KDubya

I like Constitution giving +5% health per point. i like durable as a design goal for my characters, especially for frontliners as when you are KO'd your DPS is zero. I like it enough that I tend to go with a 15 con for +25% hitpoints for my frontliners. If you knock it back to +3% than it becomes pretty worthless to pump and thus becomes easy to dump. The current health/injury system is fine as is. If my main damage dealer gets an injury that reduces their damage output or a frontliner is injured such that they can not perform their duties then I'll be resting. If that means resting everytime I get one injury then that's what I'll do. Without any time constraints on quests I have all the time in the world and I'll be buying my Hardtack by the ton The only stat changes I'd like to see are moving the deflection bonus from Resolve and adding that to Perception

Your attack did 47.6 damage and Carnage did 6.8 damage. That is exactly 1/7th of your base damage, no rounding required. Getting an exact number looks too convenient to be some sort of odd random occurrence. My theory is that Carnage does 1/7th of the modified base attack ignoring any penetration effects but does count critical effects.

The upcoming changes will change a lot Fast weapons will go from a one second recovery to two seconds which will put them approximately equal to the slow ones which will be at three seconds recovery. Dual wielding will still be the optimal damage mode compared to single weapon and two handed weapons. Devoted being actually 'devoted' to a single weapon will take some of their luster away while Fighters in general losing exclusivity to fighting styles will drastically change their relative value as a multi-class option. When you can get some of what made Fighters good to pick for free, then taking something that adds more like a Monk, Barbarian, or Paladin looks much more attractive. When it is 3 seconds to swing a sabre or 3 seconds to cast a spell they will be much closer to being balanced. Grazes coming back will also change how things compare. My plan for getting around the new Resolve handling spell damage with Ciphers is to make use of Psychovampiric Shield and drain ten Resolve for buffing my spell damage rather than place more than ten at creation. Perhaps concentrating on CC spells that only need high Intellect will be a better option? The balance with Wizards is difficult now as Wizards will quickly level up to where they have much more spell casts per encounter than they can use. Combat is not going to last 50+ seconds where you'll cast fifteen spells in succession and then run out. In that same time frame a Cipher will probably only get four or so casts off as they will spend 3/4s of their time generating focus.

But you can still take as many Cipher powers as you want. You just do lots of melee damage as well. Based on Beta so far a melee monster cipher generates a lot of focus so you'll have plenty to let loose with any Cipher powers you like. I wouldn't say that a Fighter mix is necessarily more exciting to play than a Cipher mix, as to which is more effective I'd have to say that that is up for debate.

I've gone back to PoE awaiting the next Beta build. Rolled a melee Cipher (PotD) who uses staffs to melee attack but safely (safer?) from range. He doesn't get KO'd but the attrition of health loss is forcing me to rest pretty frequently. Much different from my typical Juggernaut Monk who I rolled again and he has the health to fight for multiple maps without appreciable health loss forcing frequent resting. I guess my point is that the old system really punished non-traditional melee who had substantially smaller health pools than super tanky melee like high con Monks. Based on this fresh look at PoE I'm liking the new health only system with four injuries a lot more.

I hope it lets me run a firing line where action one is fire the arquebus, action two is swap to other weapon and then action three is to activate buff like Swift Strikes/berserk/Disciplined Barrage.

Looking forward to seeing how the new balanced weapons compare. Fast goes from one to two seconds and slow stays at three seconds. Looks to be a good change as the current fast weapons at one second are way better. The Priest change to getting core spells at level up looks great. Not sure that Paladins needed to have their malus removed, it served to balance the huge benefit from Deep Faith. The programmable AI looks great, I really loved the one in Dragon Age Origins. The game looks better and better the more we see, hopefully we get the update next week.

If you multi'd that with a Ranger Sharpshooter you'd have a pretty good ranged damage dealer. A pure Cipher dual wielding pistols will still hit hard due to the Biting Whip and might be more than adequate for what you want. It comes down to how great the upper level powers are that multiclasses will not have access to, if they are game breakers then might be better to go pure caster rather than multi and miss out. The Beta only shows a portion of the skill tree and tops out at level nine so multiclasses get all the advantage right now. Plus it depends on what difficulty you roll on, PotD might require more efficiency in character design but as always smart gameplay can easily trump Uber-builds.

I have sated ​my desire to play Ciphers in the current Beta Cipher multiclasses who aspire to deal out lots of damage via weapon attacks do very well. Biting Whip is a 40% damage buff and costs all of one ability pick. If you make a Soul Blade you get a level one power, a 40% damage boost (with one pick) and a raw damage attack - Soul Annihilation - that converts all your focus to a raw damage attack that gets modified by your Might. You can then spend all the rest of your ability picks on your other class. The 3 second cast time abilities aren't that bad to try and use but the 6 second ones take way too long, especially if you are wearing any appreciable armor. If you stick to light armor with its +25% recovery its not too bad but stay away from heavy armor like plate with its +100%. The only way I'd use plate would be if I was never going to cast anything except Soul Annihilation and was dual wielding fast attack weapons like daggers, clubs or stillettos. The +100% recovery gets completely nullified by the -50% from dual wielding that everyone gets. I've also had some success with Ranger Sharpshooter-Cipher multis using dual wielded scepters and the damage modal they have. Short range but great penetration and very good damage due to Biting Whip and the scepter modal which together get you +60% damage which gets multiplied by your Might. A pure Cipher who tries to stay at range and cast a lot like you did in PoE is going to feel pretty lackluster. A pure Cipher Soul Blade who melees is probably going to regret not multi-classing with something tasty like a Monk, Barbarian, Paladin, Devoted Fighter or what have you. Bottomline adding Cipher Soul Blade to the mix greatly increases your damage with a minimal investment. Cherry picking the few truly great Cipher powers leaves plenty of picks for the other class.

