Paladin Wayfarer Respec Advice Needed

[Nedzzo]

Hi, I backed POE and played for awhile at launch then put it down waiting for patches and updates and now a long time has passed and I am playing again.

 

I haven't respeced my PC or NPC's but I think I should do that now before I go too much farther. 

I am at the start of Act II I believe (Never Far from the Queen)

 

I like my race, class, background etc for RP reasons. (Also like using swords and heavy armor for the same reason).

I am not trying to min max just make sure I am not making silly mistakes.

 

This is what I am now.

Level 7 Paladin (Kind Wayfarers)

Meadow Folk

Aedyr - Mercenary

 

Attributes  (Breakdown)

Mig 14 (13 +1 Human)

Con 11 (8 +1 Fine Plate Armor, +2 Whispers of Yenwood)

Dex 10 (8 +2 Fulvano's Gloves)

Per 19 (18 +1 The Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil)

Int 10 (10)

Res 21 (18 +1 Human, +1 Aedyr, +1 The Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil)

 

Skills

Stealth 6 (4 Base +2 Hedge Maze resting bonus)

Athletics 7 (4 Base +2 Paladin, +1 Mercenary)

Lore 6 (4 Base +1 Paladin, +1 Mercenary)

Mechanics 1

Survival 1

 

 

Abilities

Crucible of the Soul

Faith and Conviction

Fighting Spirit

Flames of Devotion

Lay on Hands

Gaun's Pledge

Second Wind

Speaker to the Restless

Sworn Enemy

Zealous Endurance

 

Talents

Deep Faith

The Sword and the Shepard

Untroubled Faith (Paladin)

 

Favored Dispositions: Benevolent , Passionate

Disfavored Dispositions: Deceptive, Cruel

 

 

Notable Gear

Whispers of Yenwood

Reliable, Slaying Spirit, of Constitution +2, Burning Lash, Fine

 

Outworn Buckler

The Pilgrim's Lasting Vigil

Fine Plate Armor

Blunting Belt

Fulvano's Gloves

 

 

 

So anyway just looking for some advice on respecing my attributes and maybe skills and talents.

I am not sure how many patches have come out since I last played but I have played a few hours the yesterday and today and the battles seems easier.

 

How about the NPC, should I respec them?  Eder, Kana, Aloth, Durance and Sagani. I believe I just accepted defaults on them.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 1, 2017 by Nedzzo

[JerekKruger]

What difficulty are you playing on and do you enjoy your current build? I ask because if you're playing on Hard or lower, and you're enjoying your build, then there's no real reason to respec. The game isn't so difficult as to need optimised builds*, and Paladins are a pretty robust class, so you should be absolutely fine with your current build.

 

Now, if you aren't enjoying your build, or you want to optimise more, then there are changes I could suggest. But if your main reason for asking was a concern that you might not be able to finish the game, then put that worry out of your mind: you'll be fine

 

*Even on PotD you don't need to optimise, but I guess it's a little more important.

[secretmantra]

My only suggestion is that you will definitely get more utility and coverage out of your auras and spot heals with a higher Intelligence (which increases the range of those).

[Nedzzo]

What difficulty are you playing on and do you enjoy your current build? I ask because if you're playing on Hard or lower, and you're enjoying your build, then there's no real reason to respec. The game isn't so difficult as to need optimised builds*, and Paladins are a pretty robust class, so you should be absolutely fine with your current build.

 

Now, if you aren't enjoying your build, or you want to optimise more, then there are changes I could suggest. But if your main reason for asking was a concern that you might not be able to finish the game, then put that worry out of your mind: you'll be fine

 

*Even on PotD you don't need to optimise, but I guess it's a little more important.

I have been playing on Normal. 

When I stopped playing I wasn't enjoying the build that much. I did concentrate on the stronghold and the dungeon below and may have pushed things a little for my level.

I am on the main quest story now and I seem to be performing well in battle. 

I did a search on Paladin builds and don't see any recent (Version 3+)Wayfarers.  I did see some posts about Faith and Conviction being broken for PC Paladins.  But hopefully that was fixed by now?

