Boeroer

I just had a paladin/wizard and summoned the Parasitic Staff while dual wielding two swords with my half-sword modal on: I kept the modal and it worked with the staff (giving me +2 penetration). Bug or feature?

Hi! As the title says: the summoned staff has no draining effect despite its text description. I guess no screenshots or something needed to reproduce this.

Haha, hilarious. Blast seems to be the same cheesefest as Carnage was in PoE beta.

I wonder what happens if you multiclass ranger/fury and pick Driving Flight (if it's still in)?

You don't need to do that. Wounding damage stacks. The Mad Hornet only did it because of Deep Wounds (which don't stack). In order to get the most out of Deep Wounds you need high MIG, high INT and hit different targets. With wounding you only need high MIG (low INT is even better) and you can simply fire at one enemy all the time. You can't see it on the enemy (but in the combat log): the wounding damage stacks.

Which micro do you mean? It does woundig damage automatically. Woundig is a raw lash and gets more powerful with MIG. The base value is 25% of your pre-DR damage roll. If you hit for 40 damage pre DR that's additional 10 raw damage with 10 MIG. If you had 20 MIG it would be 13 raw damage (and so on). With decent MIG it's the best dps ranged weapon for a ranger in general. Imagine you meet an enemy with 20 DR: your initial 40 damage would be reduced to 20, but the raw lash would still hit for 13. This is the power of woundig. It also works against pierce-immune foes. The damage from Predator's Sense which triggers 100% of the time comes as a bonus on top (if that's what you meant with micro). Another plus: you can get Persistence very early and start enchanting it with a lash and quality (fine, exceptional...). So you profit from those investments throughout the whole playthrough. I would even pick Stormcaller over Rain of Godhag Field. With a bow cipher I would always use the Rain, it's the best focus generator at range - but not with a ranger.

Well, there are offensive AoE "spells" that are really good. But those are fast cast and don't do damage but either lower AR or disable (looking at chanter's invocations). I seriously don't understand why Hel-Hyraf is a tier-1 fast cast and lowers AR by 5 while a tier-2 looong cast like Expose Vulnerabilities only lowers it by 2. And I don't think that Hel-Hyraf needs a nerf (well, maybe a bit) but that wizard/druid/cipher/priest spells need a hefty buff. Either in the magnitude of the effects or casting time. Or both. Fury in theory is nice because elemental spells do more damage while you are shifted. But basically it's only Returning Storm that profits (you cast it before shifting and it stays "on" and profits once you shift) because all other elemental spells except the one Sun-Thing take so long that shifting is over after one or two spells. Suuuupermeh! The ranged attack is not powerful enough to balance that out. In theory it's a nice subclass though.

Superawesome, thanks! I mean it should be easy. If you save a lvl 3 adventurer he gets unlocked once your main char hit lvl 4. If you save a lvl 16 adventurer he gets unlocked once you hit lvl 17 and so on. Usually players pick up their adventurers early in the game anyways. I think this would be easiest. A great, great feature would be if you could save a max level adventurer with name, portrait, backstory and share it. And his level-up decisions would also be saved (basically like auto-leveling for official companions or the beta mercs) you can pick him up at lvl 2, 3, 15 - doesn't matter. If you enable auto-leveling he will get leveled like the build describes, if not you can level him yourself. But version 1 would also be fine.

I played them all and they are all good, although I think that the Fury is the weakest atm because offensive spells suck compared to melee.

Early game is the hardest part. But still the paladin should at least be as tanky as the Chanter. If you send him in first so that he gets all the heat that may explain why he gets pummeled so hard while the chanter isn't. You can cast Lay on Hands in advance if you know he will get attacked soon.

Persistence with durgan steel is the highest single target dps weapon for a ranger due to wounding. You need high MIG. It's also very good for a ranger because its wounding triggers Predator's Sense. The Rain of Godhagh Field is the best ranged weapon for a cipher. That's because wounding doesn't generate focus. Lead Spitter is great for burst damage, but its dps is strictly inferior to bows.

Hi, just reposting this here so that it gets the attention it deserves in this backer beta feedback/discussion forum: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94988-suggestion-save-adventurer-builds/?do=findComment&comment=1960067 Gromnir made the great suggestion that we should be able to save adventurer-builds/profiles (preferably with a portrait and a name) so that you can pick them up in another playthrough. I think this would be a great thing to have. It not only makes it easier and more convenient to hire an adventuerer (without the need to level him up to level X every time) but it also would make the process feel more "real": having adventurers with names and faces and maybe a history, sitting in the inn, waiting for work instead of those faceless Jon Does all the time.

