Lampros

Since I know that my Fighter can achieve 70 percent crit rate even on PotD, maybe I should give him Tall Grass. I am swearing off Slicken to practice for TC

Hmmm, is your sturdy Priest build on the forum as well? I've tried 1H/shield Priest before, and I've had two problems with it. First, they were incredibly squishy, even with Superior Deflection and Weapon and Shield Style. So I couldn't keep them alive. Second, my groups generally lack ranged damage, and making the Priest forgo her implement damage means even less ranged DPS. But I guess I could off-set this by micro-ing more nuke spells out of her - though that requires more rests and more work on my part. Edit: But given how little auto-attack damage my Priest does anyways, maybe I am not losing that much even if she does no auto-attack damage in melee...

Yup. And Zealous Focus/Critical Focus unless the Paladin is too far away. So I find this incomprehensible. Once again, I had the same exact set-up in Normal and achieved almost 90 percent; and I didn't even use Inspiring Radiance back then since I didn't know about it. Edit: Anyways, I've had it with the Rogue. I doubt I will ever play a ranged Rogue again, and frankly this makes me a bit wary of playing any archer character. 4 Melees again next playthrough - except 2 will be pikers, so I don't have over-congestion/idling problems.

Got it. If I play 2 Paladins next playthrough, I will make 1 Tidefall Paladin with Runner's Wounding Shot and every offensive toy imaginable. I couldn't do it this playthrough, as I had to squeeze in a lot of defensive and group support talents with just 1 Paladin.

1. Just to clarify, you should not need pulling playing PotD. At least not in a full party setup. One thing can help is stealthing when exploring. And when you encounter a group you wanna take on, scout the edges of the group to (1) see the possibilities of accidentally pulling another group, (2) finding a best attack point. Eg attack the side with the exposed spellcasters. The steathy approach might seem excessive but I will always use on Trial of Iron playthroughs. I have many playthroughs ruined due to careless engagements due to extra pulled groups. 2. Guess others can help with that? Might wanna post your rogue build as well. 1. Since I am so clumsy, I might be better off pulling though! 2. Here is, before I delete this playthrough: At level 10, his level-up picks so far were: Blinding Strike Weapon Focus: Adventurer Dirty Fighting Vicious Fighting Deep Wounds Marksman Crippling Strike Runner's Wounding Shot Adept Evasion Interrupting Blows I don't remember the creation stat distribution, but it is now: 14 Might; 10 Constitution; 17 Dexterity; 18 Perception; 16 Intelligence; 9 Resolution He has 75 Accuracy with Borresaine, but that does not take into account the Wood Elf and Marksman boni, I believe.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought the numbers sounded a bit incredible. He probably was theory-crafting, and his calculation must've been off. Frankly, I don't even know how I can get 100-plus hits with Tidefall on my Paladin! I just realized that much of Disintegration damage is DoT after looking at the Wikia. One final question, on the matter of Tidefall & DoTs: Would you say Runner's Wounding Shot combos well with Tidefall or any Wounding weapons?

May I ask why the Chanter and the Paladin change roles at the end? Is it because a Paladin is sturdier and can tank end-game bosses like Dragons?

1. third level priest spell gives +20 to all defense if you stay in the circle. Does the same thing as Scroll of Defense. Except you dont have to stay in the circle with the scroll so that could be an option. 2. Kana wears the White Crest Armor and Helmet , Little Savior and a hatchet. I just went max deflection and other defenses with him from the start with him. In the early game he would summon and kill ranged guys with the hard hitting ghost. Once you hit lvl 9 I just Dragon Thrash, Dragon Wails and he melts stuff. 3. Aloth has Llengraths spells (the early and late game ones) and does damage through Kalkoth's Minor Blights and the talent Dangerous Implements. He also has penetrating shot for the implements. He hits pretty hard. Plus he is a master debuffer and escape artist thanks to being unhittable for a duration. 4. Formation x (Fighter) x (Paladin) x (chanter) x (storm druid) x (wizard) x (Priest) I like a Tall Grass Chanter much better than a tanking Chanter - especially at PotD. The reason is that a Chanter is still a bit fragile for the 1st line tank role at the early levels, so he is even more of a drag on the group as a tank than Chanters typically are until level 9. In contrast, a Tall Grass Chanter will be relatively safe in the 2nd line and contribute even before Dragon Thrashed. (Also, in your formation the 1st line will be congested and you will have "idling" issues in some indoor fights.

