Nobear

No reason not to max both on any caster. If you're playing a traditional back row caster you can safely dump Con even on PoTD, because I've found that, with two tanks, focus firing any enemies who get to your back row is more effective than playing your back row defensively. Ironically, it's also best to max Might for any caster who's anything but a pure CCer, because Might affects all damage including magic. Then I put whatever is left in Resove and Per instead of Con, because those are better defensive stats, but I don't raise either above average. I put slightly more in Resolve than Per, because, if my caster is ever being hit, the most important thing is that s/he not be interrupted. As far as which to prioritize for culture bonus or equipment and buffs as you level, it depends on the caster's role. For Ciphers I prioritize Strength because they hit harder and consequently get more focus for spells. People tend to like Dex best for Priests so they can spam buffs and other spells quickly. For a Wizard focused on CC, I'd probably prioritize Int so his spells hit a larger area. But these fine-tune decisions are based on personal preference and exactly what role you want your casters to play. The important thing is, in character creation, max Str, Int and Dex, but a single point more in one vs another won't make a huge difference.

That's the total time the chant will last, taking into account your Int. The chant effect begins as soon as you start chanting, you just aren't able to move to the next chant until the duration is up. Int won't change the duration, meaning you'll be able to move on to the next chant just as quickly. Instead, it will extend Linger, meaning it'll last longer even after you've moved onto other chants. I haven't tested it, but I think Int will affect the total duration for the % it says, and since the only portion affected is the Linger portion, the effect of Int on your chants' Linger is huge. In your case, your Linger is lasting 14.9 - 6 - 5 = 3.9 sec or 78% longer than its base duration. Edit: We could test this. If I'm correct, your durations are 14.9/(6 + 5) = 1.35X as long as base, which means you have 17 Int?

There are probably legitimate reasons why it might take longer to put out one distribution vs another. What I'm saying is, even if it takes longer for legitimate reasons, I would prefer that the later distributions use the same build. I don't know if the developers think they are doing GoG gamers a favor or making up for the time delay by giving them a more up-to-date build, or if it's easier for them to do it this way for some reason. My argument is that it would be better for a given version to be consistent across distributions, even if one takes longer to put out, because then we'd be on the same page. It is harder to fix bugs if they only happen with some distributions and not others. Guides and advice for builds, etc. also have to take these nuances into account, or else be misleading to part of the player base. It gives the impression that, in some cases, the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand the way things are currently set up. When I report a bug, it'd be nice to know that people can agree it exists, and that it will be squashed for all distributions, instead of having some distributions fix (and create) bugs at different times, leading to messy confusion and a less polished game overall.

Ok, it really hurt to reveal this one, because I am really enjoying milking it. It allows me to make a paladin with low Int whose auras literally span the entire map well before I finish Act 1. I am attaching two save files, each with its own log file after loading the save. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4ekryoexxddl6n2/AAA8aILZZczPGYaoPhJXSbK9a?dl=0 is from just after picking up Durance at level 3. My paladin's aura is already bigger than it should be given her Int. The custom formation is bugged, but can be fixed by clicking it again (I posted about this issue separately). https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3ly8j0fhcgyxy10/AACmb5gr0F4hR2eiyk-easF5a?dl=0 is from later on in the play through, but still at level 3. My party is stealthed preparing for a tough fight in the Temple of Eothas. You can guide it safely out, and walk the paladin clear across half the map almost to the entrance of the lower temple level, before the aura just barely falls off. Some observations: 1) These saves are from a play through with a paladin with 14 Int. I have much more extreme examples from a 20 Int play through, but this allows you to clearly see the difference that it makes as time goes on without even leveling up, yet before the aura becomes larger than the whole map. 2) On the other play through I had Zealous Focus instead of Zealous Endurance, and the same thing happens. 3) I cannot pinpoint what the aura growing is a function of, but whatever it is is in turn a function of time played, XP gained, or something that tends to increase steadily over time. I guess I'll play a 14 Int paladin with Zealous Focus through Act 1, at which point she can easily get 20 Int through an item and resting bonus, and her aura will still legitimately cover the party using my custom formation when this gets fixed . Sorry to anyone else who was having a field day! Edit: One more point: I only started noticing the growing auras since the GoG hotfix to 1.0.6, not with the initial 1.0.6 release. However, the effects are retroactive. In other words, some of those save files are from before I updated to 1.0.6, so the same saves will have normal auras on other versions but grown auras on the bugged version(s).

