MaxQuest

^^ Love Cohh's reaction to "Twinned Shot" wording: Cipher: Do like the new "Ancestor's Honor" power. It's an ascendant's best friend. Wonder if it can be applied to cipher himself; but it for sure can be fun chain-empowering your allies (with a little alchemy ofc). The "Shared Nightmare" - would be crazingly good if it was available to a multi-classing cipher. But as a rank 9 passive... it will be probably most useful for an Ascendant going for Ringleader or Amplified Wave. "1000 Cuts" - is a very interesting stackable DoT that is worth being a rank 9 power. While Haunting Chains (terrify and hobble a single target) not so much. Priest: "Hand of Weal and Woe" aside... rank 8 and 9 spells don't look that strong for their rank. Am curious what are the stats of Incarnate through. At the same time "Cleansing Flames" is now a rank 7, not rank 6 spells. So gotta think if I still want to multi-class the priest. Wizard: "Cloak of Death" is both cool and useful. Although tooltip doesn't mention it's duration. "Minnoleta's Missile Salvo" - is either good or bad, depending on how many missiles does it fire. And tooltip doesn't show that. "Petrification" (rank 9) - aside from duration, actually looks quite weaker than "Gaze of Adragan" which is aoe.

And there is also Vengeful Defeat. Guess how fast the Vengeful Defeat + Barring Death's Door + Ancient Memory combo will be nerfed ^^ (such that Door keeps you at 1 and not 0 hp)

Generally yes. When you have bonuses AND maluses, because of double inversion, maluses do have a higher impact than a bonus of the same amplitude. At the same time, if I can secure under-penetration on most incoming damage, I'll take the heaviest armor even on the damage dealers. Think of: equiping plate/brigandine can make you take up to x4 less damage; but will unequiping it make you deal up to x4 more damage? That is corrent. And I've seen even a tooltip ingame that reads exactly this. Passive stuff stacks, active doesn't. The problem is that it's not always intuitive what is passive and what is not. - for instance the game treats auras as actives because they come from modals which the player has to toggle. But I still view auras as passives, since they have indefinite duration. - another case is: Smart from Clarity of Mind with Intellect bonus from Duality of Mortal Presence. They stack (at least in beta3 they did for sure) and honestly I like that... but, they both qualify as active (per game's description), don't they?

Good. Am glad that graze is in the same group as crit then; and underpen malus in the same group as overpen bonus. And would be even more glad if [underpen + overpen] were moved in a separate group of their own. As this would also help remedy such tooltip errors like: 45.7 x 1.3 = 51.3 (image)

For beta2, this was pretty accurate As I have checked the source code, tried to interpret it, and after that checked how (additively or multiplicatively) Might is stacking with crit/graze/overpenetration/underpenetration/sneak-attack/soul-whip/weapon-type damage bonuses in-game. I haven't retested this in beta3 or beta4 through. Waiting for the release. That's interesting. Do I read it right that Might is now completely in a group of it's own? In beta2 the formula was the same as you described above, but damage malus of [graze] and [under-penetration] were belonging to the same group as Might, and it was very strange.

In terms of stacking DoTs... there is no other way to tell unless you test it. In terms of stacking buffs... there is a tooltip that states: all passive effects stack completely, while in case of active only the highest applies. Note: modals are considered active.

I think they already are? At least they are split up into more than 1 file, from that Steam info someone posted the other day (and I can't seem to find now). As I understood, not quite. Steam has these "promotional items" thing. Such that devs can award the scavenger items, without creating actual DLCs which would be listed under the "Downloadable Content". P.S. Eric from Obsidian wrote:

So that's what those codes are in the end... They would have to make each item into a mini-DLC then?

