Raven Darkholme

Yeah Monk needs nerf. ;P

@eubatham I can't be bothered to read every single post, but I assume the last posts are up to date/adjusted, so why do I still read things like: "If I want a full tank, Fighter or a Monk are definitely better options than a Paladin" " RIP Paladins. Rest in Peace. This means that a Fighter vs. a Paladin, as far as defense goes, looks like this: Fighter: 15 Deflection, 10 of everything else and 35 deflection with 30 of everything else when Vigorous Defender is active Paladin: 15 Deflection, 26 of everything else once both positive dispositions are maxed at 4 and Deep Faith is taken. (at the start of the game the paladin should have around 15 of the other defenses if just deep faith is taken) It's a difference, but it just doesn't feel as though it's near enough to matter" ? How do people still compare the fighter with no buffs with the paladin and his group buffs? The only real good thing about fighters is, they engage more enemies, but against shadows and beetles that doesn't seem to matter and against most other enemies you don't need the tank to engage the melees as they will attack him anyway. Oh and I forgot how the Outworn buckler gives defense to your whole party that is also a passive buff.

Just wanted to share my opinion as to party combat in PoE. I think that especially the feature of endurance, makes it easier to act with a party, then if you had only health like in BG. For me personally it was always a big turnoff to lose squishy party members in an otherwise easy fight. As it is, the only problem with PoE is the overall difficulty being very low. (on PotD) But I hope modders will rise to the challenge and make it more difficult. Since party members don't die to easy there should be more magic or ranged attackers who target those. There is already enough (too many) melees who try to engage the rest of the group, but there definitely should be more far away attackers. Also I'm always disappointed when facing enemy ciphers, which are very lackluster in their use of abilities. Better AI would elp a lot. But over all a great game, especially well made for begginners in the genre, but also enjoyable for those who have played similar games before.

I like the build diversity even though the race diversity is quite bad. I like how it's really fun to have a party with 6 different characters, while in BG I always ended up getting frustrated with parties and soloing, though that is also due to the endurance mechanic in PoE.

I didn't get much help from those videos either, but I wouldn't claim the dude doesn't know what he's saying.

Cipher, Monk and Rogue are clearly the best damagers ingame, with the monk also being able to tank. Question I've been asking myself about the monk if he isn't just a little broken. But the monk never will be able to tank like the paladin and the fighter who is best tank doesn't have any viable support. Are people complaining about palas support even looking at the Zealous focus, LoH, Exhortations and even and even FoD combined with for example Shielding Touch? (The latter being the worst but still not bad.)

Having finally created a PC paladin I must agree with what people repeatedly stated here, it makes a HUGE difference, especially if you custom create the rest of your party anyway. The defensive bonuses you get are enormous and if it weren't for the lack of engaging more enemies, the paladin would be the best tank period. Since you also get the auras the paladin is really good. I now have a group which has no fighter tank whatsoever and makes up for it by having a lot of melees: Tanks Paladin PC + Chanter, Off-tank Monk, melee rogue also I have a ranger with a wolf, the wolf hangs back for a few seconds to see if melee enemies make it through the 4 melees, if yes he engages those, if not he flanks fools to help the rogue. I also have a cipher, no priest I play moon godlike so healing is unnecessary. ;P Oh and kind of OT, but a party in PotD makes the difficulty totally trivial, whens SCS? I already soloed Act 1 and 2 with Cipher and Monk, but having a party is less tedious though a tad bit too easy.

If you have trouble in the beginning it's best to pick a moon godlike for a lot of healing. Chanter or monk are very good, if you go monk like I did you NEED the figurine to complete the temple. Just sneak through the room with oozes and phantom, summon your animat in a way, that he mainly holds off the phantom and you can kill most oozes. After that it should be easy to pick up the items and sneak out undetected by the phantom. You can get level 5 before Caed Nua.

It's melee range triggered by melee only afaict. It only works in between your attacks but that doesn't matter if you are surrounded and get hit plenty you will retal i ate plenty.

I would say monk, but I haven't played him higher than level 8 yet. It's solo Potd though and especially his high accuracy makes the game look easy.

Hm, still not sure whether it's worth it, 5% seems so low...

Thank you.

With the monkability turning wheel: Does it affect damage done by retaliate and rooting pain, too?

Monk is the best off tank ingame though.

If you wanna get hit, don't max reflection, but CO and take a moon godlike for heal.

In the southwest corner of the sporeling cave is a narrow point, if you stand in it, when attacked by sporelings only one of them. Engages you at a time. My monk killed them on Potd.

In a group the accuracy bonus of the pala is nice, which later also gives better crit chance. As stand alone char he really sucks.

The Monk is really awesome early game... Since PotD didn't challenge me enough with a full custom party anymore I started two solo attempts. First one with a cipher didn't go so well, due to lack of accuracy (got to level 4 and sadly didn't go for the figurine by not selling the preorder item.). Yesterday I did a monk and absolutely teared through the beginning of the game. I got Level 5 before I went to Caed Nua, by doing ALL quests. (Only killed Raedrics Cousin though, but I didn't even try Radric himself.) I had 4k gold on me, when I went to Caed, had 4 scrolls of fan, only burned 3 of them on the second attempt, drinking Eldritch aim and having maxed out might helps... Maerwald was easy I didn't even pull any enemies to him, just summoned my summon at start of combat, let him attack the summons of Maerwald and went right outside of the room. Summon killed one blight, the other two were at 2 stars endurance, when my monk came into the room. Maerwald spent most of his strong attacks on my summon, so I killed his two remaining blights while only drinking one health potion (I'm Moon godlike...). Gonna go to Defiance today and try to get the retribution shield, I think the Sanguine armor will not be possible right away. That means no more wielding of Gauns in offhand though, bye bye high accuracy.