9 hours ago, Lovecraft1986 said:
Thanks again @Shai Huludfor your detailed answer.
I will test this build when I get the time.
I was asking about Troubadour/FF especially because of Port Maje. I don't like to stealth at all and the wurms summon trivializes any encounter on Maje Island.
I played a vanilla Troubadour/Bloodmage on Maje Island and it wrecked everything but I stopped that playthrough because I wasn't sure if the build would be able to perform against megabosses.See AlsoBest Pillars of Eternity 2 Cipher Subclass & Multiclass - Bright Rock MediaBest Pillars of Eternity 2 Monk Subclass & Multiclass - Bright Rock MediaBest Pillars of Eternity 2 Paladin Subclass & Multiclass - Bright Rock MediaPillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire - Multiclassing GuideIf I were to play vanilla+community patch, do you think that a Troub/FF, a Troub/BM or a Troub/Psion would could also be the kind of build that I'm looking for ?
I've been meaning to test this build more at lower levels anyway. Trying Port Maje with fighting everything hostile.
If you start with 20 resolve and 13 int, forbidden fist curse lasts 4.4 seconds, which is too long even with dex 3 and brigandine, which makes fighting more annoying as you'd have to alter normal attacks with FF. I guess you could use the small shield modal or haymaker. You could also dump intelligence but once you get clarity of agony and ring of the solitary wanderer, 13 is perfect, so I'm starting at level 4. You said you were okay with Berath's Blessings.
l1 - swift strikes, tenuous grasp, weapons club + small shield
l2 - whispers of treason
l3 - lingering echoes
l4 - clarity of agony, psychovampiric shield, weapon dagger
With clarity of agony and psychovampiric shield, the curse lasts 2.2 seconds. In a robe you attack with swift strikes can attack every 2.3s, so robes are perfect for fast attacks. Once you get dawnstar's blessing the healing you get per attack is pretty good and generally favorable to wearing heavy armors.
Small shield modal is useful if you need to increase recovery time. Club modal is useful for enemies with higher will early on, so you will land psychovampiric shield or whispers of treason or tenuous grasp. Dagger modal gives +10 melee deflection, better than early shields.
Easily cleared the boat.
Saved crate. Immediately rested with Hylea's Bounty.
Found dagger on beach. Weapon set 1 is club + dagger, weapon set 2 is dagger + small shield
Easily cleared beach
Cleared sea cave I wouldn't say easily, but was able to do in one try. Sea bats were a little tricky without kiting them, but keep one charmed and try to use it to flank others. Rusted Copper Construct and Revenants seem hard but pull skeletons away, kill them before revenants and construct arrive, keep construct charmed while killing revenants, then kill construct. Rotghast and revenants also not trivial but doable. Rotghast will is super low so hit him with tenuous grasp then WOT and you always hit/crit, keep him charmed, similar to construct fight. Once 1v1, he hits like a truck and has high armor but you can keep him interrupted with FF and finish with soul annihilation.
Port Maje - quested around, got dawnstar's blessing. This +50% healing (and other boons to a lesser extent) is so good that you want to plan your run around not resting. This is easy with the no forced rests mod. Without, a bit trickier but still doable. If you want a different food than hylea's bounty, better to head straight to neketaka, buy the hot razor skewers or whatever and come back later for the blessing. I like hylea's bounty, and FF attack usually has good enough penetration. Also if you're very lucky you may find some reagent in Rinco's house. Other times the container has solution or rune powder or gunpowder. With the reagent you can craft luminous adra potion before leaving port maje. But it's only there like 1 time in 5 or something like that, just makes some early skill checks easier. I found gunpowder. Anyway, stuff I bought from unique item vendor and others: death's maw, boots of the stone, girdle of mortal protection, stinky pete, amulet of greater health, and ring of minor deflection (you don't have to buy all this, but I'd at least buy the boots of the stone and probably death's maw).
Gorecci Street: After Satehuzi Harbor I am L5, I chose Draining Whip (mental binding also good, probably grab at L6). If you started at L1 you'd probably be L4 here. Not a ton of difference. But this fight is extremely difficult at L5, it is a well balanced group with high defenses and good penetration. You can choose to path straight to Engwithan Waystation and stop by Gorecci on the way back at L6/L7 which I'd recommend. I wouldn't advise just rushing in and fighting everyone at L5. But I tried anyway. Pick up the necklace and head south, you can kite these three looters away from the other group even without traps, though it is slightly tedious. The main looter has very high will so I hit him with a club, then tenuous grasp, psychovampiric to get his deflection down, then proceeded as usual. Every time you land enfeebled you double the duration of his debuffs. The fighter has "determination" which gives him 91 deflection vs FF. Have to 1v1 him, and it's still hard. Would highly recommend doing this at L6/7 when you have mental binding. Oh and I hope you aren't planning to attack Ilari, that would be borderline impossible, probably even at L7.
