dgray62

Boeroer's geomancer build, on page 2 of this thread, in which you summon an Essential Phantom with permanent draining touch, might be really fun accompanied by four chanters perma-spawning skeletons. You'd have a horde of disposable skellies as well as two brawny minons that would hit hard, the ranger pet and the phantom. Chants could empower all of the summons with their phrases. Might be particularly fun if one of them was an ancient theurge, casting wild growth. Ship battles would be totally overcrowded! You'd definitely want animancy cat as your pet for this party.

I just started a nalpazca/berserker; I used to avoid Nalpazca due to the Arcane Dampener bug, which forced you to rest, but fortunately that's been fixed now in the Balance Polishing mod. It's a lot of fun, and I never realized before that if you use Force of Anguish/Efficient Anguish the target is hit with both the main damage as well as the carnage. Thanks for pointing this out, Boeroer. You can get to STR 35 if you start with STR 20 without the pain of Helwalker if you do a no rest run or use the mod that makes those bonii permanent. This is partly because, in my game at least, the +4 strength from the Mohora wraps stacks with the STR inspiration. So that brings you to 29 STR. With gear, gift from the machine and alchemical brawn you can get to 35.

IMO the best healing from a chanter comes from the Old Siec chant, which gives you 12% heal from damage done. This benefits most the front line DPS toons, who typically need it the most. Since you get it relatively late (PL 6), I wouldn't rely solely on a chanter for healing. They can contribute a bit a lower levels, and then make a bigger contribution once you get Old Siec. The nice thing about this chant is it is passive. It's best suited for a frontline chanter, like a skald, naturally.

Well, druids have some of the best healing spells in the game, namely the Moon's Light, Nature's Balm, Moonwell, Garden of Life and Pollen Patch. Most of them are Heal Over Time (HoT), and some, like Moon's Light and Nature's Balm, have relatively small areas of effect. As a result, they benefit doubly from increases in intelligence, which both increases the area of the spell, so you can hit more or all party members, and also increases the length of the spell. Lifegivers are great since on top of this they gain bonus power levels for the healing spells. I almost always have a druid in my party, for healing, CC and damage, and, if it's a custom character, I max out INT. I usually also give the character items that increase the area of effect, such as Aloth's leather armor or the ring of overseeing. There are also foods that do this. Crusted Swordfish is probably the best choice for a caster. If you multiclass, you can combine two powerful healing classes, such as Lifegiver, Kind Wayfarer, chanter and/or priest, to make a real healbot. I personally like Liberator, as I like melee/caster hybrids. You don't lose out on much on the paladin side by multiclassing, although you do lose out, unfortunately, on some really cool top tier spells on the druid side.

That's a great idea, Boeroer. I never thought of using Amra in this manner, and always thought of it as a way for non-Barbarians to get Barbarian like abilities. Given the acute danger of self-damage when using berserker frenzy for a helwalker, I wonder if it would be best to not pick frenzy for this build, and rely on Amra's tempered fury instead? When you need extra PEN you could activate thunderous blows. But then you'd lose the extra hit to crit conversion, unfortunately.

Even though Pallegrina will be angry when you first meet her she will still join your party very soon thereafter if you want her to do so. She makes a fine contribution to the party as a Herald. Since Eder's dead you'll likely need someone else to bone up on the rogue skills for the party, so you might consider adding Maia as a Scout. She's very effective in this role. Also you might consider Teheku, as his druid and chanter unique subclasses are great. Among the sidekicks, I've usually gone with Mirke as a shadowdancer or single class monk, Konstanten as a Howler and/or Fassina as a sorcerer. There are plenty of great sidekicks to chose from, but those three are my favorite. If you are going to play a single class wizard, which is very powerful and a respectable undead slayer, you'd probably want some more tanky companions like Pallegrina and Konstanten. However, the words "undead slayer" has a Paladin ring to it, so you might consider making your MC an arcane knight. You would be a very tanky warrior mage, capable of fighting toe-to-toe with your foes while also slinging spells as needed. Since it sounds like you didn't take the "good path" in POE1, you might consider playing a Steel Garrote/Blood Mage, which is a very powerful combination and a lot of fun to play. But if you didn't side with Woedica you could pick other subclasses; Goldpact/Evoker is also fun, although less versatile IMO. Whatever you pick, make sure you pick saber as a weapon choice, since the best weapon for killing undead, Grave Calling, is a saber.

I've never used Wahai Poraga, but I usually use the Voulge in every party. If you want to see fun AOE explosions due to static thunder you'll want a barbarian, as it is one of the few weapons (or only, perhaps?) in which an effect (static thunder) is distributed by carnage. Berserker/devoted (bound to barbarian) or Berserker/monk are the best builds for this weapon, I think. You'll want to crit a lot, so if you are playing on a harder difficulty like PotD you'll want to maximize your accuracy and hit to crit ratio through high PER, relevant abilities (like swift flurry for a monk, disciplined strikes for a fighter, etc,) and gear. Otherwise, it can serve as a fine stat stick for a druid, giving a boost to all of the storm spells.

