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easiest classes to hardest: Fighter - durable, forgiving, just go in and hit stuff, good in multiclass and good dps with devoted (sabres) Ranger (very easy to play just a ranged gunner or archer and everything falls in place, it is a bit harder to master though than some other classes with pet control but this is not required. it has an easy entry cap but high mastery cap basically) good as single class or multiclass Paladin - again durable like fighter but a bit less straightforward given defensives depend on alignment etc and some attack abilities are not optimal without items - good as a multiclass Rogue, Priest, Monk, Wizard somewhere in middle Chanter, Cipher, Druid, Barbarian not as intuitive as the others I would say so I would recommend reading up about those classes on the wiki but there is nothing particularly hard to them either once you read up on them.

There are many excellent posts in this thread that break it down in more detail but the just of it is that both PoE1 and PoE2 are similar in that the actual "plot" in both games is pretty bare bone if you think about it. PoE1 felt more substantial actually than PoE2 because of the novelty factor of a new fantasy/world setting involved and we got to as players the effects and consequences of the main plot - the Hollowborn Crisis manifests itself more concretely than we see the destruction wrought by Eothas in PoE2. in simplest terms: -There are no scenes/cutscenes where the main character witnesses first hand the "unfolding" of the main plot - we are always chasing Eothas and seeing things after the fact like the devastation in Hosango etc - so this whole Eothas marches across the Deadfire thing remains very abstract in our minds and we cannot really invest ourselves emotionally in what is going on. The plot is like that of a disaster movie where there is no budget to show the meteor/volcano/killer wave. -There are no direct consequences at stake for you - the main character - Barath is holding your hand throughout the whole game basically, you feel secure in the hands of a "parental" figure. Sure Eothos "hypothetically" stole something from you - but there is no concrete manifestation within you, the main character that presents a crisis for you personally. So this point pretty much exacerbates the above point -so there is no concrete confrontation between your main protagonist and the main antagonist in deadfire, because no one is really sure there is an antagonist at all. And even in terms of plotting 101, the writing team should have realized that making the real main antagonist the questgiver (Barath), rather than the chased target-Eothas, would have been in the end more structurally sound for an engaging "chase the bad guy" story - even if that is a cliche at this point.

Paladin/Cipher is tanky enough to solo the game by the way once they buff their defenses via borrowed instinct and the defensives from Paladin or Fighter - same with Fighter/Cipher I think Barbarian/Cipher or monk/cipher provide enough defensives in an off tank role while being offensively better - it depends - I assume his Priest/Chanter will provide enough overall party healing to keep a melee Witch or Transcendent up and doing damage.

cipher/berserker - would be stronger than with fighter paladin or monk in this situation cipher ascendant or souldblade. soulblade if more pure melee, ascendant if spellcaster That is good melee dps and you won't have duplicate classes in berserker you take -frenzy+spirit path upgrades -barbaric smash +upgrade that refunds rage on killing blow -blooded -blood lust and blood thirst -savage defiance -one stands alone, bloody slaughter and possibly thick skinned -lions's sprint is highly recomended if you can fit it in but not the end of the world if you can't -two handed style if using Lord Darryn's Voulge, Oathbreakers End or Espirs Estoque+devil of caroc breastplate -two weapon style if using modwyr+frostfall or Modwyr+Aldris (or any other good sword) and Bloody Links Chainmail -combat focus if not using an item that grants immunity to interrups in cipher: -whispers of treason -maybe penetrating visions if you go ascendant instead of soulblade -draining whip -mental binding or psychovampiric shield -hammering thoughts -secret horrors -painblock and mind lance -borrowed instinct and tactical meld -amp wave and disintegrate if ascendant otherwise just disintegrate -the empty soul offensively in melee it is definately more potent than cipher/monk and same survivability. Paladin/Cipher probably more tanky but looses a lot of damage and cc compared to barbarian. same goes for fighter/cipher - more tanky but less overall cc effects and damage. I would say the best in order from best dps cc and versatility is: Ascendant/Berserker Soulblade/ Berserker Souldblade/Devoted Ascendant/Monk Souldblade/Bleakwalker tied with Soulblade/Monk

