Build examples for new players.

Introduction

This guide describes some build examples to help new players get into the game. It does not explain basics, just gives some ideas which work even on last difficulty level in realm mode. Whenever you get a legendary item or are able to select new talent, read description and try to find how it can be useful. For instance, legendary items which give Might on every melee hit work great with Str talents which increase Might bonus.

The game is still being developed (and this is my first guide) so you will not see any skill images here.

English is not my native language so please excuse me for any possible errors.

Bard

Roles: support

Jack of All Trades Build

Jack of All Trades gives all 3 tones, Bardic Expertise gives Critical, Guard and Channels for every Inspiration. The easiest way to get high Inspiration fast is to use several Final Verse cards with any Verse cards which normally cost 1AP. Final Verse makes them cost 0 AP when drawn. Melodic Verse allows to get 2 Inspiration for 0 AP without removing tones and can be used early game when you do not have high energy yet. Later you can pick Hidden reserves (tier 3 Int talent) which increases max draw and adds 30% chance to avoid card being expended which is really great for your multiple Final Verses. You can get hundreds of Guard/Critical for all your units including summons. Obviously channeling is great for heroes like Spellbinder, Cleric and Druid. All your heroes can remove all defense cards from their deck, Bard protects everyone every turn.

The highest stat should be Int.

I am the Ranger Build

Requires 2 golden skills so should be played as standard support Bard before you can get the skills. Skiffle gives you Inspiration for attack, Multi Pellets gives you attack card for each Inspiration.

The highest stat should be Str.

 

Cleric

Roles: healer, support, tank

Healer Build

Spiritual Precision gives Critical when you heal ally. Spiritual Strength gives Might when you heal ally. Early game you use Mend to heal several allies at once or just Lay on Hands to remove debuf and heal an ally, later you use Answered Faith which heals you and gives a choice of several random healing cards some of which can heal all allies. Cleansing Circle to purge 3 debufs on multiple allies is useful for any Cleric. Pick Int skills like Righteous Blow to earn Channels and AoE damage skills like Righteous Flame and Tempest Bolt to spend Channels. Later you can pick Hubris (tier 3 Int talent) to increase Channel by 2 as long as you are at max HP and you almost always will be at max HP.

The highest stat should be Int.

Warrior Build

Use skills like Wide Swing (AoE), True Strike (SP cost), Shield Bash (situational when you do not need Guard) for damage, try to learn some AoE skill like any Finisher in events. You can be a great tank due to Shield Block and Heavy Block. Still it is optimal to use Strategic Force (tier 1 Str talent) to increase Int modifier based on Str modifier and add Int cards like Take the Lead and some healing. Cleric has the worst golden skills so you may want to add Deliverance just in case another hero dies and Life Surge just for fun.

The highest stat should be Str.

Druid

Roles: summoner, damage dealer, healer

Summoner build

Summon’s HP and damage does NOT depend on summoner’s stats, they depend just on talents and summoner’s experience level. Thus you are not required to choose any stat except Overlord’s Will (tier 3 Int talent) somewhat encourages you to have Int 25 to increase base summon stats by 10. Not a big deal, but still can be useful.

There are 3 summons:

• Spirit Wolf uses Dex skills to attack (Warlock’s totem can increase Dex of all allies), gets critical for Bleed on enemies. It is possible to get 1k+ Critical this way (Warlock can apply multiple Bleed via own skills and Blood Pools, some legendary items apply Bleed on every melee hit etc.)
• Spirit Bear uses Str skills to attack (Warlock’s totem can increase Str of all allies), applies Bleed to enemy, gets Critical when attacking Bleeding enemy, applies a nasty debuf which makes enemy attack the bear. Melee/ranged attacks can be completely blocked this way if the bear is out of range. It can effectively disable even some bosses who don’t have AoE attacks
• Spirit Hawk uses Int skills to attack (Warlock’s totem can increase Int of all allies), attacks twice and gives 1 channel for every hit to summoner

As you can see, you may want to have all 3 kinds of summons depending on your needs. Basically Wolf deals the highest damage, Bear is the best tank and Hawk provides the best support for channeled spells. Late game you can use Spirit Walk to become immune to damage and then cycle through Harmonize and Volcano to deal high damage to everyone. Spirit Walk blocks attack and defend skills, but Volcano is just a spell without those tags.

The best summoning skill is Wild Cunning which allows all your summons to attack 1 more time, everything else is too slow or situational.

The highest stat can be any, you need all stats at least 16 for summon talents.

I am the Bear build

Primal Aspect is the bear form skill. While you are bear, your deck will be replaced with a different deck, you will have just attack skills. It means you may want Guard provided by ally. It can be Bard, Golemancer, Spellbinder, Ranger’s Sentry Ward or just any hero with Share Guard stratagem. Alternatively you can have a healer or Cleric with Deliverance. Or you can just tank the damage: if the combat ends while you are in bear form, your HP will be the same as you had before turning into bear. To maximize damage in bearform, you may want to apply some Bleeding before morphing. Fighting along with your summoned bears can be quite fun.

