Goldpact Knight ability usefulness?

[Yosharian]

So it appears that the Goldpact Knight's ability, Gilded Enmity, does not stack with several effects, including the Paladin's own Zealous Endurance aura (adds armor).

So this raises the question: is this ability really any good?

My thoughts are:

1) If one is a Goldpact Knight, Zealous Endurance becomes less useful, which pushes us towards other auras, such as the accuracy aura. Either that, or roll a different subclass and take ZE.  That said, ZE is only +1 armor while GE is +4.

2) What ways are there of increasing characters' armor, and similarly what ways of increasing accuracy, and which is easiest to increase and keep increased for long periods?  It seems like there is no Armor of Faith-type spell in Deadfire, however Blessing still exists, this would imply it's still relatively easy to get +Accuracy but a bit harder to get +Armor.

3) Is the Zealous aura that increases Stride any good?  It seems a bit pants.  25% extra speed is pretty negligible, and the defense bonus is arguably not that useful unless you're really having trouble repositioning.

4) How do the upgraded auras compare? Upgraded Accuracy aura gives small hit-to-crit (arguably only useful for crit fishers), while ZE gives a regenerative effect (could be extremely useful, seems to be the same power as Ancient Memory).  ZC's hit-to-graze seems rather too small of an effect to be meaningful.

At the moment I'm leaning towards ditching the Goldpact Knight in favour of something else because I kind of like ZE, but maybe the Accuracy aura is better? Or maybe, gasp, the Stride aura is the best?

 

So I was leaning towards that, but now I've changed my mind because Zealous Endurance is only +1 armor, while Gilded Enmity is +4.  Plus, ZE's upgraded effects seems to be the best one out of the lot.  However, an alternative would be to get Zealous Focus and just not bother with the upgrade.

 

Thoughts?

 

Relevant stats:
 

• Gilded Emnity gives +4 armor rating for several hits.
• Zealous Endurance gives +1 armor rating.
• Upgraded ZE gives +3 health per 3 seconds.
• Zealous Focus gives +5 accuracy.
• Upgraded ZF gives 5% of hits converted to crits.
• Zealous Charge gives +25% Stride (movespeed), +12 defense while disengaging.
• Upgraded ZC gives 10% incoming hits converted to grazes.
• Steel Exhortation (Rank 7 upgrade to Reinforcing Exhortation) grants +4 armor for 12 seconds to any ally.

 

• (Priest Spell) Prayer For The Body grants +4 armor rating for 60 seconds.
• (Priest Spell) Blessing grants Insightful (+5 perception, which boosts accuracy by 5) for 20 seconds (AOE).

Edited May 9, 2018 by Yosharian

[Nemesis7884]

i guess it depends on the combination - i am debating this myself... i am deciding between a paladin-cipher and a paladin-chanter

 

for the cipher i think the combo of gilded eminity + focus aura is useful because you are really a 1v1 kinda character that downs foes and powers up the attack for the next foe this way - so basically you are a single target striker

 

for the chanter where you have more a support-tank role i think a kind wayfarer + zealous endourance + ancient meldoy can be nice for lots of heals to the group

[Nemesis7884]

one interesting question tough - is my assumption correct

 

gilded emnity only works against ONE enemy - so it only overrides the zealous endurance armor buff against that ONE enemiy - but you get the armor buff against any other enemiy not affected by gilded emnity?

[Koth]

Yeah I'm playing a fanatic Barbarian-Berserker / Paladin Goldpact Knight. For me, the benefit of guilded emnity is huge, enough to counter the endurance aura and make the accuracy aura amazing, whilst I agree, I'm not going to both upgrading it, 5% hit to crit is nothing, but as a multi, I have plenty of other options on which to spend the points. Just have to wait it out till level 10 when I can pick up mental fortress to negate frenzy confusion and it'll be smooth sailing.

