DreamWayfarer

Uh... No, it wouldn't. Fighters can be tanky and deal good sustained damage, why should it hurt balance if paladins could be built for goid burst damage instead of support? Especialy if they sacrificed the F&C defense bonus for accuracy. EDIT: and what is wrong with barbarians needing INT? While the attribute system doens't make sense from a simulationist point of view, actual combat is so complex that no game I've ever seem made an attribute system that makes sense in real life. I mean, melee combat being based solely in strenght, and people with zero muscles using warbows? Eurgh.

I think there should be more offensive abilities for paladins, to create spellsword type characters that are heavier on the martial side than melee wizards. It shouldn't make paladins too powerful because they already don't have enough levels to pick all the cools skills. Perhaps to start with, a talent that removed the "Faith and Devotion" defense bonus and gave an accuracy bonus instead.

First, ranged Kind Wayfarers can and do rock. Second, there is such a thing as an off-tank Damage Dealer.

Sorry for being off topic, but I've read this multiple times by now and I wonder if there is a comprehensive list of what works with melee weapons and what doesn't? Or is there even some general rule that everything applies which doesn't explicitly mention a ranged weapon? Sooner or later when the WM2 hits I'll want to build another custom party with class bending concepts. Generaly, if the description itself doens't say "ranged weapon" or "bow", it works with everything. The description, not the name, so things like Wounding Shot and Quicky Aim work on melee. There aren't as many options as ranged, but if you are making your Ranger a pseudo-Rogue you may as well upgrade your pet to do it as well.

It saves unexperienced players from scraping their characters and helps experienced players text new builds and ideas without goingbthrought to whole game again. So, no, I'd rather keep it.

I am not against the buffs. It is just that they aren't a useless class like some claim. Just a badly calibrated one.

Except they are very useful. It is just that they get way less flashy outside of PoTD.

You know how much it would slow my computer down if I tried this on PoEt?

Two melee tanks plus a pet should be enough for most of the time, although I'd recomend to either give your priest a shield on the secondary slot or your druid a bear spiritshift for when/if the pet falls. As for how tanky the casters need to be, that depends a lot on the player and your tatics, but the wizard can generally afford to be frail, due to his abundance of self-buffs and crowd control. As for weapons, don't bother too much. If you want to do melee damage with a wizard, conjured weapons are like a joker card wgen it comes to weapon focus, benefiting from whatever focus you choose(but not from multiple focuses). For a druid, go unnarmed, and for a priest, pick the god talents. However if you don't plan on putting your casters at the frontline unless you have to just give each of them a shield on the second weapon slot and don't dump RES and CON too low.

Respec is also good when you are trying classes you aren't familiar with. What do you do when you suddenly realize the character you love is not viable past level 6? I am all for skill respec, and wouldn't really mind companion attribute respec, although I wouldn't change too much the stats because of how they impact their personalities.

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy the game. While I can't post links because I am posting from my smartphone, you shouldn't have much trouble looking for builds in this subforum, like KDbuya's Lady of Pain(original post may be outdated, look further in the thread), AndreaColombo's Juggernaut Monk and anything by Boeroer, the restless builder. As for the classes, most are viable and quite effective even if not built perfectly, and min-maxing is unnecessary if playing with a full party. The fun is making the classes work outside of their intended roles. Also, some quicky tips: Don't use the MMO tatic of zero-damage tanks, as mobs will just run past them. Try to have at least three chars that can form a frontline or no frail characters or a lot of control abilities so your backline won't die. Or maybe just build a full melee team. Chanters, the bard equivalent in PoEt, get more useful the highter the difficulty since they need time to build up power, but are always useful since they passively buff your party while tanking or dealing damage. Wizards are generaly better as controllers than pure damage dealers, unless you make them use self-buffs and whack heads with conjured weapons. Barbarians are generaly poor tanks, despite their big endurance pool. Many Ranger skills work with melee weapons, and while their pets are poor tanks, they can be good damage dealers. Monks are awesome. NPC paladins(and priests) don't get the defence(or healing radius) bonus for choosing dialogue options related to their order's ideology. Otherwise, Paladins are awesome. There is much more, but I leave that to more experienced folks. EDIT: Ciphers: they still have some overpowered skills, but are a generaly balanced class if you don't pick them.

Yes, it would be very interesting if companions had unique passives related to their personal stories, just like Pallegina's order will have specific talents in the next patch. I can even imagine some passives: Aloth: Buried instincts: Aloth gains 10% more action speed when engaged by at least two foes. Éder: Dawnstars burning Éder gains 3 more Constitution and Resolve when at less than 30% endurance. Durance: Twelve shadows they did cast Durance's spells have 5 fire DR penetration.

Thank you, the purpose of the build was more to make a certain weird look and stat distribution viable, not to be particulary effective. I will go with more MIG for now and respec into the original distribution when I get into the White March. As I said, I like to try to make weird things work.

Thank you for the input. It is just that I like to take stat spreads that make little sense and then find ways to make them work. This project of mine started with me trying to find out how to make a low Might damage dealer and picking a Barbarian instead of another more sane alternative like a rogue. EDIT: Typos. I hate them.

