Can't decide which class to paly :-/

[Co0n]

Hey guys!

 

I just bought the game and can't decide what I should pick!

I played the monk for quite a bit, but it's too annoying to babysit his abilities 24/7.

Don't get me wrong, I like having some abilities to use in combat, but I dont want to have to use them as auto attack .

 

So I was thinking I want some kind of melee character to dive into combat. What would you suggest to take?

[b0rsuk]

Some tips.

 

You can get the following classes as companions: Wizard, Fighter, Priest, Chanter, Ranger, Druid, Cipher, Paladin

Classes only available to player characters: Barbarian, Monk, Rogue

In case you haven't noticed, there are many spellcasters among companions and few melee classes. And while you can get a companion paladin, NPC paladins are at a disadvantage: they don't get full bonus from Faith&Conviction. Also, the only companion paladin doesn't belong to any common order, so you can't pick the associated talents for further customization. So Paladin is not a bad idea.

 

If you don't like micromanagement, Rogue is not for you. Neither is Wizard, Priest, Druid or Cipher.  Barbarian, Chanter(with a shield if melee) are okay. Ranger is low micromanagement, but you need to pay attention and don't put the animal where the fight is the fiercest.

 

I think Barbarian is about right for you. Large health pool, has some abilities but is not overly reliant on actives. The only downside - his ranged combat is average at best, no point of switching to bow unless you're badly wounded.

[Raven Darkholme]

I'd also advise barbarian. A lot of fun for not too much work.

[Co0n]

Thanks guys!
Sounds good, I was thinking paladin or barbarian as well.

I would like to use a big fat 2 handed Weapon and deal damage (without instantly dieing by the bad breath of my enemies...)

 

What stats would you recommend for a beginner?
I used to play Baldurs Gate with hundreds of mods for harder combat, so I am not a noob by far - just new to Pillars ;-)

[Raven Darkholme]

High Might, , Int, Res and Per, dumped CoN and Dex, or you go a few points lower in Per and put that into Dex.

[Manty5]

There are a couple of nice paladin-only shields, and you can swap from one to another (with some weapon switch penalty time).  

So lets say your paladin's set is Weapon Focus: Soldier.  You could use either greatsword or arquebus as your dispenser of Flames of Conviction, then go back to warhammer and shield.

 

For barbarian, the one I like the best is the reach weapons (quarterstaff and pike).  You can more safely sacrifice some defense for damage if you're in the second row instead of the first.

 

My personal recommendation:  Pale Elf, Hearth Orlan or Boreal Dwarf Quarterstaff Barb with Frenzy, two-handed style and high int/dex/str in medium-light armor just in case the second lines become the front lines.

 

If you have higher power than speed, use quarterstaff.  If you focus on speed, use pike.  The reason is the weapons you'll find for each (blunt is a better damage type, and one of the best pikes applies a certain effect to everyone you crit with your multi-hits.

 

And as someone on these forums explained to me... ignore the sickness giving and fortitude-targeting talents and grab all the accuracy you can.  Trust me.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Manty5

[MoxyWoo]

For ease of play and reactive/passive heals... I like Moon Godlike.

 

There is so MUCH going on in combat when I first started playing, the last thing I wanted to do was drop a heal in my first playthrough...  Moon Godlike made it much simpler to me and thus much more fun...  Not to mention for a paladin it felt really like the group support or similar.

 

I found paladin is much easier in the early game, but barbarian brings more to the table at lvl 5+ (because carnage acc is weak and so are weapons until then).  The paladin has faith/conviction as a main PC as others have noted, thus less need of a shield, and with Flames of Devotion, they actually produce good numbers for the 2/enc they can use it on, plus.. barbarian needing to "cast" frenzy or similar was always annoying when they had to "catchup" to the other melee due to its use.

 

Also of note, if you go Darcozzi, and Fire Talent at lvl 2, you get a decent retaliate very early vs reflex and cold resistance which is handy versus some of the most annoying monsters in Act 1.  And they are a decent candidate for using 'any' weapon if they pick up Zealous Focus and vulnerable attack at 4th > Exhortation > Inspiring Exhortation because all of those prioritize some acc/dmg without pigeonholing you into a weapon focus which is arguably the best and easiest power jump, since Vulnerable helps your Fires talent a lot.

