Ophiuchus

Favorite for RP: Pale Elf since I never got over that "long white hair is cool" phase of the late '90s/early 2000s. Favorites for stats/bonuses: Hearth Orlan and Nature Godlike.

This changes a lot. How can you tell which actions break stealth and which do? Is there a list? And do actions which break stealth not benefit (since their recovery won't actually be in stealth)? Purely defensive abilities (such as Form of the Delemgan and Moonwell) won't break Stealth; offensive abilities (Plague of Insects, Sunbeam, a plain attack) will. In both cases, they'll receive the 85 percent recovery reduction. Like Boeroer said, you can use this to quickly chain buffs.

The Tempest Lifeshaper Here’s a build I’ve been floating around the forums lately: a Furyshaper/Lifegiver that fits the RP and aesthetic of a Witch Doctor or Shaman. The Tempest Lifeshaper is meant to be used in a party setting, and can deliver powerful DoTs and HoTs, and support via speed and defensive buffs and Afflictions. As you can guess, this build is held together by The Spine of Thicket Green’s +3 to Beast and Plant PLs, Lifegiver’s +2 PL to Rejuvenation, and Nature Godlike’s Wellspring of Life for an additional level. Furyshaper was chosen for the totem aesthetic and bonus party speed via Shape Ward: Frenzy. Since Druid’s DoTs are mostly raw damage, and because this is a mid to backline character, this multi doesn’t benefit much from Berserker’s bonuses. The +10 accuracy versus spirits serves the RP. Lifegiver can’t cast Druid summons, which isn’t a problem since totems takes up the slot anyways. We’ll also want to keep the Spine of Thicket Green’s bonuses up and will refrain from shifting to avoid the PL penalty - +3PL to Rejuvenation works just fine. Mind that this isn’t one of those ultra-hardcore min-maxed to the marrow kind of builds. [Nalpazca]: “Those circles, man…” ------------------------------------------- Game version: 4.1 Difficulty: Veteran/PotD (upscaled) Tested: Veteran/Upscaled (about halfway through PoTD atm) Solo: That ain’t my bag, baby! ------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike Class: Tempest (Furyshaper/Lifegiver) Culture: Deadfire Archipelago or The Living Lands Background: Whatever suits you. I’m fond of Clergy or Explorer. ------------------------------------------- Stats: (Note that I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t like to min-max so adjust these to your liking. This multiclass suffers from penalties to Deflection and Will so dropping Resolve too much might not be the best idea.) Mig: 17 (+2 BB) Con: 8 (+2 BB) Dex: 11 (+1 Godlike, +2 BB) Per: 13 (+2 BB) Int: 17 (+1 Godlike, +2 BB) Res: 8 (+2 BB) ------------------------------------------- Skills: Active: Again, whatever suits you. Arcana offers some extra abilities via scrolls while Stealth is useful for early combat buffing. I like investing three points into Athletics for old times’ sake. Passive: Survival, Insight, and Intimidate fit the RP. ------------------------------------------- Abilities: Character Creation: (Furyshaper) Frenzy: Frenzy is the cornerstone of this build, providing Strong (+15% Damage and Healing, +10 Fortitude), Fit (+15% Health, +10 Fortitude), and a 25% bonus to Action Speed. Naturally, this will be your main trigger for Nature Godlike’s Wellspring of Life so you’ll want it on all the time – though remember it lowers Deflection by 10. (Furyshaper) Shape Ward: Frenzy: Shape Ward: Frenzy is why we decided to go for Furyshaper. While the +10% Action Speed bonus isn’t huge, it applies to a wide area and stacks with similar bonuses (including Frenzy), making it ideal for allied casters and archers/gunners. (I’m fond of stacking it with a Chanter using Sure-Handed Ila and Gersnic.) Positioning the totem can be a bit tricky and often depends on terrain and your party composition. I usually try to summon it in the midline and away from my party’s direct path: just enough for it to cover the team while keeping it out of enemy AoE. I also try to summon it from Stealth to lower the recovery time. Try to keep your totem from expiring (either through damage or time) because you will incur a universal -1 penalty to your PL. Enemies don’t target it often but it has weak defenses and will fall fast to splash damage. Note that your defensive and healing spells will affect it and summoning a new totem while the current is active will not trigger the penalty. (Lifegiver) Sunbeam or Charm Beasts: Sunbeam doesn’t fit the build as thematically well as others but it has a long range, offers Blind, and when used in conjunction with Spirit Frenzy (Staggered), is a nice way to apply two afflictions at once. Charm Beasts is situationally useful and pairs better with the core theme of this multiclass, though I find Hold Beasts’ Paralyze a bit better for the bonus chance to crit. Note: Tanglefoot is a fair choice since it’s keyworded to Plant and can be negated through Form of the Delemgan. However, our Spirit Frenzy will still apply Staggered. (Lifegiver) Nature’s Vigor (Free): It’s free but Frenzy already covers our Wellspring of Life. Save this one to counter Con afflictions. (Lifegiver) Spiritshift: Pick what you’d like. Since we want The Spine of Thicket Green glued to our hands, we won’t go into animal form often. ------------------------------------------- PL1: Fast Runner: Fast Runner is useful since some of your more powerful abilities (Nature’s Balm, Venombloom) are short range and you may need to re-position your totem during longer battles. (Lifegiver) Touch of Rot or Charm Beasts or Nature’s Mark: Touch of Rot scales well with PL but has problems reaching PEN on PoTD when multi-classed. Nature’s Mark is decent early on. ------------------------------------------- PL2: (Furyshaper) Thick Skinned: The extra engagement is marginal since we’re hugging the back/midline but +1 AR versus physical damage ain’t bad. (Furyshaper) Wilder Hunter: A situational +25% damage versus Wilder, which will translate to our DoTs. We’re picking this one since our passives are limited – the weapon passives won’t do much for us since Spine of Thicket Green is a stat stick. (Lifegiver) The Moon’s Light (Free), Insect Swarm, and Hold Beasts: At PL2 we finally get access to