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I find the default scripts a bit lacking, so I usually make new ones from scratch. Specific scripts could vary wildly, depending on party composition I use, but there are some very good tips in this steam guide that you can use to further play around with the scripts: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1392162466 I find that on slow-ish tanks it is best to have second wind trigger earlier than below 25%. If their health got that low, something is really wrong and they are probably getting debuffed and focused, so often they won't manage to trigger second wind in time. If you have a druid, it is good to have them set up heal early, at 75% and even 90%, since they offer sustained heals.

Hi all, Recently I decided to give Tempest a try. I never played a barb MC and for this playthrough I was hoping to make a sturdy caster that would hold his own in melee in addition to being a stellar nuker. Here are the abilities that I plan to pick up as I level: PLI. Frenzy, Sunbeam, Blooded, Nature's mark (+dancing bolts) PLII. Barbaric blow, Insect Swarm, Taste of the hunt, Thick skinned (+Burst of summer flame) PLIII. Bloodlust, Infestation of maggots, One stands alone, two-handed style (+Returning storm) PLIV. Blood frenzy, Heart of the Storm, Savage defiance, Unflinching/Spirit of decay (+Hail storm) PLV. Barbaric smash, Plague of insects, Rapid casting, Nature's terror (+ Relentless storm) PLVI. Improved critical, Venombloom, Brute force, Embrace of the earth talon (+Sunlance) PLVII. Blood storm, Rusted Armor, Blood thirst (+weather the storm) I will use darryn's voulge soulbound to druid for + PL to storm spells until the SSS DLC, where I will probably switch to slayer's claw + (griffin's blade?) and keep the voulge for casting storms. I plan to wear devil of caroc's breastplate to get rid of berserker's confusion and heaven's cacophony for +2 int and avenging storm. I was wondering if you think the selection of abilities looks okay for this build? I have some doubts about the following: 1) Could accurate carnage be worth taking? +5 accuracy doesn't sound like a lot, so I decided to take thick skinned for extra sturdiness 2) I can't take stalwart defiance for this char (since blood thirst is too good at this PL), so savage defiance seems a bit like a waste of resources. Is it worth it as a "panic button" for a berserker, despite its high cost? 3) Not sure if any elemental + PEN abilities, apart from heart of the storm are worth it. I have been thinking about spirit of decay, which should affect infestation of maggots / rusted armor / taste of the hunt, but perhaps unflinching is a better pick for extra sturdiness? 4) Do you have any gear suggestions that would fit the build? Is there a better armor I could use, in case I get modwyr with slayer's claw - so I no longer need DoC's resistance? Thanks a lot for any information and/or input on the build!

Thanks for a quick response! What about SB/Helwalker? Too squishy?

Hi! Planning a soul blade multiclass build that I want to use with seeker's fang eventually. Thinking of multiclassing options, I like the idea of Bleak walker/Soul blade - perhaps using melee FoD or a ranged FoD with a Spearcaster to get initial focus burst then melee (probably with WotEP then switch to dual wield once I get seeker's fang). Devoted/Soul Blade seems interesting, but I'm not sure I want to be stuck with rapiers for the whole playthrough. Do you have any suggestions for getting the most out of seeker's fang with a cipher multiclass? Have been wondering whether seeker's fang might be a waste on a soul blade (vs. e.g. ascendant), since SB has reduced focus and tends to spend it all often on soul annihilation... I know cipher/FF is often suggested, but I played this one before. Thanks!

Thanks! I was concerned that a melee wizard would rely a lot on buffs, and I'm not keen on constantly resting. I am thinking to build Aloth as an autoattacking wizard, as you suggested, and perhaps build my MC as a controller/nuker with some occasional combo-ing with Aloth. I guess same attribute advice would apply for a nuker/CC... (high might, int, per) ?

Hi everyone! I'm replaying POE once again and I would like to roll a wizard this time. I've never used a wizard in the original game. I disliked Aloth, so I never had him in my party, and other casters (druid, priest) seemed more appealing. Now - it's wizard time. Since I have almost no experience with this class in POE1 I would love to hear some tips on creating an OP wizard. I am mainly looking for a caster, but would also be interested in checking out a melee build (heard wizards were good for those in the original game). What equipment is worth looking out for? I'm going to play with game companions only, full party on hard. Thanks a lot for any info!

