Written Article: fextralife.com/divinity-original-sin-2-beginners-guide-10-best-skills-for-any-build/ Wiki: divinityoriginalsin2.wiki.fextralife.com/Divinity+Original+Sin+2+Wiki LIVE ON TWITCH: twitch.tv/fextralife 💖 Become a Fextralife VIP fextralife.com/Be-a-vip/
Having completed this game (100%) 10 times, with 7 times being SOLO on HONOR MODE, my list is as follows: 1. Teleportation-so much useful in all scenarios. 2. Adrenaline 3. Chameleon cloak 4. Skin graft. Congratulations, you've broken the game. The combo of the bottom three skills (along with your usual basic rotation build skills), is downright OP. Especially if you have other CC skills like chicken claw, battering ram, etc. Go into combat, use adrenaline and your usual basic rotation build skills, go invis. Wait two turns, you have full AP. You can either use other skills if you can survive or just use skin graft, repeat above pattern and after anothet 2 turns, full AP. Use all your skills to finish the fight if it wasn't already over. Did I tell you this works as SOLO on honor mode with ANY build? Yeah. Good luck, have fun.
I just want to say that your videos have amplified my game-experience with D:OS2 by a tenfold! The builds are easy to follow, and they are presented in a very pedagogical manner. I'm looking forward to following your channel during my time with Baldur's Gate III.
I literally just bought the game earlier today since the physical copy at the shop was cheap. I'm so excited to finally have something to sink some time into.
@@marjase9172 its almost impossible to compare this 2 games, witcher more popcorn-like story-driven deep game, and honestly with pepega mechanics press x to attack press b to dodge like game, I like it but it's not so deep in combat mechanics like original sin where you can combo half of the skills with each other, and sins more tactic game and witcher is action game with RPG elements
Uff I can't remember how many times I put Uncanny evasion on enemy standing next to me like a champ. Great game. I have to thank Cas for recomending it to me on twitch stream. Thank you.
pro tip: if casting targetables rather than AOEs, you can use the bar on the top of the screen (or left side if you wanna just buff an ally and be extra safe) I would say that a ton of CC, buffs, and debuffs should be chosen according to that list at the top of the screen anyways, as it means you can avoid having the enemy get most of their moves if you plan it out right, or it can help you get out of a sticky situation by just barely buffing the next guy in the list enough to help the next and so on but yea easiest example is if fighting, say, a group of 4 melee units, and you all have teleport and are in a pack for whatever reason; teleport enemy that will take the next turn to the opposite side of the battlefield, put combat buffs on allies (i usually get a point in pyro for hastened buff since it more than pays for itself to just have 25% more ap every single turn for every single char, so you can use this on your next ally for them to get the benefit on their first turn) the first enemy wastes their first turn getting to you; repeat until you have full AP and the enemies all get to you with no AP, and you have all your buffs on. if you want, and you placed them well enough, you can try teleporting them away again and just whittling them down, but this can sometimes prove impossible. thing is, this strat and many others, you have to look at the order, so i usually just click on the order bar for skills that are targeted
I just started playing this game. It is my first ever turn based combat rpg. Without these guides I would be stuck. Still playing on the easy difficulty because there is so much to learn.
I really miss this game, got to near completion of act two at almost 100 hours, but havant played in almost a year now as I cant justify spending any time gaming at this point in my life, have fun for me guys!
I am glad you updated that challenge can't be aquired before level 16, I looked *everywhere* in act 2 for Challenge but could not get it until I leveled higher, very frustrating.
I would have replaced Bone Cage with the Haste spell outside of Glass Cannons, as it works well with adrenaline. For it allows added AP for combat over time, increase distance cover, and it can sort of counter Adrenaline cutting your AP lost by one point in the next turn. This is valuable for mages with high-power spells that need 3 AP or allows you to perform 2 more spells.
you do not need to spend all these skills points, you can craft scrolls for the majority of the skills mentioned in the video. do not forget the grenades (charm)
"Beginners guide" do you think people who are inexperienced with the game are going to waste time crafting armour scrolls? Also you would need hundreds of them if you didn't have fortify or armour of frost on your skillbar
Clear mind, haste and maybe First aid should be in this list too. Clear mind clears madness, charm, blind, and various other nasty disables while providing a stat bonus. Haste is basically an investment into 2 ap over next turns for 1 ap now PLUS you have increased movement speed, when cast on your teammate who uses adrenaline as well they'll be able to do a LOT in a turn. And first aid basically helps your teammate out from knockdown and gives a clutch heal. All of those only require 1 ap and 1 point in their schools.
Never use dominate mind, fun fact, if a dominated enemy kills one of your enemies you don’t gain the EXP, same with charm grenades or mind maggot grenades, They never fixed this.
Mahir Tahseen it also costs 3 AP, and you need to keep an eye on it, it’s just a super crap spell, MAYBE useful in lone wolf where you have AP to burn but not 4 player
Haha don't worry we have a lot of content for DOS2 that you can browse! ua-cam.com/video/8OMhbME_dqc/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/8OMhbME_dqc/v-deo.html
I have a love/hate relationship with chameleon cloak. It's useful for the one character that uses it, but enemies always go for the other characters, spreading out their total damage less.
Use chameleon cloak for your two primary dps (so normally your ranger and mage) I just beaten the game on honor mode with an solo necromancer and chameleon cloak is incredible
I mean Battle Stomp and/or Battering Ram deserves a place on this list. Low requirements, covers huge areas, available from the start and knock everyone without armor on the ground for one turn. Give all that holds a weapon this skill and every armor less enemy will stay down the entire fight.
Playing high difficulty Living on the edge is, for me, by far the most usefull skill in the game. At the midgame ennemy can almost 1 shot you so its very usefull skill to have
No love for peace of mind and haste. Not even an honorable mention. Both are so good and, like teleportation and uncanny dodge, their costs are easy to justify because they both require the same investment: 1 pyro.
