Soulmojo

Yes I wish something similar, though the first part I could accept. If you accept that the weapon itself covers the numerical bonuses - accuracy, penetration, speed, special damages, and proc stuff - then proficiency could be a set of special techniques one could master which are tied to the weapon type. One of the best example is the rod proficiency. Without the proficiency you do single damage, with it you can do aoe damage. Another good example is the battleaxe. Without proficiency you do normal damage, with it you do stacking bleed. There could be two path to go down upon. Example: Scepter: 1st path: + pen +dam - self damage (exsisting bonus) -> +projectiles pierce -> +projectiles slow the enemy 2nd path: two weaker (+1) projectile -> three (+2) projectile -> projectiles bounce Whatever these are just examples. Could result in very interesting weapon proficiency + weapon special effect combinations. Like you get a scepter with two inherent but weaker projectiles. activate 2nd path with full mastery, you get 4 bouncing projectile.

Well to be honest, if activating the proficiency bonus of the staff would not yield me any recovery penalty (on top of the already slow recovery) I would seriously consider using them. That +20 deflection bonus to melee defense looks very promising and defense is a very big weakness of monk especially if a lot of enemy swarms the monk. Similar case with the 2 handed mace. That -25 reduction in enemy fortitude can be very rewarding when using force of anguish or torments reach, too bad that it comes with a damage penalty. I mean if I could master a staff for example where I can improve the bonus and reduce the penalty and on the highest tier I can remove the penalty and get the full bonus. That would be great.

I agree. Let's put aside for a moment, that only a couple proficiencies are good, and lets focus on the the fact that it makes sense to choose one maybe two weapon for each character. Now right at character generation I choose the two weapon type I will use with the character. I do get more proficiency later, but I just randomly put it somewhere which might be useful later (not). I would much rather see proficiency paths you can go down on rather than collecting unused proficiencies which I might use. A character has two hands. He can only use two weapons tops at one time and have a secondary weapon maybe to fall back to. Now if you know that you will at all time use 1-3 weapon or weapon type it makes sense if you want to improve those proficiencies and get mastery over those weapons. I don't mean numerical bonuses, but modifications to the proficiency bonus, reduction of penalty things like that. With the introduction of soulbound weapons in PoE1 this fact is even more amplified.

Good list, I have some of my own. Rogue has no defensive bonuses which helps him/her in melee combat, which does not reinforces the whole 'duelist' aspect and 'increased survivability' I was expecting. 1. I would give a passive which gives deflection bonus when having a weapon in the offhand. This does not help much but at least it's a start. 2. Also I think rogue deflection needs to benefit from his/her reflex bonus. Receiving a portion of it's reflex as deflection bonus. I would emphasise that I find it ridiculous that an inherently agile class who should be able to evade has to 1. be ranged 2, be in stealth as much as possible 3. armor up to compete in survivability with other classes. 3. Recless assault idea is great, I would though create one too which is the exact opposite, meaning defensive -10 accuracy 20% recovery penalty +10 deflection with upgrades removing accuracy penalty or upgrade deflection bonus. Not sure how much would this be used, but it would be nice to have an ability to turn to if popo hits the fan... 4. I would make a light armor proficiency passive to rogue which gives rogue deflection bonus when wearing light or no armor. The idea is to be the class which can relie on deflection rather than armor to survive. Note that the game mechanics are wired in a way that it is technically impossible to reach invulnerability through deflection.

I agree that weapon modals are harsh especially those with recovery times. In my opinion the simplest fix would be that these speed penalties target weapon attack speed instead of recovery. This would for example provide at 100% attack speed penalty a 0,4 sec casting speed with fast weapon a 0,6 sec with slower weapons. Since attack speeds are fixed as far as I know it is easy to balance. Does not provide over the top penalties. You are slower, but not that much slower, you can be interrupted more easily but not too much. You can finally combine different weapons with each other for their flavour. The problem with modal penalty targetting recovery, is that adding anykind of armor and this results very very slow attack rate. And you have to use armor of somekind because you will be eaten alive if you don't. Finally - and this is going to be a bit offtopic - knights in full plate using 2 handed longsword can attack a lot and fast in quick succession. So I really don't get the slow recovery times on 2 handed weapons and the 55% speed penalty on full plate and brigantine resulting in 6-7+ recovery times. Especially if you add for example buckler 25% recovery penalty and another weapon recovery penalty modal. either recovery times on 2 handed weapons has to go down or the penalty on medium and heavy armor or both. 35% speed penalty on breastplate is what should be on the full plate.

