Lifegiver - doubts.

[Andres Arigon]

Hi again,

I am trying all the healers in this game (I love healer support role) before advance in the game and story.

It is time to try the Lifegiver and I have some questions

1) What are the best stats for someone who is going to focus purely in the lifegiver role (support/healer) Might = Intellect > Dex = Con = Res = Pre

2) What is the best Druid Spiritshifts for a Lifegiver, I understand I am not going to jump into spiritshifts a lot.. but any recommendation?

Thanks

[thelee]

4 hours ago, Andres Arigon said:

1) What are the best stats for someone who is going to focus purely in the lifegiver role (support/healer) Might = Intellect > Dex = Con = Res = Pre

intellect by far. for a lifegiver, much of your heals are in the form of heal-over-time effects, which means pound-for-pound intellect gives you a better increase in healing (+5% duration per point) than might (+3% per point). [technically, yes, there's a time-discount factor to consider that makes the intellect less good than the +5% duration suggests, but intellect also increases AoE, which is super important for a couple of the druid's heals because of the lack of flexibility you have for aiming them]

dexterity next. all the heals in the world don't matter if you can't cast them fast enough to save someone.

after that i would suggest might. on higher difficulties i recommend con as well. on lower difficulties resolve instead. perception is pretty low priority for a healer, but i wouldn't go so far as to dump it (see endnote).

i would easily suggest maxing intellect; everything else you can fudge a bit, something like 12 might/13 con/15 dex/9 perception/18 intellect/10 resolve is what i might personally do, before racial and background bonuses.

 

4 hours ago, Andres Arigon said:

2) What is the best Druid Spiritshifts for a Lifegiver, I understand I am not going to jump into spiritshifts a lot.. but any recommendation?

cat form is my favorite because you get cat flurry, which for a short while gives you a massive +33% action speed bonus. since you'll mainly be spiritshifting to get extra oomph out of your heals, the +33% really helps you get off your heals faster for cases of emergency.

as runner up i suggest bear or boar since both have survivability elements (bear has extra armor, boar has self-healing).

 

 

endnote: important not to completely neglect offense. lifegiver gets a lot of great heals, but i would still make sure you are able to do some offense - at the end of the day, if you spend all your resources healing, you might actually end up being less effective than a build that heals some but also does some attacking. sometimes the best defense is a good offense. this is why i don't recommend dumping perception, so you are still able to occasionally hit enemies with spells and attacks. (though if your perception is lowered, you can also invest in explosives and arcana to supplement your offense that way, since both of those ignore your perception stat)

Edited April 9, 2021 by thelee

[Boeroer]

A Livegiver has +2 Power Level for Rejuvenation spells and gets another +5 when he is shifted. But there's a malus of -5 after the shift.
Note that those PL changes immediately affect the potentcy of spells that are currently at work - for example the healing ticks of healing over time spells will get influenced. The durations however will not change.

The Spine of THicket Green is en excellent stat stick for a Livegiver - however: its bonses don't apply when shifted.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Boeroer

[Andres Arigon]

3 hours ago, thelee said:

endnote: important not to completely neglect offense. lifegiver gets a lot of great heals, but i would still make sure you are able to do some offense 

I think lifegiver gives enough healing/support skills.. any recommendation for complete it with some DPS when healing is not needed? (I dont want to mix classes for now) 

At the moment Paladin is my fav healer support after trying priest and chanter but as I said before I want to try druid before start playing the full story

[Boeroer]

If you use Spine of Thicket Green you can use some of the beast spells that deliver damage over time (Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects etc.) to do good damage. But hitting will be hard because you seem to be inclined to drop PER and those spells go against fortitude. 

[Andres Arigon]

Thanks  I am going to try this class right now  

BTW you should  write some guide because there are 0 guides on the Interent  

[Andres Arigon]

Is not better Empowering Lifeblood? It means Plant 

Empowering Instinct	Empowering Lifeblood
Replaces: Bracken Call +3 All Beasts Power Levels, +3 All Plant Power Levels	Replaces: Bracken Call +2 All Plant Power Levels, +2 All Rejuvenation Power Levels, +2 All Restoration Power Levels

[Boeroer]

Ah yes , sorry - I forgot that +2 to Rejuvenation and +3 to Beast are mutually exclusive enchantments. I'd pick Emp. Lifeblood as Lifegiver. 

