Elric Galad

There's a compromise : use the other upgrade of the scimitar (complete refund of phrase cost). Then you can cast empowered eld nary at the beginning and then use the weapon summoning invocation. Sure, you won't be able to do it each fight since you don't refund the empower point but you can still do it when it matters. So if we're speaking about raw power for a Single Class Chanter, that's probably the best solution Sure it is a bit less fun for common fights. Oh well, I'm whining a lot but what I'm really thinking is that the game is quite close from "perfect enough" Class Balance. Which is really impressive considering Obsidian had to cope with Multiclass balancing.

The Single Classes above don't belong to the bad Tier, but to the meh Tier. And they don't belong there because their abilities are bad but because their ressource pool is so low that they can't use them more than a couple of time. I think the low ressource pool is a consensus. I actually like ranger abilities. Twinned Shot is cool, Whirling Strikes is one of the best melee ability of the game (probably the best if Heart of Blunderbuss is not counted), the new Heart Seaker Shot is great too.

Top Tier Single Class : Wizard Monk Good Single Class : ​Priest Druid ​Okay Single Class : Cipher ​Chanter ​Barbarian ​Meh Single Class : Fighter ​Rogue Ranger ​Paladin

I agree with this. Single Class Casters are also stricly worse at level 1 than their multi counterparts. Not very fair. A couple of additional casts of lvl1 spells would be sufficient, for example. Won't change much on high levels. Some low-level goodies for single class ciphers and chanters would be nice too, for the same reasons. I simply don't think it's that important. I can live with the "low level wiz are weak" trope since their endgame (and midgame) is good. Still it feels weird that multis start plain better. Well, it is sure that Paladins, Fighters or Rogues Tier 8/9 could be improved a bit. But still, I feel they would have enough abilities to build around with more ressource and their current ones. Single Class Fighters could spam unbending and clean Sweep with good PL and feel good enough for their purpose if they had a little more Discipline. Take the Hit and Sundering Blows could be added for greater versatility. Penetrating Strike with PL10 would do the Single target DPS job. Black Jacket Clean Sweep with various debuffing modal is already great but empty Discipline quickly. Single Class Rangers can easily swing from AoE DPS (Heart Seeker/Whirling Strikes) to Single Target (Marked Prey/Wounding Shot/Twin Shot). Added Bond would allow pet buff in addition to this, so they can sit comfortably at the top of "summoners" role. Single Class Paladins are basically life insurance. If they die, they come back (3 zeal cost). If an ally die, they gain 2 and looses 3 for bringing them back. Yeah 1 zeal rez. Add a bit more zeal and they can add just a bit of Fire Lashes or Inspired Beacons. Single Class Rogues have Gambit. More Guile is all that they really need... It's not to deny that Buffing high Tier Abilities would be good, at least to give them more options. But I don't think it would be hard to justify to include any Single Class in a party. That's why I say there won't be major balance issue between classes. (except maybe Empowered Meteor and Empowered Inner Death...) Without ressources, all these nice abilities simply can't be used together.

I think monks are a special case because they have 2 ressource pools, so you don't feel the lack of ressources that much. That and Empowered Inner Death is enough to justify Single Class anyway. But the question may be asked in the opposite way : would monk become more overpowered with additional ressource ? Whispers of the Wind use Wounds, and Empowers are limited to 1/encounter, so my opinion is that it wouldn't change that much.

I don't disagree with this because it would avoid power creeping. Maybe it is part of the solution, but reducing the use of active abilities would not be very fun. Not sure about reducing ressource for Multi Class Casters. They have too many spells per encounter, but that does not make them especially strong compated to Single Class Casters, simply because the later have enough cast. Maybe they should also reduce Single Class casts too then. But I'm not sure about this either.

When I compare Single Classes to (the very popular) Multi Classes, I think the former have a ressource problem more than an ability problem, especially when it comes to martial classes. Martial Multi get 18 ressources. Martial Single Class get 11 and actually requires more for their top tier abilities. This is a really Huge Gap. I get why Multi should get more points, since their abilities are weaker, but I think the current difference is too much. Single Class Multis simply don't have enough ressources to use their high tier abilities more than a couple of times. And in order to do that, that have to focus on them and totally forget their low tier ones. You're not rewarded for picking diverse active abilities. There are some way to get more ressources, but even them often provide more benefits to Multi than to Single class (Brillant inspiration, Devil of Caroc Breastplate, and even Empower refill). In short, I believe there would be no more major issues with any single class if their ressource pools were significantly buffed. I would like to know if my opinion is shared. Furthermore, if you agree with the previous point, I would like to know how many additional points would be sufficient. I think +2 at creation and +1 with Prestige would be perfect (for a total of 14 points vs 18 points for Multi Class). Multi Class are basically strictly better than Single at Level 1 (2 ability points and 2 “level 0” ability such as Carnage or Sneak Attack which are quite strong). So +2 Ressources at creation would correct this. Prestige is currently more rewarding for casters. +1 ressource would correct this. It is a Tier 9 ability so it makes sense to make it strong. Another option would be to allow Empower to fully renew Single Class ressource. That option would have the advantage to avoid buffing monk too much (Empowered Inner Death would come at a cost).

