First impressions + party showcase. Advice and tips seeked

Howdy!
I found Card hunter... oh at the start of this week maybe? my older brother showed to me and istantly I got addicted - primarily because... sad but true I never got to play ANY PnP games, save perhaps 2 instances - both were my brother trying to get my and a even younger cousin to play back when we were too little to give a **** about anything... but sob stories aside - in these odd 4-5 days I managed to assemble a team, a team that... I dunno if miraculously turned out ok or the game just gotten easier since beta, since i heard the game required a lot of strategics.

So here is my band of missfits I like to call:
Skølldir's Steelbeard Skirmishers or as they officially go - Belegost's 3rd Phalanx

There primary tactic is that of a phalanx formation - marching in a tight band, not always forward mind you, but to them parking in a tight group is a key feature allowing them to descend on a desired target, focus fire and run circles around swarm encounters without either of them getting caught.

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Every fellowship has it's Gimli.
Although he's not the typical rush forward hack and slasher, he is primarily focused ( as can be seen via the cards ) on spear/halberd based attacks, i learned all too soon how range can be a big issue for warriors, especially dwarf warriors. I quickly kitted him out in two sets of equipment - spear and axe based.I bring along the axe mostly for jellos and... well only jelly so far, nothing else seams to work all too well with a dwarven shield-wall that dose last stands - you get swarmed too fast for it to be funny, especially with zombies. I also splice in daggers to both sets as they often serve as that one square separating you from attacking from the rear of a trog or goblin/kobold. I also make sure to give him more movement, so lots of charges and general moment improvement cards are more than welcome in this deck, thou it often leaves me with 3 movement cards or so... ah well good a time as any to retreat and regroup. the generic bashes are "just in cases" if skeletons pop up, thou in small rooms this build allowed me to rush up to skeletons and shred them before they could draw a Only Bones card. the odds and ends buffs are always useful, like Dwarven Battle Cry and Advanced Battlefield Training ( both saved the day more than once)

Gear:
Sharpened Pick
Weighted Shortsword
Bulky Club
Rusty Marshal's cap
Dueler's Buckler
Spiked Mail
Black Leather Boots

Traits:
Trained Ferocity
Trained Gouging

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Yeah, yeah I know - dwarves don't particularly have an affinity for magic, but when I saw this guy's looks, I immediately thought of Duerrgars from DND.( FYI add a grey dwarf figure to the store devs!)
He's beefed in the HP department as well as allowing him to use dwarven traits, his chunky demeanor saved him more than once( full frontal Superb Chop to the face). Same as with Skorgrim, what he lacks in movement he makes up for in range, this guy is all business when it comes to putting distance between himself and enemies or just flat out putting walls in there field of vision ( i like to imagine he puts up chest-high walls) and also unlike Skorgrim he has a taste for tip-toe attacks which allows him to jump back out of enemy range ( or jump in one space because those 1 square distances happen more often than not ) and when he's not making it harder for enemies to hit him or others, he's usually in the back of the formation whaling on anyone he can with Zap based magic - the Fire spells are a new addition primarily due to 4 cards with a range of 10 and a small DoT to boot that do twice the damage of a Long spark.

Gear:
Furnace Staff
Pulsing Staff
Zapping Headband
Orzo's Excellent Wand
Stone of Blank Mind
The Soulstone
Cerulean Robe
Black Boots

Traits:
Stout Charge
Trained Teleportation

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And this is the primary reason of a tight formation right there - Healing presence!
This is the reason why my dwarfs can travel in a tight pack and wreck the enemy teams, either when charging or fleeing - they always do tight formations primarily for the healing presence, every round for 2 rounds they all self heal for 2 - with the cleric healing for 4, once I get Battle training in to her build somehow, I'll have her toss healing presences to either of the two so they can cast the spell on her as well, which will end up with a whopping 4 heal every round for 3 turns.
As with the other two, she's a mouthful but a slow one, splicing in dash and sprint cards in to her build didn't hurt that much, as seen she is essencialy the tank of the team, the warrior is more of a damage role, as she can nto only beat back the hordes, she also gets the most out of healing presance as well as haveing dangerous draining touch attacks, allowing her to even near dead drain the boss encounters dry and mend herself to be as good as new, not to mention Altruism lets her refill her hand with cards right after healing or casting Healing presanc e- which she dose all the time.
The last gold card is Muscle through, which more than a few times made a decisive round end in my favor, allowing to not only beat enemies back but also drag either fo the two dwarfs out of harm's range

In a comical fit - when i was doing Melvor's Revange with the door, she started the game with Muscle through, allowing her to instantly charge at the door and knocking it out of the way before it could cast Immovable on itself.

