Owlbear

As far as I know they only get to lvl7, but maybe I missed the lvl8 abilities on my previous characters... who knows.

This is the part I didn't like at all. It's even worse when you learn about the golden ages of Ukaizo when every kith prospered. It was a great chance to make an alliance even if just for a temporary truce. People don't have to like the same things, but they absolutely must hate the same. I bet every single faction and their people prefer to keep their lives with their souls intact. So even if only by a mission impossible level route, but there should be a way to hammer them together to face an end of the whole world level danger. If not everyone, then at least some of them, but even that's better than squabbling children fighting over their next fav toy.

That's an interesting pairing. You could use your ghost pet as a proxy for your cipher (beam) abilities. I wonder if that could work as a melee character. True it would be a shame to miss the ranged passives of the ranger. :]

Maybe it's just me misunderstanding that "pairing", but you can't multiclass a cipher and pick time parasite, if you meant pairing it with another character then why not just make that other character be the solo class cipher so you can build something fun instead. Domination is a huge part of ciphers. The only uniquely great thing about ciphers is that they can use charm way before and better than anyone else. That being said I'm all for nerfing or removing the charm abilities, but then the least they should do is totally rework the whole cipher class. In PoE other caster classes were burdened by their per rest abilities so the cipher totally made sense, but now I'd never pick a cipher over a wizard for an example if I want to make a multiclass character. With the soul annihilation nerf they tried to fix a problem just to create a new one. Most people preferred the soulblade for multi purposes because soul annihilation was just way too good. So good that it totally outcompeted the rest of the cipher abilities. Now with the halved damage they turned that around, it doesn't worth the focus spent when you can just use a cipher ability that does better damage anyway and it's available for every cipher subclass. So while cipher(soulblade) characters are still powerful and can be fun for some, it's nowhere near where it should be. I mean cipher was my favorite class in PoE, but now I only finished the game with it because I wanted to see the unique cipher dialogues. :|

I really enjoyed my Sage (shattered pillar/wizard). Wizard is full of variety and pure destructive power, and monk have awesome buffs and combat animations. It really made me fall for both classes. Also monk is one of those classes that won't "force" you to dualwield as the melee attacks are made by your primary weapon and the class is full of bonuses for a one handed crit character. That was a plus for me Right now I'm trying to decide things about my next character. A Mindstalker (beguiler/assassin or streetfighter) sounds like a fun character, I really like the mobility and the debuffing attacks of the rogue class, but I already finished the game as a Psyblade, so it wouldn't be that much fun imo. Also rogue is pretty much all about it's full attacks, so dual wielding is recommended. Another fun, but maybe weird idea was an Oracle (druid/cipher). I really like the druid lighting spells and mixed with a cipher it kinda made me imagine a protoss/high templar like character from Starcraft with it's psi storms and psi blades.

I agree, they should change the current charm abilities of the ciphers. Whisper of Treason should just confuse instead of charm so Puppet master would be the first ability with the charm effect. Ring leader could stay the same. This idea would fit in nicely with the current "just nerf the ciphers" trend :D

Shattered Pillar Monk/Wizard is my current fav. I just finished my 2nd game and I enjoyed it way more than I did with the previous Devoted/Soulblade. Barbarian looks interesting, but I'm not really a fan of the subclasses. Rogue could be fun and it wouldn't force you to play stealthily. Streetfighter or Trickster could make a great Spellblade with counter attacks, great mobility and various debuff/damage abilities. Also if you plan to use the conjured Spirit Lance you can apply everything a rogue has as an aoe. It's kinda tempting to start a real caster like a wizard/druid. If I don't start a wizard/rogue then I'm sure my next charater will be a wizard/druid... or maybe something else with a monk. :D Helwalker/Wizard would only work if you generate wounds by hurting yourself as it would be such a waste to play a wizard without using it's deflection buffs.

Aeldys it is, thanks.

Dunno, I start to think that even Evoker doesn't worth taking over simple wizard with no subclass but way more variety. You won't one shot bosses because you have +1 Power Level or that ~15% doublecast chance.

In the last few days I tried to decide my next character's class and the last two in the lot were the barbarian/wizard and the rogue/wizard. The rogue is definitely nice, has multiple escape/stealth abilities, various ways to increase it's damage output, but the streetfighter for an example has -50% recovery time when bloodied, while the barbarian has +25% action speed (Frenzy) and another +20% action speed after a kill for 10 secs thanks to Bloodlust along with many damage and crit improving bonuses. Action speed bonus means both casting and recovery so it's way better. My only concern was the accuracy on potd level. The fighter>paladin>rogue have accuracy buffs and/or attacks with bonus accuracy while the barbarian only has bonus penetration. Anyway I started my own warlock last night and it feels great so far. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There are abilities like Into the Fray and items like sparkcrackers that can help you get more enemies in melee range.

Might is deliberately not strength though, which is why it can apply to spells. If you want to have a faster swinging 2h character then increase your dex. The stated idea behind the stat system is to make stats a choice of how players want their character to handle rather than something that just has to match up to their class/weapon. The thing is to me, I don't care how dexterous you are, all the DEX in the work is going to make a weakling able to handle a heavy weapon more quickly. That's what strength is for. I don't care how dexterous you are, if you're a weakling, it's going to be more difficult to pull a bowstring or reset a crossbow's string than if you're strong. Agility will only take you so far. And sometimes what you need to do things more quickly is NOT dexterity, but actual strength. You're thinking in terms of dnd stats, not poe stats. Might is not the same thing as strength. Muscles don't make a lightning bolt spell hit harder. Might is used for both mental and physical strength. So it's also muscles, I mean you use a might check whenever you try to lift a carriage or try to push in a part of a weakened wall.

What do you think about the lvl3 wizard spell called arcane dampener? The description says: "Creates a nullifying field of antagonistic magical energy around the chosen point, suppressing all beneficial effect on enemies in the area of effect." I already tried a few wizard multis like the battlemage or the arcane knight, but usually I picked evoker for the +1 spell level and the minor chance of double cast. Now I'm starting a new character (maybe a warlock or a spellblade) and I thought maybe this time I'll try a generalist mage for more utility. I know this spell makes a roll against will, so it won't help that much against enemy wizards and their deflection buffs, but without a real dispell it sounds like the next best thing. As far as I know you can't craft scrolls for this spell.

I don't really mind the difficulty problems, there are mods for a "quick fix", but I'm not happy about that we have to wait another week or two for a companion relationships - behaviour fix. I would like to enjoy their company, but as they are now they would just annoy me to no end.

well, there goes my hope for it coming along with the next patch