No Rest For The Pro party build(POTD)

[Idleray]

I recently just completed a POTD playthough with less than 10 rests using the idea of an all-ranged party that can keep fighting in even critical fatigue. Here is my party build:

 

PC: Chanter - Early-to mid game Tank. Boost everyone with runspeed to kite, summon up a phantom that's extremely good early-game and unaffected by fatigue, late game boost everyone with Ranged speed buff and Fire dmg buff, or Ogres to tank for the party.

 

Ranged Rogue: with WF:Peasant and Persistence (Hunter Bow from Od Nua Lvl4) for high ranged dps. Enchanted vs spirits to take out Shades/Cean Gwlas.

 

Ranger: With bear companion for tank that's unaffected by Health or Fatigue. Critical component for reaching <10 rests. Equipped with vs Spirit Arquebus to eventually one-shot Cean Gwlas.

 

Cipher: The super-cheese. Unlimited mental bindings (even if accuracy is affected by fatigue) is enough to make everything breezy in the early-mid game. You also get other nice tools like Ignore Pain which you can use to boost your Bear tank.

Tenuous Grasp + Whispers of Treason can also help a lot against things like ogres, often goading them into fighting each other while your party takes pot-shots.

 

Wizard: For the unlimited Slicken after Level 9, allowing you to completely control encounters with many ranged enemies, and make fights against Spores trivial.

 

Paladin: Lay on hands on your bear. Zealous focus aura for party. Equipped it with anti-vessel Blunderbuss to wtfpwn Darguls/Fampyrs with one Flames of Devotion & anti-Beast Pistols against Dragons.

 

Of note are the 2 occasions in the game where you can effectively rest "for free": Once when waiting at the sun-dial to get into Lle e Rhemen and during the Ducal Palace hearing. I can confirm at least one of these not counting towards the 10 rest limit. I suspect neither of them count.

 

I always rested AFTER completing the more difficult fights and AFTER long travelling to hand in all the quests. Maxed Athletics for entire party except Chanter (my mechanics guy). The remaining points I put into lore.

 

After about level 8 you can start fighting in even a critical fatigue state since your party's defensive tools will have taken shape (Bear + Lay on Hands + Ignore Pain + Chanter Summons) and those are unaffected by fatigue.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Idleray

[Omnicron]

Thanks for this. I started my PotD Ironman run going for this achievement. Bleakwalker Paladin as my main and then instantly created Chanter and Cipher since they seem strong and obvious picks. Gave my chanter max resolve and Perception for tanking

 

Seems you went all out fighting dragons and Vampyr as well. Is there content you skipped to save on rests?

 

I am surprised by the wizard pick, did you just save spells for hard combats before level 9? How much did s/he contribute?

 

Thanks for the info about the Ranger I was debating whether I wanted one, and will make one now How much does the bear tank compared to your other characters?

 

Which characters should tank? You only need 2 tanky chars in my experience and chanter and cipher and paladin can all take that role I think.

 

did you use talents like Wound Binding? 

[Idleray]

I skipped Temple of Eothas and Raedrics Hold initially to get to the Defiance Bay earlier than usual. Those 2 places take too many rests to beat early on, and I wanted to do them on my way back doing bounties.

 

I ended up finishing the game and doing all of the tier 1 and tier 2 bounties. Out of the tier 3 bounties I only did Captain Muarumi.

 

I reached about level 12 in Caed Nua over 2 runs.

 

The Wizard pick was there to provide slicken and sometimes chill fog. Very clutch spells against enemy casters/ranged which may make you take a lot more damage than necessary.

 

The Bear was essentially my main tank and my Chanter my off-tank. With lay on hands the Bear can actually tank very well, and if it dies my Chanter with tankier stats took over.

 

Even though my Chanter had better tanking stats than the Bear, the Bear had infinite Health and no Fatigue so I always tried to have Bear soak damage first.

 

I don't find talents like Wound Binding necessary. Many of the encounters were done with 0 life lost because they can all be "tank and spanked". The only exceptions are battles against fampyrs/Cean Gwlas who don't follow normal rules of engagement, so I had specially prepared weapons to focus them down fast.

 

Also the bounty battles were tough, especially since I did almost all of them on major/critical fatigue. Lots of Kiting and summoning Ogres to do my tanking for me.

[Omnicron]

I wanted to do this run with a Bleakwalker for RP, but I recognise now that Darcozzi might be better for accuracy boosts, might even consider 2, which in 1.06 will allow you two very nice auras and accuracy buffs 

 

 

 

Chanter Tank:

 

 

Cipher, Quick Switcher (Heavy hitting ranged weapons)

 

 

Paladin (not sure of stats, want good Int and Might to make most of LoH and auras. Most importantly want him to keep exhortations up for accuracy. He will be using ranged or reach weapon)

 

Ranger?

 

 

Would a Barbarian be viable? Again probably a reach weapon, just want some dependable AoE. This is the one I am least sure about. I just know that with his barbaric yell, and savage defiance he can last quite long even with crappy starting deflection (at least in act I...).

Edited May 25, 2015 by Omnicron

[Omnicron]

Completed this just now: PotD Ironman 

 

2 Darcozzi Paladins

1 Barbarian

1 Ranger (Bear)

1 Cipher

1 Chanter

 

Only rested 7 times, left the Endless Paths alone, but did the first two rounds of bounties. Killed Thaos at level 11 with a lot of scrolls really.

 

Paladins are sweet. Enjoyed playing them. Nice Accuracy buff. Solid Tanky support imo

 

I never had problems with my ranger or the companion. I used Reviving Exhortation in a few fights on the bear, but he soaked up loads of damage and brought his part. The bear rarely died in battle, I just never sent him on suicide missions, but he as always in my front line with a paladin and a chanter. Lay on hands was a help to keep it alive, but did wonders for keeping my party in good health. Actually fairly happy with rangers myself. I understand when comparing it to other classes etc but the class did what I expected

 

Barbarian was all the CC and AoE I needed with Tall Grass and jolting touch. 

Edited June 6, 2015 by Omnicron

[Fundamentalist]

Im thinking about a fun (cheesy) party on POTD. Something like 6 Rangers with Bears or 6 Fighters. Should be pretty powerfull, what do you guys think?

[Raven Darkholme]

How are rangers or fighters cheesy/powerful? That would be 6 ciphers if you don't rest or six other casters with resting.

[Omnicron]

Im thinking about a fun (cheesy) party on POTD. Something like 6 Rangers with Bears or 6 Fighters. Should be pretty powerfull, what do you guys think?

 

I would still stick a chanter and a paladin in there, the support and extra summons and stuns and heals and auras are really useful. And I would say rangers rather than fighters. Or like Raven said, 6 Ciphers, perma stun and mind contols, lol.