You dont need any deffensive spells like armor buffs at all in this game) 1.Chameleon 2.Adrenaline 3. "Wait" button 4. TP 5. cloak and dagger 6. tactical retreat 7. Evasion are the only TOP skills for all classes)
after 2200h my skill list is 1)Worm Tremor 2)Adrenaline 3)Teleportation 4)Tactical Retreat/Cloak and Dagger 5)Living on the Edge 6)Chameleon Cloak 7)Skin Graft 8)Haste 9)Peace of Mind 10)First Aid/Uncanny Evasion i am not talking about late game skills because u can take everything u want. Just because of a mirror
The best build in the game is a telekinesis build. Put all attributes in wits and spec for crit chance and multiplier. Use two handed weapon and scoundrel. Get your telekinesis up to 5 so you can move your chest 20m and your good.Then get your bag and a gold ornate chest and fill it with as much weight as you can get I have about 7400 pounds in my chest and one shot everything. I am level 7 and take out between 3000 dmg on the low end and around 7000+ dmg on a crit. If you get executioner talent you can wipe a whole army of magisters with out getting hit.
The endgame glory that is lone wolf + apotheosis and pyroclastic eruption is something else. If you play with Odinblade's mods and use the necromancer overhaul, theres a source spell that totally removes all magic armor from a foe for the remainder of the turn. Absolutely OP. It's enough time to get apotheosis and pyroclastic erruption and one shot The Doctor, or charm the kraken in the final boss immediately (yes, he can be charmed), which in turn charms his summons, which THEN in turn fucks up the big bad something quick, and of course when they go down you win. Even without the modded spell, focus the magic armor down and charm before you get slapped.
This guide perfectly illustrates the central problem inherent to most "build your own character" system. You might think having total freedom to pick and choose your skills would allow you to create truly unique builds that play very differently from each other, but the end result is that every build invariably uses the same 8-10 overpowered utility skills on top of either a ranged or melee damage package. A system intended to unleash player creativity and generate the widest possible variety of builds actually accomplishes the exact opposite. Paradoxically, you would discover a lot more unique and interesting builds with a far more rigid character progression system that locks you into 1-2 schools per character. This is why class-based systems are actually better in most cases. They basically force you to use a variety of builds to succeed.
Agreed, i am also always in favor of games that reward players for using character with different skill sets instead of of all using the same skills. Thats why i hate DOS2 armor system which instead of favoring a balanced party it rather pushes you doing all melee or all mage party with same utility skills. Which is just dumb. All the People that scream "let ditch morallyty systems" or "lets ditch class system" for more "freedom of choice " never realize that people always end up making the same characters over and over once they know what skill are op or what choices reward the most. insteat of creativity, it only makes games bland and mediocre. Lets just hope they ditch the armor system for DOS3.
Wanna cheese your way through the start of the game, load up all 4 of your characters with finesse, wits and warfare points, equip a crossbow/bows, get spells tactical retreat (huntsman +2) and cloak and dagger (scoundrel +2) for maneuverability and get the talents "Glass Cannon" and "executioner". Fort Joy will be but a memory...
I actually use tactical retreat for a lot of stuff as it’s essentially just teleport self without the pain my rogue uses it for adjusting the field as well as exploring
Skin graft should be here. Reseting your cooldowns for 1 ap? Sign me up. Yes it's 3 polymorph, but that also means +3 attribute points. If your build is not absurdly strict and you are already investing in poly for chameleon skin, I say do it.
So a little helpful tip, try to figure out what skills you use and don’t use. For armor of frost, fortify, and skin graft you can craft scrolls The less memory you have the more damage you “can” have. For instance, my ranger has about 13-14 memory ( you get one memory slot for every other level you hit) Some builds don’t require a lot of memory because you’ll be using a small number of skills
Nice info- any chance you'll be able to fit Wasteland 3 into your schedule? I've tried to avoid any early access vids showing combat but anything as far as build suggestions would be nice.
I think im just going to restart the game. I totally underestimated the learning curve on this title. I am so used to flying through dungeons. This takes time and patience which I dodo'd at the beginning of my run. The only thing I wish the title had was higher quality maps. and what I mean is, when you look at the map it a terrible pixelated mess.
This list is kind of off tbh. Dominate mind is almost never a useful skill in general. It costs too much ap and is only really decent on a pure magic setup. Charming arrows cost less ap, have no cooldown, take up no memory slots, and you can get an infinite supply of them pretty easily. Also, chloroform is much more universal to an all magic setup, and doesn’t require any investment into summoning, making it more viable to a way more builds for much less ap. Bone cage is situational. It’s not bad by any means, but definitely not something that just applies to any build, especially when you consider 4 person experience. It also doesn’t take away any debuffs the way fortify or armor of frost would. It works particularly well with teleport pyramid cheese, and after your big wombo combos, again, in a lone wolf set up. Cloak and dagger>>>tactical retreat. I don’t really care about what people think is technically better. The ability to sneak my units into advantageous positions seamlessly is significantly more important than a two turn haste buff. I speak from experience. The fact that peace of mind is missing from this list is disturbing. Peace of mind easily the best non source ability you could have for 1 ap. It raises wits by ten, increasing initiative and crit chance, as well as secondary stats, and provides momentary immunity against the nastiest cc options you will ever have to face. I have no clue why this got overlooked. It is probably the only skill I can comfortably admit to having on all my units, even in a four man party. Challenge is not something I would expect to see on every build because of the high investment into warfare. It would be fairly universal across lone wolf builds, but not four man party. I understand this video came out before the 5 warfare requirement, but since then challenge has gotten better imo, and I still pretty much regard it in that light. Haste is also forgotten. Admittedly I don’t care as much for it myself and it’s less universally valuable (useless with glass cannon) but it’s still more readily accessible than challenge and is still more universally useful than bone cage or dominate mind.
imo, dominate mind sucks because it costs 3 AP, whereas throwing charm grenades or using charm arrows takes only 2 AP, and its very easy to craft shitloads of charm arrows at the beginning of act 2
Fortify does more than just boost amor it also puts out fire, the most common enemy damage type and stops you from being teleported. buff skills increase off level as well as points spent. Magic Armour. Cures Burning, Poisoned, Stunned, Frozen, Suffocating and Petrified. you can use scrolls as a back up but it is definitely worth the points spent.
