Voltron

Hello, I want to return to PoE2 after a really long time (I was playing pretty much only release version for majority of time). What are some current best/strongest builds for soloing PoE2 on PoTD? Links to threads with such builds are also appreciated! Thank you very much in advance for filling me in. V PS. Also does fire-arms relead explot still work?

Yup, that is why I don't patch their games. If I want to not be OP in RPG I simply chose not to be. Nerfing all good, fun combos is imo worst you can do in singleplayer RPG where there is no PvP and no co-op even. I had my share of fun

Let me know please, been a while since I tracked this games changes and patches I found this guide in YT for solo wiz, seems legit and strong but I wonder what could be improved: Anyway, let me know Thanks!

Look at my post two posts above you

Only those and other skills working simillar, like Shadowing Beyond for example. No other way. You don't just crouch in front of enemies and they are like "WHERE IS HE?!!" :D :D like in old stupid D&D games.

Well, it does affect dmg, every build posted here was affected by +2 armor so that question is kind of pointless :D :D. But Dragon Dowyr starts at Legendary and has a lot of penetration. You coul of course if you want go Devoted and spam Pen Strike instead of Sworn Rival->FoD. Bigger Pen but less raw dmg. But it's not end of the world .

It's the same in new patch, just little less defense due to Deep Faith nerf but nothing in terms of damage. Damage will still be the same. If you won't use reload trick- it will be harder in solo. With party- it will be great.

Yes, though not as strong due to Sun and Moon nerf and turning wheel nerf from 50% burn dmg to 25% at 10 wounds. But it should still be strong and viable, just not face roll now and you may actually have to use Sacred now to maximize dmg :D

It's not like that. It's just some nerfs were needed like Fighter nerfs- but they went overboard and make Fighter suck hard now. Instead for exmaple of making Charge primary only, they made it stun. Many items that were not OP or even used in most solo-builds were nerfed god knows why. It's just Obsidian like most devs have no idea how to balance their game because let's be honest they don't play it enough. It's us who sit hours, find synergies, run number checks, spend whole day testing various combos etc. They simple imo screw this balance patch (apart from Monk nerfs) and I think they did lazy job and we could have done it better as community. I think by balancing is "make it viable but with downsides" instead of "make it useless so whiners will stop complain".

That is why I buffed all 2h in my game files and they have now +2 Penetration. Obsidian balanced PotD but didn't calculate at all consequences for different things, like for example 2h weapons or fighter changes in general.

I second that. I did like 95% of side quests probably, discovered full world fog, cleaned every Island/dungeon etc to get level 20. What was left for me was Ashen Maw and whatever after. That was on my solo runs. I didn't do many bouties as I didn't find them that interesting, but still. I have to say game does it job quite well. You have to almost clean whole game world to get that 20 level and there is not much left for you to do to enjoy that power which is basicely every RPG ever created. Once on max level- you have not a lot of left to feel your power. Same as in paper RPGs, everyone want to get to that max level and be strong and then usually after couple of more seession- everybody want to start new characters as there is not much left to do with max level heroes who are basicelly a Gods in most RPG settings. I have to say- if you have that- you kind of hate RPG-recipe. Usually you have DLCs to let you enjoy that max power later. How much game was left in Morrowind or BG2 when you got max level? Only Expansions after that let you go with your maxed Char and have challange again. Imo in terms of XP- POE2 does very good job.

I will update today this guide for 1.1 but in short just if anyone is looking for how this builds play now: 1. War Caller sucks hard due to Charge nerf, Cleave nerf nad lost of Brilliant as it was Brilliant that made War Caller usable in end-game due to how cost-heavy his abilities are. Generall I wouldn't bother with War Caller for solo anymore. 2. Heral is absolutely fine as he has super low cost and instead of Brilliant just take Virtuous Triumph at Paladin Level VI, which gives back Zeal per kill. 3. Since Virtuous Triumph works with any kills- Seven Nights is a must have now as it's best offensive invocation for melee build. Once you get Seven Night- drop White Worms for something else. 4. Best weapons are still the same for primary hand- Scordeo, Modwyr etc. however now in off-hand you want to use Sasha's Sabre and enchant it to give you full Phrases back on empowering invocation. This will allow you to do the following combo with Herald- go in the middle of combat, cast Beacon for 40% more dmg to enemies, Cast Empower Seven Nights->Max Phrases->Cast Second Seven Nights. This should clean 80% of enemies around you and after that it's Sworn Rival-> FOD as always. 5. Since invocation that was giving Brilliant sucks now- Bridgeman is better for melee character if you want self buffs and it's upgrade is not too shaby but upgrade to Seven Nights or upgraded Drake (till you can take Upgraded Drake don't take basic Drake, stick to Sekeletons/Wurms and respec later for Drakes for end-game) are very good options. So yeah, patch 1.1 basicelly killed solo War Caller so if you want to use that- don't patch the game or replace your files with 1.02 files to have old Fighter back if you need to. If you don't have old files or don't know how to do it- shout to me on PM, I will help.

