Thought Exercise for final Play Through.

[Darnalak]

Alrighty, (yeah yeah, my first post, I've been reading this forum for years though ).

 

So I've finished the game 3 times... twice with Ciphers(1 melee, 1 ranged), once with a Golden Dragon Barbarian... Made it to Act 2 3 times, once with a dragon thrashed Chanter(brutally effective but I like a LITTLE more micro than that), once with a home made barb ( tall grass thing, didn't like it much), and a druid (really never liked shapechange).  From a story perspective, I absolutely adore the Cipher... but the game play just seems a bit... off.  (I finished the ranged play through before WM2, so I think he had stormcaller, but didn't bind it, and just shot a super pimped war  bow), my homegrown melee used a speedy stiletto and a small shield, with some moderate armor, which gave him a "meh" speed to damage ratio.  The Golden Dragon Barbarian was, quite frankly, the most fun I've had in the game, but it almost felt like cheating, since I basically Just nodded my head "Yes Mister Boeroer, I'm on it"  (hard not to,  really, cuz it works in a godlike fashion).  So /background off.

 

I'd like to work through something that fits these parameters (more or less):  

 

1st, if there are any classes that absolutely fail in POE2 strike them from the list (I hear my beloved Ciphers have a stick shoved so far up them, popsicles are jealous).

 

2nd, I'd like to focus on a heavy 1h weapon and some kind of shield (Dragon's maw being barb/fighter-only, hurts me deep).

 

3rd, Tanky, but not a tank.  (yeah, pretty much the definition of any melee-centric MC).

 

4th, I always use the story NPC's, so no custom groups.  (I have a particular fondness for Eder, Kana, Aloth and the Grieving mother, but I give everyone (except the thief) enough playtime to get their personal journey done)

 

5th, I prefer to have plenty of dialog options but I've noticed the RES options, while most numerous, generally suck (Int/Per seem to be the best, which is good cuz int/per seem to be friggin critical for 90% of the characters).

 

6th, I can't bring myself to play a complete jerk (I had to take a shower after throwing the kid off my ship in KOTOR), which means I won't feed my party members to the skaen altar, I don't get the machine gift, and I don't wipe out the spiders for the shiny spear.

 

7th, I'd love to be convinced to play a priest in this fashion, because that's so not me, that it'd be almost like playing a new game (I'd still keep durance or Hiravias around cuz, heh they're gunna heal, I'm buffin and stuffin).

 

8th, Can't be a barb.  Quite frankly, imho there's just no better Barb than the Golden Dragon, so trying to challenge that is a waste of all our time

 

9th, Going along with the Anti-Jerk Policy, probably means I can't be a Skaen priest, or a bleakwalker.

 

10th, Would take some mighty convincing for me to play a Monk, cuz I'm old fashioned and think they should be nikkid and punching.  (I absolutely love the monk in POE btw, and I'll probably play one while we thrash this post out :D ).

 

11,12,13,14,15,etc I'm sure will come as soon as someone throws a curve ball at me that I didn't think about.

 

Darnalak

 

[Boeroer]

Heh - glad you liked the Golden Dragon. We also have to thank Jojobobo for this.

 

May I present the following:

 

- Buttercut (cipher): cuts soul and tissue as if it was butter. Melee Cipher with the new Royal Deadfire Cannoner Belt + Foremaster's Gloves. I did this in one of my latest playthroughs and it's just so much fun. Firebrand is for damage/focus and spells mostly for CC (except the mandatory Silent Screams and the awesome Disintegration and Amplified Wave and so on). Firebrand with Soul Whip + Biting Whip + Apprentice's Sneak + Two Weapon Style + Savage Attack + Merciless Hand + crits (easy with Mental Binding for example) is just... wow! Even works nice in the late game. You will also spare some nice resources like dargon eyes/kraken eyes, durgan steel and stuff. Not on the tankiest of sides but his reliable CC prevents knockouts pretty well. Somebody hits you? cst Whisper of Treason, done. Or just kill him with oine or two strikes... I didn't use Vet. Recovery on this one but it could be cool.
For Deadfire:

Cipher is going to get a decent buff in Deadfire now after Obsidian did their inhouse playtesting week. Everybody and their uncle complained about cipher there. So I'm confident they will make him good again. Ciphers already have grea passives in Deadfire - only their powers were too slow casting and didn't last long enough. Also, the Soulblade subclass is a great melee cipher already (if you mostly skip the power use atm and dump all focus into Soul Annihilation strikes - which do a ton of raw damage). You could do Devoted/Soul Blade and have a great melee cipher in Deadfire, even if Firebrand is crap in Deadfire atm.

 

 

- Cauterizer (barb): I know, I know: no barb - but I'm playng a barbarian with the same item setup like above (belt & gloves) atm, centered on Bloodlust + Blood Thirst, Battle Forged and Barbaric Ret. Combine it with somebody who can do good AoE CC like blind in order to trigger more crits. Blood Thirst triggers from kills through Firebrand and all kind of this stacked retaliations so your attack speed is quite fabulous - and that's with a non-enchantable great sword. Lots, lots of fun, too.
For Deadfire:
Berserker is a strong class and in combo with a paladin (who can simulate a burning sword via Flames of Devotion) even more so. Great, really great resistances and tankyness and great offense at the same time. 

 

- St. Gangrene (priest): Priest of Berath as damage character with maxed out MIG, using Tidefall: you may have read about this. Combine Runner's Wounding Shot + Enevenomed Strike + Tidefall + Aggrandizing Radiance + Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar and use Cleasing Flame... even dragons will die pretty quickly. It's frail at the beginning but a lot of fun (at least for me) after Act I. I really liked it - even if you will hit stuff less and less and cast more and more (max MIG and INT is also great with Shining Beacon and stuff ). Plus: Berathians are no jerks.

I used Veteran's Recovery on this guy and also Tidefall's draining with a ton of MIG works pretty well so that he doesn't fall over all the time.

For Deadfire:

The spiritual great sword of berathian priests is pretty awesome and you could again multicalss with Devoted in order to do more penetration and damage with it. Another aspirant would be paladin or monk instead of Devoted. 

 

- The Shock Hog (druid): Shocking Boar druid with focus on regeneration and melee damage via Spiritshift. Circumvent the relative squishyness with a ton of healing and DR (and Relentless Storms of course ) and at the same time boost your melee attacks. Doesn't go down easily (not a real tank though of course). I also wrote some stuff about this here and there but never made a full build. It's also fun to play because it has good offense while being reasonalby tanky.
For Deadfire: spiritshift works as good in Deadfire as in PoE and the healing spells are good. You can multiclass with monk in order to get three shocking lashes for your tusks = great melee offense - or with fighter in order to get Constant Recovery as additional healing source.

 

- Arcane Spanker (wizard): unarmed wizard with maxed MIG. This is not the most powerful thing, but it's fun nonetheless. I aimed for a monkish vibe and good melee damage via Novice's Suffering + Citzal's Martial Power (the bonus of Novice's Suffering doesn't work with damage bonuses, but gets multiplied by the MIG bonus) . Due to the mechanics of Novice's Suffering lacking ACC is no problem since grazes and crits do almost the same damage as hits. And since yo cast more and more and auto-attack less and less anyways you could at least use some weapons that you don't have to enchant and which stay being viable at the same time. I tried to use a lot of the touch-based spells like Jolting Touch and stuff all in all try to use spells that somehow could be a monklike "thing", like spell reflection, self buffs, cones and so on. As A side effect I found out that Grimoire Slam and Arcane Assault are pretty awesome when used with Citzal's Martial Power and maxed base MIG.