It only is more effective - the wound generation on shattered pillar - if you can hit the enemy constantly and with large numbers. Honestly I expected wound generation to be as hard as it was in PoE1, but it is not. It is rather easy in my opinion. Mainly because of the added abilities and mechanics. I was convinced that shattered pillar bonus would be crazy overpowered, but since it is very easy and far less punishing to get wounds (great job dev team btw) nowadays I find the shattered pillar bonus less appealing. This is the other reason why I believe the wound penalty on this subclass is appalling. As for the rooting pain mechanic functioning with shattered pillar I haven't considered, thanks for bringing that up to me. I tried out ranged weapon monk, and it is not working. The synergy is there, but every wound ability which is not a self buff is designated as melee only. Meaning except stunning blows you cannot cast nor torments reach, nor force of anguish and probably every other attack ability. Ofc. you can still use it as an auto attack option (sigh...) but it is not quite effective, it only gets somewhat good if you combine ranged with rogue or paladin, the two which have efficient full attack abilities. But then again, why don't you make a rogue/paladin in the first place. Probably alchemy will be nerfed and drugs duration. --------------------- I also have to point out that we are in disagreement on abilities probably because I prefer burst damage over sustained, and because I hate auto-attack gameplay. I like to quickly dispose enemies as opposed to just sitting there auto attacking spamming boring buffs over and over again you know, and currently monk lacks an efficient burst attack ability of which he cast a lot. Losing full attack on torments reach was a big hit to me. I suggest for all of you to make a monk/paladin playthrough and come back to me with your experience. I really cannot make you understand my position as long as you don't know what I'm talking about. I suggest kind wayfarers as a sub for paladin. Disregard swift strikes too for that play through.

I understand this. but think about this: You could use Stunning blows for starter. There will be more abilites with mortification cost. These are from the beta patch notes: Monk Exploding Palm is now named "Inner Death". Monk Dim Mak is now named "Empowered Strikes". Skyward kick There will be mortification abilities almost for sure + other stuff we don't know about. Wouldn't it be nice to have room to actually use those abilities? Consider this: In a fight how much do you use torments reach or to be more accurate how much can you use it? My guess would be 6-10 times before the fight is over. If you don't put point for anything else and this ability costs 1 mortification you can use it 6 times at level 7. 9 times if you refill with empower. In return, you would get a full attack -> finally doing recognizable damage on the primary target and doing the same aoe to everyone. The stun upgrade and aoe effect could stay the same for all I care. This last part is a non issue for me. This way it is better. I came to the realization when I did a playthrough with a Paladin/monk. Flames of devotion was a real game changer and It really complemented the monk. Consider that if you have a torments reach version of that ability right from lvl 2-3. It would be stronger than it is now, but not that strong, and by mid game you could do the same amount of torments reach as you would do with wounds. + if swift strikes would cost wound then you can maintain it at ease. Lets not forget that in PoE1 Swift strikes was a wound ability. So my suggestion is not that out of the ballpark either. Nothing. This is an unnecessary penalty. That is what I'm saying. This limit is a double penalty on your character, because you not only have very tight pool, but you lose half of whatever bonus you get from duality of mortal presence, and every other possible ability we cannot see. Also you have a given penalty. You cannot gain wound from damage taken.

Oh thank you very much. I will sleep tonight in peace now. Seriously though. I might be convinced on the other subject - different playstyles and all - but I always thought that if you have to sacrifice features for some other features that is bad mechanic or design. Don't confuse this with choice, where I decide between use this or that ability when I play. In these cases you give up a mechanic designated for you to use to make to make another work. This is why I don't understand why are you conflicting so eagerly with me. It is not like I'm suggesting overly broken changes. Each of those recommendations would make gameplay more easier and linear. Especially with shattered pillar I am so much baffled why you object. All of you. Can you explain me why because I seriously don't understand.

