Boeroer

The speculate Pillars 3 will be taking place on one of the moons of Eora which is made out of gingerbread.

I will not buy it at all. It isn't my genre anyway, but I was willing to buy it just to support Obsidian and give it a shot - because why not? Now they gave me a reason why not.

Okay. No Outer Worlds for me then. I haven't read a single positive reaction to this decision so far (on Twitter, forums etc.).

"Archmage' is my forum rank ( that you get after X posts), not my name.

Only that you get the best shield of the game there. I think it's good that nice loot is not always hidden behind bosses you can only kill at high levels.

Not even when that nasty potsmoke hit your eyes?

That goul rush fight in SSS. I'm just too impatient.

Helwalker/Ascendant and Berserker/Ascendant still seem to be a better choice (both can get +2+1 PEN and either a long Ascended uptime with +10 INT and also huge AoE or total removal of recovery and speeding up casting time). Both also do generate focus very quickly. Don't know how a Devoted wants to beat that. But that's maybe something for another thread. Streetfighter/Soulblade I tried again and what's particularly awesome ist that if you get flanked and bloodied your Soul Annihilation will also get the Streetfighter's increased sneak attack and crit bonus.

Hi QA folks! I thought I read a bug report about this - but I couldn't find it anymore. Sorry. This is an old bug but it seems it never got fixed. So: If you play a Soulblade/Fighter and kill an enemy with Soul Annihilation you will not get an additional attack from Cleaving Stance. Imagine that: not a single one. That's somewhat disappointing. It seems that Soul Annihilation isn't considered a melee attack when it comes to Cleaving Stance - which it totally is. But I can't say for sure. Anyway: doesn't work. No savegame needed (I guess) since you can reproduce this easily with any Soulblade/Fighter. Bye!

By the way: I tested Soul Annihilation + Cleaving Stance and it still doesn't trigger if you kill with SA. Will bump the bug report... edit: made a new one since I coulnd't find the old one.

In my opinion Ascendant is not the right choice - if you want high melee damage. For casting the occasional power a Soulblade is as good as any cipher (even better if the occasional power is a Shred power). Ascendant is nice if you want to spam powers while ascended. But this doesn't seem to fit the OP's description too well: - dual wielding swords - melee - single target dmg - "I already have 2 other Companions who deal AoE" Soulblade is a nice combination of melee damage and occasional cipher power use. Most likely you will be mainly using Soul Annihilation - because it's great as single target melee damage tool. But in no way are you stuck to it. Shred powers are cheaper for a Soul Blade. So stuff like Recall Agony on a tough boss or an occasional Disintegration on a high deflection but low fort enemy are still viable and nice options. Ascendant really shines if you are a power spammer - especially if you have abilites that either buff attack speed and recovery (like with Ascendant/Barbarian for example or single class Ascendant with Time Parasite or Ascended Streetfigher with Heating Up) or extend the duration of Ascended (Priest's Salvation of Time, Wizard's Draining Wall) or both (like Helwalker's Swift Strikes and +10 INT bonus) so that you can squeeze more casts into your ascended phase. Ascendant never appeared to me as a particularly great fit for a Devoted (especially if you want to focus on melee single target damage). The PEN bonus doesn't work for the powers you mentioned (unlike Tenacious from Monk or Berserker), also the increased crit damage is only for your proficient weapon. The only thing that's maybe cool about Fighter/Ascendant is Disciplined Strikes/ Tactical Barrage and the ability to fill your focus completely with a use of Clear Out. Or am I missing something here?

It's even more absurd to assume it's intentional. It's outright ridiculous.

I did! Here's a screenshot:

I have no idea what asnjas smoked while posting his answer. Or what I accidentially swallowed to not being able to follow his statements with regard to your question - but I think I can explain why Berath got mad. In PoE you have to pledge to a God (in that big tree, remember?) in order to decend down the last pit on Burial Isle. You make a promise to God Y to do X with the souls of the hollowborn children. If you don't do that you betray him/her and she/he gets mad. If you pledged to all Gods it means that you can only keep your promise with one of them, betraying the others. So that's why I guess(?) Berath gets mad if you choose that option. She doesn't get mad if you pick just another God you pledged to. You could not pledge to Eothas because he's kind of dead in PoE and isn't present. So no pledging to him at that point.

