skills. Medium AC targets will have mediocre AC and other melees' abilities will drop dramatically. Mages can still burst you and your party, so beware of them.

In short, always try to Curse Song asap so they don't have time to silence.

PvP Match-Ups

Due to the many different ways a bard can be built and how they shine better in group PvP, I'll keep this section brief.

vs. Melee Tanks(PMs, barbarians, DEX tanks): While the bard can significantly lower their tankiness, they'll still struggle to deal enough damage. Barbarians especially will hurt.
vs. Melee DPS(Fighters, WMs, rogues): Massively dangerous if not careful, they can get enough AB/UMD plays to get through your AC. If you can manage to debuff them with curse song, you'll have a good edge, but even then they can be dangerous.
vs. Clerics: With UMD, you can dispel a fair amount of their AC, but clerics have innate access to silence which can be extremely menacing for bards, and plenty of their AB/damage can't be dispelled easily, massive threat.
vs. Druids: Never forget to take dismissal, or a wand of it, druids love their summons. If they're shifters, they won't have access to Silence, meaning you can keep them Curse Song'd for the entire battle easily. Dragonshapers, however, have too much DR and HP, too tough to kill by yourself, but with the company of a WM or other high AB character, your aid would be without price.
vs. Bard: Skill match, the more battle focused bard will have an edge however.
vs. Monk: While a bard can significantly debuff a monk and keep them at bay, a bard will struggle to actually kill the monk.
vs. Ranged(rangers, AA, archers): If they're able to kite you in open areas, you're in a bit of trouble, you don't have enough burst to kill them quickly, so you'd have to hold them in place with knockdown or similar.
vs. Mages: Dangerous if you don't have saves, never forget to take your immunity wands and Energy Buffer for Hellball. Bards can get a good enough HP pool to survive evo-combos but they'll need some decent saves and Energy Buffer. If you have very high taunt and many bard levels, you can curse song them and then try a taunt to give them a % arcane spell failure effect. Taking Greater Abjuration Focus is also useful if you want to make use of Shield Potions for IGMS immunity. Don't forget bards also have access to Balagarn's Iron Horn, which is a mage killer.

General Tips

Your presence is an asset in every party ever.
Caster bards suck, don't focus on CHA.
Metamagic is not that useful for bards, especially since you can't extend Mass Haste.
Lingering Song is only worth it if you're not getting 20 bard levels, it only increases song duration from 100 to 105 with Lasting Inspiration.
Extra Song is the same as above, you'll have a lot of uses per day.
If you go for Divine Might/Shield, make sure you get paladin/BG levels in feat levels, so you can get the feats.
Last edited by Cortex on Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:34 am

1.1.c. Cleric

Overview

Cleric is the long hailed noob stomper, able to get absurd AC, AB, damage, heals, no-immunity death spells, and a plethora of other useful things. A cleric is strong by himself, and makes allies even stronger, able to tank, DPS, heal and crowd control. However, a choice clerics must make is if they want to be casters or battle clerics, which defines where they'll excel at.

Building a cleric

As said above, there's two ways clerics can be built effectively, but both offer mostly the same to parties on top of their choice of offensive - tankiness and buffs. The battle cleric is able to stomp about any other melee and can even kill dragonshapers by themselves, but they're reliant on buffs in order to ascend to mass murder tier. When built that way, you should get 19 WIS, max STR, and wear STR/CON gear. A battle-cleric can afford to get all evocation feats(including GR and hellball) and have a menacing burst+knockdown, and still deadly implosions.

The caster cleric is not any less tankier than the battle cleric, but they'll focus WIS, followed by CON. With focuses on evocation and conjuration, the caster cleric is nefarious for their implosions and storms of vengeance, when able, they should also get Dragonknight, as they are massively powerful right now, and even have an one cast Disjunction.

