[InsainArcaneBirdbrain]

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Stat Building 101

"It's about time"

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Now it's time for what most of you here are looking for, "where do I even get started on making my own build"? Well, the first order of business is to grab Miller's wonderful stat calculator located here:

https://neus-projects.net/forums/showthr...6#pid43576

With that in hand, let's start on the calculator UI. If you've been paying attention thus far, most of what's listed in the calc here should be pretty self explanatory. Just in case though, I'm going to shamelessly steal Fern's explanation-

• Race: You pick what race you're building for here. Once you select a Race, the calculator will automatically apply its racial stat bases to the screen.
  
  
  
• Class: This is where you choose your character's Main Class. Each Main Class has a stat bonus to specific areas, so when you select one, it'll change your stats.
  
  
  
• Monoclassing: Check this if you're using your Main Class as your Sub Class too. Monoclassing doubles the stat bonuses of your Main Class in addition to having other special gimmicks, which you can find through the game's skills in the Class Board.
  
  
  
• Custom Modifiers: Here you put any stat modifiers you feel are relevant to your build.
  
  
  
• Base Modifiers: With this, you can increase base stats manually, for whenever you may need it.
  
  
  
• ElemATK: This allows to manually add Elemental ATK. Each element is tied to a stat. In the calculator, they're lined up with their respective stats for convenience. Every 4 points of Scaled WIL add +1 Elemental ATK across the board. Keep in mind that only Scaled Stats increase Elemental ATK, except for Luminary Element's case which will be explained shortly.
  
  
  
• ElemRES: Your elemental resistance to that element. It reduces the damage you take from that element. Negative numbers mean that you're weaker to it... for example, if I had -25% Fire resistance, that means I get 25% Fire weakness.
  
  
  
• Starsign: The blue square with the white circle at the top left. Starsign is a talent that you can find in-game by opening the Talent Screen and clicking the Occult section, then Astrology. It increases both your Elemental ATK and its respective stat, and becomes doubled during specific months. In the calculator, you can hover over the Starsigns to see what they affect.
  
  

• Luminary Element: Only check this if you plan on using the Luminary Element trait that you can get in-game. This makes it so Scaled WIL no longer increases your Elemental ATK, and instead makes it so it's determined by your Modded WIL. The element that ends up scaling with your Modded WIL is determined by your Starsign (for example, if I have the Mars starsign and 70 Modded WIL, my Fire ATK becomes 70.)
  
  
  
• Legend Aspects: The symbols at the top right. They increase their respective Base Stat and softcap for Diminishing Returns by 1. You can hover over them to see which stat they affect. Legend Aspects are attained through the use of Legend Inks, which you need the Legend Journal for. You can attain the journal at the top of the Nameless Shrine by talking with the NPC Asha when you're Level 60. This part of the menu is irrelevant to you if you don't plan on having a Legend Journal.
  
  
  
• Dragon King Pieces: There are equipment pieces in the game part of a set called Dragon King. Only increase this if you plan on using them - they increase your STR and its softcap.
  
  
  
• Essence: Only mess with this if you're playing a Vampire. This sets the amount of Essence you have. See Sanguine Crest's description in the game's racial skills for more details.
  
  
  
• Rising Game: There's an innate used by Ghost, a Duelist class promotion that increases specific stats the more HP you lose. The amount of stats it affects depends on its rank level, which you can choose here. Caps at 5. NOTE THAT THIS SETS YOUR RISING GAME RANK, NOT IN-BATTLE LEVEL!
  
  
  
• HP%: Sets the amount of HP the character is currently at. Useful for Rising Game calculations!
  
  
  
• Total HP%: Changes the max HP your character supposedly has.
  
  
  
• Custom HP: Sets HP mods. Some skills or equipment give you flat bonus HP. This is useful for that.
  
  
  
• Custom MP: See above, but instead it's MP. Or FP, as known in-game.
  
  
  
• Giant Gene: There's an enchant in-game called Giant Gene, which increases your max HP by 10% and your Torso's Weight by 50%. Tick this if you plan on using that.
  
  
  
• Endurance: There's a passive in-game from the Hexer Class, promotion of Mage, that increases your max HP by 10%. Check the box if you plan on using it.
  
  
  
• Weapon Calculations: This is for checking your weapon stats! I believe the menu it opens is pretty self-explanatory. Just set the weapon's scalings, stats, critical modifier and so on - the calculator will tell you how much hit, critical and damage you should roughly have.
  
  
  
• Reduction: Opens a menu for damage reduction calculations. I highly advise to not tamper with this until you're more experienced with the game, because it can be confusing.
  
  
  
• Traits: Opens a menu for traits that can affect your stats. As of this day, only the History traits can boost your Base Stats.
  
  
  
• Stamps: Opens a menu for stamps that affect your stats, elemental resists and other things. You get stamps by doing Quests in-game, normally. STAT STAMPS ARE MODDED STATS, THEY DO NOT QUALIFY AS BASE STATS!
  
  
  
• Print: This is for printing your stat point investment. I suggest saving it when you're done making your build so you can open it in Notepad! When you click it, it'll open a new menu that details the amount of points you put into each stat. Custom Modifiers are put next to the stat points invested in brackets. This menu also includes whether you accounted for Giant Gene, Main Class, Legend Aspects, Starsign, History... etc!
  Tips:
  • If you hold Shift and click the + or - buttons when spending points, it lets you multi-spend or multi-subtract! The same can be done in the SL2 Calculator.
    
