Jaheiras Witness

Erm...no? Have you read the description and what the character is meant to be? It's a retaliation build, of which the strongest source is the fire godlike battle forged, that's the entire character concept.

Character update for my Fighter. Now level 8 and going strong, most Defiance Bay quests are done, about to start Heritage Hill. Stats and abilities are strong across the board. I took Superior Deflection at level 6, Armoured Grace at 7 and Rapid Recovery at 8. Sided with the knights so have recently acquired Second Skin. You can see crit rate has remained around 25% but is now edging upwards as my ACC improves (currently 27%). Damage ratio has also improved and is now around 6x. I upgraded sword, shield and armour to exceptional at level 8. Notable find was Gauntlets of Accuracy, remaining equipment is fairly standard. Still making extensive use of scrolls and potions (I wish there was a tracker for how may items you use, I'm probably setting some kind of record in this run). Combat strategy often goes something like Vigorous Defence -> defensive potion (Spirit Shield/Mirrored Image) -> Disciplined Barrage -> Nature's Mark (debuffs DEF and REF) -> Fan of Flames/Burst of Summer Flame (often 2 or 3) and then mop up the rest with sword. I'm literally spending around 5k copper per day just buying crafting components from Lora/Coren/Cartugo/Curnd. Also discovered to my disappointment that Vigorous Defence does not stack with Scroll of Defence (I thought they might since one is ability and one is item, but I guess they both count as activated abilities). I'm feeling slightly dispirited as I approach level 9. This is where my chanters get Dragon Thrashed and the game becomes a stroll. All my fighter has to look forward to is Critical Defence :/

DEX does not affect chanter “phrases” but it dies affect casting of invocations. All quick slot item use is also affected (scrolls, potions etc). Stuff like disciplined barrage, arcane veil etc is “instant” and so not affected by DEX. The only impact DEX would have is on the recovery before you trigger these abilities (you have to be out of recovery before these abilities can be triggered)

Some screenshots of my current character. Would you wanna mess with this guy? He looks like death incarnate. Character record and stats. Defences are all strong, even better when buffed, and then Vigorous Defence adds another 20 on top of that. DR is also very high and accuracy is fine for this early stage in the game (with another +20 from Disciplined Barrage). You can see from the personal stats that damage output vs received is 5x (and this from a defensive tank build) and crit rate is around 25% despite PER of only 10. Long term plan is to use an annihilating sabre, take weapon focus/specialisation/mastery, and watch the damage output shoot. Equipment is fairly standard for this stage of the game. Whispers of Yenwood (fine/burning lash) is main weapon, small shield, lots of potions and scrolls used, building up nicely. I don't intend to document this character's playthrough in full here, will post periodic updates.

Hey, I’m still around and following. Didn’t get anywhere with the party roleplay run, after a couple of hours playing I hit the wall with remembering why I don’t play with parties anymore (too much micro!) although I was enjoying the roleplay aspect. So that got abandoned and I have been messing around with more solo. Tried a chanter solo on PotD which was going great until I messed up at Raedric’s by entering the final fight without any healing potions in my quick slots. But that run did show me that PotD is very much doable with chanter. My other aim has been to complete a fighter/melee solo playthrough. I experimented with several different builds on Hard to see how they fared, using two handed weapons or dual wielding. They worked to a degree until I ran into a difficult fight where my DEF just couldn’t stand up to the pressure. So I eventually decided I had to go back to basics and use a shield build. It’s more boring and some fights take ages but so much more reliable. And the current character I am using is working great and has been a lot of fun - offence is now pretty decent. Will post some screenshots when I next fire up the game. It’s a Coastal Aumaua Fighter: MIG 20 CON 10 DEX 10 PER 10 INT 19 RES 9 Balanced build who used weapon and small shield and extensive use of quick slots. Currently level 5, abilities are disciplined barrage, confident aim and vigorous defence, talents are weapon & shield style and deep pockets. I open by firing up both vigorous defence and disciplined barrage, which give me c25 seconds of being unhittable and landing lots of crits. Once they expire I start using quick slots, including Eldritch Aim potions for more ACC and various scrolls. He’s been a machine so far, takes so little damage and cleaves through mobs with little difficulty. All of Act 1 and Caed Nua is complete, Defiance Bay next. If I succeed with this playthrough (and still big IF even though it’s been smooth sailing so far) I will take this character into PoE2 and will join the challenge! Otherwise I may have to run another Chanter on Hard to have a character to take through.