Example Builds:
Pending amount of each class
Cleric/Fighter/Rogue(battle cleric)
Cleric/Bard(caster cleric)
Cleric 24/bard 3/pm 3(Caster cleric, but with dragon knight as draco lich, as well vampires)

Essential Feats: Evocation/Conjuration focuses, Greater Ruin, Hellball, Dragonknight.
PvE

In PvE solo, you'll be significantly slow and will rely on summons, especially if a caster cleric. In groups, your buffs will often be enough to allow your party to go to dungeons otherwise inaccessible to your level range, or clear normal dungeons with significant ease. Battle clerics can go godmode against bosses/tough encounters, while the caster cleric's spells are deadly even to bosses up until epics.

In both cases, you'll be turning Improved Expertise and -guard'ing your DPS.

PvP

The cleric is easily in the top three of the PvP classes, the caster cleric is below the battle cleric due to being less versatile, if the opponent is able to survive the implosions, dragonknight and storm of vengeance, the caster cleric is not able to do much more. The battle cleric, however, is a whirlwind of death and destruction unless they are kept dispelled, and can wipe groups of people if they don't dispel the cleric or interrupt their healing.

Their large amount of full heals is something to be kept in mind at all times, as soon as they're badly wounded or even injured, you need to heal yourself, or if fighting them, burst them down ASAP.

In party PvP, a cleric is even more devastating, due to how tanky and damaging they can be, not to mention how they can buff their party to dangerous levels.

PvP Match-Ups

vs. Barbarian: Against a barbarian, you have to take it slow and careful, they cannot hit you too reliably but you cannot let them interrupt your healing, you WILL need to heal frequently unless you can somehow survive their biteback damage. Caster clerics will have a rough time, due to their high fortitude. Word of Faith is very useful to make barbarians clueless while the cleric recovers.
vs. Bard: Their song can be countered by Silence, so always multiple Silences ready when fighting bards, a buffed battle cleric should have no issues killing a bard. A caster cleric can do fine so long the bard doesn't has too much fortitude.
vs. Cleric: Skill match. However, a battle cleric has a significant advantage over the caster cleric, due to being able to survive the cleric evo-combo, and heal afterwards.
vs. Druid: Against non-dragonshapers, a battle cleric should be able to win easily. Against a dragonshaper, they'd need to make use of UMD in order to dispel, and strike at them while they're flat footed with Time Stop, preferably to lock them down under knockdown.
vs. Dwarf Defender: Weaker barbarian, but can still absorb a lot of damage and has high fortitude.
vs. Fighter/WM: Skill match, the fighter/WM can kill battle clerics with use of UMD, but a battle cleric should always win if they fight without being dispelled or time stopped. If they have high fortitude, caster clerics will suffer.
vs. Monk: Hard to catch and kill unless they're pinned down, a monk can be dangerous if they constantly hit and run in order to dispel you. Their fortitude can be hard to get high and spellcraft can only be cross-classed, so clerics can implode them with more ease than other classes.
vs. Paladin: Easy to kill, unless you're evil and they critsmite you two or three times in a row. As a caster cleric, it may get tricky.
vs. PM/DEX tanks: As soon as you can reach their AC, they're in trouble and should run, rarely will they be able to beat a battle cleric. DEX tanks either have little damage or no CON, so caster clerics are also relatively safe against them, PMs may struggle to kill caster clerics but the same applies vice versa.
vs. Ranged(ranger, AA, etc): Like usual, be wary of open areas, as soon as you get in melee range you should be able to knock them down, keep note if they begin to hit and run to try and wear you down. Caster clerics should be able to implode them fairly easily.
vs. Rogues/Assassins: Freedom of movement negates the point of the death attack, and negative energy protection will block Crippling Strike, unless the rogue gets the jump on the cleric while they're unprepared(in which case the cleric is in trouble), the clerics should always win. Also vulnerable to implosion.
vs. Arcane Mages: In order to survive against mages, you only need not to be pinned down by crowd control and not let the evo-combo kill you, survive these, and they'll struggle to kill you.