Yeah it's bad there are some nice "aoe" two handed weapons like wohai poraga and oathbreaker and lord darryn's voulge because of their unique effects but they fail compared to two handed style in terms of single target dps. Also Frostseeker and Watershaper's focus fall in this group of weapons because they have aoe effects. The only exceptions that are good in terms of dps for twohanded for single target damage is The Red Hand Arquebus because it fires twice per shot compared to a normal arquebus and the unique Hunting Bows with fast modal active because then those fire twice as fast then and can keep up or surpass two-handed style when auto-attacking.

It works for the ranger but not the whole party but that's the point. As a ranger if you mark a target anything you do to the target gets the accuracy bonus but your party members don't get the accuracy bonus.

I mean you can take Vatnir's Robes and sometimes a second copy falls of them fall somewhere in the Ice Temple in BoW. They have the +10% damage done/taken enchant and look nice but you need the DLC.

-Wizards are definitely better in PoE2 because their buffs are insta casts and they have access to deleterious alacrity of motion which improves efficiency and cast times further - so they will get more stuff done during a battle. Priest have some nice buffs but all of them are like 3sec casts and they have no speed buff. -Wizards have in the end the better item selection:you can swap grimoires for more flexible spell selection while with priest you are locked to the number of spells you choose per level up. -Wizards have access to a special grimoire (Vaporous Wizardry) which gives an extra spell cast per spell level which is huge increase in dps potency given that the downside of the grimoire (interrupt on taking any damage) is totally negated by another item as helmet (Rekvu's Fractured Casque). The optimized Wizard is is single class generalist or subclass Evoker who will be just casting nukes after insta buffing themselves with speed and attribute bonuses and still have access to insta cast defensive spells in a pinch should they be needed. The optimized priest to me is a multiclass with a strong complementary martial class like a Berserker or a Devoted or Streetfighter because in the end a Priest is better off casting a few select "big damage fire spells" like Pillar of Holy Fire and Storm of Holy Fire and then using Minor Avatar/(Spiritual weapon) and then going into melee and fighting it out after casting the big damage spell upfront. And yes if you mod you can use Rymrgand Priest for a more spell nuker wizard type priest but you can't solve the above disadvantages that it will take your priest longer to buff up and in the end longer to cast the nukes.

Aoegor's Swift Touch (gloves) plagued ship north of magran'steeth: 5% chance to ignore ranged attack when above 50% health, +1 DEX, -5% Weapon recovery - gloves for two handed weapons like arquebus/ and two handed melee weapons and bows. Gloves of the Dungeon Warden - +3 Accuracy gives a Stasis Field 1/Rest deck of many things And the best amulet in the game only obtained via console: Cog of Cogh???- immune to resolve afflictions, gives the wearer aware inspiration when a nearby enemy dies

I think the balance in Beast of Winter was good. I don't know how the regular game is balanced especially the later parts of the game but the metrics seem to be ok for BoW expansion. Now if the later parts of the game and a few areas receive another pass based on such metrics it would be nice but it is probably not at the top of the to do agenda.

don't matter if my meatshields are dead if the enemy is dead.

You can make pretty solid ai script for wizard just break it down to several blocks like -(deleterious alacrity)/ infuse with vital -> standard buffs -if threatened: mirror image/llengraths displaced / other soft defensives -if threatened and bloodied-> iron skinned time/ safeguards -if engaged in melee by multiple thugs->piercing sigil time -miscilenous stuff/ second wind potions and items -nuke stuff-> minolettas missile salvo, meteors and wilting wind sure single target is maybe technically not as high as some classes (marauder) but the marauder has to be pretty optimized because minolettas does so much damage. As long as wiz can stay alive he can nuke stuff faster than anyone else.

With upgrade Ring the Bell is pretty sick with Xefa's Blunderbuss plus another weapon on single target upfront damage. You overpenetrate usually because that blunderbuss has extra pen and damage bonuses. I think it can easily do 150 damage upfront with just that one weapon on hit+whatever other damage the other weapon does in a full attack. You should do a few tests to see. In the end Ring the Bell is upfront damage spike while Toxic strike is damage over time.

