Need Advice on PC and Party Comp

[Drachenwulf]

for a tank, how important are accuracy, total potential damage dealt, and defenses, and which should a tank prioritize?  also are there any must have talents for a pc paladin or eder for tanking? also how soon should I grab lay on hands? should I go with weapon and shield style for both eder and my pc paladin or try something else on my pally?  and what about armor? stick with high end medium or just dive into the heavy armors?

[KDubya]

for a tank, how important are accuracy, total potential damage dealt, and defenses, and which should a tank prioritize?  also are there any must have talents for a pc paladin or eder for tanking? also how soon should I grab lay on hands? should I go with weapon and shield style for both eder and my pc paladin or try something else on my pally?  and what about armor? stick with high end medium or just dive into the heavy armors?

 

If your Paladin is standing in a doorway such that no one can physically get past him, then the only thing that matters is that the Paladin does not die. In this situation you do not need accuracy, damage, engagements, nothing needed except staying alive.

 

In any sort of open area where enemies can run past your Paladin, many will do so if they calculate that the potential disengagement attack that your Paladin can muster is weak from a low damage or low accuracy. Usually a few will flank your Paladin and then the rest will go for the casters.

 

Having additional melee will keep at least one additional enemy occupied in the front and allow room for any extra enemies to choose to stay and flank your melee instead of going after your casters. I've found that having 3 melee and a ranger pet gives me a sufficient melee front to absorb and contain pretty much all of the attention of the enemies. This allows my 3 ranged guys to do their thing in peace.

 

For a Paladin priority I'd first decide what I want from him and then design to achieve that goal. If you want a durable frontline melee that adds an aura, some heals and other helpful exhortations, I'd go for balanced stats with a focus on intellect, resolve and constitution but not dropping anything below a 10. His attacks won't be rogue quality but he will be effective and discourage disengagements.

 

If you are going with two Paladins, then you could have at least one focus more on damage and make up for their defensive shortcomings with the buffs from the other Paladin, many of which can only be used on someone else. Instead of weapon and shield you could go big two hander and get your deflection from the other Paladin's reinforcing exhortation while everyone benefits from two auras. This way you can be just as annoying as those groups of multiple Paladins are at Raedric's castle.

 

For talents for tanking weapon and shield style is always good, or at least have a weapon and shield on switch. If you need more deflection Superior Deflection is nice at +5 with no malus. Cautious Attack gets you +8 but at the cost of -20% attack speed. Vigorous Defense is a nice defensive buff, Unbroken is good if you can't spare a second chance item. Into the Fray can let Eder pull annoying priests or mages into melee range without having to eat a disengagement attack to run after them. The other Fighter defensive abilities like Unyielding, and Critical Defense are not that good, actually Critical Defense is worse then just having one more point of constitution.

 

I'd take Lay on Hands at level one, it is a really good ability. Two big heals that scale with level and are increased by both Might and Intellect. It is always good. Flames of Devotion gets you two attacks with a damage and accuracy buff, they could miss, they probably won't one shot anything besides a trash mob. Not a bad level 5 pick to use with an Arquebus alpha strike but Lay on Hands is just way better to start with.

 

For armor I am a big fan of the heaviest available to be used on anyone who is expecting to get hit a lot. If you have a second line melee with a reach weapon you could go with lighter armor but that sometimes just attracts the attention of the archers. I like either plate, leather or padded. They all get useful extra DR against the more common attacks. I prefer padded instead of robes for this reason for my ranged guys. Leather is a nice compromise between speed and protection and has a big bonus against slashing which is fairly common.

[Ymarsakar]

I did some fights with 2 paladins. One of them I used a semi crit build with, using the orlan hit to crit 10% conversion, as well as sworn enemy and flame accuracy buffs, to get more crits in. On a crit, a level 11 paladin does about 60 dmg with the 2 flame talents, without sworn on enemy. Compared to 100-120 damage per 7-12s that a blunderbuss cipher does. Using St. Rum two handed sword that prones on crit, makes the paladin able to control the battlefield better. At 65-80 deflection, most enemies with accuracy lower than 80 won't require me to switch to shield at all.

