Calibrations Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 Hi there, I'm looking for suggestions for how to build an effective Herald that is also a tank, but can support decently enough. My previous character in PoE 1 was a Human Paladin Shieldbearer of St. Elcga, and was mainly built to min-max, with MIGHT and DEX dumped in lieu of RES, INT, PER, and some CON. I'd like to go Chanter for my multi-class, but I'm unsure of what a good subclass for Chanter would be, and also how to allocate my stats effectively. I'd realistically like this character to continue serving as a tank/defender, even if it's not their core role. Any suggestions would be appreciated - thanks!
Anaximander Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 (edited) I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! Edited May 9, 2018 by Anaximander 2
Balbanes Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 Hi there, I'm looking for suggestions for how to build an effective Herald that is also a tank, but can support decently enough. My previous character in PoE 1 was a Human Paladin Shieldbearer of St. Elcga, and was mainly built to min-max, with MIGHT and DEX dumped in lieu of RES, INT, PER, and some CON. I'd like to go Chanter for my multi-class, but I'm unsure of what a good subclass for Chanter would be, and also how to allocate my stats effectively. I'd realistically like this character to continue serving as a tank/defender, even if it's not their core role. Any suggestions would be appreciated - thanks! It's worth noting that Pallegina can be a Herald. Doesn't matter at all if you're choosing your MC for roleplay reasons, obviously, but wanted to point out that you can already have a Herald in the party.
Yosharian Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Yosharian's Deadfire Builds
Carella Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 (edited) I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring BeaconStacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! Thank you so much!! Any suggestions for a ranged Herald? Not necessarily exclusively ranged, one weapon set of pistols/blunderbuss duel wielding.I would likely change that starting stats to accommodate 20 INT for the chants to have a constant linger and may contemplate kind wayfarer, but I'm curious about which chants/invocations you would choose if you weren't exclusively front line? I only ask as you look to have a very good grasp of the game! PS I apologise for the multiple edits, writing this on the mobile site on the bus led to poor button presses. Edited May 9, 2018 by Carella
Anaximander Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Good to know! CON was the one thing I was unsure about (hence why I refrained from mentioning it in stat explanations). I suspected it wouldn't hurt too much to lower it, but feels weird to go low CON on a tank to me. That said, if I can get it down using console commands or an IE mod equivalent I'd be happy to spread those points a bit
Yosharian Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Good to know! CON was the one thing I was unsure about (hence why I refrained from mentioning it in stat explanations). I suspected it wouldn't hurt too much to lower it, but feels weird to go low CON on a tank to me. That said, if I can get it down using console commands or an IE mod equivalent I'd be happy to spread those points a bit POE1 had respec so I'm pretty sure you can just grab a respec at any time from an Inn, and redistribute your points there. I mean, unless they changed it... 1 Yosharian's Deadfire Builds
showstopper4 Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Good to know! CON was the one thing I was unsure about (hence why I refrained from mentioning it in stat explanations). I suspected it wouldn't hurt too much to lower it, but feels weird to go low CON on a tank to me. That said, if I can get it down using console commands or an IE mod equivalent I'd be happy to spread those points a bit POE1 had respec so I'm pretty sure you can just grab a respec at any time from an Inn, and redistribute your points there. I mean, unless they changed it... You can't respec attributes in Deadfire which is kind of lame. You can use the console command though, but it disables achievements.
