Voltron

I agree with that. Fighter/Kind Wayfarer would be ez mode to solo. Early levels Paladin heals + Constant Recovery will easly keep you up in early game hard solo fights. Later when you get Vigorous Defense and Unbending + gear it would be walking tank. And Two Weapons with Cleave stance would also be nice. Though I would not take Devoted as there is too many good weapons to restrict yourself to one imo. I would probaly get pure Fighter here or Unbroken to combo with Kind Wayfarer. Though it can be also quite boring to play as :D. I don't like solo with pure melee builds in isometric RPGs- they are very (for me) boring to play as :D

Well, lvl 19 is of course super strong no matter what. But I would like to see how this mutliclass plays from level 1 to level 10 on Potd solo when you don't have any decent self heals and best gear, which some of them you have to aquire through some hard fights. At lvl 19 there is no bad build- everything vaporize from screen anyway.

Skald/Berserker for max damge, Paladin/Troubadour for great tank/sustain combined with very good damage and Fighter/Troubadour for more offensive version.

Every Chanter (just not pure Chanter)/melee is a lot of fun as you have passives, summons, CC, damage, buffs, debuffs etc. It's a lot of fun and interesting gameplay. Melee/Wizard or Melee/Druid is also interesting and fun, especially Monk/Shifter is very interesting to play as.

Did you even try to PotD solo or you just theorycraft now? lol What lol? That was legitimate and normal question.

If it's for party Fighter/Troubadour will work great. You don't want devoted as Sasha's sabre + Modyr is great combo and being restricted to one weapon is imo bad. Forcus more on empower Chants and play more dmg dealer and let other party healers to focus on that. If it's for solo Kind Wayfarer/Chanter is imo best and easiest for melee solo. And a lot of fun. Here I focused more on defensive Chants + offensive invocations. Once you grab Her Courage chant you can sing only that with Troubadour Brisk Invocations modal and you get perma 10 dmg reduction shield on you (well, not perma, but every 3 sec :D). Both I would build same. So I went (I think, I am in work now) 18 Might, Con 6, Dex 17, Int 18, Per 10 an Resolve 6. With Moon godlike I got 18,6,18,19,10,7. I took Moon Godlike but Nature is also great and for party scenario anything will work. There are some decent helmets in game so don't worry about race that much. I wanted that 19 INT as then I only need +1 INT from items to get that sweet 20 INT spot for Chants to linger together at fullest later. This gives us high Might for dmg/heals important, High Int (very important for Troubadour and also for paladin), and High Dex (Recovery is important as you will want to wear heavy armor, at least that's what I did and you want to stack that Sasha and Mordyr recovery stacks!). Low Con for Fighter in party can easly be offset by healer and for Kiind Wayfarer by his own Heals. Per I went low as Paladin has Focus aura and Enchants gives ton of extra accuracy. But you can bump it if you want at cost of Dex. Of course if you feel you need some some other atrrib more- go ahead and change that .

Though Fighter lack burst heal which you need many times in solo PotD in harder fights. He has good sustain, But sometimes when you are hit by 5 rangers and 6 melee guys and you HP drops to half you could use some burst and this is where Paladin comes with Lay on Hands, Greater Lay on Hands and Kind Wayfarer FoD especially. I think I would not survive some fights on my solo PotD if I took Fighter/Troubadour instead of Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour. Many times that burst heal saved my ass as heal over time is just not enough sometimes. Second Wind is super strong with Athletics (little too strong imo, needs nerf) but sometimes you need more than that. Not to mention even with my Paladin and +21 to all Defenses I am still on some fights Hobbled/Knockdowned/Stunned etc. so fighter would have harder time surviving those moments. Moon godlike helps with that a little, but it's nowhere near PoE level. I think now at Power Level 5 my Moon Godlike passive heals for like 20-something per it's tick. I think Fighter/Chanter with high athletics and Moon Godlike would be great but you can struggle in first 3rd of the game in group fights before you grind money to get all best armor and weapons. If you solo Unbending + Brilliant Invocation is a real strong burst heal, moon godlike is real bad in comparison and LoH is not needed at all. Brilliant Invocation is end-game, lol it's Level VII. At that point every build will be strong as you have tons of armor, Legendary gear and access to best combos/abilities. The problem with soloing PotD here and in PoE1 is early game and getting to that end-game. You won't have decent burst heal apart from Second Wind till Power Level VII on Chanter (Mercy) and any decent self healing till Power Level V on Fighter (Unbending). A lot of early solo fights before that can almost insta-kill you or get you to less than half HP in first two turns. Not to even mention a lot of Group fights vs you solo can perma-CC you. I avoided that because Paladin has +21 to all defenses very fast. On Fighter there is a chance in some fights to not get up from floor. or perform action before you die. Especially when you try Triple Crown it's kind of risky bet. Not to mention very early game where you want to level fast and get some good gear from Islands and all you have is Fighter Passive + healing chants and Second Wind opposed to Second Wind + Chants passive + Lay on Hands + Kind Wayfarer FoD. As for moon godlike heal is decent (it heals me now on PL V for more more than 20 per pick which for passive is great since for example most heal overtime auras/passives heal for like 1-3 HP). I agree it's bad later game, but in early game again- it helped. Though in later game you'd be better with Nature Godlike. But both are great. Since there are a lot of decent helmets however- going human or elv or anything else is also good. For example Favor gives 15% Hits to Crit, Golden Hawk Helmet gives 20% Hits to Grazes, many give +1 or +2 Intellect which is great on Chanter/Paladin. Did you even try to PotD solo or you just theorycraft now?