Thanks so much for your explanation! On issue #1: I guess a part of the problem is also my bad or nonexistent pulling skills. I tend to just walk into enemy groups, and it may be better to actually pull them - at least in areas where I know there is a high enemy concentration. I noticed in one of MaxQuest's videos that put his main group way back and just approached with his tank un-stealthed, and then ran back to his group. This way he was able to split the Spore gang-bang groups in Cliaban Rilag. In addition to the number of enemies, another thing that caught me off-guard was the fact that your Deflection and Defenses seem never high enough. For instance, my Paladin main tank has 108 Fortitude plus Boots of Stability; and he was still chain-Proned in some encounters. And stuff like this make me very leery of the harder boss fights. On issue #2: I am debuffing enemies first, and I think I am engaging properly. What startles me is not that he has a low crit rate, but how low relative to both 1) the other folks in the party and 2) the same build Rogue I had in Normal. I am just completely clueless here.

Oh, MaxQuest, could you also please post a video of how to do the exploding Constructs in Galvino's Workshop? That is the other fight I've been postponing. It was one of the few fights that gave me trouble in Normal; and I cannot imagine what they'd be like in PotD!

At least on PotD, I have found 1st-line DPS Chanters to be too difficult to use. Even as a mid-line Tall Grass user, they seem to be on the fragile side and tend to be more in danger of getting knocked out than anyone else on the team. But then, if they were more robust, they would then be un-balanced!

Disintegrates hits THAT hard? Oh, wow! Can any melees one-shot that hard - or even half as hard? I recall someone posting that a pure damage build Bleak Walker Paladin buffed with Tidefall can do 500-plus on a FoD crit, but I find that number hard to even comprehend...

Do you go 1H/shield mode on the Priest? Or the implement mode?

A Darcozzi Paladin who gets Liberating Exhoration and upgrade it at the next even level. The talent is called "Inspiring Liberation" and adds +10 Accuracy to the ally. Bond of Duty is for Goldpact Knights so you are looking at the wrong order or something that is out of date. https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Inspiring_Liberation Here you go. Also you are wrong on the nothing eye catching. It is the single best Exhortation a Paladin has. In the late game if you do the difficult bounties you will take a huge amount of debuffs like blind and targeted terrifies etc if you are playing on PotD you will get hit at some point no matter how good your defenses. Enemy accuracy is too high. If you are blinded and terrified from a spell for example you will not hit a thing and your defenses will be very low. You will die or be a non factor in the fight. If you are in a party clearing a Paralyze or Petrify from an ally can change the tide of a fight. An ally can go from a petrified about to be a knocked out target to cleared and fighting fully party member for a minimum of 20 seconds (base if you have 10 INT). The only other ability that does this is the priest third level spell and the AOE is TINY and even with a 20 INT it only last 8 seconds. A Paladin with a 20 INT can cleanse a powerful DPS party member or him/herself and turn them from a CCed useless character to a fully functioning and buffed ass kicker. This has literally saved my Triple Crown runs more then once. If you have a priest in the group and play it perfectly every time and are able to get status effect immunity on the entire party every single fight well then you would not need it. That being said on a Darcozzi I would take it anyway on PotD as Accuracy is DPS and DPS is life in this game. It has literally saved a Triple Crown Playthrough Yes, I can testify Liberation Exhortation is a central Paladin ability in the harder difficulties. And giving either a Charm/Confuse/Dominate immunity or Accuracy buff on top of it is super-useful.