Scion of Flame most definitely increases the damage of Firebrand. Spirit of Decay does the same for Bittercut.

I finally got round to starting watching this. While a lot of the play is very impressive and shows incredible game knowledge, I don't believe it's a true successful ultimate in terms of no-reload. I've watched the first 3 hours and I've noticed several instances where the game has been reloaded - the dialogue box is a giveaway (it is empty when you reload). Here's an example: Leaving the area: Upon entering the new area: I've noticed this multiple times just in the first 3 hours of the video. Now it is possible that the player did this in multiple sittings, saved and exited, then started a new session and has stitched the video together. But I find that hard to believe due to a number of reasons, including frequency and how sloppy/fast/careless the gameplay is. Nobody playing no-reload plays like that. The gameplay resembles somebody who knows they will reload if things go wrong. I'm not having a go at the person who did the video, it is still a very interesting, entertaining and instructive video: I just don't believe they truly succeeded in what they are claiming. And that means a true rogue solo no-reload on PotD is probably still up for grabs (Alesia hint ).

It’s ok, I would use for some big battles where you need to do a lot of damage. Would not build a strategy around it though or go out of my way to use it.

"Random" loot is not truly random. It is actually formula based (mainly) depending on day of the month. The formula was long ago cracked, which means if you look in particular treasure locations on particular dates of the month, you can guarantee certain (quite powerful) items. Which leads to player abuse of always turning up to Raedric's Hold (for instance) on x day of the month to get Gloves of Manipulation, Gauntlets of Accuracy etc. Or even leaving loot chests unopened when you encounter them so you can come back later on the right day to get the item you want. It's flagrant abuse and cheesy as hell, but that turns some people on. If you use the IE mod, you can switch on loot shuffler which gives you a random item each time without the silly date abuse. Upscaling is available for WM1, WM2, Act 3 and Act 4. If you start (and only when you start) these quests at relatively high level (for instance, WM1 at level 9 or above I think), you get a one-time option of "upscaling" these areas to give you more of a challenge (since your high level might mean you find the area too easy since it is designed for lower level parties). I believe (not 100% sure) that upscaling simply gives every opponent 3 more levels, with the appropriate bonuses to endurance, accuracy, defences and additional abilities that would entail. So if an opponent was previously level 6 in the base game, it will be level 9 after upscaling. It's a good option and well worth doing if you are offered it, as otherwise the late game can become too much of a steamroll.

The “total quest XP” message shows you how much XP you got in total over the whole quest, not how much you are getting right then. It only shows when you complete a task or quest, not when you compete part of a quest. For a 6 man party the xp gained shown is split over the 6 members. If you have fewer characters the xp you get is proprtionally scaled down (with one exception), so you get less XP overall but it is split over fewer party members, such that each member gets roughly the same as they would have got if they were part of a 6 man team. The one exception is that you get 10% bonus XP for each party member below the max of 6 you have. So a 5 man party gets a 10% XP boost. Solo gets 50% XP boost. So a smaller party will advance levels somewhere from marginally faster (5 man team) to noticeably faster (duo or solo) compared to a full party. TL/DR: stop worrying about XP or trying to game it. The game is balanced to give you a fair advancement rate however many characters you run with.

Actually I do know what I'm going to do next: a roleplay playthrough of a character to take into PoE2. This will be a party playthrough, not solo as it's a pure roleplay. It's on PotD but that's not the important point; I'm not going to even try to play efficiently or use any meta-knowledge (so far as I can help it), it will just be for the story and taking decisions appropriate to the character so I have a character ready for first playthrough of PoE2. Still no-reload naturally. I'm not going to post about it in detail here except for the occasional update on how it is going .

