Killabkilled

Hang on: All those abilities with 0.5 sec cast time in RTwP, are they not insta-cast in TB?

Is it better to better to go Ascendant and build around the idea of spamming out insta-cast abilities while ascended, or to go No Subclass and build around casting shared nightmare-sized amplified waves consistently over time? (I read somewhere that ascended only last 2 or 3 turns in TB.) The would be for a use in a party, btw. Follow-up question: What's the fastest way for a single-classed Ascendant to reach ascended in TB, considering that 2H Dual-wielding/speed-based melee is less good, and assuming that the hand mortars are reserved for another character? (Possible candidates: Watershaper's Focus, Amira's Wing, Red Hand, Essence Interrupter) EDIT: I meant dual-wielding, not 2H

as you know, if this patch (2.1) is still not available?Because I read the patch notes? Have not you been mistaken? The patch is 2.1 and not 2.0.1! Patch notes for 2.1: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105415-v210-is-now-available-on-the-beta-branch/

as you know, if this patch (2.1) is still not available? Because I read the patch notes?

Dammit, still not fixed with the 2.1 patch....

This is a good tip. I may start out in chain and then switch to something lighter at higher levels. Also, all this about afflictions is extremely helpful. Thank you! I was debating whether to have a Celebrant or a Templar do the healbot/buffbot job. Sounds like you'd recommend Celebrant.

Which passives/buffs? Fleet Feet & Elemental Bulwark: You're right; these are good additions. Wizard's Double & Mirrored Image: I assumed they would be suppressed by Arcane Veil? Deleterious Alacrity: Doesn't it immunize you from engagement? A tank wants engagement. Llengrath's Safeguard: I hope never to be bloodied. Minor Arcane Reflection/Arcane Reflection/Llengrath's Reflection: I figured 1 of these was enough and picked the middle one. Spell Reflection: Isn't Arcane Reflection better than 10% chance to resist? Great Soul, other Empower stuff: I don't see this build being a big empowerer. I figured Lasting Empower would be enough. Anything I missed? I thought about it, but assumed the Level IX version, Arcane Cleanse was better. Was I wrong? EDIT: Also, how does the stat distribution look to you?

So I'm creating a totally revamped party and rethinking the different jobs and what classes with what stats can do them. And I was thinking, "Who is there in a party that doesn't need to do damage, for whom you can dump Might?" And that gave me the idea of.... Name : Arcane Wimp Tank Role: No-might Wizard tank and disabler Class: Solo-class Wizard, no subclass Race: Nature Godlike Background: Old Valian Laborer Active Skill(s): Athletics (quite a contradiction for a no-might character) Passive Skill(s): Metaphysics, History Intended for solo: No Difficulty: PotD v. 1.2 Stats: MIG: 3 CON: 10 DEX: 19 PER: 13 INT: 20 RES: 13 The idea is simple: spend a few seconds at the start of combat throwing up 4 or 5 self buffs (which the POE2 AI fortunately excels at), then start the disabling. This guy leaves all damage dealing 100% up to his partymates. Key Gear: Cadhu Scalth, Giftbearer's Cloth, Aloth's Leathers for overseeing or maybe Effigy's Husk, Kahua Hozi for spear's +1 engagement and +10% action speed. Abilities: L1: Chill Fog L2: Spirit Shield L3: Vital Essence, Arcane Veil L4: Miasma L5: Weapon & Shield, Displaced Image L6: Expose Vulnerabilities L7: Combat Focus, Ironskin (re-spec Spirit Shield into Slicken) L8: Pull of Eora L9: Rapid Casting, Ryngrim’s Terror L10: Bear’s Fortitude L11: Arcane Reflection, Capricious Hex L12: Adragan’s Gaze L13: Snake’s Reflexes, Bull’s Will L14: Arduous Delay L15: Tough, Helpless Beast L16: Farcasting L17: Chaotic Orb, Lasting Empower L18: Substantial Phantom L19: Prestige, Death Cloak L20: Arcane Cleanse The biggest problems I see are terrible natural Fortitude, and actually too many spells/not enough passives at the high levels, but I think this should work. Any thoughts, critiques, or especially improvements would be much appreciated!

True, but single-classed Ranger is so boring!

I want to fill a party slot with someone designed to crit as often as possible with the Frostseeker warbow. It'd be a high-perception hearth orlan naruarlly, and a multiclassed Ranger (though not sharpshooter; the -10 deflection just seems too high a price). But which class should it be combined with to crit most frequently? Rogue (Assassin): Brings +25 accuracy and +50% crit damage from stealth, and +10% crit to hit Dirty Fighting passive. Lots of abilities to increase weapon damage. Also, I think you could dump INT, making it less of a glass cannon. Fighter (Devoted): Devoted brings +25% damage on all crits (not just from stealth), and Disciplined Strikes brings +25% hit to crit for 15 seconds. Lots of survivability abilities. Barbarian (no subclass): Barbaric/Crushing Blow gives +30% hit to crit & +50% crit damage. Bloody Slaughter brings +20% hit to crit against those under 25% health. But I think the big thing here is the attack speed increase from Frenzy (+25%) and Bloodlust (+10% on kill). More shots = more chances to crit. The downside is that, as with Hunter, you need INT to make Frenzy last. I think it's between Scout & Savage, and that Savage has the advantage, but maybe I missed something. Any thoughts?

