evilcat

It would not hurt to know what OE generally tries to achieve with balance changes. What is the goal. Like nerfing spiritual weapon of Priest. Did this trivalized PotD? Was Priest to donimant pick? Was Spiritual Weapon superior to anything else? Does Priest overshadows other classes? Summoned weapons are too good? Priest wasnt fun to play since game too easy?

Does anyone knows for sure? It seems that having high mechanic helps with spotting a trap, but that could be just coinidence. Definetly it is prefered that you can spot trap without party with per 18, but using mechanic skill directly.

POE casters generally scale well with Might, so unless you focus on buffs/cc/debuffs better hit the gym, and build some muscles. It Might be useful. The whole system is cool, since even when you play swordfighter you can still click some buttons for Dragon Furry Strike. Which is awesome. I thought that Into The Fray is throwing grapling hook towards enemy with battlecry "Get over here" just sound effect is bugged. There are some issues, like: Martial classes start with 2 active abillities at tier 1 and you have to pick something, even if you wanted to use something else this time Some classes have less active abillities overall (like barbarians) Some abillities are expensive even if effect is okeish Some classes have "Zeal on Kill" others not, this is not way of communism comrade. and so one. This is probably more general discussion not build and mechanic.

You can sell traps you collect on the way. I generally do mostly Neketaka and main quest till i hit lv 13. And then buy Dhow and top sails, and start hunting bounties, bounties by rush forward and board the deck. A lot of money could come from corpses and fine gear. Check official wiki for gear you wanna keep for end game, and if you get some, upgrade it not else. There is more than 1 worthy weapon/armour for each class.

Can use combination of Trubaour, Priest, Paladin and just be more tanky support. Could be offensive and MC with Fighter and relay on Conqueror Stance. If Ranger relay heavy on Marked Pray & AWS. GhostHeart Beer Companion and Stalker Link. You are just losing 0-10 ACC, but there are ways to get them back. Svef/Deadeye druggie

Eder: Swashbucker, mostly 2wf, but riposte also could be tasty. Maia: Scout, even more now with Rogue buffs. Serafen: Witch or Pure Barbarian. Barbarian being the core with 2wf, frenzy works fine with shred powers. Pure Barbarian could regain Rage. Sabres or Swords Aloth: Pure wizard, high tier wizard spells are worthy. Evoker style Teheku: Druid/Chanter, two unique subclasses. Both having some awesome spells. This caster could heal and flood enemies with spells. Also chanter chill fog. Pallegina: Herald, does not that much dps in Templar mode. Lay of Hands is quality addition to party. Mass paralyze or armour debuff is stample. Xoti: meh, Pure Priest, but the whole priest thing i am not sure of that. Teheku and Pallegina add more and enought. Mirke, Shadowdancer, awesome sneat attack with pleanty of attacks. Konsten, nope, has great hands and heart, but low int and per. Fessina, nope, with Conjurer subclass no wonder she hates everything Rekke, any MC but both played dual wielded Ydwin, Midstalker, ranged dual pisto guns, Borrow Instinct, Amlified Waver, Ringleader, Desintagration, Recall Agony. That could really cover all needs. Rogue Crippling Strike, Devastating Blow + some passives.

If i focus on elemental spells, and ignore healing, and stick fury shape to low levels only it is still free penetration on elemental spells. What could be said: If you need more healing in party, Fury is bad. Wizards are overall better, since better variety of spells. Lifegiver is best, since we really dont care about summons, and heavy healing has value.

Yes, Circle Spells indeed, couse well rounded spells are BEST. Like fireball. With ray, or cone, positioning matters and enemies move around like mad. But circle can be moved around during casting, and even AI recalculating optimal position.

Use Skaen themed robe (effigy Husk) Dont dump Dex Backrow with ranged weapon On Wizard use some defensive stuff like mirror image Use AI with "max enemies" priority also use circle spells

Consensus was never an option. Not in video games. Not as much have changed, you can play generally good build pre patch, unless it uses cheese, or specific weapon it is probably still good. General: Avoid: Beckoner SoulBlade WizardsSunclass (no change here) Shifter GoodTime for: Rogues Berserker Barbarian If fighter then less mob stance, more conqueror stance. Monk, If ranged than Lighting Strikes. But Melee swift furry is better. Otherwise, still good.

