most optimal balanced custom party?

[jelmerc]

Hi all,

 

Ive been playing a bit on old potd with a custom watcher and companions, but with 1.1 patch and new potd i would like to start a playthrough with a custom party.

 

My question: which combination of party members would form the most balanced / strong party.

I would like to stick to using every class just once, either as a multiclass or singleclass character.

 

I am a big fan of the Bezerker / Bleakwalker death godlike killstealer build, but i cant seem to fit it in my party.

What ive come up with until now is the following. Also trying to incorporate most classes.

 

DW Tank / support: Darcozzi paladin / troubadour chanter

2h tank devoted fighter/ nazpalca monk

DW dps: Bezerker barbarian / assasin rogue

healing / support/ mage:  Lifegiver druid / evocation mage

ranged dps / support: ascendant cipher / ghostheart ranger

 

Im eager to hear what you guys think about this setup, and what your optimal party would be!

[1TTFFSSE]

Your party is good in case you want to run it without a priest (risky but may work)

 

Now as for the game I checked out all the companions and sidekicks and here is what I found:

 

Companions in game with good stats for their roles:

 

-Ydwin - Rogue/Cipher can make a good rogue, cipher, or combo of the two, downside - no assassin subclass

-Konstanten - Barbarian/Skald - can make for a good tank with his stats actually if you go for a barb/chanter tank, downside- not a Zerker but if you make him tank that is fine. He and Pallegina are probably the two most useful frontliners.

-Maia - Ranger/(combo) - her pet is better than any other rangers, and her unique subclass as well and her stats are ok

 

 

Companions with "adequate" stats for some roles but not picture perfect:, in rough order of usefulness

 

-Xoti - Priest (pure) - a bit low on might but overall balanced well for a pure priest, but nothing special - has nice weapons.

-Takehu - guy is a bit of a mystery (his resolve is a bit too high for non-tank, con is a bit low for a tank). He makes for a good support though with druid off heals and party friendly aoe spells and chanting. I guess it is him or Xoti. but given that he is "best" doing both offense and some off support/ gealing I bet his ai is very difficult to set up right. Has good potential though

-Pallegina - Pali/Chanter - I don't need to say more, that is probably the strongest class combo for a tank, nevermind the stats. 

 

Ok Above are the toons I don't hesitate to bring along in a power-game party, the rest I usually bench though:

 

Eder/ Aloth (tie) - Eder is a decent toon and same with ALoth, they won't be the best at what they do but they are very capable to get the job done. Aloth makes the best companion pure wizard obviously. So he is pretty useful, Eder is a bit misplaced as his class combo (Fighter/Rogue) is kinda obsolete.

 

trash tier companions:

 

-Fassina

-Serefan

 

These two are not advisable as Fassina can't fo evocation spells and Serefen is like a mediocre at everything basically. 

 

 

I hope this list helps, In general I personally try to mix a bit as I hate going with all premade comps in a run as then there is no npc interaction at all.

Edited June 5, 2018 by 1TTFFSSE

[Nemesis7884]

5x druids with empowered maelstorms 

[jelmerc]

Thanks for the feedback. i like your description of the companions. i can agree on your assessment.

 

Allthough the idea for this topic, is for a playthrough without companions, only custom characters, and then build the most optimal, but also balanced party that should be able to handle everthing. I like the idea of using most classes, but only once.

 

onetrick ponies might work too, but not really my goal.

[CountGrishnackh]

DW Tank / support: Darcozzi paladin / troubadour chanter

2h tank devoted fighter/ nazpalca monk

DW dps: Bezerker barbarian / assasin rogue

healing / support/ mage:  Lifegiver druid / evocation mage

ranged dps / support: ascendant cipher / ghostheart ranger

 

i'd change the monk to either vanilla or helwalker because nazpalca gets a bit micro intensive for my taste due to increased amount of arcane dampener. I also dont see how 2h can compete with DW in a Fighter/Monk unless you're looking for clear out or power strike (which come online on lvl 16/19)

 

i believe the ranger goes with cipher for driving flight? in that case: have you thought about wizard?

Kalakoth's Minor Blights comes online at level 7, is a 10m range weapon with 1.3m AoE Radius (increased by int) that does 1 damage more then a sword at 1 lower AP as elemental and is onehanded. In my test today it only dealt fire damage for some reason so there's that.

Wizard Buffs offer alot more then the ranger imo and since every weapon was nerfed summond weapons look alot better now

[Climhazzard]

My ideal party has a priest multi class as one of the 3 front liners, then a wizard/druid in the back along with the ranged dps.  So something like..

 

Herald

Melee dps/cc/interrupt 

Priest multi class

Wizard or druid

Ranged dps (Maia scout)

 

Maia is fine for the scout role due to her gunhawk passive.  Aloth and Tekehu are both fine for the Wizard/druid slot.  Xoti is kind of questionable for Contemplative because her monk multi class sucks but it still somewhat works because enlightened agony and iron wheel make her very resistant to statuses and tanky so she can heal/buff/cure status in relative safety.  I almost always use an adventurer for the Herald and play the melee dps as my MC.

[evilcat]

It would be great if Xoit had some other MC option. Like Priest/Chanter, Priest/KindWayferer, or Priest/Lifegiver.

Priest/Monk with each level you have less time to do monk stuff.

[Climhazzard]

It would be great if Xoit had some other MC option. Like Priest/Chanter, Priest/KindWayferer, or Priest/Lifegiver.

Priest/Monk with each level you have less time to do monk stuff.

