Cyrus_Blackfeather

I've considered Helwalker/Berserker too.

Sorry if this is a little much. I like to be thorough, lol.

So, I felt like I'd share a few ideas I had for a Berserker/Streetfighter (Marauder) build. I wanted to gather some feedback from you guys regarding core talents, gear I should definitely look out for, and stats that are worth investing in. I've also included all relevant Pillars of Eternity 1 decisions regarding stats and the availability of certain gear. I've tried to provide an explanation behind each decision so that you guys can get an idea of what I'm hoping to gain out of this. The Name: Bit of a weird choice, I know - but I've always found myself drawn toward Galawain and his buddies (Magran, Abydon) because of what they represent. Galawain, when you look at him, isn't just a god of hunting beasts, he's a god of 'challenge.' This character adheres to this philosophy wholeheartedly, and endeavors to fight each battle as close to the edge as possible. Every brush with the Wheel makes him that much more of an apex predator. He wouldn't even mind falling in battle, as it just means that whoever bested him was a worthier hunter. The Build: A solid mix of defense and offense designed to engage large groups of enemies and lay waste to them. I'll be seeking out items that give me bonus armor - I fully intend to be hit, and to try to spend as much time as comfortably possible Bloodied. There's a heavy affliction focus with this build to maximize damage from Sneak Attack and, later, Deathblows as well as make sure enemies can't hit me too hard. I will also be making heavy use of Drugs with this build and boosting Alchemy to augment Might, Constitution, and other stats. Difficulty: Veteran With PotD scaling now fixed (And some might claim a bit overdone), I have no illusions about my ability to complete the game to my satisfaction on the hardest difficulty setting. This is fine - I'm perfectly content to let those who want to challenge PotD do so at their leisure. To my knowledge, Veteran difficulty now presents a decent challenge in its own right. Race: Human Culture/Background: Deadfire Hunter or Aristocrat Deadfire culture is picked because of the numerous dialogue options it opens up, plus I feel like it could present an interesting challenge when trying to decide which faction to support (I'm leaning toward New Principi, as long as I get to skin Benweth). Hunter for the bonus to Alchemy, Aristocrat for the bonus to conversational skills. I've also considered Raider as it's entirely unique to the Deadfire and is a little more in keeping with the theme I'm going for. Skills: Active - Alchemy, for boosting drugs and potions. Consumables will be extremely important in the late game for keeping myself alive. Plus, drugs offer significant benefits for Might, Constitution, and Dexterity which are all important stats for the build. I've also considered investing in Sleight of Hand and/or Stealth. Passive - Insight, and either Streetwise or Intimidate for handling dialogue checks. This character favors aggressive, somewhat self-serving, action to resolve conflicts. Stats: I've included two sample builds for your consideration, with choices from PoE1 factored in (Even though I'm aware you don't unlock those until later. I will be making this a priority before focusing on sidequests). 16 Might (14+2)* 15 Con (14+1)** 18 Perception ( 8 ) 11 Dexterity (10+1) 10 Intellect 10 Resolve (9+1) *Might calculations include the Gift of the Machine bonus **Constitution calculations factor in both sacrificing Durance to the Blood Pool as well as the 10% bonus health that comes as a combination of Durance's Blood Pool bonus and the Gift of the Machine bonus. For the purposes of health, this gives me an effective 17 Constitution. This build is designed to give me enough health to comfortably stay in Bloodied status while Frenzied and engaged by multiple enemies. The -10 Deflection from Frenzy means that I'm going to be hit, so my priority is making sure that when I am it doesn't hurt as much. I've also considered a build that's more offensively focused and includes a different Blood Pool sacrifice. This is assuming you can still get the Devil of Caroc Breastplate through sacrificing her, as this is necessary for another aspect of the build. 16 Might 10 Con 18 Perception 16 Dexterity (14 + 2) 10 Intellect 10 Resolve Sacrificing the Devil of Caroc gives me a point of Dexterity as well as a point of Penetration, which is always important. If sacrificing her doesn't unlock her breastplate, I will go ahead and continue with sacrificing Durance, taking a point out of Constitution and putting it into Dexterity. This interpretation of the build is designed around hitting fast and hard, and compensating for the heavier weapons I'll be using. The Gear: The most important aspect of gearing this character, in my eyes, is finding a way to negate the Confusion from Berserker's Frenzy. Immunity to Intellect afflictions also prevents other nasty status effects as well, which is very important. Weapon - Lord Darryn's Voulge or the Whispers of the Endless Paths (Modded): Both of these weapons look like a lot of fun to use, and offer some decent area of effect damage options. If I were to use WotEP, I would be using Paryllax's mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/75) to adjust it so that it's a more attractive two handed option. Alternatively, I might dual wield Modwyr and another one handed weapon. This would give me two attacks per Barbaric Blow. Granted, I'm not entirely sold on this concept. Helm: Horns of the Bleak Mother - +1 Perception and resistance to Resolve afflictions. The wiki doesn't have a fully updated list of all of the helms yet, so any other suggestions would be welcome here. I've considered Helm of the Falcon as well, but I hear that also got nerfed. Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate or Garari Cuirass. Depends on how I choose to handle the Confusion from Frenzy. DoC Breastplate offers immunity, so I'd probably go with that if I didn't take Modwyr. Alternatively, Garari Cuirass offers Hit to Graze chance, and isn't contingent on a choice made in PoE1. Gloves: Gatecrashers Belt: Barkskin Belt or whatever it's called (5 Pierce DR) Boots: Boots of the Stone (Extra Dexterity and Resolve) Amulet: Protective Eothasian Charm (Extra Perception and an incredible defensive buff when at low health) Rings: Entonia Signet Ring and Ring of Greater Regeneration (I might also add the "Deadfire Tweaks" mod to open up certain items as trinkets for extra versatility) Abilities: Level 1 - Frenzy and Crippling Strike Level 2 - Backstab Level 3 - Blooded Level 4 - Smoke Veil and Barbaric Blow Level 5 - Thick Skin Level 6 - Dirty Fighting Level 7 - Finishing Blow and Wild Sprint Level 8 - Two Handed or Two Weapon Style Level 9 - Bloody Slaughter or Bloodlust Level 10 - Persistent Distraction and Spirit Frenzy Level 11 - Adept Evasion Level 12 - Shadowing Beyond Level 13 - Barbaric Smash and Deep Wounds Level 14 - Devastating Blow Level 15 - Tough Level 16 - Lion's Sprint and Improved Critical Level 17 - Brute Force Level 18 - Withering Strike Level 19 - Deathblows and Spirit Tornado Level 20 - Perishing Strike The abilities are where I'm having the hardest time making decisions. I tried for a nice blend of defensive and offensive powers, but I'd appreciate any other suggestions that people could provide.

