Nobear

Wut? It even works with figurines. Yet another reason rangers suck. Yes. My default strategy for it is to have Eder use a figurine (just behind enemy lines if that's within range of the summon) as soon as he's gotten in position, then cast Echo on the summon and have it run around as needed to melt enemies.

First, neither myself nor most other players found any use for effects that increase engagement. It doesn't seem to actually make a difference in holding enemies in place. The few enemies that run or teleport past tanks will do so with or without it. I'd like to know if this has changed in 2.0. Second, have you confirmed by testing that you can get back up twice in one encounter with Unbroken + a Second Chance item? That sounds cool if you can, especially with the nerf to tankiness in 2.0, I just don't know whether those effects stack like that or not.

The most important tip I can give is not an item, but a strategy. CC and focus fire any such enemy that goes past your tanks to attack your back row for whatever reason. This is far better than having a tank run around just to try to tank one more enemy, which will cause him to suffer disengagement attacks and create more of a mess than it cleans up. There are also the rare scrolls that boost deflection for the whole party, there are some great priest spells to temporarily protect/save allies, and paladins can get Reinforcing Exhortation to temporarily boost deflection for an ally (but not themselves). Edit: While it's usually best not to subject your tanks to disengagement attacks, there are summons from figurines that any class can use, which you could use as a temporary tank for one enemy so the party member he's attacking can get away. Your party member will still suffer a disengagement attack (unless the enemy is CCd), but it won't be so bad as a tank running around with several enemies on him.

To quote myself: and further down: For explanations, please scroll up and read the rest of what I've already written. Thanks. Concentration only helps you when you're actually being hit, which should be rarely if you've got high Per, Int, Might, and Dex (which I'd probably rank in that order for 2.0), and are keeping fights well controlled with CC. If you want to have as much as 10 Con rather than dump it, I'd probably either take points equally from all your important stats, or maybe just from Might and Dex to keep Per and Int maxed. Which of these you choose will hardly make a difference. The most important things are to wear light armor (or even enchanted clothing) for max DPS and CC uptime, and focus on these types of powers to maximize your personal and party survivability. Edit: I realize that walls of text can be hard to take in all at once, which is why I kept this post shorter. I don't mean to be short or discourage your questions. Everyone starts new, and I hope you enjoy the game.

Ok, well Easy should still be easy enough for you to experiment with alternative non optimal builds and characters, and if not, this game has cheat codes too . The good news for you is, though, I can say some of the writing and story and banter between companions at random times can be quite good. Some of it is funny, some serious with an interesting twist here and there. If that's more the kind of thing you play for, I'm pretty confident it'll be worth any frustrations in combat you might have. Also, PoE allows you to skip most of the combat if you want to. Especially if your main character has high Resolve (and, to a lesser degree, Int and Per), you'll be able to talk your way to a non-combat solution for most of the game, with only a few key encounters you pretty much have to fight to progress. There are people who have beat the game with an astonishingly low number of kills. Getting as low as 12 or so probably requires soloing with a stealthy rogue, but you should still be able to avoid the vast majority of all the possible fights in the game with any party.

Hi there, I'd say either Darkozzi or Shieldbearer. Darkozzi has a talent for Flames of Devotion to grant yourself a weak form of Flame Shield for 15 sec, but the really popular talent modifies Liberating Exhortation to grant +10 accuracy to an ally for 20 sec, and this can be applied twice to the same ally to stack! It's especially popular to give a cipher super high accuracy to keep things CCd. In patch 2.0 the accuracy of your allies might be high enough vs most enemies, but perhaps for the really tough ones like Adra Dragon it could still make a meaningful difference. Shieldbearer has a talent for Flames of Devotion to grant nearby allies +10 Deflection for 10 sec. The only caveat is it doesn't apply to yourself, but it can help other tanks/offtanks/melee you have, and even ranged if things get messy. I was questioning my choice to make my paladin a Moon Godlike Shieldbearer, but in 2.0 tanks will be a bit squishier across the board, so I can see both abilities becoming useful in more fights than they currently are, especially on PoTD.

