Boeroer

And here you go again. Glad that you added "imo" this time. I absolutely depends how you play and how much experience you have with said classes. I'd say that the said three classes (barb, monk, chanter) are the three best ones when it comes to non-casters (chanter is kind of a semi-caster). But that's just me of course, but I guess I'm not alone with this opinion. Saying that barbs are completely pointless (while there is an active thread on this first forum site where Raven D. prayses the barb for being awesome in PoTD solo) is somewhat ignorant. You obvioulsy never played a barb long enough to know the strentghs of that class. Also - some months ago - we told you that barbs can do tremendous things with Carnage and stunning or overbearing weapons (or St. Ydwen's Redeemer). And you admitted that you didn't know this. We showed you the video how Kaylon kills a whole bounty enounter with Heart of Fury (no caster can do that, even at lvl 16). Still today you insist that barbs are pointless and try to convince others about this and call them a trap in character choice. What's the point of that? I mean it's ok that one doesn't like how barbs work, but to denigrate those classes you don't get along with is not very helpful for others who might feel different - if they only get the chance to play them unbiased. I also explained to you how a low level chanter can eradicate all inhabitants of Raedric's castle alone with White Worms while he provides +10 to reflex, fortitude and will and adds +1 move speed to the whole party. Or how his Phantom can obliterate most enemies in the early game with ease (if you're willing to work around the slow phrase building a bit). I can't see how that's not useful. Monks can use ANY melee weapon they wish and all their abilites work with ANY melee weapon as well. Even better: things like stunning and overbearing on "magical items" and even spell chances work with the cone of Torment's Reach - so you can stun whole groups in that huge cone of Torment's Reach with a crit from your war hammer (or cause prone with your battle axe). Not very boring but quite exiting - especially when you add the fact that a monk can also cause the weakened affliction on crit with ability. That means a monk can trigger instant AoE - Deathblows for a fellow rogue with one single Full Attack(!) of Torment's Reach while dealing enormous damage. So they are on NO way limited to their fists as viable weapons. His fists are great weapons too though - and you get them for free. Tl;dr: there are no "traps" when it comes to class choice. Some classes work better with your playstyle, some don't. Some are powerful in the early game and lack a bit later on, while with other classes it's the other way round. Don't listen to people who say that this or that class is weak or bad. There are no deadbeat classes in PoE.

Nice.

Threatening Presence has an AoE radius of 1.25, carnage of 1.5. Not really melee range, but I know what you mean. Yes, some enemy barbs have Thr. Pr.

Just watch out with the low resolution: you will be easily interrupted when you stand surrounded by enemies. It's not too bad with decent DEX, but it can be annoying against numerous and fast hitting enemies (e.g. Wichts). So in such cases either go flanking or get Holy Meditation from a priest - or get lucky and find Celebrant's Gloves (trigger Holy Meditation by themselves and give you 10% more Carnage range). Later you will find items that give you concentration passively. Against enemies with somewhat normal attack speed it's no problem though.

The Chillfog build can also use Dragon Thrashed until it gets "Mercy and Kindness". Chillfog is a very late bloomer (but then a very powerful auto healer with good damage) - don't be too disappointed. Once you hit lvl 9 a chanter does super dps. Just not with his weapons. Before that he can be very useful, too, but he will be no offensive powerhouse until lvl 9. You can of course give him all the talents that fit your weapon choice and he will do ok dps with weapons, but it's nothing compared with other dedicated melee damage dealers. But that's ok because his chants can wreck everything.

Why do you think that you need a melee cipher in order to profit from Psychic Backlash? I think there is no single melee attack that targets will. So it doesn't matter if you are ranged or melee. If it's just because of a "I'm sturdy and do backlash so I should go melee" thing then ok. Melee ciphers are easier than melee rogues in my opinion. The good CC options (too many enemies? Whisper of Treason! ) help a lot to prevent damage and focus gain is better in melee once you engaged. You can also use Pain Link on yourself and take retaliation items - then you are really backlashing all the time. A shame retaliation doesn't give you focus anymore.

Preservation is heavily bugged atm. It also doesn't trigger reliably if you are prone or stunned (normally).

If you want low fuzz then 15/15/15/15/15/03 is good. If you have a priest you should cast Holy Meditation for the barb from time to time if you like to put him into the midst of it instead attacking from the flanks. I would never skip Weapon Focus. Accuracy is the most important thing in the game and taking WF early makes the game noticably easier because it stacks with every other ACC buff. It's not a must though. A VERY weapon independent barb is one who uses Novice's Suffering (fists). It's an absolutely viable option.

