Boeroer

Low DEX is not so crucial with a barb since you will have Frenzy, Bloodlust (both stack). With Spelltongue both get prolonged a lot. You can also try this with dual wielding and Two Weapon Style to be even faster and balance out the lowish DEX even more. Also don't forget that Spelltongue itself will give you an additional speed buff.

Should work OK. With Maneha you can also go two handers with Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst. Low DEX is not a problem with those abilities. I really like Hours of St. Rumbalt with a barb.

Heart of Fury kills whole encounters without using up resources. I'd say it's better than most spells if used properly. Also, a barb with an overbearing or stunning weapon will be a great walking CC effect that doesn't use resources and at the same time deals great damage. Of course you can nuke everything to pieces with a caster after the early game if you have to. And that's the strength of the casters. But you will have to rest all the time if you want to unleash everything you've got in every encounter. The barb however can unleash most of his potential in every encounter and thus can be a lot of fun and effective. It's relatively easy to solo with one after Act I is over without kiting and pulling while it's difficult with other non-casters. And they can make awesome tanks, too, if you want more than the usual tincan that can't do anything but standing around and get rushed by. You just need to follow a different approach: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/89991-class-build-the-golden-dragon-barbarian-tank/ Not only will they have high virtual defenses (by lowering the acc of attackers) but all other party members will profit from their debuffing, too.

I would have voted "trinket" instead, but there's no option for it, tehehe.

Yeah - I also suggested that option in another thread. It would merge our "ingame-recognition-ledger" with a trinket item that gives a bonus. It would also be a bit more creative than a sword.

Yeah - that's why I like survival's healing bonuses with Veteran's Recovery much better: you don't even need to click on an icon.

With a retaliation build it's also very nice to use potions of Infuse with Vital Essence when the fight starts. It will give you a health buffer which will be used first before your own gets scratched.

Right - the ring and the cloak don't stack. The only cloak whose defense bonuses stack with everything is Cloak of Comfort. Athletics gives you Second Wind - it doesn't scale with level and has awful casting time and recovery. I don't put a single point into Athletics no matter the build. I nmy opinion it's better to invest in lore and cast Moonwell or invest in survival and get healing bonuses instead. Edit: corrected some horrible grammar mistakes (left some in for your amusement )

Soul Whip & Biting Whip stack with Apprentice's Sneak and also with Savage Attack and Two Handed Style. I find Draining Whip more useful than Greater Focus, but as was already said GF is ok in earlier levels because it lets you start an encounter with a power from a higher tier or lets you use two Whisper of Treasons instead of one before you have to regain focus. Particle effects are buggy but do not affect the damage you deal. It's just a graphics glitch.

So I did some quick'n dirty vector graphics to show what I meant with the "standard shape" and the "obsidian edge + inlays" in one of my previous posts. In this case it's the model/shape of a fine great sword in PoE, no changes to the shape, only the textures. This could be done to any weapon with a blade, not only great swords. Of course great swords has the biggest "blade canvas": This could be ivory + obsidian or so... What do you think?

First talent pick: Veteran's Recovery.

Yes, that's not the best strategy when using rogues. They do a lot of single target damage in the early game compared to other melee classes, but you have to babysit them a lot because they have abysmal endurance and deflection (for a melee setup) and no self buffs to make up for this. As I said: Veteran's Recovery and a thick armor help. Less babysitting but also a bit less dps. But you will deal 0 dps when you're kncoed out, so maybe it isn't a dps loss after all. If you reach Defiance Bay and unlock Durance's Shop in Crucible Keep via quest, buy Shod-in-Faith boots. Those will add a lot of survivability to your rogue as well without sacrificing offense. If you use those things you might also want to boost survival a bit (8 points are ok) in order to get the +40% healing bonus and also get Fulvano's Amulet (it's obtainable very early) which will give you additional +25% healing bonus. Those bonuses also boost Veteran's Recovery and Shod-in-Faith. That way your rogue will be sturdy enough for most encounters because his self healing capabilites will be very good. Those bonuses also work with any other heals you might receive, including potions. Then comes the part where you will run into health issues. Potions with Infuse with Vital Essence can help a lot here.

Only attack disables enemies. If you find that boring, pick up a thick armor (brigandine is thick but doesn't look too bulky) and Veteran's Recovery. You have decent INT so it will last long enough. It helps with endurance loss without the need of micromanagement. It obviously doesn't help with health loss.

In my opinion you roll a cipher for good weapons damage + mind control. The rest that comes later is only bonus and not really crucial - because who will challenge you anyways when your party is lvl 13+?. But mind control at such early stages in the game and with such good accuracy is invaluable. 3 CON on a melee cipher can work - however, it would be too much of a hassle for me.

Depends how you use and build them. For me, even lvl 1 barbs don't suck. You have to play out their strengths and avoid the weak spots. They have low deflection but good endurance and health. Veteran's Recovery for example adds a lot of survivability - especially when paired with Frenzy and high INT. A barb with a reach weapon can be very beneficial in the early game when you like to use chokepoints. And with reach weapons it's also easier to place the center of carnage better so you hit more foes.