Hey, Fextralife! I noticed your Aerothurge guide is gone from youtube? I'm halfway through the beginning and I was following it, but now without it my character is kind of lost in the dark. Was it taken down?
Sort of expected to see First Aid make top 10. It also removes some statuses. Also the clear minded Pyro 1 skill has some specific remedies too. Nether Swap is slightly less flexible than Teleport but is 1 AP for an effect that's occasionally more useful. It's hard to narrow down to 10...
When I was originally making my list First Aid was on my list of 15 or so skills, but then I had to narrow it down to 10. It's tough to do, and I'm not sure I got it 100% right still...
Hi. Your guides have been extremely helpful when i was playng this game many months ago. But how come you still make videos about dos2? Are there new updates? Should i be replaying it?
@@Fextralife Some of the quest information and skill descriptions are not current with the latest version of the game. It would take me a while to search all of them up.
@@Fextralife In simple terms, someone in your crew who is still playing the game should go and cross check with the wiki to see if the info already there matches the current game. If the wiki says x character has 12,000 health on tactician but they have 50,000 it should be updated. If the quest now has other ways to complete it and the wiki does not have that info it should be updated.
This game has the largest builds possibilities and interaction i have ever seen it's amazing ! This game is a 9.5/10. Not 10/10 just because i felt the story boring after leaving fort joy.
earlier in the game, i used teleportation on enemies to get them away from the battle. its like theyre getting stunned for 2 whole turns just to get back 😂
I am ok with this list mostly except the top 3. Both fortify and armor of frost should be off the list imo, since this list's purpose is to show skills that are strong on every characters. Besides the situational curing potential which can maybe give it the number 7/8 if you are being generous those skills are useless on builds of the opposite attribute (strength/intelligents) and even then they are just mediocre unless you invest in their skill line(geo/hydro). Imo none of the skills should have scaling that matters(aka teleportation) since in the beginning you said they should fit almost every build, especially in the top 3. Now to the part that will get people mad: adrenalin should be at number 10-7. Hear me out ok? The problem with adrenalin is that you are just moving points around. The only time it is useful is to finish of a target, which makes it unable to attack you, the problem is that if someone can be killed, it could have been CCed with the attack earlier instead, and in the next turn, after the enemies took their turn, you can decide if killing it is the best use of your AP. Killing a target earlier would be useful if you have the talent executioner, but this is out of the scope of this list. Here is my list for the top 10 best skills in the game: 10: Peace of Mind - very useful for it's general stat increase that scales with level and the accuracy buff and the huge amount of stats immunities are just a bonus. 9: Adrenaline 8: Skin Graft - I think it is very worth it on any character even though it costs 3 polymorph points, just too good. 7: Apotheosis: best skill in the game by a lot but very late game and takes 5 points of poly, which knocks it down a lot on a general list, although you should already have 3 for Skin Graft and 2 point is nothing at this point of the game. 6: Nether swap - very good for ranged characters or to use on a ranged characters, since it allows to put yourself out of trouble (aka a close range enemy in your face) and get at least 2 enemies close to each other for an AOE. 5: Cloak and Dagger: The best blink outside of combat, would be a bit higher but there is a better alternative and when using both of them it losses value a lot. 4: Uncanny Evasion - I placed it lower than Chameleon Cloak since I don't think enemies targeting you is a better trade off for still being hit by magic damage. Maybe at act 1 but not for the rest. 3: Teleport - It's useful for getting enemies into AOE if you are playing that character, but besides this use, usually a blink at half the cost is just better. 2: Tactical Retreat - a free blink. What more can you ask for? 1: Chameleon Cloak - Your character stops being a target for 1 turn for just 1 AP in combat and allows you to sneak past sight cones out of combat. Just too good and can be easily grabbed for just 1 poly point that you can use to increase your primary attribute.
You underestimate Adrenaline quite a lot here and I don't see the point to add Cloask and Dagger when you put the better version Tactical retreat on your list. Yes Cloack and Dagger have some situation when it can outshine Tactical Retreat but the opportunity coast is to high to take it if you go for tactical Retreat ( and you should ). Taking your point about the armor spell " this list's purpose is to show skills that are strong on every characters" playing a mage character I can afford putting 2 point for the best blink of the game, but 2 more for a situational spell that will be inferior? The cost is to high (well it's 1more point only and zero on lone wolf if you want adrenaline, and you probably want it on all your character.) Chameleon cloack will can deal with most of the situation that Cloack and dagger can handle. Back to Adrenaline this skill is free 2AP when used well, how can't be god tier for all character? Who doesn't need 2 free AP? Yes you will loose 2 AP at the next turn. But if with this two point you can manage to end the combat, it's at least 2 free point on the whole combat, wich is huge. The other skill do to this are haste effect and unique skill that not everyone can use. With this 2 more AP you can do one to two more action per turn, wich enable you to break more armor, do more CC, more kill, more debuff on the ennemy from the 1st turn. How can this be overvalued? Geting the lead on a fight is one of the best things and this skill let you do that, gaining the lead and snowball for the rest of the fight. It enable you to have more way to manage your AP. This skill is not overated, it's very strong and playing well it's a free bonus with no AP cost. Few honorable mention: Living on the edge: Can't die for two turn, using it with "Death Wish" and you can prepare a character to have 99% more damage and no worry about someone breaking is amor and kill it. Death Wish: you deal X% more damage X is your heath lost, you have lost 99% or your health you will deal 99% more damage Peace of mind: a strong buff (boost Strength, Finesse, Intelligence AND Wits) that can be applied before a fight and protect of nasty effect, great spell. Haste: 1 free AP point per turn (2 more AP per cast with three turn of effect, -1 casting +3 with the buff) and more speed for less AP point used on movement. It's so strong alone that it can justifiy putting 1 in pyro for every character if you have not +1pyro on your gear. Can be use before the fight. This spell with Peace of mind is game breaker. I don't know why this two speel who benefit for all character are not at least mentioned.
