masterty66

These all sound pretty good. Decisions decisions..

A lot of times I build him as a Fighter/Rogue and use dual sabers on him and focus on abilities like Gouging Strike, Hobble, and so on. He does beastly damage that way but is very fragile. If I was going more tank based I'd probably do what Boeroer did.

Like the topic says, I'm prepping a playthrough for Deadfire. I was currently doing a Lifegiver/Wael multiclass but with the upcoming turn based release I want to restart. I'll be playing a Priest of Wael I imported into Deadfire. Since I'm restarting, I figured I might as well try something different than the Universalist I was just playing. Difficulty will of course be potd with upscaling. So the only requirement I guess would be that Priest of Wael will be half the multi class. The other will be...whatever sounds fun .

Miasma Of Dull Mindedness is definitely an underrated spell. I get a lot of mileage out of that early on.

I really like the idea of this. I was initially resistant even though I liked Original Sin a lot but thinking about it more it makes sense to do turn based. For me, I pause a lot as it is. I do it so much that even RTWP essentially becomes nearly turn based for me. So why not slow that down further? I think this will make for more enjoyable gameplay for me because I will be more likely to actually use all of my abilities in combat and pay closer attention to the penetration system. With RTWP I get lazy and sometimes there's so many buttons to push that I forget to do stuff. Turn based will be a huge win I think. Really looking forward to it.

I'm doing a Priest/Druid right now and it's nice. Doing Wael/Lifegiver. I can Spiritshift and give my party superpowered regeneration via Druid spells. When that wears off, I can still contribute value with regular Priest healing spells. The Priest spells are not affected by the Lifegiver post Spiritshift malus as that penalty applies only to Rejuvenation spells, and most (all?) Priest spells are tagged as Restoration. It's a very good heal bot. Not quite as effective at buffing as a pure Priest, but it can keep party members on their feet all day, especially with the Spine Of Thicket Green. The damage isn't that bad either. Once you grab your core heal spells you can branch out and grab a few damage spells if you want. Things like Touch of Rot, Shining Beacon, etc can give you some dps options once you've finished casting your regen spells. That said this guy is a healer so most of his time is spent providing direct heals or heal over time spells. I've invested less time taking the Priest buffing spells (apart from Devotions) since I can bring Xoti for that. And also because this guy only has so many actions in a round. Anyways it's a fun little build. Amazing heal bot. I have beat the game with a pure Priest of Eothas as well though and pure Priests are plenty strong.

Just started this and got through the prologue. It's pretty nice. Heals great of course but also has some dps with touch of rot which is nice early.

Also Barring Deaths door, Resurrection, etc. Suppress Affliction. Holy Radiance is still very nice as well as an oh **** button.

That sounds pretty interesting. My Herald was nigh unkillable and provided solid healing as well. This universalist will be less unkillable but should provide nigh unmatched healing. Hmm good idea. Hadn't considered taking a back up weapon set for when to dps but that makes sense. And yeah taking cat form for sure.

I'm about to start one. I'm importing it from poe1, and it's a Pale Elf Priest of Wael. I was thinking of going Lifegiver with the Druid half and then making it a heal bot and using the Spine of Thicket Green. Has anyone done such a build? Any special things I should consider? Difficulty will be potd. I've beaten the game plus the original 2 DLC before. My most recent run was a Herald.

I don't think this is true. Outside of Port Maje, Deadfire is easier than its predecessor, even the original PoE's later areas. As well, PoE is always rewarding players for more efficient combat. Because of health decay and per rest abilities, the upper limit for maximum efficiency in the original game is extremely high. In Deadfire, once you're avoiding knockdowns in fights... that's literally it, you've hit the upper limit of the combat's difficulty. I'm not saying Poe2 is harder, but Poe1 is very easy if you know what you're doing, and health loss is not very relevant with the amount of rest supplies they throw at you even on Potd.

I think people are looking with rosy eyes on Poe1's difficulty. That game also stops being hard around maybe level 9 even on Potd. Or did anyone truly have problems with the game when having access to Ninagauth's Shadow Flame, Devotions of the Faithful, Gaze of the Adragan, Lightning Storm, etc? Fact is, once you get access to the powerful Priest/Wizard/Druid spells in Poe1 that game becomes a cake walk even on Potd. Not to mention Cipher's with Amplified Wave, Puppet Master, etc. The only way Poe1 is hard is if you neglect to take casters. And spells being per rest doesn't even limit you much because most dungeons give you a resting supply or two and that on top of the two you already have. For example Durgan's Battery has a lot of tough encounters but you get one rest supply on the top level, two on the second, and two on the third. More than enough to spam your top spells to heart's content.

Awesome. I'll give it a shot. Going 16/16/16 might/dex/con. Probably won't stat dump anything except maybe Res to 8 for 18 int perhaps. Think I'll go Boreal Dwarf as well since Dwarf Boar Druid fits the theme. I suppose Moon Godlike is probably the most optimal choice but everyone does those. The +accuracy bonus Boreal get should be nice too. (does it apply in Spiritshift form?. Useful I guess even if not.)

I'm interested in the Hog Druid myself. About to do a playthrough and never mained a Druid. How do spec that feller out?

There's certainly nothing wrong with that approach, and honestly most of his builds will still work even if you don't min max the attributes. The barb build in question would still be pretty good with non minmaxed dex, it'd just be a little bit worse at everything. But by high levels and with the gear you find in POE that just doesn't matter much. Like driving a chevy instead of a mercedes. Both will still get you where you need to go effectively, one's just a bit more streamlined.

