Lokithecat

That's the problem in a nutshell, how do you balance the entire game / system, so that its playable at low levels, and still challenging at high levels. A lot of the PoE 1 stuff I've looked at, for 'difficult' options (Triple crown, etc) involve avoiding everything / abusing mechanics (figurines) until you've levelled enough that you stomp everything. Even if they did manage to perfectly tune everything, someone's going to find a way to get around the curve, and end up stomping through everything anyway. Is a fight with 8 guys balanced and challenging... great... how is that same fight going to be a challenge if you can draw off people, so that it becomes a series of fights against 2 guys. Add in Multiclass, where you might be facing level 18 content with level 15 abilities (from 2 different classes admittedly) and try to balance it with someone that specializes in X and has the higher level abilities to magnify it. Then there's the fact that with multiclass you need to make sure that a) does a class have any game breaking ability / combos and b) do any of the other classes abilities break the game when paired with them. As an example, the Monk 'I go invisible and hit everyone' skill is neat (and too high level to be a multiclass problem) but when higher cap comes out with the expansions, an Assassin using that will kill everything. [Whispers of the Wind, 10m range, 10m Jump range, Target + 5 Foes]. And it is fueled by Wounds, so Shattered Pillar, infinite backstab everyone. After all that, there is still the core difference (compared to Poe 1) of being able to use (almost) everything on a per encounter basis versus per rest.

Don't forget the Harpoon / Pull Talents and Items, and positon swapping Talents... if they don't want to close with you, pull them to you. There are enough skills / gear to do it that most fights you should be able to cluster everyone into one pile.

Empower your shift, should be easy enough to figure out if its got different Damage claws, or even duration. I didn't see any difference when I tried Empowering Summoned Weapons (Wiz) and they are supposed to scale with Level... which apparently doesn't mean Power Level.

Thanks for this. A helpful tip, if you're planning on using these: there isn't a female 'Kind' to choose from, during character selection. The files are name correctly, but somewhere along the way they changed the selection to 'Benevolent' in the character generator.

I'm running through Origin. Have all the preorder stuff, and Rum Runners, all show as 'Installed' works fine. Critical Role shows as 'Unlocked' and the content isn't in game.

Vion-Ceth. Has an enchant for +100% Melee Damage, on Plants, and targets with Plant Status Effects. There are a lot of Druid spells that should make someone eligible for the damage, and that's an insane %.

The Eye of Wael (Wand) has +3 Illusion Power levels, and a lot of interesting Enchants.

I'd think that its reasonable to assume, if you never picked them up there's no info to transfer over, same as a death. When I was doing a solo run in 2 I still picked people up, and just dumped them at an inn right away (Some of them had gear I wanted to steal, and there's no actual achievements so...).

Enemies Damage Highest Crits Hits Weapons Time Note MC Ravager: 297 67,968 150 608 2,026 Unarmed 13 Months Helwalker / Berserker Eder Rog/Fig: 275 53,655 204 508 2,808 Spear+Shield 13 Months Mohora Tanga Maia Wiz/Rng: 170 44,394 135 850 2,199 Arquebus 11 Months Dragons Dowry briefly Aloth Wizard: 55 18,278 181 122 712 Spells 5.5 Months AI Aggressive Xoti Cleric: 72 20,902 134 261 2,717 Spells 13 Months Buffer

That's like saying 'my wizard is incredibly underwhelming' if you exclude spells.

This place needs a conversation option 5) "Sure, let me just go back to my ship for a minute" to grab one of the unpopular people that you wouldn't normal drag along.

I'd think, from flavour alone, that a Ranger(Sharpshooter if you don't mind micro managing the pet, otherwise Ghost heart) / Chanter (Troubador, or maybe Skald). Ranger makes a great shooter, Chanter has loads of great party buffs (Including a 20% Reload one). And a singing / chanting character feels a more logical fit to 'based off an opera' than other options. Get Maia as a companion, and steal her Jacket.

Arcane Cleanse is probably no good also... Do the increase duration of benefical effect spells benefit drugs? Feels like it would.

Duration is how long the effect stays, when your linger wears off. If you check a troubadour, who has the modal for 'no linger' turned on, you still have the effect for the duration. That said, the modal also screws with the duration, which isn't in the troubadour class description thing. i.e the lvl 1 raw damage starts with a 6 duration, and a 3 linger; if you turn the modal on, it becomes 3 duration, 0 linger. If you watch your buffs while its on, it keeps bouncing down from 3 seconds.