 

I'm also starting to use a 3 melee line +1 ranger pet. In corridor fights it is super annoying to get past my own blocking forces, but in open field fights it can save the party.

 

Generally if your defenses are equal to the enemy's accuracy, they'll miss 15% of the time and rarely if ever get crits. Half incoming hits will be full damage, the other will graze and be offset by your DR. So if your defenses are 50 above the enemy's accuracy, you become almost invulnerable to them, as they cannot crit or hit you for full damage, thus they can't easily get through the DR of the armor if the armor is high.

 

Lay on hands helps the most with the paladin tanking, making it more self sufficient.

 

Eder's armor is fine in the beginning, but you'll want to upgrade to full plate as soon as you can get it. Generally full plate can be found on the crit path, on various knight enemies you might fight, and with the Crucible related quests in the big city.

 

Having the highest deflection on Eder is the most important, then the healing to support him. That's because for most people new to the game, they don't know the powers yet so their tactical efficiency is very low. Which means their tank needs to mitigate more damage in order to give the player more time to react.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Killyox]

Do you guys still think Moon Godlike are OP when you consider that Silver tide is now once per encounter?

 

and what is the difference then bettween Easy and Normal?

 

an aside from Eder, and the wizard in guilded vale (his name escapes me right now) and Durance, which other 2 companions should I consider for my party? (for both a paladin and a rogue PC)

technically it's 1 per encounter but at 3 different thresholds and it isn't OP or even needed.

 

I use Eder, Zahua, Durance, Hiravias and will want to switch someone/something to get Devil of Caroc at least for a bit.

 

Also my Barb merc is beastly. Insanely tough and damaging

Edited September 9, 2015 by Killyox

[pi2repsion]

For an alternative party composition that incorporates the companion rogue that I'm using on POTD, I'm running with a four strong heavily armoured melee front line rather than any dedicated "main" tank, and two ranged, one of them my wizard main who dishes out most of the damage.

 

Here is my current team:

 

 

Pallegina sword/shield buffer/cleanser/healer/offtank, personal protection and party supporting talents (so many nice ones), with total 3 engagement (talent + weapon) - a paladin with the herald-bucker being pretty darn awesome for strengthening the line. High Lore for scrolls. Uses heaviest armour available. (Don't listen to those who say she's a bad companion. They are wrong. Sure, she doesn't gain the benefit of extra protection from conversation options and isn't as good as a player paladin would be, but none of the companions are as a good as player characters of the same class. She has very reasonable stats for staying alive and supporting the group via aura, abilities, and equipment while engaging 2-3 enemies - and that's very valuable in itself.).

 

Eder 2H damagedealing/offtank, mostly damage oriented talents, total of 2 engagement (talent). Amongst the companions, his stats are excellent for the heavily armoured damagedealer role. Uses heaviest armour available.

 

Durance sword/shield buffer/debuffer/healer/offtank, personal protection and damagedealing talents mostly, total of 2 engagement (talent). High Lore for scrolls. Uses heaviest armour available.

 

Devil of Caroc 2H damagedealer, damage oriented talents - no talents/rogue abilities spent on gaining extra ways of applying sneak-attack granting debuffs, only on strengthening existing attacks as I don't want the rogue to be spending time on apply debuffs (apart from via weapon) when I have somebody much better suited for it, total of 1 engagement. The Devil is my team's sneak/mechanics expert. Uses her own body armour, which while weaker than plate is still decent. She doesn't have all that good constitution, however, so she can survive less of a beating which is why I have not spent a talent on giving her an extra engagement.

 

Kana ranged buffer/summoner - damage talents only. High Lore for scrolls. Uses light armour.

