Exoduss

With 2 tanks and a Priest you get 3 dpser spots its not like i am saying that rogue is better than wizard or druid or cipher for party play BUT there is no reason to have CIPHER WIZARD AND DRUID in 1 party no at all . Also for first playtroughs its advisable not to get 6 chars that require micromanaging some Auto Atackers are very good so you can give your full attention to classes that requires micromanaging constantly

Ranged rogue contributes by doing 3x damage of other 5 people in the party trough whole game. Also Ranger can deliver highest burst possible with 4 Heavy Guns and Quick Switch if used right highest enemy threat will die before fight starts if its not a boss for a boss Ranged Rogue is better with steady ultra high damage

Dont pick Paladin in a group if its not your main IMO , because of the paladin order buffs that are available only if they are your main , thats kinda fckd up but it is how it is Also chanter tank and main is great idea if you pick a fighter for offtank , as a chanter tank you want max Int Resolve and Perception too for the tanking stats ( in POE you get more tanky from stacking tanking stats than from stacking Constitution ) , those 3 maxed will enable all the good dialogue choices for your character trough the whole game the only ones you will miss will be Might ones that usually sounds like phrases from chuck noriss movies

Tell me more about how you PoTD without tanks because i am not convinced at ALL Edit : Anyway OP wanted advice about making party he got a detailed one from me , you could also help him instead of generating useless discussion with phrases from my post , and writing like X+X + Fighter+cipher+X + X is great party .

Hard for the first playtrough seems very very balanced if you want a challenging CRPG , PoTD is there for replayabilty imo or for those who want to hardcore from the very beginning , also most builds mentioned here doesnt make too much sense keeping all stats over 10 is just waste in PoE 1-2 stat points makes no difference but more you stack better effect you get so you get the most from Maxing important stats like Resolve and Perception for Paladin Tanks or Max Might + Aumaua for Paladin DPS'ers instead of having like 10 Dexterity that does exactly nothing ... Edit : and when you have all stats over 10 they dont suddenly become "balanced" they actually are leaning more towards wasted , and for those who will say sht about minmax etc etc etc why talk about builds at all then its proven that any build works in this game on lower difficulties .

I dunno maybe... i only played normal as solo ranger . BUT : going with 1 tank(and no offtank) or without a priest is just gimping yourself and being happy about that , also i ussualy play Hard with Ironman or PoTD and i cant imagine skipping 1 tank or priest

It doesnt seem really useful at first but : I regret not maxing Stealth and Lore on my tanks they got decent lore but no stealth so when i am stealth engaging a fight my rogue and ranger has to go infront of the tanks to shoot from stealth with a pistol , meanwhile if i had my tanks with max stealth i could deliver true barrage of bullets before the fight even starts on many different targets . When i start new party i am sure to follow this rule from now on : Every characters maxes Sealth + 1 other Skill Mechanics/Lore/Athletics , Stealth+Lore on tanks ( basicly for fan of flames the OP scroll and other not that op scrolls ) , Stealth+Athetlic/Mechanics f for pc for dialogue options i guess and stealth + survival on others

first one you get is in stronghold i think somewhere between the entrance and the end of endless path 1 , atleast i got it there 3 times not sure where exactly tho but you should always have it after geting stronghold for urself and clearing first level of endless path Edit : tho thats just a simple blunderbuss without any enchants or anything and you can go str8 to defiance bay right after the stronghold so it is not that helpfull