Barbaric Blow also worked with ranged weapons in PoE1.

Aloth: basically this: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83681-class-build-zeblastian-hurtstacker-autoattacking-double-trouble-dps-wizard/ Durance: basically this: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86277-class-build-fire-priest-ranged-sup-offdps/?hl=+fire%20+priest Sagani: grab Persistence and enchant it as high as you can and also slab on durgan steel. Use Weapon Focus Peasant, Marksman, Twinned Arrows, Stalker's Link and Stunning Shots and Give the fox Predator's Sense, Resilient, Vicious and Merciless Companion and Takedown + Brutal Takedown. Focus on casters. Wounding from Persistence will trigger Predator's Sense all the time, plus Persistence is the best ranged dps weapon against single targets. Cloak of the Frozen Hunt, Gauntlets of Swift Action or Accuracy. Grieving Mother: Forgemaster's Gloves and Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (6 Firebrand uses per rest), Scion of Flame, Veteran's Recovery, Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak, Maegfolc Skull or some other +3 MIG item. Jack of Wide Waters. Glanfathan Stalking Boots. Skill survial to 14 (is it poissible with GM? Forgot...) an pick bonus damage against flanked enemies. Use Phantom Foes to trigger flanking bonus all the time and use Mental Binding to paralyze an opponent and crit with Firebrand... Hiravias: Veteran's Recovery, Survival 8 or 14 (pick healing bonus), Two Weapon Style, WF Peasant, Wildstrike Shock, Greater Wildstrike Shock, Fast Runner, Heart of the Storm, Wildstrike Belt, Sanguine Plate, Shod-in-Faith boots, Black Sanctuary Shield. Cast Natiure's Balm and Nature's Whatever (later Moonwell) and Form of the Delemgan, Relentless Storm and then Avenging Storm run into melee. When receiving a crit -> spiritshift (if you don't want to wait for a crit just shift right away).

Wouldn't it be easier to pick a Nature Godlike? Sure, it "only" gives you +2 Power Level with an inspiration, but you don't have to juggle around with low endurance (on your and the enemies' side). The 5 second window of the Ascendant is totally stupid. I wish they would just remove it completely or at least extend it to 10, better 15 secs. Most spells of the cipher take longer than 5 seconds to cast (with 10 DEX) and you can't generate focus anymore if you start casting before reaching max focus. Whoever chose that value of 5 seconds didn't really think it through. Besides that: nice!

Frightened and Terrified do not add sneak attacks. Taking Apprentice's Sneak Attack can be benefical if you have means to trigger Sneak Attack. There are several options (less for a solo barb because you can't get some nice items from stronghold adventures like the Binding Rope for example). But there are some nice options left: The aforementioned Colored Coat triggers Wicked Briars which also hobbles periodically in an AoE - so Sneak Attack will also get applied with Carnage. Eldryn's Jacket can cause Blind when you get hit or crit. all weapons that stun or prone on crit can unlock sneak attack on that target (Hours of St. Rumbalt, Tall Grass, The Temperacl, Mabec's Morning Star, We Toki, Godansthunyr, Starcaller, Cladhaliath) Spell bindings or scrolls that cause an affliction (like Amulet of Summer Solstice - Sunbeam/blind or Sun-Touched Mail of Hyan Rath - Sunbeam/blind and so on) However, for a solo barb I would always prefer Gallant's Focus or Vulnerable Attack over Apprentice's Sneak Attack. Even an elemental talent for the lash on your weapon (like Scion of Flame for a burning lash) is better in my opinion. Appr. Sneak only adds 2 damage per swing on a heavy one hander and 2.5 to two handers. Vulnerable Attack will give you +5 damage per swing with a speed loss (which doesn't matter for retaliation, Blood Thirst and Heart of Fury) and is clearly better in this case because it comes with no preconditions. Even an elemental talent on a lash is better: imagine you roll 30 damage on average with a hit and 47 with a crit (and this is only with mediocre dmg bonuses and enchantments). Then something like Scion of Flame will give you +1.5 on hit/+2.4 on crit for the lash without preconditions. With Bittercut or Firebrand it's even better because it also gives you +20% additive weapon damage without preconditions. Of course if you can take Gallant's Focus AND Vulnerable Attack AND an elemental talent then it's good to take Apprentice's Sneak Attack as well if you have talent points left.

