Elric Galad

Stag Druid is also very fun. Better defense is quite solid and AoE Carnage, even 1/ rest is the very strongest Druid Ablity when used with Avenging Storm. Sure, it is not as straightforward as Cat or Boar, but you have 2 druid slots, so why not ?

I personally don't care about Muscle Mage and Genius Barbarian, especially because you don't have to play like. PoE1 System was great and the Resolve Change was the only thing it truly needed. I still think that allocating Healing to Consitution could have been nice to spead a bit more the utility of attributes, but I think it's quite minor and I really like the current non-traditionnal system.

Just diggin' a bit, I wondered if Death Godlike couldn't be made better simply by giving them a part of their bonuses when Bloodied / against Bloodied.

IMHO, Disciplined Barrage + Charge + Knockdown is unparalleled for squishy hunting. Monks are fast, but can't teleport without being wounded first and their CC does not last as long unless, once more, they get wound. Charge does a crapload of damages on its own. Oh, and the tremendous Acc buff from disciplined barrage also help getting guaranteed CC (you get 2 KD rolls due to dual wielding. Monks are awesome of course, pretty fun, and they will do their job all over the duration of battle. I just find Figther better at engaging battle.

I remember that once I made some comparison calculation and my conclusion was that Dragon Trashed was about twice the damages of sacred immolation. Its AoE is greater, it last indefinately and does not cause self damages. Sacred Immolation also heals, which is great and a Paladin has many other trick meanwhile a Dragon Trasher Chanter does pretty much nothing else (I like starting battle with the fire lash chant though, before my chanter moves into the frail)

I guess it prevents Barbarian from repeatabe AoE avenging thunder. Usually, Druids can't attack in an AoE. Oh wait...

The lazy part of me would say good old Dragon Trashed chanter. It is not a very active character for a PC but having everything around you melting while you're just walking around in a shiny armor is just so satisfying. I like having 1 in my parties. I had a lot of fun with a Fighter with Disciplined Barrage + Charge + Dual Wield Knockdown in one of my latest party. It is basically "I can reach you, I can knock you, I can kill you". Stag Druid with Carnage Activation (per rest) + Avenging Storm + Spiritshift was extremely satisfying too, except it does not last very long. To be clear, the reason why it does not last is because there are no more ennemies standing after a couple of hits. This character usually opened the fight with the quick-casting Form of the Delegam just to add party buff to the blind destruction package.

A secondary tank would be nice. In addition, you already have solid single target damage dealers, so an AoE character would be useful too. The obvious choices are Paladin with Sacred Immolation or Dragon Trashed chanter. A tanky barbarian or a monk focused on Torment Reach could also work.

Being a bit concerned by the Might to Strength change, I wanted to suggest an alternate solution (for what it worths... ). Feel free to comment and criticize. What does it adress (in a nutshell) ? - Finding a better use fo Resolve without negating the old Might concept - Slightly nerfing Might (no more healing) while finding a new use for Constitution - Staying as close as possible from PoE1 well-rounded Attibutes system. Might +3% all damages (weapons & spells) + 2 Fortitude Might would not change much from PoE1, except it won’t affect healing anymore. So it is only a slight nerf from PoE1 which could prevent Might from being necessary for all builds (especially defensive priest or paladin, or Chillfog-type chanter). Dex +3% Action speed +2 Reflex No change, but I believe that some builds relying on ressource generation could have better use for Dex (such as Skald). Con +5% Endurance +3% Healing +2 Fortitude Lore-wise, it could be said that healing powers depends on one’s “lifeforce”, which sort of makes sense. At least it isn’t worse than healing capabilities depending on one’s Might. It also really makes sense for abilities like constant recovery or defiant resolve. Gameplay wise, I think Consitution deserved a minor buff or at least needed a way to be played a bit more actively. Also, I feel it is consistent that Constitution is used to resplenish the pools based on it, so you don’t have to consider 2 stats just for endurance pools. Int +5% Effect duration +6% AoE +2 Will No direct change (but see Resolve and new effect duration formula) Per +1 Acc +2 Reflex No more interruption hurts Per a little, but Accuracy is paramount in PoE combat system so it will still be interesting to put Points in Per as it helps both Damages and CC. Res +1 Deflection - 5% Hostile effect duration on self +2 Will No more Concentration hurts Res even more, but bonus against hostile effects could be a really huge defensive deal (and even offensive considering CC prevents one from attacking.) I also find it would be nice Lore-Wise, in order to symbolise the ability to endure anything. Resolve would oppose Intellect from the caster. I think a formula such as the following cold work : If Caster's Intellect > Target's Resolve : Modified Duration = Base x (1 - 5% x Target Resolve + 5% x caster Intellect) If Caster's Intellect < Target's Resolve : Modified Duration = Base x 0.95^(Target Resolve - caster Intellect) This way the tooltip could still simply say "-5% Hostile Effect", being "not too wrong" while remaining simple. Think about Durance and his sky-high Resolve, which was not very good in PoE1. Now think about a priest with a bing chunk of Hostile effect duration removed. Don’t you find this interesting ? Wouldn't Durance feel like indomittable ? Wouldn't it feel nice to play such a character ? We all know how much resistance to CC (and to lesser extent, debuff and DoT) is important in the combat system. I think it’s balanced because : Deflection is defense agaonst around 50% of attacks (defense against almost all weapon attacks and even some spells), so +1Def/Res worths 50% of the benefit of Per to Acc Increasing status duration is “around 50%” of the effects of INT (even if does not benefit to positive effects, I think resistance to CC is very critical) So, apart for Will Defense, Resolve would worth around 50% of the effects of INT + 50% of the effects of PER. So Resolve would worth as much as Int or Per. Note : For sure, spells such as Crown for the Faithful should be tuned down with this design.

