Class suggestions for a two man party? (Hard difficulty)

[meditabundo]

Hi, everyone. 

 

I'm interested in doing a two man party run, but am having difficulties selecting the classes. My problem is that I don't enjoy playing melee-heavy/tanky classes, I prefer the stealthy rogue types and spell casters (mainly druids and arcane wizards), so I'm not sure how I can make it viable and enjoyable for me with squishier classes. I was thinking of a druid + chanter pair, but the idea doesn't convince me even though I very much like both classes. 

 

I will be playing in hard and alternating with normal if I get stuck, so there's more freedom to it. I've completed one play through with a full party of standard companions, with PC being a druid, so I'm pretty familiar with everything. Yet this is a new challenge for me. Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I've had to restart a couple of times already testing out combinations and it's honestly getting frustrating (mainly replaying the intro + Gilded Vale.)

 

Thanks again,

 

- meditabundo

 

(Also, this is my first time posting here. I hope this post isn't against any rules.)

[Ben No.3]

How much do you dislike melee classes? You could have a look into Jojobobos gunslinger build...

If you want casters, a melee wizard and a melee druid should do the job just fine. Take a look at the royal court battlemage and Batsh!t crazy.

 

Personally, I'd recommend a monk in juggernaut fashion and a cipher.

[JerekKruger]

A Druid + Chanter pair very much can work, but you'll probably have to build one of them to be tanky. Luckily Chanters are ideal for this, since they lose very little from wearing heavy armour. In fact Chanters are perhaps the one class that gets almost nothing offensively from the weapons and armour selection.

 

If you're willing to take a melee class, then I'll second Ben No.3's Juggernaut Monk + Cipher combo.

 

P.S. I don't know how much you've played PoE yet, but it's worth noting that tanks and tanking are quite different to their usual MMO origins. Tanks need to do more than just take damage to be worthwhile, particularly in a smaller party like yours, so they'll usually either be pretty good damage dealers or good support characters as well.

[Boeroer]

Melee wizard and priest for the win. The priest has the aweseome ACC buffs (Blessing + Devotions + Crowns + Insp. Radiance stack for >+40 ACC ), the wizard has his awesome self buffs (e.g. Hardened Arcane Veil + Wizard's Double stack for +115 deflection) and AoE CC, both can do a ton of damage with spells and (summoned) weapons. Tidefall on a priest with 40 MIG is really good, while Citzal's Spirit Lance just wrecks everything. Wizards can have summons, too (phantoms), which help a lot to take the initial aggro and let the casters do their buffing/debuffing thing.

Tanky druid is also nice. Relentless Storm is very good for a melee druid.

 

Tanky Chanter + cipher if you don't like resting during the early levels too much. Whisper of Treason is a very good spell, it's cheap and it's like having unlimited summons for distraction. It also works on most dragons. Stuck & Paralyze (Mental Binding) + The Dragon Thrashed is a very good combination.

[meditabundo]

Wow, thanks for the detailed responses. Gave me some very good ideas.
 

 

How much do you dislike melee classes?
[...]
If you want casters, a melee wizard and a melee druid should do the job just fine. Take a look at the royal court battlemage and Batsh!t crazy.
 

 

My dislike for melee classes is based on role-playing reasons, basically (i.e. don't like my characters to be "all brawn and no brain".) Also because I appreciate the versatility and overall fun that a wider array of abilities bring to the table, making the game play less straightforward. That said, I recognize the necessity for tanks and/or being tanky, especially for a play through like this one. Are there builds for "intelligent" fighters (or any melee class) that do more than just hack everything in front of them?

I was actually just looking at the build section before making this thread and reckon I went through those two as they caught my interest. Good shouts! My only question when following those builds is: how loyal do you have to be to the guide for it to work well? I don't like tying myself to them and, in particular, having to depend on very specific gear (because I won't know where or when to find them and fret over them.)

 

 

 

A Druid + Chanter pair very much can work, but you'll probably have to build one of them to be tanky.

 

[...]

 

P.S. I don't know how much you've played PoE yet, but it's worth noting that tanks and tanking are quite different to their usual MMO origins. Tanks need to do more than just take damage to be worthwhile, particularly in a smaller party like yours, so they'll usually either be pretty good damage dealers or good support characters as well.

 

You know what, my original plan was precisely that. Build a tanky chanter who can soak up enough damage and buy enough time to invoke summons to do most of the fighting, while the druid does his things from the back or joins the combat in spiritshift. Would that work fine?

 

That's a good point. I want to say I've played enough to understand that, but since I've always played with a full party the weaknesses of characters were covered by another's strength. So I never paid really close attention to understand many details of the game's mechanics, which make it hard for me to plan this. Particularly, building a balanced yet strong character for the long run in a small party (or even solo.) 

 

 

Melee wizard and priest for the win.

[...]

Tanky druid is also nice. Relentless Storm is very good for a melee druid.

[..]

Tanky Chanter + cipher if you don't like resting during the early levels too much. Whisper of Treason is a very good spell, it's cheap and it's like having unlimited summons for distraction. It also works on most dragons. Stuck & Paralyze (Mental Binding) + The Dragon Thrashed is a very good combination.

 

Melee wizard and priest looks pretty fun and challenging at the same time. Just how much micro-management is required there? Ha!  I don't think I can mind having to rest much because it's almost inevitable with such a small party. Tanky druid sounds good too, and may force me to change my style a bit because I usually have my druid spell casting a ton.
 

How do you effectively play a cipher? For some reason, I never seem to make them work or enjoy them. Gotta be doing something wrong. I really want to like that class because it ticks my boxes very well.

 

Thanks again for your responses.

-meditabundo

 

EDIT: Taking your suggestions and looking again at the builds posted here I've selected a few that seem to be perfect.

1. The Royal Battlemage (suggested above, of course)

2. The Unfaithful (a priest - also suggested)

3. Counselor Ploi, the paladin

Edited November 8, 2016 by meditabundo

[Remix]

I second the chanter druid combo. Both classes are versitile and well-rounded. Both can heal, disable, buff, debuff, summon and deal damage just with their inate abilities.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Remix

[Raven Darkholme]

Having just played through with a three char party consisting of Chanter, Paladin and Cipher I would either go with chanter + cipher or paladin + cipher.

 

Every other combo already mentioned here works perfectly well, too.

But having two classes who support each other is always awesome.

Many of the ciphers abilities are based on allies and both paladin and chanter are support classes.

 

At the end of the day everything is valid since even solo play has become rather easy once you know all tricks.

 

But I would definitely pick something with synergy and not two classes based off how good they are seperately.

Edited November 8, 2016 by Raven Darkholme

[Remix]

Synergizing the Chanter's summons with the cipher's beam spells is a great strategy if you do go with that pairing. I did this in one of the first party makeups I beat the game with. It worked amazingly.