Samugol

Thank you so much for all the help. I have decided to go with a two-handed (still not sure if great sword or estoc) in plate armor (if I roll a death godlike definitely the sanguine armor, cause of the aesthetics) and try to boost the attack speed through means available withing the game (such as speed enchants, the cool berserk talent you have suggested, powers and maybe even some potions or scrolls). I'm not sure if I hit 0 recovery, but quite frankly I do not care that much. Two handed is just cooler in my eyes. so I'm willing to be a bit sub-optimal. These are stats that I think should be fine: MIG 18 CON 10 DEX 14 PER 13 INT 16 RES 7 I'm still not 100% sure about those(any suggestions are welcome) but it should not matter that much. The talents I have decided to go for are (not necessarily in that order): combat recovery biting whip draining whip weapon focus adventurer or soldier greater focus(not a high priority) outlander's frenzy two handed style deflection (or something else... not sure) Thank you so much for all the help and great ideas. Had I know the community around here is so awesome I would have registered ages ago :D. Hopefully, someone might find this thread as useful as I have.

Just to see how dual wield vs two-handed feels I did play around with both on my current lvl5 characters. Dual wield PROS: 1.Dual wielding speed is really insane. Much faster than 2-handed even with base 10 DEX and without 20% speed talent. 2.Because you recover from a fast attack quicker, it is easier to cast spells when in melee. Dual wield CONS: 1.Against higher target opponents it feels like the damage is not much, despite 3DR reduction on stilettos. 2.As a trained fighter I cannot figure any single advantage of bringing daggers in full plate into actual battle :D it might work as a game mechanic but it just feels a bit silly. 2-handed PROS 1. Better against high armor opponents. 2. Seems to generate focus in bursts and with high enough accuracy, this seems preferable 3. Glowing great swords are so much cooler than daggers 2-handed CONS 1. They seem very sluggish in heavy armor, even with high dexterity 2. You get interrupted more easily, because the animation takes more time. Soooo is there a way to make the attacks at least a bit faster? The stats are already going into MIG and INT mostly and I cannot afford to dump any stat (still no idea about how much in PER or CON).

Thank you so much :D You are awesome. Would you also post a stat spread for a) Plate wearing dual stilleto cipher. b) Plate wearing great sword cipher. c) I was thinking of shield bearing not so full plate armor cipher (for even better survivability). Would it generate enough damage/focus? What stat/weapon would you advise? BTW: awesome advice, I'm just trying to figure out the coolest way to go, since I'm sure everything you said is super viable.

I bought PoE for PS4 (finally :D, could not launch it on PC and it was not worth buying a new one just for PoE) I absolutely ADORE, the game but I have a hard time deciding what character to play as. I have a very clear idea though, I like characters that are: 1. Special within the game lore/heavily themed (like a pure fire mage for example) 2. Able to deal reasonable damage 3. Are relatively survivable 4. Tacticians on the battlefield Now, I do realize that I just pretty much described a godlike character that can do everything, but that is how I enjoy RPGs the best. And there usually is a way to achieve this within game mechanics. I have tried all the "caster/soul power" classes(some for longer than others) and here are my impressions Wizard(about 6 hours) I took a couple of buffs, CC, damage spells, a wand and blast talent. I quickly became a very good damage dealer, but something just did not feel right. I was just slinging my wand most of the time and the spells I had certainly did not feel very epic, as a matter of fact I feel a bit disgusted by all the poison and death :D (I literally felt like a death eater from Harry Potter) Priest(about 6 hours) Took a great sword, a suit of fat armor and lots of healing so decent survivabilty (not great though, even when I could heal endurance easily the health pool got dangerously low during a few fights). The ability to cast some heavy hitting fire spells was awesome, but the entire class seemed extremely "churchy". I chose Berath the god of life and death and yet my spells were still the same, like any other priest. Lots of holy spells and buffs. Also the ability to cast EVERY spell does take the fun out of customizing my character, I just pick a few talents that are pretty clearly cut anyway (scion of flame, interdiction, combat recovery maybe some weapon focus). Monk(until I cleared the temple of Eothas) This was a very powerful class indeed, survivable with some serious damage potential. The problem I had with this one was, that I kept spamming Torment's reach all time. It got boring pretty fast and when I looked at the class description it did not seem that the number of active skills would increase much (just like one or two). Not to mention the whole "get hurt to hurt others" mentality did not sit very well with me. Paladin(until I reached Gilded Vale) Again very powerful, but since the Flames of devotion was the only damage dealing power it got old very quickly. Even though there is some cool fire power later down the road, I don't think I could hold on for more than a few hours (actually got tired of it when I reached Gilded Vale). Cipher The moment I blinded those first bandits I fell in love with this class. The ability to deal lots of damage because of the soul whip, the crowd control potential and super awesome PSYCHIC powers that are so unique not just here, but any other game for that matter. The only problem I have with this, class, it seems VERY SQUISHY. Druid I'm not much of a tree hugger so there is no way I would stand for this one :D So there is definitely a way to make CIPHER more survivable. My initial experience with a WIZARD has already showed me that having light armor, max MIG, DEX, INT, decent PER is a powerful way to play the game (screw RES because enemies never touch you). And since cipher has lots of CC, I do not think I would be much threatened. The problem is, this build has been done to DEATH by others. All those blunderbuss and war bow builds. It just feels like I'm copying someone else's idea (even though I came up with it on my own mostly). Also, even though the survivability would be great, the squishiness persists. I had this idea of creating a melee cipher, that would be very durable. Not just through armor but through some cool game mechanic that has not been done to DEATH. I looked up TIDEFALL which is a great sword that heals you and a Brigandine that has "retaliation" ability. Would it be possible to have lower DEX, be in heavy armor and heal this way? (of course some CC and debuffs, that goes without saying). Would it be possible to create pretty tanky cipher? What would the stats look like? I have done some testing and it seems that having high DEX in heavy armor does not bring much to the table (your speed does not seem to go up as much as when you are in light armor). Or would it be better to have a shield(more retaliation + better deflection) with some other draining weapon? Or even having two draining weapons (rapier + dagger) and be faster in light armor. I honestly have not played much of the game to know which is more viable. And quite frankly I have had enough of the testing :D I just wanna play my cool character now. I have not been further than reaching Caed Nua, so I do not spoil much of the game. So if there is anyone who can give some good info, it would be much appreciated. BTW: I'm a normal person, but I just get so excited when playing RPGs, that I sometimes post in the wrong thread, or I post walls of text that could have been briefer. I apologize for that.