Boeroer

a) This is a total vanilla barb, no special build. I don't think there's anything like that (offensively) besides special builds like Deltro's Helmet + scrolls, a SC Monk with Mortars that can sustain that much AoE dps while at the same time controlling the battlefield. It's just one ability and you don't have to adapt your build to it. Sure, it's PL 9 - but the statement is falsified with this single observation. And then do a Ravager, Warlock, Tempest, Witch (Berseker/Ascendant for example) or Shaman and please judge again if they don't contribute a lot to offensive power. d) Group buffs of a Paladin? You mean besides the auras I presume. Because a Paladin is not good at group buffing compared to a Priest. Barbs have nice stacking buffs (Frenzy, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst, Shape Ward: Frenzy...).

can't empathize with that viewpoint because every single-class priest i've ever rolled/recruited has picked up dismissal Yeah you. But ask around how many didn't because they thought it's too situational to be worth a scarce point at that power level. It only works for lower level vessels and spirits (the raw damage on higher level ones is negligible). Better keep the Red Hand at... hand, have a Pal with Abjuration and/or bring Grave Calling and/or Hel Beckoning - and spend the point for something else. Also the other PL8 spells are rather nice and maybe I want Great Soul if I like empowering my spells. I never took it. I would take it as no brainer if I had a bigger spell portfolio to cast from. So for example if I could get a trinket like "Berath's call to the Wheel" or so which would give me some additinal spells around vessels and spirits to choose from (like grimoires basically - doesn't even need to be 2 per level) and which I could put into the quick slots as well - that would give me way more room to think about picking a more situational spell at level up.

This time you mean?

I also meant that there is little motivation to pick a situational spell even if it's really good in some cases. Look at Dismissal etc.

That's quite fun and satisfying as well. But the downside is that it takes a lot of time to build up that many charges. I guess that's the reason the satisfaction is so high at the end. I find it exceptionally good with AoE attacks. In my case hand mortars of course (but I guess it also works with the cone from WotEP or Karabörü's crit-cone or Engoliero's Ghost Blades etc.). Since it's flat dmg it gains so much more by using it with multiple hit rolls. Whispers of the Wind + Resonant Touch + AoE is just... crazy. And the best part: you can do it over and over again because it's both fueld by wounds.

Yes, the new system hurts priest and druid most it seems. Could have been kind-of-fixed with special trinkets I think...? Because it did the trick for wizards.

Did that stop you before? I can't imagine what it would look like when you have 5 party members with pikes/pollaxe/great swords and time it so that they all do Clear Out at the same time... preferably after surrounding the enemy. Berserker/Nalpasca is a great way to drown in wounds and spam abilities like Torment's Reach 24/7. Once you get Savage Defiance you can do without external healing (given you don't get pommeled too hard).

If you face higher level enemies with high defenses and high AR then high ACC surely will help you overcome both. I didn't say that I rely on crits to penetrate armor. I said that it helps. Lots of grazes still means a lot of dps loss - no matter the crits.

They are awesome. Damage, Debuffs, Healing all in one package. I also prefer single class.

- Beguiler (single class - better spamming than Ascendant, awesome CC) - Monk (the versatility when it comes to char building is unmatched - also great single class) - Barbarian (one of the best single classes - see PL 9 shouts; also great multiclass passives) - Debonaire ("WTF???" you say - but 100% crits on all charmed enemies is so much fun to play with. Run around with Beguiler). - Druid (everything in one package) This is just a momentary snapshot.

I think it also heavily depends on how early you want to tackle certain encounters (bounties etc.) in order to get certain gear earlier. The highest obstacles there are high defenses and AR. High ACC helps with both.