For Deadfire: obviously Wizard/Monk. The wizard has awesome defensive self buffs and the monk has the melee offense and tankyness. Should be a nice mix. 

 

- Scattergun (wizard): Island Auamua with Arms Bearer and Quick Switch. Use Expose Vuln. + Combusting Wounds and combine it with Penetrating Shots and Ryona's Vambraces. Get four blunderbusses. Cast Expose + Combusting Wounds and shoot every enemy once with the blunderbuss. THis leads to 6 parallel CW instances on each of the four and will grind down their endurance pretty good (if they don't have enormous burn DR). Every instance of CW will do more than 30 burn damage with decent MIG and INT vs. lowish DR, so you can apply 180 additional burn DoT with every shot . Even if enemies have high burn DR, one blunderbuss shot with max DR bypass and Expose Vuln. is already quite punishing. Combine with multiple-hit spells like Chillfog, Wall of Flames, Malignant Cloud and so on. It's fun but it's also a lot of micromanagement. Not only the buffs, especially the switching and the timing. On the upside you can quickly take out up to four priority targets like enemy casters or rogues pretty quickly. And Expose + CW also helps your party members a lot.

For Deadfire:

Multiclass Black Jacket and Wizard. With blunderbusses in Deadfire you can now also choose the modal that does Powder Burns (that also works with RES as damage boost instead of strength). With the right passives for resitances even the automatic distraction of Powder Burns for the shooter will go away I think. Also use Missile spells and stuff. I tried this in beta1 but CW didn't work at that time. But I'm sure it will work well in the finished game. So you could do awesome single target damage via the shot itself and additional AoE damage with Powder Burns.

 

Those are the things I had the most fun with lately. They are not necessarily OP. But they are all viable and for me they were more fun to play than many others.

If something sounds interesting I can go into more detail.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Boeroer

[Slack83er]

Hi to the OP. I've seen you played and finished the game with a ranged Cipher. May I know the build? In another thread I'm trying to come up with this kind of MC in order to use Stormcaller bow. Thanks !

[Darnalak]

Ok, so my brain went on overdrive while reading, and I was totally set on diving into the priest option... Then a light bulb went off... First, Cipher's my favorite class from an RP perspective (which, in the end, is #1 for me), and secondly... when you listed a barb right afterwards that thematically followed the Cipher... This is what my brain came up with:  Ok Cipher, favorite class, bonus points for adding a focus on items I haven't used (haven't played since they put in the Deadfire items).  Cipher can charm his way through the opening Acts ( even on POTD, which I generally don't play.  I stick to Hard), and since I generally play my ciphers as CC'ers (whether they be melee or ranged), adding a pile of fireballs and a 2h sword fills in the blanks on the weapon types and direction (I think I said heavy weapon and shield, but basically I meant:  no lil bitty weapons and no dual wield).  And since you've assuaged my fears of the Cipher totally sucking in Deadfire, now I'm looking at... playing the Cipher through POE, and smashing him together with the Cauterizer in POE2  (Bautercutter eh, work in progress).   And if Firebrand sucks in POE2, fine, then I'll smash together Soulblade/Beserker, dress him up like the golden dragon, dragon leap behind enemy lines and be my own Amplified Wave monkey.

 

Race:  

 

So, talent wise:  All the whips (obviously), 2h Style, Apprentice sneak attack, maybe something defensive

 

Powers:  (most are obvious:  Treason, AF, Mind Wave, Shield, Binding, Phantom Foes (eh, I normally let a ranged cipher do this one, but I may not play with Unhappy mommy this time), Puppet Master, Silent Scream, Pain Block, Body Attunement, Borrowed Instinct, Tactical Meld, Amp Wave, Disintigrate, Time Parasite, Mindweb (I like reaping knives, but casting it and mindweb in the same battle means something probably went wrong).

 

Gear Wise... some kind of 2h sword for those few times when Firebrand isn't around...

Armor:  Blaidh Golanor Wayfarer's hide? (I really hate being CC'd when semi squishy)

Belt: Canoneer's obviously

other equipment would have to be stat boosts.  I'm guessing stat distribution would be a bit neutral.

 

alrighty, we have a direction.  Lets see where it goes.

 

 

 

 

@Slack83er:  My ranged Cipher was my first playthrough, and it's always "non optimized" I always play 1 game without touching the web for advice, so this is definitely NOT an optimal build, but it got me through POE on Hard:

 

Weapon:  started with hunting bow, ended with Warbow.  (Notice the total lack of blunderbuss here?)

 

Race: Wood Elf (ranged bonuses)

Background:  White Wends, Merchant

Stats:  High Might, Avg Dex/con Super High Per and Int, dumbstatted Res.

Skills:  Mostly Mechanics, enough athletics/surv/Lore to get "decent" results. (in the 4-5 range each)

 

Talents:  All the Whip talents, Marksman, Weapon focus: adventurer (Not a great choice), apprentice sneak attack, Greater Focus (Horrible choice), 

Powers:  My power choices were abyssmal really, here's what I SHOULD have done:

 

1st:  Treason, Mind Wave, (Your choice, AF isn't a great option for 3rd line archers)

2nd:  Mental Bind, Phantom Foes, Psycho Shield

3rd:  Puppet Master, Pain Link, (Your choice)

4th:  Silent Scream, Pain Block, Wild Leech

5th:  Borrowed Instinct, Tactical Meld (HUGE for Ranged Ciphers), (Your choice, probably detonate, easier to cast from range)

6th:  Amp Wave, Disintigrate (Choice, I don't like mind plague)

7th:  Time Parasite (so yeah, beyond awesome), (choice)

8th:  Mindweb, Reaping knives (so much awesome for a ranger Cipher).

 

Since you want to use Stormcaller, you could skip the whole Adventurer Focus, and choose whichever you want.  (or something else entirely).

 

As you can see, my build wasn't... well, really worthy of being called a build :D

[Iretep]

You sound to have almost the same criteria as i did. My choice ended up being a Goldpact paladin. Kinda priestly but not a priest, kind of an **** but can be kind too. A fun class to roleplay a murderhobo as. I think my high point of roleplaying as one was not killing the adra dragon because nobody was paying me to. Plus its better to let it go and wait for someone to pay you to kill it once it starts annoying people.

[Boeroer]

Oops - I missed the part where you said you wanted a heavy one hander and a shield. Dammit...

 

Dwarven rogue with bashing shield and war hammer is quite nice. Endgear would be Godansthunyr + Badgradr's Barricade. It really rocks (for a rogue ).

 

In the early game you an use Larder Door, mid game Scath Gwannek (if you can get it) and then later the Barricade.

 

A typical strike ability like BLinding Strike will go like: bash -> apply blind -> Godansthunyr crit -> apply stun -> bash crit -> trigger Trhust of Tattered Veils with Deathblows -> enemy dead.

 

It's a nice mixture of tankyness and offense.

 

Also works very well on fighters with Knockdown and Disciplined Barrage and melee rangers with Stunning Shots + Driving Flight (Thrust of Tattered Veils will work with Driving Flight).

