Sell me on a Class

[armorb]

Having trouble deciding on what my first character should be. Debating Monk / Barbarian / Rogue.

 

For context, at the moment I'm assuming I will roll through the first play with the following party composition:

 

1) PC

2) Eder - Fighter

3) Pallegina - Paladin

4) Kana Rua - Chanter

5) Grieving Mother - Cipher

6) Hiravias (Druid) / Durance (Priest

 

Any of the three classes make a particular amount of sense given that party composition? Any of the three that have a lot to recommend to it in terms of fun-to-play, rewarding progression, etc? Leaning towards Monk...

 

Thanks for your input!

 

 

[Havelok]

Monks can punch people across the screen and knock enemies over like bowling pins. 

 

My second playthrough is going to be a Monk, a death godlike obsessed with pain. Obviously my "i'm an evil d ick" playthrough, ha.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Havelok

[Gromnir]

rogue

 

rogue is obvious good choice to get you more damage production while also having a character that might be able to have enough skill levels in stealth & mechanics.  you got 1-2 potential tanks, and 2-3 potential support characters in a priest/druid and chanter... and a non-tanky paladin.  you are a little light on damage production, though no doubt you can make up for the shortfall by careful tailoring each party member with talents n' such.  even so, a dependable heavy-hitter would be a nice addition to your group: rogue or weezard... 'cause rangers sux at the moment and you got a cipher. as we noted already, the rogue's inherent skill bonuses would allow you to add a stealthy character who could disarm traps, which may or may not be possible with your group... depending on starting skills, background, and the level they join your group.

 

however, with a similar group, Gromnir is gonna choose a second priest. one priest for healing, 'cause the healing priest is still essential in our beta experience, and one priest to be... different.  having played obsidian/bis games more than once, we know that we will be able to successful overcome combat with even an indifferent combat pc. however, we also know that if we build character wrong, we could miss more than a few quests and dialogue options. 'course we won't know what constitutes "wrong" until we play, but based on past games from the same developer, we believe that for role-play reasons, we will want a character with high perception, high resolve, high intelligence and high lore.  sadly, we can't always have what we want, so we may needs play with attributes a bit.  regardless, for us, we is gonna play a hearth orlan priest o' either eothas or berath... likely dual-wielding flails or maces.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps, keep in mind that barbarians and monks is s'posed filling a tank role. and you got 1-2 already.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Gromnir

[Verenti]

Rogue or Barbarian. Those are the two classes (?) that don't have NPCs. So your role in the party would always unique.

[armorb]

rogue

 

rogue is obvious good choice to get you more damage production while also having a character that might be able to have enough skill levels in stealth & mechanics.  you got 1-2 potential tanks, and 2-3 potential support characters in a priest/druid and chanter... and a non-tanky paladin.  you are a little light on damage production, though no doubt you can make up for the shortfall by careful tailoring each party member with talents n' such.  even so, a dependable heavy-hitter would be a nice addition to your group: rogue or weezard... 'cause rangers sux at the moment and you got a cipher. as we noted already, the rogue's inherent skill bonuses would allow you to add a stealthy character who could disarm traps, which may or may not be possible with your group... depending on starting skills, background, and the level they join your group.

 

however, with a similar group, Gromnir is gonna choose a second priest. one priest for healing, 'cause the healing priest is still essential in our beta experience, and one priest to be... different.  having played obsidian/bis games more than once, we know that we will be able to successful overcome combat with even an indifferent combat pc. however, we also know that if we build character wrong, we could miss more than a few quests and dialogue options. 'course we won't know what constitutes "wrong" until we play, but based on past games from the same developer, we believe that for role-play reasons, we will want a character with high perception, high resolve, high intelligence and high lore.  sadly, we can't always have what we want, so we may needs play with attributes a bit.  regardless, for us, we is gonna play a hearth orlan priest o' either eothas or berath... likely dual-wielding flails or maces.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps, keep in mind that barbarians and monks is s'posed filling a tank role. and you got 1-2 already.

 

Wait, who then is my second tank you refer to? The "non-tanky" Pally?

 

Thanks for the feedback...

[Lord of Riva]

there is only the barbarian, its not a tank though AFAIK (although he could somewhat do this) he more of a Hard hitter/Flanker with cool AoE damage.

 

Wild Orlan barbarian FTW ! :D

[Gromnir]

poe tanks are fighters, monks and barbarians.  however, you can make a decent tank outta a hatchet wielding sword and shield paladin.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Voss]

why a hatchet particularly?

[Leferd]

Hatchets provide a bonus to deflection.

[Gromnir]

Hatchets provide a bonus to deflection.

yup.  is doubtful the paladin's excellent deflection potential makes up for the lack o' class-specific tank abilities the other the other genuine tank classes will eventually have access to, but at least early in the game, the paladin can be a decent tank if it is built specific for that role.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gamgee]

Can anyone sell me on a chanter?

[Odd Hermit]

Chanters and Druids are the two best classes in the beta. Chanter for their summons, constant healing AoE, and of course the chant buffs and debuffs. Druids for their crazy AoE damage and of course movement control via Tanglefoot's giant AoE and long duration.

 

 

Fighter and Paladin not far behind, Fighters have very strong damage output and are tanky enough for small encounters. Paladins are the best purely tanking focused class.

 

Rogue is also strong if you want to gib stuff with guns or are good with a high risk/high reward melee damager.

 

Priest is useful, the best healer but Druid can handle it most of the time. Some good buffs and debuffs, but very squishy.