Though Fighter lack burst heal which you need many times in solo PotD in harder fights. He has good sustain, But sometimes when you are hit by 5 rangers and 6 melee guys and you HP drops to half you could use some burst and this is where Paladin comes with Lay on Hands, Greater Lay on Hands and Kind Wayfarer FoD especially. I think I would not survive some fights on my solo PotD if I took Fighter/Troubadour instead of Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour. Many times that burst heal saved my ass as heal over time is just not enough sometimes. Second Wind is super strong with Athletics (little too strong imo, needs nerf) but sometimes you need more than that. Not to mention even with my Paladin and +21 to all Defenses I am still on some fights Hobbled/Knockdowned/Stunned etc. so fighter would have harder time surviving those moments. Moon godlike helps with that a little, but it's nowhere near PoE level. I think now at Power Level 5 and +25% healing received my Moon Godlike passive heals for like 20-something per it's tick. Nowhere near PoE1 levels. Still I think best race for solo tied with Nature Godlike and Humans. I think Fighter/Chanter with high athletics and Moon Godlike would be great but you can struggle in first 3rd of the game in group fights before you grind money to get all best armor and weapons and you don't want to spend that gold on healing potions/scrolls as on solo grabbing that best gear early helps ton. Later in game Fighter Unbending + Old Sic or Mercy chant would give him amazing heals, but at this point you start to reach pick of any build and have good gear and game is not that hard anymore. Just my few cents. Though my second Character will be either Devoted/Troubadour Elf or pure Beaconer.

Paladin/Chanter will be ultimate tank (I solo PotD with him now). Defenses are sky high, tons of healing and self-buffs. Fighter will have better AOE melee dmg though. But Paladin will have way more survivability and great single target damage with FoD. The absolute super tank will be Paladin/Wizard.

Few more thoughts about Troubadour: Brisk Recitation modal: It's awesome for chanting two or one healing chants (like Soft Wind + Ancient Memory) as it's keep it perma and you get Phrases like crazy at the same time. It's also great for chanting one good Chant or Two that works well one after another. My fav combos for now in Brisk modal are: 1. Ancient Memory + Soft Wind. Decent healing while doing some additional dmg around. 2. Her Courage + Old Siec. Actually works pretty well, you have Her Courage first, then Old Siec mostly when you attack, then shield again, then old siec again to heal from your attacks. Works good together in this modal. 3. Old Siec alone for decent healing - I think I may actually ditch out Ancient Memory and Soft Wind because with Old Siec active + Two Handed Weapons + 20% less recover from Devil Corc armor + Sasha's recovery bonus for every learnt chant + high dex + Modyr recovery bonus I attack very fast with those two blades and if I crit for 59+7 it heals me for 9,9 for attack before applying healing bonuses. It also combos well with Kind Wayfarer FOD. This plus Exalted Endurance + Moon godlike Passive is actually a lot. So I think for healing as I play solo melee I can atcually stick to Old Siec when I need healing. Or maybe keep it active with Ancient Memory. If you play melee solo it should work better. 4. Mith Fyr - if fight is not hard it's actually nice to keep that burn bonus permanent as it combos well with Eternal Devosion. 5. I don't have that chant but Level VII summon Skeleton would work well too as there would be skeleton summoned every 3 sec. 6. Also don't have that chant, but I think The Silver Knight Shield + Her Courage would work well together, although it might be pointless to have +10 deflection if you can have perma 10 dmg reduction. Normal Mode but longer Linger of Troubadour: 1. Dragon Trashed should be decent as they will linger if you only chant that, but then it's not that strong as some others combos. But I think the Slash damage needs to be change to every 3.0 sec instead 6.0 sec (same as Burn). I will do mod for it later. 2. Mith Fyr + Old Siec is awesome. Damage boost + healing from damage. 3. Mercy and Kindness + any healing works well. 4. Ancient Memory is actually decent when it stacks with itself with longer linger. 5. Level VII Skeletons, you should have 2 for a short time. So far that's my fav combos.

