Climhazzard

I wouldn't get to hung up on them, you could roll 13s and still be a badass. I think I've been using 16-10-13-13-16-10 on most of my hybrids because I don't like having my buffs run out every 10 seconds even if the AI can recast them automatically, and it's pretty cool to hit half the stuff on the screen with torments reach.

They're applied to basically all your abilities I think, and the lashes are to my knowledge affected by the sneak attack multiplier.

Your wayfarer is a little to "kind", lol. He's like Jesus. That or he's actually a sadist who heals people up so he can hurt them more.

Cipher can basically just pick their nose until power level 5 when they pick up ring leader. There's some semi decent spells but nothing like as good as what wizard has access too. ... and then they hit power level 6 and suddenly it's like heaven for them. They were a late game bloomer in PoE too, I wouldn't mind if they smoothed it out a bit tbh.

This thread has quickly fallen to the wayside, forums sure are very active atm. I wanted to add that I've been messing with devoted/pillar and so far it is pretty good. Devoted to sword, it seems like between swords and my fists I basically always get the 30% over penetration bonus. Fighter also adds like 80% graze>hit conversion and 25% hit>crit conversion. Weapon specialization for a base damage multiplier. Upgraded cleave stance for recovery reduction. Pretty good survival with rapid recovery and later an auto rez. It's a bit passive compared to other options but the pulling ability should have some good tactical uses and penetration attack might help you if you want a good single target damage attack.

I plan on replacing Palegina in my party tonight to try out an idea I had for a team regen herald that her stats aren't really suitable for. Go shield bearer/trabadour/moon godlike Use ancient memory, zealous endurance with upgrade, and the +100% healing chant. Lay on hands when needed. Stack might, intelligence, and +healing. As high as you can get them, then get anything with extra engagement slots.

I had an idea today for a team regen herald. Ancient memory+zealous endurance upgrade, and +100% healing. Shield bearer/trabadour: Unkillable team regen tank or Kind wayfarer/skald: Dual wielding fast/accurate weapons for more offensive invocation support Moon godlike, ton of might, intelligence, and +healing. It is very very far away from being developed or tested into a real build though since I'm not the biggest fan of maining support builds and Palegina's stats are unsuitable for the idea. Maybe I'll try it with a hireling.

So so far most of the build ideas in here are for damage dealers, last night I had an idea for a support build I want to share. Basically the team regen Herald. Mostly just theorycrafting here. Ancient memory heals for 1 hp per second, zealous endurance upgrade heals for 3 hp per 3 seconds. Chanter can also gain +100% healing. Stacking them you should probably be able to heal anywhere from 4 to 8 hp per second by endgame for your team. Things to consider. -Is it possible to stack enough might and +healing to roll that 1hp per second up to 2hp per second? -How much intelligence would a trabadour need to permanently apply both ancient memory and +100% healing? Could a skald do it? -If both of the above are possible you should be able to reach 8hp per second. -Shield bearer would make it an unkillable team regen tank. -Kindwayfarer/skald might be a possibility for a more offensive version dual wielding fast/accurate weapons in light armor. -Moon godlike for extra team healing.

I'll post the low level basics of a couple of monk combinations. Go for the listed skills asap. Stats can pretty much be whatever but you probably want to focus on offensive stats. For the trans combination I used 16-10-13-13-16-10. I wanted intelligence for the cipher stuff and so the buffs would last longer since I hate recasting them, you'll hit a lot more stuff with raised torment and rooting pain too. Shattered Pillar: Lightning strikes, raised torment (so good), tenacious blows, rooting pain, two weapon style. Use Nature godlike if you want to be OP early on. Pillar/soul blade: Same as above, with phantom foes (get the weapon pen passive too). Later levels, borrowed instinct (maybe pass if it doesn't stack with devotions for the faithful), Pain block (if you need tank support), Ring leader, amplified wave, disintegration. There are probably skills to consider that I missed because I'm at work and going from memory.... Ectopsychic echo used to be pretty good in PoE if you didn't mind mircomanaging your positions, but it doesn't look as good in PoE 2. I'll have to check it out later to make sure though.

In my opinion it's always better for Monk, even for multiclass monks. Because with how many attacks you can dish out you will Proc Swift Flurry a lot and even one proc per 3 attack will deal additional full damage which will be more than 3 in a row attacks with Lighting Strikes (as that additional attack will still get dmg bonus from Turning Wheel and anything else that you may have). That is my opinion, unless we will find in game some part where there are a lot of super tough enemies that are weak to Lightning damage. But Swift right now is imo better and provides with more dps. Hmm but doesn't lightning strikes buff your base damage? So everything you use that isn't a spell will hit 30% harder? I had the impression that if you weren't focusing on crits with stuff like berserk then lightning strikes should be better.

Basically as the title says, even early in the game I've found plenty of interesting items that should synergize with various builds, and I'm interested in knowing what other people have found so far. I'll start off. There's an amulet you can get fairly early, I can't remember the name atm but I'll edit it back in later. It gives you damage resistance when your health gets low which ought to be pretty useful for humans, barbarians, and streetfighters. I haven't tested it to much yet to see how useful it really is. There's a gladiator sword you can get early on that adds additional damage if you're using a shield. Besides being a nice pick for tanks maybe it'll prove useful to riposte rogues.

I kind of hate how nature godlike seems like the best choice for monk right now, so I personally hope some decent helms show up, lol.

I'm sure the shadowdancer is a strong combination. You'd eventually get the deathblows modifier to add to monk abilities, and the rogue skills would add a nice bit of survival and deception for a character focused on damage... Haven't been able to bring myself to try it though, I'll actually probably just end up with a straight shattered pillar on my first playthrough.. since I accidentally messed up my transcendent build again....

