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UnholyTrinity
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 May 2002
Posts: 8
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| Formations: the key to Wizardry 8 |
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In my experience it matters little how much you fine tune your characters and develop them correctly if you don't have a party that holds up in battle when put into the 'correct' formation. I discovered reasonably late in the game that I would have to change weapon skills on my ranger so he could use an extended weapon (with the Valkyrie doing the same on the other flank) or I would spend all my time healing casters.
Has anyone else made any comedy formation mistakes? Post your ideal class/formation combos here. Mine is less than ideal, lol, but here it is anyway.
Front: Fighter, Bard
Centre: Mage, Gadgeteer
Flanks: Valkyrire, Ranger
Rear: Rogue, Priest
Unlikely as it may seem, this is working for me now, I can more or less sail my way through most battles (though the Gadgeteer is still crap no matter where I put him, I'm in the Swamp now and average level is 10) but I had to switch my rangers weapon choice to make this work.
Feel free to totally ridicule my party selection, it's my firt time playing the game. |
Fri May 17, 2002 4:30 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Assuming that the Valk and Rogue are Vi and Myles, your base party is quite similar to many first-time crews. The formation I used a lot was:
Front: tank, tank
Middle: ranger, caster, caster
Back: bard
For the first party I won with, it was fighter/monk/ranger/priest/mage/bard. Giving the ranger a spear, I had three pretty good melee guys with access to critters and still had protection to the rear in case I was not paying attention and got surrounded. Recently, I've gone a little different direction with my current crew (now entering mine tunnels). I've moved the bard up front and armed my casters with extended weapons (bullwhip and ebon staff). I have to be more careful, but I can use all 6 in melee. Obviously, the casters still use spells first, but once I've got a bunch of critters frozen, it's rather fun to have all 6 characters start dicing.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Fri May 17, 2002 5:01 am |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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Hmm... I would recommend rearranging things slightly.
Try this and see how you like it.
Front: empty
Center: Fighter, Valkyrie, Rogue
Left flank: Bard
Right flank: Ranger
Rear: Mage, Gadgeteer, Priest
Believe it or not your short range weapons will still be able to hit from the center as long as the front is empty. This also protects your casters better as you have more meat in front of them. Gadgeteer can take flank instead of bard or ranger depending on what skills your using. I find that Gadgeteers do better if you focus on simply using their omnigun/gadgets and ignoring swords and the like. Also, unless your ranger is Mook or you plan using him for frontline melee I would equip him with ONLY a bow of some kind for the ranged crits.
cheers |
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Fri May 17, 2002 10:55 am |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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P.S. I see so many people who put Valkyrie's in the flanks, I really wish they wouldn't do that.
Any character with an extended weapon 'should' IMHO be located in the center, unless its already filled. This allows them to attack 360 degrees. If you put them anywhere else you lose 2 quadrants of possible attack. Also its more efficient to remove all party members from the front quadrant because it condenses the party and improves the likelyhood that every character will be able to attack. |
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Fri May 17, 2002 11:02 am |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
For my first party, who almost completed the game, I mostly stuck with the traditional 3 front, 3 center alignment, with NPCs on the sides (varying) with either polearms and/or bows:
Monk-Ranger-Lord
Bard-Mage-Priest
My priest has a staff (extended) & sling, and I relied mostly on slings for bard & mage (although they both had short range weapons too). This formation gave my ranger the advantage of being proficient in both sword & bow (95+ in each).
My second party (not very far along) is 3 front, flank-center-flank:
Ninja - Samurai - Monk
Valkyrie -- Bishop -- Gadgeteer
NPCs? Don't know if I'll pick any up this time.... Valkryie has polearm/bow, Bishop staff (extended) and gadgeteer I'm exclusively using omnigun.
While formation is important, tactics can overcome formation problems. I know this, as late in the game I tried an experiment switching my bard & ranger and ran into some unexpected tough combats. I won, but it was tougher than it should have been.
Tactical hint: If you find monsters on your rear and you need to rotate your party mid-combat, use the walk command (don't switch positions of characters) and at the end of the walk take a small step forward. Your entire party will now be facing the direction you want your tanks.
_________________
The world itself shifts and changes and fades to mist like the strings of a minstrel's harp, and mayhap the dreams we forge are more enduring than the works of kings and gods.-Robert E. Howard
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows, The Nonflamers' Guild, and The Alliance of Middle Earth= |
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Fri May 17, 2002 11:19 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Actually, you don't have to step forward at all. If you just turn left or right(after issuing the walk command), you'll notice the radar snap around and you're good to go. The advantage is that you won't lose any attacks. While one step usually won't cost you anything, it can, and (naturally) will at the worst possible time.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Fri May 17, 2002 8:19 pm |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
I found that on occasion I did have to step forward after doing a 180 degree turn. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that my front row is all equipped with short range weapons as their primaries - no medium, long or extended. The best way to tell is to watch your weapons to see when they auto-swap, assuming that you have this enabled.
_________________
The world itself shifts and changes and fades to mist like the strings of a minstrel's harp, and mayhap the dreams we forge are more enduring than the works of kings and gods.-Robert E. Howard
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows, The Nonflamers' Guild, and The Alliance of Middle Earth= |
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Sun May 19, 2002 3:37 am |
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UnholyTrinity
Village Dweller
Joined: 17 May 2002
Posts: 8
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Thanks all for the useful tips and advice. Dare, I tried your suggested formation and it seems to be working fine (my casters don't get attacked as often) but for some reason my fighter (who is in front center, I have nobody in front) does not attack nearly as much and he is right ahead of everyone else in the party. This is a bit of a problem because he deals more damage than even my mage (he has the bloodlust sword and is maxxed on str). Anything obvious I'm doing wrong here? |
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Sun May 19, 2002 9:38 am |
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Guest Dare
Guest
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Sounds like you need to be using the "turn to face your opponent" trick that others have discussed in this thread.
When you use that formation the enemy has to directly in front of you for short ranged weapons. Try using the walk command to turn and face them or if need be take a step or two.
That should take care of the probelm 
If not feel free to play with the formation until you get it down to something you like. I don't know your play style or what weapon skills you want everyone to have so you'll have to polish the rough edges.
Something else you could try would be to modify the formation I gave you. Put everyone from the center to the front and bring all your casters up to the center. Leaving the rear ranks empty. This will still condense your party and allow better attacking. It will also help make sure short weaponed enemies have a harder time surrounding you. And if you put your back to a wall your casters would be really well protected. |
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Sun May 19, 2002 11:49 am |
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