Anaximander Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 (edited) I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Good to know! CON was the one thing I was unsure about (hence why I refrained from mentioning it in stat explanations). I suspected it wouldn't hurt too much to lower it, but feels weird to go low CON on a tank to me. That said, if I can get it down using console commands or an IE mod equivalent I'd be happy to spread those points a bit POE1 had respec so I'm pretty sure you can just grab a respec at any time from an Inn, and redistribute your points there. I mean, unless they changed it... The bright side is you can respec at almost any merchant now, not just inns. Unfortunately you can only respec levels 2+ (so you can't redistribute anything that you selected on creation). This applies to both the Watcher and, much to my chagrin, the companions (my Eder is a Swashbuckler DPS but is stuck with Shield Spec and Knockdown which he automatically learns at level 1). Edited May 10, 2018 by Anaximander
Anaximander Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 (edited) I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring BeaconStacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! Thank you so much!! Any suggestions for a ranged Herald? Not necessarily exclusively ranged, one weapon set of pistols/blunderbuss duel wielding.I would likely change that starting stats to accommodate 20 INT for the chants to have a constant linger and may contemplate kind wayfarer, but I'm curious about which chants/invocations you would choose if you weren't exclusively front line? I only ask as you look to have a very good grasp of the game! PS I apologise for the multiple edits, writing this on the mobile site on the bus led to poor button presses. I honestly haven't though much about a ranged Herald, so I may not be the best resource! That said, based on what I know it should work just fine - 20 INT sounds ideal for ranged, and I'd be sure to pick up the phrase "Sure Handed Ila Knocked her Arrow with Speed" as it has a huge impact for ranged recovery/reload. Kind Wayfarer seems like a great choice to me, Flames of Devotion works at range (and still heals around the paladin); Bleak Walker also works well if you want to focus on DPS, but be mindful that it leans towards Cruel/Aggressive dispositions. Also worth noting is that Sworn Enemy works at range, which is nice. If you go that direction you could lean on the fire and choose Shared Flames and Aelfyllath Ues Mith Fyr to buff your party and your ranged attacks. While Troubadour works well (especially w/ high INT as you may be able to keep Sure Handed Ila up 100% of the time due to linger), if you went Beckoner these effects would work on your summons as well which would be nice (and the summons could help keep your Herald safe from melee). For Invocations, I'd check the ranged offensive options as well as summons (I haven't tested many of these personally). Edited May 10, 2018 by Anaximander 1
Yosharian Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 I went Herald for my Watcher so I may be of help here. My story is similar to yours - I had a Chanter tank in PoE1 and wanted to make her a more realized version of the same character, so I ended up adding Paladin in Deadfire. After a lot of research prior to release and I ended up with a Tank/Support Herald that looks like this: Chanter (Troubadour): Troubador is really helpful for flexible Phrases and Invocations, given that this build needs to focus a lot on tanking and support skills I found this to be the best fit of the subclasses. I think Beckoner would work too, summons are nice meat shields, though it requires more abilities to be effective and thus the character can feel liked it is stretched thin in regards to points. Paladin (Shieldbearer): Shieldbearer is a great choice for the tank (and my preference for RP reasons), the engagement bonus especially helps when adding in Proficiency with Spear (puts you at 3 Engagement right off the bat). That said, Shieldbearer is not the only option for a good Paladin tank, Kind Wayfarer is worth considering if you want more healing, and Goldpact is a nice tank alternative. Attributes: I'd focus on INT for your various auras, but I found MIG to be useful for heals, and RES is nice for tanks in general. DEX and PER are of less importance, though I'd advise against taking PER too low as you want to be able to hit on your Engagement attacks and Invocations. I wanted to avoid dumping anything for RP reasons so I went with this: 14 MIG, 12 CON, 10 DEX, 12 PER, 16 INT, 14 RESIt has been working pretty well for me, but I'm guessing its not optimal /shrug Abilites: I focused on stacking passive healing and defenses Chanter: Come, Come Soft Winds of Death Dull the Edge, Blunt the Point Ancient Memory Her Courage Thick As Steel The Silver Knight's Shields Broke both Arrow and Blade Their Companion Braved the Horde Alone Paladin: Zealous Aura + Exalted Endurance Glorious Beacon + Enduring Beacon Stacking Ancient Memory and Exalted Endurance is great for passive regen. Add in the Deep Faith and Sword and Shield Style passives and your saves will be through the roof. Another good combo is using Shared Flames with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, especially if you go Beckoner or use Summons regularly. Overall I've found the character to be really viable, especially with tuning in it's current state (my character almost feels *too* powerful to me). None of the above should be a prescription, just what I ended up going with and what I've found to work for me thus far. Hope that helps! I think you're overvaluing CON. You can lower it and not have any problems, I suspect. Good to know! CON was the one thing I was unsure about (hence why I refrained from mentioning it in stat explanations). I suspected it wouldn't hurt too much to lower it, but feels weird to go low CON on a tank to me. That said, if I can get it down using console commands or an IE mod equivalent I'd be happy to spread those points a bit POE1 had respec so I'm pretty sure you can just grab a respec at any time from an Inn, and redistribute your points there. I mean, unless they changed it... The bright side is you can respec at almost any merchant now, not just inns. Unfortunately you can only respec levels 2+ (so you can't redistribute anything that you selected on creation). This applies to both the Watcher and, much to my chagrin, the companions (my Eder is a Swashbuckler DPS but is stuck with Shield Spec and Knockdown which he automatically learns at level 1). Well then. That's stupid as *****. Guess I'll be going into the data files to change lots of things. Yosharian's Deadfire Builds
