I'm using L4 v1.01 on a Titan with no problems assocated with PAC. If you've got a CCD camera and time, a CCD drift align works best. PAC got me very close to the pole though. Probably close enought to use an 800mm FL instrument for 5-10 minute unguided exposures.
Indeed you can use any object for an alignment, just select the object from the object database, slew to it. The select align telescope and the last object chosen is selected. This seems to work well. You can also use TheSky to do a similar task. If you want to get really serious, get yourself a copy of TPoint and then perform an 180 point model. Takes some time, but if you want to precisely know how far from the pole you are, this is very very accurate. TPoint will also ensure any object you slew to is always on the CCD chip. Nice for robotic operations.
