bigwillystyle

What? That blows. They used to stack.

This is fantastic setup for my main man, er, elf Aloth.

Lately I've really, really come to appreciate a CON score. Resolve is nice for dialogue options and concentration, but for a single digit boost in deflection ... it's just underwhelming. I personally am of the opinion that the best tanks these days are Barbarians with maximum CON and tanked Resolve. Holy Meditation & the Shod-in-Faith boots solve all problems. A fighter could potentially be even better without shod-in-faith via Constant + Rapid Recovery.

I'd like to add that Ancient Memory and Benevolent Spirits no longer suck. High Might modifies them, so chalk me up to higher Might as well. EDIT: Adding also that the duration of the summons was shortened which made them kinda meh. I love the Stun invocation and the Paralyze invocation - they work really well on the front line too.

I like how you incorporated the RP elements here. Having played a lot of barbarian lately, I have to say ... Barbarians are pretty &*#$^&%&% good.

Nah, it's Barbarian with Carnage & Bloodthirst all the way. Whack, whack, whack, whack, every time we kill, recovery = 0. At level 7, it's awesome. I only ever slowed down in Galvino's workshop. Too many hp to chew through to get bloodthirst consistently.

heh heh, Priest's Prayer spells become so much more useful on POTD. I personally like the look of Burning Lash, and it matches well with Scion. If you're eventually going to have a Stormcaller user, could be useful to go Lightning Lash for the 6DR debuff. But Burning is probably your best bet.

I love the Celebrant's Gloves, but sadly they're not compatible with using the Forgemaster's Gloves. I was not aware of the Belt of Chimes, +25 Concentration is nothing to sneeze at. I wish there was an easy way to get certain Stronghold quests. There are some great items there.

I am one of those types that hears "Something's underpowered? THAT'S WHAT I'M PLAYING!" My first run on POTD was with a Paladin prior to the patch changes that improved them. I went back to fool around and saw that the Kind Wayfarer talents scale now. My goodness. ANYWAY ... So barbarian's are underpowered? I am trying to figure out the best way to play one in 3.02, and I think the Firebrand route is the way to go. This one is only level 6, and on it's way to the White March. I could use some advice on mid game decisions. Early build structure based on Nerd Commando's guide, Boeroer's Riptide Ranger guide and some testing with Maneha at level 10. The Shod-in-Faith boots are amazing with this stat spread. I literally can't die & the Firebrand cuts through everything with a massive carnage radius (practical INT is 22 with bonuses). I haven't played this build at high levels, but a level 10 Maneha chews up mobs. It's literally like watching the D&D game Temple of Elemental Evil with the Greater Cleave talent. Swing firebrand. Pause. Swing firebrand again, >1Mob dies, BLOODTHIRST, no recovery bar, swing Firebrand, >1 mob dies, no recovery bar, etc ... Lordy. Key questions for folks: Recommendations on > lvl 8 talents / abilities? Anything you would change on the stat spread? Overkill on CON? I have to admit it's nice to not die. Strengths: - Nigh impossible to kill at low levels. - Chews through mobs like a blowtorch. Add a Priest's Dire Blessing and things die in a big, big hurry. Weaknesses: - Low concentration. A Priest is pretty much necessary - from lvl 2 onward, it was a constant battle opener with Holy Meditation for the +30 Concentration. I also have a batch of Spirit Shield potions (HELLO finally a use for all the trash River Reeds). - Accuracy is just OK. Not fantastic. A Paladin is helpful - Pallegina's aura has helped cut down on the grazes. - Only three Firebrand uses per rest, but frankly Firebrand isn't needed every fight. =================================== FIRE, FIRE, FIRE =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian. For teh sweet, sweet, Carnage. -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Boreal Dwarf. One weakness of this build is the low perception - in Act 1 / Act 2, in combo with Resting bonuses, this is a good mitigator. Not sure how we'll do in the WM though. Death Godlike could have been an option here. -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Living Lands / Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 21 <- is this overjkill? I really like the healing from Shod in Faith so high MIG seems key. CON: 19 <- is this overkill? When testing with Maneha, she was getting KO'd at times DEX: 8 <- seems low, but testing with Maneha indicates Bloodthirst is just that good PER: 10 <- perhaps move some from CON or MIG? INT: 18 <- I should have made this guy Vailian for the extra INT, it's awesome RES: 3 <- thanks for the tip Boeroer! -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 0, Athl. 3, Lore 0, Mech 0, Surv. everything else so far -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities/Talents: ??? - indicates not sure what to take - could use advice. Hunter's Instinct Carnage Frenzy <-- The speed helps given the low Dex Savage Defiance <-- Not all that useful, literally haven't used it since picking up Shod-in-Faith One Stands Alone <-- Not much else worth getting Bloodthirst <-- Getting at lvl 7. This literally seems to make the build. I'm not joking. ??? Probably Thick Skinned at lvl 9 ??? ??? ??? Weapon Focus Soldier Two Handed Style Scion of Flame ??? Probably Accurate Carnage at lvl 8 ??? Probably Savage Attack but concerned about Accuracy ??? Maybe Apprentice Sneak Attack for more damage ??? Bull's Will? ??? --------------------------------------------------------------- Items: Weapon set 1: Firebrand, baby! Weapon Set 2: A WF Soldier item well enchanted. Maybe tidefall or tall grass, we'll see Boots: Shod-in-Faith. These are amazing. Head: Tempered Helm. In testing with Maneha this really worked well ... "per kill" yep, we have a lot of those. Also thinking about Garodh's chorus. Armor: Probably Wayfarer's Hide. Maybe Heldrik's Coat instead for the sturdy bonus? Neck: Currently use the +2 INT necklace, probably better options Belt: The Coil of Rope could be interesting to get sneak attacks or bonus accuracy. Rings: Not sure what to go with at this point. Hands: Forgemaster's gloves!!!