@@itachiaurion3198 Cloak & Dagger is awesome to weave =in= combat along with sneak, free attack/AP from stealth - perfect positioning, etc.. Imo, a lot stronger than tactical retreat. Starting the fight while picking the best positioning is unmatched by any other skill. That includes the buffs as they can be precast and then use pyramid to go in sneak mode to the same character with cloak and dagger.
Concerning what you said about adrenaline, if all of your CC skills are in cool down that strategy wouldn't work. Also you mentioned it would be more useful to use adrenaline to kill off the enemy if you have executioner, but you forgot about challenge.
Before watching, I’m guessing: - Adrenaline - Tactical Retreat - Skin Graft - Chameleon Cloak - Armor of Frost - Fortify - Teleportation - Uncanny Evasion - Bone Cage - Flesh Sacrifice? I can’t think of a tenth ability, so I’m guessing FS. EDIT: Well, I wouldn’t have thought of Dominate Mind but yeah, that makes a heck of a lot of sense.
Dominate Mind is total garbage - 3AP + 2 points in summoning + 1memory slot, when you can use AoE grenades - easy craft (honey + empty perfume) or charming arrows.
General question about the game. Does it matter for the story if i play an origin character as main or companion? For example, if i create a custom character and pick Fane as my companion, will i expirience Fane's story the same way as if i would play him as my main? I don't want to replay the game with every origin character to expirience their stories. That will be like 500+ hours, don't have that much time for gaming :(
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This video is perfect. Good tempo and structure. Thank you
Sad to hear that this will be concluding the DOS2 content on the channel. I loved each and every build guide that came from you.
The guides are awesome! Helped me a lot.
Finished the game yesterday. Will use this if I ever have 100 hours to spare to play it again
Lem1697 that very comment scares my wife - 100 hours and absent husband
190 hrs here 🙋🏼♂️
edit: 350 hrs
@@RoyMcCoy That's when you scare her more, by inviting her to join your party!
99 hours haven’t made it past act 2 about to start over again lol
@@alexchaffin6265 you and me both
Having completed this game (100%) 10 times, with 7 times being SOLO on HONOR MODE, my list is as follows:
1. Teleportation-so much useful in all scenarios.
2. Adrenaline
3. Chameleon cloak
4. Skin graft.
Congratulations, you've broken the game. The combo of the bottom three skills (along with your usual basic rotation build skills), is downright OP. Especially if you have other CC skills like chicken claw, battering ram, etc.
Go into combat, use adrenaline and your usual basic rotation build skills, go invis. Wait two turns, you have full AP. You can either use other skills if you can survive or just use skin graft, repeat above pattern and after anothet 2 turns, full AP. Use all your skills to finish the fight if it wasn't already over.
Did I tell you this works as SOLO on honor mode with ANY build? Yeah. Good luck, have fun.
00:45 10 - Bone Cage
01:18 9 - Dominate Mind
01:50 8 - Challenge
02:21 7 - Tactical Retreat
03:00 6 - Chameleon Cloak
03:38 5 - Uncanny Evasion
04:21 4 - Teleportation
04:59 3 - Armour of Frost
05:27 2 - Fortify
05:58 1 - Adrenaline
Thanky
I have over 800 hours into this game yet still watch videos like this :P
Playing Definitive edition, Just got to Arx Necrofire and cursed Ice is everywhere. Thanks for your guides they have helped me a lot.
i love that this channel still covers Dos2
You made me enjoy it 10 times more with your build guides.
wow since so much time past this channel still doing something for this epic game, gj !
I just want to say that your videos have amplified my game-experience with D:OS2 by a tenfold!
The builds are easy to follow, and they are presented in a very pedagogical manner. I'm looking forward to following your channel during my time with Baldur's Gate III.
The last DOS2 guide... I’m a little sad :(
BUTTTTTT excited for all of the guides for Baulder’s Gate!!!
Same here
I literally just bought the game earlier today since the physical copy at the shop was cheap. I'm so excited to finally have something to sink some time into.
Greatest RPG of all time I tell you.
It's like Baldur's Gate II on steroids for a generation that doesn't deserve it.
never played Baldur's gate but played Original sin and sin 2, epic games, can't wait for Baldur's gate 3
I've been hardcore gaming for nearly 20 years, and this is in my top 3 games of all time. What an absolute fucking gem..
Lol it is a masterpiece but I have it secound to witcher 3
@@marjase9172 its almost impossible to compare this 2 games, witcher more popcorn-like story-driven deep game, and honestly with pepega mechanics press x to attack press b to dodge like game, I like it but it's not so deep in combat mechanics like original sin where you can combo half of the skills with each other, and sins more tactic game and witcher is action game with RPG elements
@@marjase9172 I didn't really like Witcher 3. It felt dated by the time I got to play it.
Uff I can't remember how many times I put Uncanny evasion on enemy standing next to me like a champ. Great game. I have to thank Cas for recomending it to me on twitch stream. Thank you.
