Is PotD going to actually be tough? Rant on the game's balance

[r2d23]

Perhaps I am still curious to see how the XP tweak affects the overall difficulty and progress.

 

I am planning a play-through with a melee-heavy party that has no dedicated casters. This, together with the aforementioned tweak to required per-level XP gains, should provide an interesting challenge. I expect I will have to rely on food, potions, scrolls, per-encounter abilities and so on more in order to thrive. Maybe also explore how to adapt equipment (DR on armours and slaying enchantments on weapons) to encounters better. I am curious until what point in the game this kind of micromanagement would actually matter. I also aim at using all the in-game companions, substituting hired adventurers with the same stats until a respective NPC becomes available.

[Harpagornis]

Heretically spoken i would say: XP doesnt matter - at least for the vanilla game.

 

Yes this involves heavy cheese - which you dislike. But at the end a solo level 1 char will be enough to beat PotD.

 

If you plan to play legit things will look different but thats not my part of the story.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Harpagornis

[Raven Darkholme]

Heretically spoken i would say: XP doesnt matter - at least for the vanilla game.

 

Yes this involves heavy cheese - which you dislike. But at the end a solo level 1 char will be enough to beat PotD.

 

If you plan to play legit things will look different but thats not my part of the story.

I agree.

I'm the kind of player who always complains about lacking difficulty but still I use all the tools I have and early max level is one of those.

Difficulty has to come from the game, restricting yourself is only half the fun, soloing is alright, since it doesn't require you to do anything special you pick up no companions, that's it.

[Reent]

If you want to make pillars hard: make yourself play like the AI, no dodging, dumb spell usage, bad positioning - hell jeah!

Less XP, less classes... thats not even close to bridge the gap - POTD... if you only try the base game, you can win with a 3 in everything solo character - and no, i dont wanna say "only with class X" because i dont think so, i think every class can solo the base game with 3 in everything (i know, i know - someone had to use a bug to win with a fully equipped fully skilled barb - sorry man, you didnt use all tricks available)

 

i still remember my first solo ToI (almost) finish run... it was simple... base game act 3 with a chanter, sure - adragans can be annoying as hell, thats why i didnt fight them - everything else could only fall over and die, i started using bugs (okay, you could call it a feature, but it was a bug) i restarted dragon chant all the time so i did much more damage... sure, nice! But i forgot that some enemies can still outDPS that... so i got killed because i didnt use anything but dragon chant - i stood stupidly in front of mass enemies, normaly i could have killed them without using any ability beside the "normal" dragon chant and running in circles - heck, i could have equipped a potion and won that way.

 

Na, i dont like restricting myself too much (okay, no figurines or something, or no caster - why not, but kiting is a normal strategy - even in RL you find good examples - faster+higher range is a legit strategy - what i really dislike is: kiting the enemy assassins to the guards... and they ignore each other)

The enemies need better usage of the given abilities, thats whats needed, if they simply get better stats or something its simply frustrating, not hard (ok... it can get hard too if they have too too too high stats)

[r2d23]

I have no doubt that the game can be broken. What is the point?

 

I am no expert in the game and don't intend to be. I want to do one, maybe two complete playthroughs while enjoying a reasonable challenge. It felt fun and enjoyable up to a point where the party had started outpace the monsters in levels. Then it got boring. If changes in XP gain will compensate for this issue somewhat, I'll be happy.

[Raven Darkholme]

I have no doubt that the game can be broken. What is the point?

 

I am no expert in the game and don't intend to be. I want to do one, maybe two complete playthroughs while enjoying a reasonable challenge. It felt fun and enjoyable up to a point where the party had started outpace the monsters in levels. Then it got boring. If changes in XP gain will compensate for this issue somewhat, I'll be happy.

Hey man I didn't want to take away from your fun, if the xp reduction makes it more enjoyable, all power to you.

Everyone enjoys different things and that's very good.

[r2d23]

I did some reading on solo play in PoE and curious about some things I haven't found answers to.

 

1) is there a class that can solo all the game, completionist style (i.e. "the ultimate" challenge, not necessarily with ToI aiming for the achievement itself, just the fact of doing everything)? It is my understanding is that paladins, rangers, chanters are more or less proven to do so.

 

2) there's no public proof of somebody doing the aforementioned with ciphers or druids. Are these classes somehow unsuited for solo play? Nobody writes much barbarians or fighters either, for that matter.