It deserves to be noted that since everyone start with proficiency with unarmed, Devoted don't get penalty to use them. Then even get their Devoted bonus with fist since it applies to everything you're proficient with. Therefore monastic training is an excellent talent for Devoted especially if they want to specialize in a weapon with single damage type (pierce or slash, crush being covered by fists).

I would be curious about this new Heart Seaker ranger ability, used with Driving Flight.

I think the easiest way would be to introduce "Veteran Levels" which wouldn't change PL. You may keep gaining +3Acc / +3 All Def / + HP / +Skill. Nothing more. Too complicated to balance otherwise and it would still be a bit rewarding. Alternatevely they can add a God Challenge that decrease XP gain.

What would you think of an Instrument of Boundless Rage + Corpse Eater build ?

A pure barbarian can essentially becomes a ranged fast caster at lvl 19 with driving roar. Not convenient till there but at least you'd feel optimal at some point.

Anyway, I'm complaining but to be fair I don't really care. If the ability isn't strong enough it might be buffed. If I don't like how it works, I can simply avoid it. Ranger has a lot of nice low level goodies such as this wonderful disenchanting shot (uncle Keldorn would be proud). Ranger needed a couple more Tier 8 & 9 and that what the patch gave them. So that's perfect I am quite happy.

The great return of the Drizzt trope has already been celebrated with a parade of whirling striking dervish with dual sabers. I guess some Riptide brought them to PoE.

I would have preferred if Hunter's Claw worked on any Hit on the initial target and that using the ability caused on another race would reset the counter. Resting would not cause reset. To counterbalance this, the Bond Cost should be raised to something like 4 Bonds. It would still be suboptimal to use it for one single battle but still usable against boss.

The real question is : what happens when you hit 2 different races with initial shot ?

Hunter's Claw is great concept and flavour. It's really hard to figure how strong it is in game, especially because the word "race" is vague. +20 Acc (never enough Acc) and +20 defense passive is extremely strong even if it requires a setup. How complicated it is to set it up in real condition is hard to figure but I suspect that the initial effect is too low.

Do you have to recast bonded fury if your pet gets killed ? Probably yes. ​I'm not sure Ghost Heart gets the most benefit from Bonded Fury. I think Ghost Heart are awesome to "spam" your 1-bond cheap pet which is a bit contradictory with spending 3 bonds on a pet buff. Furthermore, Ghost Heart needs even more Bond. ​And I think I would prefer to save as much bond as I can for Ranger high Tier abilities when going Single Class.

Also it gives Single Class Ranger significantly better pets. Also Ranged Rangers now have an AoE on par with their melee counterpart. I really like that Single Class Rangers can easily switch between AoE (Whirling Strikes / Heart Seeker) and Single Target (Accurate Wounding Shot / Twin Shot) DPS with ease. ​It gives them a very distinct advantage from Rogues who are king of Single Target DPS but can't switch to AoE easily.

Hunter's Claw - IV Hunter's Fang - VI Beast's Claw - VI Bonded Fury - VIII Heart Seeker - IX OK, so Single Class Ranger just moved from C+ to B- tier (okayish to include in a party). Being the only class to be able to inflict enfeeble conveniently is a quite nice unique trait, and their pet is significantly stronger now. However, even with these new very decent abilities, I still think that the amount of ressources is still very limited for single class martial. Single Class Resssource Pool is probably the only critical remaining issue for sufficient balance between classes and multiclasses (along with a couple of mehish subclasses).

It is not 100% clear if "race" means Beasts / Primordials / Spirits / Vessels / Wilders / Kiths, even if it would be the most consistent with game mechanics. I would be curious about the Tiers of these new abilities.

Is it also reduced by Resolve ? It would give a good reason to play a high charisma resolve paladin.

Yup but I think there shall be nuking scrolls and healing scrolls anyway. This type of ability is basic, so it does not matter if it is 100% identical to the ability version. It is however much more annoying for very unique spells such as Avenging Storm. By the way, it's Maelstorm spell which replicated the scroll, not the other way around ;-)

Mig is not very useful for Rogue indeed, as it was in PoE1. Dex is usually better because action speed modifier are more rare. Per is also better because you don't want to miss. Casters have limited spells and less damage modifiers, so Mig helps them more.

Yeah I was talking purely about nuking power. That's a bit like complaining that Rogue are top single target DPS. It is expected that Wiz should be the best nuker. Even fury has a bit of support to counterbalance.