Help to pick 2 hander Main character

[Shrek]

Greeting Build Forum. 

I have been a visitor of this forum for a while, since PoE1 and have seen some great builds and advices posted, so I figured I would take a shot at asking for help myself.

Currently playing PoE1 to continue in Deadfire, playing a monk mostly due to the "per encounter" limit  of the other melee class that annoyed me. But I am in a conundrum to pick the future class in Deafire (quite frankly spent my last week at work trying to figure this one out.)

 

I have seen some great build idea around but unfortunatly I lack the time to try lots of them, and most are for previous version of Deadfire.

 

My heart is set on a multiclass with Fighter as one of them, wielding a greasword.Probably Devoted though I could be convinced to go for Tactician, I am not sure how Power source hungry fights are. The problem comes when selecting the second class. I am trying to find something engaging & fun to play  - I like to interact with my main character in combat rather than just let it on AI mode. If it is not optimal, that's Ok.

 

Here is what I have already roughly decided.
 

Role: Frontline Damage dealer with decent survivability
Weapons: Greatsword

Difficulty: probably hard, though I could be tempted  by PotD, depends how much it is punishing with a suboptimal build

Race&Stats: Aumaua, with high MIGHT, good CONST, DEX, PER, average INT, can dump RES to 8 (for RP reason mostly)

Party: I tried not to spoil myself too much there, but I'll play with the companions you get.

Classes:

Here is the issue. So Multi class.

 

Class 1: Fighter, devoted to Greatsword. Could be convinced by tactician.

 

Class2: Hesitating betweem Helwalker, Shatterd Pillars, Barbarian, KindWayfarer (for RP reason), Streetfighter, and Soul Blade.

 

My thinking so far:

• Monk gets Swift Strike, wich helps with the Greatsword. Helwalker looks interesting, the more you get damaged, the more punishment you dish out. Survavibility may be a concern but I guess Turning Wheels will help the fighter recovery with the INT. May be a bit late in the game, thats why I am also considering Shattered Pillars. Less damage but more survivable. Also concerned that it is a bit dull to play.
  Helwalker synergizes well with the Burden greatsword, but no idea how early you can get it.
   
• Barbarian, looks like you get tons of way to reduced your weapon recovery. Frenzy of course helps too, but from what I have read so far survivability and accuracy might be an issue.

• KindWayfarer looks fun, Accuracy is clearly not an issue then, Survivability is good and you can get a couple of good "support" abilities if need be. A bit concern by the necessity to cast Sworn Rival too often and it might limit my gameplay.  You get a way to recover your Zeal at ne point too. I like to play Benevolent, but if you cross me or backstab me, well ain't gonna end well for you. So I get Agressive points and not sure how punishing it is. Also I know Palegrina is back and I like her in my party, so might be too much paladin?
   
• Streetfighter, mostly because I have read how crazy the combination is. Not too sure how easy it is to activate its feature and more importantly how not to get the recovery malus.
   
• Soulblade looks devastating with Soul annihilation, but then you don't cast other spells and therefore it feels like a bit of a one trick pony to me.

Thanks for your help and your suggestions. Of course, if you have another second class to suggest, I can be convinced but these seems to be the more melee focused one. Regarding the equipment, I have no idea, but I am definitely set on Greatswords, at least 2 handed weapons. 
 

I am not looking for the most optimal build, more something engaging and that feels strong and powerful. 

If the post is in the wrong part of the forum, Mods feel free to move it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crumbleton]

I'd suggest a barbarian, just because I love barbarians...

 

But with frenzy, higher penetration with beserker and devoted, and the fighters accuracy boost for graze to hit and the barbarians hit to crit accuarcy isn't to much of an issue.

 

You'll be able to smash, attack fast, be tanky , and just be awesome overall. You won't be locked into dialogue choices like paladins, aren't reliant on weird positioning things like rogues, or have to deal with the squishyness of helwalker. Brute is probably one of my top multiclass options you'll just be ****ing awesome.

 

You come online really early as a brute multiclass too you'll get access to cleaving stance and blood thirst early which means after one kill you just statt going crazy in a group.

 

 

Streetfighter is nuts too but I hate having to be flanked or bloodied, it's not hard to do, I just like the option of not having to deal with that. Although if you're fine with that they're insane.