 

3) is there a class that can relatively safely dispose of packs of mobs solo without resorting to kiting or splitting enemies on regular basis?

[Boeroer]

Solo PotD barb is quite easy - once you get Heart of Fury and use second chance + Vengeful Defeat you can obliterate even the most hefty bounty fights. It works with an offfensive dual sabre approach (with lots of CON) or with the tanky approach (stacking daze, frighten, sicken and fatigue with high deflection from weaon & shield). HoF also works well with Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw. However - a barb somewhat stinks when it comes to fighting dragons. Maybe they are all doable, but I didn't try more than a few times. All fights with more than 5 enemies are pretty easy though, thanks to the mechanics of HoF and Vengeful Defeat. The more, the better... which also answers your last question. Monks can also do that - as well as  priests or wizards.

 

Ciphers have some very nice buffs - but they can't cast them on themselves. Back in the days, when retaliation did generate focus, I did a solo run with my Backlash Beldam build and it went smooth - but again dragons were a bit of a problem. Can't survive too many dragon wing slams - even if you retaliate like a pro. And nowadays retaliation doesn't give you focus any more, so... Maybe a ranged cipher can do it.

 

Can't see why druids can't do it. 

Edited September 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[r2d23]

So, barb won't be able to solo the entirety of available encounters, am I right? I wonder if someone has successful experience with that. As for HoF, I saw a video of a fight made by someone on youtube, barb fighting the magran's faithful, pretty impressive.

 

Shame that nobody writes more of the early stages in their solo endeavours. It's much more interesting to know how to get to high levels. When you already high up there, you have plenty of opportunities and equipment (with free re-specking) to experiment and figure things out.

 

As for ciphers, that's what I thought about ranged ciphers when I read a write up about 2.03 solo run with a ranger on reddit. Cipher can do a gun-cycling style of combat at least as well, quickly gain large amounts of focus, then start charming monsters to shift the advantage in his favour. Since one can re-train a character whenever he wants to, it is possible to adjust the build for specific encounters, maybe even going into melee when the need arises (e.g., close quarter combat without much room for manoeuvring). I haven't given it more thought, but it's something that might work in theory.

[Boeroer]

I soloed everything with said barbs - except the dragons. I'm pretty sure you can solo everything with every class - with tons of scrolls. But I didn't use scrolls at all because I had survival 14 for max self healing. 

 

The vid with the barb and HoF was from Kaylon - he also did a solo run with such a dw sabre barb. He also did solo runs with paladins and rangers. 

 

I also read of somebody in this forum (quite a while ago) who used a spiritshifting druid and killed the adra dragon (pre WM) and who said it was not too difficult.

[Dr <3]

I think the game is soloable ( all fights) with every char, if proper build. In the worst case you just need enough lore to spam scroll and win by that ( all the dragon are vulnerable to some affliction after all).

 

You can play solo with lot of different styles: 1)you can sneack around and avoid most fights, and optimize yourself only for boss ( pacifist runs)

2) you can kill everything from distance with kiting or spamming tons of spells / evocation ( ranger, non tanking Priest/wiz/druid)

3) you can take every fight, tank everything by yourself and emerge victorious doing more dmg of the opponent ( barbarian/melee wiz/ melee druid/ Chanter) or simply survive longer than them ( Chanter, paladin, warrior).

 

My "style" is usually n°3, is also the style i suggest when play with trial of iron, since your char will not die for a single mistake ( hopefully)

 

Given that, In my solo experience i tend to prefer chars that are both beefy ( High Life total) and able to do good aoe dmg, because i hate to lose 10 min to every fight.

 

For that reason i dislike fighters and pala ( at least until lvl 13), they need too much time for kill everything, but they are anyway solid picks for solo.

Druid, Priest and wiz are very strong casters, but you have to know how to use them and the game very good, since they are by themself quite fragile, unless you don't play something like boeroer "bilestomper" or my "coldhearth" (see builds section).

 

Chanter and monks ( but Chanter way more) are my favorite: they are tanky, do good dmg in an aoe. Expecially Chanter is very easy to use: just spam defensive scrolls and drink potions until everyone is roasted.

I'm soloing a barb right now i want to test how good it is vs bosses.

[r2d23]

How can druid over-DPS opponents in melee? Spiritshift form is rather short-lived in duration and only suitable for quick burst damage, I imagine. And druid does not possess as many spells that improve melee performance of the character unlike wizard.