Disable them asap. Knockdown, Slicken and so on. But charming them is the best way to deal with them. They will unleash their Plague of Insects on their fellows and it's foe only. You can use Edér with Munacra Arret if you don't want to use a cipher for that. Edér + Disciplined Barrage + Munacra Arret = crit charms. I only mentioned reach weapons because some people get the idea that Defender + Overbearing Guard might be very good with reach weapons because those have longer reach. That's not the case with engagement which has a fixed range - no matter the melee weapon. If you want a great melee wizard then I would spec for two handers. Citzal's Spirit Lance is super powerful and every dmg mod you can add to it (Savage Attack, Two Handed Style, Apprentices Sneak) is good for it because its base damage is huge. For the times you don't want to summon it you can also use the Parasitic Staff (works with the same talents) or Tall Grass or Llawran's Stick or even a great sword or whatever two hander. Citzal's Spirit Lance + Citzal's Martial Power is absolutely awesome and turns tough fights into easy ones with only two spell uses. Spirit of Decay + Bittercut is also nice. Note that for a wizard it's very easy to reach 0 recovery with dual wielding + Alacrity. This is also very beneficial in order to cast as quickly as possible after weapon attacks. Single one handed weapon use has no advantage for a wizard like it has for a chanter. But if you like it then go for it. Arcane Veil is not meant for every-encounter-use. But Hardened+Arcane Veil + Wizard's Double or other defensive buffs lead to an absurdely high deflection value that will leave you untouchable for over 15 secz. This can be extremely valuable when facing tough foes. In a full party you can totally do without though.

Just note that Defender doesn't work with some other offensive modals for example Savage Attack. Could mean dps loss for your Edér. Sadly, disengagement attacks are not full attacks, so the best option would be a melee weapon with highest possible damage on hit. This would be Firebrand. But Tidefall comes close and is also good on Edér because he has only 10 INT. Wounding works best with low INT and high MIG, so I'd say Tidefall is your best option for disengagement-attack-damage. If you also want to cause prone with autoattacks on crit (and Edér can crit a lot with Disciplined Barrage) I would recommend Hours of St. Rumbalt. Also nice for dps with the annihilation enchantment (+0.5 crit damage). Synergizes nicely with durgan steel. Reach weapons like pikes and quarterstaffs don't engage with bigger range (reach), so they have no advantage when using anything around disengagement.

Boots that give you Dragon Leap or Charge or Escape. Pretty handy when boarding ships *zoooom*!

Wait-wait-wait! What about "The Black Belt"? It would give you martial arts powers, aka Transcendent Suffering? Or what about a summoned weapon? Would that be possible? That way we could get two items into the game. A ring/gloves/trinket that summons a powerful, black weapon entirely made of obsidian (appearence like OBS wishes). Like Forgemaster Gloves basically.

What about the "Black Isle Plaster" - heals all your injuries 1/rest? What would be easiest and won't interfere with ingame 3D-models and stuff would be a weapon with the usual appearance, but a different set of colors and/or materials. So, things like an obsidian sabre, stiletto, dagger or rapier would fit the pirate theme best. But on the other hand that's also pretty boring stuff - unless you'd come up with some really creative combination of the usual enchantments (because new, unique ones we make up will also not be implemented). So... the shape of the item can't be too different from items which will be in the game (but we don't know which weapon types and shapes will be in, erm...). Great situation that! What about a wooden sword with the shape of a "usual PoE2 sword", no matter what that fial shape will be, but the edge is made of obsidian, fused into the wood. This would not require a different 3Dmodel but only an easy texture change where the inner blade apperes brownish and the edge is jet black. Maybe also some obsidian inlays. It's a mystery how the creator of this blade was able to craft obsidian in this way, but the sword is light and supersharp (for example - come up with other enchantment ideas please). Could still be of Huana/animancy/shamanistic origin and might have onve been a weapon of revenge - the Huana shaman of a nearly extincted or enslaved tribe wanted to kill raiders/colonists/whatever with a weapon which looked like the ones they brought into the Huana world, but which consisted of the materials his tribe used and was infused with the magic of his tribe. Was also used to execute and sacrifice a lot of captured foreigners to their god(s). Maybe Skaen in a different appearance got int otheir heads at some points. Something like this. I also really like the idea of putting an ability onto this item like the Girdle of the Driving Wave gives you Knockdown or the Siegebreaker Gauntlets give you Cleave and so on. Because of that, and the possible backstory/lore I still like the idea of putting Blood Thirst on the weapon (= 0 recovery after kill). This would best fit to a slower, two handed weapon. So I think I'll vote for melee weapon made of obsidian.

Speed is on Rain of Godagh Field, not Borresaine. Borresaine has draining instead. I mean last time I looked at those. Persistence is a great bow, maybe the best when it comes to DPS when you have high MIG, but it's better with low INT and a paladin usually has high(ish) INT. Borresaine's stun however profits from high INT, so I'd say it's the better choice for this special kind of paladin - especially with FoD since that favours damage per hit and not damage per second and the +20 ACC from FoD is great to trigger the stun. @MortyTheGobbo: Of course it's your decision, but I would not take Critical Focus but something else instead. 5% is awfully low for a talent point, especially early in the game where one tends to graze a lot. It's better later in the game when it's mostly about hit or crit - but even then there are better talents to spare your points on. I don't take into account that the hit-to-crit conversion also works in an AoE (aura) though.

Advantages are: - melee attacks do AoE damage ("Carnage") - very high endurance - very high health - Carnage gets +1 accuracy per char level: only class they gets +1 accuracy per level for auto-attacks - on-hit/on-crit effects of weapons work with carnage and therefore AoE, will trigger more often. Lots of powerful appliances come from this. Great synergy with Carnage's +1 ACC per level. - highest possible attack speed buffing (self only) of all classes. Can reach 0 recovery attack speed with two handers without consumables. - the most powerful special attack (melee) in the game (Heart of Fury). Kills most trash mobs with one attack if positioning and build are right. There are also some drawbacks of course...

You really didn't read the opening post, did you?

Hi Fluffle. We will also have the new item class "trinket" in the game. It will get a separate slot and will provide bonuses. This can be anything from an instrument to a vodoo puppet and whatnot. Maybe include that option in the poll, too?

Coolio!