So basically it's a sbuclass of the rogue that doesn't do exceptionally good single target damage when they operate 1:1 - but damage and stuff rather get better and better the more enemies surround or flank him and the more damage he takes (he can get "Blooded", but with other effects like the barb in PoE1 I guess). Josh talks about a multiclass combo of the barb subclass names "Berserker" which has a more powerful but also firendly-fire Frenzy (Carnage also hits team members) with the "Street Fighter" - where both subclasses synergize pretty well. The Berserker shouldn't stand near friends and rather be surronded by enemies because of his dangerous nature - and the Street Fighter needs so be surrounded or flanked by enemies as well.

Rogue has a subclass named "Street Fighter". Source: https://m.soundcloud.com/usgamernet/axe-of-the-blood-god-120-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-with-obsidians-josh-sawyer

No, only Dragon Thrashed. Put that single phrase in your songbook and that's it. Sweet Winds only until lvl 9.

Depends. One handed weapons for example only need one ingot while two handed need two. It also depends how you solve the quest around the White Forge. There's an option where you can make the smelting from raw durgan steel bars (the stuff you find and loot) into refined ingots (the final resource for enchantment) more effective (from 3:1 to 2:1).

The paladin should be a Darcozzi with Inspiring Liberation and Coordinated Attacks, dual wielding "Shame or Glory" and Cladhaliath (both marking). +40 completely stackable accuracy for the druid is nice... The druid should be MC and take at least Merciless Hand of course. Edit: Haha - Shame or Glory and Merciless Hand at the same time. Stupid me!

No, it's total bullshart.

Yes, it does. Vicious Aim only works ranged though.

Maybe you should play it first and then see if you regret it.

It's only tedious in the beginning and starts to get easier (or more smooth) once you reach Defiance Bay where you can get a lot of levels without fighting. There are classes/builds which are easier in the beginning (fighter, monk) as well. Especially monk makes for an rel. easy early game. And if you are a rogue, specializing in stealth and solving quests in a "peaceful" way (aka sneaking around) this can also be fun and has its challenges without being too frustrating because of the fighting. Of course the hefty encounters like dragons and bounties are still very hefty. But yes, in the beginning it's a lot of tactics and running, sometimes spiltting and micromanagement.

No, it does not. That would be too powerful (a dev once stated). But actually I played this boar druid with Novice's Suffering - knowing that it doesn't affect spiritshift. But that way I didn't need any resources for enchanting weapons. And they are peasant weapons, as well. And they hit harder than a hatchet, which is the only other one handed peasant melee weapon. They also work very well with high MIG and grazes - and a druid has not the best accuracy. But I guess using that talent point for something else is better - at least in the late game. Edit: yes, having wounding from level 1 one is pretty nice. Even though it's a bit weaker than normal wounding (20% instead of 25%).

Yes, but one-handed stunning or overbearing weapons come very late while the ones with good interrupts (Shatterstar, Vile Loner's Lance) can be obtained fairly early. Also, an interrupt build is basically also a build for stunning or overbearing weapons. So I start by using Shatterstar and then later add Godansthunyr and will have both approaches combined (because Godansthunyr also has higher interrupt than normal AND stuns). It surely doesn't hurt to cause long interrupts - but once you have HoF they don't matter that much anyways.

It was just a theory - never played a barb like this for more than a few minutes after "consoling" one. Yes, with low MIG barbs suck (at least for me). The damage malus of Carnage (-34%) has to be countered with high MIG in my opinion. Else you will have Carnage that hits like wet noodles against anything with a bit of DR. For a good interrupt barb you would need high MIG, DEX, PER and INT. You could drop CON and RES then, but that would lead to a really awful early game. Later on it could be ok though and also powerful - if you manage to interrupt-lock whole groups. Can't say if that's possible early on, but I doubt it. It's a nice concept in theory but in a real playthrough the simple things (like using Tidefall with Blood Thirst asap) seem to be more effective... and fun.

Exactly. Glad it still works as I remembered.

Yes - it's fun to play. Also because Blooded and One Stands Alone work with Battle Forged and Barbaric Retaliation. But Battle Forged has some annoying bug in combination with the watcher abilites as welll as with Second Wind (athletics): you will hit yourself with Battle Forged when using those, so watch out.

I did a hearth orlan rogue with 90% (Minor Threat 10% + Dirty & Vicious Fighting 20% + One handed Aatuuk +25% + Durgan Steel +20% + Merciless Gaze 15%) - which basically means near 100% crit because ACC is also very high (one handed and dagger bonus = +17 ACC) - but it wasn't very spectacular to be honest.

Heh? Which 50%? The rogue has mere +20% compared to other classes as far as I know.

You should name him Missy Elliot.