Guide: How to choose your character's talismans

[Schadenfreud-0217]

Hey there everyone!
I've been playing this game for quite some time now, I'm currently level 78 with 4 maxed 5* characters (1 of which is still missing a few 5* talismans).
I've noticed that a lot of people either don't really understand how they should build their characters, or just put the highest level talismans they have on them just for the stats (which are usually useless to them), so I decided to write a simple guide on how to build a character.

NOTE: I am going to talk about building a character without taking into account the team you're using it in, which you should also strongly consider when choosing talisman bonuses!

Here's a few useful links that will help you with character building after you read this guide:
Character skills and stats on max level: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1213308813
Talisman effects and stats on max level: http://ironmaidenlegacy.wikia.com/wiki/Talismans

First off let's start with some words about a common misconception - Red talismans are not exclusive to Warriors, Purple talismans are not only for Assassins etc. Remember these words A CHARACTER'S SKILLS DETERMINE THE TYPE OF TALISMANS YOU SHOULD USE!
Secondly, you'll have to understand some of the basics i.e. how the different types of damage work and scale. Generally, if there is no specific text saying otherwise, this is how the types of damage work:
Physical - Scales with your Attack stat and is reduced by the enemy's Defence stat. This means that generally the best talismans you can use for a character whose skills are Physical Damage based are in fact Red (Fierce) ones.
Magical - Scales with your Magic stat and is reduced by the enemy's Magic Resist stat. This means that generally the best talismans you can use to increase that character's damage are Blue ones.
True - Scales with both Attack and Magic stat and ignores Defence and Magic Resist. This means that in general the Purple Talismans (total of +684 raw damage increasing stats) are the best choice to increase this character's damage.
Random - Like true damage it scales with both your Attack and Magic stat but the rules for the primary damage type reductions or lack there of apply. E.x. your Random damage hits Physical - it will be reduced by the target's DEF stat.
In the case of special text there are some ambiguities but generally the condition applies to the base damage type:
Scales with the character's Special stat means that it scales with Special in addition to its base type. So if it does Magical damage and the text says scales with Special, you'll love to get some (Bulwark) talismans for max effect.

Ok now that we have this basic knowledge let's see what else we need to keep in mind. There's characters that do AoE damage, and there's ones that do Single Target damage (on basic attacks).
The way that Augmentation Talisman effects work these days (talking about those that apply some debuff to your target) is that they apply the proc effect on all the characters hit by the basic attack. This means that a Freezing Talisman on let's say Allied Soldier (Magus) will freeze ALL the enemies when it procs. Same goes for Shock, Burn etc. (haven't tested with all talismans but I'm assuming it should now be the same). So in general you'd want to use that type of talisman with its set effect on your character who has an AoE attack.
Single Target characters are basically "Assassins", meaning that their purpose is to kill a single enemy with a single attack (if possible). That being said you can and should still use Augmentation Runes on them, but it's usually ones that buff the character or all of your team. In general you'd want to make them do as much flat damage as possible, so you should generally use Paladin, Holy, Strength, Guardian, Assassin Talismans for flat damage increase and Piercing or Penetrating Augment Talismans for a good damage increase on proc.
When choosing between Strength and Guardian or Paladin and Holy or Boost vs Rush vs Warp talismans, for example, you should take a look at the character's maxed out stats and calculate which would give you the biggest bonus at max level. For example a 5* Level 100 Speed of Light Eddiewill have 658 Magic and 460 Magic Resist. The set bonuses of the Paladin and Holy talismans are respectively are Magic Stat increased by 20% of your MR and Magic Stat increased by 15% of your Magic stat. Meaning that the Holy talisman set bonus will give you a total of 98,7 Magic stat and the Paladin will give you a total of 92 Magic stat (which is basically a neglectable difference but anyway). Same goes for all the other choices between flat stat increase bonuses.

Finally there's the case where your characters' basic attack and ability deal a different type of damage. There's 2 ways to go there - either choose to balance between the different stats that increase said character's attack and ability or focus on the stats that increase one (usually it's the basic attack) of the two.