General Tips

If you're dispelled, always recast the AC spells first.
Necromancy is particularly useful, as vampires can be a great asset for both PvP and PvE and makes an okay death spell an option.
Implosion can kill your allies, be careful with that.
The cleric is massively powerful in 1v1, but if he's outnumbered and there's a dispeller on the other side, he should play very carefully or escape.
Travel, trickery and plant domain are overpowered.
Last edited by Cortex on Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:40 am

1.1.d. Druid

Pending, I have not played druids enough to give enough insight, so I'll leave this for later, feedback on this class via PMs is appreciated.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:07 am

1.1.e. Fighter

Due to the looming change towards fighters, this section will remain resumed until fighter is re-reworked.

Overview

While the 20/7/3 ftr wm rog build is the easiest to play, there's other ways to be built. Generally speaking, however, the fighter itself is exactly what it was meant to be, an all-around melee warrior, with some tankiness, damage, and a plethora of feats to pick from. The fighter is what you want it to be.

Building a fighter

The 20/7/3 itself can be successfully done three ways: dual wield(kukri), one handed(scimitar) or scythe(one trick pony). The dual wielder is starved on feats, but has the potential to deal absurd damage, especially when the enemy is under crowd control, or with a Time Stop. The scimitar WM is the most versatile one, able to spare feats that would otherwise be used for exotic/dual wield for other different feats, and the scythe WM is the glass cannon of the story, kill them quick or die, also pray to RNJesus.

There's, however, other means to make use of fighter that are deadly, DEX WMs(w/ epic dodge!), paladin with a touch of divine might/shield, or just as a dip in other classes. But your secondary stat should ALWAYS be CON, there is no situation where CON should not be your secondary stat.

Build examples:
20/7/3(Doh)
22 fighter/3 rogue/5paladin(numbers may be wrong), aka The Brycebuild, tanky DPS with more AC, saves and base damage than the 20/7/3, in exchange of criticals.
13 fighter/7 wm/10 rogue DEX based(numbers may be wrong), slightly higher AC than 20/7/3, lower damage due to lower STR, but a more powerful duelist power due to epic dodge.

PvE

You're the tank or the DPS, or both, the fighter has a fairly easy time in PvE, especially as a WM, as monsters tend to have low AC(and high HP instead), so the criticals shred through dungeons with significant ease. The DEX variant will have a harder time due to their lower damage output, but are still solid tanks. There is not a lot more to it. Scythe(or other 2h WMs) will suffer in PvE without a tank, since their AC will be really low and don't have the HP or damage absorption that other classes do.

PvP

The fighter is usually a tough nut to crack, and will usually pose a threat even if played by PvP novices, all you'll need is your UMD equipment(haste, clarity, improved invisibility, breaches, disjunction, time stop), and you're set to go!

STR WMs(dual wield or 1h): In 1v1, they are very strong, but they're even stronger in party PvP, they're well rounded and ready for most situations.
DEX WMs: Even stronger than STR WMs in 1v1, but weaker in party PvP, as they have lower damage and do not offer the same threat as STR WMs do.
Brycebuild: Tough mothertrucker, with high AC and good flat damage, nigh impossible to kill as a mage, and the AC is good enough to afford the luxury of maintaining high health, or utilizing UMD during a fight
General Tips

Fighter can be built in many different ways, you can get Epic Damage Reduction, Overwhelming Critical, Epic Dodge, and other useful feats.
Armor Skin is especially useful if you struggle finding permanent supporting party members, and even with them it makes you tankier.
Last edited by Cortex on Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:41 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:18 am

1.1.f. Monk

Overview

Monk has a significant skill ceiling, and have the potential to become immortal when played right, due to how fast and tanky they can become. While their AB is not as high as other melee classes, they can get enough APR to make up for it, or use Divine Power scrolls for short burst attacks.

Unique Skills: Monk AC, monk speed, perfect self, flurry of blows.