That would make speed calculator a dps calculator I will think about it, but in that case it would also have to incorporate stuff like blunted criticals, hit-to-crit and alike conversions, and probably even devout bonus critical damage and various damage modifiers. Hmm. Ba Dum Tss, dexterity was always affecting reload time of firearms, including PoE1 and all the Deadfire betas) What has changed is: - in PoE1 and Deadfire beta 1-3, reload time was not affected by recovery-affecting stuff. - and in beta4 it is. I also remember, after Q&A #6, quoting Josh remark where he was mentioning this change, and asking if the plans have changed since it wasn't implemented: P.S. From one point of view it's good, as a "speed" enchant now means something for firearms too, and reloading should probably indeed take longer in heavy armor... Although not sure if Dual-Wielding and having Two-Weapon Style should speed it up (as they currently do).

Starting with beta4 armor recovery penalty indeed is indeed affecting reload time. Afaik so does dual-wielding and two-weapon style. Calculator is atm beta3 compliant, and not yet updated to beta4. I'll need to recheck the recovery effects. But wouldn't be surprised if reload time is affected by everything now.

For single-player RPGs (that show portraits) do much prefer custom portraits. They convey character's personality and inner state better. And the look in their eyes is especially important for me. For multi-player RPGs (that show portraits) do prefer animated 3D portraits (that are basically the upper part of hq character model)

Completely agree with all the points, except the first which I have few doubts about: specifically if a rogue dual-wields blunderbusses, should he backstab with both? I'd prefer the proposed 2s grace period be reduced to 0.5s. This way if you want to backstab with offhand too, you have to invest into action speed stuff.

Have to note that "Soft Winds" description is a bit misleading. From the current wording I understand it as: if you have damaged at least one enemy you restore 2hp. (and it doesn't matter if you affected 1 or 10 targets)

Wohoo, so "an instant AoE weapon attack" mentioned in the description is actually a full attack, and not just attack with main-hand. Than... than it's pretty broken.

According to Terrified description they shouldn't. But in current beta they still can: image I have filled a bug report here. One can cast Repulsive Vissage rigth before they spawn. Since Vissage ticks every 3s it's not hard to afflict them all, or almost all.

True that) Btw, mini thought experiment: - devout is surrounded by 4 enemies of 200 hp each - devout hits for 50 - without cleave: it would take him 16 hits to kill them - with cleave: 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10 hits Have already noted them as s-tier when multiclassed I remember trying them briefly in beta1, clearing content in solo that those 4 mercenaries couldn't. Was OP stuff with 1s recovery on fast 1H weapons) P.S. Fist damage does currently scale with character or power level?

Swift flurry has been nerfed as I understood, and has only 30% to proc on crit now. I don't really like this change as it makes getting a bonus attack even more unreliable; and would prefer it just not being recursive. But I can see how broken it could be in story mode ^^ All in all even if you have a 100% chance to crit, current Swift Flurry will proc 2 attacks only in 9% of cases. So it's no longer OP, and am not even sure if it's worth it on anyone, except skald and ~fighter on PotD. As for Mob Stance, it can only proc as many times as there are enemies; and it requires the fighter to deal the killing blow; so you have to build your party around that. I think a devout multiclassed with berserker/bleakwalker/monk with mob stance is definitely s-tier. But would prefer to playtest it in current beta first, to check if they belong even higher. Also I am thinking: do having more than 1 of these increase the power level of your party? For example having 5 berserker/devouts vs 4 evokers + 1 swifted pale elf goldpact/mage-slayer that would run around and collect all enemies in one place, while evokers are stealthed. (or use a barb/priest which would self withdraw before mass fireball landing) Beckoner is definitely strong. And I see how in solo he has a greater power level than said devout. Although I don't really like that playstyle. I prefer full party and the charm/dot route, which may be a weaker tactic, but subjectively I perceive it as on par. But such a question: do enemies waste their single-target abilities on beckoner's summons?

