New player - preparing for Deadfire

[Bharaz]

Greetings and salutations, Watchers!

 

Quick information regarding my CRPG background:

• Grew up with Baldurs Gate
• Have completed Baldurs Gate I & II, Icewind Dale I & II, Fallout I & II - hated NWN.

I have a few questions that I hope you lads and ladettes can help me answer. I'm completely mesmerized by PoE, having recently purchased the entire game with expansions on my PS4. I understand that the expansion isn't too far off, but we have yet to recieve word on when it will be ported to the Playstation 4. 

 

Anyway, let's dive in to my questions!

 

1. So far I'm enjoying my Chanter. He's wielding a Pistol for the most part, as he's orignially from the Deadfire Archipelago, having fled the scene due to a betrayal. I don't love my chanter, to be perfectly honest with you lot. Sure, it's fun to summon a creature or two - and be able to fire my pistol more often than usual, but the class itself doesn't really enthrall me. What class would you guys pick for an ex-pirate first mate and why?
2. I've heard that bows are pretty good in this game, more so than guns at the later stages of the game. Why is that?
3. Is there any way for me to improve my companions' A.I. on the PS4? My priest for example hardly ever heals characters out of reach.
4. I have always liked Paladins, but to me - it seems like both Priests and Paladins are somewhat locked into a specific way of behaving/values. I like freedom in my roleplaying experiences, do you guys feel forced to act a certain way while playing Paladins, or Priests?
5. Do items you find randomize every playthrough?
6. Is there any way to increase the number of fireplaces I can carry? (for resting)
7. Should Priests, Rangers and general back-rowers use light or heavy armor?
8. Can a priest or a mage be a frontliner?
9. How good are the cross-class abilities you can get at the first levels? Should I pick up sneak attack for my ranged chanter, for example?
10. Once I reach the level required for Fine/Excellent enchantments, should I enchant my gear if I can afford it? I feel like I'm saving tons of materials and money waiting to see what I get, and then in the end I hardly ever enchant anything.

 

Thank you all for reading this, looking forward to any and all responses!

 

- Bharaz

[draego]

So far I'm enjoying my Chanter. He's wielding a Pistol for the most part, as he's orignially from the Deadfire Archipelago, having fled the scene due to a betrayal. I don't love my chanter, to be perfectly honest with you lot. Sure, it's fun to summon a creature or two - and be able to fire my pistol more often than usual, but the class itself doesn't really enthrall me. What class would you guys pick for an ex-pirate first mate and why?

 

There are a few resource gathering classes. Chanter gather resources by waiting for chants to finish, Monks gather wounds info by taking damage from enemies to power abilities, Ciphers power abilities by hitting stuff. You may like Cipher if you want more active power gatherer. You gain focus though damage output and can build as a ranged or melee character. As far as pirate theme not sure about class specifically. If you pick background slave (from anywhere but who is kidding go deadfire) you can be a slave that served on ship and throw your captors overboard. Also there is raider background has a pirate theme also. also coastal Aumaua are sea faring folk as far as races go. Valians (merchants), rauatai (military at least armament obsessed culture ), deadfire (Caribbean pirates theme sort of) prob good cultures for ocean goers for different reasons

 

 

Check this link out for new players

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Do items you find randomize every playthrough?

 

Yes there are some locations that generate random loot based on the order of your party and day of the month in the world. The random finds are not totally random however there is a set of 20 items at each location that you can predict will show up. So it cant generate just any item and save scrumming doesnt do anything (unless you save and rest to get to a particular day). However not all loot is random, there are lots of carefully placed special items that are there in ever run. I would say most stuff is not random. Here is wiki. It seem to work for me on pc.

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Is there any way to increase the number of fireplaces I can carry? (for resting)

 

This is only done through difficulty settings. For instance normal gives you 4 campfires and hard/POTD gives you 2

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Can a priest or a mage be a frontliner?

 

Yes they can. It can be harder for new players to do this but wizards and priest have great buff spells for defense and offense. Priest has spells that heal/buff you and your party. They both start will really low deflection and health but this can be overcome and you can do stuff like unhide your main tanky and dps guy first and move forward while your priest/wizard casts a buff and waits a sec before joining the fight. There are no prefight spell buffs like the old game so you have to be a little more stategic how you move them forward. Also priest have weapon specialties talents you need to pay attention to. If you are going melee make sure to pay attention to priest weapon types. Wizards can conjure good melee weapons at certain spell levels.

 

I have an off tank Berath priest going right now and its fine. I usually take some other class or scrolls along to let other characters do more of the support since priest end up being more in support role. So taking a second priest helps relieve your front-line priest form casting prayers or heals, etc.

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

How good are the cross-class abilities you can get at the first levels? Should I pick up sneak attack for my ranged chanter, for example?

 

There good uses for alot of them. Some of the more popular are Veterans Recovery. If you have high might/high int build that goes into melee, this is great choice. Even just high might maybe worth it. Passive heals like this can be great especially early on to keep you doing killing instead of potions or spells. There are better spell heals that are faster but good skill.

 

The Sneak attack is nice damage boost since its easy to trigger with spells and flanking and melee abilities, and weapon enchantments. 

