PotD: Full Custom party with no real 'warrior' class

[Psychevore]

I'm thinking of running a game with the following party:

Druid (Watcher)

Chanter

Wizard

Priest

Cipher

Ranger

 

Where basically the idea is to have the pet companion be the main tank, Chanter off tank and the Druid a glass cannon off tank. In spirit shifted form, of course. Wizard, Priest and Cipher glass cannon damage dealers/controllers. Ranger and Chanter get high Lore for scrolls.

 

How viable do you guys and gals think it would be? Pre White March I would probably have run this without thought (though would've made Chanter main tank and pet off tank, as the pets were really weak if I recall correctly), but now I'm thinking it won't be very viable.

 

Lots of fun though casting all those AoE damage and control spells though.
 

edit: typo I couldn't ignore

Edited April 19, 2016 by Psychevore

[Elric Galad]

Hehe I'm just starting a new PotD playthrough with almost them party, except no cipher and a second chanter. In my opinion it's totally viable, but you may need more tankiness. Your party doesn't have to be only made of squishies and tank. A simple priest with leather armor and shield can help holding the line : small shield does not cause any malus to spellcasting. Early game, spells are limited ressource so casting speed is not so critical ; late game, durgan steel will negate a big part of armor malus.

 

Furthermore, be sure to pick form of the Delemgan as Druid Spell Mastery for lvl 4. Fast cast party wide 8DR against physical attack will greatly help your survivability. Combo with binding web is great.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Elric Galad

[Braven]

Pets are actually quite strong for tanking.  In the late game, they can have DR ratings in the mid-20s and also don't have to worry about health since they only have an endurance pool.  Later, they can get 2 knock downs just like fighter has and uses the Rangers intelligence for the prone duration (instead of the pet's dismal intelligence).  In white march 2, three of the new ranger abilities directly help pet tanking.  One heals the pet twice/encounter, another revives the pet, and the third grants you benefits if the pet is knocked out.  I recommend the ranger has high might for the healing, if you want the best pet tank.

 

Chanters can also make for good front liners, since there is little reason not to throw plate armor on them and their base deflection is good.  The AOE damage chants tend to annoy enemies into attacking them too, helping to keep engagement as long as the chanter's INT is good.

 

I think the party will do just fine.  Because your casters can "go nova" for tough fights, you can be as strong as you need to be as long as you rest when you needed and are not afraid to unload your spell arsenal.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Braven

[Elric Galad]

I won't change your party composition either. It's fine. Chanter and pet makes ok tank, especially because pet has infinite health pool and you have a lot of healers.

 

I would just equip priest with Sword and Board, and I would consider the Thundercat build on this forum, as it allow dumping defenses while keeping good survivability.

 

So you'll have 2 tanks and 2 other melee guys to block the way to your squishies.

 

By the I had great fun with a melee cipher with medium armor too. Melee cipher does more damages than ranged one (even if it is less flexible.), so you can be a little less squishy and still deal a lot of damages.

[Psychevore]

Thanks for the tips. I was already playing with the idea of binding Nightshroud to the Priest, but I'd have to give it some more con... which I'll do now.

 

 

Furthermore, be sure to pick form of the Delemgan as Druid Spell Mastery for lvl 4. Fast cast party wide 8DR against physical attack will greatly help your survivability. Combo with binding web is great.

 

I never liked binding web earlier. I haven't used it since I've started playing again after WMII released. From what I recall the casting time was just tragic and the AoE too small. To be honest the second level wizard spells are all kinda meh, except Miasma of Dull Mindedness.

[Dorftek]

Thanks for the tips. I was already playing with the idea of binding Nightshroud to the Priest, but I'd have to give it some more con... which I'll do now.

 

 

 

Furthermore, be sure to pick form of the Delemgan as Druid Spell Mastery for lvl 4. Fast cast party wide 8DR against physical attack will greatly help your survivability. Combo with binding web is great.

I never liked binding web earlier. I haven't used it since I've started playing again after WMII released. From what I recall the casting time was just tragic and the AoE too small. To be honest the second level wizard spells are all kinda meh, except Miasma of Dull Mindedness.

Binding Web is brutally good. I currently play Rogue, wiz, Priest, druid, cipher and ranged paladin and I melt everything on Potd. Rogue is my main tank and my by far highest dps, spells+deathblows!

Tanglefoot+binding Web allows me to nuke any encounter that isn't immune to stuck before they can even touch me. Web can be cast outside of combat so if the enemies are clustered prepull it's a great opener.

