KDubya

I went with Monk as favorite and Priest as least liked. The ability to make a heavy armored Juggernaut Monk is one of the great things about PoE. They are useful from start to finish. DnD always had the problem with Monks being worthless early and godlike at the end. As for the Priest I just do not like buffing classes*. The game is either balanced around you needing the buffs which makes them required or the buffs trivialize the game's difficulty. I find PoE balanced such that I can roll without a Priest so I do so. * Specifically active buffing classes. A passive buff like a Paladin aura or a Chanter I really like having on the team.

With Ogres and lurkers I've had my melee engaged at a range where they hit me but I could not hit them and had to eat a disengagement in order to get into my melee range. I tried a reach, multiple engagement Fighter when the overbearing ability was added and found it not to work with engagement which is a shame. Imagine two fighters holding ten guys at bay, it'd be like a phalanx.

I'd be in favor of getting rid of all Vancian casters and replacing with some variant of how the Monk (damage received), Cipher (damage done) or Chanter (time and invocation) work. In pen and paper you had the Fighters for the trash mobs and minions, making sure that they kept the fragile Wizard alive. When you got to the big fight or if things went bad the Wizard could unleash hell and save the day. With a DM this works well and both Wizards and Fighters are happy and feel special. In Baldurs Gate, ADnD, Wizards are pretty much dead weight until level 9+. A few spells per day ended up either having a bad slingshotter for 90% of the time or a guy with a sleeping disorder Don't even bring up multi-class abominations like Kensai or Berserker Magi. In PoE it is easy to balance for a Cipher. By adjusting the cost of his powers and the rate at which he gains focus you can achieve a state that is both challenging and fun. Good in both trash and boss fights. For a Wizard you can act as if there was a DM around and marshall your resources, saving some for when you really need it. This works well or you can just blast everything into little pieces and camp a few extra times resulting in trivial encounters. Balance the big encounters on the assumption that a few Vancian casters will be unleashing hell and any team without them will be severely disadvantaged. Since the license and all creative decisions are entirely up to the team at Obsidian, I'd like them to think out of the box like they did with the Cipher, Monk and Chanter and apply that to re-making the Vancian casters.

Another thing that makes a huge difference for keeping a Monk, or any character, upright is team synergy. I value durability, I'd rather have a team that all stays vertical and kills the enemy slower than to have flashy cannon builds which can annihilate quickly but also go down quick if targeted. With your Monk get a Chanter, Kana works well, and have him take the two regen abilities first. This gets you passive regen to the whole team. Also the fear chant lowers the accuracy of the enemy which will also reduce incoming damage. Get a Paladin and run Zealous Endurance. The DR gets suppressed by alcohol but there is not enough alcohol in the game to keep the entire team drunk for every fight so I still take it. The DR is great at low levels but the hit>graze is useful for everything including status effects. Someone else, like the Chanter, can run Gallant's Focus. It is 2 points less accuracy and does not have the hit to crit conversion but does a good enough job unless you will have two Paladins on the team. Another suggestion is take Veteran's Recovery at level 2. Regen powered by a high Might and at least a not dumped Intellect is huge at the start. Combine all of the above and your team will be like Wolverine. Passive Regen is a lot easier to use than active heals, but still take Lay on Hands as its the best single target heal that is also twice per encounter.