Have the devs said anything about being able to design custom arena fights, for example, try out your companions/sidekicks and hirelings against each other in different teams?

for single target dps rogue is clearly better with their bonuses, for other stuff barbarian with exception of maybe a rogue/x aoe blunderbuss build because why sacrifice steller single target rogue dps from Xefa's/Scordeo's (when you are facing a single target) for a bit better mass killing with the barb passives. rangers can multi with barb very effectively though because they have good single target sustain via extra accuracy. - it's kind of questionable there what is best really. all spellcasting classes are probably better off with barbarian though - I find the witches shamans and warlocks I build more powerful than the rogue multiclass equivalents. You would build a witch completely different to a mindstalker though for example, because you need to focus on good single target dps more in the cipher tree when running into a dragon or a boss - that means recall agony instead of mindblades, disintegrate is a must on a witch and probably optional on a mindstalker, who can just spam crippling strike/ ring the bell on a boss target. same thing on shaman - you generally want to go skaen or if unlocked woedica and make sure you have good single target deeps because the barbarian stuff is effective in getting rid of a bunch of enemies but lacks single target of rogue.

Beguiler is good if you are making a cipher focused on cc and party support. For damage yeah Ascendant.

The problem with no weapons is it basically says ok you have to do either 1.)summoned weapons (limited to a few classes) or 2.) use unarmed combat perk so basically you have to be durable ie be a fighter/x it is kinda limiting given the penetration system in potd. But with weapons you can also open a new can of worms because experienced players know how to metagame a few choice weapons ie red hand damage stacking (obvious), eccea's blaster projectile splitting/spell duplication (cipher), and certain weapons with good power levels to fire etc can push an already very strong class like wizard/evoker over the top. not to mention you have enough weapons with special abilities that allow you to one shot groups of mobs with special attacks. if you say no enchanting allowed (on weapons) it certainly improves the situation but then I will see a bunch of grave calling saber builds pop up.

Go with Paladin/Priest then is my recommendation. You'd get the most bang for the buck that way with Scion of Flame talent, Ring of Focused Flame (+10 fire accuracy) and Magran's Favor+Sun and Moon for even more fire power goodness. It be very strong from the start with paladin passive defensives and instant priest healing via the priest aoe heal ability. In late level the damage is insane and efficient: you just cast storm of lol holy fire and go to town hitting stuff with flames of devotion.

Paladins should be multiclassed as they have little interesting abilities past level 7. Also most paladin defensive abilities are passive while the offense is active (because exhortations are not really that great currently). So I suggest setting Ai to aggressive and going from there (having taken flames of devotion and its shared flames upgrade+inspiring beacon) That also means if you multiclass the other class can have active defensive abilities. Chanter is a popular choice of course but I mind multi-classing with a livegiver druid stronger for a "healer tank" or even with a wael priest. If you want a more traditional none healer tank but a durable guy who punishes in melee multi with rogue trickster for a holyslayer or with a fighter for a crusader.

Even PotD you don't need a supertank paladin/unbroken or whatever. It's overkill defensively if you have a healer. A soft tank works very well like a devoted/streetfighter, a cantor or even a howler to keep engagements, do some damage and debuff. As for solo sure Heralds can't die but neither can Holyslayers or decoted/trickster swashbucklers and the later two put out more damage.

Kapana you need a good ship as you can sink Fyrgist but he is not the easiest ship to sink that would be easier than leveling to board him. You have to save reload a bit if you try to sink him with your starting ship as he has a lot of firepower. With dhow+ heavy canons it is easy. Reckless brigandine probably levels 8-9 in a party if you are careful and pull enemies one by one.

Though it is not really practical to dump intelligence on cipher for disintegrate/soul ignition because too many other things will suffer for it like your debuff durations. I could see going 20+might, 20+dex something like 12-14 intelligence though. You can't really use Aloth's robes or the overseeing rings because there are better options for armor and rings.