Yeah I think it would be kind of silly to be able to respec your devoted choice. But without meta weapon knowledge you probably won't be able to make an ideal devoted on your first playthrough. I think dual damage type weapons are a pretty safe bet though. My first pick would be dual wielding swords. Normally I would think swords are a safe bet anyways but PoE didn't really have any swords I cared that much for, so who knows.

I definitely want a way to manipulate auto attack behavior. In general I think there are a lot more things we could do with the AI system so I hope they aren't done expanding it. In particular I want a way to program spell interrupts, something like... Target enemy: casting ability with a 4 second or longer cast time.

Yeah you can't repick your level 1 abilities with inn respec. Which is unfortunate because that means you can't respec your companions properly who may start with abilities you don't need.

I just can't think of anything cooler than being able to use amplified wave on a monk... but Voltron is probably right that pure shattered pillar is the best choice right now. Early game because you get raised torment sooner, late game because the pure monk abilities are strong.

I agree that Xoti's monk subclass is a trap, though her unique items support it somewhat and might make for some kind of decent defensive build. Personally I just use her fists and two weapon style along with priest buffs like devotions for the faithful. I just see Eder as a walking target (he even says so himself), so just going fighter or swashbuckler is fine, though I could see some kind of dual saber damage machine being viable. I see Palegina as basically the same, but which combo you pick probably depends on how hard the game is. Fighter/Paladin will be the best tank, but if your whole party is melee anyways and it turns out you don't need a super tank then just go Paladin/chanter for the most team support. Serafin will overlap to much with my Watcher so for now I'm not even considering him. Takehu will probably be my healing support so I'll probably just make him pure druid, but druid/chanter is a tempting mix of support too so idk.... Aloth. Depends on if there are any interesting tricks in the multi classes, I don't plan on using him but for now I would go pure wizard as long as I have him. Maia. Not sure what her multi class choices are yet. She gets the ranged damage support slot though, if there's room for her. For my party she'll have to compete with Aloth for a slot. Anyways all this is dependent on what your Watcher is and how hard the game ends up being (I've heard it's easier than PoE was). Also I don't see a problem with multi classing at all, though it will depend a bit on the highest tier abilities.

I personally went with draining whip so I can use the annihilation attack more. Which you pick probably depends on how the upgrade works. Like if it just makes base soul whip go from 20% to 30%, or if it adds 30% on top of the 20%, maybe I'll check later to make sure. As for spells I feel like a lot of them will basically cost you the time that you could have just used to kill your enemy, in other words they aren't terribly useful. For the forced level 1 pick I went with whisper of treason since you can use it from stealth at the start of a battle. I think phantom foes is decent from the level 2 spells (especially if you have a rogue). After that everything is kind of questionable until you get ringleader and borrowed instinct (imo), pain block might be a useful support spell for your tank depending on your team composition. In PoE amplified wave and disintegration were among the best cipher spells, and I don't expect that will change here, so you'll want those for your endgame picks. Also if you mess up you can respec at the Inn, so don't worry to much. Though I don't think you can repick your starting abilities.

I have been messing around with Shattered Pillar/Soul blade. The only thing I don't like is that you have to take a level 1 cipher spell, but it's mostly okay because you can charm an enemy from stealth in your team buffing phase (later that would probably be replaced by the mass charm if you get enough focus to cast it at the start of battle though). After that I think it's fine because you really aren't going to need very many cipher spells. Instead of end game monk skills (which I guess are OP right now but hopefully they get balanced) you'll end up with stuff like borrowed instinct, disintegrate, and amplified wave. You might be able to just get those and nothing else, but it probably wouldn't hurt to pick up a little utility too like pain block. Earlier on you'd probably just use phantom foes and maybe the mass charm skill. Or just rely on soul whip+monk abilities. All in all you get the same amount of abilities as a single class, just more to choose from. A single class Monk will ramp up faster though, it's probably the easier choice for a new player.

I have been messing around with the pillar/soul blade. I would want to include spells like disintegration, amplified wave, and borrowed instinct. It is unfortunate that they are endgame while frenzy and carnage are level 1, but I still think they should be considered. To add to the human/barbarian combo, there's a necklace you get pretty early that gives you a lot of damage resistance when your health gets low. I haven't really tested it out to much yet but it seems like a good synergy.

Nature Godlike shattered pillar (monk) is a straightforward and strong combination to play. Early abilities to look for would be lightning strikes, raised torment, rooting pain, tenacious blows, and two weapon style. Favor might in your stats. Nature Godlike shapershifter would be pretty straightforward too, prebuff with a regen spell then go shred stuff. Other races would work too, but nature godlike is especially favored by monk who can almost permanently proc the racial with no recovery. Perhaps the above suggestion to tell us what kind of character you're looking for might help more though.

Yeah if you dump resolve you'll be stunned, paralyzed, charmed, etc, for ages.... so I can't really see dumping it unless you're playing some kind of sniper/assassin build that never expects to get hit by anything.

Does this mean I can think about attributes besides might on my dps characters?

I'm a bit biased because of the original penetration system in beta, which is why I stick to weapons with at least two damage types. But even with a less harsh penetration system there are still immunities to contend with so a weapon with two damage types still doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. Without knowing what kind of weapons I'll find in game my first choice is dual wielding longswords. to me these modal that give you -15 deflection for +2 penetration seem like a really harsh trade off but maybe thats just me Unless something has changed lately all the modals have harsh penalties, you don't use them very much.