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crdvis16

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Posts posted by crdvis16

  1. I'm thinking about doing another playthrough so curious for more build ideas myself.  To contribute some of my favorites from previous playthroughs (which are typically more along the fun/gimmicky side rather than OP/cheesy):

    https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/126860-die-and-res-barbarian-review/#comment-2304129

     

     

     

  2. I'm considering doing yet another pillars playthrough but hoping to keep it fresh by RPing my character differently this time.  I've already done the default relatively good guy approach as well as a semi evil/cruel character.  I've sided with all factions in the Deadfire as well.  First, a few ideas I have myself:

     

    1)  "Everything Bad" is a pre-configured option one can load up for Deadfire.  I'm interested in possibly re-enacting this with POE1 and carrying it into POE2.  Does anyone know what specifically "Everything Bad" entails?  I've found some info on Wikis but it mostly just covers the big highlights (dead companions, gods pissed off at broken promises).  I'm curious how I should resolve all other quests, though (maybe it's somewhat obvious to just try to screw everything up?).  I'm also curious what kind of RP would lead to these outcomes.  Someone with the personality of the Joker from Batman?  Maybe a priest of Wael?

     

    2)  Woedica's henchman.  I think in all my playthroughs I've been pretty hostile toward Woedica and Engwith so it might be interesting to ally myself with them.  Though I don't understand how that would play out when the ultimate goal of POE1 is to stop Thaos?  Maybe stopping him but still giving the souls to Woedica is enough (though why would my character stop Thaos to then do exactly what he wanted?).  I assume you HAVE to kill Thaos but maybe not?

    Aside from these suggestions, does anyone have any particularly good RP playthroughs they'd like to share that worked out really well?  I might have trouble bringing myself to do either of the above ideas so maybe there's another path that would be different enough to keep a new playthrough fresh?

  3. Hello!

    I just published a mod for a variety of new choices for class/subclass/multiclass for all of the companions and sidekicks.  These are just mods that I did for my own personal playthroughs over the years but I figured I would publish them on the off chance that anyone else might want to use them too.  The link for anyone that's interested:

    https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/657

    Edit: copying some of the mod description here directly:

    These are my personal class/subclass/multiclass modifications made to companions/sidekicks over the course of many playthroughs.  I wanted to play lots of different combinations but don't like using hired adventurers so this was my solution.  Included are:

    Aloth: Bloodmage, Transmuter+Tactitican, Unbroken+Illusionist, Priest of Woedica
    Eder: Blackjacket+Streetfighter, Tactician+Cipher, Unbroken+Trickster, Priest of Wael
    Fassina: Ancient, CorpseEater+Shifter, Evoker+Assassin, Shifter+Conjuror
    Konstanten: Beckoner+Berserker, Helwalker+Ghostheart, Mageslayer, Shifter+Nalpazca
    Maia: ArcaneArcher, Gunhawk+Assassin, Gunhawk+Cipher, Stalker
    Mirke: ForbiddenFist, ShatteredPillar, Skald+Debonaire
    Pallegina: Bleakwalker, Troubador+Goldpact
    Rekke: Berserker+Devoted, Enchanter+Bellower, Fury+Helwalker
    Serafen: Mageslayer, Psion, Priest of Skaen, Soulblade+Furyshaper
    Tekehu: Lifegiver
    Vatnir: CorpseEater, Rogue+Skald
    Xoti: Priest of Gaun+Streetfigher, ShatteredPillar, Priest of Skaen
    Ydwin: Beckoner+Soulblade, Beguiler+Trickster, Psion+Priest of Berath

    • Thanks 1
  4. FYI- the Assassinate buff only works with certain spells.  Something like minoletta's missiles would only benefit on the first missile.  Some spells that you'd think would benefit either don't or sometimes do (which is weird).  For instance, Fireball works if you target the AoE very close to you but if you cast it far the buff often won't be included.  From what I remember, Torrent of Flame and Precise Burst consistently worked.

     

    Edit: though there is the route of using Arkemyr's Departure and then casting lots of debuffs from stealth for the Assassinate accuracy buff (no benefit from the penetration of course).  Brilliant Departure's stealth only breaks from causing damage. 

