Boeroer

Soul Annihilation only works with melee weapons. How can people question the value of higher ACC against bosses?

Most. But the most powerful ones still do.

Summon lion behind enemy, cast Ectopsychic Echo on him. Evade-roll behind more enemies. Nice! Driving Flight should help you to build lots of focus. Use with dual hand mortars or Watershaper's Focus.

Speaking of FoD: did you know that FoD (like any other dmg dealing ability) gets +5% base damage per additional Power Level? You can only see it in the combat log (look at your dmg roll which exceeds the base damage after some PLs). Since it's PL 1 it scales very well at higher (power) levels. That (maybe combined with with Eternal Devotion which will drop the PL gain a bit though) is a great way to spend 1 Zeal in my opinion. THe dmg bonuses and the dual multiplicative boost (PL + lash) work together nicely. Also because lashes generate focus. Alternating between FoD and Soul Annihilation is kind of... good? Especially when using Magran's Favour + Sun and Moon - but also with WotEP. And it works with Ring of Focused Flames so that you'll have an ACC bonus of +20. It also does +20% burning lash, not 10%. 10% is the "lingering" effect of Eternal Devotion. I don't think FoD is overrated. But it's not mandatory, sure. In a party if wouldn't want to miss it - it's very handy for BoW, too. But when going solo it might indeed be better to spend your Zeal on Greater Lay on Hands or something like that. It's always good to see if somebody comes up with something "different" that works well. Edit: Soul Ignition also works with Ring of Focused Flames by the way.

I agree. It's even so that a certain class is great in a special multiclass combination but meh in another. How do you want to rate that class then? Very complicated.

Hehe - ok.

You are right. I completely forgot that Heating Up also gives you a bonus for Sneak Attack. Sorry for that. :oops: Nevertheless: I didn't want to compare Barbarian to Streetfighter, I just wanted to compare Frenzy to Heating up since Frenzy as an ability was questioned. Other abilites don't matter in that direct comparison of those two abilities because I wanted to show that Frenzy is comparable to Heating Up. So my point was that if one wants to complain that Frenzy is bad because it makes you squishy then one would also have to admit that Heating Up makes you at least as squishy. I don't know how I can make myself more clear.

Then you disregarded it? Weakest class? No idea. I still need to carry all of them in different combos through some playthroughs to make well-founded assertions. Also because there are so many combinations of classes abilities now that it's pretty hard to contain the comparison. For example only looking at single classes. So far there seems to be no clear winner or loser. If I should voice a fuzzy suspicion I'd say that Ranger and Fighter are on my personal bottom list so far.

Yes. Pre-nerf.

Kalakoth's Minor Blights + stuff like Arterial Strike is rather nice. Since it's one-handed you can either go for higher ACC or more speed (if you put a dagger or something into the offhand) . Everything with AoE is great with a rogue because his DoT effects can be applied in an AoE then. That makes the use of Guile highly efficient. Infuse helps to expand the AoE even further. Try Toxic Strike with high INT and Infuse. It builds up dmg per tick like crazy if your INT is high enough. Also Riposte + Spirit Lance is possible. Debuff enemies with a Blinding Strike + buff your own deflection and do some nifty AoE Ripostes while poking them with some more attacks. Or stack defense against Disengagement Attacks (Alacrity, abilities, items) and run around triggering those. This is rather risky but can be great fun. Your speed is so high with Alacrity... Also Nannasin's Cobra Strike got secretly buffed I think. The base dmg is good and it applies a pretty crazy poison with each attack. I tested it with a Spellblade and the single target dmg is pretty good now. Cobra Strike's poison, Deep Wounds and stuff like Toxic Strike and Gouging Strike all stack. Even enemies with high health drop quickly. Watch out: although it has the range of a reach weapon it is considered a ranged weapon. But in the long run I guess a SC wizard may be the more powerful option. Not in the early/mid game though.

Voiceover is English only. Judging by your post your English is good enough to understand the English voiceover. They all talk in a way that even non-native speakers can understand it and everything they say is also presented with text. The German translation is traditionally bad by the way. Ich denke, dass Dir die Englische Version auf lange Sicht besser gefallen würde.

