So, I'm Having a LOT of Trouble Coming Up With a Character

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys,

 

So... I've spent about 50 hours in this game just playing with different multiclass options, and I've had a lot of trouble finding one that I really liked. So, I wanted to share my experiences with you, as well as some that I've considered playing but haven't gotten around to yet, to get an idea of which would be most rewarding to stick with past level 10 or so. Build-wise, I'm leaning towards more of a tank role, since I played a ranged DPS in Pillars 1 and I want to try something a little different.

 

1. Bleak Walker/Fighter (Crusader): The ONLY real negative is having to stick within an RP role, and since the influence changes fixed a lot of the issues with how quickly you gain points, you can even afford to be a little less aggressive in situations that don't warrant it. I'd still probably play with reputation/qualifiers on though, just because the game can sometimes be a little vague about what it considers "Diplomatic." I've definitely played the farthest with this character and, while it can definitely be a little boring it still does pretty good damage and has a lot of survivability. 

 

2. Berserker/Fighter (Brute): Supplements the squish-factor of the Barbarian with defensive buffs from the Fighter. Not a lot to say on the matter. I haven't played with this at all, but I've heard good things. Would probably be a lot squishier still. 

 

3. Bleak Walker/Chanter (Herald. AKA, the OP): OKAY! So, I put this up here for posterity, even though I probably won't ever be playing it. Both classes work really well together thematically and mechanically, but I feel like it's really not worth the lack-of-fun that comes with resisting pretty much every damage type/CCing enemies/GIVING ALLIES THEIR CLASS RESOURCES BACK. I might consider this if it's genuinely fun to play, but other than that I'll pass. 

 

4. Fighter/Chanter (Warcaller): Pretty much the same thing as the Paladin/Chanter. If it's fun to play, I'll consider giving it a shot. Otherwise, I don't want to play a class that just has to sit there and auto-attack. 

 

5. Bleak Walker/Cipher (Inquisitor): Never played with this, but I've heard very mixed things about it. It seems like some of the Cipher skills would work really well here, but they also seem to have pretty long cast times. Soul Whip and Soul Annihilation provide decent damage upgrades, but it seems like you'd just be relying on Soul Annihilation a lot of the time. I'm worried about synergies though, the Cipher doesn't really offer anything that grants more accuracy like the Fighter does.

 

To give you all an idea of what I'm looking for...

 

1. A class that tanks well. I haven't played a tank in one of these games thus far, so I like the idea of being up in the thick of things engaging enemies. 

 

2. A class that can do more than just autoattack. I want to actually be encouraged to spend my class resources, and do more than just "Click on the enemy and wait for them to die." I don't need as many choices as Wizards and Ciphers get, so two or three reliable actions is more than enough for me, but I want a reason to be clicking around on my character's hotbar. 

 

3. Decent roleplayability. I want a class that interacts well with the world of Pillars of Eternity 2. Roleplaying in these sorts of games is something that... well, I've honestly been hit or miss at. It's why I've been drawn to Paladin for the disposition requirements. Some might find that sort of thing limiting, but I honestly find the idea of having to follow a specific creed to be really engaging. To that end, I've been drawn toward Fighter, Cipher and Chanter as Multiclass options for Bleak Walker because I think they could both fit rather well. 

 

    - Crusader: Definitely the most vanilla - someone who fully opts for the "Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy" approach by doubling down on their martial        skills. A little bland, but a lot less... sadistic... then the other two. See below. 

   -  Inquisitor: Bleak Walker torturer who leaves his victims as gibbering piles of meat after extracting the information that they need to complete their           mission. Definitely emphasizes the less pretty aspects of the Cipher class. The Inquisitor probes the target's mind with the grace and subtlety of a           meat cleaver. 

   - Herald: Sings the songs of previous Bleak Walker exploits, as well as essentially a funeral dirge for those poor fools unlucky enough to cross them.        This character is definitely a lot more unhinged, leaning heavily towards the cruel aspect of aggressive/cruel.  

 

Breaking them down this way, I'm leaning heavily toward the Crusader, simply because I'd want to play a character that sees the violence they carry out as a necessary evil in order to prevent further violence. He's not going to go out of his way to mistreat every random citizen he comes into contact with, and is actually pretty cordial to most of his travelling companions. 

