nsthtz

Could you perhaps help me out with a pally-tank build for Pallegina with the spread MaxQuest suggested earlier (18/16/4/13/20/10) or even a different spread? I mean talent and ability-wise. as there is sooo much to choose from . For instance, is it worth going for wrath of the five suns as tank?

You explained perfectly well the reasons why I developed that druid. It could use an 3.2-update, but it still works like a charm and is lots of fun. Besides that, you don't have all that shapeshifting fuzz. Also, you can use Sura's Supper Plate and any other retaliation item and also Potions of Flame Shield as well as Nature's Terror + Spark the Souls of the Righteous with that druid. Because Heart of the Storm + Avenging Storm + Retaliation works. That's 3 Avenging Storms through retaliation when you get hit while melting foes with your two shocking auras whichalso work with Heart of the Storm while shocking and siabling them with the two Storms (Returning and Relentless). Still one of my most favourite builds (for hirelings or Hiravias). I am definitely going to give it a try for when I grow tired of Kana, which I assume I will at some point!

Yes I made a priority out of upgrading those first. Echo seems really strong, as well as the antipathetic field, my biggest issue is just positioning. I never seem to be in the position where there are is more than 1 enemy between the cipher and a friendly, especially as I try to take fights in bottlenecks. I've tried sending the fox through enemy lines to connect with, but he just gets killed too fast. In those few fights where flanking maneuvers are safely executed though, both the beams make short work out of foes. 1)Why do you consider martial classes brutish? 2)Have you considered using a melee shield-using Druid like Boeroer's Bat**** Crazy build? I can say from experience that they are very reliable characters, and since many powerful offensive druid spells are cones or lines with friendly fire, and most of their healing is centered on self, there are many benefits to the approach. It also works well with Hiraivias base stats. 3)Have you considered making Durance an off-tank? There is a Pale Knight solo Priest of Berath build somewhere in this forum you could adapt for that. 1) Aha, I might have jumped the gun on my phrasing there, it's more a matter of there only being 6 slots and 11 classes, from which I have an affinity towards casters/glass cannons/ranged characters over stereotypically tough, melee oriented classes. I don't know why, but I usually prefer playing high-risk high reward, micro-intensive chars as I feel like it gives me more of a strategic challenge in these sorts of games. This might not be the issue in PoE, per say, but in most other RPGs it's often true, which is why I probably automatically fill my party with as many casters/rouges as I can while still having at least some semblance of a meat shield up front. Now, before someone comments on it; I realize the chanter is perhaps the least micro-intensive class in the game, but Kana seemed to be a favourite for many among the scripted companions so I wanted to bring him along for the banter. I am also finding plenty of challenge in microing the remaining four (five) characters. I tried a DW rogue first of all, but I couldn't keep the aggro off of her, so I decided to do a ranger instead. 2) I did in fact consider using Boeroer's bat(man) crazy build for a long time, and although it seemed to be the "best fit" to replace Kana, I somehow felt that using a druid as a tank instead of as a pure caster or sneaky rogue-cat was just... wrong? I realize this is probably not true at all in PoE, and it could probably work. I would still have to replace someone though, and Kana seems like such a great support char... 3) I skimmed through the priest builds on this forum and decided upon using the fire priest ranged one due to having two (three) tanks already and synergizing with my ranged dps squad. I have also seen that you can give him a shield and hatchet and just leave him standing in the middle casting stuff, but I though he might as well get some arquebus shots off in between the buffs. Isn't there also an issue with the potential interrupts in dire situations if you let him tank? I thought I read about that somewhere. Noted! Thanks!

So much good feedback here from all of you, thanks! I suppose the bottom line for many of these issues is just the fact that I am too low level still to reap the full benefit of my composition, as I haven't learnt most of these spells that make many of the classes "work", like dragon thrashed, sacred immo, and higher level priest/wiz spells. Looking forward to seeing them in action! I've also noted the stuff about the shields, I went and got myself the Outworn Buckler and it seems to be working fine. I also never went to Raedric's hold before now (level 6), and all of a sudden there is plate armor thrown at me from all directions. I guess this will help too! The fire godlike paladin was mostly filler, so I will make sure to up perception for Pallegina to make her more balanced. I'm also still having some troubles fully utilizing Cipher (the beams) but I hope this will become simpler as my utility becomes more diverse. As of yet I'm mostly just spamming whispers and mental binding, which works fine to an extent. As for having a more melee focused comp I usually prefer casters in these sorts of games, and I'm never much interested in brutish melee classes like barbs/fighters. I did consider doing the melee wiz build, maybe that'd help. But honestly after reading all this I think I'll be fine going forward. Thank you very much for the point by point answers, MaxQuest, it made everything so much clearer for me. I guess the only remaining question now is when and what to start enchanting. Are materials so abundant that I can be liberal about it, or should I wait until I get "BiS" gear before applying them?