You forget that you can upgrade Frenzy two times. The "problem" with Barb's (and whyso many drop them during early game) is that four things come together that impact the performance in the early game: 1. Low starting deflection: this is especially bad in the early game because your health pool and armor are low compared to enemies' dmg and PEN. 2. Even less deflection with Frenzy: see above. You will receive crits all the time. 3. Higher health pool means nothing at the beginning: usually it means you could take one additional hit - but since enemies crit all the time it doesn't matter at all. Higher health base works very well from the mid game but is rel. useless early on. 4. Low ACC of Carnage and not many crowds to fight: the performance of Carnage is bad in the early game because it not only does low damage and misses a lot but also because you don't fight that many crowds in the early game. It's dmg is also very low. Later on it becomes a great tool because it scales with Power Level (kind of secretly): +5% dmg per additional PL. Corpse Eater food counts. You can reach 100% weapon base damage as raw dmg - which is good. But in the beginning? Meh! And if you want to counter your squishyness with a medium or large shield you will not hit anything with Carnage. BUT: if you have some patience all those disadvantages start to dissolve. Stacking some armor and adding Thick Skinned on top makes a Barb sturdy through damage reduction so that crits from enemies are not that painful anymore. Crits become a smaller portion of enemies' damage at the same time (but still lead to PEN). Being Robust through Stalwart Defiance works rather nicely with the +5 MIG and +5 CON and the more levels you get the more impactful the higher health pool becomes (don't drop CON on a melee Barb!). Carnage suddenly can be superhandy if you meet high AR foes and it scales very well. So, in my opinion those are the reasons why lots of people don't like Barb's: the first impression and experience is bad. Like on PoE1 basically - same reasons. But if you really play them (had three Barbs in different combos during full playthroughs until now) you will discover that they are really good - especially on PotD where there are more enemies with higher AR. I especially like to multiclass them with casters because Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst + Rapid Casting is just awesome as well as Lion's Sprint. That really helps to land debuffs. One if the best combos I played so far were Nalpasca/Berserker by the way. Will be putting out a build at some time (just finished the playthrough two days ago). The thing that I don't like on Barbs: compared to other attack abilities Barbaric Blow + upgrades is rather weak. Too expensive and the Power Level entry is too high (doesn't scale as high as let's say Crippling Strike or FoD). Ranged single Barb with Mortars or Watershaper's Focus or Frostseeker (my current Serafen build) is gamebreaking good at higher levels. But of course the early game is important and there the Barb kind of stinks. I like the Savage "all-in" approach, but I think they deserve some means of making them a bit sturdier at the beginning. +1 AR or a flat health bonus that doesn't scale or something like the "numb" enchantment (10% dmg reduction) of Pukestabber when using Frenzy.

Depends. If you can crit a lot with a melee weapon then Swift Flurry. For example a Sage (Spirit Lance + Stunning Surge) is better with Swift Flurry. Procs off itself aside: if you crit ~50% of your attack swings then it's as good as Lightning Strikes. So in most cases Lightning is the better option. Ranged monks can only use Lightning Strikes. Long Pain is considered ranged.

No, Stunning Surge is not an AoE ability. But it works with ranged or melee weapons. Thing is if you use it with AoE weapons (Spirit Lance, WotEP, mortars, rod+Blast) you will nealry always produce a crit (lots of hit rolls= higher crit chance) and that leads to a refund of Mortificaton (besides stunning lots of enemies). So you can spam it endlessly as long as there are a few enemies left. Clear Out is melee only but works with Spirit Lance in a AoE*AoE fashion, leading to an absurd amount of hit rolls. Even better: hand mortars work with Heart of Fury and Whispers of the Wind: AoE*(AoE + AoE + 3 Powder burns AoEs). This leads to an attack that bends your graphics card and wipes mobs completely.

If you are a completionist then the difficulty will drop from mid to late game. But PotD will start quite hard. If you only do critical path then it's too hard. But who does that, right?

You can fix it yourself: click edit and then at the bottom there's a button named "extended option" or something like that (can't remember) - right of the save button. If you click that you can also edit your title.

Yes, correct. The collected data from players while playing. You can opt out in the game options.

Hm... I don't understand the question. I can unfold the AoE hit rolls, sure - but I don't know if that is what you mean. However: I can count the hit rolls. And if Evoker's passive does trigger it's always (in every case) twice the hit rolls. That shows that the whole spell is repeated once - and not that singular projectiles trigger it. But of course an Empowered Bounding Missile spell itself already has lots of projectiles - if the passive kicks in and doubles this it can be very impressive.

They also tell it without any context. If I make all my build tests with a female dwarf next thing they will nerf is female dwarfs (don't ask me how...). But they will get more haircuts.