 

Dr <3, I've just read your cold-based wizard build, very intriguing. I've noticed low dexterity, doesn't it impair the ability to cast spells quickly? How do you deal with that early on, before DAoM and various items?

 

I've noticed you didn't mention cipher in your analysis. Any experience with that class in solo?

[Dr <3]

How can druid over-DPS opponents in melee? Spiritshift form is rather short-lived in duration and only suitable for quick burst damage, I imagine. And druid does not possess as many spells that improve melee performance of the character unlike wizard.

 

Dr <3, I've just read your cold-based wizard build, very intriguing. I've noticed low dexterity, doesn't it impair the ability to cast spells quickly? How do you deal with that early on, before DAoM and various items?

 

I've noticed you didn't mention cipher in your analysis. Any experience with that class in solo?

From last to First:

 

- chiper is a class i desperately tryied to enjoy in solo but was always deluding. About chiper solo gameplay i hate the following things: 1) you can't target self with lot of spell ( pain attunement power, amplified wave power, shock power) so they are all useless; charming spells ( that are the best thing of the class) at the moment works Pretty bad: if you charm too many people ( like half of a group) they start fighting each other ( as intended) , stop targets you, Battle resets; you have to rely to pump yourself, do some dmg, renew the buffs all the Battle, wich is borin; He is not able to do good aoe dmg ( casters, Chanter, barbarian do lot better).

 

- yes, beign interrupted can be irritating since low dex slows casting. But the good news is: most of your spells are fast or average casting speed, so slow speed is less maiming than how much you suppose. You can also use the Spirit shield for more concentration. On the other side you are very sturdy, so also if slowed, you will survive and cast what you need in the end. After daom ecc is not a problem anymore.

 

- druid while shapeshifted is the better damege dealer of the game. if you play right ( and your druod have 16+ int, wich is warmingly suggested) the duration is enough to tear apart up to 3-4 mobs. Wolf, cat and stag all works very good. Remember the order: cc, buff, more cc, attack. A druid have plenty of awesome cc spells (storms, the wave, world maw), start the fight with one of them, if needed buff yourself, if needed renew the cc, shapeshift and kill. This is the solution to most battles, unless you are fighting very large Groups of sturdy mobs ( craghold buffs, megran bounty) in wich is better rely on spells instead then shapeshift.

 

About druid spells: there is the lvl 1 sunray spell wich deal good dmg and blind, i call that a good "melee buff" for example, since is like a straight +20 accuracy for you. Form of dangleman is also very strong, and can combo very well with web scrolls. Moonwell keeps you alive and boost defences. Obviously a "melee" druid is meant to go for shapeshift route and/or Grab a shield and survive in melee while the spells do theyr job.

[Boeroer]

Once I get Rot Skulls I retrain into an implement druid. I don't use Spiritshift anymore then. I combine this with Envenomed Strike (works in an AoE then) and all the good stuff for implements, including Dangerous Implement and Boots of Speed. Rot Skulls is crazy powerful, even more so with Env. Strike. You have to kite a bit though, but enemies die very quickly.

 

Besides that, you can also build a tanky weapon & shield retaliation druid with Heart of the Storm (skipping Spiritshift): Avenging Storm works with retaliation, too, adding lots of shock damage to the retaliation hits. You can add Moonwell, Veteran's Recovery and Garden of Life for endless self heal and do damage and CC with Returning + Relentless Storm and Nature's Terror while attacking with your weapon (Spelltongue is nice because it speeds you up and steals duration for your buffs like Woodskin or FOrm of the Delemgan and so on, any other fast weapon is also great, your main damage comes from Avenging Storm). It's a fun solo build and tanky enough after a while because you can pick all the defensive talents. Druids have 20 base deflection which is not too bad for a caster. You don't stand there though, you have to (re)position yourself from time to time because this is no paladin of course. But all the lightning aroud you turns most foes into dust quickly enough. And you can eat  some nasty hits without kneeling down. Garden of Life is very strong once there are some dead bodies on the floor.

Blights can help you to tank. Since they are immune to certain damage types, somtmes they last for the whole fight and won't go down.

 

So... druids builds can be pretty different and still be good. Against dragons you will need scrolls, as Dr <3 said.  

Edited September 19, 2016 by Boeroer

[Dr <3]

Are you sure that avenging storm still works with all retaliation? Maybe that was *pached*, I tryed a druid on my own a couple of weeks ago and got only normal retaliation dmg, nothing added by returning storm. I was so sad.

