Boeroer

What about a druid? They are all about nature, and they even have a lvl 2 spell called "Taste of the Hunt". Druids are powerful and fun to play.

MIG also works for the dmg bonus of Transc. Suff. and Sandals by the way. Is unmodified unarmed damage 10-15? I thought it's lower. Like 5-8 or something, can't remember. You have to take into account that crits don't do as much damage with fists. The +0.5 crit modifier only works with the base damage of fists. Same is true for grazes. In the later game you will do more crits than grazes if you're not solo. They are crush only, while Bittercut has two damage types. But the biggest downside is that fists's ACC bonus don't apply to most abilitites of the monk: Torment's Reach, Flagellanth's Path, Force of Anguish - those will not get the ACC bonus. WHich is lame. They are still very good weapons (maybe the best for monk) for early and mid game.

Since the monk doesn't have that many dmg mods (like rogue, cipher or figher) the sabre nerf makes not much difference. And the lashes don't care if the overall damage comes from base damage or dmg mods. Fists have some accuracy issues - for example the ACC bonus of Transc. Suffering doesn't work with the AoE cone of Torment's Reach.

YOu can use potions of Infuse with Vital Essence to restore health without resting.

Cape of the Cheat only gives you Escape. If you plan to build a character around stealth/invisibility I would suggest a rogue with the Cape of the Master Mystic (1* inv. per encounter), with Shadowing Beyond (2/rest), Nightshroud (1/rest) and Feign Death (1/encounter). If you combine that with Backstab (+150% damage) and Sneak Attack (+50) you an deal some nice damage when attacking from stealth or invisibiliy. With this setup it's best to use heavy hitting weapons like an estoc or a great sword, not daggers. The number of attacks you can deal out of steakth/inv. is limited, so you want to hit as hard as you can with your weapon, not as fast as you can.

A melee wizard is viable and powerful, too. But if you want lower maintenance, then a ranged wizard is the better choice. Most of the time you will use different stuff for late game crafting - and you will also have plenty of it. So craft all you want. Amplified Thrust hits your ally without any check and bounces off to the nearest enemy - then the usual hit roll will occur. I don't consider it to be a very useful spell. Whisper of Treason for example is a lot better. Athletic only gives you a 1/encounter self heal which is kind of lame - esp. in the late game the healing is not noticeable. I ALWAYS skip it.

Will, Fortitude, Deflection and Reflex are "only" defenses. Your ACC + dice100 roll has to overcome those defenses. A roll can result in miss, graze, hit or crit. There is only one accuracy and it's the base of ALL your attacks. This is influenced by class and PER. It can get bonuses from using an ability (usually +1 per level, some abilities have additional bonuses) or from using a spell (usually +10 or +15) and also improves per level. And of course you can take talents that boost it for certain things - like weapon focus, marksman and so on. Whatch the combat log in the lower right of your screen and hover over things like "MySuperChar misses Xaurip Skirmisher". You will get more info that will tell you the ACC that was used for this roll as well as the defense it was rolled against and the damage reduction (if there was DR involved). So, tl;dr: there's only one ACC value and it's based on class, PER and level. Will, fortitude, reflex and deflection are your defenses.

Yeah fair enough. I also like to theorycraft - else I wouldn't have put that many builds into this forum. Let's emphasize on "too much" theory crafting. By too much I mean the point where you get frustrated because you can't figure out the optimal build for you and don't start to play at all. Caster + Sword & Board: if you don't plan to use ranged weapons on a regular basis (implements with Blast can be VERY strong) then yes: it's a good setup without drawbacks IF you choose small shields and don't mind the talent point you normally put into weapon & shield style. Small shields have no ACC malus. So they won't lower you hit chance of your spells. All other shields will cut your ACC by 4 (medium) or 8 points (large). You can use Quickswitch and use a large shield for max defense and switch to a small shield when casting - thus getting the best of two setups. But it's a ton of micro and usually not worth the hassle. About implements with Blast: note that certain things that normally only work on single targets work in an AoE if you use Blast. Those are spell chances on hit/crit like from the soulbound sceptre or The Golden Gaze, on-crit effects like stun on crit like The Rod of Pale Shades has, the Glittering Gauntlets daze in an AoE, Kalakoth's Minor Blights has a cascading effect with Blast and even Envenomed Strike turns into a very powerful AoE poisoning attack. That is one of the main reasons why most people choose an implement+blast setup with a wizard. It's powerful even if you don't use spells. Those things also work with Citzal's Spirit Lance by the way - it has the same AoE mechanic like Blast. But melee wizards (be it with a dual wielding or shield setup) can be a lot of fun because you have awesome self buffs and also some great spells that work best in melee or reach weapon range. After some levels they can also be very good tanks (as longas the buffa work), too.