Hmm, will list my current view on power-tiers in beta4 as well. Obviously I haven't tried all possible combinations, but mind-crunched many from power-building perspective. Also would note that some subclasses can shift their tiers based on the combat skills they have. Single Class Characters: Tier-S: - tier-1 dpsers becomes tier-s with high alchemy so long as they use drugs and potions Tier-1: - Devout - Nalpazca (if you have and use the drugs) - Helwalker (with high arcane and lots of scrolls) - Berserker (it was tier-s before; but with the pen/ar bonus nerf from 4 to 2 imho it's no longer there) - Paladins (bleakwalker, wayfarer, goldpact; and shieldbearer if you have humans/death-godlikes/streetfighters i.e. specific party built around playing at low hp but not dying) - Streetfighter (provided that he has a party built around him; and a suiting race) - Shifter (it would be interesting if they had a rank 4+ talent that would allow them to giveup one form, but make one spell of choice usable when shifted) - Beckoner (it's nice to have a wall of minions that tank and deal damage for you, which also greatly benefit from you supporting chants; but don't really like playing via summons; so haven't tested much) (probably even S-Tier, if AI uses their single-target abilities on chanter's summons.) - Skald (skald was great in my book, and even must have while hel-hyraf was reducing enemy armor by 5; now that it is only -2 I can live without it; so what remains? dealing damage but you would need to multiclass for that; or use cc; skald has nice cone charms, stuns and paralyzes which kinda compete with cc-cipher arsenal; but have a bonus of being fast to cast) Tier-2: - Unbroken - Fighter (no subclass) - Monk (no subclass) - Helwalker (the increase in damage taken from wounds is higher than that in damage dealt; and this subclass would be worse than pure monk; but party focused on healing can offset that) - Shattered-Pillar - Lifegiver (the healing done is great; although there is one awkward moment: you want to use the form asap (for cat flurry and no armor-penalty) and at the same time not having to suffer from post-form penalty in longer fights) - Animist - Soublade (squishy melee, without full attacks, but with good damage bonus from whip; and soul annihilation providing a further damage increase comparable to 30% of your phys damage). - Ascended (it's great that you can now reach ascended state faster; but aside from puppet master and later ringleader the selection of powers is not that stellar; even if you spam Detonate you are just in line with other tier-1 damage dealers) - Beguiler (poor man's Ascended, but with the bonus of being able to use cc right away; usually requires another debilitator opening with an aoe affliction, such that beguiler could have a discount from the very start; Beguiler really wants Mental Binding base duration from PoE1) - Priest (of Berath and Wael) (the strong points: hots, dots, spiritual weapons and decent cross-class spells) - Sharp-shooter (is kinda ok, but can easily live without one in party) - Stalker (the bonus defenses are nice; but the pet has a rather slow rate of attacking; all in all it felt almost like playing a bleakwalker) - Wizard (no subclass and evoker) Tier-2.5: - Illusionist (giving up Enchanting is harsh; I'd prefer to select myself which 2 schools to drop; or ok.. even 3 schools) - Paladin (darcozzi) (that mini-flame shield is currently weak in my opinion) - Assassin (kinda squishy as a single-class; I have a feeling that he has lower dps/survivability than a bleakwalker) - Priest (of Scaen) - Troubadour (unlike pure chanter, at least can speed-up his phrase counter and focus on supportive invocations) Tier-3: - Nalpazca (if you don't use drugs) - Mage Slayer (unreliable bonus versus strong malus; being unable to use both potions and scrolls is huge) - Corpse Eater (the rage cost increase is really big; and you only get the benefits when the enemies are dead; but you have to kill them in the first place; looks like only worth it for lower difficulties - Fury (the problem is that there is a big difference between stun and dazed; might affliction resistances and fortitude often being the highest defense do lower the impact of druid's storm spells significantly; and these spells are the main reason to take a fury over animist in the first place; a minor damage buff wouldn't hurt to either elemental claws or storm spells) - Priest (of Eothas and Magran) (aside from unique spiritual weapons and late-game deity spells; do not offer