Flucas

But Paladin/Priest or Paladin/Druid or Paladin/Chanter will not require as much baby-sitting, since 1) he's so sturdy and 2) most of his stuff are either passive or near-insta casts? The difference in sturdiness is not that large. Also note that paladin heals have very small range, so if this char is stuck in place or something, he cant heal when he needs to. Furthermore, druid have much more aoe heals available which is usefull to cover 2-3 squishy dps.

Hmm, let me try with modal on then. It does make a slow weapon even slower though! I may also just try to do with an arbalest or something until I get high level and more accuracy gear. I am filling up my companion slots with custom characters as soon as I land on the first island - I am not using any story companions. This is why leveling is so slow, as I am going with 5 right away - and they are all sucking up XP. I have decided to re-start at level 4. Well, good point. It really sucks that auto-attacking Wizard is no longer viable then. By the way, I started, and PotD in PoE 2 is much harder than PoE 1 - at least in the beginning. To begin with, I had to re-start and dump everyone's Constitution and Resolve to 8 and push Perception up to 18-20, because I've had trouble hitting stuff consistently - especially with the arquebus. Of course, that made my guys really squishy. I couldn't fight through Gorecci when everyone was level 3, so I stealthed through it. But now I am done with every "fedex" quest, I do not know how to progress. Everything in the Ruins is too difficult, it seems. I am wondering if I should start with the Berath's Blessing option that lets your main character start at level 4. My advice: make your comp more specialistic. Maybe you can turn gimli or aragon into a sword n board? Or maybe add boromir Alternatively turn on of the two into a fighter/paladin class for more tankiness. Also, you could change one of Arwen's classes to Lifegiver for better heals and versatility. Personally im a priesthater, too much casting time for too little effect. On getting a "real" tank: I thought having a real tank is actually worse, because there are no real aggro mechanisms, so you just end up with a character that does less DPS? On Priest v. Druid: I have never used a Druid, and I have never played without a Priest. So I don't know the trade-offs involved all that much. Could you flesh out this issue more? What type of "versatility" does a Druid add? And aren't Priests generally considered "necessary" in PotD for their buffs? There is not really an aggro system, but there is engagement instead. It's not too hard to stick them to your tank, youll see. Basically if you switch to druid you exchange buffs for cc and damage. I dont like the buffs because a)The ai often fails to cover the right partymembers with buffs b) they take forever to cast and if anything moves while casting... c) most classes dont need these buffs cause they have a version of it themselves.

Well, good point. It really sucks that auto-attacking Wizard is no longer viable then. By the way, I started, and PotD in PoE 2 is much harder than PoE 1 - at least in the beginning. To begin with, I had to re-start and dump everyone's Constitution and Resolve to 8 and push Perception up to 18-20, because I've had trouble hitting stuff consistently - especially with the arquebus. Of course, that made my guys really squishy. I couldn't fight through Gorecci when everyone was level 3, so I stealthed through it. But now I am done with every "fedex" quest, I do not know how to progress. Everything in the Ruins is too difficult, it seems. I am wondering if I should start with the Berath's Blessing option that lets your main character start at level 4. My advice: make your comp more specialistic. Maybe you can turn gimli or aragon into a sword n board? Or maybe add boromir Alternatively turn on of the two into a fighter/paladin class for more tankiness. Also, you could change one of Arwen's classes to Lifegiver for better heals and versatility. Personally im a priesthater, too much casting time for too little effect.

Yes, but the dagger modal works only vs melee weapons and most creatures don't use weapons (fangs, claws, etc. aren't considered weapons). Ha I never realized. And the Skrim bonus from Gladiator's sword is 5 defl across the board?

I am but i wanted to see if one could make it work without a weapon

Yup i love this one. You can also consider squid's grasp - it has an enchant for "+30% Action Speed when threatened by 3 or more enemies" and it makes you immune to flanking, saving 10 deflection. I often use squid's + kapana so have a tank with some dps as well. @OP early game my tank uses a dagger for +10 deflection (modal), which is more than the gladiator's sword bonus.

Hmm i wanted to try a cipher build around "the complete self" spamming mindblades hoping for infinite focus through crits. so far no succes, may try again with fighter + deadeye.

Anybody knows how to maximize critrate for spells? It's dependent on accuracy, right? Makes me think Wiz would be best for awareness buff and merciless gaze.. or is rogue or fighter a better choice? And are there any specific debuffs i should consider when maximizing spellcrit? Thanks!

Tanking with swash is fine, but it's much better as a main tank than offtank. Especially because you can combine persistent distraction with specialized gear depending on # of engagements, like reckless brigandine and rannig's wrath.