How bad is Trickster penalty? Isnt it -10% sneak attack at start. There is a situacion that you can play Rogue/Wizard and still lose 10% of SA, but gain 21 spells illusion or not. How to beat that. Buff ideas: Better Rogue tier 8th 9th. Like passive bonus to sneak attack or Guile on Kill passive. More Ilussion, Trickster, Trap abillities. Not only from Wizard. Like convert Eyestrike, or Ranger Trap, Whispears of Threason. More starting Guile. So you can spam abillities more. Wizard Subclasses This one is hard, and cant be done easy way. It requires more spells of no Evocation, which takes forever. Change Subclass Penalty: -1PL to other schools, +20% recovery to other schools. Gradually buff Other perks. Like Make Brutte suck less. It is possible. Just move it to Spiritshape level in POE1. More spells on no Evocation. Transmutation is almost good (but not at top tiers).

Gouging Strike is nice for long fights. Devastating Blow on low health boss could be devastating. So it depends on situation. And prolong thought about 5% up or down may be waste of time. But here is a thing: Martial classes have limited pool, and abillities are generally costly. At low levels you have to pick something. And you dont heave many options. Result: Over focus on low tier abillities, and just sticking tot them, since we already picked them, and are good enought. And for high tier... we dont have Guile or levelpoints for that. Other aproach: Fron load basic form of active abillities (at least most), with backload upgrades. So at level levels you could pick Cripping Strike, or Blinding, or Sap, Whitering, Ring the Bell, Just sap it. All options. But for upgrades... you need wait for them for tier 4+. That would be nice.

It is opposite. Millenials love tatooed polar bears, free Wi-Fi, and lumberjack beards. So free hairy dlc is as millenial as could be. As for myster: Graphic artist are less busy with bug fixes, so making hats and beards and counting it as marketing pr spending is fair to the working class.

I don't think that solves the balancing issue though. Constantly spamming summons was already the optimal strategy for Beckoners, so increasing the cost of all other invocations wouldn't hurt them at all. Maybe. Main point: If you pick Beckoner, your summoning is top tier. One path is For the Horde. And just lower damage enought to make it balanced -25% or -50%. The ther path is stronger binding, like Summons having longer duration and more health (but same damage). +some debuffs to blast invocations. And abujration immunity (strong bind). Actually stronger binding could be more fun. SInce it drops problems with pathing and crowd. Longer duration could leave more space for doing something else. But that sounds like buff and ease of use. They could always do alternative upgrade for sceletors to make Horde Sceletons or use Chant for that.

I can agree with many things, like nerf to infinite procs. I can understand other, like change to Charge (it is still ok gapcloser) Or just adapt, less mob stance more conqueror. However in some nerfs, a lot of effort was put into, but it wasnt needed, and it the same time something else could be done, more needed. Some nerfs was so hard the smash subclass below line "as good as needed to be worthy" without buffs to push it back into party. More specific: Petty nerfs: Fighter Penetrating Strike and Barbarian Barbaric Blows lowered from +25% Damage to +20%. Flames of Devotion Lowered from +25% Damage to +20%. Bleak Walker lowered from +15% Damage to +12%. How does this change anything? If Paladin is OP nerfing one abillity by 5% and one subclass by 2.5% (such precission) will not change anything. In the same time Rogue, Ranger get +25% bonus as it was normal value. Game can just carry on with Penetrating Strike being overall better than Cripping Strike, but only Rogue has massive Sneak Attack with Devastating Strike, or that Riposte on blinded enemies. You can balance with other abillities, not just 1to1. If you though that Rogues are just too low and deserve better, then general discount on abillities will fix that (so expansive) or give tier VIII "Guile on Kill" Ranger need some better ways to keep pet alive, and pet need to scale damage harder with levels and legendary equipment. Thing: Marial classes have expansive abillities, and low resource pool. At low levels need to pick something. Abhuration is not very bad, just at this point i have no Zeal and no level points to pick it. Generally: Rogue, FIghter, Ranger, Barbarian, Paladin should have Resource at Kill (could be chance for) at tier VIII, and that would close the gap among them and with Monks/Chanters. Beckoner -1 Summon Invocation Cost to +1The main point of Beckoner is summoning hordes of minions. And now we are worse at it than Trubadour or Pure. And it is hitting main theme of class. It is like Ubroken FIghter being prohibitted of using shields. Yes you can make it work, it may even be good. May use summoning only at start once, and focus on other invocations, but it is not the theme of class. It could be done other way. Like +1 to no summon invocations. Priest Spritual Weapon now has a base proc damage of 25% scaling up to 30% or as low as ~20% based on deity disposition.Priests spiritual Weapon never was that great, since it has no all sweet legendary upgrades. At least there is space for other level 2 spells. Wildstrike Procs 20% -> 15% Greater Wildstrike & Wildstrike Frenzy Procs 40% -> 25% Wildstrike never was super good. Since you are losing your legendary boomsticks of doom, as well as all other equipment. I dont like shifters neither, they drop fur everywhere. But that, that is animal abuse (Eder disaproves). Cipher Pain Block 30s -> 18s Duration.This is single target, since inspiration. Why not nerf Infuse Vital Essence then? Or any other buff which still has >20s duration? It was popular in teletry, since other Cipher powers suck in general. Body Attunement +/- 5 AR to +/- 2 ARSingle target HyrHylaf. Why not Desintegrate then, it cost similar. Too much nerf, or too much cost. Soul Annihilation Focus -> Raw Damage ratio halved and Raw Damage only applies on first hit in an AOESo what is advatage of SoulBlade now? Discout for Shred is not a selling point. This could be done better. Iif it was about backstab combo, then limit to max 100 focus per cast would done better. Now it is better to cast Desintegrate, at least before it get nerfed. With items i could mostly adapt, and just pick best stick which is avaiable and move on. Big thanks for abillity to mod, without this it would be hard.

