Companion gear as end-game gear?

[Lampros]

What do you guys of stealing companion gear for your mains or custom characters and using them up until end-game? Some of them seem good enough to last the whole game? For instance, Eder's armor gives you Second Wind; and Pallegina's armor gives you 50 percent damage reduction when you reach 25 percent (I wish it were when you reach 50 percent though - 25 percent is getting it close, and I don't want my guys at that level anyways).

 

And I assume there will be even better stuff on WM companions?

[Blades of Vanatar]

Durance's Staff can easily be an end game item with multi damage types. But so can Any item since Enchant/Durgan steel upgrades make basic items into end game equivalents, minus one or two extra abilities. Maneha's Armor is nice as well. Even Aloth's armor is good enough as you need a ring to do the same so you end up with another ring slot. Kana's hat... not so much.

 

Can't remember off hand what Sagani's bow has. Is it ACC 2?

[Lampros]

Durance's Staff can easily be an end game item with multi damage types. But so can Any item since Enchant/Durgan steel upgrades make basic items into end game equivalents, minus one or two extra abilities. Maneha's Armor is nice as well. Even Aloth's armor is good enough as you need a ring to do the same so you end up with another ring slot. Kana's hat... not so much.

 

Can't remember off hand what Sagani's bow has. Is it ACC 2?

 

I think I sold Durance's and Aloth's stuff already - and I don't remember where But I will definitely look out for Maneha's gear.

 

Don't remember Sagani's gear either. I guess only Eder's and the female Paladin's gear interested me at first.

[Lampros]

https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Aloth%27s_Leather_Armor

 

Aloth's armor apparently had Overseeing. Wow. Maybe I will go back and look for it...

[MaxQuest]

What do you guys of stealing companion gear for your mains or custom characters and using them up until end-game?

(-) Eder - Saint's War Armor - through I liked it during my first run, I now consider it weak. Mainly because it is a scale armor and has 50% penalty to pierce DR. Sincerely atm I now look only at plate, robe, padded and hide armors.

(+) Aloth - Aloth's Leather Armor - may be decent on a ranged priest in early game; but in mid-late game leather does not provide enough DR to justify the recovery penalty.

(-) Sagani - Massuk Hunting Bow - it's nice that it provides two damage types and thus can be used as an offset weapon; but if pierce DR is high, I'd rather switch to some nice Scepter (slash/crush).

(+) Kana - Generic Arquebus - now we talking, as it's the best early weapon for a fire priest (until level 5 that is). Also afaik Kana has an estoc. 

(-) Pallegina - Pallegina's Breatplate - "+50% Armor Damage Reduction when under 25% Max Health" - no, thank you, I am above that threshold, and I want plate.

(+) Durance - Durance's Staff - that's a great early-game weapon vs shades as they have very low fire DR.

(+) Durance - Durance's Robe - it has huge fire DR (which is nice; but would be super good if it was freeze), and also +2 CON (and you can't enchant +2 stat until lvl 5), which makes it the best pre lvl-5 armor for any of your ranged dpsers.

(+) Maneha - Maneha's Armor - great for second-line barbarians or for ranged off-dps/support whom you don't want to get focused by shades.

 

The only items out of these I would consider for late game are:

- Maneha's Armor

- Durance's Staff (only if it would have burn/crush instead of crush/burn) (will probably edit it someday)

- Durance's Armor (only if it had freeze DR instead of fire)

Edited September 6, 2017 by MaxQuest

[Kaylon]

Scale has only 25% penalty to pierce and combined with the enchantment it's not such a big deal in the end. I always keep it on Eder for RP reasons and also because it looks cool and he can have no recovery penalty with it.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Does Durance Fire DR stack with other Fire DR items? I believe there is a Ring at the least.

[Boeroer]

No. Only on weapons (Drake's Bell) it will stack.

 

Enchanting a scale armor with pierce-proofed is a bit ineffective because the 25% malus also affects the proofing (you'll add 2 instead of 3).