The highest stat should be Str.

 

Golemancer

Roles: support, damage dealer, healer

Duo Skirmish build

Even after nerf Duo Skirmish is awesome and deals (72 + 50% Str mod) to every enemy, especially if you are lucky to find Sable’s Needle (legendary weapon). Late game you can spend all 6 AP on Duo Skirmish if not attacked.

The highest stat should be Str.

We are Immortal build

This Golemancer deals little damage, instead it uses Earth Cover to give Guard to most/all allies and Geomantic Prophecy to place Averts on ground to be used by whoever needs them the most. As any other Golemancer you should have Flow of Earth, passive healing is always great.

The highest stat should be Dex.

Ranger

Roles: summoner, damage dealer

Summoner Build

Similar to Druid Summoner:

Summon’s HP and damage does NOT depend on summoner’s stats, they depend just on talents and summoner’s experience level. Thus you are not required to choose any stat except Overlord’s Will (tier 3 Int talent) somewhat encourages you to have Int 25 to increase base summon stats by 10. Not a big deal, but still can be useful.

There are 3 summons:

• Sentry Turret uses Dex skills to attack (Warlock’s totem can increase Dex of all allies), explodes on death
• Siege Turret uses Str skills to attack (Warlock’s totem can increase Str of all allies), explodes on death
• Sentry Ward does not deal damage and does not explode on death.

Unlike Druid’s summons these skills are not expended so you can put 2-3 units of the same kind even if you have just a single construct skill. I believe it is optimal to have at least 2 kinds: ward and turret. Ward is too slow for normal fights, Turret is too dangerous for boss fights where bosses often have devastating AoE attacks. Do not forget you can edit your deck before fights. Engineer Support is an excellent card which supports all construct types.

Agility Build

Perfect Form gives max Agility, Multishot can be mastered as Impulse which decreases its cost for every Agility charge. Equip Agility runes, select Danger Sense (tier 3 Dex talent) to get Agility charge when guarding. Pray to find Dusk Deceivers (legendary gloves) to get 3 Agility charges for 1 AP.

The highest stat should be Dex.

Trapper Build

Warning: it is not as strong/fun as Scoundrel’s Trapper build so if you are primarily interested in traps, play that build first.

Having multiple Lure cards is a must to avoid dangerous attacks and move enemies into traps. Poison Laced Traps and Steel Trap are ok during early/middle game. Unfortunately their damage does not scale well with stats, golden tier trap skills are weak and there are no multiple traps for single action so eventually you will need to switch to different way of killing things.

The highest stat can be Int.

Strong Shooter Build

This build relies on Str skills for damage: Shatter Hit, Explosive Hit, Upshot. Do not forget to select Flamekissed (tier 2 Str talent) for extra damage.

The highest stat should be Str.

Scoundrel

Roles: damage dealer

Knives Build

My favorite build. Fan of Knives, Deadly Gyre, Dagger Profficiency and as many Throwing Daggers as you can use every turn. You should have all your deck in your hand every turn. Do not forget to take Mobility (tier 1 Dex talent) to increase max Agility.

The highest stat should be Dex.

Critical Build

Assassinate, Observe, Stealth Attack, Swift Kill, Hidden Blade, Deadly Grace, Stab. Gear with Agility and Critical on move is welcome. Basically you build Critical, kill enemies, gain more Critical and kill more enemies, finally using a Stab or two. Do not forget to have a simple defense guard with Purity rune or root will make you unable to use half of your skills.

The highest stat should be Dex.

Poison Build

Venomous Edge (master it to hit third time), Epidemic will deal huge amount of damage in boss fights, Noxious Bomb as AoE. Expunge is not that good despite being golden tier skill unless you have another hero who deals Poison damage too (Warlock).

The highest stat should be Int.

Trap Build

Straightforward build. Use whatever traps you like the most, but don’t forget to press Ctrl to see damage formula as some traps are superior to others depite being in the same tier.

If you are tired of using Lure to move enemies into traps, consider Heavy Boomerang or just ask Druid to cast Tornado…

The highest stat should be Dex or Int depending on which talents/skills you prefer.

Spellbinder

Roles: damage dealer, support

Fire Build

The most important skill is Double Cast as good tier 2-3 fire skills have Expend modifier. Master Fire Storm to apply burn 4 times, use multiple Triple Cast and Double Cast cards to clone it and channeling skills. Channeling skills include Mana Charge, Flaming Grasp mastered as Channel Generator and Absorbing Fire(optimally ranked to level 3 to create 2 Channels per burn). Fire Storm is slow vs bosses so you will also need Incinerate. Flame Shield provides excellent defense.

