Priest vs. Cipher?

[jerm]

Played PoE through the end of Act 2 back in '15 and want to start again. Debating on my main character. Goal is for a party of Eder (tank/some DPS), Pallegina (off-tank/support), Kana (off-tank/support), Hiravias (control/DPS/support). Unsure who to have as my final companion. Maybe I'll switch Hiravias out for Aloth off/on.

In my original playthrough, I was a Moon Godlike Cipher. I chose this not knowing that those two combinations would also = lots of unique dialogue options, which was great.

I'm considering playing a Skaen Priest. This is because I know that Priests are possibly the strongest class later on, and a Skaenite will have opportunities to amp their damage & accuracy w/stilettos & clubs, so with enough protection, I can somewhat contribute to melee as well when I'm not casting.

What's causing me to pause is this: I want a Cipher + Priest in the party, but know you don't get Grieving Mother until later, whereas you get Durance early. Durance has bad stats (GM's aren't perfect, but I'd say better). Neither are "positive" in terms of party dialogue adds, but have their flavor.

So the question: do I main as Cipher or Priest / therefore pick Durance or GM, and why?

[Gilmoy]

Could do both, 1 run each.
If you want a Skaen Priest, that's a good reason to roll your own Priest main.

But why bother with a melee Priest?
Strongest "later on" implies that you're winning 2/3 of the game without his melee.
Maybe just keep doing that?

That's also the reason to play an Early Cipher run.
Then you can have Cipher fun through 2/3 of the early game, without waiting for GM.

Why Kana as off-tank? Kana summons tanks, he'll never tank enemy crits himself.
1 true tank (Edér) suffices until you get Pallegina. (N.B. é = Numeric Alt-0233)

Actually, 0 tanks suffice, with all 6 using shoot-and-move mobility.
Hence you don't need to plan for 2-3 tanks standing in a D-line and eating damage.
Only a few new-map entry rooms trap you into that configuration.

~~~~

More deeply, both runs look fine. There's no min/max reason to prefer either one.
I'm sure both ideas will Win the Game, if you play them out.
So it's your preference.

Maybe do whichever one you haven't done yet.
You've been an early Cipher, and probably with early Durance.
So the other path is more novel. That's an excellent tiebreaker.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Strange to talk about combat roles without talking about difficulty. Eder shines as an offensive ruffian, and he is a tank by class design anyway. So, unless you deliberately disable him as a heavy armored weapon'n'shield coward (possibly with Defender/Wary Defender talents for maximum engagement slots), who only tries to survive, he will fill the tank+dps role because of fighter class traits.

Paladins on the other hand can reach the overall highest four defenses in the game. But class design mandates that they start with -10 Deflection and -5 Accuracy compared with fighters. That's some 15 attribute points in case you want to catch up to a fighter. Also, you could give Pallegina the cross-class talent Veteran's Recovery to regenerate Endurance similar to a fighter. Yet paladins cannot increase engagement slots as much as fighters. Thus a term like "off-tank" is kinda vague.


The thing with Pillars of Eternity simply is one cannot cover all choices in a single playthrough, since there is a multitude of choices specific to race, class, Disposition, cultural background, very high attributes - a single character cannot fulfill.

Comparing Durance with a Watcher Skaen Priest is weird. The former is a rather passive story companion who adds a bit of inter-character conversation, banter and the story stuff about him. The latter could shift the role-playing goals a lot, since Holy Radiance gains bonuses from Disposition, Cruel/Deceptive disposition is favored by Skaen, and Aggressive/Cruel(/Deceptive) is a path in this game that leads to truly unique content and permanent bonus options. That makes a Priest of Skaen as interesting as a Paladin of the Bleak Walkers order (who prefer Cruel/Aggressive behavior).

[taciturn(o)]

We need to know in which difficulty you will be playing.

PoE changes drastically from Hard to PotD, on Hard you will only have 3... maybe 5 difficult fights, so you can role play basically anything, but if you want to play on PotD... then you will have to know what you are doing.

Ciphers: are really strong but they demand micro, I would suggest a ranged Cipher using pistols -> bunderbluss

Skaen priest: terrible early game but it can solo enemies later on, you will basically hate it for the first ACT and love it for the rest of the game, there is a great build for this priest: schemers needler by Boeroer, you can find it in the obsidian forum