Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader (CRPG)

Jae is outstanding as a skill monkey. This is known. But she is very mediocre in combat and her quests range from annoying (stealth quest?) to just forgettable terrible. The line in the DMB part is arguably the only mildy amusing part of her entire quest chain. Her nature makes her highly incompatible with certain playthrough styles, because she is not good for Dogmatic and she is basically bereft of story in heretical route. But more importantly, you don't need a skill monkey to play though this game and even if you do the main character can easily suffice, especially if you go Forgeworld origin.

Ok so lets you say you are rolling Iconoclast and want to get your inner darky on... Unless you are playing with the difficulty dialed way down, who are you going to sub in for her? I don't think there is a less effective NPC in the game other than Solomourne. Maybe you could argue Idria? Even Wulfgar can work as a mobile piece of terrain and an Argentia light, especially with the added gear options the last DLC added. On hard she is basically useless outside of handing 2 AP to another actual useful character each turn for most of the game, which Cassia can already do without sucking. Argentia with a pair of hand flamers makes a better dual pistol character (but why bother when the golden bolter of complete rape exists). And she is squishy as hell and locked out of the viable Power Armor options.

I am doing a full on hard dogmatic run right now with a warrior assasin main with a shield built to skill monkey, custom santic sniper op/assassin buff bot (holy fuck is that amazing), Cassie, Argentia, Heinrix, and Wulfgar in the last spot when I don't have to drag a goober for a quest along. I am not really super optimizing things and am pretty much steamrolling the game (If I had gotten the last genestealer fight prior to chapter 3 that might have been an issue) and my main guy hits like a fucking truck, with all skills over 100, and tanking that would make Abelard tuck his balls back. I took things that were good, but nothing like the pyro executioner stuff that autist built his spreadsheets around. The custom santic sniper is the only character I put any effort into really optimizing and that is purely because I wanted a buffbot. And it is still a faceroll on hard, mind you, but who would I replace in my lineup to make room for Jae?

Side note for anyone about to roll with a Dogmatic run, there is some amazing fucking synergy if you avoid ever including Xenos in the party, both in terms of stat boosts and item effects. It is insane how outrageous you can ramp up the stat synergy and resolve building by doing that. Yrliet is good, but she is not that good.

Shmoopy said:

Good discussion but many sleeping on Jae. She is is one of the best skill bot / officer in the game, because this skill which nobody else can get (afaik).

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It is unique to her in that form, but any forgeworld character can basically replicate the effect in reverse and get a good INT out of the trade. And INT has the advantage of also applying to Logic and Tech Use, as well as AE damage in combat. You would be amazed what a high Int combined with an AE mele strike can do for damage in this game. Toss in any of the heroic acts that let you do lots of attacks in a turn and dude with club starts to rival Argenia really fast. And he will be good at everything outside of somewhat Carause or Demolitions. I am ending my current run with all skills over 100 and most over 150. Did the 170 logic test to get the free Heroic action once per combat with him. And at L4 the no armor Dogma action and launching his heroic after getting a Finest Hour from Cassie ends most fights before they even start, except for the final boss types or the more bullshitty necron/genestealer encounters. And I still get all the skill monkey benefits and wearing power armor and shield with a deflection base of around 20. Which is my main beef with Jae in combat, her midling base dodge and inability to use some of the better armor due to certain drawbacks. On hard, armoring up is always best, but if not you better bring 180 dodge and a reroll too the table bare minimum.

Officer in general has been weakened way the hell down. They nerfed the fuck out of it for a while, which needed to happen. The whole build one god and give it infinity turns shit was just stupid and balancing the harder difficulties around that made the game unplayable for normal people. But the new limit s on turn chaining and how high you can pump round one movement make having more than one around completely pointless and they give you Cassie (and two useless tits) with that setup already. And the game really punishes you for keeping your guys together, especially at higher difficulties. To me the main meta now is mostly Assassin for percentage based damage, as there are so many ways to quickly build Lethality and the direct damage abilities are abundant with that class. This is especially true at higher difficulties when trash enemies eventually start having more hp than the entire party. The game also starts making liberal use of complete damage immunity for turn one to gimp alpha striking, so having one agro tank becomes a must (either Abelard, who's only real edge is brace for impact or a custom who will be better if from a Forgeworld background) so you can wait out the plot armor timers while clearing trash. You move around so much that small tactical zones are kind of pointless, anyhow. The items you get at the time also massively impact your choices.

