CountGrishnackh

Even if it is the most optimal choice, that doesn't make it the most meaningful. If you enjoy coming up with fun and interesting builds and parties, why not just do that? Use alchemy and arcana and whatever if you enjoy them, don't if you don't. Certainly, them being better balanced will give more options for people who don't want their characters to be too overpowered, and I hope that happens. But it's not as if you're somehow forced to use them in the meantime. you dont get it, propably because the word meaningful is a bit subjective. from an optimization standpoint there is one primary choice: do i take alchemy or arcana. thats 90% of your optimazation. now you take attributes, talents, weapon and equipmentchoices. all of that is the remaining 10% of how strong your charakter will be. sure i can come up with interesting builds that dont use any one of these skills. they are just **** compared to any build that uses them at the moment - optimization speaking here.

you can if you only let him cast missle spells and chain lightning epic source of mid to lategame aoe damage for zero effort (besides giving him the script "Cast all these spells with no delay in that order")

destructive channeling doesnt really do much dmg, the only thing i ever played that took meaningful damage from it was serafen on my first playthrough on 450%+ action speed time parasite pre 1.1. just start with the scrolls and be done with it, bonus accuracy from human is a nice bonus when it happens, not something you plan every encounter around.

i believe there is a difference between consumables making the game easier and consumables being so strong that only using them instead of native abilities becomes the optimal choice. not that you need them to succeed in higher difficulties, but from an optimization standpoint its a nobrainer, no meaningful resource cost, unlimited usability in fights and more powerful then base abilities. the problem isn't that you can't challange yourself the problem is that there are people that dont play for the challange but to come up with great ideas, builds and party compositions only to find out that the most meaningful choice you can ever make in this game is "do i take alchemy or arcana".

priest buffs are actually so horrble due to their casttimes that i dont see any sense in a support-priest anymore. every other class gets all partybuffs in .4 sec or faster while priest takes half the fight, its a shame

easiest approach would be 1.) remove skillscaling on native skills 2.) use only half alchemy/explosive/arcana skill for consumable powerlevel better approach: 2.) implement scaling where u can use most scrolls without penalty at arcana 12 and grant only about 1 PL per 4 Arcana after

well there are stil builds that scale native spells from alchemy =D

it restocks randomly, if shopkeeper doesnt have an item wait a full day, then look again. rinse and repeat until the shop has it. had to do this about 20 times when i was looking for vithrak brains in my current playthrough

theres a double headed flail you can buy in dunnage. doesnt have anything that increases critchance directly, but since each head crits sperately it will double the number of crits per swing and its a fast weapon

currently crafting a druid/monk build with heavy caster focus. still not sure if it will go fury cause i dislike the automatic spells (lvl 1-6 all generic aoe nukes). shifter has a really good spelllist, dont really know if i like storm blight more then i hate the spelllist :> anyways, monk is pretty straight forward for multiclassing: lots of attribute increases and reliable +12 accuracy for a spellcaster. gonna go helwalker for a total auf +45% damage from might bonuses, +2 penetration, 15% action speed, 100% area, 50% duration and that sweet sweet 12 accuracy. much better then a fighter for caster build (fighter is much better for crit-reliant builds) /edit oh and monk gets alchemy, so +1 powerlevel for some spells ^^

get hit by initial ranged barrage - activate ability - holds easily 20 seconds before you get hit third time depending on how much crowd control your party uses. at that point most fights are cleanup, if not activate again. sure, its easier with ranged, but taking 3 hits even as melee can take quite some time

+12 ACC? Not on a frontliner, no. That's one of the biggest weaknesses of the Monk IMO. No accuracy boosts (unless he can avoid being hit). Plus it's max 40% Lash now, after the Monk Mega-Nerf. Only 15% before level 16 for multiclass characters. melee doesnt really equal frontliner. if the monk is supposed to tank yes, then the ability is straight useless. if hes a melee damagedealer with dedicated primary tank(s) around its permaactive once u get dance of death