[Nemesis7884]

Yeah I'm playing a fanatic Barbarian-Berserker / Paladin Goldpact Knight. For me, the benefit of guilded emnity is huge, enough to counter the endurance aura and make the accuracy aura amazing, whilst I agree, I'm not going to both upgrading it, 5% hit to crit is nothing, but as a multi, I have plenty of other options on which to spend the points. Just have to wait it out till level 10 when I can pick up mental fortress to negate frenzy confusion and it'll be smooth sailing.

i wonder if the complete self is also triggered from soul annihilation - e.g. if it is also considered a cipher "spell"

[Yosharian]

one interesting question tough - is my assumption correct

 

gilded emnity only works against ONE enemy - so it only overrides the zealous endurance armor buff against that ONE enemiy - but you get the armor buff against any other enemiy not affected by gilded emnity?

 

I don't think it works that way.  Casting Sworn Enemy gives the Paladin the armor buff, against all enemies that strike him.

[jakl201]

Just a thought, I was thinking of this while making my own character, but a rogue/goldpact would be pretty useful as well. For when you find yourself 1v1 and proc some extra protection. Not to mention upgraded Gilded Enmity would refund, so your rogue can just cleave through enemies and keep that protection up and running. I ended up going with Dracozzi instead because my dispositions lean more towards that (although I wish stoic wasn't one of the 'no no's' for them).

 

Just thought I'd put my two cents in there.

[Koth]

Yup Goldpact multi anything squishy is a great choice. The added defense from guilded emnity is just crazy good, add this to any dual weilding melee class and it applies the FoD lash to both weapons making all full attack abilities devastating.

[Nemesis7884]

is dualwielding still that much better than 2h? the greatsword modal could be interesting....+50% damage is quite significant

[jakl201]

Yup Goldpact multi anything squishy is a great choice. The added defense from guilded emnity is just crazy good, add this to any dual weilding melee class and it applies the FoD lash to both weapons making all full attack abilities devastating.

 

Learned the hard way. First build was a rogue/cipher, which I was very *squee!* about, but it was just...so....squishy. In beta I tried a rogue/barb, but I just didn't have a whole lot of fun with. 

 

I've never really seen my PC's as playing as a paladin, but this rogue/paladin has enough meat on it to keep my PC in the fight longer, which is really nice. 

 

I'm just glad I didn't have to resort to making a fighter/rogue (no offense to others). Last time I built something like that was BG2. The VERY first time I played that game. 

[dunehunter]

is dualwielding still that much better than 2h? the greatsword modal could be interesting....+50% damage is quite significant

 

Yes i think so, even the dual wielding style get a slight nerf. Also modal bonus/penalty is adjusted, greatsword modal only gives 30% damage bonus while -10 acc.

[GuyNice]

Yeah I'm playing a fanatic Barbarian-Berserker / Paladin Goldpact Knight. For me, the benefit of guilded emnity is huge, enough to counter the endurance aura and make the accuracy aura amazing, whilst I agree, I'm not going to both upgrading it, 5% hit to crit is nothing, but as a multi, I have plenty of other options on which to spend the points. Just have to wait it out till level 10 when I can pick up mental fortress to negate frenzy confusion and it'll be smooth sailing.

I was thinking of playing this combo as well but I was worried the self-inflicted raw damage from Berserker would count against the 7 hit limit of Gilded Enmity, so ultimately I rolled a Berserker/Bleak Walker instead. Can you tell if Gilded Enmity is affected/removed by the Berserker self-DOT?

[dunehunter]

 

Yeah I'm playing a fanatic Barbarian-Berserker / Paladin Goldpact Knight. For me, the benefit of guilded emnity is huge, enough to counter the endurance aura and make the accuracy aura amazing, whilst I agree, I'm not going to both upgrading it, 5% hit to crit is nothing, but as a multi, I have plenty of other options on which to spend the points. Just have to wait it out till level 10 when I can pick up mental fortress to negate frenzy confusion and it'll be smooth sailing.

I was thinking of playing this combo as well but I was worried the self-inflicted raw damage from Berserker would count against the 7 hit limit of Gilded Enmity, so ultimately I rolled a Berserker/Bleak Walker instead. Can you tell if Gilded Enmity is affected/removed by the Berserker self-DOT?

 

 

Normal DoT will remove Gilded Enmity. For raw damage DoT, i'm not sure, but i think no it wont remove gilded.