 

Edit: what you mean by "retraining for implements" ? Rot Skulls are universal type so every weapon focus is good... What talents you need apart "Dangerous implements", "envenomed stryke" and a random weapon focus? Are rot Skulls really that good? Surely the aoe dmg is tempting but the raw power of the shapeshift is hard to mach...

Edited September 19, 2016 by Dr <3

[Boeroer]

Besides Dangerous Implement you can use Marksman and Penetrating Shot - although the later is a waste in my opinion. You want to have high ACC with the initial crushing shot so that the corrode AoE-splash happens. The AoE is quite big with enough INT so an Envenomed Strike with Rot Skulls can hit a lot of foes. Runner's Wounding SHot is also an option, but it only works with the initial target, not the AoE. But because of the high base damage of Rot Skulls it's still not bad. Rot Skulls itself is great. The corrode DoT stacks. It's easy to kill the whole group of ogres in front of Nalred's Cave with it in no time. Of course it's of not much use against poison/disease immune enemies. But you always have your spells...

 

Don't know if they patched Avenging Storm with retaliation. That would really be sad. Used to be a lot of fun.  

[demeisen]

I didn't read this whole thread, but: I can commiserate with r2d23.  My experience is similar.​  I only have a "light duty" understanding of how the combat system works, nowhere near the depth of knowledge that a lot of players here have, but on the balance PotD still seems excessively easy.  There are some exceptions to that however, and they can be a lot of fun when you encounter them.

​

​I don't have good ideas for how to address it, but I do really hope that PoE2 provides more difficulty.  (WM was better than the base game, IMHO, as long as you hit it at an appropriate level).  As others have expressed, it mustn't be cheap difficulty obtained simply by cranking enemy HP and resistances.  It needs to be tactical difficulty.  At its best, I feel that PoE1's combat system can indeed shine.  The core of it has good ideas; I don't think it's fundamentally a wrong direction or anything.

​

​It's a tricky thing from a business perspective too.  If the world is at least partially open, then it's easy to encounter areas you are not prepared to deal with, even with a rough separation into 3 or 4 acts.  I don't mind that, but many players will rage-quit if things aren't spoon-fed to them.  Also there's a large contingent of players who rather than wanting deep challenge, want to "feel powerful" by easily mowing down everything in their path - and they want to do it on "hard" mode, so they can feel godlike.  If you cater too much to folks like us, you risk alienating other kinds of players, and not selling enough units to have a viable ongoing business.

​

I do hope it's something they work on improving for PoE2, hopefully without detracting from the great aspects of PoE1.  And hopefully in ways that feel tactically satisfying.

​

​

[Dr <3]

Besides Dangerous Implement you can use Marksman and Penetrating Shot - although the later is a waste in my opinion. You want to have high ACC with the initial crushing shot so that the corrode AoE-splash happens. The AoE is quite big with enough INT so an Envenomed Strike with Rot Skulls can hit a lot of foes. Runner's Wounding SHot is also an option, but it only works with the initial target, not the AoE. But because of the high base damage of Rot Skulls it's still not bad. Rot Skulls itself is great. The corrode DoT stacks. It's easy to kill the whole group of ogres in front of Nalred's Cave with it in no time. Of course it's of not much use against poison/disease immune enemies. But you always have your spells...

 

Don't know if they patched Avenging Storm with retaliation. That would really be sad. Used to be a lot of fun.

Tryed it yesterday night and i can confirm is indeed very strong! ( Too bad Spirit of decay doesn't work for skill dot corrode dmg...).

Actually i will just use them as alternative strategy with a shapeshift druid, in the end the only one talent that you truly need is envenomed stryke, others are useful but not necessary).

Thks as usual!

 

PS:

Side note 1) the tempered helm gives you +3 str on kill that stack with everything. With a tidefall barb in fight i reached 33 str in solo, not bad...

 

Side note 2) apparently healing bonus does not apply on draining weapons. Tidefall heals you the same without buffs or with mahea armor + 40% healing testing bonus...

[r2d23]

Boeroer, DR <3:

 

Curious ideas about druid builds. What exactly affects shapeshifting, both in positive and negative way? What would you recommend to change in such build if it goes solo, compared to builds posted here on the forum?

 

demeisen:

 

Thanks, all good observations. I still consider a compromise between giving enemies decent AI and more staying power to be a good solution to the difficulty problem. No one would spend too much time working on AI for reasons that you've pointed out. However, If the enemies can live longer, they have more opportunities to show off whatever AI that they have. Of course, a knowledgeable player can still overcome that.