It's not a matter of not wanting to hear voice overs, the issue is that at a fundamental level of game design you're either writing deep dialogue trees where adding another tree is as easy as typing OR you design such that dialogue is as minimum as possible in order to minimize the amount of voice work needed. The first lets you add in whole sections of dialogue easily at any point, even post release via patching, while the fully voiced model is effectively set in stone at an early time and can't be easily changed. Fully voiced games are attempting to chase the mythical 'casual gamer' that will reward middle of the road mediocrity with untold riches. I'd like PoE and its sequels to remain a high quality niche that can be modestly supported by its current customers. Limiting the expense on voice overs looks to be trying to stay and serve our niche market.

Wizards are both too weak and too powerful at the same time which is hard to pull off. By overpowered I'm talking about how many spell casts they will have per encounter. At level nine they have nine casts, at the same progression they'll have eighteen casts per encounter. So many that they'll never run out and can start every fight from stealth with their best nuke or CC, then bang out a few instant cast buffs and then work their way down from the top of their spell inventory. The spell power gained doesn't seem to make much difference, the penetration gained is less than one so it doesn't help much. The build I'm looking at is an Arcane Knight - Mage/Paladin probably Bleak Walker. Paladin defenses plus Wizard buffs plus summoned weapons when desired plus getting all the spells for free from found Grimoires looks to be solid. At max level i think they get to level seven for spells so that'll be 13 or 14 casts per encounter for a guy who'll be whacking things in melee generally.

The innate class ability is +12.5 to all defense, and Deep faith upgrades it to +20 to all defense, if this is overpowered, how much defense should it adds to the class? Innate class ability should be stronger than the rest ability because it's the core ability that defines the role of class, so what bonus do u prefer it add to paladin? +5, +7, +10? I'm not saying its overpowered, just that it is very powerful. Plus remember that all the Paladins come with innate disadvantages as well like Bleak Walkers get -30% healing, Kind Wayfareres do less damage when sneak attacking and so on. If it did not have Deep Faith and only had the +12.5 from Faith and Conviction it'd still be very powerful and would still be high on the list for my Munchkin Death Squad. If you nerf it down to oblivion you end up just making Paladins a weak choice. As it is they and Priests are the only classes that have any reason to roleplay anything besides the Neutral Evil "we want more powah and loot!!" that all the other classes can be.

+20 defense to all is fracking great! The typical buff ability gets you +10 to one defense, some like the Cipher's Iron Will get +15. The paladin gets +20 to all which is like getting seven abilities for the cost of an innate class ability plus one additional. +20 deflection is equivalent to using a Superb small shield but without the loss of damage output. You can dual wield and still have better deflection than a Fighter with sword and shield style. For truly scary numbers roll a Templar of Wael and get Illusion buffs like mirror image to go with priest and paladin buffs. Or go for an Arcane Knight and get all the Wizard self buffs. In PoE Paladins had the best defense by far, here that is now available to everyone via multi-classing.

Based on the current Beta my munchkin team would be: Utilizing dual wielded fast attack weapons such as daggers and clubs with stillettos on switch Multi-classes with Paladin The reasons for the above are With the removal of DR only penetration matters so a stiletto will out damage a Greatsword. Fast attack weapons do almost 50% more dps than slow attack (not counting the bugged one handers such as sabres, swords, maces and warhammers) Paladin multiclasses get Deep Faith which adds +20 defense to everything. access to Lay on Hands, Sworn Enemy, Flames of Devotion and auras In the actual game I'll be using the story companions.

I'd rather read great writing than listen to good voice actors talk like idiots. Look what happened to Fallout 4, a fully voiced protagonist just resulted in idiotic conversation choices that all ended up saying the same thing. Four different ways to say yes I like reading, when i read my mind can fabricate whatever accent best fits a character. This makes the story mine in a way that a voice actor just can't unless they are just the perfect fit. Sometimes games get it perfect like Danny Trejillo as Raul the Ghoul in Fallout new Vegas, or the guy who does the orc voices in Skyrim "Pray to Stendarr while you still can". Many times they are forgettable and the money spent could have been used for something better.

