Which character class?

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Which character class did you guys choose? I can't make up my mind.

 

If this is your first run through, I would recommend fighter, paladin or ranger. Fighter and Pally hold their own without micromanaging. Ranger gets a pet meatshield for protection while he rains arrows of death. Druid is a versatile class for a spellcaster as they heal, nuke and melee well when shifted. Cipher and Chanter are more "complex" for a new player, but they are excellent classes when used properly.

 

PErsonally i picked barbarian for my first run, but ever since 1.05, they 'fixed' the "one stands alone" ability, so it's not nearly as OP as it was before.

The only classes not provided by the default companions you can accquire during the game are Barbarian, Monk and Rogue.
So if you want to be able to experience as much diffrent classes as you can on your first playthrough, pick one of those.
Barbarian is a great AoE melee damage character, Monks are a mix between tanking, damaging and disables, while rogue is the hardest hitting single-target DPSér that needs a lot of micromanaging.

For ease of use, ciphers are probably the best casters for a first playthrough.
They are versatile in gameplay, but quite straightforward in their build, making it harder to mess them up as a new player.
Druids are good at melee starting the game with their shapeshifting, but that tends to drop off as you progress in the game even if you build for it - you're better off building them up as spellcasters since they are generally more powerful then wizards.
They also get access to all their spells instantly as they gain levels, you don't need to pick which ones to learn, so no chance of making a mistake there either, though you'll still have to learn which of the druid spells are the useful ones.
Wizards are there for the utility. while it's nice to be able to decide what spells you want to learn and 'memorize' there's usually only 3-4 really good spells per level anyway making the whole point kind of moot.
Also, for a new player and the amount of information the game hits you with early on, it can be difficult to know which spells to learn and use and which ones to avoid like the plague.
They're also the most frail class of the bunch, though you can offset that by picking moon godlike as your race.

That said, you can output a ton of DPS with them using the following spells :
First cast either Kalakoth's Minor Blights (ranged magic attacks that do aoe elemental damage as they land) OR Citzal's Spirit Lance(creates a magical (melee) pike weapon)
Then cast Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (faster attacks) + Citzal's Martial Power (can't cast spells, but get massive bonuses to Deflection, Accuracy, Might, Constitution and Dexterity!)
Cast time on this combo is pretty fast, remember to cast martial prowess last though since you won't be able to cast for a while till it runs out.
This is probably the only way to turn your wizard in a battlemage. (melee mage)
Pikes fall in the Weapon Focus: Soldier category, which also boosts the ranged weapons arbalest and arquebus, so use either of those untill you learn the citzal's spirit lance spell.

However, if you go with a spellcaster PC, there is oneproblem in party composition - since the game only offers one real tank companion, namely Edér.
Out of all the other companions, there's only 1 that is a hybrid tank/damage dealer(palegina), the other 5 available are all glass cannon damage dealers.
So you might want to make a second custom adventurer tank once you hit the first inn so you can have two dedicated tanks.

 

Which is why I list fighter or pally as a newbie starter PC. Most will want to use the companions for the first run thru. Pally or fighter are a necessity for the PC or a hireling.

 

You only need one tank anyway, and Eder is amazing at his job. He's also the broest of bros. Palegina makes for a decent backup if you can't find a narrow enough choke point, but 99% of battles don't really last long enough to put any serious pressure on secondary meat shields as long as Eder is doing his job, so you can potentially set up almost any of the companions for body blocking.

 

Sure, later on in the game you can get by with just Edér, but i'd still advice first time players that start as a spellcaster to get a second adventurer tank, at the very least for the start of the game(pretty much the part leading up to defiance bay) so you don't suffer too much at the start. Picking up all the early companions, it's going to be your PC, aloth, Edér and Durance running around for a while. both aloth and durance are quite squishy, if your PC is as well, you're going to want that second tank to hide them behind.

 

There really is no need whatsoever for two tanks, even on PotD. You can hide just fine behind a single tank. Durance in heavy armor with Consecrated Ground can last long enough if you absolutely need another frontliner. Getting an adventurer is a bit extreme and it slows down your progression. It also encourages laziness in learning mechanics by removing the challenge of keeping your party alive under pressure.