The typical "tanky Rogue (works for Devil as well)" Race - Boreal Dwarf - I like Dwarves and the extra accuracy against a lot of the enemies is great. Island Aumaua is nice if you are going for a weapons switching gun alpha striker. Culture - whatever, I like the merchant for lore and mechanics culture - Rauitai - starts with Brigandine armor which is awesome at the start Might - 12 - not enough points and Rogues have good damage adds so percentage wise it pays less with a Rogue as compared to a Monk Con - 10 Rogues have a poor base but I still don't want to dump it Dex - 17 faster is better Per - 18 - you want more accuracy for more crits, better interrupts are gravy Int - 3 - you'll want a 4 if you are using a stunning or prone on crit weapon other than Starcaller. Lets you attack fast enough to have the effect still on for the next attack. Res - 18 balances out the dumped intellect, gets you more deflection and gets the cool 'tough guy dialogue'. 1.) Crippling Strike - blind is better but you get two attacks with crippling 2.) Weapon and Shield Style - more deflection and great reflex defense 3.) Reckless Assault - 20% damage, +8 accuracy and -8 deflection. Great ability. Your 18 Resolve covers the malus. 4.) Weapon Focus Adventurer - more accuracy for more crits. Flails and Warbows are what you'll be using 5.) Deep Wounds - effectively 3 DR penetration with no malus. Refreshes on hit so the low duration makes no difference as you'll be hitting the same guy until they are dead and then moving on to the next one. 6.) Superior Deflection - more deflection 7.) Persistent Distraction - you'll be going behind the frontline enemies and flanking them to set up your own deathblows 8.) Deflecting Assault - more deflection 9.) Dirty Fighting - more crits 10.) Vicious Fighting - more crits 11.) Deathblows - the reason to be a Rogue 12.) Open* - I like vulnerable Attack for the extra DR penetration but it is up to you 13.) Adept Evasion - you have a good reflex defense, might as well go all in 14.) Open* - Snakes Reflex is good to really make him immune to those attacks 15,) Riposte - you have a good deflection so might as well take this 16.) Open* - whatever you want ******Keep in mind that you want crits and you have really bad durations on any abilities. This means that you want to avoid Savage Attack due to the accuracy malus plus it does not work with Reckless Assault. This also makes any of the debuff strikes, cross class skills and even Escape not worth taking as the duration will be terrible. ******* Your Rogue will have a good enough deflection to survive in melee, especially with a Paladin casting Reinforcing Exhortation. Your Reflex defense will be great plus you'll evade most attacks that target Reflex. You'll have great accuracy, and have a good crit to hit conversion. The weapon set up you want is a Warbow with some sort of tasty on crit effect for initial alpha strike or when you want to stay ranged. Cloud Piercer, Borresaine, and the confusion causing one are all good. Your main weapon is Starcaller with Balgrdr Barricade. this gets you a fast attack speed weapon that stuns on crit, has a damaging spell proc on crit that benefits from Deathblows and Deep wounds, a shield bash that has a very damaging spell proc on crit that also benefits from Deathblows and Deep Wounds. When you Durgan enchant both the flail and the shield you'll be even better at what you were already pretty good at, namely avoiding damage and getting crits with the added bonus of +30% attack speed. Gonna give this a go, what armor and is thee a special level were i start to come into my own and can play semi-front line? (I know I am flanking, just curious when I will stop going splat easily). Also any tips on playstyle, entering combat etc would be lovely. ty so much. PS also can't seem to find any info on Balgrdr Barricade For armor I'd go with the brigandine at creation, upgrade to plate as soon as you can. Then once you gain a few levels and come up with a nice set of medium or light armor try switching. You should not be going splat in combat. With your pumped Resolve, a small shield, weapon and shield style and reckless Assault your deflection will one less than a Fighter who has base Resolve and not using a shield. You should be good to wade in right from the start once you have a shield. I'll have the melee guys, Monk and/or Barbarian engage right away, guys with a ranged weapon on switch will fire a volley and then enter melee. The Rogue would fire maybe two volleys from the Warbow and then engage the flank. Good suggestion on Penetrating Shot. I did not even take backstab or stealth, went heavy (13) on mechanics and lore up to 8 Backstab takes way too much micro for a small payoff. For less micro I can be a Wizard and lay waste to everything. Starcaller is available as soon as you enter Twin Elms so it is faster to get than any of the stun/prone weapons besides cladhaliath, Tall Grass and St Rumbaldts Before you get Starcaller you can use either the temple flail with the endurance drain or the fire lash one with speed from the Magran temple reward. If you are OK with re-spec for convenience you could spec into something else then spec into flails.

