This question gets ask all the time and there is no correct answer. The best way to build your character is by your playing style. Here are three typical Squire builds:
Tower Build - Tower (all points in tower stats)
A build which focuses on tower stats above all else. Easy to solo most maps but some can be quite challenging. A tower build makes for a good teammate.
Pros
Able to solo and team play easier
Towers almost never die and do good damage
Cons
Bosses can be hard to kill
More likely to die due to low health
Hero Build - DPS (all points in character stats)
Excellent boss killers and crowd control. For what they lack in constructing towers, they more then make up for with raw power. A Hero build makes for a good teammate.
Pros
Great for tanking and killing bosses fast
High health means more survivability
Cons
Towers are weak both damage and health wise
Hard to solo without towers
Hybrid Build - Hybrid (Mix of the two, most common)
Awesome to play as when used alone, they neither excel in towers nor player stats. Hybrids can be good teammates but their lack of specialty can make them weak in team situations.
Pros
Good for solo games
Able to use both their weapon and towers efficiently
This is the best tower for barricading due to having the highest health of all the towers. The Cade also can damage monsters that get too close to it making it better than Apprentice's barricade. This tower is most useful when the player wants to block off an area or protect a lone tower. Damage wise these towers are not very effective and in most cases other Squire towers will do a better job at killing or stopping the monsters. They are a key tower in defending against kobold attacks on the harder difficulties. {C
Cost: 3 Tower Points 30 Mana
The Bumper tower is preferred for almost all maps with lava over the spike blockade for its special ability. This tower causes monsters that it attacks to be knocked back, giving the player more time to react to the situation. Having medium damage and health, the Bumper is useful for all situations that require an area to be blocked off and damage. As the game progresses, the Bumper will become one of the most used towers in the squires arsenal early on, but later phased out for the Slice'n'Dice Blockade.
Cost: 4 Defense Units 40 Mana
This tower is a large bow with a wide range and medium-high damage. The attack rate is slow but the ability to shoot through monsters makes this a very good tower for hallways or open areas where mobs paths join. A good combo is to place this tower behind a Bumper so as to give it time to reload and get more monster to hit with its pass through ability.
Cost: 6 Defense Units 80 Mana
This Cannon is the fastest ranged Squire tower. It also has the longest range of any Squire tower but the downside is that it has the smallest cone of attack. It has the special ability of knocking back targets but other apprentice towers might make a better use of Defense Units. This makes its use very limited to small hallways or monster paths where its knockback ability will keep monsters at bay. It does medium damage but its use quite limited.
Cost: 7 Defense Units 100 Mana
The Spinner is a personal favorite tower for soloing. It is the highest level tower the Squire has access to. The tower requires a small start time before attacking and reaching maximum damage, but it does the most damage over time of any Squire tower. If a player has extra defense units, these towers make a good update for Bumpers. The health on these towers is decent but they do require the player to repair them from time to time as Koboldswill almost always hit them if not accompanied with other towers.
Swords have the fastest attack of the weapons that can normally drop, but also are quite small so they don't hit as many monsters with each swing. Swords are best for new players and when you want to focus on single targets such as the Ogre. One special variation of the sword is the katana, which can be found randomly. Katanas have the fastest attack speed and can have a larger reach then other swords.
Hammers and Axes are very similar to each other. They are both slow attack speed weapons, Hammers slightly slower then axes. There is also only one of each of these in Dungeon Defenders. A good Axe or Hammer can be hard to find.
There are 10 possible places to spend the Squires stat points on, 8 Statistic areas and 2 Skills:
Player Health
This stat increases the Squires maximum health. A Squire can maintain his hp with either the healing skill, a Fairy or a monk’s healing aura.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
This skill is a must to max. Surviving longer then the other classes is one of the Squire's main goals.
A few points is recommended but a tower Squire should focus on his towers above himself
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Player Damage
Placing points in Player Damage increase the physical damage of each attack done by the player. This skill is based off the hero's weapon damage, this means increasing it a lot early on has less of an impact then having it maxed end game.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
A requirement to max this and continue to increase player attack with items. Using skills and having a high player attack, the Squire can out DPS every class,
Not recommended, should focus on tower skills first. Tower builds should not be attacking with their weapons often so placing points here would be a waste.
