Looking to create a char for a later import in PoE2

[Slack83er]

Mmm I'm not too sold on that... seems like... forced.

I'm away from home right now and can't test... But as of now I'm up with paladin..

[Boeroer]

I also wouldn't do it - but you asked for a ranged ranger in the frontline.  

[Slack83er]

I also wouldn't do it - but you asked for a ranged ranger in the frontline.

Sure, and thanks for trying, but it doesn't seem very viable.. 

I can't think of anything more intriguing than the Monkadin right now... but if you have suggestions... I'm open..

 

Edit:

 

 

...aaaand that'd be: a monk or a barb. Veeery unconventional...yet tanky builds.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Slack83er

[Slack83er]

Ranger - Hearth Orlan ( used stock photo) wolf for extra damage and pretend its my dog with me on the adventure

M-15 C-9 D-15 P-15 I-9 R-15

 

Hi Draego, not heard from you for a while... I'm also thinking about ranger. 

Do you think it's gonna be tanky enough? Must it be Orlan or you have other suggestions? Does it only work with Tidefall? I ask all of this because this character is almost identical to my former orlan fighter, but with less intelligence and higher per and res...which I like, but otherwise identical.. Can it play rogue like trapspringing and sneaking?

[Stargazer55]

Excuse me, if I just chime in.

 

Would something like a paladin/ranger or a paladin/wizard be viable in Deadfire? And how could I emulate that in PoE I?

 

I tried the monk/paladin and enjoyed the character quite a lot ... however I didn‘t like the flavor of the fist punches. The animations were not to my taste either. But the Kind Wayfarer was very flavorful and nice.

 

Thanks for helping me out.

[draego]

 

Ranger - Hearth Orlan ( used stock photo) wolf for extra damage and pretend its my dog with me on the adventure

M-15 C-9 D-15 P-15 I-9 R-15

 

Hi Draego, not heard from you for a while... I'm also thinking about ranger. 

Do you think it's gonna be tanky enough? Must it be Orlan or you have other suggestions? Does it only work with Tidefall? I ask all of this because this character is almost identical to my former orlan fighter, but with less intelligence and higher per and res...which I like, but otherwise identical.. Can it play rogue like trapspringing and sneaking?

 

 

No you can change almost everything like Boeroer has demonstrated.

 

Race:

Good defensive races to look at Coastal Aumaua has really nice defensive talent (stuns and prone are nasty), Moon Goodlike (if you getting hit will heal you and close by animal), wild orlan (extra defense when hit with will attack) even mountain dwarf has a defensive ability if you want more defense.

 

Stats:

Boeroer finds his build good enough with 3 Res and Shod-in-Faith so you good enough. It would be perfectly fine to move all that Per to Con or event take it from Dex if you like perc for role playing but accuracy is easy to come by with buff, talents, equipment so:

 

M-15 C-15 D-15 P-9 I-9 R-15

 

And what is good with con is that it stack with fortitude def and if you take Coastal Aumaua you will have lots of defense against fortitude attacks like stun and prone. Also with these stats for ranger you start with 29 accuracy with this build which i one lower than the best you get with any class of 30. And if you flank (or other debuffs) with animal you drop enemy defl. by 10 right off and later flank plus stunning enemies and casting thorny Roots for stuck gets nasty. 

 

Also maybe go dual wield (+50% attack speed right off and dual wield talent and Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, i mean you could use that potion with two handed weapon) for faster stuns and even maybe drop dex and pump might and res or con so 

 

M-18 C-15 D-9 P-9 I-9 R-18 or

 

M-18 C-15 D-9 P-9 I-12 R-15 like boeroer mentioned for longer duration affects (the few you will have) 

 

Also with more con and res enemies target you less so they less likely to go out of way to attack you. At least it seemed to me

 

With droped Dex and Peception you could try one handed weapon with small shield and shield talent to buff deflection and reflex you lost with lower dex and perception. You will be pretty sturdy. I mean i play on hard and i dont use shield and go either dual or two handed but if you dont want to move alot shield is fine.