spells that other priests can't take if they want; even if I want to make a fire priest, I will rather take Berath or Wael instead) - Wizard (conjurer and transmuter are pretty bad; their bonus is weak, while they lock you from a lot of great spells; the familiar is a joke; and summoned weapons of a specialized conjurer are the same in power - Chanter (no subclass) (with Dragon Trashed nerfed into oblivion I don't see how can he compete damage-wise with other dps'ers; and from supportive perspective, aside from Aefyllath I didn't needed his arsenal that much in the beta) Tier-4: - Black Jacket (you lose passive healing, but don't get much in return, the faster weapon switching bonus is offset by the new common passive talent; and the extra weapon set is situationally good and requires much more micro to make it worth it) - Cipher (no subclass) (what low-costed non-deception powers can this cipher cast that would compete with tier-1 in terms of overall impact?) - Trickster (his spells are from illusions school, so this rogue would be focused on cc and not on damage; but than why not take a wizard instead? or he's designed around using minor-blights scrolls with rogue special attacks for the aoe effect?) And now if taking multi-classing into account: Tier-S: - Devout (extra sturdiness aside, when multi-classed into can provide a better focus generation for ascended; reliability for cc-wizard/chanter; and extra dps for other martial classes) - Helwalker (does provide extra stats for characters focused on damage over time; shenanigans with main-tanking under Barring Death's Door and alchemy stuff, while spamming torments non-stop) - Bleakwalker/Wayfarer/Goldpact (extra sturdiness with full attacks) - Nalpazca (drugs duration bonus and even more incentive to invest into alchemy) - Shattered Pillar (in theory; if he generates extra wounds from Charge and Soul Annihilation) - Streetfighter (superb bonuses; and really strong if building a party around him, which would keep him from dying) - Beckoner (synergy with heal/sup paladin and animist: shift to cat (no armor penalty), enable cat flurry, summon stuff and throw aoe HoTs) Tier-1: - Skald (synergy with fighter, CSL, and extra acc from ranger/paladin full attacks) - Soulblade (synergy with devout, monk, shifter?, bleakwalker and streetfighter) - Ascended (the idea is to pick a second class that would increase focus generation or power level; and once max focus is reached to start... checks powers from the first 3 ranks... dominate stuff; not stellar but will already trivialize some fights; but the real fun will start at lvl 13, with alchemy and ringleader followed by detonate spam... but this is out of beta boundaries) - Priest (Berath, Wael, and half-tier lower Scaen) (can make an awesome doter; or healer/support, although lithanies do have kinda long casting time) - Lifegiver (can be a supreme healer with something like Helwalker taken for the stats; the question is what armor to take and when to use the spiritshift during boss fights though) - Pure Wizard (CSL / Minor Blights with martial classes or for focus generation; crowd-control with acc/per bonuses of a fighter; and empowered fireball coupled with assassin's passives) - Assassin (there are classes that can alleviate assassins squishiness, while capitalizing on this damage increasing passives) - Berserker (a second class can find a workaround against being confused; or pump his damage even further) Tier-2: - the rest Tier-3: - Trickster (a beguiler can multi-class in this one, if he's ok with opening with rogue special ability and only after that using a deception power; still it's better to have another aoe debilitator in the party that would throw a soft affliction right before beguiler will land his) - Wizard (conjurer and transmuter) (their bonuses are not strong enough to make up for 2 schools of magic being locked) (btw, what if we could select which 2 schools to lock ourselves? or heck even 3?) - Black Jacket (aside from switching sets for firearm Ascended, I don't see much incentive in multi-classing into this subclass; and even for Ascended I'll probably just take Devout instead) Tier-4: - Pure cipher (why exactly are you multi-classing into pure-cipher? What can he do that beguiler and ascended won't? Cast low-level damaging powers? They are not that worth it. P.S. These views will probably shift a bit once I'll try more variations, and ofc when the game will come out, and even more when we'll see how abundant scrolls and crafting materials are. But for now that is.