So it definitely seems like people are in favor of Berserker/Street Fighter over Berserker/Shattered Pillar. I'll be creating a more in-depth build discussion thread later.

Plus it has a really nice kind of "To the pain!" aesthetic that I like.

Isn't the Devil of Caroc breastplate useless now? Or is that another example of people overreacting?

Hello. I was hoping to get some quick build feedback going into 1.1 as I'm trying to choose between two different multiclass options for a Berserker. I'm listing both options, along with my personal thoughts on each, below. This has come from a lot of brainstorming, talking to various people on the forums, and totally didn't consist of throwing darts at a dartboard (Because I rent, and I'm pretty sure my landlord wouldn't much appreciate me throwing darts at the wall). Berserker/Shattered Pillar (Ravager): This was my original go-to entering 1.1 - The monk changes hit the Shattered Pillar a lot less than any other Monk subclass, it didn't really benefit much from Turning Wheel being a Wound spending subclass as opposed to a Wound hoarding one, and the change to accruing wounds only on autoattack only really prevented chaining abilities ad infinitum, which is perfectly fair. Whenever a class has the capability to permanently stunlock everything, that's worth looking into. Pros - Offers really nice synergy with Rooting Pain, as well as an early way to purge the Confused status from the Berserker (Clarity of Agony/Enlightened Agony), several nice on-crit effects (Enervating Blows, Heartbeat Drumming, Swift Flurry). Flagellant's Path is a nice gap closing attack but it comes very late in the game. Cons - Swift Strikes/Flurry doesn't stack with the action speed boost from Frenzy. A lot of other good Monk abilities are made somewhat redundant by the Barbarian (Thunderous Blows gives Penetration, but Berserker's Frenzy gives that too, PLUS armor). Berserker/Streetfighter (Marauder): This option was offered as an alternative to the Ravager. Essentially, the way I see it playing is that you'd want to keep Deflection fairly low (so enemies are more prone to attack you) and then use the extra Recovery Speed + afflictions from the Rogue to murder them in a violent haze of blood and body parts. Barbarian offers some armor boosting passives that can be taken to allow for this style of play. Assuming Veteran difficulty is properly tuned, I'd probably play this there first and then maybe bump up to PotD if I feel it's too easy. Pros - Rogue got a nice damage boost this patch, Streetfighter's bonuses for being flanked, as well as flanked AND bloodied, are both very nice for a melee fighter, Rogue offers many more options for afflictions than the Monk does and doesn't suffer from overspecialization (Most of Monks' attack powers target Fortitude). Cons - Lack of an early game way to purge Confusion on its own (Suppress Affliction from Xoti may work), Less defenses than a Fighter/Paladin so I can't monopolize on the Flanked + Bloodied benefits of Street Fighter as much, or Riposte (Which is a big part of those builds as I recall). Because Street Fighter takes a recovery time penalty when not flanked, I can't assassinate mages or ranged 'as' easily, especially if I'm wearing heavier armor. Thoughts? If I want to play around with a Streetfighter, would Berserker be a good multiclass choice or should I stick with Devoted/Unbroken or Bleak Walker? I could make any concept work in roleplay terms with the character I'm wanting to play. As a matter of fact, the 'living dangerously' philosophy of Street Fighter is perfectly in keeping with the concept I'm going for for my 'main playthrough' Watcher.

