B4nJ0

I come here just to say gz to all of you that put so much effort into poe2. PoE1 leaved me kinda burnout so joining poe2 only after all the balance patches has been my choice to avoid balance burnout once again, but I do regret to have missed the opportunity to contribute this great community achievement. I know how many hours I have sinked into a simple 3crown poe1 run with both my paladin and my priest, so GZ to all of you who theorycrafted for the ultimate, and ofc to @Decadency and @Tenray for the actual clear. Well done guys!! I hope that many others will join the club asap

Double post sorry.

I wanted to ask, since I joined the PoE2 train pretty late after a long PoE break, when you should go full no rest in a run. I'm checking the "the ultimate" runs right now and seems like both guys and Victor Creed dont take the heal bonus from Port Maje ASAP so I guess they will have at least one rest and then go berserk on buffs. My only problem is that I don't know when is the right timing. As a newbie seems that only "dirty laundry" quest force you to rest, is that so important or is that any other reason like {completely guessing} other food over hylea bounty? Thx in advice.

Hi all! Even if it's been a while since I enjoyed PoE, this time around I wanted to share a cool group build for my favorite class: Paladin! A couple of concepts to share before showing the build: 1) I do mainly play solo and I have finished the game multiple times, my favorite achievement was 3 crown in 1.x with my favorite class, paladin. I keep playing this class over and over towards basically all the patches, in both solo and parties, always in potd difficulties 2) talking about paladins, it can seems counter interactive, but the best way to go after dragons and most of the endgame bosses is actually dumping your int. There are multiple considerations to do so but, let's be honest, the big reason is Drawn in Spring. Paladin are actually between the best DPS in game against a single big boy, thx to the NEVER ending duration of sworm enemy, dump int and Drawn in Spring. "Wounding" has fixed damage no matter your INT and stack with itself with consecutive attacks so, the worst your int, the fatest your full damage will be applied, making a Drawn inSspring low int character the highest damage dealer in the game. Couple this with the highest saves rolls of the game and 3x use of second wind (how I like to see at holy hands with a 3 int Paladin) per fight and you have a clear winner against the bad boys and, perhaps, the very best class in the game. 3) I tend to be a min/maxer at heart so, even if this build is focused around group play, its still pretty close in concept to a pure min maxed solo paladin. This run was done with fixed NPC (eder, aloth, durance) To create a custom save for Dreadfire. I had very mixed feeling about PoE sequel for a long time, but now I have finally chosen to buy it so I wanted a more intensive RolePlay run in Trial of Iron. So, enter HolyMoo, the stupidest Paladin around! With this sacred, stupid cow (err, Aumaua), I wanted to "fix" some low sinergies between Drawn in Spring and Flames of Devotion. Daggers are not a good weapon to use flames of devotion with and, IMO, the best way to fix this problem is to have some deep burst at the very beginning of the fight with 2 quick switch arquaebus BEFORE entering melee. I tailored the holymoo around the following game mechanics: 1) Race: Island Aumaua: in solo wild orlan is a much better race to tank dragons (and, honestly, one of the only 3 good races for solo min/max play along wood elf and moon godlike) but, in a group, I could give up some tankiness to unlock my 2 arquaebus slots and spend my precious talents on a much more Burst oriented path. 2) Paladin Order: Goldpact. To me goldpacts and bleackwalkers are no matter what the go to paladin orders, since they are the only 2 orders that dont have cruel has a disposition, wich unlock gift from the machine/effigy resentment for free. The amazing thing of Goldpact knights is that the unique talent enduring flames is ALSO a fixed damage DoT (hi, drawn in spring sinergies). Plus 50% fire damage DoT on flames of devotion is AMAZING burst at 3 int, and meh on an high Int paladin. 3) Paladins are the best boss tank in the game, given the insane fortitude/reflex Achievable. In a party, the HolyMoo is able to trade deflection and overhall better saves (dual wield over weapon and shield with little savior) for a much better and sinergic burst DPS, compensating with Eder for the Tank Deflection role and Durance for extra Defensive buffs. =================================== HolyMoo =================================== Difficulty: PotD, Triol of Iron, Expert, v3.06 (suboptimal for solo) -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Paladin (GoldPact Knights) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Island Aumaua -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: The Living Lands - Hunter -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (char creation): MIG: 21 (18Base 2Aumaua 