Barbarians: - Instrument of Boundless Rage (bit too expensive) + - Heart of Fury (Carnage doesn't stack) + - Blood Surge (supergood with Blood Thirst and the roars or Instrument oBR) ++ - Barbaric Retaliation (great with a high AR setup) ++ - Driving Roar (1 rage for masssssive dmg and CC) +++ - Dazing Shout (1 rage for good dmg in a huuuuge AoE and CC) ++ - Shape Ward: Blood (stacks with Steel Garrotte and Old Siec) + Rogue: - Gambit (with high crit rate and dual wieldig no cost) ++ - Vanishing Strike (invisibility doesn't break: 100% Backstabs all the time) +++ Druid: - Avenging Storm (Blunderbusses or Hand mortars: phew!) ++ - Pollen Patch (jeez the healing!) + - Great Maelstrom (try Fury with Deltro's Cage + Voulge: +5 Power Level; in theory a Fury with all 4 PEN talents should get +5 PEN with it on top) +++ Wizard: - K's Freezing Rake (Illusion that does dmg? Sign me in!) + - Meteor Shower ++ - Missile Salvo (only really great with Empower) + - M's Piercing Sigil (so strong if you are doing melee) ++ - Cloak of Death (same, unf. doesn't stack with Piercing Sigil) ++ Chanter: - Song of Carnage (those weapons are strooong) + - Eld Nary's Curse (scales beautifully with Power Level and Chanters get Sasha's Singing Scimitar...) +++ Ranger: - Whirling Strikes (also works with mortar/ranged weapons with a melee one info the offhand) ++ - Heartseeker (barely...) + - Imbue: Death (multiple procs of Death Ring with jumps) +++ Priest: - all (except the summons and Crowns, but nothing too exiting) + - Spark the Souls (with a Beckoner in the party) ++ - Sigil of Rymrgand (I love that pull effect) ++ - Hand of Wael and Woe (tick is 1 sec and it heals on tick while damages foes on tick) ++ - Sigil of Eothas (healing + dmg = no brainier. I use it in every encounter) ++ Fighter: - Clear the Path (very powerful with AoE effects on weapons, works with ranged weapons if you put a melee one in the offhand) +++ - Clean Sweep (same) - Chopping Wood (with the above - think Karabörü...) Paladin: - Devine Retribution (works with summons) ++ Monk: - Resonant Touch (game breaking with AoE weapons) +++ - Whispers of the Wind (best with AoE weapons and Resonant Touch, PL scaling is great plus invisibility/Stalking Cloak) +++ - Razor's Edge (stacks with everything) ++ - Empowered Strikes (currently doesn't work with Whispers otW - if fixed +++) + - Inner Death (see Empowered Strike) + Cipher: - Shared Nightmare (AoE gets so big - best with Beguiler) ++ - Death of 1000 Cuts (bosskiller, stacks with Combusting Wounds, way better than Disintegration) ++ - Driving Echoes (very helpful for casters) ++ - Time Parasite (stacks with itself,got up to 175% speed) +++ - Reaping Knives (Soulblade and Ascendant laugh their arses off) ++ General: - Prestige (in most cases very nice, also see scaling of Transcendent Suffering and everything that adds jumps or projectiles with PL) + I can't emphasize enough how good the Barb's PL9 shouts are combined with Blood Surge and Blood Thirst. Also Monk with Whispers of the Wind + Resonant Touch. Fighter's Clean Sweep or Clear the Path are superexploitable with weapons that have AoE effects or proc off many hits (Karabörü, Engoliero, Mortars, Powder Burns, Blinding Smoke (Hand Mortar), Amra, Scordeo's Edge etc.) The ratings are heavily influenced by what I like/how fun it is to use. For example Whispers of the Wind is not only great but also superfun to watch. Avenging Storm as well (but breaks your frame rate).

I also think that with the DLCs and Megabosses you can never have enough ACC. Playing a Bleak Hunter/Arcane Archer with Spearcaster atm. The ACC is stellar obviously (two times ACC bonus from Arcana plus Ranger stuff plus party buffs). And it's so helpful - also to tackle higher level bounties and so on. Speaking of Hunter's Claw: you can speed up the build-up of ACC if you use a blunderbuss in the mainhand and a melee weapon in the offhand. Use Driving Flight to get up to 8 ACC per use of Hunter's Claw. Also works with the upgrades of course.

