ASCnD Elemental Boomstick - robust, powerful MM7 team build

[Logscale]

This is an idea for an MM7 party build I thought of recently. If anyone has time to test this theory, let me know the results.

This build is: Robust, balanced, powerful, and defies conventional thinking.

The name of this team build comes from its character classes: (Archer Sorcerer Cleric 'n Druid) It features:
-One "tank" character that can absorb a decent amount of damage, particularly physical damage
-Grandmaster protection from magic - no instant death/eradication. Sorry, Tolberti, your blaster that used to do 5d5 + eradication is now a Nerf foam dartgun that does 5d5 + nothing.
-Multiple healers/resurrect casters
-Awesome ranged damage through grandmaster archery and barrage of elemental damage
-Awesomer (better than awesome) close-range damage with no knight
-Works very well in theory on light path
-Completely wrecks the entire game on dark path
-Theoretically superior to any K*CS build where * is any character
-Its only main disadvantage is that it is somewhat weak in the beginning game, but as you level up, this problem fixes itself quickly.

FYI: the name of the build is pronounced "ascend".
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This build revolves around "shotgun spells": poison spray and sparks (and shrapmetal if you take the dark path). Here's why - at point-blank range with every projectile:
Sparks at master level = 7 damage per skillpoint
Poison spray at master level = 5d2 damage per skillpoint
grandmaster sparks = 9 damage per skillpoint
grandmaster poison spray = 7d2 damage per skillpoint
grandmaster shrapmetal = better be immune to dark - or be vaporized instantly

On average, grandmaster poison spray at point-blank does about 30% more damage than equivalently ranked incinerate for 1/15 of the cost.

On the other hand: knight's grandmaster armsmaster gives 2 damage per skillpoint, always has a chance to miss, and offers no further utility besides melee damage. Taking a knight instead of a master-level elemental caster is like taking a sword and spear instead of a shotgun with near infinite ammo for melee combat - that can also launch slugs at distant enemies (see also: acid burst, lightning bolt).

When I was a noob at MM7 I used to ignore shrapmetal, poison spray, and sparks. After playing a few FPS games I figured out how to use them properly.
Basic strategy: Have everyone except your cleric mostly use poison spray or sparks. Charge at enemies whenever safe to do so and prepare to do tons of damage.

For anyone who's played Mass Effect 2/3, this build is similar to a Vanguard - a high risk, high reward, close combat glass cannon build (and even then, in late-game the archer can take a surprising amount of damage, and your entire party has enough health and resistance that being a glass cannon is a non-issue). This build can also heal itself much faster than a Vanguard from Mass Effect with no need to take cover.

One more amusing and useful fact: there's nothing in the entire game that's immune to both air and water except medusas, which are immune to all nonphysical damage. But there's a way to get around it.

Personally I tend to favor taking the light path so my characters can be on the right side of history - but I recommend playing this team build at least once on the dark path.
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Glitches, Mods, and Other Stuff

This guide assumes that you are using the latest official version of MM7 released before 3DO went bankrupt. In particular it assumes you are not using:
-Unofficial patches
-Mods
-Character editors
-Anything else that would get you tossed out if MM7 was an online game

However, it does assume the presence of several prominent glitches in the latest official version:
-Acid Burst does physical damage instead of Water damage. This is incredibly useful, as you will see later
-Psychic Shock is glitched and does 1 damage per skillpoint instead of d12. This means that if you take the light path, your cleric does next to no reliable damage (but has other uses, continue reading).
-Daggers are glitched in your favor: if you Expert dagger skill and wield one in your off-hand, you always have a chance to do triple damage. This means that almost any character can do serious damage with daggers.
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Skillpoints and specializations

Everyone:
--You can almost never go wrong putting spare skillpoints in Learning. All of these characters can get master rank in it so you can level at the same time.
--If you really have skillpoints to waste, consider the Meditation skill. This is doubly true for your Druid who can grandmaster Meditation.