The typical "tanky Rogue (works for Devil as well)" Race - Boreal Dwarf - I like Dwarves and the extra accuracy against a lot of the enemies is great. Island Aumaua is nice if you are going for a weapons switching gun alpha striker. Culture - whatever, I like the merchant for lore and mechanics culture - Rauitai - starts with Brigandine armor which is awesome at the start Might - 12 - not enough points and Rogues have good damage adds so percentage wise it pays less with a Rogue as compared to a Monk Con - 10 Rogues have a poor base but I still don't want to dump it Dex - 17 faster is better Per - 18 - you want more accuracy for more crits, better interrupts are gravy Int - 3 - you'll want a 4 if you are using a stunning or prone on crit weapon other than Starcaller. Lets you attack fast enough to have the effect still on for the next attack. Res - 18 balances out the dumped intellect, gets you more deflection and gets the cool 'tough guy dialogue'. 1.) Crippling Strike - blind is better but you get two attacks with crippling 2.) Weapon and Shield Style - more deflection and great reflex defense 3.) Reckless Assault - 20% damage, +8 accuracy and -8 deflection. Great ability. Your 18 Resolve covers the malus. 4.) Weapon Focus Adventurer - more accuracy for more crits. Flails and Warbows are what you'll be using 5.) Deep Wounds - effectively 3 DR penetration with no malus. Refreshes on hit so the low duration makes no difference as you'll be hitting the same guy until they are dead and then moving on to the next one. 6.) Superior Deflection - more deflection 7.) Persistent Distraction - you'll be going behind the frontline enemies and flanking them to set up your own deathblows 8.) Deflecting Assault - more deflection 9.) Dirty Fighting - more crits 10.) Vicious Fighting - more crits 11.) Deathblows - the reason to be a Rogue 12.) Open* - I like vulnerable Attack for the extra DR penetration but it is up to you 13.) Adept Evasion - you have a good reflex defense, might as well go all in 14.) Open* - Snakes Reflex is good to really make him immune to those attacks 15,) Riposte - you have a good deflection so might as well take this 16.) Open* - whatever you want ******Keep in mind that you want crits and you have really bad durations on any abilities. This means that you want to avoid Savage Attack due to the accuracy malus plus it does not work with Reckless Assault. This also makes any of the debuff strikes, cross class skills and even Escape not worth taking as the duration will be terrible. ******* Your Rogue will have a good enough deflection to survive in melee, especially with a Paladin casting Reinforcing Exhortation. Your Reflex defense will be great plus you'll evade most attacks that target Reflex. You'll have great accuracy, and have a good crit to hit conversion. The weapon set up you want is a Warbow with some sort of tasty on crit effect for initial alpha strike or when you want to stay ranged. Cloud Piercer, Borresaine, and the confusion causing one are all good. Your main weapon is Starcaller with Balgrdr Barricade. this gets you a fast attack speed weapon that stuns on crit, has a damaging spell proc on crit that benefits from Deathblows and Deep wounds, a shield bash that has a very damaging spell proc on crit that also benefits from Deathblows and Deep Wounds. When you Durgan enchant both the flail and the shield you'll be even better at what you were already pretty good at, namely avoiding damage and getting crits with the added bonus of +30% attack speed.

The problem I always run in to with a stealthy MC Rogue going for backstabs is mechanics. You need to have one guy with 13+ mechanics skill and Rogues have such a skill point advantage by starting at level 3 that I just can't not have the Rogue be the mechanic. Having two Rogues on the team just sounds way too squishy and micro intensive. Devil of Caroc has high base mechanic skill but is better suited as a tanky shield rogue. The other companions at best start with level one mechanic skill so they need 23 additional skill points to get to level 13, the same as any non-mechanic class can get with the right culture. I find that I need to plan my team around having Devil and then either being the mechanic myself early or hiring a Devil clone until I replace. Up to like level 10 mechanics is doable with any class with the right starting culture, even my Paladins have been the mechanic until I get Devil. The other problem I always end up with back-stabby Rogues is the dirt nap time and then the following crippling injuries. If I do manage enough micro and positioning to keep them upright I find that they kill much slower than my Juggernaut Monk 3.0 who requires no babysitting and who just needs a clump of enemies for Torment's Reach to burst down.