    • Like 2
  5. So far I'm leaning toward:

    Main = Bleakwalker/Bellower.  I don't know that there is any special synergy here but it's two subclasses that I'd prefer to multiclass so may as well combine them.  He'd be a front line DPSer with chants tailored to his benefit and occassional big invocation casts.  Maybe some healing too.

    Eder = Tactician/Cipher.  Totally not in line with his personality but so it goes.  Cipher should help trigger Tactician bonuses and the Tactician side would probably focus on controlling enemies with clear out, etc.  Built as the tank and support.

    Xoti = Skaen.  I'll pretend her Gaun worship is leading her down a dark path that ultimately turns her to Skaen (will encourage her darker character arc).  She'll buff and then attack weaker enemies along with some healing.

    Aloth = Bloodmage.  Nothing special but will make him feel a bit darker to go along with my dark playthrough.

    Serafen = Mageslayer going after the enemy backline casters.

    I'll cover healing by committee (a little from my main character, Eder's cipher side, and Xoti's Skaen).  Will have lots of interrupts from Mageslayer and Cipher.  Certainly not some optimized lineup but should do well enough. 

  6. 15 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

    If you want to go with bleakwalker, you might consider a bleakwalker/shifter, and go with the lightning wild strike attack. That way you'll have crazy lashes when using FoD while shifted.

    I modded a companion (I think Konstanten) into a Shifter/Monk last playthrough that did something similar.  Monk has all those active attack buffs (including a few lashes) that stacked with the Shifter's and it felt quite potent and the animal forms can use the Monk active abilities to knock back, etc.

  7. Just now, Kaylon said:

    Bleakwalker/assassin is nice for big strikes from stealth/invisibility, but in a party it has limited utility. A better choice would be steel garrote/trickster which has much better versatility and survivability as a melee damage dealer.

    I've played Assassin before and had some fun with it.  Steel Garrote is another subclass I haven't played but I thematically don't really like being a Woedica henchman haha.  Trickster seems to be so good pairing with almost any melee damage dealer.

  8. I'm looking for some help in utilizing a few subclasses that I've yet to play with.  In case it matters, I plan to play with the community patch and BPM installed. 

    I plan to have my MC be a Bleakwalker.  I haven't done a cruel/aggressive type of playthrough before so I wanted to give it a try (as opposed to my usual good guy playthroughs).  I'm thinking he will be an offensive focused Paladin rather than a tank or healer and I've heard that a Bleakwalker's Flames of Devotion hits hard.  However, I've never been a huge fan of the Paladin's PL8/9 spells so I'm thinking I'd like to multiclass him with... something.  I'm not sure what, though.  I think I've read in the past that Bleakwalker/Assassin works well and seems somewhat thematic.  Does anyone know of other recommendations for multiclass and does anyone know of items that are good to build around for an offensive Bleakwalker?

    Next, I plan to mod a companion or sidekick into a Tactician.  Again, I think a multiclass would be nice here in order to give this character a built-in way to flank/interrupt enemies to trigger the Tactician bonuses.  I know I could have other party members cover flanking but I like the idea of the character being somewhat self sufficient I guess?  I'm leaning toward this character being a tank/support.  I think a Cipher could be a good choice (lots of spells that can cause flanking and some interrupt spells too).  I imagine multiclassing to Wizard could work as well?  I think my plan would be to spam Clear Out with all the extra discipline I'd be generating?

    I've played a Bellower before but I don't think I really used it to its fullest so I wanted to try one again.  I often feel like Chanters NEED to be multiclassed because otherwise they end up auto attacking between invocations.  Better to multiclass and use that action economy for something better.  However, a Bellower in particular is all about PL and multiclassing means your PL will always be lower than if you'd gone SC so I'm not sure.  If I did multiclass I'm not sure what to go with- is there a multiclass that would build on the power level theme or that works well?

    Mageslayer is next.  I'll be using BPM which I believe made Mageslayer stronger.  I'm tempted to go SC as I think high level Barb skills are worthwhile.  He would be the caster killer of course and seems pretty straightforward?  Dual wielding for more interrupt stacks I assume?