Archer
--unpromoted:Archers are a bit of a "carry" class; they only shine once they have been promoted. Since your elemental skills are stuck at Basic and you can't upgrade them for a while, just focus on your Spear, Chain Armor, and Bow skills. You could consider tossing some preliminary points into Water magic so you can throw ice bolts.
-promotion 1: You can now expert your elemental skills and do some real damage. Get your water and air skills to expert ASAP. By now, your sorc or druid (or both) should have been promoted, and you should have access to master level Bow skill in Nighon. Grab that as well, with priority just below air/water expert. Spare points go into fire magic so you can throw fireballs (and prepare to drop meteors later)
-promotion 2: Rank up water and air to master level ASAP. If you took the dark path, you could throw some points into dark element for Toxic Cloud and Reanimate; if you took the light path, well... light element isn't a priority. Level your bow skill to 10 grandmaster and then forget about it. Level your Chain skill to 10 grandmaster and leave it there. Note that this means your archer takes 2/3 physical damage, which means it can soak more physical damage than anything except a knight or a paladin.
--Misc support skills: Disarm Trap (low levels only)/Perception

Cleric
--unpromoted: Your first duty is buffing and healing. All of your Self magics (particularly body magic for improved healing and regeneration) need to get to expert ASAP. If you have skillpoints to waste, get expert mace skill to up your melee damage. For armor: I recommend expert leather armor and master shield. The problem with using chainmail as a cleric is that you are stuck at expert rank, so it will slow you down. Use expert leather armor (no recovery penalty) and a master-rank shield skill (skill added to armor class, no recovery penalty) - you won't miss the minimal extra armor from chainmail, and you will appreciate the lack of recovery penalty
--Promotion 1: Get your Self magics to master level. Get Protection from Magic and Raise Dead ASAP in particular. Nothing much else to do at this promotion level.
--Promotion 2: Grandmaster Body Magic and Light/Dark ASAP.
--All promotions: Spare skillpoints go into Merchant, up to level 10.
--Misc support skills: Repair Item/Merchant


Sorcerer:
--Unpromoted: Water and Air magic to expert ASAP. Fire magic to expert next. If you have any spare skillpoints, expert dagger skill and dual wield, also expert leather armor and say goodbye to recovery penalties. Unfortunately you start with the Staff as your default weapon - toss it out and switch to daggers ASAP. Earth magic at expert level is useful, but it isn't a high priority - just need it to reverse petrification and buff armor.
--Promotion 1: Air magic to master ASAP - you kind of need Invisibility to get to Nighon safely (where you get master level Water magic). If you plan on making the pilgrimage to Nighon early, level Water enough so that you can grab master level skill; otherwise upgrade fire magic to master instead so you can run "air raids" (flight + rain down meteorites on your enemies). NOTE: This character can reverse elemental build priority roles with the Druid - the builds should complement each other. You could have one prioritize air and the other prioritize water.
--Promotion 2: Air and water to grandmaster ASAP. If you took the dark path, grandmaster dark, and then grandmaster fire after that. If you took the light path, make a beeline for grandmaster fire - for this build you only really need one light caster (your cleric). Spare skillpoints could go into Earth magic for mass distortion or an obnoxiously powerful Slow.
-- Misc support skills: ID item/monster
-- No points in alchemy, leave that to the druid


Druid:
--Unpromoted: Water, Air, and Body magic to expert ASAP. Spare skillpoints go into fire magic, dagger, leather, and mace skills (to expert) in that order.
--Promotion 1: Air and Water (master level) are your main priorities, fire (master level again) and body magic are next. Try to "complement" your wizard. Later on when you have spare skillpoints, specialize for ability to Raise Dead.
--Promotion 2:Unfortunately, the druid's final promotion is a bit lackluster (and a pain to do no matter which path you take), offering no magic, weapon, or armor upgrades. Throw more points into air and water; you could go for grandmaster meditation. You could optionally grab grandmaster alchemy although it isn't that useful.
--Misc support skills: Alchemy
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Character roles after 2nd promotion:

