[CLASS BUILD] The Intelligent Captain (For 1.1 PotD)

[Myrtillo]

The Intelligent Captain

 

A smart tactician and leader that has a lot of options and uses underrated abilities with great efficiency.

 

Fighter (no Subclass)

 

Difficulty: 1.1 PotD (level scaling up)

Solo: not tested, most likely not possible

 

Introduction:

 

This build tries to find the balance between roleplay, gameplay experience and efficiency. It aims at optimization, but maybe not in the usual understood way. In most of builds I see, optimization revolves around finding the best ability or series of abilities, and build around them to maximum efficiency. Although it is a very acceptable mindset, and in the end create the most broken characters, I always found it a bit boring. It means that every fight is the same, you just repeat your strong combo ad nauseam. Sure, thinking about the build and broken combos is enjoyable, but sinking 60+ hours of game time in it is another story.

With this build, my goal was to make the most of whatever mechanics the game has to offer, and rather than building around one brokenly op combination, find small synergies in every little thing (with an emphasis on options that I beleived to be underrated). I found this extremely gratifying, because

• The thought process behind the build is original and has to evaluate all the little detail to make a great whole of a very efficient character.

• Every fight feels different. Your decisions as a player clearly make an impact, and you have access to a variety of meaningful options. There is always something interesting your character can do.

 

This overall versatility and pursuit of the optimization through small details also makes for great roleplaying, and, even though I indicate my personal preferences, that I actually used for the playthrough, I strongly encourage you to make your own choices, especially when it comes to roleplay impacting decisions (race, origin, job, skills).

 

The character was designed to fit as much as possible in the game’s setup, and to embrace his position as a ship captain in the Deadfire. A lot of gear choices were impacted by that roleplay perspective, but always with the idea of finding all those small synergies that will make the difference in the long run. This is especially true now that a lot of items have been nerfed hard and are not OP by themselves anymore.

 

As a final note, the character is a single class fighter with no subclass. In other cRPGs, this would be the most plain and boring class, and I would never go for this option, but in PoE2, it can in my opinion be one of the classes with the biggest tactical depth, and none of the subclasses would really bring anything to the playstyle.

I also saw it as a challenge as the general trend of comments seemed to be that fighters were rendered useless by patch 1.1

I now strongly disagree to this statement, it was just that fighters were used as a multiclass tool to be invincible and have ridiculous synergy with aoe melee procs that were broken to begin with, and they (thankfully) cannot be used to that end anymore, but they retain a lot of their potential.

 

Race: Human was picked for RP preferences. Absolutely any race will do and can find its use so pick the one you enjoy the most. Godlikes loose swag points for not wearing a plumed hat or tricorn.

Origin: None of the stats are min-max. Pick what you like and adjust.

 

Stats :

 

          10  Might

          10 Con

          10 Dex

          16 Per

          18 Intelligence

          14 Resolve

 

(I got Blessing of Berath for M12 CON12 DEX12 PER18 INT20 RES16).

I like having high mental stats for roleplay purposes. He is a captain after all, so it is normal that his intelligence and resolve are high. Per is incredibly valuable, and intelligence is at the core of a lot of the synergies.

You don’t need more than 10 con for survivability thanks to decent resolve, party buffs, defensive passives, and the very long duration on your constant recovery.

Might is additive so left at 10(12 with BoB), dex could benefit from being higher, but this character will have a lot of options to raise action speed.

 

Skills:

 

I chose my passive skills for roleplay purposes: diplomacy/bluff/metaphysics, but get the ones you want, it has no impact on the build. Intimidation and Insight are good candidates.

 

In terms of passives, I went for high arcana, moderate explosives and athletics.

 

The high arcana and decent explosives give you an amazing amount of options that are both fun and really potent, especially considering the fact that you will have crazy amounts of accuracy (easily overcoming the increased defenses of 1.1 PotD), and improved AOE and duration through high intelligence. This adds to the variety of the build and was very satisfying from a RP perspective. (An intelligent character that uses all the tools at his disposal)

 

Proficiency/Fighting style:

 

This is the first meaningful choice:

Sabre and pistol dual wielding.

 

DW is without doubt the strongest option in terms of fighting styles right now. Plus, our character is a tactician and we want reactivity, so we cannot afford to be in recovery for too long.