Well you could certainly max Con then, and maybe keep Per at 10. The only high-damage ability that paladins have (Flames of Devotion) has a built-in +20 accuracy anyway, but as I recall you don't even use that. In that case, it seems you're looking at more of a pure tank again, which is probably your best bet in a full party, what with paladins never doing great damage even if you try to make them some kind of hybrid. You'd have high Fort, that's for sure, which is probably your most important defense as a paladin after Deflection, seeing as you get Reflex from Weapon and Shield Style and your class has its own way to protect against Will attacks. I don't feel like thinking about it much or loading up the game, but see what stats you can come up with if you dump Dex, max Res, and keep Per at 10. Keep in mind the growing aura cheese has been fixed in 2.0. There's a paladin-only necklace from Dyrford Village that increases your aura size by 20%, but I'll probably prefer to keep my Int high enough to use something else for my neck slot if I can. Considering that they also reduced the Int bonus of the Defiance Bay inn from 4 to 2, you may actually need maxed Int to have your auras cover your whole party without the necklace, depending on your formation.

First, Hard is not so hard that you need to get everything "perfect." Certain parts of it will probably be challenging as you are first learning the game, but improving your strategy and tactics in pre-combat positioning and while fighting will make a much bigger difference for this than getting your stats just so. Second, you'll be able to respec in 2.0, so you can experiment and "mess up" all you want! I recently wrote this advice for someone asking for ranged cipher advice for 1.0.6. My advice on powers remains unchanged, although 2.0 will probably add a couple more powers for the new level cap. The talents will vary slightly depending on your weapon choice. Boeroer makes a case further down for certain weapons other than blunderbusses/pistols. Nobody outside of Obsidian knows what the best unique/soulbound weapons will be in the expansion, so you'll get to explore and experiment there like the rest of us. Currently though, the weapon focus you choose makes very little difference - certainly not enough to bother even debating for difficulties below PoTD. Also, for all we know, there may be some really good soul bound weapon added in the expansion for ranged ciphers that benefits from any weapon focus you choose, which would bring this concern from practically moot to entirely moot. 2.0 is also adding cross-class talents, but IDK what they all are and which will be optimal for ciphers. Again, we're all in the same boat as far as what we can and can't plan for in the expansion, but it doesn't matter because you'll be able to respec anyway! Stats will change in 2.0. But both pre- and post-2.0, Dex is not necessarily the best stat for ciphers. It's good, but so is Might. Both stats affect your DPS and Focus generation, but only Might affects the damage of powers that you can't spam because, as a ranged cipher, you're almost always going to be limited by your Focus generation rate no matter how good it is. Therefore I'd rank Might slightly higher than Dex, but guess what? You can max both! Go ahead and dump Res. You could dump Con or keep it at 10, but don't go any higher than that. You can have all four important stats high this way. If you also dump Con, you can have them all maxed and one high. The one I wouldn't max is probably Dex, actually, because of how important Might, Int and Per all are in 2.0. As I've stated above, the best way to insure survivability, both for yourself and for your party, is to focus on your abilities, especially CC. Think about it. Would you rather have one of six characters in your party have short-lasting (low Int) or unreliable (low Per) CC, or gimp your Focus regeneration (low Might or Dex) so you can't CC as often, but go around with defensive stats and heavy armor to outlive the occasional enemy that overflows around your tank(s) to come after him/her? Or would you rather keep the fight controlled so that all six of your party members are avoiding damage as much as possible? That's the survivability that a cipher brings to himself and the whole party. Yes, wood elf is generally considered the best race for anyone who's planning to stay at range. Lastly, though, if you're looking for a main who's good at talking, why insist on making it your cipher? It's very early in the game that you can start either finding companions or recruiting adventurers to your party, so you could add a cipher cheaply at level 2 as soon as you get to the Gilded Vale inn. Paladins and priests each have an ability that scales in power based on your dialogue choices, but only if it's your main. So, if you want to have a paladin or priest in your party at all, it'd be most optimal to make it your main. A paladin tank is especially well-suited to having great stats for conversation, as well as gaining lots to his defenses as you build dispositions through dialogue choices that align with his order's preferred dispositions.