Viable? I think it should be. You get: - Finishing Blow cast with faith. - An extra 1-2 backstab hit from stealth with Scaen's Shadowing Beyond. Or you can use Barring Death's Door instead to provide an extra staying power, which also synergies with Street Fighter, if you'll take it over Assassin. - And ofc there is also access to Spiritual Weapon, although I don't know if casting that breaks stealth/invis yet. - Also being a priest opens access to Devotions and Triumpf of Crusaders (which gonna be awesome if your rogue can kill fast enough). Although these are better cast by another priest. - Also there is Minor Avatar, but it comes on character lvl 19, so it's only useful vs really late game stuff / or in dlcs All in all: don't know yet if this is gonna be optimal; but it should be viable.

Do agree, the utility of swift is very situational compared to the bonuses of intuitive, which are great for any dps'er and debilitator. And would like to see a small buff to Swift. The suggested +20-25% action speed; or incoming 40% crit-to-hit will do. Am also interested what kind of encounters will we have to face once the game comes out. For example there could be a buff/healing tank, that would solo tank a dragon, and a player could use Swift such that this tank would run around and rotate the dragon 180 degrees, to prevent dragon breath from landing on his party. Also being immune to disengagement, maybe he would also be able to dodge some of dragon stuff (in the same manner like getting out of range before titan's kick). Also if such character only heals, buffs and tanks; he doesn't care much for intuitive bonuses (except for it being as 1 layer vs blind). So there is at least one use case (although situational) where Swift is better than Intuitive.

Definitely. Ideally each DoT would write: - is not applicable if target is already affected by such dot - doesn't stack (but prolongs duration) - stacks from different sources/casters - stacks completely (even from the same source or caster) As for damage, I just wanted to point out that if it doesn't stack it is too weak. And if it does... it's base damage better be in check. As 1 appliance can deal: - at base: 4 raw damage every 3s for 21s (total of 32 dmg) - and at 9 power level with 35MIG/35INT: 13.3 (4x1.9x1.75) raw damage every 3s for 90s (21x1.9x2.25) which would be 412 raw dmg total per 1 appliance over 90s. (So think of making 10 attacks, and withdraw vs a dragon) You can use Taste of the Hunt, prior or in between shiftings It was so hilarious OP in beta3, because for some reason it was dealing total damage on EACH tick; so you could have something like 80 raw damage every 3s for 20s. It was fixed in beta4 through, only tooltip is bugged.

In beta3, boar's wounding: - showed 0 damage in tooltip - dealt [4 + 10% per power level] every 3s over [21s + 10% per power level] - did not stack with itselt, only prolonged the duration - so basically if (!) you were hitting once in 3s, we could roughly say that it adds 4-7.6 raw damage per attack In beta4, boar's wounding: - indeed stacks with itself; each appliance creates a separate dot instance on target - but haven't checked it's duration yet or if there is an internal limit to such instances. For example had 2 shifters hitting the titan; and he was affected by 4 boar dots at most. I'd say it's ok if it stacks with itself, but only if the dot deals no more than 24-28? total base damage.

^ Exactly) And that's why it's better not to wait till your focus is maxed.

I have tested Soul Annihilation in beta3, and it was working like this: - for example you have 30 focus, and use soul annihilation - your attack connects and deals 40 phys dmg - this phys damage is generating extra 10 focus (but you don't see it); because these 10 are added to 30 and instantly consumed - the base raw damage dealt is calculated as follows: 10 + focus/2; or in out case: 10 + 40/2 = 30 - and this final value was modified by resolve note: the base cost of 5 focus for Soul Annihilation wasn't affecting SA damage. Seems like it's purpose is just to make it impossible to use SA if your focus is below 5; as otherwise your could be adding 10 raw damage to every hit, by spamming SA without waiting to build focus. I haven't tested it in beta4 yet, but I suppose it works the same way; and the focus generated from phys damage dealt on SA swing, adds to SA damage.

Was your character affected by blind by any chance?