 

The rogue however can also use Riposte and Adept Evasion and stand in the AoE area of your wizard's reflex based spells - he won't get hit or even grazed often...

Edited February 17, 2018 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

So, talent wise:  All the whips (obviously), 2h Style, Apprentice sneak attack, maybe something defensive

 

[...]

 

Gear Wise... some kind of 2h sword for those few times when Firebrand isn't around...

Armor:  Blaidh Golanor Wayfarer's hide? (I really hate being CC'd when semi squishy)

Belt: Canoneer's obviously

other equipment would have to be stat boosts.  I'm guessing stat distribution would be a bit neutral.

You want every damage bonus you can get since they work so well with the very high base damage of Firebrand (25 instead of 17 that normal great swords have).

That means high MIG, Biting Whip (and of course also Draining Whip for the focus), Scion of Flame (raises Firebrand's damage by 20%), Savage Attack (the ACC malus doesn't matter if you use Mental Binding or Eyestrike first), Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack, survival 12 for +20% flanking bonus (against kith) or accuracy bonus (against other enemies) and an item like Glanfathan Stalking Boots - together +30% dmg against flanked - use Phantom Foes to cause flanked when you chose this camping bonus. I also took Veteran's Recovery (first talent pick) because it's good with high MIG and INT and helps with the squishyness.

Merciless Hand from the Doemenels and Dungeon Delver are obviously the best choices when it comes to story-talents since they stack with Annihilation from Firebrand meaning you get +140% damage on crit (or 60 bonus damage on average in other words). The average crit with all this would be around 115 burn damage. It's quite jawdropping.

 

Other items except the belt and Forgemaster Gloves (for 6 uses of Firebrand per rest) are not so important. As you said you want stat boosts, but the belt itself already gives you three different stat bonuses. A bonus to survival is nice. Tempered Helm is great as a defensive tool. Executioner's Hood is also very nice - you kill, you heal. Talisman of the Unconquerable of course, I smply had a Ring of Prot. and a Ring of Deflection. But I guess anything goes. 

[Slack83er]

Thanks to the op for taking the time to answer me. I, like you, am very much into the rp aspect, and like the cc.. right now I got my paladin which fares well enough, but think that ciphers shine when it comes to rp and they can use storm caller... just waiting for an optimal build.

[masterty66]

Heh - glad you liked the Golden Dragon. We also have to thank Jojobobo for this.

 

May I present the following:

 

- Buttercut (cipher): cuts soul and tissue as if it was butter. Melee Cipher with the new Royal Deadfire Cannoner Belt + Foremaster's Gloves. I did this in one of my latest playthroughs and it's just so much fun. Firebrand is for damage/focus and spells mostly for CC (except the mandatory Silent Screams and the awesome Disintegration and Amplified Wave and so on). Firebrand with Soul Whip + Biting Whip + Apprentice's Sneak + Two Weapon Style + Savage Attack + Merciless Hand + crits (easy with Mental Binding for example) is just... wow! Even works nice in the late game. You will also spare some nice resources like dargon eyes/kraken eyes, durgan steel and stuff. Not on the tankiest of sides but his reliable CC prevents knockouts pretty well. Somebody hits you? cst Whisper of Treason, done. Or just kill him with oine or two strikes... I didn't use Vet. Recovery on this one but it could be cool.

For Deadfire:

Cipher is going to get a decent buff in Deadfire now after Obsidian did their inhouse playtesting week. Everybody and their uncle complained about cipher there. So I'm confident they will make him good again. Ciphers already have grea passives in Deadfire - only their powers were too slow casting and didn't last long enough. Also, the Soulblade subclass is a great melee cipher already (if you mostly skip the power use atm and dump all focus into Soul Annihilation strikes - which do a ton of raw damage). You could do Devoted/Soul Blade and have a great melee cipher in Deadfire, even if Firebrand is crap in Deadfire atm.

 

 

- Cauterizer (barb): I know, I know: no barb - but I'm playng a barbarian with the same item setup like above (belt & gloves) atm, centered on Bloodlust + Blood Thirst, Battle Forged and Barbaric Ret. Combine it with somebody who can do good AoE CC like blind in order to trigger more crits. Blood Thirst triggers from kills through Firebrand and all kind of this stacked retaliations so your attack speed is quite fabulous - and that's with a non-enchantable great sword. Lots, lots of fun, too.

For Deadfire:

Berserker is a strong class and in combo with a paladin (who can simulate a burning sword via Flames of Devotion) even more so. Great, really great resistances and tankyness and great offense at the same time. 

 

- St. Gangrene (priest): Priest of Berath as damage character with maxed out MIG, using Tidefall: you may have read about this. Combine Runner's Wounding Shot + Enevenomed Strike + Tidefall + Aggrandizing Radiance + Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar and use Cleasing Flame... even dragons will die pretty quickly. It's frail at the beginning but a lot of fun (at least for me) after Act I. I really liked it - even if you will hit stuff less and less and cast more and more (max MIG and INT is also great with Shining Beacon and stuff ). Plus: Berathians are no jerks.

I used Veteran's Recovery on this guy and also Tidefall's draining with a ton of MIG works pretty well so that he doesn't fall over all the time.

For Deadfire:

The spiritual great sword of berathian priests is pretty awesome and you could again multicalss with Devoted in order to do more penetration and damage with it. Another aspirant would be paladin or monk instead of Devoted. 

 

- The Shock Hog (druid): Shocking Boar druid with focus on regeneration and melee damage via Spiritshift. Circumvent the relative squishyness with a ton of healing and DR (and Relentless Storms of course ) and at the same time boost your melee attacks. Doesn't go down easily (not a real tank though of course). I also wrote some stuff about this here and there but never made a full build. It's also fun to play because it has good offense while being reasonalby tanky.

For Deadfire: spiritshift works as good in Deadfire as in PoE and the healing spells are good. You can multiclass with monk in order to get three shocking lashes for your tusks = great melee offense - or with fighter in order to get Constant Recovery as additional healing source.

 

- Arcane Spanker (wizard): unarmed wizard with maxed MIG. This is not the most powerful thing, but it's fun nonetheless. I aimed for a monkish vibe and good melee damage via Novice's Suffering + Citzal's Martial Power (the bonus of Novice's Suffering doesn't work with damage bonuses, but gets multiplied by the MIG bonus) . Due to the mechanics of Novice's Suffering lacking ACC is no problem since grazes and crits do almost the same damage as hits. And since yo cast more and more and auto-attack less and less anyways you could at least use some weapons that you don't have to enchant and which stay being viable at the same time. I tried to use a lot of the touch-based spells like Jolting Touch and stuff all in all try to use spells that somehow could be a monklike "thing", like spell reflection, self buffs, cones and so on. As A side effect I found out that Grimoire Slam and Arcane Assault are pretty awesome when used with Citzal's Martial Power and maxed base MIG.

For Deadfire: obviously Wizard/Monk. The wizard has awesome defensive self buffs and the monk has the melee offense and tankyness. Should be a nice mix. 