Resolve (in Tyranny) and Intellect (in PoE) both increase the affliction time. And it is VERY powerful, at least in the right build. Affliction includes Damage over time (so basically, damages), relevant debuff (such as Terrified or Blind) and hard Crowd Control that completely prevents ennemy from attacking. Furthermore, Intellect also increases your own buff duration. Some buff are not that long, so it's quite relevant too. It should be underlined that high Accuracy (which could be increased by buff) + Hard Crowd Control is the easier way to win at the higher difficulty levels. However, if your character does not rely too much on such abilities, it is true than dumping Intellect does not hurt that much compared to other classes. But be warned one needs several characters with high INT for an optimal party.

I wonder if this is about wizards or just about single class characters. At first glance, single-class characters seem a bit UP. Multiclass characters get 7/9 Power Level, more passives (including the default one for each class such as carnage or sneak attacks) and x1,33 source point progression (If I got the wiki right). Not to mention they seem to be funnier. At level 1, it seems that Multiclass characters are even strictly better than single class because they get 2 abilities, 2x3 power sources trading with... basically nothing. Single classes seem to need a bit more love, such as some stuff at level 1. Maybe better starting power source or better power source progression could fix it in a simple way. (or at least nerf the multi to 2x2 starting power sources) Don't get me wrong, the very principle of Multiclasses trading a bit of raw power for versatility seems awesome, but I fear Single classes are currently a bit lacking.

"Changing one's mind" is not very "Woedican"...

The true question : Is there an efficient chanter build that actually relies on summons ?

Furthermore, the Penetration system seems currently a bit wrong too. Basically some weapons will get better damages (or DPS) and some others will get better penetration (less reduced by armor). This is the same "philosophy" as the old system except it is more robust against end game scaling (which is good) and it has a lot more "threshold effects", which implies tedious checking of actual values and less robustness against tiny variations (which is evil). I would be much more convinced by a more continuous calculation (even with some weird logarithmic curve which would cause damages to decrease quickly when penetration is unsufficient and to increase slowly when it exceeds the needed value). It is not like if Obsidian was affraid of complex mechanism (cough cough attack speed)

Reading this kind of thing makes me remember why I love this forum so much. It's good to talk about silly things such as gaming with educated people ---------- When I was reviewing the news about PoE 2 and I faced the same questions as the OP. (even if don't agree with the tone). I really loved the original game and I was not that enthusiastic about Obsidian changing everything. Basically, Multiclasses and Kits were all that I wanted for PoE2. The multiclass system actually looks perfect (even if it will certainly need a couple of tweaks). A multiclass character basically trades pure power for versatility and combo potential. It seems to be a very clever design. The first time I reviewed the kits, I thought that some felt imbalanced. I reviewed again the wiki recently and it already seemed better. Rest system was akward. Rest system was already akward in BG. It came from P&P and was made for it. It might be better if it is changed, even if it will cost some time and effort to the Devs. Might vs Strength feels a bit wrong. The stats system was almost perfect in the original game. Resolve needed a bit of buff (and maybe Constitution too, but a very minor one such as applying to healing spells for some reasons), but I don't like the way it is currently done. It opens the possibilities for Dump stats. Dump stats are I would have preferred if Resolve reduced Debuff duration or something like this. It would be a very interesting defensive stats in this case. I don't really understand why Obsidian wants to change this. Maybe they don't want all damages dealer to have High Might ? I suspect that Dexterity will be better in a system which relies on ressource generation (For example, Dex was usually better than Might for Cipher). We must remember two things : - PoE was incredibly more balanced than BG has ever been. They don't even play in the same league. This was not BG's fault, it is just that game design has been incredibly improved since BG's time. - It took about 2 years for PoE1 to go from "more or less balanced" to "almost balanced" which is its current state. So I would say that I'm pretty convinced that Obsidian will eventually succeed but a part of me would have preferred that they didn't change so much so the game would have been "trully completed" more quickly.