Now that's what I call a Dwarf's entrance.

Gear:
Silver Scalpel
St Trobor's Maul
Oakenheart Shield
Infused Cloth Armor
Grey Leather Boots
Healing Ring
Hand of Melvelous
Healing Mirror

Traits:
Novice Toughness
Trained Piety

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Well TL;DR amirite? I would appreciate any hints because even thou i tried to negate it mobility is still kind of an issue, leaving me to struggle a lot with maps that have multiple 1 square wide control points, like the 2nd match of the Arena Finaly scenario, and more recently the return to the Astral Shrine - also 2nd match.

Thanks in advance! Once my paycheck rolls in, I'm buying loads of pizza.

-Also sorry in advance for any misspellings... I tried correcting it as much as I could, but English isn't my first language-

 

Will help you out tomorrow! Too sleepy right now

 

Here's my party for comparison, I happen to be at the same level.

My warrior:

Borwulf
Level 14 Human Warrior

Lochaber Axe​

Rageblood Dagger​

Hefty Stout Club​

Dependable Mail​

Oakenheart Shield​

Angry Jack's Helmet​

Marshall's Boots​

Untrained Command​

Novice Chopping​

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1 x Weak Parry​

3 x Nimble Strike​

2 x Mail​

2 x Reliable Mail​

4 x Vicious Thrust​

1 x Dash​

1 x Walk, Team!​

1 x Lunging Thrust​

1 x Strong Bludgeon​

1 x Shuffle, Team!​

2 x Weak Chop​

1 x Walk​

1 x Surging Shield Block​

1 x Raging Strike​

1 x Chop​

1 x Parry​

2 x Trained Bludgeon​

1 x Team Shift​

1 x Able Bludgeon​

2 x Blind Rage​

1 x Slicer​

1 x Dancing Cut​

1 x Flimsy Block​

2 x Bludgeon​

1 x Unreliable Block​

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For warriors it's mostly a matter of taste what type of attacks you like (and different attacks are better in different adventures).

My wizard:

Mizana
Level 14 Human Wizard

Staff Of Peril​

Sorcerery Staff​

Blister Stone​

Charged Opal​

Charged Opal​

Charged Opal​

Purple Cloak​

Heavy Dashing Boots​

Untrained Command​

Superb Sparking​

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1 x Walk​

1 x Sorcerous Bolt​

1 x Dimensional Traveller​

1 x Reliable Mail​

2 x Wall Of Fire​

1 x Devastating Spark​

7 x Hot Spot​

2 x Sorcerous Blast​

1 x Flimsy Block​

1 x Rusty Armor​

3 x Acid Blast​

1 x Spark Inductor​

2 x Arcane Curse​

1 x Shuffle, Team!​

1 x Brain Burn​

1 x Mighty Spark​

1 x Fire Spray​

2 x Dash​

3 x Deadly Spark​

3 x Unstable Bolt​

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In single player lava is still the best way to fight against most foes. It's usually easy to make the enemies waste their move cards and lava does 8 damage which is a lot.

My priest:

Silvershield
Level 14 Dwarf Priest

St. Xarol's Axe​

Rapier Of Misfortune​

Jet Armor​

Heavy Dueler's Shield​

Boots Of The Foolish​

Charcoal Talisman​

Incense Of The Nether Fog​

Incense Of Roiled Air​

Raging Battler​

Trained Cleansing​

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1 x Dangerous Maneuver​

2 x Nimble Strike​

2 x Mass Frenzy​

1 x Simple Bash​

1 x Traveling Curse​

1 x Fiery Stab​

1 x Demonic Feedback​

3 x Inspiration​

1 x Purge​

1 x Reliable Mail​

1 x Quick Step​

1 x Holy Presence​

2 x Unholy Wellspring​

1 x Touch Of Death​

1 x Bungled Heal​

1 x Frenzy Aura​

2 x Chop​

1 x Unholy Frenzy​

1 x Strong Chop​

3 x Bad Luck​

3 x Blind Rage​

1 x Clumsy Chop​

1 x Wild Run​

2 x Parry​

1 x Invigorating Touch​

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I don't usually use healing much. I've found it's usually better to kill the enemies faster so tend to pick card draw, damage boosts and life steal attacks instead.

