Myrtillo

I am aware that other monk subclasses might be stronger but I cannot stand the idea of being rewarded for taking damage or relying on consumables. As a central class feature. Plus as I wanted to play single handed no offhand it felt natural that the increased autoattacks from crit procs would synergize with Shattered Pillar and generate adequate resources. I gave a shot at forbidden fist but unfortunately the animation of the active is silly with a weapon in hand and that's a deal breaker for me. Plus I can't wrap my head around the idea that my intelligence score will be hurting my character by increasing the duration of the self inflicted debuff. I was really hoping that it would be changed in 5.0 However if heartbeat / swift procs do not generate wounds it is very disappointing and kind of defeats my purpose. But ultimately if I can cap wounds fast enough I will still be happy. That's 80 damage inflicted. By mid game I should have that with a couple of crits, right ? And that's not factoring Dance of death wounds.

With 5.0 freshly downloaded, I decided to restart for a "complete" playthrough (I haven't done Forgotten Sanctum yet), and after a lot of hesitation I decided to go with a Shattered-Pillar monk. The funny thing is that, even though I have finished multiple playthroughs, I realize that I never had a monk in my party, not a single time . (This is due to my Xoti always being a Priestess, and Mirke not really appealing to me at all) Indicators: I usually play on veteran with level scaling upwards on critical path, no god challenges, and use non-optimised (and single class, with the exception of a witch Serafen) story companions/sideckicks. I am more about how a character/party feels both gameplay-wise and rp-wise rather than min-maxing. Say, my choices are 70%rp/30% theorycraft. I will pick an ability that does 25% less damage if the animation is cooler. By personal preference I play single classes (although I know it is not really an issue with Monks), and favor mental attributes (with Berath Blessings, my char has Str12 Con10 Dex14 Per18 Int18 Res16). I know it is not optimal, but I intend to play single handed with no offhand, just because it pleases me (and if it is relevant I will most likely use a sword or a saber, although it will vary depending on my mood in a given game session). The idea is that the greatly increased amount of crits (+12% from the no-offhand, and +20%HitToCrit) will proc Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming a lot, hopefully outdamaging (or being close to) dual wielding in the auto-attack department due to the crit+overpen damage and the multiple zero recovery attacks. And more auto-attack damage = more shattered-pillar wounds. So I have a few questions: Is the premise realistic or delusional ? Can Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming proc of themselves and of each other ? (In theory with both active every crit has nearly 50% chance of trigerring an additional attack, I have wild dreams of my character wearing Scordeo's blade with the Tempest upgrade hitting 3+ times with zero recovery). And since I am a monk noob, the big question: What do I do with my freshly generated wounds? I am looking at Skyward Kick (as primary attacks have increased relative value for single handed builds, and that +50%damage +3pen and short hard CC looks really nice), and maybe Whispers of the Wind to clear trash mobs (with maybe a swap to the second weapon set fist+fist to maximize damage then swap back). But I am very open to suggestions. Is blade turning any good when in a pinch ? I know that turning wheel has limited impact on a shattered pillar due to the low wound limit, but is it still worth taking for that 10% fire lash when at max wounds ? Is there any weapon you would see efficient in the context of the build ? (especially of soulbound, because I like the concept). Any other insight ? Thanks!

Yeah, right now I'm lvl 12 and even without Eld Nary's upgrade, if the ennemies are spaced out I run out of bellower buff before the last jump. Oh well, by then two or three baddies have already slow-mo exploded so I can live with that. I remember in PoE1, Kana Rua was obliterating dragons with seven nights... I never used Two Fingers, but if I understand it properly, it perform best with these conditions: - Closed environnements - Vessels and Spirits - Resolve afflictions - Weak to fire (and cold resistant so Eld Nary is less potent) And these conditions often happen together in the various crypts. I might give two fingers a shot, and it's good to have a panic heal at hand. Is the number of wall bounces affected by power level ?

Can you give me a quick explanation of the bug ?

I see. And being permanently energized with invocations being "artificially empowered" as a bellower, very high AR targets might almost never be a thing. I guess it is hard to even remotely approach Eld Nary's efficiency....

Wait, so the max phrases isn't unlocked with the PL tier but when you actually pick an invocation ? That's odd. Otherwise, thanks for the tips, I'll give Wihite Worms a go. Do you know about the Boil their Flesh mechanics ? As for the chants, he is still at the point where I feel he needs a bit of defensive ones, but I will include Myth Fyr at some point. No need for the long night as my witch seraphen takes care of the sickening