You're welcome, and I like Dropbox!

Ok I just loaded the save file I am uploading and clicked on the ground, to refresh the log file and double check that the formation was bugged. Here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4fxctl2rampaj2o/AAD7hPqJjzuBtJMW9KYyfdk0a?dl=0 Let me know if you get the files.

Ok I downloaded it, but would a log file still be useful or not, seeing as these are saves from several days ago and I have played since then including on other playthroughs?

So you are saying that these Herald shields are not always the obvious choices, even playing on a version where they stack AND are group wide? Well maybe the Herald shields don't need to be nerfed then. I think more important would be to get consistency across the various versions of PoE so that players can be on the same page. To the developers: would it be feasible to use the same build for all the distributions of a given version?

Actually, I realized I do have a file still saved with the formation bugged. However, when I try to upload it it says I don't have permission to upload this type of file. It is under the 1MB limit. What is wrong and how can I upload it? Thanks.

I have updated to the Mac GoG hotfix for 1.0.6, and I can confirm that the Outworn Buckler is now stacking with effects from other sources, but that it no longer applies to any other party members. Part of me wishes I had taken a more clear stand on this lol. I guess any change is a tradeoff. From a gameplay balance perspective, it seems good and not overpowered. From a design perspective, it seems like the designers were originally thinking the Herald effect would apply to the whole party, based on the description of the shield and, well, the word "herald." In making it a self-only buff, paladins lose a certain cool uniqueness and advantage of their class: that these shields just for them would help inspire the party. On the other hand, nerfing their unique shields makes a wider range of shields comparatively viable for them. How do the designers feel about this outcome, if it's not how they intended it, and how do other players feel? I've got mixed feelings. Because it stacks, it is now a more obvious choice over a standard Fine large shield, when I have two tanks and it's one of the first two unique shields available. However, it also means I'll most likely be replacing it sooner, since it's no longer special. Also, is the latest Steam version working the same way? Are the GoG and Steam versions the same build now? Edit: Maybe a compromise could be to make it party-wide again (and stack), but lessen the effect slightly, like 4 to defenses for Outworn Buckler and 8 for Little Savior.

So far I have only played through Act 1 on PoTD (including all side quests and tasks). This is with my main as a paladin tank and Eder as the other tank. Then I have Aloth, Durance and Kana, and a hired adventurer Cipher that I plan to replace with Grieving Mother because I enjoy the game more with companions (their funny banter, backstories, etc.) There were only two cases where I ever had trouble with enemies attacking members other than my two tanks. One is fighting spirits that teleport, and the other is those female tree-like creatures (forget their name) as you first approach Defiance Bay, who summon blights on your back row. For both of these cases, or for the occasional mistake you might make in properly positioning the fight, what I did was have my tanks stay put while my four DPS all focus fired the offending target. It usually died quickly, before it could kill anyone. Alternately, I have tried putting plate armor on all my characters when I'm about to fight shades, focusing on the shades first, and this did not work as well. The DPS hit from playing this defensively outweighs the benefit. Your back row dies slower, but it eventually still dies and the enemies don't. You can get into situations where, if you have a lot of healing ability, your party members will eventually die from lost health even though their endurance is being replenished. The other important thing is crowd control, to survive a messy situation, but also to prevent it. With the summoning she-trees or whatever they are, a Cipher can cast Mental Binding right away or after her alpha shot, then a priest can lay down a couple of Repulsing Seals to incapacitate them much longer than Slicken can. Then they don't summon blights and the fight becomes much more controlled. In retrospect, I am questioning my decision to dump Con on my paladin tank. As I described can happen if your back row plays defensively when attacked, there were fights in Act 1 where my paladin tank died or almost died from loss of health, not endurance. I'm thinking of starting yet again (am I ever going to finish Act 2? LOL) with a Moon Godlike Darkozzi tank specced 10/14/4/18/14/18. I had a build like this but Shieldbearer, and I am thinking Darkozzi is the better choice for PoTD because their FoD buff actually lasts a whole tough fight instead of just a little slice of it.

