Of Orcs and Men have some serious design flaws that is not apparent until 1/3 through the game. These flaws can outright end your game and forcing you to restart a flesh build. There are a lot of powers that don't scale well and without any respec it will force you to restart the game from the beginning.

At normal difficulties Of Orcs and Men builds can be unforgiving. Picking the wrong set of skills at best will be very frustrating at certain failures points. At worst it will force you to restart the entire game. By sheer gaming habits I didn’t use my skills point unless I had to. This provide me a level of protection against dead end builds in the game.

I played the game without any knowledge and it is reflected in the videos. Only at the very end of the game did I somewhat fully understand the game flaws and a proper build.

You can skips this section and go directly to the build guild if you do not want to read the flaws in the game.

By no means the combat system is flaw. It’s a very good combat system allowing players a level of strategies in combat. This system have been used in many games like Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. The problems is the skill systems, Rage/Berserker mechanic, and many difficult situations in the game.

Certain skills doesn’t scale well but only becomes apparent later in the game. Not only does it not scale well it becomes useless or rarely use and might cause a complete restart of the game. Arkail skills set in problematic while Styx provides a level of freedom.

The Berserker/Rage Mechanic compound the skills set problems of Arkail. The Rage mechanic while good at the early game can lead to a dead end build for Arkail in most cases. 3/4 from the game completion did the game actually provide some skills to take advantage of the Rage Mechanic and by that time it too late.

When Arkail goes berserk you lose control of him. Not only that he have a bad habit of targeting Styx and killing him. In rage mode Arkail takes more damage while dealing more. When his rage wore off he is stun for a few seconds making him easy target to take down. Basically game over if Arkail can’t kill all the mobs. He won’t have enough hit points left to finish the rest of the enemies.

Losing total control of your character is not fun. Having your own character killing your other character is a stupid game mechanic. The Rage mechanic wasn’t much of a problem until you reach the Orc Shaman 1/3 into the game. The first true understanding how Rage will backfire in a major fight and the need for Arkail berserk mode to be kept in check for the rest of game. This lead to over half of Arkail skills being useless later in the game. The Orc Shaman is the first major failure point in the game. It can lead to rage quit which is not something any game developers or gamer want.

There are some combat situation where you need a certain skill or play differently in order to progress in the game. Two comes to mind, both happen in the Throne Room Level. From playing Arkail as a tank to playing him like Styx. Arkail have to use hit and run tactics in order to beat three heavily armed and damage resistant enemies. 2/3 of the game and you are forced to switch play style is in my opinion stupid. In the same level Styx have to fight alone and without a certain upgrade skill the fight might be impossible for some players.

While you can manually save the game on 50 slots, you can’t save between a series of continuous fights. For example, there are three major fights in a row and you can’t save between those fights. If you fail you will have to go back and restart the first fight. What make this worst are the long cut scenes wasting even more of your time.

Of Orcs and Men used a proven combat system but the execution of it leave it undesirable.

Arkail is your tank. The build is design to keep his rage in check and keep enemies off Styx. Master is the path I took (late in the game). This is a defensive path and allow you to use your rage as a resource.

Carapace, Taunt, Rage Release, Disengagement, Raise Ally, Feint, and Rage To Live (from Master Path) are your main skills. Get it and upgrade them as soon as possible.

These skills you needed in order to beat the game:

Carapace -> Increase Health Regeneration by 50%
Taunt -> Extends the area of effect of the Taunt by 100%
Rage Release -> The decrease of Rage is amplified by 100%
Disengagement -> The attack is impossible to interrupt
Small Pick-Me-Up -> Increase Life Regeneration by 100% per second
Raise Ally -> Increases chances of deflecting by 50% for all the duration of the action
Round Attack -> The Round attack cannot be interrupted
Feint -> The attack has a 100% chance of destabilizing the target
Battlement -> Effect duration increase to 60 sec.
Rage To Live -> Restore 10 more life points for the same amount of rage (very important upgrade)

Carapace, everything is base on this one skill. Without it combat will be very hard in the mid and late game.

Taunt this is needed to keep people of Styx. If Styx goes down so will your DPS.

Rage Release, use this when Arkail rage bar raise to unacceptable levels. However it become obsolete late in the game because of the Master path, which allows you to use rage as a resource.

Disengagement push your enemies back and thus limiting the damage received.

Small Pick-Me-Up help in some cases especially in long hard fights.

Raise Ally, Styx will go down more often than not so this skill is needed.

Round Attack, it is an all around good damage AOE.

Feint, pretty much Arkail best single target attack skill. It is need in boss fight.

Battlement, Arkail get this skill when you choose the Master path 2/3 into the game. It not used often mainly due to forgetfulness. An additional damage migration skill for Arkail.

Rage To Live, part of the Master path skill tree. It come so late in the game that I tend to notice I have it. Good in some hard fights. Needed in the Throne Room fight.

Styx is your main damage character. From stealth kills to AOE nukes to single target kills he is your go to damage guy. Skills wise Styx is more forgiving. I went melee/range crit built. In the late game near the end I finally saw Styx killing potential. Fortunately you will this killing machine much earlier than me with this guild. I was conservative with Styx upgrades because I didn't know where I was headed in the build. You can be more aggressive with his upgrade by picking up more offensive instead of defensive like I did.