    I also want to use a Priest of Skaen and would prefer SC to get those PL8/9 Skaen abilities.  Skaen seems like it pushes you toward being a semi Rogue so I imagine he'd spend some time buffing and then killing.

    I'm interested in Bloodmage.  My impression, though, is that their abilities are mostly suited toward long boss fights and for most encounters you really don't need those extra spells.  BPM has potions of enlightenment so maybe it kind of makes Bloodmage less relevant?

    Last, I've always been interested in making Debonaire work but every time I've tried it just seems so clunky.  Is that subclass just too wonky to use effectively?

    Any help would be appreciated!  I've been searching for past posts on these subclasses and have found some discussion but often from a long time ago (other than recent posts on a solo Bloodmage build ).

  9. Hey @Elric Galad, any interest in a tweak for the Assassin subclass?

    As is, the straightforward way of playing a weapon-based Assassin (attack, stealth, repeat) isn't really worthwhile in most cases.  You burn through guile and you spend a lot of time waiting to recover from using Smoke Veil.  If you were to, instead, just keep using your guile on Rogue attacks (Crippling, Withering, etc) you would often do just as much damage in the same amount of time. 

    From my testing, it seemed like the only cases where the Assassin bonuses were worth the time and guile opportunity costs were usually only if the bonus penetration got you out of underpenetration.  You end up attacking far slower but hitting harder enough to make it just worth it.  But just worth it in some cases isn't a great advertisement for a subclass 🤣

    DPS-Caster/Assassin multiclass builds (Evoker+Assassin for instance) suffer from similar issues but also have to justify the lost power level and access to higher level spells faster (or at all for pl8/9) compared to just sticking with single class caster.  I've run a pure melee Assassin, pure ranged Assassin, and Evoker+Assassin and all 3 were similarly disappointing.

    One build that does seem to work is using Brilliant Departure for stealth because it does not break when using non-damage CC.  In that build there are no issues with wasted guile or time spent casting Smoke Veil.  So a Wizard+Assassin can CC to their heart's content with a nice +25 accuracy (buy gains nothing from the pen or bonus crit damage, of course).

    I would propose maybe reducing Smoke Veil's recovery by half or something similar, at least for the Assassin subclass if not in general.  The change to 1 guile certainly benefitted Assassin but faster recovery might make it more viable for a pure weapon Assassin or DPS caster multiclass combo.  You would still be burning through guile fast but the damage output would always be greater (at least in the short term before you burn through all your guile).  It would be a "live fast and die young" subclass where you do a lot of damage quickly and then slow down and die when you're out of your main survivability mechanic (stealth).  And it doesn't affect the Brilliant Departure build.

    Or maybe there's some other tweak to make it work better?  Play around with the accuracy/pen/crit damage bonus?

    • Like 2
  10. I just played Fassina as the more straightforward Evoker+Assassin but I'm not sure it was really worth it vs just going straight Evoker.  The spells hit well when stealthed from the bonus accuracy and penetration but you give up a lot to achieve that.

    Pro: extra accuracy, pen, survivability, and easier to use certain spells (Torrent if Flame or Minoletta's Piercing Burst that benefit from being surrounded).

    Con: takes half your time to repeatedly invis unless you're constantly tripping Assassin's slippers, multiclassed so missing out on PL and high tier spells.

    I think SC Wizard is probably just better unless in certain situations where you're desperate for penetration and the Assassin bonus or higher chance to crit and gain pen will make the difference.

    There's also a lot of finnikiness with invis where spells cast from invis would sometimes get the Assassin bonus and sometimes not.  Torrent or Piercing Burst usually got it (but not always!) while other spells were very hit or miss (Fireball was like 50/50 for me).  Things like chain lightning hardly benefit at all.

    The Brilliant Departure route is certainly smarter and more worthwhile.  It just pains me because when I think of an Assassin I think of killing things in big Blows rather than CCing from the shadows :(

    Maybe Assassin could use some sort of tweak to help it?  A subclass trait for zero recovery Smoke Veil would fix the "spending half my time recovering from going invis" problem.  There would still be the issue of burning through Guile for invis but I think it could be worth it then.  Assassin could be the "live fast and die young" Rogue where you either kill everyone before you run out of Guile or you get killed yourself. 

