Story-Companion casters on PotD +MC caster: 2 Wizards, 2 Priests, 2 Druids or 2 Ciphers???

[SirMirrorcoat]

so, yeah... I struggle a lot deciding on which caster class to pick for my MC. They all are very appealing to me, I played them all up to Caed Nua on potd and loved it all.

Now, as I haven't been past CN, I have yet to meat GM and Hiravias, but thanks to me spoilering back when, I know for a fact that I'd want to keep them in my active party a lot.

Only, equally I want to keep Aloth and Durance in my party. Not that I will have them all 4 as 'permanent' companions, but I will probably use them all a lot...

Now my question is in the title. Which caster class is getting the most out of using two of them? As far as Act 1 goes, I *think* Wizard is the best in that regard, as I can either slot different spells for different specialties on me and Aloth, *or* I can balance spell usage between the 2 and reduce my need for resting - the latter should also be true for the Druid.

[Boeroer]

Imo it's 2 Priests. For party runs Priests are considered to be the strongest class anyway due to their absurdly good buffs (and I agree) - but usually they only pick up real pace after the early game. 

But two (or more) Priests have one little feat that makes them very valuable even early, and that's the talent "Inspiring Radiance". Inspiring Radiance gives you and the party an accuracy bonus of 10 - and it stack with everything. Everything includes itself. So if you have two Priests who cast Inspiring Radiance right at the start of battle you'll have +20 accuracy for the party. This can turn difficult encounters in to cakewalks because you are much more likely to hit enemies with powerful hard crowd control spells or damaging abilities.
As a bonus two Radiances on mights priests can make short work of most vessels (undead, constructs and so on).

Besides that with 2 Priests you'll basically only need half the time to buff up at the beginning of a fight - and buffing up (especially accuracy) makes most fights a lot easier than starting right away with damage dealing or crowd control. Priest A casts Devotions for the Faithful (+20 ACC) while Priest B casts Blessing, then both Inspiring Radiance (it's a fast cast) and *boom* your whole party has +35 accuracy (which is more than the accuracy you would gain with 11 level-ups). 

Wizards and Druids are also very powerful. Having two of them is great, too. Two Wizards both stacking multiple Chillfogs on top of each other and then casting Combusting Wounds will have an enormous impact on your early game. Two Druids with Relentless Storm are truly apocalyptic - and so on.

I would pick what sounds most fun for you to play. I personally would pick Priest but that is just my preference. If Wizard or Druid sounds cooler to you it's not that much of a difference in terms of power™.
 

[SirMirrorcoat]

46 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Imo it's 2 Priests. For party runs Priests are considered to be the strongest class anyway due to their absurdly good buffs (and I agree) - but usually they only pick up real pace after the early game. 

But two (or more) Priests have one little feat that makes them very valuable even early, and that's the talent "Inspiring Radiance". Inspiring Radiance gives you and the party an accuracy bonus of 10 - and it stack with everything. Everything includes itself. So if you have two Priests who cast Inspiring Radiance right at the start of battle you'll have +20 accuracy for the party. This can turn difficult encounters in to cakewalks because you are much more likely to hit enemies with powerful hard crowd control spells or damaging abilities.
As a bonus two Radiances on mights priests can make short work of most vessels (undead, constructs and so on).

Besides that with 2 Priests you'll basically only need half the time to buff up at the beginning of a fight - and buffing up (especially accuracy) makes most fights a lot easier than starting right away with damage dealing or crowd control. Priest A casts Devotions for the Faithful (+20 ACC) while Priest B casts Blessing, then both Inspiring Radiance (it's a fast cast) and *boom* your whole party has +35 accuracy (which is more than the accuracy you would gain with 11 level-ups). 

Wizards and Druids are also very powerful. Having two of them is great, too. Two Wizards both stacking multiple Chillfogs on top of each other and then casting Combusting Wounds will have an enormous impact on your early game. Two Druids with Relentless Storm are truly apocalyptic - and so on.

I would pick what sounds most fun for you to play. I personally would pick Priest but that is just my preference. If Wizard or Druid sounds cooler to you it's not that much of a difference in terms of power™.
 

The mega-buffing sounds quite fun, especially for Eder and Aloth to get some massive damage out early on. Just in my last 2 runs to Caed Nua I finally got rid of Aloth's (and my) Wands and of Blast and giving them physical ranged weapons is so counterintuitively awesome xD

Just a quick followup to Priests... They are supposedly much worse in POE2? Could be that they are just balanced now and some loud voices are butthurt about their bae not being OP anymore, but I still have to make sure. I would prefer not to change class when I finally finish poe1 and get into Deadfire... on PotD of course  Wouldn't rule out multiclassing if that makes or breaks the class, but still would like to know in advance.

Also, you don't mention Cipher at all. I assume because of their limited (but strong) power loadout 2 would be obsolete later on? At least in Act 1, 2 are very useful, if only for the fact that I can simultaniously charm 2 enemies and then still cast 2 Amp Thrusts.

[Boeroer]

Priests are still very good in PoE2. A few OP spells from PoE1 got nerfed (e.g. Devotions for the Faithful) - but there are other spells now that can break the game balance just as well.  

One example is Salvation of Time, combined with the Brilliant Inspiration. It means unlimited duration for your buffs basically and unlimited spell uses. 

I didn't mention Cipher because they are not one of my favorite classes (I don't like the "devided" action economy between weapon usage and spellcasting that much). But you can do some crazy stuff with them defensively (involves a Chanter, a Priest and Defensive Mindweb) and offensively (involves a Priest, a Paladin, Borrowed Instincts and Tactical Meld). But imo there's not that much value in having two of them in the party (except casting Reaping Knives on each other - which is focus overflowing fun).  

Edited June 6, 2021 by Boeroer

[SirMirrorcoat]

I got a really cool RP idea for a priest now, so I will give that one a go.

Aumaua Deadfire Slave that got bought out from her master by a Magranite. Simple but I like it, also, coming back to DF in poe2 means I can say "F U bitches, I got my own ship now!"

As I will also have Durance, I would much rather have my MC be more combative. Would 16/8/16/16/16/6 work well for a potd priest in melee later on? Works fine in act1, but that could simply be because I know that part like the back of my hand by now...

[demon72]

I'm with Boeroer, if you take one caster-class two times, then I would choose Priest...

...but for another reason:

two priest can cast all the protecion spells and buffs your party needs in half of the time!

[Boeroer]

14 minutes ago, demon72 said:

...but for another reason:

two priest can cast all the protecion spells and buffs your party needs in half of the time!

I wrote that, too.