Help me to figure out the most effective setup for PvE

Hey guys!

As the title said i'm looking forward to starting the campaign again and i'd like to know your opinions about the best builds and the most beneficial combinations of classes/races. I started with an all human group (Warrior/Wizard/Priest) but I had troubles around level 12 and I didn't like the racial skills. Any advice?

 

Jack,

Each of the races bring different opportunities and challenges, and I think it comes down to your style of play and the challenges you’re running into. The difficulty of the single-player campaign does start to ramp up around that point (in my opinion, anyway), and it may be more of a gear issue rather than an issue with not optimizing race/class groupings. I don’t think there’s anything stopping you from completing with an all-human party with one of each class, in fact that’s how I completed the single-player campaign in beta.

If you go back and start over with level 1 characters, you’re likely to have an easier time of it by the time you get them up to level 12, but this will likely be due to increased gear choices, overall quality of gear, and better familiarity with the game, rather than coming from a better optimized party.

I will say that my own preference is for dwarves, though I tend to be a bit more aggressive with putting characters in harm’s way, hence the racial abilities of higher hp and the ability to eliminate debuffs/ignore damage can be helpful. That said, there are certain missions which become more problematic because of the decreased mobility. (The geomancer treasure hunts were a pain in the rear, or perhaps the feet)

 

Yeah after my experience last time with a balanced party. Dwarf warrior, human priest, elf wizard I went all human this time. I love the human skills for the card draw and additional team movement. I was frustrated by the dwarf lack of movement in scenarios the heavily featured encumber effects. Realistically I think any combo works pretty well as long as your gear and playstyle match.

Edited for grammar

 

My favorite style of play is "punch'em hard in the face" so I'm not the best planner in the world but I'm a min-maxer at heart and these kind of decisions are always tough for me. I'm starting to think that one class for each race will be the most versatile setup but i'm struggling to decide the right combination.

 

I'd recommend one of each class the first time through the campaign, so you can use the whole range of items you pick up. I prefer dwarves for PVE, since mobility isn't very useful in most (but certainly not all) scenarios.

 

I think humans are the most versatile for PvE. I went with human healer+wizard and a dwarf fighter. No trouble at all until the dammed wyverns (lvl 16)

You might just lack the right equipment. I can't remember what enemies are at lvl 12.
Magic users? Shining armor, step attack cards & missile block
Large mobs? heavy armor and chop cards

 

I love dwarves, they have the best racial skills in my opinion but i'm afraid to play 3 of them especially in those maps full of geomancers or imps. Do you have a good class/race combination to suggest?

My brickwall was the last stage of the "Temple of Scales", I tried different builds but i always ended up surrounded or kited to death. Humans are not that bad but i really cannot take advantage of movement cards like Shuffle, Team! or Retreat i don't know why probably i'm leaning towards a more static gameplay.

 

There isn't no such thing as most effective setup for PvE... Different maps require different things.

That being said, one of each class is good starting point. Race is mostly matter of preference, although some variance might be helpfull. And elf wizard is just invitation to world of hurt and frustration

Temple of Scales seemed really hard. Wall of Stone proofed to be immensely helpfull spell. And stay away from cleric, he has lots of stabs, but won't use them unless approached by the player. Luckily it can be skipped for a while and come back to with better equipment if need be.

 

I had a quick look at the 1 battle for Scales, So enemies which stand off 1 square away?

Step attack &/ weapons with range=2 Puncturing Dagger Sharpened Pick
Armor Reliable Scale Mail Crusty Helm
Parry Parrying Buckler

 

Yes, there's this deal with Card Hunter. I tried to summarize it over here, and made a great big table of votes over here. In short: EVERYONE with EVERY strategy and EVERY build will find some adventure that is too hard, forcing them to change their strategy or build. And if somehow that were NOT true, the devs would be failing us as game designers.

So no, a game that is this dedicated to strategy will not have a "most effective setup." If it did, then the majority of players would use that setup . . . and the devs would have wasted their time developing the rest of the game content. You'll notice, for multiplayer, people start lots of threads complaining about "the current dominant build": this is because they all know that a game is no fun if everybody MUST focus on 1% of the content in order to win.

The same applies to your concern, single-player, but here it is moreso. The devs have even more freedom to force you into different challenges. Thus the advice of folks in this thread is good: absolutely will this stuff help you defeat tons of enemies. But you could have just said "I'm stuck on the Temple of Scales." Then, as with all other such threads (like my own, linked at the top), we would have jumped straight into the little twists of strategy you might have missed.

I'm sure your current "setup" is very "effective." It must be, else you wouldn't have done so well! But do try to shake it up: even going so far as to get a new set of adventurers (not a "replacement" to get "the most effective setup," but to have a second party). It is AMAZING how different, and even how liberating, it can be just to see how differently Card Hunter plays.

 

I'm not a hoarder so I tend to clean and organize my backpack very frequently. I'm keeping situational items with purges, cleansings, etc. but they don't change my playstyle that much. Thanks for the hint about the Elf wizard, I'll choose a different race for him.

Super mobile lizardmen armed with spears and tons of debuffs like Blob of Slime, Bad Luck, Unholy Curse, Path of Knives, etc.

 

No, don't do that. It's easiest and most certain way to get stuck in the campaign... And at the very least it'll make quests just a bit more annoying.

 

So how can i earn golds? I'm buying a lot of stuff lately and the rare/epic items are really expensive.

Edit: Elf Warrior, Dwarf Wizard and Human Priest, what do you think about that?

 

Sell treasures, but not other items (and treasures sell for more anyway).

 

I run elf warrior, dwarf wizard, and human priest and it works well for me (since my number one annoyance is the mage mobs that run away from your warrior). If you are more annoyed by high damage melee mobs though, elf warrior might not be the best for you.

 

Yeah you definitely what to keep duplicates of many different usable items. I made the same mistake in beta and while I had great gear on my primary party I had difficulty with some fights because I couldn't really customize for the SP adventures. This time around I'm selling treasures and some copies over 3. So I have way less cash this time but I can run any dungeon more easily.

 

Yeah but the treasures are not very common and 2/10 at piece is nothing when you need 500+ golds.

The Elf Wizard could be very frustrating (as Forduc said) so i'm still doubtful, unfortunately i lack finesse and my biggest problem is trading blows effectively against enemies that deal much more damage than me.
My thoughts about the combinations:
Elf Warrior: He'll never be kited, fast disengages when needed and he can position himself to hit more enemies with ease.
Dwarf Wizard: A dead mage does zero damage so i need someone resilient especially because my group will be at a disadvantage in almost any map.
Human Priest: The ultimate drawing/cycling machine, mobile enough to stay close to the warrior and tanky enough to take some beating.
As a roleplayer i'd love to choose a more classic setup like Dwarf Warrior, Elf Wizard or Priest, etc. but i prefer to find a synergy between the class and the racial skills.

 

Different quests are intentionally set up to require vastly different deck construction to beat. If you are selling anything that is not clearly and directly obsoleted ~and~ with duplicates then you are not min-maxing your gear. The most effective setup for pve is a broad card selection. If you can get through with a single setup then they've overdone the nerfing, because it is directly against the design intention.

 

Just keep working at it and over time you will get enough.

Getting a random epic or legendary treasure at times is always nice if you spend a lot of gold.