Ideal party composition

[Dropman]

I wonder about ideal party composition. My main character was always caster so I need tanks. Eder is not bad but I feel Im overhelmed way too often. For my new run I plan to chose cipher or ranger, maybe both. That means cipher and/or ranger, wizard, priest, chanter, and fighter in early stages...

The question is who fit the best here? And what is ideal composition for you?

 

 

[Boeroer]

Wow, there are as many "ideal" compositions as there are players I guess. It all depends on your playstyle and favourite tactics. A very powerful party composition for example is 6 wizards - if you can stand all the micromanagement. 6 Chanters is the opposite: very powerful (but slow) and not much micro. 

 

Most of the time a good composition evolves around one or two special abilities:

 

- Threatening Presence+Brute Force+Painful Interdiction+Force of Anguish: hefty debuff of fortitude and will, great for the barb's crit chance, lots of cipher powers target fort and will, monk's special attacks target fort.

 

- Combusting Wounds+Druid's DoT spells+Come, Sweet Windes & The Dragon Thrashed+Predator's Sense: lots of damage!

 

- Ectypsychic Echo + Binding Web + Flagellant's Path + Stag Helmet: run into the mob with your monk so that they gather around him, cast Binding Web on the monk and his surroundings (debuffs reflex, monk's immune due to Stag Helmet), cast Echo(s) on the monk, dash through the mob (lowering defenses by 10) and wtch them all die because they can't get away and theri reflex is severely debuffed.

 

Then add other party members to that who can further contribute. 

[falchen]

Your choice in the first act is kind of limited, if you aren't using adventurers you kind of want to rush Caed Nua ASAP so you can grab the rest (mostly for Pallegina).

 

On this playthrough I am running Eder and Pallegina as tanks, Kana with pikes (extended range) as the backline, ranged cipher character for CC and debufs, Durance for buffs and healing and Aloth as an emergency nuke.

[ottffsse]

Fighters are durable but you waste their very good offence if you make them into just boring meatshields. And your front row has to deal damage and be effective otherwise enemies will ignore them and go for the back.

 

So the fighter class imo is now the perfect 2 handed backup / off tank to relieve the pressure off the monk in the front lines. Eder can do this. The primary front tank should be a monk like zahua because if he gets damaged it just means he will hit back harder. In the middle you usually have a weapon and shield or long reach weapon priest, chanter, or druid for utility, party buff and enemy debuffer. A retaliation cipher which grieving mother can do well can also be here in this role. And a rogue with something like tall grass (devil of coroc). Now for the back I'd put place a strong aoe nuker like a wizard / ranged druid, or cipher along with single target specialist like a Ranger or a dulcanale pistol rogue or a sabre marie warbow rogue, the later if you like damage and cc all in one like I do - it's a very "safe" option for a glass canon rogue but very efficient. the ciphers, druid, wizard and even priest excel at DEbuffing the enemy while a paladin excels at buffing your party. That is how you manage a party with both say a priest and a paladin.

 

So if you ignore the second front line rogue or priest place pallegina in the back and make her a flames of devotion arquebus sniper and party offence!, buffer, with upgraded accuracy for your back row cipher and wizard who can most from the accuracy buff by disabling the enemies in the front for zahua and Eder to dispatch.

 

So it's like a circle: tanks protect the back line disablers, the Pali buffs them, they in turn disable the enemies in the front line so they don't overwhelm the two tanks and support.

 

this is an efficient way to run potd but there are other ways too. Using this general party comp I can do stuff like high level (10+) content with a level 7 party pretty effectively. Enemies at same level or lower can just be ramboed though at fast speed.

 

In early game you are better off giving full plate and a super large shield to Cana and still have Eder as offensive two hander just beside - he is just better at offence really. Have durance support both by casting consecrated ground just behind them first thing in difficult encounters.

[Elric Galad]

It is "well known" the most powerful party in absolute power is 5 wizard and 1 priest.

 

But it is complicated to play and requires a lot of resting.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Elric Galad

[MaxQuest]

I wonder about ideal party composition.

I suppose there is no ideal party composition. Because different encounters require different approach.

