Talk:Stat Growths/@comment-74.248.62.118-20150807232312

The pawns actually don't respond very much at all. Having a party of three melee vocation pawns didn't change a thing. Their AI isn't good. It's not really a fault of the game too much, its not built around having good AI, but the pawns have let me down almost every single chance they've been given to do so. I'm not new to the game either. Using the pawn commands hardly ever do anything but stop a mage or sorcerer from casting.

And I don't have an issue with any vocation at all, aside from mage and that's just because I don't like support classes. I don't enjoy sorcerer or warrior because they're very slow classes but I've still used them. And yes, you can make a "level plan" but the point is that most people don't enjoy that. I don't enjoy it. For me its boring, time consuming work instead of gleeful gameplay. On my current character I've used a mix of every single vocation throught the game. I've played warrior the least, sorcerer a bit more, and haven't touched the mage. I do however, just from playing the game how I wanted to, have a very effective build that is coincidentally built the exact way I like. I can say right now that I will never in my entire life, for at least Dragon's Dogma 1. ever do a full "level plan". If I want to play as a Mystic Knight, I will never use the other specific classes to level my stats accodringly all the way to 200, or 100 even for that matter, just to then after hours of grinding finally get to use my MK. That seems like a complete waste of time to me. But that's because I don't enjoy it. While it isn't hard to level, especially in BBI, it doesn't change the fact that grinding for stat growth feels like work when I'm using a slow class that I don't enjoy or that doesn't work as much as the others, in this case that being sorcerer or warrior possibly.

I also find that the sorcerer is only really useful as a damage support. Playing by myself makes being a sorcerer very annoying, and even though he does have very good spells I can kill a Garm much faster with 4 times Magick Rebalancer and Ricochet Shot or even Sixfold bolt on my MA. I think the casting times for the Sorcerer are much too long, even though I have the Wyrmking's Ring and Acuity both on my character. But again, that's just me. In my personal experience though I can far out damage my own Sorcerer, or any pawn Sorcerer with a buffed Mystic Knight with Abyssal Anguish or multiple Great Cannons or my Magick Archer's Magick Rebalancer and any magick ability they have.as long as the enemy is weak to it. Immolation is one of the best skills I've used. I'm able to kill even Fire Drakes with Magick Rebalancer, Immolation, and just clinging to their heart in under a minute if I can stay attached to them. Cursed Dragons no longer pose a threat, nor Wyrms. The only dragon that gives me an issue are Wyverns because they're more highly resistant to magick. But that just means that I have to spend a little bit more time clinging to their back while burning them with my bodily flames before they die.

And as for chest worms, no, pawns have almost never been of any assisstance. I've almost broken a controller from spamming the left button frantically while also trying to spin the stick like a madman, which I think is another minor flaw with the game (poor quick time events) to no avail. Occasionally they have saved me, but I could count the number of times they've actually saved me from death at the hands of an Eliminator and chest worm on one hand, and that is ineffective. It's more effective to just not get grabbed by and Eliminator which I've become very proficient at and I just use immolate when opening a chest by myself and lose a little bit of health to kill the worm before it does much.

I would say there are many ways to level up much, much faster than using a sorcerer and much safer ways as well as you aren't left open for what I find to be an unreasonable amount of time. But they just aren't my personal choice of vocation anyway. Overall I've never had a game stopping issue, never gotten stuck because an enemy was too hard, and never not found a way around an enemy I had to fight having used extensively all vocations except for Warrior and Mage. I really only used the Sorcerer at all because I did want a little more magick stat and at the time he was fun, but quickly grew tiresome. I don't think the staff skills were done very well, and the core skills for staves like shooting bolts and swinging the staff or using a small physical blast I think are pretty terrible. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for their to have been a character that could use Sorcerer level destruction abilities like bolide, glicel, fulmination, seism, along with a sword or set of daggers. That would effectively make a full magick character that relies on magick to do damage but doesn't have to run from every goblin that comes within 5 feet.

The main point is still that level plans are boring, for me, along with being unnecessary. I don't need anything more than what I'm attaining. By level 200 I'll have slightly under 500 strength and Magick damage which is below average but I also have moderate defense, high health and stamina, and be a very effective and survivable character in exactly the way I want. I just wish the pawn AI wasn't so terrible so that taking them with me would give me a sense of reassurance. Having pawns there literally does nothing for me except force me to take damage because they're too stupid to run away from something that will kill them, usually in one hit which always confuses me. My Mage main pawn somehow almost had more health than me back when I used her, and somehow she would get taken out over and over and over and over and over. It was nothing but annoying, and she hardly ever did anything helpful. Same goes for hired pawns. I use them in the main game and story, but BBI is not a place for pawns.