Chanters are just odd... so as I understand it, the Chant cast time (Default 6 seconds) is how long you have to actually sing to get the effect in place, before you can start singing the next, and it echoes around giving you the benefits for the Linger time (Default 3 seconds). A Troubador using Brisk Modal Chants quicker, at the expense of no Linger. If you try it out with a Buff effect they rapidly generate Phrases, and the effect will stay up, for their Duration. If the modal is turned off, then the Troubador Linger goes up by +50%, and the Druation happens after that. Trying to figure out some of the times seems to be kinda erratic, since the Durations (as listed in the Chant editor) also change based on the Modal. ​Eg. the lvl1 Raw Damage in area, with Modal on, shows Duration 3 seconds, Linger 0. With Modal off, Duration 6, Linger 4.5. (10 Intelligence, so no + Duration on Linger). So, for a troubadour, using this effect will have it apply for 10.5 seconds, into them starting the next song. Higher level chants (at least according to the tooltips) with a duration of 10 seconds (plus 4.5 seconds Linger extended by Int), would last almost 15 seconds. So, chant effect A, move to B (14.5 seconds of A duration left when you start, finish it with 8.5 seconds left), move to C (8.5 seconds left, finish with 2.5 seconds), and back to A. This would be with a 10 Int character, given a cap of 35 (+125% duration max, taking Linger / Troub up to over 10 seconds Linger) whether its from Monk, or Drugs, that bonus time on Linger can easily increase enough, to let you sing effect D before rolling back to A.

You might be able to gimmick something with the Ranger / Cipher. Haven't seen it but the upgraded Evasive Roll> I think its called, gives you an attack after the move, and its a 0 recovery (although it fires randomly into the crowd). You could summon a pet (basically instant, but does cost bond) and bounce yourself around, getting Ascended before most mobs are even in melee range. Assuming you're high enough Accuracy, using an Arbalest with Modal (Knockdown) could be funny with that. The generic ones of high quality have Jump 4m, so you'd be knocking over a large chunk of the enemy forces. Ascendant would be about getting your focus maxed, and then using all the free casting to wreck everyone, Beguiler wouldn't be terrible either with a Persistent Distraction tank, everyones going to be sneak attack vulnerable anyway, and Charms (available at level 1) are fairly over powered. Palle can probably provide enough healing, if you have Teke around. Her +Accuracy Aura makes life easier for everyone. Teke isn't terribly amazing, but his 'Water / Frost doesn't hurt friends' really lets you use his spells pretty offensively. And hes got a few that shove people, assuming that triggers a disengage attack from Eder. I like Eder as X + Shield, loads of options for what to use. I gave him a spear you get later in the game (although you could sail there early) which has a pull enemy to you + action speed thing, with fairly solid + damage based on survival skill. I'm not sure about Aloth as a CC, especially if you go fighter. Cipher should provide enough CC, and Teke has a bunch available as Druid also. That said between Wiz and Cipher you should be able to cripple saving throws, just a matter of what you do with them at that point (charm?). Could do CC style casting just as well as a /Rog and get +Sneak attack bonus (Does that apply on spells?) on enemies. Summoned weapons can be interesting if you find the right build out for them, so Fighter is definetly possible. It just tends to be a more defensive multi class.

Not sure who told you that they are THE multiclass... but anyway. If you have Accuracy issues there are many options, Drugs being the simplest, with a solid Alchemy skill its a massive buff. The companions have Junk stats, its like they were intentionally built to be terrible. Perception is probably the best stat in the game, and only one is over 12 (or something painful, Maia has 16). If you want longer Linger time, Troubadors are great, even the 'instant' ones (buffs that don't have a duration) you can keep up 2 with a reasonable Intelligence. If you use buffs that have a duration (a lot of the higher level ones have 10 sec durations) you can keep up 3 or 4 without a problem. They also have the most broken support ability / spell, which you can get as a Multiclass, refilling your parties ability pools (infinite ability use).