 

Sure, running with 1 tank is viable, and to each their own.
I guess it all depends on the player. someone on a first playthrough with no knowledge of PoE/PCRPG's in general, might get the benefit out of having 2 tanks. if you're an experienced player you can get by with one.

That said though, i do feel like the fact that you can get by with just 1 front-line tank is because of sub-par enemy AI. even in situations where i took on large groups of enemies, my tank having engaged his max amount of enemies, the enemy fails to bypass him to get at my squishy members.
As long as my tank is the 1st member of my party in their field of vision, they're all too happy to just keep walloping him, letting the rest of my party pick them off.

 

Oh, absolutely, but if the AI was halfway decent and the enemies didn't body-block each other, having two tanks wouldn't make a damn bit of difference and you would have to make a serious effort to control the battlefield, even on easier settings.

 

Broest of bros.... That made me chuckle.

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The enemy consistently bypasses my frontline when I'm outnumbered to go after my ranger npc and cleric. I don't get where some of these comments come from. I'm playing on normal currently.

 

If you're body blocking and engaging them at a choke point, there should be nothing getting past your front line. The AI does have a selection algorithm, so if your back line is in sight, they'll try to get at the squishies. Set up your meat wall and pull the enemies, making sure not to engage them with ranged attacks until they're going for your tanks. The exception is if you're sure you can spike down an enemy with the first volley.

 

use a custom formation, putting your tank(s) a few spots ahead of the rest of your party, also make sure the first of your party members the enemy sees is the tank.
Playing this way i've not had much problems with my squishies being targeted, except maybe for in the Dyrford ruins, with it's narrow halls and copious amounts of ranged attackers.

 

I have had Kith enemy completely ignore my spellcasters and ranged party members and run around trying to by pass their allies to get to the tank meanwhile being slaughtered by the casters and ranged party.

I like the ranger with a bear companion and the first hired adventurer I get is usually a rogue. My next hired adventurer is usually a Barbarian.

You pick up Aloth a wizard and Eder a fighter very early and can soon get Durance a priest of Magran.

 

No love for monks ?
in my first few playthroughs I've always rushed all the companions to get them ASAP, because the game auto-leveled them, giving them abilities you wouldn't necessarily want them to have.
Getting to Mearwald with your characters only at lvl 2 is kind of tough, especially with all the ghosts in and around Caed nua.

Thank god the 1.05 update added the ability to reset them to level 1, so that's not a problem any longer

 

Monks are great but I haven't tried one since the last update.

 

As far as i can tell, they've been buffed even if only a bit since Lightning Strikes damage was increased by 25%, though that's only interesting if your build uses swift strikes to begin with.
Also, Interrupting blows now works as intended - while not a monk ability per se, nice for those builds that go for interrupt.
Apart from that, not much has changed for monks.

 

Patch .06 is live on Steam. It is being called the Paladin patch and seems to have re-balanced the Paladin class.

 

I played a monk as my 2nd party's PC, and they're great. One thing I did discover is that you have to be a little careful with them. At least when I played one, I found that they're not really meant to be true defensive, hold-the-line tanks. They're offensive warriors who can be a little squishy, but can really deliver the damage. Of course, they need to be a "little" squishy to get the wounds to power up their special abilities. But the last thing you really want to do is get a bunch of enemies all focusing on you the same way as you'd like to see enemies all focusing hard on a true defensive tank like Eder usually is. Monks work best when they can get an enemy in a 1 on 1 situation so they can pound on them mercilessly with their fists. And they're great if they can get behind the enemy lines and hammer enemy spellcasters, because they'll rarely be able to stand up to a monk 1v1.

Another thing I noticed is that monks (at least my monk) never really delivered any single massive blow, and yet she still ended up leading the team in damage by a good margin because she was doing so much damage in small to medium chunks so fast that it piled up in a hurry.

On other thing I did with my monk was to give her a warbow. Why? Because at the start of battles I'd often let my better armored frontliners absorb the "blow" of the initial enemy charge, while letting my monk pepper the enemy at range. But when the time seemed right, I'd quickly switch to fists and charge into the fray, often trying to flank the enemy and get into his rear.

 

In the end, you still need to make their own decisions, your heart will tell you the answer.

 

Damn, I sure hope not. I don't want other people making my decisions for me.

I think that you really meant to say, "you still need to make YOUR own decisions....", not "you still need to make THEIR own decisions ...".