[Exanos]

If you want to be a frontliner, I would probably pick trickster or soulblade :

 

• Trickster : lot of sellbuff increasing your deviation. Good for riposte (you have one riposte from rogue talent, one from a 2handed blade you can get very early), kind of offset the low speed of 2h.

 

• Soulblade (or another cipher)  : versatility : charm, buff, cc, damage. Give you a (great) bit of everything.

 

If you don't neccessary want to be a frontliner , i would suggest assassin and creating havoc in their backline with 2h backstab. Bring a cipher for casting brillance on you and have fun!

[Shrek]

Thanks for the responses. 

I have spend some more time playing with build ideas. It hink a riposte build can be really powerfull but i would probably build my party tank more in that line if possible (Looking at you Eder). 
 

Brute seems to have good action speed potential, but do the action speef from Frenzy and Blood thirst stack? What about th ecarnage and the Mob stance? Isn't it a bit of an overlap?

Looking at the Helwalker seconds class, you can rely have some fun synergies with the Duality of mortal Presence, with + 10 MIGHT and +10 INT, which helps the recovery the Fighter recovery. But is that enough to counter the + 50% damage taken? Also I was womdering if the Swift furry no recovery chance stacks with the one from Heart beat or you just get the best of the two? 

I have looked at build suggestiosn for soulblade. The one I found hardly take any active abilities from the Cipher Line. Mostly focusing on Soul annihilation.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

The only thing I'd suggest is that you consider taking Morningstar instead of greatsword. The modal is incredibly useful.

[Crumbleton]

Thanks for the responses. 

 

I have spend some more time playing with build ideas. It hink a riposte build can be really powerfull but i would probably build my party tank more in that line if possible (Looking at you Eder). 

 

Brute seems to have good action speed potential, but do the action speef from Frenzy and Blood thirst stack? What about th ecarnage and the Mob stance? Isn't it a bit of an overlap?

 

Looking at the Helwalker seconds class, you can rely have some fun synergies with the Duality of mortal Presence, with + 10 MIGHT and +10 INT, which helps the recovery the Fighter recovery. But is that enough to counter the + 50% damage taken? Also I was womdering if the Swift furry no recovery chance stacks with the one from Heart beat or you just get the best of the two? 

 

I have looked at build suggestiosn for soulblade. The one I found hardly take any active abilities from the Cipher Line. Mostly focusing on Soul annihilation.

So bloodthirst is an immediate attack when you kill something, so carnage providing AoE damage + bloodthirst (or mob stance) creates a kind of chain reaction of explosions when you get people low life, combined with you being able to crit stuff fairly easy at low hp you can plow through multiple enemies.  Now mobstance and bloodthirst don't stack but you can still benefit from the 15% recovery time if you want, but myself i like to use guardian stance and get the extra engagements and % damage reduction because once i get a kill you start chaining them and it makes you fairly tanky, if anyone tries to disengage you get a free attack on them too.

 

I like making Bruisers a lot, people who can throw down good damage and be really difficult to take down  i use the Reckless brigand armor on my brute atm, and it increases my armor and damage as my health gets lower and makes me attack faster the more people I engange, so it really goes well with the Barbarian chassis.  You can do a lot more focused builds on specific items etc, but I tend to like builds that are effective through out the entire game / come online early so a brute really works great for that, and when you get higher level you get access to a ton of great things too.

[Shrek]

I think I'm down to 2 potential concepts:

 

Brawler with Greatsword or Brute with Morningstar.

Whilst the idea of a swashbuckler still is attractive, I can't help but picture it as a dual wielding saber character, with may be 2 pistols as a second set.

 

I have come down to make a lsit of PROS and CONS based on the Helwalker and Berserker subclass, to differientiate them (assuming all other thing being equals, and a base 10 INT)

Brawler with Greasword, Burden / Whisper of the Endless Path

PROS

• Action speed bonus: 15% and +5 DEXT so +30% action speed for 10 sec ( with Duality of Soul, 10 Wounds, that's up to 15 sec)
• Free full attack: 33% if Critting (Swift fury) +25% if Critting (Heartbeat Drumming coming late Power lvl 7) . Not sure if they stack or not
• Tenacious inspiration with Thundering blows 
• +10 MIGHT +10 INT at 10 wounds, without Tenacious inspiration (Should be easy to activate the Burden Enchant ). Really good for the Fighter Recovery (+30% healing, + 50% duration)