And Berserker/Streetfighter will probably out-dps both. Not that it's a helpful advice though, as OP asked advice for his particular combo. Thus said, I want to give my opinion on Monks in general. Honestly, I don't know why everybody is crazy about Monks. Sure, there are some nifty abilities at higher levels, but right at start they are pretty boring - no Full attack abilities, except for Stunning punch, which becomes renewable on crit at high levels. Knockdown attack and AoE kick, which stagger (and later Stuns) enemies in cone, both Primary attack, so no synergy with dual wield. Fire lash and Int boost are good, but you either have them or use your abilities, so do. Rooting pain is interesting, but I'm not sure it's such gamechanger. I tried to start with Monk at 1.0 version, but it was a bit underwhelming due to lack of abilities, so I started trying other classes. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I expected to combo special moves or something, but auto-attacking with bare fists almost all the time and general squishiness left me unimpressed. I recently made a pure monk adventurer (14 lvl) and tried to use in my party. Kicks, stuns and buffs surelly made it more entertaining, but performance wise it was still not as good as my Marauder. No special effects from weapons, no crazy stacking speed buffs (frenzy + bloodlust), no fancy combat teleport for repositioning (though Flaggelant path is pretty nice). Extra stuff on crits and renewable full-attack with stunning fist are good, but without Berserker crazy hit-to-crit conversion it is unreliable in tough fights. Only thing that I really like about monk is renewable resource - Wounds, on other hand almost all really cool abilities work on Mortification, so you run out of it pretty fast. Oh, and extra range on melee attacks - this is somewhat unique. I probably playing Monk wrong way or something, but it wasn't that fun at earlier stages and on quick test wasn't mindblowing at midgame. Monk is simply an amazing stat-monster +5 Might (15 with helwalker), +2 Penetration, +12 ACC, +10 Int, 45% leash, 15% faster actions, and for melee weakened on crit and heartbeat drumming thats HUGE in statik bonuses, every activatable ability is instant cast an can simply be scripted. Multiclassed all these bonuses as pretty much for the entire fight from lvl 10 onwards. Its also amazing for casters, +5/+15 might, +2 penetration, +12 acc, +10 Int and 15% faster actions all work for spells

give him a shield (doesnt have any full attacks so not much lost) or heaviert armor, defensive options only come available @lvl 10 with monk/cypher. i dont really think that personal defense is really the problem tho... whats the party layout?

i'd give you paladin and fighter on best early bloomer. powerlevel 1-3 noone can match them

95% sure, i definitely got both in a playthrough and im pretty sure that was the background i chose. home in about an hour, will see if i can make it 100% /edit not so sure anymore, couldn't find keybreaker scepter (sold most stuff to nekataka supplies, wasnt there, wont ship around to every other merchant right now)

good thing you'll get both headdress and sceptre =D the headdress gives acc for the wearer and a will defense aura, so yes, its one of the best helms in the game and you get it super early

cypher time parasite was retarded strong pre 1.1, should still be very powerful wizard has a lot of good ones. My favorites: minoletts missle salvo deals enormous damage and looks pretty cool minolettas piercing sigil makes you basicly immune to melee attacks wall of many colors is in my opinion the best control spell in the game, as long as you dont let your party ai run into it =D monk inner death+empowered strikes oneshots basicly everything rogues gambit ability is super strong and spammable if dualwielding you've got good stuff in every single class, only problem ist you get those abilities at lvl 16/19 when there are already no challanges left in the game

Out of the top of my head: Wispers of Yenwood and Blade of the Endless Paths forged Devil of Caroc Dead for the Breastplate (dont know if sacrifice enables the breastplate) Sacrifice any companion not reappearing in PoE2 depending on char build. Eder, Aloth, Pallegina Alive Aloth rebuilds leaden key (enables headdress)

cant help you on the modding part, but there are lots of items that increase engagement count. also spear modal+shield = 3 engagement, can get you to the point where u actually get those items

in my second and third playthroughs i just used my scavanger hunt banquets for zombie island and had svef on a quick item slot on everyone not wearing modwyr or devil of caroc for all those fampyrs a forgot.

the only viable target for reflect spells is always "self", so unless your aloth is somehow not a spellcaster the script is working as it should ^^

2 AP is always good, Getting 2 Armor for free means you can drop to lighter armor. Devil of Caroc Breastplate can get rid of the debuff, as can Svef. Theres also an amulet (i think) that increases buff duration by 35%

as of 1.1 fighter is pretty much the defensive option for critbuilds while berserker is the offensive option for critbuilds

i'd change the monk to either vanilla or helwalker because nazpalca gets a bit micro intensive for my taste due to increased amount of arcane dampener. I also dont see how 2h can compete with DW in a Fighter/Monk unless you're looking for clear out or power strike (which come online on lvl 16/19) i believe the ranger goes with cipher for driving flight? in that case: have you thought about wizard? Kalakoth's Minor Blights comes online at level 7, is a 10m range weapon with 1.3m AoE Radius (increased by int) that does 1 damage more then a sword at 1 lower AP as elemental and is onehanded. In my test today it only dealt fire damage for some reason so there's that. Wizard Buffs offer alot more then the ranger imo and since every weapon was nerfed summond weapons look alot better now