    Edit: I'll post in the BPM thread so as not to derail here.

    • Like 1
  11. This was a fun build.  The Streetfighter recovery bonus when bloodied or flanked is so tempting to go for but BPM makes it much harder to achieve with the change to the blunderbuss modal.  Other means of getting flanked are sometimes unreliable (sparkcrackers, etc) or dangerous (purposefully getting physically flanked).

    However, Monks have Mortification of the Soul in order to get themselves to bloodied in a controlled manner while also getting some wounds for their trouble.  You basically just spend the beginning of the fight Mortifying yourself until you're bloodied in order to spend the rest of the fight shooting like a machine gun at range.  I recommend a script to make it less tedious.

    You want to be at range because, well, you've bloodied yourself and because you're particularly vulnerable when bloodied with your very low constitution.  In order to get to bloodied quickly you want your constitution low so that the mortifications take out bigger chunks.  I went with 6 constitution and it seemed to be a good balance.  

    Another way to get to bloodied faster is to start the fight with Duality of Mortal Presence - Body activated.  The initial wounds you immediately gain at the start of the fight will boost your constitution but only boost your max HP, not current HP, which means you'll start the fight off closer to 50% HP.  You can immediately switch to DoMP - Mind which will lower your max and current HP and preserve that % of HP missing.  You now have a head start on mortifying your way to 50% HP.  Once I got below 50% HP I would then switch back to DoMP - Body so that my 50% HP was a larger overall amount (setting up scripts that say "If >50% HP use DoMP - Mind" and "if <50% HP use DoMP - Body" automates this process).

    Being a machine gun at range can be particularly nice when using Arbalest or Crossbow modals.  You can basically lock down a target and not let them do much of anything.  This can be especially useful in certain boss fights.  I actually spent most of my time using the Saint Omaku's Mercy warbow, though.  It has an action speed bonus when low on health that fits this build thematically too well to pass up on and has slash/pierce damage types for the many pierce immune foes.

    Aside from Mortification, the Monk side also brings Lightning Strikes and Thunderous Blows.  The Rogue side provides some good attack abilities, very important escape abilities considering you're a glass machine gun, as well as Slippery Mind (Immune to mind afflictions when bloodied) which also fits the build very well.

    I imagine there could be a similar build using Bloodmage or Berserker for the self damage.  Berserker would presumably be more difficult since the self damage is constant and not controllable.  Bloodmage might get you to <50% faster since their subclass trait scales with Might I believe?

    • Like 1
  12. Shoutout to @Porkchopsandwiches247 for this build suggestion.

    This was a great build that really felt natural and consistent and did good damage.  You get multiple sources for weapon attack lashes- Wildstrike (of whatever flavor you want but I went for Corrode), Lightning Strikes for lightning damage, and Turning Wheel for some fire.

    I would usually start a fight with a quick Woodskin or Delemgen buff (and maybe some drug use if I forgot to do so ahead of time as a Nalpazca) followed by either Nature's Terror or Relentless Storm and then shift into whatever form made the most sense.  Nature's Terror is especially thematic because who wouldn't be scared of a drugged up Bear coming at you?  Delemgen lets you close to your target in a snap.

    My thinking on the shifter forms was: Cat to quickly down an important single target, Wolf if I needed consistent interrupts, Bear for off-tanking, Boar to regen.  But best of all (imo) is Stag with its AoE attack.  Monk's Efficient Anguish knockback will hit multiple enemies in your Stag's AoE attack so you can just fling multiple enemies around the battlefield with it, like a cheaper Clear Out that uses a renewable class resource (wounds).  At 1 wound cost and Nalpazca's wound generation you can cause A LOT of Anguish.  Note that this may only work if using BPM as I can't remember now how the vanilla game's Stag attack works.

    Thunderous Blows helps you overcome penetration issues.  Note: Cat/Bear do slash, Boar/Wolf/Stag do pierce, none do crush.  Maybe one of them should do crush?

