Thought Exercise for final Play Through.

[Krowseph]

Boeroer,

 

I actually played your boar druid before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Going into POE II, how would that build work with Berserker?  If I recall we would wait for frenzy to trigger and then shapeshift.  I'm assuming you would just go a generic druid without the subclass and multiclass with berserker?  

[Boeroer]

Since the focus would be on melee I would use a Shapeshifter/Berserker, cast Moonwell and Form of the Delemgan or something like that before shifting and then go into melee. If you cast an intellect inspiration on him before he uses frenzy he will not be confused (= no friendly fire, no maluses to INT).

[heldred]

You can't go wrong building a melee-oriented Priest, Druid, or Wizard.  They can handle melee combat competently and still offer great flexibility.

[Krowseph]

I am going to do a spin off of the Berath priest build for one of my NPCs and was wondering if anyone notices any issues with it.  I was going to change it to a Priest of Magran and essentially just change the two handed style of play into dual wielding swords.  Start the fight off with a runners wounding shot arquebus shot, either buff and go into melee or cast spells.  I'm assuming it might be best to either have arms bearer or Aumaua so I can still utilize the Abydon's hammer for casting.  Any issues with this?  I assume I should just keep the attributes the same.   

[Boeroer]

Issues not really. Sounds like a solid plan.

 

Only thing though: the "trick" about priest + Tidefall is that wounding scales with MIG - and there's no other class that can achieve such high MIG scores as a priest.

 

Also the woundig works with Cleansing Flame.

 

Those were the two ideas that started the whole build.

 

The other "weapon" that scales with MIG is Novice's Suffering. Its damage bonus and also the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar will get added to fists' base damage and then multiplied with the MIG bonus. I always wanted to try such a priest but never did. If you manage to reach 40 MIG (21 starting, +4 item, +2 Aggrandizing Radiance, +10 Champion's Boon, +1 Gift from the Machine, +1 Blood Pool Edér or Maneha, +1 Galawain's Boon) you'll get +90% multiplicative unarmed damage which would mean 5-8 (base) +2 (Sandals) +15 (NS at lvl 16) = 42-48 per punch (39-44 per graze, 45-52 per crit). And that would be without any damage bonus talent. Since those don't work well with fists anyway could totally focus on speed and defensive or spell boosting talents. You'd also spare a lot of enchanting resources.

Mine would be a brawling mountain dwarf of course. Magran seems fitting.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Boeroer

[hansvedic]

Issues not really. Sounds like a solid plan.

 

Only thing though: the "trick" about priest + Tidefall is that wounding scales with MIG - and there's no other class that can achieve such high MIG scores as a priest.

 

Also the woundig works with Cleaning Flame.

 

Those were the two ideas that started the whole build.

 

The other "weapon" that scales with MIG is Novice's Suffering. Its damage bonus and also the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar will get added to fists' base damage and then multiplied with the MIG bonus. I always wanted to try such a priest but never did. If you manage to reach 40 MIG (21 starting, +4 item, +2 Aggrandizing Radiance, +10 Champion's Boon, +1 Gift from the Machine, +1 Blood Pool Edér or Maneha, +1 Galawain's Boon) you'll get +90% multiplicative unarmed damage which would mean 5-8 (base) +2 (Sandals) +15 (NS at lvl 16) = 42-48 per punch (39-44 per graze, 45-52 per crit). And that would be without any damage bonus talent. Since those don't work well with fists anyway could totally focus on speed and defensive or spell boosting talents. You'd also spare a lot of enchanting resources.

Mine would be a brawling mountain dwarf of course. Magran seems fitting.

 

Doesn't Wild Leech (MIG) stack with Champion's Boon?

[Boeroer]

Yes. But I always think Wild Leech is an unpredictable waste of precious focus.

 

It also stacks with itself by the way - just cast it on different enemies.

 

I mean you can always use a priest to raise somebody else's MIG of course. It's not necessarily the priest who has to pick Novice's Suffering. I just like the idea because priests don't have damage bonuses or good base accuracy anyways. Using those disadvantages and kind of circumventing them seems like fun.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Boeroer

[hansvedic]

I suppose you have a point.

Unless you've got a Reaping Knives barbarian, and are thus overflowing in focus, Wild Leech doesn't make much sense. Even then, there are other, better powers to use.

[Boeroer]

I think so. Anyways - I will build Durance into a feisty puncher now for my final playthrough for exporting to Deadfire. Last chance to try it out.

[Krowseph]

Obviously you have a lot more knowledge then me and I have a hard time visualizing talents.  What do you mean more defensive talents?  What would a sample talent spread look like.  Also, since you don't really care about grazes, would you keep perception at 10 for spells or would you dump it lower in order to move towards other attributes?

