Elric Galad

I'm voting for your vote cause I'm an antiroundist activist.

In my opinion, Companions should be a trade-off : You should gain unique features (a bit stronger than normal character) or an unique bonus when completing a quest and loose options. This is the best way to have companions who feel unique. Choosing them should have consequences. The best example was PoE1 Pallegina who had unique and strong powers or Zahua who got a Fist bonus after completing his quest. It was true also in BG2 (Viconia's Magic Resistance, Nalia's Ring, Sarevok's Deathblows, Edwin's OPness) In PoE2, there are a few problems : 1) Many companions don't have unique traits 2) Some unique advantages are meh or... bad (I'm looking at you Serafen) 3) When a companion doesn't have an unique subclasses, he/she gets the base version of the class (except a couple of them such as Konstanten) which is usually worse than most of the subclasses. In my opinion, the mechanically good companions are : - Eder (because of Berath's Blessing pet) - Maia (Gunhawk) - Tekehau (Watershaper, his Chanter subclass is quite convenient for multiclassing) - Vatnir (Priest of Rymrgand) Including any other companion is gimping one's party (the game is balanced enough, so it isn't THAT bad). Pallegina's five suns overnerf was especially wrong in my opinion. Anyway, a couple more options wouldn't hurt.

If you're spamming self-buffs (usually low level) in the beginning of combat like there's no tomorrow, Brillant is going to be less efficient. Instead of restoring your Tier IX Spell slot, you'll only restore lower tiers. So I would think Priests and Druids might get a bit more benefits from Brillant, since it has bad synergy with one of the wizard core mechanics. But that's only a small bias. Wizards still benefit a lot from it.

With High Resolve / Healing only Bonus (not Might), I expect the healing done to be a bit more on the plus side. But constitution afflictions will be detrimental. By the way, speaing about new sublclasses, was Arcane Archer fixed at some point ?

I think all resistance Abilities are good enough. A wild Orlan barbarian with Mowdyr is immune to any kind of Hard Crowd Control while Hurt or above. A fighter relying on unbending may like the Mountain Dwarf passive. In general, I would say race matters far less than in PoE1 due to the most game changing bonus being nerfed. Only Godlie is comitting cause you have to sacrifice the head slot. Godlike are meh or bad, except Nature one (and Death Godlike is niche). Island Aumaua, Boreal dwarves have a bit gimmick bonus, but I think it doesn't mtter much.

Forbidden Fists are likely to have high Resolve. They are also healed when afflictions wear off, which contributes to tanking. They could be the tanky monk. Once their infamous bug is corrected of course.

This is a valid question. I still remember the painful battles of Tides of Numenerra at the ends of Act 2&3. However, IMHO, it can be mostly addressed by increasing the speed of ennemies' animation and/or health reduction (which can be made optional. I expect megabosses to be harder if both players and them get something like -25%/-50% health).

Granted that Priests were given (a couple of) summons and that healing is much much more powerful than it was in PoE1. Basically, Summons and Healing are the new Crowd Control. This changes alone help finding new roles for priest.

Question : Answer :

Yes

The Debonaire gets 100% crit conversion on charmed enemies. Beguiler casts Ring Leader, Debonaire then casts whatever friendly fire spell (direct damage like Fireball etc mostly, since targets flip after getting damaged). All his hits get converted to crits which takes away the PEN issue completely and gives yome nice bonus damage (with Precognition and Improved Crits is a +60% damage, sometimes even overpenetration). DoTs like Pernicious Cloud are also good since they get +50% duration. You need something that does friendly fire - or you choose single target spells. Most of them can be targeted on allies (Necrotic Lance etc.). This reminds me of Entropy (Druid PL 8 ) . I wish its description of Entropy was more clear. I'm wondering how many Hits are converted to Crits before it wears off...

Sure, but since it would leave only 1 PL for Single Class, I would suspect this to be slighly OP. Mayble PL 8 should cost both PL 6 & 7 and even limited access to PL 5 (a single pick). Many classes have incredible goodies at lower levels (sneak attack, FoD, Duality, Frenzy, defensive illusion, Devotion...)

How does Gambit works with dual mortars ? Do you get the refund as soon as you get at least one crit per hand ? How many PL do one get with Maelstorm and Chronoplastic Staff ? (since Maelstorm has all these keywords...)

"The path of balance is the hardest to follow"

Why does Energized pair well with interrupting blows ? Doesn't energized override it ?

