What melee class should i play?

[Siven80]

I last played at release when i played a fighter. Warriors are my goto class in RPGs.

 

I want to play through again before the sequel.

 

But i dont know what class to pick. I want to play a melee class, with medium-heavy armor (i like metal/plate armor). Good dps with some utility i think.

 

 

I've been looking at barbarians, paladins and maybe druids, Ciphers look interesting, but also seem to be low health. Are Barbs ok with heavier armor?

 

Hmm, i see melee rangers are a thing. Gonna look into that.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited April 15, 2018 by Siven80

[Greensleeve]

I'm currently doing a run in anticipation of Deadfire. Going to be the save I import. 

 

I'm playing a Fire Godlike fighter. I'm only playing on Hard, so there's no need for me to optimize all too heavily, so take anything I say below with that in mind. I'm halfway through act 2 right now. 

 

I'm currently using dual sabres and wearing breastplate. I've got Armored Grace and Two Weapon Style. I've got about 20 frames of recovery, which is less than a second. Each hit is usually around 20-30 points of damage. I don't get hit much, and when I do, it's not for very much damage. In fact, I've only activated Battle Forged 3-4 times. I should've picked another Godlike if I wanted to optimize, but Fire Godlikes seemed really interesting for Deadfire what with the volcano connection and all. 

 

In short: so far I'm doing great and enjoying the fighter a lot. Durable, deals lots of damage, fast. It's great. The only real utility the build offers though is through scrolls, which is either great or sucks depending on how much you feel like using consumables. 

 

My final weapon is going to be the Blade of Endless Paths though. With the gear I have in mind, I'll end up with a 17 frame recovery, with the damage potential of an estoc. It's going to be real tasty. 

 

For inspiration on how I'm building this character I'd strongly recommend you read the Lady of Pain build linked in the pinned thread at the top of the forum. 

 

 

Other cool, straight-forward melee builds include monks, barbarians, and paladins.

 

Monk is versatile and perform similar to fighters, but with more micro. They're awesome in Ryona's Breastplate. Dual wield, 2h, armed, unarmed, it doesn't really matter. The monk will be awesome and kick ass no matter what. And if you get tired of micromanaging, the Aggressive AI tends to do a pretty good job of dumping Wounds into Torment's Reach. 

 

Barbarians can either be built as a controller, with On-Crit CC effect weapons (We Toki, Godansthunyr, Starcaller, Cladhaliath, etc), or damage. It's difficult, but possible to do a build that can do both simultaneously. Either one can be built as a dual wielder or 2h weapon wielder. 2h builds need both Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. And I'd strongly recommend the heaviest armor you can get on most barbarians. 

 

Paladins have much better utility than any other of these classes, but lacks in damage. Well, before Sacred Immolation that is. You basically have to go dual wield to get decent damage out of a paladin before then, or focus pretty hard on arquebus FoD shots. Which isn't sustainable. 

 

 

I hope this has given you some ideas. If you wanna know more about any of these, just ask. I'm sure other forum members will be along shortly with more and better advice than what I can offer. Which is needed when it comes to Barbarians and Paladins, as I don't have too much experience with them in the configurations described here. 

[Raven Darkholme]

I must say with barbarians and ciphers I had by far the most fun in this game, but the cipher might take more than one playthrough to get really good with.

My very first playthrough (solo potd) was with a cipher and after it I was just happy I somehow made it through and didn't think the class was very strong.

After that I played 2 separate (solo) paladins, boring but efficient, then it took me 2 separate trio playthroughs which both included a cipher, to finally fall in love with ciphers.

Now it is my fav class and maybe even the strongest class in the game (arguably), while barbarian took me exactly ONE playthrough to LOVE it.

[mr_raider]

Chanters? Their abilities are pretty much speed insensitive. You can bash skulls and sing at the same time.

[Siven80]

Think im going to go Barbarian.

 

Go heavy armor and prolly dual wield, gonna try to copy my WoW Fury warrior style but with a bit of cc too.

 

Monks seem interesting, but dont think i'll like the micro with the wound system. And i want to use the Paladin companion so dont really want to make my char a paladin too.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Siven80

[Greensleeve]

Think im going to go Barbarian.

 

Go heavy armor and prolly dual wield, gonna try to copy my WoW Fury warrior style but with a bit of cc too.

 

Monks seem interesting, but dont think i'll like the micro with the wound system. And i want to use the Paladin companion so dont really want to make my char a paladin too.

 

I'll recommend axes in that case. We Toki on a Barbarian is crazy good. Tons of fun. Every crit does extra damage, because it's an axe, and causes prone. I'd even suggest you duplicate the axe (after Durgan Steel enchantments etc) and wield both. 

 

Make sure you've got high perception and intelligence. Might is secondary to those two I'd say. Dex doesn't matter, but it never hurts. Don't waste points on Con, consider dropping it a point or two even. Resolve is a bit of a dump stat. The only thing you want/need from Resolve is Concentration, and you can always just have a Priest cast Holy Meditation to take care of that issue. 

 

I'd probably go for a MIG 16, CON 8, DEX 12, PER 18, INT 16, RES 8. Not min-maxed, but gets you points where you want them. You can change things around as you wish, but I wouldn't drop PER or INT below 16. 

 

Also, consider playing a Hearth Orlan. Their extra crits are pretty nice. Though hardly necessary. Race doesn't matter overly much outside of pushing the envelope. 

 

Focus on accuracy early on. When dual wielding, speed is basically a non-issue, especially with the weapon style. So grab accuracy talents first and foremost. Both Weapon Focus and Accurate Carnage are absolutely worth it. I'd also pick up Veteran's Recovery rather early. 

 

EDIT: I did some quick speed calculations. Dual wielding Durganized We Toki axes, with the Two Weapon Style, in Durganized Full Plate, with the Gauntlets of Swift Action, gets you half a second of recovery (16 frames) per swing. With Frenzy, it drops down to zero. So DEX really doesn't matter. You can easily leave it at 10 and still be fast as hell. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Greensleeve

[draego]

I like barb cc/debuf also but in POE2 weapon on crit effect dont apply to carnage anymore rip.

Edited April 16, 2018 by draego