Since you can always retrain in an inn, the answers for those questions don't seem to be crucial for a successful and enjoyable playthrough. A wizard can learn any spell not only from level-ups, but also from enemies' grimoires - which are plenty. You can even fill some grimoires with your current spells, retrain and pick different spells during level-up and then relearn from said grimoires. So, spell choice is not an issue. The only thing that will be fixed is race and background. And those don't have that much impact on your performance. If you have a certain idea for your wizard, try it and it will most likely work well. At the end of the day, a wizard is all about spells and spell choice - and those can easily be adjusted. A dual wielding wizard or a ranged implement wizard don't differ in spell power. If you want to play a melee wizard, focus a bit on self buffing your defenses via spells so that you don't get killed too quickly and that should be it. I honestly think you guys should just go and play the game and don't do too much theory crafting before. You are trying to plan a perfect play through and that won't happen, even if you read a ton of info. It will just prevent you from playing. Most of us here (the so called experts) read a bit about the basic mechanics and then just dove into the game. Don't torture yourself with too much planning.

Veteran's Recovery is even stronger than Fighter's Constant Recovery and it stacks with Ancient Memory/Beloved Spirits. Those effects work with healing bonuses from high MIG, items and survival. Let's say you have 15 MIG, a Belt of Bountiful Healing and 8 points of survival. Then you will get +80% healing from all sources except draining (isn't influenced). That makes the chanter the most powerful "Regeneration Guy". A fighter with Constant & Rapid Recovery as well as Cloak of the Tireless Defender (like the Engineer) is second to this. The chanter needs more talents for this though. But on the other hand his Ancient Memory also heals team members. All in all Veteran's Recovery is a good thing to make other classes sturdy like a fighter - if you can balance out eventual lower endurance and deflection. It's my number one talent for most front liners.

That's true - not for every build in the list, but there are some. But as you said: you can always start with another approach and retrain later.

Actually with Runner's Wounding Shots and also wounding weapons it's best if you have low INT. The amount of this very special DoT will be the same, but it will get applied more quickly. Higher INT only takes the exact same damage and spreads it over a longer timespan. So if you fear that the DoT of RWS takes too long you just have to dump INT. But this will screw your overall damage of Envenomed Strikes and also your Deep Wounds damage - because those profit from high INT.

Oh yeah. Forgot that. Please no skill improvement on usage. I really don't want to see that in PoE2. Urgh... For a classless system it has not enough talents to make excessive character building worthwhile. PoE offers more diversity (over all classes).

Depends. If the base damage is good enough lashes are also good without base damge mods (monk's fists, druid's claws/tusks/horns). But true: of course it's even better if you can combine both. However, monks can have Savage Attack, Two Hande Style (debateable if this is worth it) and Appr. Sneak Attack as well as stakable flanking/vicious bonuses from items and survival. If you use your monk as a flanker (or have a cipher with Phantom Foes in your ranks) and sum those dmg mods up and then add his nice lashes the overall damage gets pretty nasty.

That's because every fight feels like it's done while swimming in sirup. Ability use... massive cooldown starts... recovery takes forever... 10min later you defeated those two noname-trash-foes. Maybe the fights are faster when you don't choose PotD, but I doubt it. PotD in Tyranny so far seems to be supereasy by the way. I wonder what normal is like in Tyranny... What is the exact time of your cipher? I will edit the opening post accordingly with an entrance of your build, the encounter and the time it took (like Magrans Faithful (upscaled), Bountysucker (cipher), Raven Darkholme, <min>:<sec>). Or so...

