KDubya

After the patch I get both sets of wrecked swords. I use the option for making a custom history and all you need is to select the 'reforged the blade of the endless paths' choice. I've not used the pre-set histories so I don't know what is in them. Making a custom is very easy and can recreate your old PoE saves or allow you to try different scenarios in DeadFire.

Bleak Walker/Evoker. The gameplay was all about buffing up, blowing a missile load, and cleaning up with FoD. Wizard missile damage is now crap. My PL got artificially reduced by nerfs to items. Evoker makes little sense for the build now, it's actually hindering instead. FoD damage and Bleak Walker bonus were also lowered. Nerfs to Wizard defensive spells and Paladin disposition passive were actually very major. This, coupled with buffed monster stats, resulted in the character being very squishy. A durable character with great damage turned into a glass toothpick. Were you going solo PotD? The loss of a few, what like two or maybe three, powerlevels would have reduced damage of spells some but it'd still work. Also a few percentage reduction in damage adders just means one or two additional swings, if that.. A group of five would spend a little more time in combat but high level is pretty much a roflstomp anyway. It seems like the whole problem is that instead of one cast of a spell, and a few FoD it went to two or maybe even three casts of a spell, a few FoD and a few autoattacks with maybe a heal or two needed to tank the damage. Just doesn't seem like a hill worth dying on.

Just because there was some Kickstarter money does not in any way mean that there were no financial pressures to release and get the influx of sales money into the company. A company has payroll, office rent, insurance and all the other operating expenses that are not funded by the Kickstarter funds. Kickstarter seems more like a sort of marketing scheme rather than a method of bankrolling game development. The game was perfectly playable at release so what is the reason to have held off release for some balance patch? I agree that the gameplay is much better now than at release but its pretty standard for games to improve dramatically post-launch, I just perused through my Steam and GoG libraries and I don't see a single game that was released and never updated or changed after launch.

Melee will generate focus faster than ranged and any of the martial classes paired with Cipher will generate more focus faster than a pure Cipher. Unless you really want the tier 8 and 9 powers I'd multi. Even a ranged guy will do better paired with Rogue or Ranger rather than go pure Cipher. A Shattered Pillar mixed with Cipher still works good, just skip Soul Blade, go either Beguiler or Ascendent. Body Attunement still gets you +2 armor and debuffs them -2 armor so its not trash, the +5/-5 was way too strong.

Without a re-start you can't change stats, but if it was me I'd have gone with this: Might 10 or 13 - fists will top out at +50% damage add in addition to the +20% from Draining Whip so adding lots of Might has diminishing returns. Increase more if you will use a lot of damaging powers as this is the only way to increase damage. Con 10 Dex 15 - faster is better and it helps with getting spells out Per 18 or 15 - accuracy is very important and it helps in lots of encounters, dialogues and in finding trap/hidden objects. Int 15 - better durations Res 10 - you could dump some if you are inclined and just rely on your Clarity of agony ability to clear afflictions And changed to Ascendent or Beguiler instead of Soul Blade. Soul Annihilation just doesn't do enough to justify spending the focus. Back in the Beta Soul Annihilation was the bomb but its been hammered pretty hard in recent balance reviews. Beguiler can get around the sneak attack requirement by casting Phantom Foes at the start which also gets you +10 to hit everything which is very useful. Ascendent is great if you will blast out a bunch of powers. Also I'd start with Whispers of Treason and Swift Strikes To salvage what you have without a re-start: drop Dance of Death - its good if you never/rarely get hit, such as a Trickster, Wizard or Priest of Wael with mirrored image and such. Without some massive deflection boost its better to save the Mortifications for Swift Flurry and Flagellant's Path drop Psychic Backlash - not worth the point As a multiclass abilities are scarce so I'd plan on just a few spammable Monk powers like Force/Efficient Anguish or Torment's Reach. Hard to fit the points to take both. You will want Thunderous Blows and Clarity of Agony, Skyward Kick at level 19 or 20 is a very nice spammer for a multiclass but it means foregoing the twins or heartbeat thumping which are both great I find that unless you have some armor enhancing ability like Goldpact Paladin heavy armor is just not worth it. Enemies will still hit you for full damage most everytime so better to be faster in light armor with some nice bonuses and just try to avoid getting overpenetrated. Shields drop your accuracy and greatly reduce your attack speed while adding a really small amount of deflection. Have Eder tank, he's good at it and Fighters have a lot of abilities to make it better. Get Athletics up to 10 or more. Second Wind is a life saver and there is even a belt that gets you another use of Second Wind. Get more healing. I have Xoti as a pure priest and she starts every fight standing behind Eder and my Monk with a Consecrated Ground heal over time as soon as I can get it . At higher levels its not as bad but focus firing can drop anyone pretty fast. Use your charms and dominates early and often. A Whispers of Treason from stealth can make your victim the recipient of all those gunshots instead of you. A Cipher/Shattered Pillar is on my list of builds to try.

