[CLASS BUILD]. Transformer, Kind wayfarer in Disguise

[Braven]

Race: Nature Godlike (very important in this build)

Class: Shifter / Kind Wayfarer. (Druid / Paladin)

 

Might: 19

Con: 5

Dex: 13

Per: 18

Int: 19

Res: 3

 

Stats can be tweaked to your taste (they are all helpful), But make sure might is maxed since this build has a ton of healing powers.

 

The idea of this build is that you have two “stances” every encounter; your caster stance and melee stance. We will take advantage of the fact you lose all items when shapeshifted to build on synergies. For example, in caster (non-shapeshift) stance, we can gear up completely for maximum spell power and ignore items that help melee. It is fine to lose those items because melee stance doesn’t really need things like int, for example, but your caster side benefits a ton from it.

 

Likewise, during caster stance we can load up in deflection at the expense of melee. That means a large (or medium) shield with modal engaged and a dagger w/modal for extra melee deflection. The penalties, like lower dagger damage, don’t matter because we will never actually attack with them. Accuracy doesn’t matter much during this stance because we cast buffs with no attack roll, basically allowing large shield use with no penatly. We need to minimally cast one at the start of battle to activate nature godlike power levels. Passive healing and defensive buffs like moonwell are also good. Your low CON is compensated by druid CON inspirations, so your actual health pool is average; enough given yor healing and high defenses.

 

After you buff up behind your large shield, you can either move on to shifter phase or let out a couple AOE Damage over time spells. Does anyone know how DOT spells, like returning storm, work for accuracy? Is it your current accuracy When each tick goes off or the accuracy you had when you originally cast the spell? If it is your current accuracy, you could cast it and the shapeshift, largely avoiding the shield penalty.

 

The fact you can’t cast while shifted doesn’t matter because your DOT(s) will continue going on with a long duration while you are shifted. Also, all of your paladin powers work fine. Now that you have finished the caster phase, you can shapeshift and stay in the melee phase, using flames of devotion whenever you need to heal (or party needs healing). Because they have been softened up by your DOT and allies you should be able to focus them down with flames of devotion gaining the paladin on-kill benefits, like zeal regeneration and keeping everyone topped off.

 

What makes this build OP?

 

Shifter gives you 5 free heals, basically on the same power level as lay on hands, that cost zero ability points and no power source. You don’t really even need to use the animal forms for long. You can just shift, flames, shift back spell, shift, flames, shift back, etc for a constant stream of healing to yourself. When and how often you shift depends on how much damage is coming in. I like the bear if I think I will stay shifted for a while for the extra armor. You get these 5 free heals right at level one, along with 3 flames of devotion for healing making the early game a breeze.

 

Shapeshifting gives plate-armor level armor with no recovery penatly. This is huge because plate penatly is much worse in POE2, particularly with the double-inversion math. When combined with paladin passive and robust inspiration from druid, you have around 15 armor as a bear. That is enough to prevent most enemies from penetrating and you keep your paladin passive defenses too. Late game, paladin gains armor passively by standing still. This will help your armor level as a human since you don’t need to move to buff or cast the long range Druid DOT spells.

 

Druid has some of the most damaging spells when you have high might and int; Just takes a while to tick away. Paladin is a perfect compliment because the extra healing and defenses and armor will keep you in the fight while the DOTs slowly kill everything. As paladin, the only ability you will get/use is flames of devotion (and the accuracy aura). All others will be spent on the paladin passive abilities. The healer passive is particularly important because of the huge numbers of heals you push out.

 

The best part of this build is how insane it us at level one. You get 8 heals right off the bat, the highest damage weapons, and free heavy armor without penalty. You also get a ton of animal powers, like the cat’s increased action speed, which works even when you shift away. I like going to cat early, using the speed up cat power, shift back to human and cast spells. The action speed reduction speeds up your spell casting a lot.

 

Late game, you get great paladin passives like rhe stacking stoic steel armor. This ensures you will always get the maximum 75% damage reduction from armor. Enemies far away, just shift back to human and power thrm down with spells, or switch to a gun in your other weapon slot. Remember; you don’t need to stay in animal form. It would still be good if you used it for nothing but the free heals.

 

Shifter powers benefit a lot from power levels. Power levels increase the base healing amount of the shifter heal. That means it works multicatively with might and the healer passive ability. It actually scales really well; better than paladin healing.

 

Is this build FUN?

 

Absolutely! There is a lot of strategy, which will vary from encounter to encounter, on when you shift between animal and human. You can freely shift whenever you need to heal yourself and the shift back. You can stay in animal form for a long time as the durations last a really long time if you want to kind of go on auto pilot for a while. The scaling is good with nature godlike and you get the fast attack speed, high armor, and lashes for good damage and survivalbilty. You can also stay in human form and go through all your spells with your shield providing mitigation.

 

Regardless, you start as a caster for at least one spell to buff yourself with fit or rebust, for health and nature godlike activation.

 

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Edited May 26, 2018 by Braven