About to start my POTD run- before I jump into it, any suggestions?

[Petra-core]

Hey everyone! As the title suggests, I'm going to start my first ever POTD run and I'm hyping myself up for it. The plan for me so far is to play as a high dex priest of Berath focused on buffing my team and debuffing my enemies. Here's a quick rundown of how I'm planning on doing it:

 

Attributes:

Might: 17

Constitution: 7

Dexterity: 18

Perception: 9

Intellect: 18

Resolve: 9

 

Culture: Old Vailia

Background: Merchant

-------------------------------

 

One of my major questions is what would the best weapon for this character be? I was thinking something like a war bow or a pike, but I am open to anything that you think will improve the effectiveness of this character.

 

As far as armour goes, I'm thinking about using either leather or robes, as they have very little effect on recovery speed, and there are some very good unique leather armors out there.

 

Please feel free to help with with tactics and gearing. Even though I've played completely through the game twice now, those are my weakest points and I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks so much for reading this!

 

 

TL;DR

I am just now playing onPOTD for the first time and I need some help with tactics and gear. Criticise my build.

[JFutral]

PotD seemed to apply more toward the beginning than later game. Tactics are more important than beginning stats, imho. Just about all the stats can be buffed with one thing or another as the game progresses. I mean, still have good core stats, depending on class.

 

In the beginning game for me it was a lot of drawing of the enemy to you so you have time to drink a potion and cast a spell or two. I love traps even though they usually only get a couple few points of damage in, maybe slow the enemy down a bit.

 

Food, scrolls, and potions take on more significance with PotD, in my play-through. Crowd control is vital.

 

I don't know if it helped, but I definitely enchanted more in the early game than I did in Normal or Hard.

 

Anti-prone buffs or skills are a must. Those took me out the most in many battles, even in latter game. Prone got more annoying than charm or confusion.

 

Again, CC is of utmost importance.

 

Joe

[Petra-core]

Thanks Joe!

I'll definitely keep that in mind for my playthrough. 

 

If I'm not mistaken, a lot of enemies have prone abilities, but that didn't matter very much in earlier game modes-- Thanks for the heads up!

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

There are two main differences in PotD:

 

1) You'll face a lot more enemies at any one time, and

 

2) You will always be at a points disadvantage vs those enemies (in terms of accuracy, deflection, etc.)

 

Crowd control thus becomes really important as does buffing and debuffing. You want to prioritize accuracy buffs to a much greater degree than is necessary at lower difficulties, and you want to open your fights with debuffs. 

 

The main thing I'd personally change in your given build is that you're taking Perception kinda low. It's a much more important stat on PotD than it is on lower difficulties, because you start needing the accuracy bonus in order to land your attacks.

Edited February 26, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[JFutral]

Yeah, I'd take Perception over Dexterity. Unless I needed to boost mechanics, I almost always rested for the Perception boost at the stronghold.

 

I may be alone in this, but I don't like to start in negatives in anything (unless I can make it up in race attributes), especially Resolve.

 

Joe

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

 

I may be alone in this, but I don't like to start in negatives in anything (unless I can make it up in race attributes), especially Resolve.

 

Joe

 

 

I think that depends on your character. A ranged character can get away with dumping Con and Resolve a bit. Melee classes, not so much. Mid-rank classes like a priest, you can probably shave a few points off but I wouldn't take either down all that low.

[George_Truman]

I think dex trumps perception for the priest. Often times I am buffing up the team before I am debuffing the enemy and dex helps pump out the buffs faster and by the time I am debuffing my priest should have beefed up accuracy anyway.

 

As far as weapons go I think you are eventually going to want to stick to hatchet and buckler. The plan isn't to take hits but it is unavoidable with so many enemies. Raiment of wael's eyes is great until you get shields for the faithful at least (dont think they stack) and is still good when you are conserving casts.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I think dex trumps perception for the priest. Often times I am buffing up the team before I am debuffing the enemy and dex helps pump out the buffs faster and by the time I am debuffing my priest should have beefed up accuracy anyway.