 

[Andres Arigon]

Even if I use Lifeblood should go for beasts skills instead of plants (I am checking the plants skills and they are more ...cc and very small dmg) in order to do some dmg when healing is not needed?>

 

27 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Ah yes , sorry - I forgot that +2 to Rejuvenation and +3 to Beast are mutually exclusive enchantments. I'd pick Emp. Lifeblood as Lifegiver. 

 

 

[Boeroer]

The good thing about Insect Swarm and Plague of Insects, Infestatio of Maggots etc. is that they deal raw damage so you don't need to worry about penetration. But as I said they target fortitude which is often very high and some of them are tagged as poison which means that immune enemies (undead, constructs etc.) will not be affected at all. 

You could also go for some shock spells. What you like better. I prefer the Plague stuff most of times.  

[Andres Arigon]

7 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

The good thing about Insect Swarm and Plague of Insects, Infestatio of Maggots etc. is that they deal raw damage so you don't need to worry about penetration. But as I said they target fortitude which is often very high and some of them are tagged as poison which means that immune enemies (undead, constructs etc.) will not be affected at all. 

You could also go for some shock spells. What you like better. I prefer the Plague stuff most of times.  

Cool thanks.. I am going try all the skills and see which is better to do some dmg..

Which started skill do you recommend me to pick up? Because I will not able to reset it later... at least I didn't find anyway to change the first skill and passive chose in the character creation.

Sunbeam

Vile Thorns

Nature's Mark

Winter Wind

Tanglefoot

Charm Beast

Talon's Reach

Dancing Bolts

 

 

[masterty66]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

If you use Spine of Thicket Green you can use some of the beast spells that deliver damage over time (Insect Swarm, Plague of Insects etc.) to do good damage. But hitting will be hard because you seem to be inclined to drop PER and those spells go against fortitude. 

I do think it is important to realize that a Lifegiver can still dish out respectable damage with Druid spells like you said. People might see the name and assume healbot. Yes it can heal exceptionally well but the offense is surprisingly good too.

Druids are just a really strong class. One of the best.

[Not So Clever Hound]

41 minutes ago, masterty66 said:

One of the best.

Slightly OT but are you saying in a party, or would you also vouch for solo PotD? I had a lot of fun with solo druid in PoE1 (the Britney Spears build or whatever ) but never managed to pull off anything like that in Deadfire, not for lack of tries. In my experience Druids are slow and struggle to defend/buff in front of serious opposition. I'd love to though, if you have any pointers.

[masterty66]

35 minutes ago, Not So Clever Hound said:

Slightly OT but are you saying in a party, or would you also vouch for solo PotD? I had a lot of fun with solo druid in PoE1 (the Britney Spears build or whatever ) but never managed to pull off anything like that in Deadfire, not for lack of tries. In my experience Druids are slow and struggle to defend/buff in front of serious opposition. I'd love to though, if you have any pointers.

I can't really speak to solo play to be honest with you. I've never tried it in this series. 

Lifegiver is certainly very strong in a party. Strong Aoe heals, aoe damage. It's great. 

[Jayd]

3 hours ago, Andres Arigon said:

BTW you should  write some guide because there are 0 guides on the Interent  

There's a really good guide for the game here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599

Written by the user who posts here often as thelee.

[Boeroer]

I guess he meant a guide for Lifegiver specifically?

[Jayd]

40 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I guess he meant a guide for Lifegiver specifically?

Oh, perhaps - but can't hurt to show them in case they hadn't seen it.

[Elric Galad]

10 hours ago, masterty66 said:

I do think it is important to realize that a Lifegiver can still dish out respectable damage with Druid spells like you said. People might see the name and assume healbot. Yes it can heal exceptionally well but the offense is surprisingly good too.

Druids are just a really strong class. One of the best.

Given that Lifegivers rely a lot on Heal over Time, their stats are going to be optimized for DoT and Pulsating spells too (bar accuracy). Various insects spells, Relentless Storms, Venombloom, decay spells are all going to be very strong with your high INT and MIG.

[Boeroer]

Was it determined if Single or Multiclass (or doesn't matter)? Maybe I missed it.

Helwalker + Lifegiver is an awesome combo imo. +MIG for more healing/damage per tick, +INT for longer healing/dmg over time and big AoEs, +accuracy, some mobility bonuses, some defensive stuff, summons although Lifegivwmer is not supposed to have summons (Dichotomous Soul) and the increased received dmg can be countered with the stronger healing capabilities. 

Single Class eventually gets Great Maelstrom *boom*

 

[Elric Galad]

49 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

 

Single Class eventually gets Great Maelstrom *boom*

 

It would be a Lifetaker then

[Andres Arigon]

Quick questions

1) are multiclass better than single class? I only can see people speaking about multiclass or both option are viable?

