Laereth

Deflection > CON The druid form right now is just an "oh ****!" button for when you have someone in your face or you don't want to waste spells, especially at high levels mainly because it has really bad scaling and a short duration. You could definitely make a druid who "mainly fights transformed" as there are talents that support that, but because of the mentioned problems it would be far from being "semi-optimized". Their main deal is doing a lot (and I really mean a LOT) of aoe damage, making a melee druid is kind of a waste (maybe an hybrid would still be decent). I would probably be more oriented towards an hybrid makeup evidently as solely fighting in melee would waste more than 50% of the class. I mostly meant using the shifting to clear weaker mobs as to keep my spells for the big fights. How would you go about such an "hybrid" build ?

Hey guys ! I’m starting my first game of PoE and I’ve hit a bit of a problem…I don’t know what to play…I’m shifting between Paladin, Wizard and Druid. Ever since I started playing Dnd both the Paladin and Wizard have been my favored classes, one for its presence as a mighty champion of righteousness, the other for the sheer arcane might. In PoE’s case the Druid as me very interested in the shifting mechanics, as in is it possible to make a druid that mostly fight in beast form or is it some weird very sub-optimal tank build ? I’m a veteran of both Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, etc. As such I’m familiar with Dnd’s attributes set up. However the intricate mechanics of PoE have me a bit confused; as an example for the Paladin the system suggests Perception and Intelligence over Constitution…but as a front line melee combatant shouldn’t the Paladin have a high Con to withstand hits ? For a Human Paladin would this be a good set-up ? Might 15 Constitution 15 Dexterity 10 Perception 12 Intelligence 11 Resolve 15 Or would this be better ? Might 15 Constitution 12 Dexterity 10 Perception 15 Intelligence 11 Resolve 15 I’d like my pally to be armed as a knight, so a set of Sword n’ Board and a Great Weapon, switching between both as situation dictates. A mix of damage and defence. I’m asking about the switch between Con and Perception as to which is better for defense ? larger HP pool or high Deflection ? As for the Druid is it possible to make someone who mainly fights transformed, able to dish out the hurt (I like the wildstrike ability’s idea for that) while not being a complete squishy guy ? Or is wading into melee as a shifted druid suicidal ? If it is feasible what would be the best stats make-up ? Bear in mind that I like my characters semi-optimized. I like to put emphasis in a character’s strength but I don’t like to dump stats. Anyhow, thanks for any help you can give me and sorry for the wall !