our first HoT with The Moon’s Light; and our first Beast DoT with Insect Swarm (which prevents enemy Concentration!). Hold Beasts is situational but has a hefty 20 second base duration and a long range at 15m. ------------------------------------------- PL3: (Furyshaper) Bloodlust: Bloodlust is a bit clunky as we rely on DoTs for damage but the effect will trigger enough against larger groups. More speed is always appreciated. Bull’s Will: A crucial defensive bonus since this multi has awful Will. (Lifegiver) Nature’s Balm (Free) and Infestation of Maggots: Garcon! More HoTs and DoTs, please! ------------------------------------------- PL4: (Furyshaper) Shape Ward: Fear (Free): Our second and last ward as a multi-classed Furyshaper. This one pulses Terrify versus Will every three seconds, and works well as a defensive tool but the pulse range seems bugged (it’s roughly half of the circle). Between it and Shape Ward: Fury, I prefer the latter since there’s other sources of Terrify and Venombloom procs Frightened. Also, passive bonuses won’t apply to it and PL only increases its duration, so it doesn’t mesh too well in PotD. (Furyshaper) Spirit Frenzy: Spirit Frenzy is another one of our core abilities, so pick this up as soon as you get to level 10. The Staggered proc combines well with all of your offensive spells, notably Plague of Insects and Venombloom to lower the enemy’s outgoing and incoming healing. Like I mentioned above, it also pairs well with Sunbeam for backline harassment. (Furyshaper) Unflinching: For one humble ability point, we gain Resistance to Mig, Con, and Dex afflictions so long as our Tempest’s health remains at 75 percent and above – not too shabby considering it prevents our Frenzy Inspirations from being stripped by Staggered and Sickened. (Lifegiver) Moonwell (Free) and Form of the Delemgan: Moonwell is another solid HoT that provides some fair (+10) defense though I think The Moon’s Light scales better with PL since it’s a lower-level spell. Form of the Delemgan deserves a slot for its swath of bonuses (+25% Stride, +20 Defense while disengaging, immunity to Dex afflictions, +6 AR versus Burn, Pierce, and Shock): handy versus archers, gunners, spiders, Rathun, and the like; and it couples well with Wizard’s Binding Web. ------------------------------------------- PL5: Note: I don’t like the Empower mechanic much, so we’ll be dipping into more PL5 passives to help solidify the build. (Furyshaper) Leap: Leap is useful as an escape or repositioning tool but use it sparingly since it’s costly. (Lifegiver) Cleansing Wind and Plague of Insects Cleansing Wind is meh since it’s not tagged as a Rejuvenation spell, and therefore won’t be affected by Lifegiver’s bonus. Plague of Insects is our most powerful friendly-fire DoT: combining damage, Sickness, and Concentration disabling; its wide area and superb range (15m!) lets you cast it from safety. Rapid Casting, Practiced Healer, Other Defensive Passives They do what they say on the tin. ------------------------------------------- PL6: (Furyshaper) Tough: We’re not going to be investing too much into Furyshaper’s abilities at this point so Tough can be reserved for this PL. (Lifegiver) Garden of Life (Free), Venombloom, *Rot Skulls: Admittedly, I haven’t used Garden of Life enough to vet it (the other HoTs do the job fine) but it seems alright so long as gibs are turned off. Venombloom is a powerful friendly-fire Plant DoT that also inflicts Weakness and Frightened (and Staggered!) – it has a short range and can be hard to see in the heat of battle so be wary. *Sometimes I like to use One-Handed Style and Rot Skulls against trash mobs and for fun/RP. Note that this will reduce the strength of your ongoing Beast and Plant DoTs since the skulls replace SoTG. (Lifegiver) Quick Summoning or Spell Resistance Totems are slow to cast/recover, and you have low Deflection and Will. ------------------------------------------- PL7: (Furyshaper): Blood Thirst Like Bloodlust, Blood Thirst will trigger sporadically but negating the recovery time on your next action has immense value. (Lifegiver): Nature’s Bounty This is a weird spell that’s a bit finicky to use but the +20% Action Speed is there for classes without those bonuses and the healing is decent. (Lifegiver): Rusted Armor or Weather the Storm Both are situational; note the Burn and Shock AR on Form of the Delemgan won’t stack with Weather the Storm. ------------------------------------------- Gear: The Furyshaper/Lifegiver is a character meant to support a party, and as such, as your gear choices will vary based on party composition. Generally, I go with: Weapon: The Spine of Thicket Green (duh) upgraded with Empowering Instinct and Purifying (it seems Poison/Disease threats are more common than Plant/Decay). The bonus accuracy and damage versus vessels applies to your DoTs! Armor: Fleshmender’s (relatively) higher AR may deter ranged enemies from targeting you. Aloth’s Leather Armor has some nice upgrades. Changeling’s Mantle would fit it well thematically but I haven’t tried it yet. Armor (Modded): Checoden’s Deadfire Tweaks mod makes Xoti’s vestments a proper enchantable armor suited for healing. Head (if not going Godlike): Helm of the White Void adds +10 Accuracy to abilities attached to Afflictions. (I wonder how Spirit Frenzy would work with this?). The Helm of Grotto’s Deep is nice for its +2 INT. Necklace: Charm of Bones for +2 Int and more accuracy versus Vessels. Cloak: Cloak of Greater Deflection/Protection by your preference. Cloak of the Theocrat is alright if you can find one. The Magnificent Escape Cape is good in a pinch. Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might (+2 Mig) or Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (+2 Mig, +2 Burn AR) Rings: Rings of Minor Protection, Unshackling, and Overseeing depending on the situation. Waist: Belt of the Upright Captain. One bad pull or push with wreck you fast. Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka for +2 Dex and +10% Healing. Pet: Nalvi ------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading. Like I said, this build won’t let you solo Sissak on PoTD/upscaled while singing Aim Spirente in your shorts but it’s definitely fun.