1LivingLands) CON: 11 DEX: 15 PER: 18 INT: 03 RES: 10 Final Stats (no items switch, only Ced Nua rest for your daily fight needings) MIG: 28 (18Base 2Aumaua 1LivingLands 1GiftFromTheMachine 1GalawainsBoon 1Effigy:Maneha 4MaegfolcSkull) Con: 17 (11Base 3WoodLainTrailsRest 3GirdleOfEoten) Dex: 17 (15Base 2HeCarriesManyScars) Per: 21 (18Base 3LilithShawl) Int: 03 Res: 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills (no items switch, only Ced Nua rest for your daily fight needings) Stealth: 13 (9Base 1Hunter 1Blooded Hunter 1Dungeon Delver 1LilithShawl) Athl: 10 (5Base 2Paladin 1GalwainsBloom 2WoodlainTrailsRest) Lore: 2 (1Base 1Paladin) Mech: 2 (1Base 1Dungeon Delver) Surv: 8 (7Base 1Hunter) -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) QuickSwitch (!) Intense Flames (!) Enduring Flames (!) Scion of Flame (!) Two Weapon Style Snake's Reflex ® Bear's Fortitude ® Deep Faith ® Reward Talents: The Merciless Hand ® Gift From The Machine (!) Flick of the Wrist (!) Dozen's Luck ® Effigy's Resentment: Maneha ® Blooded Hunter Song of the Heavens Galawain's Boon (!) Dungeon Delver (!) Scale-Breaker Abilities Faith and Conviction (a) Flames of Devotion (!) Zealous Focus ® Lay on Hands (!) Sworm Enemy (!) Rightenous Soul ® Coordinated Attacks Sacred Immolation ® Abjuration --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me, r=recommended, !=important) Weapon set 1: Drawn in Spring (*Durgan Refined, *Burning Lash, *Slaying Beast) (!) & Drawn in Spring (*Durgan refined, *Burning Lash, *Slaying Beast) (!) Weapon set 2: arquebus (*Exceptional, *Burning Lash, *Slaying X) (!) Weapon set 3: arquebus (*Exceptional, *Burning Lash, *Slaying X) (!) Boots: Boot of Speed ® Head: Maegfolc Skull Armor: He Carries Many Scars (*Durgan Refined, *Superb, *Dexterity +2, *Crush-Proofed) (!) Neck: Lilith's Shawl Belt: Girdle of Eoten Consitution Rings: Ring of Protection ®, Ring of Deflection ® Hands: Gauntlets of Accuracy (!) Quick slots: Potion of Eldritch Aim, Potion of Bulwark Against the Elements Potion of DaoM, Potion of Major Endurance. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Early important Items: Chapter 1: Any dual weapon with accuracy bonus, Arbalests (plus 1Arquebus from Kana), Blunting Belt, Plate armor, Torc of Falcon Eyes, boots of stability and Gauntlets of Accuracy (!). Chapter 2: Sword of Daenesys (!) and March Steel Dagger (!), Boots of Speed (!), Fenwalkers, Stag Helm, Aru-Break, Trollhide Belt, Ring of Protection/Deflection, Arquebus Honestly, I had a blast playing the HolyMoo and she is now my favorite Party oriented Paladin I have never played. The basic strat against most encounters was to scout ahead in stealth, open with the 2 powerful Arquaebus attacks and then move in positon as fast as possible with the help of boots of speed. When fighting the big, bad, guys he was still able to tank them while abusing the evergreen combination of Drawn in Spring, low int and Sworm Enemy, rending any other damage from the party more or less an useless overkill! A couple of basic observation: No weapon focus!?!? Dagger and Arquebus are not in the same Weapon group and, generally speaking, Weapon Focus does not help Sacred Immolation Accuracy either. The best way to fix this for me was not wasting a precious talent on a single weapon group, and to use Gauntlets of Accuracy the whole game. Gauntlets of Accuracy combined with Zealous Focus and max Per is the way to go to maximize Accuracy of ALL your main attacks (including Sacred Immolation), giving you the freedom to try out /use the weapon you like the most pre Drawn in Spring, wich is a big plus to me. Also, don't forget the daggers come with Accuracy 2 for free, you have Flick of the Wrist on top of that and rending damage work well enough with normal hits 0 recovery? Of Course! With a potion of Daom, this build achieve zero recovery. You can also do so by skipping Two weapons Style and adding Gauntlets of Swift Action in the mix but, As I said, I consider Gauntlets of Accuracy Best in Slot for Paladins. Why He Carries Many Scars over, let's say, Ryona's Breastplate? I do consider He Carries Many Scars one of the best armor in the games, and the best one for low INT tanks. With low Int you dont have access to Constant Recovery, so the affix of this armor sinergies really well with the build (plus is a plate armor, has Defiant on top of that and you can achieve 0 recovery on top of it). For Act 2 buy Trollhide Belt ASAP as a momentary Replacement. Why Lilith Shawl over more powerfull options? I know, in a non solo run you can use the Cloack of Confort (one of the top 3 imba items of the game if you ask me) but I enjoy the old Lilith, especially on a build with high Stealth. Now, go and roleplay your super greedy Goldpact Paladin in his quest to achieve the biggest arquebus collection ever! Oh, and last note about arquebus, prioritize a set of them with Kith slaying ASAP for act 2, then slowly work into a pair with the right Slaying enchant for every creature in Eora! Hope that you will be enjoying this Paladin concept as much as I did! :D