There is. Duality of mortal presence. +1 con or +1 Int / wound I wouldn't call that nor mediocre, nor non essential. Presumably there will be iron wheel in some form. Every subclass has a bonus and malus right? For shattered pillar it is ++rooting pain ++synergy with dps build, --duality of mortal presence, --passive builds, don't see the issue here. Except. Nalpazca penalty is not a real penalty. Pop drugs and you are game the entire fight. Except Helwalker weakness is only a weakness untill you get your hands on those sweet armors and buff up your alchemy. Did you know for example if you buff up alchemy the bonuses from potions increase? pop up a spirit shield potion at alchemy 8-10 you get +4 armor? Basic is +3 but with alchemy you increase it. You just negated the +5% damage from wound by negating your incoming damage by 75%. Every scenario I played the other two subs will bypass their penalties and turn them to their advantage. With shattered pillar you are stuck with your 5 wound counter. And it doesn't matter how much you try to convince me that the 5 wound limit is actually good because it is not, and you are all on the wrong side of things on this subject.

There is. Duality of mortal presence. +1 con or +1 Int / wound I wouldn't call that nor mediocre, nor non essential. Presumably there will be iron wheel in some form.

Ok. Let me adress the things you wrote. I find swift strikes to be class defining. Though it is not because you have to sacrifice too much to mainain it. First of all with 16 INT and power level 4 nets you 15,0 sec duration. Now you wrote that that is the only mortification ability you take just to keep it up. Don't you see the problem there? Basically you are saying you will ignore an entire set of abilities just to keep one buff active. Wouldn't you rather use mortification abilites OTHER than swift strikes? Sir this point is invalid because it basically confirms what I'm saying. Ofc. It depends on the playstyle, but I would rather lose out on good stuff because of some numerical bonuses. Let's see Force of Anguish comes to mind. Both torments and Force are primary attack, but while torments reach cost 3 wound force costs 1. There is the stunning blow. It cost 2 mortification yes, but stuns longer, with upgrade it refunds on crit. in between stunning blows I chain cast Force of anguis laughing on the enemy. Torments reach sucks balls with its primary attack an zero damage. And good luck with positioning If you love unnecessary penalties good for you. Just don't try to convince others to love them too... What you are saying is true, AND ithout the 5 wound limitation it would be a great subclass. With it i take Nalpazca. They can generate wounds through cocaine. Helwalkers are fine are and performs great if you combine it with paladin or chanter or a class which excels on self healing. But if you put a class next to them which excels at healing they are ok. Nalpazca is great if you focus on alchemy. Their drugs usually last 500-600 sec so using one or two lasts till you finish the entire map. Nope, just nope. My race is Pale elf. It is the pillars master race.

I played more with monk after the patch and I have some recommendations. So without further ado: Swift strikes: I completely ignore this ability now, even more so I find it liberating not to use it. It has too short duration and it cost 1pt resource to activate. On paper it is a good ability, in reality it bad even if you focus on intellect. It's duration runs out before you can utilize it, especially if you use a two handed weapon. As I said it uses 1pt mortification which you have a handful to begin with. Recommendation: I has to cost 2 wound instead of mortification. Because that way at least the player can maintain it. It would be even better if it would have a longer duration also. Torments reach: This ability is not what it used to be. It lost it's full attack ability does low damage and we have two ability which does a better job at cost. Recommendation: Monk don't have and early level damage ability which cost mortification. I would move this ability to tier 1-2 make it cost 1-2 mortification. I would also give back it's full attack effect. As an upgrade I would take the stun effect and give something different to it ( better damage or some additional debuff). This ability would be a great mortification ability choice for early levels, it's power pool cost would provide a good limitation in exchange for its added power. A worthy alternative to stunning blows. Shattered pillar: I completely hated the sublclass, but in reality it all boils down it's wound limitation. The wound bonuses are half, and you cannot store up wounds like you can with the other subclasses. Recommendation: The limit on wounds needs to go. You made a very good job with the other two subclass, each is very desirable to play with. I just don't feel this subclass is where it supposed to be... What else...oh right. Two handed fighting: I don't know why but two handed fighting does not work for monk. It does with other classes but it does not with monk. Compared to dual wielding unarmed or dual weapon attacks, they are clumsy, low damage and the ability use feels clumsy as well, and it is not as good in my opinion. Recommendaton: I don't have one really, giving it the 2 handed 15% damage bonus AND an additional speed buff seems a lot. Maybe for monk a 2 handed specialization should give speed instead of damage... all in all it has to come in par somehow with unarmed fighting I always desired for gametime with two handed weapons it's just it never worth the bother.

