Boeroer

Depends a bit. Imo "Many Lives Pass By" nonstop is the most universally useful phrase with Brisk Recitation, but stuff like Ancient Memory if combined with Exalted Endurance is also nice and good for the party, too. If you have another healer then Mercy and Kindness is very good, too. If you have high defenses and armor and only tend to get minor damage from attacks then Her Courage Thick as Steel is very good, too. The 10pt damage shield gets refreshed every 3 secs then which nullifies all the grazes that might otherwise hurt you. If you have ranged-heavy party with reloading weapons (firearms and crossbows) then Sure-Handed Ila is very good, too because it applies -20% reloading time AND -20% recovery time to those weapons, making the reloading very fast. It stacks with the action speed bonus of Sasha's Singing Scimitar.

Yes, you could use Sasha's in the second weapon setup and use it for an empowered summoning (summons last a lot longer then) and then switch to another weapon setup. Since your main roles are supposed to be tank and summoner I would pick something that helps your defenses/sturdyness and/or engagement. Examples: Kapana Taga with All Comers and Champion's Relic Pukestabber with Numb and usage of the dagger modal Bardatto's Luxury Squid's Grasp Duskfall with Drawing Parry Griffin's Blade with Hound's Resilience Gladiator Sword

I guess as a Shieldbearer you will use a shield. So Sasha's Singing Scimitar is the best option imo (besides using Grave Calling to kiull your own Skeleton summons which is ver potent but also very hacky). If you use the enchantment "Companion's Prelude" you will give a nice action speed bonus to your party + summons based on the number of your held phrases.

Steel Garrote is an excellent choice when you want to use Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry. The reason is that the Steel Garrote Paladin has a passive that lets you drain health from enemies if they are afflicted with something. Offensive Parry not only hits enemies who miss you in melee, it also applies the Dazed affliction if you do so, automatically unlocking the health drain. You need high melee deflection though. So that means high Resolve, Cloak of Greater Deflection (very early item with Berath's Blessing: Merchant in Port Maje), later Bracers of Greater Deflection, Deep Faith etc. and also an armor that gives you deflection bonuses. I would recommend Nomad's Brigandine. It gives up to +10 deflection against melee attackers and it also makes you immune to disengagement attacks - meaning they will miss 100% of times. So you can basically disengage, the disengagement attack will miss you and you will instantly do an Offensive Parry in return. This also means you can roam the battlefield freely while doing damage passively and draining health in the process. The Brigandine is also a heavy armor which is good for a melee character who will most likely get hit a lot but can compensate with high AR and AR passives (see Barb+Paladin passive around armor). Enemies' underpenetrarion is every frontliner's underappreciated friend... This is also one of the few builds where I consider casting the Paladin's +40% dmg Beacon is worthwhile. Because your offensive parries will also get +40% dmg and this will also drain more of the enemies' health for you. Blood Thirst also triggers from Offensive Parry (if it kills). Barbarians suffer -10 deflection when frenzied. That's not so cool in this case but it's manageable. Berserker is nice because not only does he crit more frequently and gains +2 PEN - but also because he gains +2 AR via Frenzy. The self damage is substantial bit can be countered with the health drain, a pet that heals on kill (see Abraham) and Lay in Hands + Exalted Endurance. But I think I personally would go with the Furyshaper because the Fear Ward is very strong, it will afflict enemies (more health drain) and it will make you more sturdy because terrified enemies don't attack. It also fits the Steel Garrote vibes imo. For a single class Barb I would def. recommend Furyshaper because the Blood Ward is just awesome for you and the whole party. Especially in combination with Barbaric Retaliation and Dazing Shout. It's more difficult to use offensive Parry as an SC Barb because you will lack the deflection bonuses of the Paladin, but you can combine disengagement-parries and Babaric Retaliation (it attacks with the sword's cone AoE). With WotEP, Carnage and Dazing Shout you want highest INT and also items that raise INT further as well as items that raise AoE size directly (Ring of Overseeing for example). A pet like Loki also helps with that, but maybe something like Abraham is better for a Berserker after all.

Ah okay. I just wondered. Yeah, enfeebled + Cipher powers is a reason why I like Forbidden Fist/Cipher so much (without BPM).

What do you use to enfeeble enemies as a Steel Garrote/Soulblade?

Then it won't.