Have a nice day. Wish for next patch: Some extra class options for companions. Like Xoti: Priest/Chanter Cosmetic tab for dressing up but no mechanical consequences. (just dress skin). Buffing abillities nobody uses (you know what they are). Bold idea: For martial classes, make active abillities more front loaded, but upgrades back loaded. I would love to play Rogue without cripping strike, but it cant, since there is nothing else to pick early on. So more options with abillities at low levels, but to upgrade it to full gore glory, need to wait. Make Fessina Generic Wizard untill Wizard subclass suck less. No Max Focus AI behaviour. Get your priorities right.

HellWalker Wizard, for action speed and int/migh bonus.

The weird factor is high. Beckoner is supposed to be good with summons, but now is not that great. And you could reach better result with Trubaour. They could do it some other way. Like get discount on summons, but +1 on all other invocations.

Nature Godlike for Dual Caster (Sorcerer), +1/+1 PL fair deal Otherwise RP is important factor. Martial, could use Harth Orlan and Serafen hood. (or some other good cap) there is more caps for no-casters.

Soul Anihilation was nerfed. May still be good enought with Assasins Backstabs with some crit stacking. Or you could just ignore it, and play SoulBlade without it, using Whispers of Ringleader. Buffing one high tier abillitiy is better than no buffs at all. There is a challenge with summoned weapons, not very good they are. So some guidiance like make them legendary with one or two special perks is some feedback. Due to general character of class cipher are very tempting to MC, so having like very good power/passive at top levels may be required.

