Raven Darkholme

I did it solo very recently, getting close is not a problem with the proper equip and build. Why is it useless vs Alpine? Worked just fine for me. https://youtu.be/nqYMcjk4kNg?t=2120

Just get a cipher with psychic backlash and watch the permastunned dragon while you do whatever you want.

I don't really get the link, I don't see a build there, just somebody posted he did Ultimate with chanter? (The easiest class to do it) As for attributes resolve and dexterity are not that great on a chanter, but honestly as long as you max might and intelligence the rest is up to personal preference.

Self healing in Con would be fine balance wise, but it might be quite confusing to players new to this genre of games to have healing and self healing separate. I keep hearing how people are confused by 4 different defence types, idk if it puts anyone off of playing the game in the end, but it totally might happen.

Keep in mind customized parties lack 1 level towards the main char until max level compared to story companions who are almost at the same xp as your main. Having a precious ability a lot earlier can be much more impactful than having customized stats. (Ofc only custom parties allow for duplicate chars outside of the pc)

Well the Bleak Walker in WM2 isn't interested in Kern's suddedn regrets for hiring him. He just wants to keep on killing the family without financial motivation.

If you have a party of at least 3, you don't need consumables on PotD, heck even solo you don't need them for every fight. Paladin with high defenses, Cipher with mindweb + Chanter with Dragon slashed. Mix with any other party members for complete domination.

Well as a huge micromanager I probably won't use the customisable AI to anywhere near the extent some people will, but definitely for things like this and keeping Swift Strikes up it'll be great. Yeah the main prob of Monk AI in PoE1 was them not using all wounds frequently, but certain passives per wound made it feel less wasted. Damagewise you'll never compete with micro monk, but spamming one abbility over and over (hotkey is your friend) is still quite afk.

Hm, I haven't tried this with priest, it doesn't really sound easy but should be doable. I've never gotten a solo priest further than Act 2 cuz I kinda hate priests, but they do have an op arsenal of spells once they get a couple of levels, but level 1 is a totally different story they might actually be worse than rogues.

With good enough Wound generation (perhaps Shattered Pillar for a Long Pain build) and the new customisable AI it should be possible to keep the Long Pain up nearly constantly with very little input from the player. Who doesn't like afk monks. :D

Nearly twice the attack speed doesn't make up for less than half damage. On paper it might be better but in practice mediocre DR screws Unforgiven, let alone higher DR foes which make it completely worthless.

No I never knew that, there's no other area that let you explore a foreground entrance so that comes as a complete surprise (and AFAIK, it can't be explored when you leave it for the first time; I'm pretty sure personally I have tried - leading you to believe that would be the standard for the rest of the game). I'll always thank you personally for the tip, but it's hard not to feel a little (more than a little as a solo gameplayer) ticked off for Obsidian incorporating what I would say is ridiculously obtuse gameplay. I'll sit here chewing on my sour grapes, at experience lost on countless playthroughs. I feel ya, the only reason I know this is because of Wodjee's Ultimate Run, I've done countless chars before that who didn't get the xp.

I hope since this game is still beta you guys don't mind a little OT in this thread. (If you do I don't mind if my post get's removed) The Wizard Slayer being bad in Baldur's Gate is more a meme than an actual fact. Coincidentally not too long ago I was challenged to do the Twisted Rune fight with Ascension and SCS mod installed on Insane difficulty. A level 40 wizard slayer with good equip demolishes all spellcasters and even those nasty SCS beholders not because of his spell disruption which is pretty ****ty in most cases indeed, but because of his insane magic resistance, coupled with some items it is easy to reach 100%. Inquisitors Dispel on the other hand is quite useless solo when you play SCS, since many enemies have Spell Immunities and you have to wait for them to wear off all the same. Ofc this is different in the vanilla game, but let's be real if a WS is very good with super hard mods installed he isn't worse when those mods are missing, the Inqui is just a little better, even tho he might still struggle more with beholders than the WS.

Hm, I kinda forgot about fighters, Devoted sounds really cool.

You guys know you can go back in for the traps and xp after you leveled up outside, right? Also yeah, chanter and 5x phantom's per exploit makes shortest work of caravan, cipher + antipathetic is almost as fast. Monk + Fighter shouldn't really have a problem, I bet if the fighter saves his full attacks for Odema he will "oneshot" him with those.

Nice, big shame about the nerfed duration, but still sounds like a lot of fun, alternatively Blights and cipher, I just want my cipher to be viable without relying on nerfed powers. :D

The Long Pain still has the same insane base damage as in PoE1? Does it stack with Soul Whip if mced with cipher?