This is very strange to me, and especially in the case of using the pistol at range as it just doesn't make any sense why someone should be able to aim and shoot a pistol faster when holding a sword in their other hand than when they are just holding a single pistol. I think this bonus should only apply to weapons of the same type (i.e 2 melee or 2 ranged weapons). For the same reason I don't really like the suggestion of the single weapon talent affecting them either, as the added accuracy, in my mind, reflects the wielders ability to stabilize the weapon by using two hands when necessary or by being able to move without the hindrance of an encumbered hand. From a logical perspective, being able to seamlessly transition between ranged and melee is benefit enough of wielding a sword and pistol and it needs not benefit from dual wield or single weapon talents; however, from a game balance perspective this may make it seem kind of weak compared to other options so there may be no real incentive to ever do so under those circumstances (aside from the fact that it looks cool ). It wasn't until the 1950s with the implementation of the modern technique of the pistol (Col. Jeff Cooper) and the Weaver stance that pistol shooters started to use two hands. Prior to that it was one hand only. I don't think that pistols should be dual wielded as it just is not effective for anything except wasting ammunition and missing faster. It definitely should not give you a +50% attack speed buff like it currently does. Gameplay wise giving the single weapon style bonus to the pistol shot and then to the use of the one handed weapon in melee seems to fit thematically as well as mechanically. Firing once and then using it as a club looks to be beyond the game engine, even Fallout 4 got weapon bashing all jacked up and they have a much larger budget. Actually I think Doom was the only game I've played where going from shooting to melee was integrated well.

While no doubt simpler than modern firearms, and made of sturdy material, you couldn't pay me to try to shoot a muzzle loaded firearm after beating someone about the head and shoulder with it. But that is exactly what they did. Many pistols had a large brass knob on the bottom of the hand grip. This both served as a counterweight to balance the weight of the pistol and to serve as a striking surface.

Power level makes the duration longer, it doesn't change the quality of the summoned weapon. So a tenth level Wizard and a tenth level berserker/Wizard Warlock will have the same summoned staff. A pure Wizard will be a much better caster with access to the highest level spells and will get to the next tier of spells faster than a multi-class. A multi-class will have various synergies with its other class that will make it much different than a pure Wizard. In the case of a Berserker, a Fighter or a Cipher mix the result will be that they are able to be much better in melee combat. If a pure Wizard gets a better weapon such that they are better in melee than a multiclass then what is the point of the multiclass? I am curious as to how Carnage will interact with the AoE of Citzal's Lance, or Citzal's Lance interacting with the Flurry of Blows from a Monk that can proc another hit off of a critical.

You do get a -10 deflection when holding an Arquebus, bow and crossbow when you are attacked in melee so they do sort of get that into the game. Why don't we have bayonets? You could be traditional and have your Arquebus become a spear or go Blade II and get slashing daggers attached to your pistols.

I'd also like the summoned weapons to be instant cast or at least 3 seconds instead of 6. Plus you need to remember that if you get the spell in a found Grimoire its basically free. And unlike in PoE where a free spell just saved you some money, here a free spell saves you an ability point which is massively more valuable. I think Wizard multis using summoned weapons and the instant cast buffs are going to be really popular and powerful. Wizard mixed with Paladin, Fighter, Barbarian, Monk or Cipher are going to be pretty interesting. Personally I'd stick with no subclass as the restrictions are pretty harsh while the benefits seem highly situational.

The summoned weapon doesn't have to be obviously better, being merely equal at times would be enough. Consider the staff: Level 1-4 Gets draining which you won't have from anything else at this point in the game. Level 5-8 Fine You probably won't have a Fine weapon in the style of your choice at the early end of this range but by the end of it you probably will. Level 9-12 Exceptional - Again early in range it will probably be better than your other gear, while later it will be equal Level 13-16 Superior - The new crafting and upgrading rules looks to limit what can become Superior so this might have more advantage then it appears now. Level 17-20 Legendary? (not sure name) -This level of enchantment is probably really limited (or at least it better be, no Monty Haul please) so this will be quite valuable I'm not seeing a problem with the power scale. Even at the 1-4 range having just draining is going to be big. Add in the cool factor and using the summoned weapons with a multi-class Wizard are going to be one of the big reasons for making that character. I can see definite synergy with a Warlock - Berserker/Wizard (no sub-class) using the summoned staff that will replace the health lost due to Frenzy and to make up for the fact that you can't see your health, especially at low levels.

Dual wielding gets a +50% to action speed, the Fighter ability Two weapon style or whatever its called adds another +20%. Instead of getting the dual wielding bonuses could you make it give single weapon bonus of +12 accuracy to the pistol shot and then +12 accuracy to the sword?

Resolve is going to handle all spell damage in the next iteration, that just leaves Perception out in the cold. If you drop Strength and Dex to 2% they pretty much become meaningless. The game seems balanced around the 3% so best to leave that as is. Leaving the deflection bonus to the new Resolve makes little to no sense, while adding it back to Perception has a precedence in earlier versions of the game, makes sense from a game logic standpoint and gives Perception that little something more it needs to be roughly comparable to Strength, Dexterity and Resolve.

So new Resolve gets spell damage and +1.5 deflection?

Only the slow one handers other than the spear are set to the wrong speed. The fast one handers like daggers are correct as are the two handers. Just avoid using battle axes, swords, sabres, warhammers and maces .