EDIT (just gonna add this here): When choosing the defensive stats (let's say Arcane vs Power talismans) you should consider the rock-paper-scissors mechanic of the class types (Magus->Warrior->Sentinel->Magus). What I mean by this is that a Magus, for example, would deal increased damage to a Warrior. So if you want your Warrior to be able to better survive against his counter class type, you should consider using runes that increase your Magic Resist stat.

Here's an example of how to build a character that's a bit more... interesting - namely Child of the Damned (Gunner):
Stats at max level:
HP: 6185
ATK: 653
DEF: 232
MAGIC: 653
MR: 232
SPECIAL: 466

Skills:
Crucify: Deals physical damage to ALL enemies.
Golden Stare: Deals true damage to ALL enemies.

Talisman slots:
3 Prismatic
3 Yellow

So as we can see, we have 2 different types of damage, an AoE attack and a restriction on 3 yellow runes. So to get the most out of this character, we'd want to use Attack increasing runes, since they increase both the basic attack and the ability's damage. If we were to go for Augmentation runes, we should consider that a Piercing set bonus would only affect the basic attack and not the ability (since it deals true damage already). The 3 yellow slots however give an opportunity to either use Boost, Rush or Warp talismans for flat damage increase and a Special stat boost or a Thief Augmentation talisman (of course of the Will type cause they increase the Attack stat) because of the AoE. If we were to choose one of the flat damage increases we'd have to calculate which one's set bonus will give the most stats based on the character's stats.

Based on these factors, a few decent builds would be:
Biggest damage increase without losing on bonuses:
4x(Will) Boost Talismans
2xStrength Talismans

Biggest damage increase with augment effect:
3x(Will) Thief Augment Talismans
2xBurning Talismans
1xRed doesn't matter what b/c no bonus

Hope my explanation was clear enough, if there's anything I've missed, please let me know I'll try to reply to questions as swiftly and as best I can.

Edit: I just realized that I posted this into the Character Discussion instead of the Guides and Tips section of the forum, could someone please move it?

[BillLion]

Wow, you've done a great job with this. Very thoughtful and I'm sure it will be useful to many. Well done!

[AmBush-UK]

Good read fella, I am one who struggles finding the right combinations having never played a game like this.

[OpticSugar]

I can't thank you enough for posting this guide. You've helped demystify something that I have struggled to understand since I started playing LotB. This has always been a confusing aspect of the game and you've really simplified it as well as helping guide us on how to develop strategies of our own rather than just saying "use this talisman for this character".

Well done!

\m/

[Vaseodin]

Excellent post. The only thing I would change is the "True damage means a boost of 600 to ATK gives you 600 more Raw damage". Most characters that deal true damage take a percent of each ATK and Magic and add them together. It's very rare for a character to just add Atk and Magic and that equals their True damage. RAW damage implies that it gives you that much damage total as a boost. I'm sure it's not what you meant, but I just wanted to clarify that just because it says "true damage" it doesn't mean you get to add both stats and that will be your total damage (except for a few characters).

[Kardas]

Great work! This should be stickied IMO.

Also the true damage is pretty interesting. I'll be making a post about the Pyro Soldiers soon (all 3 of which do true damage if I'm not mistaken) and I can really use that for the post.
Thanks!

[slauki]

You nailed it pretty damn good.

[Schadenfreud-0217]

Excellent post. The only thing I would change is the "True damage means a boost of 600 to ATK gives you 600 more Raw damage". Most characters that deal true damage take a percent of each ATK and Magic and add them together. It's very rare for a character to just add Atk and Magic and that equals their True damage. RAW damage implies that it gives you that much damage total as a boost. I'm sure it's not what you meant, but I just wanted to clarify that just because it says "true damage" it doesn't mean you get to add both stats and that will be your total damage (except for a few characters).

You have a point, I might not have explained true damage increase all that well. I meant that purple talismans give you +684 (342 magic and 342 attack) total raw stats that increase your damage. The character's skill/attack might not scale off 100% of the atk and mag stat.

I also realized I didn't talk about the class bonuses and how you should chose your defensive stats (ex. Blue Arcane vs Power talismans). I'll make an edit to correct and add these.

EDIT: Also thanks everyone for the kind words, I really appreciate it!

[Schadenfreud-0217]

Request: move this to the Guides & Tips section of the forum please.

[propagandy]

This is amazing! Thank you!