Deep wounds is nice because it is raw damage. I think of it as DR penetration without an attack speed malus. It gets refreshed each strike so having a 4 intellect is as effective as having a 20 as long as you keep hitting the same target. Plus when it is available there are not that many better choices, but I am not a big fan of the strikes that Rogues get tend towards the stacking auto attack damage type of Rogue.

I value the hit to graze more than the DR. plus there is not enough alcohol to have the full team covered for every fight I have Pellaginna run Zealous Endurance and Kana runs Gallant Focus.

I'm a big fan of high Constitution, Trial of iron would make me even more so. I think of it as damage reduction that works against every attack and each point adds 5%. If you dropped the dex and perception to 10 you could have a 19 con. That extra 35% makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to health and needing to rest. Since a party wipe results in a new game I'd go heavy on the con. A little less dex will not be noticed with dual weapon style and lightning strikes. Monks have the highest base accuracy so an extra +5 from a 15 perception is not needed while 25% more health and endurance will be huge. Your endurance and health are your battery that powers the wounds, a bigger battery is better. The order of the talents looks good. The early regen will start the Wolverine effect before you can get Kana and his regen aura on the team.

The stun on Cladhaliath is the same as all the other weapons with stun. It used to be bad but was changed in a recent patch to a true -30 deflection, deathblow enabling stun. I really like Starcaller flail as well. Its the only fast weapon that has a stun proc on it and it has a damaging spell proc as well. To me the fixed stun proc is way better than the prone proc as the deflection debuff is -30 instead of -10 and prone immune seems more common.

It comes down to your playstyle. If you like casters, then going heavy on casting like your proposed team will do fine. Me. I like durable melee so those are the teams that I build and use. With casters I try and conserve spells and that can have disastrous results on Trial of Iron. Even trash encounters can kill a spell caster who gets caught in melee and that can quickly turn into a rout. With a durable melee team I can always bang out a few scrolls if I need to crank it up to eleven. My team for a Trial of iron run would be: 1.) Player - Cipher melee sword and shield. Mechanic. Can go all out on casting as focus is unlimited 2.) Kana - melee, regen chants, fire lash and paralyze cone 3.) Pellaginna - melee, zealous endurance and healing 4.) Zahua - juggernaut 3.0 damage dealing tank 5.) Sagani - stormcaller, ranged fire support, AoE stunner and disposable cruise missile fox 6.) Aloth, Hiravois or Maneha - change as game goes on

I go with heavy melee parties where the damage is being done via weapon attacks so for me I find the chant that adds the +25% fire lash as being better to keep up instead of Dragon Thrash. A Juggernaut 3.0 Monk with the Chanter fire lash, Lightning Strikes and Turning Wheel does an awful lot of damage. Add in the rest of the team and I prefer the Chanter making them better instead of himself better. It also gives more flexibility in how you set up your chant songs. Full on Dragon Thrash pretty much just wants that chant repeated, overlapped and stacked. The linger on the fire lash lets you tuck in lower level chants for additional effects without dropping the lash and even a slight drop in the case of adding a higher level chant doesn't affect you that badly. I also like a Chanter to have normal dex so that casting is not painfully slow. I don't even bother with the summons anymore. If I have a pile of corpses then BOOM, a pack of enemies in the melee scrum FREEZE and let the team butcher the paralyzed, if I have a bunch of enemies in the scrum but an even larger amount outside range then CHARM and give the enemy a lot more targets to lessen the heat. The greatest thing about all of the Chanter's invocations are that they are all foe only. I usually go without the AoE shown so eliminating all friendly fire is great.