Jez Watt, Solo Monk (Hard), Part 6 Another failure to report unfortunately. Just pure carelessness I guess - did not get Second Wind off quickly enough. As soon as that rogue flanked me with Escape I was in trouble due to sneak attacks. I need to have a think what I'm going to do next. Not going to start anything immediately. Will still follow what others are doing.

You can't unknow it, but you can install IE mod and select the loot shuffler option. Now you need never worry about loot tables again .

Use Fraps. It's free.

See lots of mention of ranged ciphers. Perfectly valid, though I prefer melee ciphers. Given the +40% damage from all weapon attacks with Biting Whip, you now have a character with a rogue’s damage output who can unleash best in class crowd control, very damaging spells, and incredible enhancement spells that also weaken the enemy.

Then option 4 does sound good. Also sounds like the one you want to do so follow your heart and instinct!

Options 2, 3 or 4 for me! I’m eagerly awaiting company on the solo runs, so a solo run or a pathway to a solo run get my vote. Then again, a rogue solo would play so differently to a rogue in a party that I am not sure how much you would learn from 4. So maybe option 2, playing one of the best classes solo is actually better prep for option 3, playing a weak class solo. I am intrigued that you’ve already managed to get solo rogue to Defiance Bay. That’s impressive already! Would be interested to see the build (sword and shield or dual wield?) and what tactics you have used. So I guess I am voting for either option 2 or 3!!

I’m not disputing that wizards are powerful, I even had them higher than ciphers in my solo ranking. I was more referring to how to use a cipher (i.e. do NOT use him like a wizard). To pick up on a few of the points: 1) Wizards/traditional casters definitely have the edge at the start of fights since they can unleash immediately without needing to accrue focus. 2) I don’t agree that wizard spells are more powerful. Even low level cipher spells like the L1 beam or Whispers of Treason are quite a bit more powerful than what a wizard of that level can do. The cipher power list also has more variety than what a wizard (alone) can bring to the table. 3) You are right that there are not many fights that can outlast a full spellbook. But one thing to bear in mind for long/hard battles is that a wizard becomes a lot more vulnerable once Arcane Veils are gone, so the limiting factor is not necessarily the spellbook but the 30 seconds or so until both veils are used. 4) Resting after every fight is permissible and nothing wrong with it. That’s not how everyone plays though. If you had a balanced party and were resting more occasionally/realistically, then spellcasters who are not reliant on resting would immediately shine more.

I think I could write an essay on how awesome ciphers are. I think biggest issue people who are new to the class have is that they play them like a wizard and are then puzzled why their cipher is not as effective as a wizard. Very briefly, a wizard has a bunch of spells (per rest) that they get to cast and which are refreshed on the next rest. A cipher does not have a set number of spells, you instead have to generate focus (weapon damage) to cast more. The advantage is that you are not restricted on how many spells of each level you can cast - or rather the only restriction is how much damage you can do. Resting is irrelevant. But the downside is you cannot cast if you don’t have the focus to cast. So very simply it all boils down to generating focus, and that means your cipher needs to be able to inflict weapon damage. If he/she can, you have a very effective character. If not, the cipher is baggage. How to do lots of weapon damage is a longer story, but I’ll just point out a couple of things: 1) You have soul whip (+20% damage) automatically and you can take biting whip (another +20%). That means you are at +40% damage already, which is almost on a par with a sneak attack rogue, except it happens all the time, you don’t even need an affliction to enable it. 2) Certain afflictions (e.g. paralyse or stun) make opponents virtually defenceless (from a REF and DEF perspective) and if you attack them you can do tons of damage very quickly. More damage = more focus. And which class has tons of crowd control abilities, including a level 2 power that paralyses for a long duration? Cipher. There is a huge virtuous circle from crowd control —> damage —> focus —> more crowd control —> more damage —> more focus etc. 3) More to the above, the Cipher loves groups where you have weak enemies as well as strong enemies. You get to do a load of damage on the weak enemies that gives you the focus to attack the strong enemies. In other words, look for and target opponents who have low DEF or who are disabled to build your focus to take on the stronger enemies. 4) Once you have focus, the cipher has the widest range of offensive powers imaginable, including several sources of raw damage, as well as a range of crowd control options that target different defences, so you can target your opponent’s weaknesses.

