Class you will know better than any other after multiple playthroughs, not because you choose it for main character, but because it's quite impossible to kick Eder from your party.
Ah, the first class i played with! And no, i didn't bench Edair. Bare with me here, PoE 1 is unlike its successor a game that likes to throw masses of enemies at you, often in open spaces or from multiple directions, that effectively renders null any attempts at bottlenecking or "tanking" in the conventional MMO meaning of the word, especially with lack of taunting. HOWEVER, if you treat tanking and tanks as frontline controllers, then it's a whole new ball game. A team of two non-squishies (say 2 fighters or a fighter and a support paladin) with more then 2 engagement slots each, can shut down any attempt at flanking if played properly. The trick is formation spacing and positioning of course. This worked extremely well form me once i figured out how to use the engagement slots (about 1/3 into my first game with 2 fighters - me and Edair) and right from the get go on my 2nd game (as i knew what i was doing) with Edair and me as a Kind Wayfarer paladin. KF Paladins excel at positional support which further anchors your front line. This leads to the other 4 party members free to do their stuff (whatever it is) largely unobstructed. I've even experimented with 3 "tough" party members (adding a barbarian to the frontline mix) to add some striking power and aggro drawing in the formation. This adds the benefit of having a rapid response unit when needed as well, in case things go sour due to unexpected enemies popping in. In short..... engagement can save you a lot of trouble when properly employed, though at the price of playing the game more like e tactical RPG and less like a traditional RPG.
Hey Slandered, I have a Fighter tank question for you. I just picked up PoE after trying and giving up a few years ago. BG3 got me back into it and I'm much better than before. I tried Easy and it was a breeze so I upped the difficulty to normal and I noticed that my tank (Fighter) is getting dazed or confused CONSTANTLY in the first act to the point that hes not really doing much tanking, just sitting there bewildered 90% of the fight. Is there a way to combat this without tossing spells from a priest on every fight? Im not a big "use every per rest spell on every encounter and rest every 5 mins" kinda person...or is that literally the only way I'm going to prevent that is priest spells to reduce that status effect?
I think you under value Knockdown. It's not ment to be primary CC. It's ment to break engagements to allow your party members to disengage without taking a disengagement attack. Charge is great as a way to start a fight as it allows you to add a ranged enemy to your tank cluster.
Fighters alright for me. I don't use it cause Eder takes that role but better so most of times I'm either a paladin or a priest as a frontliner. Now Poe 2 fighter is EVEN better. Fighter/rogue and fighter/monk are of my favorite builds to be a finesse fighter. Fighter/wizard is another awesome combination to be one hell of a tank fighter with arcane buffs(fun fact paladin/trickster and paladin/wizard are powerful multiclass combinations for paladin)
As far as I recall, the paladin was actually the best tank in the game for the aura it has and the roleplay strict bonus' based on alignment that let you stack massive deflection. The fighter is a second runner up. It's a great tank in it's own right but unless they nerfed Pally all to hell (and it's been a good long while since I played so they might have) fighter's silver. Not gold. Dragons not included of course. ; ) My problem with fighter and the reason I never really built an MC as a fighter was two-fold: Eder comes as one right off and you don't really need two with Palegrina (which sounds like a fancy sparkling water to me but oh well) The other reason is that frankly the "Sword & Board" is so bog standard that no one in D&D really likes playing one anymore all that often. It even has the cheeky title it's so well known as a staple. Sure fighters get the most feats in D&D, and they are awesomely capable at what it says on the tin but they're boring. Entry level for fairly easy to learn and sometimes depending on the build you're going for, actually pretty difficult to master. This is however, probably one of the easiest classes to actually beat the game with. As long as outright survival of encounter,s rather than genuinely deep mechanics or fun roleplay, is what you care about most. * Clear out is generally considered a good DPS pick because it's one of the few AoE attacks that a fighter gets. You do get A LOT of good defensive options with each level up, and with the right armor choices and gear picked, clear out can be a good way to make your fighter more useful in clean up for trash mobs (or if you intend to run solo) Take the hit was more designed for Eder focus, if the player likes to play the magic glass cannon. It's means to ensure you don't die for not knowing how to build the character classes' right, or actively choosing not to min/max. Or if you want to play the support style as a fighter, like with the Guardian Stance that gives everyone else a bonus to their deflection.
In poe 1 you don't have to worry about disposition restrictions cause they have a perk that ignores penalties of using dispositions that's not allowed for your paladins(or priests). Sadly they don't have this perk for poe 2
I think which one is better depends on how you tank. Again Fighter can get more engagement slots than any other class so if that's your main way of tanking than Fighter is going to be better. Paladin can stack defenses higher but there's a case to be made that as a Fighter you are close to invulnerable anyway so the increases don't necessarily make a huge difference. I might feel differently after combing through the mechanics for the ranking.