I guess I just never thought a wasted 2-3 seconds at the time of switching was worth a talent slot or two. Maybe if I run out of anything better it'd be worth taking at high levels.

When I run without a Priest and with only one Paladin, I like to give Gallant Focus to Kana. I also give him Aspirant's Mark. The Paladin then runs the defensive aura mainly for the hit to graze which I value over the DR. I'd think an Island Aumaua would do fine without quick switch or the extra weapon slot. You'd have three slots for two guns and a melee set up. Bang, swap, bang, swap to melee and cast some spells. I've never taken the quick switch and never really noticed the time delay, I guess I'm OK with being a little inefficient. Soldier focus is another good one with arbalest, arquebus and greatswords, pikes and war hammers. Since you are just shooting once per weapon you'd want to go for heavy hitters like the soldier or ruffian group has. I'd probably skip penetrating shot as well, you don't need it on the two gun shots. I'd concentrate more on the melee aspect. Use the gun shots for some quick starting focus and then wade in with the melee. If you wanted to be more tanky weapon and shield with sabres or war hammers would be another way to go. With Psyhcovampiric shield you'd be 100+ deflection which would be enough to survive in melee. The two soul whips adding +40% damage would make the one handed weapon damaging enough, even with a 10-12 Might allowing for more dexterity, perception and intellect without dumping anything below 10.

If the Ai was really good they'd have arquebus or arbalest on switch from their main weapon and start of with volley fire at the softest targets that you have. That is the tactic that we use, having that used against us would be tough.

With four man you want durable so avoid any glass cannon builds. Casters are fine just don't make them glass and wearing a dress. I'm using a Juggernaut 3.0, Pellaginna, Kana and Devil and doing well. If I replaced the MC with Zahua and dropped Devil, I could go for a Wizard or Cipher and have them be the mechanics guy. I mainly bring Devil for the banter and the mechanics.

In a world like PoE a good tactic is always "shoot the guy in the dress!" I'm glad that the AI tries to follow that simple plan. In combat do you attack the beefy fighter or do you prioritize the casters? I always try to kill the priests first followed by any other sort of spell caster, after they are down I can slaughter the melee at my leisure. The easiest defense against that is to not build squishy glass cannons. Don't dump con and resolve and wear a dress. Have four frontline guys to intercept the enemy and establish a front, keep the ranged guys in the pocket like a quarterback. That'll work against your typical enemies. Against the few teleporting or extremely mobile enemies you need to be prepared to defend your back line guys. Grab Arcane Veil for your Wizard or cast a big defensive buff.

I don't do the WM, so no Maneha's scale. INT for my monk is always at 10, because i don't do AoE skills and such. I say monk is complex because i give him a strong build but that requires a lot of micromanaging to be effective. I'm not a fan of putting characters in a battle, turn AI on and then wait that the AI wins the battle in my place. When you say you don't do AoE with your monk what exactly are you not doing? I mean you are using Torment;s Reach, the AoE cone of death right? I agree that base 10 intellect is enough, 14 with food and items is plenty. The AI does a good job of spamming Torment's Reach so that you don't have to babysit so much. it gets jammed up sometimes with Swift Strikes. Force of Anguish and Flagellant's Path does require micro but that is pretty easy. It helps a bunch that Monks are so sturdy and that the micro required involves dishing out more damage or CC and not micro to keep a squishy alive like a Rogue. With me and my Monk I just need to micro where he starts the fight and then make sure Swift Strikes get active. From then on the AI does a fine job banging out Torment's. I just need to identify any targets that need t be prone for the rest of their life, or at least for the next ten+ seconds, or if there is a nice target for a big Flagellant's Path.