Iirc the fire shield of Margran's Blessing generates focus and also drains life (if enemy is afflicted - see Steel Garrote) - because it is treated as melee weapon attack. That's only small numbers though I guess, but it's rare to find things that give you something while being defensive (doesn't work against ranged attacks). Whispers of the Endless Paths with Offensive Parry also generates focus and drains life with a defensive action: the Parry itself (100% on enemy melee miss). Since Paladin/Cipher can reach pretty good deflection via passives + RES inspiration + Borrowed Instinct (even without a shield) this might be nice against groups of mostly melee enemies (doesn't work against ranged attacks). Grave Calling with Chilling Grave is an awesome weapon as soon as you go against vessels. The Chillfog is treated like a weapon attack and will generate focus. I didn't try if it also drains life for a Steel Garrote (I guess not because not melee?).

If it can handle a solo PotD run it will not let you down in a party.

You never know what happens behind the scenes, money or not. 🤷‍♂️

Saw today on Twitter that an alumni of Josh (nowadays history professor specialized on medieval medicine and religion) consulted on Pentiment: to the Tweet

Llengrath's Safeguard is a "+x to all defenses" ability. Those do stack with "+x to one (or two) defense" abilities - because internally those are handled as different buffs (I know, that's obscure, but that's like it is). So L's Safeguard will stack its Deflection bonus with individual Deflection bonuses of let's say Mirrored Images. Same is true for Vigorous Defense and Borrowed Instincts as well as Circle of Pretection which both also raise all defenses. Those will NOT stack with each other though, so Circle of Protection will not stack with L's Safeguard or Vigorous Defense.

It's normal to feel underpowered in the early game. The encounters there are often very hard and one level can make a lot of difference because we're dealing with overall pretty low numbers - so that impact of one level (which adds some fixed numbers) is a lot higher than later. Same with DR - so the heaviest of armors is best used in the early game, not later. Same with Accuracy bonuses of a somewhat fixed range: big effect in the early game, not so much in the late game. Example: one handed weapon usage (+12 ACC). He has high(ish) Resolve. If you give him a shield and use him for buffing/healing mostly the lower accuracy from a shield doesn't matter and you can then give him light or no armor which balances his low DEX out a bit. I think he's a very interesting character and imo it's a loss to not bring him. You could still bring a Priest as main character - Priest of Eothas fits nicely. Two Priests are very nice as well. First of all you cut down buffing time in half - and also "Inspiring Radiance" (+10 ACC to everything) stacks with everything, including with other Inspiring Radiances, meaning two Priests can boost the party's accuracy by +20 in every encounter which is a huge advantage that early in the game. I personally really like Monks in PoE. They have awesome starting values which makes them easier to play in the early game, they can be sturdy (good offtank), have nice CC options, summons paid with replenishable resources (wounds), dish out a lot of melee (or ranged) damage and their "power curve" doesn't fall as flat as that of most other martial classes (while casters' start flat and skyrockets at some point). Also good class to pick as main character because an official monk companion would come pretty late (White March DLC). That last point is also true for Rogue and Barbarian.

The early game is actually the hardest part. It's smart to try to do all non-combat quests first - but in Act 1 those are rather limited so you will have to do some tough fights. After Act I, when reaching Defiance Bay, there will be a ton of non-combat quests and therefore the encounters will be easier if you solve most of the non-combat stuff first. Sounds solid. Summons are very impactful and mind control (charm, dominate and often also confuse) as well. I never use consumables unless I do a PotD solo run. So youcan totally do without. But they can help of course. I guess you will feel when it's time to use some. Correct. In the early game the higher level is an advantage. And yes, the added quests give a bit more XP for the party. But there's plenty of XP in the game, more than you need to bring the party to max level. Companions are more interesting imo. They have quests and also banter. Some quests give the official companion special abilities that custom adventurers cannot get. Also correct. I personally prefer the official companions because they are absolutely viable even for PotD difficulty and they bring some special vibes you can't get from mute custom adventurers. This would be a very solid party composition. But honestly all kinds of party compositions work. A Priest is a very useful party member. Not taking one is a bit like nerfing yourself. Can still work of course, but it will be harder without a Priest.

Nice. Glad that stuff I said was of help.

Maybe nothing bad. That it wasn't on the show only means it's not going to be finished in the next 12 months. Maybe they hit a wall again... Maybe switching to Unreal 5 took more work than they thought. Kate Dollarhyde was the Narrative Lead on Avowed and she also worked on Pentiment. Unfortunately she left Obsidian, too - a month ago or so. I think the main bulk of P's narrative part is done by now so I guess her departure didn't hurt P. But for Avowed...? It could mean they have to find a new narrative lead Or it could mean the narrative part of Avowed's development is mostly done like with Pentiment. Who knows?