 

- Scattergun (wizard): Island Auamua with Arms Bearer and Quick Switch. Use Expose Vuln. + Combusting Wounds and combine it with Penetrating Shots and Ryona's Vambraces. Get four blunderbusses. Cast Expose + Combusting Wounds and shoot every enemy once with the blunderbuss. THis leads to 6 parallel CW instances on each of the four and will grind down their endurance pretty good (if they don't have enormous burn DR). Every instance of CW will do more than 30 burn damage with decent MIG and INT vs. lowish DR, so you can apply 180 additional burn DoT with every shot . Even if enemies have high burn DR, one blunderbuss shot with max DR bypass and Expose Vuln. is already quite punishing. Combine with multiple-hit spells like Chillfog, Wall of Flames, Malignant Cloud and so on. It's fun but it's also a lot of micromanagement. Not only the buffs, especially the switching and the timing. On the upside you can quickly take out up to four priority targets like enemy casters or rogues pretty quickly. And Expose + CW also helps your party members a lot.

For Deadfire:

Multiclass Black Jacket and Wizard. With blunderbusses in Deadfire you can now also choose the modal that does Powder Burns (that also works with RES as damage boost instead of strength). With the right passives for resitances even the automatic distraction of Powder Burns for the shooter will go away I think. Also use Missile spells and stuff. I tried this in beta1 but CW didn't work at that time. But I'm sure it will work well in the finished game. So you could do awesome single target damage via the shot itself and additional AoE damage with Powder Burns.

 

Those are the things I had the most fun with lately. They are not necessarily OP. But they are all viable and for me they were more fun to play than many others.

If something sounds interesting I can go into more detail.

 

I'm interested in the Hog Druid myself. About to do a playthrough and never mained a Druid. How do spec that feller out?

[Boeroer]

High MIG, CON and INT. Only important item is the Wildstrike Belt (rush to Ondra's Gift asap and buy it from Cartugo in front of the Vaillan Trading Company).

 

Talents:

- Veteran's Recovery

- Wildstrike Shock

- Weapon Focus Peasant

- Greater Wildstrike Shock

- Two Weapon Style

- Heart of the Storm

- Savage Attack

- Apprentice's Sneak Attack

 

Most used spells: healing like Nature's Balm and stuff up to Moonwell, Returning/Relentless Storm, Form of the Delemgan and Avenging Storm

 

Skills: survival 14 (an item with +2 to survival when camping helps a lot) in order to get +60% healing bonus - or alternatively the accuracy bonus

 

Boar druids have wounding tusks and wounding scales with MIG. It's like having two Drawn in Spring Daggers - but with more base damage and higher lashes... 

Boar druids also have an additional regnerating effect while shifted that stacks with Veteran's Recovery and other healing sources. They have no per-rest ability like cats or stags etc.

 

In kith form you can use dual hatchets if you want. I usually wait in the backline, casting my spells, waiting for enemies to rush to the backline in hope of taking out my squishies and then *poof* they suddenly get pulverized. Also works nice as rusher himself once you get Form of the Delemgan (includes higher move speed).

Edited February 17, 2018 by Boeroer

[masterty66]

Awesome. I'll give it a shot. Going 16/16/16 might/dex/con. Probably won't stat dump anything except maybe Res to 8 for 18 int perhaps.

 

Think I'll go Boreal Dwarf as well since Dwarf Boar Druid fits the theme. I suppose Moon Godlike is probably the most optimal choice but everyone does those. The +accuracy bonus Boreal get should be nice too. (does it apply in Spiritshift form?. Useful I guess even if not.)

[Darnalak]

Alrighty, So starting off:  

 

We have our Savannah Folk Colonist with a dirty little secret...(no one really likes Ciphers poking around in their heads), trooping down from the mountains of the Living Lands.  His rather robust build allows him to hide the fact that most of his exploits are the result of mental acuity rather than the swing of his big ol' Sword.

 

Stats:  Mig: 18 Con:8 Dex 10 Per 16 Int 16 Res 10 (EDIT:  Raised Con/Res up a bit tanked Dex to average.) 

 

Opening Power picks are pretty straight forward:  Treason and Eyestrike, recommended: Antipathetic Field for first level up.  If you prefer, you can sub in mindwave for either eyestrike or AF, but I'm going for longer term debuffing, and rank 2 stun power trumps Mindwave anyway.

 

Only RP downside to this is, that the Living Lands starts with a bow ><  ah well, life's full of little disappointments

Edited February 18, 2018 by Darnalak

[Boeroer]

Yes, Hunter's Instincts apply.

 

Moon Godlike would also be good, true, but Boreal is also ok.

[Darnalak]

For the record, I liked the rogue idea as well, since that's another class that I absolutely fail at in POE.  Also extreme points for using a Dorf (favorite fantasy race).

Edited February 18, 2018 by Darnalak

[Pyroskink]

Heh - glad you liked the Golden Dragon. We also have to thank Jojobobo for this.

 

May I present the following:

 

- Buttercut (cipher): cuts soul and tissue as if it was butter. Melee Cipher with the new Royal Deadfire Cannoner Belt + Foremaster's Gloves. I did this in one of my latest playthroughs and it's just so much fun. Firebrand is for damage/focus and spells mostly for CC (except the mandatory Silent Screams and the awesome Disintegration and Amplified Wave and so on). Firebrand with Soul Whip + Biting Whip + Apprentice's Sneak + Two Weapon Style + Savage Attack + Merciless Hand + crits (easy with Mental Binding for example) is just... wow! Even works nice in the late game. You will also spare some nice resources like dargon eyes/kraken eyes, durgan steel and stuff. Not on the tankiest of sides but his reliable CC prevents knockouts pretty well. Somebody hits you? cst Whisper of Treason, done. Or just kill him with oine or two strikes... I didn't use Vet. Recovery on this one but it could be cool.

For Deadfire:

Cipher is going to get a decent buff in Deadfire now after Obsidian did their inhouse playtesting week. Everybody and their uncle complained about cipher there. So I'm confident they will make him good again. Ciphers already have grea passives in Deadfire - only their powers were too slow casting and didn't last long enough. Also, the Soulblade subclass is a great melee cipher already (if you mostly skip the power use atm and dump all focus into Soul Annihilation strikes - which do a ton of raw damage). You could do Devoted/Soul Blade and have a great melee cipher in Deadfire, even if Firebrand is crap in Deadfire atm.

 

 

- Cauterizer (barb): I know, I know: no barb - but I'm playng a barbarian with the same item setup like above (belt & gloves) atm, centered on Bloodlust + Blood Thirst, Battle Forged and Barbaric Ret. Combine it with somebody who can do good AoE CC like blind in order to trigger more crits. Blood Thirst triggers from kills through Firebrand and all kind of this stacked retaliations so your attack speed is quite fabulous - and that's with a non-enchantable great sword. Lots, lots of fun, too.

For Deadfire:

Berserker is a strong class and in combo with a paladin (who can simulate a burning sword via Flames of Devotion) even more so. Great, really great resistances and tankyness and great offense at the same time. 

 

- St. Gangrene (priest): Priest of Berath as damage character with maxed out MIG, using Tidefall: you may have read about this. Combine Runner's Wounding Shot + Enevenomed Strike + Tidefall + Aggrandizing Radiance + Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar and use Cleasing Flame... even dragons will die pretty quickly. It's frail at the beginning but a lot of fun (at least for me) after Act I. I really liked it - even if you will hit stuff less and less and cast more and more (max MIG and INT is also great with Shining Beacon and stuff ). Plus: Berathians are no jerks.

I used Veteran's Recovery on this guy and also Tidefall's draining with a ton of MIG works pretty well so that he doesn't fall over all the time.