Nice catch. But where's the lie? "Outside party" is an elastic term without further definition. One could argue that even if you are confused or charmed/dominated you will not be part of an outside party (can't be controlled etc.). But this is quibble of course. So this is either a bug or another vague description. Is it a lie? No. Calling an error/bug/oversight a lie is pretty absurd. A lie would imply intention. I Ithink we agree that the developers don't intend to put false information into the game descriptions.

That would be really nice. But unfortunately: what thelee said last.

I'd say dual wielding once you have a Devoted/Soulblade. Just because in the early game a one handed setup is best. You can easily miss with Soul Annihilation and then your focus is zero with no damage done. It's very annoying. The +12 ACC helps a lot to prevent that. After a few levels that issue is gone and you can safely switch to a dual wielding setup. This wouldn't be possible with a two handed weapon. Except if you'd pick Battle Axes - but the single dmg type is off-putting.

Kana (arquebus guy) and Edér can be build into sturdy frontliners. Edér as dual sabre guy is nice. Give Kana a shield and a hatchet and once you hit lvl 9 give him the Dragon Thrashed chant and nothing else. Using Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits helps both fighters as well. Sagani (Lady looking for Persoq) is nice with Persistence (bow from lvl 4 of the Endless Paths) and focus on pet damage. The Wounding of the bow makes it so that Predator's Sense of the Fox (Itumaak) always applies. You should bring Durance (priest at Magran's Crossing). Priests are the most useful party members in PoE. Give him Inspiring Radiance and later use Devotions as well. Use Aloth as debuffer/CC guy. Cast CC spells right after Durance did cast Devotions + Inspired Radiance.

Do they scale with level?

Deathblows comes very late with a multiclass while Soul Annihilation is your friend from lvl 1 on. I wouldn't say that a Devoted/Rogue always does more damage than a Devoted/Soulblade over the course of a playthrough. Cipher can get Borrowed Instinct which stacks with Disciplined Strikes, giving you a lot of crits with Soul Annihilation which works well enough with Devoted's passive and Cleaving Stance. Pure melee dmg potential is maybe higher for Devoted/Rogue in the end. But as you said: You're not only doing melee dmg but can also cast powers like Body Attunement and Borrowed Instinct which can also be a really nice help even if you wantto focus on melee. Recall Agony as well. Wait: was the bug that kill by Soul Annihilation doesn't trigger Cleaving Stance ever fixed? By the way: do Phantom Foes (flanked: -1 AR) and Body Attunement (-2 AR) stack? If so then Devoted (+2 PEN) + Soulblade (+1 PEN with Hammering Thoughts) would be a really nice "penetrator" even with the low-pen sword. Very nice dmg synergy is Rogue/Soulblade of course since all of the rogue's dmg bonuses apply to Soul Annihilation as well.

Then you can totally focus on offense without getting punished for it too much. I mean if he's not the only frontliner.

What is untrue? That I remember it that way? Guess I can't remember differently anyway since I always kill Benwith right away (no flag, climb the fort, go to Benwith, free the gal). I guess the important thing is that you can't free her once the fort turned hostile. Because then she also seems to turn hostile (as does Mike et al.).

No idea.

If you go for Soulblade don't pick Biting Whip since it's a lot worse than Draining Whip - also for dps. In it's current state Biting Whip is a trap choice for any cipher who wants to use his powers - including Soul Annihilation. If explanation is needed I can elaborate. Assassin only makes sense if you utilize Stealth and invisibility. If not then the Streetfighter is better. Once you get flanked and get bloodied you will do crazy crit damage. Unbending and a Devil's Breastplate with+2 AR on bloodied help to stay alive while Cleaving Stance and Crits will make short work of enemies. Devoted/Trickster can manage to use Riposte even without shield (Vigorous Defense stacks with Mirrored Image). This can be nice in combination with Cleaving Stance. Other strong yet sturdy damage dealers are Trickster/Nalpasca and Trickster/Soulblade. The latter can be outright tanky if you wish since Mirrored Image, Psychovampiric Shield and Borrowed Instinct stack. Riposte does generate Focus.

Solo or with a party?