Josh speaks German and has aquired quite the collection of German history books of the period. He occasionally posts new purchases on Twitter and some of those books are really hard to get and/or quite expensive. Also sometimes very specialized stuff about nuns, monks and so on. Now we know why. But I guess he would have bought and read them anyway... Some of them seem to be written in old dialects which even I find hard to read (I studied German Philology back in the days and am rel. fluent in Low German bc. my Grandma spoke not much else - and my wife's Bavarian so I understand that dialect quite well. Doesn't help a lot with those rather old German texts). Also some of the contemporary German books (if not all of them) are written in infamous Academical German - which is truly horrendous to read. The research must have been a ton of work.

The wizard has the advantage that he gets some great summoned weapons even early on (Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff not only drains life from the enemy for you and comes with exceptional quality at lvl 1 - which his a huge advantage at such an early level - but it also has enormous base dmg - a lot more than a normal quarterstaff). And he gets very good self buffs that are nearly all fast casts. Druid's Spiritshift, especially in combination with Wildstrike Belt and later Avenging Storm, is one of the best melee single target DPS builds (the base damage of the Spiritshift weapons scales with level - which works as multiplicative dmg bonus - and the lashes he gets from Wildstrike are also multiplicative dmg bonuses). Boar form does awesome wounding damage (great against high DR enemies), Cat form is very fast. But as you already mentioned Spiritshift can be a bit short. Lacks most of the self buffs the wizard had but compared to the wizard he has better starting stats (deflection for example). Also a Druid can be a good healer and supporter as well which makes him more versatile for a party. Both are viable. I would decide based on which "theme" or "vibe" I liked better.

Melee Wizard would be a way to go. On the early levels it's true that you need to rest more often because you will have few spells. But later on you will usually rest because of low health before your spells run out. You can also use a Fighter or Rogue and the use items that grant you spells per rest. Both have very high Accuracy which helps a lot with landing spells. And the Rogue's Deathblow passive even works with spell damage (Sneak Attack doesn't though). All in all the Wizard has the best combo of defensive and offensive and weapon summoning spells imo. It just takes a bit more time to evolve. Druid is also good. You can build one who still does good melee damage even after Spiritshift ends.

Attributes are not super important in PoE in general. A few points more here and there hardly matter. Generally a glasscannon rogue wants to drop Resolve and Constitution, max DEX, PER and MIG and put the rest into INT (or switch INT and MIG). A more sturdy rogue wants more CON and Resolve, especially Resolve because getting interrupted in melee is bad. A Rogue with shield should have highish resolve. All defenses have increasing returns. Deflection and reflex are the defensive stat a rogue with shield will have high values in, and resolve will grant you additional deflection. A Rogue doesn't really need a ton of MIG to deal good weapon damage. Sneak Attack and Deathblows give you sich high dmg bonuses that a bit of MIG gets dwarfed in comparison. So you can always lower MIG a bit in order to achieve a melee sturdy, balanced build. You can lower PER a bit. It is very handy in the early game but later on in the game there are so many sources of accuracy that the effect of PER isn't that impactful anymore.

Barbaric Retaliation, too.

Rogues are bad at tanking. Especially in the early game. With some effort they can be build into rel. sturdy combatants while retaining good DPS, but they will never be great main tanks. They need levels, certain ability decisions and fitting gear in order to be able to withstand some hefty punishment - and they will not have that during the first levels. What they are good at - again especially in the earlier parts of the game - is weapon damage output. Having said that - I prefer a more balanced Rogue build over a glass cannon one. Glass cannons do nice dps and can take down enemy threats quickly - but they also tend to go down when merely looked at - in which case they contribute nothing anymore. A robust Rogue does less dps - but still good damage - while being able to withstand some hits without going down. In my opinion in easy fights the glass cannon is fun because he can shred so many foes so quickly, especially if a party member disabled them before - but as soon as things don't go as planned he's the first to go down - and then he's worth nothing. Most players tend to reload the fight then. The "classic" DPS rogue build is to use two sabres to maximize the dmg output of the per-encounter strikes the rogue has and to get a good balance of attack speed and dmg per hit (the higher dmg per hit the better against enemies armor/DR). With high DR he will last longer but also have less dps. But for the first few Full Attacks like Blinding Strike etc. the armor doesn't matter as much. It's the auto-attacks where he will be noticably slower with a heavy armor. Anyway - if you rush into battle with such a rogue he will go down very quickly. Wait for the enemies to engage the tank and only come in from the flanks. Use Escape and movement items while avoiding disengagement attacks. Then there's the approach to use a reach weapon (see Tall Grass) in order to combine melee DPS with rel. safety behind the front line and not having to engage the enemy directly in close melee (can flee without disengagement attack). The overall outcome of this might be very good if you are able to control the battlefield well and manage to keep a tight formation so that not many enemies can reach the rogue in melee. But even if you manage to do that there will always be archers/gunmen and they like to target low armor/low defense chars - so it's still useful to give the reach weapon rogue a bit of DR so that he doesn't become the target of every ranged enemy and gets shot to death instantly. Or keep him stealthed until most enemies have settled on the tank or different party members. Most enemies are reluctant to switch targets after they decided. Then of course there are ranged rogues. Here it can totally make sense to build a glasscannon because ranged characters with decent range (10-12m) usually get hit a lot less often and if they do they usually can retreat quickly and easily. Then you can build a rogue with shield. This variant will have the lowest DPS for a big part of the game (still good compared to other classes like Fighter or Paladin) but will be the sturdiest one. If you give him a bashing shield (first Larder Door, later Badgrad's Barricade) he can even profit from the Full Attacks that his per-encouter strikes are (shield hits first, no recovery pause, applying the affliction, main weapon hits second, getting the sneak attack bonus). Once you get Badgrad's Barricade you will have a great mix of both sides, offense and defense. You will do great DPS because the enchantment that releases Thrust of Tattered Veils on a critical shield bash has no proc limit (procs on every bas that crits), the spell works with Deathblows (+100% dmg) and you will be as sturdy as a Rogue can be. But it's a late-ish game item. Before that it's "only" a offensive/defensive melee hybrid. Still works well imo. Not as main tank - but can off-tank reasonably well after some levels.

