dos2 tips/tricks

[lukaszek]

Release thread is huge now and other stuff is discussed there, hence I felt there is a need for new thread.

Im playing dual lone wolf on tactician, ranger + rog. Currently on 2nd island and decided to share what I have so far. My playstyle is maximum mobility and battlefield control(slowing/locking enemies in place):

Ranger:
- Sybille due to her bonuses to dex and flesh sacrifice. It is countered by her usually being on high ground, far away
- wits give bonuses to crit and allow me to find all the secrets/traps
- 1(2) point in air magic for teleport, nether swap and uncanny evasion.
- 1(2) point in geomancer for fortify(it is also status removal), impalement, earthquake, living wall, throw dust
- rest into huntsman and ranged.
- civil points go into loremaster + persuasion

Rog:
- Beast due to bonuses to both sneak and extra vitality
- 1(2) point in water for armor of frost, rain, restoration, cryo stasis, vampiric hunger, cleanse wounds
- 1(2) points in geomancer, same skills as ranger + venom coating
- 1(2) points in warfare(dmg scales of dex if you wear dex weapon!) for battering ram, battle stomp, phoenix dive, challenge
- around 8 effective points for scoundrel, necro + dual wielding
- sneak + thievery in civil

both raise dex and con in 1:1 ratio. Ranger got extra wits while Rog extra con. Few points into memory so that I can support all those shiny skills.

general tips:
- life gain from vampiric hunger/necro doesnt count as healing, as such it bypasses decay
- steal a lot. Right now I have 25k+ in cash while still buying shiny items. Not enough.
- smoke cover skill allows you to steal in plain sight
- you can steal items from characters prior to fight, even if they are hostile. This way you can remove potions, arrows and grenades from their inventory making it so much easier. Scout and prepare!
- sabotage and mass sabotage are one of the most fun skills to play with. If you cant reach someone to safely steal: explode it before it can do real damage! Whats more, you can plant said arrows/grenades on enemies to be able to explode them. You cant cast this skill on someone who got empty pockets. As such you can 'check' which enemies got some suprise waiting for you.
- having both thief and persuasion character allows extracting every piece of information. It feels like playing a duo of spies. Cant stress enough how much fun is it on 2nd island.
- geomancer and necro schools both are good means of cc, as their spells are checked against physical armor. Sadly necro got low range so ranger cant utilize it.
- beginning is hard(until you reach 5th lvl). I advise to escape fort without fighting magisters(it is possible to sneak)
- craft a lot. You are interested mostly in physical arrows and grenades. To get arrow tips: sharp metal + knife
- with such mobile characters its easy to retreat. If fight starts to look grim you can just run away. Usually I can do that using 3/4 AP with running/teleporting. Come back on you own terms, enemies wont mysteriously resurrect.

questions:
I wonder if someone can help me with my ranger. My rog got a bunch of cool skills between necro and warfare. I have few spare points and cant decide if I should just dump them into ranged or there is a magic I should pursue for better effect.
Also if anyone discovered smoke grenade recipe please share. I believe it was canister + oil bottle previously but it doesnt work now. In dos1 there were few ways of generating smoke and it was quite powerful when used properly. I lack it in dos2.

EDIT: was eyeing fire magic for my ranger, if only for ability to lay down traps. Polymorphy got few nice things but lacks synergy with lone wolf... As such id had to put way more points into it.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[KateMicucci]

Pyro isn't a great school for a ranger. I have bleed fire + elemental ranger on mine but it isn't clear that for the effort of setting up the combo that its better than 10% more damage would be. Geo, hydro and poly are better cross schools.

When you get to the 2nd island, its worthwhile to give everyone a summon, even if they aren't a summoner. More summons turn 1 = more AP and more HP to soak up that first round damage.

Medusa head is one of the best skills.

If you fight a bunch of undead at once, you can kill the ringleader by casting Rally from summoning on him.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Eyestabber]

A fuckton of tips can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGZbGGNWP_oXDfRnUWks9uw

I really like this guy. His videos are short and to the point. No 2 minutes bullshit intro and no retarded "muh e-personality" crap. Just honest to god useful information. I subscribed a while ago, when I was playing The Surge.

 

[Sjukob]

You can oneshot anything in the game by using heavy enough items and moving them through enemies with telekinesis .

 

[toro]

You can oneshot anything in the game by using heavy enough items and moving them through enemies with telekinesis .

Yeah. Some people are using teleport to gather all enemies in one pile and then bomb the shit out of them.

 

[Eyestabber]

Here is another point I found nowhere online: merchants. There are some important merchants in not-very-obvious locations. I'll list some I noted in act 2:

- Arena guy (Dwarf with staff on his back) -> tons of magicool items
- Poet Lizard in the undertavern -> crafting materials
- Dwarven Worker in the Paladin's Bridge -> crafting materials (better than lizard)
- Hannag, the lizard master of Source -> tons of high level skills books of several schools
- Jahan, our old friend and another Master of Source -> magicool items
- Tarquin -> RUNES. Sometimes he will even sell masterwork runes as well
- Dwarf guarding the entrance to the Undertavern -> Rogue skillbooks and some finesse items (not much)
- Undead librarian in Cloisterwood -> skill books, including high level poly
- On the second floor of the Black Bull Tavern there is another guy selling some magical items
- Black bull inkeeper -> some crafting components (wine) + lots of money
- Chief Paladin on the bridge -> Magical items
- Elves in the elven encampment -> 2 of them sell Magical items
- Siva -> Some magical items

Might remember more at home.

EDIT:

- Superior pixie dust start showing up at lvl 16. Now you can upgrade you runes to giant and frame them. AND you can no longer upgrade the other runes. The recipes only work with "regular" pixie dust, so stock up before hitting lvl 16 to avoid a shitty surprise...