Purudaya

Min's Fortune, and Whispers of Yennwood, with Hammering Toughts. Literally 2-4 damage a swing against anything with 10 armor or more (nevermind the golems with 14+). You might just be going up against a lot of enemies with high slash resistance. If you're having trouble with an enemy, try switching to a blunt weapon and see if it increases your damage. I don't suppose you have any major debuffs from injuries? Also, did you take draining or biting whip? I'm playing a shattered pillar/assassin with similar stats and it hits consistently hard.

Hmm, there is no encumberance mechanic in POE2...what are the exact words the character is saying at the start of combat?

There's plenty of combat if you seek it out, OP - surely you've run into some bounty givers by now? There's also quite a bit in the Old City but unfortunately you may have to talk to a few "retards" first. I'm always surprised when someone comes to a CRPG and is annoyed by 'excessive' dialogue/lore content. It's like playing an RTS and complaining about all the base building. I've actually found the Nekataka content refreshing so far; It's a nice shift to be able to meaningfully advance the plot without every quest devolving into a fight, and when the combat does happen the outcome feels more satisfying for it.

The one saving grace is that the members of their lowest caste are guaranteed to be reborn into a higher caste in the next life. If you think about it long-term (in which souls are cycling from caste to caste and every soul gets to inhabit all statuses multiple times), it actually makes a weird kind of sense. Every culture in POE has its downtrodden, but only the Huana guarantee that theirs is reborn into a better station. How (or if) they're able to actually manipulate the wheel in that way, I have no idea. sounds like traditional "opiate of the masses" sales pitch for oppressive cultures and/or regimes to be using organized religions to maintain order. promise o' reward in the next life helps keep the populace placid. HA! Good Fun! Except in POE reincarnation is a confirmed reality as opposed to a dogmatic belief. We can also probably assume that in a world with watchers/animancers/awakened, the Huana reincarnation mechanic of rotating castes has probably been confirmed to some degree. I think a lot of people are looking at it the way we look at caste systems irl, which are entirely socially constructed. In POE it's part social engineering, part metaphysics. I'm not *for* the Huana caste system or anything, I'm just saying it's more nuanced than at first glance.

Can confirm. The leveling does seem to slow down considerably after the first island, but I still think that a competitionist playthrough will have you at max level by about the last 1/3-1/4 of the game (I'm at level 9 and it feels like I've barely scratched the surface, but the game could be heavily frontloaded with so many quests in Nekataka). So far it feels much bigger than POE1, so I'm good with it

The one saving grace is that the members of their lowest caste are guaranteed to be reborn into a higher caste in the next life. If you think about it long-term (in which souls are cycling from caste to caste and every soul gets to inhabit all statuses multiple times), it actually makes a weird kind of sense. Every culture in POE has its downtrodden, but only the Huana guarantee that theirs is reborn into a better station. How (or if) they're able to actually manipulate the wheel in that way, I have no idea.

It actually overrides the damage from your melee weapon entirely, so it winds up being like 40 damage in total rather than "more" (although I don't get 40 damage for 40 focus, it's more like 32). If it were additive damage it would actually be solid build, but as it stands it's almost identical to my standard sabre attack. Soul Annihilation needs to be buffed, otherwise I can't see a reason to take this subclass for multi or even single builds. Maybe it gets better once you start regularly and easily getting your focus into the 100-120 range, but that's an awful long time to wait for a class to become fun. Just consoled myself into a shadowdancer. Lost all my achievements but luckily I'm not one who cares about those Wait.., when I’m playing my Monk/Soulblade and punch someone with Soul Annihilation and mouse over the Damage calculation it always lists my Bashing Damage followed by my Raw Damage so this can’t be right? (Though, yes initially it just lists the bashing Damage “with additional Effects”) Ah, my mistake then. How has SA been working for you as a monk? Are you seeing major damage increases compared to your other offensive abilities?

It actually overrides the damage from your melee weapon entirely, so it winds up being like 40 damage in total rather than "more" (although I don't get 40 damage for 40 focus, it's more like 32). If it were additive damage it would actually be solid build, but as it stands it's almost identical to my standard sabre attack. Soul Annihilation needs to be buffed, otherwise I can't see a reason to take this subclass for multi or even single builds. Maybe it gets better once you start regularly and easily getting your focus into the 100-120 range, but that's an awful long time to wait for a class to become fun. Just consoled myself into a shadowdancer. Lost all my achievements but luckily I'm not one who cares about those

Playing an assassin/soul blade with sabre and single weapon style for critical hits. So far soul annihilation has been extremely underwhelming - even from invisibility with backstab and 40-50 points of focus it doesn't seem to do much more damage than a regular attack (I know it's raw damage and so bypasses deflection, but I haven't really been having a problem with penetration to begin with). It takes a lot of micromanaging to keep the build alive to set up the supposedly "massive" damage of SA, but it never feels like the payoff is worth it. Am I doing something wrong? Because right now it just feels like I'm playing an underleveled rogue and I really don't want to have to go back through 8 hours of the game with another build.