For example:

I am running with [fighter + chanter] tanks + [paladin + cipher] sup-ranged-dps + [ranger + cipher] pure dps. And I happy with it most of the time. But:

- fighter's potential is wasted on trash fights. There is no need for his uber-tankiness there. I'd better be with fighter as melee dps in such encounters. Yet he is great at passage blocking.

- ranged paladin: amazing alpha strike. Very useful on trash and medium encounters. Where after throwing FoD/Runner's Wounding Shot/w/e he can also heal and cleanse his party. But in really hard fights I'd prefer a priest over him.

- ranger: only by level 10 she started to catch up with my paladin in terms of dps, who also finds time to heal and liberate. But it's her pet the main reason I kept her in the party. I like the double echo melting stuff.

 

For me the kernel of a party always contains a chanter (so much buffs; Aefyllath itself counts as almost a 7th character for me) and a cipher (damage, cc, versatility). These two don't rely on per-rest abilities, but are useful in those big fights nevertheless.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by MaxQuest

[Gromnir]

all priests.... perhaps all priests and one dedicated tank class.  we made an all priest party that were too powerful to be fun, but while our priest-tank were viable, he weren't ideal.  we like to have a genuine tank.  am always surprised by how infrequent folks make use of a priest's offensive potential.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[mazeltov]

And what is ideal composition for you?

 

High durability in general, melee over ranged, and priority on per-Encounter over per-Rest abilities (Aspirant's Mark is such a good talent that I dropped Hirvais(sp) after seeing it in action). So some mix of Paladins, Fighters, and Rogues (with lots of +Disengagement), maybe a Priest on PotD (Interdiction + Inspiring Radiance is so good as a per-Encounter combo).

[limaxophobiacq]

Past level 13 and Immolation paladins with high might and intellect are so good at damage dealing, support, and tanking, basícally capable of doing everything but CC with quite low maintenance, that I'd say something like 2 paladins, 2 wizards, and 2 priests. Between the auras and the priests everyone will be buffed through the roof in any big fight, any negative afflictions can be prevented or dispelled easily, and even if someone somehow goes down four out of six characters can revive.

Edited February 24, 2016 by limaxophobiacq

[Crucis]

 

I wonder about ideal party composition.

I suppose there is no ideal party composition. Because different encounters require different approach.

For example:

I am running with [fighter + chanter] tanks + [paladin + cipher] sup-ranged-dps + [ranger + cipher] pure dps. And I happy with it most of the time. But:

- fighter's potential is wasted on trash fights. There is no need for his uber-tankiness there. I'd better be with fighter as melee dps in such encounters. Yet he is great at passage blocking.

- ranged paladin: amazing alpha strike. Very useful on trash and medium encounters. Where after throwing FoD/Runner's Wounding Shot/w/e he can also heal and cleanse his party. But in really hard fights I'd prefer a priest over him.

- ranger: only by level 10 she started to catch up with my paladin in terms of dps, who also finds time to heal and liberate. But it's her pet the main reason I kept her in the party. I like the double echo melting stuff.

 

For me the kernel of a party always contains a chanter (so much buffs; Aefyllath itself counts as almost a 7th character for me) and a cipher (damage, cc, versatility). These two don't rely on per-rest abilities, but are useful in those big fights nevertheless.

 

 

 

 

Max, your post, along with mazeltov's, are something worth thinking about.  That is, putting a premium on per-encounter abilities over per-rest ones.  I will say that I still like having a priest along.  But one can definitely get by just fine without a wizard if you have a cipher around. 

 

Also, ciphers and chanters are acceptable replacements for rogues where mechanics skill is concerned.  Just have the right background and take a bunch of Mechanics skill, and maybe if you're lucky, find the Gloves of Manipulation, and you've got it covered well enough.

[Efiriel]

Crucis: thing to keep in mind is that all the "per Rest" casters actually have decent amount of utility on "per Encounter" basis. Druid would be the weakest here (especially on PotD), but Shapeshift is still good. Wizard has Arcane Assault that is being hugely underestimated (Raw dmg + Daze, twice!), while Priest has Inspiring Radiance and Painful Interdiction, both neat. Not to mention Spell Mastery kicking in at 9.

