AeonsLegend

Ah that's good to know. Too bad the Kahua spear is far into the story and kind of forces you down an "evil" plot line. But I can work with that. I coud of course "cheat" I will probably test some builds and different item combinations going forward. I don't mind crazy VFX. I mean you saw my LDV screenshot. That actually lowered my framerate and I didn't even have Mob Stance there You can make many combinations with this. I also have Wizard/Fighter (Aloth) rocking this setup and also a Monk/Trickster with Karabörü. But I wanted one where I could go drink coffee and see if it worked on it's own. Paladin/Trickster, Wizard/Fighter and Monk/Trickter cannot pull that off. Also Fighter/Trickster gets a tad bit more deflection than Paladin overall. Doesn't get the armor rating, but with all the party regen going on, I don't need the Paladin. I just want to see the screen explode with flying limbs after I cast Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage.

I had the spear in my list as well, but it only does piercing damage so that kind of puts me off with all the pierce immune enemies in the game. Was hoping for a Spartan PC bullwark type for RPing purposes. I didn't even know about the engagment slot modal. Thanks! I know large shields are better especially Cadhu Scalth because of the deflection bonus, but the -8 accuracy on normal attacks is a bit much. The terrify disengagement doesn't need to work 100% of the time with Mob stance. Due to Rogue you deal so much damage per hit you are very likely to crit and overpen with such a build so the damage will be through the roof. If you notice an engagement loss on an enemy that is about to walk away you can always re-engage yourself and trigger the disengagement bonusses. I think the boni are like this with Unbroken and Overbearing Guard: +20 Accuracy base disengagement +15 from overbearing guard for a total of +35 Accuracy +100% damage from base disengagement +50% from overbearing guard for a total of 150% bonus damage. +10 bonus penetration from Unbroken on disengagement attacks. Are there any other bonus to disengagement attacks from items or such? I was also going to combine the build with Riposte obviously due to using the shield. So I probably would definitely be able to get a coffee during some fights. I myself always use Thao's Headdress for a bonus of 5 accuracy and 5% damage on flanked targets plus the +1 int is useful and +5 Will buff on party. Isn't sungrazer AoE friend or foe? It's why I never used it... this is why I was considering Magran's Favor as it also has a burn AoE. I was also thinking of Endre's Flog of Obedience due to the bonus +2 penetration on enemies affected by mind afflictions.

There's bugs like this on PC as well. Such as enemies immune to corrode damage take 0 damage from a bleak walker flames of devotion. Or enemies immune to shock damage take 0 damage from Lord Darynn's Voulge. Your bug I have not seen before, but I am not surprised.

So I played Trickster before and Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage is completely busted on melee builds. I played this with fighter and monk and enemies that engage you end up just killing themselves by breaking engagement. I have never played Unbroken, but with Trickster it seems really good. Does anyone have any experience with this? I was thinking about the combo: Reckless Brigandine Overbearing Guard Hold the Line Mob Stance Shield for the extra engagement slot (could go with medium shield options or with a buckler that can be used as a weapon) Any Weapon, although AoE weapons like Magran's Favor are preferable Buff up -> Wade into the fray and let all enemies engage you (up to 5) and then cast Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage. Then you can probably go get a coffee while enemies kill themselves.

For melee/party buffing/enemy debuff: Divine Mark: massive single target deflection debuff (-25) and burn damage. Consecrated Ground: create some healing. Mind you this is in place and if you move out of the area it doesn't heal anymore. Shining Beacon: fire damage and -10 deflection debuff on enemies! Circle of Protection: all defenses buff +15, while inside the dome. Doesn't stack with things like moonwell so you can skip this if you have that. Devotions for the Faithful: strength and accuracy buff for you and allies and the same as debuff on the enemy Champion's Boon: Resolute and Tenacious +3 enemies engaged on 1 target (yourself obviously! :D). Stacks with Devotions of the Faithful. Barring Death's Door: character can't die for x amount of time. Can be useful in a pinch. Salvation of Time: extend duration of all buffs on party. Use this when everyone is done buffing. Minor Avatar: major buffs on self Shields for the Faithful: +20 deflection for everyone. Stacks with Circle of protection. But seriously I still think Symbol of Berath (PL VIII) is one of the strongest AoE damage spells in the game. I played vs lvl 20 enemies, walked in on them. buffed myself while they're all hitting me in melee. Then cast the Symbol and then go get a coffee. Then when I'm back all melee enemies are dead due to this spell dealing over 700 corrode damage per enemy in a large AoE centered on the caster. If this spell came at level VII I'd play priest more often. Full priest doesn't get as strong in melee as other a multiclass, but dang this spell is insane. Something to think about for another time perhaps