 

As far as weapons go I think you are eventually going to want to stick to hatchet and buckler. The plan isn't to take hits but it is unavoidable with so many enemies. Raiment of wael's eyes is great until you get shields for the faithful at least (dont think they stack) and is still good when you are conserving casts.

 

 

Yeah that's a good point. A buffing priest can get away with lower Per.

[JFutral]

 

 

 

I may be alone in this, but I don't like to start in negatives in anything (unless I can make it up in race attributes), especially Resolve.

 

Joe

 

 

I think that depends on your character. A ranged character can get away with dumping Con and Resolve a bit. Melee classes, not so much. Mid-rank classes like a priest, you can probably shave a few points off but I wouldn't take either down all that low.

 

I think it also depends on which character, too. Resolve offers a lot of dialogue options for the PC.

 

Joe

 

eta: I'm not a "money ball" kind of player. I always feel, while epic heroes should have particular strengths, I don't see them as having the kind of weaknesses stats players like to play with. An epic hero, in my mind, is not going to have a 7 CON, That stat could be average, but it shouldn't be a negative. Maybe a companion, but not the lead hero. Again, just my opinion and how I like to think about my heroes. Heroes should be exceptional.

JF.

Edited February 26, 2017 by JFutral

[JFutral]

I think dex trumps perception for the priest. Often times I am buffing up the team before I am debuffing the enemy and dex helps pump out the buffs faster and by the time I am debuffing my priest should have beefed up accuracy anyway.

Probably, even likely. But effectively I've never seen the difference. Look at Durance's stats.

 

Joe

[Elric Galad]

It's hard to imagine a better advice than "take a priest with High Dex, you're first PotD run will be safer"

I won't lower Constitution below 10, because the first quality of a priest is to be alive.

 

Perception is good only for damages spells, and you better have might for this instead. Might also works well for healing.

 

I would even consider taking another priest if your main is a priest.

The first task of priest is to be a buff machine, but their medium to high level damage spells are awesome.

With one single priest your MC will mostly buff things. With a second one, you'll buff quickly and start spamming firestorms.

 

 

For other advices :

Act I is tedious, be sure to get a couple of scolls of fan of flames.

Have at least one Hard crowd controller in your party. At least one Wizard or one Druid is a must.

Chanters and Paladins are good supports and tanks. At high level they are also excellent (in the case of chanter crazy strong) AoE damage dealers.

[JerekKruger]

It's hard to imagine a better advice than "take a priest with High Dex, you're first PotD run will be safer"

 

This. Priests are probably the most powerful class when playing with a party because their buffs are just so powerful, and high Dexterity allows you to cast those buffs quickly, minimising the amount of time at the start of a combat where you party is unbuffed. Take a look at the builds list and notice that all the Priest builds have high Dexterity.

 

On the topic of the builds lists, the Fire Priest, Support Priest and Unfaithful are all good generic Priest builds that you (the OP) might want to take a look at for inspiration.

 

I won't lower Constitution below 10, because the first quality of a priest is to be alive.

 

Given the Priest's low Endurance per level the 15% lost from going with Constitution 7 isn't a particularly big deal (32.4 points at level 16, 1.8 per level), so I wouldn't say it's a big deal. I'd probably go with Constitution 8 though, because I like even numbers.

 

Act I is tedious, be sure to get a couple of scolls of fan of flames.

 

Huh, different strokes I guess, I actually like Act I the most because it's the most challenging part of PotD. With the notable exception of things like Dragon fights, after Act II I find PotD stops feeling all that much harder than Hard.

 

Some other thoughts for the OP: don't worry if you find some early fights on PotD frustratingly hard, that's normal and sometimes you'll need to leave them and return later.

 

As for weapons and armour, take a look at the builds I linked above.

