DigitalDemon

@mookzung: fantastic, thanks a lot, mate!

I have a slightly unusual request here I found a custom portrait I like in a pack I downloaded from nexusmods: The author was kind enough to include watercolor versions of the portrait, but unfortunately they are done in a style which is radically different from everything else in the game: If anyone could redo the watercolors to make them match the regular in-game portraits, it would be greatly appreciated Here's an example of what I mean by "regular":

Same problem with swashbuckler. Just downloaded the beta patch and tried respeccing my protagonist. Got reset to level 1 and kept my skill points from trainers (i.e. loss of trainer points was fixed), but the problem is that I only got 1 ability point when leveling from 1 to 2, and there are NO ability points already allocated either under fighter or rogue. So it appears that the ability point allocated during character creation got lost somewhere.

It's an armor for off tank I'd say it's an excellent piece of armor for your primary damage dealer Gives you decent protection without sacrificing action speed. And +2 to all resources (which translates to +4 for multiclasses) feels almost OP.

Currently debating that myself. My Swashbuckler already has resistance to dexterity afflictions due to being a wood elf, and immunity to intellect afflictions from Mordwyr. So whichever enchantment I choose, it will inevitably overlap with my existing resistances/immunities Although I can balance them out with fighter passives such as Body Control etc. As for the other enchantment choice, I went with heal on crit because my char has pretty decent accuracy (currently 83 for both main and off hand at lvl 12) and crits quite often. P.S. Is it actually available for purchase at the shop? Because I stole it from a chest in the shop before I even checked the vendor's inventory It did require 14 points in mechanics, though.

Interesting, this is the first time I've seen Veteran mentioned. People are mostly complaining about PotD Which basically means there's no point in playing above Classic atm, as both Veteran and PotD will be rebalanced in the future...

So, after abandoning my first attempted playthrough with a Mindstalker, I've almost decided on rolling a Swashbuckler once the hotfix scheduled for this Tuesday is released, but one thing bothers me. I want my PC to specialize in mechanics as primary active skill, and stealth as secondary active skill. Unfortunately, Swashbuckler only gets 1 starting point in each. Will it be sufficient to keep up with the checks in the game, assuming I'm going to level mechanics first and keep stealth trailing by a couple of points? Based on my initial exploration of a couple of starting areas, it seems that the game expects you to start with at least 2 in mechanics. It's achievable for the Swashbuckler, but does require picking a background that I'm not particularly happy with, and then I'll be stuck with only 1 starting point in stealth anyway. Does it mean that I absolutely have to roll a single-class Rogue who starts with 2 mechanics and 2 stealth, or will I be able to catch up with the check difficulty curve later with my Swashbuckler? Any advice from people who have already completed the game or progressed far enough in it would be greatly appreciated Don't want to waste another playthrough by picking a class that won't be able to fulfil its intended role.

Swashbuckler remains very attractive IMO. You'll lose out on damage, but the Fighter has sooo many nice buffs, both active and passive. And picking Devoted looks like a no-brainer. But sneak attack scaling definitely makes a case for a single-class Rogue.

I'll probably wait until the hotfix arrives on Tuesday before rerolling But I'm considering doing something entirely different from Cipher. It seems that in PoE2 the devs expect caster Ciphers to stand back and generate focus using ranged weapons, and this playstyle just isn't for me. Maybe I'll roll a Swashbuckler, I haven't decided yet As for Soul Blade/Assassin who doesn't use any Cipher abilities except for Biting Whip and Soul Annihilation, I believe it was one of the archetypal builds that people played successfully in beta, so you might as well try it, maybe it'll suit you.

That's almost exactly what I played in PoE1 - a dual-saber Moon Godlike Cipher. I enjoyed that character so much that I was dead set on playing some Cipher variant in PoE2. Initially I chose the Mindstalker, although a slightly different one from yours (Ascendant/Rogue), but I ended up abandoning him after I explored a couple of starting areas. Not only is this type of build quite squishy, but micromanagement gets really messy. You literally CAN'T cast spells in melee because of interrupts, so every time you want to cast a Cipher spell, you need to disengage using one of the Rogue's abilities (and thus spending guile), then try to get off the spell hoping that ranged enemies won't interrupt you (and they will), and then go back into the melee to replenish your focus pool, wasting a lot of valuable time in the process. This just doesn't work well in practice. A melee Mindstalker might be viable if you abandon ALL Cipher spells and take Soul Blade just for the Biting Whip, Soul Annihilation and the passives, but I can't give you any advice on that. Trust me, I really wanted to reconstruct my dual-wielding hybrid melee/caster Cipher from PoE1, but with changes to the game mechanics introduced in PoE2, this doesn't seem to be a good idea anymore. On a side note, backstabs (and, therefore, the Assassin subclass) don't seem to mix well with dual-wielding because only the first weapon hit gets the damage bonus. So you might want to reconsider either your weapon preferences or your subclass

Got it. Then I guess I'm gonna be a Raider from the Deadfire Archipelago Update: But hold on a sec... Just hit my first level-up, and got 1 active and 1 passive skill point. Will it continue like that every level? If so, then there seems to be no point in having TWO primary skills with both in the Active category, as there simply won't be enough skill points to properly level them both. Sorry if it's a stupid question, but there's no info on the skill point allocation per level in the PoE2 Wiki, and I haven't been able to find it anywhere else on the Net...

So, I'm planning to roll a Mindstalker, and it's going to be my Stealth and Mechanics specialist, just like my plain Cipher was in the first game. However, I'm still undecided about the background. Is there any point in picking up backgrounds that provide bonuses to my non-primary skills? For instance, Mindstalker already has 2 points in Bluff, 1 in Streetwise and 1 in Sleight of Hand. If I choose the Drifter background for roleplaying purposes, I'll get a bonus point in each of those skills... but I'm not planning to invest any more points in them, at least not until I max out Mechanics and Stealth. So, will those points be completely wasted past the early game, or will there be any practical use for such skills in late game? IIRC, PoE1 was all about min-maxing skills, so I'm wondering whether anything has changed in PoE2...

Which also makes a case for a single-class rogue vs. multiclassed one. Interesting

So it looks like my original idea of rolling a dual-saber Mindstalker and using Cipher's CC spells to set up sneak attacks is going out of the window. The 30% damage bonus just isn't worth the trouble. And since dual-wielding isn't really compatible with backstabbing, a non-casting Soul Blade/Assassin with a pair of sabers will be suboptimal, too... And there's no way in hell I'll ever play a rogue with a two-handed weapon, this just feels wrong on all levels :D I guess one last option is to try an Ascendant/plain Rogue (no subclass), and alternate between generating focus in melee and then dodging out of the fray (Escape, Smoke Veil etc.) and spamming Cipher spells for free while ascended. This might work, but it's pure theorycrafting on my part. Not sure how sustainable a dual-wielding Rogue will be in melee if the enemies aren't already debuffed...

So as far as I understand, a dual-wielding Assassin (whether single- or multi-classed) doesn't make much sense in the current build of the game because only the first attack will receive the bonuses when coming out of stealth?