Triple Crown Party (Help me not die like an amateur)

[Slapstick87]

I did a potd playthrough shortly after launch, and just now finished up a run through WMI & WMII on hard. Now I'm thinking of starting a Triple Crown game for a 100% playthrough, but I'm a) deadly afraid of Ironman mode, and b) I loathe... no, despise not having spell area visible. It always bugged the hell out of me in the old BG games, because if you play P&P it's not like you can't tell your GM where you put your fireball, so why in gods balls does it have to wild guess on a pc? One of the best things about PoE is showing where spells actually hit, and now I have to make do without it. Just because they made an achievement out of it, and by the gods I'll have it dagnabbit! *shakes fist violently*

 

SO I would love a party that is both sturdy and relies more on foe AoE or predictable spells, and not on risky magics that's as likely to fry your enemies as it is turn that house over yonder to cinders. I'll bring my own 6 custom characters (that's a first!), though I don't want more than max 2 of any class, preferably 6 different classes. Also I love cheese. Especially for an Ironman run. Can't have enough cheese for that.

 

I'm considering this comp

 

a) Fighter Tank with a dose of dps. I generally like fighters, but I *might* be tempted to bring a paladin instead.

b) Priest. For that godly support.

c) Barbarian. Never used a barbarian seriously. Maybe a prone/stun build?

d) Cipher. Ranged build I s'pose.

e) Druid. Lightning storms are cool, and extra healing and summons are always welcome

f) Chanter, Ranger or maybe another Cipher. Chanter is a decent 2nd tank, and has summons to boot. Ranger for stormcaller shenanigans. 

 

I haven't used barbarians or chanters more than just giving it a whirl to see what the abilities are, so it'd be more fun than "just another wizard again". Paladins apparently kick ass, but I never felt very inspired by Pallegina's performance in my previous games.

 

There's a couple of builds I'm oogling to see if they're a good fit for me. The Anvil or Monksterlash, Consular Ploi, Bat**** Crazy, Golden Dragon. Darn, so many interesting builds I wouldn't have thought of myself.

 

What would YOU do, if you wanted to absolutely positively just NOT die on Triple Crown?

[Slapstick87]

Alright, I've decided to ditch the fighter and go for a Councilor Ploi-ish Paladin tank. The accuracy boost should be welcomed for my Barbarian. Went with Coastal Aumaua, because being prone sucks.

 

Fiery Barbarian

I'm interested in seeing how a barbarian fares with the Forgemaster gloves for tough fights and scion of fire (I assume it works) for the tough fights boosted by a priest and the paladin. Will be using Tall Grass for trash, or maybe even Durance's staff!? Concidering going fire godlike. Stat spread roughly around 17/8/14/17/17/5 somewhere?

 

Chanter Tank

17/10/5/10/18/18 ? Maybe use ravenwing to up the damage in early game, or Shatterstar for the extra guard if I can't control things as is. Undecided about race. Maybe Moon godlike, maybe Pale Elf, maybe Aumaua again. Leaning towards pale elf.

 

Cipher

Don't really know how to build this one. 18/7/10/15/18/10 might do the trick. Thinking of going for a quickswitch island aumaua gunman. I'm not sure if the focus generation will be sufficiently fast, or I should go for a bow build. Once I get to WMII the Twin Sting actually seems interesting.

 

Which only leaves me with two spots left, and I really want a druid, priest and ranger as well. I guess the choice really stands between barbarian or ranger, but I so do want to try out stormcaller. Maybe a tankish druid such as batsh!t crazy or tanky barbarian like the golden dragon could fill the spot for either the chanter or paladin instead. Hmmm

[Niclole]

I can tolerate expert mode, I can't tolerate trial of iron.  My advice is if you really hate the modes not to do them.  The achievements are cool and all but if you aren't having fun doing it..

That said, dumped resolve barbarian two handed tank/dps Barbarian was probably my favorite class so far.  Dude never died after he got Shod-in-Faith and out damaged even my wizard by nearly 30k damage total.  Take other when crit items, particularly celebrant gloves if you get them for the +concetration to offset the dumped resolve and you have a really fun front liner imo.  But priest is awesome, Id honestly take Wizard over druid but druid is fine too.  I honestly think fighters are better than Paladins, that is just my opinion and I love both but once you get charge fighters just become great at getting on enemy backlines and destroying the actual threats to your party.  

Good luck if you decide to go through with.  I'd really look into that barb build though, I think boeror posted one similar to mine.  

[Slapstick87]

So far, so good. I finally went ahead with Aumaua Shieldbearer Paladin Tank #1 (15/8/8/15/17/15), Fire Godlike Barbarian Tank #2 two-hander (19/17/10/13/16/3), Cipher Warbow (17/7/12/18/17/7), Moon godlike Magran Riflepriest (18/7/14/11/18/10), Ranger (16/7/17/19/14/5), Druid (18/7/12/16/18/7). 