IMO, Swashbuckler or Marauder with rapier/sabre in one hand and a pistol in the other. Skill-wise makes sense to focus on bluff and maybe stealth or athletics. Get the fair favor hat and never take it off

Hmm, so maybe something like 10 CON 15MIG DEX PER and INT and 20 RES with BB bonuses? I am also now thinking whether FF/ascendant would be really in the spirit of a fast rapier fencer. The class combo definitely sounds fantastic, but, for example, nalpazca/ascendant would be more of a fast, critting character, darting around the battlefield, while for FF the main point would be to abuse the forbidden fist and not so much in using the wound abilities. Also, missing the FF attacks is a bummer, so seems like it would be good to bump per for this char as well, but not much room left after maxing res. Very, very difficult choice...

Amazing! Ok, I was getting ready to take the high road with nalpazca, but now I just have to give it a try and roll forbidden fist / ascendant. Just need to figure out the stats on this one...

Helwalker/devoted sounds pretty neat, the only downside (for me) is not getting as much use out of the seeker's fang...

Just realized that forbidden fist lowers fortitude which is asking for a good combo with disintegrate... Damn, I'm almost sold on this one

Somehow it seems to be a bit of a dysergy to use ascendant (who wants very high int to extend ascended on himself) and forbidden fist who doesn't want too much int. Maybe it would be awesome if I just roll a character and play it, but when theorycrafting I am not sure how I would use it best.. Maybe if going sky high resolve (+ items and the food bonus) it doesn't matter how high the int is... What would you suggest for the other stats in this build? I might also try going with nalpazca/ascendant, I guess it should be easy to hoard drugs and maxing alchemy increases the effect duration...

Thanks a lot for very helpful tips! I have to say the monk/cipher multiclass is the MC that's most interesting to me at the moment, although maybe trickster/cipher would be (potentially) stronger? Monk/trickster also sounds nice, but as @haplok said I would really like capitalize on the awesomeness of the seeker's fang (I know it's a late-game weapon, but I also like to have something to look forward to in the later stages of the game). I have also been thinking about soulblade as a cipher subclass - but I've never used it and I've seen comments from cipher-users here that with the soulblade it makes sense to store and use focus only on soul annihilation, and it would not be efficient to spend it on other cipher powers, other than occasional buff/debuff. This kind of character sounds like it might become a bit boring fast... As for the monk subclass, I am not very familiar with the forbidden fist (would it need to have low int and max resolve to be effective?). I mainly played helwalker in my monk MC characters and it is a fantastic class, but using it in melee with priest of berath/helwalker was a bit too squishy for my taste, so I am not sure whether I would like to pair it with a melee cipher. Nalpazca sounds amazing in theory, but I am a bit concerned with drug management. Do crash effects last only for some time or always, until a new dose is used? I'm also curious, is Nalpazca then pretty much the same as no subclass monk if no drugs are used at all? I was also thinking about shattered pillar, but I have no idea how efficient it is to generate wounds solely by dmg, even with the community patch that sets the shattered pillar's wound limit to 10 again.

I do a bit of HEMA irl, and something I would love to roleplay here is a character that would use a rapier and dagger, focusing on riposte attacks. Unfortunately there are no riposte animations in this game, which makes sense due to its inner mechanics, but a bit disappointing for the flair of this character... As for terrified - I rolled a paladin/bloodmage earied who focused on buffing, Ryngrim's RV and spirit lance, and something I've noticed was that terrified enemies just sort of cower and do not flee as often as I expected. It was actually convenient for the arcane knight, since I could just keep on poking them with the lance, but for a character focusing on disengagement - would terrified be reliable enough?