Dynamic Priests + Deadfire Tweaks + TT1 Unique Items + Deadly Deadfire feels like the ultimate experience.

I get 60fps with all graphics (except lights) set to max. Exceptions dip to 30-35ish and have noticeable stuttering/tearing when moving the screen: Queen's Berth, Ft. Deadlight Exterior, the NW room in Hanging Sepulchres, The Crucible, and ship battles.

Ah, right. I forgot Energized is a guaranteed interrupt on Crit whereas Interrupting Blows is a 50 percent chance on melee crits. I still like having the passive since SSS is lategame stuff.

I've been having a lot of fun with Furyshaper/Lifegiver for a shaman-type character: strong HoTs and DoTs plus impressive speed and Rot Skulls for trash. It's nothing game breaking but suits the theme well.

I think the ship has sailed on this, honestly. I built a brand-new computer and before I had to RMA my gpu for the third time (nvidia rtx friggin sucks) and get something else, I had a 2080 Ti and the beefiest AMD cpu, plus loads of ram, and the fastest NVMe storage I could get. I basically had the same exact frame skips as I did on my 5-6 year old computer that it was replacing. Something in the game is just coded so inefficiently that at this point I have to write it off as just a systematic misdesign in the engine, since no amount of hardware can apparently smooth it out, and would require some deep re-coding to fix, something that they are definitely not going to risk doing so late in the game life cycle. According to some posters in the Steam discussions the problem is Unity didn't code multithreading correctly, so on processors with a lot of cores the game begins to starve itself of resources. https://steamcommunity.com/app/560130/discussions/0/2572002906843374108/ holy crap man I need to try that. AMD cpus in particular have tons of (logical) cores, so I might have actually made the resource starvation a bigger issue over my much older cpu. I can vouch for Special K: I spoofed my cores from 6 to 4 and noticed a significant difference in FPS. As of 4.1 I haven't needed it but it might work for you.