In my saves with Xoti as a multiclass Monk/Priest her fist damage was 18-24 at level five and at level nine. This is what +20% from Transcendent Suffering gets you. I'm not sure if its lower at level four or higher at level 10 as I don't have a save at that level and don't care enough to level up a hireling and take notes A greatsword has bad base penetration at 6 with Fists being 7. So its the worst weapon for comparing penetration to. Also a greatsword has an average base damage of 21 which is 27% higher than what the base damage of a fist is. The highest Transcendent Suffering bonus that I've seen is 80% with a Nature Godlike under Wellspring of Life, Prestige and gave the souls to Woedica. I suppose a near dead Death godlike could get some more but …. Anyway The maxed out Monk at max level gets to 29.7 average damage and a Legendary Great Sword gets to 33.6 average damage, which is 13% higher for the sword and the sword gets who knows what as the magical abilities imbued. The fist is ahead at 13 pen vs 10 but the Greatsword does have dual damage types which makes it about equal. So in summary fists are good but Great Swords do more damage both at level one and at max level. P.S. I discovered that the extra powerlevel from Nature Godlike no longer increases Transcendent Suffering so no reason to be a Nature Godlike Monk anymore. Not sure if this is from the change to +1 from +2 or if the progression of Transcendent Suffering has been tweaked. I do remember seeing +95% damage before the last patch instead of +80% EDIT - With a multiclass Transcendent Suffering can get to the next level at level 19 with a Nature Godlike with Wellspring, +65% So Nature Godlike still might be beneficial for a multiclass Monk or a single class who doesn't take Prestige at 19 or 20.

In your comparison you have fists that have the level bonuses for Transcendent Suffering which adds +2 pen and +35% damage to mundane plain clubs, Great Swords and Estocs. Grab some Fine or Exceptional weapons and its a lot closer. Also you are looking at Xoti's output just after she achieved one of the milestone level ups that increased her Transcendent Suffering; her damage output will be the same for the next four levels or so. Fists do base damage that is 16.5 average compared to a slow one hander like a battle axe at 16.0 average damage. They do have the speed of a fast speed dagger so its 16.5 at 3.0 second recovery compared to a battle axe 16.0 at 4.0 second recovery. Are fists good? yes Are fists comparable to weapons? yes Are fists better than the special abilities that soul bound and fully enchanted legendaries get? no If you make fists the same as plain clubs no one would ever use them. Also this is a game with dragons, zombies, gods and wizards. Having monks being able to punch through armor is low on the scale of the unrealistic

When I had Aloth take over the Leaden Key he got the headress, when I had Aloth destroy the Leaden Key he got the sceptre. Both are nice but I prefer the headress and story wise I like Aloth as the new Thaos I gave all the souls to Woedica in my game because I thought Thaos had the right idea and got +1 power level in game I think. My PoE runs were all on a different computer so I had to use the create a backstory option and answer how I did my quests. Is there a list somewhere that shows what happens in game based on your choices?

The upgraded Flagellant's Path that causes knock up - I think its Sky Kick or something - is really fun and useful. It also generates wounds during the attack for a Shattered Pillar. The tier nine Whisper - teleporting full attack Monk ability for five wounds is really good and is the best reason to go with a single class Monk and especially a Shattered Pillar. You can use the upgraded Flagellant Path at start, gain five wounds during the zip across the screen and then hit the Whispers and hit five things with a full attack. All it costs is two Mortification and you can do it four or five times in a row. Before the patch you'd gain wounds from using Whisper itself which was way too powerful and broken.

What do you call 'level scaling' not working at all? Or how about a Fighter's 'Charge' ability coupled with a Chanter's ' have free unlimited class resources' invocation? The game was entirely playable and I finished it and enjoyed myself but that doesn't mean that the balance was not broken and needed to be fixed as it now has been.

To get past the potential level differences of 4 or 8 you'd need to revamp what levels get you. Make the boost from gaining a level to half of what it currently is as a good start and then tune as needed. The downfall of PoE and DeadFire is that the best way to overcome any challenging fight is to come back with another level under you belt. Getting most of your accuracy, defense and health from leveling is just bad and trivialized your actual build.