Good point. Jarmo, it sounds like flavor is very important to you, and the game is quite beatable with almost any setup below PoTD. One thing I find, though, is that new players often focus all their attention on one character. Are you planning to solo, play with a full party of six, or something in-between? My advice might vary significantly depending on these factors. One thing you should know, though, is that Fighter would be the worst class for having two weapon foci, because it's not only one of your six talents for each weapon focus you choose, but Fighters can also choose an ability and another class-specific talent to grant +15% and +10% bonus damage with a weapon class, respectively. These abilities and talents are all optional, of course, but without them, Fighters have very little in the way of class-related damage boosts. They are, after all, meant to be balanced with tanking also heavily in mind. In the end, PoE is very flexible, with every class being able to use both melee and ranged weapons, so eat your heart out if you want to experiment with any of them. Even suboptimal builds and party compositions are certainly viable below PoTD difficulty. Edit: Oh! I almost forgot. Since you're talking about 2.0, there will be soul bound weapons added in the expansion. IDK how many or what types, but one of their features is that any of them will use whatever weapon focus you have chosen. 2.0 will also allow respecs, so you could have two weapon foci if you want, then respec to just one when you get a soul bound weapon.

lol agreed... Well, fortunately you can easily justify taking all three level 6 powers, as there are only three to choose from. You'd only be skipping a fourth power in one of the lower tiers, and I don't see a tier with four super-good powers (that currently work ).

I will still be maxing Resolve on tanks and probably all melee characters, especially solo ones, because I love not only the deflection but the concentration. It still works out to be not only a defensive boost but a DPS boost when you're getting hit, and you're more likely to perform actions like use scrolls or potions reliably as well. The way I see it, boosts to your defenses and concentration get more valuable the more you have, up to a certain very high number that most or all classes probably won't be able to attain in 2.0. As the appropriate defense score approaches the point of invulnerability (or, more realistically, the point where you only get grazed, or before that, the point where you no longer get crit), the change in the % chance of receiving the respective type of hit becomes more dramatic with the same defense value added. For example, if you have a 20% chance to be crit vs a given enemy and you add 10 Defense, that will halve your chance to 10%. You only need to add 5 more Defense to halve that chance again to 5%. Add another 5 and you become totally immune to crits against that enemy. Conversely, each additional point in Might, Con, Dex, or any stat that grants an additive advantage that doesn't approach any hard upper limit, is less valuable than the point before it. Your first point in Con, for instance (going from 3 to 4 Con), will take you from 65% of base health/endurance to 70%. .70/.65 = a 7.7% increase. Going from 10 to 11 Con, of course, is a 5% increase. Going from 17 to 18 Con will take you from 135% of base health/endurance to 140%. 1.40/1.35 = a 3.7% increase. What I don't have is math to directly compare the relative values of Con and deflection. But, if they are within the ballpark of well-balanced now, my instincts would be to keep maxing Res, but have at least 10 Con, maybe more if it works out with your overall stat spread.

What Raven said. Specifically, Con went from 3% health/endurance per point to 5%. It doesn't surprise me if you're still making do in a full party where your non-tanks have low Con, their health/endurance will just be a bit lower than before. Not enough to make them fall over when sneezed on though, so it's still a matter of personal preference.

He said it's when you get confused, by which he meant the form of mind control other than charmed or dominated, but it makes sense with any mind control for your character to do random things that uh... don't make sense . I'm just glad the unarmed set has been removed in 2.0, according to chalsengi, when you are manually switching sets with the 'W' key.

That's good enough for me. I'm going to assume it was intentional unless it's ever reversed for whatever reason. Thanks for the info.

So many inconsistencies and unclear tooltips... Well it's good to know how powerful that ability is now, thanks.

When I cycle through weapon sets with the 'W' key, I only have two weapon sets and only ever want to switch back and forth between these, yet I end up cycling between three sets, the third being unarmed. Maybe some monks might find this useful, but I don't. Any way to turn this off so the unarmed set never comes up?

