Pallegina herald build question PoTD

[siema87]

Ok, so I am looking for a way to fit Pallegina into my party

MC - shadowdancer

Aloth - wizard

Tekehu - theurge

Maia - scout

 

Want her to make herald as utility/support. Only found this build

 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102541-companion-build-tuono-e-fulmine/ 

which looks interesting but playstyle doesn't really suit me. Any advice how can I build her, what weapons etc. without any combinations with disengagement  

Edited December 28, 2018 by siema87

[Marigoldran]

It doesn't matter.  You can't go wrong with a herald as long as you give her heavy armor, a shield, and give her summon invocations and Lay of Hands.

[Boeroer]

What is your goal? I mean how do you want to support?

 

You can makes herald a fantastic passive offensive support (stack Shared Flames + Mith Fyr + Zealous Focus) or passive healing support (stack Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance). Or you just switch between that as you like.

 

If you have more than one gun or crossbow user (like Maia) in the party you might also want to give Sure Handed Ila a shot (pun intended).

 

Besides that you can't go wrong with a tanky, high AR setup + shield since your passive supports won't suffer at all. Pick up Sasha's Singing Scimitar for the per-encounter-empowered I and you are set.

 

But even a second row guy with pike or quarterstaff or a mid-ranged missile weapon user can be good.

 

So what exactly do you want to play your Herald?

[Zymos]

What is your goal? I mean how do you want to support?

 

You can makes herald a fantastic passive offensive support (stack Shared Flames + Mith Fyr + Zealous Focus) or passive healing support (stack Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance). Or you just switch between that as you like.

 

If you have more than one gun or crossbow user (like Maia) in the party you might also want to give Sure Handed Ila a shot (pun intended).

 

Besides that you can't go wrong with a tanky, high AR setup + shield since your passive supports won't suffer at all. Pick up Sasha's Singing Scimitar for the per-encounter-empowered I and you are set.

 

But even a second row guy with pike or quarterstaff or a mid-ranged missile weapon user can be good.

 

So what exactly do you want to play your Herald?

 

If you were to make a custom Herald built for this passive tanky healing setup of yours, how would you assign their attributes?

[siema87]

What is your goal? I mean how do you want to support?

 

You can makes herald a fantastic passive offensive support (stack Shared Flames + Mith Fyr + Zealous Focus) or passive healing support (stack Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance). Or you just switch between that as you like.

 

If you have more than one gun or crossbow user (like Maia) in the party you might also want to give Sure Handed Ila a shot (pun intended).

 

Besides that you can't go wrong with a tanky, high AR setup + shield since your passive supports won't suffer at all. Pick up Sasha's Singing Scimitar for the per-encounter-empowered I and you are set.

 

But even a second row guy with pike or quarterstaff or a mid-ranged missile weapon user can be good.

 

So what exactly do you want to play your Herald?

Well ok thanks, that's what I had in mind. Didn't know there are so many options. Cleared up a bit things for me. Gonna build her as I go and will see.

[Boeroer]

 

What is your goal? I mean how do you want to support?

 

You can makes herald a fantastic passive offensive support (stack Shared Flames + Mith Fyr + Zealous Focus) or passive healing support (stack Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance). Or you just switch between that as you like.

 

If you have more than one gun or crossbow user (like Maia) in the party you might also want to give Sure Handed Ila a shot (pun intended).

 

Besides that you can't go wrong with a tanky, high AR setup + shield since your passive supports won't suffer at all. Pick up Sasha's Singing Scimitar for the per-encounter-empowered I and you are set.

 

But even a second row guy with pike or quarterstaff or a mid-ranged missile weapon user can be good.

 

So what exactly do you want to play your Herald?

If you were to make a custom Herald built for this passive tanky healing setup of yours, how would you assign their attributes?

Maxed MIG and INT.

 

If supposed tank also highish RES.

 

If own damage potential doesn't matter then you can dump PER and DEX and put everything into MIG, INT, RES rest CON. You can still send in summons to deal damage which will work independently from your stats but profit a lot from healing and/or lashes support.