Pretty much the fact that gives me trouble is that consacrated grounds benefict more from int rather then mig per se, plus I prefear longer duration rather then power healing. I'm not so worried about refreshing dots/stun on target given durgan ench and 1.15 gloves (I'm addicted to fixing random drops which means, basically, max number of gloves of accu early and gloves of speed late ). Plus, this guy is a moon godlike so AoE is also important, another big prop for INT and, with the rogue, this will be the only char without a ring of overseeing since I guess it's not worth the item slot for only 2 effects. edit: switched in the aumaua paladin, also discovered that Aedyr druid has sabre and small shield for free, so I went for it while I created the pally

Yeah, the ranger seemed hard to balance without playtesting. Int is there "just" for stun lock, wounding, sanguine and boots of faith. Not so much but the build around demands decent int, IMO. Might it's important for raw DPS and boots of faith healing but, honestly, damage it's the last of your problems in a party like this (I prob end with too much dps at the cost of cc ) Talking about paladin, indeed moongodlike it's just the best race you can pick for a paladin. The passive is just retarded, plus the fact that has up to 19 basic int that is the best paladin stat on top of the racial. I Just "ban" more then 1 moongodlike for balance reason, if you want to min max going for the super cheese moon godlike front and elf backline is just the best, races are really bad balanced in PoE. Dwarf and Aumaua come to second for the +2Might (which is the second most important stat after int) for an up to 20naked might. Finally dwarf make sense to counter the 2x bittercut malus and I was tempted to go for it in my last run with a bleak walker main but, to be honest, I have NEVER played anything else aside moon godlike has a main now that I think of it I guess I could switch pale elf for a Coastal Aumaua which is, also, a race I have never played and keep the wild orlan druid that, on a side note, I think fit pretty from a race/class combo rpg pow (plus orlan are bad paladin if you want to max out both int and mig, given -1 mig) 7dex/7per seems also better, given the ced nua dex rest and the fact that this guy will wear lilith's shawl all the run for a flat 10/10. It was, actually, my standard go to stat attribution for an s/s paladin. My memory is that bad I guess Nothing that matter too much, an s/s paladin is just unkillable even if it's not the main and you have more stats that you could really use in the end. Rather then overkilling con you can strongly consider dex for better animation which is, always, super important on char with a lot of ability each fight. It's counter interactive but it's rather useless if your caster ends up with 30+dex and then your paladin needs half an hour to purge the random cc your caster has eaten

Yeah just yday I was thinking about Drawn + little savior or, even, 2x drawn for the lul. But I think I will be fine with a moongodlike with boots of faith + sanguine, ranger has 20 base deflection and 5 health per endu which is nice. Honestly I had to check, I was thinking for some reason he would have better def then cipher/druid but for an off tank it's kinda ok I guess. For some reason Drawn always lacked potential for me. Even in vanilla, deviating from sabre was kinda hard and, now, the fact that drawn has only 1 unique enchant really push her into "meh" weapons group since the quality it's fixable for a given weapon, while unique ench aren't. Don't forget that a ranger can still deliver quite a punch, even in melee, with tidefall thx to an almost free 1.20 atk speed and +50%dmg. I can't say the same while holding drawn.

