{
"post": {
"title": "Wanting to give PoE 2 a go, what builds are fun/strong?",
"selftext": "I'm very new to CRPGs, BG3 pulled me in hard and after absolutely loving the game for about 360 hours I want to move on and experience MANY more CRPGs. \n\nPoE2 comes up in a lot of recommended lists. \n\nOne of my favorite things about BG3 was experimenting with different builds and party bulld combos. What are some fun and strong builds that will work well for someone brand new to the game? Even some links to builds (web or youtube) would be much appreciated.",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/17krz9s/wanting_to_give_poe_2_a_go_what_builds_are/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "All of them.\n\nThat is the beauty of this game, all the builds are viable and all are fun. \n\nFor new players the game recommends that you don't multi-class, but how new you consider yourself is up to you.\n\nOne thing to keep in mind, don't be afraid to restart the game if you are not loving a build. I love PoE2 and I have played it for 1000s of hours and I have started it so many more times than I finished it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Can you respec your character or party members or are you locked into a build once you start it?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "You can respec, but you're stuck with the choices you made during character creation; you can't change your class, attribute scores, or starting abilities."
},
{
"body": "You can respec most stuff but not the class\\\\subclass so do bear that in mind. Companions are also locked to their starting attributes but everything else is fair game (basically you can respec them from level 2 onwards)."
},
{
"body": "You are locked to the class or the dual-classes you have chosen, but you can pay money to respec anytime if you don't like the abilities you have chosen. But the main theme in most of pillars' design is to minimize the difference between min-max and a normal characters, so you can get away with suboptimal choices for a lot of the playthrough (especially so on any difficulty below path of the damned). When a character joins your party they'll give you the choice between a couple of classes (or multiclasses) but once you make that choice they'll be that class (or multiclass) forever (unless you reload before that point ofc), but they mention it when you have to make that choice. Obviously you can still minmax classes and party compositions, but I'd say you'd have to basically explicitly do some weird multiclass combo to gimp yourself and even then it might actually still work out."
},
{
"body": "You can't change class (including subclass/multiclass) and attributes. You can reset skill points, weapon proficiencies and of course abilities. \n\nRemember leveling and unlocking new abilities is fixed, multiclass level slower and both classes at once. \n\nUsually by the time you hit lvl 13 ot 16 you reset and use more passive bonuses."
},
{
"body": "You can respec from lvl1 to current lvl at any tavern, but you are locked into what class/subclass/multiclass you start the game/recruit companion with.\n\nCompanions have 3 options for their class. It's either Singleclass and two multiclassing options (for example: Fighter, or two of Fighter + Other Class), or Multiclass and the two classes alone (For example Cipher+Rogue, or one of them).\n\nA bit about class system:\n\nYou can either go singleclass/multiclass (only 2 classes can be multiclassed), and either pick or not pick a subclass for your class/es.\n\nSubclasses have a benefit and a negative, while having no subclass lends neither advantage nor disadvantage. Also, subclasses are picked at the character creation and all of their effects are available from the get go. Many companions have unique subclasses.\n\nMulticlassing is also different from BG3 in that you level up both classes. Every multiclass combination is kinda it's own class, as they have their own names and stats are adjusted accordingly (health, defences, starting skills)."