So, I've gotten a lot of good insight into this topic so far but I just wanted to address the Intellect situation again. Since I won't be taking a wound hoarding Monk, I won't benefit from Duality of Mortal Presence's +10 Intellect bonus (Fire lash notwithstanding). So I won't be able to run around with 20 INT in combat anymore, without relying on my party. So I had a few questions. 1. If I had Modwyr, would the immunity to Intellect afflictions just prevent the Confusion from ever happening in the first place? So I could Frenzy, then use Swift Strikes, and have base duration on both? 2. Are there any ways to get the T2 Intellect inspiration from Priests or Chanters or any other source? 3. For the early game, is duration calculated the moment you use an ability taking your current INT into account, or do fluctuations to your INT adjust the duration while the ability is in progress?

So, another question I had - is Shattered Pillar still considered a good Monk subclass option after 1.1 or would I be better off sticking with a no subclass Monk? It seems like the only major nerf they got was not being able to gain wounds off of abilities, but it seems like the only reason that was included was to prevent infinite chaining of Torment's Reach or Skyward Kick.

Now I'm getting flashbacks from For Honor with Centurion bullying other heroes. From my experience Carnage isn't strong damage wise, but it applies Staggered status from Spirit Frenzy. I don't know if it applies bleed from Blood Frenzy, but this stagger is pretty great if you have rogues in your part or just in general, as it cannot be resisted and decreases enemies might by 5. I haven't seen it applying anything else, so Staggered status might be unique effect for Carnage. With my Marauder I was hitting 40-70 with my hits/crits and Carnage from that was around 8-15 I think. It's not strong, but it does soften up nearby enemies - especially if one takes Rooting Pain into account. Shattered Pillar is the best fit with that trait theoretically because you can control it a lot more. Plus, with the "nerf" to Shattered Pillar (Can't infinitely chain abilities anymore) it's a lot more reasonable. I wouldn't mind using fists so much if there were decent fist weapons in the game. My kingdom for some brass knuckles or handwraps with decent enchantments. Maybe someone could mod that in, but finding someone to mod an entirely new weapon type is going to be a lot harder than finding someone who could add weapons to existing categories. Plus you kind of want any new unique items to have their own lore-compliant descriptions, otherwise it just takes you out of the whole experience, y'know? Edit: I probably will end up going with the "Spirit" line of Frenzy upgrades because of the debuffs they offer. Not only do hits Stagger enemies with Spirit Frenzy, Spirit Tornado does cold damage and applies either Frightened or Terrified. That honestly seems a lot better than Blood Frenzy (Raw damage on crit) and Blood Storm (Kills increase Frenzy duration). Can someone confirm/deny this?