I picked Web as my second spellmastery and it's super handy!

[Psychevore]

Binding Web is brutally good. I currently play Rogue, wiz, Priest, druid, cipher and ranged paladin and I melt everything on Potd. Rogue is my main tank and my by far highest dps, spells+deathblows!

Tanglefoot+binding Web allows me to nuke any encounter that isn't immune to stuck before they can even touch me. Web can be cast outside of combat so if the enemies are clustered prepull it's a great opener.

I picked Web as my second spellmastery and it's super handy!

 

But from level 9 on I'll basically start every fight with Slicken + Interdiction + Some AoE from the Druid and then Mental Binding to Paralyze + hold everything that got away. And that will happen in pretty much every tough fight from level 6. I don't really see the need for it.

 

But I'll give it a shot in the mean time.

 

Anyway:

 

 

 

 

I'll start seeing how thing will work out tomorrow

 

might also reload and turn the Priest into a glass cannon and the Wizard into a sword and board melee fighter with Steadfast.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Psychevore

[Dorftek]

 

Binding Web is brutally good. I currently play Rogue, wiz, Priest, druid, cipher and ranged paladin and I melt everything on Potd. Rogue is my main tank and my by far highest dps, spells+deathblows!

Tanglefoot+binding Web allows me to nuke any encounter that isn't immune to stuck before they can even touch me. Web can be cast outside of combat so if the enemies are clustered prepull it's a great opener.

I picked Web as my second spellmastery and it's super handy!

But from level 9 on I'll basically start every fight with Slicken + Interdiction + Some AoE from the Druid and then Mental Binding to Paralyze + hold everything that got away. And that will happen in pretty much every tough fight from level 6. I don't really see the need for it.

 

But I'll give it a shot in the mean time.

 

Anyway:

 

 

 

 

I'll start seeing how thing will work out tomorrow

 

might also reload and turn the Priest into a glass cannon and the Wizard into a sword and board melee fighter with Steadfast.

Different spell to achieve similar results however the webbing will continously reapply the stuck affliction thru the fight. Give it some testing and I'm sure you'll find it useful. I always pick chillfog as first spellmastery so I don't have slicken as a per encounter spell. Chillfog is great to use within the webbing area as it will often interrupt enemies movement when it ticks, giving the webbing even more time to root them down again.

[Odd Hermit]

I'd have the ranger be the tank, not his pet. Being able to equip items on a main tank is kind of a big deal, DR alone won't save the pet. I've been using the antelope(highest defense pet) and it occasionally got 1-2 shot by nuke spells. Vs. average mooks they're solid enough as an off tank though.

 

I'm actually quite happy with how my ranger tank is turning out. Rangers don't get a ton of endurance but they get high health so with good constitution they last a long enough time before you need to rest, and can be healed through tough fights just fine.

 

I used attribute spread Mig17 Con15 Dex10 Per15 Int4 Res17. I probably could've built slightly more defensively but thus far he's held up and deals decent damage while he's at it.

 

[Boeroer]

I would always use the druid as a light tank. They are such amazing CC-frontliners if skilled and equipped accordingly.

 

In fact, one of my playthroughs had a chanter (ambassador) and druid (batsh!t) as "tanks" and it was one of my easiest runs. I also had a paladin and didn't use him as permanent frontliner because those two were enough.

 

You don't need any warrior classes to have an easy playthrough.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Boeroer

[manageri]

Wizards make lovely tanks if you aren't afraid of resting a lot. A caster party is more than viable. If you want a challenging run, try no casters of any kind. I played through most of the game with a monk, barbarian, rogue, ranger comp, which got pretty interesting at times.

[Psychevore]

I'm having a blast so far with Team Nova

 

Around level 8 it became a little ridiculous and after the full party reaching level 9 you have so much spells you can pretty much use them every fight as you have so much spell casters it takes a long time to run out of spells.

 

I'm leveling all the spellcasters with the elemental damage bonuses too. All 4 on the Wizard, all but Spirit of Decay on the Druid, Scion of Flame on the Priest and Chanter and Heart of the Storm on the Cipher, which has Stormcaller Binded. (though I will take the skill at level 10, level 9 now)

[Boeroer]

Did you know that the elemental damage (and DR) bonus talents don't work on DoT spells?

[Psychevore]

Did you know that the elemental damage (and DR) bonus talents don't work on DoT spells?