What the hell. I’ve tried every trick in this thread, including areatransition and renaming the streamtile file name. It still hangs every time. I literally can not play the game again until this is fixed.

Do we know how much faster than normal BR chants take to complete? Does it scale?

OK, I think I get it. Med/High level Troub with BR off beats vanilla because of linger Med/High level Troub with BR on is good for when need to invoke supersedes need to buff because invocation malus matters less by then Low level Troub with BR on is also good because BR mitigates invocation malus Low level Troub with BR off is the only one that somewhat sucks, but since you're just repeating "Come, Come," it doesn't matter; you always leave it on. Consider me converted to Troubadour fanboydom. (Though I'd still go Skald for melee/offensive invocation only Chanters.) I like this idea, but why limit yourself to "Her Courage"?

Wouldn't the same be true of a vanilla Chanter?

I'm confused about chant speed and the subclasses and how they work together. With Troubadour with BR on, you chant faster, but you get the extra phrase penalty on invocations. That +1 penalty seemingly wouldn't be as relatively a big deal when you're trying to get to high-level invocations, but for low-level invocations, it's a 33% penalty! So wouldn't you leave it off until you get to high enough levels for it to be a net benefit? On the other hand, if the Chanter's job in the party is to pump out low-level invocations (like, say At the Sound of His Voice), you'd want to have BR off all the time. But if that's the Chanter's job, wouldn't you have gone Skald to get the -1 chant bonus for offensive invocations? So the subclass preferences would go like this: -For a summoning/general offensive Chanter, you'd go Troubadour, but leave the BR off until you get to at least Level IV invocations. -For a buffbot/healer, you'd go Troubadour & leave BR off all the time. Or maybe you'd just go vanilla Chanter to keep the phrase linger. -For a paralysis-pumping debuffbot, go Skald. Do I have this right?

With Arcana being so powerful now, it seems to me a Scrollcaster Tank would be pretty powerful. The idea would be that he stands there, drawing aggro, but instead of doing weapon damage, he'd just spam scrolls. The difficulty would seem to be in allocating the stats, though. To tank, you'd need CON & RES, and for the spells to do any good, you'd need MIG, PER, & INT, so maybe dump DEX? I suppose you'd go single-class Shieldbearer Paladin, or multi-class it with a Chanter to chant while you cast, or maybe even with a Ranger to gain PER and a pet to melee your engagees. You'd probably put him in heavy armor (Blackened or Patinated plate) and give him Cadhu Scalth and put passive points into Metaphysics, and once Arcana was maxed out, put a couple points in Athletics too. Thoughts on this?

I love the idea of Fury Druid. I never played a druid in POE1; I min/max to the extent that that means having each party member to do just one job well, and I always set up my parties to avoid melee because I find melee tedious. If I ever included a druid, I'd have wanted him to be a nuker, not a werecat, and so the shapeshift always seemed like a waste to me. In POE2, Fury is exactly what I always wanted in a Druid. I don't even care if it's not 100% perfect. (Losing out on healing spells sucks, so I also have an Eothas Celebrant in the party to do the buffbot/healbot job.) Fury has the best AOE nuke spells in the game, with the longest range and the biggest AOE. That leaves your wizard free to be the multi-tool disabler he/she excels at. I'm playing mine single-classed because I want to get to the high level spells as quickly as possible.

Yeah, I'm starting to see that as badass as it would be, building a whole character around this, spending so many abilities on getting extra crits, but then not getting the Long Pain until Level 13, and not getting Instruments of Pain until Level 18, with even then their damage being lackluster, might not be worth it. For ranged damage output over the course of the full game, it might be better just to go with a Frostseeker-wielding single-classed Ranger. Too bad.

Swift Flurry with blunderbusses got justifiably nerfed, but I still think it'd be cool to make a Wanderer (Sharpshooter/Nazpalca) built around using the Long Pain and Swift Flurry together (assuming they still do work together), and getting as many crit-increasing abilities as possible from the Ranger side. Problem is, the Long Pain Fists that get summoned are strange: they're melee, and yet they're ranged. They're weapons, and yet they're unarmed. I'm having a hard time figuring out which of the Ranger abilities do/don't work with them. Does anybody know about any of the following? Monastic Unarmed Training Marksman 2-Handed Style Driving Flight Wounding Shot/Accurate Wounding Shot Concussive Shot/Concussive Tranquilizer

Thanks in advance for your patience with this question. I don't play games very much but bought Pillars Of Eternity because I used to play D&D & it seemed interesting. I'm having a problem with my ranged characters (blunderbuss-wielding cipher & arquebus-wielding priest). Every time there's a new battle, they're entering it with unloaded weapons. In the middle of combat (after they cast spells), they have to reload before firing. Then they fire, & their weapons are unloaded again. Then combat ends, and I can't figure out how to make them reload during non-combat, so they wind up entering the next battle unloaded again. How do you reload weapons during non-combat? Thanks!