That solution sounds reasonable to me.

Yeah. I hope they adress that annoying bahavior as well. At the moment switching weapons is a really tedious process.

For dual wielding I'd recommend hammers. The two damage types are especially usful when soloing, you get a very nice hammer early (Shatterstar) and later you can pick up Godansthunyr. Both hammers also have higher interruopt power than normal (normal: 0.5 ses, Shatterstar: 1 sec, Godnasthunyr: 0.75 secs) which also helps when going solo. Get high PER and Interrupting Blows as well as Arthek's Cord. This will make your attack interrupt most of the time and helps if you can't always cause stuns. It's a good combo of CC and dps. By the time you get Godansthunyr (stun on crit) you also have high accuracy due to Carnage getting +1 accuracy per char level (because active ability). With Accurate Carnage you will have an ACC bonus of +11 compared to auto-attacks (-10 carnage malus +16 level bonus +5 Accurate Carnage) so crits ae common against most mobs. Also, it a solo char you are overleveled most of the time after the mid game and crits are more common. I always take high CON and Veteran's Recovery + high survival and an item with +25% healing bonus for barbs without shields. They profit from self healing a lot because they tend to have high MIG and INT and their health pool is very, very big so they don't run out of health quickly. You can even dump DEX (which normaly is a gimpage of dps) because the combo Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst (later paired with Heart of Fury) leads to awesome attack speed even low DEX. Early game is tedious though. You can easily retrain after lvl 11 of course and only dump DEX then. This is a great "alrounder" setup. However, to maximize the damage of Heart of Fury you will need Bittercut (+ Spirit of Decay) and Purgatory. The first has dual damage and is the one handed weapon with the highest damage on hit (best choice for HoF) and Purgatory heals you via carnage-draining. THe only downside is Purgatory's single damage type. Other good combos with Two Handers are Firebrand (+Scion of Flame, see Jojobobo's answer), Tidefall, HoS Rumbalt or Tall Grass with a barb. Here I would always use Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst and I wouldn't dump DEX. The most hilarious thing is St. Ydwen's Redeemer as backup weapon for vessels if paired with Blood Thirst. destroying a vessel will trigger Blood Thirst. Since the destroying works with carnage it's always big fun to see groups of vessels getting annihilated in seconds. Another great approach is to stack retaliation and pair it with Blood Thirst: take a Fire Godlike (yeah, ugly, but very powerful with a solo barb), use potions of Flame shield or get the Cannoneer Belt and pick Blooded + One Stands Alone + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst and later Barbaric Retaliation. Best item indeed is the Cannoneer Belt because it geives you Flame Shield on a received crit. This three kinds of retalation are very powerful at higher levels (don't bother with normal retaliation items) and they all trigger Blood Thirst on kill. Same as the Colored Coat which casts Wicked Briars once you drop below 51% endurance. Wicked Briars also triggers Blood Thirst. You will be able to attack with (normally slow) Firebrand having reduced (or nullified) recovery most of the time. It's very good.

Let's see. At the moment a Black Jacket is also useful in a solo game. You can do things like starting with a mace + modal, switch to a pike + modal and then use a great sword + modal. It is effective BUT it is the worst microchore I ever did. Maybe if the whole process could be automated it would be great (if you could script your auto-attack sequences like "my auto-attacking should alsways be slot1/switch on hit/slot2/switch on hit/slot3/switch on hit repeat").

Great suggestion Gromnir! I totally forgot about that feature. How could I? This would really be a very useful addition to the game. Let's beat the big drum for this! Maybe also put it into the backer beta feedback/discussion?

Who said it is?

There will be a console command that will shout down the console...

Actually every single target dps melee build wants to use boots of speed. Else you waste a lot of dps potential with running around too slowly. The faster the better.

You can make a sturdy frontline out of fighters, paladins, barbarians (need some levels to get beefy) and monks who don't wear shields. You can give them Veteran's Recovery to make them more sturdy. As peddroelm said: using chokepoints will not be your best tactic anymore because you want your whole frontline to engage the enemy and not only one or two tanks. If enemies concentrate on one single front liner it may be too much, so try to divide their attention. Also, CC-effects are your friends (Knockdown, Force of Anguish and so on).