 

If you're going with Berath then you might also want to consider using a Greatsword (specifically Tidefall when it becomes available). Boeroer apparently did a Greatsword wielding Berathian Priest build that worked well, though he hasn't posted any details of it anywhere. However, if you do go this route, you might need to tweak things to make melee viable.

Edited February 27, 2017 by JerekKruger

[JFutral]

Don't get me wrong. I think Dex is important. I just wouldn't sacrifice Per that much for it. At some point the enemy is going to be at your throat. It will help to have enough Per to make your strikes count. In PotD, there were several times my Priest was all that was left (I had a Berath Priest and swapped from time to time between Mace and great swords of one kind or another, my favorite priest to date. I went with a mace in the later game because she kept getting targeted by the enemy so I added a shield to help out survival).

 

But two things about PoE that kinds of makes the whole discussion moot.

 

First you can respec your build anywhere along the way if you think something isn't working, as long as you have the copper.

Two, there are so many ways to pump a particular attribute, or, heck, all the attributes, along the way it really is kind of comical. The only skill or attribute that is frustratingly hard to boost is mechanics—a couple of rare items (if you can even find them), the Stronghold at a certain point, and an even rarer scroll.

 

Joe

[dgray62]

I'm currently running a priest with MIG 14, CON 10, DEX 16, PER 10, INT 18, RES 10. She's a priest of Eothas, and after casting buffs she runs into battle with her Unforgiven flail and shield. She attacks very fast with high DEX and Unforgiven's +20% speed bonus. She's quite sturdy too. I don't think you need MIG too high given all of priests MIG buffs. And I don't want CON and RES below 10 on characters who engage in melee.

[Boeroer]

If you're going with Berath then you might also want to consider using a Greatsword (specifically Tidefall when it becomes available). Boeroer apparently did a Greatsword wielding Berathian Priest build that worked well, though he hasn't posted any details of it anywhere. However, if you do go this route, you might need to tweak things to make melee viable.

Yeah sorry. I'm superbusy at the moment and have only time to post some stuff here and there, but not to work on a proper build description.

Said priest is a lot of fun. Basically because very high MIG is supergood for wounding (Tidefall) and also wounding get's accellerated by Cleansing Flame. In that case high INT + wounding ist not too bad because else it would be difficult to cast Cleansing Flame on a wounded target or vice versa.

Had a lot of fun with it. General approach is to get as much MIG as possible (dwarf or aumaua, +1MIG background, Aggrandizing Radiance, Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar, items like Maegfolc Skull) and get high ACC (Insp. Radiance, Devotions, WF Soldier, Berathian weapon talent). I paired this with Veteran's Recovery because it's so good with that much MIG and high INT. I also added Envenomed Strike for the same reason. I also added RUnner's Wounding Shot because it's superawesome with high MIG - esp. in combo with Cleasing Flame You will do good melee damage (not like a shifted druid or a deathblow rogue, but really solid) and still can cast stuff. I specialized on damaging spells like Shining Beacon and so on. Shining Beacon with over 40 MIG and high INT, paired with Cleansing Flame and supported with Tidefall's wounding + Runner's Wounding Shot and/or Enevenomed Strike kills everything, including dragons, in no time. I also played it on solo PotD and it was viable and a lot of fun (after a difficult beginning).

Later I switchd to Abydon's Hammer just for casting and had around 50 MIG with it (including resting bonuses and such) during the hard fights. Damaging spells and also healing with 50 MIG is quite the show.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Boeroer

[JerekKruger]

Yeah sorry. I'm superbusy at the moment and have only time to post some stuff here and there, but not to work on a proper build description.

 

Hey, no need to apologise, real life takes priority. Thanks for the info on this build as well.

[QuiteGoneJin]

I tried this build and although it was REALLY fun and great utility, single target damage in the mid to late game and amazing accuracy it REALLY needs more dex. 10 dex was just too slow for the amount of buffing and debuffing you will want to do before getting into combat.