Building a monk

There's few ways to build a good optimized monk right now, cleric/monk is not one of them, and if you dip monk levels as a druid and don't RP the class or character properly I'll hate you forever. There's about four ways that come to mind in which you can build a monk, them being monk 20/rogue 10, monk 20/rogue 5/SD 5, monk 16/4 ftr/10 rogue, or werewolf monk(which is also pretty weird). Noteworthy, all of them except the weremonk get epic dodge.

The first two variants are the fastest and hardest to kill, with the highest SR(thus immunity to scrolls of Word of Faith) and perfect self, the monk/ftr/rogue exchanges some speed, SR and perfect self for damage, slightly more AB, feats and the ability to disguise with armor if you're into that.

Werewolf monk is a niche build, where you focus into having high WIS and high will and use and abuse the werewolf shape, allowing you sacrifice other physical stats, and perhaps even obtain other hard to get feats such as Ki Strike +5 or more SR.

And never forget, unless you're werewolf-monk, always focus DEX. Going STR won't give you enough damage to make up for your lack of AC.

Example builds:
20 Monk/5 Rogue/5 SD
20 Monk/10 Rogue
16 Monk/4 Fighter/10 Rogue
20/6 fighter/4 rogue(werewolf)
Monk/Rogue(major)/Fighter Kama based(numbers pending)

PvE

Monks have a really slow clear time, a poor early game(since they're gear reliant), but have good survivability, making them good -guard tanks, but have little else to offer in a party.

PvP

Here is where monks are the biggest a**holes, able to outrun anyone, hit and run like nobody, or just go up to your face and fish for 20s because they have over 60 AC on top of epic dodge, and over 450 HP. Their weakness is fortitude(unless they've epic gear in which case you're screwed), but
the monk can prolong the fight indefinitely, for as long as he needs in order to kill anyone. If he can't take on someone head on, he can just hit and run, ambush, so on, so forth.

PvP Match-Ups

Coming soon!

General Tips

Get DEX/WIS gear as soon as possible, monks heavily rely on that.
Use and abuse your speed, nobody can outrun you.
Empty Self cannot be dispelled.
Wholeness of Body is garbage, don't use it in combat.
Divine Power, while short lasting, turns monks into super saiyans.
The kama variant is devastating with crippling strike.
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Fri Feb 19, 2016 7:55 pm

1.1.g. Paladin

Overview

The paladin can be useful as a dip class to make use of Divine Might/Shield, but as well a decent focused class or base class to evolve into Champion of Torm. While paladins excel at being tanky, their damage is nothing to be scoffed at, especially when Divine Might pierces ANYTHING, nothing can mitigate Divine Might divine damage(not even divine resistance), as well with Divine Favor. Without them, however, they are not stronger than a fighter.

Building a paladin

Divine Might and Shield scale off CHA, so obviously you should get CHA, right? Wrong!

9 out of 10 cases, you'll benefit more from being STR focused, and item gear equipped primarly towards STR and CON, with CHA third. That is not to say you shouldn't get no CHA, starting 14-16 CHA is ideal. The paladin also gets two CHA buffs that should aid them in regards to boosting it.

The only exception where you'll want CHA focus, is smiterdin, which is a glass cannon that while it can decimate evil, is weaker than the average paladin against non-evil.

Example builds:
22 Fighter/5 Paladin/3 Rogue, the Brycebuild(look under fighter for more details)
16 Paladin/10 CoT/4 bard or rogue
16 Bard/5 Paladin/9 AA(numbers may be off)

Essential Feats: Extra Turning, Divine Might, Divine Shield, Extra Smite Evil.

PvE

Majority of dungeons are evil aligned(with some odd and strange exceptions), so many of the paladin's abilities can come in useful, especially against bosses. Without Divine Shield/Might+paladin buffs or many fighter levels, they are not as strong as other classes, they are burst attack styled, good for nasty encounters and bosses.

