In this guide, we will show you how to create your own magehunter build in the game Stoneshard. With this build, you can conquer magic-using enemies by using melee combat techniques. Let’s get started on becoming the ultimate magehunter!
Overview
For those wanting a quick look on what the build looks like, here’s the skills needed for the build:
Note that the left side of Magic Mastery for Seal of shacles isn’t obligatory.
FAQ
I’m talking about this fella
He is a tier 4 brigand enemy you can encounter in tier 4 dungeons or in the wild once you are past lv20. I’m making a build guide and been doing runs based on this singular enemy.
Why magehunter ?
Out of all the numerous builds i’ve done, i find this one the most interesting and strong overall. It covers for both magic and melee enemies. It has good survivability and good offensive capabilities depending on your melee skill.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this build?
For strengths, this is a build where it does great in mid game which may be the area most player have difficulty especially tier 3 mages which this build counters. It has great flexibility in what melee skill you want to invest whether it’d be 2h sword, RoT mace or even Dual wield daggers.
For weaknesses, you are cut from other utility skills since you are already investing on Magic Mastery (MM for short) and Athletics but that’s the whole build. Depending on your melee skill, it can be a glass canon early game because it will heavily depend on your melee skill whether it has defensive capabilities or not.
What’s the general playstyle of this build?
This totally depends on your melee skill but it has much leeway when fighting multiple enemies especially mages. Obviously don’t take fights with multiple enemies if possible and
Which stats should I focus on?
Better to focus your stat in unlocking your melee skill since MM can be all unlocked via treatise up to tier 3 by buying from the correct vendor. As for Athletic, you can unlock it via books up to tier 2 by also buying from the correct vendor. The rest depends on your luck in brigand/proselyte dungeons. It’ll be a bonus to put points into STR, VIT or WILL since you need 16 to unlock Adrenaline Rush.
Levelling in early game
For stat allocation, go for what your melee skill requires you to unlock them but it’ll be decent to put 5 into AGI or VIT for Dash. You could also go for Sudden lunge by investing your stats into STR, AGI or PER.
You’ll get your 2 actives melee skill or Seize the Initiative (StI) if you’re going for a RoT (Right on target) build too.
This time, it is picking your melee passive whether i’d be Blade maintenance, No mercy, Shield breaker or Precise hits to then get your stance at level 5. Disengage is not obligatory but good to make early fights much easier. Dissipation is another good contender for early mage defense against hired sorcerers.
This passive skill provides a Accuracy (Acc) and Fumble debuff for each enemy adjacent to you. Early in the game this is pretty good because enemies already have bad Acc and Fumble chance, so you making it even worse helps you survive. This is also a pre-requisite for Dash and Elusiveness, both skills that are a must in this build.
This passive provides energy and magic/nature resistance every time you receive a magic or nature damage. This is a strong passive against mages and even basic enemies whether it’d be nature damage from hired sorcerer or magic damage from the basic attacks and spells of proselytes, undeads and even brigands (Crook). This is also a pre-requisite for Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Reflection, both skills that are a must in this build.
Assuming you spent your stat points correctly and unlocked the correct passives or actives, you’ll be able to unlock your melee stance at this level.
Levelling in mid game
Between these levels, there’s Dissipation if you haven’t gotten already, Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Reflection that you should invest first and foremost.
This spell is more of a pre-requisite for Seal of Reflection but it has it’s own merits. This spell removes all physical and magical effect in a 3×3 at a targeted tile. This remove enemy buffs like Seal of Power, Unholy blessing, Stolen Essence, Battle Rage, etc. It also apply huge amount of damage taken to wraith and undead making those fights easier. The self cleansing is also nice to remove debuffs like immobilisation, Sic and Sacrificial blood and get a lot of damage reduction.
One of the most powerful abilities against most enemies. It provides lots of magic, nature resistance and some physical resistance along with 50% damage reflection. The neat ability this spell got is the deflect mechanic when you get hit by a spell. This only affects target object spells meaning aoe (Area of effect) spells will bypass this deflect mechanics. Spells like Fire barrage, Jolt, Desecration, Life Leech are all going to be deflected to a random enemy within 8 tiles. Note that Seal of Cleansing will also be reflected but it can bypass if it’s done right beside since it has also an aoe cleanse. This spell can be considered one of the best yet underated defensive ability.
Next are Not this time, Dash and Sudden lunge for your Athletics picks then the rest being investing into your melee skill tree. The order doesn’t really matter as long as you eventually get your abilities. It is not urgent to get these Athletics skills and should maybe instead focus on your melee skill but it is nice to have some these are pre-requisite for Elusiveness, No Time to Linger and Adrenaline Rush.
Being able to negate a stun/daze/stagger every 90 turns can be the difference between living or dying, so you can consider getting this skill. The fortitude gain can reduce not only the duration but also the Damage over Time effects like Bleeding, Poisoning, Acid Bath, making this a quite nice skill to get for survivability. This is a pre-requisite for Sudden Lunge.