For dialogue options? Are there many, or is it a story thing? Druid can replace a wizard in offensive spells? Cipher to? The classes in this game are nothing like I thought they were. Paladin gets an ability that automatically increases their defenses as long as they keep to the dogma of their order. If you choose all of the dialogue options that are with the order you choose, your main character's defenses skyrocket. This only effects the main character because the main character is the only person who can choose dialogue options. Cipher is arguably the strongest spellcasting class in the game. And the druid is much stronger than the wizard early on. lol i got paladin in like 3 parties of mine on various difficulties and i was completely shocked to realize that they have to be main character to get buffs from they order , WHAT THE HELL....., to help the OP : Priest's are mandatory( Max INTELECT Max MIGHT is the way to go ) , i mean not on normal you can do fine without them but they are probably the only class that cannot be replaced in this game , they justs rock so get a priest as one of your companions , As mentioned earlier if you want paladin in your party then make it your main character 10 10 3 18 18 18 build will open you dialogue options for whole game from Perception Intelect and Resolve thats more than half of them , also you pick an order with paladin and then if you follow their path you get awarded with huge buffs , and you can easily follow your doctrine by enabling game suggestions for dialogue choices in options menu , Rogue and Ranger - choose 1 both of them should be ranged anyway , melee rogue's just doesnt work well or they require more Micromanaging than other classes meanwhile not delivering the results , for typical marksman with a bow go for Rogue(ranged) and if you want to be an epic gunslinger go with ranger and island aumaua race , for both ranged rogue and a ranger primary stats are Might and DEX and others doesnt matter much so max thease two . Caster - Wizard or Druid both are good both are fun choose the one you like more , druid can do some healing as a backup healer but tbh with a priest you wont need anymore healing , and mage is more of CC kinda guy , but both of them Mage and Druid has epic AOE nukes that combined with priests aoe heals and buffs is the key of this game tbh , get Might and Intelect maxed for thease 2 for max Damage and AoE radius . and btw Wizards dont suck people playing them do , look at the guy who finished PoTD+Ironman on his first full playtrough and his PC was a wizard . I played with both Wizard and Druid as sole Spell damage char on PoTD and both worked very well druid is more flashy imo but mage is more reliable . this leaves you with two spots to fill : 2nd tank and melee dps for a tank you can choose either fighter or chanter and for melee dps barbarian or fighter also if you dont like barbarians and chanters you can go fighter tank and just get another ranged like cipher or another caster , fighter main tanks are easy mode tho and helps your playtrough alot , so are DPS cipher's as i heard here on forums tho i never played cipher or fighter so i cant comment on thease , i ussualy run with Chanter+Paladin as my tanks , well if characters role is as useless as being damage sponge they could atleast buff the party thats my aproach and Chanter + Paladin is extreme aoe utility that you dont even need to cast it just happens from their auras and chants

AI abuse sometimes just happens naturally in this game for example when i reached Stronghold yard on PoTD first group of shades reckt me many times untill once they just died easily for no reason then i noticed that one of the wilowisps is still at the back chilling that was all it took for encounter to end in 5 seconds and i really got wiped out hard before this happened atleast 3 times

Same case for me in most of rpg games two handers just gets sold to merchants 1h + Shield's on tank and rest casters/rangers/rogues

parties without fighter tanks work too i am running Paladin+chanter combo and it works great both on hard with ironman and on PoTD , they do tanking just fine and provide extreme amounts of utility to the party combined with a priest + 3 ranged or 2 ranged and barbarian i like the combo , anything that doesnt teleport stays in the front with tanks , and then there is shades ,

You can go different paths with ranger : Wood Elf Marksman or Island Aumaua Gunner , if going wood elf then build to use bows and pick talents accordingly , if going Island Aumaua get Quick Switch talent at lvl 2 and later get 4th weapon slot talent and then gunner talent after that and switch between your guns after every atack untill you use 3 of them then keep firing with the fastest one , you also can use arbalests and crossbows for this build early when you lack guns . Animal Companions doesnt really matter at harder difficulties pick the one you like the most imo ( i go lion or bear most often ). For attributes as mentioned in post above Might and Dexterity is the key , so max them - perception gives u interrupt's and nothing else , Intelect gives you aoe dmg for 1 skill and some Will = Both are nothing good so choose 1 of thease stats and max it dont spread between those 2( 1 maxed other at minimum ) , and then spread whats left between constitution and resolve as a ranger you dont need neither of those too much if you play it right but some defenses is never bad

I just made 10 10 3 18 18 18 Moonlight Godlike Paladin Tank , i think 10 Const will be enough with all those defenses from Perception and Resolve , he is going to tank Hardmode TOI run coupled with Fire Godlike Chanter Tank with exactly the same stats

Well choice is between INT Duration + Will and Perception Interrupts + Not much for a marksman , are interrupts even that good in this game ?