 

Do you all have any particularly strong opinions either way? 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather

[Zeths]

Are you looking for a solo build? 

[NetQvist]

Did someone clone me?

 

Couldn't figure it out at release so I replayed PoE1 with a bleakwalker, tried the same char in POE2 afterwards but I got mad at the disposition system. Now I've tried like 5-10 things past the first island but I just can't get into a character for some reason.

[Retro1210]

What about Arcane Knight? You get all those paladin defenses, and you can specialize into evoker. Get those +2 Evocation gloves, and start out every battle with Fireballs, Magic Missiles, then close in to melee. Infuse with Vital Essense is a pretty good buff, and is insta-cast even with the penalty.

[freche]

I haven't played a monk myself, so can't say how fun but I imagine they could be quite fun. A few class skills just like you want and they should synergies quite well with a Paladin (or a Fighter). Both classes got skills that enhances both your attack and your defense, monk also got some skills to control enemies.

 

 

Of course depending on how you choose to play the Chiper, but combined with a melee class you will probably not spend so many skills in the chiper tree and mostly using soul annihilation and soul whip. I played a fighter/chiper, I enjoyed it but I played her more like a auto attacker and spent almost all my points in the fighter tree and didn't use a single chiper spell except soul annihilation for the entire run, all points I used for chiper where passives.

Edited May 20, 2018 by freche

[GamerSerg]

My first game has been Crusader (kind wayfarer) and played it as the hero knight good guy and it is awesome.  Armored grace is a must to use heavy armor.  You get one fighter and one paladin skill that together give you + 20 defense to every kind of affliction.  I had him dual wield swords and he was a killing machine that also could not be killed.  Having Paladin Aura and fighter stance was great too.  The mob stance cleave triggered a lot.  Also, as a multi paladin you cant reach the paladin self rez ability but you can get the fighter one.  Looking forward to trying it along with sacred immolation in my next fight!  I liked the rp aspect of sticking to my paladin order reps for Divine Faith bonus but that is also why I went with KW over BW.  Benevolent and Passionate were easy to RP.

 

I'm considering Inquisitor for my next game.  I like the combo and mostly would use cipher for all the damage and penetration passive boosts with a soul annihilation thrown in when available but its also nice to have other cipher abilities as utility when needed.  Also since I already did the good guy play through, I may go BW Paladin this time.  You do lose out on a lot of good stuff from fighter.

[Stasis_Sword]

First I also suffer from chronic restart syndrome and feel your pain. Second I'm assuming you're looking to be the main tank, if you're just looking to off tank there are more options.

 

From reading your post it sounds like you know Paladin is tanky but would rather avoid it (which is fine). The other really tanky class is fighter so I would recommend Fighter / X where X is a class with abilities you find interesting.

 

Fighter / Chanter: You don't have to use the refund resources chant. Use summons, CC or whatever else floats your boat.

Fighter / Monk: You'll get lots of wounds tanking (trigger rooting pain) and can use monk abilities to keep combat active / interesting.

Fighter / Rogue: Skip invisibility abilities and focus on debuffs. You also have riposte and sneak attack bonus damage.

Fighter / Cipher: Still tanky and has some cipher abilites to keep things interesting (including ones that buff/debuff for bosses).

Fighter / Barbarian: If you're tanking everyone they're in the perfect spot for carnage...

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Thanks for the feedback so far! To address some of it, no I'm not looking for a solo build. I'm also not looking for a build that's too video gamey, so no Resolve at 3. Thinking about it, I definitely feel like I'd rather play a Fighter multiclass. I'm torn between Brute and Swashbuckler, as well as whatever a Fighter/Monk is called. Any thoughts on this?

Edited May 20, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Also, Warcaller seems like it could be a ton of fun too, honestly. I probably will go with that, because I can think of a lot of neat role play concepts for it...

[QuiteGoneJin]

Warning, my thoughts are all over the place, here goes:

 

I'm the same as you, I keep looking for the impossible and rerolling. It's embarrassing how many hoursI have and how little I've actually seen of the game. 

 

I don't want to be a one trick pony or an auto attacker, I prefer melee or hybrid over just casting. I want mobility too, and a character I can identify with. It's a tall order i know, I've done Port Maje so many times I cringe at the opening sequence now. Some thought's based on what I see, you seem to want a bruiser. If you could forget the classes completely, what would you like your character to look like? how would his disposition be based on this experience of losing his keep and being ordered to chase a god? This might help you identify with your next creation.