 

Maybe even do soemthing gamy and take 14 Perception and take medium shield -4 acc. later in game there is Badgradr's Barricade that hits enemies on crit with nice spell so you can 'dual wield' with shield and get deflection. To me you would pretty much be a tank at least a tank in the Pillars of enternity since and still do decent damage with the debuff you can muster with flanked (animal), stunned (stunning shots), stuck (thorny roots) or prone (animal ability), You will attack slower if you drop dex since even with bash shield. the game does not count as dual wield so you dont get +50% speed like you do with dual wield. Durgan steel later on would help the speed but also speed potion

 

I mean the thing to remember outside maybe Might almost none of the other stats matter and even my all around build number only have 15 might which is not that much

 

Weapons:

There are plenty of good weapons out there outside tidefall or persistance that tie in with your animal/ranger combo. For ranger look for:

 

• Wounding (for animal predators sense) (drawn in spring (later in game), Acuan Giamas (real late in game))
• Coordinating (+4 acc/+25%damage when attacking same enemy as ally, ie animal comp) (Ravenwing, Blesca's Labor, Cladhalíath)
• Vicious (+20% Damage against Flanked, Prone, Stunned target, ie my ranger/animal will stun/flank enemies easily and almost always have flanked status so this will always be applied) (Dîal Ewn Dibita, Misery's End, Vierina's Leaves, Cladhalíath )
• Marking (+10 Accuracy granted to an ally attacking the same target, ie i want to help my animal crit more and more) (Blade of the Endless Paths, Cladhalíath, Shame or Glory, Spectacular Spetum)

 

You can go dual wield and use like Cladhalíath (if you not roleplaying super super nice person . They way you get it is a little sad) and get both (marking and coordinating) on one weapon and then in the off hand you can go with another weapon like hatchet for +5 def if you worried about defense over dps like Hearth Harvest +3 bypass with Vulnerable Attack for another +5 bypass.  Ravenwing nice for Coordinating because its mace with +3 bypass and start with +45% damage (later on upgrades will override the damage).

 

You can always go for more damage weapons with Annihilation (+0.5 to Crit damage multiplier) like the two Sabres or all Axe or there is one Warhammer. Since you will be debuffing your target with your abilities you will get more and more crits later on. Other good enchant for more damage would be speed enchant. There is several weapons with speed. or Bittercut for just straight corode damage that is a nasty damage weapon. S

 

Also with weapons if you plan on taking focus you can look for groups of weapons to dual wield to give you ideas. You can also use the Helwax Mold to double up on buff up weapon you like.

 

Noble Focus: 

Ravenwing/Drawn in spring

Sword of Daenysis/drawn in spring

Vierina's Leaves/drawn in spring

 

or any combos and with vulnerable attack if small/small combos not cutting it.

 

Peasant Focus

Cladhalíath/Hearth Harvest

Cladhalíath/Rêghar Konnek

 

Ruffian

Bittercut/Misery's End 

Bittercut/Blesca's Labor 

Bittercut/Dîal Ewn Dibita 

or Any good Saber with annihilation 

or Sabre/Sabre for lots of damage

 

 

You can do this with other focus type also and keep going. I dont even take focus that much any more with my runs so its not a huge concern but it can focus you in on certain weapons if you want to be focused and get some ideas

 

I would stay away from weapons that stun or prone on crit. They are good early on until you get your stunning ability then other weapons would just be better.

 

I am sure none of this is uber optimal but i dont actually care sometimes its fun to just mess with other weapons because maybe you like the look of it or style. I did a pretty far run with ranger with Spectacular Spetum a marking (not a very exiting ability) Pollaxe because i just like the style of pollaxe and it has nice slash/crush damage types not to optimize the build. 

 

Skills:

 

Yes you can be the trap guy. The optimal route for ranger is survival since you get bonus in it and you can get even more bonus against flanked enemies something like 30% more damage by end of game i think. but even 10 or 20% damage helps (the first and second tier version in survival) . but..

you can be the trap guy. You can find background with at least one mechanics and then try to get up to 10 or 11 i think and also save mechanics scrolls to buff +3 when needed and save scrum/rest alot for gloves of manipulations for +2 mechanics in a random loot locaiton (you already need to try this to find Stalker's Torc in random loot tables) and wear when needed and also you can get resting bonus from your strong hold for any really hard traps. So like drifter for stealth/mechanic bonus. And if you are going this route some stealth would be fine there are a few quests where both stealth and mechanics on someone helps like maybe 2 or so and some stealth is nice for start of battle to keep you hidden for maybe one sec longer so enemies will target someone else first. 