So this post had me thinking for quite a while, since I sold my Unforgiven when I got Bittercut on my solo PotD cipher and a) couldn't remember where I sold it b) didn't play my cipher for over a month due to playing Path of Exile. Today i finally urged myself to search all merchants for my Unforgiven and respecced into a build with Scion of Flame. I was mighty diasappointed in Unforgiven. The 10% damage lash is useless even with a 32 Might cipher it only ever procs on lucky crits (and by that I mean if your crit has low damage it will not even proc on crit, given your target has a meager and super common DR of 12) since it doesn't roll vs DR together with the regular lash, but instead rolls separately. Even if it procs most of the time you won't get much more than 1 damage of it. An average hit with Unforgiven does 20ish damage an average GRAZE with Bittercut and Spirit of Decay, otherwise same build does 40ish damage. Fully durganized and a little over 10 dex (8 base 13 without food) plus Time parasite/Alacrity both Unforgiven and Bittercut don't have recovery even with a shield and no two weapon style, ofc the animaton of Unforgiven will be faster, but it effectively does less than half damage per swing and Bittercut has the massive advantage of rolling vs two different DRs.

Yeah +12 would have been totally acceptable, less op but still super useful. And I agree that these items are to early/eaSy to get, at least a quest/fight to unlock the merchant even if it is no more difficult than other Act 1 fights would have balanced this issue.

Idk if it got posted before (I quickly checked but might be blind) or if it was in any patchnotes, but today more by chance than anything realised the armor got nerfed and only gives +9 to deflection and the other defense depending on piece. This still kinda helps with not having to use a deflection ring, but I'm wondering if I'll change armor. (most likely will, it's such a narrow gap between op and useless, since I solo cipher and the DR is pretty low)

So I haven't read the whole topic, since there's been too much OT on page 1 to keep me interested for page 2, but my POV on the topic actually brought up by Jojobobo: Let's face it guys, Might was too strong in PoE1, almost every class needed it and some curious tank/supporter builds with no Might, were only dreamed up for the sake of .... having no Might in the build. I can totally see your point in PoE losing some of it's uniqueness with Might, but the stat was jsut too good. Putting Healing AND spell damage into Resolve makes it actually useful, being one of the easiest dumpstats in Poe 1.

Oh, beams are still in PoE2? I didn't even count them to the spells I use all the time, since it's pretty much self explanatory especially the 10 focus one which I keep up at all times at least in solo play. :D Hm, if Soul Annihilation has AoE now, then I like it even more, you're right the question might arise why to play another cipher, especially with the better scaling off Str for both melee and SA. Don't have access to the beta and won't spoil myself too much with vids/forum, but always interested in my fav class cipher, it's pretty much guaranteed they will be my choice for first pt (prolly mced tho)

The fact that this problem existed doesn't make my statement any less true. I would've preferred some other solution to this, something that doesn't completely sacrifice the strategic layer of the game. A big part of the problem in BG was the incredibly inflexible vancian magic system. A spellpoint system could've been used instead to facilitate drawbacks, such as continual spellpoint drain while a spell is active but no activation cost/time, and like you said, having pre-cast spells on the NPCs also helps. Then naturally there are the ludicrously powerful buffs that lasted too long. What I mean is, that problem could've been solved, and the strategic layer didn't have to be sacrificed. How does precasting add a strategic layer? You just spam all your longer lasting buffs without worry of getting interrupted. If you have to cast in combat you need to worry about a good buff order (at least if you play with a smaller party or solo, wrong order might mean death) or as a cipher in PoE 1 you had to attack in between to gain focus for buffs etc.. Having to program NPCs with precast buffs is a waste of resources compared to simply making spells combat only. Not saying strategy in PoE is on SCS level, but let's not forget SCS was a fanmade mod that cost the developer a lot of free time.

Honestly tho if Strength is multiplicative in PoE2 it might just be smarter to use powers only for CC and selfbuff, which in result would mean you only need Str and IN and no Res. Even in PoE1 I mainly use the cipher that way with the exception of Silent Scream which got way too op after the buff. I think the Soul Blade's Focus Release sounds like it is a lot too my liking, but is it affected by Res/Str or no attribute at all? If you mced it with a barbarian, would the raw damage be released via carnage or single target?

Not true, it actually removes cheese from the game. Remember Baldur's Gate, where you had to install SCS to give enemy casters precast spells, so they could somewhat compete with PC? No need for that anymore = big win.