Lampros

That person was actually me. Nowadays I'm a huge fan of boar druids. But the difference is that someone changed their mind after being shown wrong, it looks like!

Is there a good summary of overall changes or new features in PoE 2 anywhere? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the info; I did not realize Monks have melee AoEs as well. But I am not sure I'd like to play Monk. To begin with, I am not in favor of Monks in most RPGs, as they usually function best without armor and attacking unarmed - and this is very immersion-breaking and seems "gimmicky." Moreover, in this game, they even require to get hurt first in order to deal good damage - which seems to require even more micro-management!

I guess I found the Wizard better at crowd control (contrary to my original expectation), because being able to start the CC chain right away without having to build Focus was too convenient for me, as I am micro-averse. Also, there seems to be nothing as easy to use and almost universally relevant like Petrify from the Cipher arsenal. And having both seemed a bit redundant, as they seem to do similar things. So I'd like to get rid of either the Cipher or the Wizard, and get a pure ranged DPS guy in there - whether it's a Ranger, ranged Rogue, or ranged Chanter. And I think I will most likely drop the Cipher, as the Wizard seems easier to use and more effective for my playstyle. Yup, we have a different play-style. I rest very frequently, because I don't feel psychologically safe until my health bar is 90 percent or above. So I need to blow my per rest spells anyways. Yeah, at the very early level, I liked Cipher better, because 1) you could cast those spells very quickly, and 2) most of the Wizard early CC spells can cause friendly fire as well (as I said, I hate micro-managing! ). But once I got Confusion and other foe-only AoEs, then I started finding the Wizard spells far more convenient, since I didn't need to build up Focus. Anyways, overall, Cipher was a bit of a disappointment - after hearing how OP the class was for a while. I guess I would have felt different if I could start with more Focus at the start of the fight. But then I guess that would indeed be OP.

Exactly my realization regarding your last paragraph: I figured just bringing a Ranger or a ranged Rogue might be better. In fact, a ranged Chanter probably will be best, since I assume a DPS ranged Chanter also spamming Dragon Thrashed will out-damage either a Ranger or a ranged Rogue. Damn, I am a lazy son of a ... Edit: If you bring a Wizard, do you need a Cipher even for crowd control? Or vice versa? I noticed that carrying both means you have too much crowd control, as fights kept going on forever, when I left the AI on crowd control mode for both Wizard and Cipher. So I just put both on auto-attack and used the Wizard crowd control manually, as needed.

That's right. Even until the late game (when you get durgan steel) it's hard to beat. Because the cipher can disable the target easily most of the time he often deals crits. Crits with Firebrand (huge base damage + annihilation), Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver lead to ridiculous focus bursts (and damage of course). You can also crank it up with the follwing combo: Phantom Foes (causes flanked) + survial 12 (+20% damage against flanked) + similar item (+10% vs. flanked) and Appr. Sneak (+15% vs. flanked). This works very well with Firebrand's high base damage. Later with durgan steel and good enchantments/lash Hours of St. Rumbalt will give you the same or better dmg/focus. More crits and also higher speed... The prone on crit is not really needed but who wants to complain about that. But dual wielding is also nice. Also helps with the casting speed because your weapon recovery is wy shorter and thus you can start to cast powers sooner after a weapon attack. It makes a difference. Is Cipher actually doing a lot more DPS by casting Focus damage spells rather than auto-attacking - or enough to bother with the additional micro-management? I tried the spell casting route early with my Cipher, and I wasn't too impressed with the result. What spell combo would be good for a Cipher DPS? The same with a Wizard, I guess. Is a casting Wizard really capable of doing a lot more DPS than an auto-attacking version - assuming top-end weapons and Durgan enchants?

Yeah, I went through an entire playthrough with the Cipher the last week, and I didn't find Psychic Backlash too useful most of the time. And getting Brutal Backlash felt a real waste. The problem with Cipher I found in general was that its best abilities come at really late levels when you are face-rolling anyways. So I basically auto-attacked the whole game, and if I am going to do that, then why not just get any other ranged DPS? Perhaps I would use its abilities more actively at higher difficulties, but I wasn't too impressed at Normal difficulty/

The (hopefully) good news is Obsidian have acknowledged the bad difficulty scaling on Pillars and have said they'll try to improve it in Deadfire. I hope so. And hopefully DLC maps out levels that come after the original game is done, so it doesn't become a cakewalk, too.