When they just lost the brilliant inspiration and sacred immolation hasn't got its fix... Brilliant actually wasn't that necerssary on Herald because you only use 1 Zeal during Fights- for FOD since Sworn Rival cost is refunded on kill so it costs 0 as you kill what you "sworned" before casting it again. And you can still empower yourself and get some resources back. Alll you do on Herald really is Sworn Rival- FOD spam. You just add to that Summons, Healing Chants and offensive invocations and nothing really changes for Herald. And Sacred can still be used by Shieldbearer because of 10 sec immortality + Nemnok Cloak with 15 sec immortality + BtDD if you have priest in party. Now on the other hand War Caller is super nerfed with Brilliant lost- Disc. Strikes - cost 1, Vig. Defenses- 2, Unbending -3, Charge - 2. Herald is now pretty much strongest solo melee multiclass when we take into consideration- damage, defenses, self heals and add on top of that summons and heavy CC (paralyze, charm). Yeah, Virtuous Triumph would do as a fair replacement for Brilliant with the right build I think anyways. If you are using AoE enough it will replenish your Zeal. Things like Soft Winds net more kills than you realize. If they make Dragon Thrashed and/or Brand Enemy a bit better that would net some good synergy I'd wager. Being able to dot enemies that are on the outskirts and the like. Albeit would come pretty late in the game, but respec is working now apparently (haven't tested myself, but red about it being fixed on reddit. So, don't take it as fact.) so it isn't a big deal. That is if you were trying to use more than FoD, LoH, and Sworn Rival. Using a better version of DT or Brand Enemy, Soft Winds, or a Damage Invocation in conjunction with Inspiring Beacon might further assist in netting those kills, and keep the Zeal flowing. It would work more burstily than Brilliant did. You would likely dump most of your Zeal, and then drop a hard hitting Seven Nights or whatever damage Invocation you have specced, and replenish Zeal. Also, you get 3 Empower points at level 3 now with the patch. So, resource costs are a little less important than they were before this patch anyway. Precisely, Virtuous Triumph makes Brilliant obsolate for Herald, especially if you know how to use Sacred Immolation or abuse Sasha's max Phrases after empower (basicelly use Paladin Beacon 40% more dmg for enemies -> empower one Seven Nights and immidietly cast second Seven Night after it. That giving you huge double AOE dmg and return you the Zeal for every enemy killed).

When they just lost the brilliant inspiration and sacred immolation hasn't got its fix... Brilliant actually wasn't that necerssary on Herald because you only use 1 Zeal during Fights- for FOD since Sworn Rival cost is refunded on kill so it costs 0 as you kill what you "sworned" before casting it again. And you can still empower yourself and get some resources back. Alll you do on Herald really is Sworn Rival- FOD spam. You just add to that Summons, Healing Chants and offensive invocations and nothing really changes for Herald. And Sacred can still be used by Shieldbearer because of 10 sec immortality + Nemnok Cloak with 15 sec immortality + BtDD if you have priest in party. Now on the other hand War Caller is super nerfed with Brilliant lost- Disc. Strikes - cost 1, Vig. Defenses- 2, Unbending -3, Charge - 2. Herald is now pretty much strongest solo melee multiclass when we take into consideration- damage, defenses, self heals and add on top of that summons and heavy CC (paralyze, charm).

Well, if you wanted to use Sacred, all you had to do was to take Shieldbearer for that 10 second of unkillable for when you use Sacred + Nemnok Cloak for BtDD spell and 15 sec unkillable and you can just go to town. However I am still amazed they didn't fix Sacred Immolation at all.... It's still stupid 43 raw self dmg which is just stupid. It only required 1 min work to edit numbers. Seriously Obsidian.... Fortunetely I have fixed that myself and my next solo on 1.1 will be Herald again but this time with Sacred Immolation + Seven Night AOE combo just for that Song of Ice and Fire :D :D