For Deadfire:

The spiritual great sword of berathian priests is pretty awesome and you could again multicalss with Devoted in order to do more penetration and damage with it. Another aspirant would be paladin or monk instead of Devoted. 

 

- The Shock Hog (druid): Shocking Boar druid with focus on regeneration and melee damage via Spiritshift. Circumvent the relative squishyness with a ton of healing and DR (and Relentless Storms of course ) and at the same time boost your melee attacks. Doesn't go down easily (not a real tank though of course). I also wrote some stuff about this here and there but never made a full build. It's also fun to play because it has good offense while being reasonalby tanky.

For Deadfire: spiritshift works as good in Deadfire as in PoE and the healing spells are good. You can multiclass with monk in order to get three shocking lashes for your tusks = great melee offense - or with fighter in order to get Constant Recovery as additional healing source.

 

- Arcane Spanker (wizard): unarmed wizard with maxed MIG. This is not the most powerful thing, but it's fun nonetheless. I aimed for a monkish vibe and good melee damage via Novice's Suffering + Citzal's Martial Power (the bonus of Novice's Suffering doesn't work with damage bonuses, but gets multiplied by the MIG bonus) . Due to the mechanics of Novice's Suffering lacking ACC is no problem since grazes and crits do almost the same damage as hits. And since yo cast more and more and auto-attack less and less anyways you could at least use some weapons that you don't have to enchant and which stay being viable at the same time. I tried to use a lot of the touch-based spells like Jolting Touch and stuff all in all try to use spells that somehow could be a monklike "thing", like spell reflection, self buffs, cones and so on. As A side effect I found out that Grimoire Slam and Arcane Assault are pretty awesome when used with Citzal's Martial Power and maxed base MIG.

For Deadfire: obviously Wizard/Monk. The wizard has awesome defensive self buffs and the monk has the melee offense and tankyness. Should be a nice mix. 

 

- Scattergun (wizard): Island Auamua with Arms Bearer and Quick Switch. Use Expose Vuln. + Combusting Wounds and combine it with Penetrating Shots and Ryona's Vambraces. Get four blunderbusses. Cast Expose + Combusting Wounds and shoot every enemy once with the blunderbuss. THis leads to 6 parallel CW instances on each of the four and will grind down their endurance pretty good (if they don't have enormous burn DR). Every instance of CW will do more than 30 burn damage with decent MIG and INT vs. lowish DR, so you can apply 180 additional burn DoT with every shot . Even if enemies have high burn DR, one blunderbuss shot with max DR bypass and Expose Vuln. is already quite punishing. Combine with multiple-hit spells like Chillfog, Wall of Flames, Malignant Cloud and so on. It's fun but it's also a lot of micromanagement. Not only the buffs, especially the switching and the timing. On the upside you can quickly take out up to four priority targets like enemy casters or rogues pretty quickly. And Expose + CW also helps your party members a lot.

For Deadfire:

Multiclass Black Jacket and Wizard. With blunderbusses in Deadfire you can now also choose the modal that does Powder Burns (that also works with RES as damage boost instead of strength). With the right passives for resitances even the automatic distraction of Powder Burns for the shooter will go away I think. Also use Missile spells and stuff. I tried this in beta1 but CW didn't work at that time. But I'm sure it will work well in the finished game. So you could do awesome single target damage via the shot itself and additional AoE damage with Powder Burns.

 

Those are the things I had the most fun with lately. They are not necessarily OP. But they are all viable and for me they were more fun to play than many others.

If something sounds interesting I can go into more detail.

 

Hi Boeroer. Could you please expand on how to build the Arcane Spanker?

 

I'm assuming high might and int, would you boost per, dex or res? And leave the rest at 10?

 

For talents: Novice's Suffering, Two weapon style, WF: Peasant, maybe Veteran's Recovery? Veil and Grimoire Slam?

 

I'm guessing throw up some buffs whilst the tanks engage, and then go to town from the flanks?

 

Thanks for these builds, they look like some great interesting things to try. I'm planning on finally playing through POE before Deadfire comes out. The priest also looks very interesting. I guess that would also be a high might/int build with the talents you mentioned.

[Boeroer]

You got it completely right with the talents and stuff. I also took Vulnerable Attack just because Alacrity + fists already gets you to 0 recovery, so Two Weapon Style + Vulnerable Attack = still 0 recovery but +5 damage per hit.

If you find Gauntlets of Swift Action and use Durgan Steel on your armor you can even wear scale armor without slowdown and Breastplate with just 1 frame of recovery.

 

High MIG, high INT, high DEX, ok CON.

PER is not needed for fists so much because their damage doesn't care about graze/hit/crit. Although your spells might want some bonus ACC. But you don't need to pump it. RES is not needed at all. You'll have Spirit Shield.

 

Most of he time I just stayed behind and waited for enemies who would rush past my front line. But what you described would work equally well.

Good thing with the fists is: you can't do much to boost their damage (besides Sandals of the forgotten Friar and more MIG), so no Savage Attack or Apprentice's Sneak and so on. There's room for some alternative talents. You can pick defensive ones or bonus spells or whatever you like. Veteran's Recovery is neat with high MIG and INT, a healing item like Belt of Bountiful Healing or Fulvano's Amulett and survival's healing bonus. Also works with Vital Essence which makes this wizard surprisingly sturdy.

 

The priest wants to have the highest MIG and INT possible. Aggrandizing Radiance and Minor Avatar or Champion's Boon stack. A great combo is Crowns, Champion's Boon and Aggrandizing+Inspiring Radiance, then go wild. Or simply Minor Avatar + Radiance. +10 to every stat is quite the show... also in terms of defenses.

[Pyroskink]

Thanks good sir!

[Darnalak]

Update on our Fiery Illusionist:

 

He's now Level 5, and master of his own keep... Not bad for a backwater frontiersman trying to hide his abilities.  That, of course, all came to a screeching halt when he started seeing spirits, not exactly easy to keep quiet.

 

Currently he's travelling with Eder (Loosely following the tank of pain), Durance (basically grabbing all the buffing talents), Kana (Loosely heading in the direction of the Dragon Thrasher), and Aloth (uh, he just kinna throws stuff on the ground for people to get stuck in).

 

Haven't picked up any firebrand items yet, so he's still "growing", started with a fine poleaxe, until a fine greatsword showed up.  (He hits REALLY hard with either of them).  Much like he did growing up, he starts by charming the biggest thing heading his way, then blinds everything else.  Makes beating them down rather trivial .  He's broadened his horizons a bit with Mental Binding, and Phantom Foes, and learned he could not only degrade others' ability to fight but borrow them as well!  (Psych shield).

 

/rp off.

Current stats abilities:  Blind, charm, Anti-field( I really suck at using this, I've wiped kana out 3 times so far trying to use it >< ), Paralyze, Flank, Psych Shield, Dominate, Secret Horrors.

Current Talents:  Vet Recovery(this is extremely nice... but also makes your resting periods dependent on your health), Biting Whip

 

He starts in the second row, gets off his charm/blind while Kana/Eder round up the critters, then steps in and slams them like a screendoor in a tornado.  We shall proceed!

 

Darnalak

[dgray62]

Awesome. I'll give it a shot. Going 16/16/16 might/dex/con. Probably won't stat dump anything except maybe Res to 8 for 18 int perhaps.