Disintegration... I'm looking at a guide that says it's 35 Focus for a Slow cast, single target that deals 25 Raw damage over 15 sec. Is that info outdated? That sounds pretty lackluster to me, unless it means 25 damage per second for 15 sec instead of 25 damage total.

The other benefit of dual wielding is that the active abilities (like Blinding Strike and Crippling Strike) are instant attacks based on attacking with both hands. A two-hander does a bit more damage than a one-hander, but not near twice as much, so your special active abilities will also be significantly more powerful dual-wielding with two slow one-handers like sabres. As far as whether you can play a rogue with a two-hander, sure you can. In that case, though, you may want to consider a reach weapon, so that you can at least have the advantage of not taking as much damage. You can have your rogue swinging over the head of a tank, for instance, and this will help with bad pathing issues at chokepoints as well.

Melee or ranged? If ranged, you don't need to focus on survivability at all, even on PoTD. In 2.0 you might not want to dump Con, but the last thing you want to do is wear heavy armor. Your DPS and Focus gain will be more important to the survival of your party as a whole than will your personal survivability. In the fights that actually pose any threat to your back row at all (that can't be countered with the appropriate priest spell), like ones with teleporting Shadows, I have tried it both ways. Equipping my back row with plate armor, they still eventually died despite lots of heals, because their Health will eventually wear down and you can only heal Endurance. The same fights were easier when I had my back row in robes, and had them CC and focus fire any Shadow that got to them.

Melee rogues have the highest single-target DPS in the game, but lack AoE, which is basically what he said.

Ok thank you, I'll see how that compares for me. Edit: Hmm, so there's no way to avoid getting one-shot by the Adra Dragon as a cipher if you let her get to you, no matter your build? I guess you'd pretty much have to use a bow and somehow keep her permanently at max range then, huh? Like the guy with the solo ranger kill video, except you don't have any CC that lasts nearly as long as a ranger's Binding Roots. Maybe with a lot of Paralyze scrolls? lol sheesh that'd be one heck of a challenge however you played it.

I'm much more concerned with maximizing my combat performance, than with passing the highest number of dialogue and scripted event checks possible. So do you think it would be an improvement in combat to go from 18/9/4/18/10/19 to 18/9/10/3/19/19? How about 18/3/16/3/19/19, or do you think that'd be too squishy? One consequence of the last build would be terrible Fortitude, but how important is Fort for soloing as a melee character? So far, the only Fort-targetting abilities I've encountered have been CC effects that would probably still perma-stun me with a decent Fort score, and I'm thinking figurines might be the best thing I can do to avoid them. The middle build would have terrible Reflex. Would taking Weapon and Shield Style be enough to make up for this? Decisions decisions... my toughest enemy keeping me from beating PoTD solo may prove to be indecision!

So what build would you recommend for melee cipher soloing in 1.0.6? As I say, my current build is 18/9/4/18/10/19. I'd like to have more Dex or Int, but I didn't think I could justify not maxing deflection. So what would your stat spread be? Edit: I do appreciate the concentration resistance from maxed Resolve more than the interrupt of Perception, especially since I have other stronger methods for CC. If I went from maxing Per to dumping it, I'd lose 15 deflection, which seems pretty significant, but do you think my build would still be improved overall by doing this and putting more in Dex and/or Int?

Very much agreed. Echo is crazy good for its level, and remains a welcome part of your toolkit even at max level.

Sickened + Weakened stacking is something I only recently was made aware of. This does sound super effective, considering that Amplified Wave is awesome even without enemy debuffs when cast instantly at the start of combat. Using it at the start is especially useful for preventing certain enemies from CCing you while your priest buffs with the appropriate spells to counter, and your wizard buffs his crit and accuracy in preparation to follow up that Amplified Wave with his own Slicken while your cipher's Focus builds back up. Your druid, in the meantime, can lay down Tanglefoot so that the Slicken will also be as effective as possible. The OP was asking in another thread about the dream team party we'd recommend. Maybe those synergies I mentioned with priest, wizard, and druid will give him some ideas. Then add a fighter tank and paladin tank, and you've got one smooth-sailing, well-balanced party with super controlled fights. Very beginner friendly.