Hey guys, I've been playing deadfire a little (never actually finished the game but I love to test other person's builds and with Berath's Blessing it became even more a Sandbox for me) and for this one I wanted to try play around WotEP because
- it's convenient, you can get it on the first trip to Neketaka for almost nothing
- with Blade Form enchant you get 20% recovery time which I love in videogames, attack speed based char/builds are fun to me
- the weapon is cool
I'm not much of a spellcaster and mage/priest/druid/bard trees are a pain to learn (I'm slowly getting used to priest and bard ones as they are so good as supports) so I went for a (auto)attack centered build but I feel like not everything is making synergies as I expected and as I am pretty new to this I do not know if I am focusing the right stats/bonuses or if there is a more optimised way to build it (for exemple the stats, should I dump some and max the others or is there a holy balance to reach)
I play in the latest Update (v5.xx i think) with community patch in PotD (haven't tried Upscale yet, how does it feel like ?)
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Class: Devoted/Helwalker
Monk was a natural choice for Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming because another thing I like to build in games are Procs on hit (which pairs with attack speed) and especially multi hit ones (it comes from world of warcraft Shaman's Windfurry). Helwalker because of the free stats
Devoted because I told myself I had to play around WotEP +1 Pen
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Race: Elf
Background: Deadfire - Explorer
Stats: (Base + origin)
MIG: 18
CON: 9
DEX: 19
PER: 19
INT: 7 (I do have doubt about it because it is compensed by Turning wheel but a bigger AoE could be nice for WotEP)
RES: 7
All in Athletics and History (Healing and Giftbearer's cloth defense scaling)
I wanted attack speed and crits for a lot of Swift Flurry/ Heartbeat Drumming procs (and obviously damages because WotEP seemed a little bit weaker on this side)
went full on with Berath's blessings because I wanted to have fun quickly and go through Port Maje so +2 to all here
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Weapon : WotEP (Blade Form for the sweet sweet attack speed - Run Through for some solo target burst per encounter)
Head : Helm of the Falcon (-10% recovery)
Amulet : Bone Setter's Torc (5% Hit->Crit with weapons)/Necklace of the Harvest Moon (-5% recovery time on Crit)
Armor : Devil of Caroc Breastplate (Devil's due for healing on crit)
Cloak : The Giftbearer's Cloth (lot of defence for free)
Gloves : Aegor's Swift Touch (+1 DEX, +5% action speed with weapons)/Gatecrashers (+1 MIG, 15% knock down on crits)
Boots : Pathfinder's Boots (+1 DEX, +1 Athletics)
Ring 1 : Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (15% Hit->Crit with enough money)
Ring 2 : Chameleon's Touch (free stats)
Belt : The Undying Burden (another Second Wind)
Pet (watcher) : Pes (+10% melee damage, +5% Hit->Crit for the party)
Pet (Eder) : Anything with +5% Hit->Crit for the party
I choose most of the items because it could can be obtained pretty early and cheap/free to spend all my Berath's Blessing money in enchanting WotEP into Mythic
Devil of Caroc can be stolen pretty early with lockpicking and stealth, nice legendary armor with healing
Giftbearer's cloth can be aquired early too with a bit of stealth and Bounding boots (so right after Fort Deadlight)
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Talents
Global passives
Two-Handed style (15% damage)
Uncanny Luck (5% Hit-> Crit)
Improved Critical (10% crit damage)
Monk abilities
Swift Flurry (33% multi hit on Crit, Bonus attack speed)
Enduring Dance (bonus Acc)
Thunderous blows (+5 MIG, +2 Pen)
Stunning Surge (idk if it works with WotEP AoE but a free stun on crits is cool)
Turning Wheel (+20% burning damage, 10 INT)
Flagellant's Path (Gap closer)
Monk passives
Enervating Blows (Weakened on crit)
Heartbeat Drumming (25% multi hit on Crit)
Fighter abilities
Disciplined Strikes (25% Hit->Cri, +5 PER)
Mob Stance (-5% Recovery per nearby ennemi, Full attack AoE on kill)/ Warrior Stance for single target (+5 accuracy)
Fighter passives
Rapid Recovery (healing)
Weapon specialisation + Weapon mastery (+15% damage, +5 accuracy)
Armored Grace (-25% Armor recovery penalty)
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Party
Eder (Swashbuckler) engaging the most ennemies possible
Xoti (Priest) spamming heals, buffs and resurect Xoti's Lantern (Threshing aura +7%damage (shouldn't have pushed her to the dark path, she is so much happier on the light one, I selfishly wanted to max damage))
Maia (Scout) Ranged dps machine
Custom (Herald because Pallegina is unbearable with the others) cool buffs, drake invocation and Exalted Focus (+5% Hit->Crit, +5 Accuracy)
Basically Eder is a magnet in melee, Xoti and not-Pallegina are casting what the base AI want them to cast or firing (Scordeo's Trophy + Lantern for little Xoti and Spearcaster for the mute Herald) Maia is shooting things with any arquebus (with the bounce ranger passive its hilarious)
while I cast all the boost I have and either Flagellant Path in the backline to Impale a high priority target if there is one or run around the clump of ennemies Eder managed to lock in place and swing the most ennemies I can (brittle ones if possible to proc Mob Stance) to stack WotEP's Blade Form and wounds and see the stats grow
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What it looks like in numbers
Currently lvl 19 (may or may not end the scenario and/or try the "mega bosses" as it seem to be the real challenge in the game)
MIG: 36 (Thunderous Blows, Helwalker wounds)
CON: 11
DEX: 25
PER: 26 (Disciplined Strike)
INT: 19 (Turning Wheel wounds)
RES: 10
50% Hit->Crit (maxed if the Herald is not too far away) Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming proc pretty often (coupled with the low Recovery Time) but not as much as another build I tried (Voltron's Votary with Magran's favor and Sun and Moon (striped of all the Sacred Immolation side of the build to get more accuracy/Hit->Crit conversion) which is still feeling nice (with party) and chain-proccing quite often)
118 Accuracy (108 with Great Sword proficiency) (+12 with Enduring Dance but it doesn't stay very long)
17 Pen
1.9 Recovery time (WotEP full stacked, some ennemies around for Mob Stance, Swift Flurry) which seems absurd for a 2H weapon but I really feel like old school wow Shaman trying to swing a 2H hammer to proc a Windfurry and OS someone
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For now it is pretty fun to play (for me), I may be breaking the progression curve with Mythic WotEP out of Port Maje but I wanted this run to feel like a Sandbox so idk how viable it is for a "legit" one, tell me if I'm building something wrong here, expecting a synergy where there isn't one, if you would change something (better class, better stuff (even if you change my lovely WotEP)), or if you have a fun build for me to try in the next run !
When I'm done toying with this one, I might try another build, making a definitive (for now) run and sweep the map, maybe upscale ? (if it is worth the try), maybe solo ? (i like the xp boost and the challenge but the game feels so lonely and it is too bad not to use the party's skills), maybe a custom party ?(love the flavour of a paladin company or anything like that but again, not having Eder trying to touch every animal, Xoti being amazed by everything in the Archipelago or any other companion makes me sad), maybe having a party with Pallegina in ? (but I don't like siding with slavers or her being mean to everyone else so.. we'll see for this one)
I haven't played PoE1 much because deadfire felt much smoother to the touch (and to build) in the first hours of gameplay but it also made me love Eora so I might do it, if you have any fun char or advices for it, i'm totally open for it
Thanks for reading and have a good day wherever you are in Eora