Weapon: From the time you get to Nekataka to about level 15/16 The Red Hand and Essence Interrupter/Aamina's Legacy (vs pierce immune) will carry. My endgame layout on weapons would be something like Thundercrack+Kitchenstove (instant focus refill attack weapons) in slot 1 and in slot 2 the main auto attack weapon Main Attack weapon is probably a choice between Aamina's Legacy (Best single target dps), The Red Hand (best penetration), or Frostseeker (kind of a generalist weapon for all situations) Or you can get giftbearer's cloth and the xtra weapon slot talent or fleshmender and load up 4 weapon slots with a bunch of firearms like Scordeo's/ Kitchen Stove, Ecea's , Xefa's, Dire in the Hole and try to never reload in combat but cycle through them. Should work really well given that you have thunderous report to mac focus 1/encounter and another backup in the Thundercrack Pistol. Ranged weapons work with Rakhan Field boots ability too. Acina'a Tricorn, Marksman Ring and Kuaru's Prize are standard. For robes armor probably miscreant's and maybe the high harbinger robes later With Sharpshooters garb you reload a bit faster with The Red Hand but I don't think it beats the +10% damage from the high harbinger robes. Everything else is taste. I guess precognition amulet is great on hearth orlan. otherwise Orishia is also a good choice.

I actually retract what I said. I read through the second thread and saw that the poster did use a Wanderer / Red Hand Build for ~7,000 DPH. Knowing the poster, that build was almost certainly optimized. But to be that competitive against builds that primarily AoE says something. In that test I put the WandereRed hand guy in like bigbillie built at a disadvantage as he was in an extremely heavy "aoe fluff" group. Basically he was running against like the best pure dps in the game in Evoker nuker (spells vs weapons - apples and oranges), a witch and a shaman. I am sure vs the more "mid of the road" dpsers like pure cipher, even the aoe scouts etc he could potentially reach more effectiveness it's just the Evoker was clearly something else nuking every encounter with level 9/8 spells and "stealing" dps from the overall group. Also single target vs multitarget damage is also like "apples vs oranges". Besides you put a red hand wanderer vs an evoker against a big single hp target like Nemnok or some dragon and I think the wanderer will keep up and may do more dps. It's just game is heavily favored for aoe because of the mob pulls at the moment. So klling as many smaller enemies with damage in an area effect is faster. It was basically red hand single target damage (in a group setting) vs wizard meteors and minolettas missiles. To be more specific I briefly contemplated and tested the wanderer with a melee aoe weapon like oathbreakers end and using instruments of pain to treat it as a ranged weapon and I guess that way you can apply turning wheel lash in addition to the weapon. but I think red hand is still more effective because you do get all the reload perks and speed on it. Also Watershapers focus is better on wanderer than blunderbusses if you want aoe damage. Oh and I don't think there is a combo better suited for getting the most out of that weapon than big williy's build. You combine scout driving flight passive with all the monk passive boosts for a weapon that favors a lot of auto attacking because it it is 1. two-handed (full attacks do little), 2.) and has the best auto attack effect (shoots twice per auto attack).

Level scaling is not the issue at high levels, enemy ai and what abilities and how they use them against you is. Brynlod and dragons in PoE1 were tough because of that not because they were level 28 while your party was 19. I play with modded +6 enemy levels even at high levels and it makes no difference once your party is level14+ and has good abilities and synergy. We still rolf stomp the enemy. For instance give enemies access to the same abilities and tactics players use against the enemies. For example an enemy rogue should shadow step/beyond->run to your caster/healer->crippling strike->finishing blow Same thing for enemy barbs and monks they should active abilities that make them temporarily untargetable/immune to cc and go pummel the players backline. Too often the enemy fighter tanks have the biggest defenses to stuff like prone/paralysis but you can generally ignore them because they do little damage compared to the enemy mages and rogues who can be cced. Speaking of enemy mages, enough with the level 4 junk spells. Any serious mage would deleterious alacrity->deflection buffs->infuse vital essence->nuke with minolettas/meteors/wilting wind if you don't interrupt that stuff or knockdown the mage you die.