There are some tools for Windows with which you can "decompile" (not really, but kind of) object bundles and stuff.

If you make your +/- points in comparison to PoE, then it's exactly the info that's asked for.

By the way: we should take the time without pauses. Some classes need a lot more pauses because they use more active abilities/spells than others. For some others proper positioning is key and so on. If we would take the overall time we would only see chanters and paladins as competitors I guess.

Nice work! Nice misses with the dominate, too.

Ah I see. Sorry for the wrong interpretation. You chose some builds that are rather diffcult at the start and become really strong later on. The barb is the best example. He is a really awesome tank later on but at the start of the game he's way too squishy to be a main tank. Barbs have a weird "power curve". I guess the Thundercat can also fit in that category, same as the priest. Those are superawesome after some levels, but at the beginning they seem to be a bit underwhelming. They simply lack those great spells which they get after some levels - which turn the tide.

+ I really like it that the pictures of my companions change appearance (gear and stuff) when I talk to them. I really like the gestures, too. + I love the start (conquest and all). - I totally loathe the art style of the 3d-characters and -items. But that's my personal taste. Looks MOBAish and also looks a bit like Torchlight to me (which i like despite that look). The environment is nice though. - I don't like the pace in combat. It's too slow for my taste. + I like the talents and the talent tree so far. It's more interesting than PoE's. + I really like it that there are no classes. + The in game infos around game mechanics seem to be way better

Of course a party with official companions is stronger against Maerwald: those chars are one level above hired companions! That is a huge advantage so early in the game - way better than a few minmaxed stat points here and there. Besides that, you can easily use official companions for most builds in the list if you don't follow them too slavishly. Then there are builds in your list that start pretty weak and then start to take off rather steeply, liek the Golden Dragon. He's squishy in the early game like all barbs are - you can only use them as "real" tanks after some levels. If he drops too fast early game you need to give him more CON and retrain later. The Drake's Ambassador is another example: he's a pretty ordinary chanter until lvl 9 where he will soon climb the "damage done" ladder to the top. Kana can be played as this build easily: you will have the beneift of a higher level plus his companion quest and his constant cheering. The Engineer Fighter is a tanky, defensive fighter with lots of self heals. How do you manage to get him killed after all? You can use Edér for this build. The Fire Priest (use Durance) and also the Thundercat are extremely good builds, too. If you can't kill Maerwald with a complete party on PotD (and esp. those you mentioned above) then I can only say (no offense) that you're doing something very wrong - it should be easy even with a party of 6 complete moronically build chars. I guess you're just using the wrong tactics - and on PotD you need at least some basic ones. Especially if you go to Maerwald with a lowish level - he has a lot of offensive spells that can kill you quickly if you expose your whole group. Standing there and let Maerwald drop one spell after another onto your head will get you killed, right? So for example summon a minion from a figurine and quickly leave the room and take a stand right around the corner after the doorway. You will see that the fight is a lot easier then. So I assume it's not the chars that lead to your defeat (because I played at least each of my builds on PotD without any problems - some of them even solo!). After Act I (which usually is the toughest part of the game) they start to become so powerful in their own ways that the game is a joke in terms of difficulty most of the time if you have them all in one party. I predict that if you improve your tactics you will see that the Maerwald fight is easy. And calling other's builds "complete garbage" is not the best way to get help by the way - since the guys who wrote the builds are likely the same ones that stick around to help people in need and give advice.

I have to figure out a way not to get knocked over before those self buffs work, true. A bit of pulling is ok though I guess. Triumph of the Crusaders is also really nice solo, but it doesn't help you a lot if your health score is 0. Maybe one can figure out a trick with Second Chance + Watchful Guard + Barring Death's Door - if it's not possible to get up defenses quickly enough.

They have no character builds subforum on the tyranny board. Count me out! I mean the forum, not the game. Maybe OBS should really open such a subforum here. Or we open one ourselves. Back to the cipher: any progress? I'm still leveling my pike wizard. Don't think he will be good at this but who knows? Kaylon already tried chanter and did it with barb, you tried cipher. Maybe priest next?

Sure. But needs some more time.