2) I can see every new tier (row) in the Druid talent tree I have a new AOE healing, is it not too much healing skills? Also, almost all of them seem the same = AOE healing + X (Somthing else. I have tried chanter and pally as a support/healer and to be honest pally has less healing skills but I feel I am doing the same with my druid with less.

3) Also if I have a new healing tier in every tier... I cannot spend the "plant point" to use DPS skills otherwise when I will need to heal I will not have any plant point because there is anyway to get some point back (without external resources)

4) is it me or the Druid passive are the most bland ones  

Sorry, I am very confused about the Lifegiver design .. should I auto atack and just use my palnt point to heal with the same AOE healing skills with differente name and differen numbers?

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Andres Arigon

[Boeroer]

4 hours ago, Andres Arigon said:

Quick questions

1) are multiclass better than single class? I only can see people speaking about multiclass or both option are viable?

2) I can see every new tier (row) in the Druid talent tree I have a new AOE healing, is it not too much healing skills? Also, almost all of them seem the same = AOE healing + X (Somthing else. I have tried chanter and pally as a support/healer and to be honest pally has less healing skills but I feel I am doing the same with my druid with less.

3) Also if I have a new healing tier in every tier... I cannot spend the "plant point" to use DPS skills otherwise when I will need to heal I will not have any plant point because there is anyway to get some point back (without external resources)

4) is it me or the Druid passive are the most bland ones  

Sorry, I am very confused about the Lifegiver design .. should I auto atack and just use my palnt point to heal with the same AOE healing skills with differente name and differen numbers?

 

1) Both are viable. There is not general rule or judgement which is better. It depends on the party setup, the class and so on. Some classes have less "interesting" abilities at Power Level 8 and 9 though so usually those are less popular (like for example Single Class Fighter) while other single classes have more convincing stuff to offer (for example single class Monk).

2) No, because first of all you don't need to pick every healing spell. And if you picked them all you don't necessarily need to cast them all in every encounter. Maybe you just want the flexibility to be able to cast a healing spell from every spell tier if things go south or if you used up one spell tier with other non-healing stuff. Keep in mind every spell tier only gets two spell uses per encounter. Paladin has not as many AoE heals (unless Kind Wayfarer). 

3) What do you mean? Plant pount? Just don't pick a healing spell in a certain tier if you don't think you need it. 

4) Druid passives at least have Wildstrike, Greater Wildstrike and Wildstrike Frenzy. Look at the passives of Wizards and Priests.

What are those plant points?

A Lifegiver is primarily a healer because of the auto-spells he gets and the Power Level bonus. But he can cast damaging and CC spells just as fine as any Druid. His Spiritshift is also not weaker. You should use those abilities if no healing is needed but cast healing spells if healing is needed.

[thelee]

On 4/11/2021 at 12:15 PM, Boeroer said:

1) Both are viable. There is not general rule or judgement which is better. It depends on the party setup, the class and so on. Some classes have less "interesting" abilities at Power Level 8 and 9 though so usually those are less popular

i would also add there's a factor here that a lot of us here are veterans of the game and so there's a lot more to talk about when it comes to multiclassing (literally 55 options before you even consider subclasses), so you're going to get over-exposed to discussion about multiclassing vs single-classing, and you shouldn't take that as an indication that single-classing is worse than multiclassing or anything.

[Boeroer]

Good point!

Also there's more to decide when playing a multiclass while single classes are usually more straightforward (because the pool of abilities to pick from is smaller I guess). So naturally - besides the fact there's a lot more MC than SC option to begin with - there will be even more discussion about multiclasses.

[thelee]

On 4/11/2021 at 7:40 AM, Andres Arigon said:

3) Also if I have a new healing tier in every tier... I cannot spend the "plant point" to use DPS skills otherwise when I will need to heal I will not have any plant point because there is anyway to get some point back (without external resources)

if i'm understanding correctly, what you're talking about is your limited per-encounter casting resources (the "plant point.")

 

you are correct in that in every fight you have to decide how to use your casts, and there's no normal way to get it back outside of self-empower. most of hte time though, you will not need to cast every single heal spell you have (especially mid-late game); your healing is so powerful that if you are proactive, you shouldn't need to use them all in most situations. there should be plenty of space to do offense and defense. the problem is when all you do is cast heals, even unnecessarily, or don't even pick up offensive abilities.