Due to my severe restart syndrome, I decided to only have two simutaneous playthroughts, one with 4+ story companions and one a mostly custom party. On my custom playthrought, I had an idea to make my Watcher a Barbarian, however I wanted to try a "weird" build, so I based my build on the interrupt barbarian and on somethings I saw on the attack speed thread. But I want to make a damage dealing barbarian, not an interrupter. So what is the point? The point is, I want to make a damage dealing barbarian with 8 MIG and 17 DEX that uses a stilleto with an empty left hand. The idea is that using Oidhreacht, the draining stilleto that can be found early at Caed Nua, vulnerable attack and high accuracy, plus a chanter or Aloth debuffing enemy DR when needed, the low might wont pose too much trouble to my damage, and the healing will allow me to survive a single foe while wearing lighter armor. Why using a single one-handed weapon instead of two? Because it looks cooler, and because while frenzying in lighter armors with high DEX the speed difference is not that great at all. Plus, I may pick a small shield if I feel like it. Of course, I haven't run the numbers, or even killed a certain nobleman with this char yet, so I ask: Sounds viable on Hard? Ps: I havent bought WM1 yet, but I will do it soon anyway, so feel free to give advice related to it. Pps: If this build works, I am going to call it "The Hydra's Fangs" EDIT: I also plan to make heavy use of combusting wounds and interrupts. I know this build wouldn't be worth it purely as a damage dealer anyway, but Barbarians are one of the best classes to go looking for sinergies. Plus, killing entire crowds with a single knife that once belonged to a telepath is awesome. I may even write a backstory for him if it works.

EDIT: Ops, you are talking about the final dungeon, not Caed Nua. Sorry, I don't think there is a way.

Now I want to create a socialist party to revolutionize Eora 0_o. EDIT: and what you mean by turning the game into a marxist utopia? A classless sytem (where loot is fairly distrubuted among all party memebrs ) )Hah! Classless systems are (mostly) superior, althought I prefer when they are only mostly classless, and your character already starts with an amount of especialization that stays relevant throught all of the game. After all, the characters must have some previous skills and inclinations.

But can't dissidents be former revolutionaries already? EDIT: Wait, I had an idea! While members of the socialist party may not be there necessarily for the revolution, they all need support capacity, even if only to keep the appearences. So we could have an Goldpact Knight PC, built as a tank/support and only part of the group in order to install himself as dictator. Closing the frontline, we could have two chanters, fanatical believers and spreaders of the ideology. On the backrow, we could have a gunman Kind Wayfarer who is a genuine, well intentioned idealist who just realized he is trapped with those fools and is too afraid to free. Just behind him, a vengeful priest of Skaen, who is in it to kill all nobles. And to end it all, The Dull Runner, Boeroer's crazy Bleak Walker who is in it to DESTROY, and is kept just barely under control by the leader. He is not frontline, he is not backline, he is just there to break enemy lines. And skulls.

Now I want to create a socialist party to revolutionize Eora 0_o. EDIT: and what you mean by turning the game into a marxist utopia?

I also like the Pillars class system in general, and I definitely like all of those examples. I would not get rid of paladins or monks, or merge them into any other classes. The only part I don't like is the relatively weak and somewhat artificial differentiation between the fighter, rogue, and barbarian, and I think it would be a good idea to merge the three into a single martial class. Ditto what Torm said. Do you dislike the separation from a narrative / flavor point of view or from a mechanical point of view? While I can't speak for PrimeJunta, I think that flavorwise all of those three classes could be covered by a weaponmaster class, the differentiation coming in the form of mutualy exclusive talents/abilities. As for gameplay, all of those classes generaly use a self buff, one or two active skills, and then just auto-attack. The main difference is if they want to stick to many foes or avoid damage, which depends only on their resilience, which can already vary wildly within the same class if you try some less common builds.

Cipher here for you. Plus, the lore as it is does not mix well with traditional D&D warlocks.

That would fit a background better. The wolves of wild waters are a diverse lot.

While I mostly agree with PrimeJunta, I think anameforobsifian is right in that fighters, and in my opinion other martial classes, need more CC options. Imagine if every enemy that disengaged a fighter tank got hobbled, or if rogues could for a short period stun instead of interrupt? It could incentivate martial classes to invest more in INT and diversify class roles, perhaps allowing fighter builds that are not pure auto-attackers with zero micro-management.

What about the ranger? They are the animal companion class, two halves of a character that must be coordinated for great effect. While a good deal of their abilities are geared towards ranged, they have enough abilities that work on melee weapons to not be forced into ranged.

Melee has inherently highter base weapon DPS, allowing for more focus than ranged. This is interesting. How often other people go for melee cipher?For me pistol Cipher does enought dmg to power up, and cool power are anyway ranged so there is little reason to go melee. Melee ciphers generaly use focus to debuff and leave the damage to their weapons. They also make good use of psychovampiric shield and can make better use of non-minmaxed stats, even if they can be minmaxed as well. While I havent killed Thaos yet due to severe restart syndrome, I found they can be very sturdy for a caster without sacrificing much damage and CC, and less vulnerable to having your frontline broken after having just emptied their focus pool. Althought I'd say correctly built rangers are better at switching between range and melee, nothing stops you from giving your sabre cipher a pistol for tight spaces or not dumping defensive stats on your ranged cipher for when the frontline breaks.