Advice on main character

[Tadamalley]

About to start up my first playthrough, and although I played PoE1 and am familiar with the game to a point, the classes and abilities are a bit overwhelming.

 

I am looking to make a melee main, I am fond of greatsword, however dual wielding is not a deal breaker if its significantly better.

 

Prefer a bit of tankiness, but a little heavier on damage than tank, somewhat of an offtank/striker. If aoe capability can be there, great.

 

Had thought brute (devoted/base barb) or brawler (devoted/helwalker)

 

Main concerns,

 

as a greatsword user can you pump perception at the cost of might and use the modal for a net gain in damage? Or is the 30% bonus restricted to just weapon swings and not abilities?

 

If you go Morningstar with brute, is the modal to do fort damage worth the 25% damage loss?

 

Do the stacking wounds and incoming damage increase not an issue for the helwalker? Or is it something that is manageable as you level?

 

I do want to avoid total gimmick builds that only work with a certain weapon, however I realize that there will be certain weapons that will be bread and butter for certain builds.

 

Any advice or feedback is welcomed, thanks!

Edited January 7, 2019 by Tadamalley

[Boeroer]

The modal of the Morning Star is def. worth it:

 

- Barbs get Brute Force

- Fighters' Mulke Kick targets Fortitude

- Monks' Force of Anguish targets Fortitude

 

Helwalker's increased damage is an issue. With Constant Recovery and later Unbending it becomes manageable though.

 

A nice combo can be Devoted/Berserker if you get the Devil of Caroc Breastplate to remove Confusion entirely and then aim for the Sanguine Great Sword to counter the self damage of the Barb or use a Morning Star and counter the self damage with Savage Defiance, Constant Recovery and Unbending.

 

The modal of great swords only works for the weapon attacks with the great sword itself. Actually it's a pretty bad modal.

 

If you lower your MIG by 10 points and push PER by 10 (just in theory now) and use the modal you would do the same weapon damage as with unaltered stats. But your healings would be worse (because of low MIG) as would be you non-weapon damage and your accuracy with non-weapon attacks would be higher. Also your Fortitude would be lower but your reflex higher.

All in all I wouldn't recommend it at all.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Boeroer

[Ensign]

Devoted / Barbarian or Devoted / Monk are the only combos I would consider a greatsword on. Don't worry about the modal, it is only a damage boost against trash on low difficulties.

 

The incoming damage is an issue for a melee Helwalker. I personally think it is a better combo with a spellcaster (which benefits more from the additional might) or a Paladin which is tanky enough to not care. For a Devoted / Monk i would use Nalpazca or vanilla.

[Tadamalley]

Is single weapon style, (most likely sabre) a valid option? Mainly for the hit to crits? Or do you just lose out too much vs a 2hander or dual wield?

[Tadamalley]

Double post

Edited January 8, 2019 by Tadamalley

[Ensign]

Is single weapon style, (most likely sabre) a valid option? Mainly for the hit to crits? Or do you just lose out too much vs a 2hander or dual wield?

The hit to crit is actually the main reason it isn't competitive with dual wield or two handers, on paper - it is a much weaker trait than two handed and two weapon styles. All else equal, single sabre is around 10% less DPS than a two handed sword or dual sabres. The extra accuracy does make it more reliable, however, and the use of a strong one hander for all your attacks instead of switching back and forth between two weapons can definitely make up that 10% difference.

 

I haven't run the numbers explicitly but I would suspect a single high damage sabre (say, Tarn's Respite) would out-perform any unique greatsword in a broad spectrum simulation. Dual wield devoted falls behind single weapon devoted for similar reasons, I bet - it's really hard to find a weapon type where both weapons are close enough in power to outweigh just using the better one more often.

[Boeroer]

I'd only use single weapon style if I had a weapon that procs something on hits and/or crits or on kill and I wanted to make sure that I always hit/crit/kill with this weapon (like Blade Cascade from Scordeo's Edge or so).  

[Haplok]

But even then a melee / pistol or BB combo is competitive with much faster Recovery.

[Ensign]

That's a good point, melee + ranged dual wielding should generally outperform single weapon unless you need those extra crits to penetrate armor.