This + provoke = win.
pro tip: if casting targetables rather than AOEs, you can use the bar on the top of the screen (or left side if you wanna just buff an ally and be extra safe)
I would say that a ton of CC, buffs, and debuffs should be chosen according to that list at the top of the screen anyways, as it means you can avoid having the enemy get most of their moves if you plan it out right, or it can help you get out of a sticky situation by just barely buffing the next guy in the list enough to help the next and so on
but yea easiest example is if fighting, say, a group of 4 melee units, and you all have teleport and are in a pack for whatever reason;
teleport enemy that will take the next turn to the opposite side of the battlefield, put combat buffs on allies (i usually get a point in pyro for hastened buff since it more than pays for itself to just have 25% more ap every single turn for every single char, so you can use this on your next ally for them to get the benefit on their first turn) the first enemy wastes their first turn getting to you; repeat until you have full AP and the enemies all get to you with no AP, and you have all your buffs on. if you want, and you placed them well enough, you can try teleporting them away again and just whittling them down, but this can sometimes prove impossible.
thing is, this strat and many others, you have to look at the order, so i usually just click on the order bar for skills that are targeted
I just started playing this game. It is my first ever turn based combat rpg. Without these guides I would be stuck. Still playing on the easy difficulty because there is so much to learn.
Keep going! This kind of games are like a space-time vortex that leads to time disappearing lol
@@iamtheblackwizard1071 Haha yeah. I just got out of fort joy. Spent hours talking to npcs and exploring. The story is so good.
@@joeseyeuh3786 Just out of Fort Joy? You know nothing about the story yet ;)
I literally just started playing this again because of my excitement for Baldurs Gate 3! I love how coincidental this video is!
I really miss this game, got to near completion of act two at almost 100 hours, but havant played in almost a year now as I cant justify spending any time gaming at this point in my life, have fun for me guys!
Its cool that there are still more and more guides for this game
Thank you for this, will be a huge help as my wife and I make our way thru this landmark title.
Great video! I'm halfway through my first Honor Run and this helped a ton!
I just discovered this game and am learning how to play from your guides. Now BG 3 is coming out I'm super hyped!
I am glad you updated that challenge can't be aquired before level 16, I looked *everywhere* in act 2 for Challenge but could not get it until I leveled higher, very frustrating.
I would have replaced Bone Cage with the Haste spell outside of Glass Cannons, as it works well with adrenaline. For it allows added AP for combat over time, increase distance cover, and it can sort of counter Adrenaline cutting your AP lost by one point in the next turn. This is valuable for mages with high-power spells that need 3 AP or allows you to perform 2 more spells.
tactical retreat makes this irrelevant
Adrenaline and tactical retreat would be my top picks. They complement each other and the increased mobility is great in most builds.
you do not need to spend all these skills points, you can craft scrolls for the majority of the skills mentioned in the video. do not forget the grenades (charm)
"Beginners guide" do you think people who are inexperienced with the game are going to waste time crafting armour scrolls? Also you would need hundreds of them if you didn't have fortify or armour of frost on your skillbar
@andychapman1507 no just need them situational not hundreds lol learn to play the game well and cc characters faster
Clear mind, haste and maybe First aid should be in this list too. Clear mind clears madness, charm, blind, and various other nasty disables while providing a stat bonus. Haste is basically an investment into 2 ap over next turns for 1 ap now PLUS you have increased movement speed, when cast on your teammate who uses adrenaline as well they'll be able to do a LOT in a turn. And first aid basically helps your teammate out from knockdown and gives a clutch heal. All of those only require 1 ap and 1 point in their schools.
Ive been following all of your DOS2 content and will do the same for BG3. Thanks for the great work!
So this is your last video for DoS 2? A shame, the end of an era, reading your guides made the game so much more enjoyable for me.
Never use dominate mind, fun fact, if a dominated enemy kills one of your enemies you don’t gain the EXP, same with charm grenades or mind maggot grenades, They never fixed this.
Just make sure it doesn’t get the kill.
Mahir Tahseen it also costs 3 AP, and you need to keep an eye on it, it’s just a super crap spell, MAYBE useful in lone wolf where you have AP to burn but not 4 player
I’m doing a pacifist run right now with some friends. Dominate mind is the only thing keeping me alive 😂
Oh? Run me through how that works? 4 characters with dominate mind?
jamie addinall lol no, I’m the only one being a pacifist. But it’s very important
I just found your channel yesterday and wanted to say thanks for the amazing builds! Also I'm looking forward to seeing some BG3 content.
This is the first video I watched on DOS2 lol feels strange to see not more coming out.
Haha don't worry we have a lot of content for DOS2 that you can browse! ua-cam.com/video/8OMhbME_dqc/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/8OMhbME_dqc/v-deo.html
I have a love/hate relationship with chameleon cloak. It's useful for the one character that uses it, but enemies always go for the other characters, spreading out their total damage less.
Use chameleon cloak for your two primary dps (so normally your ranger and mage)
I just beaten the game on honor mode with an solo necromancer and chameleon cloak is incredible
I mean Battle Stomp and/or Battering Ram deserves a place on this list. Low requirements, covers huge areas, available from the start and knock everyone without armor on the ground for one turn. Give all that holds a weapon this skill and every armor less enemy will stay down the entire fight.
Also combination skills are incredible, like Rapture Tendons and Chicken Claw = instant kill.
Playing high difficulty Living on the edge is, for me, by far the most usefull skill in the game. At the midgame ennemy can almost 1 shot you so its very usefull skill to have
Yo I subbed cause I saw your old divinity videos from back then and you so happened to release this not too long after. I appreciate you man
You are awesome x thanks for this video xxxx
I feel like apotheosis should be on every build especially late game
Completely agreed. The scrolls are dirt cheap to craft by late game as well.
No love for peace of mind and haste. Not even an honorable mention. Both are so good and, like teleportation and uncanny dodge, their costs are easy to justify because they both require the same investment: 1 pyro.