It is basically the reason behind this build, except it is mostly about items instead of scrolls : https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/89995-class-build-counselor-ploi-charming-paladin-supporter-tank/

For a Paladin, I would also consider Abydon's Hammer. The +4 MIG it brings to the table is awesome to buff the paladin's main source of damages : Sacred Immolation. +12% all damages and heal and +8 to arguably the most important secondary defense (Fortitude) synergize very well with Paladin's abilities. The stunning ring is also very potent, even if it has no "special interaction" with Paladin. Does anyone know if Sacred Immolation use Paladin's stats at the moment of Casting hit or check the current stats at each tick ? If the first one is true, holding Abydon's hammer while casting Ring of the Ancient Forge and Sacred Immolation then switching to Tidefall or any other pure DPS 2-hander might be great?

In endgame, Durance is better with sword and board, so it can offtank with his (too) high RES. It's not like he could get interrupted. Little Savior is the ultimate shield for him, and it won't hinder his Accuracy for Fire Storm and similar ultimate Priest endgame damage spells. On the other hand, Eder will be ultimately so tanky anyway that going Sword & Board is a waste of DPS. Fighters are better with dual wield or 2-hander. For the early game, you might keep Eder and Durance as they are, because tanking in the early game is not that easy, and you might prefer keeping your priest safe in the back row and your fighter as armored as needed. Chanter are actually very good as offtank with a shield or even as secondary tank. Remember that he will probably be your main DPS with Dragon trashed, so having him in the heart of melee is nice. You can give him the hardest possible armor, as Chanters don't give a ship about attack speed anyway. Alternatively, he is a good quickswitcher with guns as an island Aumaua.

You'll have more impact on combat when you'll get Sacred Immolation, trust me. Sacred Immolation is about half of max DPS you can get from a character on its own (The Dragon Trashed Chanter being #1 DPS and Sacred Immolation beinh around half of it). It is IN ADDITION to the snipes. That was one the point of having a lot of INT with this build. Overall, you won't be a DPS character (but Paladins aren't anyway), but you' ll be solid DPS with Alpha strikes an support, so you'll be fine. Having outworn buckler + melee weapon is also a decent backup. Party defense buff + flanking work You don't have to go melee to use it. That was one the point of having a lot of INT with this build.

About "stuff like zealous endurance", what are you thinking about ? Zealous Endurance + Shielding Flames is a good combination. That's the one I personnally used. I think you already have a priest to cast Blessing and there are also a couple of endgame items that can cast it too. So in general, I pick Zealous Endurance over Zealous Focus. Inspirating Triump is another good defensive option, but it was already in the build. Are you thinking about other defensive abilities ? I think I've already put the best ones in the original build ^^

Does that mean you use her ranged? I send her in the fray with a 2hander... am I wrong in doing this?? Pallegina stats aren't good for pure ranged, but she's great at quickswitching, or just alpha-shoting. Even if you go pure melee, Wrath of the Five suns will give her ranged alpha strike without even needing to change your weapons.

You can always swap an ability for another, but I thought Sworn Ennemy really suited the build (and RP). Liberating Exhortation is a good filler in case you need one. There are other options but I don't like them. You don't have to use it an ability each combat to make it useful. Sworn ennemy is really strong for boss fight, or just to kill a random though guy after you have killed your #1 priority target. Think about boss fight (the most critical) : won't you enjoy casting sworm ennemy on dragons or bounty ? Or ogre druid ? You might feel Sworn ennemy as an overkill for normal fight and... well, it is. But it is really nice for the most critical fight. Remember that is applies to everything from Spellbind items to Sacred Immolation, and it basically brings you above Cipher's level of weapon damage against 1 target. It is exactly the same as reviving exhortation : in a normal fight, you won't even use it. In a critical fight, it can save the day. By the way, NEVER EVER miss Sworn Ennemy and her Wrath of the Five Suns unique talent with Pallegina. It is her most powerful asset, and the reason why she is such a good sniper.

Well, for the pure mechanical point of view, Goldpact suits for sure. Goldpact are basically sworn cotract killer, so you don't need a very original background to have him become a sniper. It is basically a killer with a gun. It was a bit less counter-intuitive to have a Shieldbearer with a gun, but that is also what made this short story a bit more interesting to write.

Its even better on Rogue thanks to Deep Wounds and Deathblows. I've a good time playing a pirate themed rogue using Quick Switch (triple gun x Runaccuraner's Wounding Shot and Sap) and wielding those two babies at the moment. Arrr arrr.... I'm not convined that +20Acc from disciplined barrage isn't better than deathblow in this circunstance. Crowd Control with crazy acuracy is great, even if is worse for the damage part. By the way, do saber of the sea's wave hurt your party (like white crest's) or not (like swadding sheet) ?

It actually reminds me of an old build of mine, that was built around the high Accuracy from Disciplined Barrage and uses of spellbind items. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91836-class-build-the-unstoppable-wave-siege-breaker-fighter/ I had a lot of fun with him, but it would have worked even better with this new saber ! Maybe less damage than with twin Bittercut, but casting 3 waves per combat +1 per rest with +20Acc would have been priceless ! One might mix Bittercut with Saber of the Sea in order to spare Helwax Mold.