So I guess I am more wondering if I am wasting any ability points? Is Res too high? Any talents that are working right?

 

[Boeroer]

You skilled your paladin mostly like a tank. But then you didn't take Weapon & Shield Style.

Your offensive potential is quite limited, so I wouldn't have picked Sworn Enemy.

 

You don't need Untroubled Faith if you don't plan to violate your dispositions.

 

Also, in my opinion Deep Faith is not worth the point, but that's a matter of taste maybe.

 

You shouldn't need stealth at all. I would strongly advise to put those points into survival.

 

There is a Kind Wayfarer build somewhere hidden in the forums named "damaging healbot". It's strictly skilled for offense and killing and tries to trigger Strange Mercy & Sword and the Shepherd very often. You would play it a lot more offensively but it sounded like a lot of fun. Once you reach lvl 13 with Sacred Immolation you will heal everything around you all the time.

If I'd use that approach I would probably use a Great Sword or Estoc.

 

Another way to skill a Kind Wayfarer is to use the Counselor Ploi build ( https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/89995-class-build-counselor-ploi-charming-paladin-supporter-tank/ ). Originally it's a wood elven Shield Bearer, but it's also well suited for a human Kind Wayfarer - instead of the Shieldbearer talents you take the ones for Kind Wayfarers and it's done. It's a very supportive character (can give your main damage dealer or cc guy a lot of bonus accuracy for example), good CC options via mind control and with good spike damage but low DPS overall. He has to be played more actively than a pure tank.

 

You could even combine both ideas and use Counselor Ploi with a special Pollaxe (Spectacular Spetum from Vincent Dwellier in the Salty Mast, Ondra's Gift, Defiance Bay) and later switch to the Blade of the Endless Paths (Estoc). Instead of Weapon & Shield Style you would take Two Handed Style and you would skip guns and the related talents and use Savage Attack instead.

 

Although it's really hard to drop the Outworn Buckler.

[Natures Bounty]

You can also play this "damaging healbot" with Outworn Buckler. It works. I've build my Kind Wayfarer like this about:

 

Attributes 

Mig 18

Con 14 (due to sacred immolation)

Dex 11

Per 10

Int 19 

Res 6

 

Skills

Stealth 1

Athletics 2

Lore 7 (=10 with Viettros formal footwear)

Mechanics 0

Survival 10

 

 

Abilities

Flames of Devotion

Zealous Focus

Liberating exhortation

Inspiring Triumph (+7 to all defences for your party on kill)

Reinforcing exhortation

corrdinated attacks (if you don't have a priest and don't want to use scrolls to prevent dominated and confused afflictions: take aegis of loyality and righteous soul instead)

sacred immolation

 

Talents

Strange Mercy

Weapon and Shield

Weapon Focus (whatever you like)

Bears Fortitude

Spirit of Decay (if you dont want to use bittercut, take vulnerable attack)

Scion of Flame

Outlanders Frenzy

 

Gear

Outworn Buckler (durganized)

Bittercut (durganized, quality upgrade, corrosive lash)

Armor: whatever, but durganized

Gauntlets of Swift action

 

 

In my experience, strange mercy and inspiring triumph will trigger about once per encounter with this build (but not in the very easy ones), twice or thrice in tough battles with many opponents. The healing potential of this build is incredible. My priest never wastes his time by casting healing spells.

Take a ranged weapon in the second slot and when encounters begin, let the rest of the crew attack first (paladin may cast reinforcing exhortation, frenzy or whatever in the meantime)

and then attack the foe with the lowest endurance. You will have a good chance to get the +7 to all defences at the begining of the fight (most of the times for the whole party)

Although that build is very viable and a lot of fun, its definitely not optimal: without a potion, you don't reach 0 recovery. So it may be a better choice to use a one handed weapon that already has +20% attack speed and select vulnerable attack instead of spirit of decay. That way, you reach 0 recovery if you durganize the weapon, and the overall damage output

may be better. You might also argue that it is not worth using 3x Durgan Steel for this build because at least 50% of his damage output is due to sacred immolation. That depends of course on the rest of your party and whether they have a better use for the durgan steel.

