Build (Barbarian/Priest) and Party (Durance?) Help

[Bravadorado]

Hi guys, thanks for checking out my topic. I'm a new player and I just picked up PoE last week. I've gotten to the first town and messed around a bit but I'm having a bit of restartitis since there's a lot in this game to consider. I'm a very "Plan my play through" type of person so I want to know what build, items, party members, etc that I'll be going for. I play like this because the worst feeling for me in a game is regretting that I didn't make a different choice. Here's an example: I start playing a fire based Paladin only to find out that Paladin's main abilities are blue fire, which doesn't mesh with the aesthetic I want (true story). So I'd like to take some advice from you veteran's if you're willing to give it, so that I can actually get into this game in earnest.

 

The first challenge is the party members. I'm very partial to story companions in games like this, so I do not want custom companions. This is a challenge because I prefer my groups to be diverse (race, gender, class) and to make sense in terms of gameplay (Even mix or range/melee, tank, healer, etc). The companions I am interested in are Eder, Aloth, Hiravias, Sagani, Pallegina, Durance, and maybe Grieving Mother. I really like Eder's personality, and I enjoy those with unique aspects (Pallegina, Hiravias, Sagani). Aloth, GM, and Durance are all being considered more because I've been told that they are important to the story than for any other reason, although I do think it necessary to have wizard and healer type characters in my party. Note that if I leave out Durance or Aloth it will most likely be due to me replacing them as I'll get to in a moment. So I ask you guys, what do you think a reasonable party is for me? Are Aloth/Durance/GM important enough to keep around? Or can I leave them in my stronghold and occasionally talk to them to get the same value?

 

The next challenge is my class, which I've been having a ton of trouble with. Paladins are my bread and butter, I play them in every game where they are an option, and the next closest option if they aren't. This is my first experience with a game that messed up paladins so badly for me that I'm being forced to go elsewhere. Blue fire when every other bit of fire is orange? All of their best gear is bright green? No spells? It seems like their only role is to be a tank support, but if they are up front tanking then the only person receiving support is the fighter, and if they are in back supporting the ranged then their tankiness is somewhat wasted. Paladins in this game just feel like a drunken thematic rainbow that has no solid direction. /rant

 

With that in mind, you know that I want to play the closest thing to feeling like a paladin from other games as I can get. I've narrowed it down to Barbarian, Wizard or Priest. Note that I like spells, and I especially like Firebrand, so that will be a staple of my character. The ideas are as follows:

 

Barbarian: Off-tank using Flames of Fair Rhian and Dragon's Maw, switching to Firebrand to deliver the pain when needed. Interested in the ring of combusting wounds and other spellbound items/armors since Barbarians lack spells entirely. I really like the orange ability effects of the barbarian and their AoE nature. However, as a paladin "main" I find I have a great distaste for being known as a barbarian, and I find it hard to shake that feeling. I see their icon of crude weapons crossing a blood red skull and I throw up in my mouth just a little.

 

Wizard: Self-buffer melee build with nice spells and Firebrand, probably a scepter or something before I get in melee. I'm very mixed on Wizard because most of their spells I have no interest in using, but the ones I like give me vast amounts of pleasure. Citzals Martial Power in particular looks amazing. However, their reliance on "blue" buffs like DAoM, arcane shield, etc turn me off greatly. The more I look at this the more I think Aloth could pull off a blue ice themed build with the spirit lance much better (though his starter spells are rubbish).

 

Priest: Not entirely sure, but something like Abydon's hammer for spells into Firebrand when I need to conserve spells or when I run out. Priest seems like the logical alternative to Paladin, but I have similar or perhaps even greater issues with them as the wizard. I don't like having a bunch of spells that I have no interest in casting. I suppose the benefit of priest is that most of their spells fit a single theme (unlike wizards with frost/fire/arcane/corrosive/etc) but still. I'm not really sure how good priests are at buffing themselves vs supporting the party, but I think it would be nice to play one so long as I'm not just a buff bot for everyone else.

 

So what do you guys think? As a barbarian all the party members I'm interested can be used, and as a wizard/priest obviously Aloth/Durance are no good. What class do you think will sate my paladin lust best? Which party members do you think will work best both for that character and story wise?

 

Thanks very much for any help. If you have questions for me I will do my best to answer. 