 

While it's far less than a Cipher can do every single encounter, at the same time, you can unload your entire arsenal as a Wizard/Druid, tripling or quadrupling what a Cipher would do. It's just about a good balance of both "per Rest" and "per Encounter", when making a good party.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Efiriel

[Wolken3156]

I wonder about ideal party composition. My main character was always caster so I need tanks.

Casters are capable of tanking, you just need a specific build for it. Unless you choose to opt for glass cannon builds, its actually very viable (And highly recommended) to build all your characters with some degree of defensive capabilities.

 

And what is ideal composition for you?

Caster heavy, I like having a wide variety of options, plus casters by nature can adapt to different combat situations quite well. Its pretty common to see me run at least 1 Druid, Priest and Wizard. Very micro heavy though, as it does require a lot of judgment to use those per rest spells in the most effective manner possible. Edited February 25, 2016 by Wolken3156

[Heligor]

I really really like low micro, cc heavy parties.

In my current run i 'm using 1 support paladin with abydon's hammer as main character, 1 barbarian with hour of saint rumbald (sp?), max int, high dex and percepiton, 1 rogue with godahdhfhvns (the +1 might hammer) and we toki, 1 cypher in autopilot, 1 priest with painful interdiction, and a ranger with stormcaller, twin arrow and max dex.

It's working very well.

[Cragen]

Would love to get some input on companion builds and compositions.
Haven't really touched Pillars since it was released. I played up to late act 3 as a paladin with Eder, Durance, Aloth Grieving Mother

 and Kana.

 

Now that WM2 is out I'd love to do a full 100% play through on POTD but without any premade companions, but so much has changed since the last time I played so not really sure where to begin.
Plan was to either go Barbarian or melee cipher. Eder as a tank seems pretty obvious and guessing Pallegina as well. After that I'm really kinda stumped. Honestly not sure what other NPCs would complement the party.

Right now I'm sorta tempted to just go with Kana, Durance and Aloth since you get them early and try and build them for range, but the NPC stats are kinda horrid so honestly not sure what would be the best route.

[mazeltov]

Now that WM2 is out I'd love to do a full 100% play through on POTD but without any premade companions, but so much has changed since the last time I played so not really sure where to begin.

 

Judging from the very painful experience of trying to rush Devil of Caroc on PotD with only story companions, I'd say that a very strong AoE component is a must. An encounter that had maybe seven mobs on Hard had what seemed like twice that many on PotD, and between inflated enemy stats and underwhelming story companion scores, it was kind of a nightmare.

 

Aloth and Hirvais(sp) can be specced into decent AoE'ers with some item/food etc. babysitting. Maneha, the new Barb companion, has a decent Mig at 18, but any character with decent Mig/Int can help with AoE by using scrolls strategically. Provided Lore is invested in, of course.

 

Another way to compensate for weak companions is to outlevel the content a bit. With custom characters that would probably be overkill, but it seems fair when using Obsidian premades.

[Maxzero]

Would love to get some input on companion builds and compositions.

Haven't really touched Pillars since it was released. I played up to late act 3 as a paladin with Eder, Durance, Aloth Grieving Mother

and Kana.

 

Now that WM2 is out I'd love to do a full 100% play through on POTD but without any premade companions, but so much has changed since the last time I played so not really sure where to begin.

Plan was to either go Barbarian or melee cipher. Eder as a tank seems pretty obvious and guessing Pallegina as well. After that I'm really kinda stumped. Honestly not sure what other NPCs would complement the party.

Right now I'm sorta tempted to just go with Kana, Durance and Aloth since you get them early and try and build them for range, but the NPC stats are kinda horrid so honestly not sure what would be the best route.

The best non premade party on potd I have at the moment uses double chanters. Gives strong and secondary tanks. Use the Paladin over Eder because she has good fort/will/ref saves and can do support as well as tank. Throw in the Priest and Aloth for support and more AOE and that leaves one flex spot that changes depending on need. Sagani has proven suprisingly effective so far with a pet build. The pet hits extremely hard plus it helps give me a tank line that does not rely on engagement but simply body blocks so that enemies can't get to the backline.

 

Cleared out the entire sewers with no resting and only using like 3 spell casts (1 Chill Fog, one DR bacc, one acc/dam buff.