POTD Build for a "new" player

[Podolski]

I just finished the Ultimate achievement in the first game, so I want to play the second one now

I was looking for builds here but all are from old versions, which builds are quite strong in the current patch for Triple Crown (party)? Preferably paladin, cypher or wiz if possible.

I know that I should do any build, but I don't wanna a weak build and die every time.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Podolski

[Kaylon]

Paladin/Bloodmage and Paladin/Troubadour are the strongest for solo/party, right from the beginning. However, like for PoE1, you need good knowledge of the game to use them at their full potential. Paladin/Troubadour is probably easier to play when you start for the first time. 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Kaylon

[thelee]

9 hours ago, Podolski said:

I just finished the Ultimate achievement in the first game, so I want to play the second one now

 

clarification: are you just trying triple crown, are you also going for the ultimate in deadfire? very different things to worry about

[Boeroer]

If it comes to ciphers and wizards I'd say most builds with Beguiler and Blood Mage are pretty great without the need to be a master mechanics connaisseur. Ascendant and Soul Blade can also be great if you know what you're doing.

I like Beguiler in particular because he doesn't rely on damage to get back focus but can fill his focus to max while casting CC spells (and hit with them). While it's difficult at PL 1 to spam CC powers all the time already at PL 2 (or spell tier 2 if you will) you'll get some spells that can refill your whole focus if you only hit enough enemies with them. Works from stealth as well: lure enemies to a spot, open encounter with Phantom Foes or Mental Binding (debuffing enemies) and having full focus afterwards is nice. You can combine with lots of other classes, for example Assassin for a +25 accuracy buff from stealth (works right from the start). Or Monk for +10 INT via Duality of Mortal Presence which works nicely with Lingering Echoes. Stuff like that.

Blood Mage + good healing sources (party members and/or regeneration items and/or self healing) is just good. You can cast over and over. THis is extremely helpful in the early game where you won't have many spell tiers to pick from and hence the spell uses per encounter would otherwise be very scarce. But if you combine a healer (e.g. see Herald down below) with a Blood Mage you can cast a lot more which makes lots of encounters notably easier.  

Paladin subclass doesn't matter that much in my book since their subclass abilites aren't as defining as for example Beguiler's focus refund mechanic or Blood Mage's Blood Sacrifice. Depends a bit on what you like and your party I guess. If you want to focus even more on healing take Kind Wayfarer, if you want more engagement to bind more enemies take Shieldbearer and so on.

Paladin/Troubadour is so effective because he combines rel. high defenses, very high armor rating (very impactful in Deadfire), good direct healing via Lay on Hands, two sources for revives, great passive and unlimited healing auras (which stack), can call summons (very helpful since figurines are charged items in Deadfire and can't fully substitute summoning abilities anymore), do good CC via invocations, support the party with dual lashes, deal damage via invocations... Bag of thousand tricks those Heralds.

You didn't ask for it but a thing that can let you win even encounters that are too tough for most other parties is a Rogue (SC or Multiclass) with Gouging Strike who uses an AoE weapon. You sneak in, lure the enemies to a spot (e.g. a Trickster with Dazzling Lights or Assassin with Sparkcrackers or whatever) and then use a rod + Blast to apply the neverending DoT onto them all, then go invisible and run away. From a certain distance whatch them all die. Doesn't work every time, but makes lots of encounters encredible easy that would otherwise be very hard. Feels cheesy though... 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Boeroer

[Blunderboss]

For triple crown party you want to have proper healer and that basically means Druid, you also want a priest that can cast barring deaths door and salvation of time to make your characters invincible for some time,you can combine these two classes  into one multi class character Lifegiver/Priest.

You will also want to have another character capable of reviving allies in case your main healer gets knocked out. For your MC you probably want someone who can reset the fights via invisibility in case somethig goes very wrong and you would lose the run otherwise,just hire new companions In case it happens.

Good main tank who can pull entire group by himself while rest of the party is in stealth self buffing is also very important and trivialises most fights,your healer can even stay in stealth for a while at the start of the combat as long as it’s buffing allies and not targetting the enemies.

It is important to have reliable ranged interrupts mostly for arcane dampeners those are deadly.Using summons at the beginning of the fight will help a lot too as meat shields and enemies tend to target them with spells quite often. Stack AR as much as you can while not hurting your recovery too much AR is the most important defensive stat. Melee bruisers usually end up in godmode later in the game especially when Universalist is buffing them like crazy, Fighters have insane survivability as long as you don’t eat arcane dampener,paladins have extra high Defenses, all kinds of rogues are very good as long as they Aren’t squishy,take a look at trickster  for example  (unless you commit to SC Assassin watcher then play it very safe early and achieve god mode with vanishing strikes+wits of death herald which will trivialise the endgame).You need to have some dispel ability in your party like arcane dampener or that skill that ranger has it is very important to both dispel enemies buffs and interrupt the arcane dampeners they throw at you and you kinda have to be able to do at range and not in melee.

You should also camp some ingredient vendors to craft specific potions that will prevent your party members from dying : Ironskin Invisibility Refuge some other good ones too like piercing strikes or the one that decreases hostile effects by 10 seconds 

You can do pretty safe weapon run right after Port Maje gets you some soul bound weapons voulge  and blightheart(need intimidate 5 + 2 from Port Maje inn buff for total of 7) those will upgrade to superb for free, you can also get legendary raw damage pistol superb spear superb large shield and superb brigandine you can find these on the island with Colapsed coal mine and Eccea you can kill Eccea without aggroing other enemies in the mine.Essence Interrupter is good early game breaker if you enchant it, do not use it without enchanting to make all summons friendly.There are some other places you can visit for free weapons at early game but I would not consider them safe for first play trough.