 

Wizard demigod... No, just kidding, but the next best thing. Pale Elf, Mig 18, Con 3, Dex 19, Per 16, Int 18, res 3. Blast, Penetrating Blast, Dangerous Implements, Scion of Flame are the core talents. Casts Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and proceeds to control and slaughter most of the enemies on the battlefield while the front line holds back the hordes. Loves the new level 4 frozen fireball that not only deals damage, but also paralyses, doing double duty. Single tough enemies strong enough to survive the spam of high damage spells are chopped up by Eder and the Devil while the Wizard, resorting to minor blights, and Kana take potshots at them. Uses DR2 Berathian Priest Robes for 5% recovery penalty (until White Forge enchanting and a particularly nice unique 15% penalty armour is available, that is)

 

 

 

But one could easily run such a melee heavy party with Aloth taking the wizard's job and another main character. Aloth wouldn't be as good as the player wizard due to lower might, dexterity, perception, and intelligence, but that goes for all the companions; They are all solid designs that can be used in several roles, but not optimized for any particular one.

 

As a general rule, regardless of difficulty level, I suggest running at least 2-3 people on the front line so you can attempt to control access to squishy rear line members via tactical battlefield positioning rather than relying on the magical glue of engagement. You get a more tactical experience, better control of the situation, and have the advantage that incoming damage is distributed over more characters, not only making healing easier as most healing is moderate AOE healing rather than strong single-target healing, but also reducing the risk of point failure significantly. And making it much easier to run a damagedealing melee rogue as well.

 

So what I am saying is, if you'd really like to play a rogue, as your first post certainly suggested, just go do it!. 1h, 2h, 1h+s, 2w, light or heavy armour - it will work. Regardless of the difficulty level you choose, you will be able to put together a team using the game's companions that will make it work well.

Edited September 9, 2015 by pi2repsion

[Ymarsakar]

I just looked over a few things like the retrospective, and they said they made a lot of early game areas easier to run through. And they also seemed to have nerfed the stats on some Path of the Damned enemies like beetles.

 

So all in all, Path of the Damned should be pretty easy now compared to 1.0

Edited September 9, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[pi2repsion]

Let's just say POTD is definitely not difficult like IWD's Heart of Fury mode. But then, neither was it in 1.0. It is merely more tactically challenging.

 

And neither POTD or HOF modes came anywhere close to making their optional toughest encounters as tough as the optional fight against the Mulmaster Beholder Corps supported by High Priests, Rakshasa, and Dark Elf Fighters in Curse of the Azure Bonds, which to this very day remains the gold standard for outrageous combat difficulty in CRPG encounters that aren't designed to be impossible to outright win but merely a challenge. (When you don't cheese them, that is.)

 

I'm not quite sure whether this should be lamented as a devolution of challenge or praised as an evolution in sanity, but I suspect the latter.

Edited September 9, 2015 by pi2repsion

[Ymarsakar]

HoF caused people to use a gnome illusionist in order to bump up the defense high enough. But a lot of it was too much of a buff to hitpoints, whereas PotD improved on it by adding more enemy encounters.

 

In Pillars terms, it would be like using a single 200 deflection tank to negate damage from 110 accuracy enemies, but the party's dps doesn't go up even though the health of all enemies increased by 500%.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Drachenwulf]

okay Please keep in mind that I have yet to complete PoE on any difficulty and I likely won't go anywhere near Path of the Dammed for quite some time.

 

so Lay on hands at character creation;  Should I ignore Flames of devotion despite all 5 orders having a talent that modifies flames?  there are 15 class abilities to choose from after creation but i'll only be choosing 5 more if i counted corretly...  I want to hit and do enough damage that I can keep an enemy or 2 engaged, but also able to stay alive.

 

for Eder, do I take the ability that allows him to engage 3?

 

and in act 1 do I need more than 2 front liners?  if I want all the companions and my party eventually composed of companions is it worth the copper to recruit place  holder adventurers?

[Drachenwulf]

oh also, if I do go with 3 up front + a ranger pet, with me and eder who would be the third tanky melee frontliner?

[Oralaina]

Let's just say POTD is definitely not difficult like IWD's Heart of Fury mode. But then, neither was it in 1.0. It is merely more tactically challenging.

