Any advice for my fighter?

[Durances Other Staff]

Hi there everyone. So, I enjoy this game more than any other. But there's just one problem.

Pillars of Eternity is my first encounter with a game like this, and I have no idea what's going on.

 

I decided to make a campaign on hard, and made a fighter whose job is to do lots of damage.

I've come to the point where I have to pick a weapon specialization, but I have no idea what to chose.

I decided to do some searching to see what weapon (in terms of 2h at least) is the best for damage, and got very mixed results.

She's been using great swords so far and I've seen people saying these are great, but others say that estocs are better because of the dr bypass.

And then I saw that Maces are great because apparently you can find a pretty good one semiyearly in the game. I'm just very torn and very confused.

 

TL:DR, PLEASE INFORM MY DUMB ASS ON THE BEST (2H) WEAPONS TO USE

 

I don't know if this really matters but here are my fighters current stats/abilities:

 

 

 

 

[KDubya]

Re-roll as a Monk

 

 

 

 

 

Jokes aside you already have weapon focus soldier which includes Great Swords, so unless you want to re-spec just stick with them. Great swords have some of the best weapons in the game, you can also use pikes or warhammers for when you want to use a shield. Starting with an arbalest or an arquebus (both also in soldier focus) is a great alpha strike.

 

Estocs will do more damage due to the 5 DR bypass but are limited to only piercing damage instead of the great sword having slash/pierce to bypass any immunities encountered. The difference is further muddled with having the two best ranged alpha strike weapons being in the same group as the great sword. You can't go wrong with either Adventurer or Soldier.

 

Your build looks fine. If you want some more info on Fighters check out the Lady of Pain build by AndreaColumbo  http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80748-buildpreview-lady-of-pain/    in the strategy section, lots of great info there.

Edited November 29, 2015 by KDubya

[Durances Other Staff]

Fair enough, I guess I'll consider sticking to great swords then.

 

I've already seen the Lady of Pain build, but I can't be cruel as my main character/watcher/whatever is a Kind Wayfarers Paladin.

[Cantousent]

For build advice, you should try out the builds forum. I'm going to move the thread there and leave a placeholder here so you can get some advice from the grognards in both places. :Cant's sly grin icon:

 

I would make suggestions, but I tend to prefer magic for my major dpsers so far on my runs. I will say that damage bypass is da bomb, but having two different types of damage is sweet in order to get around the immunities big K mentions.

[Boeroer]

Weapon Focus Soldier is a very solid choice. Great Swords or Estocs - in the end it doesn't really matter.

 

My advice for Great Swords + Fighter is Hours of St. Rumbalt: causing prone and doing extra dmg on crit is perfect for a high accuracy char.

[PrimeJunta]

The weapon group doesn't matter all that much, there are good weapons in all of them. It's more a matter of picking one and then finding out the best build for it.

 

You've pumped Mig and Dex which is good for a hurty build; to make it even hurtier you could dump Int, Res, and Con and put those points into Per for great Accuracy. Then pick any talent which increases damage, i.e. pumps Acc, converts grazes to hits or hits to crits, increases base damage, punches through armor and so on.

 

As to weapon choice, for maximum hurtiness the only unambiguous advice is "don't use a shield" and "stack your bonuses." If you're using single one-handed weapons you'll hit and crit more -> more hurt. If you're dual-wielding, you'll attack more -> more hurt. If you're using two-handed weapons, you'll punch harder -> more hurt.

 

Each of these has a different impact in different circumstances -- an estoc will be better against a dragon than dual sabres, but dual sabres will shred a horde of darguls and fampyrs. Either will get the job done in either case. Most groups have a fair amount of choice, although you'll only find reach weapons (pike and quarterstaff) in the Soldier and Peasant groups.

 

Note that since 2.0 some monsters are immune to some damage types, so it's highly useful to carry backups so you can switch between, say, Piercing and Crushing when necessary.

[Durances Other Staff]

Thank you everyone, you guys have definitely helped in my making a decision. Have a great day everyone.

[Boeroer]

And take Armored Grace! It's awesome!

[Raven Darkholme]

Only 10 Perception on an offensive char? Max that ****.

[Boeroer]

Depends on the difficulty setting.

[limaxophobiacq]

There's more cost effective ways to increase weapon accuracy than buying Perception, compared to limited options for increasing attack rate or damage vs. buying dexterity or might. If you're not a barbarian getting AoE interrupts or on-hit effects perception is not something a melee character needs to invest that much in.

 

Take Devotions for the Faithful, +20 accuracy is equivalent to 20 points of perception for weapon attacks, the theoretical equivalent for Dex or Might would be an AoE buff that gave +60% attack rate or +60% damage with melee and ranged.