 

Think I'll go Boreal Dwarf as well since Dwarf Boar Druid fits the theme. I suppose Moon Godlike is probably the most optimal choice but everyone does those. The +accuracy bonus Boreal get should be nice too. (does it apply in Spiritshift form?. Useful I guess even if not.)

 

Boeroer's Hog druid idea is one of my favorites. It's so much fun to cast returning storm and/or relentless storm and then shift and destroy almost anything quickly. I used the following stat spread in my playthroughs: 16 MIG, 16 CON, 15 DEX, 10 PER, 16 INT, 5 RES. I drop RES to 5 to get DEX up to 15, and I typically give him the Ring of Changing Heart for +3 RES, and Steadfast (for +1 RES) and a hatchet in one slot, and the Gyrd whatever soulbound scepter for the Wildstrike renewal and +3. With this gear the low RES isn't a problem. [Edited for spelling]

Edited February 19, 2018 by dgray62

[Darnalak]

Mindburner (Name's still a work in progress, changes every time his equipment gets better) update!

 

Was going to wait until level 10 to update, but between 6 and 7, I got both the forgemaster's gloves and the cannoneer's belt.  instantly doubled his highest hit.  (Much to the Chagrin of the local thugs in Defiance Bay)

 

This build is a lot more fun than for me than a dual wielding Cipher.  Seems to flow a lot better, and even without lighting up a firebrand, focus generation is quite high.

 

MIG 21

CON 9

DEX 13

PER 18

INT 18

RES 12

 

(Current Stats with Listed Equipment)

 

Note:  Cannoneer's belt covers:  Str, Int and Dex, which leaves a lot of slots open for non stat increasing items.  (defenses or clickies)

 

Armor: Fine Hide.  (sticking with the Hide Theme, so aiming for Blaid Golan, then Wayfarer's Hide)

 

Hat: Regular ol' Hood.  (Cipher's need hoods, it's a thing. For RP Purposes:  Hood of the footpad, if you don't care, Helmet of Darksee/something that either grants Per, or gives you a whole bunch of status defenses) 

 

Neck: Torc of Falcon Eyes  (you can do what you like here, the Cannon belt takes care of most of your stat increases, so you have a lot of wiggle room with the other items)

 

Hands: Forgemaster's Gloves (Can swap these out when you aren't using the charges, but it's not really necessary)

 

Waist: Cannoneer's Belt

 

Feets: Fulvano's Boots (Lotsa options here:  Glanfathans, Fenwalkers, Stability)

 

Rings:  Deflection and Resolve  (Again, plenty of choices, protection, Wyrwood, searing wounds if you're feeling more fiery)

 

Weaponset 1  Justice (when firebrand isn't blazing) (will update final weapon choices later)

 

Weaponset 2  St Garam's Spark (It was gathering dust in the stash, would prefer something a bit more "rustic" but he'd just look silly with a warbow now).

 

 

Talents at this point:

Veteran's Recovery

Biting Whip

Draining Whip (Recommendation:  delay this one and get apprentice sneak attack, or scion of flame)

 

Powers at this point:

1:  Eyestrike, Whispers of Treason, Antipathic Field (if it mattered, I probably wouldn't take this again, but I suck at using it)

2:  Mental Binding, Phantom Foes, Psych Shield (all critical imho)

3:  Puppet Master, Secret Horrors, Ectopsychic Echo (Puppet master: cuz some stuff is immune to charm, Ecto Echo again, if it mattered I'd replace it)

4:  Body Attunement, Silent Scream (Silent Scream:  The reason why the beams don't matter... cuz if you're not debuffing, you'll save for SS)

 

Tactics:  

Either charm the most powerful guy on the field, or Phantom Foe the whole encounter.

by the time you've done the above, Eder and Pallegina are up in folks' grill. If the encounter's worthy, fire up a firebrand, if not, steel's fine.

Whack a few times.

If it's going to be a long tough fight, Psych shield someone.  Keep whackin.  If not, debuff with binding or SH.

If things are really long (so far this hasn't been the case) you might wanna Body Attune... if not... fun times:  Silent Scream entire chunks of the encounter... tears will fall.

 

Other party members' contributions:

Eder and Kana get in front of stuff, Pallegina gets in front of stuff too, but also has the Outworn Buckler, Zealous Focus, and Flames of devotion (cuz hey, more fire).  Durance Debuffs every fight (he also has the charm implement, so generally causes a crapload of chaos in the back row), Aloth stays bored most of the time unless it's a really big fight, then he steps up and melts everything.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Darnalak

[Darnalak]

Level 10 now.  things are still fairly easy.  He's the only one in my party who uses 2h swords, so he always sports the best one I pick up (at this time that's Tidefall).  Biggest limitation at this point is his health, which, you would think would make me actually click the firebrand button more often... but I'm old, and forgetful.  Anyway, lets see how he's doing:

 

Mindburner!  (haven't come up with anything better yet, Dante's Dream might be too obscure :D )

 

MIG 21

CON 8

DEX 13

PER 19

INT 18

RES 12

 

(Stats listed as equipped, not counting food/rest bonuses)

 

Armor:  Blaid Golan (He's Barbaric, and I'm deathly afraid of getting wailed on while stunned/prone, so it's almost like someone called me when they designed this armor)

Hat:    Footpad's Hood (Cipher's gotta wear hoods)

Neck:   Lilith's Shawl 

Hands:  Forgemaster's Gauntlets (I could totally swap these out for speedy gloves, since I'm dumb and forget to use firebrand unless the fight's really tuff)

Waist:  Cannoneer's Belt (fully upgraded)

Feets:  Glanfathan Stalking boots (there's no battle where all the mobs aren't flanked, thanks Unhappy Mommy)

WeaponSet1:  Tidefall (It's almost wasted in his hands... but why not?)

WeaponSet2:  LeadSplitter (mostly it just hangs there)

 

Talents up to this point:  Vet's Recovery, Biting Whip, Draining Whip(Could still delay this one and get Savage Attack), Apprentice's Sneak Attack, Scion of Flame

 

Powers up to this point:

1.  Eyestrike, Whispers of Treason, Antipathic Field

2.  Mental Binding, Phantom Foes, Psych Shield

3.  Puppet Master, Secret Horrors, Ectopsychic Echo

4.  Body Attunement, Silent Scream, Going Between

5.  Borrowed Instinct, Detonator, Ringleader

 

Tactics now:  I actually switch things up, I have Grieving Mother sporting the Deadfire Arbalest, so she starts by Phantoming everyone, then shoots someone in the face, meanwhile I either bind, or firebrand while waiting for Kana/Pallegina to get everyone's attention.  Durance's master spell (accuracy) pretty much means everyone crits... a LOT.  If it's a tough fight, I'll use the debuffs (Horrors, eyestrike) but generally I just dump focus using Silent Scream... cuz... it's friggin awesome.

 

Other party members:   Kana's Dragon thrashing now, Pallegina does her thing as before, Durance buff bots (and sometimes debuffs), Grieving Mother debuffs or buffs the MC(or uses silent scream too), Aloth is still bored, unless there's a serious fight.

 

I've come to realize I haven't really optimized my powers, as hard as he hits with his 2h, either steel or fire, it'd really behoove me to learn how to use the beams effectively...but, quite frankly, I'm lazy.

 

Darnalak...