 

And neither POTD or HOF modes came anywhere close to making their optional toughest encounters as tough as the optional fight against the Mulmaster Beholder Corps supported by High Priests, Rakshasa, and Dark Elf Fighters in Curse of the Azure Bonds, which to this very day remains the gold standard for outrageous combat difficulty in CRPG encounters that aren't designed to be impossible to outright impossible but merely a challenge. (When you don't cheese them, that is.)

 

I'm not quite sure whether this should be lamented as a devolution of challenge or praised as an evolution in sanity, but I suspect the latter.

 

Yeah.... that sucker was one hellaciously difficult battle.  I bet it took me 50 tries to get through it.... fun, but jeez louise.  Good thing I was retired the first time when I started playing that game - because when I was in the middle of trying to beat it, I not only hardly came up for air, I didn't do normal stuff like make dinner.... and a good thing husband was okay with that!

 

I think it's probably about half and half less challenge and more sanity.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Oralaina

[Ymarsakar]

 

so Lay on hands at character creation;  Should I ignore Flames of devotion despite all 5 orders having a talent that modifies flames?  there are 15 class abilities to choose from after creation but i'll only be choosing 5 more if i counted corretly...  I want to hit and do enough damage that I can keep an enemy or 2 engaged, but also able to stay alive.

 

for Eder, do I take the ability that allows him to engage 3?

 

and in act 1 do I need more than 2 front liners?  if I want all the companions and my party eventually composed of companions is it worth the copper to recruit place  holder adventurers?

 

Flames of devotion is generally for the offensive paladins. Meaning you need zealous aura, around 14-15 might at least, and about the same perception to make good use of it with two handed +15% damage talent. In other words, pick up lay on hands, endurance aura, and then worry about whether you want the paladin to become semi dps. The paladin won't have issues staying alive if you keep the deflection high and use lay on hands on the paladin.

 

For Eder, defender is not particularly all that good. If you need engagement slots, choose the talent instead of the class ability, under defensive.

 

If you are playing on Hard, you won't need to buy placeholder party members.

 

3+ front line melee characters are just a change up for some people who've done it using only one or two front line tanks before. So it's not necessary, it's just a tactical flavor. But it's not something you can easily decide for yourself unless you've experienced more of the game's fights.

 

The Chanter would be your third melee. For example.

 

Paladin MC= warhammer/shield, two handed sword or pike.

Eder tank= hatchet/shield, dual weapon sabres.

Chanter Kana=Plate mail. spear/small shield, ranged weapon like arquebus, two handed weapon.

 

So the paladin tank and the dps one benefits a lot from Soldier Focus, given the weapons involved. +6 accuracy makes a big difference early on, so choose one. You can always respec later if you find better weapons you want to use with the bonus instead.

 

The hatchet for Eder gives him more deflection 5+, so with his self recovery regen, it makes him last a little bit longer when taking damage. The two sabres wielded are listed under Ruffian, and dishes out pretty good damage if you have two of them. Eder doesn't need to deal much damage, so you can pick more defensive talents for him if you feel he's getting downed too fast.

 

Generally the omni level talents come at level 2 and then 4. So try to get the accuracy focus for each character by at least level 4. The paladin will choose lay on hands at level 1 and an aura modal at level 3. Zealous for dps and endurance for taking less damage.

 

Chanter is a very different class, but weapon focus adventurer with superior deflection or cautious attack, is a good combination for the chanter at level 2 and 4. Their class powers is a bit trickier. Get phantom for the first level summon. Illya at level 2 phrase is also pretty good if you have ranged characters.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Killyox]

I did some searching and I can't find the advice im looking for so I apologize if I missed a thread or post that suits my needs.

 

In Games such as PoE I tend to have an obsession with finding  all the hidden loot and being able to open all locked chests and doors, and since it also provides xp, disarming traps.

 

So my first instinct is to go with a rogue, and in PoE since there is no rogue companion early on it seems like a reasonable decision. but I have a few questions, as I want a rogue in PoE for reasons that don't need getting into at this juncture.