*cries* Okay, so not worth worrying about pumping Int then? Got it. Helps also with durations so def useful....but as ravager u also need const, might and especially perception...dont think dex is as important as you get a lot of speed buffs Hmm, alright. So maybe something like... 16 Might (4+2) 14 Con (4) 12 Dex (1+1) 18 Perception (8 ) 10 Int 10 Resolve (9+1) Also, keep in mind that I'll be getting 5 Intellect from the Smart inspiration when I upgrade to Enlightened Agony, so that's 15 Int. 50% AoE radius, 25% effect duration. Or at least, that's how it works in my head.

*cries* Okay, so not worth worrying about pumping Int then? Got it.

Hey guys, So I'm thinking that my 'main' Watcher (The one I finish the campaign/all the DLCs with first, and who'll be the one I import to PoE3 if we're ever so lucky) will be a Ravager centered around high melee AoE damage to assassinate priority targets (Mages, ranged DPS) and using the Berserker and Shattered Pillar subclasses. I want to provide my build here, and I'd appreciate any feedback you all could give on better stat allocations/what actives and passives are absolutely necessary/what gear I should look into getting. This is going to be a pretty extensive breakdown, so be prepared! Difficulty: Veteran - I have no illusions about my ability to play on PotD as it currently is. I don't like the idea of having to use kiting or mob splitting to progress through the game, so I'm hoping Veteran in its current state will offer a worthy challenge without being too frustrating. Why Berserker? Because the bonuses to Frenzy are well worth not being able to see my HP and the Raw damage over time. Through experimentation in Patch 1.02 I found that Clarity of Agony was able to cleanse the Confusion, though I'm not sure if this applies to Enlightened Agony or is still the case. If not, I will be pursuing Modwyr because of its immunity to Intellect afflictions. I'll be taking Human as my race because the racial passive when Bloodied gives me a good idea of when my health is too low. Why Shattered Pillar? I like the more active style of play offered by Shattered Pillar, compared to vanilla Monk, and it doesn't have nearly as many drawbacks as Helwalker/Nalpazca. It synergizes very well with Rooting Pain to my understanding, adding another factor of AoE damage and a nice CC. With this, I'll be much more encouraged to spend my Wounds on powers rather than hold onto them for Duality of Mortal Presence buffs. Race/Culture/Background: Not that this really matters, it's mostly just for RP flavor. I decided to go with a Human born in the Deadfire and either Hunter or Aristocrat as my background. I'd probably go with Aristocrat just because it's a nice bonus to most of my conversational skills, plus opens up some unique dialogue. Also, the idea of playing a fourth or fifth son of a noble house who's a bit of a Tybalt/Cesare Borgia (Of "The Borgias" not of actual history) with his violent tendencies kind of appeals. Active Skills/Passive Skills: My primary active skill will be Alchemy because of the buffs it gives to potions and drugs, which I plan to make heavy use of during this playthrough. To my understanding, the stat boosting drugs are still worth taking - as a Barbarian, I will be seeking ones that boost my Constitution and/or Might, to make up for not getting the +10 Might from Helwalker. Sleight of Hand and Stealth both seem rather important as well. Can someone elaborate on this? Stats: Now, here's where things obviously get a little up to interpretation. Because I'm not guaranteed Helwalker Might boosts, I didn't dump Might as low as I might have otherwise. I'm also factoring in historical buffs, which I know don't come until later. 16 Might (14+2)* 10 Con (9+1)** 16 Dexterity (15+1) 18 Perception 10 Intellect 10 Resolve (9+1) *The extra +1 Might comes from the Gift of the Machine bonus. **The extra point of Constitution comes from feeding Durance to the Blood Pool. Doing this, plus the Gift of the Machine bonus, will give me 10% Max HP as well, an effective 2 points of Constitution in that regard. I've also considered sacrificing the Devil of Caroc for +1 Dexterity and +1 Penetration. If I were to do that, I would bump up Con to 10 and Dex down to 14. That said, Barbarian seems fine as far as Penetration is concerned. Abilities: I'm honestly not sure which abilities would be priority to take, mainly because I'm bad at math and don't know how many points I'd be allotted to take abilities from either skill tree/at which levels I unlock the next Power Level's worth of abilities. I'd like to hear more from experienced Barbarians or, better yet, people who have played the game with this subclass, regarding staple abilities that are must-haves when they become available. Gear: Some items that I've considered for this build. Please let me know if any of these have been seriously affected by the patch. I may be using a mod to reverse the changes made to items in 