It's actually Nalpazca. But even though that class is really strong I don't like the drugs hassle. So I usually play Shattered Pillar. The Berserker is weak early because the damage you get is pretty bad actually. But it becomes less of an issue later. I usually also stack tons of healing here. I have greater regeneration ring, Robust, Moonwell and The Moon's Light plus Lethandria's Devotion. That's a lot of healing ticks keeping people topped off.

Thanks. Hm, but that +50% damage taken though is something that always prevents me from picking this class. I don't want to walk into a group of Death Guards with bows that crit me for 120 damage...

This is Veteran mode, so I can imagine it's not as succesful on PotD. The reason I've selected Barbarian over Fighter is because of the multitude of statuseffects I can get as a Barbarian. The Voulge is stronger on a Barbarian as it will put an unmissable Disorient effect for 10 seconds on everyone when you crit an enemy. Meaning (Disoriented characters suffer -5 Perception, are considered Flanked and have +50% Recovery after their actions.). Fighter is better on AoE extra hits and such, and has better defenses, but he doesn't get the disorient effect. Also Spirit Tornado allows you to Terrify everyone around you and has the nifty Stagger on hit effect. So with 1 ability and this build I can put 4 negative effects on enemies of which 3 in an AoE. So I don't get Clear Out or Mob Stance to deal with instant AoE's, but I do get Blood Thirst so when an enemy goes down I can do it again. I do have the Devil of Caroc Breastplate. It's the first thing I steal when getting to Neketaka :D. You may still want to get intellect immunity when fighting those Vampires. You don't want to be confused and instagib your own party. Like I said the AoE from the Voulge cannot be blocked. Well unless you're immune to Electric damage and it's possible lashes. Static charge does get benefit from Lashes like Turning Wheel and Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr, but as far as I know they do not trigger on hit effects. I have not tried Druid with the voulge, so I can't be sure. My gut says it doesn't proc. To get this to work on PotD I'd offer that I you add Confounding Blind and Karabörü to the party together with Phantom Foes and Expose Vulnerabilities you can lower enemy deflection a fair bit allowing for easier crits. Like I said before I always focus lowest deflection enemies with the Voulge builds. Almost every encounter has some of those, even on PotD.

Patch 5.0 is the last patch released. There will be no fixes anymore. Plus I'm not sure that this ability is bugged. It seems to do exactly what it describes.

It states in the window to the right. It's Swift Flurry which gives 33% chance to another hit on a crit. so I got lucky here. With the correct build and both Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming it's almost a guarantee that you're going to hit again on a crit. As long as deflection is low enough. So this works best when you focus an enemy with low deflection and lots of HP so you can rack up the hits. Note is that the AoE hits from the Voulge cannot be missed, they are a guaranteed hit. So this works wonders on enemies that have insane deflection and you can hit them anyways

It's part of the The Forgotten Sanctum DLC.

Just wanted to share this. You've probably seen it, or not. Even better if it's the latter. Class: Monk/Barbarian. Weapon: Lord Darynn's Voulge (Maxed). Possibly the highest DPS build I've had. I also ave seen over 500 damage at higher levels, but I never took a screenshot. Imagine this with Heartbeat drumming added and with Blood Thirst so you can do this again and again. Imagine having a party of healers and buffers and really strong characters that can make themselves invulnerable and when they're done casting everything this character will have already cleared the room solo.

Do you know if the +1 Might from Helwalker stacks with Might inspirations? I know for a fact that the boni from Duality of Mortal Presence do not stack with inspirations. Unfortunately.

Probably best to go with Fighter for tankiness, but you can also go with Monk as they have more DPS than any other class by far if you go for crit build. Synergizes well with Karaboru as well with Monk for lot's of free hits per attack. The only downside to multi with Priest is that some of the best abilities come at power level VIII such as Symbol of Berath and Incarnate at IX is also really strong as you get to summon Berath herself as the The Pallid Knight ánd The Usher. I've tried single class Priest and it's pretty strong with all the buffs you can get, but you're going to have to wait for all those casts as the recovery time is pretty long.