DW melee+ranged is a semi unusual choice. You get the benefits of the increased recovery, you get melee/range versatility without having to swap weapons sets. On the other hand you loose a lot of potency on full attacks, but that proved to be an acceptable tradeoff for a fighter. And consequently, the relative value of primary attack abilities is increased for that character.

 

Ultimatey, you can go any one-handed melee/any one-handed ranged that appeals to you and has decent synergy. But sabre/pistol is both the most fitting in terms of roleplay/game, and one of the most efficient combos (plethora of good unique sabres, a few very good guns, and rapid reload is very good, as you have a lot of means to compensate for the accuracy malus).

 

Blessing of Berath:

 

Recommended: bonus attributes

Great if you have it: Double Skill bonus, 50k gold

 

 

Gear:

 

We are going for that corsair captain look, while grabbing useful stats for the build. Always maintaining the balance between roleplay and efficiency.

 

• Fair Favor: Looks awesome, is very potent with our weapon choice.

 

• Miscreant Leathers: I can’t help but put this on all my watchers. Completely fits the theme, is still very good even after the nerf. With armored grace, this armor effectively reduces recovery.

 

• Drunkard Regret: Drink booze at every rest, for flavor mostly, but it is a nice boost, and the original idea of the build is to explore game mechanics, looking at you rum runners DLC

 

• Strand of favor: Gives an effective +15% on positive effect durations. This is huge for this build. The duration of some buffs/debuffs are what turn meh skills into yay skills.

 

The rest of the apparel is up to you, go with what you find/think you need.

 

Weapons:

 

My personal picks:

 

Mihn’s Fortune and Scordeo’s trophy.

You alternate a lot between melee and ranged, and you shoot very fast with pistols so Scordeo is good.

You crit a lot, so Mihn’s Fortune and Scordeo to a lesser extent are good

You have very high intelligence, which benefit both the afflictions of Mihn’s and the stacking buffs of Scordeo’s.

 

Also, both appealed to me visually (not a big fan of “magic” looking blades like grave’s calling). Scordeo’s blade is probably a very good option, although more randomized relying on fixed %procs rather than crits). I couldn’t test it in that playthrough due to my choices.

 

As I stated earlier, you can go with a very wide variety of combinations. Anything that takes advantage of our high int with buffs, debuffs and aoe’s can find a use here.

 

 

Ability Choices:

 

As explained above, we pick a lot of underrated abilities. I will explain what makes them good in my eyes, at least comparatively to other options.

 

• Disciplined Barrage>Tactical Barrage.

This one is pretty standard. Later on, we can respec to Disciplined strikes as we get another source of int inspiration. (Take disciplined strikes from the start if you have a support that give you smart/acute). They benefit a lot from all our +duration. On autocast in my tactics (If self Per Inspiration:none cast on self, no CD).

 

• Into the Fray>Lower their guard.

One of the severely underrated skills. I read people considering that into the fray was bad, and penetrating strike was good, and I do not understand how you can get to this conclusion. The cost effectiveness of an action must be measured in resources and action time/recovery.

Lower their guard is an instant cast with zero recovery, so to give a fair comparison, we can add a single normal attack to it.

For the same price of two discipline and the same action and recovery time, penetrating strike give you a full attack, +25% damage, +4 pen.

Lower their guard give you a primary attack, crush damage, dazed affliction, and an effective +10 pen (as you lower armor by 10).

Full attack and primary attack are the same for us. The +25% is much less than the bonus crush damage (that scales with PL and benefits from the -10 armor). +10 pen instead of +4 speaks for itself, and dazed is added on top of all. And this is not taking into account the gap closing that saves you some walking time.

In conclusion, Lower their guard is much, much better than penetrating strike.

 

• Power strike>Inspired strike

That’s the second skill that I found very underrated. I imagine that players see the 4 discipline cost for a primary attack and freak out. But when you look at it, this is a really cost effective ability in the right setup, once you accept the idea that it is not meant to be spammed. It is a one hit wonder to be used as an opening move.

Lets break it down:

• Primary attack. Once again, good relative value with our fighting style.
• +100% damage, +4 pen. This is excellent compared to other melee abilities across all classes.
• Stuns the target.
• Aoe raw damage. This appears deceptively weak in the tooltip that shows only the base damage. But this damage scales with PL (hidden scaling), benefits from the +100% damage mentionned above, and can crit (very often thanks to our skyrocketing acc and Intuitive). It deals around 40-60 raw damage per enemy. If you take in consideration the instant cast time of melee attacks, this is great damage.
• Aoe stagger. This is a great defensive tool (lower ennemy daage output by a ton and engagement potential to zero) especially at the beginning of the fight where mobs are the most dangerous
• Self buffs: Tier 3 Dex Inspiration and Tier 2 Int Inspiration.