},
{
"body": "While all the other replies are correct about the base game, I would add that there are mods that allow you to respect yourself and your companions completely from scratch, allowing you to try anything you want."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Don't sleep on single class builds. At the end of the day, they just flat out have more raw power with their abilities, unlock new tiers faster, have more talent points, and have more class resources to use those those stronger abilities with. At level 5, single class builds pull up to PL3 with 2 talent points to spend, and at that point, multiclass builds never genuinely catch up.\n\nIf you're familiar with MTG's player types, multiclass builds tend to be for Johnnies, not Spikes. If you don't know what you're doing, just stick to single class builds. Losing capstone abilities, talent points, and Power Level, is only worth it if you explicitly enter the game with a plan for your character.\n\nDeliberate multiclass builds are strong, but unfocused multiclass builds can end up really limp. Pure class characters just come out of the gate strong, and typically have multiple build paths, whereas any given multiclass may only have one viable route down their combined trees.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "This is good to know! I will definitely stick to a single class with all my party for my first playthrough. Then once I get a better understanding of the systems I may multiclass on other playthroughs.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Don't sleep on single class builds\n\nThis so much!"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I **strongly** recommend playing PoE1 first, on account of it being the better of the two. You *can* skip it... but why would you? \n\nDeadfire spoils the primary storybeat of PoE1 within the first five minutes - which is fine if you've played 1 but kind of a shame otherwise. Deadfire will still be waiting for you later, go and Praise Durance first.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Poe1 is better i concur. It does suck that poe2 has none of the poe1 magic. It is fun mechanically but the story falls very flat all the way to the ending",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I would not put it in quite that way. Deadfire is still a perfectly good game, and the story is interesting.\n\nIt's just that PoE1 is a peerless masterpiece."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Deadfire is actually piss easy on normal. Most of the time. \n\nLiterally, anything can work on lower difficulties, so play whatever sounds fun. It probably will be. \n\nIf you run a sensible party, not five wizards or some shit, you're golden with any class and any build.\n\nI'd recommend Arcane Archer I think it was called? It's a ranger subclass that allows you to shoot fireballs and such out of your bow. Very fun. That was my first playthrough of Deadfire.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That does sound really fun!"
},
{
"body": "Love the Arcane Archer, on of my favorites. Multiclass it with the fighter that gets Brilliant (resource regen) when everyone is flanked (?). Get one Cypher on the team that causes everyone to be flanked and you have infinite fireball arrows :D \n\nNot the best/optimal build but good enough to play on PoTD without much issues"
}
]
},
{
"body": "don't know why the poster delete their comment, but i also want to second the \"don't sleep on single-class.\" (Edit: their comment is back, dunno why it was gone. But I agree with their comment esp about johnnies)\n\nobviously multi-class can be lots of fun with lots of options and it's *very* hard to have a trap build in this game (unlike BG3, like one of the achievements is even to make a super trap build), but with single class you get abilities faster and the abilities you get at tier 8 and 9 can be character-defining.\n\nmy favorite example of this is barbarian. I can have an extremely mid barbarian build (lol actually two out of three npc barbarians are mid so this comes up a lot), but once I get to tier 9 abilities they will *skyrocket* to top DPS generators of the party, including total damage done (despite maybe having been last for most of the game - that's how much more damage they start end up doing, they just shoot past everyone else)."
},
{
"body": "Monks are so much fun in this game. \n\nFury Druid/Helwalker monk in particular is a fantastic and very fun combo."
},
{
"body": "Maybe read a bit about companions, and that can help you decide. For instance, Maya has a unique ranger class that gives her the edge with firearms that you don’t have access to. Other than Eder (typically tank), Aloth (Wizard, typically ranged dmg or control) and Xoti (commonly a priest, buffer, but can be melee dos), the other companions all represent specific factions that can lead to specific endings as well, and can leave if you don’t side with their faction."