 

If you play a Warcaller as a paralysis master with charge after the paralyze phrase you may like it, def not auto attacking only. It blossoms early but then I tihnk it might get old after a while? Idk.

 

Thematically you could do Bleak Walker/Corpse Eater for a violent savage type playthrough. You're still the hero you just hold lots of honour in combat and show that honour by eating the hearts of your fallen foes. 

 

I have been trying to make Druid Hybrids work lately, Nature Druid with 2h staff and possibly a monk mixed in, thematically it works, no idea if it would class wise. 

 

Another idea, Nazpaca (or whatever its called) + Corpse Eater works and is very original. Corpse eating heals you even when you aren't high on drugs which lessens the need to rest off your hang overs. Not surprisingly there's plenty of drugs to go around, so you become a crazily buffed angry drug addicted cannibal. I  don't like barbaric blow costing so much on corpse eater early game though. 

 

 

Another problem is I find it hard to not take rogue for escape early game on my melee toons, love the mobility and thematically its hard to not want to play a finesse character, but I also like charge later, and fighter stances mid game, BUT Eder has all this covered and I cannot NOT play him the first playthrough. 

 

Other random thoughts on builds I haven't seen, I haven't been able to make a tanky street fighter (not used for stealth) work but I know its viable. This has stacking passives and not many actives so id mix it with something like a monk if I wanted pure melee, or a beguiler cipher for debuffing (once you got persistent distraction wouldn't these mix really well? hmmm)

 

I may revisit Devoted + Stalker. The acc is insane, if you go battle axe and the ranger dot you could make someone bleed pretty heavily, and of course fighter stances are lovely. mid game the two mobility skills could be fun. Hmmm. 

 

Rogue + Monk = Ninja? Hmmm.

 

I like to think about what passive skills I'd want in a Pen and Paper version of this campaign too and just say fu** min maxing. I go for insight (I'm a soul reading watcher who'se seen some **** afterall) often and like its results so far. 

 

Honestly maybe you need to think more thematically. Maybe I do too. Hmmm. Maybe I just need Boeroer to save me like he did in POE1. 

 

/end rambling

 

Edit PS I don't have a lot to say about Paladins cause no cool mobility active makes me shy away from them, even though FOD and the auras+ passive tankiness is insane, I just am not attracted to their... flavour. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by QuiteGoneJin

[marc5477]

To give you all an idea of what I'm looking for...

 

1. A class that tanks well. I haven't played a tank in one of these games thus far, so I like the idea of being up in the thick of things engaging enemies. 

 

2. A class that can do more than just autoattack. I want to actually be encouraged to spend my class resources, and do more than just "Click on the enemy and wait for them to die." I don't need as many choices as Wizards and Ciphers get, so two or three reliable actions is more than enough for me, but I want a reason to be clicking around on my character's hotbar. 

 

3. Decent roleplayability. I want a class that interacts well with the world of Pillars of Eternity 2. Roleplaying in these sorts of games is something that... well, I've honestly been hit or miss at. It's why I've been drawn to Paladin for the disposition requirements. Some might find that sort of thing limiting, but I honestly find the idea of having to follow a specific creed to be really engaging. To that end, I've been drawn toward Fighter, Cipher and Chanter as Multiclass options for Bleak Walker because I think they could both fit rather well. 

 

 

Do you all have any particularly strong opinions either way? 

You basically want a active multi-role unit. I recommend one of the following:

 

Wizard/Fighter - Top tier tank, mid tier melee/caster dps, top tier debuff/disable, low tier heals

Wizard/Paladin - Like fighter but gives up melee dps for more tanking and better heals... problem is, you dont need more tanking.

Wizard/Monk - so OP that is practically broken. Makes the game trivial like any other crit monk build.

 

Wizard/Fighter is my recommendation. Powerful at every level without feeling broken and can cover any role effectively (except healing) depending on who you bring with you. Good engagements, and can tank anything with a shield or can off tank and DPS with dual wield or 2H. Armored Grace means you can wear the heaviest of armors and still be useful on offense. With mid weight armor, can have zero recovery. Can fly around the field and target casters/ranged easily. Good range DPS, good AOE DPS, and tons of debuffs and disables. Self heal during the important early engagement when you need it the most (when ever ranged unit is targeting and every melee gets a hit on engagement).