 

Hmph, probably not going to be my final play through though... I always felt Ciphers were closest to "necromancers" in POE, but now that I've deep dived into some items, and some particular spell combos... I have other ideas... so there may be a Darnalak play through after this one.  (and I'll just have to keep a bar of soap handy, Darnalak isn't exactly a compassionate feller).

[Ophiuchus]

Heh - glad you liked the Golden Dragon. We also have to thank Jojobobo for this.

 

May I present the following:

 

- Buttercut (cipher): cuts soul and tissue as if it was butter. Melee Cipher with the new Royal Deadfire Cannoner Belt + Foremaster's Gloves. I did this in one of my latest playthroughs and it's just so much fun. Firebrand is for damage/focus and spells mostly for CC (except the mandatory Silent Screams and the awesome Disintegration and Amplified Wave and so on). Firebrand with Soul Whip + Biting Whip + Apprentice's Sneak + Two Weapon Style + Savage Attack + Merciless Hand + crits (easy with Mental Binding for example) is just... wow! Even works nice in the late game. You will also spare some nice resources like dargon eyes/kraken eyes, durgan steel and stuff. Not on the tankiest of sides but his reliable CC prevents knockouts pretty well. Somebody hits you? cst Whisper of Treason, done. Or just kill him with oine or two strikes... I didn't use Vet. Recovery on this one but it could be cool.

For Deadfire:

Cipher is going to get a decent buff in Deadfire now after Obsidian did their inhouse playtesting week. Everybody and their uncle complained about cipher there. So I'm confident they will make him good again. Ciphers already have grea passives in Deadfire - only their powers were too slow casting and didn't last long enough. Also, the Soulblade subclass is a great melee cipher already (if you mostly skip the power use atm and dump all focus into Soul Annihilation strikes - which do a ton of raw damage). You could do Devoted/Soul Blade and have a great melee cipher in Deadfire, even if Firebrand is crap in Deadfire atm.

 

 

- Cauterizer (barb): I know, I know: no barb - but I'm playng a barbarian with the same item setup like above (belt & gloves) atm, centered on Bloodlust + Blood Thirst, Battle Forged and Barbaric Ret. Combine it with somebody who can do good AoE CC like blind in order to trigger more crits. Blood Thirst triggers from kills through Firebrand and all kind of this stacked retaliations so your attack speed is quite fabulous - and that's with a non-enchantable great sword. Lots, lots of fun, too.

For Deadfire:

Berserker is a strong class and in combo with a paladin (who can simulate a burning sword via Flames of Devotion) even more so. Great, really great resistances and tankyness and great offense at the same time. 

 

- St. Gangrene (priest): Priest of Berath as damage character with maxed out MIG, using Tidefall: you may have read about this. Combine Runner's Wounding Shot + Enevenomed Strike + Tidefall + Aggrandizing Radiance + Champion's Boon or Minor Avatar and use Cleasing Flame... even dragons will die pretty quickly. It's frail at the beginning but a lot of fun (at least for me) after Act I. I really liked it - even if you will hit stuff less and less and cast more and more (max MIG and INT is also great with Shining Beacon and stuff ). Plus: Berathians are no jerks.

I used Veteran's Recovery on this guy and also Tidefall's draining with a ton of MIG works pretty well so that he doesn't fall over all the time.

For Deadfire:

The spiritual great sword of berathian priests is pretty awesome and you could again multicalss with Devoted in order to do more penetration and damage with it. Another aspirant would be paladin or monk instead of Devoted. 

 

- The Shock Hog (druid): Shocking Boar druid with focus on regeneration and melee damage via Spiritshift. Circumvent the relative squishyness with a ton of healing and DR (and Relentless Storms of course ) and at the same time boost your melee attacks. Doesn't go down easily (not a real tank though of course). I also wrote some stuff about this here and there but never made a full build. It's also fun to play because it has good offense while being reasonalby tanky.

For Deadfire: spiritshift works as good in Deadfire as in PoE and the healing spells are good. You can multiclass with monk in order to get three shocking lashes for your tusks = great melee offense - or with fighter in order to get Constant Recovery as additional healing source.

 

- Arcane Spanker (wizard): unarmed wizard with maxed MIG. This is not the most powerful thing, but it's fun nonetheless. I aimed for a monkish vibe and good melee damage via Novice's Suffering + Citzal's Martial Power (the bonus of Novice's Suffering doesn't work with damage bonuses, but gets multiplied by the MIG bonus) . Due to the mechanics of Novice's Suffering lacking ACC is no problem since grazes and crits do almost the same damage as hits. And since yo cast more and more and auto-attack less and less anyways you could at least use some weapons that you don't have to enchant and which stay being viable at the same time. I tried to use a lot of the touch-based spells like Jolting Touch and stuff all in all try to use spells that somehow could be a monklike "thing", like spell reflection, self buffs, cones and so on. As A side effect I found out that Grimoire Slam and Arcane Assault are pretty awesome when used with Citzal's Martial Power and maxed base MIG.

For Deadfire: obviously Wizard/Monk. The wizard has awesome defensive self buffs and the monk has the melee offense and tankyness. Should be a nice mix. 

 

- Scattergun (wizard): Island Auamua with Arms Bearer and Quick Switch. Use Expose Vuln. + Combusting Wounds and combine it with Penetrating Shots and Ryona's Vambraces. Get four blunderbusses. Cast Expose + Combusting Wounds and shoot every enemy once with the blunderbuss. THis leads to 6 parallel CW instances on each of the four and will grind down their endurance pretty good (if they don't have enormous burn DR). Every instance of CW will do more than 30 burn damage with decent MIG and INT vs. lowish DR, so you can apply 180 additional burn DoT with every shot . Even if enemies have high burn DR, one blunderbuss shot with max DR bypass and Expose Vuln. is already quite punishing. Combine with multiple-hit spells like Chillfog, Wall of Flames, Malignant Cloud and so on. It's fun but it's also a lot of micromanagement. Not only the buffs, especially the switching and the timing. On the upside you can quickly take out up to four priority targets like enemy casters or rogues pretty quickly. And Expose + CW also helps your party members a lot.

For Deadfire:

Multiclass Black Jacket and Wizard. With blunderbusses in Deadfire you can now also choose the modal that does Powder Burns (that also works with RES as damage boost instead of strength). With the right passives for resitances even the automatic distraction of Powder Burns for the shooter will go away I think. Also use Missile spells and stuff. I tried this in beta1 but CW didn't work at that time. But I'm sure it will work well in the finished game. So you could do awesome single target damage via the shot itself and additional AoE damage with Powder Burns.

 

Those are the things I had the most fun with lately. They are not necessarily OP. But they are all viable and for me they were more fun to play than many others.

If something sounds interesting I can go into more detail.

 

I really want my second Watcher in PoE II to be a Cleric of Berath, so I'm intrigued by your St. Gangrene build. I have zero experience with melee Priests, though: any early level tips, lategame equipment considerations, etc. you would mind sharing? I'll probably play him on Hard mode /w upscaling.

[Boeroer]

The early levels are hard. That's because the starting values of priests (when it comes to accuracy, deflection and endurance) are pretty weak and you don't have all the talents to compensate yet.