PvP

Paladins have the advantage of being able to pierce all damage mitigations with divine might, and increase their AC to very high levels with divine shield. Along with their other buffs and CoT, they can get approximately 60 AB. Their weakness in PvP is that if you can outlive their buffs somehow or burst them down fast enough before they Lay on Hands(which gives them a significant survival boost), you'll be in trouble. But normal melees can still outplay them, especially with UMD.

PvP Match-Ups

I haven't played enough paladins to give further insight on specific match-ups.

General Tips

Bless Weapon works on clubs(arrow bundles) in order to make anti-undead arrows.
Smite Evil is useful even without that much CHA.
Always Divine Shield first in order to get the AC.
When making gear, STR and CON should always be your priority.
Two handed weapons still suck.
:)

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Cortex
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:36 am

1.1.h.Ranger

Overview

The ranger is a damage focused physical DPS who heavily relies on Favored Enemy/Bane of Enemies. But are lackluster at everything else, and only barely get enough damage to match a WM's. With the upcoming nerf of animal companions and possible changes, this is all that'll remain in this section. I strongly suggest to not pick ranger for now.

If you wish to take it anyway, either PM me or post on the Q&A. Preferably the latter.
:)

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Cortex
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:55 am

1.1.i. Rogue

Overview

Heavily focused rogues will often rely on UMD to survive, but given the necessary tools, they are able to cause insane damage in short periods of time. Their large array of skills and weapons allows them to think outside the box, and attack opponents from different angles depending on the situation and the target. While a time stop/darkness followed by a barrage of darkness is enough to kill many monsters and players, you'll need more than that when you're battling more skilled/prepared people.

Building a rogue

I'm not going to go into detail about rogue dips, this will instead be focused on focused rogues.

Rogues have many ways to fight, but they're lackluster in head-on combat, picking fighter can help solve that issue while increasing their total damage. However, there's not many different optimized routes to take if you're focusing rogue, monk, fighter and blackguard are the best options. Generally speaking, you'll always also wish to go for DEX/CON, no need for STR.

Example builds:
24 Rogue/6 Fighter(dual wield kukri): Low up front damage, but massive sneak attack damage. You also get epic dodge.
23 Rogue/6 Fighter/3 Assassin: Essentially the same as above, but with the perks of being an assassin in exchange of a few skill points.
6 Monk/6 Fighter/18 Rogue(dual wield kama): Massive APR allows for the best use of crippling strike and sneak attack, quickly stacking STR penalties and damage to dangerous levels. Also gets epic dodge.

PvE

Dedicated rogues will have the worst time leveling, unable to deal damage by themselves. But make excellent DPS when they've a guard for them, and their crippling strike will also help to make enemies weaker and give the tank an easier time. It is very simple, they guard you, you stand next to them and attack enemies.

PvP

The rogue excels more than most at catching targets off guard, assassinations or unexpected attacks can be absurdly powerful when handled with Darkness or and Time Stop, allowing you to drop your opponent's health to dangerous levels, or out right kill them if they've low HP/AC. Should these fail or the enemy already is prepared, the rogue has to make use of what numerous skills they have. Hit and run, set traps, UMD, gonne, get creative, rogue is about being creative.

PvP Match-Ups

Pending!

General Tips

Always try to make your opponent flat footed, knockdown can be very useful(make use of true strike if you must!).
While making use of Darkness/Time Stop is easy, rogue still has a decent skill ceiling with the number of tools they have.
Going STR in favor of DEX is not worth it, the damage difference is not enough to make up for the loss of AC and epic dodge.
:)

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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:44 pm

1.1.j. Sorcerer

This is not going to cover True Flame or Weave Master.

Overview

The sorcerer trades versatility for firepower, while they'll have a limited spell choice, they'll be able to shut down different groups of enemies so long they manage their large number of spells properly. Due to the simplicity of the spell choice and number of spells per day, the sorcerer is the easier arcane class to play.