 

Pretty much a great all round class and can be very active if you want him to be. Can be lazy when you want too.

Edited May 21, 2018 by marc5477

[Vaneglorious]

I rolled a Brawler (Shattered Pillar + Devoted). Not much to say, it's pretty damn strong..as long as you can somehow avoid Arcane Dampener. That's nasty.

 

I don't even need to do much in fights, just pop my instant buffs, cast the buff refresher with Xoti, and I'm a fairly tough frontline with lots of cc and dps. Seriously, the damage can be ridiculous sometimes.

 

I was in your shoes 100%, but I decided to stick and roll with this one. Pretty fun and powerful.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Vaneglorious

[Sifjar]

It is always a bad idea to mix power gaming and rp stuff. With paladins especially. Do not force self with BW. Other option also useful. I went with kind and hellwalker monk. Good dps which also heals Eder for example. I am done with paladins anyway. They are strong, but those rep border really bother me all the time.

[PizzaSHARK]

What about Arcane Knight? You get all those paladin defenses, and you can specialize into evoker. Get those +2 Evocation gloves, and start out every battle with Fireballs, Magic Missiles, then close in to melee. Infuse with Vital Essense is a pretty good buff, and is insta-cast even with the penalty.

 

Evoker is a blaster mage, so you want to be a pure wizard to maximize your power level (particularly important for getting more projectiles on missile spells as quickly as possible since they're your bread and butter spells.)

 

If you want to focus on buffing yourself to monstrous proportions, you'd want to run an Enchanter or Illusionist.  It just so happens most of the control spells are also enchantments or illusions.

[PizzaSHARK]

 

To give you all an idea of what I'm looking for...

 

1. A class that tanks well. I haven't played a tank in one of these games thus far, so I like the idea of being up in the thick of things engaging enemies. 

 

2. A class that can do more than just autoattack. I want to actually be encouraged to spend my class resources, and do more than just "Click on the enemy and wait for them to die." I don't need as many choices as Wizards and Ciphers get, so two or three reliable actions is more than enough for me, but I want a reason to be clicking around on my character's hotbar. 

 

3. Decent roleplayability. I want a class that interacts well with the world of Pillars of Eternity 2. Roleplaying in these sorts of games is something that... well, I've honestly been hit or miss at. It's why I've been drawn to Paladin for the disposition requirements. Some might find that sort of thing limiting, but I honestly find the idea of having to follow a specific creed to be really engaging. To that end, I've been drawn toward Fighter, Cipher and Chanter as Multiclass options for Bleak Walker because I think they could both fit rather well. 

 

 

Do you all have any particularly strong opinions either way? 

You basically want a active multi-role unit. I recommend one of the following:

 

Wizard/Fighter - Top tier tank, mid tier melee/caster dps, top tier debuff/disable, low tier heals

Wizard/Paladin - Like fighter but gives up melee dps for more tanking and better heals... problem is, you dont need more tanking.

Wizard/Monk - so OP that is practically broken. Makes the game trivial like any other crit monk build.

 

Wizard/Fighter is my recommendation. Powerful at every level without feeling broken and can cover any role effectively (except healing) depending on who you bring with you. Good engagements, and can tank anything with a shield or can off tank and DPS with dual wield or 2H. Armored Grace means you can wear the heaviest of armors and still be useful on offense. With mid weight armor, can have zero recovery. Can fly around the field and target casters/ranged easily. Good range DPS, good AOE DPS, and tons of debuffs and disables. Self heal during the important early engagement when you need it the most (when ever ranged unit is targeting and every melee gets a hit on engagement).

 

Pretty much a great all round class and can be very active if you want him to be. Can be lazy when you want too.

 

 

Priest/Fighter or Priest/Paladin is going to be their best choice.  Spells offer utility, Fighter and Paladin are both quite chufty and provide plenty of utility on their own, and Priests can get away with sacrificing power levels a lot more easily than can wizards.  Priests also incorporate behavior requirements into their gameplay, which OP said was one reason they were drawn to Paladins.

