Questions on party composition and synergy

[TenZen]

Hello there

 

I'd appreciate some thoughts and input from folks on an overall party comp.  I'm starting a new play through for the first time since 1.2, so am coming to terms with the changes.  My thinking was to go a 3 PC and 3 NPC group.

 

I was contemplating the following PC's

• Knockdown Monk Tank
• Control Wizard
• Fire Barbarian

To complement this i was going to go 3 NPCs

• Sagani (ranger)
• Durance (priest)
• Devil of Caroc (rogue)

I'll be playing on hard (maybe PoTD)

 

My thinking was as follows

• I need a tank - but fighters seem to have been nerfed somewhat so that rules out eder.  Monk seems to give good control through its pretty sweet knockdowns.  Control monks though seem to have very low might and dex (so they can max, int, per and resolve) so i'm worried about the damage i'll deal
• I used a wizard on my first playthrough and loved the debuffs it brought.  This seemed a natural addition.  Though is it overkill with the monk? 
• I have to take a priest - no one else can heal and buff as well... that means Durance is a must have?

As for DPS

• Fire Barbs seem fun - never used one, though if the mobs are always CC'ed i don't know if it has great synergy with my other characters
• Rogue seems a no brainer given the monk.  And if i'm not creating my own, that means i have to go with the Devil.  Though i've never used her, so fingers crossed she's good dps
• Rangers seem to have been buffed a lot - so sagani seems worth trying out

 

My questions for the forum

• Does my party have good synergy?
• Will it do high enough dps?  2 of the PC's will have v low might.  So i'm reliant on the NPCs for damage
• Have I got too much control?
• What changes would you all recommend?

Would welcome the input

 

Regards

 

Ten

 

 

[Teioh_White]

Well, first off, using NPC will fine. I only ever play with the NPC's, and under fairly strict limitations on POTD, and they all do the job just fine. So, they won't hold you back much.

 

As for the party composition, it looks good to me. Might be a wee light in the bodies up front, but nothing a little micro on the part of the casters couldn't fix. You're dead on the money about Monk, currently they're basically Good Fighter. And Barbarian's a nice class to have up front for cleaning up trash, which is sadly a lot of the combat in this game. Rangers are nice, let you have someone in the back who can pick targets and do decent damage, and gives another body up front to seal the edge while the numbers get whittled down for easy contain. And of course, Wizard and Priest are great classes, and go pretty well together. They can either just wreck face using their own offensive spells, or can buff the team/ debuff the mobs in tandem, and let the other 4 guys just rip of tons of on-crit CC effects for easy and efficient wins.

 

I would caution that if you want to stick to 3 PC/NPC split, that maybe just use Aloth as the Wizard NPC, and create your own rogue PC. Not that anythings wrong with the devil, just she's the last companion you can get, so for much of the early game you'd be missing your mechanic monkey. It would also let you get all the folks you want except Sagani before even doing a real fight, as the first map you'll likely clear is Magran's Crossing, and Durances is right there waiting.

[mosspit]

Looking at your monk, i do wonder though...

 

I do not know how low you want to push down might and dex. Personally, I will try not to get any stat below 10. You don't really need to max int - The base duration of debuffs for FoA is long enough, then there are the ones like Stunning Blows that have low base duration and will not benefit much from max int anyways. Max resolve is not a good idea, as a Monk you want to get hit as you need wounds. Above average resolve is enough. You want to get hit but not to the extent of getting crit'ed every other hit. If you are wearing shods of faith, you would want to get crit'ed a few times during battles. Allocate more into con so you have a larger endurance pool.

 

Beyond that, you might need to plan a substitute for devil. You will not get devil that early... Even on the critical path, she's probably at the 30-40% mark, and that's if you get past the enemies to get to her. 

[KDubya]

You don't need a priest either. A Paladin is the best single target heal in the game and brings a lot of other skills with them. A priest is great at buffs but you only need to buff big for three or so fights in the whole game and scrolls and potions will do the job fine.

 

As others said if you want a Wizard primarily for CC Aloth will do as good a job as you need. If you replaced with a CC Cipher you would get to where you only rest to regain health.

 

For the Monk I'd go for damage not CC. With a mere 3 intellect Force of Anguish will knock down for like  6-1/2 seconds. Monks are very durable and dish out big AoE with Torments and Lightning Strikes.

 

In general I would not make any character with a low might, or low anything for that matter. In pure efficiency a super glass cannon with a super tank in front is great until the super glass cannon gets dropped and your tank can't do anything. I prefer tanks, more correctly frontline melee, that can do damage while surviving in melee and  damage dealers that have some defenses.

 

For synergy I like stacking bonuses like Paladin with defense aura, Chanter with enemy debuff and fire weapon, both improving a damaging Monk, a Rogue with a pike, a ranger and a Cipher. Or a tanky Chanter with the gun chant and a Pally with accuracy buffing a Wizard, Cipher, Ranger, Rogue SEAL team.

[TenZen]

You don't need a priest either. A Paladin is the best single target heal in the game and brings a lot of other skills with them. A priest is great at buffs but you only need to buff big for three or so fights in the whole game and scrolls and potions will do the job fine.