@@SlanderedGaming None of the three of you are wrong - to Phantom: that perk was the only reason I actually played Pally in PoE 1. keeping track of that many dispositions can be very detrimental until you've played the game enough to know what they will get you in societal responses. Some dispositions are more deeply punitive than others. - To James: True, but it's also as popular as it is because it's one of the easiest possible builds to not screw things up too badly. It's VERY hard to go wrong with, so a lot of people play fighter just for the ease of accessibility. You can also get some pretty interesting fighting styles to master and get wilder with the builds once you know what a fighter can do. But more AC is hard to beat. More HP even more so. I actually haven't played D&D Beyond. I am an old school D&D tabletop guy. I know AD&D and 3.5 or 4rth edition at best. I wasn't really fond of 4rth though, and 3.5 basically fractured off to become Pathfinder. - To Slandered: Very true. You're correct however that engagement isn't as effective in locking enemies to you longer term. The ability to punish them for breaking it can help a bit... but it does suck there wasn't a really effective way to hold aggro. Which I believe they made note of and improved on in Dreadfire. I personally like to be MC Hammer if I'm going to tank. Pally's got an easier time of building "You Can't Touch This" BUT The fighter does have the endurance to be "Too Legit Too Quit." (I had to... you know I had to, but feel free to throw tomatoes if you want, I might just dance around them)
@@TheRavenShadowsWolf Engagements matter a lot for tanking in PoE1. I forgot to turn on Defender on Eder once and the difference is night and day. PoE1 AI is too stupid to break engagements unless they are Monks. This allows Eder to hold far more enemies than Paladins. Paladins excel as off tanks. They provide large amounts of utility and support abilities while being able to catch enemies that get past Eder.
I find Fighters exceedingly dull to play as but there is no denying its effectiveness. Its the best at what it does and I'm perfectly fine with leaving the role to Eder and giving him a permanent spot in the party.
Class you will know better than any other after multiple playthroughs, not because you choose it for main character, but because it's quite impossible to kick Eder from your party.
Agreed!
Ah, the first class i played with! And no, i didn't bench Edair. Bare with me here, PoE 1 is unlike its successor a game that likes to throw masses of enemies at you, often in open spaces or from multiple directions, that effectively renders null any attempts at bottlenecking or "tanking" in the conventional MMO meaning of the word, especially with lack of taunting. HOWEVER, if you treat tanking and tanks as frontline controllers, then it's a whole new ball game. A team of two non-squishies (say 2 fighters or a fighter and a support paladin) with more then 2 engagement slots each, can shut down any attempt at flanking if played properly. The trick is formation spacing and positioning of course. This worked extremely well form me once i figured out how to use the engagement slots (about 1/3 into my first game with 2 fighters - me and Edair) and right from the get go on my 2nd game (as i knew what i was doing) with Edair and me as a Kind Wayfarer paladin. KF Paladins excel at positional support which further anchors your front line. This leads to the other 4 party members free to do their stuff (whatever it is) largely unobstructed. I've even experimented with 3 "tough" party members (adding a barbarian to the frontline mix) to add some striking power and aggro drawing in the formation. This adds the benefit of having a rapid response unit when needed as well, in case things go sour due to unexpected enemies popping in. In short..... engagement can save you a lot of trouble when properly employed, though at the price of playing the game more like e tactical RPG and less like a traditional RPG.
Yup going with two tanks works well in this game.
POE's been one of my favorite crpgs since it came out. I've seen a lot of POE content over the years, but you made hands down the best guides.
Thank you!
Starting POE myself after months of not play, I’m sure your video will help me a lot!
I certainly hope so! Good luck!
Glad to see these back!🎉
Good to be back!
Hey Slandered, I have a Fighter tank question for you. I just picked up PoE after trying and giving up a few years ago. BG3 got me back into it and I'm much better than before. I tried Easy and it was a breeze so I upped the difficulty to normal and I noticed that my tank (Fighter) is getting dazed or confused CONSTANTLY in the first act to the point that hes not really doing much tanking, just sitting there bewildered 90% of the fight. Is there a way to combat this without tossing spells from a priest on every fight? Im not a big "use every per rest spell on every encounter and rest every 5 mins" kinda person...or is that literally the only way I'm going to prevent that is priest spells to reduce that status effect?
I think you under value Knockdown. It's not ment to be primary CC. It's ment to break engagements to allow your party members to disengage without taking a disengagement attack.
Charge is great as a way to start a fight as it allows you to add a ranged enemy to your tank cluster.