Building a sorcerer

There's very few ways to build a sorcerer right, since casters in general need a lot of caster levels. Most of the time, you'll be wishing to go 27 sorcerer and a dip of bard or paladin. Alternatively, you can go Favored Soul and 26/4, in order to get full arcane spell failure immunity. Going blackguard is not as good as paladin due to needing 13 STR/power attack/cleave or monk levels.

It is strongly recommended you always take epic evocation+greater ruin and hellball as sorcerers, even more so than other casters.

Example builds:
Sorcerer 30: For the brave who need no AC or discipline.
Sorcerer 27/Bard 3: For discipline, UMD, tumble and armor.
Sorcerer 27/3 Paladin: Discipline and saves, as well divine shield.

Essential Feats: Extend, maximize and empower.

PvE

Sorcerer is VERY weak at earlier levels, entirely relying on summons. They don't have enough spells per day or damage to clear more than two or three groups, and unfortunately, it doesn't gets much better. But as the sorcerer progresses in levels, their spells become more useful, especially in parties, they'll have a large number of hastes and other support spells like improved invisibility, while maintaining a healthy amount of burst damage for emergencies.

PvP

The sorcerer is a bit less reliant on the evo-combo than the wizard is, due to their large amount of spells per day, especially if you've IGMS and empower+maximize. It is wise to always maintain a distance from the enemies if possible, and save either Time Stop or Greater Sanctuary for an escape, unless you're 100% sure you're going to win, because if you've used both up and your spells are running low/out, you better leg it.

More in depth arcane PvP tactics will be discussed later in the guide.

PvP Match-Ups

Pending!

General Tips

The sorcerer has a greater amount of disjunctions, making them better counter-spellers than wizards.
Pick your spells carefully, picking up some weaker spells because they're cool is all fine and dandy but at least make sure you've the vital spells and don't take too many bad spells.
You NEED haste and improved invisibility.
Unless you plan on getting one Great Charisma, start with 17 or 19 CHA, so your stat point buy ends even in the end.
Last edited by Cortex on Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
:)

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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Tue Feb 23, 2016 11:45 pm

1.1.k. Wizard

Overview

The wizard has a higher skill floor, and an even higher skill ceiling in comparison to the sorcerer. They have significantly less spells per day, but in exchange, can prepare the exact spells and the right amount of them needed for any given situation they need to prepare themselves for. Burst damage, disabling, buffing, summoning, etc.

Building a wizard

The wizard has fewer ways to be built than the sorcerer, due to having less classes that benefit from abilities the wizard has. While one CAN go pure wizard, they do not benefit as much from it as they would with 3 levels of bard/warlock, which is able to grant them AC, discipline, complimentary skills, and if warlock, arcane spell failure. Rogue is not as advised to go with, due to the lack of discipline.

Abjuration is essential for a wizard, evocation is also very important if you wish to remain relevant against powerful PvP opponents. Since they obtain more feats than the sorcerer, wizards can afford to obtain more metamagic feats, and three epic spell focus while still getting a handful of epic spells.

Focusing on INT is a given, followed by CON. WIS, CHA and DEX are all dump stats you mechanically won’t be needing(10-12 DEX is acceptable if you’re going for greensteel chain armor), when able, start with 18 INT 16 CON(pre gifts and subrace). STR is not a very good stat to dump in my opinion, especially since you’ll be needing some STR to carry wands, armor, and other equipment/items, if you’ve spare points, having 10-12 STR is not as much of a bad idea as it sounds, especially since you get 17 STR with maximized STR, which boosts your carry capacity to 173, which is plenty to bring an armor and shield around unencumbered.

Epic skills will be reviewed later in the guide.