 

Is there an Attribute or skill or ability that affects whether or not you spot traps or hidden thing when in scout mode?

 

Is a rogue Needed or Wanted in the party?

 

Is it better to have a Tanky character as the PC?

 

What are my options for either PC or Companions for Crowd Control?

 

These are all the questions I can comeup with at the moment...

Mechanics.

 

Depends on whether or not you got someone with high mechanics.

 

Doesn't matter.

 

Wizard, Cipher, Druid are the best.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Killyox

[Drachenwulf]

okay so I have plenty of information for a paladin MC, the main question I have right now if I were to take a rogue MC is which companion besides eder would be tanking?

[KDubya]

okay so I have plenty of information for a paladin MC, the main question I have right now if I were to take a rogue MC is which companion besides eder would be tanking?

 

 

Pellegrina - Paladins are naturally better suited to be durable in melee and her balanced stats will work adequately whichever way you spec her.

 

Eder - with a sabre and a shield his high con and might make him a good melee combatant.

 

Kana - his usefulness depends more on his just surviving to sing and invoke/summon. This frees up his talents to be able to take the more defensive ones and his high might is not bad for hitting with some authority. Give him heavy armor, large shield, weapon and shield style and cautious attack and he can get a fairly decent deflection. I set him up repeating the -10% slash chant with the frighten the enemy for -10 accuracy to further help the team defend. Later you can give him the fire weapon enchant to boost damage on the team.

 

Durance - has really high resolve for naturally higher deflection. I always have him in the back casting but you could give him heavy armor and a shield and I suppose he can serve well at the front. The heavy armor will slow his spell casting which is his main job.

 

Zahua (the new Monk) - I haven't started the expansion yet so I don't know his stats, but assuming that none of his stats are dumped below 10 he'd be able to frontline melee. Give him heavy armor, equip a fist & shield on one weapon set, take Duality of Mortal Presence for the +8 deflection, take weapon and shield style if you want to go further down the tanky route. You can even waste one talent by taking both dual weapon style and weapon and shield style so that what ever he is fighting with he does it better and gives you more flexibility.

[Ymarsakar]

I would probably go with Pallegina, Zahua, and Kana as main tanks if my PC was rogue.

 

Paladins are a little bit too versatile from level 1, to not use them at this time. I have to have at least one paladin, somewhere. Especially since I've started running without Durance or a priest. Just using some boots, no Silver tide, to heal party. DPS has gone up substantially, however.

 

Also I just found out that IE Mod allows Pallegina to have custom favored and disfavored dispositions, so she can get the same buff to her faith and conviction just like a MC paladin would.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[pi2repsion]

okay so I have plenty of information for a paladin MC, the main question I have right now if I were to take a rogue MC is which companion besides eder would be tanking?

The more melee characters you use, the less you need anybody dedicated to tanking. Have the damage spread out over several of your characters and healing is easier anyhow. Running 3-4 melee, all dedicated to damagedealing rather than tanking, but wearing heavy armour, is perfectly viable regardless of difficulty level. Just make sure that everybody but the rogue takes the Hold the Line talent for +1 engagement.

 

That being said, of the companions there is one who is great for tanking if you want to go 1H+shield, and that is Pallegina. Even without the conversation bonuses to Faith and Conviction, Paladins get solid defenses and there's a buckler to be bought in the very first village that gives +5 to all defenses for everybody near the wielder (including the wielder), stacking with all other bonuses, which can only be used by a Paladin. Which makes having Pallegina anchor your front line with a good one-hander and that buckler pretty much ideal. And you want a Paladin for the Zealous Aura of your choice anyway. And for Liberating Exhortation. And Revive. And Lay on Hands. And... Well, you want a Paladin, dammit, they are so darned useful. (Of course, you can also use her 2H and do a reasonable job of damagedealing, but if you are going to have anybody using shields at all, she is the obvious choice.)

 

Eder with 2H, taking the best-of-the-best passive tanking talents/abilities, Hold the Line, and otherwise focusing on damage talent/abilities, is when wearing heavy armour a very competent front line damage dealer/tank.