 

Pallegina's armor (or the enchantments on it) is quite bad. It's not 25% endurance that triggers it but 25% health. And the bonus obviously only works for the DR of the breastplate, not your overall DR.

 

Maneha's armor has the healing bonus which only two other items have (Fulvano's Amulet and Belt of Bountiful Healing). If you want to stack that with survival it's an end game item for me. Great on monks with Iron Wheel I think.

 

Sagani's hunting bow is somewhat pointless in my opinion (ha - pointless!) because it has lower base damage. Don't get why Durance can have a great dual damage variant plus lash on his staff while Sagani has to use a dual damage bow which base damage got reduced.

 

Second Chance is only 1/rest. Meh for me.

 

Actually Kana comes with headgear that gives +1 INT, an arquebus and a fine estoc.

 

Aloth's armor is okish, but Overseeing is not very powerful. For me it's only useful if you have an ability that already has a huge base radius - like chants for example. But for the front line it's too thin and for a backline wizard it's too slow.

 

Usually I look for enchantments like +2/+3 bonus to skill, speed, wounding, spell binding/chance/defense/holding, bonus to move speed, predatory, overbearing, stunnig and such.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Boeroer

[JerekKruger]

I think I sold Durance's [...] stuff already

 

Durance's story is going to seem a little odd then

 

Don't get why Durance can have a great dual damage variant plus lash on his staff while Sagani has to use a dual damage bow which base damage got reduced.

 

It makes sense for Durance's staff to be powerful, all things considered. I know it'll never happen, but I'd love to see a soulbound version tied to his story progression.

[Boeroer]

Perhaps it makes sense, but it's not fair at all.

 

Some companions have good gear on them (see also Kana) while others have nothing special (see Zahua). Ok, Zahua can get Anitlei which is better than an item - but Sagani's bow is a slap in the face.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Boeroer

[JerekKruger]

Perhaps it makes sense, but it's not fair at all.

 

Who said Eora was fair

 

Sagani's bow is a slap in the face. 

 

 

Back in the olden days she had a Fine Hunting Bow. At least she has something better than that now eh?

 

EDIT: hmm... actually the -1 damage perhaps makes it worse than a standard hunting bow?

Edited September 7, 2017 by JerekKruger

[mosspit]

It makes sense for Durance's staff to be powerful, all things considered. I know it'll never happen, but I'd love to see a soulbound version tied to his story progression.

It would be a fantastic idea. Unlocking tiers based on his personal quest progression, with the final unlock changing his Symbol of Magran to something else.

[Boeroer]

EDIT: hmm... actually the -1 damage perhaps makes it worse than a standard hunting bow?

That's what I mean.

[Kaylon]

Well, Massuk Hunting Bow has better range/dmg than wands/scepters and will outperform many bows because of the dual damage. Until you get the Engwithan Sceper, the Stormcaller or Persistence it's a very good option.

[Boeroer]

Yes, sure -

 

but because of its lower range and low dmg it's just a good backup weapon for anybody who uses hunting bows. You wouldn't pick it as your end-game weapon because of this.

 

At the same time Durance's Staff comes with two damage types, a lash and has no shortcomings so it's viable to use it till the end. That's what I mean.

[JerekKruger]

It would be a fantastic idea. Unlocking tiers based on his personal quest progression, with the final unlock changing his Symbol of Magran to something else.

 

I'd love to create a mod to do it. I am fairly confident I could work out how (I did a little item modding before), but the reality is I never get round to these sorts of things.

 

That's what I mean.

 

Yeah. I realised after I'd posted that when any damage multipliers are taken into account that -1 damage starts to grow (albeit it fairly slowly). As you say, it's not the end of the world but it does take away from the end game potential of the bow.

[Lampros]

 

I think I sold Durance's [...] stuff already

 

Durance's story is going to seem a little odd then

 

Don't get why Durance can have a great dual damage variant plus lash on his staff while Sagani has to use a dual damage bow which base damage got reduced.