 

Continuous scaling might be annoying, but the game world of PoE is large enough to provide variety at a certain stage of the game without loosing the ability to partition the game into clusters of areas that are easier and tougher, respectively. E.g., Defiance Bay and its surrounding areas would be an example of the former and Dyrford and its surroundings - of the latter. Maybe throw in a couple of more challenging fights into the mix in Defiance Bay for some variety and less linearity.

 

What is definitely annoying is addition of numerous "trash" monsters to the majority of encounters when playing on PotD. It lengthens the game and makes it more tedious without necessarily adding anything to the tactical depth and actual difficulty. It's fun whet it happens maybe a couple of times as a themed encounter, where party has to fight off waves of enemies.

 

Overall, I have realised after playing PoE some more that it is not really about sustained tactical difficulty. Rather, about finding a good synergy between your characters' talents and abilities that allows to conquer even tougher encounters with relative ease. It is obvious that developers have spent lots of time considering various combinations and allowed players like Boeroer who possess an in-depth knowledge of game mechanics come up with curious and novel builds and party compositions.

[Boeroer]

Yes, I also noticed that draining isn't influenced by healing mods. That kind of stupid and not consistent behaviour, but well...

 

They fixed the Tempered Helm (and maybe some other items which do things on kill or other special circumstances) in one of the latest patches. Now it indeed stacks with everything. My solo priest of Berath now casts his Shining Beacons with Abydon's Hammer in hand and gets nearly 50 MIG and over 20 INT - and then switches to Tidefall.   His wounding damage is otherwordly - but takes some time. His Envenomed Strikes plus wounding plus Cleansing Flame however even kill dragons. Very good that I can't die as long as I cast Triumph of the Crusaders + Shining Beacon on the mobs that surround him and as long I have some health left.

[Boeroer]

Boeroer, DR <3:

 

Curious ideas about druid builds. What exactly affects shapeshifting, both in positive and negative way? What would you recommend to change in such build if it goes solo, compared to builds posted here on the forum?

You need survivability if you want to survive some mob hits while you are spiritshifted. You can't kite all the time if you want to deal a lot of damage when shifted because it doesn't last very long. So besides survivability and some oomph you also need a lot of INT.

 

You can get a second use of Spiritshift if you use the soulbound scepter you get from Chancelor Warrin. For druids it restores one spiritshift use per encounter. So you can go in shifted and when it ends kita a bit and fie with the sceptre until you get a second use - then go back in.

 

Last druid I played with shifting was a boar with Veteran's Recovery and again survival 14 for max self healing. He only had 4 DEX but MIG and INT were maxed an CON was also high. Low DEX is bad for casting of course, but not so bad when shifted because of dual wielding and Two Weapon Style. I also put on Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith. I would catch a crit and then shift - Frenzy and Consecrated ground still on. It spared me the talent for Outlander's Frenzy...

The boar has a regeneration effect on it's own which is not too strong (comparable to the Cloak of the Tireless Defender) but adds to Veteran's Recovery - but the Boar Tusk wounding is very good with high MIG - like the wounding enchantment. It works quite nicely with Envenomed Strike, too and also with Taste of the Hunt. You can hit every foe around you once and watch them die slowly from the DoT. I add Avenging Storm and Nature's Terror and of course Returning and Relentless Storm. Garden of Life is very good as I said once there's at least one dead enemy on the ground. The rest is spells of course - Plague of Insects is very strong with high PER and Interrupting Blows.

I went spretty smooth - but I didn't try the dragons and also didn't finish the playthrough. So I can't say anything about that.

 

Stag carnage may also be nice for tough bounty fights - although it's only 1/rest.

 

The highest damage for your shapeshifting attacks (per hit) you get when you use boar and take Wildstrike Burn + Wildstrike Belt + Scion of Flame by the way. You will have a 66% burning lash that way (and of course wounding on top). But all the great shock spells (like Avenging Storm) of the druid always lead me to Heart of the Storm. You'll only have +54% wildstrike shocking lash instead of 66% burn though. Maybe one could squeeze in both? I mean also good for the spells - Firebug, Boiling Spray and stuff are also worth buffing...

Edited September 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[Dr <3]

I like cat form more because normal attack speed is much faster than other forms, and can go even faster 1/day. I Remember I tryed a boar druid once but at times I thought that the wounding dmg was too wimpy, maybe that was changed or i tested bad.

