No shields party?

[Klangeddin]

Hi, can someone give me an idea of how to make a party for the Path of the Damned without a single character that uses a shield?

What would a frontline look like in such party?

 

[peddroelm]

its been many years and patches since I've played PoE .. 

 

I've pretty much only played one thing .. Full melee no shield parties .. 

 

Dual Wield Fighter,  Dual Wield Paladin, 2H/2w Barbarian, 2w Monk, 2w Ranger + wolf, 2w Rogue ..

 

Nice of you to mention 'frontline' .. While not all chars on this party are equally durable (and durable is a relative term since they're all mostly glass cannons) - so you'd not prefer to engage with all at the same time as a line (you'd lose the softer ones too fast) - the preferred engagement area changes - you HATE choke points that prevent tactical movement - you now like open areas that allow you to deploy your full melee lineup [eventually] ..

Edited December 3, 2017 by peddroelm

[Klangeddin]

That's ineresting!

Did you play this party comps on Path of the Damned though?

I thought about making 2 fronliners, 2 pikemen behind them and 2 squishy backline supports, but your post makes me reconsider this idea. This tactics is created specifically for tanks + squishies compositions, but if I won't have any tanks, then maybe something like 4 fronliners + 2 heavy armored supports will work better.

[Boeroer]

You can make a sturdy frontline out of fighters, paladins, barbarians (need some levels to get beefy) and monks who don't wear shields. You can give them Veteran's Recovery to make them more sturdy. As peddroelm said: using chokepoints will not be your best tactic anymore because you want your whole frontline to engage the enemy and not only one or two tanks. If enemies concentrate on one single front liner it may be too much, so try to divide their attention. Also, CC-effects are your friends (Knockdown, Force of Anguish and so on).

[Raven Darkholme]

I'm soloing PotD with a cipher who uses Firebrand (2h) atm and while I have to reload sometimes due to not being level 9 yet (level 8 atm) it's totally doable and ofc it would be much easier with a paladin and even much easier with a full party.

 

As has been pointed out here paladin, fighter barbarian are a great choice for 2h frontline, but you can also utilize chanter, wizard and cipher quite well.

[Jojobobo]

There's lots of CC that drops accuracy (Blinded, Dazed, Frightened), that'll shift their accuracy vs. your defence rolls. That can certainly help not having a shield.