POTD upscale companion questions

[Vasvary5050]

Hi folks. I'm playing POTD upscaled, currently level 10, just completed Arkemyr's Manor and Hanging Sepulchre a few times. I was having some difficulties with these two dungeons (some fights took a few attempts), but decided to test a few different party combinations by reloading and re-running these dungeons multiple times. I could do with advice on Tekahu, Eder and Xoti:

Tekahu: In one combination I had a SC rogue (ranged) and a MC rogue-cipher (also ranged) as my main 2 damage dealers (along with Eder-fighter, Xoti-priest and a MC Paladin-Chanter). In the other I swapped out the rogue-cipher for Tekahu (SC druid). I keep reading that Tekahu is an OP AOE nuker. Checking the damage logs before and after fights in Arekemyr's Manor and Hanging Sepulchre, I found that Tekahu's damage with his spells was okay but not amazing. It was about 50% of what the SC rogue and the MC rogue-cipher could pump out. In fairness, rogues seem to be amazing at pumping out the damage (either against single target or channeling their special attacks as small AoEs through a rod with blasting modal enabled). Conversely, Tekahu does huge AoEs, but it's smaller amounts of damage being done to each enemy hit, which I think is down to the very high armour and defences of enemies in POTD upscaled (especially in both of those dungeons). I think against large crowds of enemies with lower armour/defences he would be a damage monster, but he seems to struggle against really tough enemies. On the plus side, he did also put down a lot of Heals-over-time, but I do already have a Chantadin and Priest to provide a lot of heals. So my main question is, is Tekahu's OP-ness overrated for POTD upscaled, or is he a late-bloomer (i.e. good but only at higher levels), or is he OP even at level 10 (in which case I'm doing something wrong with him)? Any tips for how best to use him?

Eder: What's the best class option for him? I've tried him as fighter, rogue and fighter-rogue. In terms of damage, I honestly found him underwhelming in all 3 configurations, whether dual wielding or wielding a 2-hander, and I think this is mainly because of his low perception and dexterity. He is a better damage dealer as fighter-rogue or rogue to be sure, but still low compared to my main damage dealers, which is why I ended up making him just a fighter in this run so he is at least very hard to kill. I've mainly got him in the party just because I like him (and he talks to Xoti a lot), but I am tempted to replace him with a homebrewed melee monster. Can he be made good?

Xoti: I want Xoti in the party as she is the one character whose dialog I haven't seen (currently going down the dark Xoti path). As a priest she seems to be very good at buffing and debuffing, and helps a bit with heals and damage. Not sure if it would be better to use her as a monk or monk priest though, or to keep her in the priest role? Leaning towards keeping her as priest, though difficult to justify keeping her as priest if I decide to use Tekahu. Any advice?

Any advice appreciated (I can use mod to respec the companions back to any of their 3 initial options).

Best wishes, Vas.

[Boeroer]

I wouldn't call Tekehu an OP AoE nuker  until he reaches Avenging Storm and Great Maelstrom (preferably with Effort in his hands) - and that's not even exclusive to his subclass. But foe-only Chillfog (which is exclusive) is extremely convenient and has noticable impact on most fights. It's not about the damage alone but on the blinding (tier-3 affliction!) of all enemies around your party while your friends are completely unfazed.

[thelee]

6 hours ago, Vasvary5050 said:

Xoti: I want Xoti in the party as she is the one character whose dialog I haven't seen (currently going down the dark Xoti path). As a priest she seems to be very good at buffing and debuffing, and helps a bit with heals and damage. Not sure if it would be better to use her as a monk or monk priest though, or to keep her in the priest role? Leaning towards keeping her as priest, though difficult to justify keeping her as priest if I decide to use Tekahu. Any advice?

if you had some kind of "vision" that would be pretty useful in guiding the choices here, or at least knowing what your other party members are

because xoti as a monk (or any monk) is b e a s t m o d e, essentially. if all you want to do is max out damage, then you should easily make xoti an SC monk, without question.

but xoti does indeed function as a decent priest, and a decent monk-priest. it depends on what you need in your party. if you need more support, then priest. if you need a flex character, then contemplative. there's not exactly a "wrong" decision here.

 

that being said, i don't see taking tekehu along as a conflict. druids (tekehu in particular) are good at healing and elemental damage, whereas xoti's priest subclass is good at buffing/debuffing and blessed harvest. they don't really overlap, even if xoti borrows a few spells from druid's spell list (you probably wouldn't bother with taking some of them as tekehu, and it's not bad to double-up on castings of, say, wicked briars).