 

Durance works pretty well on the front line too, either 1h+Shield or 2H, wearing heavy armour. Tough as a rock, and in an ideal position for his Concecrated Ground spell to cover all the melee. It all depends on how much you want to focus on his spellcasting, which to a large degree comes down to how many spellcasters there are in the party; Is he to be the swiss army knife that buffs during the first few seconds of combat and heals every once in a while, holding spells in reserve for emergencies, while a wizard or druid blasts away, or is he the star of the show, going through his spells like there is no tomorrow? In the latter case, you want him ranged in light armour to maximize spellcasting, in the latter that isn't a requirement.

 

Kana is another that works well both as ranged and in melee, having stats amenable for both; Chanters start out with high deflection and they get many chants that debuff enemies or buff friends, though one is likely to use different chants depending on whether melee or range. (In melee the Chanter aura AOE will overlap most enemies but likely not all friends, at range it is likely to overlap all friends but only a few enemies).

 

I haven't tried the new monk, but it would be deeply surprising if he didn't make a decent damagedealer/tank if stuffed into heavy armour.

Edited September 11, 2015 by pi2repsion

[Drachenwulf]

Okay what race would be best for a rogue, considering Might and Perception are strongly recommended stats?

[KDubya]

Okay what race would be best for a rogue, considering Might and Perception are strongly recommended stats?

 

 

All of them would work, pick one that you like.

 

If it were me I'd avoid any of the races that get bonus abilities when you get damaged or when your endurance drops below 50%. My reasoning is that if your Rogue is doing its job its not going to be taking damage, if you start taking damage you'll probably get KO'd soon there after.

 

That narrows it down to the more offensive ones. Death Godlike, Boreal Dwarf, Heath Orlan (the one with the hit>crit), Island Amaumau.

 

I have an Island Amaumau Rogue PotD, using pikes, arbalest and a war hammer & shield on switch. Dumped intellect at a 1:1 into Resolve, 15 Might, 15 perception and 17 dex, 3 int and 18 resolve (put the extra point for dialogue instead of dex), 10 con. Standing in the second row he usually never takes damage. He can't set up his own flanking but he also doesn't get splatted when someone turns around to hit him when he is behind the enemy lines. Once I acquire Tall Grass it will totally rock.

[Drachenwulf]

not sure why you would dump a recommended stat for a non recommended one;  also this is again for a normal play through...

[Killyox]

You don't need pure tanks (POTD 2.0)

 

2H barb, 2H Pallegina, DW fist zahua. Not one of them is made for tank. Back line Hiravias, Durance, PC Wiz. NO ONE has hold the line Would be too easy  I actually will rather pick 40% and 20% heal due to running more out of health than spells/abilities in long fights.

 

it's 10x better to spread damage around then having 1 dude pummeled by everyone because it's a lot easier to heal with aoe spells. Barb(Tall Grass) has his HOT, Pallegina(The Grey Sleeper) is an offensive/support mix. She has Greater Lay on Hands but also all bonuses to her special attack + mark enemy + one skill that gets up downed ally (really good if any of my guys get downed since all are valuable).

 

Zahua(Fists yo!) just obliterated single targets but he also has these gloes that have druid illness spell and that aoe dot.

 

 

Tbh I am pretty happy with my party and have a great trouble thinking who to dump to play some more with DoC when I get her. This is the party I would gladly play with in White March P2 (hope they add barb Comp).

 

PS

 

Don't play with Eng version so I don't remember exact spell names.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Killyox

[KDubya]

not sure why you would dump a recommended stat for a non recommended one;  also this is again for a normal play through...

 

 

I like to dump intellect and add to resolve for the following reasons:

 

1.)  My will save stays the same with 3 intellect and 17 resolve as with 10 and 10

 

2.)  Dialogue for high resolve is better for a bad ass rogue. I'm more of a thug then a quick witted dashing swashbuckler type.

 

3.) Concentration and deflection are always useful

 

4.) A Rogue does not have any AoE so nothing lost here.

