Looking for 2H Paladin DPS / Offtank Build / PotD

[Menthur]

I'm returning to PoE after several years and this time around planning to beat the game on PotD. I've been reading the build guides on Paladins, but couldn't really find what I was looking for. I am not interested in using ranged shooting weapons with my Paladin. I'd rather go the oldschool way of acting as support / dps and offtank and let Edér be my main tank. 

So I'm looking for some directions on how to build a 2H Paladin DPS / Offtank character to beat PotD with. Maybe you guys could direct me to an already existing build on this forums which I have missed or help me build one from scratch.

From what I have gathered so far there are a lot of pro's on these forums

PS: I want to use the story companions along the way and maybe create one custom rogue to fill up my party.

Any help is very appreciated. Thank you very much!

[Chaospread]

Hi,

you can can be inspired by an ultimate PotD Solo by @baldurs_gate_2 (see video below).

Basically the build is like so:

Moon Godlike - Drifter

M: 16 | C : 10 | D : 14 | P: 18 | I: 16 | R: 3

Abilities / Talents

1. FoD
2. Weapon & Shield Style
3. LoH
4. Deep Faith
5. Zealous Focus
6. Deep Pockets
7. Liberating Exhortation
8. WF - Knight
9. Sworn Enemy
10. Two Weapon Style
11. Zealous Charge
12. Scion of Flame
13. Sacred Immolation
14. Envenomed Strike
15. Zealous Endurance
16. Beast Slayer

Items

Armor: Äru-Brekr // Blackwarden's Breast // Argwes Adra
Neck: Glanfathan Adraswen // Cloak of Protection // Cape of the Master Mystic
Ring 1: Iron Circle // Orlan's Bramble Ring // Ring of Protection
Ring 2: Ring of Deflection
Boots: ... of speed
Belt: Canoneer
Bracers: Spirit Spiral (Llengrath fight) and ... of Accuracy ... of quickness (not important)
Weapons: We Toki + Steadfast and Sheathed in Autumn + Godansthunyr
Shield: Outworn buckler // Alia Braccia / Little Savior

In a party you can exchange Deep Pockets, Envenomed Strike with others supporting talents/ability and raise RES in change of some MIG/DEX/CON, and furthermore take in account some marking weapons
 

 

Edited January 29 by Chaospread
text changed in to emoticons

[Menthur]

Thank you! I'm gonna look into it. The video you posted is about a solo run tho. I'm definatly going to play with story companions. Is there anything I should change?

[Boeroer]

I did a playthrough with an offensive-minded Goldpact Knight who used the summoned flaming Great Sword "Firebrand" a lot. It's pretty good for a Paladin who invests in his "Flames of Devotion" ability. You can get two items (a pair gloves and a belt) rel. early that allow you to summon that Greats Sword which is made of flames 6 times per rest. as backup weapon you can pick any two handed weapon and also pick the fitting weapon focus for that backup weapon type. Firebrand is universal, meaning it works with any weapon focus.

Another very good approach is to go Darcozzi Paladini and pick Inspiring Liberation, use Zealous Focus and Coordinated Attacks and then first use the Spectacular Spetum (early pollaxe) which has the property "marking". And later add the Blade of the Endless Paths to your arsenal (estoc, also has marking). Marking makes it so that a party member who is closest to you and attacks the same target as you gets +10 accuracy. This stacks with Coordinated Attacks which does the same - already +20 accuracy for your buddy. Add Inspiring Liberation which stacks with everything, too and your firend already has 30 bonus accuracy which is huge and extremely useful against tough enemies such as bosses (like dragons for example). Add the bonus accuracy from Zealous Focus and it will be very hard for your party member to miss at all. This is very impactful if you pair your paladin with your best damage-dealer or disabler. Your paladin himself won't be the best (but decent) damage dealer, a good offtank and amazing support.  

Edited January 29 by Boeroer

[Chaospread]

17 hours ago, Menthur said:

Thank you! I'm gonna look into it. The video you posted is about a solo run tho. I'm definatly going to play with story companions. Is there anything I should change?

Yes, as I have already said:

Quote

In a party you can exchange Deep Pockets, Envenomed Strike with others supporting talents/ability and raise RES in change of some MIG/DEX/CON, and furthermore take in account some marking weapons

And as Boeroer tell pick the marking weapons he specified.
I'm sorry, I thought you meant 2 wielded paladin, instead is 2 handed, so go for the weapons such as Spectacular Spetum and Blade of the Endless Paths
The rest of the build is ok, solo or party doesn't make so much difference: if he works in SOLO, sure works also in party.

[Menthur]

11 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I did a playthrough with an offensive-minded Goldpact Knight who used the summoned flaming Great Sword "Firebrand" a lot. It's pretty good for a Paladin who invests in his "Flames of Devotion" ability. You can get two items (a pair gloves and a belt) rel. early that allow you to summon that Greats Sword which is made of flames 6 times per rest. as backup weapon you can pick any two handed weapon and also pick the fitting weapon focus for that backup weapon type. Firebrand is universal, meaning it works with any weapon focus.