 

If you want more active abilities, lore is also a nice choice. You will have spells to cast beside fighting and get some roleplaying choices for it. in that case go for more dex than perc or something else

Edited February 1, 2018 by draego

[Boeroer]

@Stargazer:

 

Both Combos are viable in Deadfire. For example Bleak Walker/Sharpshooter is pretty strong (especially with dual scepter - not very ranger-like though ).

 

Paladin/Wizard is also good because of the awesome self-buffing of the wizard and the naturally high defenses of the paladin. Also Citzal's Spirit Lance + Flames of Devotion = total wreckage.

 

Paladin/Ranger is quite easy in PoE: use an arquebus or arbalest and pick Runner's Wounding Shot and so on.

 

Or the other way round: use a ranger and pick Gallant's Focus. You can also go melee and use Tidefall with Wounding Shots - or even a weapon & shield setup like a marking + coordinating Cladhaliath + Badgradr's Barricade. Vile Loner's Lance + Badgradr's Barricade is also nice. The Barricade's Thrust of Tattered Veils works with Penetrating Shot and also Driving Flight. Together with Stunning Shots it procs all the time.

 

There's also a marking pistol named St. Garam's Spark which can emulate Coordinated Attacks for your pet and works well with Wounding Shot and later Powder Burns. There also is an arquebus with that feature, but it comes quite late.

 

Paladin/Wizard is a bit trickier. But a Darcozzi Paladini with Inspiring Liberation and that marking wand Cgadob's Hazel would be a good ranged ACC support. I wouldn't use FoD though - except if you switch to a quarterstaff like Durance's Staff for it. You could use Prestidigitator's Missiles. They are good with Penetrating Shot and Sworn Enemy.

 

The other way round would maybe be a melee wizard with self buffs and Gallant's Focus. Weapon & Shield wizards are viable - summoned weapons, too. Summons like tentacles and stuff also profit from Gallant's Focus.

 

A Wizard/Ranger with blunderbusses is pretty fun if you use Expose Vulnerabilities + Combusting Wounds with blunderbuss shots. Or aim for late Cadebald's Blackbow and use other bows in the meantime with Alacrity + Martial Power. The Blackbow is pretty strong. You'll be an Arcane Archer sort of. Use Penetrating Shots for Minor Missiles, Bounding Missiles and stuff.

 

Other way round: Golden Gaze with Swift Aim and Driving Flight is good, too.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[Stargazer55]

The arcane archer sounds appealing. I actually never considered wizard as an MC class before. That‘s something I have to try. Is there anything (stats or something) I should consider? I suck when it comes to mastering the mechanics of this game.

[Boeroer]

Stats for a bow wizard are similar to that of a blast wizard. Although you *can* get away with lowish INT if you don't use AoE based spells too much but concentrate on spells like missiles, bolts and stuff that have no duration and no AoE. I would never dump it though.

 

Best race would be Wood Elf of course.

[Slack83er]

You know, Boeroer and Stargazer... the idea of the scepter-wielding paladin doesn't seem bad... a noble... Darcozzi, with prestidigitator's missiles..and some magic (but how to?)...I dunno... The only doubt I have about it (as with any ranged pally) is how useful the zealous areas will be, if you're not amidst your companions... 

 

For Draego: thanks for the awesome answer. 

I give you details on what I'd like: 

 

RACE: fine with Orlan...I don't dislike him at all, a race full of PoE lore.

STATS: I'd like to have PER and RES. Last time I had all INT. In a test i gave him M15 - C10 - D13 - P16 - I9 - R16...

WEAPONS: two weapons, and I know how Cladhaliath is obtained, no problem about that. Hatchet is also something I like. Do 2 hatchet result in +10 deflection?