Yes, I agree. The keyword/immunity implementation was not 100% thought through - or let's say it didn't go through enough iterations of QA and improvement. I guess there were more pressing issues.

I meant that some players tend to just start an encounter with letting the whole party do attacks and offensive spells right away - instead of buffing up first. In the cases I described above this indeed results in a fight that's over more quickly - because you didn't have to take the (real) time for buffing up - and the buffs didn't make a huge difference in the first place because the encounter was easy to begin with. But as soon as fights become more demanding it is detrimental to start combat with all-in offensive actions right away. Imo it's better to make some time and room for buffing up first (mostly accuracy but defense also matters of course). Buying time can be done by using a scout or tank who seperates a bit from the party and starts combat - and then either lures enemies towards the party or just tanks them until the rest of the party buffed up. Or it can be done with very fast buffers (like a support caster with high DEX and no armor) who can dish out a lot of buffs quickly - or both. And/or you have somebody who starts the encounter with some impactful CC effect (mind control of a weak enemy in order to distract the other ones, a hard disable of a big group by a high accuracy disable... or just using summons) which would buy the buffing caster some time. If you have a very sturdy tank then the simplest option is to seperate from the party a bit and just initiate combat with that tank. Let the tank endure the first enemy attacks alone while you buff your party up - and only then go in with disables/debuffs and then attacks. In easy fights however the time and planning you will invest for this are often not worth it. Especially because you will most likely have to pause the game a lot bc. of timing and positioning etc. - and then, even if the fight is over more quickly in "game-time" it will have taken a lot longer in real-time. That's why a lot of players just do "select all, attack" later in the game because it's the fastest - or most "time-efficient" - way to overcome easy encounters, even if it's not the most resource-efficient way (in terms of spell uses and loss of health and injuries I mean).

The initial problem (and why the keyword mod adressed the keywords of some weapons, too) was that weapons which do alternative damage (like shock/pierce but also pierce/slash) might not do any damage against enemies who are immune to one of that dmg types, even if the alternative dmg should work in theory. Problem is that sometimes enemies with immunities against certain damage types have low AR or not especially high AR against that type (see Flame Naga). The game logic first determines the highest dmg type/AR ratio and decides the preferable dmg type, then realizes the enemy is immune only afterwards. Bummer. At least that's what I remember. But it seems the keyword mod only disimproved stuff (in some areas at least). If I'm ot wrong giving Sun and Moon fire/crush or freeze/crush wouldn't really help with the "can't hurt fire immune enemies with crush dmg" issues which occur without the keyword mod. Maybe crush/fire or crush/freeze would be okay in most cases because the first dmg type will get picked if the ARs (or dmgtype/AR ratios) are equal - and in that case it would be crush dmg. But against Flame Nagas for example it would still prefer fire dmg - bc. the fire AR of them is especially low. If Sun & Moon only did singular fire and freeze dmg with the repective head then it would make sense and one wouldn't have this quirky "immunity despite alternative dmg scenario" at least - imo. Just by taking away the alternative dmg type which would avoid all the issues. Same with Dragon's Dowry etc. I personally would prefer another solution (which I don't see atm)... but this seems like the simplest one - and one that shouldn't come with other unforseen problems.