It's not that simple. It depends. For example in some fights I want to stack self heal so use Soft Wind + Ancient Memory (and maybe + Her Courage), for some I go full offense with Mith Fyr (fire dmg) + Old Siec (15% dmg as healing) and sometimes I go mix with Dull the Edge (if enemies have a lot of swords + guns/bows/crossbows) + Her Courage. Mind I play Troubadour so I have a lot more flex as I have longer Linger (so chants stack a lot later on 20 INT) or I can chant without Linger super fast with is good with healing chants or with single offensive (Old Siec or Mith Fr) or single defensive Chant (Her Courage) or mix Old Siec with Her Courage then as they work well together in Brisk modal. Sure-handed Ila is only good for range weapons, so I wouldn't grab that. Also with Troubadour you can just chant Her Courage all the time in Brisk modal and pretty much have permanent 10 dmg reduction. As for The Dragon Thrashed - it's decent, but not OP anymore. It works best with Troubadour in normal mode because with his Linger he can stack them together (so more damage) or use it with other chant as they linger. It's good but not that good anymore. On non-Troubadour It's harder to play with Chants as much. I am thinking about buffing Dragon Thrashed maybe with mod.

I don't think so. Troubadour and Skald are balanced. It's just first one is more flexible and second one is pure offensive. Besides they said that they want to focus first on bug fixes etc. before they roll any balance patches. OP- if you want to take Fighter- Take Troubadour. If you want to play Skald (and it's not a solo run) take Berserker. You will have 30% Hits to Crits from start. Later grab hat Far Favor (or something like that) that gives you another 15% Hits to Crit, then grab 5% Passive and you will have 50% Hits to Crit at some point in fight. Take Two Weapons and Sasha's sabre + Modyr with Soul and you are golden. Troubadour with Brisk modal active will actually cast more high level Invocations than Skald because he get's new pharses 50% faster and not rely on crits. And you have Her Courage Thick as Steel up all the time or mixed with Old Siec, which both works well with Brisk active (just make sure you start combat with Thick as steel as enemies will get their first attack (especially range ones) and then Old Siec is running for you and so on. Skald plays best with everything that can boost that crit rate since it's only 50% chance on Crit. So imo Fighter doesn't go along (Same as Paladin).

I only try to take those I use the most, and I respec once some stop being useful: So what aim to get is: Level I: And Hel-Hyraf (-2 armor is good in melee) and Chant Dull The Edge + Come Come Soft Winds Level II: At the Sound of His Voice , Gernisc Slew and White Worms - I will probably ditch out White Worms once I get So Singt or Seven Nights but so far it's great AOE nuke and AOE dmg on solo it's good especially since you can kill one enemy super fast with Sworn Rival-empowered FOD. Level III: Ancient Memory and I took Combat Focus to be able to summon my empowered Wurms at the beginning of fight since sometimes range enemies can iterrupt you. One I get maybe some item with Concentration I will ditch that. Level IV: Nothing yet as I grabbed Sworn Rival on Paladin. But I am for Mith Fyr for sure here and probably The Brideman Slew. Ogres and The Long Night's Drink are also good. Level V: Her Courage thick as steel (of course), The Bridge, and better Gernsic (I will ditch Gernisc from before and grab something on Paladin). Level VI: Old Siec and maybe So Singt. I don't know what I want more- grab invocations that will buff me greatly or chants that will debuff enemies greatly (or buff me) so I can stick to spamming Paralyze and Damage invocations. But things like The Bridgeman Slew and The Bridge give you so many buffs it's crazy. Thing is on Paladin I have only to grab: Eternal Devotion, Exalted Focus and till Stoic Steel I don't see anything worth over Chanter Stuff.

Also after playing Herald Kind Way/Troubadour (now I see why he is so good, with his modal active he gets Phrases like crazy) I have to say to there is no point going with moon godlike for them. The amount of healing you get here is just enormous + defenses. Also now my buffed Eternal Devotion works really well with Mith Fyr chant. I think Nature Godlike would be better in long run here. But It's not like Moon is bad, every heal is good :D. Btw. How do you think you should play Troubadour with his modal on- just all chants you know one by one or I should have prepared like 3 debuffs, 3 heals, 3 self buffs Chants when I use his modal (which is all the time really since it give Phrases so fast). And that Sabre saber from Neketaka is sooo good on Chanter :D

That is true, but if you don't have priest in your party or if you solo- it's not a problem then.