While certain people from the outside might group all RPGs together, you do have a good point that they can differ significantly in style and focus, and, by extension, in audience. So PoE, belonging to a lineage of RPGs considered spiritual successors to Baldur's Gate, has an audience that is, generally, more demanding in the details of game mechanics. Granted. That said, balance is still not as paramount in any single-player game as in a multiplayer game, and some people are acting as if the various classes in PoE were competing against each other in PvP, or for raiding spots in an MMO. I think one advantage of a single-player game is that it doesn't have to fall victim to what I'd consider over-balancing. I'll give WoW as an example, at the other extreme from Oblivion, as a game that became over-balanced at the expense of classes being unique and fun. As just one of many examples, take healing. Each class of healer once had its niche: druids were best for HoTs (heal over time), priests or shamans for AoE heals, and paladins for single-target throughput (typically as a main tank healer). But instead of embracing their class's uniqueness and taking pride in what they brought to the table, many players complained that they couldn't heal as well in the niche of another class. In response, Blizzard gave all healing classes the same basic healing spells, that differed only in graphical appearance. More balanced? Yes. More fun or interesting? Hell no. A better game? Not in my book! Before you point out how different a game WoW is from PoE (even though they're both RPGs), that's the point. A single-player game doesn't have to fall victim to overbalancing if it sacrifices uniqueness between classes or - ultimately - fun. I grant that there are probably a number of options for balance tweaks to PoE that would be overall positive changes, I'm just arguing that the balance doesn't need to be so close to perfect as it would if it were a multiplayer game. I like looking forward to a spell or ability with my mouth watering thinking "this is godly, I can't wait to see the pain this brings." It doesn't bother me that some spells are better than others, as long as they're not game-breaking and the overall experience is sufficiently challenging and enjoyable, which it is for me so far.

As I said in the edit, it fixed itself, probably when I clicked the formation again as you point out. I have since saved over the file when the issue was present, sorry! So I guess it's a minor bug if it has a known solution, fixing it would just add more polish to the game. Keep up the good work!

I'd say this game's balance is on the better end of RPGs. Optimizing stats/items/etc. makes things marginally easier than they would be otherwise, as should be the case. Compare this with games where optimizing makes things orders of magnitude easier. I am thinking of Oblivion, or any Elder Scrolls game for that matter. To go with Oblivion, let me just name one example. If you pick the Breton race, you get a flat 50% resistance to ALL magic. Why would you choose any other race unless you were trying to cripple yourself or RP? Then you get ONE ring (ironically called the Mundane Ring) with another 50% resistance, which adds to give you complete immunity to magic. Then you're immune not just to damaging spells, but to any and all magic effects, making the game so trivial it feels totally cheap, even at maximum difficulty. There are tons of other legitimate ways to make yourself ridiculously overpowered. This also means the difficulty curve is ridiculous. On max difficulty, the game starts out hard, but becomes trivial as you progress. Fortunately the game (and series) has other merits, like the story and open world, but this level of imbalance made me lose interest anyway. So... saying PoE is imbalanced, when such a hugely popular and successful RPG series as Elder Scrolls is orders of magnitude worse, makes me roll my eyes. PoE is balanced enough to keep my interest, and that's all the balance that's really necessary for a single-player RPG. Minor balance tweaks would have to be judged on a case-by-case basis: some might improve the game, whereas some might go too far, or take development time to present a trade-off that isn't a net benefit. As for bug fixes, tooltip accuracy, consistency across different interface elements such as the character sheet... yeah, those things would make the game feel more polished, and improve an already great game. Just my 2c.

I saw my endurance draining quicker than I'd expect from Wood Beetles, but I didn't actually check the combat log. I'll check it next time I'm in a similar situation. So does the timer on effects freeze and they continue right where they left after LE, or do they only continue if their effect is longer than LE?

Because I just used it for the first time on my paladin tank, on herself, when she got poison from a Wood Beetle. It didn't remove the poison, which, with dumped Con on PoTD, means she becomes the weak link in these cases for needing to rest frequently. So is Liberating Exortation supposed to be limited in the things it suspends, or should I post this as a bug?

Oh yes, the priest has so many spells, it's easy to forget these situational ones. Thanks for reminding me that they're there .