 

Edit: I'm playing on Hard by the way, I tried POTD but it was a little too much. Also, Mobile was unkind to me when I typed this, there might be auto correct errors.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Bravadorado

[Ben No.3]

What about a chanter? They can easily be played as a spell slinging melee class... Build them like a tank, or like Boeroer's last unicorn. If you find chanting and not "active spellcasting" too boring (which I completely understand), you can do the following: Don't drop Dex (like most chanter tanks would), and mainly (maybe one exception for dragon wailed) use level 1 chants. You see, the chanting speed actually increases with level. This is important because it means if you only use lvl 1 chants (very short duration), after some level you can start actually focusing on the chanter spells in a spam-ish manner. And those are very worthwhile, trust me. Here are a few that sound pretty good, and are also quite useful in game: making corpses explode, summon a ghost (well... Not technically), paralise all enemies in front of you, make ice bolts shoot around you, call a tornado to bash into enemies, some very very useful self and party buffs (with a nice wedding theme going on), and of course summon a dragon (well... Drake). Oh, and two ogers. And a flower that will controll every enemy it hits.

 

Sound about right?

 

EDIT: thinking about it definitely draw inspiration from Boeroer's last unicorn... It's in his chillfog thread, which you can find on AndreaColombos new builds list. It's basically a two hander melee chanter. Granted, it's themed around ice, but a little firebrand here and there never hurts.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Bravadorado]

Thanks Ben No.3, I did consider Chanter and tried them out for a bit, but they didn't do it for me. The boring playstyle is really rough for me, and they have similar issues to the paladin for me (Albeit they make more sense here) in that they don't really have a solid theme. They have the rainbow bard jack-of-all-trades thing going on, and things like singing and summoning a giant purple ghost aren't really my style. I do like the dragon thrash and drake summon abilities, but they come really late and it's hard to get off the summons in a fight because they take so long. I'm playing on Hard by the way, I'll add that to my post. I tried POTD but I walked into the Temple of Eothas (Which I cleared at level 3-4 on Hard) and the first pack of will-o-wisps just confuse-locked me to death no matter what I did lol. In any case, I am not a fan of any of the chants until the level 3 ones, which take a long time to chant, and the only invocations I like are the drake, the revive, and the 4th level self buff. I pretty much feel like in terms of getting to do things, a Wizard or a Priest would be a lot more fun. Sure a Chanter can use all of his things on a per encounter basis, but they take a long time to be able to do any of the things and I don't want to just sit around auto-attacking while everyone else is doing cool things. Since I plan on having a few per rest characters to begin with, it really doesn't bother me to rest every now and again (Also in my experience so far the spells run out at around the same time the health does on Hard).

 

All in all, I like the idea of a Chanter (And their ice theme), but not for my main character I don't think, and since I want nothing to do with shark-face, probably not at all lol.

 

Edit: Actually I see now that the wiki isn't exactly accurate on what chants are available to me and etc. as it doesn't mention the healing one that Boeroer talks about. Is there any other resource for the details on PoE classes/weapons/armor/talents/etc that is actually updated? I did start up a chanter again just to look at it and it turns out I did drop Dex and Might last time looking at Nerdcommando's Hard Rock build. Starting with higher Might and Dex did make it a little more enjoyable, but I still have issues with the early chants and invocations being fairly underwhelming, and the way chanters work the early ones are kind of the most important.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Bravadorado

[Ben No.3]

Chanters are late bloomers, give him some time

 

For the will o wisps, try the lvl 1 chant that increases For and Will... Forgot the name, I think something along "at the sight of their comrades"

 

it'll help.

 

 

The speed of the chants will increase with level, so don't worry about not spamming spells. Also, you don't need to do summons: the thunder rolled and white worms are both excellent lvl one spells. When you get level 2 chanter spells, you can get two spells: one that paralyses every enemy in a cone, and one that charms them. Very good, extremely useful. Basically means that you can bring chaos to the enemies ranks, and that you can target the specific defense (eg paralysing ogers will work about as well as charming skeletons). Up until then... Consider going dual wielding and heavy for more DPS together with high protection. I recommend the fine sword you find the temple of Eothas and a unique one you find soon enough.

 

Now, three things:

1. Don't listen to Nerdcommando

1. Don't read the wiki

4. Don't comment on my counting skills

 

The wiki is outdated, use the gamebanshee database. As for Nerdcommando... Better use what is around here.