Slandered: Says charge is mid
ME: *Are you HIGH?!*
Just not my thing. LOL
Fighters alright for me. I don't use it cause Eder takes that role but better so most of times I'm either a paladin or a priest as a frontliner. Now Poe 2 fighter is EVEN better. Fighter/rogue and fighter/monk are of my favorite builds to be a finesse fighter. Fighter/wizard is another awesome combination to be one hell of a tank fighter with arcane buffs(fun fact paladin/trickster and paladin/wizard are powerful multiclass combinations for paladin)
Swashbuckler is AMAZING in PoE 2.
As far as I recall, the paladin was actually the best tank in the game for the aura it has and the roleplay strict bonus' based on alignment that let you stack massive deflection.
The fighter is a second runner up. It's a great tank in it's own right but unless they nerfed Pally all to hell (and it's been a good long while since I played so they might have) fighter's silver. Not gold. Dragons not included of course. ; )
My problem with fighter and the reason I never really built an MC as a fighter was two-fold: Eder comes as one right off and you don't really need two with Palegrina (which sounds like a fancy sparkling water to me but oh well) The other reason is that frankly the "Sword & Board" is so bog standard that no one in D&D really likes playing one anymore all that often. It even has the cheeky title it's so well known as a staple. Sure fighters get the most feats in D&D, and they are awesomely capable at what it says on the tin but they're boring. Entry level for fairly easy to learn and sometimes depending on the build you're going for, actually pretty difficult to master. This is however, probably one of the easiest classes to actually beat the game with. As long as outright survival of encounter,s rather than genuinely deep mechanics or fun roleplay, is what you care about most.
* Clear out is generally considered a good DPS pick because it's one of the few AoE attacks that a fighter gets. You do get A LOT of good defensive options with each level up, and with the right armor choices and gear picked, clear out can be a good way to make your fighter more useful in clean up for trash mobs (or if you intend to run solo)
Take the hit was more designed for Eder focus, if the player likes to play the magic glass cannon. It's means to ensure you don't die for not knowing how to build the character classes' right, or actively choosing not to min/max. Or if you want to play the support style as a fighter, like with the Guardian Stance that gives everyone else a bonus to their deflection.
In poe 1 you don't have to worry about disposition restrictions cause they have a perk that ignores penalties of using dispositions that's not allowed for your paladins(or priests). Sadly they don't have this perk for poe 2
Sword & board is a popular playing style in D&D. Look at D&D Beyond stats and human fighter is the most often rolled character.
I think which one is better depends on how you tank. Again Fighter can get more engagement slots than any other class so if that's your main way of tanking than Fighter is going to be better. Paladin can stack defenses higher but there's a case to be made that as a Fighter you are close to invulnerable anyway so the increases don't necessarily make a huge difference. I might feel differently after combing through the mechanics for the ranking.
@@SlanderedGaming None of the three of you are wrong - to Phantom: that perk was the only reason I actually played Pally in PoE 1. keeping track of that many dispositions can be very detrimental until you've played the game enough to know what they will get you in societal responses. Some dispositions are more deeply punitive than others.
- To James: True, but it's also as popular as it is because it's one of the easiest possible builds to not screw things up too badly. It's VERY hard to go wrong with, so a lot of people play fighter just for the ease of accessibility. You can also get some pretty interesting fighting styles to master and get wilder with the builds once you know what a fighter can do. But more AC is hard to beat. More HP even more so. I actually haven't played D&D Beyond. I am an old school D&D tabletop guy. I know AD&D and 3.5 or 4rth edition at best. I wasn't really fond of 4rth though, and 3.5 basically fractured off to become Pathfinder.
- To Slandered: Very true. You're correct however that engagement isn't as effective in locking enemies to you longer term. The ability to punish them for breaking it can help a bit... but it does suck there wasn't a really effective way to hold aggro. Which I believe they made note of and improved on in Dreadfire. I personally like to be MC Hammer if I'm going to tank. Pally's got an easier time of building "You Can't Touch This" BUT The fighter does have the endurance to be "Too Legit Too Quit." (I had to... you know I had to, but feel free to throw tomatoes if you want, I might just dance around them)
@@TheRavenShadowsWolf Engagements matter a lot for tanking in PoE1. I forgot to turn on Defender on Eder once and the difference is night and day. PoE1 AI is too stupid to break engagements unless they are Monks. This allows Eder to hold far more enemies than Paladins.
Paladins excel as off tanks. They provide large amounts of utility and support abilities while being able to catch enemies that get past Eder.
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I find Fighters exceedingly dull to play as but there is no denying its effectiveness. Its the best at what it does and I'm perfectly fine with leaving the role to Eder and giving him a permanent spot in the party.