New PoE fighter needs help.

[lokiknight16]

New player to PoE and not sure where to find updated info on fighters builds/abilities. I basically want to create and DPS fighter with some tanking abilities (or at least able to take some damage) and as a noob i'm trying to find something on here, but everyithign i get is pretty much from last year before all the expansions etc..

i created my fighter with high constitution/resolve/perception as i read those were absolutely important for any solid fighter,,,i kept might at 12 which i now think may have been a mistake and intellect/dexterity at low levels. What are the important attributes? am i totally off??

for skills? is athletics and lore good ones to choose? how do i decide what is more important for my main character.

what abilities should i grab at the lower levels to make my fighter solid? i keep reading how abilities got nerfed and not sure what's essential anymore.

i understand there is no BEST build or optimal fighter, but i need some direction and hoping some of you experienced players can give me some feedback. Don't want to pull another divinity Sin and re-start the game 3 times before i make a character that i can enjoy.

 

​thanks for all your help!

[Jac]

Well, I'm not sure how feasible it is to try to do both, but I think you're off to a good start. I would have a 2h weapon for damage and a 1h/shield for when you need to mitigate damage.

 

I think athletics is still good even though the fighting fatigue is no longer present.

 

You can probably drop Con a bit after you get some solid plate and some defensive skills. Speaking of which, I think Defender is a good one, as is the one that allows you to engage more than one enemy at a time.

 

Hopefully somebody else will have more info.

[Ymarsakar]

You can console in just enough gold to always retrain, for those that are worried about their main stat balance.  Better than restarting, at least. Activate console in game.

Iroll20s

giveplayermoney 750

 

Can copy/paste it via ctrl v in game as well.

 

As for a fighter build, the fighter's tankiness comes from two things, the per tick health renewal from the recovery power, which is modified by might. And the other reason the fighter is tanky is high 30 base deflection with a concurrently high endurance/health pool.

 

My level 4 barbarian has around 140 endurance and 820 health. It can take 3-4 critical hits from the druid matron on level 3 of Caed Nua. Which is plenty of time for party healing to take effect. Casters will die in like 2 normal hits, due to the lower endurance without buffs, even with 15 ish con.

 

Because a fighter regens more due to higher might, you want your might equal to or higher than your con. Eder's balanced 16 might 16 con stat works. And since fighter abilities aren't affected, more or less, by INT, you can degrade INt as well.

 

For a fighter, it'll probably have 3 in athletics and 4 in survival. Then both increase up at same time, later. Some people like to pull with their fighters or tanks, so they put some pts into stealth as well. For a mechanics character, ideally you want someone who has good stealth and a lot of modifiers to mechanics, to reduce the skill points you need at higher levels.

 

For defensive abilities, cautious attack, shield talent, or superior deflection.

 

If your fighter is going to use big weapons though, you'll probably avoid the shield talent.

 

I built Eder fighter up at level 3, with just a small shield and a dagger. The dagger adds its +5 accuracy to knockdown. Small shield has no ACc penalty. For the other weapon slot, I used a warbow for pulling or range dps.

 

If you don't use medium or large shields, you can probably reduce per by 2-4 points and put it into might instead. Same for resolve. Fighter has a high base deflection and accuracy.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Ymarsakar]

Oh another thing, what I usually do when testing new class and builds is to use the console. 

AddExperienceToLevel number

 

Number being like 16.

 

This lets me level up the fighter or other class in game to see the tooltips on the abilities, use them against targets, and get a feel for them, as a build that goes up to a high level. Although you can stop whenever you feel like it.

 

Then you just reload, and now you have a better idea of how fighters progress. Of course, if you don't know how fighters play or how the game works, that would just be abstract knowledge that might be hard to put into practice.

 

For class abilities, I chose disciplined barrage for its 20 ACC. 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Braven]

There is actually a really good 3 Perception build which involves getting items and abilities that raise your graze-to-hit conversion such that you almost never graze despite a lower accuracy. There are also builds specifically designed to turn a low resolve stat from being a bad thing to an advantage (they want to receive crits to activate special items). I even made a build that -wants- the lowest possible CON in order to trigger the "Triggered Immunity" ability more easily. However, a different play style would want the exact opposite stats so there are no hard rules for stats. Unlike other games, there are no "garbage stats". All stats are useful for all classes. For example, intelligent fighters totally work.

 

In short, any stat line will work as long as it fits your play style. The problem comes when your stats oppose your preferred style. Sadly, many people think certain stats are better than others without even having a specific build in mind.

 

It sounds like you don't want to overly specialize in a particular archetype (not a pure tank, not a pure glass cannon). In that case, I suggest not min-maxing. Keep everything around 10 but increase DEX (great for all builds) and MIGHT (helps your auto heal ability, constant recovery as well as damage output), and INT because it helps all your abilities last significantly longer, including your class specific power, constant recovery, which is very important now that it was buffed considerable in 3.0.