Edited September 2, 2022 by thelee

[Vasvary5050]

@BoeroerThanks! I agree that Chillfog is a nice ability because of its blind. Prior to using Tekehu I was using the Cipher's Eyestrike and the Rogue's Gouging Strike (either single target with arqarbus or AoE through rod + rod modal) to achieve the same affliction on enemies. I like using Tekehu, he provides good heals over time, decent utility (e.g. Chillfog's blind) and decent if not s-tier damage, all in a single convenient package.

@theleeYou're right, at the moment I lack a firm tactical vision for my party, as I'm sort of stumbling my way through POTD upscaled as I go, and chopping and changing my party as I hit problem fights. At the moment my main party is Eder (SC fighter), main-character (MC Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour), Xoti (SC priest), Ydwin (SC rogue) and the 5th slot is flexible (either Tekahu as SC druid, Maia as SC ranger, a MC cipher/assassin or a SC psion). Eder and the main-character hold the front line, do some damage and crowd control and the main characters is also providing heals through paladin aura and chant. Xoti is providing buffs/debuffs (and a bit of healing). And I want the other two characters to be strong ranged damage dealers. Mostly I've been using the cipher-rogue or Tekahu in the 5th slot. I have played a MC monk in a previous run (Helwalker Monk/BW Paladin), and I thought it was great, but I'm not sure I see much synergy between monk and priest, so I would probably want to go either SC monk or stick with SC priest for Xoti. 

(I do have mod that allows me to reset the class choice for the main companions so I can change Eder, Xoti and Tekahu). 

[Constentin Lévine]

16 minutes ago, Vasvary5050 said:

but I'm not sure I see much synergy between monk and priest, so I would probably want to go either SC monk or stick with SC priest for Xoti. 

If you want to try Xoti as Contemplative, that can be nice to know that Barbs of Condemnation and Pillar of Faith give wounds on kill (for the Xoti monk subclass).

[yorname]

Tekehu has many CC options but his PER is meh, automatically putting all of his offensive options a step behind. And his AOE damage comes from Greater Maelstrom, which he can only use once per encounter unless you use empower/brilliant. However it can be easily accessed through reading scrolls only limited by your quick item slots so it's not even exclusive.

So I wouldn't go pure druid on him, he has chanter version of Weather the Storm at PL7 meaning you can sustain it for the whole encounter, it trivialized many boss fights for me.

[thelee]

On 9/2/2022 at 3:02 PM, Vasvary5050 said:

but I'm not sure I see much synergy between monk and priest,

the biggest is that duality of mortal presence can give you up to +10 intellect (doesn't stack with inspirations), which is huge for a caster, especially one that also cares about buff/debuff durations.

secondary: the accuracy bonus from dance of death also benefits spells. the PEN and might bonus from thundering blows benefits offensive spells, and the might bonus benefits heals also. swift strikes' action speed and dex inspiration makes casting much faster.

tertiary: blessed harvest gets you a finisher that is an easy way to trigger xoti's monk subclass and her lantern

[dgray62]

On 9/2/2022 at 3:49 PM, yorname said:

Tekehu has many CC options but his PER is meh, automatically putting all of his offensive options a step behind. And his AOE damage comes from Greater Maelstrom, which he can only use once per encounter unless you use empower/brilliant. However it can be easily accessed through reading scrolls only limited by your quick item slots so it's not even exclusive.

So I wouldn't go pure druid on him, he has chanter version of Weather the Storm at PL7 meaning you can sustain it for the whole encounter, it trivialized many boss fights for me.

On the other hand, he is playable as a druid even on upscaled PotD if you give him +PER gear and gear to boost his elemental/storm PLs, so that his GM pulses will reliably land. I think he's great as a companion; he has unique abilities that add to the party, but is not so well optimized that he will consistently outshine your MC.

[Vasvary5050]

@theleeFair points. There is more synergy between priest and monk than I had realised. (I'll probably stick with Xoti being a priest though)

@dgray62Yeah, I ended up making Tekahu a regular member of my party now. His damage isn't as high as my party's top damage dealer but it's pretty respectable and he is contributing heals over time to the group at the same time as doing decent damage (as well as some utility). On reflection I think he is probably one of the best - maybe the best - of the main companions (whilst I would love to change his stat distribution, his unique druid subclass is great).

[dgray62]

I agree. I often just take him, and make custom chars to fill in the gap.