Edited May 10, 2015 by MoxyWoo

[dudex]

high int/might/dex human barbarian are strong and easy to play

 

u get level 3 really early and just have savage defense.

 

Pop it whenever fighting spirit triggers. easy win.

[b0rsuk]

What stats would you recommend for a beginner?

I used to play Baldurs Gate with hundreds of mods for harder combat, so I am not a noob by far - just new to Pillars ;-)

 

Stay away from Normal difficulty level, then. It's Hard or Path of the Damned for you. PoE is either quite a bit easier, or I understand the combat rules much better.

[Co0n]

So for a paly, what talent would you pick first?

 

ps: playing on hard ;-)

Edited May 10, 2015 by Co0n

[Jojobobo]

Rogue is good, and not actually that much micro-management - I'm currently soloing one on PotD. Reckless Assault allows for huge damage, and sneak attack statuses are easy to inflict with either Crippling or Blinding Strike (lasting for 10 juicy seconds at 10 Int), or just flanking. I'm playing one with high deflection (shock, horror!) and the tankiness vs DPS is quite good (most of the other classes have to bust their balls for the kind of benefits that Reckless Assault offers, and even then you can mitigate nearly all of the deflection loss from it with the Deflective Assault talent).

 

All that said, the Barbarian is also very fun. I just wanted to put forward that Rogues aren't as high maintenance as people think.

[b0rsuk]

First ? I think it's the same for most classes - Weapon Focus! That +6 accuracy is huge. It depends on the order. Most people like Zealous Focus on level3, another +5 accuracy.

 

Kind Wayfarer, for example, has talents which heal nearby allies. It promotes a certain party build when many people are fighting in melee. Darcozzi players very much like Inspiring Liberation (Liberating Exhortation upgrade). Fires of Darcozzi (Flames of Devotion upgrade) is good early, for fire shield.

 

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Paladin#Paladin_Talents

[Meisterhobbit]

Well, micromanagement-part first: I had a ranger in my first playthrough, and it was quite easy to keep him busy in comparison to everyone else. Not sure though how great this one might fare in melee (hence the "ranger" name ?). Even when I got the second ranger, it was pretty funny at first: bear AND wolf companion :D . But later it became a bit boring...

For my second playthrough I was planning for some class which isn't already covered by one of the companions. Was going for monk because weaponless fighting sounds fun, but if it really is such hard work I guess I'll give the barbarian a try too. I mean, piles of skills to manage would be fine if there was just one character, but with the other 5? A rather carefree class seemed right for me... not the kind of person to hit space bar every second .

And little aside: accuracy really is that important? Didn't mind it too much the first time and was okay with it, but honestly I played on easy (little noob in this kind of rpg). Going for normal or hard next time and don't want to get ripped apart by that nasty adra dragon^^.

[JONNIN]

Hey guys!

 

I just bought the game and can't decide what I should pick!

 

I played the monk for quite a bit, but it's too annoying to babysit his abilities 24/7.

Don't get me wrong, I like having some abilities to use in combat, but I dont want to have to use them as auto attack .

 

So I was thinking I want some kind of melee character to dive into combat. What would you suggest to take?

 

Fighters are really, really good.  They are tough, able to heal slowly over time and have a wide variety of choices -- you can build pure damage, pure tank, or halfway between.   Often overlooked is the fighter's accuracy which is as good as rogue or ranger etc -- a well made fighter can crit a very, very high % of the time while wading into battle with a 2h weapon and just destroying things.

 

Barbarians are pretty neat,  more damage but less durable, and able to hit other enemy with a mild splash aoe.  Frenzy is poweful.  I did not get super far with a barbarian yet, just a few levels into that class.

 

Monks do not have to be played with micromanagement.    You could just let him stack wounds, and pick the talent that increases damage with wound count, and once in a while activate the one that makes him hit faster.   It does better if you micromanage and spam his attacks but you might be amazed at what he can do with minimal input.  Esp with a 20 dex, faster attack, and 2 weapon style... he will hit stuff 4-6 times to every other character's single hit, and he will do it with no gear, and each fist will rival a fine/basic 2h weapon after mid game.  I don't advise the no-gear though.   There is this one fight that drops exceptional leather early on..