},
{
"body": "builds fully depend on you.... though Im currently playing through it and Im loving the druid/Ranger hybrid"
},
{
"body": "Going a little against the grain: feel free to multiclass even as a beginner. As long as you don't multiclass two caster classes you'll be fine and have fun.\n\nPersonal favourite multiclasses are Barbarian/Wizard and Paladin/Wizard. Both are really strong and really fun.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Cipher and chanter are both caster classes that pair significantly well with each other"
}
]
},
{
"body": "I would like to state that you may be tempted to multiclass wizard because of games like Pathfinder or BG1&2. However the high tier spells for wizard (unobtainable by multiclass buillds) are insanely powerful. Boss eaters if I'm being honest"
},
{
"body": "I know you weren't asking, but while you don't need to play 1 before Deadfire, it's still strongly preferred, Deadfire starts off right after 1 and expects you to know certain things, with a lot of the lore being given in the first game.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I've heard from a few youtube videos that you don't really need to play the first in order to enjoy the second. I'm really looking for good satisfying gameplay. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed BG3's story but that lasted me 110 hours, my other 250 hours were spent tweaking builds and enjoying the gameplay.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Let me just say, I'm someone who gave this series a try after other CRPGs drew me in (in my case the Pathfinder games rather than BG3.) I had a lot of misgivings about playing the first one because it looked clunky and I wanted to play turn based rather than RTWP (and also I fucking love pirates so I really just wanted to get to that.) But people convinced me to try the first one and I honestly had no regrets. I would say the story was the biggest draw for me but I enjoyed the builds and combat much more than I expected to as well. And I'm finding 2 a much more satisfying experience because of having those choices I made in the first get brought up again.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That's definitely understandable. I'm not saying story isn't a factor. If a game can make me care about the world and characters that's a huge win in my books. I do have the first game (actually got it free on Epic). Maybe I should just give that one a single playthrough just to experience it.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "That's what I'd recommend for sure. Not sure if I'll ever go back and do a replay but definitely worth at least one playthrough.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "How long is the first one? Well, how long did a playthrough take you?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Took about 80 hours doing semi-completionist run. All DLC stuff, all companion quests and the majority of side quests aside from a few super minor ones.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Nice nice! Not sure how complete I would go so maybe 60ish hours. I can do that. Thanks!"
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Gonna second this. I actually find Deadfire to be the much better game, but there is so much lore to be had that you will get a lot more put of 2 if you play 1 first."
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "Mercenary ascendency has 3 extra gem slots... That might be too OP. It'll be the strongest just because of that. \nit also has max resist increase, gem quality."
},
{
"body": "Why is this a thread a year before it released lmao?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Pillars of eternity not Path of exile lol"
}
]
},
{
"body": "honestly yeah, just do whatever feels lore friendly ro your character, for instance my poe 1 character was a barbarian but since I knew xoti was a holy kinda character and the one I wanted as my significant other so I made him into a barbarian monk. Does it work? idk, but if it feels fun as hell, running around fistin fools with ma gurl"
},
{
"body": "Dual classing is so much more fun than single. Not necessarily stronger (though many combinations are), but you always have good choices when you level up. Monk/Cipher is very powerful and versatile, while Chanter/Paladin is the ultimate support character (just don't expect to do much damage. Monk pairs well with Wizard too, especially that staff summon and chain crits build. You can throw Chanter (Troubador is usually the best choice) on anything to make your whole party stronger, and bigger with summons.\n\nBarbarian, Ranger, and Priest are the bottom tier classes IMO, everything not involving those or a caster/caster combo is going to be pretty viable. Ranger can be good if you get one specific weapon, but your pet will usually be a liability and Maia has a better Ranget subclass than you can ever get. Barbarian and Priest just can't measure up to other martial or magical classes, respectively.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Priest bottom tier? Salvation of time is the single most shenanigans available in this game."
},
{
"body": "We seem to be playing vastly different games if you think priest is bottom tier",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Priests would be bottom tier for story reasons alone, but they're also much worse than wizards and especially druids. Because of how bad the buff stacking is in this game, priest spells are often far less effective in practice than in theory, their healing pales in comparison to regen provided by chanters and paladins, and they severely lack the ability of druids and wizards to end encounters as soon as they start with big AoE spells."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "I think you can go ahead and multiclass even on your first playthrough with a few rules of thumb. Look at the tier 8 and 9 abilities and think about if you really want to get to use them. If you do, stick with single class. Don't multi DnD-like casters (wizard, druid, priest) with other DnD-like casters. Chanters and Ciphers as well as all the martials are good for multiclassing. Also it's a party based game, remember that you often don't two classes in one character to pull off combos, but can have two specialists working together instead.\n\nChanters accumulate phrases - their action resource - while doing other stuff, and have a lot of passive auras. Ciphers feed their powers by doing weapon damage, so a martial class is great to help with that. Exceptions to that are Psions, who get power over time, and Beguilers, who are weird, so if you want to MC Cipher with a caster, you'd go with those."
}
]
}