New playthrough, lot of build related questions

[Loog]

So... I tried Avowed, didn't liked it at all and now I just want to play more PoE.

I will most likely play a Priest and I understand that the god you pick mostly impact which lvl 8 spells you get (and a weapon related talent that does not matter too much). So my first question is which "symbol" spells are good?

Also, I'd like to play with the following companions:

• Eder (as my main frontline guy)
• Kana (as my secondary frontline guy)
• Sagani (ranged ofc)
• Hiravias (I love druids)

I'm pretty sure that's a decent party but I'm really not sure regarding my last spot. I'm mostly hesitating between Durance and Pallegina. Regarding Durance I will already have a priest (my watcher) but I guess that's a class you never have too much of. His terrible dex is annoying though. Regarding Pallegina, I never managed to make a useful paladin. Feels like if you build them too sturdy they won't manage to hold mobs (who will focus party members that are easier to kill), damage is poor and utility is ... decent but they're no priest or druid. On the other hand, once you unlock Sacred Immolation it's getting a lot of fun!
Any idea who would fit the party mentioned above the best? And I do know Aloth or GM may be better fits but I just don't like them...

Lastly, I would really appreciate if you could share some kind of build (especially regarding itemization) or at least a few pointers to build such a party. For example, I play a watcher "thundercat" in the past and it was super fun but I'm not sure if which direction I should go with Hiva build. Same for the others...

If you're stilling reading those forum... thank you <3

[Boeroer]

Symbol of Eothas is pretty good because the "+20 to all Defenses" stacks with individual defense buffs like for example Wizard's Mirrored Images/Arcane Veil etc.

I like Priest of Eothas best anyway because there's so much Eothas/Gaun/Dawn/Sunshine related gear in the game you can wear (helmet, flail, mail armor etc.) and also there's lots of dialogue options etc.

Two Priests are great in a party because you can stack Inpiring Radiance to +20 ACC and you can cut the buffing time for the party in half.

A very useful paladin build against bosses is if you combine Coordinated Attacks with a marking weapon and then support your party member with the most reliable and sustainable disable/CC (Monk & Cipher mostly but any build with high ACC and good cc works). You will grant your party member +20 stackable accuracy passively which is awesome. If the party member uses a coordinating weapon then he/she even gets +5 ACC on top. If you flank the enemy it's like having additional +10 ACC. This makes locking up a boss very easy. Best case: your party member is a Cipher with Borrowd Instincts and Tactical Meld and uses a weapon that can prone on crit. There are several marking weapons in the game: Spectacular Spetum + Blade of the Endless Paths is the combination I would recommend most because they complemet each other so well in terms of weapopn focus and damge types, but there's also a pistol, an arquebus, Shame or Glory and Cladhaliath. 

I made a build that uses this Coordinated Attacks/Marking approach. It has some other features, too, but that is the core idea: 

Can easily be adopted to work with Pallegina. For example: put her in fat armor and get the Spactacular Spetum asap. Make her an offtank and mark her enemies so that the nearest ally can get +20 acc. againt them. Later add the Blade of the Endless Paths.  

Edited 22 hours ago by Boeroer

[Loog]

Thank you so much for your detailed feedback.

I will be sure to try this build with Pallegina once I recruit her, I just finish claiming Caed Nua so it shouldn't be too long.

Regarding my Watcher I went with Magran thinking that his Symbol may be a tad better (blind being pretty OP and his symbol targeting will instead of reflex). But now that I think about it, some enemies may be immune to blind and if they "resist" the blind ( / you miss) it's just an OK-ish fire dmg spell whereas the Eothas one provide the defense bonus no matter what. I'm kinda tempted to restart ...

Oh also, I'm guessing the Eothas symbol does not stack with the +15 all defense spell?

Edited 18 hours ago by Loog
typo

[Chaospread]

If you exclude Aloth and GM Pallegina is good. I think a caster should be better, also WM companions are good, maybe also Zahua can fit well. Why Magran? It is not bad but also Durance is a Magran priest. Hiravias can be built as a typical cat druid off-tank, druid is always powerful in PoE1 with relentless storm and all that mighty spells.