Elric Galad

Bear is meh. It's 33% slower attack speed than other pets for no reason with no bonus. Check Attack Speed Connundrum thread. Vicious Aim don't stack with Twinned Arrow. Stat are ok if you want to min max. I don't like to min max but that's up to you. Stalker Link is not a talent. You can't pick it up at level 8. Take Predator Sense at lvl 5 and Stalker Link at lvl 7 instead. For remaining talents, Marksman, Apprentice Sneak attack, Interrupting Blow are good choices. Penetrating shot is also very important with bows due to the number of target with high DR.

Bump. This topic is too interesting for PoE 2 to be abandonned. I would really love to see real multiclassing introduced in PoE 2 but I totally agree it wouldn't have been wise to aďd in PoE. Now, how to do this is the big question.

I tried Backstab + Invisibility from Feign death. Invisibility from Feign death is NOT cancelled by attacking. It sounded a potentially good combo. Backstab is indeed applied during the 6s duration from Feign Death. Then I used Salvation of Time on my rogue during the 6s persisting invisibility from Feign Death. I thought it could be PoE God Mode. Unfortunately, even if invisibilitt was kept active during Salvation of Time bonus 10s, Backstab itself ceased to work after the initial 6s duration. Not very consistent ^^

Shadowflame say hello ^^

Or e, based on probability.

Attack speed has always been unclear since the beginning of CRPG. It has always involved some weird fractions, decimal number, etc... As the audience (even gamers) are reluctant to see it, game designers are likely to simply hide the numbers instead of showing frightening maths. For example, I have never found on the web a clear explaination about how Dual Wield and its perks worked in Skyrim. That's true that there is confusion in PoE, but only for optimal build seekers. I'm pretty sure casual gamers is totally happy with the unclear description from tooltip. That won't change that much game experience. For Casual player, "fast', "faster", "average" and "+20% faster" are clear enough.

All is great news, but this got me curious. I am betting that the Barbarian base Deflection is finally getting buffed, after I (and others) have pointed out several times that it's laughably low. The funny thing about barb is that even with this stupid defense... they just don't die. They are just meatbag, especially with a little Con, Draining weapon and Savage defense. I hope Rogue would get a x5 Health multiplier like other martials (even ranger). Resting because Melee Rogue is out of Health just happens too often ^^

Skip Electrical talent. Embrace Earth Talon says Hello. Some says Gaze of the Adragan is good... This spell is less played only because not as convenient as storm...

From what I remember, yes (and bonus against disengagement attck too). I think it was the reason why I assumed they were identical.

Mmm, no. Devotion for the Faithful does not get overriden. Never. No Party buff has the same effect. It even stacks with Blessing and Radiance for a total +35 Acc Bonus. Nothing in this game can resist High Acc and CC spells. Storm might be the best CC spell of the game but you can replace it by other spells. But NOTHING comes close to Devotion Accuracy bonus. This spells will turn the tide of dangerous battle, of course combined with other spells. Might bonus and debuff part is just icing on the cake. Crown of the faithful is also extremely potent by the way. Storm might be very flashy and it ridiculizes even average battle (as you said), but it is not the best spell of the game. Thinking twice, I realize that might be your point : Devotion of the Faithfull is not able to trivialize most encounters the same way indeed ^^

I just checked about Itumaak, and it's actually slightly different from a wolf : +2 Dex, -2 Con. (and white soft fur...). Not stricly better, Con and Dex being both rather useful for pet. Maybe Dex is a bit better especially endgame with a crapload of healers.

Storm spells are the unique card druids have in their decks. If they got nerfed, all druid spells would need to get upgraded to keep things balanced. Honnestly, it's too close from the closure of PoE balancing. I would not support this request, even if I don't disagree entirely. Furthermore, Relentless Storm might be the most convenient spell to steamroll easy to middle encounters, but it's not even the most useful spell of the game : Devotion for the Faithful is.