 

Outlanders Frenzy can be good if you have some int and want more attack speed. Ive seen some builds with it. Attack speed for non spells slingers is king in this game in most circumstances. There maybe stacking issues with this ability though with other spells, potions, etc not sure off hand.

 

Gallant focus can be ok but doesnt stack with other accuracy abilities/spells. Not sure which ones off hand. Can be nice for first strike. There is alot of stacking rules with gear and spells and potions so pay attention to no over buff yourself because alot of stuff can be wasted.

 

Aspirant's Mark is good debuff for Int character. This is druid spells which they get better version but still good debuff especially if you dont have druid in party. There is scroll of natures mark that is better but its a scroll so you lose it after cast. This spell is once per encounter which is great.

 

Ive seen builds with runners wounding shot and Prestidigitator's Missiles for extra per encounter ability damage. would prob want on high might build. 

 

Charms are very powerful spells. basically take enemy out of battle for duration. can swing battle. Ciphers get have nice charm spells. 

 

I have seen build with Novice's Suffering for wizard and barb. i would think this is more specialty build though not a normal setup.

 

Per encounter spells like above can be nice. Casters dont even start with per encounter spells at first. 

 

I am sure there are other posters on here that have more detailed info

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Once I reach the level required for Fine/Excellent enchantments, should I enchant my gear if I can afford it? I feel like I'm saving tons of materials and money waiting to see what I get, and then in the end I hardly ever enchant anything.

 

Personally i save my stuff for actually unique armor/weapons (so only items with unique enchantments) that you are planning on using. You will eventually get enough (through stronghold and merchants) material to say enchant most everything but early on until maybe midpoint in game you will be limited in how much you can enchant with fine/exceptional so be careful. 

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Should Priests, Rangers and general back-rowers use light or heavy armor?

 

I think most standard builds have them with lighter armor. I am not so ridged in my playthroughs with this for instance i let aloth keep that leather armor he starts with in alot of my runs. It has a nice ability, so its fine but not ubber optimal. So in general backline lighter armor front line heavier. However, there are exceptions, especially with frontline builds. There is pleny of room for nice frontline dps killer to have light armor in may circumstances. Either because you want to get hit like for some monk builds or barb builds or because you can easily keep that person alive while they enjoy the benefits of faster attacks in lighter armor. Also you run across an a light armor that has such a better enchantment quality than anything you have currently you might as well give it to a frontline character because it actually is better or close enough better protection at least until you find the heavier counterpart with a similar enchantment

 

As the game moves on armor because less and less effective in fights. So keep this in mind as you get to later stages it may not make much of a difference if an enemy hits your for an additional 10 damage when they are hitting your for 50-100 or more points of damage. 

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

I have always liked Paladins, but to me - it seems like both Priests and Paladins are somewhat locked into a specific way of behaving/values. I like freedom in my roleplaying experiences, do you guys feel forced to act a certain way while playing Paladins, or Priests?

 

Ye sort of. I didnt love this mechanic but one of my playthoughs is berath priest so its fine. There is a talent for each class that lets you pick the disfavored dispositions without a problems. You can also pick dispositions that are not favored as long as you dont pick the disfavored ones you will be fine. If you look at it that way you are really only limited by two dispositions (the two disfavored ones). I mean you can only get a single dispositions so high so only picking the favored ones is not completely necessary but still heavily weighted in those directions.

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Is there any way for me to improve my companions' A.I. on the PS4? My priest for example hardly ever heals characters out of reach.

 

Not sure if PS4 has AI UI part. On PC you can specify the companion AI by pressing the Head icon on the toolbar of each character. This isnt a supper detailed AI like there will be in POE2 so i do get its not always great.

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

I've heard that bows are pretty good in this game, more so than guns at the later stages of the game. Why is that?

 

Yes that is what the forum consensus has come to, bows are better damage dealers. You can probably find a forum like this one with more detailed info.  I think it has to do with a few things. There are some really good bows like persistance with wounding enchantment which bypass dr (the enchantment bypasses not the main damage) and Stormcaller which has nice -6 DR debuff, etc. I believe this also has to do with reload/recovery times being really slow for guns. Bows have no reload and faster recovery so you can hit the enemy more times. There is also the issue of overkill. So a gun might hit for more damage but if an enemy is low health that damage wont matter if it over damages the target and then you have to wait for another cylce of reloading and recovery. Also misses do more harm with slower weapons like guns.

 

There are guns builds though. One that seems popular is create Island aumaua and take Quick Switch, Arms Bearer talent. Now you have 4 weapon sets. You can place 3 or 4 guns in those sets and then fire switch fire switch fire switct, etc. This will be lots of burst damage real fast. 

 

However just because its optimal does not mean you have to do it. If you like guns and want to use just find synergies for them. So ranger has swift aim ability, chanter has chant that increases reload and attack for any person in range, and there is talent for faster reload. You also have faster attack speed potions and abilities.

 

Also nothing wrong with using gun as alpha strike and then switching to melee or other ranged weapons

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[draego]

Check this link out for new players.

 

if you havent figured it out yet the #1 rule for playing eternity is:

 

Dont read the gold plated npc. I mean you cna if you want but they have nothing to do with story just ignore them.

Edited February 6, 2018 by draego

[Bharaz]

Wow, thank you for the detailed response to my questions, draego. Much appreciated!

 

I'll make sure to check out the links you listed.