jermungand

****. Looks like I'm going to try to reload hours and hours ago to before I accepted their stupid quest, and do everything I've accomplished since over again. That REALLY sucks.

I've been playing a melee wizard, and recently dismissed Aloth from the party (making room for Pallegina) because I was beginning to see little point in him. Perhaps I'm judging too quickly. When I played Pillars years ago, I actually remember him being quite useful as a ranged spell-thrower (I was playing on "normal" difficulty back then). Now he feels like a liability more than anything, since he's always getting attacked by flanking enemies. Since I'm playing on "hard" of course, I can only rest twice, which might be making me a bit more reserved about using his spells frequently (which could be a big part of the problem). Some of the best spells need special positioning to be cast effectively (like the flame cone spell), which are risky to maneuver Aloth into. Enemies regularly disengage from whichever party member they happen to be fighting, just to run over and squish him whenever he's around. Then, obviously, there's the redundancy of him being the second wizard in the party. Got any thoughts on Aloth? While we're at it, should I drop Sagani once I'm done with her Persoq quest? She's not much of a heavy hitter herself. Naturally, this is leaving me thinking: Should I want a ranged character? If there is a strong choice for that role, who (and of what class/build) would that character be?

If I had to choose between the Dozens and the Knights, I'd help out the Knights. Clyster (or whatever his name is) won't give me any further orders after finishing the forge knight schematics mission, and he says he won't do so because I'm an "ally of the Dozens". To be fair, I did accept a quest from those guys, but I didn't actually go out and start on it. Hell, I actually killed members of the Dozens, and I would think that carried more say regarding my loyalties. Am I forever fated to work for the Dozens now, to the complete exclusion of the Knights? This is really not what I wanted at all, and the opposite of what I would have chosen.

Been playing my melee wizard. Thank you all. Deleterious Alacrity of Motion seems like a risky thing to eventually use if it's going to drain my endurance. Is this more of a thing for pike/staff-wielding melee wizards, or is it actually safe for up close? I've been putting my wizard in the front with a weapon and a shield, partly because I enjoy opening a fight with that flame cone spell (which is hard to do otherwise) and because he's a lot more durable than I'd imagined he would be.

Another idea, MIG: 20 (base+Living Lands bonus) CON: 10 DEX: 10 PER: 18 INT: 16 RES: 4 With a peasant weapon focus adding to the effectiveness of Concelaut's staff, and to the pair of hatchets I'll be dual wielding (which give a total +10 to deflection). Perhaps I'll have some heavy armor. I wonder if moving two points each out of INT and CON (and the 4 points out of DEX) will be more than worth the extra MIG and the capacity to be hitting and interrupting people all the time. I'm squishier, but maybe I can stack up some talents and spells that will offset that problem. The big question for me is: How long will it take for me to offset that squishiness?

@ Boeroer Thanks. I'd love to hear any final feedback you might have on the statline I proposed several posts back. CON and PER are both at 12, which might be slimming it in the early game. However, if buffs and talents are necessary for a melee wizard to be effective, perhaps I'm not going to be throwing him into the thick of the fray for the first few levels anyway. By the time I do start using him in close combat on a more regular basis, the talents and buffs that I'll have gained should make up for the lower CON and PER. Thoughts?

How many buffs will I be casting altogether?

I'm gravitating toward something along these lines, MIG: 18 (Base+Living Lands bonus) CON: 12 DEX: 14 PER: 12 INT: 18 RES: 4 I figured I could afford to coax just a few measly points out of CON & PER, in order to raise my chief attributes of MIG and INT. If these additions to MIG and INT seem excessive in light of what I'll actually be getting out of them (and of what I'm neglecting), perhaps I'll dial them down a bit and put some points back if you guys think so. I'll go for Arcane Veil, but probably give Hardened Veil a pass on the grounds that my character will be a somewhat mobile and flexible in his role rather than actually tanking. I'd love to hear some final peer-review . EDIT: I should have asked this a long time ago. What should I be thinking in terms of armor? If I need to be quick(ish), I imagine I'd have to stick with medium armors, yes?

@ Blades of Vanatar I'm actually very happy with min/maxing my stats. It's my character's role on the battlefield which could use some flexibility. As for ACC: Can accuracy ever get high enough that buffs don't provide much return past a certain point? If this were the case, then I could definitely see a very strong argument for settling with low PER on a wizard with Eldritch Aim. However, if tons of accuracy is a wonderful thing to have on my melee wizard, it might be worth keeping a higher base PER.

First of all, thanks a ton. Suppose that I made use of Arcane Veil, Hardened Arcane Veil, Wizard's Double and other buffs for defense, but did away with the shield? I'd still need a bit more CON than in your first example, but maybe I could afford to go with less CON than 14? Yes/No?

Hi all. I'm starting a new game. Though I played PoE a bit a few years ago, my knowledge regarding character design is very limited. What I really want is to play as a melee damage (and touch damage) dealing wizard, albeit with some flexibility if that is more efficient than hyper-focusing on melee. I'll be playing on "Hard". Reading through some of the special builds people have come up with, I've noticed that stat choices vary wildly. For example, some will have high constitution whilst other builds are expected to face enemies toe to toe with as little as 6. I can only suppose that the schools of reasoning behind these different statlines are very complex and specific in their purpose, and unfortunately that leaves a newbie like me totally lost and in the dirt. I'm not going to just choose my character's attributes on faith. If I were to pick my stats from one of the listed builds in that way without knowing the logic behind it, I'll spend the entire game painstakingly following detailed instructions on how to level him, just to avoid the odds of screwing him up with the wrong choices (and that's no fun way to play). I'd really appreciate any help you can give me. What should I do?