I picked the Assassin path late in the game.

Sharp Shooter, Focus, Rain Of Blades, Stealth Stance, Raise Ally, Accurate Throw, and Subterfuge (from Assassin Path) are your main skills. Get it and upgrade them as soon as possible.

These skills you needed in order to beat the game:

Sharp Shooter →Every critical hits has a 50% chance of stunning the target.
Throw Knife → The attack has a 20% chance of causing a vulnerability
Accurate Throw → Each critical hit has a 50% of stunning the target.
Rain Of Blades → Every enemy hit has a 35% chance of bleeding
Stealth Stance -. Allows the character to get even closer to the enemy without being detected
Raise Ally → Restores 100 more Life points to his companion
Subterfuge → Also restores 30 Life points (very important upgrade)
Focus → Increase the effect duration to 60 seconds
Poisoned Daggers → The poison causes another 3 points of damage every second
Flying Daggers → Every hit has a 10% of stunning the target
Quick Attack → Every hit has a 25% of extending the target's vulnerability

Sharp Shooter makes Styx range attacks deadly.

Throw Knife your main range attack and can damage armor.

Accurate Throw best use against in boss fight especially the last fight of the game. Should go for the stun upgrade to make life easier.

Rain Of Blades is Styx primary crowd control. Combined with Sharp Shooter and Focus will thin out the crowd pretty fast.

Stealth Stance make your life easier. Allow you to cut down your enemies before going into actual combat.

Raise Ally, this skill is needed because Arkail will sometime goes down.

Poisoned Daggers good damage over time skill. Great against bosses. Can only be used with melee skills.

Subterfuge, Styx get this skill when you choose the Assassin path 2/3 into the game. It will make your life easier in one major fight, ie Throne Room. Make sure you select restore 30 Hit Point upgrade. The skill come so late in the game that I tend to forget using it.

Focus, didn’t realize how powerful this skill works with others until near the end of the game. Getting it early and using it will make hard fights a snap.

Flying Dagger is your main melee attack in most cases.

Quick Attack is when you run out of mana and still want to do melee attacks. Work well with Poison Daggers.

Kill as many people with Styx in stealth as possible. Run back to Arkail when the enemies discovered Styx.

Set Arkail skills first, standard opening:

1. Carapace
2. Taunt
3. Taunt (to get the rest coming) or attack the nearest using Disengagement, Round Attack, Feint, or any attack.
4. Carapace
5. Use whatever skills is necessary.

Make sure Carapace is always active. Keep taunting the enemies to get them away from Styx.

Styx standard range attack opening:

1. Sharp Shooter
2. Focus
3. Rain Of Blades (Throw Knife or Accurate Throw for single target)
4. Rain Of Blades (Throw Knife or Accurate Throw for single target)
5. Use whatever skills is necessary.

Make sure sharp shooter and focus is always active to maximize damage. Rain Of Blades will make short works of them with these two buffs in place. Throw Knife and Accurate Throw are very deadly for single target.

Styx standard melee attack:

1. Poisoned Daggers (optional)
2. Focus
3. Flying Daggers (will use up all of poisoned daggers charges) (Quick Attack for single target and spread poison around)
4. Flying Daggers (Quick Attack for single target).
5. Use whatever skills is necessary.

Last fight of the game. It shows the power of the build. Unfortunately for me I found it way to late (this battle). If you follow the build you will have all the necessary skills very earlier in the game.



This is a video of my final build that I won. It's not the same as the guide because it was a blind run.

Failure points are basically places where a players might fail and fail again. Like boss fights. The videos below will show how I beat these failure points. The videos might include me failing.

Orc Shaman. It's a side quest and probably the first failure point in the game where it show how bad the skill mechanic of the game can be. Due to gaming habits I don't use skill points unless I have to in most cases, otherwise I would have to redo a lot of mission to just beat the Orc Shaman. Do Arkail standard opening and Styx standard range opening. Keep spamming Rain Of Blades with sharp Shooter and focus buff. It shouldn't be a problem.

I did the hard way but with the recommend build in the guild you should not have any trouble beating him.

The Row Berserkers' fight is the hardest fight in the game because Arkail don't have any armor to help migrate the damage. It is a really poor designed fight IMO. Even with the recommend build you might have some trouble. If that is the case you can cheat by moving Styx between the cage and the fire place. This cause the AI pathing to screw up which allow Styx to kill the Berserkers at range like I did in my video (10:50 mark).


Arkence rescue last fight might be a failure point. I did succeed on my first attempt. It could be lucky because one of the mage did a lot of damage that almost bought the team down. With the recommend build it shouldn't be a problem because Styx nukes will kill the mages in no time.


Throne Room Arkail, this fight force you to change your play style. 2/3 from completing the game and the developers thinks it's a good idea to mix it up. In order to beat this fight Arkail must be played like Styx. Keep your Carapace up. Use hit and run tactics. Use Rage To Live to keep your hit points up and your rage down. The video below shows how I beat it.


Throne Room Styx, second hardest fight in the game if you don't have the correct skills. Again my habit of putting points when needed save me from a lot of rage. Subterfuge with restore 30 hit point upgrades make the fight easy. Hit and run and use subterfuge to restore Styx hit points.