    
  • Curious about how a Racial Skill works? You can go to the ASAGO banks in-game and check out their Race Board by clicking on it! Obviously it won't let you race swap, but it'll let you see details on other races. This is very helpful specially when it comes to making basic builds.
    
    
  • Aptitude gives you a +1 to all stats except itself per every 6 scaled, and increases your EXP gains by a %. Normally this is pretty wise to include in most builds you do, because it makes it much easier to afford stats on top of make you gain more EXP.
    

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What stats should I build?

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This is a question I see and get a lot from newer folk. Now, I'm not covering class choice and optimal stat setups here, that will be a later section of the guide. What I'm going to go over now is determining what stats your chosen class combo or desired setup will want. The first order of business will be figuring out what weapons you have access to for your class setup.

https://sl2.fandom.com/wiki/Item_List_(tabled)

The selected main class (MC) determines what weapons you can equip by default. Most weapon skills in the game require specific weapon types to be used, so make sure you plan this out ahead of time. If you want to equip a weapon to use subclass skills which can't be equipped by the MC (Ex: A spear weapon on a Ghost/BK), be sure to grab the appropriate "adaptation" talent.

Once you find a weapon that you want to build for, look at the stat scalings it provides. The stats listed here will need to be built in order to avoid hitting things like a wet noodle.

Once that's done, you should also consider if you want to build for evasion, or as a tank. The main difference here is that evade is a bit less stat demanding, only requiring CEL, but it ends up being a risky all or nothing DR. Tanking is a safer and more consistent form of DR, but you have to invest a lot more stat points into it as you'll need high DEF and RES. Some classes also more naturally lean into one of these defensive types, and others can easily do either.
To list a few examples:

• Rogue has an evade bias. (Southern Wind, Dodger, Quick Rise)
  
• Black Knight has a tank bias. (Indomitable, Board Shaker, Checkmate)
  
• Ghost can easily play into either evade or tank. (Wraithguard, Pain Tolerance, Painproof)
  

This isn't to say a Rogue can't tank, or a Black Knight can't dodge, but these cases are rarer as the tools and passives they wield synergize more with a certain playstyle.


Regardless of what you play, every build (except in special circumstances) MUST build both SKI and VIT. Not building SKI means you'll never hit anyone ever, and not building VIT means you'll get gibbed in just one or two attacks.


Luck is a bit of an odd stat in that it's mandatory for basic attack builds that wish to crit, but not much help for anything else. Basic builds almost always want this, but skill focused builds can safely skip it.


Depending on how hard you plan on leaning on skill/spell usage, you'll likely need a stat that builds fp. In general, basic attack builds don't need to worry about this too much, but one that doesn't should plan on having at least moderate investment in either (or multiple of) WIL, FAI, or SAN (If a race that can make use of it).


One last stat to consider is SAN, as many races have racial skills that utilize this stat as a scaling factor. If you are looking to use these, be sure to build SAN in addition to your other stats.


Now, total up how many stats (ignoring APT) that you are building. The number of stats built will help you determine the optimal APT amount, as well as if your build is going to work at all to a degree.

• 5/6 stats: Build 36 APT.
  

• 5/6 stats, but either WIL or GUI is one point away from netting a skill slot: Build 42/43 APT (Depending which one nets you the all stat threshold).
  

• 7 stats: Build Build 49/50 APT (Depending which one nets you the all stat threshold).
  

• 8 stats: Same as above, but you might want to consider a different weapon or stat setup as building this many tends to hurt your overall performance unless you really know what you are doing.
  

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Example Walkthrough

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In order to make the process more clear for those of you who got lost in the sea of text, I'll walk you through an example setup using the steps outlined above. I'll be doing a very simple Chataran Ghost/BK setup this time. 

After looking though the weapons, the Red Argus catches my fancy as it allows me to use my ghost axe skills and my BK spear skills while still allowing me to run a shield. This weapon is 100% STR scaling, so I have to make sure to build it.

Because Ghost/BK mesh together so well in terms of being incredibly durable, I'll play into it with a defensive build with DEF/RES.

My plan is to largely skip basics in favor of skills such as Thousand Stab (BK skill that's good at stacking Ghost's Claret Call), Cut Down, and Reaper Scythe (Skills that take advantage of Claret). Because of this, I can safely skip LUC and GUI.

In order to provide the FP I need to operate, I'll build FAI as it provides hit (Via blessed weapon enchant) and crit eva (Which combined with BK's passive crit eva will give basic attackers a headache). Will is also an option here as it provides more FP per point, but I don't have much need the the Ele Atk.

Because I'm using a human race, they have no need for SAN, so I'll be skipping it.

In total, this means the stats I plan on putting points into will be: STR/SKI/DEF/RES/VIT/FAI.

Because WIL and GUI would not gain me a skill slot at 42 APT, I'll keep it at 36 as I'm building six stats.

See? That wasn't so bad now, was it? Next time, I'll get more into the actual benchmarks for what each stat should reach.

Edit: Ok, I lied, that'll get covered a tad later. I felt that covering classes first was the more sensible approach.