Boerer's Golden Dragon is a terrific PC for this purpose. He talks well thanks to high resolve/perception and he's an excellent tank who is extremely difficult to kill once he gets a few levels under his belt. Even in the early going I found the build quite survivable on potd once he got a large shield + shield talent. Eventually you start doing good damage with him too thanks to heart of fury. It's been a nice change for me as I tend to focus more on all-offense type builds. This one has actually been the easiest run I've had yet I think though. I didn't properly appreciate before just how nice high deflection is. Once you get around 100 deflection plus 80+ other defenses you're real hard to kill. And like I said the dps is still nice too thanks to hof. Prior to level 11 you're more of just a pure tank though admittedly (though will contribute some dps thanks to carnage) but after that you're a god.

Yes but he still believes in Magran's teachings so it makes sense that he can continue wielding Priestly power. if you read the Priest class description though it makes clear that Priests dont channel the God's power but their own through their belief systems.

All good advice but I will say my personal preference is to have most of my party in at least medium armor. Light armor is rarely used unless it's awesome like the Savior's Hide. The heavy front glass cannon back line approach isn't as good in WM1/2 thanks to huge amounts of enemies and encounters which often have you being hit from multiple sides. Playing on POTD I find Durance eats dirt a little too often if I have him in light armor for example. But it does seem to depend on class too. For whatever reason Aloth rarely gets targeted no matter what armor I put him in. But Durance always seems to, so he's usually in at least med armor.

No. All classes are good and useful. Rogue is probably the weakest, but even it is playable.

True. Once you beat WM1 and start to hit level 9-11ish the game becomes easy if you know what you're doing and that's no matter what build you've got. But still looking forward to seeing that uptick in power . And this build is solid because unlike some other builds it feels strong enough even from the start. Yes your DPS will not be great early on but with carnage you will still contribute and with the high defense stats you'll still be a very respectable tank even in the early going. This is not one of those builds where you have to hold its hand until it gets its goodies. Sometimes I'll try a build that is supposed to be great at level 13 or 11 or whatever and I'm like yeah that's all nice but that's maybe 1/3rd of the game. What about the rest of it? So this build is nice in that regard and my preference is always that a build at least holds its own at low levels even if it takes a while to reach its heights. I'm about to tackle Durgan's and I think Ive been knocked out maybe twice at most with this guy so far? Pretty impressive. And that's with a rotating cast of party members. I don't always take the most optimal allies because I like to mix it up and use all the classes.

Yeah I gotta say it's giving me a new found respect for shields/high deflection. Usually I eschew those things in favor of a party that focuses on offense. This guy isn't so great on offense yet since I'm not level 11 with HOF/the right gear but he survives so well and his debuffs help team defense as well. I mean even at low levels he still contributes at least a little on offense thanks to carnage (albeit slowly) but the high defense makes him a great tank even early on with that + fear shout.

Just wanna say I've been using this and I am enjoying it a lot. My parties on POTD are usually offensive in nature. I never realized how good shield deflection can actually be though. I'm in WM1 right now and this guy just does not get hit very often. Even with the low con it's just not a concern because with the high surviv + deflection he can regen fast even when hits do get through (which are rare). I'm not even close yet to his ideal power since I don't have HOF or all of the other goodies. But with exceptional plate + thick skinned + fear shout every fight and painful interdiction every fight he just doesn't get touched much. Can only imagine how strong he'll be once I've got the ability to do real damage with him too thanks to HOF and the Maw shield. For anyone trying this he pairs really well with Kana/Durance (or hireling Chanter + Priest). I mean what doesn't, right? But the heal chant + painful interdiction is a potent combo when you've also got the fear shout going off every fight. This guy just won't get hit much even early on thanks to his high deflection once you have a good shield for him.

I know that he said that about Death's Usher (Death Godlikes' racial ability). I never saw this about Bloody Slaughter. @MaxQuest: can you check? That would be worth knowing. Death's Usher + Bloody Slaughter for the win! Bloody Slaughter is still the same in v3.05. If you attack an enemy that already has strictly less than 10% endurance, you get a bonus 20% hit-to-crit conversion, and all your crits against that target get a bonus 0.5 to their damage coefficient. P.S. Death's Usher uses 25% threshold. P.P.S. Linking another related thread. Does Death's Usher stack with Bloody Slaughter? I'd guess that it would. That would make hits with enemies at 10% pretty painful. Problem is as Boerer pointed out the best on kill items are mostly head gear. So that would hurt that synergy a bit. But I guess it still might be worth trying a Death Godlike Kindwayfarer, or do a Kindwayfarer who focuses on using Tempered Helm.

Yeah sometimes I try to lure them way north to either split the group or else fight them at that choke point up there and then AOE for all I'm worth. Feels a bit cheesy but I confess I find it irritating that there is no defense against what they do on POTD short of being high enough level to cast prayer against treachery. I mean you *can* CC them with repeated spams of slicken and the like but that only lasts a few seconds and eventually they will get up and get some charms off on your guys. And those ghouls with them while not hitting especially hard still have tons of HP. It's just tough to grind all the enemies down especially when key party members get charmed.

Has anyone ever done builds with bloody slaughter to try to take advantage of on kill items/abilities? Off the top of my head classes that could benefit: Kind Wayfarer: Get lots of finishing blows to use strange mercy Barbarian with Blood Thirst Rogue/Monk/Cipher using Steadfast? Twin Sting also an option. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of weapons that do on kill effects and none with particularly strong on kill effects. So I guess the better option might be to focus on crit heavy builds using weapons like Tall Grass etc to use strong crit effects and give yourself a high chance to finish enemies. Also you'd want to use a Death Godlike of course . I might have to build something with this in mind.