Alright! One Final Build Discussion - Monk/Fighter or Monk/Paladin for 1.1

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Okay, so - I've been going through a lot of build concepts, and I've finally decided it'd probably be a good idea to hold off on starting a new game in earnest until 1.1 hits in early June, just so I can get the PotD experience as intended. With this in mind, after listening to a lot of feedback and thinking about what I really want to play, I've come up with two concepts for a tanky Watcher that can still shell out respectable damage. 

 

RP Note: One of these characters is a Bleak Walker, the other is just a Fighter. Note that I'll be going for an Aggressive/Cruel primary disposition on both characters because I want to try to play the game as someone who adheres to a strict policy of violence and destruction for the greater good. 

 

1. Bleak Walker/Nalpazca:

Who? Human, Deadfire Mercenary. Alchemy/Athletics and Streetwise/Insight/Intimidate

 

Why? While Helwalker definitely promises more raw damage consistently, I'm going into this assuming PotD will actually be a challenge post-patch, and I want a character that can consistently take that kind of punishment. Plus, I feel like playing a drugged out Bleak Walker who's unable to properly distinguish reality from their hallucinations most of the time would be pretty interesting, plus Alchemy seems like a fun skill to play with - there's lots of items that augment it in interesting ways. 

 

Paladins offer a ridiculous amount of passive defenses on their own without even getting into the more defender oriented paths. Bleak Walker is chosen for the augment to Flames of Devotion, as well as the fact that I can still take Lay on Hands/Greater LoH. Plus I just like the Bleak Walker philosophy, so much so that I intend to adhere to it regardless of which character I play. 

 

Deadfire background is picked for lots of dialogue checks/quest resolutions.

 

What? This is where I start to waffle a bit. Part of me wants to go sword and board with the monk shield, while another part wants to stick with dual wielding swords (Since there are some NICE swords in this game). 

 

How? 

Stats, with PoE1 buffs factored in. 

20 Might (18 + 1 Human + 1 Gift of the Machine)

13 Con (12 + 1 from sacrificing Zahua or Durance, haven't decided)

10 Dex (9 + 1 from Deadfire Background)

17 Perception (17)

10 Intellect

10 Resolve (9 + 1 Human)

Sacrificing Zahua to the Blood Pool gives an effective 3 Intellect (15% buff duration) which further stacks onto the 100% drug duration of Nalpazca and all of the Alchemy bonuses I'll be receiving. 

 

Or

 

Nalpazca/Fighter (Possibly Sword Devoted)

Who? Human, Deadfire Mercenary, Alchemy/Athletics and Streetwise/Insight/Intimidate

 

Why? Nalpazca is chosen for the same reasons as it was in the other build. Playing with Alchemy sounds like it could be a lot of fun, and I like the idea of using drugs and potions heavily - I never touched them in PoE1 and that punished me hard. Plus, it gives me a sort of Malkavian vibe from Vampire, and I love the idea of playing the borderline psychotic druggie who still seems to have a better handle of what's going on than anyone else. Now all we need are special dialogues for when you're under the influence. 

 

Fighters are chosen to bridge the gap between Swift Strikes and Disciplined Strikes. In the past, I've felt as if I've focused way too much of my attention on Flames of Devotion as *the* reason to play Paladin, when really it's just a (very nice) single skill. Fighters have things like Charge and Mob Stance that Paladins don't, and I feel like they synergize with Monk a bit better. 

 

What? Again, I can't decide between sword and board with the monk shield that grants more wounds on hit, or dual wielding swords. I'll be using Turning Wheel a lot for lashes, but I also want to be able to more freely spend my wounds to use different Monk powers as well. 

 

How? 

Stats, with PoE1 buffs factored in. 

20 Might (18 + 1 Human + 1 Gift of the Machine)

13 Con (12 + 1 from sacrificing Zahua or Durance, haven't decided)

10 Dex (9 + 1 from Deadfire Background)

17 Perception (17)

10 Intellect

10 Resolve (9 + 1 Human)

Sacrificing Zahua to the Blood Pool gives an effective 3 Intellect (15% buff duration) which further stacks onto the 100% drug duration of Nalpazca and all of the Alchemy bonuses I'll be receiving. Sacrificing Durance gives 5% max health in addition to the 5% I already receive from Gift of the Machine. 