 

5.) A Rogue has a few duration based abilities but there loss is acceptable. I take crippling strike for the two full attacks at +25% not for a longer hobble. Deep Wounds has the timer reset each time you hit so a short duration makes no difference as long as you keep hitting the same target. Maybe a ranged rogue gets use out of shooting everyone once to let the poison do its thing but as a melee rogue I attack and kill them one after another.

 

6. My skills will be mechanics, stealth, athletics and whatever left in lore. I'll need to avoid using scrolls with durations but that is easily accomplished.

 

 

My one concern is that the prone on crit effect from Tall Grass might be too small. In that case I'll just have to pick a different weapon

 

 

Fighters can also benefit from trading intellect for resolve. With the new duration on their passive regen I at first thought that dumping intellect would be terrible but after further analysis I think it is still a fine way to build a fighter. The passive regen would last 58 seconds instead of 90 seconds. This won't really make a difference as the effect is so weak anyway you won't be able to tell. Knockdown goes from 5 seconds to 3.5 seconds, which is not great but it is worth it for +21 concentration and +7 deflection. The best defensive talent is vigorous defense which lasts 9.8 seconds instead of 15 seconds. Again not great but I'd rather have +7 deflection all the time and -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds per fight.

[jsaving]

Rogues consistently dish out the most damage per strike in the game, so my view would be that you want to max PER for the accuracy bonus as well as might and DEX.  Then you decide which two of CON, INT, and RES to lower so you can make that happen.  If you are looking to dish out status effects so you can activate sneak attack on your own, then you'd generally need a high INT which would mean dump-statting CON and RES.  But if you have other people in the party who can place those status effects on your foes, then you could at least consider dumping INT and having a reasonable RES.

[Killyox]

 

not sure why you would dump a recommended stat for a non recommended one;  also this is again for a normal play through...

 

 

I like to dump intellect and add to resolve for the following reasons:

 

1.)  My will save stays the same with 3 intellect and 17 resolve as with 10 and 10

 

2.)  Dialogue for high resolve is better for a bad ass rogue. I'm more of a thug then a quick witted dashing swashbuckler type.

 

3.) Concentration and deflection are always useful

 

4.) A Rogue does not have any AoE so nothing lost here.

 

5.) A Rogue has a few duration based abilities but there loss is acceptable. I take crippling strike for the two full attacks at +25% not for a longer hobble. Deep Wounds has the timer reset each time you hit so a short duration makes no difference as long as you keep hitting the same target. Maybe a ranged rogue gets use out of shooting everyone once to let the poison do its thing but as a melee rogue I attack and kill them one after another.

 

6. My skills will be mechanics, stealth, athletics and whatever left in lore. I'll need to avoid using scrolls with durations but that is easily accomplished.

 

 

My one concern is that the prone on crit effect from Tall Grass might be too small. In that case I'll just have to pick a different weapon

 

 

Fighters can also benefit from trading intellect for resolve. With the new duration on their passive regen I at first thought that dumping intellect would be terrible but after further analysis I think it is still a fine way to build a fighter. The passive regen would last 58 seconds instead of 90 seconds. This won't really make a difference as the effect is so weak anyway you won't be able to tell. Knockdown goes from 5 seconds to 3.5 seconds, which is not great but it is worth it for +21 concentration and +7 deflection. The best defensive talent is vigorous defense which lasts 9.8 seconds instead of 15 seconds. Again not great but I'd rather have +7 deflection all the time and -13 deflection for 5.2 seconds per fight.

 

 

You can always give rogue lore and spell scrolls. For example Warrior's Confident Aim applies to spells he casts from scrolls so grazes -> hits I wonder if rogues attacks on blinded,flanked etc chars would also give +50%. Haven't had a rogue in party (as a permanent member) yet . Only for short periods.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Killyox

[Drachenwulf]

now is dumping int for resolve something you need to do for Path of the Damned? because I said it before but I will say it again, I WILL NOT BE DOING PATH OF THE DAMNED ANY TIME SOON so I don't really care about build necessities for that game difficulty.