Your archer should, in this priority order:
-Focus on Poison Spray/Sparks
-(dark only) Toxic Cloud against isolated enemies at short/mid range in turn-based mode; reanimate as appropriate
-Meteor Shower on groups when outdoors, acid burst/lightning bolt against single targets, fireball against groups indoors
-(light only)Destroy Undead/Paralyze where appropriate.
-Bow attack when out of energy
-Only use melee attack against medusas or when out of/conserving energy at close range

Your cleric should, in this priority order:
-Focus on buffing and healing
-(light only)Provide offensive utility through paralyze, Turn/Destroy Undead, elemental summons; use Light Bolt as an offensive quickspell
-(dark only)Assist in DPSing with dark abilities - mostly shrapmetal and dragon breath. But save your SP for healing and buffing - support is your cleric's first duty
-Provide offensive utility through Mind debuffs

Your druid should, in this priority order:
-Focus on Poison Spray/Sparks
-Meteor Shower on groups when Outdoors, acid burst/lightning bolt against single targets, fireball against groups indoors
-Serve as a backup healer and raise your priest if it dies

Your sorcerer should, in this priority order:
-(dark only) Shrapmetal DPS and dragon breath at long range (except when conserving SP)
-Focus on Poison Spray/Sparks
-Meteor Shower/Starburst on groups when outdoors, acid burst/lightning bolt against single targets, fireball against groups indoors
-(light only)Destroy Undead/Elemental summon/Paralyze where appropriate.

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Troublesome monsters and how to handle them:

Medusas: Grandmaster archery, invisibility, or acid burst.
Ghosts: Flying and immune to poison spray. Sparks will likely miss, and you shouldn't get close to them as they can age or OHKO your characters, Keep them at distance and fight them like nerfed Medusas that have no ranged attack or non-Water elemental resistances. Turn/Control/Destroy undead work wonders.

Can't think of anything else that would give this team build significant trouble.
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Questions/comments? I look forward to seeing them.

[Arret]

On the other hand: knight's grandmaster armsmaster gives 2 damage per skillpoint, always has a chance to miss, and offers no further utility besides melee damage. Taking a knight instead of a master-level elemental caster is like taking a sword and spear instead of a shotgun with near infinite ammo for melee combat - that can also launch slugs at distant enemies (see also: acid burst, lightning bolt).

Are you intentionally ignoring the recovery time effect? That's the reason that knights scale well. Once you get a spear to 30 recovery time, the only thing that can keep up in the game is shrapmetal spam or a fully capped archer (and capping an archer takes MUCH more than capping a knight due to +armsmaster skill enchants).

If you want to use a sparks/poison spray build, CSSS tends to work best. You have a healbot and then a bunch of burst. With 3 people dual wielding daggers, the melee damage is actually far better than you might expect and once you get to quad shrapmetal it is the easiest team I've ever played.

I've run similar builds to the one you suggest and the biggest frustration was the archer. You are stuck with basic elemental until mid game and the melee is vastly inferior to several other classes due to lack of sword master. The druid stops really helping late because of the unavailability of power cure or light/dark, which are the only things that would really take advantage of the grandmaster meditation and becomes nothing more than a sparks spammer. You honestly don't ever need a second healer due to how powerful regeneration gets at higher ranks.

It works ok, but doesn't really challenge the cookie cutter K*CS at any point of the game (early melee is too weak, mid-game the archer is dead weight until 2nd promotion, and late game the druid is dead weight). Master dagger, although appealing, just doesn't trigger enough to be worthwhile. Those points would be better used toward a paralyze effect which is in effect an instakill. Ranged casting sounds tempting, but by the time you get anything useful, you can always close and sparks/poison spray/shrapmetal/melee. The only enemies that the best start isn't to charge it and blow it up are Titans (which you should invis past) or Behemoths which can get caught in walls or burst down with Paralyze/Shrapmetal.