 

Ciphers I really liked for awhile but I'm not as sold on them now. They have decent CC but I've been finding it's too small AoE and often unnecessary.

 

 

Monk, Wizard, Ranger, Barbarian aren't considerations for me unless they get buffs. Monk has some good abilities, but they're stuck in an odd place where to use them they have to take damage, but I find them inferior as a tank choice. Wizard's spell selection is too full of worthless self buffs, they deal less damage than Druids considerably especially at low levels, and they're more fragile. Barbarian are melee AoE, which is just not as good as ranged, placeable AoEs. And Ranger is just kind of "meh" with an animal companion that isn't much use in combat.

[etagloc]

I think i'm going for the barbarian myself. He seems like a good mix of. Tank/mobility/damage

I am not a power gamer, and I like to make concepts, more than the most powerful.

like a weapon master staff fighter with mobility etc.

 

Its always possible to complete the game anyway, so role playing should be your goal, especially in your FIRST play though, make something you'll remember playing.

 

Choose the class you think Is the coolest and then put your own twist on it

[TheisEjsing]

Having played the backer beta I'm really sold on a cipher. Blood legacy has a cool cipher ending, and ciphers should be the class that is best linked to the overall theme of souls. So from a roleplaying perspective, I would recomment a cipher.

But it all comes down to your prefered playstyle and the kind of character you want to play both roleplay and combat wise.  

Edit: I didn't see you had a cipher in your team setup. Personally I won't plan my team beforehand, but a rogue like Gromnir adviced would be good burst and you could focus on some much needed mechanics. A ranger or a wizard would also provide what you might lack abit. Josh very recently stated that rangers are getting much stronger than they are in the present beta build, and a ranged weapon specialist has proven very good. A wizard is good bursty bursty and got grimoire slam, which is my personal favorite skill in the game.

 

Book bashing!

Edited March 12, 2015 by TheisEjsing

[Sensuki]

The Rogue is good if you want to one-shot people with a Blunderbuss.

[morhilane]

The Monk is the best class to mitigate high burst damage via the damage/wound conversion. Crits fill up the wound buckets and you get to use lots of powered abilities because of it. They are higher maintenance than the Fighters though, so not for everyone. They are also weakened if they aren't getting hit unless you use the self-wound ability. They need wounds to shine and they need to get hit to generate wounds.

[Sensuki]

Wounds no longer reduce damage.

[morhilane]

Wounds no longer reduce damage.

 

Than you'll have to explain to me how my 92 Endurance Monk with cloth on survived a 90 crits without his endurance turning all red last week in v435.

Edited March 12, 2015 by morhilane

[Katarack21]

Ciphers seems to have the most lore in the area, and are explicitly tied into the overall theme of souls--so I'd expect them to have some deeper, more complex interactions about these things than the other classes. I'm going to be playing a cipher on my first playthrough, for this reason.

[Fluffsy]

People seem to Q&A in this thread so I'll go ahead and ask - can rogues wield hand-axes in PoE? If so - what are the pros and cons for wielding one? I always loved the concept of rogues using small hand-axes as primary weapons and daggers as secondary ones.

[Veevoir]

Rogues (and any class) can wield anything.
 
So consider the awesomeness of sneak attacking people with 2-handers. In PoE being a rogue is not exactly D&D thief-sneaky archetype, it is more of a dirty fighter who when opportunity arises attacks fast and hard, hit and run style.

As for pro's and con's - hatchets add to deflection (pro), but for rogues it doesn't matter that much - they are to attack while enemy is busy, not go head to head. The con is simple - as "special ability" of weapon is deflection - most of other small 1-handers are much more suited for dealing damage (eg. being stillettos that bypass some armor).

If you'd upgrade to normal-sized 1-handers Axes are not a bad choice.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Veevoir

[Fluffsy]

Rogues (and any class) can wield anything.

 

So consider the awesomeness of sneak attacking people with 2-handers. In PoE being a rogue is not exactly D&D thief-sneaky archetype, it is more of a dirty fighter who when opportunity arises attacks fast and hard, hit and run style.

 

As for pro's and con's - hatchets add to deflection (pro), but for rogues it doesn't matter that much - they are to attack while enemy is busy, not go head to head. The con is simple - as "special ability" of weapon is deflection - most of other small 1-handers are much more suited for dealing damage (eg. being stillettos that bypass some armor).

 

If you'd upgrade to normal-sized 1-handers Axes are not a bad choice.

 

So there aren't exactly any weapon proficiencies in PoE and any class can wield any weapons without restrictions? What about hit rating? If I would want to dual wield I would still need to have a small weapon in off-hand for optimal results right?

[Veevoir]

There are weapon proficiences that increase your accuracy with selected group of weapons, but they are (again) available to all.

The real deal here is that some classes start with better accuracy (like rogue) so are much better pre-disposed to hit stuff with everything. The wiki may be a little bit outdated, but contains some good info on those stats: 
http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Character_creation#Class

As for dual wielding - don't know about any penalties connected to that. Weapons have individual speeds though, so attacking with two small weapons is much faster than two "full" sized ones.
Two-weapons style talent increases the speed of those attacks.

[morhilane]

There is plenty of buff, class abilities, class talents to increase accuracy as well. It's all about how you build your characters.

[armorb]

As of my fiddling with a rogue last night (v435), dual-wielding definately applies a negative accuracy modifier to both weapons (I think it was -10?)....