Kaylon

I think the last boss has something like 134 melee accuracy and 15 melee penetration on potd. You need 204 deflection to avoid all hits, 184 deflection to be hit only by grazes and 134 deflection to avoid criticals. Based on that here are my potd tiers at lv20 (just for melee): - 100+ deflection and 12+ melee AR - light tank - 134+ deflection & 8+ melee AR - tank - 134+ deflection & 16+ melee AR - master tank - 184+ deflection & 8+ melee AR - superman - 184+ deflection & 16+ melee AR - walking fortress - 204+ deflection - god

There's another pet - Abraham in Neketaka (Queen's Berth) - reduces armor recovery and heals on kill.

Under frenzy it's impossible to control your health and stay bloodied using heals and damage reduction. Just pump int and alchemy to have long lasting potions of Last Stand and don't bother with healing/defenses/armor anymore. Get instead items which proc on crit or increases damage/speed.

Marauder (Berserker/Streetfighter) Your class will be hard to play even in normal and the only way to make it work at melee is by using potions of Final Stand (with high alchemy and intellect) or Barring Death's Door from a priest. So until you reach Neketaka where you can find the ingredients for your potion my advice is to grab a hunting bow and use Frenzy until you become bloodied.

Then your MC isn't tanky enough. You need chain mail, the helmet with the dmg reduction buff, the necklace from the well, medium shield+modal, armor potion, healing potions and the 50% heal buff. Hylea's food helps too or captain's banquet. If you have the bonus merchant you can add the +2con belt and the amulet of greater health. After that you go in stealth behind the mage (before they become hostile). At the beginning of the fight you drink the potion and kill the mage first. If you have enough Int then the buff from the helmet will be active almost all the time.

All the fights on the first island can be done solo on potd with the right build/strategy - some builds need consumables, some don't. What class do you play?

Of course there's a difference, but it's insignificant - without checking their stats or the logs you wouldn't be able to say who has the boon. It's like when you go to the grocery and buy something labeled "bio" - you pay more, you can't tell the difference, but you hope it will make a difference in the long run... If you don't understand the math, don't pretend to. Exactly, keep that in mind next time you post...

Of course there's a difference, but it's insignificant - without checking their stats or the logs you wouldn't be able to say who has the boon. It's like when you go to the grocery and buy something labeled "bio" - you pay more, you can't tell the difference, but you hope it will make a difference in the long run...

No, the difference is insignificant if you consider also all the other bonuses at your disposal... Also if you're using a bad spread for your barbarian it's obvious you'll see a bigger difference with more points. Use instead 13 13 13 18 18 3 for the first one and I can guarantee you can't tell the difference

There are easier ways to get the 18points: - repair ship - 2p - reach Neketaka - 1p - recruit all companions - 2p - maximize relationship with a companion - 2p (pray with Xoti at an altar repeatedly) - minimize relationship with a companion - 2p (pray with Maia/Pallegina at an altar repeatedly) - assign a memeber to all ship slots - 2p - attach first ship upgrade - 2p - attach all upgrades to a ship - 2p - name your first island - 2p (you have just to enter/exit the dungeon on the nameless island) - survive attack from crew - 2p (remove food/water from ship and sail until there's a mutiny) - craft 5 potions - 1p - craft 3 scrolls - 2p - craft 5 bombs - 1p - place 5 traps - 1p - create adventurer - 1p

I always use the boons (stats, skills and merchant) for a few reasons: for me the MC deserves to be a little more special as the herald of Berath I also consider them as a compensation for all the bonuses lost from PoE1 I like to play with all the content available in the game (including pre-order bonuses, etc) I play only solo on potd and I don't like to feel penalized for that during conversations/interactions

When all it matters is life or death - cheese, cheap tricks are considered winning strategies/skills. A guy using a cheap tactic isn't necessarily unskilled, he's just using the most effective strategy.

Sorry, but what hidden power level bonus for melee classes you're talking about?

Keep in mind that the penetration bonus works only from stealth/invisibility...

It gives exactly the same bonus as Armored Grace talent.

You can find in shops everything but adra bans, sapphires and rubies.

Guess what? The last patch didn't nerfed just one item, it nerfed most items while they weren't even OP... So your example and justifications are just bad... In fact I would say that most items/abilities are now completely irrelevant because their effect is just a joke. Do you even ask yourself why your PoE2 character has weaker abilities/items than his PoE1 version? Now there are just a handful of core abilities used to differentiate the classes, while the rest is just fluff. Also I'm surprised you find OP when a fighter can 1 shot an enemy (and why everyone picks melle as examples?), while a mage who tanks like a fighter and can 1 shot all enemies at once is just fine... Why nobody calls for nerfs for casters defenses/damage? Who needs weapons now? You pick the melee class with the best suvivability, you combine it with a caster and you still have a better character than any melee class/weapon combo you had before the patch. People will start to talk now about how melee A/caster is so powerful and then a guy like you will come saying that it's obvious the melee A should be nerfed because it's simpler than to change all the casters. How do you like my example?

Hylea gives an unique food with 3 charges (start of the game), Berath gives an item with 3 charges (start of the game), Galawain weakens the dragons (they have a strong debuff called Galawain's Favor), Woedica is supposed to give +1 PL (however the conditions to activate it are unknown). Rymrgrand's and Wael's rewards are unknown.

I don't see how this build can survive encounters vs multiple ranged rogues. The hard encounters from the first island (gorecci, wyrm,even boars) should be skipped, I suppose. PS. I was expecting to see one of your secret builds...

Zahua's bonus works. The increase doesn't appear on buff's description but, when used, the buff duration is correctly increased.

I hope your soloing strategy doesn't involve sparkcrackers and barrels because these are cheesy too...

Well, the fine armors you get were chosen carefully and aren't better than the unenchanted mail you get normally. 99% of the enemies on the first island do slash/thrust damage while the fine brigandine has only 6 pierce DR and the fine breastplate has 6 slash AR < 7slash/pierce AR of the mail.

With high armor & regen/healing you're basically unkillable. After that it's just a matter to find the best ways to deal damage.

Not really, because scrolls can't be empowered...

Do you know a merchant who sells rubies? PS. I think we should make a list with limited resources locations.