New player - a few questions and advice needed.

[Jahzirr]

Hiho! I'm Jahz and I'm new to this forum and PoE. I have to start with - "Sorry for my english", couse it can suck at times.

 

Okay, now before I post my question I need to give you guys some background:

I haven't played a lot of old-style cRPG games. Only a few quite a long time ago already and tbh I never was a smart man, more of a straighforward one so I need some help from you guys. By not being smart I mean - I suck at micromanagement of my characters and figuring out good tacticks to use, so I'm probably going for normal difficulty and I'm not realy looking for MIN/MAXing my character, I prefer a little more balanced one.

Mainly I have problem with deciding which class to start playing with, which race would be best for it and some build examples or tips for building my beloved avatar.
 

Let's start with my playstyle: I love playing a melee characters, with some mix of magic added to them and optional ranged in some situations. As for weapons I go mostly for 2handed swords and scythes (which are not included in this game if I'm right ). I also have an affinity for animals and nature. As for the last part I prefer being a DPS class with some light/medium armor options. Mostly light one probably.

So now we can easily limit our class choices to:

- cipher - becouse it would be best fit for melee/magic style I think

- ranger - has a combat pet, duuuh~ xD

- druid - with this one I would be leaning more towards some kind of shapeshifter focused build. 

- if there is a class I missed out by accident then please add it in your post too!

 

And now - could you guys tell me, which one would be best for a beginner and my playstyle?

How to build my character up? Which skills to take, talents, attributes etc?

Should I micromanage my NPC companions too? Or is their auto level system pretty good?

Which race would be a best pick for those classes (I was mostly looking at the Orlan, Godlike or Elf race)?

 

I hope you all can push me in the right direction to make that first run of mine a great experience!

Edited February 3, 2018 by Jahzirr

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Mechanically Cipher hits a lot of your preferences, but Barbarian is pretty fun if you want to run into melee and hit stuff. Monk is also a good option and more magical, you can use greatswords with it as well. Paladin is a pretty good choice but outside of Flames of Devotion and Sacred Immolation you'll be less of a damage dealer and more as a support leader.

 

Anything works, just pick what skills, talents, race, etc. you like if you're playing on normal or below.

[Jahzirr]

Monk wouldn't be better if he went on unarmed rather than with weapon? Also his style of being beaten to beat up enemies isn't that appealing to me. As for barbarian - in most games I consider them a brutal meat heads and I'm looking for someone more 'charismatic' or intelligent to roleplay. Paladin doesn't sound bad, never played a paladin in any of my games, but I might think of him a bit.

[Boeroer]

For cipher:

Do a two handed build with Firebrand. Use Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer and Forgemaster's Gloves for 6 uses of Firebrand per rest. Pile up as many damage bonuses as you can get (Biting Whip, Two Handed Style, Savage Attack, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, high MIG, high DEX). Get the Merciless Hand (choose Doemenel Faction).

This cipher will deal tremendous damage per hit. Focus flow will be enormous. Also: fiery giant sword seems to fit your description.

 

Ranger: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83435-class-build-riptide-the-pit-fright-dps-offtank-melee-ranger-double-team-supreme/

 

Use it as inspiration. You don't have to follow the build in detail. Just the basic "tricks" matter: using Tidefall and Shod-in-Faith boots to boost your pet's damage and healing.

 

Druid:

Choose Moon Godlike and boar form. Take Veteran's Recovery as first talent. Skill survival up to 14 (or 12 if you use an item with +2 to survival) and choose healing bonus when camping. Use Nature's Balm and other healing spells once combat starts.

Pick every talent that is useful for the shifted melee damage: Wildstrike Shock, Greater Wildstrike Shock, Two Weapon Style, Weapon Focus Peasant, Heart of the Storm, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Savage Attack.

Use healing and storm spells before you shift. Also Form of the Delemgan is golden. Later use Avenging Storm as well.

The only item you really need is the Wildstrike Belt.

Use high MIG, CON and INT.

This druid is sturdy and does a lot of melee damage when shifted. When in human form you can use dual hatchets for more deflection.

 

All three builds are quite fun to play and also reasonably powerful.

[Jahzirr]

@Boeroer - that is a great advice there and thanks for that! I don't know yet the abbilities or items you wrote about, since I have yet to start the game, but I should be able to figure it out, or just check them on wiki, if there is one somewhere. 

I'm realy impressed by the ranger guide - it was fun to read and had a lot of detail.

 

The only problem I've got with your advice is that I'm even more confused about which one to choose and play first xD And it is quite a problem, since my work takes a lion share of my time. Add sleep to it and I don't have that much time for games as I would like, so checking out all 3 classes might prove hard. 

