Pure ranged. Results guaranteed.

As you progress, battlemage (elec staff) so high damage and high dodge after multiple casts.

For late game, without calculating how you reach it, personally I think pyro mixed with geo as brimstone has consistent solution to every problem in-game except in mid-game against multiple crossbowmen as you have shorter reach and against multiple mage hunters as you need to play your cards correctly but later overall high in every way including but not limited to very high control as you can fully control how enemies would move (except flying harpies, you need to injure their wings first) and very high damage against multiple enemies (raining won't matter) even with current AI behavior and cheap cost like you can just clear T5 anything with only drinking horn + some food and you will be fine (you can drop your staff and crowbar when looting the dungeon for maximum looting - I got ambushed once when dropping items outside dungeons but without weapon, mage is still mage), roaming Aldor without care of multiple trolls or bisons as you can deal with them easily if you want to. The fastest and the smoothest build I've played against two bosses, also get rewarded for doing secret quest against manticore so in the end I manage to reach 10 range base and very low cooldown for skills without temporary buff. The idea is they'd die without you ever getting touched and even so I take three skills from the right side of survival skill tree + heal from cleansing just in case, tho some items might get burnt but who cares? It's very powerful if you go all in with multiple artifacts + good stuff if there should be more challenges ahead.

Outside min-maxing, I think you should consider if you are gonna enjoy when using it or not suited to your playstyle like I've seen RoT malenia build clearing T5 dungeons which is cool and strong but then I think about repair cost and multiple wasted turns for immortality in 1v1 situation or 1v10 situation, still every battle would feel personal I think so would make good story. And there is also this limit tester with cheat engine for dual wielding against 50 enemies or more (I didn't count precisely) so he/she stacked block every turn as low CD as Arna against multiple enemies within vision then dancing spinning around for some time from one enemy to the other with average damage then I wonder if fatigue would build up after some time if you keep playing with your enemies.

Originally posted by Freeman:

Pure ranged. Results guaranteed.

I just started a character and I am not disappointed.

Pathfinder from the survival tree.
Together with shouting let's you easily turn a 5v1 fight into five 1v1.

Pure Elec/Pyro mage, 30 Perception 20 Willpower. Learn Pathfinder at lvl 4, and Dash at lvl 10. Learn Arcane Lore at lvl 22.

And then slay everything before they even get a chance to hit you.

I can guarantee you this build far surpasses a pure bow/crossbow Dirwin. There are two simple reasons why this is:
1. As a mage, your cooldowns durations are going to be reduced to the minimum of 25%.
2. Your damage and/or CC is through the roof, and you have AOE dmg unlike bow build.

Pure Geo with the same specs can also work but early game is tough as nuts.

I've played pure bow build twice, pure Elec once, and pure Pyro twice in RtR so far. (This is not including past experiences playing all these builds.) So, I speak from experience.

I like how questions like this, and the fact that it actually exists - the only op build. points to one singular truth :D game is still unbalanced :]

p.s. nay sayers, i don't need ur comments. (i just did silence you, it takes just 2 clicks xD)

Originally posted by Maa22:

I like how questions like this, and the fact that it actually exists - the only op build. points to one singular truth :D game is still unbalanced :]

p.s. nay sayers, i don't need ur comments.

Can't silence me. You give an ignorant argument, and you can't stop people from countering your ignorance.

There is no way to balance a "glass cannon build". It is glass cannon for a reason - it is meant to be untouchable. The moment you make a glass cannon build touchable, it loses its effectiveness so badly that it ceases to be a feasible build. This isn't just an OP build become un-OP, it literally makes the build untenable.

So if there exists a glass cannon build that cannot be balanced, then that means the game will never be balanced entirely. Then again, this isn't PVP, why should balance matter that much?

Yeah, I haven't tried Electromage myself but I hear it's pretty busted. You just kill everything before they have a chance to reach you. You might want to try it.

Ranged is pretty strong, but it's got its own challenges and costs.

The game is far from completed and balance will shift many many times in the future.

Originally posted by Kazouie:

Pathfinder from the survival tree.
Together with shouting let's you easily turn a 5v1 fight into five 1v1.

By shouting do you mean War Cry from the warfare tree? How does it work in tandem? Does the war cry get an increased range or something?

Originally posted by Bacon & Eggs:

Originally posted by Kazouie:

Pathfinder from the survival tree.
Together with shouting let's you easily turn a 5v1 fight into five 1v1.

By shouting do you mean War Cry from the warfare tree? How does it work in tandem? Does the war cry get an increased range or something?

No, just Shouting. It's something you can do from your character's contextual menu, or from one of the four icons you can "deploy" from the bar at the bottom of the UI.

It makes noise that will alert enemies up to 12 tiles away. They will usually separate from their allies to come investigate the noise, where you can kill them alone.

Shouting also adds a surprisingly high amount of Thirst.

Originally posted by Pixel Peeper:

Originally posted by Bacon & Eggs:

By shouting do you mean War Cry from the warfare tree? How does it work in tandem? Does the war cry get an increased range or something?

No, just Shouting. It's something you can do from your character's contextual menu, or from one of the four icons you can "deploy" from the bar at the bottom of the UI.

It makes noise that will alert enemies up to 12 tiles away. They will usually separate from their allies to come investigate the noise, where you can kill them alone.

Shouting also adds a surprisingly high amount of Thirst.

Thats crazy

Originally posted by Maa22:

I like how questions like this, and the fact that it actually exists - the only op build. points to one singular truth :D game is still unbalanced :]

p.s. nay sayers, i don't need ur comments.

I'd argue that end game melee builds are just as or even more OP as you can build into adrenaline rush + finisher + survival, be super mobile and incredibly tanky and have all your CDs refresh constantly.

Originally posted by Rabid:

I'd argue that end game melee builds are just as or even more OP as you can build into adrenaline rush + finisher + survival, be super mobile and incredibly tanky and have all your CDs refresh constantly.

Has Finisher been fixed yet? I'm still too scared to use it.

I have to agree that it's ranged, at least within the scope of normal gameplay without restrictions. Starting the game with distracting shot gives ranged an early leg up over the other builds that seek to kill enemies before they can be a threat. Right from the very beginning, letting enemies step next to you is largely optional. Most every build that doesn't seek contact with enemies has the tools by mid game to never be threatened, but ranged is this way from the moment Verren stops talking.

Originally posted by wereraptor:

I have to agree that it's ranged, at least within the scope of normal gameplay without restrictions. Starting the game with distracting shot gives ranged an early leg up over the other builds that seek to kill enemies before they can be a threat. Right from the very beginning, letting enemies step next to you is largely optional. Most every build that doesn't seek contact with enemies has the tools by mid game to never be threatened, but ranged is this way from the moment Verren stops talking.

Well, true , but OP is probably referring to what kick nuggets in late game. Early enemies are no balls of fire anyway.

Originally posted by Bacon & Eggs:

Thats crazy

There's lots of nice little tactics in this game that are left for us players to find out. Shouting is one. Or did you know that you can throw items to trigger pressure plate traps? Maybe release gas, or net a free net.

It doesn't even make you feel like a dirty cheater. Here's looking at you, brushwood bundles.