Okay, I have hit level 10 with my first ever PotD run, and I want to ask everyone about two perplexing things I am witnessing: enemy group aggro range/linkage issue and Rogue crit rate issue. Since my game is a bit unstable or even buggy, I am even wondering if these two issues are bugs, and not the way the game is intended. 1. Enemy group aggro range/linkage issue: I realize there are a lot more enemies per group in PotD; but what I did not expect was how frequently you end up fighting multiple groups at once. I am not exactly understanding what is going on. In some cases, it seems like Charmed enemies wander off to the next group and aggro them. But there are many situations where I am aggroing multiple groups that cannot be explained in this fashion. I am thinking there are two possibilities. First, it could be that enemy group aggro range is far greater in PotD? Second, are certain enemy groups linked, where triggering one triggers the other automatically? (Or relatedly, the greater number of enemies per group mean that the gap between enemy groups is narrower, so it's easy to trigger multiple groups?) Either way - or whichever way - I would like to know what is going on and at least ensure that my games are not bugged. There were some crazy instances. For instance, I had about 15 Laguafaeths jump me instantly when I entered Longwatch Falls from the lower left, and it was the only time I wiped and had to save scum. In fact, it's the only time where I had anyone knocked out. Another example: I had a similar number of Drakes and Flame Blights jump me as soon as I entered Searing Fall - in fact, it was the entire enemy content on that map. Finally, it seems every other dungeon fights involve multiple groups. 2. My Rogue's incredibly low crit rate: I know enemies get 15 extra Deflection in PotD, but I am flabbergasted by my Rogue's pathetic crit rate. He is built essentially the same way as I had in Normal, yet he's averaging about 65 percent less crit rate (he was at 90 percent at Normal; he's 25 percent at PotD). I find this just incomprehensible. And it's just the Rogue. For instance, my Fighter is averaging 70 percent; even my Paladin is now (at level 10) averaging almost 20 percent. What exactly is going on here? Is there some hidden PotD mechanic I am unaware of? This honestly sounds like bugged. Edit: I forgot to add that I noticed that my Rogue is often outside my Paladin's Zealous Focus/Critical Focus aura. But that should not depress his crit rate by an un-Godly 65 percent from Normal, no?

Hmm ok. My party is currently in Clîaban Rilag, so here is the fight with spores: link.And the fight vs druids is currently uploading. Edit #1: here it is: link. Edit #2: just did the Nalrend bounty: link. Btw the group of ogres outside of the cave is tougher than Nalrend's gang) Edit #3: just ding'ed level 11. You can see the total damage here. Sorry, I was offline for a bit. I had some browser issues. Anyways, first and foremost, thank you very much for posting these. The Cliaban Rilag Spore video is particularly apt, because I am also around the same level in my PotD run (10), and I have been intentionally avoiding this fight precisely because of the Spores. Now to the questions: 1. The most striking thing I noticed was that you did not use consumables or summons - at least in the videos I saw. Given that they are the only thing that is keeping me afloat in my first PotD run, I was curious: Do you not use them at all - or was it simply a matter of these being easy fights that did not require them? In particular, I am quaffing so many Vital Essence potion and using 3-4 summon trinkets every hard fight. (In fact, I am afraid I will soon be stuck, since I can progressively see these being less impactful - Vital Essence potion is healing far less percentage of my Endurance/Health per damage taken as I level; and nothing but Adra Beetle is surviving all that long once you hit harder mobs in WM, I notice.) 2. May I ask why the Gyrd is on the Priest? I would imagine it would work better for the Wizard? Or are you planning on giving the Golden Gaze to the Wizard? In my case, the Priest has very little opportunity to auto-attack, as she is constantly casting. 3. I could be blind, but I thought I saw someone "chant Dragon Roar." What in the world is that? I could not even find it in Wikia. Is that a custom talent or ability? Once again, thanks much! I know you were in fact addressing MaxQuest, but I cannot imagine how any class but a Sacred Immolation Paladin can match Dragon Thrashed DPS - at least in PotD. I think the vanilla damage recorder gives a very misleading picture of how the DPS picture stands. If you have the UPMod - which records DoTs and not just direct damage - you will see what I mean. I was going to devote a whole separate thread - or at least post - on this issue alone, but my recent PotD run has made me realize how useless Rogue is in PotD (unless you build everything around the Rogue perhaps). From my Normal playthrough, I knew his DPS was going to be mediocre as a ranged DPS, but I thought he would help with the CC with Borresaine. But the problem? His crit rate is about 25 percent at level 10, so Borresaine is not doing much. A bit of this is a PotD issue - where mobs have higher Deflection - but not all. For instance, my "hybrid" Fighter is averaging a stunning 70 percent crit rate; and even my defensive Paladin is averaging about 20 percent now. And the DPS? Here are two separate pictures - at level 9 and at level 10. Keep in mind that I had to change plans and force both the Paladin and the Fighter to tank until level 10 (when they finally had enough gear and talents to go more offensive builds): Pre-level 9: Paladin MC (1st line/main tank) (Shame & Glory/Outworn Buckler): 22,511 Fighter (1st line/off-tank) (Shatterstar & Sura's Supper Plate): 32,561 Chanter (2nd line/DPS) (Tall Grass) 28,143 Rogue (3rd line/DPS/CC?) (Borresaine) 34,978 Wizard (3rd line/DPS/CC) (Gyrd) 33, 320 Priest (3rd line/buff/DPS) (Grudge Keeper) 15,983 Pre-level 10: Paladin (1st line/DPS) (Tidefall): 33,485 Fighter (1st line/DPS) (Shatterstar/Hearth Harvest): 43,631 Chanter (2nd line/DPS) (Tall Grass) 56,880 Rogue (3rd line/DPS/CC?) (Borresaine) 41,581 Wizard (3rd line/DPS/CC) (Gyrd) 42,291 Priest (3rd line/buff/DPS) (Grudge Keeper) 19,915 Yeah, these are NOT typos. Edit: I am going to re-start, largely because I am fed up with "carrying" the Rogue, and he is going to make harder future fights really hard.