I believe so yes. The adds might also be tougher variants of their kind, for example if the Alpine Dragon has a mixture of ice blights and greater ice blights defending it on normal, it might only have greater ice blights on hard. I can't really comment on specifics though since I gave up my first normal run because it started getting too easy so I've only ever fought bosses on hard and PotD. If you're looking for a challenge for your next run, and don't want to use PotD, I'd recommend trying a smaller party e.g. only take four characters rather than six. You'll probably be disappointed if you expect hard to pose much more of a challenge than normal did. I like to go progressively harder. (Damn, that looks like something out of a porn movie or a sex manual, LOL!) So I will try hard first with a normal party, and then slim down on the party number next.

Is totally justified if you are building a barbarian, for a paladin i think too tgat tge advantages are too marginal Yeah, it's too bad that the Barbarian is the only melee who can perform weapon AoEs. But then, if that wasn't the Barbarian's niche, he'd have none...

Got it - so more adds, that's all, for boss fights.

Ah, that sounds great! Thanks. That's also another idea.

The problem isn't whether higher difficulties are adequately difficult; it seems rather the problem is that the difficulty progress within a playthrough is inverse to what it should be: The late-game talents and late-game gear make the late-game too easy. And the choice to drop a non-continuation DLC made the problem much worse. It really ruined the game for me to some extent.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the tip! Is there another useful Affliction weapon I can use on the offhand, rather than a straight damage weapon?

I hope he is harder at "Hard" difficulty. He was a joke at "Normal." Didn't even need to buff or eat - just sat in front of him and auto-attacked. While I am sure it will get harder at higher difficulties, I think the difficulty progression in this game is awful. And dropping an in-between DLC area made the problem worse. It really sucked the fun out of the late-game, and I do not understand this decision at all.

Yes, I love the Bleak Walker build posted - though I used a Wayfarer version for the on-kill heals (which made Ancient Memory redundant after level 13). It's such a powerful class - and it's refreshing to have a Paladin in an RPG game do serious damage, albeit at late levels. I am going to try a "crowd control" version with Godansthunyr and We Toki dual wield set-up next and see if the Paladin can do 3 things: burst damage, long-term AoE damage, and crowd control!

This build pretty much dominated from level 13 onward. It even overtook the Tall Grass DPS Chanter from level 16 onward in terms of overall damage. Getting the IE Mod to apply the disposition preference to my custom Paladin significantly increased his Defense and permitted him to walk into everything; and two Durgan-enchanted Superb weapons (Bittercut and Purgatory - Purgatory on the other hand because of my normal dual wield habits, which always stress "vampiric" enchants!) - plus Immolation - did the rest. And since I used Wayfarers instead of Walkers, I probably did not even need Ancient Memory heals from my two Chanters, because my Paladin killed and thus activated on-kill heals constantly. For the next run, I think I will try a more of a "crowd control" dual wield version with double stun/prone weapons. (I will probably need two Weapon Focuses - so I can wield something like a Godansthunyr/We Toki combo.

Food is indeed needed if you solo bosses, especially in order to push the damage coefficient of your DoTs further.But tbh I like using it even in a 6 man party. I've found sugar and have more than 3? I will toss one on my MC. Some extra DR/MIG/INT/etc food? I'll consume it too. During the first run I was hoarding all this stuff, and in the end haven't used even 1/4 of the food stocked in my inventory. So I've taken notes. Also a note regarding drugs: imho, nowadays drugs are pretty bad, perhaps with the exception of Mind Grubs + Whiteleaf combo, if you don't mind the -10% attack speed penalty. - priest + 2 characters that have Scrolls of Revival - is almost a fool-proof guarantee vs potential wipes from spike damage- 1 character (with high INT/MIG) with moonwell scrolls - 2 characters (with high INT/PER) with scrolls of Confusion/Paralysis - (optional) a support character (with high INT) with scrolls of Valor/Defense/Protection - (optional) a character (with high MIG/INT) with scrolls of Boiling Spray - (optional) prayer scrolls - (optional) a priest with scrolls of Insect Swarm As for potions, it depends on do I have a 6-man party or solo; as well what is the concrete situation. Mostly I use: - Potion of Major Recovery, Potion of Major Endurance and ofc Potion of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Also there is Flask of War Paint. Also Potion of Bulwark Against The Elements/Potion of Flame Shield are quite handy vs shades and spectres; and Potion of Llengrath's Displaced Image is great for pushing tank's defenses even further. Thanks so much for all this info! And yes, I've found after my first full run that there was a lot of stuff I hoarded and rotted. In particular, I also found the drugs not worth keeping (just as in real-life, LOL!). Regarding tank defenses: What kind of Deflection and Defense numbers do I need in general for level 16 at Hard difficulty (which is what I am trying next)?

