mazeltov

My character, a pally "main" tank and maximum support, with a special focus on passing dialogue checks (I say "main" because Eder actually keeps aggro on more targets even though I built him a tank/DPS hybrid): M 7 C 9 D 6 P 18 I 18 R 20 Hatchet, Large Shield, Deflection Ring, Weapon and Shield Style, Hold the Line, Cautious Attack. The only issue is making up for a lowish Fortitude defense. Low Con doesn't matter too much because tanking is more about damage mitigation than Endurance stacking.

The first critter you kill of a certain type lets you see its level in the Bestiary. Of course that doesn't tell you about the critter levels in the rest of the area, and the strategy doesn't work for human-like enemies, since they don't appear in the Bestiary.

Berathian Priest Robes, of which several are available very early in the game, feature a better DR-to-Recovery Penalty ratio than most armor: DR 2/-5% Recovery. I'll take -5% recovery in order to get 2/4/6 armor on my squishies.

Oh wow you're right. That does redeem it a bit, since you can attack your own humans in order to trigger the buff, then immediately heal them up with spells, potions etc. and they keep the buff for a long time. This makes it controllable and reliable, and effect itself is quite nice. Relying on enemies to trigger the ability is still out of the question in my opinion, though. Another one for the abusive gimmick pile.

Have to go with the Spanish tercio formation. Sword and buckler man in front, Catholic Priest with a pike behind him, and four musketeers providing the downrange DPS. How about substitute a Wizard with Scion of Flames plus a bunch of cone and line spells. Pretend he's a cannon unit.

There's another game with the initials PoE where so-called hardcore players do this at the first hint of trouble. With the usual excuses like "there was some lag," or "that boss was bugged." Just laughable.

Support-focused classes muddy the waters. Wizards and Priests specced for Intellect, Dex, and Accuracy, for example. These characters aren't focused on the damage or survivability of themselves, but are key to amplifying the damage and survivability of the other party members, through buffs, debuffs, and crowd control. There will be many builds developed in the future that will only work because of the support abilities provided by other builds, builds which would, considered on their own, rank on the low end of the DPS/tank scale. Furthermore the balance state that exists right now will not last long. JSaw needs to be given time for a couple of patches at least before we will begin to see where the power level of the classes, races, and abilities will ultimately rest.

Gotta be on the same cosmic wavelength as the devs, maaaaan.

I assume this means for dialogue options. There will be a ton of missed checks with 12s and 14s in the dialogue stats.

Humans are the pits ability-wise. Good thing my party is 66% Meadow Folk! At least Aloth and Kana have decent racials...

Miasma. Low level spell, long range AoE vs Will. Yields -20 Deflection, -20 Reflex and -40 Will. Even a graze will apply all that stuff for ~15 secs.

They were mildly interesting - at first. But eventually I started to think that the stories were too long-winded. Lost the will to click on them after the tenth one or so. If the stories had been condensed down to a few sentences or one short paragraph each, I would have read all of them. Three or four paragraphs each is too much once I find out that it's all backer fluff anyway.

Iben, Woodend Plains (via Hall of Revealed Mysteries quest in Defiance Bay) Lv 1: M.'s Minor Missiles, Slicken, Fleet Feet, Fan of Flames Lv 2: C.'s Corrosive Siphon, Binding Web, Mirrored Image

Thug's waterlogged grimoire, Defiance Bay/Ondra's Gift (via Odda's quest) Lv 1: Fan of Flames, M.'s Minor Missiles, Spirit Shield Lv 2: Binding Web, Curse of Blackened Sight, Miasma of Dull-Mindedness Lv 3: Noxious Burst, L.'s Displaced Image

So long as it's not a Miasma of Dull-Mindedness. That spell is ohhhhhh P. No but if it's an early game fight you have trouble with, I could probably give you some pointers. What fight is it?

Elvara, Aedelwan Bridge (via Vailian Embassy quest in Defiance Bay) Lv 1: Jolting Touch, M.'s Minor Missiles Lv 2: Necrotic Lance, Ray of Fire Lv 3: M.'s Bounding Missiles, Fireball Lv 4: M.'s Concussive Missiles, Flame Shield Harkeen, Aedelwan Bridge (via Vailian Embassy quest in Defiance Bay) Lv 1: A.'s Dazzling Lights, Chill Fog Lv 2: Curse of Blackened Sight, Fetid Caress Lv 3: Arcane Dampener, Expose Vulnerabilities Lv 4: Confusion, Essential Phantom

Let's see, a passive 125 Deflection at level 6 with pally tank, on top of exceptional full plate that was purchased from a shop in DB. So 20 DR against the most common damage types. Even Eder with half that much Deflection rarely gets hit and almost never crit. Maybe he's getting grazed but between full plate and constant fighter regen he stays at full endurance. The only real threat so far is multiple high damage spells cast fairly close together.

Assassin, Defiance Bay/First Fires (random encounter?) Lv 1: M.'s Minor Missiles Lv 2: Mirrored Image, Binding Web, Curse of Blackened Sight, Combusting Wounds Lv 3: M.'s Bounding Missiles, L.'s Displaced Image -- L.'s Displaced Image, an essential part of your wonky frontline Wizard build.

Helig, Defiance Bay/Copperlane Catacombs Lv 1: M.'s Minor Missiles, Jolting Touch, Fan of Flames Lv 2: C.'s Corrosive Siphon, Ray of Fire Lv 3: Fireball, C.'s Draining Touch -- Click the plus sign next to the spell icon in the looted grimoire (costs 100c per level of the spell).

I did get wiped the first time I ran into a pack of Forge Knights. But that's more an issue of them being insanely OP than anything else. The rest of the combat on Hard has been manageable though, even with stock "horribly underpowered and unoptimized" companions.

I did find one use for Escape. Using it to teleport over your own front line in chokepoints, to get an easy flank. In case someone had the crazy idea in their head to use a PoE rogue like a D&D rogue, and actually go for flank attacks.

Actually it's five rangers + Aloth. But it would look about the same with six rangers.

With a Paladin/Priest main character it is important to maintain a certain reputation in order to increase the power of a core class ability, so having personality descriptors on is key. In many cases the intended personality of a given dialogue choice is clear, but frequently it's not. Maybe I think a dialogue choice is Diplomatic, but the devs set it as Benevolent. Opportunity missed for my character if I accidentally select Benevolent. But I also wish you could separate displaying personality tone in conversations from displaying the factional reputation consequences of dialogue choices. I want to know if the devs consider a line to be Passionate versus Benevolent, but not necessarily the exact ramifications of each choice. That's a little too metagamey.

They stack up to five in an inventory slot. And I'm not sure how stash limitations work in PotD/Expert.

The Dunryd Demon: +2 Int (Defiance Bay merchant [Cartugo?]) Munacra Arret: +15 Will, Grants Whisper of Treason (DB merchant Sonild) Dandy Hat of the Diseased Yak: +2 Res -1 Int (DB merchant Sonild)