Ok. I will try it out. I still left some gametime from my last Monk/Paladin playthrough.

My main argument wasn't that. My main argument was fighter abilities were low yield and concentrated on auto attacking. Knockdown is only excelent when you use it with a 2handed weapon due to it's primary attack nature. Considering that it does full attack as an aoe it is the best yes. I understand that if you make a chain reaction you could wipe everyone around you. But what if you fail to make that killing blow? What if enemies are too much spread out? What happens when the enemy decides to simply not attack you and move away? Its upgrade is only good if you are melee engaged by a lot enemies. which is not the case most of the time (1-3 tops) unless you play a weak glasscannon but then you die a horrible death. I didn't use the cleaving stance extensively because it felt too much rng. So I'm seriously asking these questions Dune. Could you ellaborate how it is good other than theoretical value? #Edit# Saw two video about cleaving stance. And I'm still not convinced. Maybe if you cast a pull of eora you can pull it off. But otherwise it is unrealistic.

I don't agree that it cheapens fighter. I think these changes instead outlines its lack of usefull capabilites the class had in the first place. Fighter is the only melee class which doesn't have a single full attack abilitiy. Fighter is the only melee class which only have buffs and no real variation of offensive abilites. Knockdown, a more expensive knockdown (useless), and into the fray (useless). Aoe capability? none. Only clear out but that is a mid-end game ability. Probably with a short range 120° arc and low damage and 3-4 resource cost. Which I will not use. The self buffs are eating up the resource pool, because those are 15 sec duration. I will not go for intellect because the class has no aoe capability. Correct me if I'm wrong here but if you take away it's passives - which happened in this patch - and you get a half class at best.

It has to be a two part fight. Kiting the titan and deal with the blights later. these Bligths can be interrupted, even knocked down. I used all my characters to chain interrupt the enemies. If you focus on disables it is a cakewalk. Well it is if you do a two part fight.

I agree with Dunehunter. Single class now is as much desirable as multiclass is. I made two multiclass after the latest patch. A warrior/paladin and a monk/paladin, and I didn't felt the character less powerful to me, just different. Btw you will feel much different when you hit past level 10. That is where you get most of the tier 3 good stuff and start to get the tier 4 good stuff. Then you will feel very different about multiclass. It is almost the same as it was with pillars 1 monk when you got iron wheel (+1 armor per wound). After you got that it was a whole different gameplay, and quality level.

