Boeroer

Thanks a lot! Actually Wellspring of Life rose from "meh" to "hooray".

Potions of Infuse with Vital Esssence work with healing bonuses. So does Wound Binding. If you don't want to do that: If you use several "offtanks" you don't need a supertough main tank (if you want to name it like that). A chanter as only tank is not working very well in the early game. But in a formation of three he's good enough.

The rate of fire with a crossbow (esp. Wendgär) is actually not too bad if you combine high DEX, Swift Aim, Gunner and Gauntlets of Swift Action and put Durgan Steel on Wendgär. Sure, the reload is the bottleneck, but if you reduce recovery to almost zero while having 20 DEX you end up at 88 frames per attack cycle which is only twice the time of a melee attack with a geat sword with the same talents/abilites (44 frames). The base damage of crossbows is +5 compared to two handers. So, with enough dmg bonuses and decent crit rate (crossbows don't have reduced crit damage - and the damage on crit with Merciless Hand + Durgan Steel is nice) it's not bad. Twin Sting would have 118 frames per reload cycle - but since you can fire two shots before reloading the average attack cycle is 92 frames (one reload phase removed). Also not bad - and you spare some durgan steel. Of course the raw damage and the Plage-of-Insect thing beats most other enchantments. The biggest problem for crossbow users is that the uniques come so late - in my opinion.

Sure we had. The Long Pain is the best ranged weapon in PoE. I really miss my Turning Wheel. Where did it go? And WHY?

All this talks about Weapon Proficiencies being the new universal talents (which is nonsense in my opinion - those are only weapon related and can't substitute stuff that alters you char and has nothing to do with the weapon you're using*) doesn't change that the development/progression of single classes feels bland and railroaded now. If you want to build an interesting out-of-the-box character tou have to use multiclassing now. And that's because there are not enough options to pick from. Now instead of inventing a lot of additional class specific abilities, which would mean a ton of work, it would be much easier to put universal abilities back in. Of course more options means more ways to possibly break balance with an overpowered combo or to build a crappy character. But honestly: what do you want? A casual game where you can't make mistakes because you're taken by the hand? OR a rpg with a complex (but we'll explained) set of choices to pick from so that you can come up with unusual yet working build ideas? I get that this is not so important for the one time player who likes immersion and stuff, but I'm complaining from my point of view, what I miss. It's feedback from a player who has no problems with bad level up choices - there is always the tool of retraining - but who likes to fiddle around with builds. And multiclassing aside: this beta feels like a huge step backwards in that regard. Also because it's not needed and was totally uncalled for. The ability trees already look a bit empty. No problem UI-wise to add a few abilities that all or most classes share. * Think of Battle Forged + Scion of Flame for example.

This is exactly what the beta is for: to find out if the new mechanics work/get accepted or not. Currently I also think that penetration dictates combat. It's a lot easier if you have means to lower DR or to raise penetration. For example I did an Ogre Corpse Eater (Transmuter/Corpse Eater) and despite his absurdly high MIG when frenzied and his huge dmg per hit he couldn't kill stuff because his penetration was too low and he can't switch weapons (fixed Ogre clubs) and also clubs' proficiency don't grant extra penetration. Then I did a Skald/Berserker with dual maces (lowers DR) and Hel Hyraf-inviocation (also lowers DR) and suddenly it all was a breeze. All my party members could wipe the floor with the enemies all of a sudden because they all had enough penetration. This is too strong. As others have said: this needs tweaking.

This is not about multiclassing. I think this just works fine atm. The problem are the very streamlined single classes. Not enough choice of abilities basically. This could easily be solved with some more abilities that everybody can have. This also doesn't mess up the balance of multiclassing. You just make sure that you can't take the same ability twice (like you can atm with Bear's Fort on monk/druid for example). I just don't get it why my paladin can't take Weapon & Shield Style anymore.

I wouldn't say that. Too much info around mechanics to process - too much looking at the combat log. However PoE 1 feels more "desktopish". Maybe it's the looks, maybe the limited/merged talents+abilities, don't know.

Yes. Grazing is part of abilites now (like Disciplined Barrage). I miss all the time - it's really frustrating. I don't get why they changed SO MUCH of the original mechanics. I liked most of PoE's mechanics - they were just not made clear enough. Now it feels like a different game. I have to say the more I play the more I dislike the new penetration mechanic.

Yes, they can use weapons, but there also should be a proficiency for unarmed or fists. I mean why not?

Not true. You could never have more endurance than health. If current health is lower than your max. endurance then endurance is capped to the value of actual health. Now you can just pile up healing effects and you won't go down - while you skill everthing towards offense. At least the health system of PoE1 prevented such exploitation to an extend.

Right! Good point! I also wanted to write about this.

