Class Help

[VahnXIII]

Hello everyone,

 

It has been a while since I've roamed these forums let alone play Pillars of Eternity (damn you Witcher). However, I'm thinking of diving back into this one and it seems there have been plenty of changes in my absence.

 

I plan to start from scratch. Instead of being diligent and rummaging through countless forums and articles, I thought I'd ask you kind souls to help a player in distress.

 

By distress I mean I'm not sure what class to play. However, I have narrowed it down to Wizard, Cipher, Rogue and Ranger (in that order from an overall appeal perspective).

 

What are your thoughts on each of those classes in general?

 

I appreciate your input in advance!

[CoarseDragon]

I played a Ranger with an Antelope (normal difficulty). The Antelope was a good companion with the Ranger skills that added to their attack and defense. Overall it was a fun character to play. At the moment I do not have stats, etc. to provide but I do know Dex would high on the list. I was able to finish the game with this character with out to much trouble. I think the Ranger is a good choice.

[zered]

Rogue was my first watcher and it was damn fine. Lots of damage, a real monster if well developed, squishy at times but still fun.

Cipher is still a beast. Also bear in mind that ciphers get the most unique conversation lines in dialogues.

Wizard I did not play.

Ranger is mostly ranged pew pew and  animal companions. It didn't feel to fun for me tough I am a fan of the ranger in other settings. Meh

[GoldenAnkh]

From my experience, in order:

 

1. Rogue. Rogues tear stuff up and can be played in many different ways, from dual-wielding skirmisher to "The Pool Guy" (like using a cleaning skimmer rod -- hiding behind the tank and swinging a pike/quarterstaff with reckless attack active -- and it gets ridiculous when you get the Tall Grass pike). If you play it any way besides Pool Guy, a rogue takes a lot of smart micro and attention to (1) maximize damage, (2) put the rogue debuff (= death) on as many targets as quickly as possible, and (3) most importantly stay alive (your DPS sucks when you're dead). But this view is coming from the guy whose main in Dragon Age and most MMOs is a tank, because the other classes are just more...static to play. Plus, a Rogue to start with Mechanics +3, meaning you only have to spend 28 skill points to get to the magical Mechanics +10 skill level, and the best anyone else can start with is a +2 (requiring 36 skill points to hit the target). When they fix stealth in v2.0, Rogues will be even more fun.

 

2. Ciphers, in addition to the comments below, are fun to play because they have "tactical" resources, not "strategic". You get focus from scratch in each fight. The most enjoyable part of playing a Cipher in combat isn't crippling the enemy team; it's figuring out where you're going to get more focus now that you've blown all of yours. And you don't have to rest because your cipher is out of spells -- you start each fight with a set amount of focus based on levels and talents.

 

3. Wizards rule the battlefield, drop a ton of DPS if they're not CCing targets/dropping terrain, and the 3rd level spells are when the fun really starts. Their grimoires are customizable to boot. My problem with wizards is that I'm always wondering whether I really need to cast a given spell. So I either end up resting a lot because my spells are gone, or returning home with half my spells still uncast (usually the latter). On the other hand, there's also the challenge of picking the limited set of spells to have ready, especially if you don't use a grimoire in a quickslot. Someone who's less uptight about resources would probably enjoy wizards more.

 

4. Rangers...yawn. Make sure you didn't accidentally turn your modals off, fire wounding shot at the target most likely to have a lot of endurance & not engaged immediately, don't send your pet in until you know it'll be safe for it to attack, auto-attack the same target as your pet (and to be fair, you usually hit the target), watch your pet get killed by AOEs or whatever and finish the rest of fight with a -20 accuracy penalty, and then repeat on the next fight. But your pet gets special abilities at 9th(?) level, like 2/encounter knockdown! (However, it rarely hits.) For excitement, you can take two extra weapon slots, fill at least the first three with slow-loading/slow-recovery weapons, and fire/switch three times to get off three fast shots!

 

 

There's my completely biased personal opinion. But I like to play a certain way -- if I'm not engaged during a fight, then it's boring. 

 

There's no rogue in the game and Grieving Mother is a perfectly fine cipher. Rogue seems to be the way to go, unless you're set on a Wizard or Ranger (especially because the two in the game are not optimized).

[Blades of Vanatar]

All choices are viable. Wizard will help you dominate the late game. Rogue can be ranged or melee built. Ranger is fun. Cipher was not my cup of tea, neither was Chanter.

[VahnXIII]

I decided to go Rogue this time. Melee Rogue. It's the class I most often play and I always enjoyed playing the "Rogue from rough lands, but with a good heart".

 

Going with the build from this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79375-class-build-dual-wielding-stiletto-rogue/

 

Seems very solid and exactly what I'm looking for!

 

Thank you very much for the input everyone. This forum never disappoints!