(Still not a player yet. Blame my financial constrictions–my current machine cannot run GD well at all, even at lowest graphic settings. Single digit FpS. But given that I like to have everything planned in advance…)
There is something that is oddly…dispiriting to me about the builds compilation section. Even just from looking at the Mage Hunters and Spellbinders, it seems like the active skills are almost always heavily slanted towards those of one component class, with the other component seemingly only used for support. I can somewhat understand this with Mage Hunters (q.v. hybrid difficulties)…but Spellbinders? When both components are casters?
I’ll admit that in Titan Quest, my tendency was always to keep the two components balanced. Start Defense, then at L8, start putting all points in Storm until the two sides have equal amounts. Then points get allocated Defense, Storm, Defense, Storm, Defense, Storm, etc. Trying to get a “true” Paladin, basically, rather than a Defender with just a comparative trace of Stormcaller. (Same principle applies for Ritualist, Templar, Illusionist, etc.) Not having gotten particularly deep into Epic, let alone Heroic (if I have the two names in the right order…), I didn’t get much of a chance to see how viable the plan actually is, I’ll admit. Yet I’d expect most people to pick a class dyad expressly to be balanced, rather than lopsided.
I can’t help but wonder of late, though, if my point allocation philosophy is atypical even for TQ. That I pick my classes based on what kind of conceits I’d want to role-play (take the skills of each component class, alphabetize them to remove any sense of power cadence, read through them, work out what the mentality behind them is) probably doesn’t help. (For the record, when/if I get a machine that can actually run GD, my target is either Infiltrator or Mage Hunter. Cabalist is dead last. Ick.) Power, by itself, has no appeal to me, whatever the game. I can understand it being necessary, but not it being sufficient.
I suppose to put this in D&D terms, I’m aiming for 10 paladin/10 bard, rather than 17 paladin/3 bard. (What was even the point in the latter for a scant three bard levels?!) I don’t exactly want, say, an Infiltrator where you have to squint to see the Nightblade elements.