Stalker: SC strong enough? otherwise which multiclass?

[Boeroer]

Right.

There are some melee only attack abilies that do allow to circumvent that restriction by using a hybrid weapon setup. Clear Out (ranged main hand), Whirling Strikes (like Heart of Fury but melee only restriction), Cleaving Stance & Riposte (ranged offhand), Hunter's Claw. 

Some of those will use both weapons (Cleaving, Riposte, Whirling Strikes, Heart of Fury) because they are implemented differently than let's say Flames of Devotion or the Rogue's strike abilities.

Clear Out is only a primary attack so naturally only the main hand gets used (but you unlock the use with a ranged weapon by putting a melee weapon into the offhand).

In case of Hunter's Claw iirc you put the melee weapon in the offhand like with Clear Out to unlock the use with the ranged main hand. And only the main hand will execute the attack like with others Fill Attacks using hybrid setups. But because using Fire in the Hole/Chain Shot or  Hand Mortar/Blinding Smoke with Driving Flight gives you a lot more stacks than 2 - which would be the normal melee DW outcome - it's still better (normal blunderbusses don't work that way).

[SirMirrorcoat]

I went for Shepherd now, Stalker/Kind Wayfarer, and so far it is gorgeous. Did Digsite Drake at level 3 without breaking a sweat (even though my bear died at the end - killed by a straggler Wurm), and even Gorecci Street was possible (albeit incredibly rough) at level 5 - first time ever did I manage this one that early!

My mindset changed from /Druid to /Paladin simply for the fact that I find it hard to... 'justify' a au naturale Druid supporting such a tech-heavy faction like the Vailians xD

[SirMirrorcoat]

Question though... Do Sword Enemy and Marked Prey stack for AC and main or are they mutually exclusive?
As in, does both on the same enemy surpress one of them?

[Boeroer]

They don't suppress each other because Sworn Enemy gives bonus damage (for your MC only, not the AC) while Marked Prey gives bonus accuracy. Marked Prey does stack with everything afaik (including Zealous Focus).

Brand Enemy unlocks Predator's Sense by the way. Which is cool because it's an autohit, has good range, fast cast, no recovery and is quite cheap.

[SirMirrorcoat]

Brand Enemy is insane for this then. May have to respec, picked Sworn Rival instead.

 

For some reason I confused it with Stalker's Link + Torc from poe1 xD

[SirMirrorcoat]

Do I screw myself on PotD if I keep my Shepherd only have 13 base MIG? I would *really* like these over-the-top base 22 PER xD
Mathematically it's only 6% less dmg/healing (because the alternative is 15 MIG and 20 PER)
At least early on MIG doesn't have that much of an impact, but PER very well does. And I will go for crit-fishing later on, so more PER should be quite impactful...

And yes, I restarted again because I like the new Orlan pic in MaxQuest's portrait pack so much

[Elric Galad]

1 hour ago, SirMirrorcoat said:

Do I screw myself on PotD if I keep my Shepherd only have 13 base MIG? I would *really* like these over-the-top base 22 PER xD
Mathematically it's only 6% less dmg/healing (because the alternative is 15 MIG and 20 PER)
At least early on MIG doesn't have that much of an impact, but PER very well does. And I will go for crit-fishing later on, so more PER should be quite impactful...

And yes, I restarted again because I like the new Orlan pic in MaxQuest's portrait pack so much

I don't feel Might critical for weapon attack in general, cause it is additive with all these weapon quality mod. It is neat for healing, but practiced healer or Chanter bonus healing done chant makes it also a bit less important later.

PER can be abused in various way to get more Graze/Hit/Crit, which helps from getting more Interrupt to Weapon special effect procs. 

Your character is optimized for this, so certainly not stricly inferior to 15 MIG / 20 PER (and such a small variation has a low impact anyway)

[SirMirrorcoat]

About Stalker's Patience. Is it worth dumping all my leftover skill points into Stealth for the Flanking bonus? If I can do math correctly, it should only boost the damage by 1% every 2 skill points. Doesn't seem worth it to me, but maybe I am missing something. The (imo) better alternative would be getting Arcana to 15 to have every scroll available to cast.

[Elric Galad]

20 minutes ago, SirMirrorcoat said:

About Stalker's Patience. Is it worth dumping all my leftover skill points into Stealth for the Flanking bonus? If I can do math correctly, it should only boost the damage by 1% every 2 skill points. Doesn't seem worth it to me, but maybe I am missing something. The (imo) better alternative would be getting Arcana to 15 to have every scroll available to cast.

I'm using Stalker's Patience as main weapon with my SC Stalker and her Skill point are optimized for Arcana. Granted, she is the main Arcana user of the party. It was the character that needed the most ability variety from her consumables. Even with this, she has around 3-5 stealth (I like having a bit on all character), so it's still something.

If I had another Arcana user, I could have made her my sleath/sleight of weight specialist of course (with a bit of Arcana for variety - even a modest 5 points give access to Tier 1-4 scrolls).

[SirMirrorcoat]

With 4 Stealth and 7 Athletics, I can get to 18 Arcana on Shepherd, so that seems nice.

