L4wlight

Its even better on Rogue thanks to Deep Wounds and Deathblows. I've a good time playing a pirate themed rogue using Quick Switch (triple gun x Runner's Wounding Shot and Sap) and wielding those two babies at the moment. Arrr arrr....

I like!

In my recent playthrough Durance is rockin' Firebrand: Welcome Gand... Durance The Grey Durance as The Godhammer

I'm already in love with my little Thundershark...

Wereshark confirmed!!!

Yes druid Livegiver and wizard Evoker.

This.

I'd like to see the 2-extra-perks-per-order-system from PoE1 to return while keeping the penalties. That'd differentiate the orders even further, while buffing orders that lost a lot in PoE2 (like Darcozzi Paladini). The second perk (things like Inspiring Liberation) could come with the cost of an ability point.

Support priests should be left single, if you want the good buffs as soon as possible for your team (e. g. Devotions for the Faithful, Champion's Boon and potentially Crowns for the Faithful are still game changers). Priests have a history of getting pretty powerful late-game stuff... Nature Godlike single class Evoker is also pretty darn good (especially the Minoletta spells).

No hybrids allowed? ...

Unfortunately the mentioned hat extends the reload time by 20%. Oddly enough, the same is true for Sur-Handed Ila (at least for the tooltip).

Not really needed imo. It's very easy to achieve that on your own with the help of your animal companion. Micro intesive, yes, but one of the main benefits for going into melee range as a ranger. The rest of your post is very valid. As for the animal companion (max dps): either wolf (single target dps) or stag (aoe dps) - the rest sucks. True story. Meaning what? Sometimes I feel like I don't understand flanking as well as I should, I thought it was totally based on targets engaging with enemy. Flanked status is applied to enemy when you attack an enemy on the opposite side your companion or animal or summon is. So this takes you positioning either your main or animal in the right position to get the status affect against an enemy and since you have reasons as melee ranger to stick together like stalkers link and torc and defensive talents like Defensive Bond it makes since to attempt this. not to mention its a nice debuff. Cipher has power to basically make every enemies have flanked status without having to position. Also flaking triggers your animal companions sneak attack talent Merciless Companion. So this makes your build more micro intensive even more than ranged ranger which is fun for me but not everyone. In other words you constantly want to keep a corner of 90 to 180 degrees between your ranger and his animal companion while attacking the same target.

Not really needed imo. It's very easy to achieve that on your own with the help of your animal companion. Micro intesive, yes, but one of the main benefits for going into melee range as a ranger. The rest of your post is very valid. As for the animal companion (max dps): either wolf (single target dps) or stag (aoe dps) - the rest sucks. True story.

Stunning shots works for the primary target and one secondary target via driving flight. For meele rangers I'd go for a broad frontline. Melee Rangers can hold their own pretty well (against 1-2, max. 3 foes) but tend to be on the squishier side of the spectrum. You'd definitely want to go for a broad and sturdy frontline. Palagina (Lay on Hands, Zealous Focus or Endurance, Reinforcing Exhortation, Coordinated Attacks, Liberating Exhortation) with a marking weapon and Kana (Ancient Memory, Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr) would be my first choice to achieve that, both support and survivability wise. Your best buddy would be Hiravias as Thundercat or Batsh!t Crazy. The amout of crowd control and the extraordinary debuff capabilities (Relentless Storm (!!!),Tanglefoot, Venombloom, etc.) coupled with Form of the Delemgan (imo the best melee survivability buff in the game and it stacks with Zealous Endurance or Armor of Faith!) results most of the time in near immortality (not to mention how good the Tanglefoot + Form of the Delemgan combo is to prevent enemies from swarming you). Furthermore, keeping Predator's Sense and Merciless Companion up is very easy with a druid buddy (but you can achieve that on your own for at least one target with a wounding weapon). Last, but least I want to mention priests (Durance) for their unmatched support capabilities; not really mandatory but nice to have.

I knew it!

+1

The big blue one. We know basically nothing about him, but he'll be my favourite - I know it.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

Yeah I was looking at it earlier and Druid is the one ignored class. Between the sidekicks and companions there are... 2 potential Fighters 2 potential Ciphers 2 potential Rogues 2 Wizards, not even potential, they both must have at least 1 level of Wizard 1 potential Barbarian 1 potential Priest 1 potential Monk 1 Ranger, not potential 1 Chanter, again, not potential 0 Druids, potential or otherwise. Yeah. But that's what I mean. It's very unlikely. He's the potential druid. I feel it.

That's true, but if his starting class would be locked to chanter, there would be no companion single class druid option.

They have already said during one of the streams the 7th character is a godlike Aumaua Chanter. I know that. But the chances are pretty high that the big blue guy can be both chanter or/ and druid, because we know basically nothing about him (apart from his appearance) and we know enough about the other companions to assume that they do not fit the druid concept very well.

Im wondering... with the potential 8th companion being a cipher, the chances are very high that the big blue guy ( ) is a chanter/ druid. Shark form please!

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