The game at release was broken, entirely too easy on PotD with some abiliities way over tuned. Now PotD is challenging, builds are better balanced and there are actual choices to make regarding what to pick and use for abilities. If you still want that feeling of 'god mode Gandolph' just drop the difficulty, no one will know

My Wizard Slayer/ Shattered Pillar is like level nine now. Observations: magic disruption is nice against casters but wish it stopped all special abilities if it did then the subclass would be worth the malus. I went two hander but dual wield is just so much better for damage, speed, recovery and fists. It'd help getting multiple magic disruptions up as well. No scrolls is no big deal No potions is a problem with healing as you only have Second Wind. The 25% chance to resist friendly spells is a real pain in the ass. When you resist a heal or sanctuary you end up dead Normal Monk might be better as the deflection is low, much lower when raged and PotD enemies have really high accuracy so you get hit often and their defenses are high enough that reliably hitting is difficult. Factor in all your monk wound burners target Fortitude and there is a lot of whiffing. Conclusions Once I get level 16 and get Brute Force (targets Fortitude with all attacks) and an upgraded Morningstar Willbreaker with the modal for -25 Fortitude body blows it should consistently have good accuracy and good crits which will cause weaken from Enervating Blows to further get more fortitude crits. Its a long time to get to level 16. Mage Slayer seems to be an awful lot of effort to try and get around its malus with little payoff. Does make for a much harder game. Will have to see if a few more levels and better gear makes the concept of body blow modal plus spamming fortitude based Torment's Reach or Skyward kick works out.

I've used him as a Witch in both games I've had, second game at like level eight or so. First game was at release so everything was a roflstomp on PotD. Current game is 1.1 so enemies are a lot tougher. Gave him the Woedica club and he dual wields it and whatever. I use the club modal to reduce will and then charm/dominate that guy which gets my 33% chance to hit up to 50% or so which helps a lot. A ranged Serafen would suffer a lot of accuracy problems on PotD and a corresponding focus problem. Melee Serafan seems better and Barbarian helps with the melee a bunch. To me pure Cipher looks good with Ascendent but even then I'm thinking mixed with a martial class would be better. You miss the high end powers but I skip the level VII one already and I get enough use from the lower level charm/dominates, borrowed instinct and the nice level VI disintegrate and the AoE raw damage prone one. Since Serafan can't take Ascendent I like the barbarian mix better.

First game (PotD) I had Xoti as a single class Priest, second game went with monk multiclass. I think she was better as the pure priest. Mainly for the faster access to the good spells at PL 3, especially the one with the big accuracy buff that I can't recall the name of. Early game potD is tough and its mainly due to missing too much. A spell that changes that is huge. Plus I keep her with her lantern and scythe which are pretty bad weapons as a monk since fists are so much better. A true powergamer would use a hired single class priest until level 11 or so and then replace with a multiclass. No way to attempt to balance this. For Monks I find going pure class to be the better choice due to faster and more plentiful ability picks. Plus the level IX whispers attack is really good, plus the upgrade to Flagellent's Path. All game you will hit harder with your fists and have +4 accuracy and +1 penetration with power level IX getting you another +4 accuracy and +1 penetration with Prestige. Early game you get Thunderous Blows for +2 penetration and +5 might when it will really make a difference. Monks do well in a multi where you can spend most of your picks in the Monk side. So classes like Rogue (mainly want the sneak attack, deep wounds, and one or two strike abilities), Cipher (mainly want the soul whip, extra weapon penetration, borrowed instinct and the charms while giving the Cipher side the best focus generating weapons - monk fists), Ranger (if you want a pet) or Wizard (defensive buffs and get offensive spells from free Grimoires) I find the system pretty well balanced considering the hundreds of possible multiclasses. I do think a level XIII ability that gives two 'Empower' per encounter instead of one additional 'Empower' before rest would be much better.

When I tavern fight club two party members the Wizard Slayer's spell deisruption shows as 25% per hit and it stacks, so I hit my guy three times and it has -75% spell disruption. You can't tell on enemies as you can't mouseover their stats. After four hits its 100% spell disruption. I don't recall ever seeing a lash on carnage. I do remember using the pet that adds +15% AoE damage and hoping it'd add to the 33% of Carnage but it multiplies instead so a 27 damage hit gets 9 carnage and the pet makes it 10.5 damage not the 13 i was hoping for.

