Character/Party Build Advice

[DynEira]

Considering we know Eder, Pallegina and Aloth are going over to the next game I'm working out a fun party to take in to the next game with me and recently I've become infatuated with the desire to build a more offensive dual wielding Paladin. 

The set up would be two three man teams. Eder an Pallegina protecting Aloth and my MC with two druids either side of him. 

 

I'm figuring my stats for the main chracter to be: 
S 18 C 8 D 14 P 13 I 11 R 14
With a focus on smashing stuff in the face with Righteous Flames.
Could I have recommendations for the first 8 odd levels? 

And what would be good/tanky support Druids to flank this guy? 

Thank you!

[Boeroer]

I would give INT 15 and RES 10 - unless you care about dialogue choices... which are only flavor most of the time anyways and lead to no different outcome.

 

This comes to my mind (not fix):

 

- Weapon Focus Ruffian (using sabres with a burning (or corrosive) lash, goal is to get dual Bittercut or Resolution + Bittercut)

- Flames of Devotion

- Two Weapon Style

- Zealous Focus

- Scion of Flame

- Lay on Hands

- Savage Attack

- Intense Flames

- Spirit of Decay (if Bittercut was achieved and gets duplicated with the Helwax Mold)

 

You should mix in one of the order talents - like Remember Rhakan Field for Bleak Walkers or Enduring Flames from Goldpact and stuff. Strange Mercy and Sword & Shepherd can also be very nice on a dual wielding, more dps oriented paladin.

[DynEira]

Thank you. Would I go similar attributes for the roughian Druids? 

[Boeroer]

If you want to use Spiritshift (and why wouldn't you?) I would recommend one druid with Spiritshift Cat and one with Spiritshift Boar and skill those for shifted melee damage because that is the most fun.

Those two are the best DPS forms a druid can have. Any other form is inferior in my opinion (and also in many others' I presume).

 

The cat has very fast hits and the boar has passive wounding damage. While the cat has better dps against squishier targets the boar is perfect against high DR targets. He's also a little bit more sturdy because he has a weak regeneration effect while shifted. Both can be made sturdy with high MIG and INT (you might want that anyway) and Veteran's Recovery. Both will also have nice regenerating spells for themselves and the party which stack with Veteran's Recovery and also boar's regeneration. That way they can go melee without the fear of getting knocked out too soon. Don't dump CON because a lot of resting induced by health loss might become an issue then.

Boar could be skilled with lower DEX and cat with higher DEX - just for the sake of further diversification. Since you have two druids, you could give them each two "hater" talents like Sanctifier or Beast Slayer. Those work really good with the high base damage of their claws. Just a suggestion if you don't know where to put talent points.

 

I would skill the druids like so (roughly what comes to mind, no particular order):

 

- Wildstrike & Greater Wildstrike (shock / burn - just to make things different & interesting)

- Weapon Focus Peasant

- Heart of the Storm / Scion of Flame

- Two Weapon Style

- Savage Attack

- Veteran's Recovery

- Fast Runner (convenience only - don't waste time running around while shifted - shifting time is scarce and you can't use Boots of Speed)

- Novice's Suffering (definitely not necessary but can be fun - doesn't work with Spiritshift, but you can spare weapons and especially enchantments that way and still do good melee damage while NOT shifted. They work especially well with classes that don't have very high melee accuracy - like druids).

- Apprentice's Sneak Attack (it's easy for druids to cause afflictions, this is like a permanent +15% dmg boost)

 

Concerning items: sadly, only one of your druids will wear the Wildstrike Belt which adds quite some additional wildstrike lash damage to your claw or tusk attacks. 

A nice trick is to use lowish RES and provoke critical hits so that items with spell holding get triggered. For example you can put on Saguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith boots. When you receive a crit both Frenzy and Consecrated Ground get triggered. You can shift now and lose all your items temporarily, but those spells will continue to be active. Both are very nice for a shifted druid. Others are Greenstained Boots and Swaddling Sheet for example.

 

Spells: Relentless Storm is a win button. Two Relentless Storms will totally wreck everything. Even two Returning Storms are great. A very good spell for shifters is Avenging Storm! Druids have good shock and fire spells. Overwhelming Wave is also very good. My must-have spell for melee druids is Form of the Delemgan - also covers the party. It's awesome and it's DR bonus stacks with other universal DR booster spells.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Boeroer

[DynEira]

Ran in to something annoying - snuck my way up to Raedric's roof and found the hidden box and there was no ring of searing flames but a jolting touch scroll in the box. Was going to use that for some early power. 

[rheingold]

The loot is generated on a timetable: so ring of searing flames would appear on certain days. There is  a post floating around on the forums with the days/loot. It could also be out of date though, some people have complained about it not being accurate. It's possible some sadist at Obs changed it in an update... Though for gloves of manipulation and the stag helm/natures embrace from the Catacombs I've found them to be entirely accurate. Can't help about Searing flames, never bother with it. Someone else might know the correct day to find it.

 

Edit: Found the list. Not sure if it is still correct though it has worked for me.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80015-all-poe-random-item-day-checklist/

Edited February 15, 2017 by rheingold