 

When we add up all these effects, and considering the fact that all this is achieved an almost instant cast/low recovery (due to it being a melee attack, and our attacks are very fast. The attack+recovery cycle is around 1.9/2sec), the cost of 4 discipline appears really, really low.

Obviously, all the afflictions and inspirations benefit a lot from our high int build, the durations are natively very long.

On top of that, we have a one-hit wonder that gather a lot of effects in one single cast. It makes an excellent candidate for an Empower point. And justifies taking lasting empower as well, and possibly potent empower if you have points to spare (it is the only ability in the game that made me take one of the empower improvement passives).

On paper, chopping wood looks also awesome for this ability, but unfortunately, the only thing that auto crits is the initial primary attack, not the raw damage or stagger/stun. And it competes with the other PL9 abilities, and you will crit most of the times without it anyways.

 

• Fighter Stances>Conqueror Stance.

I tend to stay most of the time in Conqueror stance, because +10 acc is great with our already really good acc. It negates the malus of Rapid Reload, and confirms a lot of crits with Mihn’s for more afflictions.

If you start getting engaged by multiple enemies, switch to defensive stance for reduced damage and keeping them locked.

 

These 4 skills are the core I use. A word on the others:

 

• Sundering blow: Decently interesting for tough enemies, can also interrupt in crit. I would say: take it alongside Inspired Strike at level 19. It has a situational use, but the debuff will last for a long time.

 

• Mule Kick / Clear Out: Good interrupts, but I already have interrupters in my party. If you play without a ranger or a rogue, or if you want to add even more variety pick one or the other early. As you crit a lot sundering blow often interrupts late game anyways.

 

• Unbending: Got nerfed hard (and it was deserved). In a party with decent support I never really felt the need to have it.

 

• Vigorous defense: Same, in a party I never felt the need to have more defense than what was provided by my support chars and constant recovery.

 

• Inspired discipline: Very expensive and you already get better effects from other sources in at least three stats.

 

• Take the hit was not tested, that is not really in the spirit of the build, and it competes with too many things on PL9

 

• Charge: After the nerf, I’d rather use boots of leap for gap closing. And you will have swift for most of the fight so you don’t really need mobility skills.

 

 

 

Passives:

 

There is a lot of good stuff.

- Two weapons fighting: Quite obvious

- Confident aim: Nice early boost

- Rapid Recovery : With our super long lasting Constant recovery, this is even more worth it

- Weapon Specialization: Moar damage is always nice

- Any of the defensive and affliction resistance passives depending on what you feel you need the most, and points you have left. 

- Armored grace: acting faster is a must for all characters

- Reaping the whirlwind: +1 resource is always nice

- Unbreakable: You get one joker per fight

- Lasting Empower: Great synergy with Empower Inspired Strike

- Potent Empower: Same thing, but take this only if you have spare points

- Prestige: 1 PL is always nice

 

Strategy and gameplay :

 

Get in Conq Stance, cast Disciplined Strikes followed by empowered Inspired Strike. This will give you Intuitive, Swift and Acute for a long duration, stun and deal high damage to an enemy, stagger the others, and soften them up with raw damage.

That is your standard opening.

From there, you have a lot of options and you tactical decisions will be critical. Try to tank a decent portion of enemy mobs to benefit from constant recovery and naturally high defenses. You can shoot at a weak target with Scordeo’s really fast, which will build up a nice action speed bonus. You can melee attack with Mihn’s to cause random afflictions and good damage. Use Swift Inspiration to get to weak target unchallenged.

When you need to deal decent burst fast and gap closing, try to use lower their guard immediately followed by an attack.

Swap from Conq stance do defensive if you feel the need to.

Use interrupt/prone abilities at the appropriate moment if you picked them.

Make use of per rest/per encounter items. My char always uses a summon figurine (he collects them as a hobby). Use grenades. Use scrolls. Have fun making a lot of different choices every time, depending on what your current party needs and what enemies you are fighting. Your very high accuracy and boosted stats will ensure maximum effect for the choices you make.