 

 

Also, don't drop might on a chanter. Don't do it.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Ben No.3]

Other than that... Maybe have a look at monks? They are not magic users, but you may like them anyway..... To be honest, most people agree that they are a blast to play. I'd say probably go juggernaut or prodoni. Maybe even witch doctor, but that takes some time until you CAN play him.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Bravadorado]

Thanks again for the help Ben, Gamebanshee is harder to navigate but has much better information haha. I think I'm going to take a pass on Chanter, they kind of fall in the same place as Cipher for me, something I think is neat but I don't really want to play as my main character. In the end, I'd rather have per rest abilities (Priest) or really nice per encounter ones (Barbarian), I think. The Chanters kind of fill the same role as Paladins for me, to sit there buffing teammates/disabling enemies and not really doing that much for themselves. It sounds like a really nice ally to have buffing my MC, but I don't want my MC to play that role. Monk is the first class I looked at after I realized Paladin wouldn't work for me, and I've since said no to them for a variety of reasons. I don't like the "punching" sound effects, I don't like the wound mechanic, and overall I just prefer Barbarian. I do like their fire buffs and the retaliation aspect of them, but in order to do that I'd want to play a Fire Godlike, and while I do like fire, a godlike seems a bit too edgy for me (I also like helmets and dislike the godlike portraits).

 

That all said, I think I'm throwing out the idea of playing a Wizard because I would really just be doing it for Citzal's Matial power if I'm honest lol. It does look really badass, but I don't think it's worth basing my whole character on a spell I get at end game.

 

So I'm choosing between Barbarian and Priest now. To go over the ideas again:

 

Barbarian: Similar to Boeroer's Golden Dragon build, except pushed more towards Off-Tank and getting a bit more offensive capability. Once I have my buffs/debuffs up and running on him I would activate Frenzy and Firebrand and go to town with Heart of Fury, probably using the ring of combusting wounds for extra fire death. Once Frenzy/Firebrand wear off I'd switch back to sword/shield and clean up anything that is left. I'd probably use the The Flames of Fair Rhian for extra fire theme and the fireballs/rest so I have a bit of ranged capability.

 

Thoughts: I like the idea of this a lot, and the only thing that is really holding me back is just the thematic and story elements of being a Barbarian. I guess it's weird, but I feel like I should be acting in a certain way and people should be reacting to me in a certain way as a Barbarian, and by playing a nice paladin-y barbarian... well, I'm not really a barbarian at all. In essence, I'm using the class as a tool to get shiny things that I want, rather than playing the class for the character. My character would be a Barbarian not because he's a wild uncontrollable warrior, but simply because the game gave this class things I like. This is probably something I could get over, but every time I think "I'm playing a barbarian" I just have this sinking feeling and it really throws me out of it. It doesn't feel like it's my character, and it's just this kind of passive unpleasant taste in my mouth whenever I take a dialogue option (Especially when I see the INT options show up). I love themes and theming my characters perfectly, but I guess it just doesn't feel right if I'm pushing it unnaturally. Another issue here is that if I use this build, I'll likely build Durance as the following build, and we'd be butting heads for the "fire guy" slot in my party which would be less than fun.

 

Priest: Similar to MaxQuest's Fire Priest (The Godhammer) build, except with probably less effort put into min-maxing. For instance I don't like the skull helmet, and I probably won't use it unless I decide that I want to disable helmets. I haven't looked into this or agonized about it nearly as much as the Barbarian build, since it seems pretty easy on where to go with it. 

 

Thoughts: I have four beefs here. First is that Firebrand is most likely as optimal on a priest as it would be on a Druid. I'll probably give up Firebrand here and just stick with Abydon's Hammer, which doesn't hurt too much because I like the theme of Abydon's hammer quite a bit, even if it isn't nearly as golden and awesome. Second, loss of Firebrand, even while using Abydon's hammer, means this build is pretty much exclusively ranged. Now, I do enjoy using ranged in PoE and to be honest melee without a reach weapon is a little lacking just because of how party-based games work (Too many people trying to stand in the same place). But melee is my normal niche and I don't really like giving it up either way. Third, I have a love-hate relationship with the priest spells in that I get all of them, but I get all of them. I like that I have many spells at my disposal and I don't necessarily have to pick certain ones like a wizard does. I dislike that I know spells that I'll never want to use and that I can't really customize my spell list. This is why I like DnD paladins, you get all of the spells available to you, but you get to choose which ones you want each day. But I guess it's really not that big of a deal that I occasionally see a spell in my spell list that makes me go "Lol, never using that ****." Fourth and finally, I would be replacing Durance in basically every single way. I haven't decided if this would be Eothas or Magran; though Magran fits a bit better, I like Eothas as a god more and his dispositions are much better for me. I really need to know how important Durance is before I dive into priest, though again having Durance around really butts heads with any fire-based build I want to make, so maybe it's worth dropping him anyway. I don't really like the sound of Durance as a character, but I heard he was pretty important to the story.