If you knew what the eye was you'd also know there is no combat implied.

In Poe2 you have 3 tiers of this affliction. Confused is the lowest tier which makes enemies deal damage friend or foe, Charmed makes them auto attack their allies. Dominated is the strongest tier which allows them to use abilities on their allies. Confused does not bring enemies under your control. It's by design. https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Afflictions The description of Perplexing Sap is correct and it actually does what it says. It just sucks as an ability.

I've never used it, but from reading the description it should only work on "enemies". But confusion doesn't make the target your ally. It just makes all their attacks friend or foe. So this ability is indeed a waste because it will turn against you. That's pretty awful.

Yea that was because she had a lot of synergy with the watcher options in terms of affinity building. It was extremely easy to get her to 2 points. 2 points is what is required for romance options with anyone. The game basically tells you that romance is saying what people want to hear and agree with a few times and then you can get together. Just like real life.

*Cipher

To be able to sneak into the manor without anyone attacking you, you need to go in through the Dark Cupboard. Go upstairs and out through the window. Then shimmy across. From there (you can ignore or attack the construct here) you go left up to the tower area. Here's Arkemyr's private chambers. Most important stuff here is the Robe (put it on!) and read the journal, which has the passphrase you need. Go back and now head inside the manor. Go upto the imp and he will engage in conversation. Now you have the option to deceive him with the robes and the passphrase. I think you can without the passphrase if your bluff is high enough.

Threatened means that a character is attacking an enemy. Engagement is not required. Cipher's most powerful offensive abilities are at level VII so if you're worried about damage when multiclassing then I don't think it's an issue. My Psyblade Ascendant deals over 500 single target raw damage with Disintigration and 140 blunt AoE damage with Amplified Wave. You miss out on Defensive Mindweb which imo is the best of the VIII/IX abilities. I've also tried the level IX abilities and they seem strong, but are kinda meh. Disintigrate does more damage than Death of 1000 Cuts. It's nice to have Death of 1000 Cuts if you're going single class, but it's defintely not necessary. Driving Echoes is circumstantial, but unnecessary. I think the only downside to multi with Cipher is that you cannot get all of the great abilities, but you will get most of them. Single class Ascendant is defintely viable and really strong. Party up with another Cipher and you can get +4 PL on top of your base PL.

Hi. How would you play this? I can make some assumptions, but I'm curious on how this makes the build fun

Tekehu could work, but his damage output is very limited due to the spell selection he gets. The main reason for me not to use him is simply the lock in for Huana if you want him to stay with you. You can't play for the Valians or Rautaians or he will leave the party. I think Principi is ok. At any rate, Fassina is just slightly more powerful imo, plus she's invested in the expansion "The Forgotten Sanctum". If you pick Tekehu, defintely go for Chanter/Druid. In terms of damage output he's a bit lacking because he doesn't get Plague of Insects. He also doesn't get Form of the Delemgan. He does get some nifty special spells such as Boiling Spray, Chill Fog and Ocean Burst, but the radius on those is a bit small.