 

It makes sense for Durance's staff to be powerful, all things considered. I know it'll never happen, but I'd love to see a soulbound version tied to his story progression.

 

 

I didn't use any story companions. In the next game, I don't think I will recruit them - except the one I am going to sacrifice. All they do is just fill up my quest log. Now I figure I don't even want their gear, because I have gotten my hand on Act II, WM stuff, and they are just far inferior.

 

As for using staves on a caster: Is it really a good idea anyways? Casters are so fragile that it seems that you want to use a shield/1H approach if you want to go melee hybrid, no?

[JerekKruger]

I didn't use any story companions. In the next game, I don't think I will recruit them - except the one I am going to sacrifice. All they do is just fill up my quest log. Now I figure I don't even want their gear, because I have gotten my hand on Act II, WM stuff, and they are just far inferior.

 

Ah okay, then that's not a problem, though assuming you've not played with story companions before I'd say you're missing out.

 

As for using staves on a caster: Is it really a good idea anyways? Casters are so fragile that it seems that you want to use a shield/1H approach if you want to go melee hybrid, no?

 

I am sure a stave based caster could be designed that would work fine. Pillars is surprisingly flexible with what classes you can build.

 

That said, it's more that Durance's story dialogue makes repeated references to his staff, so it would be a bit disconcerting to me if I had sold it (I never sell unique items anyway, since money is not hard to come by in Pillars).

Edited September 7, 2017 by JerekKruger

[Lampros]

 

I didn't use any story companions. In the next game, I don't think I will recruit them - except the one I am going to sacrifice. All they do is just fill up my quest log. Now I figure I don't even want their gear, because I have gotten my hand on Act II, WM stuff, and they are just far inferior.

 

Ah okay, then that's not a problem, though assuming you've not played with story companions before I'd say you're missing out.

 

As for using staves on a caster: Is it really a good idea anyways? Casters are so fragile that it seems that you want to use a shield/1H approach if you want to go melee hybrid, no?

 

I am sure a stave based caster could be designed that would work fine. Pillars is surprisingly flexible with what classes you can build.

 

That said, it's more that Durance's story dialogue makes repeated references to his staff, so it would be a bit disconcerting to me if I had sold it (I never sell unique items anyway, since money is not hard to come by in Pillars).

 

 

Ah, ok. I thought there was an OP staff build that I am not aware of. I am a newb who picked up the game a week or so ago, after all!

[JerekKruger]

Ah, ok. I thought there was an OP staff build that I am not aware of. I am a newb who picked up the game a week or so ago, after all!

 

Not as far as I'm aware. It's a very good weapon thanks mainly to it's crush/burn damage (it would be even better if it was burn/crush thanks to a peculiarity of Pillars coding) and is particularly handy when fighting the various spectres and shades you meet early on in Caed Nua and the Temple of Eothas since they are weak to burn damage, but I don't know of any builds that specifically make use of it.

[Boeroer]

Actually I don't know of any build that is using a quarterstaff.

 

They just lack an interesting unique.

[JerekKruger]

That is true. I hope there are some more interesting staves in Deadfire.

[Ensign]

Sincerely atm I now look only at plate, robe, padded and hide armors.

 

I'd keep scale armor on the table solely for fighters, because the -20% armor speed penalty plus -15% from durganizing push it down to zero recovery penalty.  For any other class it's a pretty underwhelming combo of defense and speed.

[Natures Bounty]

Maneha's armor can be good in endgame on melee chars that rely on endurance regeneration. +25% healing, +1 move speed and only 25% recovery penalty are quite good for a monk, e.g. for the monksterlasher or witch hunter builds by boeroer. the lower DR values can also be quite beneficial for a monk.

[Lampros]

 

Sincerely atm I now look only at plate, robe, padded and hide armors.

 

I'd keep scale armor on the table solely for fighters, because the -20% armor speed penalty plus -15% from durganizing push it down to zero recovery penalty.  For any other class it's a pretty underwhelming combo of defense and speed.

 

 

Why not breastplate?