Boeroer

The only cipher that's good in the beta is the Soulblade subclass. And only for multiclassing. The Soulblade has a special attack called "Soul Annihilation" which transforms the current focus into a lot of melee raw damage. This cipher is good because he doesn't need to use actual cipher powers which are all crappy in the beta because they take forever to cast but the durations of the effects are very short. Nice multiclass combos for Soulblade are Devoted(fighter)/Soulblade, Assassin(rogue)/Soulblade, Bleak Walker/Soulblade, Shattered Pillar(monk)/Soulblade and also Wizard/Soulblade (because Citzal's Spirit Lance with Soul Annihilation is totally bonkers). So you could build a PoE melee cipher with Veteran's Recovery to emulate a Fighter/Cipher, with Apprentice's Sneak Attack and flanking bonuses to emulate Rogue/Cipher, Gallant's Focus to emulate Paladin/Cipher or Novice's Suffering to emulate Monk/Cipher. Fists are not too good with ciphers in PoE though, but they are viable. Also Wizard/Cipher emulation is kind of meh in PoE. I personally would go the rogue route and make sure I stack a lot of flanking bonus via survival and item, use Apprentice's Sneak Attack and cause Flanked via Phantom Foes all the time. I played a melee cipher like this and the focus generation is pretty awesome that way. I used Firebrand as main weapon but this works with any melee weapon.

You can make a ranged ranger with the same concept of wounding + Predator's Sense. Just build a bow ranger and use Persistence from the Endless Paths lvl 4. It also has wounding that triggers Predator's Sense. It's also the ranged weapon with the highest single target dps, so a very viable pick anyways. You can't flank with a ranged weapon though. But of course you can build a ranged character more like a glass cannon than you can do that with a melee character. A ranger with high MIG, DEX and PER and mediocre INT can perma-wound (and later also perma-stun) an enemy while the pet can deal a lot of damage via Merciless & Vicious Companion and Predator's Sense. I also recommend Takedown and Brutal Takedown. A wolf who uses Brutal Takedown on a wounded target can one-shot squishies like enemy casters and such (and the bow's damage gets added as well). He also bites through high DR very easily. Brutal Takedown only has to overcome 25% of enemies' DR, that makes it way better as it appears "on paper". And of course the target is prone as well if it doesn't die instantly - which is also very useful. The only drawback is that pets attack quite slowly - so don't waste pets' attacks and time them right so that you get the max outcome. Only start attacking with the pet when the ranger did wound the enemy with the bow - stuff like that.

Both spells will fire at the same time after the first crit you get. Suppression does not happen on the trigger-level - that means that all spell holdings will get triggered simultaneously by a crit. For example: Shod-in-Faith + Sanguine Plate + Nature's Embrace + Swaddling Sheet would all trigger Consecrated Ground + Frenzy + Woodskin + Overbearing Wave at once after the first crit you receive. But there might be supression when it comes to the effects of those spell holdings. For example if you got Frenzy from Sanguine Plate (it has 2 charges per encounter) and then catch another crit the second Frenzy will supression the first one because it's the same stuff. Rule of thumb: stacking/suppression rules are the same as with any other spell effect. It doesn't matter if the spell comes from spell holding or was cast by a character or came from a spell binding or spell chance or whatever.

Might got changed into Strength and is only good for weapon damage now. All other damage is influenced by Resolve now, as well as healing. Intellect in its current state in the backer beta also lost a lot of impact on the size of AoE. While its effect on duration remains unchanged, it now only raises the actual area of AoE by 6% per point of INT, not the radius as it used to be in PoE. In other words: in the beta 1 point of INT raises the radius by only 1.6% compared to 6% in PoE. Thus, a Barbarian with 3 INT has a Carnage radius that's only 11% smaller than a Barb with 10 INT. A Barbarian with 20 INT will only have an increase of 16% radius. Both is nearly invisible. I don't know if the later is a bug/oversight or intended.

