POTD minimal micro party build suggestions.

[Mercbeast]

Hey fellas. So, here is my conundrum. I hate, no, I loathe per rest abilities. They represent probably my single biggest gripe with the game, limited resting and the time sink that running back through an area to pickup more supplies represents.

 

So I am asking any experienced people out there, what would be a well rounded, but almost entirely micro free party build for a POTD run.

 

I don't mind using abilities, but I much prefer per encounter type classes as much as possible. 

 

Another bit of information. I much prefer very blunt, punch you in the mouth sort of conflict resolution in rpgs. I want to keep pre-fight fiddling around setting up to a minimum, and I want to kill, everything.

 

Most of the melee classes are pretty much no-brainers. Fighters, paladins, monks and barbarians. My biggest issue seems to be on the support end of things. Most of the top end support use per rest type spells. Oh, and I hate summon cheese. So chanters are ideal, except that a lot of their power is back loaded with summon invocations.

 

Basically, I feel like Priests, Wizards and Druids are top tier support classes, but I just hate using them due to their lack of staying power, but at the same time, their abilities can be game changing when actually expended.

 

Oh, and bonus points for thematic type builds. Example, the terrible tree huggers, barbs, rangers and druids.

 

 

[KDubya]

Here you go:

 

The Angry Greedy Midgets - Show me the money. You are a band of mercs who expect to get paid, nothing personal its just business.

 

Race - Boreal Dwarves

 

#1 - Gold Pact Paladin - balanced stats, extra Might, Per and Res. - Dual wield Sabres (or axes or warhammers for added style points), Heavy armor,  LoH, FoD, FoD DoT, zealous endurance, Reinforcing Exhortation, Sacred Immolation, Scion of Flames. This guy is the leader, has good resolve  and perception for talking, good alpha strikes, durable. If using Sabres can get dual stillettos with on crit spell effects for added FoD massive accuracy alpha strikes.

 

#2 Darcozzi Paladin - high intellect, balanced stats adjusted as you like. Sword and board using marking weapon and shield that buffs team defenses. This guy is a solid defender and team enhancer. Look at The Forward Observer Build for ideas. Give him the accuracy buffing aura as his area is larger than the first guy's.

 

#3 Juggernaut Monk - Heavy armor, dual fists. Solid defenses and good AoE damage from Torment's and Flagellants.

 

#4 Improved Fighter - otherwise known as a Monk - go with swift strikes, FoA for the big knockdowns 10+ seconds, use TideFall or Blade of the Endless Paths, as light of armor as you can get by with. Balanced stats but favor dexterity for speed.  Use as a flanker.

 

#5A Tanky Rogue - dump intellect, max resolve, high dex and perception - one handed weapon and shield - you want durable that can be further buffed with reinforcing exhortation from the Paladin - Or you can go more squishy and use a pike from safety like Tall Grass.

 

#5B Tanky Chanter - main purpose is the +25% fire damage lash chant to make the rest of the team stronger. Again you want durable. If summons aren't your thing go with the big paralyze cone

 

#5C Stormcaller Ranger with a Boar (dwarves don't have pet dogs they have war pigs) - Just so good you want to have on the team. The only squishy but still no per rest abilities.

 

#5 D Cipher - I like reach weapon melee ciphers who are relatively safe in the second row but do big melee damage faster than ranged. Again no per rest spells.

 

Choose two from #5A, B, C and D.

 

 

 

Everyone is a boreal dwarf so everyone will get the +15 vs wilders and primordial. They make up a large portion of the enemies and your team will facestomp them.

 

Your team will have two paladin auras, four lay on hands,  chanter buffs and two monks, all supported by either a ranger or a cipher. You'll only rest when your health gets too low.

[Raven Darkholme]

A party with no micromanagement is 6 chanters.

You can easily let the AI do everything on PoTD and do hard fights on minimum level.

I've started a playthrough for fun, but am not to far:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzscMCQ3321um4bOE1tVJH-1F71aW91UV

 

Their soft winds of death stack with each other, also at level 9 their dragon chant.

You basically bore your enemies to death, but it might even be to boring for you.

For me it is a fun change to all those solos with amximum difficulty.^^

[Boeroer]

That's right: there will be no better party in terms of "low micro meets high power" than six chanters. max out MIG and INT, a bit PER, dump DEX if you like and pump RES, leave CON at 10. Build them all in a sturdy way, use Weapon & Shield style and skill them for maximum defenses. You could also take 6 Moon Godlikes for maximum survivability - but maybe that's total overkill. Not only their "Come Soft Winds" do stack, but also their Acient Memory + Beloved Spirits (that's around 9 endurance regeneration per tick). When you reach tier 3 chants and finally can use "The Dragon Slashed" (which also stacks) every encounter (except against dragons) becomes trivial. In the meantime you can use Soft Winds and comlement which whatever short chants you like. Then unleash the power of your invocations all at once. The fights may be slower than with other parties - but there's little risk of failing and you don't have to do a lot of micro.

 

Another party I used and was lots of fun:

 

Very tanky monk with Long Stride, Flagellant's Path and all kinds of defenses against being stuck, paralyzed, prone, petrified and so on. 5 ciphers with whatever weapons or abilities/talents you like - just use Ectopsychic Echo. At the beginning of each fight the monk goes into battle and gets hit to receive wounds. All 5 ciphers cast Ectopsychic Echo on the monk. The monk uses Flagellant's Path to dash trough all foes, damaging them and lowering their defenses. Then he just starts to move away from the pack while pulling five echo beams as a train. Most enemies will be dead in seconds - also works against dragons if you can time it right and give the monk boots of speed (Russetwood) and Fast Runner also.