I am playing a Necromancer Summoner build and it is so fun
You dont need any deffensive spells like armor buffs at all in this game)
1.Chameleon
2.Adrenaline
3. "Wait" button
4. TP
5. cloak and dagger
6. tactical retreat
7. Evasion
are the only TOP skills for all classes)
Great video, man! Very explicative. Thank you.
after 2200h my skill list is
1)Worm Tremor
2)Adrenaline
3)Teleportation
4)Tactical Retreat/Cloak and Dagger
5)Living on the Edge
6)Chameleon Cloak
7)Skin Graft
8)Haste
9)Peace of Mind
10)First Aid/Uncanny Evasion
i am not talking about late game skills because u can take everything u want. Just because of a mirror
Dude I literally just bought this game, thank you soooo much for the tips. Great job!
I really need to go back to this
The best build in the game is a telekinesis build. Put all attributes in wits and spec for crit chance and multiplier. Use two handed weapon and scoundrel. Get your telekinesis up to 5 so you can move your chest 20m and your good.Then get your bag and a gold ornate chest and fill it with as much weight as you can get I have about 7400 pounds in my chest and one shot everything. I am level 7 and take out between 3000 dmg on the low end and around 7000+ dmg on a crit. If you get executioner talent you can wipe a whole army of magisters with out getting hit.
Just dicovered this game, having a good time with it. Very nice guide.
The endgame glory that is lone wolf + apotheosis and pyroclastic eruption is something else.
If you play with Odinblade's mods and use the necromancer overhaul, theres a source spell that totally removes all magic armor from a foe for the remainder of the turn. Absolutely OP. It's enough time to get apotheosis and pyroclastic erruption and one shot The Doctor, or charm the kraken in the final boss immediately (yes, he can be charmed), which in turn charms his summons, which THEN in turn fucks up the big bad something quick, and of course when they go down you win. Even without the modded spell, focus the magic armor down and charm before you get slapped.
Whats that ending music? 😄 Sad to see last guide for DOS2, but can't wait what you can muster for us in BG3!!
This guide perfectly illustrates the central problem inherent to most "build your own character" system. You might think having total freedom to pick and choose your skills would allow you to create truly unique builds that play very differently from each other, but the end result is that every build invariably uses the same 8-10 overpowered utility skills on top of either a ranged or melee damage package. A system intended to unleash player creativity and generate the widest possible variety of builds actually accomplishes the exact opposite. Paradoxically, you would discover a lot more unique and interesting builds with a far more rigid character progression system that locks you into 1-2 schools per character. This is why class-based systems are actually better in most cases. They basically force you to use a variety of builds to succeed.
Agreed, i am also always in favor of games that reward players for using character with different skill sets instead of of all using the same skills.
Thats why i hate DOS2 armor system which instead of favoring a balanced party it rather pushes you doing all melee or all mage party with same utility skills. Which is just dumb.
All the People that scream "let ditch morallyty systems" or "lets ditch class system" for more "freedom of choice " never realize that people always end up making the same characters over and over once they know what skill are op or what choices reward the most. insteat of creativity, it only makes games bland and mediocre.
Lets just hope they ditch the armor system for DOS3.
@@mermidion7552 My mixbag of characters with all non cookie builds disagree with you.
Wanna cheese your way through the start of the game, load up all 4 of your characters with finesse, wits and warfare points, equip a crossbow/bows, get spells tactical retreat (huntsman +2) and cloak and dagger (scoundrel +2) for maneuverability and get the talents "Glass Cannon" and "executioner".
Fort Joy will be but a memory...
I actually use tactical retreat for a lot of stuff as it’s essentially just teleport self without the pain my rogue uses it for adjusting the field as well as exploring
taticle retreat is one of the skills i allways try to get. its just so useful to get around the battle field even if you are melee.
Yup playing this game in Tactician, and your guide help me a lot ;D
Adrenaline is the only skill that all four of your characters absolutely, positively _HAVE_ to have.
Missed Nether Swap which for me is tied with Tactical Retreat for most useful maneuvering skill in game.
agreed
YES MOAR DIVINITY CONTENT PUT IT IN MY VEINS
Beat the game 2 days ago. Love it. I would say 100 hrs in. The switch cant handle this game. Error and then game closes.
Just started another playthrough with Hydro/Aero and Geo/Pyro lone wolf mages.. Pretty crazy on the timing lol
Rupture of tendons can be really op depending on who are you applying it on
Just in time for my 3rd playthrough. First one I will use mods for too.
Mods are just for PC?
@@Teardehawkee If this article is true, then mods are supported on the Switch as well
gamerant.com/divinity-original-sin-2-better-switch-pc/
Resist death is underrated.
I just started playing it. Its a great game.. 20 hours in and I'm still recreating characters and playing God in beach fort.
Skin graft should be here. Reseting your cooldowns for 1 ap? Sign me up. Yes it's 3 polymorph, but that also means +3 attribute points. If your build is not absurdly strict and you are already investing in poly for chameleon skin, I say do it.
The only downside is: you need so much memory and points into everything :D
With lone wolf and polymorph you have enough
So a little helpful tip, try to figure out what skills you use and don’t use. For armor of frost, fortify, and skin graft you can craft scrolls
The less memory you have the more damage you “can” have. For instance, my ranger has about 13-14 memory ( you get one memory slot for every other level you hit)
Some builds don’t require a lot of memory because you’ll be using a small number of skills
Please make build guides revolving around the new armor sets!!
Peace of mind or haste would be honourable mentions 👍
the fact that Fire traps and mass fire traps are not in this is absolutely crazy. You can one shot anything that's not fire immune with it
For easy copy'n'paste into your own notes:
10. Bone Cage (Necromancer 2)
9. Dominate Mind (Summoning 2)
8. Challenge (Warfare 3)
7. Tactical Retreat (Huntsman 2)
6. Chameleon Cloak (Polymorph 1)
5. Uncanny Evasion (Aerotheurge 2)
4. Teleportation (Aerotheurge 2)
3. Armour of Frost (Hydrosophist 1)
2. Fortify (Geomancer 1)
1. Adrenaline (Scoundrel 1)
Good video
Best source skill: time warp, along with skin graft = OP
But time warp cannot be used by everyone, so it is totally irrelevant.