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Player Speed
This stat increases the players movement speed. Maxing this stat is essential for all classes but maxing should be put off until later levels. A few points early into player speed will allow the player to move fast and not be at much disadvantage. Items can be used to cover player speed by late game so an early investment can be offset by a re-spec at level 70.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
A must have skill! If the Squire is too slow, he can not effectively get to and away from creatures.
A must have skill! Repair, repair, repair! A tower Squire should always be on the lookout for a tower in need of repairing or replacing.
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Player Attack Speed
This stat increases the rate at which the player creates and repairs towers. More points means faster tower building.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
All players should repair towers during the build phase so even a DPS based hero can benefit putting a few points in Player Attack Speed.
A must have for placing towers fast. Every second counts so maxing this late game helps.
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Tower Health
This stat increases the health of the Squires towers. It is one of the best stats to max due to the expectation of a Squire’s towers to be the hardest to kill.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
Hero builds can place extra points here for the rare case in which a tower might fall or slowing down a group of creatures is needed.
All Tower build Squires should max this stat to be the most effective for their team.
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Tower Damage
Tower damages increases the damage of all Squire towers. Other classes have better damage but every hit counts.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
Not recommended as a hero Squire should focus buffing himself and his skills, not his towers.
A must have to max. Probably the most important stat to raise for all classes.
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Tower Aoe Range
This stat increase the range of towers aoe attacks. This is a good stat to place a few points in but Tower Health and Damage are usually more important first.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
Not recommended as a hero Squire should focus buffing himself and his skills, not his towers.
For tower builds it is always advised to upgrade this skill to the max as squire towers have the shortest range of all towers.
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Tower Attack Speed
Tower Attack Speed increases the attack rate of all Squire towers. Tower speed can increase the damage done but be careful as it is capped.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
Not recommended as a hero Squire should focus buffing himself and his skills, not his towers.
This is recommended to max if the player is going for a tower or hybrid build as the damage output of each tower is greatly increased.
Circle Spin is an AOE damage move that also knockbacks targets based on the hero’s weapon. The move is best used when surrounded my many monsters, as the knockback allows the Squire to escape. Note that the knockback effect is modified by the weapon the Squire is holding so a higher knockback skill will push the monsters back farther.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
A must have skill for a Hero/DPS Squire as it allows the Squire to get out of sticky situations while doing bonus damage.
A skill to put points in only after towers, this can be used to push creatures away from a tower so it can be repaired without fear.
Blood Rage when activated continually drains mana at an ever increasing rate until its deactivated or the mana supply runs out. It greatly increases the Squires damage and movement speed at a cost of his resistances. This is best used on Ogre Crush , Monster Fest, or against any Large Monster.
Hero Build
Tower Build
Boost Build
A must have for a Hero Squire as the damage increase alone is extreme, allowing the Squire to decimate ogres and bosses. The speed increase makes all that much better.
Not recommended as tower Squires tend to be a lot weaker then their counterparts. The skill can still be used for its movement boost while moving from area to area.
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20 Mana per initial, 1 or more per second
Solo Strategy
Soloing with a squire can be quite tricky as the squire towers have some low DPS, range, and the Squire can only melee attack. The melee only attack puts the Squire at a huge disadvantage in solo play. A good solo player will focus on towers early on while boosting hero stats mid-late game. When playing solo, a Squire makes a good second or third pick, after playing one of the ranged classes. It is recommended to use a Tower or preferably a hybrid build.
There are a few typical tower setups involve placing a ranged tower behind the bouncer or spinner. If the player has a good Apprentice and skill, they can place Apprentice towers, such as the Magic Missile Tower or the Fireball Tower,behind the Squire spinners during the build phase. The harpoon towers make a good alternative as they shoot through creatures and have a good damage. On later difficulties, using different class towers is required and Insane will require teamwork.
The trick to the Squire is to know how to place towers properly. Since Squires have some of the shortest range towers, they need to be placed so that they do optimal damage. Placing towers in lanes so the creatures can't pass forces the creatures to attack the tower or find a way around. This can be used to the Squires advantage by blocking all creature paths, forcing them to come within the short range of their towers.
Attacking in solo is usually not recommended as the Squire will be preoccupied with repairing his towers. The only exception is against Ogres or bosses in which his high attack damage will make quick work of them.