Everyone gets 4 Stealth and 7 Athletics, tho. 

[Boeroer]

10 hours ago, SirMirrorcoat said:

About Stalker's Patience. Is it worth dumping all my leftover skill points into Stealth for the Flanking bonus?

Imo it is not worth it. It's only a (lowish) additive dmg bonus and you can use skillpoint for something better like Arcana - unless you want to play a supersneaky ranger of course. 

Stuff like Xoti's Sickle which grants up to (and in extreme cases even more than) +60% dmg (via Religion) or Keeper of the Flame which also scales with Religion (but its burn AoE) are more worth the skill investment I think. Stuff like Religion, Survival (St. Okamu's Mercy) or Metaphysics (Chromoprismatic Staff, Essence Interrupter) are not competing for points with Arcana, Mechanic etc. so it's not that much of a either/or situation with the other useful "active" skills (like mechanicsm arcana etc). 

[SirMirrorcoat]

As much as I'd like the dmg and speed buffs from Xoti's Sickle for a dps unit, I find it hard to justify leveling Religion for this char from an RP pov...

I thought to go for Survival, because bonus Stride from Walking Cloak and bonus damage from Mohora Tanga seem nice.
Or are those 2 meh?

[Boeroer]

When going for Survival I would recommend using Ngati's Tusk at some point. Hunter of Hunters ist a superb enchantmet. With 22 Survival you'll inflict -10 to Reflex, Fortitude and Will in an AoE just by being there: theres no hit roll, it just gets applied to all enemies in range. There's no immunity either and it stacks with everything.

The dmg bonus of Mohora Tanga is very low, even with 20 Survival. Not worth it imo. 

I don't know how Ruata's Walking Cloak scales. But at 20 Survival you are about as fast as with Boots of Speed (+25% Stride) - so I think Ruata's gets +0.5% Stride per point of Survival. It stacks with Boots of Speed by the way. 

 

Edit: haha, I used Ruata's Walking Cloak, Swift Hunter's Garb, Bubble the Cat and Boots of Speed with Fast Runner, Long Stride and Fleet Feet on a character and it was pretty hilarious Stride.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Boeroer

[SirMirrorcoat]

So far I find the double FoD healing pretty great, so I am inclined to stay with DW after all. If it falls off in usefulness later, I may switch to Ngati's Tusk

[Boeroer]

White Flames scales with PL and you'll have more Zeal per encounter, so it stays to be useful. Dual wielding is indeed the best thing for White Flames (which I find to be an odd design choice).
 

[SirMirrorcoat]

I think I will go for Xoti's Sickle after all, and just RP that I am knowledgeable about religions, even though I don't trust the gods xD

Because 60% bonus dmg sounds just far too nice to pass up 

[Boeroer]

The speed bonus is also pretty good.

I'm always a little bit annoyed that there's no visually pleasing pairing weapon for the sickle. Like... another sickle or so. 

[SirMirrorcoat]

It looks nice enough with a Battle Axe imo

[SirMirrorcoat]

Which animal companion would be the most fitting for a Huana?
Bear seems not too fitting.
Boar? Thinking about the old druid on Maje island...
Sucks that there is no tiger AC
I would prefer to go for Stag for flavor, but read a lot about how bad it is. Is it good enough with CP and Balance mod?
And also I have not found a single stag in the game so far, so I am not sure how well it is to RP...
In general, it seems like there are felines, canines, boar and that's about it for normal animals in Deadfire...

At least I am finally decided on the class xD

[SirMirrorcoat]

Found an Aumaua with a bear AC on the wiki. Will stick to bear then
They are majestic beasts

[SirMirrorcoat]

Exalted Endurance vs Charge? Focus seems meh...

[SirMirrorcoat]

@BoeroerIMO Sword and Sickle look pretty cool together. Like sword and kopesh or something

[Boeroer]

 

 

[masterty66]

This topic is somewhat tempting me to do a multi class Ranger. Stalker/Shifter sounds really fun. Of course I also still want to try out a Brute with Amra as well. Too many fun builds to try, not enough time.

I've taken a few month break from Poe since I was grinding playthroughs for a while and I wanted to mix it up but it might be about that time again soon ;). 

[masterty66]

Planning a Stalker right now. I'm in Poe1 currently with a melee Ranger. Went Dwarf with an Antelope because why not. Hard to decide between Stalker/Shifter or Stalker/xx. Or even pure Stalker. They all sound kinda appealing to me. But I suppose I'll have a long time to think about it before I get to Deadfire lol.

My last run months ago was a Psion/Troubadour which was really fun and good. I'm hoping this will be a nice change of pace from that with more of a melee bent. I guess if I went Shifter there'd be some spells there but I assume the flow in combat with that is to buff oneself up and maybe toss 1 or 2 spells and then shift and beat up enemies in melee. 

I'm pretty set on the Ranger part of it anyhow . Melee Rangers are fun and I think it will be a nice change of pace from the usual more primary caster builds as I tend to gravitate towards Priests/Ciphers lately.