Pretty much <3 Boeroer, the only guy that can go for min/max calls and then meta himself for no real reasons (aside making you feel a newbie 90% of the time ) and yes, I'm addicted to the sell value of Gaun's Pledge at the very beginning in party play till looking for feedbacks on my group, seems childish but it's gonna be an Iron run wihout cheers so I would love some feedback on my party. No rush, I just hope to get everything right

I know that trick and thx for the call, but would you give up on 150gp value at the very beginning? seems close, but I'm confortable enough with act 1 to go for the max cash stack for lvl 2 companions and +1 mage spell learnable from aloth right on the bat (greedy greedy me) and endure the luck of gun for a bit

Ok, party rolled, considering I will avoid stat rerolls for the whole run. Give me my 2 cents: Banjo - Main - Ranger (stag companion) - Male Moon godlike - Colonist (maxing survival atm), Living Sands Might 15 Cos 9 Dex 19 Per 10 Int 15 Ris 10 Marked Pray Cruel Comanion Predator's Sense I'm tempted to play it ranged for the 1st few levels, building up the companion feats till he will be ready to enter melee. I rushed lvl 3, then I builded a full lvl 2 party since I had enough money for it (sell all the stuff at 1st camp). Tòer - Paladin (Darcozzi) - Male Coastal Aumaua - Colonist, Old valhalla Mig 20 Cos 10 Dex 7 Per 7 Int 19 Ris 15 Light of hands Weap and Shield Edited, was a pale elf at the beginning (mainly to pick 5 different races) but aumaua are just better since, after int, mig is the second best stat for a paladin and an aumaua can have 20mig/19int at the start. Plus the racial seems decent and this is the very 1st time I'm gonna play a coastal Aumaua Jin - Druid (stag form) - Female Wild Orlan - Colonist, Aedyr Mig 14 Cos 9 Dex 15 Per 10 Int 15 Ris 15 Weap and Shield Per 10 on a CC seems very greedy, but It's always hard to roll an offtank caster, IMO. At the very least this guy will run with Gauntlet's of Accuracy all run long. Stag form is there for the ranger theme (and extra saves). edit: I noticed that Aedyr have small shield and sabre at the creation which is AMMAZZZING. Go for aedyr or you will fail (unless u care about maxing a single stat on your druid!) Flear - Rogue - Female Insular Aumaua - Scientist, Living Sands Mig 21 Cos 7 Dex 18 Per 15 Int 10 Ris 7 Crippling Strike Quickswitch Given the quickswitch nature of the build maybe switching dex with per would work better, but I'm kinda newbie with quickswitch builds so I will go for what I feel safer. Farsìr - Priest (Magran) - Male Wood elf, Colonist, Old Valhalla Mig 16 Con 7 Dex 19 Per 10 Int 19 Ris 7 Interdiction It's an elf and will have gauntlet's of accuracy always on (plus paladin aura). 10 per seems okish for a non min/maxed build Sink - Mage - Male Nature Godlike - Colonist, Old valhalla Mig 18 Con 3 Dex 19 Per 15 Int 20 Ris 3 Blast Remember to level up Aloth to 3, pick up all usefull spells and then choice accordingly the spells on your actually rolled wizard for max value I'm broken at exactly 91 copper but, aside outworn buckler and blunting belt, investing your money on wiz spells in ch1 is the best thing you can do IMO. Everybody and her mom is maxing survival till new order while the rogue is on mechanics, and sleeping from day 19 to day 17 to take the stalker's Torc in the inn was pretty boring but now the group it's officially ready! what do you think of the party? ^_^ Will actually start playing it tomorrow, hope it's good enough for a trial of iron run

That's indeed the reason since I like to play druid. It's not a powerfull class (way less then priest or cipher), but the aoe cc that can provide is nice, plus it can off tank easily then a priest. Also, I think that priest damage potential in late game is just too good to pass up so they end up to be pure casters in my runs (I had enough Durance off tank to be done with the tanky variation). I found pretty nice your idea of quickswitch Scon Mica's Roar into Runner's Wounding into Persistence. This would also give me a good opportunity to play an Aumaua over yet another elf since I tend to end pretty elf flooded into my ranged department. Instead, picking nature godlike mage + aumaua rogue + elf priest would resolve this problem for good while not gimping the team. Ok, let's go for quickswitch ^_^