Which kind of paladin? The most effective one (when it comes to support and CC) I played was the Counselor Ploi build that's in the build list. But he will do little overall dps (until you get Sacred Immolation). His alpha strike capabilites are good though. He's not the tankiest one but tanky enough if combined with anohter sturdy frontliner. As far as I know most people who tried him liked him. Tanky fighters are quite uneffective in my opinion. But it highly depends on the difficulty setting. In easier settings tehre are less enemies which makes it easier for the fighter to control the movement of enemies - while on PotD he just gets rushed by all the time. If he has no qffensive capabilites he can be almost useless. One ability is very effective though if you build around it, and that's Take the Hit. Only problems: you need very high INT because of the range and very high CON because of health loss - and you need to maximize your endurance regeneration by all means. And most importantly: you can't use mind control on enemies (charm/dominate/confuse) because they will also get covered by Take the Hit, all their damage will get directed to you andthis will NOT stop once the alliance of the controlled enemy flips again. If you don't use Mind Control then it's an awesome ability.

Well, if you only want to cast spells that have no duration (like all AoE direct damage spells like Fireball and friends) you could indeed dump INT because the radius would it drop by 1.6% per point. With 3 points of INT you would only lose 7*1.6% = 11% of radius compared to 10 INT. If you can pump RES and DEX and PER and even CON then it's totally worth it. Because 11% of radius is like no penalty at all. So either they have to give more bonus to area increase per point of INT or revert to the old solution which is better anyways. Who can imagine what +x% area really means on the battlefield compared to x% radius?

It seems that they confuse "-X% speed" with "-X% duration" all the time.

Yes, the same. I already filed a bug report for that and Cdiaz said it's the steam client on Linux which is causing the troubles and that they are looking into it: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/95501-bug-loading-a-savegame-opens-character-editor/

Yeah - well this build also stands and falls with items, in this case Tidefall and Shot-in-Faith boots. Luckily those will come pretty early in the game so the "real deal" should start once you grabbed Tidefall (may be possible from lvl 6 upwards). Before it's a quite generic melee ranger with a great sword. Nothing fancy but works quite well. Rangers work quite well in the early game in general because the additional "body" (the pet) is very useful in the early game. The simpled fact that you have one additional party member makes a lot of encounters easier. That being said: don't stick to this build if you feel it's somewhat weird or doesn't fit your needs. Just use it as inspiration for a melee ranger.

Well... since you can't pick a lot of talents/abilites/items in the early levels: which build is not? But yes, it is ok until you find Tidefall/Shod-in-Faith. If you play it like a rogue + pet and not trying to engage first you will be fine. If he's too squishy you could think about taking Veteran's Recovery. The build lacks some talents/abilites because it's pre WMII. So there's room for more if you wish.

I would give him a bit of survival for DR+ and so on and also athletcis. Maybe some lore (max , too for the good defensive scrolls. Background doesn't matter that much, but Deadfire seems tempting.

I would pick Mountain Dwarf because I like the idea of a short, burly paladin/mon who uses his fists. The racial is pretty good against vessels and such. But it doesn't matter that much. The most powerful option would be Moon Godlike I guess. This would complement the Kind Wayfarer's Healing capabilites quite well. Stats: MIG: 20 CON: 10 DEX: 10 PER: 10 INT: 18 RES: 08 Abilites/Talents would be: - Novice's Suffering - Weapon Focus Peasant - Sword & Shepherd - Two Weapon Style - Strange Mercy - Intense Flames - Scion of Flame - Fast Runner - Flames of Devotion - Lay on Hands - Zealous Charge or Zealous Endurance - Inspiring Triumph - Aegis of Loyality - Righteous Soul - Sacred Immolation - Behold the Martyr Items: - head: Hermit's Hat, Executioner's Hood (if not Moon Godlike of course) - neck: Lost Periapt of the Winding Path - amor: Raiment of Wael's Eyes, later Robes of the Tidebringer - hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action or Mourning Gloves - rings: Ring of Protection, Ring of Deflection - belt: Looped Rope - boots: Sandals of the Forgotten Friar Something like that.

Well an unarmed paladin wouldn't be as tanky as one with a shield, but still tanky enough I guess. But he will do better damage. Maybe one could do a Kind Wayfarer - because he's so kind he uses only fists to strike down his opponents. Heal on FoD and on kill via Sword & Shepherd and Strange Mercy, Inspiring Triumph, Aegis of Loyalty... Behold the Martyr seems to be a must. A little Veteran's Recovery for balancing out the lower deflection because no shield... What do you think? Or a darker char like Bleak Walker with focus on max damage and fear?