Hello, I wanted to take my time playing a little bit before posting. I played through the game again almost two times now, and had a bunch of mechanics tries. The good: I feel really comfortable most of the time regarding penetration and armor. Now it doesn't feel such too much penalizing and on veteran difficulty choosing the right weapons and gearing towards adequate amount of penetration is sufficient and balanced. I only tried Spells with the given companions, therefore priest and wizard, and casting times/power ratio in many cases seems adequate. There are numerous spells which feels useless, but that is due to the small number of cast times/combat. Combat pacing seems ok too when you don't use any excessive abilites, modals for example. Enemies and characters are adequately slow, and I don't feel the arcade style gameplay I was experiencing 2 patch ago. The bad: Weapon modals: Previously I couldn't put a handle what's really wrong with modals and how should they be fixed. So there is a 'disclaimer' that weapon modals are situation and they are not essential to gameplay. This is where a dissagree. Weapon modals which makes a weapon typ unique, which - other than special enchantments - makes it desirable when building a character. I have a problem with modals which target recovery time with penalty. With the current weapon recovery times and armor penalty, adding an extra penalty seems too excessive. I constantly disregard weapon proficiency because by the time I can swing my weapon for said proficiency bonus, the enemy usually dead, debuffed by a faster character, or I could use the said character doing something other than standing there doing nothing for large periods of time. These modals should target actual attack speed instead recovery time. That way you get penalized, you will swing much slower, and overall you will be slower, but not that excessive amount, and that amount is controlled. You will be much more vulnerable to interrupts, but you will not feel your character will suck if you activate the modal. Resouce management + empower This is one of my main issues still. Too few resouces to use abilites, and cant be increased possibly (the pool) because of empower. Empower is a cool mechanic if you use it to empower your abilities. But it sucks because you can also use it to recover resource. I'm thinking because of that, your resource pool is balanced to be small. In fact you have so small resource pool that it discourages the player to use high level abilites except if they are really really powerful. Empower needs to be what should be. A resource to empower your abilites, and only that. + remove the 1 / combat restriction. Your power pool have to be 4pt starting and 2 pt. / new power level. I was wondering how should I make my case, and here is the answer: I am a lvl 9 single class rouge. I have hobbling strike (1pt, Blinding strike(2pt), and withering strike(3pt). First case scenario(current iteration): I have 7pt power pool. I will use 1-2 blinding strike on enemies and 3-5 hobbling stike in combat. I wont use withering strike at any given time (costs too much). Second case scenarion (suggested iteration): I have 12pt power pool. I will use 1-2 withering strike, 2-3 blinding strike and the rest hobbling strike. Basically I will always want to be more optimal. If I have less I will find the optimal choice of abilites and disregard the rest. If I have more resource I will use more expensive abilities because it will be more optimal. I wont spam hobbling strike if I have the pool to use a better ability. Especially if you can use empower on that said ability. Ship management and ship combat: I like it. I have two issues with this: One is that when the crew gains xp I cannot spend it how I choose. It seems very random how the crew levels up, and I have no control over it. Second is that sometimes when the one turn ends and a new turn starts sometimes the enemy ship gets two action in a row. Meaning one turn ends with his action and the next starts with his action. This is a ui problem and makes unavoidable damage sometimes. Example: he ends the turn with a full stop, and theoretically at the start of the next turn I could make an action but no, he starts the turn he does a full broadside attack and I cannot do nothing to mitigate. -> double action. Passives: It would be nice if casters could have passives which increases the number of cast they make, they would be less dependant on scrolls and weapons. Not for high level spells, but for low level. Also I would give the +2 quick item slot passive to all classes. The ugly: Remove the moles(white dots) from pale elf face please!!!!!!

Yeah I think Obsidian missed a trick with the Shifter subclass. Instead of giving you access to all five forms they should have made shifting a modal and added a few abilities and passives that only work whilst shifted. As it is currently it's just a bit of a mess. It's not a bad subclass since the healing on shifting is pretty useful, but it isn't particularly interesting or fun and feels thrown together. Exactly. And if not modal, at least unlockable with form upgrades. Duration, defense, resists, speed...mauling attacks, bleed attacks take your pick. Anything really in which you can put your points and be more useful as a pure class. Sad to say that if you want to be a melee shapeshifter you have to multiclass with paladin, monk or barbarian, or rogue because only then are the lackings somewhat filled. And this hilarious to me but I always ask myself then why take druid? Any combination of the above four means more variety and versatility. For roleplay purposes maybe?

Good collection, here is what I personally think is problematic (in addtion to yours): Lack of shifted actives and passives. In many ways you give up a lot to be in shifted form, and usually you have nothing to add to your shifted form. No real progression. If you are shifter you also give up spells, which would be fine if there would be alternative to look into when shifted. when I think of druid spiritshift improvement ranger pet passives and active abilites come to mind. Secondly there is the issue of armor. In a way it is stronger because the hide has no inherent weakness but it is lower than armor. Thirdly, the form doesn't get deflection bonus, which in my opinion druid needs badly. No bonus from items. Lastly one my biggest pain is the form upgrade is auto level instead being tied to the power source leaving gaps in progression. I understand the design choice, it is for multiclasses, it's just it comes too large periods of time. ++ I find it funny that as a pure shifter, there is the mandatory 1 spell you have to choose, and you can choose one elemental damage path, and 3 defense passive. The rest has to be spells, which you will not use, since you will spend most of your time shifted. So either you don't use spells, and be in shifted form being an auto attack bot, or you cast spells and don't be in shifted form. But if you choose the latter, then why choose shifter in the first place? So go multiclass. But why do I have to multiclass to get useful? Shifter is very redundant and is not viable from a pure class perspective.

