Status Chovus Nov 16, 2020
Beat on Hard. I was already very familiar with the mechanics from beating Mars War Logs and Bound by Flame and knew exactly what kind of character I wanted to play; a shield tank with the magic shield spell. I spent almost the entire game as a guardian. I used rogue for the first boss, for the shield toad and …
Beat on Hard. I was already very familiar with the mechanics from beating Mars War Logs and Bound by Flame and knew exactly what kind of character I wanted to play; a shield tank with the magic shield spell. I spent almost the entire game as a guardian. I used rogue for the first boss, for the shield toad and to shoot the jellyfish things. I never used a staff outside the tutorial fight for it. I played as Lawful Good, granting mercy and forgiveness to most (I executed a few that were clearly irredeemable), choosing peaceful solutions and favoring the military and rule of law. As such I had good reputations with all factions except the underworld, who hated me enough not to ally. I romanced Ameila and chose the ending to reveal the fate of Earth but keep the Technomancer secret. I did all side quests except the one to steal parts from the cities for the mutants.
The combat was very difficult early on but not as difficult as I found War Logs. I focused on turtling behind my shield and attacking when a safe opportunity presented itself. Timed parries were accidental, electric arc was useful for gunners that I could not get close to and other guardians, and for the hardest fights I had to dodge around and heal. Tried explosive traps a couple times but they did not do anything. I kept my companions in defensive mode mostly because they would otherwise not last long. I liked the starting companions of tank and gunner the most, and found all companions useful in their own ways. Amelia was my best because she could last so long, off tanking for quite some time to keep the pressure off me. Phobos got my 2nd spot at end game because he was pretty tough to kill and sometimes did knockdowns, which synergized well with the guardian’s bonus attack vs knocked down enemies. Scott was kind of like a gunner but not as good; I loved when an enemy facing me was shot in the back and staggered so that I could freely attack. Niesha was a bit of a gunner too but she was probably my least used. Andrew had great offense as a mage but went down way too fast. Good for opening those technomancer doors though. I went for gunners first because they were the biggest threat. It was far too difficult to keep an eye on both melee enemies and a gunner in the distance to know when it was safe to attack. I found it very difficult to get close to gunners without dodging, but they became much easier when I got the movement speed boost while blocking. Rogues and technomancers were pretty high on the threat list too due to poison and electrical damage. The biggest threats of all though were the giant monsters; the giant frog things with poison damage and the gorilla bee hive thing; the shield does not help!
Ended at level 39.
Skills in approximate order of points spent:
Mace blow (upgraded with damage)
Upgraded shield bash (upgraded with knockdown); this was gold early on because a knocked down enemy was a very easy kill
Electric shield
Multi target shield bash
Powerful attack (upgraded with armor reduction)
Disruption penalty along with armor debuff
Shield break. This did not work late game and may have been a wasted point
Upgraded electric arc (never put a point for the secondary choice)
Upgraded electric weapon (upgraded with + crit chance after I maxed the guardian tree)
Fluid regen
Magnetic armor (upgraded with additional resistance)
Additional resistance
Knockback for enemies that hit the armor
Fluid charge
Back to guardian tree to max the central line to Shell (upgraded with additional resistance)
Counterattack (not upgraded, should have gotten auto crit)
Quick parry
Run while parrying (should have gotten this way earlier)
Instinctive parry (upgraded vs projectiles)
Additional damage resistance
Back to technomancy to max the center to overload (not upgraded and I never actually used it)
Last point in electric fist but never used it
My attribute points were: 5 strength, 5 constitution, 2 agility.
My talents were: 2 exploration (I used goggles to max it out every time I looted), 2 lockpicking (had a shirt that maxed it), 2 crafting (again a shirt to max it), 1 charisma and 2 science.
My gear: assault helm, militia breastplate modded with physical and electrical resist, ASC greaves modded with electrical resist, Cain’s boots, weighted cash modded with raw damage, and elite shield modded with raw damage. I also have a curved serrated dagger modded with armor penetration and damage, high resistance gun modded with damage, reinforced staff with no mods and the starter gloves modded with damage. I made poison and lighting resist armor but too late to get any use out of them. I maxed out Amelia’s and Phobos’ gear and ended with enough money and supplies to max out everyone.
Solid enjoyable game with excellent setting and great story; definite improvement over the previous games. Combat and movement was a little clunky, and I got stuck a couple times where I had to load a save from earlier to fix it.
7.5/10