 

So, these are the two concepts - Personally, I'm leaning more toward Fighter/Monk but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter. Either way, I'll be holding off on making this character until 1.1 hits - because it looks like that's going to address a lot of the problems with PotD being just too darned easy. You know, not damned enough. 

 

[ex cathedra]

I assume this is for solo. 

 

I would also suggest the Brawler. Even though Charge and Flagellant's Path are redundant, charge is the better of the two and its lower PL makes it more usable for multiclass characters. 

 

Nalpazca is probably great. I've been playing Shattered Pillar for the time being but POTD solo isn't challenging enough to make raised torment worth using for me, so the subclass has mostly just halved my max wounds. My only concern might be that playing solo without mechanics sounds like a garbage experience, it might be tough to balance out your alchemy investments. 

 

The blood pool buff duration is probably overkill. So is 13 CON. As a shattered pillar with 12 con after berath's blessings, I had more HP than I knew what to do with, and nalpazca especially have access to absurd healing. I'd be interested in maxing PER or getting extra dex, personally. 

[dunehunter]

If solo, fighter is absolutely better. If in team, pal is better obviously. Fighter has better and earlier AOE, also might, dex and resolve resistance is most useful when soloing. INT resistance from paladin is better when in team since u can help other team member who is charmed.

[Billy_Pilgrim]

I think your better of putting points into dex vs might for this build. Especially if you plan on playing monk/devoted, all the additive bonus damage will mean the bonus from might will be negligible. I played a nalpazca/devoted solo on potd the other day and I sorta gave up on it because every time I faced a group with a priest it would cast arcane dampener and I would get the drug crash effect and be unable to heal myself, I re rolled with a shattered pillar, figure helwalker/fighter will be too squishy. I think helwalker/paladin would be fine probs.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

This is actually for a team comp - I plan to have party members handle Mechanics. I'll go ahead and stick with Durance's Blood Pool buff and swap out Con for Dex so it'll be something like this...

 

20 Might (8 + 2)

10 Con (9+1)

12 Dex (1 + 1)

18 Perception (8 )

10 Intellect

10 Resolve (9+1)

 

I'll go ahead and make up the PoE1 game state before the patch drops. Hopefully "early June" actually means "Within the first few weeks." I really wanna play through the game before Beast of Winter drops. 

 

Gear-wise I'm thinking...

 

Entonia's Signet Ring

Whatever the Necklace That Gives Whiteleaf After Rest is Called

Modwyr

Tuotilo's Fist

Garari Cuirass or Blackened Plate Armor

Blackened Plate Helm

Gatecrashers or Apothecary's Gloves - Or the Woedica Gloves, but I don't know what Garrote does. 

Ring of Greater Regeneration

Not sure what boots or cloak I should get. Giftbearer's would be most obvious, but then that'd require investing in History which sort of gimps me socially. 

Edited May 28, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

I think your better of putting points into dex vs might for this build. Especially if you plan on playing monk/devoted, all the additive bonus damage will mean the bonus from might will be negligible. I played a nalpazca/devoted solo on potd the other day and I sorta gave up on it because every time I faced a group with a priest it would cast arcane dampener and I would get the drug crash effect and be unable to heal myself, I re rolled with a shattered pillar, figure helwalker/fighter will be too squishy. I think helwalker/paladin would be fine probs.

 

Might's kept that high for skill checks and stuff - there's some that require it to be fairly respectable to maintain the tough guy act I'm going for. Fighter has a few passives that more or less allow me to eliminate the Recovery penalty from a lot of armor entirely, plus some of the gear I want will give me points to Dexterity. 

 

Also, I'll be playing with a party so I figure I can just bait Arcane Dampener out with Pallegina or Aloth or something. Helwalker/Paladin would probably get along just fine, but I'm waiting to see if anyone can put forward a solid enough case for taking Paladin as a multiclass over Fighter. Right now, the board's opinions (and mine) seem to be favoring a drugged up Brawler. 

[Climhazzard]

Right now both combinations are pretty good, but I feel like we ought to wait till 1.1 before answering the question if you really want to know what's going to be good for 1.1.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Right now both combinations are pretty good, but I feel like we ought to wait till 1.1 before answering the question if you really want to know what's going to be good for 1.1.