​CONS

• that +50% damages taken

Brute with Morningstar

PROS

• Action speed bonus: 25% for 15 sec ( with Confused from Berserker Frenzy, you lose on duration). By the time you get Blood Storm, no issue with duration. 20% extra on kill for 10 sec from Bloodlust. Not sure if they stack.
• Free full attack: on kill with Crushing blow attack (Better than Barbaric Smash?). On kill with Blood Thrist  but coming at Power lvl 7 (and not sure if only once or not. I assume so)
• Tenacious and Fit inspiration with Frenzy
• + 25 Acc with the Morningstar Modal when you get Brute Force. That's kinda nuts
• Various source of Hits to Crits and extra Crits damage.

​CONS

• Frenzy hides your Endurance
• Confused from Frenzy really sucks cause you lose on duration of Frenzy and the fighter Recovery, and not sure how to counter hit easily and reliantly
• Raw damage from Frenzy but that's manageable with fighter Recovery I guess

​

 

[Kaylon]

If you go with brute then pick berserker/devoted and use Lord Darryn's Voulge (no immunities against its dual damage) for maximum AoE destruction potential (using Clear Out). Get also Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (With Mechanical Mind/Devil's Due enchantments), Helm of the Falcon  and Abraham pet for faster recovery.

[Shrek]

Is it more worth it than Morningstar modal? Also not sure how does multi class works with soul bound weapons. You get both the fighter and the barbarian soul bound upgrades?

[Boeroer]

Depends. Body Blows works very well with stuff like Mule Kick. But until you get Clear Out you won't do much AoE dmg compared to the Voulge (besides Carnage).

 

But if you have party members who profit a lot from lowering a single enemy's fortitude (and will) as well then the Morning Star (in this case Willbreaker, combined with Spirit Frenzy and also a Yell/Shout) is a great option in order to have a great damage/debuff mix in my opinion.

 

Once you get Clear Out (and use it as your go-to dmg skill) I like Willbreaker better in general because I ususally value a stackable -25 debuff on fortitude in an AoE above the Voulge's multiple stacking of Static Thunder (which is pretty great though - I mean you will apply Static Thunder AoEs with every of the Clear Out hits because of Carnage).

 

It's just two different approaches/roles. dmg/debuff or pure dmg.

 

I guess the Voulge has more appeal to most people because the dmg numbers are pretty awesome and the strategy is very simple - while the bonuses of the Morning Star are somewhat obscured and need more timing and teamwork to really shine.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Boeroer

[Shrek]

That’s good advices, thanks everyone.

 

It seems Brute wins over Brawler, I’ll have to resort to decide which weapon looks cooler....

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Yeah, partly it depends on the rest of your party -- if you have a Combusting Wounds wizard or Disintegrate cipher in your party, the Morningstar's fortitude debuff becomes amazing. If you want your PC to shine with massive aoe lightning damage, then the voulge. 

 

I generally give the voulge to tekehu though.

[Boeroer]

I forgot to answer the question about Soulbounds with multiclasses:

 

When you bind the Soulbound you decide to which class you bind it to. I mean if both classes are allowed to bind it in the first place. So as Brute you have to decide if you want to bind the Voulge to your Fighter or your Barb class.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Boeroer

[Shrek]

Then the Pollaxe clearly needs to be bound as a barbarian. 

 

I might try a first playthrough as a Brawler (roughly the lady of Pain build), collect enough achievement for the Berath Blessings for loads of cash, to play as a Brute and with the Devil of Caroc armor, not care about the Confused inspiration.

 

Cheers for all the feedback!

[Kaylon]

Then the Pollaxe clearly needs to be bound as a barbarian. 

 

I might try a first playthrough as a Brawler (roughly the lady of Pain build), collect enough achievement for the Berath Blessings for loads of cash, to play as a Brute and with the Devil of Caroc armor, not care about the Confused inspiration.

 

Cheers for all the feedback!

Personally I prefer to bind it to the fighter - it triggers a storm once per encounter (when you go under 50%hp) which can also do huge AoE damage. The barbarian gets only a small debuff instead.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Kaylon

[MaxQuest]

Personally I prefer to bind it to the fighter - it triggers a storm once per encounter (when you go under 50%hp) which can also do huge AoE damage. The barbarian gets only a small debuff instead.