Very useful!

Wow, my internet connection is down for 3 days, and this thread exploded. A lot of catch up for me to do! Anyways, I am just a newb, so I defer to you veterans obviously, but I think you guys should test with the UPMod damage recorder to get a fuller - and more accurate - picture of the real-life DPS scene. Here some considerations after having run some tests that actually incorporate DoTs and Chanter Phrases: 1. I have never run a melee Rogue or a Ranger, but I suspect that both a dual wield Chanter spamming Dragon Thrashed or a dual wield Paladin spamming Immolation can out-damage both Rangers or melee Rogues. According to the adjusted DPS numbers recorded in the UPMod in my playthroughs, after level 13 (when the Paladin gets Immolation), both the Chanter and the Paladin comfortably did twice more DPS than either the ranged Rogue or the ranged Cipher in the group. Of course, equipment, level-up talent, play-style choices all mattered, I assume, but I do not think my idiosyncratic individual testing condition alone would explain such a monstrous disparity. 2. Relatedly, in addition to Dragon Thrashed and Immolation, I think my testing consistently shows that melees out-damage ranged characters, even if no big template AoE damage were involved (the same held even when I ran a dual wield Fighter). So even if the Ranger could start doing damage immediately, I suspect the ranged head-start advantage is not sufficient to close the gap with the Dragon Thrashed Chanter or the Immolation Paladin. (Now, of course, the issue with a melee Rogue is that you would be far more careful with him than you would with a Paladin or even a Chanter, and I do not know how much DPS that would deprive from a real-life melee Rogue until I test it. And even then, risk management is really particular to the individual.) 3. This is not perfectly germane to this thread, but in several threads it was asserted by many veterans I respect that so much of the Chanter or Paladin DPS comes from template AoEs (that is, Dragon Thrashed and Immolation) that you gain only a little more extra DPS by using a dual wield or 2H set-up (as opposed to the safer 1H/shield set-up). My testing shows this is not the case. The 2H Chanter out-performed the 1H/shield Chanter so significantly even after level 9 (that is, after Dragon Thrashed) that from a pure DPS perspective, it's no contest. Edit: I forgot to mention that the dual wield Immolation Paladin did catch up with the 2H pike Chanter by level 16 and kept pulling ahead. I suspect that the Chanter would have maintained his lead if he had used a similar dual wield set-up as Paladin. So weapon set-up still matters, even if your DPS comes more from template AoEs than weapon damage.

Ye the ranged ranger is a beast. Definitely a mistake by obsidian to not include pet damage in rangers overall damage numbers. It seems to give people a false since of true damage compared to other classes especially the rogue who is in direct competition for single target dps. As well as not including Chanter Phrases in the damage calculation - or any DoTs for that matter.

What's Merciless Hand? And isn't Kraken the last fight? So I think double Legendary Bittercuts is way off. Anyways, just to be clear: I like this build. It is effective and fun. So I am not criticizing the build. But the alpha strike was disappointing (but my expectations may have been too high), and I do not think I can tank with this build.

Oops. Wrong thread.

Oops. I thought you were talking about the disappointing (at least for me) FoD alpha strike with this build. I was expecting monster numbers, but I didn't get them Edit: And the Deflection stats I quoted were pre-combat, on the character screen.

But Frenzy won't proc on the initial few seconds though - usually. So that really should be out of equation - unless you wait to FoD until it procs. But then it won't be an "alpha" strike.