I'm so hyped for BG3 that i'm watching DOS2 videos lol
this aged well
Nice info- any chance you'll be able to fit Wasteland 3 into your schedule? I've tried to avoid any early access vids showing combat but anything as far as build suggestions would be nice.
Teleport can surely turn the tide very often.
Great video. Do you have a similar one for top talents?
I have to vote against Dominate Mind. Instead, invest in honey and craft a ton of charm arrows and grenades. A cost of 3 is too much.
There's so many fights that are just absolutely surrounded by corpses, I've pulled over 3k armor and had my mage tank entire enemy team focus fire
still watching even though already had 4 playthroughs.
I think im just going to restart the game. I totally underestimated the learning curve on this title. I am so used to flying through dungeons. This takes time and patience which I dodo'd at the beginning of my run. The only thing I wish the title had was higher quality maps. and what I mean is, when you look at the map it a terrible pixelated mess.
Worm tremors is amazing
yes but not any build can use it. You need torturer for it to be good . he is just talking about generally good skills that can be used by any build
This list is kind of off tbh.
Dominate mind is almost never a useful skill in general. It costs too much ap and is only really decent on a pure magic setup. Charming arrows cost less ap, have no cooldown, take up no memory slots, and you can get an infinite supply of them pretty easily.
Also, chloroform is much more universal to an all magic setup, and doesn’t require any investment into summoning, making it more viable to a way more builds for much less ap.
Bone cage is situational. It’s not bad by any means, but definitely not something that just applies to any build, especially when you consider 4 person experience. It also doesn’t take away any debuffs the way fortify or armor of frost would. It works particularly well with teleport pyramid cheese, and after your big wombo combos, again, in a lone wolf set up.
Cloak and dagger>>>tactical retreat. I don’t really care about what people think is technically better. The ability to sneak my units into advantageous positions seamlessly is significantly more important than a two turn haste buff. I speak from experience.
The fact that peace of mind is missing from this list is disturbing. Peace of mind easily the best non source ability you could have for 1 ap. It raises wits by ten, increasing initiative and crit chance, as well as secondary stats, and provides momentary immunity against the nastiest cc options you will ever have to face. I have no clue why this got overlooked. It is probably the only skill I can comfortably admit to having on all my units, even in a four man party.
Challenge is not something I would expect to see on every build because of the high investment into warfare. It would be fairly universal across lone wolf builds, but not four man party. I understand this video came out before the 5 warfare requirement, but since then challenge has gotten better imo, and I still pretty much regard it in that light.
Haste is also forgotten. Admittedly I don’t care as much for it myself and it’s less universally valuable (useless with glass cannon) but it’s still more readily accessible than challenge and is still more universally useful than bone cage or dominate mind.
imo, dominate mind sucks because it costs 3 AP, whereas throwing charm grenades or using charm arrows takes only 2 AP, and its very easy to craft shitloads of charm arrows at the beginning of act 2
I think Nether Swap deserved to be on this list. Use that shit all the time.
I don't really think it's worth it to take armor restoring skills for characters with no points in hydro or geo
Better to just have scrolls for that
Fortify does more than just boost amor it also puts out fire, the most common enemy damage type and stops you from being teleported. buff skills increase off level as well as points spent. Magic Armour. Cures Burning, Poisoned, Stunned, Frozen, Suffocating and Petrified. you can use scrolls as a back up but it is definitely worth the points spent.
I never go without clear mind
Love this game and Larian!
yay more divinity content
Hey, Fextralife! I noticed your Aerothurge guide is gone from youtube? I'm halfway through the beginning and I was following it, but now without it my character is kind of lost in the dark. Was it taken down?
Sort of expected to see First Aid make top 10. It also removes some statuses. Also the clear minded Pyro 1 skill has some specific remedies too. Nether Swap is slightly less flexible than Teleport but is 1 AP for an effect that's occasionally more useful. It's hard to narrow down to 10...
When I was originally making my list First Aid was on my list of 15 or so skills, but then I had to narrow it down to 10. It's tough to do, and I'm not sure I got it 100% right still...
@@Fextralife There's more to winning than tiers and top 10s anyway.
@@mtaur4113 haha true!
Hi. Your guides have been extremely helpful when i was playng this game many months ago. But how come you still make videos about dos2? Are there new updates? Should i be replaying it?
Can you guys update your wiki with the correct info for quests, descriptions and etc. per the current definitive edition?
What is it missing?
@@Fextralife Some of the quest information and skill descriptions are not current with the latest version of the game. It would take me a while to search all of them up.
@@Fextralife In simple terms, someone in your crew who is still playing the game should go and cross check with the wiki to see if the info already there matches the current game. If the wiki says x character has 12,000 health on tactician but they have 50,000 it should be updated.
If the quest now has other ways to complete it and the wiki does not have that info it should be updated.
This game has the largest builds possibilities and interaction i have ever seen it's amazing ! This game is a 9.5/10. Not 10/10 just because i felt the story boring after leaving fort joy.
earlier in the game, i used teleportation on enemies to get them away from the battle. its like theyre getting stunned for 2 whole turns just to get back 😂
I am ok with this list mostly except the top 3.
Both fortify and armor of frost should be off the list imo, since this list's purpose is to show skills that are strong on every characters. Besides the situational curing potential which can maybe give it the number 7/8 if you are being generous those skills are useless on builds of the opposite attribute (strength/intelligents) and even then they are just mediocre unless you invest in their skill line(geo/hydro). Imo none of the skills should have scaling that matters(aka teleportation) since in the beginning you said they should fit almost every build, especially in the top 3.