Allright, thanks for the input. I guess I'll stick to the composition as it is. Do you have a better suggestion for stat allocation and build for pallytank? I thought this was as tanky as it got, even if reflex gets gimped somewhat. Is there a way to take less damage with a different build? I agree completely on the tediousness of resting, which is why I wondered if I was doing it inefficiently. I wasn't aware of the buckler, I mostly skimmed through the videos as they are a tad slow and there are so many. I'll go check if I can find it now. Are large shields generally bad, even if my tanks have low dmg output anyway?

Hi! I've recently picked up PoE again, along with WM1+2 to try to actually finish it, having only played up to Gilded Vale shortly after release. The reason for stopping at that point was to wait for mods to allow me to respec the story companions (I am a compulsive "min/maxer"), but after waiting for a long time (I did try IE mod) I folded and did the whole unity3d dump-file edit to alter the companion stats (within the same amount of points). Naturally, this required me to do a whole lot of research ahead of time to figure out my party composition, and after 20+ hours of googling and planning (...I know) I finally settled on a composition with builds that seemed OK to me, with my limited in-game knowledge: (All companions have altered stats to match the suggestions in the builds (taken either from this site or nerdcommando's newer videos)) PC: Ranged Cipher (standard ranged cipher stats) Pallegina Tank (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grt3s8AeKk0&index=11&list=PL4UqltmSKaEeiHExNqo-Hkk-HrvuejI2K) Kana as Drake's Ambassador (Off-tanking with slightly pumped resolve) Durance as Fire Priest Aloth as (beefier) Hurtstacker Sagani as Storm & Plague Caller Now, onto my questions and issues: I decided to go straight into POTD after doing all this research, as I'm not sure whether I'd ever replay it (so many games to experience) and I enjoy a challenge. I have now hit level 6 and I'm delving into the endless paths (lvl 2) with all companions except for a custom clone of Pallegina (st. Elga) filling her spot until I get her. 1. I've equpped the tank with as good defensive gear as I've been able to find, yet she seems to only be able to do 2-3 fights at a time before running out of health (not endurance) and forcing me to camp. I've not really delved into enchanting yet, as I don't know what gear and enchants to prioritize. Any suggestions? 2. I feel that my composition lacks some AoE, and I've considered squeezing Hiravias in somewhere, but I don't know which character to replace. Kana is the main candidate, but I don't know whether a Thundercat/Hungry like the wolf build is beefy, or even contributes enough AoE to be worth replacing him for. Also, would it be worth losing the Sure Handed Ila buff for my 4 ranged characters? Where is my 7th party member slot? 3. A lot of the builds just sum up end-game equipment, so I'm currently just equipping the best stuff I can find in the same category (i.e. best DR armor I can find on everybody, the early unique one-handers (Draining Flail and sword) on my tanks, the biggest shields (larder door) and I just ran deep and found the blunderbuss in Dyrford for my Cipher. I read somewhere that you should just try to find heavy armors for everyone as soon as possible, and don't worry about recovery. Is this still correct? 4. I have some problems figuring out how to prioritize the different spells during fights, especially with Durance. I usually open up with a shot from everyone from sneak, and then throw the non per-rest spells like painful interdiction, charm from cipher, a per-rest spell like slicken, and then try to position the front liners in such a way that the paladin gets the brunt of the aggro, while the fox and Kana picks up some stragglers. Which per-rest spells are the best to use liberally when your slots are limited? I'd like to not have to rest too often, but every fight seems to require me to commit so much from the priest/wizard to even keep the paladin up. I expect this could be solved by making the pala beefier somehow. Any tips? 5. How tight should you run formations with this sort of setup? I tend to pull from a distance and let the enemies approach me, but this leads to being unable to effectively target and nuke down high damage ranged enemies quickly. Should I put more emphasis on alpha striking down high priority targets directly from stealth? I guess that's plenty for now, and I hope someone more knowledgeable than I could answer some of these questions for me. I do enjoy the game thoroughly, and these things aren't game-breakers, just minor bumps in the road that make me want to improve my gameplay. I'd also like to just add a small thank you to all the big contributors here (maxquest, boeroer, andreaColombo and many more) as well as the authors of the builds I've read about for sharing and theorycrafting this stuff. I've learnt a lot from you guys, but with the big changes in the game it can be hard to identify obsolete information.