PvE
The wizard is not as strong as infinite casters in PvE, but is ahead of the sorcerer. For solo, they can prepare 1-2 summon spells, and several buffs to keep them healthy, they should also carry numerous healing kits(as many as you can carry) to keep the summon alive. In parties, it is not any different, except if you’ve melee people, they’ll replace your summons and will be the main target of your buffs and healing. Keep as many hastes ready as possible, as well as improved invisibility. Offensive spells are very circumstantial, and the spell choice depends on the dungeon/boss you’re facing at the time.

Example: Preparing confusion for Wharftown Boys Leader and his companions, or Breach variants against bosses who buff themselves.

PvP

Wizard PvP is often binary against well prepared people, if your disabling spells (hold monster, confusion, bigby, fear, etc) or evo combo fails, you’ve already lost. It is essential you read your opponent, learn their weaknesses. Against high save targets, you’ll be having to rely on evo combo and missile storms, or RNJesus that they roll super low. AoE movement hindering spells are very useful right now, Grease, Acid Fog and Web stacked on each other can make deadly obstacles and grant the wizard the time necessary to kill, ward, or flee.

PvP Match-Ups

Pending!

General Tips

Wizards can make their own wands and scrolls to go around counter spelling or other obstacles.
Wizard is all about preparing himself differently for each situation, study your enemies accordingly, learn about their weaknesses.
Don’t compete against a sorcerer or warlock in counter-spelling, they’ve far more spells than you can afford to use.
:)

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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:15 am

1.1. Prestige Classes

1.2.a. Arcane Archer

Overview

The Arcane Archer is often reliant on keeping a fair distance between himself and his enemy, and excels at piercing defenses with their high natural arrow enhancements and AB. However, it offers no defenses of any type to the character, either remaining a glass cannon or relying on other classes to increase their survivability.

Building an Arcane Archer

There’s three milestones for the class that people can make use of, 9th level to obtain +5 enhancement and pierce all generic spells, 11 to obtain +6 and pierce dragonshape DR, and 19 to obtain +10 which is the max possible in Arelith, with the highest AB and damage.

Example builds:
Paladin 9/AA 19/Bard 3, makes use of Divine Might/Shield, massive damage on arrows.
Paladin 16/AA 11/Bard 3, same as above, but with greater paladin spell casting and less arrow enhancements.
Ranger 9/AA 19/Bard or Rogue 3, generic AA type with high arrow damage.
Rogue 6/AA 9/Rogue 15, focused on sneak attacks, but dangerous due to having to keep close to the enemy.

PvE

In solo, the arcane archer will often just snipe enemy by enemy from as far as they can get. They generally don't have enough survivability with their bow out, and have subpar melee capabilities. They don't offer nearly as much as most melee in combat as well.

PvP

Arcane Archers can deal a lot of damage, not as much as a Weapon Master, but they have the advantage of being able to strike from a distance, forcing the opponent to run at you or seek cover. AAs often rely on these ambush and hit and run tactics over head on combat, a WM will savage an AA in melee range.

General Tips

Apply a permanent essence on arrow bundles(clubs), bless weapon, and a temporary essence. Remove the arrows and these effects become permanent and you can apply an extra temporary essence.
Due to the above, criticals are devastating, but normal hits will be heavily mitigated by essences.
:)

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Cortex
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:16 am

1.2.b. Assassin

Overview

The assassin goes beyond generic mechanical power in Arelith, they’re the only class who has the ability to strike at assassination targets (only and ONLY by the Assassin’s Guild contracts) without RP or warning prior. This opens a lot of room for different assassin designs, but the assassin class itself is not as powerful as the other available prestige classes.

Building an Assassin

In many builds, assassin can be used to replace the 3 rogue level dip, sacrificing a few skills and skill points in exchange of being able to join the Assassin’s Guild. Dedicating yourself to having a high INT score and many assassin levels is not a reliable build, because even if you have a 40 DC death attack, your enemies can make use of *prays*, followed by a Freedom of Movement wand/spell, and in head on combat, you’re not any stronger than a normal rogue, even weaker since you dedicated your points into maxing INT.