 

Also for Cipher - would there be and option to instead of fire greatsword have a lightning greatsword? xD

 

Anyway - thanks for the reply, it will help a lot after I finaly decide which class to pick. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Monk wouldn't be better if he went on unarmed rather than with weapon? Also his style of being beaten to beat up enemies isn't that appealing to me. As for barbarian - in most games I consider them a brutal meat heads and I'm looking for someone more 'charismatic' or intelligent to roleplay. Paladin doesn't sound bad, never played a paladin in any of my games, but I might think of him a bit.

Monks are good with any weapon and works great on the frontline. PoE Barbarians actually benefit a lot from being smart as intellect affects duration and AoE which a lot of Barbarian abilities feature. Paladins are pretty cool and their abilities are more magical, however they lag as DPS outside of FoD (which only has 2 uses per encounter) and Sacred Immolation (which comes late). Paladins are great leaders and their Passive support abilities are very good for teamwork.

[Boeroer]

Unfortunately there is no lightning great sword. But you can enchant nearly all weapons with a shocking lash once you have collected or bought the right ingredients.

 

Only exceptions are soulbound and summoned weapons.

 

Such a shocking lash will add a lot of damage and also give your sword a crackling aura with lightning effects and whatnot.

 

But Firebrand (the flaming great sword that you summon from said items) is special because its damage is higher than that of most other weapons.

 

If I were you I would try out the druid. He needs no fancy gear beside the belt which you can buy in Defiance Bay (district Ondra's Gift, Cartugo - a merchant standing in front of the Vailan Trading Company). He plays fairly easy because he's a good mix of sturdyness and damage and he can cast awesome stuff, too. Try Returning/Relentless Storm - it's awesomest.

 

Yes, barbarians' most beloved stat in PoE is Intellect. You can build a smart one and take Firebrand for him, too. Also lots of fun.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Boeroer

[Jahzirr]

Okay, I've decided to put away ranger for now. So.. The Firebrand is a summoned sword, if I understand correctly - from the items you wrote about earlier, yes? Sounds kinda cool. Hah, the whole day went by and I still didn't start playing the game, and you know what guys? I have this very problem with every single RPG game, give it be single player or MMO. It takes me ages to decide what I want to play.

 

Cipher/Druid stayed, but I added Monk and Barb to my options now, so it's not going too great. I think I'll just roll a dice and see what happens. I'm still not totaly convinced about Barb, Monk seems like could be interesting. I would even go and try the unarmed way maybe. 2 main choices are still Cipher and Druid and I think the first run will be with one of them.

 

Even - Cipher
Odd - Druid.
Rolling a D20
Got 6.
Okay! I'm going with Cipher and I'll try out what you suggested me Boeroer. Now I just need to find out where are those items you suggested.

What's the thing with choosing Doemenel Faction? That one I might pass on, couse I will probably go with my instinct/emotions, rather than with build

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

The belt is fairly soon in the game, assuming you've got PX 4. It is soulbound and you will have to bind it to your Cipher to use it, but it is very good.

 

House Doemenel is an important faction in Defiance Bay, along with the Dozens and the Crucible Knights. There is an exclusive quest with each faction that gives a talent as a reward, but on acceptance of the quest you're barred from the other factions quest. House Doemenel are a crime family and their talent gives bonus crit damage, Crucibile Knights are a militia from the Dyrwood revolution who are very respected and are now pseudo-nobility and their Talent gives a boost to your Armor, The Dozens are a milita/mercenary company formed after the recent war who can be bad and their talent gives an accuracy bonus when attacking the same enemy as an ally. It's up to you who you side with and while the talents are nice I don't think any are really essential for a build to be good, especially on normal.

[Boeroer]

In case of Firebrand the Doemenel's talent "Merciless Hand" is especially good. But it's not mandatory.

 

For the Cipher: the strongest spells are Whisper of Treason (and basically all other powers that do mind control like charm/dominate) and then Mental Binding, Silent Scream, Borrowed Instincts, Disintegration, Amplified Wave...

 

You don't need to take damaging powers because you want to deal damage with Firebrand. Exception is Silent Scream and Amplified Wave because they also disable. Disintegrate is an exception because it does tons over tons of damage over time which is great against dragons and all sorts of tough enemies.

[Jahzirr]

I've made both Cipher and Druid, tho for Cipher I took antipathetic field and mind wave. I've didn't read your suggestion Boer before that, so I'm just gonna roll with it. The character is a Hearth Orlan, starting with pike, I plan on getting him enchanted greatsword with shock dmg when I won't be using the Firebrand.

 

As for Druid i took Moon Godlike (all the Godlikes look so freakin awesome, that I almost took one for my Cipher too xD ) and I took cat form instead of boar - just becouse of personal preference. 

 

I distrubuted attributes as you suggested, with lowest being 10 (I didn't min/max at all, I hope my characters won't end up being too average), and for Cipher I added some int too. I will see how it goes.