Diversified 6-char party for PoTD

[Remix]

Unless you're using an old version of the game perception should boost accuracy. Resolve and intellegence should boost will defense.

 

Chanters tend to take a hit to their reflex defense from their tendency to drop dexterity. Shield style compensates for that, however.

[Remix]

What I meant by lack of perception hurting debuffs were your debuff chants and invocations will be less effective. Particularity the invocation that paralyzes your foes. It's really useful on a tank but becomes less effective when you don't boost perception.

[dropko]

yes, that's more of what i was counting on. i thought resolve would boost will accuracy and not being perception to *any* accuracy but in fact there is a separate accuracy parameter boosted by perception.

 

still i have a high perception but i miss/graze a lot. guess it's a PoTD thing :D so i need the accuracy talent and not the will one ehehehe. respec time.

Edited November 16, 2016 by dropko

[Remix]

Enemies get a big boost to defenses on potd. That's why perception and, by extension, accuracy becomes more important than other difficulties. As you gain levels your accuracy will increase naturally, though. So you can always respec and increase resolve or constitution when your natural accuracy is higher or you find items to boost it.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Remix

[Boeroer]

Will, Fortitude, Deflection and Reflex are "only" defenses. Your ACC + dice100 roll has to overcome those defenses. A roll can result in miss, graze, hit or crit.

 

There is only one accuracy and it's the base of ALL your attacks. This is influenced by class and PER. It can get bonuses from using an ability (usually +1 per level, some abilities have additional bonuses) or from using a spell (usually +10 or +15) and also improves per level. And of course you can take talents that boost it for certain things - like weapon focus, marksman and so on.

 

Whatch the combat log in the lower right of your screen and hover over things like "MySuperChar misses Xaurip Skirmisher". You will get more info that will tell you the ACC that was used for this roll as well as the defense it was rolled against and the damage reduction (if there was DR involved).

 

So, tl;dr: there's only one ACC value and it's based on class, PER and level. Will, fortitude, reflex and deflection are your defenses.

[dropko]

yes, i already looked into it in game.

amazing how i was convinced that each save was rolled against each other... in my mind accuracy was something for deflection or something, it was an attribute that i only really focused for my melee classes.

 

and i look into the combat log a lot, what a dumb me :D

[dropko]

Ok, so it's done. PotD completed.

 

First of all: level 14 party with the setup above, vs "standard" Thaos. No dragons fought (only Sky "dealt" with), everything in "High Level" WM1 but entering the actual Battery. No companion quests. All bounties. Concelhaut killed.

 

So my opinion: Act 1 was pretty bad because of survivability. From Act 2 onwards, things got relatively smooth. All my chars finished with around 40 (!!!) knockouts, but it was always recoverable during fight and not really a concern like in Act 1. No fights felt impossible not extraordinarily difficult (notice no dragons killed).

 

In terms of chars themselves... 

- Chanter: my "main" tank felt like just a meatbag most of the game. His standard phrases could not impact much due to low accuracy, he felt sort of just... there. And until he got Ancient Memory / Beloved Spirits / Veteran Recovery he was not even that beefy. Then "The Dragon Thrashed" came in and it was a world of difference. I re-specced him for more benefit of it and super damage-dealer, incredible. I was only singing that and the Terrified one during the lingering. Then the Drake summon became available and honestly I did not change my chant to make it quicker to summon, i preferred to stay with "Thrashed" until the Drake came around naturally. Anyway in many fights my Chanter as the front tank got impaired often and it was not always guaranteed that I could chant up to spawn the Drake, so it felt better just to take the benefits or a useful phrase.

- Paladin: never really sure what to make of him, he seemed very versatile, i respecced him frequently. Sort of boring most of the game until interesting talents came around. First he was an off-tank (and a bad one), then he became more survivalist and in the end I sort of could have him more of a damage dealer and less of an off-tank without much compromise. i had him specced to be able to do both more or less fine and it worked out. Then Lay of Hands, the Exhortations and finally Sacred Immolation (comes late, too bad, but it's great) made him a more interesting and enjoyable character.

- Cipher: a beast. The arsenal is s powerful and so diverse. AI has a preference to spam low-level so I had to keep an eye to allow Focus to build up for the upper levels. Whispers of Treason was a must in first half, then others became more interesting. Soul Ignition, Disintegrate, Amplified Wave, Detonate... spamming those is turning the tables hands on. This so often go well that I can focus (pun) more on damage than on CC with the Cipher. 

- Priest. mostly doing the same every encounter, especially good for accuracy boost. Rarely used the Priest for actual healing. Again mostly for damage, buffs and debuffs. Higher level spells are also super strong.

- Wizard: pretty weak first half until interesting spells come along. Pull of Eora is super fun to create instant chokepoints and then just spam AoE and DoT stuff in there. It's just a kill zone, amazing. Form of the Helpless Beast is also beautiful with kith, loved to use it on Cragholt siege. Very varied arsenal, but most of the times I either did damage to capitalize of Pull of Eora or mostly debuffing.

- Druid: super cool once again, the spiritshift was used intensely with great effect on the first two thirds, it was super powerful. Later on I did not need it. Spellbook is absolutely beautiful, especially with Pull of Eora or Gaze of the Adragan.

 

In the end, I did not use food at all (except for Thaors where i just used all i had accumulated), potions or scrolls (except for a paralysis here and there) or even traps (it's incredible how much they suck, if only we could place more than one...).

 

It was not as difficult as I feared (only looked like it in first act). As someone said, it gets easier with level, and it sure does.

 

Min/Max seemed like it was really useful. Defenses are really high and if it wasn't for minimum damage I feel like I would have much more trouble in some encounters. Perception/Accuracy is really something worth Maxing out in PotD.

 

So, that's that, now I'll become a Tyrant!

 

Thanks, all!

Edited December 4, 2016 by dropko