the first time i played divinity II, it was a lot harder. now i know what i'm doing, and i've found it to be a lot easier.

anyone have any hints on good skill paths to follow, or what skills work best in the game so that i don't end up putting points into useless skills?(like that stupid magic missle thing)

I thought Magic Missile was suppose to be one of the best mage skills, especially combined with Destruction, and duel wielding weapons with magic damage bonuses / enchantments (no need for the duel wield expertise skill; the off-hand penalty isn't used for the magic damage bonus on spells).


Anyone help a newb with Warrior build ... ???

class question! (mage advice and links to related topics)

There are comments in the skill section of Lancet's Dragon Knight Saga FAQ/Guide.

yeah, the hint is, don't make a mage. they made the mage stupid, even ignoring the fact of how weak they are defensively they put a cooldown on the spells which probably do 1000 damage top, which is about how much damage I could do with my melee character by the laiken battle. per hit (and about double that would be possible for that battlle if I knew what I was doing at the time).. I can run up and kill Laiken, meanwile my mage has to jump around constantly flinging worthless spells at everything. Mage is broken. Mage works on Divinity 1.

Of course, this is on nightmare mode. I don't play other modes.
In my second game (first was mage) as a fighter I went for high damage/dual wielding, but regeneration/life steal would probably make for a smoother game.

There is no point to the magic skills. I might put points into them to create a multi-class character if the game was doubled in points.

Go ranger and try to maximize heightened reflexes and crit chance, at the end of the game you will be dishing out so much damage it isn't even funny. Good skills are explosive arrow and splitting arrow.

Once I realized splitting arrow was useful to give multiple hits against a single, close target I was doing over 100,000 damage towards the end of first game. (along with critical hits and other rangery things)

the battle log buried deep in the menus is very handy. You can change things and then see just what happens in some complex fights.

Splitting Arrows (and normal ones) are even more effective combined with Way of the Ranger. I normally don't bother with temporary boost effects in games (besides maybe an occasional potion in tough situations), but tried WotR when I hit level 40 and bought a bow with that skill bonus, and then put 5 points in it myself (and later another 5 to max it).

Several people have posted in the Larian forum, at least, about effective mage builds in DKS/D2:DC.

Which still look kind of silly considering that you still look like a warrior..

btw is melee viable in nightmare?

Yes, melee is very viable. Duel wielding is most effective, but even unarmed combat can be done. Stabbey did a detailed 'Let's Play' for an unarmed monk character on nightmare in another forum (but you need a paid account to view posts more than 6 months old)... here is an older Larian forum topic from not long after DKS was released: Monk/Ninja Build.