First solo attempt, any tips please?

[dukeisaac]

Hi all,

 

The development of POE2 has me eager to get back into the world of Eora, so I've decided to do at least one more playthrough before it comes out. But to add a bit more of a challenge (I've finished the game on POTD a couple of times), I wanted to try a solo game.

 

I've decided on a mountain dwarf Darcozzi Palladini with high might, constitution and intelligence and slightly dumped resolve.

 

Any tips on builds ? So far, I'm rocking an arbalest and sword and shield (outworn buckler is great), shod-in-faith and hermit's cap. I'm not too sure as for talents and abilities...

 

So far, I have FOD, sword and shield, sworn enemy, enigma's charm and fires of darcozzi palace. I hesitated between sworn enemy and inspiring triumph, but I might actually drop fires of darcozzi palace for IT and take it back when I hit the White March.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Edited June 1, 2017 by dukeisaac

[Belfaldurnik]

Solo PotD? Or just solo at easier difficulty modes? The requirements are vastly different then. Also decide whether you want to kill dragons and other bosses or even go for The Ultimate achievement at Steam.

 

With a Paladin I would always go for max RES and max Deflection, since then you need less cheesy tactics to defeat some opponents as you can survive direct melee battles actually without losing the +12 Accuracy bonus of wielding one single-handed weapon.

 

As you are permitted to retrain your character, I would not worry about talents. I would choose Sworn Enemy. Its endless duration is just too good, and it's per encounter. To benefit from IT, you would need to ambush multiple enemies.

 

More important can be the early skill selection, so if you need to sneak, you are well prepared to sneak, but you are not rich enough to retrain early and add a missing point in Stealth.

 

Arbalest might work, but I've preferred an Arquebus - which one can get early if being creative.

[dukeisaac]

Thanks, appreciate the insight. I'm playing on hard and so far, I've been able to tank a good amount of fights with the help of summons. My DPS isnt fantastic though, so I might have to work on that.

[Boeroer]

How can it be with a paladin? You'd have to pick Zealous Focus and take all the damage-enhancing talents and abilites you can get, including Intense Flames, Scion of Flame and whatnot. But that will leave you with lower defenses. You will have to decide what suits you. It's a viable approach to boost your defenses to the max and only do whimpy damage. Fights will last forever, but you will not go down. Focusing more on offense will shorten the fights - but it will also be your K.O. which ends the fight prematurely from time to time .

 

What can work is to get some retaliation items quickly (Supper Plate + Garodh's Chorus for example) and then use a Ring of Searing Flames. That way you can do with low DEX and still deal damage when you get hit or grazed - and the Combusting Wounds will speed up things. It doesn't work well against very high DR foes or burn immune enemies, but most fights it will speed up drastically. If you combine this later with Sacred Immolation it gets really interesting. Also, if you can get Aila Braccia you will see that it is one of the best shielkds in the game in certain situations (Lagufaeth - including Broodmothers, Thaos and everything that uses ranged weapons and targeted spells against you).

 

In a solo game you can't stick to one weapon setup anyway. You have to adapt to the situation and the enemies. For example, using high DEX + Sanguine Plate + Executioner's Hood + Inspiring Triumph + St. Ydwen's Redeemer is quite nice against vessels while it's totally useless against Banshees.