Another very good approach is to go Darcozzi Paladini and pick Inspiring Liberation, use Zealous Focus and Coordinated Attacks and then first use the Spectacular Spetum (early pollaxe) which has the property "marking". And later add the Blade of the Endless Paths to your arsenal (estoc, also has marking). Marking makes it so that a party member who is closest to you and attacks the same target as you gets +10 accuracy. This stacks with Coordinated Attacks which does the same - already +20 accuracy for your buddy. Add Inspiring Liberation which stacks with everything, too and your firend already has 30 bonus accuracy which is huge and extremely useful against tough enemies such as bosses (like dragons for example). Add the bonus accuracy from Zealous Focus and it will be very hard for your party member to miss at all. This is very impactful if you pair your paladin with your best damage-dealer or disabler. Your paladin himself won't be the best (but decent) damage dealer, a good offtank and amazing support.  

Thank you very much. I'm lvl 3 right now, close to 4 with my Pala. Still early in game. Do you have a rough starting specs for me? I feel I already f** up, but I could respec. I should note that I'm not interested in min/maxing 100% like a maniac. I just want a decent Pala who is not going to suck and suffer thru PotD

Currently my Pala has these stats:

- Might: 16
- Con: 9
- Dex: 10
- Per: 16
- Int: 13
- Res: 14

I picked FoD then LoH first. As talent I picked Weapon & Shield Style (because early game is pretty hard, so I figured going with a shield is better for now). I have also bought Outworn Buckler in Gilded Vale.

As for my party combo: I have recruited Eder, Aloth and Durance. Also have created a custom rogue for mechanics and some additional dps, although he is very very squishy right now (only lvl 2).

 

[Boeroer]

4 hours ago, Menthur said:

- Might: 16
- Con: 9
- Dex: 10
- Per: 16
- Int: 13
- Res: 14

I picked FoD then LoH first. As talent I picked Weapon & Shield Style (because early game is pretty hard, so I figured going with a shield is better for now). I have also bought Outworn Buckler in Gilded Vale.

Seems fine. If you want to retrain to 2handers later that is of course possible. Good classes for the early game to hire as adventurers are Fighters, Monks and Rangers because they have the highest starting stats. I'd say Fighter is the most solid choice. Doesn't go down easily and does good damage because of the high accuracy (doesn't miss much). At the same toime requires little micromanagement. 

[Menthur]

The problem I have with melee heavy party right now is possitioning. I have Eder who acts as the main tank, then I have my pala as off tank / support right next to him and the rogue (who I sent in a few seconds later to blind enemy). Durance is buffing/debuffing from rear row and once he is finished he is swinging is reach weapon as well right behind the tank. So I figure if I go with another fighter I won't be really able to position him well enough. It's already happening quite often that either my rogue or my pala is not able to reach an enemy and I loose lots of dps that way. 

any solid tips on how to position more effectivly?

 

When I block a choke point with my tank, lots of times the area is so narrow that neither my pala nor my rogue have space to engange with enemies. And, unfortunately the AI is not really smart. Sometimes my dudes circle around way too much and grab aggro where they shouldnt and the fight is pretty much over at that point

[Boeroer]

16 hours ago, Menthur said:

The problem I have with melee heavy party right now is possitioning. I have Eder who acts as the main tank, then I have my pala as off tank / support right next to him and the rogue (who I sent in a few seconds later to blind enemy). Durance is buffing/debuffing from rear row and once he is finished he is swinging is reach weapon as well right behind the tank. So I figure if I go with another fighter I won't be really able to position him well enough. 

I meant a fighter instead of the rogue - because you said that he's too squishy. 

Positioning is easier of course if you add weapons/abilities with more range - and be it only for backup, as an alternative option for these situations where you cannot reach enemies properly. For example give the Rogue a pike or quarterstaff - or a bow.

Besides that there's not much you can do. You could use Escape from the Rogue to get behind enemy lines - but since he's squishy he won't survive that I guess. 

Fighting in the open is usually less effective than using choke points so that enemies don't reach your backline too easily.

I'm afraid more range is the only viable option at the moment.

 

[Menthur]

Thanks again for your reply, and yes, in situations where I cannot make my rogue reach the enemy in melee I switch to a bow. Yesterday I attempted Osrya relatively unprepared with the Paladin using a 2Hander although I didnt spec into it and the fight was relatively easy when you consider I wasnt prepared and didnt spec into 2Handers yet.

 

Then I went to the lower ramparts in Raedric's castle and finished off the wave with the Captain of the Guard again with my Pala using a 2Hander. That fight also went pretty well. So my plan for today is to respec my Pala a bit more towards using 2Handers. In emergency situations I can still switch back to sword and board.

As for the rogue. I am indeed thinking about ditching him and gettin another fighter. Have to decide. We'll see.

So far PotD is lots of fun. It's challenging but not impossible. I can only imagine that the difficulty will skyrocket in late game, or .... quite the opposite might happen aswell. I will have to see

[Chaospread]

I agree with all, maybe for the stat you can lower RES to 10/11 and raise INT to ~16.
For early game only option is range weapon in second slot, or abilities/spell, a ranged cipher could be an option cause more spell after one or two shots by a pistol/blunderbuss
Later a barbarian with leap could be a good choise, or the same barbarian with tall grass
Pala 2H is good also early with pike and quaterstaff beyond the main tank

[Menthur]

On my first PotD run ever I just defeated the Adra Dragon without gettin even a scratch ... I just want to thank everybody in this thread for all the help. Already thinking about re-playing with triple crown difficulties once i'm done!