So I am back to the game after a long break to experience all the new content, and I started a new playthrough with a single class bellower. So far I really like the "few very powerful invocations" playstyle. Chanter is the class I have the leat experience with (with maybe monks), so I have a few miscanellous questions you guys can hopefully answer to help me do some planning. To give you some context, I am playing on veteran with no scaling (except up only for critical path) with full party of story companions. In no particular order: - Is the dragon relevant ? More precisely, for tough battles, is it going to be as efficient as, say, a +7pl Eld Nary that might wipe the non elites. What about the summoned weapons ? - Boil Their Flesh question: Is the chance to explode calculated before or after the raw damage. In short, if the raw damage takes a bloodied ennemy to Near Death, can it explode ? I am looking for options to not repeat Eld Nary ad nauseam. - For some reason I have always loved protective shields, but is there any reason to take Her Courage Thick as Steel for a non-troubadour ? - What are interesting chant setups for a melee bellower ? Right now I am relying on Old Siec and Silver Knights. Now less a question but more a discussion starter: Are there any interesting bellower-centric interaction/strats that I might have overlooked? Invocations that might seem subpar but scale well with power levels ? Bellower is I think the subclass that benefits the most from extra phrases, as a phrase is not only a ressource but a +1PL, so any phrase generating effect has increased value here. Sasha's is a given (I have not picked it yet because I can't let bae Modwyr go, but I will do when I tackle higher level content). Also, bellower hoards phrases longer. Far from Defeated feels extremely potent: Longer duration of Energized inspiration, 3 extra phrases. Also, bellower might be the one of the best candidates for brilliant inspiration. Is there currently any way to get brilliant other than the cipher pl7 spell ? Thanks!

If you cast 6 self buffs, you have taken away one third of all his casts for that battle for passive things that do not interact with other characters, which isn't really fun, at least from my perspective (and that is assuming your character is PL9, so late game only). There is always a tradeoff. I like the way priests function. They have good single target buffs, good party wide buffs, good heals, decent offensive spells, good utilty, good roleplay perspective and some of the coolest summons in the game (Berath's Avatar plz). Overall they offer good gameplay and roleplay variety. They can pump out the spells quickly enough. I do agree though that it is not a class for powergaming enthusiasts, but that is a preference matter, not a balance issue. In my (humble) opinion, the marker to see if a class is balanced is: Does it functions as intended and is fun to play in normal/veteran difficulty. Priest sure does feel like it achieves this goal.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkvq5tzt9y4v2xh/Myrtillo%20Nox%20%28Desert%29%20%28d7f5d5f3-f312-47ce-9041-90e3314e45b2%29%20%28LAX-12ABCDEF%29%20%28788065289%29.savegame?dl=0 There you go.

I will definitely do this from now on, but I'd love to find a Morning After pill :D

One thing I've been doing on my current playthrough was to alternate party members a lot more than what I usually do, I gave equal time to all companions and sidekicks, also always using the recommended ones for the current quest. Obviously the Watcher still got high level quickly, but the evolution of companions was really slowed and kept things interesting much longer. Item progression as well, as I now have to equip 14 characters (I do not swap equipement). And varied parties meant varied ways of solving problems/winning fights. I also only brought my watcher when turning in bounties, to diminish the global XP gain.

Actually most of it can be auto-scripted easily. Something like that: - Always true: Eld Nary - 120 sec cooldown - ennemy - Lowest fortitude - Target is Near death - And Sip From the Marrow - ennemy - Lowest health - Phrases >6: At the sound of his voice - Greatest number of ennemies You would only have to micromanage if ennemies resist dex afflictions or if their will is too high (to cast Thunder Rolled instead of At the sound of his voice)).

I don't know if it is an already known chanter issue, but I respec'ed my Konstanten yesterday, and all the prepared chants (A,B,C,D) stayed in place in the shortcut bar, and an extra "A" chant was created with only Come, come soft winds. Now if I try to prepare new chants, they all get added to the modal shortcut bar while the previous ones still stay in place, meaning that I can effectively have 9+ prepared chants, that appear to work. A, B, A, C, D, A, B, C, D or something like that. It becomes quite messy. When changing zones it selects the "A" (come come) again instead of staying on the current chant. Reloading didn't fix it, neither did putting Konstanten in and out of party, or trying to respec again. Anyone has experienced this/knows a solution to fix it ?

From my experience, not really. 12% passive action speed buff party wide is a solid buff, but once you are topped you loose all the phrases generated after that, it's a terrible waste of ressources. What I like to do (I use Konstanten as a 1 handed Sasha's (no offhand) pure Skald, kind of what OP was initially planning) is to use an empowered 7 phrases summon (either Dragon or tier 2 instruments of death) that instantly refunds the 7 phrases (Sasha's passive), then cast Eld Nary. Then I let the phrases get back to 7 from chanting/crits, and as soon as it is topped I use a 2 phrases offensive cc invocation (Thunder Rolled, Killers Froze stiff or The Lover cried depending on ennemies defense/affliction resistance) or Hel-Hyraf if I need pen. I drop to 5 phrases, which very quickly regenerate to 7 (one chant+1 crit happens often in a matter of seconds) > repeat. This way you always give at least +10% passive action speed to the party, while providing a lot of hard CC able to target either will or reflexes. And no matter what you always have 5 phrases ready if you need an urgent Two Fingers of Daylight, or have the opportunity for an execute with Boil their Flesh (and sip from the marrow!). I had a lot of fun with this build