SKILLS: I wanna play the trap guy, definitely. Would you spread like STEALTH-MECH-SURV or MECH-SURV-LORE (which afaik adds to dialogues) ?

 

Do you think it's gonna work? Or lower Dex a bit more?

Edited February 1, 2018 by Slack83er

[draego]

You know, Boeroer and Stargazer... the idea of the scepter-wielding paladin doesn't seem bad... a noble... Darcozzi, with prestidigitator's missiles..and some magic (but how to?)...I dunno... The only doubt I have about it (as with any ranged pally) is how useful the zealous areas will be, if you're not amidst your companions... 

 

For Draego: thanks for the awesome answer. 

I give you details on what I'd like: 

 

RACE: fine with Orlan...I don't dislike him at all, a race full of PoE lore.

STATS: I'd like to have PER and RES. Last time I had all INT. In a test i gave him M15 - C10 - D13 - P16 - I9 - R16...

WEAPONS: two weapons, and I know how Cladhaliath is obtained, no problem about that. Hatchet is also something I like. Do 2 hatchet result in +10 deflection?

SKILLS: I wanna play the trap guy, definitely. Would you spread like STEALTH-MECH-SURV or MECH-SURV-LORE (which afaik adds to dialogues) ?

 

Do you think it's gonna work? Or lower Dex a bit more?

 

Yes dual hatchet is +10 deflection this would be the low dps so take vulnerable attack for sure maybe have a second weapon set if enemy DR get way to high for you which will be alot. You can also drop dex and take maybe more Might for damage and stack a might equipment to help with low damage of dual small weapons. Dual wield by itself give you +50% attack speed so less dex is needed for attaking (now skill use or scroll use will be a little slower without dex). If you like hatchet i would do big weapon/hatchet but i think dual would be sturdy for sure.

 

If you are worried about sturdiness i would do large weapon/shield instead of dual hatchet. There is great small shield later in game and nice medium shields like i mentioned above

 

All skills have checks in dialogue/scripted interactions like lore (which may have more than others in just straight dialogue) but other have some to like survival and even mechanics a few times. There are other checks for skills in scripted interactions too.

 

I would not split skills evenly. If you spread stealth,mech,survival you have to prioritize mech over others. I dont know the exact formula but you have to get to 10 mech to be baseline useful for later trap finding and that is with help like i mentioned you actually need like 12 to get most and maybe 16? to get all, cant remember. i dont think you should just straight go for highest mech numbers with skills alone though. you should buff yourself when you need more mech with gloves, spell and rest. With those you can get +2 gloves of manipulation if you find them (and you should game this with loot table in wiki), +3 scroll (save them for later in game), +2 rest in stronghold so that give you extra +7 when you need it and that is plenty good. You many want 3 stealth at least and then save stealth scrolls for +3 and even find a stealth item like leather armor, Footpad's Hood, etc (+2 stealth) or other items, and resting bonus that you can do stealth when you need it.

 

You dont have to wear these items all the time just put them on when you need more mech/stealth. The rest in survival. 6 survival will get you +10% damage (12 sur +20%) on flanked so you should try for that at some point. Mech is more important to invest in because low mech is pointless. survival would be second over stealth. Early on you may find some traps you cant disarm so dont get frustrated just avoid them.

 

mech/lore/surv may be fine. still get 10 mech then split rest between lore/survival and you may not find you can buff either one to high but the good thing for lore is any even number investment gets you a bump of scrolls spells. so 2 lore gets you a whole 'spell' circle and so on. There is only a few quests where stealth matters and for actual general fights just stand further back to start and then run up after fight start or if flanking just wait a sec before revealing yourself. You maybe be able to put 3 in stealth a few in lore and 10 mech and rest in survival and be good.

 

I mean you can calc exactly what you can spend on yourself. You get 6 skill per level plus the opening background bonus. The skill cost go up a point one on every actual point your skill goes up. The opening bonus skews that.

Edited February 1, 2018 by draego

[Slack83er]

Brilliant. So 13 Dex is still too high for 2 weapon? I wouldn't go under 12, if I decide to go weapon/shield at a certain point, then I'll be slow.. but generally speaking, I'll stick to 2 weapon fighting. And Cladhalìath/Drawn in Spring is what I like the most.