    Last- Dichotomous is funny to use when you're shifted because the copies are shifted also.  I don't believe they get your animal claws, though. 

    • Like 1
  13. I really liked this build and I don't usually like either of these classes very much.  My main focus was to try to get my armor as high as I could through the Paladin side because the damage reduction from causing under penetration is so good.  The nice thing about Beckoner in this build is that Chanter doesn't suffer much from wearing heavy armor and having slow action speed since their chants just keep going and once you get the summons out they do their thing too.  I imagine I could have gotten the armor even higher had I gone with another multiclass option (maybe Thick Skinned from Barbarian or Unbroken's Shield Mastery).  A Wizard's Ironskin cast is (I think) the biggest armor active ability but it's harder to keep up all the time with a Wizard's limited number of casts. 

    At some point more armor is probably not really beneficial, though- you just want enough to cause max underpen against any given enemy attack and going beyond that doesn't help you other than maybe still causing crit attacks to underpen.  But it's still fun to see how high you can go!

    This build also forced me to try to understand armor stacking rules.  They are, as best as I can make them out, the following:

    Normal Armor from items always stack and don't suppress anything- in my case, Legendary Patinated Plate (13 base, 9 Crush/Shock) and Blunting Belt (+1 Slash/Pierce).  Stoic Steel (armor gain every 6s up to +3 for standing still) seems to be treated as normal armor as far as I can tell so it stacks and doesn't suppress.

    You can only get the best of any special conditional armor bonuses (Patinated Plate's Bronze Juggernaut +2 armor against melee attacks suppresses Inspired Defense's +1 against most recent damage type).  So in my case Inspired Defense is only useful against sequential ranged/magic attacks of the same type... not sure how often that helps.

    You can only get the best of any active ability bonuses (Sworn Rival Gilded Enmity's +4 armor suppresses the Zealous Endurance +1 armor aura and Lay on Hand Robust's +2 armor).  So if you keep Gilded Enmity up you're most likely not benefitting from those other two but at least they can affect your allies.

    In a crucible fight I'm seeing the following when attacked by melee pierce damage:

    +13 total from Legendary Patinated Plate

    +1 from Blunting Belt

    +2 from Patinated Plate's Bronze Juggernaut

    +3 from Stoic Steel

    +4 from Sworn Rival

    Total = 23

    20+ armor should be forcing max underpen against the vast majority of enemies I would think.  I imagine some bosses might be able to avoid max underpen at this level of armor, maybe?  In any case, forcing underpen on attacks just makes this build take so little damage because of the way the -75% damage penalty actually works.  You can often stand in the middle of enemies and easily out heal their attacks which is kinda fun.

  14. I really liked Wael Priest tank.  Wael is like the Trickster Rogue of Priests- many of the same instant cast Wizard buffs for high deflection/reflex (Arcane Veil, Mirrored Image, Llen's Displaced Image) but then access to Priest abilities if you prefer it over access to Rogue.  Trickster Rogue usually has a lot of buzz in forums but Wael Priest isn't mentioned as much so I think it's being overlooked.  Admittedly, modding Eder to be a Priest of Wael makes pretty much no thematic sense but I wanted to try this subclass out and Eder always feels like he should be tanking...

    First, Blessing of Wael gets a revamp in BPM to be more interesting- more defense and a random -10 stat affliction to enemies that attack an ally.  Passively hitting enemies with such a strong stat debuff is quite nice.  Symbol of Wael gives concentration to allies which can be beneficial in fights with lots of interrupts.

    This build also allowed me to explore some of the Priest spells I had usually overlooked before.  Champion's Boon gives him the engagement he might be lacking along with Resolute/Tenacious as both buffs and as protection against Might/Resolve afflictions which are normally ruinous for a tank as they drop engagement.  Minor Avatar gives every other inspiration as well as some bonus damage/health.  He ends up with enough defense to main tank proficiently, he's very difficult to afflict with his high defense and self-buffed inspirations to block any afflictions that get through, and then he has lots of buffs and heals to throw around in order to contribute to the party.  I've often felt in the past that my Fighter based tanks didn't have a lot to do other than use their engagement and soak up damage so it was fun to have a tank that could main tank, main heal, and main buff all in one.