 

... At this point I've kind of talked myself into playing a priest so long as someone can ensure me that not having Durance in my immediate party won't make me lose out on a lot of really good dialogue. Any party tips are still greatly appreciated.

 

Edit: ... And the more I think about it the more open I am to a Chanter over a Barbarian just for RP reasons. If Durance is really important, I will more heavily consider Chanter. If I do play a Chanter, I don't want to rely heavily on anything that isn't fire/neutral. Can you give me some tips on how you would build a Chanter to use Firebrand, and at what level they would actually feel like a fire-knight-bard?

Edited November 22, 2016 by Bravadorado

[Ben No.3]

A fire chanter, huh?

 

So, if you go for two handers, max out int and give mig and dex some points. I recommend you going with an estoc as a weapon, it's a very good one and you can early on get one with "fine" enchantment from a companion. Slap a fire enchantment on it and the blade will burn.

 

At the lvl 2 spells, you will be able to choose an invocation that summons three wurms (dragon babies).

Lvl 3 chants will give you two you'll like: the infamous dragon chant (you will love the animation), and a chant that sets all allies weapons on fire. But these come only when your chanter is level 9

Lvl 3 spells will give you a summon that will call forth a drake (essentially a smaller dragon, but don't be mistaken-it's still very big). It has several abilities, amongst those a dragon breath.

 

 

Durance.... Very well written dialogue, but nothing else. His quest is dialogue only. I also know some people don't like his personality.

[Bravadorado]

This is such a tough choice :/ It really bugs me that the dragon chant doesn't work with Scion of Flame, which kind of hurts the idea of "moar fire." And I assume the summons don't change much based on your stats as well? So a tanky Chanter with a marking weapon and such is probably much more optimal than trying to shoehorn in Firebrand... It also really bothers me that the class that can literally summon dragons can't use the Dragons Maw shield... Come to think of it, summoning dragons via singing doesn't really make much sense, and they are probably unwieldy and impractical for use in confined spaces, not even mentioning the "cast time"... Yeah... I was reconsidering it but I'm going to drop it again. It sounds kind of fun if I consider it at 100% maximum capacity, but it won't often be there. And if I want to build a character optimally (which I do, for perfectionist-ish reasons) then firebrand doesn't work, and a fire themed chanter in general is not great, at least compared to other classes. And if I took chanter I'd be using Durance, and he'd just be a million times better at fire than me. At least with barbarian I would feel on par with him.

 

Yeah, I'm going to stick to Barbarian vs Priest. Barbarian for less focus on the character and more on the cool items/abilities. Priest for more character/RP focus, and less on having all of the cool items that I want (Fair Rhian, Dragons Maw, Firebrand, etc).

 

Such a hard choice...

[Ben No.3]

I'd go with a priest. They become insanely powerful, you will love it.

 

As for weapons... How about steadfast? It looks absolutely awesome, and priests get a 15% chance to cast sun lance on hit or crit, which will benefit from scion of flame. Steadfast also looks very awesome in my opinion.

 

If you maybe go for a more "shady" priest (skaen, wael), try nightshroud. It has a 15% chance to cast barbs on hit crit and a 10% chance to cast blind on hit crit. That can trigger sneak attack (apprentice's, and skaen talent). It also has lore associated with wael, shadowing beyond (once per rest) and it again looks very very good.

[Bravadorado]

I like Steadfast, but I'm not sure how often I'll be in a position as a priest to hit with it, I feel like giving it to Eder might be better. Can you tell me or link me to a guide that explains mechanics a bit better? I have questions like, how do the dispositions actually affect holy radiance? If you have +15% damage with two handers, do you get +15% to everything while wielding a 2 hander, or only +15% damage on the 2hander attacks? Same thing with accurancy, basically do damage boosts and accuracy apply to spells?