Just to add: breath weapon is not the only dangerous dragon attack. You should see what a tail slap can do. Or when the Alpine Dragon starts hitting with sneak attacks + deathblows. Basic rule for dragonfighting: keep the dragon crowd controlled (preferably paralysed) or prepare to suffer the consequences.

Jez Watt, Solo Monk (Hard), Part 5 Playing a monk is a lot more...bloody than playing a chanter. The fights take a fraction of the time than they would with a chanter but there's way more action and a lot more risk. Oftentimes it's just about who can throw out most damage the fastest. It's like two heavweight boxers just dropping their guard and exchanging haymakers. The damage dished and taken is brutal. When did I ever have health this low with the chanter? Imagine you have to drive 200 miles. You could take the Volvo estate: it might be a 4 hour journey, but you can relax, tune your mind out, listen to some music, and you know you'll get there with no dramas. That's the chanter. Or you could take the Lamborghini. That will get you there in an hour and a half. But if you switch off for even a second, the car will try to kill you. It's loud, it's fast, it's hard work, and my word it's fun. And very dangerous. That's the monk. I meant to rest after the last battle but then I found some adra which allowed me to craft Vital Essence, so I carried on. I did rest soon after as I had a goldrot chew crash; and I wanted to be at full effectiveness for the Spider Queen fight. I opened with Spirit Shield and then cast Tanglefoot hopefully to slow the Spider Queen's attacks. And then it all got very messy. I underestimated how much damage the Spider Queen could do and how quickly. Part of that was because of her poison. My endurance started to plummet before my eyes and I suddenly had the maximum 10 wounds. The Second Wind in the above screenshot landed just in time. And then it was a race. With more wounds than I could use, I started chaining Torment's Reach relentlessly. The only question was who would finish their opponent the quicker. And it wasn't over there. Ivory Spinners can hit plenty hard too. That got me to level 5; I increased Mechanics to 5 and chose this ability after much deliberation. The decision was between Stunning Blows and Long Stride. The latter would be great for positioning and possibly escaping from sticky situations. But since I generally fight at chokepoints I figured I would get more overall utility from Stunning Blows. What I like about this ability is that it is 2/encounter and does not require wounds. So I can use these when I don't have wounds available, or if I want to disrupt a dangerous opponent or action. Even with wounds, I now have a choice between Stunning Blows for a stun effect or Torment's Reach for damage. I made use of both to pound Maerwald into oblivion. Character record and inventory update:

On a practical note, where will PoE2 playthroughs be documented? Hopefully not here because I don’t want the game spoiled before I finally get round to it. Maybe another thread is needed in the Pillars 2 forum?

When you said poverty run I was expecting to see a bunch of monks :D. Only you would ignore the class most suited to it. Will be an interesting run for sure. You will just have to use spells for everything: buffing defence and offence, crowd control and damage. I’m looking forward to seeing how you deal with the challenges.

Great stuff, you’re playing well. You might want to start using your quick slots though, a few potions here and there could save your bacon when things go pear-shaped! No plan survives contact with the enemy and all that...

I’ll third the welcome! Slaughtering backers for their armour and using loot tables is a bit too coldblooded for my liking. But you have chosen a very tough challenge for your first no-reload attempt, so the best of fortune to you! I like some of your character builds: very focused and clinical, some of those characters with dumped CON and RES will not last long if they get targeted, so it will be interesting to see how you manage engagement. It’s a well balanced party overall - lots of spellslingers protected by 2 of the best tank classes.