(Paladin or Fighter) - Ranger melee

[Taldan35]

Hey guys ! I'm looking for a new hero for the party I'm building.

 

I love playing pet classes. I love playing a character with a strong bond with an animal. Usually a dragon or a wolf. Here it'll be wolf, obviously.

I love playing my character in melee, beeing the leader of the group, steadfast, going in the thick of the fight with his allies and pet, beeing able to both dish deadly blows and support my allies. I really loved the bromance between my char and Edér in PoE1, and I want to keep it, with both those characters going in a fight together and all that. (I was just a bit bummed by Edér not ever mentioning my pet in PoE1, considering he loves animals and all, I hope this will be different in this game )

I am greatly hesitating currently between a Hunter (Fighter / Ranger) and a Shepherd (Paladin / Ranger) no subclasses. Stalker doesn't seem to scale well at higher levels (+5 deflection and 1 AR doesn't seem big for not beeing able to go away from my pet during a fight).
I love the fact that Paladin has a lot of support for his group, and good survivability, but am not really sure I love the whole holy-god-zealot lore around the class. Beeing tied to an order is also a bit of a let-down, since I'm lord of Caed Nua, I should be free. Do you know any character that do not have this mindset and is a paladin in the lore ? I also am more willing to go towards dual wielding DPS (sword / hatchet, or sword / club with a torch for free fire damage) than a tank, but I want to be able to stay alive more than 3 seconds in melee.

That is why I am considering going Hunter too, as a Fighter is a good melee option. I just fear the dullness of the class pairing, knowing how fighter was a bit underwhelming in PoE1, looking more like a big brute, like barbarian...

It doesn't have to be the most min-maxed ever, I am playing on PoTD, but I am using a mod to play with 6 characters, so the game won't be as hard as it should be (not a big fan of the 5 characters limitation).

So this is more of a lore-wise hesitation than a gameplay wise, but gameplay is still important. What would you chose, and why ?

Edited June 2, 2019 by Taldan35

[Jayd]

59 minutes ago, Taldan35 said:

Stalker doesn't seem to scale well at higher levels (+5 deflection and 1 AR doesn't seem big for not beeing able to go away from my pet during a fight).

Not sure what your reasoning is here. Defenses and passive AR are two things in the game that do scale exceptionally well at high levels. The higher your deflection is the more +5 deflection matters. And an extra point of AR can give you 25% damage reduction at any level. Since both Paladins and Fighters can make good work of AR and deflection I think Stalker is exactly what you want. Notice that the penalty is only incurred when you are more than 7m from your pet, and why would you be?

Wolf is also a squishy pet and Stalker + Exalted Endurance + Lay on Hands (or Kind Wayfarer Flames of Devotion) would make keeping it alive much easier.

Edited June 2, 2019 by Jayd

[Taldan35]

Oh then it seems I haven't understood the maths behind how deflection and AR work.

Could you explain it more specifically ? Why is +5 deflection more useful when I already have 80 than when I have only 20 for instance ?

 

I just read on the wiki what AR really is, and it seems I indeed misunderstood completely how it works. I thought it was some kind of damage reduction, while in fact it seems like a check to see if I take 130%, 100%, or down to -75% damage.  Indeed 1 point seems way more interesting than I thought

So are you saying I'd better go Stalker / Kind Wayfarer then ?

 

Thank you so much for your inputs it's really helpful

Edited June 2, 2019 by Taldan35

[Jayd]

Glad I could help. This page should explain the defenses issue (and that guide as a whole is the best one there is for Deadfire). Wayfarer would be good because of the extra healing but any Paladin would work. Make sure you pick one you'd enjoy roleplaying because of the disposition mechanic.

[Taldan35]

Thanks a lot !

But, lore-wise, are paladins zealots that hit themselves on the back with a whip any time they think about a girl or something ? That's what have been bothering me the most about picking the class

[Enoch]

15 hours ago, Taldan35 said:

Thanks a lot !

But, lore-wise, are paladins zealots that hit themselves on the back with a whip any time they think about a girl or something ? That's what have been bothering me the most about picking the class

Paladins in this setting are abnormally devoted to... something.  But there are a number of options, and I'm not aware that any of the orders in the game have the kind of commitment to chastity that one might associate with the class in other settings.  The wiki has brief rundowns of the lore associated with each of the orders, and they're all viable options, gameplay-wise. 

[Boeroer]

That's more a Monk thing, not so much a Paladin's.

Every Paladin order in PoE/Deadfire is zealous about very different things:

• Bleak Walkers will try to end any conflict in a very fast but also cruel fashion - just to ensure that in further conflicts the enemies will just surrender as soon as Bleak Walkers get mentioned.
• Darcozzi Paladini are devoted to the Darcozzi Family but besides that are the exact opposite of what you describe. More like "Paladins who enjoy themselves".
• Shieldbearers are zealous when it somes to protecting what they were told to protect
• Kind Wayfarers are very devoted to... being nice? 
• Steel Garrotte are zealous about Woedica and about ( written) justice, oaths and also punishment for violating oaths and laws
• Goldpact Knights value the coin bond. They value contracts over everything - especially the ones where paying money for their service is concerned

And so on. So you see there are very different approaches.

 

[Taldan35]

I went with kind wayfarers. It's pretty good right now he's a sturdy melee character that can support and inspire his allies, exactly what I wanted.

 

I'm not so fan of a playing a lord having to answer to a higher authority formed by an order of knight, and as I see them, wayfarer not having a set structure means their paladins are much more free and don't really have a leader.

 

Thanks a lot for the answers guys I now have a character I love to play and roleplay