Wow I didn't even think of that, of course. So there is no way to actually remove those mechanics huh? No mental unshackling spell, and one that suspends afflictions only affects allies who are NOT turned, is this correct? FWIW come to think about it, friendly fire from this hasn't been a major problem, probably because the rogue is most likely going to hit your tanks, but I haven't played far enough to become properly Dominated either, only Confused and Charmed.

Thanks, I wouldn't have known otherwise, because it hasn't been announced yet.

Darkozzi is fine for tank if that fits you well. I'm playing Shieldbearer, and I can tell you I was disappointed to find out that the +10 Deflection on FoD doesn't affect the paladin himself, just all the other nearby allies. If you read the lore blurb in character creation, it kinda makes sense because the original shield bearers weren't defending themselves, but a diplomat. I still like it for my other tank (and back row if things get messy, like with shades), but Darkozzi I'd say is just as solid for a tank. Durance can still get the other accuracy boost from the Inspiring Radiance talent, and you just cast it at the beginning of a fight instead of using it to heal. At low levels I am choosing other talents first (Interdiction, Painful Interdiction) since a per-encounter heal is nice, before your level 1 spells become per-encounter. That Inspiring Radiance, BTW, is a special snowflake, in that it will stack with other accuracy effects like the priest's other spell. Edit: My paladin tank has Zealous Focus, but she also has a natural 20 Int. I had to dump both Dex and Con for that, which is not as bad as it sounds. I have started over many times trying to get the build just right, and I can tell you that, even at 19 Int, her aura doesn't quite reach one of my allies. This is with a custom formation where the allies furthest back are one row up from the furthest back possible. It literally takes that 20th point to get that coverage, so I wouldn't sweat your choices. They are very different from mine, but should work just fine.

That's actually a very good point. Ranged gun chanters are awesome. Their Sure-Handed Ila chant will give a flat constant boost of 20% speed to everyone's ranged attack AND reload speed, both of which affect guns, arbalests and crossbows. Then you get plenty of bonus from Int, like range and duration of chants, on top of the proc effects from certain classes of ranged weapons, or certain unique weapons. You build them the same: key attributes are Str, Dex and Int, with the rest up to personal preference. Only thing is giving him both high lore and high mechanics means you can't get either one as high (or at least not as early on). You only need one mechanic in your party, so it could be him, with his lore being decent but secondary, or he could focus on lore if someone else is a mechanic. Lore opens up more dialogue choices if it's on your main.

Cool, have fun. Oh yeah, another good thing about Resolve (and/or Int) is that you don't want your rogue being confused/charmed/dominated. All that pain on your own party!

Duration of his debuffs like Blind and Hobble are also longer. Also, if you get a ranged weapon that can stun, the stun will last longer. Some ranged weapons I think have stun on crit, and rogues have abilities and talents to increase their crit chance. I would max Str, Dex and Int for that build. Even if you don't want to min/max while roleplaying, it would also make roleplaying sense to have all of those abilities at least somewhat high.

The rogue's Deep Wounds works differently than Wounding Shot. Namely, Deep Wounds does a fixed amount of Raw damage per tick, so it's not diluted either by enemy DR or by higher Intellect. However, considering that, as has been stated, reapplying it only extends its duration and doesn't cause it to stack, I'd say Int is pretty close to useless. On the other hand, for your main character, you might actually consider dumping Con and Int and maxing Str, Dex and Resolve, with the rest in Per. This would have a couple of benefits: a) Resolve is checked often for conversations, which only your main character is used for, and b) your rogue would be very resistant to being interrupted. When he does get hit, this would help keep his DPS high. If you have a priest, Withdraw is very good for keeping him alive if his endurance drops, though this will take him out of combat for a while. Personally, i don't mind the short debuff duration from dumped Int, because for me his initial hit is just to get the ball rolling. Then other party members blind and do other CC to a whole area. I personally would not build him planning for a future version that we don't really know about yet. There may or may not be a change to Per, there may or may not be changes to other attributes, and it may or may not come with a free respec anyway. Even if the attributes are changed without a free respec, you can always "respec" using console commands. It has been pointed out that you can even keep Steam achievements active through use of a certain mod. Whether this would still feel cheap to you under the circumstances is totally a personal thing.

lol it's ok. I mean I'm still interested to know, because I haven't replaced my adventurer with Grieving Mother yet and could always take different skills on her, but my adventurer is taking all CC skills instead since I don't fully understand Recall Agony.