 

As others said if you want a Wizard primarily for CC Aloth will do as good a job as you need. If you replaced with a CC Cipher you would get to where you only rest to regain health.

 

For the Monk I'd go for damage not CC. With a mere 3 intellect Force of Anguish will knock down for like  6-1/2 seconds. Monks are very durable and dish out big AoE with Torments and Lightning Strikes.

 

In general I would not make any character with a low might, or low anything for that matter. In pure efficiency a super glass cannon with a super tank in front is great until the super glass cannon gets dropped and your tank can't do anything. I prefer tanks, more correctly frontline melee, that can do damage while surviving in melee and  damage dealers that have some defenses.

 

For synergy I like stacking bonuses like Paladin with defense aura, Chanter with enemy debuff and fire weapon, both improving a damaging Monk, a Rogue with a pike, a ranger and a Cipher. Or a tanky Chanter with the gun chant and a Pally with accuracy buffing a Wizard, Cipher, Ranger, Rogue SEAL team.

 

 

Looking at your monk, i do wonder though...

 

I do not know how low you want to push down might and dex. Personally, I will try not to get any stat below 10. You don't really need to max int - The base duration of debuffs for FoA is long enough, then there are the ones like Stunning Blows that have low base duration and will not benefit much from max int anyways. Max resolve is not a good idea, as a Monk you want to get hit as you need wounds. Above average resolve is enough. You want to get hit but not to the extent of getting crit'ed every other hit. If you are wearing shods of faith, you would want to get crit'ed a few times during battles. Allocate more into con so you have a larger endurance pool.

 

Thanks for all your comments and input.   I hear what you're saying re: using might as a dump stat.   Part of my rationale was so I could max perception and Resolve to unlock the leader dialogue options.  Maybe i just need to accept that won't be possible

 

I'm intrigued by the synergy provided by pally and chanter buffing other characters.  Hadn't considered paladin for my healer/buff bot as usually felt priests were more versatile, but will look into it

[mosspit]

Thanks for all your comments and input.   I hear what you're saying re: using might as a dump stat.   Part of my rationale was so I could max perception and Resolve to unlock the leader dialogue options.  Maybe i just need to accept that won't be possible

 

I'm intrigued by the synergy provided by pally and chanter buffing other characters.  Hadn't considered paladin for my healer/buff bot as usually felt priests were more versatile, but will look into it

I see. Enabling conversation options can still be possible. Post 2.x, stronghold give more bonuses. Previously, the rest bonuses were just +1, but now Chapel can give +3 to resolve and Towers can give +3 to perception. If you go for WM early, you can get access to a +3 resolve ring after the first segment. You can get +3 to perception cloak when you clear the Lighthouse in Defiance Bay. So +6 to the stats you are concerned about with relative ease, and that is without food and "quiet time" bonuses.

 

Or, you can make adjustments to your talent/skill selection by choosing those that are not as defensive. Max resolve can still work.

 

As a side note, I like to have someone to be a "super tank" in my party. Their purpose is to hold the attention of the optional "super bosses" long enough for CC of your party to get through or to flat out defeat the said bosses. For normal trash encounters, they will not matter much. This is highly suited to my personal playstyle though, you can still get by without a super tank. But you might need to reload if the key CC effects do not trigger on the bosses.

 

Paladin might serve the roles you mention well enough. Pre-2.x, I done a PotD playthrough using martial classes (no wizards, priests, druids and chanters). At some points, I used scrolls and equipment to bridge the effectiveness gap of my party. Currently post 2.x, I am attempting triple crown using the same party composition (pally, barb, fighter, rogue, monk, ranger - all melee except ranger). All healing and buff done either by Pally or self buff. So it really depends on your party planning and what you want get out of it.

Edited October 13, 2015 by mosspit

[Ymarsakar]

Use Pallegina as a tank or your PC as paladin.

 

Priest, wizard, and rogue can be some heavy micro, especially since they aren't all in the same spot usually.

 

Your front line numbers is around 3, so will make some open field fights easier. That's the paladin, monk, barbarian. Plus the pet, which makes it 3.5

 

Hybrid classes can fill more than one critical role.

 

So a wizard can fill a lot of roles, including dps and tank.

 

The paladin fills two entire slots, primary healer and primary tank, at level 1.

 

The chanter can also do a squishier version of a main line, and adds group buffs and summons. So semi permanent single target cc with phantom stun locks.

 

Monk and barbarian are dps+tank hybrids. The barbarian usually wears medium or less armor, though, for the aoe dps.

 

The thing about hybrids is that the more of them you use, the more stable your party list becomes, because you can use more specialists without gimping a role out.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[hilfazer]

There's nice synergy between druids and rangers:

 

If bad dudes charm ranger's animal companion druid can charm it back with 1st level Charm Animal spell.

 

Ranger has talent giving his companion extra damage vs DoTed enemies, druid has some good DoT spells : Insect Plague, Autumn's Decay, Plague of Insects (there's also Infestation of Maggots that deals crap dmg but has resonable duration).

 

Ranger (as well as Cipher and Chanter) can use soulbound bow that reduce shock DR on hit, druid has strong shock spells and Wildstrike: Shock.