I don't understand your point pro burning lash, i knowed that wildstrike belt gives you a 10% bonus to every kind of lash, not only burn also if the name is "burn only".

 

My tips for shapeshift druids: after lot of runs now i prefer Moon godlike as a race since he can autoheal ( prevent your deathwhile shifted). I Go for max int ( longer shift duration, longer storm disable), max might, High dex. Alternative you can go for High per instead of dex, is matter of choice, i like faster spell casting and attacks, but with higher per you will hit more, so they are on par.

The main thing is: First disable enemies ( storms, wave) ONLY AFTER think about shapeshift, or you will die in seconds. Like boeroer said sanguine plate + shoodof faith are a good combo.

If you like you can take both sword&shield and 2 weapon style, the last for shapeshift dmg, the First to survive while casting.

 

Edit: i dislike soulbound shepter, if shapeshift expires just go for spells, the shapter have a 25% restore shapeshift on hit, is too un reliable imho.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Dr <3

[Boeroer]

To be honest I never tested the Wildstrike Belt with anything else than Wildstrike burn. But I would be surprised if it would "adapt" to your wildstrike choice. But maybe.

 

For a solo druid the scepter is ok if you kite with boots of speed when unshifted anyways. But it's a bit of a hassle. I would never use it in a party for that purpose.

 

The tusks do 20% raw damage instead of 25% like wounding - but besides that they work exactly the same - meaning that this wounding also profits from high MIG as Presistence's, Tidefall's and Drawn in Spring's wounding does. So it should be great. Can't say if it's better than faster claws from cat's form (dps wise), but for example Persistence's dps beats any other bow (speed enchanted or not) just because of wounding - so I guess it can't be too bad. I was pretty satisfied with the performance. Also with the sturdiness of the combined regeneration effects - just looked up an old savegame: I had 16 endurance/3 sec regeneration at lvl 10. I also did a hit (not crit) with 42 pierce damage (against 1 DR - so basically nothing) which resulted in 11 raw damage (with 18 MIG) from the tusks (which stacks). Elemental lash damage was ~30 with Scion of Flame and Wildstrike Burn + Belt. That's like ~70% and not the expected 66%, but who (besides Loren Tyr) knows what's going on there with the belt and how it's bonus is applied. 42 is close to my average damage of ~39. So we can saythat on average I did around  42+30+11 = 83 damage with a normal hit at lvl 10 and MIG 18 with this dude. Maybe the faster cat attacks are better (esp. with Avenging Storm, where speed is key), but this is def. not bad. If I used Envenomed Strike here and there and also Taste of the Hunt (those are not considered spells but attacks and therefore don't slow me down with my 4 DEX but are as fast as my other hits) the mobs got decimated pretty quickly. It would surely get better in terms of dps when I didn't dump DEX, but I wanted high CON. I also considered taking Novice's Suffering plus Sandals and play that druid as an unarmed brawler - so that it doesn't matter too much if he's shifted or not, he would just keep on hitting - but I didn't so that because I had no talent point to spare. If Taste of the Hunt and Envenomed Strike were full attacks I might have done it. 

Edited September 21, 2016 by Boeroer

[Dr <3]

Ok i did a bit of tavern fights between 2 druids max lvl ( cat vs boar ). Substantially they are on par, the cat is just slighty better.

 

They were both Moon godlike, max might, max int, High dex, normal const. Talents: wildstrike, greater wildstrike, gallant focus, two weapon fighting, paesants weapon, hearth of the storm, veterano recovery, Venom stryke.

 

 

In 1 vs 1 usually the cat wins ( but by 1 or 2 hits), and mostly because of the slow to the boar caused by interrupts.

Vs punchbags with heavy armor they are very on par, vs punchbags with low armor cat again is the winner but very slighly.

 

Edit: if instead you build them with low dex, max const and add savage attack, boar became a clear winner

Edited September 21, 2016 by Dr <3

[Boeroer]

Yes, high MIG and high weapon damage per hit (from savage attack for example) are great for wounding. The more damage per hit and the more MIG the better. If you would cast Champion's Boon on both you would see that the boar's damage will improve more than the cat's. The cat is better off with more DEX for a lot of speed - which fits nicely with fast spellcasting and Interrupting Blows of course.

 

Nice to see that they both work and that you (as a powergamer) are not forced to always take cat form.  Thanks for testing!