Cleansing Flame doesn't seem to get a lot of love (it seems weaker compared to PoE1) but it deals a nice chunk of damage in a short window.

To clarify: I often joke about Mirke being my waifu as a light jab toward Ydwin fanatics. That said, some of my Watchers would take a shine to her if the option were available. (She's a favorite pick since her Shadowdancer combo is so fun.) As for Xoti, I usually only have religious Watchers romance her due to RP reasons.

My favorite has been Warlock (Berserker/Wizard or /Evoker) for some time now since I've always dug hybrids and casters with a maniacal bent. It's fun to swap between casting spells and fighting in melee, and this one has a lot of speed through Frenzy, Fleet Feet, Bloodlust, and Blood Thirst. Grimoires offer a ton of flexibility, letting you choose different roles depending on the situation - you can go from a fast nuker to a Citzal's powerhouse. I typically invest in Wizard buffs while leveling and use Zandethus' Dragon-Scaled Grimoire or Ninagauth's Teachings as my grimoire of choice (Draconic Fury is super good with this mutliclass). For gear, I use the Fire staples like Magran's Favor, Sun and Moon Flail, Ring of Focused Flame, etc., Casita Samilia's Legacy (for the aggressive RP), defensive stuff like Voidward, and a pet with Abraham, Nalvi or Otto Starcat's bonuses. I'll start combat with the SSS axe to turn Tenacious into Energized for interrupts (pairs well with Interrupting Blows), then buff with Infuse with Vital Essence, Fleet Feet, defensive spells, then Frenzy. I'll swap to Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon Flail, and go to town with fast, fiery strikes and frenzied flames: Fan of Flames on the frontlines; Fireball for mid-range strikes; Leap plus Torrent of Flame during ship encounters and trash encounters; and of course, Draconic Fury for longer fights. Fleet Feet lasts forever at higher levels and lets you rush in like Raistlin Majere and Brock Samson did the fusion dance. All in all it's a fun package that I've never gotten tired of - wish I could say the same for my precious Seer.

Xoti if my Watcher is of a religious bent; none otherwise. (Head canon says Mirke can be romanced, though.)

Grog plus Footsteps of the Beast sounds fun - heck, you could always cheat and import copies through hirelings. Too bad there's no "Fire Walk With Me" spells in the game.

It's also a troll - in reference to said grognards.

Rogue 1: Trickster's added utility is leagues better than the paltry 10% difference to Sneak Attack: you get free sparkcrackers versus hostile groups, superb defensive spells, and some crowd control and extra afflictions on top. Rogue 2: Both of these abilities retain their value throughout the game. Escape is great as a mobility tool and short-lasting defensive buff (though it won't stack with others); Crippling Strike offers +2 PEN and added damage for just 1 Guile (skip its upgrades, though). Chanter 1: I'll leave this one to the Chanter masters since I'm also relatively new to the class. I couldn't see either one being a bad decision but to me, Skald feels a bit better thematically. Chanter 2: Hel-Hyraf is a solid ability from start to finish. Soft Winds of Death is probably the best starting chant since it helps you survive early on and isn't conditional like the others. I'd shave a couple attribute points off Resolve since your Illusion buffs and INT will fill those defenses.

Scordeo's + Rust's breaks the game on lots of martial multiclasses: especially those with crits in mind. For those weapons, I'd recommend a Ravager (Berserker/Nalpacza or /Helwalker if using Nemnok's Cloak/BDD and SoT shenanigans). Berseker's Frenzy will increase your damage, speed, armor, health, and hit-to-crit chance, and combines well with Monk's Heartbeat Drumming and Swift Flurry (those bonus attacks can also crit!); throw in Interrupting Blows and Enervating Blows and consider Boltcatchers or Gatecrashers for even more on-crit effects. Turning Wheel will increase your damage further and make your buffs and additional effects (like Spirit Frenzy's Staggered) last longer. Whatever doesn't get perma-proned by Rust's will still be in a bad place - barring they're not immune to pierce damage, of course.

I will have to give the priest mod a go with Xoti - that sounds like a ton of fun. And I've never played with Rekke, Konstanten or Ydwin, do they have good banter in the party and hold their own in a fight? Sidekicks don't have much interaction or reactivity in the base game but the DLC fleshes them out more: you'll want to take Konstanten and Ydwin to SSS and BoW, respectively. Rekke has some nice interactions in BoW and I'm assuming FS (haven't taken any of these three there yet). As for builds, keep in mind I'm going with the changes I listed above: Rekke (Devoted Estoc/Nalpazca): Rekke's my go-to backline killer and midline sweeper. I'll buff him with Disciplined Strikes, Swift Flurry, and Thunderous Blows, and use Charge or Flagellant's Path on the nearest caster, followed by high-PEN Estoc strikes. After the backline is taken care of, I'll swap to Morning Star (Will Breaker) and wreck enemy defenses from behind. Nalpazca ensures he never runs out of Wounds. Konstanten Berserker/Skald (I goofed earlier because I forgot his default Chanter sub is Skald): Konstanten has a weird stat setup (like Wasteland 2 weird) with high CON and low PER and INT. I like to use him as a Fortitude breaker (Staggered from Spirit Frenzy + Carnage; the Weakness chant; Body Blows from Morning Star) that can swap to offensive invocations (Eld Nary when equipped with Sasha's Singing Scimitar; Her Revenge with Lord Daryn's Voulge). Berserker helps him get more crits, which pares well with Skald. Ydwin (Trickster/Beguiler): This one offers superb afflictions and crowd control options, great ranged damage, and some panic buttons. Beguiler's Focus replenishment combined with Sneak Attack, Draining Whip, and Rogue attacks means you'll rarely run out of stuff to cast. I like giving her The Red Hand, Frostseeker, Aamina's Legacy, and Veilpiercer. On the topic of Unity Console, I should point out it has been buggy since the creator stopped updating it some months back. It's strongly advised to save before using it. On my latest POTD/upscale start, I recruited Aloth after the drake fight and changed his class to Blood Mage immediately afterwards. It set his class to nullstring and locked his level to 0 (and I forgot to quicksave after the battle).

Agreed, although I'd have to respect the troll level if they went and "had this issue remedied" by updating the patch notes to reflect an additional balance change. Fixed a bug that causes status to not apply to weapons with area-of-effect attacks; reduced duration of such attacks by 99 percent.

It's also about time for an ingame NPC ^^I would definitely vote for a blue orlan being added to PoE3 )) A knowledgeable scientist that has the right mixture for you to respec, and also the one to offer a list of suitable build presets of A+ quality^^ And with some funny interaction if you try to pick pocket him) Mortars that shoot out Morning Stars! As for this AoE weapon business, It's a confirmed bug and on the list to be fixed. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/108136-bug-41-aoe-weapons-no-longer-apply-afflictions-in-an-area/?p=2135682

can you make it so that Eder is a herald through unity? Yep. You'll need to use the change class function, then remove his Fighter and/or Rogue abilities, then add any default Paladin/Chanter abilities that may have fallen through the cracks.

Bleak Walkers: Except for deception, he generates Buff to nearby allies, causing everyone to have Corrosion and Sickened Affliction damage. Doubt: Corrosion is one type of damage per second? Similar to Burn? Where can I see information? Kind Wayfarer is similar to the Bleak Walkers, only he heals the Allies by hitting, if I remember correctly. Doubt: Are both Kind Wayfarer and Bleak Walkers benefited from Dual Weapon? (When you hit twice activate x2 the effect? For example, the healing of 14 n end is 28? Corrosion I do not know how it works so I do not know if it's cumulative) Note: FoD with Weapon + shield or 2h-Weapon, does not accumulate, only activates x1. Bleak Walkers, is not it better with Beckoner? The double of invocations beating with fire damage? Shared Flames doesn't copy additional effects like the Bleak Walker or Kind Wayfarer FoD: it just adds an extra Burn lash to allies.

Yep. I do this all the time with companions and sidekicks - or use mods so there's less work. Eder: Unbroken/Trickster Aloth: Blood Mage Xoti: Priest of Eothas (modded with Stardusk or Checodan's mods) Serafen: Furyshaper/Ascendant or Trickster/Soulblade. Pallegina: Kind Wayfarers/Troubadour Maia: Gunhawk/Blood Mage or Gunhawk/Sniper (modded Rogue subclass courtesy Checoden). Rekke: Devoted (Morning Star or Estoc)/Nalpazca Konstanten: Berserker/Troubadour Mirke: Trickster/Nalpazca or Streetfighter/Nalpazca Ydwin: Trickster/Beguiler

Ophiuchus need Rot Skulls plus Toxic Strike for RP goodness.

I'm fond of Bleak Walker or Kind Wayfarer combined with Troubadour. I'll also pick up both Weapon & Shield and Two Weapons styles and use one of the offhand weapon shields for two FoD procs.

If you use f11 for teleporting there's an option to scale your party based on the area so that might help. I'm guessing it's a 14-20 place.