Positioning is key. I played in a party with an extra cipher, meaning I could have good coverage of Phantom Foes to make sure everyone is flanked in the first round of combat. This usually already triggers Brilliant Tactician because enemies aren't in range yet then buff up with Fighter actives such as Disciplined Strikes and Vigorous Defense and then go to town with Penetrating Strike. Early game you can use Warrior Stance, but later in the game it's better to go with Cleaving Stance, al lot if not all of the discipline will regenerate. With regards to useful Cipher spells I think Eyestrike is very strong, even though I did not select it here for some reason XD. Early game Whispers of Treason is the strongest you can have though, but you can switch that out later for something else. Then Mental Binding for some good instant CC. Note that Paralyzed opponents not only are prevented from doing anything they also have increased crit chance when hitting them! Secret Horrors is always good. Never pass this up. Pain Block is a must. As an ascendant you can put Robust on your entire party in a few seconds. Borrowed Instinct for extra accuracy and defenses. And finally Ancestor's Memory to be able to make everyone in the party Brilliant as well. This way you have unlimited healing and abilities across the board. It does require some management, but that also makes it more fun in my opinion. Ectopsychic Echo is also a good ability and I likely did not select this because other abilities were more necessary. If you have Mind Blades then you don't really need Ectopsychic Echo. Focus on Int, Per and Dex as the most important stats. I never upgraded Vigorous Defense to Refreshing Defense because I basically have unlimited uses and that saves a skill point for other goodies. Race: Wood Elf I've added the skill selection as images For Party: Custom Priest/Paladin Healing/Buffing bot. Cannot be killed due to immense Armor/Stats. Use champions boon on PC and then Salvation of Time on Party. Then buff/debuff as necessary. Hardly deals damage, but can draw lot's of aggro. I had her as weapon/shield for a long time, but I now gave her Karabörü so she can be useull to deal AoE damage and debuff enemy deflection as well. Mirke: Fighter/Monk with Lord Darynn's Vaulge to disrupt/instagib spellcasters and cause disruption on enemy team. Care for getting flanked though. Saffina: Wizard/Druid. Healing/Damage/Debuff/Buff. Best spellslinger ever. Does it all. I equipped her with Lethandria's Devotion for more healing/stats. Serafen: Cipher/Barbarian. Just there because I went with the Principi and needed a Cipher. He uses dual wield weapons in Melee to be any good. His stats are terrible, but as a Witch he's somewhat useful. Although his wild mind is one of the worst things in the game. Dunno about Optimal Gear, but I went with: Head: Thaos Headdress Necklace: Strand of Favor Ring 1: Ring of Prosperity's Fortune Ring 2: Chameleon's Touch Belt: The Undying Burden Boots: Boots of the Stone Cloak: Greater cloak of deflection (could be replaced by something more useful, but you are in melee range a lot) Armor: Miscreant Leathers Weapons: Modwyr and Watcher's blade Pet: Eliel (I took the eder pet upgrade and then gave that to Mirke and gave her Nalvi so I have 0% armor penalty) For resistances I have modwyr (immune to intellect afflictions), Boots of the Stone resistance to might afflictions, wood elf passive resistance to dexterity afflictions and finally Fighter passive Fearless for resistance against Resolve afflictions. This last one is important as your powerlevel defines a lot of your damage. You could say it would be good to have defense against con afflictions as well, but since I have unlimited uses of "Robust" in the party I felt it wasn't necessary. Since you're going to be killing a lot of enemies Echoing Horror is very very useful.

So like most people here I have played a lot of different builds and some of them were more fun than others. I have a couple of setups that I keep going back to, such as Devoted/Shattered Pillar with Lord Darryn's Voulge or Berserker/Shattered Pillar with Lord Darryn's Voulge, just because of how easy it is to mess up your enemy without too much micro. I also tried my hand on a Citzal's build, but the amount of buffing you needed to do ultimately had me stop playing it as it got boring. I've been meaning to try my hand on monk/anything together with the Karabörü to see how many strikes I could get for free with it. Sounds insane on paper where every crit can trigger another hit, but can also trigger a double hit from Karabörü. Also tried some casters and some single target hitters with paladins for instance. Classes which I liked the most: Cipher and Monk. I'm not going to say Fighter even though I fit it in for multi a lot. Even with all the fun I have with monks, barbarians and casters the most fun build I've tried so far was: Psyblade: Tactician/Ascendant It's almost completely self sufficient. It has infinite uses of fighter abilities and also cipher abilities. Gets lots of extra power levels for damage boosts. My level 20 pc deals over 500 raw damage on Disintigrate and over 140 blunt AoE with Amplified Wave. It's still viable melee (as I like it) and deals lots of single target damage. Usually fill up focus with 2 uses of Penetrating Strike. Early game using Mind Blades is just hillariously OP especially if you get brilliant inspiration plus ascended status. Dealing 40 damage to enemies 6 times when you're struggling to get exceptional or even fine gear? Yes please. I think using Monk will be "stronger" actually, but I wanted the Brilliant inspiration so I can go on forever without using empowers which is actually very easy to trigger with this build and since you can get it at very early levels it makes the build also very strong early game. Late game where you can use a secondary cipher to cast Ancestor's Memory on you makes the Tactician feel kind of meh, but it's still fun. I've been reading topics here on how Ciphers are very weak and such. But as far as I can see they are one of not the strongest class in the game, with the most amount of raw damage and AoE damage. CC for days, healing and granting brilliant inspirations all over the place. Plus if you kill anything you fear everything around you. Fun! So what's your most fun build that you've tried?