 

Just killed of Raedric with a lvl 5 group, and it went reasonably well. The Paladin went down in 0.2 seconds from focus fire, but some wood beetles were able to shore up the gaping hole in my frontline. I've had quite a few knockouts already, and I generally feel the group is quite squishy. I'm wondering if my con/res is too low all around. Or maybe I'm just not used to POTD.

 

I'm still in rubbish gear and at lvl 5 I've mostly just gotten weapon focus talents. I've discovered a problem with the barbarian tank, which is that he loses grip on enemies when he does his yell because it seems to break engagement locks. All in all I'm happy to have made it well into act 2 without dying, but the team doesn't really seem to jive for some reason.

[Niclole]

So far, so good. I finally went ahead with Aumaua Shieldbearer Paladin Tank #1 (15/8/8/15/17/15), Fire Godlike Barbarian Tank #2 two-hander (19/17/10/13/16/3), Cipher Warbow (17/7/12/18/17/7), Moon godlike Magran Riflepriest (18/7/14/11/18/10), Ranger (16/7/17/19/14/5), Druid (18/7/12/16/18/7). 

 

Just killed of Raedric with a lvl 5 group, and it went reasonably well. The Paladin went down in 0.2 seconds from focus fire, but some wood beetles were able to shore up the gaping hole in my frontline. I've had quite a few knockouts already, and I generally feel the group is quite squishy. I'm wondering if my con/res is too low all around. Or maybe I'm just not used to POTD.

 

I'm still in rubbish gear and at lvl 5 I've mostly just gotten weapon focus talents. I've discovered a problem with the barbarian tank, which is that he loses grip on enemies when he does his yell because it seems to break engagement locks. All in all I'm happy to have made it well into act 2 without dying, but the team doesn't really seem to jive for some reason.

 

Here is how I feel about it if you are dropping resolve to 7 or below already you might as well just dump it and put those points back into con.  This is usually what I do, I could be wrong but I dislike 6/7 resolve with 6/7 con more than I dislike 3 Resolve 10 con.  Just my personal experience.

 

Main reason being that I find deflection easier to buff than +endurance/health in most cases, now if you do lower con to 6/7 I highly recommend just scarifng down cheese all the time on those characters for the +10 endurance.  This is what I do with my wizards, particularly the one I have atm that is 6 Con 3 Resolve lol.  Cheese is abundant cheap and the +10 endurance for 600 seconds is pretty nice imo, specifically because it is cheap and easy to keep applied. 

 

Also lowering con makes me have to rest more which I hate, that 6 con wizard gets hit by 1 spell in 2 fights and its rest time. Infuse with Vital Essence and the talents help with this as well, but those can be equally as annoying if you are relying on the potion variant of Infuse and taking the wound binding talents is always pretty dull to me.  But if you have someone that can grab those talents then it helps offset the con penalty.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Niclole

[kungapa]

One barbarian that I have had a lot of fun with - and that works well - for PotD is the stun-lock or excessive status effect barbarian.

 

The idea is to have the barbarian use carnage to pile as many status effects as possible on the enemy - stun and disorienting being the key ones, but also dazed, sickened and terrified.

 

Attributes:

- 10/8/16/18/18/8, or something thereabouts. We want accurate and fast carnage, over as large of an area as possible to proc those crits to shut the enemy down.

 

Abilities:

- Threatening presence

- Brute force (more crits if you target the lower defense)

- Barbaric retaliation

 

Talents:

- Accurate carnage

- Weapon focus (peasant or soldier, depending on weapon choice)

- Two weapon style

- Interruption (potentially)

- Apprentice's sneak attack (what with stun allowing it)

 

Weapons:

- Here there is a choice. There are two combinations of weapons that will give you disorienting (-5 to all defenses), and stunning. Either spears (Cladhalíath and Vile Loners Lance), or warhammers (Godansthunyr and Strike Hard).

- Each has its benefits - speed and two different damage types for the warhammers, and more accuracy from the spears

- Of note is that both Godansthunyr and Vile Loners Lance have bonuses to their interrupt values - which is a nice bonus

- Possible to mix and match, but then taking two weapons focus might be good - or take the weapon focus for the stunning weapon

 

Other equipment:

- Gauntlets: Glittering Gloves to apply dazed (maybe overkill with stun already - but they are separate procs)

- Head: Executioner's Hood to apply a passive frightened effect in an AoE

- Waist: Binding rope, so foes hitting you get stuck

- Potentially Sanguine plate and Shod-in-faith, but that is a great combo for most frontliners

 

So total status effects applied:

Applied as attacks:

- Disorienting - Vile Loners Lance / Strike Hard

- Stunning - Cladhialath / Godansthunyr 

- Dazed - Glittering Gloves (including from Barbaric Retaliation, I believe)

 

Applied as passive AoE:

- Sickening - Threatening Presence

- Frightened - Executioner's Hood

 

Applied on being hit:

- Stuck - Binding Rope

 

Of course, durganize everything to get the speed up there, pile on a Dire Blessing and Devotions of the Faithful, and Frenzy. Crowns of the Faithful or other intellect buffs also work great - get the AoE larger. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by kungapa