I started my Ber/Hel as 18 Mig, 15 Con, 15 Dex, 10 Per, 10 Int, 10 Res. End game, with Gear, unbuffed, I'm running 22 Mig, 18 Con, 17 Dex, 10 Per, 10 Int, 14 Resolve. There is a hard cap of 35 Strength, and with Frenzy + Max Wounds my Str is higher than needed. 1. Given what I know now, I'd probably use the second build, hitting consistently is better than hitting hard, unbuffed, and you gain an insane amount of Str naturally. Plus drugs can really make up for any shortcomings if something is important. 2. Intimidate seems like a general version of Streetwise, similar flavor, and more widely used. Insight feels like it gives you more... background?... while not necessarily resolving events. 3. Hard cap of 35, each Might is 3% Damage / Power. Always handy, but definitely not your biggest individual increases to damage. The attack again tricks (Swift Flurry, Heartbeat Drumming), and the Lashes (Lightning Flurry, Turning Wheel). 4. For side activities, it is very much one or the other. If its looking for do you have x atheletics, your stats don't matter. There are very few (2 or 3) checks which use both Perception and Survival at once, but very much the exceptions. 5. Few? I didn't find that I was feeling like I was missing very much, Maia (the only high perception companion) beomces almost necessary, as traps will often Injure you instead of just 'x damage'. Admittedly, in most cases, if you're careful you can just eat a trap, rest, repeat to get through an area, unless its in the middle of a fight. The only difficult bits feel like early in the game, before your character develops. I found I needed armor early on, Leather mid game is more than enough, end game its more for the effects it provides, than the actual Armor Value. Weapons are an option if you want to play with a specific gimmick (Frostbow) but unnecessary. With the on crit effects from both classes + the ability to target Fortitude instead of Deflection, you become a crit machine, capable of leaping into the back ranks, and killing everything while your tank holds their front line. You'll over penetrate (yay more damage) with base fist attacks, and have really high attack speed (no idea what actual #s are, can't get a tooltip of fists delay). Tutolio's Palm (Small Shield) is handy, ups your base Fist damage, and you can attack with it in the off hand (lower than fist damage). Provides a decent amount of deflection, handy but not needed. Metalsmith in Nekata sells.

I went there, very late in the game (had the pick a side 'the coming storm'? where you choose who to go north with) quest, and upon leaving the palace, midway to the vendor by the south exit, there is a little fountain. A guy there was talking about how no one would listen to him, which I didn't recognize so I stopped to talk. When I did, that gave me the quest to go find the crew of the Antelope, which is on Splintered Reef. Didn't see an obvious port to dock on, on the map, but just clicked on it, and when I got into the fog it acted like a normal city / port. Not sure if you have to talk to him to get access to it, or just have to try clicking the island.

If Action Speed is your Bag, there's an item that gives 30% Action Speed to your party (Tooltip) unfortunately the way it works, is 0 - 30%, depending on characters health. Saint Omaku's Grace, enchant Saint Omaku's Mercy. "Aura Range 10m. +30% Action Speed (Increases as Health is Lost)"

I'm not sure Lighter Armors need to be more attractive, from my playthroughs, I usually only have 1 character in Heavy Armor because its just not as good as the Lights. My Cleric has Medium, just for the party buffs (2 Armor 8 Resist for everyone) and wore light before that, and my Tank has Reckless Brigandine. Beginning game was the only time I felt any pressure to use heavier armor, as the characters didn't have the HP pool to survive long enough to get healed, and the healing wasn't that impressive. By mid game everyone was in Light Armor except the tank, and the damage that non engaged mobs would apply to my non tank characters was manageable, plus I could easily deal with them quickly. Even if recovery penalties were 100% negated (say through a mod or something) I don't think I would use many of the Heavy armors, the Light armors have so many great 'utility' uses / enchants / combos. I'm not 100% sure on this, having only briefly played with assassin, but I remembered one of my assassins killing someone from Stealth with backstab, and staying Stealthed. I'm not sure if that is just bad memory on my part, or if it was an actual mechanic, where killing a straggler out of view of the main fight, didn't break my stealth. Either way, I was pretty much using that character to finish off people, and spending the first chunk of the fight maneuvering them into place, and weakening everyone else while setting up engagements with the tank.

Maia is the only companion with a decent (16?) Perception. Port Maj has a +Perception item in a well... but you need decent Perception to find it. Not one of the more common stats gear wise, theres probably drugs available to help, but that pushes you into having a decent Alchemy Score, I vaguely remember seeing 2.2 or something sad with a (basically) unskilled character trying to up my stats through consumables.

Monks generally aren't gear dependant, which makes them a bit of an inexpensive character. If you needed to buy drugs for your fights (worst case, I'm sure you get loads as loot / pickpocket) you shouldn't have any issue keeping yourself stocked. With High Alchemy scores you could be getting the benefit of Helwalker (+10 Might) without the draw backs (+50% Damage taken).

I was thinking more the opposite... like do the Unarmed Buffs from Transcendent apply to a summoned Weapon. Monk Fists aren't a summoned weapon, or Soulbound, so they wouldn't benefit from the Universalist advantage. That said, I just read about some summoned fists from a Grimoire in the Cartographer shop, that I want to check out later on.

Started hearing about 'Universalist' tag on summoned weapons. Still not sure what they mean, and can't find where to look for that. But if I'm understanding it, they work like Soul Bound, in that any gear you have, or abilities, will apply to the summoned weapons. So, a Summoned Sword, would benefit from a +Action Speed to Firearms Helm, for example. How well does this work with Monks Transcendent Suffering?