 

Yeah, that's fair. Hopefully they don't roll out a bunch of nerfs or anything like that. So far it seems like the only class they've thought about tuning was Chanter. I wonder if that's still the case? 

[Climhazzard]

 

Right now both combinations are pretty good, but I feel like we ought to wait till 1.1 before answering the question if you really want to know what's going to be good for 1.1.

 

Yeah, that's fair. Hopefully they don't roll out a bunch of nerfs or anything like that. So far it seems like the only class they've thought about tuning was Chanter. I wonder if that's still the case? 

 

 

 

Certain Wizard spells or power level scaling for those spells really need nerfed.  They mentioned chanter summons.  I think a couple other chanter things need nerfed or shifted to a later tier.  I hope certain full attacks get changed to primary attacks, such as charge.  In fact I would like to see most full attacks changed to primary attacks to also balance dual wielding, or perhaps just the ones that cost 1 resource.  Inner death + empowered strikes ought to be adjusted imo.  I personally think Faith and conviction + deep faith ought to be more evenly split with Deep faith only obtainable at a high tier. 

 

Certain things just plain need fixed for better or worse, like unbending or time parasite.

 

Beyond abilities, a lot of equipment needs some solid hits from the nerf bat as well.

 

Ideally some of the garbage would be brought up as well, like many cipher and priest spells.

 

If they are serious about balancing I expect to see a lot more than just a few chanter adjustments anyways, thought it may be spread out over several patches and not all just in 1.1.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

 

Right now both combinations are pretty good, but I feel like we ought to wait till 1.1 before answering the question if you really want to know what's going to be good for 1.1.

 

Yeah, that's fair. Hopefully they don't roll out a bunch of nerfs or anything like that. So far it seems like the only class they've thought about tuning was Chanter. I wonder if that's still the case? 

 

 

 

Certain Wizard spells or power level scaling for those spells really need nerfed.  They mentioned chanter summons.  I think a couple other chanter things need nerfed or shifted to a later tier.  I hope certain full attacks get changed to primary attacks, such as charge.  In fact I would like to see most full attacks changed to primary attacks to also balance dual wielding, or perhaps just the ones that cost 1 resource.  Inner death + empowered strikes ought to be adjusted imo.  I personally think Faith and conviction + deep faith ought to be more evenly split with Deep faith only obtainable at a high tier. 

 

Certain things just plain need fixed for better or worse, like unbending or time parasite.

 

Beyond abilities, a lot of equipment needs some solid hits from the nerf bat as well.

 

Ideally some of the garbage would be brought up as well, like many cipher and priest spells.

 

If they are serious about balancing I expect to see a lot more than just a few chanter adjustments anyways. 

 

 

Oh, definitely tweak the stuff that allows people to roll characters that are functionally invincible, but it's also important to still keep things balanced with the updates to PotD in mind. 

 

Honestly, part me just wants to get started right away. I guess it depends on how early "Early June" is. 

[Razorchain]

Both Monk/Fighter and Monk/Paladin are strong choices.

 

So it just boils down to what you want. Nalcpaza and Shattered Pillar synergize well with Paladin as you can just go full tank with them.

 

One thing I've noticed though is that Str isn't as good as in PoE 1 on monk. High Dex and dual wielding is very strong and you can get a light armour with DR 10 early if you have enough cash

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Both Monk/Fighter and Monk/Paladin are strong choices.

 

So it just boils down to what you want. Nalcpaza and Shattered Pillar synergize well with Paladin as you can just go full tank with them.

 

One thing I've noticed though is that Str isn't as good as in PoE 1 on monk. High Dex and dual wielding is very strong and you can get a light armour with DR 10 early if you have enough cash

 

Well, a lot of my gear will grant Dexterity either way so it'll be respectable, and then Fighter ensures I basically have no Recovery time... I dunno. I just don't like the idea of having a super low Might, because there are some conversations where it comes in handy - like threatening certain people. I think you need a high Might for certain Valera/Bardatto quests. Plus, drugs. 

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Also, am I the only one who 'doesn't' want the Devil of Caroc armor? Let the poor woman have her revenge, she's honestly suffered enough (And besides, most of the people she killed were **** anyway).