 

If you want something less generic, there is a Guy on YouTube, nerd commando, with some great videos that discuss modern builds specifically for 3.0. He has both Russion and English videos, so be sure to watch the English, if that is your language. They are not overly complicated builds and great for a newer player.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Braven

[Braven]

Oh, and a shameless plug, but my fighter build is called Glass Tsunami and is only a week old. Should be on the first couple pages of this forum. Could give you some ideas, though warning: It is full of item spoilers and does rely on obtaining certain items to be most effective, though all the important ones are easy to get and available early on.

 

If you want a little safer/sturdier version of the build, up CON to around 7-9 and Resolve to around 9. PER can safely be dropped to around 7 with minimal impact on overall DPS. That will help keep the fighter alive in case there is trouble finding all of the endurance regeneration items. Also, he won't need to rest as often and will have an easier time surviving ACT 1.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Braven

[Gromnir]

New player to PoE and not sure where to find updated info on fighters builds/abilities. I basically want to create and DPS fighter with some tanking abilities (or at least able to take some damage) and as a noob i'm trying to find something on here, but everyithign i get is pretty much from last year before all the expansions etc..

 

i created my fighter with high constitution/resolve/perception as i read those were absolutely important for any solid fighter,,,i kept might at 12 which i now think may have been a mistake and intellect/dexterity at low levels. What are the important attributes? am i totally off??

 

for skills? is athletics and lore good ones to choose? how do i decide what is more important for my main character.

 

what abilities should i grab at the lower levels to make my fighter solid? i keep reading how abilities got nerfed and not sure what's essential anymore.

 

i understand there is no BEST build or optimal fighter, but i need some direction and hoping some of you experienced players can give me some feedback. Don't want to pull another divinity Sin and re-start the game 3 times before i make a character that i can enjoy.

 

​thanks for all your help!

poe is different... and in a good way.  is many games that punish you severely for choosing the wrong attribute spread at the start.  that is not so much the case with poe.  there is gonna be advantages for playing a fighter with higher dex or perception than con or might.  there is even reasons to put points into intellect.  

 

for a dps fighter... well, honestly, we typical just use eder for our dps fighter and he is amazing in the role.  nevertheless, we prefer 2-h weapons for big damage and for overcoming dr.  estoc is a good choice, but there is fantastic 2-h swords available early in the game, and a very nice pike for sale. if you are making this character an off-tank, we wouldn't worry too much about shield talents as you can be extreme durable even with a 2-handed weapon. a dps fighter with the defender ability and the new wm overbearing guard is comical devastating as your disengagement attacks have higher accuracy, damage and they affect those hit with prone.  wm has improved enemy ai so that the bad guys try and ignore your tank and go straight for your squishies.  good.  the defender fighter with overbearing guard makes kibble outta such foes. confident aim is a good early choice.  

 

as am skipping the shield, we would take unbending, wary defender and rapid recovery, and we would likely go with a pale elf for the elemental dr... and 'cause is no way in hell Gromnir is ever gonna play a "godlike."  serious, could the obsidians have chosen a worse name for their plane-touched race?

 

oh, for a dps fighter we do kinda like survival to be level 10... or level 8 with one o' the +2 survival items.  am pretty sure 10 survival gets you the second tier o' the racial accuracy resting bonus.  get 4 in lore and the rest in athletics?  whatever. 

 

but again, poe is a bit different than other crpgs.  do not feel as if you need the right attributes or talents or abilities.  is very few useless builds.  you actual gotta work hard to have a true fail build.  do complete different from our suggestions and you are likely gonna have an effective build and it may be more fun than what Gromnir suggested... particular as our build has few activated abilities.  just have fun with it and don't obsess over the numbers or the ubiquitous optimal build suggestions. 

 

also, there is now respec available via pretty much every merchant, so for some gold you can change your build if you discover you built poorly.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[AndreaColombo]

Well, since Braven's done some shameless self-advertising, I'll throw my care away and indulge in self-promotion too

 

Check out my Lady of Pain build--now in three juicy variants--here on this forum (should be on page 2-3 or thereabouts.)

[Mocker22]

Loki......don't bother with much else. Go read the Lady of Pain thread in detail, and look at the recent updates. This is THE huge dps fighter, and it can take a beating just fine.

 

The only thing I would say is Andrea has picked a couple items for personal flavor and looks(Sanguine helm?) so you might be able to get a little bit more min-maxy on the gear if you want.

[lokiknight16]

You guys and girls are awesome, all this info will help (or confuse me hahah). Great to have such a good community!

[AndreaColombo]

Yeah, the helm is for the looks; you'll get more mileage out of other headgear

 

Been playing with a cipher in my party recently and I'm loving the new 5th-level power (Going Between, if memory serves.) Alongside Durgan steel, Dozen's Luck, and Critical Defense it gets you 74% crit-to-hit conversion.