 

As for skills, the last option you described seems the best to me. Just a little stealth with Mech on top and Survival as 2nd best.

I think this can be quite fun to play (the wolf is really kick*** even right at the start).

Thanks a whole bunch for all you wrote.

 

Edit: 

 

What about the paladin Stargazer asked about? Did you come up with a build?

Edited February 1, 2018 by Slack83er

[draego]

Brilliant. So 13 Dex is still too high for 2 weapon? I wouldn't go under 12, if I decide to go weapon/shield at a certain point, then I'll be slow.. but generally speaking, I'll stick to 2 weapon fighting. And Cladhalìath/Drawn in Spring is what I like the most.

 

As for skills, the last option you described seems the best to me. Just a little stealth with Mech on top and Survival as 2nd best.

I think this can be quite fun to play (the wolf is really kick*** even right at the start).

Thanks a whole bunch for all you wrote.

 

Edit: 

 

What about the paladin Stargazer asked about? Did you come up with a build?

 

Dual wield gives you +50% attack (and then another +20% with the dual wield talent) so dex is less priority if you want some other attribute. Weapon/shield you could add more dex to help for more speed but you get better defense.

 

Ye wolf is nice with the 3 damage talent/abilities especially. It would be even better if they logged the damage from the wolf somewhere.

Edited February 1, 2018 by draego

[Boeroer]

You can download and install MaxQuests mod that fixes this. It also correctly logs the damage of all DoT effects (which the original PoE doesn't do as well):

 

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/92999-community-bug-fixes/?p=1921632

Edited February 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[Slack83er]

So, if I get it correctly, the dual wield talent and the vulnerable attack kinda erase each other's speed, but I end up getting +5 dr bypass? So the total resulting speed from 2 weapons 'd be +50% (excluding the eventual weapon's inherent bonus)... not bad.. very viable. Then if I find a particular encounter to be too hard, I can switch to sword and board for a higher penetration and better defence. That sounds about right and good. So in the end Dex12 it will be, while per and res will stay 16. Per maybe can even go 15.. I'm not ranged after all. Better put it in mig? Con?

[draego]

So, if I get it correctly, the dual wield talent and the vulnerable attack kinda erase each other's speed, but I end up getting +5 dr bypass? So the total resulting speed from 2 weapons 'd be +50% (excluding the eventual weapon's inherent bonus)... not bad.. very viable. Then if I find a particular encounter to be too hard, I can switch to sword and board for a higher penetration and better defence. That sounds about right and good. So in the end Dex12 it will be, while per and res will stay 16. Per maybe can even go 15.. I'm not ranged after all. Better put it in mig? Con?

 

Well you could switch to just harder hitting dual wield weapons like dual sabre or just any two large one handed (hatchet are fast small one handed weapons) weapons so you are still dual wielding. but your second weapons set can be more tanky if you want.

Edited February 1, 2018 by draego

[Boeroer]

With heavier one handers I wouldn't recommend Vulnerable Attack most of the time. The loss of speed means a bigger dps loss than 5 points can outweigh. Especially once you have a lash on the weapon - since that doesn't work with DR bypass.

 

With the light weapons it's often beneficial - especially in the early game it makes a difference (and late game once you can use it without any speed loss - because you have an overbundance of speed bonuses).

 

Also note that weapon & shield is faster than single weapon or two handers once you have access to durgan steel. Durgan steel on the shield speeds up your main hand attack by 15% (multiplicative, stacking).

[Slack83er]

Thanks Boeroer. If the ranger remains sturdy, I'll stick to 2wf.. I also thought of taking the fighter cross class talent.. would it be useful? The character has high res so deflection shouldn't be an issue... but I've never tried to play a long time with ranger so I wouldn't know..

[Stargazer55]

Edit: 

 

What about the paladin Stargazer asked about? Did you come up with a build?

 

I'm currently trying a paladin who will use some scolls to simulate wizardry. Not sure if it will work though ... or what will come of it. Not even sure about my attributes or weapons, because frankly, I'm unable to calculate effective combinations.