Carella Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 I honestly haven't though much about a ranged Herald, so I may not be the best resource! That said, based on what I know it should work just fine - 20 INT sounds ideal for ranged, and I'd be sure to pick up the phrase "Sure Handed Ila Knocked her Arrow with Speed" as it has a huge impact for ranged recovery/reload. Kind Wayfarer seems like a great choice to me, Flames of Devotion works at range (and still heals around the paladin); Bleak Walker also works well if you want to focus on DPS, but be mindful that it leans towards Cruel/Aggressive dispositions. Also worth noting is that Sworn Enemy works at range, which is nice. If you go that direction you could lean on the fire and choose Shared Flames and Aelfyllath Ues Mith Fyr to buff your party and your ranged attacks. While Troubadour works well (especially w/ high INT as you may be able to keep Sure Handed Ila up 100% of the time due to linger), if you went Beckoner these effects would work on your summons as well which would be nice (and the summons could help keep your Herald safe from melee). For Invocations, I'd check the ranged offensive options as well as summons (I haven't tested many of these personally). Honestly beckoner was my first choice, but the sheer flexibility of Troubadour is very inviting. I can still summon, and I can toggle Brisk Recitation if I want to build up phrases quickly for summons or other abilities. However multiple tiny skeletons and other summons all doing attacks with the shared flames and Aelfyllath Ues Mith Fyr is super tempting.
Nemesis7884 Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 (edited) i think ancient melody + myth fyr and shared flames + zealous endurance are probably the greatest "standard combos" im wondering regarding shield bearer vs kind wayfarer - the +1 engagement is nice and i like the dispositions better - the greater lay on hands in theory is fantastic and so is the no death - unfortunatly the recovery is nearly 5 seconds and the no death is also only 5 seconds...so im not sure if its that worth it? What are your experiences? also wondering about stats...i would have taken similar stats to you but due to the consitution advice i might go with 16 might / int / resolve so you have duration/range/healing/defense Edited May 10, 2018 by Nemesis7884
pi2repsion Posted May 10, 2018 Posted May 10, 2018 (edited) As a general rule, Paladins like having high INT for their buffs for AOE purposes and Chanters love having max INT for their buffs and debuffs for both duration and AOE purposes, so you should go max INT on a Herald unless for roleplaying purposes. (You might even want to choose Godlike or Old Vailia to boost it even further for that purpose.) CON is (sadly enough) usually safe enough to use as a dump stat also on front line characters if they have superior defenses, and a paladin certainly does, and with the chanter subclass you'll end up with even better defenses. Dumping it to 3 would be taking it too far, but 6-7 should be no problem. As for subclasses, Paladin/Chanter is already a really strong combination as a tank if you want it to be, probably only beaten by a Paladin/Fighter(unbowed) supported by another party member that is the Chanter, but subclasses makes it even more powerful. Beckoner is tempting, but the greatest power of Beckoner comes with the high level summons that you will not get as a multiclass. Furthermore, since you'll be behind the power curve as a multiclass, for most of the game you'll be using the low tier summons. Getting double amounts, but smaller and of lesser duration, will still be useful in fielding bodies on the field and is definitely better than a non-subclass Chanter, but it is a hard sell given the subclasses that compete for attention. Skald is great for a more offensive herald that focuses on crits and offensive invocations. Since you want to play the herald more as tank, this otherwise powerful combination is not for you. Troubadour is where it is at. Longer linger allows better stacking of buffs and debuffs from phrases at the cost of requiring an extra phrase to invoke - which multiclasses perfectly with just about everything so long as one focuses on using that active abilities on the other class with only occasional invocations thrown in. And if in need of swift invocations, the modal ability allows that at the price of eliminating lingering while active. So for a tanky Herald go Paladin(Shieldbearer of St. Elga or Kind Wayfarer)/Chanter(Troubadour). Max INT is non-negotiable unless for roleplaying reasons, and both benefit really well from max STR as well if you are going to have them healing or doing damage with abilities while tanking (which you almost certainly will). Other stats distributed as you see fit - all of them are nice to have (in particular, if you are going to be using more offensive phrases and invocations you might want to focus on perception, if not, not), but none of them are as important as these two since between Paladin and Chanter you are practically guaranteed sky-high defenses regardless of which other stats you choose. Edited May 11, 2018 by pi2repsion 2 When I said death before dishonour, I meant it alphabetically.
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