HEW Thanks for the descriiption, it's enough for not wanting to see more of it, looks like i'll stick to devil of caroc armor then. I'd like a viable plate armor for a dps tho i miss the durgan steel from POE1 Also a knightly unique helm would be cool. A boar helm erf :/ The helm that looks like a boar is the soulbound one (survivor tusks). The champion helm bears attributes from the three aspects of Towamohai. It is shaped like a panther head (slayer) , with tusks (survivor), and 8 spidery legs (seeker) that are prolonged by a mane. In my opinion, it actually looks very good. Unfortunately it has a "tribal" inspiration, which does not fit any of the characters (or my watcher), and I like them to wear something that matches their profile. However, if you are into fashion, you can pair it with the Watershaper Robe, the Kapana Taga and Mundane Shell to achieve that perfect Aztec champion look. So I made a (club) Devoted/Barbarian Island Aumaua hireling wearing this equipement, and had fun with him in arena fights

Alternatively, if the buff creates a specific condition on your character, you can make it so the buff is not re-casted as long as that condition exists. As an example Eldritch Aim gives you Aware inspiration. You can set your conditional to be: Self: Has perception inspiration - not You will recast the buff as soon as the effect wears-off (either because of the timer or of a dispell).

I globally like what they did with the trinkets. The effects are not gamebreaking but cool enough so that I want to use it. If it was just a passive bonus, well that doesn't change much in terms of gameplay. Unless it is a passive that profoundly changes the way your character behaves, Ideas like: --- +4 all power levels, starting ressources are halved (and ressource cost x1.5 for chanter/cipher) or --- 20% hit to crit, 80% graze to miss etc. But these are really hard to balance. On a side note, integrating this new equipement category actively in the main dlc questline was a good move. It would have been easy (lazy) to just create the item and put it in a chest.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102678-class-build-the-intelligent-captain-for-11-potd/ Shameless advertising :D Works well to be roleplayed as a pirate.

I 100% agree. I was answering a bit out of the context, because I was surprised myself of the AEB efficiency and i wanted to share. My watcher dual wields saber/pistol, so the crit rate is not that high in PotD despite a good emphasis on accuracy. On the other hand, with his really fast attack speed, he pumps out a steady flow of raw damage without having to rely on rng. For single hand style, there is little to no reason to use AEB (apart from style points) About the auto-overpen: I think would be adding a layer of mechanics where you can just tune the base raw damage. But I see where you're coming from in terms of logic. I guess I'm just not too stressed about the log, as long as the final number makes sense

I used to think that, but it actually helped me quite a bit in Beast of Winter PotD, where mobs and bosses have very high armor ratings. Delivering a steady 25-30 dmg every 2 seconds was what turned the big fights around.

I struggled a lot in that level (I play a non min maxed party focusing more on RP). At first I lowered the difficulty to Veteran, but then I was displeased with myself for doing that, so I reloaded, and changed my setup for more raw damage. It helped a lot. I realize that ennemies on PotD in the DLC have veeeeery high armor.

On the bridge ablaze, I had to tune the difficulty down to veteran after 5 tries and not being remotely close to win the battle against fire soldiers/archers/cleric in the moment after the godhammer. It is doable imo, but requires a specific party setup, probably a lot of raw damage/armor debuff (10 ennemies with armor between 13-15 and fire immunity. Yuk). I don't have that prepared in my current party and don't want to backtrack and break the DLC immersion. This fight on veteran was a cakewalk (armors between 9 and 13 mean I could penetrate it easily).

Playing in PotD with level scaling up and with the Watcher at lvl 16 (rest of the party is 15), I found most of the fights to be very challenging. A lot more than in the vanilla game. I ended up resting after almost every fight because I have to burn all my per-rest abilities and get injuries basically everytime. Especially those frost shades that tend to obliterate my backline, are highly resilient, and spawn a ice blight upon death. This is with a not min-maxed but still decently built and equiped party.

I can't really comment on the others ideas, but Priest of Berath is definitely next in line on the list of characters I would love to do. You have access to: In my opinion the best summon in the game. (tied with Eothas Incarnate); Good party buffs, good self buffs; Decent damage spells; Revive when needed (even if you don't want to focus on healing, revive fits Berath nicely); Badass summoned weapon with good corrode lash; And as you mentionned great interactions fitting the main storyline. In terms of gameplay, it is very versatile, as you can stay in the backline and buff/cast offensive spells, then quite easily self buff (minor avatar, and potentially spiritual weapon) and plug holes in the melee line when needed/when you are out of spells.

I made a fighter build that dual wields pistol+melee, and therefore cannot benefit from full attacks. You can transpose the same logic and ideas to single handed. Just pick devoted (whatever weapon you like, sword is probably best due to mixed damage and availability of good uniques). You will recover a bit slower, but almost always crit, for increased crit damage. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/102678-class-build-the-intelligent-captain-for-11-potd/