Kelstrom

You are talking about PotD and thinking of using tactics/classes that can work on hard. You will be surprised in most fights. If you want to use a Barbarian, use him for DPS you wont regret. For tanking you need someone to stop as many monsters as possible without the need to heal. The Fighter is the best option. For me the ideal setup is 2-3 front line 3-4 back. When i finish my play with the premade companions on PotD i will start a new with the following classes: Fighter (weapon/shield), Barbarian (estoc), Paladin (soldier specialization), which can be front and back with arquebus. The Paladin has a great utility, not only he can protect your nukers, but it can heal and disable the debuffs (which is huge), and it also giving accuracy/critical to all. For the back row the Priest is mandatory for the buffs, then there are a 2 free slots for nukers. The most OP is of course the Cypher (with blunderbuss) , then maybe the Druid, but a ranged Rogue (again with blunderbuss) is not bad choice as well.

For a rogue stack accuracy and critical buffs/talents. Get vulnerable attack modal + 2 weapons talent. Then most weapons should work. Sabers and stilettos are top dps.

You know guys, with my first barbarians i was thinking like you. Using light armor, reach weapons and go behind the tank. Well it works ok, but i didnt like the tactic of cowardice. Then i made a new barb with a heavy armor and estoc. And as you know barbs have a low accuracy so i decided to use 3 chars to support him. Priest with all the accuracy buffs, druid with the deflection debuff and paladin with aura. The paladin started to be very handy with that immunity to debuffs ability which makes the barbarian unstoppable dps machine It turns out the buffs helps all the party and im able to do very well on POTD difficulty with all the premade NPCs and doing 2 floors of the endles dungeon without resting. No reloads on the bounty bosses so far The damage of the barb is so awesome the carnages go as high as 90 dmg on crit (at lvl8). On the barbaric yell thingy - if you plan to be effective dps you need to use brute force / threatening presence. Then you dont really need the yell. IMO the key class talents for dps barbs are: Frenzy - dont upgrade it right away. If you dont have anything else to chose you can upgrade it at lvl11-12 Savage defiance - it scales with level and is awesome self-heal (no need to upgrade) Brute Force - get this asap One Stands Alone - get this before everything else when available Blooded - its an ok ability, but you can get it later The non class talents: the accuracy one - estoc seems to be the best modals with -5 dr and 1.2x dmg (i dont have the 20% dmg one, but i plan to get it) 2handed spec Some tips on survival: Use the heaviest armor you can get. The crucible knights vendor has a very nice one. Get a belt with 5DR and an item that reduce crit damage. When you are surrounded with mobs and using frenzy you cant see your endurance so use your self heals and the pally heal/debuffs remover. Dont bother with priest heals just for you - let the angry man buffs. About the attributes. MIG and DEX should be maxed, CON can stay at 10, INT is a good stat, but you can do ok without maxed (my barb has 15 base). About the other 2, well you wont be so effective at interrupt so you can leave PER at 3, RES is the other stat that increase will save so it may be ok to help you not get dominated and is also good for some conversations (most things need 14, but 12 as a base is ok). There is a good build floating on the forums that use retaliate items. With the estoc setup the barb could be even more devastating.

Which of your party members is top dps?

Reach Weapon... a melee that can't stand in melee. O ya no DR bypass on any reach weapons either, so enjoy those carnage hits for 7. You can just switch between 2 weapons with different types of damage or apply elemental damage to your weapons too. The DR on some monsters is so insane Estoc actually doesn't do as much as some people think. No DPSer can stand in melee period, ever, because for most damage you can't use armor. That ****ing sucks and I liked potential of melee in IE games more but that's just how this game works. This statement is very true, BUT only for you! It looks like you need more practice with melee dps classes. They can do wonders. I play barbarian with oly 10 base con. He is as tanky as my fighter. The key thing is that you have to use a plate armor and dr belt. Dont worry about the attack speed, my barb has -50% from armor and -20% from a talent and he is stll a DPS machine, better than anyone in my party. This is on POTD. There were some monsters with 31 piercing dr (in Ondra's gift), the barbarian just destroyed them like nothing. The support is very important, with druid debuffs and priest buffs your melee guys can be devastating.

It will be great if we could see what are the total grazes / hits on our characters, just like the amount of crits showed in the personal tab.

Yes.

Nope. My tanks/CC keeps my Barb and Rogues above 50% most of the time even on POTD. Besides, that Human bonus does not last very long at all. For a Barb, something Orlan/Death will most likely be used in the majority of encounters due to carnage. QFT. If you're getting below 50% on a regular basis, you're in bad shape. I wll not call it a bad shape. I will call it a way of playing. My main is a barbarian and I use it for tanking/dps on the front lines alongside my fighter to block the enemy. The barbarian has the talents that when surrounded by 2 or more enemy gets 20 flat damage, and when on half endurance it has 50% more damage + the human passive (which is huge dps spike). I deliberately wait for the barb to go half endurance. The human passive stays for about 30 seconds, which is more than enough. You can do the same for the rogue, she got an ability to escape engagement so when she gets to half endurance she can back a bit and then fight with increased acc/dmg. That flat dmg bonus is awesome in the hands of a fast hitting rogue.

Terrible or not if you are a melee class you will get bellow 50%. For instance if you are a barb or rogue you get bellow 50% almost every fight. Then IMO the human bonuses are the best - the accuracy is a very rare modifier.

You have another option. Single hand weapon (spear is best imo). That way you will always hit and have a good chance to crit. Then you can concentrate on the 25% dmg vs mobs talents.

Anyone tryied single 1h spear barbarian? I am now in act 2 and the dps is insane. With the spear in one hand you get a 17 bonus on accuracy, which makes most of your swings hits and rarely a graze. Also i calculated the critical chance to be 20%. My first barb which is 2-hand has about 12.5%. I wish the developers can inplement hit chance in the UI. Human, lvl 5 so far. Might 20 Constitution 18 Dexterity 18 Perception 3 Intellect 15 Resolve 4

That bear fight is 1v1, most characters can do it. He should have showed the wolves fight, where ppl can see the carnage in action.

Can this happen even on companions made by you?

Thats wrong. The barb can solo most encounter at the start - even the thugs harassing the Inn's owner. With bear and a healing pot you can as well solo the wolves - all that on POTD difficulty.

With my third barbarian run i went with 1 single handed spear... and dayum the critical carnages are so real... the dps is insane.

It does say in the log window. Just click on any "hit" you did and if its graze converted to hit it will say it.

Hey guys, my first post I was thinking of making a chanter with blunderbuss / arquebus using http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Sure-Handed_Ila_Nocked_Her_Arrows_with_Speed Depending on the dexterity of the other companions they will be either tanks or riflemen