Thx everyone for the answer. The idea of using 2x war bows to deviate from the standard persistence is interesting, 20% speed bow in late game to immune things and stun bow to cc. I have used persistence on a rogue more then once already since that build was the best ranged single target DPS build in a party pre WM, IMO. I was just hoping that would have spawned a better technology given 2 expansions. In fact persistence has been always my "rushed" weapon of choice since, even in PoTD, you can take it right after ced nua, if you are accepting the fact that fighting ogres in lvl 3 is gonna require you to rest quite a bit at lvl 4/5 (and re-run to an inn at least once). @maxquest I think that the priest will be as fast as the rogue, I will min/max the blaster for sure (3con/ris) and priest and rogue are gonna be a little less min/maxed for RPG reason (I think something like 6 to 8 con and 8 ris). Druid will be the 3rd melee when needed, since they're spells are generally less powerfull I'm more then confortable with the idea of building a "tanky" one with plate (and for tanky I mean 8 con 10 per or something on those line ). Quick switcthing is a good idea, but, as I said, I would love to skip one char micro in late game (I do play with autopause on basically for everything in trial of iron so, actually, is not a big deal, but that would slow my overhall run quite a bit). Honestly I don't know about the interaction between dangerous implement and blast, but I do find that build kinda funny no matter what so I'm gonna go for it. As a side note, that's why I chosed the stag over wolf. It's a bit rarer, but I liked the idea of a little extra AoE auto atk to support the mage for trash fights. I will edit with the stats of the team when I will be done with the creation of the party, still got a couple of bounties left on the dual bittercut pally

So... I'm basically done with my paladin potd run. Playing WM2 for the 1st time around was pretty fun, and the possibility to dual a couple of bittercut on a monster bleak walker definitely delivered. I went with fixed companion, nothing high technology, Kama off tanking with tidefall boots of faith and sanguine, sagani went in order with a rushed persistence into stormcaller into twin sting, durance tried to deliver has a sup priest with his rather gimped stats and aloth blasted from the back. Now, I would like to do one last run with a neutral stoic character (ok, I can't say no to gift of the machine and effigy, way to greedy to be a good person in RPGs) to prepare another save for Pillar 2, before quitting the game for a bit I will try an old favorite of mine that I have never had the time to play: a melee ranger. Nothing to high technology, tidefall with a stag companion to stun luck in melee while triggering predatory sense. This will also be a Trial of Iron run, since I have done upgraded bounties and drakes right now and I hope my memory will not betray me in the hardest fight. I will stick with a 5man party (I consider the pet the six person for no real reason ) and I will go with the following team, which I will call heraldAbuse given that, imo, after bittercut little savior seems the best items to duplicate, or at least I want to try this engine at least once: Melee ranger (main) Tank paladin (outwork buckler) Priest with little savior another utility second line char with 2nd little savior (I think that "herald" stacking make no sense at all since it's an aura but, well, I will go for it and I'm kinda confortable with a druid in the laneup and I don't want to cheese 2x priests) the totally next level nature godlike DPS blaster of @boeroer with a second chance item to be a little safer I'm pretty confortable with this party, blast mage+support priest+paladin are the 3 char I played the most, plus druid it's kinda close and the hunter seems pretty easy to use. This leave me with my 5th char: a ranged rogue. The main reason behind this is the idea to have it has a twink of the hunter since a rushed persistence will trigger predatory sense way before tidefall and this trio (count the stag in) will play has a single unit early game. Also, the pretty high mechanics of the rogue will let my mage train into survival (that I think is a big plus for mantle of the dying boar plus dangerous instruments) and it's a low micro management char later in the game when serious fight happens and you have to focus a lot on casters. What I would like to know is IF there are better options for late game on the rogue, when the hunter will be auto suifficient and I will use my archer has the single DPS of the party for high priority targets. Options that comes to mind(thx to @maxquest for this amazing linesheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WcgHNkpy-JDuJUhPe4fJc6yilxZaaDET1DKwch19yK4/edit#gid=0): -war bows: I think that the rain of godalth field is amazing, but comes really late. A good midgame option seems to be cloudpiercer , but I don't like the dozens talent at all and I dunno if I can take the bow in any other way (I will try to kill the dozens with an old save to check it, but no idea atm, even if that could be the best solution) -Twin Sting: meh, I don't like soulbound items (no durgan enchant) plus I don't think it has big enough rewards for a rogue -Others options before cloudpiercer in mid game... A gun? I left the game when rogue was over dpsing with easy a ranged ranger but, since both classes are kinda single dimensional (cit.), ranger gained a lot from uniques expansion items while the rogue seemed kinda untouched. I would love to know if there is some new option avaible that I don't see atm or if this is still the best I can use for him help is much appreciated! ^_^ edit: can some1 edit "rouge in the title?" not my best day on forums, I have to admit edit 2: fixed some errors in the bows names, I'm pretty bad with names in general and I did a couple of typos here and there

wrong section, edited to avoid spoiler. pls delete

Yeah, I guess the most safe way to do this is: save, exit game, relod. At the 1st inn, check the loot table on the 1st floor, pick your wished item (for me is usually ring of overseeing stacking for party play ) if the loot is right feel free to start playing your run :3