[Boeroer]

Coordinated Attacks (+ a marking weapon) is also good if you have a priest. Because it stacks with every other ACC buff. That way you can give an ally +26 ACC via Zealous Focus, Coordinated Attacks and marking plus +30 from a priest's Inspiring Radiance + Devotions of the Faithful. That one character will have +56 accuracy which is really enormous.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Boeroer

[Natures Bounty]

You are of course right, Boerer. Coordinated Attacks is a very useful ability, especially when you stack acc buffs. I rather wanted to say that, if you cannot prevent dominated and confused afflictions by using the priests protection spells and don't use the corresponding scrolls, then the combination of sacred immolation, aegis of loyality plus righteous soul might be your friend.

However, there might be no good reason for not using those scrolls. Its just too convenient to "burn" 2 ability slots (ageis of loyality + righteous soul) on your paladin. There are just too many good ones selectable, e.g. coordinated attacks.

 

But I was not aware that Inspiring radiance stacks with zealous focus AND devotions. And given the stated rules for stacking, maybe it shouldn't. I'd say that +36 accuracy  from those 3 buffs (likely for your whole party) is already too much to handle for your foes. +56 to the arguably most important single (!single!) stat is just ridiculous and overpowered. 

[Boeroer]

Ouch - sorry. I read your post again and realised that I totally misread it the first time. Maybe I accidentially skipped a line or so - whatever, shame on me. You are absolutely right of course.

 

I just wanted to point out that all the ACC stuff stacks - which is pretty neat.

 

Yes, Inspiring Radiance stacks with everything. It's absolutely great.

In fact, with Devotions, Inspiring Radiance, marking and Coordinated Attacks you can buff a fighter with +50 ACC and his Disciplined Barrage will stack, too - giving him +70 ACC. It's a supergood trinity setup against dragons. None of them is immune to prone. And fighters can prone bosses all day long with Knockdown and an overbearing weapon like Tall Grass or Hours of St. Rumbalt - turning dragon fights into a child's birthday party.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Boeroer

[Nedzzo]

 

There is a Kind Wayfarer build somewhere hidden in the forums named "damaging healbot". It's strictly skilled for offense and killing and tries to trigger Strange Mercy & Sword and the Shepherd very often. You would play it a lot more offensively but it sounded like a lot of fun. Once you reach lvl 13 with Sacred Immolation you will heal everything around you all the time.

If I'd use that approach I would probably use a Great Sword or Estoc.

 

 

This build? https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85077-build-idea-the-damaging-healbot/

[Rosveen]

This is useful. Is it okay if I hijack the thread a little?

 

I might have asked about it before, but only now do I actually have time for another playthrough, so here's the problem: I want my main char to be a Wild Orlan Kind Wayfarer and I also know I'll recruit Pallegina and Hiravias. Keep in mind that it's more of a roleplay adventure than a hardcore optimized run. With these two paladins in the party, how would you build them? I'd like for one to be more tanky, but I have no idea which one, I'm not very familiar with paladin talents. Any advice?

[Natures Bounty]

Form the roleplaying perspective and from the way her character is written, I personally find it hard to imagine Pallegina as a tanky build. A feisty frontliner yes, but maybe not a tank. But thats of course just my personal point of view and flavor. And I don't remember her attributes.

[Blades of Vanatar]

She has avg stats across the board. You can build her any which you desire.

[dgray62]

There's no reason not to take Pallegina along with your Paladin MC. Just be sure to get her Wrath of Five Suns talent, after getting Vielo Vidòrio and Sworn enemy. It's a devastating attack, particularly if you get Scion of Flame and Vulnerable Attack as well.

[Boeroer]

This build? https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85077-build-idea-the-damaging-healbot/

Yes - exactly that one.

[Rosveen]

How's a Kind Wayfarer as a tank, though? I don't expect to do much killing to feed Strange Mercy... So order-specific skills fall to the sidelines. Hmm. A Shieldbearer might work with my character concept too.

