Raven Darkholme

Thats why I never stick with pistol. :D

I use Ectopsychic Echo if melee enemies get to close.

I honestly never had that problem. Lol even if I get proned it happened like once to me. Probably depends on your attack formation. How close are your squishies to the front?

The only "difficult" thing about ciphers is picking good powers which you actually use. Other than that they are straightforward and even dependent on being played like a mix of fighter and mage, since attacking builds focus.

It's even worse than having to wait longer, you might get an opposite disposition point than you have to waste a talent to get rid of the negative effects on your F + C.

How are you even sure, there is a diplomatic choice available talking to the animancer? I have no party right now, that could check for you, but if you have the option turned off, there is no way of knowing you actually can respond diplomatic, is there? For the paladins I played, there was always one disposition, that maxed way later than the other. Btw "I see" is definitely stoic, another choice you don't always have in dialogues and which maxes out way later than for example rational on a Goldpact.

If you have a chanter then it's definitely worth using with summons, since they are unlimited. I sometimes even use it with figurines, summoning those nly to have a beam target. And as Mad said you don't need to run around too much.

First question no idea. Yes its friendly fire, Echo is not.

Wait, that fighter is supposed to have done high damage?

I know man I know. And you are right. I just cant bring myself to make a super dumb character. I know hes not actually DUMB in the game..lol. I am a frustrated RPG gamer as I want great results (Min/Maxer) but like SOME RP. These don't mix usually. Just split your points between dex and IN then, so none of them are dumped, like 8 each or something.

:D

Wizard is arguably the strongest class in this game. Since the difficulty is low, you don't need the strongest class and he is very rest heavy. Aloth's stats are not optimal, thats why he is slightly less useful, especially if you have autolevel on. You can grab more companions, so not sure which mercenary would be good for you, there is no thief or monk companion in this game for example.

Lol, I forgot it has speed, because it doesn't work.

Yeah psychic backlash is ass. :D I used to use heavy weapons but since 1.06 hit I am officially a warbow fanboy. Borresaine is fun, though I hate, that the superb unique warbow has no unique enchant, not sure whether I want to waste two eyes on Borresaine.

First talent I took on my cipher and I don't even have a priest.

Lighthouse 1st floor, 2nd and 3rd will be up shortly, all done in one go, no resting. Dat Echo spam, tho. https://youtu.be/RycsR52J9DU?list=PLzscMCQ3321tXXG7MbJa_j40-puzt3BAk 2nd floor: https://youtu.be/NqKxevJRfGs?list=PLzscMCQ3321tXXG7MbJa_j40-puzt3BAk 3rd floor: https://youtu.be/c-0ULmw8-nY?list=PLzscMCQ3321tXXG7MbJa_j40-puzt3BAk

The hammer is a lot of fun on hogh dex pally. I even go for 14 dex. You lose 1 point in per and res each and two points in ST, but I wekt with goldpact and got Gift + sacrificed Eder. *evil grin*

The weapon does the most advantageous damage type according to the targets DR. Yes, a graze does 50% damage.

I never played WoW, so don't worry I won't argue, you can't compare them. :D For me personally balance in a game like PoE means I get a tactical challenge. I not unlike you also love a spell I can look forward to and which brings the pain. But when you get level 5 spells like detonate, which are absolutely worthless and then look at a level 3 spell Echo which absolutely destroys things, you wonder whether you enjoy the level up as much.^^

You gain that chant with level 9, Echo is a level 5 power. Same goes for deathblows. Meh, I have seen much worse balanced games. Though I have to admit, in my team Aloth used this black-oil-knockdown level 1 spell for the entire game and till the last fight, it has been absurdly good :D Meanwhile some late level spells were absurdly weak. Spell level 3 - ton of AoE fire/shock/acid damage Spell level 5 - wait, seriously, few seconds of Hobbled? or for my Monk Girl: Skills I learned at first few levels - wow amazing let's see what late levels will bring! Level 11 Flagellant's Path - wait, that's it? That was the effect? I didn't even see that! Let me use these skills <I used for the entire game> again... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah, this is what I would work with - skill balance and timing. I also went through the entire game at Hard without even thinking about taking these 'attack bonus against x type of opponent' and 'defense bonus against y element' enhancements/talents. If I have 6 characters in my team and there are 6 main groups of enemies, taking one 25% dmg bonus for one character means overall, in team terms, few % of dmg more overall... But maybe I failed to discover hidden potential here. I think between-classes-balance is quite good, as between-companions-usefullness-balance. At first I thought Wizards suck but then Aloth became my favourite companion to use besides my main character. Now only Ranger and Shapeshifting skill of (overall good) Druid need some buff. That's my point exactly some spells come very early and are super good. You can't compare Elder Scrolls IV or V with a tactical game, they are extremely dumbed down. I played Skyrim on Legendary extensively and while it seemed super hard when I first tried it out, you learn so many exploits that fast it takes all joy out of playing. In Skyrim you can get filthy rich and level at the same time, without doing any quests OR fights. You could go level 50 before you even start the main quest and the only quests you would do are the ones unlocking free alchemy stuff, which are pure messenger quests that last less than half an hour. While making money and leveling you would level alchemy and enchanting which are super important for max armor and weapons. With the money you make you can go to skill trainers and level smithing and before you know it you are at the armor cap and your weapon damage is not capped so expect it to oneshot most things you encounter. What you say about bretons is almost true for Skyrim as well, only that the cap for MR is 87% but you can also get 87% elemental resistances which in the end leaves you with total immunity to spells anyway (They do like 1 damage if you're facing a high level dragon, otherwise 0.) A tactical game SHOULD NOT compare to a dumb game, that appeals to the masses.

What other perspective do you feel that they use? If nobody complains we don't need to fix. I feel like high DT enemies are especially vulnerable to it, since the echo relentlessly rolls every second and sometimes with 50+ damage, nobody has that high DT.Ofc there are other too strong abilities, but can you spam them the same way? Most certainly not.

I clearly stated in my first post why. And "not use it" is the most stupid argument ever. I like the spell, I wanna use it, I like the concept but I don't like how good it is compared to how little focus you need to kill A LOT of enemies. As I said above I use it to keep melees of my back and don't even use it to it's full potential most time.

Moar bounties, Warchief Iklak: https://youtu.be/VZoD82oCdWM?list=PLzscMCQ3321tXXG7MbJa_j40-puzt3BAk

Well they at least are trying to balance, but they don't do it from the gamers perspective, I feel.

Like seriously, you get that with level 5, it doesn't hit friendlies and it only costs focus once, but melts everything which gets in its way. Because I'm lazy I mainly use it to get my ciher out of trouble if melees atatck her, but I feel if I used intelligent micro positioning and spam that spell it would be one of the best damage dealers ingame.