My party is already at level 5 and we're just now leaving Introduction Island. Given that the level cap is 20 and I'm already a quarter of the way there, either levelling is going to start slowing down, the game is going to be much shorter than I thought, or I'm going to be playing through a good portion of the narrative at max level. Logically, it kind of has to be one of those three...has anyone else gotten significantly further through the game? Does levelling slow down or do you reach max level early? Is the game egregiously short? I remember that being a problem with PoE1's main narrative and would hate for it to be the case given how good the game has been thus far.

I'm playing one now and it's struggling. Granted, I'm at level three and don't have smoke veil, weapon styles, or biting whip yet, which is where the class supposedly really takes off. Still, it feels like they kind of took a bit of cannon out of what was already a glass cannon build. Again, I'm expecting it to take off around level 4-6. But expect a slow start at lower levels where even a 18/18/14 MIG/PER/DEX assassin isn't generating enough focus to make soul annihilation stand out. Maybe it has something to do with the way I'm playing it - I'm still not sure whether one-handed or dual wield is the better route.

That's not necessarily true - the soul annihilation ability and a lot of the rogue abilities are full attacks, which means that they attack with both equipped weapons simultaneously while dual wielding. A full attack and a primary attack are functionally the same for two-handers because there's only one primary weapon. Or is there a difference between a primary attack and a full attack outside of dual wielding?

I'm running a dual-wield human rogue (sabre and stiletto) with almost no focus on stealth. Don't take backstab because you'll never use it due to the mechanics; instead, focus exclusively on abilities that maximize crits, give status effects for sneak attack, and increase damage/accuracy. 18 in Might and 17 Dex (then take archipelago for +1). Constitution at 10, resolve at 9 or 10, and the rest divided however you like between perception and intelligence (remember that INT will determine the length of status effects you inflict). Abilities: blinding strike, crippling strike, dirty fighting, two weapon fighting, and escape (buggy but still useful). I don't use shadowing beyond nearly as much as I thought I would. After that, anything that increases your crit chance or helps bypass damage resistance. For combat, open with a pistol and let your tank rush in to soak up all the engagements. Use the fighter's knockdown ability liberally to create sneak attack conditions, otherwise rely on blinding strike and crippling strike. I don't wear anything heavier than padded armor to keep recovery fast. It's kind of a glass canon build and so will require some micromanagement, but the DPS is awesome. Essential party members: Eder, Durance, and Grieving Mother – the former for their knockdown abilities and the latter for spamming blindness and paralysis. Really enjoying my playthrough with this character, the gibs really start flying around level 4-5

This is my biggest problem with PoE. There's no reason - either mechanically or logically – that my 9 stealth rogue should be discovered just because my 0 stealth wizard is. I think we can say from a purely objective standpoint that this makes no sense whatsoever. Luckily, the other rogue mechanics are so fun that they mostly make up for it. Still, I miss having a viable backstab...

Learning every class was an integral part of the IE games – so yes, I'd say it fits appropriately here. That said, it would be nice to have scripts (also in the IE games) to provide at least some automation for those who have a hard time with the multitasking.

Okay - this is not a perfect game. There are some bugs and weird choices re: mechanics that I could do without, and I probably would've liked romances or more expansive party dialogue. That said, this is easily the closest I've ever come to the gaming experience I've been missing since Shadows of Amn. And it really is pretty dang close - the lore is fantastic (and you should absolutely spend an hour going through the wiki before rolling a character, it really adds to the richness of the game), the art and writing are excellent, and the combat actually offers challenges and requires real tactics. This is a really, really great game. So...thanks! Thank you so much for this really awesome game. Now please, please fix group stealth

I know there's a lot of build customization in PoE due to the way stats work, but I was wondering if there are any plans to introduce real skill crossover/multiclassing. A little sneak attack would make a melee cipher more viable, for example, or letting a priest dabble in magic at the expense of being a total glass canon. I feel like the lines between classes aren't as blurred as I thought they would be - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it would be nice for variety's sake. Then again, I'm new to PoE and I could be missing something. Is there currently a way to mix class abilities (without the console, that is)?

I've played a LOT of crpgs and have always lamented their treatment of rogues as utility characters or one shot backstabbers who can't do much else. Nevertheless, rogue is always how I roll, disappointing or not. PoE finally got it right (mostly). I built a glass cannon dual wielder who is absolutely crushing it - highest DPS in the party (by far), which is how charname is supposed to be imo. The battlefield mechanics with a focus on sneak attack are really fun even with the bad pathfinding...you have to micromanage, but it's totally worth it. Stealth is probably my only major beef - because the mechanics don't allow your character to say hidden while the rest of the party has been discovered, sneaking into a room and backstabbing is usually way more trouble than it's worth and makes the talent a waste. I've never played any rpg - ever - that forces a group stealth mechanic like this. It's a really strange design choice. That said, it's still an incredibly fun class to play but doesn't seem to get a lot of love here on the forums. Anyone else playing a rogue? Would love to see your builds, especially ones with out-of-the-box weapon/talent focuses

Durance is actually invaluable to my party - just spam his AoE knockdowns around your tank and use firearms in between. I forget the name, but the 2nd level spell is a "seal" that acts like a trap - just drop it right on enemies and it'll act like any other AoE spell. I'm playing a rogue and the DPS from all the free sneak attacks is insane. Even without a rogue, though, the enemy-only knockdown spells alone make him great for crowd control.