Help me chose my next watcher build

[Zoda]

I've been literally sitting on character creation screen for days, so I figured I'd ask some opinions for my watcher's build on my next playthrough. I'm planning to use Edér (swashbuckler), Tekehu (druid) and Maia (scout) with some sort of a ranged cipher MC (ranger or chanter).

So my ideas are:

Berserker/Druid - I NEVER used druid in deadfire, and this intrigues me. I'd use Lord Darryn's Voulge most probably and Deltro's cage with the extra pen and might from frenzy. Int affliction removal either with Modwyr switching or with drink/food/svef. Not sure how tedious it would be to track my health, I only played with berserker multiclassed with devoted, and unbending + voidward was enough to be on full life pretty much every time my frenzy ran out. Sounds like a high risk - high reward build.

Tactician/Druid - applying Taste of the Hunt with WOTEP sounds fun (am I correct that it applies it in AOE?) early on and with this party setup Brilliant comes easy. Tekehu's chill fog + Edér's persistent distraction + the cipher can easily set it up. Should be very sturdy and adaptible build.

Druid: I already plan to play Tekehu as a druid and his sublcass sounds superior, I guess he would become a Stormspeaker or multi if I do pure druid. Does druid get a lot of benefits from the watcher's bonuses compared to Tekehu/hired adventurer?

Berserker/Steel Garrote: I want to play with Lord Darryn's Voulge a bit, but I already played devoted/berserker, and the lack of other good polexas would lock me into that single weapon, which I might get bored of. This build would have the flexibility of other weapons, and I'm hoping that the passive drain coupled with Spirit Frenzy (and/or party debuffs) would be enough to counter Berserker's self damage. Also would become very tanky in the endgame with stoic steel + hardy + thick skinned + heart defender's scale aura from Edér (and I have a fetish for AR stacking).

Unbroken/Trickster - this is a build I already played on a hired adventurer for a few levels, but could get a bit extra out of it on the watcher, plus on the hired dude, I usually just let it play on AI after initial agro grabbing. Tutotilo's Palm setup.

Devoted/Rogue - would aim for Voidwheel. Strightforward greatsword striker build. 

Stalker/Soulblade - takedown combo + soul anihilation. Cipher has good synergies with the pet. Seer is my most played class though, I just never played it in melee. It would free up the hired adventurer slot for a herald healbot.

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Zoda

[thelee]

21 hours ago, Zoda said:

Druid: I already plan to play Tekehu as a druid and his sublcass sounds superior, I guess he would become a Stormspeaker or multi if I do pure druid. Does druid get a lot of benefits from the watcher's bonuses compared to Tekehu/hired adventurer?

tekehu has a pretty good subclass, but it comes with major drawbacks: missing out on fire keyword spells and no summons; no summons is not that big a deal unless you single-class a druid at which point you start missing out on some decent summons (lashing vine, oozes, fire stag). so while it's definitely good, a custom mainchar druid can achieve different niches than tekehu. 

importantly watcher abilities to get brilliant (and to a lesser extent energized or intuitive), but it's only one/day so without rest-spamming it's not a huge differentiator. the best thing a watcher druid can do is do something different from what tekehu is pigeon-holing himself into, or multiclassing, even with a chanter (since tekehu's chanter is wildly different from any other chanter).

 

personally, i would recommend a druid build if you haven't done one before. always good to try something new IMO, and after giving a druid a whirl a few times I'm a big fan of the playstyle. i'm not as big a fan of berserker set up as others, but a tactician/druid would be very powerful if you can keep good uptime on that brilliant buff. if you want to do something wildly different than tekehu, than maybe a shifter/trickster? (lean into shape-shifting plus tons of defensive and offensive goodies from trickster)

Edited August 15, 2022 by thelee

[Zoda]

5 hours ago, thelee said:

tekehu has a pretty good subclass, but it comes with major drawbacks: missing out on fire keyword spells and no summons; no summons is not that big a deal unless you single-class a druid at which point you start missing out on some decent summons (lashing vine, oozes, fire stag). so while it's definitely good, a custom mainchar druid can achieve different niches than tekehu. 

importantly watcher abilities to get brilliant (and to a lesser extent energized or intuitive), but it's only one/day so without rest-spamming it's not a huge differentiator. the best thing a watcher druid can do is do something different from what tekehu is pigeon-holing himself into, or multiclassing, even with a chanter (since tekehu's chanter is wildly different from any other chanter).

 

personally, i would recommend a druid build if you haven't done one before. always good to try something new IMO, and after giving a druid a whirl a few times I'm a big fan of the playstyle. i'm not as big a fan of berserker set up as others, but a tactician/druid would be very powerful if you can keep good uptime on that brilliant buff. if you want to do something wildly different than tekehu, than maybe a shifter/trickster? (lean into shape-shifting plus tons of defensive and offensive goodies from trickster)

I started Tactician/Druid, made it to Nekataka, before having an urge to roll up a stalker. My planned earlygame combo of WoTeP + Taste for the hun will have to wait a bit. Will switch back to it eventually, doing parallel playthroughs is fun. Will still take Tekehu for the watershaper chill fog, so it's a full druid experiment 

The stalker is a bit squishier than expected, but still fun. Ectopsychic echo was better on Ghost Heart where I could just let the pet rush in without engagement or fear of bonded grief, but it's still a fun combo. Maybe I should just use it on Ishi, since I do take Maia, but that would lessen the roleplay. Rushed to Sayuka for Stalker's patience to have constant dot applied for the bonus pet damage, using Thaos' Headdreass and microing the pet to always flank, pretty fun, does way more damage than expected. I'm just a sucker for Seer, even if this is the first time I play it as melee.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Zoda