The fundamental problem is the linear aspect of gaining levels and equipment upgrades, especially how they affect accuracy. Accuracy controls everything and the biggest contributor is your level. If you can't hit you can't do anything. They need to either flatten out the bonuses gained at higher level and the higher grade of equipment or completely remove the bonuses from leveling. The game is definitely better than it was on release but the basic gameplay system of accuracy gained primarily from levels still trivializes the game. I like the idea floated by Takkik of making an entire level of a dungeon or map classify as one encounter, that'd be great. Probably would need to add in some spells per level but that'd be good anyway. Unfortunately they will not be changing the entire level up system and the way accuracy is tied to it so its going to be either struggle hitting up-leveled enemies or design your squad around accuracy buffs and enemy debuffs that circumvent the disparity in defenses.

The problem with Corpse Eater in my opinion is the time required to eat, its like 3 sec with 4 sec recovery. To pay off you'd need to eat 2+ times in a fight just to get back the extra cost for your basic power usage. Knock that time down to the equivalent of a weapon swing and it becomes a tactical choice. The Mage Slayer is a lot better than people are giving it credit for. I'm rolling with a Mage Slayer/ Shattered Pillar morning star user and he'd doing well on PotD. At least for Monks the mage Slayer works better than a Berserker as the main benefit of better penetration is available via Thunderous Blows and the better constitution buff is also available from Savage Defiance. So with that in mind the berserker just brings downsides via self damage, a blocked health bar, and confusion (which can be blocked at later levels but is a real pain in the early game and takes an action to fix and possibly an ability pick) The Mage Disruption and Spell Resistance are pretty useful. No potions or scrolls just means you need to invest in Athletics. EDIT - on topic of Spirit vs Blood I always get Spirit. The second level upgrade with stagger on hit is a lot better than some minor raw damage bleed. I'm not sure how long the blood tier three upgrade extends Frenzy but the Spirit Tornado looks cool and terrifies everyone which is also very cool. Also why is the Barbarian's replenish-able rage on kill both a 50/50 chance and gated behind power level eight while the paladin gets automatic zeal on kill at power level seven?

Because securing this boat is so simple... anyone could do it... if they have a Watcher, marked by Berath, to get into the Hanging Sepulcher, confront an Ancient Guardian, get an Artifact weapon, learn how to operate it, and defeat a Ship full of Ancient undead that have been pillaging the seas. Sure, that's all you have to do. And then you have to know where to sail it, either through your soul / god statue problem, or your collection of Native artifacts that you built as a map... Yeah. Easy. Although I was annoyed at how easily everyone else just followed me, despite me leaving on my own, and not being part of a faction, my Pirate buddies still managed to survive the storm, and find the place with no help from me. I don't think you need to be a Watcher marked by Berath, can't you use a rope to get to that outlook and then enter the catacomb?

Monks cause Weakened on a crit with Enfeebled Strikes or something like that. Power level five I think. Doesn't cost wounds or mortifications just need a crit and its not a chance either.

I don't have the beta patch but you probably can generate two or three wounds per auto attack so you'll just have to alternate abilities and auto attacks with a Shattered Pillar. They still look like the best monk to me, just not 'Chuck Norris' level of godliness anymore.

For weapons you could use Modwyr in your off hand to deal with the Intellect affliction and use fist in the other. Unless it changed in the patch, fists hit harder than any one handed weapon and hit as fast as the fast weapons like daggers.

I don't think that the potential +10 Intellect from duality needs a nerf. Abilities are hard capped at 35 you have to actually gain 10 wounds to get this you have to not spend any wounds to maintain the +10 I'm pretty sure that wounds have a duration and wear off as time goes by Concerning the Shattered Pillar 'no more perpetual motion machine' wound generation from self funding Monk abilities; I'd say it was needed. Being able to gain wounds from Torments to do more Torments forever was broken. It looks like the game is moving in the right direction towards something that can be challenging.

Once your cannoneers get some experience firing from inside or outside your optimal range is not too bad. The key is to hold position after jibing. I had a Junk with one wormtongue and four double bronzers per side and it sank things in two or three volleys. The time to jibe and hold matched the reload time so nothing was wasted. Much easier than a ship battle when you are low level. Five guys shooting my Monk would drop him at the start until I got to 10+ or so.

If you will play through more than once I'd get it. Just enjoy the story, banter, and the multitude of multiclass possibilities. Come back later for more challenging tactical combat.