What class for your main character in PoE?

As usual with games with a rich character building setup, I've spent most of my time trying out different classes. So far, I've ran a Pale Elf Cipher, Wood Elf Druid, Dwarf Paladin, and Fire Godlike Monk. I've enjoyed the Cipher and Druid most, though I didn't run as far with the Paladin and Monk as them.

Ranged combat is very slow. Not sure if will be viable in the long run.

It did indeed feel slow, but I was using a crossbow, interspersing attacks with Cipher abilities. So, it wasn't horrible. In the process of starting over as a melee chanter.

Ranged Combat can be quite fast. If you want to limit yourself to guns or big crossbows, you can take multiple weapon sets with guns and then cycle through them after shooting each.

I found the bows and crossbows too slow for my cipher as you want to build your focus fast. I ended up going with a fine wand with fast attack rate for the moment and it feels like I can cast twice as much than before.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Ranged Combat can be quite fast. If you want to limit yourself to guns or big crossbows, you can take multiple weapon sets with guns and then cycle through them after shooting each.

oh? that sounds like a bug or something? so you can skip the loading animation by switching ranged weapons?

@Luckra: Try out Blunderbusses, as they go with 8 projectiles. Not sure if that still counts at 8 attacks regarding ciphers soul power

@Wolfing: No, it's not a bug. Unlike most weapons Guns and Arbalests don't just have a FireAnimation->RecoveryTime but instead: FireAnimation->RecoveryTime->ReloadTime.
If you switch the weapons after the FireAnimation you get a RecoveryTime for Weaponswitching instead, but do not need to reload (until you want to shoot with that weapon again). It will be quite annoying though that after each fight you have to switch through the weapons manually in order to reload them all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4pmJTX39E

I finally got a character that stick. A Savannah human Monk with a tricorn, he's rational, stoic and clever. I'm using Torment's Reach a lot when in the BB I never really bothered with it.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
@Luckra: Try out Blunderbusses, as they go with 8 projectiles. Not sure if that still counts at 8 attacks regarding ciphers soul power

It does, making the blunderbuss a good weapons for ciphers and rogues because each projectile is counted individually as a hit and gets bonuses applied pet hits. The weapon was nerfed late in the BB too.

I can't help myself, call me boring but I went with human fighter. Played a bit last night, just about to get into it now.

Ive decided to go with a Hearth Orlan Barbarian. With the passive skill of Minor Threat, and the abilities of Carnage and Frenzy (I picked this one instead of Barbaric Yell), culture of Rauatai for a +1 constitution, and a background of slave for a +1 Athletics and +1 Survival, Im thinking of this guy as a little spastic Tasmanian Devil type. I have purposely been avoiding any talk about companions so I have no idea if this is a good build or not, or will be overkill if I find a bunch of other fighter types, but it certainly sounded fun to me

Stats:
MGT - 16
CON - 16
DEX - 13
PER - 11
INT - 12 (this seemed weird for a Barbarian, but it was a recommend stat for them, so I put a couple of points here)
RES - 10

The cool thing is that you have to try really hard to make your character unplayable.

I would have chosen less Con, Per, Res and more Might, Dex and Int, but it should work out fine. Be aware that every time the barbarian hits something the enemies around him take splash damash. The radius of that effect is determined by Int. So he profits from int quite a lot.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
The cool thing is that you have to try really hard to make your character unplayable.

I would have chosen less Con, Per, Res and more Might, Dex and Int, but it should work out fine. Be aware that every time the barbarian hits something the enemies around him take splash damash. The radius of that effect is determined by Int. So he profits from int quite a lot.

Good point. I think I will take a point from PER and add it to INT

I have a druid main character since it seemed like a good glue gal. Of course a few hours in I wish I'd made something else but I'm pretty sure that would've happened no matter what since I like ALL of the classes in this game.

My only REAL regret is not prioritizing via backgrounds/whatever the mechanical skill on my main character.

I said I had a lots of fun with my Monk right…well turn out that all this amazing loot I keep finding makes me miss not using armors and weapons outside of hatchets.

*sigh*

Originally Posted by Voqar

My only REAL regret is not prioritizing via backgrounds/whatever the mechanical skill on my main character.

My farthest has been with a Fighter, and I have the same problem; not enough mechanics skill to handle locked doors and traps. I'm probably going to restart, and push a stronger mechanical background this time.

Originally Posted by azraelck
My farthest has been with a Fighter, and I have the same problem; not enough mechanics skill to handle locked doors and traps. I'm probably going to restart, and push a stronger mechanical background this time.

Couldn't you increase the Mechanics skill on an NPC for that?


Anyway, I'm going to restart as well. In my first try I had 4 companions and recently finished Raedrics Hold, but kept thinking I'd enjoy it more with my custom LMK party. I'm going to do the following:

- 4-5 custom characters (Fighter (main), Ranger, Wizard, Priest, maybe a Rogue).
- 1-2 temporary companions, picking them up as I go to help them with their goals, if they have any

It would be a great feature if you could give a little more personality to your hirelings, like a preset so they provide comments sometimes, but there's always one's imagination to fill out the blanks.

Originally Posted by Arhu
Couldn't you increase the Mechanics skill on an NPC for that?

Yup, you can get Durance real fast, he start with a focus on mechanic, and pump him up every level instead of anything else.

I could have, but you see my first post in this thread? I ALWAYS, almost without exception, spend way too much time restarting and trying different classes/combos out. Just in PoE alone, having only bought it late Thursday and installed late Friday, I've ran maybe 3 dozen different ones. This is why I haven't submitted any reviews (even though I did write one for Paper Sorcerer back when I played through that, but there wasn't much choice in the game to restart for).

Now I'm running a Cipher, Pale Elf. Mostly using her as a TWF melee with fast weapons, to quickly build focus, then CC. Almost caught back up to where I was on the Fighter. I'm also not running my own characters in the party, instead recruiting NPCs as I find them.

I went with a Druid. He does more damage than the rest of the party combined; mostly because I use him as a scout and kill all the onesy-twosy groups with just him. Throw a spell to start combat and whittle down the toughie, then retreat to a doorway or other area where I can't be surrounded and then shape shift. If I had a change to make to him, it would be to take an arbalest skill, which would replace the spell flinging most of the time. Fire arbalest, then become beasty and tank.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
If I had a change to make to him, it would be to take an arbalest skill, which would replace the spell flinging most of the time. Fire arbalest, then become beasty and tank.

Sometimes I am almost feeling like I am playing a pirate ship or shooting commando.

For me basically every fight starts with:
-Positioning dudes, Fighter a little bit infront of all the others, others mostly in broad line
-let the fighter do the first shot (longest range)
-immediately after shot, switch to melee, and give move command to overwrite automatic "must attack someone" AI
-then wait a couple of milliseconds till dudes are in range of other characters
-dependent on opponents either let all the guys shoot on the same or on different targets (2 pistols + 1 arquebus + 2 wands).
-After first shot from pistol guys switch to melee, give movement command to overwrite AI
-Arquebus dude (Aumaua Chanter) switches to next of his three Arbalests to shoot again

And that's actually just the first 2 seconds in combat if there wasn't pause.

What I find annoying though is to make sure that all the Pistol, Arquebus and Arbalest Guys need to switch through all their weapons after each fight as you need to reload each one manually