 

You could take opposing orders and deities with a Priest/Paladin and be forced to decide whether your god or your order is more important to you at any given time.  Bleak Walker of Eothas, anyone?  Could you spin that as being a Gaunite, in a decidedly "good is not nice" manner of speaking?

Edited May 28, 2018 by PizzaSHARK

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

 

To give you all an idea of what I'm looking for...

 

1. A class that tanks well. I haven't played a tank in one of these games thus far, so I like the idea of being up in the thick of things engaging enemies. 

 

2. A class that can do more than just autoattack. I want to actually be encouraged to spend my class resources, and do more than just "Click on the enemy and wait for them to die." I don't need as many choices as Wizards and Ciphers get, so two or three reliable actions is more than enough for me, but I want a reason to be clicking around on my character's hotbar. 

 

3. Decent roleplayability. I want a class that interacts well with the world of Pillars of Eternity 2. Roleplaying in these sorts of games is something that... well, I've honestly been hit or miss at. It's why I've been drawn to Paladin for the disposition requirements. Some might find that sort of thing limiting, but I honestly find the idea of having to follow a specific creed to be really engaging. To that end, I've been drawn toward Fighter, Cipher and Chanter as Multiclass options for Bleak Walker because I think they could both fit rather well. 

 

 

Do you all have any particularly strong opinions either way? 

You basically want a active multi-role unit. I recommend one of the following:

 

Wizard/Fighter - Top tier tank, mid tier melee/caster dps, top tier debuff/disable, low tier heals

Wizard/Paladin - Like fighter but gives up melee dps for more tanking and better heals... problem is, you dont need more tanking.

Wizard/Monk - so OP that is practically broken. Makes the game trivial like any other crit monk build.

 

Wizard/Fighter is my recommendation. Powerful at every level without feeling broken and can cover any role effectively (except healing) depending on who you bring with you. Good engagements, and can tank anything with a shield or can off tank and DPS with dual wield or 2H. Armored Grace means you can wear the heaviest of armors and still be useful on offense. With mid weight armor, can have zero recovery. Can fly around the field and target casters/ranged easily. Good range DPS, good AOE DPS, and tons of debuffs and disables. Self heal during the important early engagement when you need it the most (when ever ranged unit is targeting and every melee gets a hit on engagement).

 

Pretty much a great all round class and can be very active if you want him to be. Can be lazy when you want too.

 

 

Priest/Fighter or Priest/Paladin is going to be their best choice.  Spells offer utility, Fighter and Paladin are both quite chufty and provide plenty of utility on their own, and Priests can get away with sacrificing power levels a lot more easily than can wizards.  Priests also incorporate behavior requirements into their gameplay, which OP said was one reason they were drawn to Paladins.

 

You could take opposing orders and deities with a Priest/Paladin and be forced to decide whether your god or your order is more important to you at any given time.  Bleak Walker of Eothas, anyone?  Could you spin that as being a Gaunite, in a decidedly "good is not nice" manner of speaking?

 

 

Unfortunately, Priest/Paladin multiclasses can't have opposing dispositions. Eothas priests can't be Bleak Walkers. 

[The Pirate of Deadfire]

this is my second game, i´m playing a Bleak walker/Devoted with double pistols, Flames of Devotion and Penetrating Strike gives me a lot of DPS and the aura doesn´t turn you into a tank but you are not a slouch either. 

Its fun ass hell

[NocturnalTrance]

I'm going to be the voice of antithesis in this, but why not just a single class bleak walker. Single class paladins are really good, and you get access to some pretty cool spells and abilities, while still being a martial class. Perhaps if you don't like just a single class, you could do a Troubadour or Beckoner/ Bleak walker and prepare chants that are vampiric or necromantic in nature, such as the one which heals you when you deal damage and the ones that summon skeletons and spirits. If you have some problems with the bleak walker dispositions, how about switching to a priest of Berath who has a disconnected and unemotional outlook on violence. I also felt some pressure with the multiclass system just being in place, I felt I had to make a multi-class character, but I had a blast playing my single class priest of Magran and didn't feel I missed out on anything. Perhaps you may not like the character you are playing because they have access to abilities later and don't feel as fleshed out from the beginning.