If you don't have disciplined barrage your going to have a bad time on a DPS Fighter. Especially on PotD This is already an old, lost save! I re-started with a different group after the game ate my save again. I replaced the Barbarian with a ranged Rogue (as 4 melees were too much); and I moved the Chanter tank to Tall Grass role (Chanter tank felt a bit too squishy for a first PotD run). I also made some adjustments: For instance, I gave both my Paladin and Fighter shields, and they will remain that way until folks level up and gear up. And I make sure my shield guys aggro first before unloading the back-line DPS. And it's a lot smoother this time around - as well as faster. Oh, and I do have Disciplined Barrage, of course!

I read that, but I didn't realize you don't have to summon him. I assumed he would auto-summon at the start of a fight, but go away after a period even if he didn't get knocked out. If you are right, then it's awesome news!

My party have finally arrived to level 10. And what I did is: note down the total damage inflicted by each party member, right before hitting level 9, and once again right after hitting level 10.So, this is what I've got: I knew that Dragon Trashed is good, but didn't expect it to outdps my main. Actually they were going toe-to-toe, but during The Battle of Yenwood Field, chanter took a clear lead. First, can you upload some videos of this set-up? I don't know how folks play efficiently with 3 or more melees when none of them have a reach weapon. Second, as a point of comparison, my results were somewhat different - albeit our comparisons are not precisely on-point. Neither the Chanter tank nor the Tall Grass Chanter could out-DPS my dual wield Paladin once he got Sacred Immolation at level 13. But again, we are comparing Chanter v. a DPS character who has his own massive AoE. I have yet to run a pure single target DPS character with no significant AoE, and that would be also an interesting test (say, a Chanter tank v. a pure DPS Rogue?).

Yes, I plan on doing something similar. I have a hybrid DPS/tanking Paladin and a hybrid DPS/tanking Fighter.

For fug's sake, I actually have to read stuff in this game?

Yup. I wish we could have Ranger without a pet option in PoE II. Also, the initial reason I disliked the Rogue was because I did not know how to keep him alive - even as a ranged character. But now I am much better with keeping him out of harm's way, as I understand the game mechanics and various enemy encounters more thoroughly. Another thing I am doing differently that is making things much smoother this time is that I am putting shield/1H set-up on both Aragorn the Paladin and Gimli the Fighter initially - until the group level up and gear up. So my front-line is much sturdier and I can let the back-line do DPS until mid-game or so. Edit: I plan on making both the Paladin and the Fighter sort of DPS/tanking hybrids, so I can have them tank some boss fights as needed. This way I will also get a good feel for how both classes perform comparatively in DPS/tanking roles. Since my favorite classes are sturdy but high DPS melee classes in these type of games, I want to squeeze as much out of them as possible.

In the end, I ended up making Legolas a Rogue, not a Ranger. Ultimately, I did not want to deal with the hassle of micro-managing the pet. This run is much smoother than the last so far, because I do not have idle melees not doing anything. So everyone is doing DPS efficiently. I think I can also manage the Rogue's survival issues better, since I know the game mechanics a lot more than my first playthrough. So instead of shooting everything that pops up ASAP, I am waiting for the front-line to aggro first before shooting with the Rogue. Finally, I made the entire back-line - ranged Rogue, Wizard, Priest - only Might 14 instead of Might 18 that I usually do on everyone. I thought it was more important for these guys to act quickly and buff and debuff quickly than do raw damage.

Ah, ok; I do know about the Marking weapons. But I thought he was referring to some talent separate from them. I killed all 4 apprentices but came back after about 20-30 hours of playthrough once I killed the apprentices.

The last normal playthrough, I came back for Concelhaut long after I cleared his apprentices and before I tackled the Kraken. And I got locked out of the room, and he won't see me. So do I have to kill him the same time I kill his apprentices?