Pallegina crusader or herald

[Steampunkgears]

Right thelee mentioned this to me similarly where someone else starts the fight and I load up on Eldritch aim and some kind of other buffs I have yet to get. Any recommendations? And as for another companion getting a AR reducing ability I got to look at who and what to get skill wise or even equipment wise that might help.

[Ophiuchus]

I need to get back to work here in a few but here's some AR-lowering abilities:

-1 AR:
Flanked (positioning or PER Affliction or Phantom Foes (Cipher))
Rending Smash (Mace Modal)

-2 AR:

Hel-Hyraf/The Shield Cracks (Chanter; AoE)
Expose Vulnerabilities (Wizard; AoE)
Body Attunement (Cipher; single target)

 

-4 AR:
Rusted Armor (Druid; single target)

 

As for combat engagement, you can begin encounters with your party in Stealth to take advantage of the recovery bonus. Have your tanky character creep forward and toss a Sparkcracker a bit off to the side to clump enemies and keep their vision cones away from your backline. Dismiss Stealth on the tank to initiate combat and cluster enemies into a ball. From there, your Stealthed characters can cast buffs with minimal recovery time: I generally like to have Xoti cast Minor Avatar followed by Dire Blessing and other buffs depending on the situation (Holy Meditation to counter RES afflictions, for example); it's not a bad idea to have hard CC at the ready to keep the enemy group locked in that position.

Mind that this won't work in every encounter since some are scripted with spawning enemies and the like.


 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Ophiuchus

[AeonsLegend]

For me a crusader is more effective if you already have casters in your party. A chanter is nice, but a paladin that can kill quickly is more effective because it can continuously grant +12 to all defenses +4HP regen and +1 armor to everyone. It's also better in raw stats than a herald so more sturdy as well. Self regen, better stats.

 

I like to give Pallegina the crit build with Lord Darryn's Voulge, the power of money and the +10 accuracy from Ring of Focused Flame on fire attacks. (45% hit to crit conversion is pretty decent) Then go full tank mode. Can't kill her while she maims the enemy and buffs your party? Yes please.

Edited March 13, 2019 by AeonsLegend

[Boeroer]

Where do the 45% come from?

 

Power of Money does 15% max, Disciplined Barrage is 25% and Zealous Focus does 5%. Together they will give you a conversion chance of 39.44% (you can can multiply the changes to not convert and then substract 1 - it's one of the easiest ways to calculate the overall chance to convert: 0.85*0.75*0.95 = 0.6056 --> 0.6056 - 1 = -0.3944 --> your chance is 39.44%).

 

Conversion chances don't stack additively but get checked one after the other until one triggers or until they got all checked without success.

 

Did anybody count how often I did write that so far since PoE came out?

 

One reason why I almost never pick Exalted Focus nor Uncanny Luck.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

Where do the 45% come from?

25% from fighter Disciplined Strikes, 15% from The Power of Money (Ring of Prosperity's Fortune) and 5% from the passive Uncanny Luck. You need 200K gold to get the 15% as it scales of the money you have.

[Boeroer]

No.

 

See my edited post above. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Boeroer

[AeonsLegend]

Ok so it's 40% because of game mechanics. Still decent for a tank. She will often kill enemies and then trigger Inspired defenses. On this build I would reather not go Zealous focus because it doesn't really add much. Zealous Endurance is much more effective.

Edited March 13, 2019 by AeonsLegend

[Boeroer]

Indeed. Especially if you compare both upgrades. Exalted Focus is... funny at best. I mean it's party-wide so it can't go too high. But compared to Exalted Endurance...

Edited March 13, 2019 by Boeroer

[Arctur]

@Boeroer

 

Better take Exalted Charge with my Arcane Knight? (Pallegina is the one with EE.)

[Enurale]

A short answer: If you want a real Hard-tank (over defensive) choose crusader, if you want to a far better support/healer than crusader, than herald. (i have 3 chanter 3 paladin my my party on one of my playthrough, for 6 chant and 3 zealous aura)

Beside of this, i never be in need of super-heavy tank even for upscaled potd playthrough, but still in an all-ranged party, a self-sufficient hard tank can be very good againts mega bosses.

[AeonsLegend]

A short answer: If you want a real Hard-tank (over defensive) choose crusader, if you want to a far better support/healer than crusader, than herald. (i have 3 chanter 3 paladin my my party on one of my playthrough, for 6 chant and 3 zealous aura)

 

Beside of this, i never be in need of super-heavy tank even for upscaled potd playthrough, but still in an all-ranged party, a self-sufficient hard tank can be very good againts mega bosses.

To be fair you can make any combination work for you. I generally play without healer or support just to make the game at least a bit challenging. Going for multiple heralds in a party just makes it so you don't need skill to play because of how much defensive stats and sustain you get for free. I mean I'm currently running a party with myself as a devoted/bleak walker and then have Tekehu in the party as druid/chanter and the game has never been so easy. I have Maia in the party and Ishiza can face tank entire hordes of enemies and she hasn't died once. If you can do that do the squishiest party member in the game it's definitely broken.

[Boeroer]

@Boeroer

 

Better take Exalted Charge with my Arcane Knight? (Pallegina is the one with EE.)

Depends. Zealous Focus is ok. Only Exalted Focus is not really. I'd just spare the upgrade point and invest it into something else.

 

Although a lot of people underestimate how much impact higher movement speed has on melee dps (espacially if you can kill fast - most of your time spend will be running around). So Zealous/Exalted Charge can be a valid option.

[Arctur]

Thanks Boeroer; think I will try Exalted Charge this time.

[Verde]

Paladin. Light of Pure Zeal.

[Boeroer]

What's up with that? 

[Steampunkgears]

So far I am enjoying Pallegina as a crusader. Having tekehu with chants probably will make up for Pallegina not being a herald. If I did make her a herald I probably would of swapped tekehu for aloth. But at the same time I don't know how I would of built her if she was a herald. I need to come up with something for next time.