TOP TIERS Berserker (Barbarian) Powerful subclass feature, con easy to bypass with gear. Troubadour (Chanter) Use top tier chants, but build phrases twice as fast. Bleak walker (Paladin) Paladins in general: Good defense, quickheal, good accuracy/damage buff, zeal on kill, party buffs. Goldpact knights (Paladin) Paladins in general: Good defense, quickheal, good accuracy/damage buff, zeal on kill, party buffs. Kind wayfarers (Paladin) Paladins in general: Good defense, quickheal, good accuracy/damage buff, zeal on kill, party buffs. HIGH TIERS Base Wizard, Variety of spells. Good Spells. 18 good spells. Switch spells mid combat. But no passives. Wizard (Evoker) Best spells are evocation and benefit from PL. Some top spells here. Ilussion/Enchantment have low recovery anyway. Assassin (Rogue) Buffed. Good dps with SA and passives. We are not tanking. But bonus is critical when it is worth. Street fighter (Rogue) Massive bonus. Nalpazca (Monk) You can get High with damage and wounds. Helwalker (Monk) Use Dance of Death. Be ranged or side fighter. Shieldbearer of St Elcga (Paladin) Paladins in general. Subclass modificatio is niche in use. MID HI TIERS Skald (Chanter) [MC UP] Need some help with criticals. But then generate phrases even faster. There are some great invocations like Sound of Voice. Base Chanter Versalite effects, infinite pool, can charm, heal, kill, cc, debuff, buff, summon. But cant long nuke at start. Beckoner (Chanter) You could do better summoning with Trubadour (fatter minions more often). But you are still Chanter, and may as well ignore Summons as beckoner, which is against the sub name, but works. Also summonig army of scelies or wurm 6pack may be enuff. Shattered pillar (Monk) [MC UP] Turning Wheel less good Base Monk Consistent high damage, survival, can take enemies 1by1. Could do things with on hit weapons. Darcozzi Paladini (Paladin) Small fire shield. But still paladin. Base Rogue High dps with SA, easy to trigger SA. Good burst Damage. But expansive abillities. Lifegiver (Druid) Druid healing is good, and now it is much better. We dont care about summons. Fury (Druid) Free +1 Penetration with many spells. On this build we dont care about healing. Base Druid Good spells. Mix of damage and healing, some buffs. Emergency Spiritsift if run out of spells. But some tiers empty (7th), and spiritshift no much for legendary gear and everything. MID LOW TIERS Ascendant (Cipher) [MC UP] Penalty is minimal, and we can just take it. But bonus is insane when it trigger. Can spam high level powers. MC even better since many cipher spells are bad. Sharpshooter (Ranger) Just more dps with ranged, and we are ranged anyway. Ghost Heart (Ranger) Dont heal your pet. Get new one. No real malus. Base Barbarian Could attack very hard, and fast, Can regenerate rage. AOE potencial. But not much utility. Devoted (Fighter) [MC UP] Top tiers not that useful. Dual damage weapon is universali enought. LOW TIERS (MC UP TIER) Unbroken (Fighter) [MC UP] Enemies dont move around that often. Overall lower damage due to shield. Tanking alone does not imput enought. (need mc to support party) Base Fighter [MC UP] Have high accuracy, and resilence. But less party utility CC, and aoe potencial. Staying alive is not enought. Black jacket (Fighter) [MC UP] Fighter passive is not essencial. But Black Jacket is for gimmick shooters. There is a jacket which does same. All priest [MC UP] No passives. Small spell selection. Holy radiance not great. Deity pick unimportant. Tier 5 spells uninspiring. Not enought good spells at low levels. Trickster (Rogue) [MC UP] You can just play Wizard/Rogue. Limited use of Trickster spells since not enought guile. Stalker (Ranger) [MC UP] No Driving Flight for melee Rangers. Base Ranger There is enought good abilities and passives. Just pet is easy to kill, and does less damage top levels. Beguiler (Cipher) [MC UP] A lot of effort needed but not enought good powers to use subclass bonus. Harsh malus. Ascendant could do it better. Base Cipher [MC UP] Half spells is bad. Top tiers are sometimes ok, but otherwise horrible as topers. haunting Chains disappointing. MC cipher generates focus faster, and so uses powers more. Soul blade (Cipher) Instead SoulAnihilation just cast Desintegration. Overall not gain much from this subclass. Base cipher with less focus. Shifter (Druid)[MC UP] Loose your gear, loose legendary weapon, and casting abillity, and now even wildstrike got nerfed. WHY? TIERS All others spec wizard Too few spells. No dmg spells benefit less from PL. Subclass bonus are very bad. Corpse eater (Barbarian) Just drink potion. Get rage from corpse, so you can pay overpriced powers. Not enought benefits from eating or malus too harsh. Mage slayer (Barbarian) You dont really need it for killing mages. But malus is annoying. Could be hard to stay alive.

It also reduces casting recovery. Perception is priority. Might is good. Inteligence if you use aoe (could focus on single target spells) Dexterity... do not dump, but it doesnt matter how fast if you miss or giggle targets. However, there is Wizard/Druid or Wizard/Magran priest and such may use dexterity.

Geralde. 3 top priorities should be: 1. Improving underused spells 2. Achieving buffs, debuffs, CC, damage among all...

Are you ok with using console? It will stop your achievment hording. But what can be done You need to get naked. The character. Player... up to personal taste.

Suggestion: For Ranger Pet Companion: fur pattern. So you could take a bear companion, but you could paint it white, or panda, black, brown. Or you could take lion, and turn it into Tiger, or Cougouar. And so on.