27 hours would have been perfect for Planescape setting and its rule of 3 )

By the way, there is an interesting revelation about the gods in WM II. Gods do have a body. This body can be killed. Althought it is not enough to kill the god (as for mortal souls by the way), it seems to severely weaken them.

Sure Handed and Swift aim are active abilities, so they don't stack.

[*]Various game balance (particularly with Rogues and Barbarians). Great ! I didn't even hope this would have been planned ! Sorry for my doubts, but it's true that videogames have a long story of half-baked experience ^^

My current playthrough is : 2 chanters (Future Dragon trashers) 1 Wizard 1 Priest (Skaen) 1 Druid (stag, Main Character) 1 Ranger (wolf) I'm currently lvl 6 and it was not really difficult, even if I think having a Paladin (Zealous Endurance + Herald shield) is the best option for early game. Chill Fog trivializes a lot of encounter. Druid smashes. Chanters slowly degenerate ghosts (Swift Wind torgets fortitude) and finish battles with White Worms. The only difference with the previous party is more chanters means more tanks. But I would have been happy with a ranged hard hitter (my ranger was focused on her pet) when I faced Maerwald. I'm waiting for lvl 9 to steamroll everything. The party is meant to focus on AoE, with Ranger for Single Target as reliable constant DPS. By the way, Ranger is a real "warrior" class. Probably the strongest martial at the moment (except, of course, for tanking).

Dex also help to Interrupt more by the way.

What annoys me with Turning Wheel is that it starts dealing real damages only when you have 5+ wounds stacked due to lash mechanics. Iron wheel starts being effective once you get a couple of wounds stacked, which happens all the time. Plus it is really nice when you're monk is stunned and get gangbanged. It is the ability that makes Ondra monks so annoying to kill in spite of their very low base DR, even when paralyzed. I would always take Iron Wheel, whatever the build. But ok, we're not discussing about Turning Wheel vs Iron Wheel.

Well, Dexterity is basically a multiplicative DPS factor with everything (except for limited ressource). I think the bonus it provides is pretty much good whatever your build is. The only question left is when you have to prioritarize dexterity from other factors. 3 Dex is -21% DPS 20 Dex is +30% DPS

Buff from talents have always stacked as far as I remember. If not it is a recent change. But that is how Inspiring radiance works (for example).

I'll relax when they communicate. I can understand that they are not enthusiastic to annouce they will stop working on PoE. Many players will complain if there wishlist is not included in last patches... But they have to. I think PoE is in a pretty acceptable state except the few bugs mentionned in my previous post.

The Def/Ref stacking bug is a game braking bug that should have been corrected. I feel it is really not professional to leave it as it is. Double proc (and various 3.03 double stuff) is rather ugly too. Not exactly exciting when it comes to support PoE 2 crowfunding. They sould not forget that PoE has been made possible because of a bunch of niche players with 10 years long memory, not by the average gamer. We do not forget. For the rest (like Riposte being weak or various minor bugs, inconsistent description, etc...), it'd say it is rather acceptable. Not worse than BG2 and most games at least. This is how real world work. Sure, the game could have been a bit more finished, I'm a bit sad that it is not, but I have a lot of fun with current balance. Now comes the time of modding... We may have a chance to get the perfect game by this mean... even I admit I never took part in this kind of stuff )

Huh, interesting... Have checked and can confirm that: Nice testing ! But the conclusion is really sad as it confirm my thought that Bear and Lion are gimped.

Once more, thank you for your testing. And sorry, MaxQuest. I should have been more specific in my statements. I had read that Lion and Bear (and only them) had about 33% slower attack speed, while boar, antelope, wolf, Itumak and stag had similar attack speed. There seemed to be exactly 2 groups. Given that most pets (except wolf and Itumaak) had the same damages, lions and bears were a bit gimped. Slight differences could be explained by Dex. It was an old topic. I could try to find its trace. You have unfortunately only picked pets from the same group. So your testing is pretty much consistent with what I had in mind (except I had no proof that all pets from same group had exactly the same attack speed). Aren't Itumaak stats supposed to be exactly the same as wolf ? I was surprised by the 15 dex from your testing.