No, I didn't. But I don't DoT much (and if I do, it's mostly Raw.. I think). I just Slicken and then pump massive amounts of instant damage on the helpless, crying enemies

 

edit:

Except the Priest of course, as all that burn damage is DoT. That sucks.

Edited April 28, 2016 by Psychevore

[Blunderboss]

Priest has Storm of Holy Fire and it should benefit from scion of flame so its all good , just comes bit late into the game 

[Kingsman]

I'm thinking of running a game with the following party:

Druid (Watcher)

Chanter

Wizard

Priest

Cipher

Ranger

 

Where basically the idea is to have the pet companion be the main tank, Chanter off tank and the Druid a glass cannon off tank. In spirit shifted form, of course. Wizard, Priest and Cipher glass cannon damage dealers/controllers. Ranger and Chanter get high Lore for scrolls.

 

How viable do you guys and gals think it would be? Pre White March I would probably have run this without thought (though would've made Chanter main tank and pet off tank, as the pets were really weak if I recall correctly), but now I'm thinking it won't be very viable.

 

Lots of fun though casting all those AoE damage and control spells though.

 

edit: typo I couldn't ignore

You will probably find it a little difficult at the start of the game. Once you hit around level 11+ it will get easier. People solo POTD remember.

 

Having said that I have never soloed POTD and I couldn't think of anything worse to be honest. Your fights will involve a serious amount of micro management. It will probably take you 3-4 times longer to finish the game with no dedicate melee classes.

 

Good luck.

[Boeroer]

That's not true - if we talk about a whole party. I played a lot of parties without fighters, monks and paladins and so on but used repurposed casters, chanters and so on. And what it does is making the game more easy to be honest. Casters are just better at adapting to every situation because they have a much higher variety of speciall effects they can let loose. A tanky wizard for example can have similar defenses to a fighter () but do a lot more damage at the same time.

 

One of the most easy playthroughs (I think I mentioned that before) was with a party of a chanter, druid, rogue and priest frontline and a wizard plus ranger in the back ranks. Priest and rogue were sturdy but let the two others engage first.

 

I mean a priest alone makes every playthrough more easy if you don't sit on your spells.

[Kingsman]

That's not true - if we talk about a whole party. I played a lot of parties without fighters, monks and paladins and so on but used repurposed casters, chanters and so on. And what it does is making the game more easy to be honest. Casters are just better at adapting to every situation because they have a much higher variety of speciall effects they can let loose. A tanky wizard for example can have similar defenses to a fighter () but do a lot more damage at the same time.

 

One of the most easy playthroughs (I think I mentioned that before) was with a party of a chanter, druid, rogue and priest frontline and a wizard plus ranger in the back ranks. Priest and rogue were sturdy but let the two others engage first.

 

I mean a priest alone makes every playthrough more easy if you don't sit on your spells.

Yeah but you devote your life to this game. Us mere mortals would struggle

[Boeroer]

Don't think so. It's just easier. You have to put some thoughts into your builds though, that's true.

 

And by the way: I have a full time job and three kids. I just don't sleep that much - that's all.

[Elric Galad]

My current playthrough is :

2 chanters (Future Dragon trashers)

1 Wizard 

1 Priest (Skaen)

1 Druid (stag, Main Character)

1 Ranger (wolf)

 

I'm currently lvl 6 and it was not really difficult, even if I think having a Paladin (Zealous Endurance + Herald shield) is the best option for early game.

 

Chill Fog trivializes a lot of encounter.

Druid smashes.

Chanters slowly degenerate ghosts (Swift Wind torgets fortitude) and finish battles with White Worms.

 

The only difference with the previous party is more chanters means more tanks. But I would have been happy with a ranged hard hitter (my ranger was focused on her pet) when I faced Maerwald.

 

I'm waiting for lvl 9 to steamroll everything.

The party is meant to focus on AoE, with Ranger for Single Target as reliable constant DPS.

 

 

By the way, Ranger is a real "warrior" class. Probably the strongest martial at the moment (except, of course, for tanking).

Edited May 6, 2016 by Elric Galad

[Psychevore]

I had a lot of fun with the playthrough, but as usual lately I stopped playing around level 14/15.

Dunno why that is to be honest. Maybe because at a certain point I've found the optimal way to go through 95% of the battles and it gets a little boring.

That and halfway throuigh each playthrough I start thinking about the next

[Boeroer]

Also happens to me all the time. I think it's because encounters get too easy and you character progression stops.