Coming into mid game you will want to have your characters equipped with with different damage type weapons in spare weapon sets , plenty of enemies are immune to pierce or has high pierce and slash dr so having crush damage options is crucial, elemental damage weapons are extremely good especially shock damage ones for heavy armoured targets who quite often have low shock DR

Toughest part is to kill Megaboses on first try as it will require good knowledge of the fights 

I’m sure there is something I missed tho

 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Blunderboss

[Podolski]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Paladin/Troubadour is so effective because he combines rel. high defenses, very high armor rating (very impactful in Deadfire), good direct healing via Lay on Hands, two sources for revives, great passive and unlimited healing auras (which stack), can call summons (very helpful since figurines are charged items in Deadfire and can't fully substitute summoning abilities anymore), do good CC via invocations, support the party with dual lashes, deal damage via invocations... Bag of thousand tricks those Heralds.

You didn't ask for it but a thing that can let you win even encounters that are too tough for most other parties is a Rogue (SC or Multiclass) with Gouging Strike who uses an AoE weapon. You sneak in, lure the enemies to a spot (e.g. a Trickster with Dazzling Lights or Assassin with Sparkcrackers or whatever) and then use a rod + Blast to apply the neverending DoT onto them all, then go invisible and run away. From a certain distance whatch them all die. Doesn't work every time, but makes lots of encounters encredible easy that would otherwise be very hard. Feels cheesy though...

My herald can be pallegina or losing the subclasses will hurt? And the Rogue being Eder.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Podolski

[Podolski]

3 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Blood Mage + good healing sources (party members and/or regeneration items and/or self healing) is just good. You can cast over and over. THis is extremely helpful in the early game where you won't have many spell tiers to pick from and hence the spell uses per encounter would otherwise be very scarce. But if you combine a healer (e.g. see Herald down below) with a Blood Mage you can cast a lot more which makes lots of encounters notably easier. 

 

Blood Mage SC or Multi? Blood Mage + Skaen priest are good?

[Podolski]

8 hours ago, thelee said:

clarification: are you just trying triple crown, are you also going for the ultimate in deadfire? very different things to worry about

just triple crown for now, I need to know the game before trying The Ultimate in deadfire, seems much harder then PoE1.

[Podolski]

Main char: Blood Mage + Skaen Priest (Human?)
Eder : Fighter + Rogue
Pallagina: Paladin + Chanter

and idk who for the last three spots haha

[thelee]

49 minutes ago, Podolski said:

Main char: Blood Mage + Skaen Priest (Human?)
Eder : Fighter + Rogue
Pallagina: Paladin + Chanter

and idk who for the last three spots haha

last two spots. welcome to deadfire

[Boeroer]

5 hours ago, Podolski said:

My herald can be pallegina or losing the subclasses will hurt? And the Rogue being Eder.

She will be less effective than a custom made Paladin/Troubadour but still totally viable. 

[Podolski]

Guys, I can't pass Engwithan Digsite, they hit hard as ****. I'm with MC (Bloodmage-skaen prist), eder (fighter+rogue) xoti (sc priest) and a custon (shieldbearers + troubadour), all lvl4. Someone can help me to pass this location?

[Boeroer]

Where exactly? Drake + Panthers?

[Boeroer]

Stand on top of the small ramp so that enemies have to climb it in order to reach you. If you're lucky the smaller beasts will block the way for the Drake.

Chillfog, Blessing, Chillfog, Combusting Wounds, Blood Sacrifice, Chillfog, Blood Sacrifice, Combusting Wounds, Chillfog.

Chillfogs do stack and will make short work of anything that's also hit by Combusting Wounds. Drake and worms might survive, but are still blinded (which increases your survivability a lot).

Interestingly Combusting Wounds and Chillfog do not cancel each other out. 

Focus attacks on the one enemy (if possible) till it's dead, then the next and so on.

Meanwhile Iconic Projection, Consecrated Ground and Lay on Hands and stuff to keep the blockers alive. Try to interrupt the Drake with Edér whenever he wants to use an AoE effect. Also use large shields + modal. They are unmatched against Dragon Breath and such.

What about Herald's summons?

Then you lack a party member...? You only mentioned four. For that encounter a ranged Rogue, Scout or Ranger for shooting the dangerous but blocked enemies in the back line while the weaker ones block the way (let those live).

You can also sneak the whole part easily and just go underground to find Oderisi. Once you find him the beasts in the arena will be gone.

 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Boeroer

[Blunderboss]

Just hire any Druid with Charm Beast max druids intellect and perception, you will be able to use it 3 times with self empower, cast charm beast and it will charm like half of the enemies then quickly focus the ones that aren’t charmed once charm ends cast it again and repeat and then 3rd time if you still need it. This will work best when pulling enemies way back, like leave your party on upper part of platform pull with tank and run back to your party so enemies chase your tank around the corner and then they will all bunch up for charm beast. This is by far the safest choice if you want to kill that group,make sure you always target the big drake with your charms and kill him last.

btw there will be plenty fights like this in Deadfire where you have to know what’s exactly going on and what to do or else you get wiped, however once you got basic idea all fights become extra easy not the best design imo

Edited October 26, 2019 by Blunderboss

[Kaylon]

Use the explosive barrels and find a spot where the enemies can attack one at a time (in melee).