Example builds:

20 Fighter/7 WM/3 Assassin, average 20/7/3 build but with assassin instead, even able to afford getting stealth.
21 Rogue/3 Assassin/6 Fighter, essentially the same as 24 rogue/6 fighter, but with assassin powers.
Monk/Assassin/Rogue(exact numbers pending).

PvE

Against monsters, the assassin doesn’t play any differently than the rogue. If you’ve taken the niche route of focusing on INT, you can afford to death attack multiple types of enemies so long their fortitude is not ridiculous.

PvP

The assassin class, in Arelith, is tailored for PvP, especially since it can attack assassination targets with near impunity. Against those targets, it is up to you how you decide to kill them, be it walking up to them while they’re vulnerable and stabbing them repeatedly, setting epic lighting traps where they’re going, or luring them away.

The above does not applies to people who do not have a contract on them, including people surrounding your target, in such cases, RP before PvP is required.

In normal PvP, it falls down to how you built the character, since assassin should be used as an alternative to rogue or a complimentary PrC, it won’t change how you fight much. The only added bonus is that you can hit and run repeatedly to try and fish for 1s against your death attack.

General Tips

Freedom of Movement is your mortal enemy.
Pale Masters are also your mortal enemy.
Just because you can kill people with no RP, it doesn’t mean you should. (On a personal opinion, I’d only kill people with no RP/bare minimum if they were very dangerous to face otherwise)
The assassin is essentially the same as rogue in gameplay.
:)

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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:19 am

1.2.c. Blackguard

Overview

The blackguard, in many ways, is a weaker variant of paladin, but it offers sneak attack which allows the class to branch in different ways, such as creating powerful high AB flankers.

Building a Blackguard

Like the paladin, CHA will always be your third ability score to focus on, STR and CON being your primary abilities, starting with 14-16 CHA, as much STR as possible and 12-16 CON is usually the best way to go, and then reinforce STR and CON with items, and CHA with buffs and what other items you can afford to use without gimping STR or CON.

Blackguard meshes well with most classes that paladin does, such as bard, fighter and rogue. Depending on the type of blackguard you want, you’ll either take the bare minimum levels to get Divine Might/Shield, or get many levels in order to maximize damage and AB.

While it can be meshed with CHA based caster classes, you’ll either need to get 13 INT plus Power Attack and Cleave, or get some monk levels, making it a less appealing evil variant for the paladin when building CHA casters. It works best with warlocks due to having less essential feats to take, but pure warlocks are still usually stronger.

Example builds:
Fighter/Rogue/Blackguard(sneak attack focused, numbers missing)
Bard/Fighter/Blackguard(bard song focused, with divine might/shield, numbers missing)
Fighter 22/Blackguard 5/Rogue or bard 3, anti-brycebuild


Considering blackguards either compliment to other classes if they're not the main class, I’ll only focus on dedicated BGs under PvE and PvP.

PvE

The blackguard is not necessarily weak in solo, but he’s not strong, he excels with parties when he can make the best use of his stacked sneak attacks. If you take Divine Shield, you can also make a powerful tank.

PvP

The blackguard has sneak attacks, make use of that. Try to force your opponent to be flat footed (darkness, time stop, knockdown, etc), and make use of your high AB and damage to strike them down as soon as possible. Divine Shield increases your longevity against other melees, but you’ll be hard pressed to defeat WMs and barbarians, unless you’re anti-Brycebuild.

General Tips

Smite Good sucks.
:)

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Cortex
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Cortex » Sat May 04, 2019 4:03 am

After hearing of some people still using this guide, I'll post it here for all to see:

THIS LIST IS OUTDATED, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

If you want something up to date, I HIGHLY recommend you join the Arelith 3.0 discord instead, there's people there who will guide you far better than a static guide ever could.
:)

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Tarkus the dog
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Re: Git Gud Guide

Post by Tarkus the dog » Mon May 06, 2019 6:27 pm

Man times have sure changed huh.

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