Thanks! I was thinking that Ascendant/Devoted would be a very cool character to roll RP-wise as a rapier-fencer and fighter abilities would add much needed survivability. The only thing I am a bit concerned with this setup is that the character will not have the option to switch weapon in case of pierce immunity. Since I'm going to be running with companions this should not be that bad, yet I am wondering if devoted with a rapier would be too crippling (since I won't be able to gain enough focus against pierce resistances to do anything on the ascendant side of things)?

Hi all! I would like to build a character that mainly focuses on using rapiers (although potentially could switch to a secondary weapon if needed to mitigate the common pierce immunity). I was thinking that one handed focus would be good to get crits more often, but dual wielding for higher attack speed could also be nice (with a stiletto or sabre in the off-hand). So far I have been thinking about monk/skald or monk/devoted, potentially taking helwalker when MC with skald for high dmg chants and shattered pillar with devoted (I play with the community patch which gets rid of the 5 wound limit for the SP monk). Alternative option would be to go rogue/cipher (ascendant and beguiler both seem nice, but possibley also soul blade) or shattered pillar/cipher to benefit from cipher's potential to greatly boost accuracy and aim for the DLC rapier for nice focus gain and high dmg from biting whip (improved by the community patch). Somehow I've been putting monk in all my potential MC options since their abilities are so hard to pass up, but also because instruments of pain with rapiers sounds amazingly badass (kinetic duelist!), but I would be interested in looking at other MC options that would make such character more effective. Pretty much any suggestions on how to build an effective and fun rapier-user are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Damn, this sounds fun! Would non-damaging debuff chants force you out of stealth?

Thanks a lot @Boeroer! I typically don't like using barbarian that much, but maybe worth giving it a go this time... Or maybe helwalker/skald would perform well in a similar role, but with more focus on damaging invocations?

Thanks for the suggestion - Skald seems great with reduced cost for offensive invocations & the crit synergy! Which phrases did you use on this character?

Thanks! I completely forgot that blightheart binds with a chanter class. Bellower/assassin or /helwalker seem pretty interesting for strong invocations, albeit a bit squishy - to be honest I haven't thought of a ranged chanter, but both of these MCs seem well-suited for that role. Is it diffuclt to work around the short range for bellower's chants for a ranged chanter?

Hi! I've been thinking about rolling a chanter for another playthrough and was wondering, what would be the most interesting way to create a more "active" chanter, that uses damage invocations and is pretty good in melee. I have a feeling that it is possible to do both via MC with a Bellower & use empowers via sasha's scimitar, but the linger from Troubadour seems nice as well. I only used Pallegina as a Herald before, and she's been great as support but what I have in my mind is a character that is studry and can dish out great damage via invocations and melee, but CAN switch to support chants if need be. Herald overall seems nice, but what are other fun MC options for such build concept? Or possibly single class for powerful invocations...? I know chanters are also excellent for summoning, but summoning seems a bit boring to me, so not really going for that with this character. If you have rolled a character with a similar idea or if you have some build advice in mind - I would love to hear your thoughts! I'm mainly playing on veteran difficulty, with full party. Thanks!

Hmm, thanks - interesting... I think the helwalker/priest seems more diverse and fun to keep alive close the front lines. I'll try this build with 10 con and res, high DEX, PER and INT and the rest in might, seems a bit fragile, but not sure what else can be sacrificed at this point.

@Boeroer I also remember in one of your posts you mentioned that a zealot of Berath (+streetfighter) would be a more interesting melee option than a cleric of Berath (+devoted). Somehow I can't find the build you recommended, but you did have some advice on maintaining high dps with zealot... I guess the cleric option would have much more survivability, but would a streetfighter+priest outperform helwalker+priest in melee? Helwalkers get all the goodies you described earlier, but with streetfighter you also get ridiculous speed.

Would this combo need much dex at all? Probably makes sense to not dump (and maybe invest in) resolve for melee, but would it be ok to keep dex at 10 since we already have slow recovery with heavy armor?

Thanks for tons of great ideas as always, @Boeroer! Now that I'm thinking about it, I like the concept of Steel Garrote/Trickster... Is the damage (and I guess persistent distraction for the extra drain) that good to forego the spellcasting?