I don't usually need to do much changes between adventures, the shields are the only thing I'm constantly changing depending on whether I need Parry cards or Block/Missile Block.
And looks like I haven't made changes since I levelled as I still have a couple of power tokens unused

Most of those items are from adventure loot, a couple I bought from the shop and a few are from MP.

 

Hello! You're level 14, so the biggest adventures you might have problem with are level 14 ones, namely: Return to the Astral Shrine and Citrine Demon Portal.

Warrior: Return to the Astral Shrine requires mostly some movement attacks, some vicious thrust and dancing cut are your good friends for mobility on dwarf warrior. I would equip as many reliable mail on your party as possible, as it's the most efficent armor which not only saves your life, but also your spirit (I mean fire debuffs on Citrine Demon Portal adventure)

Priest: I would change axe into something more useful with either high damage attacks or some useful spell cards, again - possibly more reliable divine armor than the one you're wearing, especially for level 14 adventures as they're a truck on damage. Healing Presence is not good enough on this levels, in my opinion. I would either change to high-healing single spells or most card draws.

Mage: Resistant hide and reliable mail (on boots if you have any, otherwise try to get hardy mail on boots) as well as some lava on arcane items, I would totally scratch zaps and penetrating strikes on wizard - it's not efficent at all on those adventures, as you're facing off basically... an army of casters. I would change 1 staff into 0 token staff (the best one you've got) and upgrade your survival with better boots and some lava items, if you've got them.

Citrine Demon Portal: This adventure is hell of pain, enemies combined in this missions have some insanely high damage output, in order to mitigate most of it you need reliable armor - reliable mail (#1 option) or at worst hardy mail (#2) - other armors don't work as good as those, due to the fact that most damage is fire (low base damage) and debuffs (mostly 2 damage debuffs). Otherwise it's frost and some sparks - so again, armor choice the same. In order to finish this campaign with full dwarf party you'll need some magic tricks. I would suggest getting helmet with quick reaction and team movement, if it's possible. Try to get as many 2-3 movement step attacks as possible, as you'll be kited to death otherwise. Your spear attacks are again your friend - much easier with range 2 than range 1, so go for them instead of 'big range 1 strikes'. Get as many blocks / hard to pin down / icy blocks / missile blocks as possible, none parries - you won't ever need them here.

Return to the Astral Shrine: This one is much easier with careful tactic and some movement & step attack cards. It's great fun! Get as many blocks / hard to pin down / icy blocks / missile blocks as possible, none parries - you won't ever need them here. Use penetrating attacks against smaller dudes. Impaling Stab is the best for this! (Assegai weapon for example)

 

As someone who eagerly awaited every instalment of your beta diary, I'm overjoyed to see that Mizana and Silvershield survived the reset and are back adventuring

Hello! I don't have time to post my party now but if you were wondering how Zalminen extracted all the item and card data from his characters you can do so as follows:

1. Go to a deck-building screen, e.g. The Keep on the Hinterlands.
2. Open the console by hitting F1.
3. Type partybbcode (for items only) or partyanddecksbbcode (for items and cards) and hit enter to send the information to the clipboard.
4. Paste the information into the forum, it already contains all the necessary tags to link it to the wiki!

 

After farmin some Jewl of Zarv ( I thinkt hats what it was called?) I managed to finish up the Shrine without much trouble, the whirlwind and displacement spells helped a lot, as for the Citirin Demon gate, resistant hide was a game changer hand's down - the only real trouble I had was with the 2nd match with the 4 frost Spirits... get hit by them once and your a sitting duck.