Upaho Waro Woods: Don't attack the nice old man. But if you do, this encounter is actually pretty easy, just use tenuous grasp on the boar, treason the boar, then tenuous grasp on the old man so his spells hit friend/foe.
Xaurips: I've never actually tried to kill the xaurips, usually just scatter them. It is pretty easy. If you enfeeble someone THEN charm them the duration is much longer, so sneak attack stone-tooth then TG then treason, pick off the little ones etc. using enfeeble + treason as needed. Not much point though, you don't get much loot from this.
Engwithan Digsite: Killed everything with a lot of patience and several reloads. You need to do some kiting unless you want to reload constantly. You simply don't have the capacity at this point to face 7 attackers at once. You can take 3 or 4. Traps are the easiest way to kite, but you can do it without consumables, though I don't get the limitation. I came just shy of level 7 before having to kill the monsters unfortunately, that level would have helped a lot because hammering thoughts (several enemies here have 10 AR vs crush and we have 9.3 pen) and swift flurry. Now about 7.5 after leaving the island.
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And to answer your last questions, no I don't think troubadour / blood mage can do all the content. I mean you can with vanilla + CP, but only if you're using the wall of draining deification process and/or Strand of Favor, which I'm pretty sure falls under both cheese and consumables. Troubadour/psion is a really good build, though I am 99% positive at the very least Dorudugan is impossible without using SOF (or stabbing him with lover's embrace and drinking a potion of invisibility, very cheesy), as well as some other encounters one might skip. Troubadour/FF is going to have not great accuracy, and may not have enough DPS to kill Dorudugan. Hauni O Whe is pretty difficult and technical but possible if you know exactly what to do. Basically I'm not confident any of these builds can do a completionist playthrough. Maybe they can, with someone more skilled than I am, or if you're willing to reload endlessly etc. And like I've said with troubadour / FF it really doesn't come online until L19 with instruments of pain, and by that point (L20 anyway) you'll also have access to dichotomous souls summons which are some of the best summons in the game (behind maybe instruments of death), so I don't think there's much synergy there, you're basically using summons at lower levels and then at higher levels punching things, which I guess you can do just fine with a level cap of 33. But cipher's shared nightmare is so much better than anything high level chanters get.
Why do you have all these constraints like no consumables? You're making an already difficult game much harder and no offense whatsoever but if this is your first solo POTD upscaled run I don't think you're going to have the game knowledge necessary to do this even with builds capable of doing it.
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It sounds like you're looking for an invulnerable build that can just run into a room and kill everybody at every step in the game. Transcendent is not that. I'm not sure that build exists honestly. The early game is hard because you don't have the equipment and abilities needed for your build. For summoning builds and guys that just punch things the distinction is not as large as with other classes.
There are some tankier builds that will have a slightly easier time early in the game than transcendent, and Godlikes (particularly fire) can make things easier. But even the super tanky builds like votaries, brawlers, sages, and ravagers (also arcane knights) get most of their super tank abilities at tier 5+ That's when fighters get unbending, barbarians savage defiance, mages llengrath's safeguard. Paladins don't get their super tank ability stoic steel until tier 9, though you could use sworn rival from level 1 for +4 armor with goldpact knights, though it breaks after a few hits. Also they get deep faith early. Godlikes have an advantage early because they come with unique bonuses, like fire godlikes have +2 armor when bloodied and their ashen skin ability is like a permanent fire shield, and the tradeoff (no helmet) is no tradeoff early given there's only one decent helmet even on Port Maje, but mid to late game you may be wanting more accuracy or the ability to prevent interrupts and being able to switch helmets is usually better than godlike bonuses. Particularly when fighting dorudugan, he will constantly interrupt you if you aren't wearing rekvu's fractured casque.
Brawlers do come online relatively early, since you get disciplined barrage immediately, plus constant recovery, plus forbidden fist. A fire godlike unbroken / FF would be pretty tanky. I think you'd have problems with Dorudugan but if you don't mind stabbing him with lover's embrace, drinking a potion of invisibility, and coming back a couple hours later, then that could work for you.
Same with psion / troubadour though that is a more interesting build IMO, and one I outline here. I don't think you'll be able to beat Dorudugan, not at L20, but if you fight him at L33 it is likely possible. You'd have to do more than just summon things though, like summon things and shoot him constantly with Essence Interrupter might work. Or take monastic unarmed training, your accuracy/damage/pen scale with power level so by L33 it could be doing pretty good damage. I think the summons scale indefinitely also, so they might start doing better damage. But I assume Dorudugan will also scale with you? So you may get like 18 penetration but maybe his armor is 24 at that point, who knows...
Edited by Shai Hulud