[Braven]

I went down a similiar journey as you and eventually settled on paladin / druid (shifter). This combination gives you a lot of flexibilty and options without requiring you to use any of them in any given battle. You have 5 different animal forms to switch between, or you can just stay in human form. The armor of the animal forms keep you tanky and you get 5 free Heals when you switch, so you can focus on attack powers instead of healing ones. Sounds like you like the bleakwalker dispositions and that work well with shifter since you can use paladin powers while shifted to rip people apart with flames of devotion. If you need healing, just switch to another form or return to human form, depending on if you want to use your paladin or druid powers (always use paladin in animal form and druid in human form).

 

I personally find the myraid of options, which all costed zero ability points to access, makes the game more fun and engaging to play. Animal form is really powerful when you want to attack with flames of devotion (or normal attacks) because you get essentially heavy armor with zero recovery penalty. Also each animal has a unique ability that costs nothing. One prones an enemy, another speeds up your actions (even spells) like monk swift strikes, another frightens enemies, etc. Plus, you get all the usual druid spells to further round out your character.

 

This also works well with any other martial class like fighter or rogue if you don’t like the paladin disposition restrictions.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Braven

[Jmerc]

Votary and Fanatic are both worth considering. Bleak Walker and Shattered Pillar sort of fit together Roleplay wise, so do Bleak Walker and Berserker.

[Opheleus]

Eora -

Made a nice story -

And so you wake to a sleepless world, the In-Between of life and death. Follow your memories. You have been here before.

 

"That's not what my hair looked like in character creation... I chose black, that's ginger."

 

Eora -

Made a nice story -

And so you wake to a sleepless world, the In-Between of life and death. Follow your memories. You have been here before.

 

"...Elves look a bit small in plate armor, I think I'll just go back to human."

 

Eora -

Made a nice story -

And so you wake to a sleepless world, the In-Between of life and death. Follow your memories. You have been here before.

 

"Ehh... Arcane Knight is cool, but I dunno if I want to constantly focus on buffing myself. Crusader would probably be better."

 

Eora -

Made a nice story -

And so you wake to a sleepless world, the In-Between of life and death. Follow your memories. You have been here before.

 

"... Darcozzi. Darcozzi - right? Darcozzi. Yeah, Darcozzi."

7 setunim retal

"I should've gone Wayfarer... Mother f-"

 

 

I know thy struggle all too well...

 

 

 

 

[CollectorJim]

I've restarted so many times and deleted so many games that I have literally lost count. On my current play (none of which have gone past level 10) I am having the most fun with a single class and having most of the NPCs go single class as well. The multiclass options are great, but I'm really liking having my abiliies quicker and hopefully I'll get to end game this time and use those PL 8/9 abilities.

 

Maybe the multiclass options are just giving us altaholics too many choices.

[Wompoo]

I had your problem with build/class selection as well, I found things changed when I dumped fighter, chanter and paladin from my builds (if I try a no deaths run I will definitely use them then, as they will be a must have... but when death is not an issue, they are a tad overkill). Playing 2 multi-classes presently... Cypher/Cleric and the other a Ranger/Druid. Also Nature godlike Evoker with power stacking items, abilities and pet... is seriously, "watch them explode" powerful, unfortunately, the texturing and colour of the Nature Godlike are fugly limes with legs .

[Sheyde]

I had the same exact problem, lol.

 

I ended up just taking the Everything Bad history and created my entire team, Vox Machina-lite. Kinda helped ease the restartitis I kept falling in. Running 5 characters that I created is vastly more satisfying than just one! Though I do wish the team would banter more...ahh well, I'll just have Critical Role playing in the background...

[draculdracul]

I think the Arcane Wizard deserves a bit more credit then described by marc5477

 

 

Wizard/Paladin - Like fighter but gives up melee dps for more tanking and better heals... problem is, you dont need more tanking.

 

Besides uber tanking it also has great AOE damage potential. And ability to change that in a second makes that this is a great tanking / AOD dps build. Inspired beacon followed up by Torrent of flame and/or Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst is devastating.  With this build you are prepared for the worst but when fights are (to) easy, you can give a huge AOE punch. And with the dog Nalvi you get a nice 17% recovery bones ( on heavy gear) witch makes the single Melee dps a bit tolerable. Playing this build gave me the real Tankadin feeling. Find urself the Grimoire Lengratsh Martial Masteries so you wont spend to much on spells.