The flail Starcaller is one of the best weapons in game and gets little fanfare. it is available as soon as you get to Twin Elms, has a spell strike on crit, has fast attack and stuns on crit. It is much easier to keep an enemy chain stunned when you swing faster, even grazes on the stun can last long enough to refresh the stun. The extra graze to hit adds approximately 5% damage and adds more the worse your chance to hit is (relatively anyway). Starcaller is my go to weapon for a Rogue. With Barbarians the graze>hit helps with their low accuracy and there are several good ones available early in the game. Plus they look cool especially when dual wielded.

A ten intellect base works fine. An item and some casserole gets it to 14 which is plenty. A 3 intellect Paladin is a real fringe build, sure you can make it work but most of the really great abilities of the Paladin get ruined.

I'd like PoE2 to take the big leap and drop all Vancian casters. There is just no way to balance them when you can rest as you want. If you limit rest too much you force people to rest every chance they get. If you don't limit rest people can use every spell every fight and trivialize everything. It does not add strategic resource management it merely checks to see what level of drudgery you are willing to endure in order to have limitless power. PoE was limited by being beholden to Backers who wanted Baldurs Gate and god mode Gandalph. The next game does not have to follow the same balance trap as all games with Vancian casters have. Chanters and Ciphers use unique resources based on time and damage dealt with the time aspect of Chanters further affected by the benefit received from the chants being used, low level chants getting faster phrases. Both of these can be balanced for encounters easily. If Ciphers are getting too much or too little focus that can be adjusted with a tweak of a few integers. Maybe have Wizards (or whatever they will be called) generate something like focus which fuels their spells by casting spells or by casting combinations of spells. cast grease and then set it ablaze, cast water and then freeze it into ice, cast water and then electrify it. Druids could generate focus by shapeshifting. The more damage they do the more in tune with nature they are and the more they can unleash. I'm not sure, but then I'm not a game designer. Turn JE Sawyer loose on this without having his hands tied behind his back with needing Vancian casters to satisfy backers and we'll all be impressed. He did a great job with Monks, Ciphers and Chanters, lets give him a chance with replacing the Vancian casters.

For a first run, or any run for that matter, I would not dump stats below 10, especially on PotD. The vulnerability outweighs whatever small advantage you think you are getting. Two handed swords can be great with Paladins, Barbarians, Fighters, Rogues, Rangers and Monks. Don't feel constrained to being a Fighter if you want to frontline melee. Most are based around using Tidefall, one of the best weapons in the game. Here are a few quick archetypes: 1.) Paladin - wielding Tidefall, using arquebus for Flames of Devotion alpha strike, uses the summoned flame sword. 2.) Barbarian - wielding Tidefall wades into battle with Carnage damaging everything while healing yourself. Can swap to a pike like tall grass when you need to stay out of the fray. With Blood Thirst you will have zero recovery after every kill. 3.) Fighter - quite tanky with the defensive buffs. I find these rather boring though. 4.) Rogues - Go with St Rumbaldt for the prone on crit. Most people you hit will go prone and then you hit them harder with deathblows. 5.) Rangers - With Tidefall you apply a DoT to your target, your pet gets a +50% damage against targets with DoTs, both of you get large bonuses to attacking the same target, you even get to stun with every hit against the same target. A really strong and unique approach. 6.) Monks - with Tidefall you have Force of Anguish for a ten+ second prone at the cost of two wounds, take turning wheel for another +5% burn lash per wound. All in for lashes you'll have +25% DoT (Tidefall), +25% weapon enchant, +25% Lightning Strikes, +50% Turning Wheel and +25% from your Chanter buddy. PoE allows for a great deal of flexibility in builds.

Welcome to the Dark Side

The Boreal Dwarf bonus works against some of the most common enemies you encounter. Its good for skuldr, ogres, xaurips, fish guys, mushrooms, tree druid things, swamp hulk things and a few more. Lots of the challenging fights you encounter involve these types of enemies and a +15 accuracy is huge. It is especially helpful early game before you have gear and buffs. They are my default choice for a race for pretty much any class. I go with island Aumaua when I need another weapon switch.