But core party pretty much always needs these key elements, imo:
Tanker w Taunt and Shield- (Abelard or a custom) Need this guy to deal with parking major enemies while the group mops up the trash, especially ones with extended "I am immune to everything plot armor" like the Genestealer boss and the named Necron Destroyers.

Sniper Psycher Buffer- (Idira can work here, but she sucks compared to any main) Start Santic then maybe add a little pyro later of you feel spicey. When you get the right gear, shift to the Richochette game plus damage all enemies when you buff trick. This character is critical for nailing distant annoyances quick and early, as well as attacks that deal damage based on enemy hp percentages making boss battles WAY less tedious. Give her the I go First watch and your group will enter every battle fully buffed out and most enemies dinged up and debuffed into childhood. By that I mean there is an item that does minor damage to every enemy combined with abilities that perma stacking debuffs and buffs that trigger each time you do damage. Start every turn by spamming all the santic buffs and anyting else psychic you may have. I think you guys can do the math from here.

Melee Pyro Specialist (Heinrix is ideal, but great for custom main, second class executioner or assasin)- Once you get the I am always burning shield and have the round one attacks equal psi rating items, this build just takes off. So much bullshit can be stacked on this builld to make it hit harder and it comes in two awesome variations: Assassin percentage damage specialist or Executioner Debuff burst damage god. Heinrich comes with most of the base kid right out of the gate, as the few Santic things he starts with synergize with everything else. Ridiculously hard to kill, deals tons of damage, and if you need to do damage at range you can swap to staff and burn everything to the ground.

More Dakka Person (Argentia is the hands down best, but Wulfgar can come close as will a custom)- This should really be called the Golden Bolter guy, because that is what makes this horse shit work. Basically the Golden Bolter gets added shot rate based on a stat bonus, AGI I think. So you can either slot the bolt casing and the heroic that gives you bonus shots based on fire rate and pump out over 70 auto hitting single shots a turn with even midgame abilities, or run around hosing down enemies with 14+ bullet bursts two to four times a turn. Mid game and early game, you can moonlight with a flamer/melta until you get the entire combo going. With an item and ability your reload goes down to zero AP and at that point the rest is academic. The reason Argentia is best at this (if not the most powerful party member in the game) is she comes with most of the required baseline components of the build right out of the gate at level 1 and she has a very strong AGI initially. And being Ecclesiarch means she can boost the Hero Meter to get the combo rolling. This is both the least essential build but also the most powerful, because it just does damage better than anything else.

Cassia- (no subsititue) Arrives at the start with an AE that debuffs trash that it does not outright kill. She also has some of the strongest debuffs and buffs in the game, along with the single most powerful warp damage attack. And better yet with one item her AE stops hurting allies and actually buffs them instead. And she has both Bring it Down and Finest Hour, which are extremely useful. Best of all, most of her gear needs are obtainable early and few in number. She doesn't even use Psy Rating based gear, so you don't have her competing with other group members for key goodies. Just give her a nav staff with Devestating, the Eye buffs my pals item, and whatever armor gives her the best dodging and you are ready to go. She may not do the big damage, but she covers all the utility needs and arguably becomes the best tank in the game with her insane dodge rating and resistance based talents. And best of all she is strong from the moment you get her to the moment the credits roll.

Now aside from taking over for Cassie, the main protagonist can hop into any of those spots. I find making a tanking skill monkey or the pyro assasin dancer to be the most fun, plus you get screwed over by Chapter 3 a lot less. But sniper buffer is very doable, too. The last spot I generally set aside for So the Quest Can Happen party member or for whatever I feel like doubling up on (Wulfgar on my current Dogmatic Hard run, with my main in the tank skill monkey role). If you want to amuse yourself with one of the last second companion options, by that point in the game you will be so powerful you may as well go for it. Except Uron. Never take Uron, ESPECIALLY if you have a lot of chain psycher use, because his abilities will blow up the party. And he sucks in general.

God damn I love this game.....

Yeah I'm 40 hours in and Cassia is really the only auto lock (I guess Abelard too). Sniper chick is strong but Argenta works too. I wish I could find a way to make both tech priests guys more valuable, but I'm probably missing something in building them. My main guy is officer with the eagle, and it's unoptomized as hell but kind of neat having a pet. Really, keeping Cassia alive and then chaining the second turn deal is how I'm powering through so far. Great freaking game, can't believe I waited so long.

Only really grip is act 2 is incredibly long, then you get to act 3 and... a lot changes (no spoilers).