I was gonna say swashbuckler, but you want to offtank? Just go brute then! berserker/devoted swords standard build.

This one's great, allthough i vote Nalpacza. brute (berserker/devoted) with pistoles is also really nice if you like to keep your backline a little further off (but DPS-wise less than above).

PER > MIG > DEX Best leave dex at 10, and instead go for a multiclass (monk/wiz/barb) or specific weapons (eager blade) to incease attackspeed.

1) RES is bad because deflection can easily be boosted elsewhere if needed. 2) PER is king because it decides if u hit, which is hard in potd. Keep in mind that this includes skills, so low ACC means you may waste resources on a missing ability. 3)DEX is not as good as it seems because of the way its calculated. Better off finding other ways to boost atkspd.

What about skills though? First decide what you want to play. I enjoyed play testing the builds I wanted to try. Then refine it down. Still debating - I've narrowed it down to Ranger/Paladin (more likely) or Ranger/Fighter. I think Hunter's Claw may get nerfed, so I want to take advantage of it now Both your combos have more self healing capability than barb/ranger,but no boost to attackspeed. Up to you!

I've never understood this: why does the "gunnery" talent not work on guns?

Ranged witch (cipher/barb) works well. Ranged hierophant ascendant is also a lot of fun (use wiz class for buffs and versatility - aware+hit>crit+speed+phantom+debuffs).

I've done stalker/barbarian and it was pretty fun! You can make yourself quite tanky with the stalkers' and barbarian's defensive passives put together. Pick a boar pet and wear regen gear = decent tank (good defense + regen) and decent damage. Predator's sense works perfect with blood frenzy. Str - high (damage) Con - spare points here (your choice, i generally like the survivability and better use of blooded buffs from barb/human/bloody links) Dex - base (adding points adds very little actual speed) Per - high (MUST HAVE) int - spare points here (depending on preferences you can pump this a bit instead of con, for longer buffs) Res - dump (very easily compensated elsewhere)

The leather means I get more recovery time, and the SS garb is more recovery for less reload speed.. am I missing something? If you're using a pet with armor recovery reduction then the bonus on the armor will become greater than the actual armor recovery and you will attack faster than with no armor at all (without mentioning better protection and other bonuses). Cool, thanks a lot!

The leather means I get more recovery time, and the SS garb is more recovery for less reload speed.. am I missing something?

I've come to the conclusion that my ranged dps'ers are best off in non-uniques with 0 recovery. Am I right?

I've played a solo sorcerer for a while. Basically, it's about landing DoT's while tanking with (de)buffs. Your druid heals combined with defensive buffs should last long enough for enemies to die to DoT's and fireball spams. Open with Chillfog > cast vital essence > defensive buffs > debuffs for landing more spells (eg wicked briars) > swarm, touch of rot > contain & sustain Other spells i used a lot were ardeous delay, merciless gaze, llengraths displaced image, pull of eora, the raw damage beam (grimoire), fireballs (paralyzing fireball ftw (grimoire)), freezing pillar and necrotic lance (for priority single targets). Prioritize PER + INT > Might > CON > DEX > RES. Resolve is crap, gives almost nothing. dagger modal + shield gives u twice the deflection you sacrifice. More con means u got more room for error, unlucky crits or getting CC'd. Dex doesn't do anything for your spells, they are limited in use anyways so no point in doing it faster. I dropped dex to 8 base (for 10 with blessing). Hope this helps!

Love this build! Still have to try single class, currently running with wiz. I'm really fond of all the buffs available (int+con,acc,hit>crit,atkspd) that work before and during ascention. Plus acces to a bunch of defensive buffs and debuffs. Currently testing how to get to ascendant asap: the kitchen stove's buff looks interesting but so far blunderbusses has given me poor results (probably bad penetration). Dual pistols working really well so far (with the modal, which is easily compensated for elsewhere). Im yet to test red hand and A's legacy. Just for min-maxing purposed, would nature godlike make a lot of difference for the +2 PL? EDIT: +1 PL

Hmm yes - I actually interpreted it as in damage to ENEMIES does interrupt. Possibly just a little unclear instead of an actual bug.

The combination causes the raw damage from DAoM to interrupt any spellcasting.

Devoted Brute will give you exactly what ur looking for. I'd recommend devoted to swords actually. It means you can switch doc armor for bloody links for more damage, and use modwyr for int affl immunity. Combine with griffins blade for aoe daze on crit, or pana tanga (or something lol) for crush damage and damageboost per engagement or extra AR enchant.