 

What I found very helpful in the early game are the following things:

• don't tank! Use the priest like a flanker and engage when the tougher guys are already in the fray. Later in the game you can go into the front line though.
• don't dump CON. Because your health pool is already small you don't want to make it even smaller. Excessive resting would be the result.
• pick Veteran's Recovery asap. It's great with maxed MIG and INT and gives you a lot of additional endurance without having to cast anything.
• grab a plate armor and a Blunting Belt asap (the Moon Godlike in front of the temple of Eothas has one, else you have to wait until Raedric's Hold)
• cast Armor of Faith often in the early game. Here it has the biggest impact (later I would master Holy Meditation because I would drop RES).
• get Inspiring Radiance. +10 ACC that stack with everything.
• get The Pallid Hand. +10 ACC in the early game is golden. Now you have the same ACC as a fighter. Use the Corrosive Siphon, don't forget it: it can be a life saver.

 

Race: Boreal Dwarf of Mountain Dwarf or Coastal Aumaua or Human

Culture: The Living Lands (+1 MIG)

Backgroud: Colonist (+2 Survival)

 

Skills: Survival 12 (14 with item - for getting +60% healing), rest Athletics (if any)

 

Stats:

 

• MIG: 21
• CON: 10 (not lower. Veteran's Reecovery will heal, but health will have to be restored with a potion of Infise with Vital Essence if resting is no option)
• DEX: 16
• PER: 10 (you can get away with this because of Inspiring Radiance/Blessing/Devotions, early superb Tidefall etc.)
• INT: 18
• RES: 03

 

My talent picks would be:

1. Veteran's Recovery
2. Inspiring Radiance
3. The Pallid Hand
4. Weapon Focus Soldier
5. Two Handed Style
6. Aggrandizing Radiance
7. Envenomed Strike
8. Runner's Wounding Shot

Items:

 

Head: Hermit's Hat --> Tempered Helm -> Maegfolc Skull or Executioner's Hood

Neck: Fulvano's Amulet --> something with stat bonus once you have a belt of bountiful healing --> Mantle of the Excavator

Armor: Plate --> Sanguine Plate -> Wayfarer's Hide (or He Carries Many Scars for thematic reasons)

Belt: Blunting Belt -> Belt of Bountiful Healing --> Belt with +3 MIG (only if you chose Executioner's Hood over Maegfolc Skull) 

Hands: Fulvano's Gloves --> Gauntlets of Accuracy --> Siegebreaker Gauntlets

Ring: Minor Ring of Protection --> whatever you can get --> Ring of Protection, Ring of Thorns --> Gwyn's Band of Union

Boots: Shod-in-Faith

Weapon: Great Sword --> Justice --> Tidefall (put on a corrosive lash) / Abydon's Hammer (for casting Shining Beacon for example)

Edited March 2, 2018 by Boeroer

[Ophiuchus]

The early levels are hard. That's because the starting values of priests (when it comes to accuracy, deflection and endurance) are pretty weak and you don't have all the talents to compensate yet.

 

What I found very helpful in the early game are the following things:

• don't tank! Use the priest like a flanker and engage when the tougher guys are already in the fray. Later in the game you can go into the front line though.
• don't dump CON. Because your health pool is already small you don't want to make it even smaller. Excessive resting would be the result.
• pick Veteran's Recovery asap. It's great with maxed MIG and INT and gives you a lot of additional endurance without having to cast anything.
• grab a plate armor and a Blunting Belt asap (the Moon Godlike in front of the temple of Eothas has one, else you have to wait until Raedric's Hold)
• cast Armor of Faith often in the early game. Here it has the biggest impact (later I would master Holy Meditation because I would drop RES).
• get Inspiring Radiance. +10 ACC that stack with everything.
• get The Pallid Hand. +10 ACC in the early game is golden. Now you have the same ACC as a fighter. Use the Corrosive Siphon, don't forget it: it can be a life saver.

 

Race: Boreal Dwarf of Mountain Dwarf or Coastal Aumaua or Human

Culture: The Living Lands (+1 MIG)

Backgroud: Colonist (+2 Survival)

 

Skills: Survival 12 (14 with item - for getting +60% healing), rest Athletics (if any)

 

Stats:

 

• MIG: 21
• CON: 10 (not lower. Veteran's Reecovery will heal, but health will have to be restored with a potion of Infise with Vital Essence if resting is no option)
• DEX: 16
• PER: 10 (you can get away with this because of Inspiring Radiance/Blessing/Devotions, early superb Tidefall etc.)
• INT: 18
• RES: 03

 

My talent picks would be:

1. Veteran's Recovery
2. Inspiring Radiance
3. The Pallid Hand
4. Weapon Focus Soldier
5. Two Handed Style
6. Aggrandizing Radiance
7. Envenomed Strike
8. Runner's Wounding Shot

Items:

 

Head: Hermit's Hat --> Tempered Helm -> Maegfolc Skull or Executioner's Hood

Neck: Fulvano's Amulet --> something with stat bonus once you have a belt of bountiful healing --> Mantle of the Excavator

Armor: Plate --> Sanguine Plate -> Wayfarer's Hide (or He Carries Many Scars for thematic reasons)

Belt: Blunting Belt -> Belt of Bountiful Healing --> Belt with +3 MIG (only if you chose Executioner's Hood over Maegfolc Skull) 

Hands: Fulvano's Gloves --> Gauntlets of Accuracy --> Siegebreaker Gauntlets

Ring: Minor Ring of Protection --> whatever you can get --> Ring of Protection, Ring of Thorns --> Gwyn's Band of Union

Boots: Shod-in-Faith

Weapon: Great Sword --> Justice --> Tidefall (put on a corrosive lash) / Abydon's Hammer (for casting Shining Beacon for example)

Incredible. Thanks so much for your guide. I spent the better part of the day on my St. Gangrene run: currently at level 7 with Tidefall (absolute game changer, that), and lots of other early game goodies for the party. I especially like the DoT on Tidefall combined with my Persistence Rogue, Combusting Wounds, and Soul Ignition. Question about Cleansing Flames: are there any DoTs it does not extend? I'm assuming it only works on affliction-like DoTs as opposed to AoE pulses (Wounding Shot vs Swarm of Insects).

 

For RP purposes, I made him a Wood Elf/Living Lands Mercenary who's not opposed to making some coin while serving Berath at the same time: exchanges for his services act as a cycle, or so he rationalizes it. When I import him to Deadfire (probably Berath/Devoted), he'll enjoy a resistance to dex afflictions befitting a debt collector for the god of cycles.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Ophiuchus

[Boeroer]

Cool.

 

Cleansing Flame works with all DoT effects, including wounding from Tidefall, Runner's Wounding Shots like you said and also Swarm of Insects and Plague of Insects, Shining Beacon (very powerful combo) and so on. It does not work with beams and stuff like Wall of Flames and Chillfog and so on. Those don't apply a DoT effects with "ticks" on the enemy but work with pulses which do a new hit roll every time. The DoT effect has to be attached to the enemy (you can see it at work when you mouseover the enemy) and then Cleasing Flame should double the ticks.

 

By the way: the Cleaning Flame + DoT trick works much better with a second priest like Durance in the party. Wounding and Runner's Wounding Shot are quite short-lived and as a single priest you will lose ticks during recovery. With St. Gangrene + Durance you can divide the work: Let Durance cast CÖeansing Flame while you do a Runner's with Tidefall - that will be the most effective way.

 

By the way: Inspiring Radiance ALWAYS stacks - even with itself. So with Durance + St. Gangrene you can have +20 stackable ACC in every fight. Makes the early game a lot easier.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Boeroer