Edited November 29, 2015 by limaxophobiacq

[yupper]

Soldier Weapon Group is pretty solid. I am running a fighter as my main character right now, specializing in the Adventurer Weapon Group, with Edar specializing in the Soldier Weapon Group so we can split the magical great swords and estocs between us. But I am finding the Soldier Weapon Group slightly more effective in many battles because of the arguebus. The opening party missile volley can usually take out at least one enemy (and often two), even against spirits, whereas war bows (for the Adventurer Weapon Group) are not really well suited for that purpose, such that I find it more efficient to slot a pollaxe to the second weapon slot (for battles against mobs with piercing immunity). I am considering respecing my main character to specialize in the Soldier Weapon Group, since there are enough unique great swords to go around anyway. Although I'd be missing out on some really powerful unique estocs (like BotED).

 

I am not sure bonus knockdown is worth it, but then I rely on Aloth to slicken the biped enemy mobs. With the talents available to your character's level at this point, I would have picked apprentice sneak attack (mostly because I am not running any rogues in the party).

Edited November 30, 2015 by yupper

[mosspit]

Tidefall. Just Tidefall.

 

A solid 2H weapon in which one don't even need to design a build around to be effective. And yes, it's under WF Soldier.

[Boeroer]

But that's always reserved for the barb.

[mosspit]

What? You mean the Barb gets St Ydwen Redeemer AND Tidefall? Tsk Tsk

 

Well, I am partial towards dual wield Barbs Mine currently is having a field day with her newly bought We Toki. Planning to get her the Wodewys soon.

Edited November 30, 2015 by mosspit

[Raven Darkholme]

There's more cost effective ways to increase weapon accuracy than buying Perception, compared to limited options for increasing attack rate or damage vs. buying dexterity or might. If you're not a barbarian getting AoE interrupts or on-hit effects perception is not something a melee character needs to invest that much in.

 

Take Devotions for the Faithful, +20 accuracy is equivalent to 20 points of perception for weapon attacks, the theoretical equivalent for Dex or Might would be an AoE buff that gave +60% attack rate or +60% damage with melee and ranged.

wot?

There's nothing you cfan buff easier than Might in the whole game, accuraccy isn't even close to being as easy.

Dex was for me always a caster thing and I don't think I'm the only one. :D

 

 

Depends on the difficulty setting.

Who wouwld play a full party and not PotD? Blasphemy. :D

[limaxophobiacq]

 

There's more cost effective ways to increase weapon accuracy than buying Perception, compared to limited options for increasing attack rate or damage vs. buying dexterity or might. If you're not a barbarian getting AoE interrupts or on-hit effects perception is not something a melee character needs to invest that much in.

 

Take Devotions for the Faithful, +20 accuracy is equivalent to 20 points of perception for weapon attacks, the theoretical equivalent for Dex or Might would be an AoE buff that gave +60% attack rate or +60% damage with melee and ranged.

wot?

There's nothing you cfan buff easier than Might in the whole game, accuraccy isn't even close to being as easy.

Dex was for me always a caster thing and I don't think I'm the only one. :D

 

Give me one thing in the game that buffs damage party-wide as easy as Devotions for the Faithful increases weapon accuracy (and since this is about a fighter, weapon accuracy is what matters).

 

Just one priest with Galants Focus + Crowns + Devotions for the Faithful gives you +30 accuracy with weapons for the whole party.

 

To add to that, a lot off CC lowers enemy Deflection, but there's not that much CC that reduces DR. Add blinded (-20 deflection) enemies on top of that +30 accuracy and you've shifted the hit roll by 50 points, at which point whether your fighter started with 10 or 20 perception really doesn't have a huge impact on if he hits or not.

 

For ranged, just being an elf gives +5 accuracy. No race just gives +15% damage.

 

Now obvoiusly if you are a CC caster (or a CC/interrupt barbarian), you want Perception all the way, but that's not what we are talking about.

Edited November 30, 2015 by limaxophobiacq

[AndreaColombo]

Devotions for the Faithful + Scroll of Valor + Champion's Boon = +45 Accuracy.

 

That's all you'll ever need Accuracy-wise, really.

[Boeroer]

You could add Zealous Focus and Inspiring Radiance for +10 coolness though.

[mosspit]

Inspiring Radiance is nice. It is 1 of the first few buffs I always start with. Zealous Focus on the other hand well... get suppressed by Scroll of Valor amongst other things. Unless of course that 15% graze-to-hit/ 5% hit-to-crit conversion is that sought after.

[Boeroer]

Ah, right. ZF and scroll of valour don't stack. Inspiring Radiance in the other hand stacks with everything. So do marking weapons and Coordinated Attacks.

[Raven Darkholme]

You guys make the mistake assuming everyone has classes like the priest in their party. There's also people soloing...

[Boeroer]

With a priest!

[Raven Darkholme]

With a priest!

Cheapo. :D

[limaxophobiacq]

In a thread started by someone playing the game for the first time and planning to play a 2H-weapon fighter on hard, I think one can pretty safely assume he isn't soloing.

Edited December 1, 2015 by limaxophobiacq