I totally agree. Spells take a really long time to cast in this game, you would think that the impact of each spell would be greater to compensate but currently many spells feel far less impactful than they did in POE1. Especially because CC spells in particular seem to have very low rolls and are almost never greater than the Fortitude of the enemy. Most rolls seem to be in the 40-50 range, but enemy Fortitude tended to me to be 60+ in many situations from what I observed. I also agree. Most spells take too long and get interrupted too often while their effects are too weak to compensate for that.

This is not true. Each caster class had very useful per-encounter abilites that had a an impact on the outcome of battle. Even without spending one single spell a caster could contribute to a fight. And then you can get camping supplies like everywhere for basically nothing and inns an taverns everywhere. No reason at all to conserve spells.

My main concern is that single classes (some in particular) feel very boring atm. Maybe this can change with more levels (10-20). But now, after only a few hours, that is my impression. There are things I really like - for example being able to play a corpse-eating Ogre or a Skald-Berserker. I also like some of the new abilites/spells a lot. Like the Grteat Sword summon for the priest (of Berath). It's really good (although the summoning takes too long in my opinon). I can totally see that this might be great in combo with rogue or fighter or whatever. But most of the things that I like atm are connected to multiclassing. Sure, I like builds so I judge everything based on that thought of building something unique. It's just one perpective. But still: leveling up single classes seems to be sooo boring. Priests have ZERO passives. Some of the most enjoyable priest build I had were based on melee combat. Maybe not the most powerful builds, but fun! This problem could be solved by just giving classes more of those "shared" abilites. Monks and Druids already share some passives. I would just expand that to other classes as well. More abilites to choose from can never be a bad thing. And the amount of work is also not too big because it's just copy & paste. And I can't help it: this feels like Tyranny 2 and not PoE2. I can't even say why. Maybe the feeling that everything is so streamlined? No idea... Ah - and I really don't like the new penetration system. The old one had its drawbacks and quirks (looking at you, lashes!). But in general it was easy to understand at least. Now my Corpse-Eating Ogre has like 30 MIG and attacks with mighty force - but he can't smash a stinky Lagufaeth to death because it has 8 DR and my fat Ogre only has 7 penetration. And he can't switch weapon sets...

Because you generally don't like monks?

How stupid is that?

I don't know about ranger, spec. Stalker because I didn't have a lot of time to check all classes and class trees. Are you sure that the abilites of the ranger tree don't work in melee? Because in PoE they also were named "Wounding Shot" or "Stunning Shots" but despite the word "shot" they worked in melee.

YOu now can abuse healing without health loss like in PoE. If you can stack enough healing sources it's very hard to kill you and you can totally focus on offense. I also liked the old system better. Wonder what made them change it.

In terms of overall power you should drop Pallegina and use Kana as tank, together with Durance, Zahua and Hiravias as offtanks (give Zahua and Hiravias both Veteran's Recovery).

Of course you will have more combinations now because of multiclassing. But as I said: single class character development seems to be very limited now. What's the point of introducing multiclassing if you then take away all the other stuff that made character development interesting? It just feels to much streamlined. I had a similar impression when I compared Diablo III (hate it) to Diablo II (loved it) or when looking at Dragon Age Origins and it's following sequels. Some of you might know that I only played PoE for such a long time because the build options where so plentyful and fun - especially once you discovered stuff that might not be intended - like retaliation giving you focus or combining a Island Aumaua with Quick Switch + 4 blunderbusses + Combusting Wounds. Even after several years and 4K+ hours in the game I can come up with something new that works and is fun because you can play around with the general talents, especially the cross class talents. What's Wrath of the Five Suns without Penetrating Shot? What's my two handed Bleak Walker without his Two Handed Style and his Savage Attack? What's my boar druid without Veteran's Recovery? Am I supposed to multiclass just in order to get Two Handed Style? Or Bear's Fortitude? Maybe it's too early, but I already loathe this. Maybe I'm too much emotionally involved with PoE or something...

Exactly. You can't play a priest now who's good in melee for example. Things like Two Handed Style and so on is now fighter only. Why was this taken away? It's terrible! And usually I'm not known for being a constant complainer... Sure, classes are now very distinct, but also very boring if you don't multiclass. This may be no issue for the players who play one playthrough and are done, but for everybody who likes to fiddle around with builds and likes to do numerous playthrough this new ability system is a slap in the face. I never thought I would use this word because I hate it, but the Backer Beta feels "dumbed down". There you have it, I said it...

A good combo to die sooner I guess. Just kidding - seems to be a nice synergy. You justhave to make sure you don't drop dead too quickly. I don't see Iron Wheel any more (maybe comes after lvl 9) - that would have been good for this.

It's totally fine to not min-max stats on PotD. If you have problems on PotD, stat distribution will most likely not be the reason. Also, the official companions are fit for PotD. Actually the game is easier with the official companions.

The build options seem to be a lot more narrow with single classes because talents got removed and everything is class-specific now. I don't know why, but I have the impression the game looks more cartoony than PoE1. Cartoony is not the right word, but maybe you know what I mean. It's not as... gritty?