portedgoblin

I am looking at The Golden Dragon build that I just found. Seems very fun and a great theme. So handsome too! I think I prefer this over a Firebrand build. another option would be something like this, TWS with HoF. I will experiment.

Thanks! Based on your feedback I feel that I can proceed with the Barbarian in POE 1 and I have several cool options for Deadfire!

Long time no see! I need some help with what class to play for a POE and Deadfire playthrough. I completed both games back when they came out. I used a Monk both games, SC Monk in Deadfire. I will do a roleplaying playthrough with reading all the text and enjoying the story since it was so long ago I played. I will play on Hard difficulty. I want to play the same class in both games, though I may multiclass in Deadfire. For POE I am down to Rogue or Barbarian. I am trying both now for a few hours each. So far I like them about the same. I have a feeling I will think Barbarian is more fun later on however. I need some help with a build for Deadfire. I think some combination of Rogue, Barbarian or Monk would be what I want, but I don’t really know enough to decide witch one, and it would be great to get some input on fun builds using these classes. The only one off the table would be SC Monk since I played this already. Monk multiclass is fine. In my research for this, in this forum mostly, I have read about Berserker / Nalpazca (Ravager), this seems fun and also great from RP point of view. You come back in Deadfire with PTSD, are a bit unstable and use drugs to cope! This build would mean I would choose to play a Barbarian in POE 1. Not sure how Barbarian / Rogue (Marauder)or Rogue / Monk (Shadowdancer) are compared to the one above? What the differences in playstyles and how strong are the builds? I am looking for a melee TWS build. All thought are welcome!

Monk Hits: 3651 Crits: 1851

Have you tried monk? Because I am having a very different experience. I will repost this from another thread: I play a monk and really enjoy it. The wound mechanic actually works for me, even though when I look at it it should not, for the reasons people have stated here. My monk is unarmed and have no armor. I send him in just after my 2 tanks, Palegrina and Eder. He does crazy single target damage. In an easy fight, he will not get hit and get no wounds and just auto-attack. That is fine, since his auto attack damage is quite good enough. In a hard fight with many enemies, 1 or 2 will start attacking him, despite the 2 tanks (4 and 2 engagements respectively). So now he will get wounds, he will start doing aoe damage with Rooting Pain and his auto attack damage goes up with Turning Wheel (think of it as a fire enchant for the fists). If he starts to take too much damage, I will heal him of course, but also I will start doing CC to the mobs attacking me. With 2x per encounter stuns and Force of Anguish I can get rid of all mobs attacking me if I need to. This is the part that works out. As long as things are hitting me I have endless CC! His attacks so often that even a missed CC is no problem, another one coming up in 0.5s. Toward the end of the game (hard) my monk hit for 25-50 damage unarmed with around 2 attacks per second. He absolutely wrecks encounters. I don't know how crazy OP the other classes must be, but for hard the monk do WAY WAY more damage then needed in order to be viable. The only problem I have is if I get dominated, I must rush to knock the monk down then or he will kill the party in seconds. This is the most fun class I think I played in a long time!

Build? Maybe its some wild/secret Monk build I haven't seen yet, but that just doesn't seem possible numbers wise...when objectively comparing to barb,rogue,cipher, and a druid who blows all his spells. Toward the end of the game (hard) my monk hit for 25-50 damage unarmed with around 2 attacks per second. He absolutely wrecks encounters. I don't know how crazy OP the other classes must be, but for hard the monk do WAY WAY more damage then needed in order to be viable. The only problem I have is if I get dominated, I must rush to knock the monk down then or he will kill the party in seconds.

This is how playing a monk with Force of Anguish looks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6QgHg4eTk#t=1m57

I play a monk on hard and really enjoy it. The wound mechanic actually works for me, even though when I look at it it should not, for the reasons people have stated here. My monk is unarmed and have no armor. I send him in just after my 2 tanks, Palegrina and Eder. He does crazy single target damage. In an easy fight, he will not get hit and get no wounds and just auto-attack. That is fine, since his auto attack damage is quite good enough. In a hard fight with many enemies, 1 or 2 will start attacking him, despite the 2 tanks (4 and 2 engagements respectively). So now he will get wounds, he will start doing aoe damage with Rooting Pain and his auto attack damage goes up with Turning Wheel (think of it as a fire enchant for the fists). If he starts to take too much damage, I will heal him of course, but also I will start doing CC to the mobs attacking me. With 2x per encounter stuns and Force of Anguish I can get rid of all mobs attacking me if I need to. This is the part that works out. As long as things are hitting me I have endless CC! His attacks so often that even a missed CC is no problem, another one coming up in 0.5s. This is the most fun class I think I played in a long time!

Was the slicken nerf really that bad? It still knocks enemies down in a big aoe. Normally I do not need more then one such advantage to win the fights (I play on hard). The Chill fog is a clear nerf, but that was a little too good, being able to stack the dot ontop of your party. I have Aloth in my party and would not trade him for anything, he has so many good spells I do not understand the problems you are having. For a hard fight I usually do some debuffing at the start of the fight with Curse of Blackened Sight, Slicken or Expose Vulnerabilities. For damage, the Cone damage spells are very good. Fan of Flames or Blast of Frost. If it is a really hard fight I just cast Call of Slumber, witch is a 14s (!) Foe only Aoe knockdown... or Confusion. This seems to work really well, but that might be because my PC is a monk and can deal out good damage. If your PC is a Wizard, perhaps you can have someone else do the debuffing and cast more damage spells yourself. I recommend the Cone spells, since that would require you also to be more active with positioning and aim that would allow for you to interact with our PC more.

Sounds like a DW Rogue, Fighter, Barb but without the capability to use life-leech weapons and no escapes.....and has to actually get hit resulting in pointless micro and wasted Priest spells. Monk isn't terrible, but could use some love. What kind of love? I really don't have a problem with monks now. The opposite in fact. I love using lots of CC and controlling the fights while doing great damage. The priest spell is mostly interdiction witch is 1 per encounter. By pointless micro I don't know what you mean? Like pressing abilities or?

Like Smor said. Transcendent Suffering is making up for much of missing enchant for damage and accuracy and Turning Wheel is like a +fire damage enchant. I play my monk in Cloth (0) armor unarmed on hard difficulty with campaign companions and he is destroying everything. My priest and Wizard are debuffing and if he still take too much damage you can just start CC the mobs.

Thanks for taking the time!

Sounds interesting! What is the standard unarmed build?

Yes I know about the enchanting, I guess I can have a staff as backup. I was thinking of using Unarmed with Turning Wheel as main theme along with some CC skills.

Thanks for the video, it was great! Nice to have something spoiler free to watch while waiting. I am trying to figure out a good monk build using unarmed. How does unarmed work in the game and how would you build that monk? Since taking damage is necessary for doing damage I suppose I need to build him somewhat tanky?