The most important attributes for a melee seer are DEX, PER and INT. I'd keep CON and RES flat (around 10), and STR slighly higher. You don't want CON and RES too low as you will be combat and you want to be able to take some hits, and not get crits too often due to low deflection via dumped RES.

True enough. As is often the case, there are violent and non-violent ways to resolve quests.

If you prefer ranged options these are all great suggestions. However, if, like me, you prefer melee for your MC, you might consider a stalker/soul blade, with the bear companion for extra AR and survivability for both you and the pet. With this combo you'll have sky high accuracy, and get set foes up for major damage with the Takedown combo and disintegration. Seeker's Fang is also an amazing weapon for a melee cipher, that inflicts a raw damage DoT every time you crit, which will be often given your sky high accuracy. With the Griffin's Blade in your offhand you'll also daze nearby enemies when you crit, which will lower their PEN and make it very difficult for them to damage you or your bear pet.

The Red Hat is a great weapon and is well worth using for any ranger or ranged cipher. You'll likely max your focus after the second shot. You might also consider purchasing the Essence Interruptor, which is a great hunting bow you can use right from the start of the game. It's a lot of fun since your frequent crits will often trigger experimental souls, transforming enemies into random monsters. You might also consider Frostseeker as well, which you can also get early, right after you arrive on Neketaka. While it's base damage is low, it fires multiple arrows, each of which can trigger a AOE attack when you crit. It's a perfect weapon for a seer, since you'll have sky high ACC and will also get driving flight eventually as well. Other weapons that trigger AOE damage, like the Watershaper's Focus, are also worth considering.

You can try some of them if you want. The dungeons on route to Neketaka are not too difficult for a party of five post Port Maje. However, if they give you too much difficulty, just skip them and go straight to Neketaka. There are many quests there involving minimal fighting that can get you up up level 7/8 easily. You then venture out and explore more easily.

Thanks. That's a much better strategy for rage conservation!

I'm currently playing a Berserker/Soul Blade witch with Whispers of the Endless Paths. I upgraded it to mythic right away (using the Berath's Blessings gem) and it hits like a truck. You can hit multiple foes with barbaric blow, and then finish them off with soul annihilation. It's a really powerful combo IMO.

I was sold on Forbidden Fist in one of my first ship battles with a Valian ship a few levels higher (2 or 3 skulls). In the past, I would avoid fighting them despite the excellent loot because of the fighters, who seemed indestructible with their incredible healing. But all you have to do is land one FF attack and they crumble like straw men. Enfeebled is a really powerful affliction. As Boeroer noted, all you need is high RES and you're set.

Hate it when that happens!

I love playing transcendents, and fists are one of the best weapons in the game, which you have from beginning to end. You are right that on multiclass monks fists are a bit weaker due to the loss of 2 power levels. However, you can make up for this by quaffing a potion of ascension, which adds +2 PL and lasts the whole battle. If your MC is nature godlike, you'll reach 10 PL, which gives you post-mythic fists, arguably the best weapon in the game. My favorite combo is a melee transcendent, using the forbidden fist and soul blade subclasses. Both give you really powerful attacks (the forbidden fist and soul annihilation abilities) that you can use right from the beginning of the game, and get more powerful as you go along. Like Haplok, I'd probably keep Grave Calling and the Kitchen Stove in my first weapon slots, opening with thunderous report and then using Grave Calling to fight vessels. For most fights, however, I switch to fists, using the Tuotilo's Palm shield in the offhand. With high resolve which you'll need for forbidden fist and the shield, you'll be tanky, shrugging off most attacks while dealing devastating DPS. For the cipher abilities, I tend to pick the important passives, like Hammering Thoughts, (de)buffs like Borrowed Instincts, and of course Disintegration, which hits like a truck when the enemy is already enfeebled by the forbidden fist ability.

On second thought, Eothas must be immune to lightning in a body made of living adra. The exploit probably wouldn't work on him even if it was possible.

I agree. I finished the game once without any mods installed, and without knowledge of any exploits, as a SC monk, which slowly builds power naturally throughout the game. Now I play around with different builds, mods and exploits just for fun.

The nice thing about psion troubador is you have infinite, constantly regenerating resources, that you can use to periodically cast cipher powers and chanter invocations. So you can just alternate between casting cipher and chanter powers. I've never played a SC psion, but I imagine it wouldn't be as versatile. Even though your focus regeneration would be a bit faster, you wouldn't have a second set of abilities to fall back on. The nice thing about chanter is that you can summon meatshields, and then cast cipher powers on them. Soul shock is particularly good since it only costs ten focus, has a decent AOE, and does pretty good damage.

Too bad you have to go to Deadfire to get the Strand of Favor.

Yes, particularly if you picked the cat form. You could shift, proc cat flurry, cast the moon's light or moonwell, and then proc white flames for some really fast healing.

I guess there's no limit to the crazy damage you can inflict with this exploit. Enough to one shot even the megabosses, I'm sure.

If I was going with a devoted battlemage, I'd probably pick estocs, particularly if you're playing on PotD. They have great PEN, and there are fantastic estocs available, from beginning to end of the game. And you could also pick monastic unarmed training for the pierce immune foes.

Understood. I thought your reference was to this: