Ophiuchus

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.

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.

Be sure to boost his low INT if you can. Otherwise he'll spend too much time recasting Frenzy.

I'd be fine with a couple members of the Pillars 1 crew returning for a third installment since that's an enjoyable trope. Hiravias would be especially welcome as an Autumn Stelgar Druid multiclassed with Fighter or Rogue.

Leave my waifu alone. She's too busy doing mad DPS to concentrate on harpsee-cords.

Pish posh. I'm having fun showing off his mod and I never claimed it represented a true hardcore xtreme experience.

Some thoughts on Priest of Rymrgand after testing it out this afternoon: While losing access to Restoration and Fire spells feels rigid, I feel in a way that suits the kit thematically, and it greatly expands on the offense/inspiration theme, which works well on its own or when multiclassed (owing to one of the core strengths of your overall mod). I enjoy the spell selection, how the spells synergize by lowering appropriate defenses and providing crowd control - the Helm of the White Void makes this beastly. My only nitpick is the Bloodied/Near Death passive since the class doesn't have an inborn way of lowering health like Mortification of the Soul or Berserker Frenzy. Here's some single class Priest of Rymrgand footage for those interested:

I don't *think* it should cause any problems so long as you haven't recruited him yet but it's been a while. Just in case, you can use Unity Console (also on the Nexus) to set things right. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/2

I've always run a Priest of Rymrgand as a single class character since its high-level spells are crazy good; so I can't give a lot of advice on that specific build. However, I enjoy melee priests a great deal (even more so with Stardusk's new mod) so here's some general ideas: For Priest abilities, you'll want to focus on inspirations to buff Vatnir's performance for more hits and bleeds. Champion's Boon combined with Minor Avatar accomplishes this well, and you've always got Dire Blessing/Devotions to help the team. Vatnir's kit has some nice tricks that you won't want to overlook, and they synergize well with Rogue: Plague of Insects for negating concentration, Spreading Plague for more afflictions, etc. Note that most of the spells in this arsenal target Fortitude. For Rogue, I would pick up Crippling Strike for the extra PEN and Blinding Strike for the bonus accuracy and upgrades: Gouging Strike is another DoT that scales well with your buffs while Confounding Blind helps you land those important hits. I would also select Dash in case of an emergency or for pathfinding issues. Envenomed Strike is a powerful ability and would combine well with your build but consider its cost (two ability points and three Guile) and how that will play into using defensive tools. Rogue's passive staples gel for obvious reasons though I would avoid Persistent Distraction (Champion's Boon will give you +3 engagement so more might not fit your party comp). While they're aesthetically pleasing, I'm not sure about the summoned weapons because their bonus Freeze lash scales based on your Watcher's disposition, which by the time you get Vatnir might not be aligned well enough (less Freeze lash means less Bleeding Cut damage). I'm thinking one of the two-handed battleaxes could be a good replacement: higher base damage for stronger bleeds; Oathbreaker's End for more DoTs or Amra for the Frenzy proc. But I haven't tested this, and I can't recall how Bleeding Cuts stacks so take that with a grain of salt.