We're discussing here about a system without any "combat round" at all. Have you played FF10 ? Heroes of Might & Magic V also had a similar system. Have you read the initial post ?

- Yup, of course. You still need to reload before firing again. - Not sure the way I described is the best solution. Instantanneous and "channeled" type already exists in the current TB Version. The idea was to provide a Type of action that has the following requirements : - is interruptible. - takes place immediately. Because having to wait between the time you decide the attack and the time the attack happens feels weird, especially if several attacks happen within a short delay.

Yup, I've posted the same idea in the Announcement and News subforums : https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/108058-update-60-patch-41-turn-based-mode-beta/ But your version is much more detailed ! I honnestly think that would be the very best idea to implement quickly a balanced TB system and keeps he compatibility between TB and RTwP system (also for PoE3). A few remarks or ideas : - Reload should require a separate action from Attack. That's the best way to replicate the current RTwP reload. - "Wait" commands should be possible. One should be able to Wait until another character turn, in order to interrupt its next action. This should be the only way to cancel "quick" actions such as Attacks or "Frenzy". True Instantaneous action such as "Wild Sprint" shouldn't be cancellable. I think this is the only way to make Interrupt relevant against martials. EDIT : to be more clear, there could be 3 types of action : - "Channeled" for each action with a current base action time >1.1s*, such as most spells, with a cast time and a recovery time equal to what they are now, interruptible during cast time. - "Quick" for each action with a current base action time <=1.1s*, such as attacks, with an immediate effect and a recovery time equal to their current recovery + action time, interruptible only by a delayed Quick action. - "Instantanneous" for each action with a current action time = 0s, such as weapon swapping, with a immediate effect and a recovery time equal to what they are now (most intantanneous actions have 0 recovery), not interruptible. *1.1s is the base attack time of war bows, pistols and blunderbuss and also cast time for Blade Turning (I can't think of another ability with this cast time). The "Quick" type might be a tiny bit complicated. My point is simply that there should be a way to interrupt attacks.

I think the main question for Obsidian now is whether the game is fun to play in TB mode. Even if the TB balance is currently weird, it is not a big issue for the moment. They might still work on it once they are sure that it worths the investment.

I would consider a Monk with single handed Scordeo's Edge as an oriental sword saint. High ACC for Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. Monk high INT to optimize the duration of blade cascade. Maybe Monk / Devoted for heavily armored samurai (blade cascade cancels recovery anyway). Use animancer blade as a backup weapon. Or Monk / Soublade to spam Mind Blade during the cascade. Just pretend it's not magical. By the way, macedonian Phalanx was more about Pikes than about Swords & Boards (contrary to old Hoplite phalanx.) Not sure it helps since macedonian style phalanx is rather useless in a small party, but this youtube channel is wonderful, so...

The good thing is that crossbow/arbalest aren't witch hunting weapons only on paper. Their interrupt modals are golden against spellcasters.

Scordeo's Trophy pistol single handed. The more you hit, the more you improve recovery, the more you hit. Twin Shot/Heart Seeker + Driving Flight helps getting more Scordeo's charges. Stunning Shots will cause to interrupt on Crit. Plus usual ranger goodies (concussive shots, binding roots). You need some int (for longer scordeo's charge), dex and per.

In my imagination, inquisitors are a bit witch hunters, and witch hunters should carry a crossbow/arbalest.

Driving Flight basically doubles your hit, so it's another major reason to go ranger with Scordeo's Trophy.

Provided one doesn't play devoted (and even in this case, you only get an accuracy malus), it is always possible to swap weapon to inflict the type of damage your target is the most vunerable to. Elemental weapons being quite rare, it is interesting to know for each ennemy about the lowest of the 3 physical armor rating. In my opinion, this information might be more relevant than the base armor value. I wanted to figure which ennemy has the highest value for its lowest AR among Crush, Pierce and Slash. So which value a (smart) physical attacker should aim to be sure to penetrate with (the right) weapon. I expect it is one of the Megaboss. I'm trying to remind if there's something higher than them. Belranga : 9 (11 in PotD) 9 Crush 15 Pierce 15 Slash Dorudugan : 12 (14 in PotD) 12 Crush 16 Pierce 19 Slash Hauani O Whe : 14 (16 in PotD) 14 Crush 14 Pierce 14 Slash => Probably the winner, but is vulnerable to 3 elemental types. Belranga : 9 (11 in PotD) 9 Crush 15 Pierce 15 Slash