For what it's worth, Firebrand is coded as "Fine". I notice a ton of grazes when using it with a Barbarian, but that said ... the grazes are on the order of 35 damage. I am trying to figure out the best way to use this with Maneha at the moment.

Well, I can confirm Cloudpiercer doesn't generate focus on Jolting Touch, so ... eh. Time to Blunderbuss!

Till this very moment, I was absolutely sure that a good Warbow is the best weapon for a ranged cipher.Reason being: it has the highest base damage, between non-reloading stuff, and it's easy to reduce it's action time to just the attacking phase. Simple calculations indicate that a superb warbow has potential to out-dps a blunderbuss when hitting low-DR targets, and be on par with arquebuses when hitting a 30DR 'wall'. To resume it, top weapons would be: - against 0 DR: fast-recovery Persistence, blunderbuses | (fast as in "close to zero") - against 10 DR: fast-recovery warbows and Stormcaller - against 20 DR: fast-recovery warbows reign supreme - against 30 DR: fast-recovery warbows, Dulcanale and a good dps arquebus if there were any. (well, maybe Pliambo per Casitàs, but disorienting is weak effect for it) Overall: it's Sabra Marie at zero recovery and high enough acc (enough to eliminate grazes). Or The Rain of Godagh Field if you could not bring Sabra Marie below 20% rec. Other worth mentioning choice is Borresaine if you are ok with sacrificing ~5%-10% of damage for it's stuns on crits. ------- But now that it was mentioned that Twin Stings fires two shots... it can be the next best thing. Where do you rate Cloudpiercer for a Cipher? I have been away from the game for six months or so, but when I played last, it was awesome. The Spell Striking effect generated focus (not sure if it still does), which was huge.

I took about a ~6 month break from PoE ... recently started playing again to try out WM2 content. I rolled up a Priest with Eothas background. I have to say - some of the dialogue options in Act 1 were emotionally very satisfying - the temple of Eothas, Raedric. In particular, the payoff at Raedric's Hold was money in the bank.

Thank you for putting this together! I just came back to PoE from a hiatus, and having an updated build list is helpful, particularly when digesting all of the 2.03 / 3.0 / 3.02 changes. So Rangers don't suck any more, and Rogues are bottom of the barrel? My, my.

All I have to say is: Drunken Orlan, someday, someday ... when I'm level 12 I'll be back.

I would say POTD at level 6 was ... challenging. Enjoyably so. I am playing a second run with level 7s on Hard and it's much easier.

Ganked at 10? Jeez. I thought 6 was bad. All I have to say is: Someday, "Drunk Orlan", someday I'll be back. In the Immortal words of Ahnuld.

I've been playing with Patch 2.0 for a bit, and it's fun. Higher levels are still easier of course, but at lower levels ... man, oh man. Tthat "Find my missing shipment of supplies" quest in Gilded Vale is very, very tricky now. Super fun, but that's IMHO. The new White March levels on POTD at level 6 are very challenging for me, and it is AWESOME.

They are not that big on DPS, remember crit is only +50% damage and multipliers are additive. In best case it's only 20% *50% = 10% more damage.Furthermore - what would you replace? Fair point. That said - it should be higher than 10% on an effective basis - you're likely to get the Merciless hand, which adds another 0.3 to crit multiplier. Same with Dungeon Delver for another 0.1. Crits also help you punch through DR more effectively when they trigger. Not applicable in your current build, but I'm a big fan of effect on crit / crit multiplier weapons like Tall Grass or The Hours of St. Rumbault. I personally am not keen on Backstab or Shadowing Beyond at all, but your mileage may vary in version 2.0. (You had asked what I'd drop) On your other question, Intellect vs. Resolve, I'd drop Intellect first. Its accelerates Deep Wounds when dropped (ticks faster, ticks punch through DR more effectively), and Resolve can legitimately help if you're going to be potentially interrupted. Looks like a fun build either way, hope you have a good time with it.

No Dirty Fighting and Vicious Fighting makes the Baby Jesus cry. I'm not sure why you would voluntarily forgo a 20% hit-to-crit rate boost?

For a rogue, your first six picks should almost always be: your choice of affliction (blind or hobble) weapon focus of choice vicious & dirty fighting reckless assault your choice of two weapon fighting or 2hand fighting style level 7 is usually the affliction I didn't pick at lvl1 level 8 is savage attack for sabres or 2handers OR vulnerable attack for light weapon specialists ... level 11 is deathblows Other than that it's all good and all gravy

Oooooooh. That is an awesome idea. Stealth finally has a use!

Average speed, base damage 24-38? That's ... quite good.

For my cipher, I ran max dex, might, int. Dumped per and con and put the rest in resolve (14ish). I use War Bow / Cloudpiercer which is great for a Cipher. When your jolting touch procs with +40% soul whip damage its awesome for focus & damage

For me, the Champion of Berath. Tough fight. The Big Bad lays down an emotionally compelling challenge, and I went in wanting to kick tail in the worst way.