Lvl 19 is gg anyway, doesn't matter what you play :D

It deals less, but more overall vs deal once big nuke but less overall. I think that's usually how DOT spells work vs nuke spells.

Thanks for feedback. I changed Endurance Aura to +2 and reverted change to Exalt Endurance to 3 HP healing as it was by default. Also Flame of Devotion/Eternal base is back to 25%, while I left new 20% lash on Eternal to make it competetive with other option. Sacred Immolation I will test at end game how it plays with little more damage. For anyone who is interested I will post also a special version with Focus Aura back to +5 Acc, but I will keep Exalted Focus 10% Hits to Crit, as I think it's the only way for this upgrade to be worth. Thanks for feedback. I will work later on some other abilities and bleak walker. EDIT: Added optional file with +5 ACC back if anyone doesn't like new change. Exalted is still buffed.

Good points, still disagree with Accuracy Aura though. One weapon can already give +20 acc. However I think you convienced me to change +3 Armor to +2 armor. +1 is still too low in my opinion. There needs to be reason to turn off Acc aura and change to others. I think since now all auras are stronger, you can actually switch to them and feel difference. Before I was just running that poor +5 Acc all the time. Sacred Immolation does not make you best AOE blaster. 25-35 is low for Level VII. White Worms or Seven Night on Chanter can nuke group of enemies faster, not to even mention Wizard or Cleave Stance. But that needs to be tested first instead of theory crafting of 5 damage will change much. This is pretty much the only AOE damage spell for pure Paladin so I think it should be on Level VII strong enough to make up for it. As always, thanks for feedback.

Thanks for feedback, though I disagree with base auras- base ones are imo useless. +1 Armor or +5 Accuracy are joke above level 5. Later on in game they are simply useless. As for FOD- you may be right. I will change later base dmg to what it was. Exalted Endurance 3 heal is weak per se, but I think Level IV should offer some more significant thing. But I get it, If more people will later agree I will change it to 4 HP per 3.0 sec. As for Sacred Immolation- while damage is decent, I think for Level VII + self damage spell 5 more dmg is fair increase. We talk about end-game here. Thanks for feedback!!

Yeah, I never play casters in RPGs for this reason. Never met system where they are balanced. They are either garbage or overpowered. Hence why I stick to melee or some semi-casters. In my party playthrough I ditched out Aloth because of that. Empowered Fireball- BUM! Great combat, thank you.

Ah what were your starting stats? Also, is int mandatory on Troubadour consideirng you have no lingers? You have no lingers only if you activate his modal and INT still affect your Chanter debuffs/buffs and Paladin buffs so I think it's still important. Starting stats were Might 18, Con 6, Dex 16, Per 10, Int 18, Res 8. Though Higher Per would help at the beginning before you start to get +ACC to every item you touch later. I dumped CON since I also went moon godlike to stack all healing possible so you can get away with lower HP. Though of course I am not saying those are perfect stats, but works so far. Ah, is that high dex needed? It's 18% bonus Action Speed which I consider very important on mix of caster and melee as because you solo you will want to wear heavier armors and every bit ot Action Speed stacking will help you deal damage/cast faster. Of course you can drop it if you want for something else.

If someone is interested I published a unofficial patch for Paladin (some minor tweaks for his weak-ass auras, FoD and nerfing Sacred Immolation self damage so its usable finally). Any feedback is welcomed as I tested it a little today but I want to finish my solo first on vanilla settings. I tried to make changes balanced: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/15

The Paladin being so healy/tanky, I think the way to go is to emphasize the summoning abilities of the Chanter and not try to Skald it up as tempting as it it. I think the basic Chanter class is entirely inferior to Beckoner. It seems like Beckoner should have a downside that isn't just weaker summons since really, the actual spells that summon end up overall stronger and this downside is null. The problem with paladin + summon is the long cast time. At 6s the chances youll get interupted are high. IMO melee characters are better with the faster offensive/support chants. I second that. Hence why imo Troubadour or Skald focused on offensive/defensive Invocations is better. Though it always good to have that one multi-summon invocation later when you can for example do Paralyze -> Summon to keep enemy backline busy with them. But as I said - there are figurines (you can get two form stored in Neka) which have instant cast so use that as well.

Ah what were your starting stats? Also, is int mandatory on Troubadour consideirng you have no lingers? You have no lingers only if you activate his modal and INT still affect your Chanter debuffs/buffs and Paladin buffs so I think it's still important. Starting stats were Might 18, Con 6, Dex 16, Per 10, Int 18, Res 8. Though Higher Per would help at the beginning before you start to get +ACC to every item you touch later. I dumped CON since I also went moon godlike to stack all healing possible so you can get away with lower HP. Though of course I am not saying those are perfect stats, but works so far.