 

Accuracy is *critical* to make a bad pun.  Accuracy, after you have enough to HIT the enemy, becomes your chance to crit with spill-over.  If your accuracy is low you get a lot of "graze" hits that do very little damage.   On normal and hard difficulty, accuracy & debuffs can get you 50% or higher crit ratings.   On POTD, it is lower but still pretty good.   But yes, it is that important.  For every class.  Your wizard/cipher needs accuracy in order to LAND a spell and have it last its entire duration, and the cipher needs it more to build focus.  Only your healing spells do not need accuracy, just about everything else does.   A weapon focus talent is huge.  For a cipher on POTD, weapon focus + marksman is not amiss (another bad pun). 

Edited May 11, 2015 by JONNIN

[Meisterhobbit]

Nice, thanks for the summary. Another related question: Intellect... i guess barbs might need quite a lot of it for their aoe attacks, but what about classes that don't really use aoe like fighter or paladin? Can they dump it with a clear conscience if they're ready to lack the respective defences or able to get it from equipment?

Rather unrelated: is there an option to get rid of solved quests in the log book? Feels like quite a bit of unnecessary scrolling in later game...

[Wolken3156]

INT also affects the duration of effects as well. I personally like having my Fighter's Prone abilities last longer.

[Kaigen42]

Nice, thanks for the summary. Another related question: Intellect... i guess barbs might need quite a lot of it for their aoe attacks, but what about classes that don't really use aoe like fighter or paladin? Can they dump it with a clear conscience if they're ready to lack the respective defences or able to get it from equipment?

Rather unrelated: is there an option to get rid of solved quests in the log book? Feels like quite a bit of unnecessary scrolling in later game...

 

Personally, I tend to dump Int on Fighters because the duration of their prone effects are so slim to begin with that you only lose 1.5 seconds by dumping it. I also tend to load my Fighters up with passive abilities rather than the active ones anyway, though, so your mileage may vary. The main thing Paladins care about Int for is aura radius; it's hard to affect much of your party if you dump it, though Boots of Zealous Command can help in that respect. It also helps make Lay on Hands more effective, but if you aren't taking that then it loses a bit of utility. I tend to leave it at 10, just so that aura radius isn't too terrible.

[Co0n]

Just FYI:

 

I now tried the Fighter, Paladin, Monk, Rogue and Barbarian. 

And I ended up playing a Melee Cipher in heavy armor :D

 

That's pretty much how I always imagined what an offensive paladin would look and feel like.
Deals some serious weapon damage and has awesome abilities to controll the fight. Love it.

 

Next will propably be something more casting based, Druid or Wizard I guess.

[FranklinsTower]

Not to hijack here, but what would you guys say is more fun to play between Rogue and Barbarian?  This is for my next playthrough (probably on PotD) - I don't mind micromanaging at all, what I don't like is an auto-attack robot.  Rogue and Barb seem to have an even amount of abilities, but pretty different play styles.  What do you guys enjoy more?

[Raven Darkholme]

Barb has to mmed more.

[FranklinsTower]

In what way? Sorry for the noob questions.

[Eywa]

Imo barbarian is just like fighter but with AoE autoattacking.

So I'd say rogue is more fun. I had both rogue and barbarian in my PotD party even though my rogue was ranged one I still had to micro her more than barbarian. I would assume melee rogue will require even more micro due to the fact of up close combat and small amount of endurance and you would need to keep those negative effects on enemies that proc rogue's sneak attacks.

[Raven Darkholme]

Depends on your strategy I guess, I never micromanage rogues, other people afflict targets for them.

[dekergus]

i found micromanaging rogue quite fun !

 

in a mater of role play, i've found playing a priest a bit annoying, being stuck acting accordindly to my god's commitments... guess should be the same with druid and paladin...

[Raven Darkholme]

Well you have to switch targets every now and then, don't know, whether that is much of micro but, yeah....