 

The arcane ranger felt much to contrived. It might be a fun concept in Deadfire when we have actual multiclassing but in PoE I it felt just strange ... and not in a good way, but strange for strangeness's sake.

[Boeroer]

You mean ranger with some wizard flavor like Prestidigitator's Missiles or a wizard with bows?

[Stargazer55]

I tried the wizard with bows. The ranger with Prestidigitator's Missiles is something I haven't considered yet. However, I always bring Sagani since she's my favourite NPC and I'm not sure if two rangers are too redundant. What would you say?

[Boeroer]

Yes, I find two rangers boring - also the increased party size due to two animal companions is too much bustle for me. 

 

Interesting that you find the bow wizard odd. I found it quite fun to go through with the bow until I finally could summon Cadebald's Blackbow. Also, with Alacrity, thin armor (and later Citzal's Martial Power) you can achieve impressive dps numbers with Persistence. It's more of a roleplaying thing though because 90% of the game you will do less dps compared to implement with Blast. But since wizards cast more and more with each level they gain and attack less and less with their weapons I never found this to be a problem.

 

And the Blackbow is pretty cool.

 

Sadly there is no Blackbow in the Deafire Beta. I would love to know how a wizard/ranger would work with Blackbow + Twinned Arrows + Driving Flight. The Blackbow has an inherent Driving-Flight effect (shots jump to an additional target) and how cool would it be to get two arrows that jump once because of Blackbow and then again because of Driving Flight?

Edited February 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Stargazer55]

I agree, the Blackbow is cool. Out of curiosity I loaded an old save game and respecced Aloth into arcane archer with the Blackbow. And I must admit, that was fun. However, the spell comes way too late for me to make a character (a main character no less) based on it.

 

So, the search continues ...

[Boeroer]

If anybody wants to try out a fun barbarian:

 

Race: Fire Godlike

 

Culture: Whatever

 

Background: Colonist

 

Stats:

MIG: 16

CON: 16

DEX: 08

PER: 15

INT: 15

RES: 08

 

Skills: Survival 14

 

Talents:

Weapon Focus Adventurer

Accurate Carnage

Two Handed Style

Scion of Flame

Barbaric Blow

Savage Attack

Vulnerable Attack

Bloody Slaughter (in anticipation of Deadfire where it's better than in PoE)

 

Abilities:

Frenzy

Bloodlust

One Stands Alone

Blood Thirst

Vengeful Defeat (if not, then take Blooded here and Dragon Leap later)

Heart of Fury

Barbaric Retaliation

Blooded

 

if MC: Merciless Hand, Dungeon Delver, Effigy's Resentment: Durance, Blooded Hunter, Gift from the Machine, Song of the Heavens

 

Items:

Headgear: -

Neck: Marked Amulet or Swaddling Sheet or Hiro's Mantle

Armor: Argwes Adra (if Vengeful Defeat) or Coat of Ill Payment

Hands: Forgemaster's Gloves

Rings: Ring of Prot., Iron Circle

Belt: Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer

Boots: Echoing Misery

 

Weapons: Firebrand, Backup Weapon: Drake's Bell

 

Firebrand with Blood Thirst is ridiculously good. And with the belt + gloves you will have 6 uses of Firebrand per rest, which is plenty. For vessels bind St. Ydwen's Redeemer.

To even add more procs of Blood Thirst (= 0 recovery after kill) we have Battle Forged + Flame Shield from the belt. If an enemy dies from retaliation you also get 0 recovery for your next swing. It is very good if you have some char in your party who can disable mobs so that the barb can crit a lot. Firebrand is annihilating (+50% crit damage) and Barbaric Blow adds another 50% crit damage. WIth Bloody Slaughter you would add another +50% - although this is seldomly useful it can speed up kill against the later bounties where the enemies have a lot of endurance or against ogres and the like.

It's quite the show once the killing starts...

 

bug: do not use Second Wind once Battle FOrged is active! You will hit yourself with Battle Forged which might get you killed.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Slack83er]

Wow, that looks like fun! I'm off to try it out! 

And the ranger.

And will let u know.

And will write here again.

And goodbye.

See ya.