Welcome to the club!

Right

Don't take Shattered Pillars! It's just bad (not as bad as Forbidden Fist, but still bad). Only 5 wounds max (that means only +5 INT or +5 CON max with Iron Wheel or Turning Wheel). And you have to use auto-attacks to regain wounds. I mean sure: a Shadowndancer does lots of damage even with auto-attacks. But why would you want to do auto-attacks if you can spam abilites all day long and get less max wounds? If you worry about wound genration take Nalpasca. Add Enduring Dance and you will have plenty of wounds al the time even without getting hit. But you get hit from time to time anyways...

In my experience in a party often single classes are better after the early game.

Monk seems to be the answer: basically unlimited resource pool and great dmg potential. Also needs some micro to get the most out of his abilities. For real good dmg really on multiclass with Rogue and become a melee Shadowdancer. Use Sun&Moon for the main hand and Scordeo's Edge for the offhand and pick Swift Flurry and later Heartbeat Drumming. Sun & Moon hits twice per swing to the chance to crit and trigger an additional crit is higher. Scordeo's Edge gives you lots of ACC via Adaptive. I mainly use Stunning Surge as active ability (nearly always no Mortificaton loss due to lots of crits) you can of course have a lot more. Pick items and abilities around crits (Enervating Blows, Improved Critical, Precognition amulet) and add some lashes (Hylea's Gloves for example). Target low defense enemies as priority. Like casters and such. Use Escape and Flagellant's Path to zip around the battlefield and take those out very quickly. Persistent Distraction unlocks Deathblows right on engagement. The dmg bonus of Rogue paired with the lash of Turning Wheel is good. Or single class Monk. Not as strong dps-wise as Shadowdancer - until the late game where it totally takes off (Resonant Touch + Whispers of the Wind + Stalking Cloak = bonkers). Something like that. Subclasses not that important for the base concept. I'm doing a Debonaire/Helwalker test at the moment and it's pretty great (first charm a squishy for the sweet 100% crit chance and then one-shot it ).

You have a "won't fix" option? How unruly! Jira?

They also go hostile if an enemy hits them. This could get fixed. Also that bystanders flee and don't run into the fights as if it's a dinner party.

Tyranny did it first. Boy that was a surprising learning curve coming in from PoE1 and seeing my attacks miss because the enemy moved a bit. Oh no! You reminded me of Tyranny! *shakes fist*

Yes, you need to multiclass with Ranger to make that happen. They should really make a passive that lets you cast such things on either mind controlled enemies or directly on enemies. By the way: can you cast such powers directly on enemies if you are confused? And speaking of Ranger and Ciphers: can you cast Reaping Knives on a fellow's animal companion?

But Wizard/Druid with Deltro's Cage and Lord Darryn's Voulge + Chromoprismatic Staff would work. Switch to staff when casting Wizard's spells (+3 PL with shock spells, +1 with others) and to the Voulge when casting Druid spells (+2 to all electricity spells that are not of storm - like Nature's Terror, +3 to all Storm spells that are not of electricity - like Blizzard, and even +5 to all storm spells that also have electricity - like Returning/Relentless Storm).

Fun fact: in PoE it didn't matter if you walked out of range after an attack had been initiated. You'd get hit anyway (if the roll was successful). In Deafire they implemented the described "out of reach" feature - which was a good thing in my opinion. Grog lets you do the stuff that a rogue can do when his Defensive Roll kicks in - or what a Barb can do after activating Wild Sprint. And you can always move - recovery will not stop you like it might prevent Escape or Evasive Roll.

Computer Scientist (mostly Software Architecture and -Engineering).