    • Like 1
  15. This was probably the strongest build in this playthrough.  I tend to avoid builds that feel like balance/mechanics oversights by the devs and the fact that Whispers of the Wind does full attacks with an off-hand pistol felt right on the line for me.  One thing that helped me not feel guilty is that I played using BPM which had just recently bumped up the wound cost for WotW to 9.

    In any case, the idea is to use WotW to more easily access the normally difficult to use Scordeo's Trophy enchantment bonus from Strategic Blitz (stacking -10% recovery to melee weapons) which in turn helps you stack Scordeo's Edge enchantment bonuses from Adaptive (stacking +2 accuracy with all weapon attacks) and Blade Cascade (chance on hit to ignore recovery for 5.0s).  You end up with high accuracy and low recovery (sometimes no recovery) with your Scordeo's Edge auto attacks.  Those fast auto attacks mean you build wounds really fast via Shattered Pillar's subclass trait which leads to more WotW casts and then, eventually, devastating Resonant Touch casts.

    Xoti just destroyed things with this build.  I would usually start a fight with a shot from Trophy then Flagellant Path my way to an enemy to start hitting with Edge.  I'd typically get to 9 wounds really fast for my first WotW and would often come out of it with Blade Cascade and just start hammering on whatever poor enemy I ended up next to.  Blade Cascade or even just the fast recovery attacks from Strategic Blitz would have me back to 9 wounds quickly for another WotW or if enough Resonant Touch stacks were available I could use them to finish off enemies.

    The biggest drawback to this build is that it takes some time to get Scordeo's Trophy and Edge as well as WotW/Resonant Touch.  You don't get Edge until you side with Aldys in 'Honor Among Thieves' which happens pretty late in the game typically and the abilities are locked behind high character levels.  Prior to getting those synergies in place I just played her as a more normal Monk which was fine.

    I believe there are variants to this build that make use of a Blunderbuss in the off-hand so that you more quickly stack up Resonant Touch during WotW (blunders hit 4x on each target).  You'd miss out on Strategic Blitz from Trophy so your main hand weapon would be slower but those Resonant Touch stacks would be bigger.

    • Like 1
  16. For 3), you can get Konstanten fairly early, right when you arrive in the big city.  Vatnir you won't get until MUCH later (like lv16+) unless you do some sneaky stuff.  He's gated behind a tough boss fight but there are ways to potentially get him as early as like lv4 I've heard.

    However, I should note that for much of the game, sidekicks have far less diologue.  Sidekick flavor diologue is most abundant in their respective DLCs.  The companions are the ones that really speak up the most, especially with a mod like everyone's two cents. 

    For 4) I think people sometimes over emphasis Serafen's subclass drawbacks.  It's really not THAT bad- it will probably cause you to wipe a couple times throughout the game which isn't that horrible in the grand scheme of things.  Modding Serafen into a normal Cipher wouldn't be too hard- I've been modding almost all of the companions/sidekicks into new classes/subclasses for my repeat playthroughs but it does take some time to learn the process.  Easiest way is to download other people's mods and open the .xml files in something like notepad++ with a JSON viewer plug in in order to see how they work.  I could probably do a mod for you in the next day or so if you really want it and don't want to learn for yourself.  I have him modded as the Psion cipher subclass in my current playthrough.

    For 6) if you want to mod stats it's pretty easy.  Easiest way would be to download BPM and only keep his sidekick and companion stat buff files (if you don't want the rest of his stuff) and edit them directly.  I believe his stat mods buffed every sidekick/companion by 2 points to compensate for not being well distributed but you could edit the values to whatever you want.  I edited them to be what I wanted for the new classes/subclasses I modded and therefore removed the +2 bonus points they were getting.  Aside from that, their chant radius improves with INT so give them +INT items and buff them with intellectual inspirations if possible and also position them such that their chants are able to reach the allies or enemies they need to affect. 

    For 7) the Barbarian subclasses are pretty darn good if you play them.  Give them a try first IMO.

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