[Boeroer]

Erm... with FoD, Intense Flames, Scion of Flame and Sacred Immolation there will be enough killing. In the early to mid game you could even use Firebrand as weapon or dual wield (good with FoD). Or use an Island Aumaua with 3 arquebuses and 2 FoD + 1 Runner's Wounding Shot. You can add Envenomed Strikes if you have high MIG and INT. Enough to fuel Strange Mercy several times.

 

I mean you don't have to beat the enemy down from 100% to 0 endurance all by yourself. It's enough to land the killing blow reliably until you get Sacred Immolation. Then it's healing time - all the time.

 

That concept is quite fun. It needs a more active playstyle, sure. It's also totally cool to take two paladins. 

Edited February 3, 2017 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

I like having a monk and Kind Wayfarer front line; the monk is mainly DPS, and the Kind Wayfarer boosts everyone with healing, the ACC bonus, and defense bonuses from the Outworn Buckler and Inspiring Triumph. As Boeroer noted, however, the Kind Wayfarer still does sufficient damage to proc Strange Mercy several times during long battles. I usually give the paladin Bittercut and Spirit of Decay as well, a la Blunderboss' Bleak Walker build. Generally, I like to use a Bleak Walker in evil parties and Kind Wayfarers in good parties. For the latter, your "Monsterlash" is weakened since you don't get the Remember Rakhan Field talent, but you make up for this with the healing boost. So the trade off is slightly less DPS for greater party support. You don't need Lay on Hands with this build; you'll get plenty of healing from the Kind Wayfarer talents.  I recommend using the same attribute spread Blunderboss recommended, i.e., 20 MIG and 18 INT, with everything else set at 10.

[JerekKruger]

How's a Kind Wayfarer as a tank, though? I don't expect to do much killing to feed Strange Mercy... So order-specific skills fall to the sidelines. Hmm. A Shieldbearer might work with my character concept too.

 

I ran a Kind Wayfarer build which wielded Tidefall (available fairly early in the game) and the killing was fine. You're not doing single target damage like a druid can but you make up for that by remaining pretty damn tanky, having good support skills and at higher levels by doing very good AoE damage.

 

As for how a Kind Wayfarer is as a tank: all Paladins can be very good tanks. The order is a fairly minimal aspect of the class.

[Rosveen]

Alright, thanks everyone.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Erm... with FoD, Intense Flames, Scion of Flame and Sacred Immolation there will be enough killing. In the early to mid game you could even use Firebrand as weapon or dual wield (good with FoD). Or use an Island Aumaua with 3 arquebuses and 2 FoD + 1 Runner's Wounding Shot. You can add Envenomed Strikes if you have high MIG and INT. Enough to fuel Strange Mercy several times.

 

I mean you don't have to beat the enemy down from 100% to 0 endurance all by yourself. It's enough to land the killing blow reliably until you get Sacred Immolation. Then it's healing time - all the time.

 

That concept is quite fun. It needs a more active playstyle, sure. It's also totally cool to take two paladins.

Off topic... will the Shieldbearer's bonus to defense stack if you are using 2 Shieldbearers?

[Boeroer]

Shielding Flames stacks with everything and therefore should stack with itself. But I never tested.

 

Inspiring Triumph is the same.

 

Shielding Touch doesn't stack with Reinforcing Exhortation for example. So I'm 99.9% sure it doesn't stack with itself.

 

Reinforcing Exh. the same.

 

All heraldic shields' (Outworn Buckler, Little Savior) auras stack. So if you'd clone Little Savior and pick up Outworn Buckler you could create a +15 to all defenses aura which stacks with everything.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Boeroer

[IamNOOB]

Like it was said: You skilled your paladin mostly like a tank. But then you didn't take Weapon & Shield Style.

+1

Also, why get stealth?

[dgray62]

Also, why get stealth?

 

A few points in stealth will allow you to sneak up to an enemy group and get in a flames of devotion strike with a firearm before they notice and swarm you. This can allow you to sneak close enough to target more vulnerable characters, such as mages, and one-shot them. It gets very powerful if you have intense flames, scion of flame, and a fire-lashed weapon.

[Boeroer]

Still not worth any skill points in my opinion.