Can't settle on a party - all created

[Rat Salat]

So, had fun the first time through (hard, WE cipher, standard companions), and we're going to do it again with a party created by myself.

 

I've pretty well settled on 4 of the classes, but I'm sort of stuck on the last two.

 

Frontline: Moon Godlike Fighter

Frontline: ???

 

Midfield: Human Priest of Magran

Midfield: ???

 

Backline: Wood Elf Cipher

Backline: Wood Elf Wizard

 

The candidates for the remaining frontline positions are as follows. Feel free to suggest alternatives:

 

1) Wild Orlan Chanter - Deflection tank

2) Moon Godlike Fighter - Eh, why not?

3) Aumata Paladin - alternate 2H and 1H/shield depending on encounter.

 

Midfield Cantidates are as follows:

 

1) Wood Elf Druid (Ranged/emergency Bear)

2) Wood Elf Rogue (Ranged)

3) Aumata Barbarian (Pike)

4) Wood Elf Chanter (reload song)

5) Aumata Paladin (Flames Arbalest + Pike)

 

 

[Noctaem]

Death Godlike Wayfarer Paladin with a pike / weapon+shield combo as needed.  Focused on last hitting to grant allies within AoE endurance.  Aura with accuracy + crit for the party.  Encounter rez.  High burst DPS.  Requires micro to properly function.

 

Gun chanter seems like a good idea.  Make the Priest of Magran gun focused with the correct class/non-class talents at mid field.  Make the cipher use an arbalest/gun to benefit.  Use summons for melee and the other chants as appropriate.  Run the reload speed chant constantly to give bonuses to Cipher, priest and yourself.

 

I find the wizard to be lackluster until late levels.  If you have to basically carry a wizard from 1-5 and then have them be semi useful from 5+ til late game I feel you would be better off using a different character that's useful for at least 3/4 of the game instead.  Just my 2 cp on that especially with the recent nerf to slicken and ice cloud for example.  I find this even more true if you're running a Cipher and/or Priest already.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Noctaem

[Rat Salat]

Ranged Chanter would fit fine in the open midfield spot. I do like wizards, but I've been meaning to try a druid, so perhaps I'll make that swap.

 

It's the second frontline position that has me stumped. Maybe I'll just dual up on the fighters and:

 

Moon Godlike Fighter

Moon Godlike Fighter

 

Human Priest of Magran

Aumata Chanter 

 

Wood Elf Druid

Wood Elf Cipher

[TimEnchant]

OP, I run a party much like your proposed party on POTD.  I use a frontline of fighter(moon godlike) and chanter (wild orlan), a ranged rogue (wood elf) and ranged cipher (coastal aumaua), and a backline of priest (pale elf) and wizard (death godlike).  The races are probably not optimized, but I didn't want two of the same because I'm weird like that, and they all work fine and have some benefits.  I'm through all of Act I, so take my info with that in mind.

 

The frontline works really well; fighters are obviously great tanks, and the chanter has defensive stats + INT, so his invocations are quite useful.  I would recommend some lore on the frontliners.  It's a bit counter-intuitive, but it lets them cast scrolls in tougher fights, which let's them add some utility while they are soaking up damage (in the chanter's case, it lets him do something in between invocations).

 

As everyone on this forum seems to be aware, ciphers are awesome, and mine is no exception.  The focus resource mechanism is pretty generous, and it lets the party get through moderately difficult encounters without using too many per rest abilities from the other casters.

 

The priest is indispensable in longer fights, as is the wizard, even on lower levels (which is all I know about anyway).  I agree with Noctaem above that the wizard gets carried a bit in the lower levels, because she doesn't have enough spells to cast them regularly, but I find even the level 1 spells to be so useful in tough encounters that I think it's worth sticking with the wizard.  An alternative might be druid, but I have no experience playing druid, and I would imagine they have the same resource issue as wizards at lower levels.  Plus, I love the wizard spell Chill Fog and would never give it up.

 

A quick wizard note: her twice per encounter ability is pretty useful, so she isn't just standing there when she's doing nothing.  I also took the talent that adds AOE and DR bypass to her wand auto-attacks, which isn't useful late game but adds to her damage until she gets more spells.

 

The remaining character is my ranged rogue, who by far does the most damage to single targets in my party.  She basically one shots some wizards with her arbalest, and she can do so without wading through enemies to deal her damage.  Plus, between the cipher, chanter, and wizard, pretty much everyone has a sneak attack debuff on them, which is partly why her damage is so high.  I like having a dedicated weapon-DPS character, and I suppose you could swap in a barbarian here for that purpose, but I prefer the ease of use of the rogue.

 

Final point: everyone except my tanks is step up like a glass cannon.  High MIG/DEX/INT, no armor.  So if I screw up with my disables, the fights can go sour pretty fast.  If you choose a squishy backline, I recommend getting the Hold the Line talent on your tanks pretty early, so they engage more targets and prevent enemies from slipping through and one-shotting everyone.