The highest stat should be Str, but you should have Int 25 for Arcane Battery talent. +3 max charges is like +3 AP when Absorbing Fire brings your current channels to max every time.

Chill Build

Quite similar to Fire build in regards to Triple Cast and Double Cast and channeling spells, but you use Blizzard as main damage spell and you do not have Flaming Grasp. There is one caveat though: Blizzard does not apply damage so enemies with Guard are not affected by Chill. You will need Glacial Spikes to remove Guard. Unlike Fire build, you may want to use Glass Cannon, especially if you can dispel Fragile debuff. Lightweight Heart of Winter and lihgtweight Frost Wind are no brainers (free damage without requiring any energy or draw). Greater Barrier can protect all allies. Also you do not need more than a single Quick Barrier because you can clone it if needed.

The highest stat should be Int

Shock Build

Again the same approach: Triple Cast and Double Cast to clone spells, this time we use Arc Lightning mastered for Channel Generator, Lightning Shatter and Chain Lightning. Shock build is the trickiest among the three as you want every enemy shocked and the shock propagation is somewhat random. Lightweight Thunder Herald is no brainer (free damage without requiring any energy or draw). Greater Barrier can protect all allies, a single Conduction is great for own defense.

The highest stat should be Dex, but I still recommend Int 21-25 for tier 3 talents, they are superior to tier 3 Dex talents for this build

Gravity Surge Build

Triple Cast and Double Cast to clone Gravity Zone. You do not need Channels here. In one of my games I was extremely lucky to find 2 Blackwakes (one-handed legendary weapon) and actually was earning AP after casting 0 AP Gravity Surges.

Magic Missile Build

Fun early/middle game, but too low damage late game so you will need to add channeled spells. Fortunately we have Energy Tap which adds Channels for casting Magic Missiles. Multi Missile is good all game, Conjure Barrage is good early game because later you have ranked Magic Missles. Twilight Strap (legendary belt) and Heliotrope (legendary gloves) can make the game really crazy and fun. Just imagine casting Magic Missle with Heliotrope to make sure every enemy has some Shock.

The highest stat should be Int

Magic Sword Build

Conjure Blades skill is good early game, later it becomes even better with Invoker of Blades and Bladewards, but if you have too many Magic Swords, you risk drawing just them. Arcane Sheather (legendary belt) is awesome item for the build, Ataraxia (legendary body armour) is nice too.

The highest stat should be Dex

Note about The World skill. Decreasing AP cost by 1 for 2 turns is very useful, but then you cannot earn SP during those turns and it usually means you finish combat with zero SP so you are forced to remove it from the deck for next combat. Spellbinder uses huge amount of AP every turn due to channeling and it means you also get large amount of SP which can be used to get more channels from Mana Charge which somewhat compensate lack of cost decrease. The World skill is fine in boss fights though.

Swordhand

Roles: tank, damage dealer

Pivoting Slash Build

Battle Tempo, Pivoting Slash, Battle Formation. It is actually starting deck. It is viable all game as long as you have Purity rune or Jugernaut (tier 3 Str talent). Later you add Agility runes and hope to find items which give bonuses for movement. Battle Manuever is useful too. Having many attacks in deck means you are encouraged to pick Blade Flurry and Calculated Actions (tier 1 Int talent). Riposte should be taken by every Swordhand.

The highest stat should be Int

Blade Flurry Build

Blade Flurry, Phantom Edge, Keen Strike, Double Slash, Flash Cut

The highest stat should be Dex

Juggernaut Build

Solid Defense, Diving Zone, Momentum, Flaying Spike, Devastate, Guard Break.

The highest stat should be Str

Warlock

Roles: damage dealer

This class is my least favorite/powerful so take my examples with grain of salt here.

Bleed Build

Hemophilia, Blood Gush mastered for extra hit, Power from Blood, Blood Lance, Cicle of Agony if high on energy. Lightweight Stained Ground is a no brainer. Haemmorrphage is nice early game. Strength Totem (if other heroes use Str too) or Fury Totem (otherwise). Flow of Blood and Dark Fire can be a nice combo for boss. Void Orb when you don’t need other tier 3 skills.

The highest stat should be Str

Poison Build

Worked fine together with Scoundrel’s Poison Build, rather weak otherwise.Caustic Orb, Hemophilia, Necrosis, Burnng Blood, Black Lightning, Haemmorrphage, Speed Totem. Abyssal Strike deals very nice damage when enemy is affected by Bleed, Poison, Shock, Burn.

The highest stat should be Dex

Note: I tried Voodoo build with Voodoo Curse skill, but it looks too weak for torment difficulty level.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions/corrections, feel free to write in comments or on forum.

This is all about Gordian Quest – Beginners Guide – List of Builds; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!