 

For talents I'm assuming something like below-

 

Novice's Suffering

Two Weapon

WF Peasant

Inspiring Radiance

Aggrandizing Radiance

Veteran's Recovery

Fast Runner?

Outlander's Frenzy?

Edited March 12, 2018 by Krowseph

[Boeroer]

I wouldn't go below 10 with PER.

 

Instead of Fast Runner I would probably use Interdiction & Painful Interdiction - or Scion of Flame + Bonus 4th level spell - or Bear's Fortitude + Body Control.

[Krowseph]

Non min maxed, Something like this?

 

MIG: 18

CON: 8

DEX:16

PER: 10

INT: 18

RES: 8

 

Is con too low?

[Boeroer]

Only time will tell.

 

Depends on how many other melee guys you have.

[Krowseph]

So I have been playing this priest as an NPC and it is pretty fun.  I actually went Priest of Wael for RP reasons going into POE II.  I plan on multiclassing it with a Nalpasca monk.  That way I can play the whole "Priest of Wael who takes drugs to attempt to discover the mystery of the universe".  I also love the idea of a seemingly non threatening unarmed priest all of a sudden turning into the hulk and tearing people apart .

 

Anyways, I do have one question.  From what I understand, Savage Attack is not worth it as a talent because it only applies to the 5-8 base unarmed damage but  I was wondering if Vulnerable Strike would be worth it for the DR reduction?

[Boeroer]

You are right: Savage Attack would be a total waste. You would suffer -5 ACC but only gain 1-1.6 damage per hit.

 

Vulnerable Attack is good in the early game. With a ton of MIG (raising your damage a lot) you might not need it, but at least in the early to mid game it will make sure you add +5 damage to every hit. The slowdown is a drawback and sometimes it will be better to turn VA off, but I consider it to be a good pick overall. It would be a no-brainer if the priest had any Full Attacks. Sadly, he hasn't.

 

If you manage to find Gautlets of Swift Aim Action and use consumables such as Svef/Potion of Power or pick Outlander's Frenzy you can actually reduce recovery to a point where you can use Vulnerable Attack without speed loss (a bit, but barely noticable - you will only lose around 2 frames). But you can only wear durganized robes then. With Alacrity (potion or spellbind) you could wear scale armor and use Vulnerable Attack without speed loss. But honestly: what other armor than "Raiment of Wael's Eyes" can a Priest of Wael wear anyway?

Edited March 14, 2018 by Boeroer

[dgray62]

Issues not really. Sounds like a solid plan.

 

Only thing though: the "trick" about priest + Tidefall is that wounding scales with MIG - and there's no other class that can achieve such high MIG scores as a priest.

 

Also the woundig works with Cleansing Flame.

 

Those were the two ideas that started the whole build.

 

The other "weapon" that scales with MIG is Novice's Suffering. Its damage bonus and also the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar will get added to fists' base damage and then multiplied with the MIG bonus. I always wanted to try such a priest but never did. If you manage to reach 40 MIG (21 starting, +4 item, +2 Aggrandizing Radiance, +10 Champion's Boon, +1 Gift from the Machine, +1 Blood Pool Edér or Maneha, +1 Galawain's Boon) you'll get +90% multiplicative unarmed damage which would mean 5-8 (base) +2 (Sandals) +15 (NS at lvl 16) = 42-48 per punch (39-44 per graze, 45-52 per crit). And that would be without any damage bonus talent. Since those don't work well with fists anyway could totally focus on speed and defensive or spell boosting talents. You'd also spare a lot of enchanting resources.

Mine would be a brawling mountain dwarf of course. Magran seems fitting.

 

How about Skaen, to add the baby sneak attack bonus to damage? Too bad none of the deities give you an accuracy bonus for fists!

[Boeroer]

Skaen's baby-sneak with fists you mean? That has the same issue like all the other dmg bonuses with fists: it only works with the 5-8 base damage.

[dgray62]

Ah, too bad! I guess that Novice Suffering is best used with class like priest that can get huge boosts to MIG.

[Boeroer]

Yes. Barbarian is also very good because the initial ACC malus - and even more importantly: the 34% damage malus of Carnage - don't have a big impact on Novice's Suffering. And a barb can raise MIG and boost attack speed.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Boeroer

[Darnalak]

Well, damn.  Finished my play through using the Super Cipher (and he really did end up super).  And you guys start talking about punching dorf priests... and I had Khelgar flashbacks... so yeah, guess I'm playing through again.  Will give char generation some thought... and post another thread.  (and close this one out with my final stats for the Cipher).