[Zymos]

 

 

What is your goal? I mean how do you want to support?

 

You can makes herald a fantastic passive offensive support (stack Shared Flames + Mith Fyr + Zealous Focus) or passive healing support (stack Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance). Or you just switch between that as you like.

 

If you have more than one gun or crossbow user (like Maia) in the party you might also want to give Sure Handed Ila a shot (pun intended).

 

Besides that you can't go wrong with a tanky, high AR setup + shield since your passive supports won't suffer at all. Pick up Sasha's Singing Scimitar for the per-encounter-empowered I and you are set.

 

But even a second row guy with pike or quarterstaff or a mid-ranged missile weapon user can be good.

 

So what exactly do you want to play your Herald?

If you were to make a custom Herald built for this passive tanky healing setup of yours, how would you assign their attributes?

Maxed MIG and INT.

 

If supposed tank also highish RES.

 

If own damage potential doesn't matter then you can dump PER and DEX and put everything into MIG, INT, RES rest CON. You can still send in summons to deal damage which will work independently from your stats but profit a lot from healing and/or lashes support.

 

 

I was thinking of making it a Troubadour / Goldpact with a focus on tanky stats (athletics for Cadhu Scaldth, history for Giftbearer's Cloak) and maxed AR wherever possible.

I am unsure if she would have time to smack things with a morningstar to debuff them or if summoning / lay of hands would take all her action economy. Got any thoughts on that?

 

Also, the hardest question to answer is what her CON score should be. It feels like a great early game crutch when the heals are trash, but mid and late game she won't need CON at all. I've for instance seen Herald builds that dump CON to 3 entirely.

Is this the case and what would you go for?

[Marigoldran]

10 Con so she can't be burst down.  Otherwise, yes to everything that you just said.  

 

Also, if you aren't soloing consider a monk to complement your herald.  They complement well together as they're both tanky and the herald can heal the monk and distract with summons.  

Edited December 28, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

Your plan with Goldpact etc. sounds solid.

 

I think you won't hit stuff with weapons a lot if you go all defense and high AR. So don't plan to use a weapon too often. I think you will be occupied with other stuff than hitting.

 

If your defenses and healing is nice you won't need a lot of CON. Just keep in mind that dumping DEX and PER "only" lowers your reflex (which goes back up with a large shield and is not a defense against afflictons in the first place, mostly AoE damage) while dumping CON will lower your fortitude which makes you vulnerable to weakening,stunning etc.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Boeroer

[Marigoldran]

That is a relevant point, Boeroer, but the reason we use a herald is because they're tanky and they summon.  They can kill enemies on their own with Brand Enemy (infinite damage DOT that auto-hits and only cost 1 zeal- so no need for perception there), though it takes a while.  But the general strategy is to combine the herald with another solid tanky striker like a monk to do the damage while the herald supports with heals and summons.  

Edited December 28, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

Eh? I don't think I posted something contradictory. In fact what I wanted to say is pretty much in line with your statement. In case my post was confusing I now added a sentence to be more clear.

 

Edit: gruesome typos, sorry...

Edited December 28, 2018 by Boeroer

[Ensign]

 

Maxed MIG and INT.

 

If supposed tank also highish RES.

 

If own damage potential doesn't matter then you can dump PER and DEX and put everything into MIG, INT, RES rest CON. You can still send in summons to deal damage which will work independently from your stats but profit a lot from healing and/or lashes support.

 

 

I would advise against dumping DEX even if you don't care about your damage output - 8 second recovery after every Lay on Hands is *painful*.

 

PER can pretty safely go though if you're doing a summons and heals guy.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Ensign

[Zymos]

Your plan with Goldpact etc. sounds solid.

 

I think you won't hit stuff with weapons a lot if you go all defense and high AR. So don't plan to use a weapon too often. I think you will be occupied with other stuff than hitting.

 

If your defenses and healing is nice you won't need a lot of CON. Just keep in mind that dumping DEX and PER "only" lowers your reflex (which goes back up with a large shield and is not a defense against afflictons in the first place, mostly AoE damage) while dumping CON will lower your fortitude which makes you vulnerable to weakening,stunning etc.