I too support this move. I would rather wait another 4-5+ month to receive a product which is blanced, bug free as much as it can be. In essence this is good news to me. Well not just to fix bugs. There are many balance changes coming. I think it is a good idea to gather telemetry data - if nothing else - from the beta to see how it is working...or not. Honestly why do we deserve a consolation prize for waiting? Fixing issues like weapon damage, penetration, cast times, stat balance is the reward itself. As I said abowe I would rather wait for another x month just to get a finished product which is tested rather than free stuff.

You know how much work and time to remove something this fundamental to a game? I'm not saying that they should be lazy, but dude there is no time to do this. Maybe for the third installment, but not this. Whatever they choose, the must choose something which is beneficial and does not upset the foundation of the game. And if they do it anyway, then it would generate a whole bunch of bugs they cannot address only after release.

Hello! I avoided to reply to this ongoing issue so far. I want to give my 2 cents to this. I don't think adding new bonuses to stats is the right way to go. You see I think in its current form intellect and resolve bonuses are wrongly placed. Most martial classes don't benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses, as well as aoe bonus, because they are mostly single target and abilites are self focused. They benefit from duration bonus and defense bonus. Casters benefit from all of this, so most likely they will invest to both stat. So how would you make resolve very usefull? I think you all know where I'm heading. I would swap the duration bonus of intellect and the spell damage and healing bonus of resolve. This way intellect would maintain the same usefullness to casters and who want range, and resolve would become usefull to all classes. This is more fitting from an rpg standpoint. Resolve - a character's internal drive, determination, fearlessness If you are 'resolute' you will fight longer, you will be determined to maintain your abilities longer. To make a stand where others would fall. Cast the resolve inspiration your characters will be able to deflect more hits, give buffs and use abilities that last longer. Intellect - a character's logic and reasoning capabilities As an intelligent person you get insight to spell manipulation. Your spells will hit harder, and in a larger scale. If you are an intelligent fighter, you realize, how to employ attacks to hit more enemies. Cast Intellect inspiration, your characters will reach further, and heal and damage with spells harder. This is the most simplistic and most beneficial resolution to this issue. Makes attribute allocation much more better. You can make better combinations, with better results. It does not put things inbalance. As a monk or fighter you can finally maintain your buffs for enough time. As a paladin you can decide if you want your heals last longer, or heal harder. As a barbarian you can decide if you want frenzy to last longer and receive less damage or your carnage attacks hit everyone in the map. As a caster you can decide if you want to focus on affliction spells that last longer, or a damage dealer who hit all...hard. As a rogue you could maintain your debuffs and bleeds longer and make yourself more durable if you choose to. Same with self or nonself heals. Do you want a constant recovery that last longer or a constant recovery that heals more. Do you want your barbarians savage defiance to heal you longer or last longer? Do you want a healing spell to heal harder and on a larger area? Yes. Do you want a healing over time to heal harder or heal longer or both? You would gain all these great choices you can make.

I have a question: Should I make a topic about detailed info about monk? That could be a known info topic (list of abilities and what they do, bonuses etc.)? I wouldn't mind to put work into it. That could be an info topic, and this could be the discussion topic. What do you think?

Honestly I hardly ever used them. Only when I needed more power pool points. I tend to value extra power pool points over empowering a spell or ability which can easily miss. I never liked per day and per rest abilites and features. It always felt like a restraint. I would hardly lose a days sleep if they would remove it. In fact I would be much more happy if they would remove it all together and replace it with extra the power pool points so I can actually be able to use more abilites per encounter.