In the deadfire beta paladins are pretty powerful at the moment. I do especially like Paladin/Monk and also Paladin/Rogue as well as Paladin/Chanter. Paladin/Chanter is difficult to emulate in PoE (the cross class summoning talent is very bad) - but Paladin/Monk (use Novice's Suffering and do Flames of Devotion with it) or Paladin/Rogue (Apprentice's Sneak Attack) are doable. Now that I think of it, Paladin/Monk with Novice's Suffering + FoD combo could be quite interesting with PoE. Also because Aegis of Loayality needs unarmed attacks in Deadfire(!). If you are interested I could work out an unarmed monkish paladin, using my experience from playthroughs with unarmed barbarian, unarmed wizard and unarmed druid.

Our family is also owned by a cat: Can't imagine what a pathetic being one must be to shoot at a domestic cat.

Thanks dunehunter, good to know.

Yes, unfortunately. Well, that also means that my game breaking Soulblade + Citzal's Spirit Lance combo will be in for my first playthrough - yay!

That's right. Every stat does. To be honest RES is the one with the most options I think. But there are also several for INT, PER and MIG, some others for CON and DEX, but those last two are mostly used during scripted happenings and less in dialogue. The key point of that build is to use Tidefall to apply wounding and then let the pet add a lot of damage via Predator's Sense. You an def. raise RES for dialogue if you want and skip the part with the Shod-in-Faith boots if you have a priest/paladin/druid in the party who can heal (the pet) as well. Then you wouldn't need a lot of INT for example. For Tideall' dps it's ideal to have high MIG and low INT - but at the same time you want to make sure that the wounding effect of Tidefall doesn't wear off on the enemy so that Predator's Sense gets triggered all the time. So... 3 INT isn't an option. Also because you will get Stunning Shots (that also work in melee) later and those are quite good with not-dumped INT.

I'm pretty confident that they improved in that regard, too.

Haha - true. Yeah, but as I said: I actually find the "raise radius" approach better/more intuitive. Just the tooltip saying that INT raises area is wrong.

What if the chessboard got shart on by a peac0ck before? Isn't the pidgeon's droppings an improvement then? I mean pidgeons' poop it less stinky that a peac0ck's - so maybe it doesn't annoy the people playing chess as much. Also, a peack0ck sitting on a chessboard might be even more annoying for all the chess players than some pidgeons that drive that fat, arrogant peac0ck away. Imagine playing chess with all those pomptous feathers in your face...

Haha, a manual. Best with a correct description of the game's mechanics. Silly AndreaColumbo.

Yeah we know the math. Actually in PoE it's still the case that INT raises AoE via radius. It says +6% of "AoE increase" per point of INT. But what really happens: I have Aloth in my party with an Arcane Assault which has a base AoE radius of 1.25. With 16 INT he's having a bonus of (6*6%) +36% (says the char cheet). 1.25 * 1.36 = 1.7 His Arcane Assault's tooltip shows: 1.7 radius. The radius got increased by 36%, not the area. The area (radius * radius * PI) got raised from (1.25 * 1.25 * 3.14) 4.9 m² to (1.7 * 1.7 * 3.14) 9.1m². 4.9 m² compared to 9.1 m² is an increase of area of ~86% (!). This is PoE version 3.07 Now if in Deadfire AoE calculation with INT gets changed like so: 4.9 * 1.36 = 5.6 Or in other words from radius 1.25 to 1.37 meter radius -which is an increase of 1.6% radius per point of int in Deadfire comared to 6% in PoE. So in short clouseau64 states that: - PoE raises radius by 6% per point of INT - Deadfire raises radius by roughly 1.6% per point of INT If this is really the case (didn't test it yet) then it's a hefty, hefty nerf to INT. Of course one could always adjust the percentage values and say 1 point of INT raises area by 15% or 20% (not radius). Then it's not as bad anymore. But I always thought while the tooltips were wrong (not area gets increased by 6% but radius) that the radius approach was good enough and also more easy to understand. Because the infomation that your actual area increased by x% is less useful to a player than knowing that your radius got bigger by y% - in my opinion.

Whoa. Nice catch. And nobody else noticed yet? This would be a heavy nerf of INT indeed. Maybe this is not intended as it may be that the function got rewritten from PoE and somebody else was implementing this. And obviously two different people might interpret "+x% to AoE" differently. I hope it's an oversight. Else all nuking casters will have 20 RES and 3 INT at some point.