 

It's the act of putting an actual number that is difficult for me. Would keeping CON at 10 be recommended then? And what about DEX vs PER, what's the most important for a Herald?

[Ensign]

 

It's the act of putting an actual number that is difficult for me. Would keeping CON at 10 be recommended then? And what about DEX vs PER, what's the most important for a Herald?

 

 

PER matters if you're planning on using offensive invocations.  Hel-Hyraf for armor reduction, Killers Froze Stiff for the paralyze, and Seven Nights / Winds for the big AoE nukes are all very good spells that you may or may not want to use; if you do, PER is something you'll want to invest in.

 

DEX affects action speed.  A Herald is generally not action speed constrained - it takes a while to rebuild phrases to cast an invocation and your paladin actives aren't things you generally want to spam.  So if you really want to min-max a chanter tank, you can dump DEX and set them to passive, so they never auto-attack and you have reasonable responsiveness when you want to cast something important.  If you plan on auto-attacking though, I suggest not dumping DEX - the recovery from each attack becomes prohibitive and it's not worth the long downtime when you might need a Lay on Hands or Exhortation.

[siema87]

Any passive paladin abilities that are good pick ? Also is glorious beacon worth it?

Edited December 28, 2018 by siema87

[Marigoldran]

Just pick all of the paladin unique passives (especially Stoic Steel and the various unique Paladin defense upgrades, along with Lay of Hands and Brand Enemy.  Save your zeal for Lay of hands and Brand Enemy, which means you don't need any of the other Paladin Zeal costing skills.  Glorious Beacon is NOT worth it because if you use it you have fewer Zeal for Lay of Hands.  

 

Pick up some of the longer-lasting summons from chanter (Drake, Ogre, wurms- don't get Wisps)  and Ancient Memory and whatever other chant you want and you're good to go.  

 

Unlike other builds Heralds don't rely on any specific item or "trick."  A herald is a super tanky regenerating healbot tank that summons and gives out DOTs to enemies, which means that when things go to shi- in combat, and it will, they will ALWAYS be effective regardless of the situation.  Their power comes from their tankiness, flexibility and ease of use.  No tricks required.  You don't have to worry about positioning.  You don't have to worry about cooldowns or refreshing spells.  You can mindlessly walk it into a pack of enemies and it'll be fine.   Set the AI to summon stuff, and just sit there, occasionally giving out Lay of hands.  It's a class of pure tankiness and solidity. 

 

Whether or not you want Dex depends on if you're soloing.  If you're in a party you don't need dex, but if you're soloing you do, so that you can get your summons out faster, and not be interrupted by enemy attacks.  

 

The only stat you really need as a Herald is INT for longer summon durations.  For anything else, just keep them at 10 and for your extra points put them into Per just because Per is always useful if only to find traps and loot.   

 

Don't bother dumping a stat.  There's no point as a herald.  All of it's somewhat useful.  

Edited December 29, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Boeroer]

If you want to support your party with a decent burning lash you'll need Flames of Devotion and then its upgrade Shared Flames - plus Mith Fyr (chant).

 

With high INT Shared Flames' duration is quite good so you won't use too much Zeal on it. I'd also use Zealous Focus then.

 

If you want to go the healing route mostly you don't need it - but Exalted Endurance.

[Climhazzard]

My Herald is usually something like ShieldBearer/Troubadour with 18 might/intelligence and 12 resolve.  18 might is necessary for Ancient memory to heal over 1hp per tick when you first get it, and 18 intelligence allows you to overlap your chants for when you get mercy and kindness, plus high intelligence helps it hit more party members.  

 

After that I'll either wear items that further boost might and healing, or that reduce recovery.  A low recovery is nice so that your lay on hands is responsive while letting your character cast and/or attack normally.

 

The one Herald is the only custom I'll take.  I'd actually been considering how to use Palegina instead because I don't like taking customs, but her stats/sublasses aren't near as good for it, so I hadn't thought it through all the way yet.