 

 

What I do with Xoti contemplative is have her be a normal dual wielding fist monk at the start, she'll be fast which makes her reactive with her heal or suppress affliction.  Then when she's higher level I spec her Monk side to be more passive and tanky.  Enlightened agony by itself is worth the multi class imo, it makes her pretty much immune to status while having the tools to reactively cure status on party members, then give her iron wheel and a shield (hers or the monk shield) and she'll be one of your toughest party members as well.

 

Her active monk side becomes less and less viable as the monsters get stronger, because her wound spending is whack, I usually just end up with efficient anguish and enlightened agony but you don't even really need efficient anguish since it costs 2x more for her to use than it does for other monks.

 

It's also nice to have swift strikes on the priest side to recover and cast faster, to be more reactive.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Sanctuary]

This is what I'd personally consider one of the most balanced setups:

 

Paladin/Chanter (Tank)

Monk/Wizard (initially a mix of ranged and melee, to eventually almost exclusively melee).

Ascendant

Ranger, Ranger/Wizard, or Ranger/Barbarian

Priest/Chanter or Priest/Shattered Pillar

 

Per your "there can be only one" criteria though:

 

Paladin/Chanter
Monk/Wizard

Ascendant

Ranger, or Ranger/Barbarian.  Maybe even Black Jacket/Ranger, depending on how much you really want to micro.

Priest

 

I wouldn't use any of the companions other than possibly Maia either on PotD.  Unless it was while using the Unity mod to change practically everything about them.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Sanctuary

[1TTFFSSE]

Yesterday and today I have been running 1.1beta+deadly deadfire mod with various parties. Running them through starter island and also Fort Deadlight (deadlight at about level 5-6 btw). 

So that is a pretty big "stress test".

 

I fell in love this composition which actually involves the in game companions and will try to finish the game with it:

 

Class/toon and specific build notes.

 

1.) MC Watcher - Witch Zerker/Ascendant in my case, but any toon focused on aoe dps and cc is good, ranged is slightly preferable because of how I use Pallegina (see bellow)

2.) Konstanten - Howler Barbarian/Skald - I build him as a my tank taking the more resilient passives and abilities from Barb and Chanter anhd also the good cc abilities.

3.) Ydwen - Pure melee rogue - dual wielding, she just does damage (and brings excellent single target debilitation to the party), but I gave her Devil of Corocs Breastplate and she is a beast

4.) Maia - Geomancer Ranger/Wizard - I multispeced into Wizard as I felt I needed the versatility of Wiz debuffs and spells here, plus I can use the soulboung rifle later this way

5.) Pallegina - Herald (Chanter/Paladin) - yep I am recreating one of my favorite Pallegina builds from PoE1 here and actually I am making her into a ranged dd/ support. Sure she can off heal but she is there for those juicy offensive ranged chants/ accuracy aura and some nice offensive openers. 

 

The party has sick firepower potentially and that is why I like it. We'll see if healing will become an issue or the chanter chants are enough. Note: also looks like I am stacking some of the stronger classes (chanters/ barbarians here, so I don;t know about "balanced")

[1TTFFSSE]

This is what I'd personally consider one of the most balanced setups:

 

Paladin/Chanter (Tank)

Monk/Wizard (initially a mix of ranged and melee, to eventually almost exclusively melee).

Ascendant

Ranger, Ranger/Wizard, or Ranger/Barbarian

Priest/Chanter or Priest/Shattered Pillar

 

Per your "there can be only one" criteria though:

 

Paladin/Chanter

Monk/Wizard

Ascendant

Ranger, or Ranger/Barbarian.  Maybe even Black Jacket/Ranger, depending on how much you really want to micro.

Priest

 

I wouldn't use any of the companions other than possibly Maia either on PotD.  Unless it was while using the Unity mod to change practically everything about them.

I used unity mod to change companions now except sort of kept the classes I choose for them to fit their personality, ie I changed Xoti to Druid/Paladin from Cleric/Monk etc.

 

Really fun party without stacking classes:

 

Tank/frontliner - Cantor Helwalker/Skald (I like my tanks to do damage and cc in addition to just "tanking") -ai is pretty straightforward just set everything to aggressive while adding a few monk defensive abilities like blade turning to the ai script yourself. Yeah I live dangerously with the Helwalker choice but I think it combos well eventually with Chanter chants.

 

Healer +semi buffer -  Liberator  so Paladin (choose your favorite spec)/Lifegiver!!! Druid. Lifegiver druid is a must on healer druid but is very good, The Paladin side is more aggressive attack abilities though. If you want to go overboard choose the paladin spec with the 10sec undying lay on hands though. 

 

Generalist - Do everything class and superman - Thaumaturge Wizard/Priest of Skaen - yeah I set ai on both specs to aggressive here and use the priest class heal when I need it myself

 

Uber Damage Dealer - Marauder Streetfighter/Zerker - nothing comes close at the moment to dps output of this class

 

Secondary damage dealer and a bit more cc (Thamauturge is more above debuff not pure cc) - so Cipher or some combo of Cipher/Devoted or Seer Cipher/Ghostheart

 

 

Notes: Cantor is great as he does a lot of things at once, chants buffs for the whole party while monk component does damage and cc, Liberator class is also really strong I made my a Bleakwalker though to take advantage of more corrode damage+sickened which combos nicely with druid spells eventually. Thaumaturge is just a monster of flexibility and marauder a monster of dps. And the cipher is nice to throw charms cc while doing nice secondary damage.

 

This is early level(6or 7) test of docks fight in Fort Deadlight on Potd with deadly deadfire hardcore installed. 

[Marigoldran]

Tekehu is awesome because he can spam Chill Cloud on your own party members and it won't hit them.  

 

In combat, I use him just to spam Moonwells and Chill Clouds.  Very good at support.