Companion builds

[Boeroer]

Sure (handed Ila). Looks solid. If you give Aloth the Golden Gaze there will be a good  synergy between his Expose Vulnerabilities (-5 DR) and Pallegina's Missiles/Shots.

[HawkSoft]

Kana is generaly built as a gunner, yes?

 

Well, if there is no Ranger or Cipher in your party, you could give him outlander's frenzy, some ranged talents and perhaps Prestidigitator's Missiles to make him into a decent backline supporter that zaps foes with Stormcaller while frenzied and kills casters with Missiles of various kinds with penetrating shot.

I stuck him in the Sanguine Plate, it looks quite snazzy on him.

 

Durance got talked (with some difficulty) into wearing the Aru-Brekr as I got bored of him getting sacked.

 

My monk is wearing Durance's Robe v3-beta (well washed!), with a quality boost it's one of the best robes you can find in the main game.

[DreamWayfarer]

My monk is wearing Durance's Robe v3-beta (well washed!), with a quality boost it's one of the best robes you can find in the main game.

You are a Watcher, not a washer. Nothing will make you stop feeling the smell of his soul.

[HawkSoft]

 

My monk is wearing Durance's Robe v3-beta (well washed!), with a quality boost it's one of the best robes you can find in the main game.

You are a Watcher, not a washer. Nothing will make you stop feeling the smell reek of his soul.

At least, as a fire godlike, I don't have to worry about it catching fire.

[Boeroer]

Just build Kana into the Drake's Ambassador. It's stats fit pretty well for that. Works like a charm. My main is also one of those. With brisk recitation they rock! In PotD (because of bigger mobs) the lvl 1 invocation that lets bodies explode is quite nice. First you drop a lot of weaker enemies with The Dragon Slashed, then you retreat a bit, lure the tougher ones onto the bodies and Bang! Encountered a certain monk with two elemental buddies who just got pwned by 12 times ~20 crush damage (+combusting wounds - ouch).

Edited February 6, 2016 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

Guys - I LOVE the new Pallegina! Her "Wrath of the Five Suns" is so good! When you build her as I build the Engineer-Fighter, there's no better caster clipper/boss annoyer/support tank in whole Eora. I gave her Penetrating Shot, Scion of Flame and together with Kana (has the +25% burn lash chant) and Aloth (Expose Vuln.) and two Blunderbusses and Prestidigitator's Missiles and a cloak of Minor Missiles she kills all casters in sight. Wrath has long range, works with Penetrating Shot (together 15 DR bypass) and does burn damage - so Scion is great for that (and Sacred Immolation and FoD, too). The other missiles also work well. I didn't use the 6sec-Haste talent because most chars in my party already have speed boosts of some sort. 

 

She went from meh to yeah with just one patch.

 

Durance still sucks though...

Edited February 7, 2016 by Boeroer

[Stargazer55]

Can't way to try the new Pallegina

[Elric Galad]

Sounds great. Not sure I would make such a specialized build, but Wrath + FoD Arbalest surely does most of the job )

Your build is great anyway.

 

But does elemental Talents work on Lash now ?
That would be a good news !

 

And by chance, do you know if they work on "curse type" DoT ?

 

If only they had designed a couple of unique abilities for companions, like for Pallegina and Devil of Caroc.

[AndreaColombo]

But does elemental Talents work on Lash now ?

 

That I know of, they've been working with lashes for a while.

 

They did not work with weapons that dealt two types of damage one of which was elemental, like Bittercut. I hope 3.0 fixed that.

[limaxophobiacq]

But does elemental Talents work on Lash now ?

That would be a good news !

 

And by chance, do you know if they work on "curse type" DoT ?

 

Elemental talents don't work on any DoT (anything that says it does X damage over Y seconds), has been a problem since forever (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71355-480-some-damage-over-time-spells-still-have-problems/).

 

Makes Spirit of Decay pretty useless since almost all Corrode spells do damage over time.

Edited February 7, 2016 by limaxophobiacq

[Boeroer]

It works with lashes (FoD is also a kind of lash), scrolls and also Wrath of the Five Suns - but not with The Dragon Slashed and other DoT, like limaxophobiacq said.

 

I didn't test if Bittercut/Firebrand/Stormcaller now work with those talents. I will post if I get one of those.

[Stargazer55]

What would you say is the best way of enabling sneak attacks (or in my case merciless companion) without having a priest or cipher in my group?

[Wolken3156]

Use a Druid, they have millions of CC spells and a lot of these will enable Sneak Attacks. A Wizard is also another option.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Wolken3156

[Boeroer]

Just flank with the animal companion. That's enough and there's no immunity against it. Very nice if the other flanker is a rogue.

Later on you will have Stunning Shots and maybe Stormcaller with Returning Storm (=AoE stun) - that's easy then.

You could also use the knockdown of the pet itself. It's not so bad as it used to be because they buffed the duration. 

Edited February 9, 2016 by Boeroer

[Stargazer55]

What would you say to the Devil, using Vengiatta Rugia and Sura's Supper Plate? What else should I pick to make her effective?

[Elric Galad]

You cannot use Vengietta Rugia on the devil. Her default armor is basically her body.

[Stargazer55]

good point

[Boeroer]

But you could use Garodh's Chorus and the Supper Plate. Even better because it has +3 MIG and comes a lot earlier than the padded armor. I think it's a great setup. Even more with Deep Wounds. It's like a raw damage AoE. Retaliation also works with Sneak Attack and Deathblows - although that's not superpowerful because the base damage is whimpy and you can't do crits, just auto-hits. Ryona's Vembraces and Vuln. Attack are great for Retaliation.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[shinchan820000]

I think it's easier to make Melee Companions more or less optimal.

Melee NPC benefit from all stats including Constitution and Resolve.

For Ranged NPC, you would like to drop Resolve and stay around 10 constitution.

 

How do you benefit from 12 constitution from Sagani ? Or 13 Resolve from Aloth ?

It's not strictly worse, but I feel that it is clearly suboptimal.

 

For my next run, I consider taking Eder, Kana and Pallegina but I have trouble to complete my team if I choose to go with 5 Companions.

I can't go with 5 melee and a ranged PC, I fear a "melee traffic jam" effect.

Yeah, I have a "rather powergaming" approach.

 

 

Devil of Caroc is a special case : the problem is her stupid dexterity which happens to be the most important stat for a rogue, alongside with heavy armor which makes her even slower.

At least she has a lot of unique features...

 

Do you retrain all ingame companion NPC and build them in the early game ?