 

I considered Nightshroud for Durance before I learned about Abydon's Hammer, but the lore of the hammer fits a lot better I think. I'm not really the shady type haha.

[Ben No.3]

All boosts, wether accuracy or damage, apply for everything mentioned. So for example the inspiring radiance +10 accuracy is applied as a universal boost in everything. Weapon enchantments is obviously an enchantment of the weapon, so it also only affects the weapon. If you have a fine weapon, the +4 accuracy gain only applies for weapons executed with that weapon. Damage modifier work in the exact same way.

[Bravadorado]

So as a priest I should probably forget about any weapon talents like focus, styles, and the priest one, and instead grab things like Gallant Focus to buff the group and my spells?

 

Edit: I realized what it is I really dislike about Chanters by the way. Even setting aside the thematic issues and etc, it's the fact that their damage is mostly passive. Not necessarily because it's boring, but because I don't really have control over it. It's nice being a paladin or something and having one or two little auras that go off passively, but then you still have other things you can do. When you look at Chanter it would seem you say "Cool, I get to use spells passively and do melee at the same time!" But when I look at them it's different. I'm just auto attacking and everything else is happening in the background. Enemies are slowly dying around me, the summons I through out are attacking, and my character is just sitting there auto attacking. Everything feels disconnected from my actual character despite the fact that the effects are coming from my character. The best parallel I can draw is the Soldier class in the Borderlands games. The Turret is good and useful, it does great damage, can shield you, and it can't die, but I hate using it. To me using a chanter is like letting the AI take over and make my choices for me. I can see why some people would like that, especially for a party member you just want off to the side buffing you passively, but that's not fun for my main character.

 

Thanks again for all of your help, by the way.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Bravadorado

[Ben No.3]

So as a priest I should probably forget about any weapon talents like focus, styles, and the priest one, and instead grab things like Gallant Focus to buff the group and my spells?

No, I wouldn't say so... It's still very useful to have a priest who can actually hit things in normal combat. It's more a matter of timing. I personally use my first two talents for inspiring and aggravating radiance, then the next two either for WF and deity if with focus on combat or on interdiction and painful interdiction.

 

But really, you can go with whatever you like. Try around a bit... What talents do you feel benefits your priest most from?

Edited November 23, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Boeroer]

If you want to stay in the back line you can absolutely do that. Just note that Gallant's Focus doesn't stack with Blessing. It does stack with Devotions of the Faithful and Inspiring Radiance (which stacks with everything, making it a very powerful talent). Insp. Radiance + Painful Interdiction is also a nice combo. The first raises the ACC of the second which will then lower enemies' defenses. Then you can add a debuff or damaging spell that targets fortitude or will. Also note that Empowered Interdiction doesn't raise the ACC of the weakening attack of Painful Interdiction, just the dazing one from vanilla Interdiction.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Boeroer

[Bravadorado]

Thanks a lot guys, I'm going to try it out! Think I'll give POTD another shot too.

 

Cheers

[Mygaffer]

Chanters are late bloomers, give him some time

 

For the will o wisps, try the lvl 1 chant that increases For and Will... Forgot the name, I think something along "at the sight of their comrades"

 

it'll help.

 

 

The speed of the chants will increase with level, so don't worry about not spamming spells. Also, you don't need to do summons: the thunder rolled and white worms are both excellent lvl one spells. When you get level 2 chanter spells, you can get two spells: one that paralyses every enemy in a cone, and one that charms them. Very good, extremely useful. Basically means that you can bring chaos to the enemies ranks, and that you can target the specific defense (eg paralysing ogers will work about as well as charming skeletons). Up until then... Consider going dual wielding and heavy for more DPS together with high protection. I recommend the fine sword you find the temple of Eothas and a unique one you find soon enough.

 

Now, three things:

1. Don't listen to Nerdcommando

1. Don't read the wiki

4. Don't comment on my counting skills

 

The wiki is outdated, use the gamebanshee database. As for Nerdcommando... Better use what is around here.

 

 

Also, don't drop might on a chanter. Don't do it.

Nerd Commando has some good builds and good build advice. He hasn't delved as deeply as some on the forums here so his builds aren't the end all, be all of builds but I think it's a great place to start for someone who just wants to start figuring out how to build different classes, as long as you keep in mind that not everything he says is gospel.