I think that's the best way to have low micro and very short fights. THis can go wrong sometimes though. A stuck or even dead monk and you have to use conventional methods. But then you can always cast 5 times Amplified Wave (regenerates focus on hit!) or Mind Blades - also funny.

 

If you like more conventional approaches with low micro and good survivability and low babysitting squishies:

 

- Paladin tanky guy (look for "Darcozzi Forward Observer")

- Chanter tanky guy (look for "Drake's Ambassador")

- Barb with Tidefall, Shod-in-Faith and Sanguine Plate

- Cipher with a War Bow (not too squishy, will get swarmed otherwise)

- Priest with Painful Interdiction (per encounter ability that is really good for the barb and cipher - spells only when needed. After lvl 9 they become per encounter) OR another paladin with focus on support abilities, 4 weapon sets and arquebuses and quick switch. Focus on "on-kill" or "on-use"-abilities like Kind Wayfarer's or Shieldbearers or Bleak Walkers have.

- Stormcaller Ranger (one wet towel is ok - and he has it's own bodyguard bear)

Edited January 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[Raven Darkholme]

I think with 6 chanters even dragon fights might be trivial^^

 

Totally forgot about monk + 5 ciphers, it's a bit more micromanagement, but a lot more fun. :D

[Boeroer]

The most annoying part is that you have to click each cipher manually, pick the same spell and target it on the same monk - five times.

A "select ciphers and let them do this" macro would be great for that setup. Wait... why can't we record macros? That would be truly awesome! Like a macro for selfbuffing at the beginning of a fight. Basically like composing combos of actions with a certain trigger.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[Raven Darkholme]

I wish I knew a bit more about programming, I don't think it would be too hard to record macros for somebody who does.

[Boeroer]

It's my job - but I don't want to do this. Not my cup of tea... 

[PrimeJunta]

I've had the best overall experience with my Tiny Thunder From Down Under party. It's low-micro, robust, powerful, and versatile. Not no-micro, mind, but low-micro. I used "little people" as the theme for aesthetic reasons, but you could substitute other story companions or do it differently. Here's what I did:

 

Front line --

 

1. PC paladin (Goldpact Knights). Build as pure tank/support. Ignore all offensive abilities; instead, give two auras (Zealous Charge and Zealous Endurance), and Bond of Duty (gives bonuses against Charm and such when applying Liberating Exhortation.) Equip in heavy armour, big shield, Marking weapon as soon as you find one.

 

2. Hiravias. Build defensively: Cautious Attack, Sword and Shield style. Heavy armour, big shield. Most of the time he'll just be standing there stopping movement, but in the tougher fights you will want to use his fantastic CC spells. The cone-shaped ones become extremely powerful and easy because he's in the front line where people won't get in the way. Give him a Marking weapon as soon as you get one.

 

3. Hireling paladin (Darcozzi). Give him Flames of Devotion, but otherwise build as tank/support. Be sure to give Liberating Exhortation with Inspiring Liberation (long-term +10 ACC to an ally), Marking weapon as soon as you find one. (Substitute Pallegina if you want, you'll miss out on Inspiring Liberation though.)

 

Back line:

 

1. Sagani

2. Hireling Ranger

3. Hireling Ranger

 

Build the back line for squishy or semi-squishy damage dealing. Weapon Focus Soldier, arquebus or arbalest, Swift Aim, Swift and Steady, the rest into talents boosting pet damage. Have one of the rangers take Faithful Companion, and remember which pet is the one affected. Front line gets any ol' one-handed weapon for a main (won't be doing much damage anyway), and pistols/blunderbusses for a second weapon.

 

Use a party formation with the beasts up front, then the front line, then the second line. In open areas, re-form to have the beasts protect the flanks. Keep Zealous Rush active. Most trash fights will go just by select-all and auto-attack, then fall back and regroup if getting mobbed. Or you can park the group in a choke point, switch on Zelous Endurance, have your paladins Lay On Hands on the beasts to keep them up, while the back row does the damage.

 

For tougher fights, once you have Marking weapons on your tanks, group them in threes: beast + front-line + beast's owner, and have each group for three target an enemy at a time. The beast will get +10 ACC from marking (and another +10 if you've given the paladin Coordinated Attacks, and another +10 if the Darcozzi uses Liberating Exhortation on them), the ranger will get +10 from coordinating with the pet (Stalker's Link), and you will see them explode into giblets pretty quickly.

 

For the really tough ones, have Hiravias/the druid fire Returning Storm or any other CC spells to taste, otherwise as above.

 

For fampyrs, spores, and other Charm/Dominate-spamming enemies, apply Goldpact Liberation on the Faithful Companion, and have it run around soaking the Charm attempts (it'll be as good as immune). Then fight as usual.

 

And, of course, you can further even the odds with an alpha strike -- have the front row fire off a shot from the blunderbusses or pistols (with Flames of Devotion from the paladin(s) that have it), then switch to shields. The rangers will keep a steady hail of bolts/balls though, which with the pet abilities will wreck things pretty quick even without it.

 

Oh, and, do try to get a Ring of Unshackling as soon as possible; that's the one priest spell that really has no substitute.

Edited January 21, 2016 by PrimeJunta

[Boeroer]

Huh? Liberating Exhortation is a substitute... or not?

[PrimeJunta]

Huh? Liberating Exhortation is a substitute... or not?

Yeah, partial, but sometimes insufficient IMO. Big AoE spells which do nasty things to the whole party take too long to counter with them and you'll burn through all four pretty quickly for example. Ogre druids with their insects, Cean Gwla with the Paralyzing scream etc. Having a Ring of Unshackling just makes those situations a lot easier and less micro.

[Boeroer]

Ah, ok. That's obviously right. I totally forgot the AoE aspect.