Btw, when you are below 50%, can you swap to Darryn's Voulge, auto-trigger the storm, and swap back to whatever weapons you had?

Or you need to get below 50% while wielding that pollaxe?

Edited February 28, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Kaylon]

 

Personally I prefer to bind it to the fighter - it triggers a storm once per encounter (when you go under 50%hp) which can also do huge AoE damage. The barbarian gets only a small debuff instead.

Btw, when you are below 50%, can you swap to Darryn's Voulge, auto-trigger the storm, and swap back to whatever weapons you had?

Or you need to get below 50% while wielding that pollaxe?

 

Never tested, but I don't think it will work.

[Boeroer]

Afair you have to have the Voulge equipped at the moment you traverse from >= 50% to < 50%.

 

You can switch once you sense that this will happen soon and then switch back to whatever weapon - but there's some timing and anticipation involved and so it's much more fiddly than your variant no. 1.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Boeroer

[heldred]

If you go with brute then pick berserker/devoted and use Lord Darryn's Voulge (no immunities against its dual damage) for maximum AoE destruction potential (using Clear Out). Get also Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (With Mechanical Mind/Devil's Due enchantments), Helm of the Falcon  and Abraham pet for faster recovery.

 

Is it me, or does a fighter/mage (buffed with Eldrich Aim, Arcane V, Deleterious, Iron Skin, Citzals Martial... and Llengraths and Arcane Reflect if needing more defense) using Citzals Lance hit harder with ClearOut/Mob Stance (compared to zerker/brute) and have 3x the survivability?

[Kaylon]

 

If you go with brute then pick berserker/devoted and use Lord Darryn's Voulge (no immunities against its dual damage) for maximum AoE destruction potential (using Clear Out). Get also Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (With Mechanical Mind/Devil's Due enchantments), Helm of the Falcon  and Abraham pet for faster recovery.

 

Is it me, or does a fighter/mage (buffed with Eldrich Aim, Arcane V, Deleterious, Iron Skin, Citzals Martial... and Llengraths and Arcane Reflect if needing more defense) using Citzals Lance hit harder with ClearOut/Mob Stance (compared to zerker/brute) and have 3x the survivability?

 

The lance hits harder and the wizard has better defenses, however he needs time to prepare and it can become tedious in the long run. On the other hand the voulge does dual damage and the barbarian has better attack speed. Overall I don't think there's a clear winner in terms of dps.

[Boeroer]

Drawback of the Voulge: won't raise beyond superb quality. I personally don't care that much, but it's a thing.

 

The advantage is that you can get it to higher quality and enchantment levels while being a low lvl char - which you can't do with Spirit Lance (and you have to get the spell in the first place).

Edited March 1, 2019 by Boeroer

[Shrek]

Do you think that Brute or Brawler can do fine in PoTD? I was thinking Brawler first on Veteran, Brute with Berath Blessings in PoTD.
 

[Exanos]

I'm actually trying a 2h tactician/assassin in a party and it's a lot of fun! Neverending ressource with brilliant is easy to trigger allowing a lot of flexibility for burst damage/cc/dot/inspiration/invisibility/mobility.... You have it all!

 

I found it a lot easier than my previous skaen/assassin or pure assassin run.

 

Just bring a cipher for phantom foe

[MaxQuest]

Afair you have to have the Voulge equipped at the moment you traverse from >= 50% to < 50%.

I was thinking about using it for the proc on a wayfarer/tactician moon godlike. He drops low for a moment due to Sacred Immolation, and quickly heals back.

 

But the thing is: the switch has to be automated... because if I spend extra time on micro, this voulge-trick doesn't decrease the real-time spent on combat much.

 

Drawback of the Voulge: won't raise beyond superb quality. I personally don't care that much, but it's a thing.

It's definitely a thing, but there is a mod for that

Just keep yourself from unlocking last level too early)

 

---------------

 

Btw, regarding Clear Out: did you notice that it makes a Primary Attack first, and then follows with a cone attack? So it's kinda hitting the main target twice.

Edited March 1, 2019 by MaxQuest

[Boeroer]

Yes, the initial target gets twice the damage. A bit like Whispers of the Endless Paths was doing before nerf.