Hiring proper fighters might help yes alot

Well if anything INT should help rogue more because of the duration of the debuffs . I agree that 1-2 points in stats doesnt really matter much ( except Constitution ofc is fair and square for every point the usefulness of it is another thing esp for a marksman ) . but you can max 3 stats easily and spread other 3 thin ,

I am not talking here about RP choices in dialogues , or all stats being useful... yes they are! just some of them are better for Marksman and some of them are less useful Now it seems that for ranged DPS'er like this : Perception only gives Interrupt and putting 14 points instead of 3 just for interrupts seems to be a waste Intelect gives Duration , yes this might be good for Ranged Rogue , havent played one so some1 confirm if this is really that good and useful . But for a normal Ranger this would be another dumpstat . How would you put attributes after Maxing Might and Dex for a Ranger? for a ranged Rogue? Lets say this is hired companion from the inn his sole purpose is to deliver death in fights ( PoTD difficulty fights i mean ) My choice would be either Max resolve and put rest in Const with a hope that this guy will survive 1 more hit at critical times on Potd you know when last 2 shades becomes 5 shadows

First of all : Completing this for first time on POTD+TOI ( yes you had other attempts but still first time finish on this mode .. ) Gratz your true champion of this game :D this is a great achievement ! i bet it required a lot of attention to fights especially when encounter is unknown for you + this difficulty . I Myself started with playing Normal with Trial of Iron and i didnt had enough patience to replay tutorial that many times so i tried hard without ironman which seemed kinda pointless tbh ( no challenge on hard if you can reload every time it was always do it from 2nd try thing even on hardest fights and i even got this bad habbit where you engage try the fight and reload to execute it properly.. ) so i reroled PotD. Playing on PoTD right now ( the fights are really hard i got seriously scared about having to reroll again when saw the ghosts in Caed Nua yard.... ) and i really cant imagine how i could ironman this difficulty without knowledge of encounters so once again really nice job !!! Edit : also using only story companions just disapproves half of rant topics on this forum

Might and Dexterity seems like no brainer to be maxed , but my question is about perception and intelect mainly is there any worth in putting attributes to thease stats for those 2 classes ? Perception seems useless in general and int doesnt help much ( only debuff duration ) tho its even recommended for rangers ? Do you leave thease minimum for those classes or what?

some easy/normal mode problems pft pathetic.

It makes it weapon you use up to lvl 12 Edit : it looses the terrible part , gets the accurate part and also has DR bypass on it so yeh its great especialy when you pack 3-4 weapon sets for ur char later For dissapointer price discussion in last patch you could sell it for 750 to the guy in a camp before the scripted event starts

fine War bow isnt set drop from that body in Black Meadow it might as well be fine hunting bow which is so much worse than warbow ( fine hunting bow worse than warbow without fine) got burned like this on my solo playtrough with quickswitch gunner... There is also a fine pistol in Angass Compass cave tho battle isnt the easiest one in the cave if you are soloing or runing not with full party)

and then there is melee dps classes who gets glitched bumping into its teammates or running arround your team and then atacking random mob on its way as soon as you release pause ... :D

Dissapointer is the first tho its better then hold wall cuz its free and enchant to fix it is available as soon as u enter gilded wale but i agree that first 4200 c should be spent on holdwall then combo Hold Wall-Dissapointer-fine pistol can wreck 1 enemy before it even reaches your tank , imo i am not going to new patch for month atleast too many parties on various difficulties waiting to finish the game on this patch