 

Conclusion:

 

From my initial intention to see if fighters were indeed dead in 1.1, I ended up having a blast of a playthrough, making the most of abilities that are typically underused and that proved to be dramatically underrated. I would highly recommend this build if you want to experience a decent challenge in PotD 1.1, without using broken combos or cheese nor actually gimping yourself, and to feel that what you actually do in combat matters, that you get rewarded for your good decisions and punished for your bad. And most of all, if you want to roleplay as an intelligent ship Captain, that is a great fighter, has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and is a fine tactician.

 

 

 

 

[Luvsucklonewolf]

Very detailed !! Thanks for the build ^^ I will definitely try it in my next playthrough!

[QuiteGoneJin]

Much rp flavour, I respect it heavily. For "Fair Favor" from Serafen did you need to follow the Pirate faction to get second level loyalty with him?

Edited June 20, 2018 by QuiteGoneJin

[Myrtillo]

Much rp flavour, I respect it heavily. For "Fair Favor" from Serafen did you need to follow the Pirate faction to get second level loyalty with him?

 

I remember getting it after I did his quest (with "best" ending aka we learn that the Gentleman was slaving and let Remaro go) + freeing the Huana slaves at Crookspur.

I also often go for smart and passionate dialogues, which Serafan likes, I don`t know if it had a major impact.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Myrtillo

[QuiteGoneJin]

Ok ty!

[QuiteGoneJin]

The only downside I see here is you're basically an auto-attacker till mid-late game. For me that's a little meh, but conceptually I love it and late game the not-so-used abilities are pretty cool. 

[Myrtillo]

The only downside I see here is you're basically an auto-attacker till mid-late game. For me that's a little meh, but conceptually I love it and late game the not-so-used abilities are pretty cool. 

 

To be fair, every class with limited ressources is kind of an auto-attacker until mid game (and even late sometimes) :D 

 

I actually did not find it to be boring, because of the capacity of constantly alterning pistol>sabre, with pistol building stacking speed bonus, and melee attacks giving afflictions. It is more than plain damaging auto-attacks. And I was constantly alterning between a skirmish style and face-tanking engaging ennemies in general, with the help of stances.

 

I found timing my Lower their Guard uses well really satisfying. I especially enjoy the instant combo shoot>pull>slash for a lot of early game burst (no recovery between those actions feels great).

 

And grenades/Scrolls/per rest abilities (items or watcher)/Summon figurines can offer a lot of variety right from the start of the game.

 

Only rarely I found myself thinking "damn, I have nothing better than an auto attack". Auto-attacks were made a lot but almost always as a decision, not as a default choice.

[QuiteGoneJin]

Neat combo, didnt get to try it cause the pull part has yet to land for me. but I wouldnt blame the build, I use deadly deadfire so my acc isnt as OP as it would be in the stock game. 

[Quickpawmaud]

is there a fast way to raise serafens reputation to get the hat or do i just have to complete his quest

[Quickpawmaud]

And would this work with a set of dual sabers and a set of dual pistols?

[Quickpawmaud]

seems like fleshmender and acinas tricorn could be great as well

[Myrtillo]

Fleshmender and Acina's are indeed excellent options.

 

About having a set of dual sabers>a set of dual pistols, it is not optimal, and I advise against it. The build was created specifically to make the most of Dual melee/pistol:

It does not benefit from dual melle and duel range as it doesn't use full attacks, and the switching time would be wasted.

 

And we want to cause those afflictions/stack action speed, so better attack with Mihn's/Scordeo on every attack, not every other attack.

 

You would have a lot of cons with virtually zero pros (the only I can think of is one extra pistol shot before reloading, which is negligeable)

 

Also, I find that dual wielding sabers looks silly and unrealistic, but that's just me.

[QuiteGoneJin]

Just curious, which enhancement did you chose for Min's Fortune? The crit dmg or random affliction? and would you go back and change your mind if you could? 

 

Edit: just for anyones info, I have horrid altitus and have a LOT of playtime and no game past lvl 12, this is the first character that feels sufficiently dynamic enough and has the stats for the RP I would normally like to do to identify with. Will probably be the first full playthrough. 

Edited June 21, 2018 by QuiteGoneJin

[Gruntle42]

What a fun build! I am going to give this a go on my next playthrough, where I'll be going with the Principi as my faction. I'm going to try to do similar pirate-y flavor builds for each story character I bring with me. 

 

I was thinking that a  blunderbuss might be a good early-game option, as the lower damage on it (due to the "shotgun" approach) might work well with the relatively lower might, at least until I get to No-Nut Ned and  Scordeo's pistol.