Pretty intuitive, it helps you escape from dire situations. You can also use it offensively chasing fleeing enemy or closing gaps on ranged foes. The small counter and dodge buff is nice making Dash usable even against melee enemies.
The malus to using the skill while engaged with an enemy is quite big, so to use it as an escape tool you should pay attention to its energy requirement. This is also a pre-requisite for Elusiveness.
A good skill denier for almost any situation. Being able to stagger and put the enemy’s abilities on cooldown while reducing your own is pretty beneficial. With No Time to Linger, it becomes a powerful free turn hit with all the above benefits.
Levelling in late game
The most overrated defensive skill. This skill alone can make you avoid most late game enemy’s melee skills and provide decent cover against ranged/magic enemies. It also makes you survive fighting multiple enemies at once. This is a pre-requisite to Adrenaline Rush.
Gives attacks against Bleeding/Dazed/Staggered/Stunned enemies 10% Acc and 10% Critical Chance. It also makes Sudden Lunge a free turn attack against enemies with those debuffs with more weapon damage.
If you get both of the skills above and have the tier 4 Athletics skills unlocked, this a great skill to have.
You pop this skill in the middle of 5 enemies and you let them pray to the Host. Your skills won’t cost any energy, you’ll be restoring energy like a fountain, you’ll be criting like crazy and attacks won’t hurt. It’s blasphemous.
The only downsides are that it does have a really long cooldown so it’s best to use it wisely or against a horde of enemies and let there be carnage!
Now this spell is a hard one to get. It needs 4 ap on the left side of MM making it the last or even not a spell worth picking up but i personnally take it after doing Manticore and a few Distant dungeons. It applies a lot of reduce energy restauration, increased ability cost, cooldown reduction, fumble chance and backfire chance. It also make the enemy take damage when using abilities based on the energy spent. A better Brace for Impact that last longer.
Equipments, Enchantments & Curses
You would want to build around a dodge build too to make Elusiveness more potent so light armor. Medium armor is also fine as long as you got decent dodge chance. I’ll skip early game armor since it doesn’t really matter and more so will rely on your starting gear and be basing my picks on the reputation of the town. Keep in mind that you should always use anything you find along the way that’s better than the ones i mentioned here like Hauberk is worse a Long Gambeson you find from a secret room.
At this level, you would want to buy a Cervelliere, Hauberk, Mail Gloves and Soldier Boots if you have the crowns for these.
No need to buy any rings or belt but instead find the Gilded Nobleman Belt at the Ransacked Homestead and use any rings you find along the way.
No need to buy cape too.
At this stage, you would buy Mail Mantle, Battlemage Gloves from the Alchemist or Splint Vambraces and save crowns on headgear since you’ll be getting the Cervelliere with Ear Guards from the Ancient Troll.
Keep using the Gilded Nobleman Belt and buy Jibean Cape if you need more dodge or save for the Jousting Cloak.
At this reputation, you would be buying Duelist Doublet, Magehunter Boots for the looks and get the Cervelliere with Ear Guards and the Jousting Cloak from the Troll Quest.
Buy any kind of belt your melee build needs and get either Coin Talisman, Carved Topaz Amulet or Ruby Necklace depending on your melee build. Go for Silver Ruby Ring, Silver Topaz Ring or even Berserk Ring if you want to be more of a glass canon.
At the final reputation, your equipments would look like this: Visored Barbute or Cervelliere with Ear Guards, Duelist Doublet, Battlemage Gloves and Magehunter boots.
Jousting Cloak for your cape, your belt of choice, Venemist’s Talisman for your amulet, Gold Diamond Ring or Silver Topaz Ring for your rings.
For Enchantments,
You would want your armor pieces (Head, Chest, Hands and Feet) to be dodge enchants to boost your base dodge although Control res and Move res are decent picks.
In your cloak/belt/jewelry, physical res is what you want to aim for since it covers all your bodypart. Magic, nature and bleed resistance are good too since it also cover the whole body but you can get magic and nature resistance through Seal of Reflection.
For Curses,
Always go for life drain or energy drain curses ring or amulet. They always give an upper hand in battle even if the ring or amulet is worthless. Other curses pretty much depends on the equipment that’s cursed and the side enchantments. You would definetely benefit from a reduced damage taken curse with bleed res and hp on a gold ring.
Boss/Mini-boss fights
Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.
Ancient Troll fight
Manticore fight
Kingsguard
Juggernaut
Anmarrak
Brander
Robber Baron
Final thoughts
Special thanks to Sir Gura for letting me take inspiration of his own guide on RoT Mace https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870831755
Hope it gave insight on my fav build type. Tell me if you liked the guide, if there’s anything you didn’t understand, if this helped you have fun with the build or if there’s anything I can do to make the guide better.
Stoneshard is an awesome game and it isn’t even finished yet. Once RtR comes out, it’ll be a blast for everyone.
Until then, thank you very much for reading this.
And that wraps up our share on Stoneshard: Tavi’s magehunter build guide. If you have any additional insights or tips to contribute, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below. For a more in-depth read, you can refer to the original article here by Lucid_Tavi, who deserves all the credit. Happy gaming!