What exactlt are you talking about? "Flawed comparison"? I think you didn't understand what I was trying to say. I was just comparing two seperate effects that give you higher attack speed while paying for that with lower defenses. Sneak Attack is not part of the Streetfighter's Heating Up as Carnage or Bloodlust is not part of Frenzy. Frenzy as a standalone ability was depicted as bad - while nobody says that about Heating Up. So I compared those two distinct abilites and showed that Frenzy is at least as good as Heating Up (leaving aside that you are even slower if you're not heated up). Where is the flaw in that comparison?

It still procs off itself but it rarely happens with a 33% chance. It also got nerfed further by limiting it to melee only. Citzal's Spirit Lance or Hand Mortars are insane with Stunning Surge or any ability that does AoE by itself (Heart of Fury, Whispers of the Wind, Clear Out and such). Also stuff like Scordeo's Edge's 0-recovery phase + Salvation of Time. Or Crave Calling + Beckoner's Skeletons: triggering a foe-only Chillfog for every skeleton you strike down by yourself...

If you want low micro, low babysitting and high dps then stuff like Holy Slayer or Swashbuckler is perfect. Monk without micro is wasting a lot of his potential. I never use AI, so that's fine for me. AI is just too dumb to position your monk perfectly well while it has no problem with single target abilites. Votary is just not a very dps-heavy combo: now additive dmg boosts but lots of lashes. But lashes are best when combined with dmg boosts. Votary has only few (Retribution and maybe Two Handed Style in addition to quality enchantments and MIG...). Only thing I personally would consider for a Votary led by AI (for offense) are Efficient Anguish + Enervating Blows + Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming - with a Morning Star and always-on Body Blows. It wouldn't do as much dmg as a Holy Slayer, but the constant interrupts and CC are very useful. It also lowers Fortitude by -35 without any resource cost which is VERY handy against a lot of foes. Another thing that a Votary can do is go high RES and use Clarity of Agony to completely remove the raw self damage of Sacred Immolation. That will do nice AoE damage (use Magran's Favor and Sun&Moon for +4 burn PL) while it will not damage you. But that is lateish game... So, I guess Holy Slayer is your best pick.

That's what I always say: it's not as good as some people claim. It's great, no question (especially on my Assassin/Priest of Skaen), outright awesome against vessels of course - but it's not that crazy powerful compared to what you can do with several other unique weapons - or summoned ones. Uniques aside - melee dps is usually higher than ranged one. Also because you have to move around a lot more and this has to be balanced out with higher dps (when standing ready at the target) - to achieve the same overall dps. And also to make up for the higher risk (of getting hit).

Then show me how the Holy Slayer can spam an AoE-attack that stuns all foes behind the initial target or how he gets +12 ACC for all his attack rolls. Rogue's Devastating Blow has very limited uses by the way and tends to either overkill or not doing a lot of damage for its 2 Guile. A Crippling Strike will do more damage for its cost most of the time (also see PL scaling of offensive abilites: 5% base damage per additional PL). The reason why the Holy Slayer does higher per hit damage is that the lashes from FoD and the dmg bonuses from the rogue work very well together. You could even better though with a Shadowdancer (Monk/Rogue) because he can have higher attack speed, +10 MIG =+30% additive dmg in addition to Sneak Attack, Deep Wounds and Deathblows as well as a big AoE attack with Torment's Reach (with profits from Turning Wheel's +10 INT), +15% shocking lash and +20% burning lash. You can even take Swift Flurry when you go into melee and later Heartbeat Drumming. An additional attack from a crit - which alsio causes weakened with Enervating Blows (Flurry + Heartbeat = overall 50% proc chance on crit) is like a 100% multiplicative dmg boost for that attack. The Holy Slayer doesn't have good AoE attacks (as long as he's not using an AoE weapon). But he makes the multiclass a lot sturdier and less micro-intensive. Monks are not low micro. They need a lot of positioning to be good - but in my opinion they are one of the best martial classes then. Stunning Surge alone... Also monk's fists scale very well with Powel Level. There's no weapon in the game that can get +26 Accuracy and has that high base dps (fast attack speed but high dmg per hit). And their biggest advantage: they don't have a single fixed resource pool but can spam their stuff. Holy Slayers are rel. easy to play. Monks are not. I think that's the main reason why some people think monks are not that good. I would always prefer a monk over a paladin or rogue. And then there's this: I call that pretty nice dps.

You are right. I would like to be able to bake (it's quite fun to do with my children). Unfortunately everything I bake either tastes like a sponge or has the consistency of a brick. Cookies may work sometimes. It's funny because I'm doing quite ok when cooking. If you don't like the game (or that types of games) that's totally fine. I nearly only like these types of games - limits my options somehow.