Now to the part that will get people mad: adrenalin should be at number 10-7. Hear me out ok? The problem with adrenalin is that you are just moving points around. The only time it is useful is to finish of a target, which makes it unable to attack you, the problem is that if someone can be killed, it could have been CCed with the attack earlier instead, and in the next turn, after the enemies took their turn, you can decide if killing it is the best use of your AP. Killing a target earlier would be useful if you have the talent executioner, but this is out of the scope of this list.
Here is my list for the top 10 best skills in the game:
10: Peace of Mind - very useful for it's general stat increase that scales with level and the accuracy buff and the huge amount of stats immunities are just a bonus.
9: Adrenaline
8: Skin Graft - I think it is very worth it on any character even though it costs 3 polymorph points, just too good.
7: Apotheosis: best skill in the game by a lot but very late game and takes 5 points of poly, which knocks it down a lot on a general list, although you should already have 3 for Skin Graft and 2 point is nothing at this point of the game.
6: Nether swap - very good for ranged characters or to use on a ranged characters, since it allows to put yourself out of trouble (aka a close range enemy in your face) and get at least 2 enemies close to each other for an AOE.
5: Cloak and Dagger: The best blink outside of combat, would be a bit higher but there is a better alternative and when using both of them it losses value a lot.
4: Uncanny Evasion - I placed it lower than Chameleon Cloak since I don't think enemies targeting you is a better trade off for still being hit by magic damage. Maybe at act 1 but not for the rest.
3: Teleport - It's useful for getting enemies into AOE if you are playing that character, but besides this use, usually a blink at half the cost is just better.
2: Tactical Retreat - a free blink. What more can you ask for?
1: Chameleon Cloak - Your character stops being a target for 1 turn for just 1 AP in combat and allows you to sneak past sight cones out of combat. Just too good and can be easily grabbed for just 1 poly point that you can use to increase your primary attribute.
You underestimate Adrenaline quite a lot here and I don't see the point to add Cloask and Dagger when you put the better version Tactical retreat on your list.
Yes Cloack and Dagger have some situation when it can outshine Tactical Retreat but the opportunity coast is to high to take it if you go for tactical Retreat ( and you should ). Taking your point about the armor spell " this list's purpose is to show skills that are strong on every characters" playing a mage character I can afford putting 2 point for the best blink of the game, but 2 more for a situational spell that will be inferior? The cost is to high (well it's 1more point only and zero on lone wolf if you want adrenaline, and you probably want it on all your character.) Chameleon cloack will can deal with most of the situation that Cloack and dagger can handle.
Back to Adrenaline this skill is free 2AP when used well, how can't be god tier for all character? Who doesn't need 2 free AP? Yes you will loose 2 AP at the next turn. But if with this two point you can manage to end the combat, it's at least 2 free point on the whole combat, wich is huge. The other skill do to this are haste effect and unique skill that not everyone can use. With this 2 more AP you can do one to two more action per turn, wich enable you to break more armor, do more CC, more kill, more debuff on the ennemy from the 1st turn. How can this be overvalued? Geting the lead on a fight is one of the best things and this skill let you do that, gaining the lead and snowball for the rest of the fight. It enable you to have more way to manage your AP. This skill is not overated, it's very strong and playing well it's a free bonus with no AP cost.
Few honorable mention:
Living on the edge: Can't die for two turn, using it with "Death Wish" and you can prepare a character to have 99% more damage and no worry about someone breaking is amor and kill it.
Death Wish: you deal X% more damage X is your heath lost, you have lost 99% or your health you will deal 99% more damage
Peace of mind: a strong buff (boost Strength, Finesse, Intelligence AND Wits) that can be applied before a fight and protect of nasty effect, great spell.
Haste: 1 free AP point per turn (2 more AP per cast with three turn of effect, -1 casting +3 with the buff) and more speed for less AP point used on movement. It's so strong alone that it can justifiy putting 1 in pyro for every character if you have not +1pyro on your gear. Can be use before the fight.
This spell with Peace of mind is game breaker. I don't know why this two speel who benefit for all character are not at least mentioned.
@@itachiaurion3198 Cloak & Dagger is awesome to weave =in= combat along with sneak, free attack/AP from stealth - perfect positioning, etc.. Imo, a lot stronger than tactical retreat. Starting the fight while picking the best positioning is unmatched by any other skill. That includes the buffs as they can be precast and then use pyramid to go in sneak mode to the same character with cloak and dagger.
Concerning what you said about adrenaline, if all of your CC skills are in cool down that strategy wouldn't work. Also you mentioned it would be more useful to use adrenaline to kill off the enemy if you have executioner, but you forgot about challenge.
guess i'm the niche one to love summoning monster & ward
Before watching, I’m guessing:
- Adrenaline
- Tactical Retreat
- Skin Graft
- Chameleon Cloak
- Armor of Frost
- Fortify
- Teleportation
- Uncanny Evasion
- Bone Cage
- Flesh Sacrifice?
I can’t think of a tenth ability, so I’m guessing FS.
EDIT: Well, I wouldn’t have thought of Dominate Mind but yeah, that makes a heck of a lot of sense.
Dominate Mind is total garbage - 3AP + 2 points in summoning + 1memory slot, when you can use AoE grenades - easy craft (honey + empty perfume) or charming arrows.
THANK YOU
Just bought this game for the first time. Looks like i have my work cut out for me.
General question about the game. Does it matter for the story if i play an origin character as main or companion? For example, if i create a custom character and pick Fane as my companion, will i expirience Fane's story the same way as if i would play him as my main? I don't want to replay the game with every origin character to expirience their stories. That will be like 500+ hours, don't have that much time for gaming :(
3:18 did that "play" realy just happen?
There is a lot of times a player get his turn skipped. They should fix it.