Ravager vs Marauder vs Shadowdancer feedback wanted

[portedgoblin]

Long time no see!

I need some help with what class to play for a POE and Deadfire playthrough. I completed both games back when they came out. I used a Monk both games, SC Monk in Deadfire.

I will do a roleplaying playthrough with reading all the text and enjoying the story since it was so long ago I played. I will play on Hard difficulty.

I want to play the same class in both games, though I may multiclass in Deadfire.

For POE I am down to Rogue or Barbarian. I am trying both now for a few hours each. So far I like them about the same. I have a feeling I will think Barbarian is more fun later on however.

I need some help with a build for Deadfire. I think some combination of Rogue, Barbarian or Monk would be what I want, but I don’t really know enough to decide witch one, and it would be great to get some input on fun builds using these classes. The only one off the table would be SC Monk since I played this already. Monk multiclass is fine.

In my research for this, in this forum mostly, I have read about Berserker / Nalpazca (Ravager), this seems fun and also great from RP point of view. You come back in Deadfire with PTSD, are a bit unstable and use drugs to cope! This build would mean I would choose to play a Barbarian in POE 1.

Not sure how Barbarian / Rogue (Marauder)or Rogue / Monk (Shadowdancer) are compared to the one above? What the differences in playstyles and how strong are the builds? I am looking for a melee TWS build.

All thought are welcome!

Edited August 2 by portedgoblin

[Boeroer]

Hi!

edit: the follwing is about Deadfire:

I personally prefer Barbarian/Monk, especially Berserker/Helwalker.
The self damage of the Berserker's Frenzy directly fuels the wounds of the Monk which makes this a very enjoyable combination: you always have wounds to spend. There are other nice synergies like the higher crit chance combined with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming of the Monk (causing crit chains) or that Rootig Pain fires off all the time (get rid of the Berserker's Confusion though because you will hit yourself if not).
However: it's very risky because the self damage of the Berserker scales very steeply. It will kill the character if it's not countered with healing or damage resistance (or both).
A really big health pool helps, too.
I enjoy it immensely - but instead of a two weapon etup I would very much recommend to use a Morning Star (in Deadfire at least):
Both classes profit a lot from the modal which the Morning Star's weapon proficiency offers: it reduces the fortitude defense of enemies a lot. Monks and Barbarians have abilities to target fortitude instead of deflection (look at Force of Anguish and later Brute Force). You can then see which defense is lower and attack the weaker one which is very helpful.
Also there's an early unique Morning Star in Deadfire that is perfect for this character combo (Saru Sichr). It works extremely well with those crit chains I mentioned above because it rolls two attacks per swing (because it has a separate poison attack roll). Anyway: it can lead to a lot of "oh my god what just happened?" moments.  
The build requires attention but is a lot of fun imo. For me it's okay if the main character needs more attention than the rest of the party and I enjoy the challenge to keep him alive as long as he's so much fun on the offensive side.
Watch out: Nalpazca cannot heal when on drug crash - so using Frenzy when not on drugs = certain death.
Helwalker suffers increased damage with every wound - so Frenzy hurts even more (also means more wounds but also quick death if not healed).
Both have incredible wound generation as one might suspect. 

They all have  pretty brutish vibe imo.

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Monk/Streetfighter is a very good damage dealer (and can also be an extremly good dps and crowd control character using two "mortar" blunderbusses which deal AoE damage - so basically a medium ranged Shadowdancer... just look at the Monk's ability "Stunning Surge" and imagine the implications when it's used in an AoE) but it can be fragile. The benefit of using blunderbusses is that they allow the use of "Poweder Burns" which immediately unlocks the Streetfighters passive which makes him superfast - without actually getting flanked by enemies or bloodied. I'd say mortar Shadowdancer is the best option but of course melee also works very well. 

Trickster/Forbidden Fist is an excellent tank/damage hybrid using a weapon + a great early bashing shield made for monks. Maybe not main tank material but a great frontliner who's holding his own while dealing a lot of damage.   

Ah... note that one companion in Deadfire can be a Monk/Streetfighter (a so called sidekick though, not a full-fledged companion). That may be a reason to not pick that combo as main character?

Shadowdancers don't feel as brutish as Ravagers to me.

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Berserker/Streetfighter (for example with a certain set of daggers) has insane attack speed and dps output and in the early game can dominate fights with a hunting bow (+modal), too (makes some tough fights in Deadfire so much easier). But is also very squishy as one can imagine. Like the Berserker/Monk I mentioned above. It's also very good with two battle axes.
I haven't much experience with other Barb/Rogues. Another plus is that Barb/Rogues can be the best lockpicks in the game. The reason is that you can use the ability "Leap" outside of battle whenever you want. You can stealth in a drak corner, then leap across the room/area right beside a chest, pause and pick the lock and grabbing stuff without anybody noticing you. Same goes for doing stealth/invisible attacks - so maybe a Barb/Assassin could be fun, too. There's a great early assassin dagger in the game which does great things when used from stealth. And assasin's boots that make you invisible if you kill somebody (1/encounter). Maybe even a Mageslayer/Assassin build would be fun as a thematic build - getting rid of casters from stealth and as soon as possible. Never tried, but sounds fun.

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In PoE I enjoyed barbarians a lot more than rogues. Because Carnage procs all weapon effects in a AoE you can do a lot of fun stuff with a Barbarian. This doesn't work in Deadfire anymore, but they have other cool stuff there.
Examples are a draining weapon with a Barb (drain from all enemies in the Carnage area), weapons that cause prone or stun on crit (in an AoE bc. Carnage), weapons that just do a lot of base damage per hit (like the summoned Great Sword Firebrand) in combination with Blood Thirst, weapons that leech buff durations from enemies and so on.  

 

Edited August 3 by Boeroer

[portedgoblin]

Thanks! Based on your feedback I feel that I can proceed with the Barbarian in POE 1 and I have several cool options for Deadfire!

 

[Boeroer]

Barbarian in PoE starts of... weak I must say. The main reason is the relatively poor accuracy (especially for Carnage) and the bad deflection which makes him squishy. At lower levels the impact of his big endurance/health pool cannot realy be felt and he cannot really make up for it because he misses or grazes often with Carnage. Fortunately Carnage counts as an active ability und thus gains accuracy with every level - up to the point where your Carnage has better accuracy than your normal attacks. And with a few levels and more endurance and health he doesn' feel as squishy anymore, especially if you give him decent CON.
So do not get discuraged if he feels a bit meh at first, it will get much better. In the beginning it can help to give him a single weapon (+12 ACC) - the impact of the added accuracy is highest in the early game. Later you don't need that anymore. If he feels too weak and gets knocked out a lot another alternative is to give him a pike or quarterstaff.

The most fun I had with a Firebrand Barbarian (no need to go Fire Godlike, was mainly for the fire theme):

All weapons which have an "on hit" or "on crit" effect are good though. Also ones with "speed" because they let you reach 0 recovery time fairly quickly in combination with Frenzy (and Bloodlust and maybe dual wielding + two handed style). 

 

Edited August 3 by Boeroer

[portedgoblin]

I am looking at The Golden Dragon build that I just found. Seems very fun and a great theme. So handsome too! I think I prefer this over a Firebrand build. 
 

another option would be something like this, TWS with HoF. I will experiment.