1.1 since I feel like most of them weren't warranted. Garari Cuirass: Even before the nerfs, I was never fully comfortable with using the Devil of Caroc Breastplate. Post nerf, the decision was made much easier. This is, I think, a fine and perfectly balanced alternative - 20% Recovery Time really isn't that bad, and the armor rating seems really solid for the weight class. Horns of the Bleak Mother or Death's Maw: Both seem like solid choices - Horns of the Bleak Mother gives more Perception, resistance to Resolve afflictions, plus a damage bonus against Dragons, while Death's Maw gives me more armor for being near corpses. Granted, Horns of the Bleak Mother seems to have more practical effects. Gatecrashers: +2 Might and 50% chance on crit to cause knockdown. Boots of the Stone: +1 Dex/+1 Resolve. If I do mod the game, this will be the primary reason - I don't feel like the boots deserved to lose that extra point to Resolve. Modwyr: All of the enchantments on it seem really good, plus it provides a nice immunity to Intellect afflictions - which I think is frankly quite fair. Plus it's a Soulbound weapon, and you can talk to it. Whispers of Yenwood: This I'm not too crazy about, because of the penalty to Will, but it offers some other nice bonuses as well. Again, I know this has been changed as of 1.1 but I am highly considering reverting the item changes back to how they were for the most part. As I have not made it very far in any playthrough due to A: Indecisiveness and B: Incoming patches, I'm not familiar with many of the items in the game. Some suggestions as to other gear/better gear to consider for these slots and the belt/neck/rings/etc. would be appreciated. Also, while I am a huge fan of Modwyr, I'm not 100% married to the concept of swords. A good suggestion for an offhand weapon, perhaps a dagger/stiletto or club or battle-axe (Yes, I know there's only one choice) would be fine. Some Concerns: These are my biggest concerns with this character going in. - Poor Defenses: Monk and Barbarian both have defensive tools that can make up for taking the occasional hard hit in melee, but neither really offer the kind of solid boosts to defenses that Fighters or Paladins give. I get that I'm a primary Crowd Controller/Striker, and that's fine - I can have other companions tank for me. I'm just concerned about catching a stray Fireball or Necrotic Lance or something. I know I'm not intended to be a MT and have no intention to play the tanking role, but will I be able to take a few hits if needed? Do I have enough free action points to take, say, Bear's Fortitude or Snake's Reflexes to shore up those weaknesses? - Poor Intellect: While there seem to be ways to remove the Confused status from my character (And thus the -5 Intellect penalty), there aren't a lot of options for raising my Intellect that I've been able to see. My issue with this is that, frankly, I don't know how big Carnage's AoE is, and how much Intellect is needed to achieve best results with it. I know I can shore up Intellect through resting bonuses as well as certain food though. I've also been worried about Intellect in regards to dialogue checks, but it seems Might and Perception are both used more often. Other than that, I'm all set to Rip and Tear through some enemy squishies, and I feel like this character has the potential to be a heck of a lot of fun to use. From what people have said, Monk is still a very strong multiclass option in 1.1, and Barbarian seems like an excellent complement to it. Again, comments and feedback are appreciated! See something I missed? Think something could be handled a little better? Please let me know.

And plus the name honestly just kind of makes it on its own. SPIRIT TORNADO! Sounds like something from a 90s era PS1 JRPG that'd be accompanied by a really poor quality voice over clip in bad Engrish.

I was considering doing that - doesn't Frenzy go up in cost if you upgrade it? Not with patch 1.1 Oh yeah? Cool!

I was considering doing that - doesn't Frenzy go up in cost if you upgrade it?

Hey guys! So I was wondering what the overall consensus was about the two upgrade trees for Barbarian's Frenzy ability? In terms of pure utility, Frenzy -> Blood Frenzy -> Blood Storm SOUNDS like it'd be the most useful, but I'm not sure if the effects/bonus damage on Spirit Frenzy/Spirit Tornado make it more desirable. Can someone shed some light on this?

I mean, frankly that sounds amazing, lol.

What do you mean by Fighter losing function or signature moves? Charge? Cleaving Stance?

Penetrating Strike is still good, yeah. Did they touch Disciplined Barrage/Disciplined Strikes? That was sort of the Fighter's "signature move" and was one of the reasons why it multiclassed so well with so many other classes.

Hey guys, So... I've been seeing a lot of threads on this form saying that the blanket nerfs for 1.1 have pretty much killed all interest they have in playing the game, even with future DLCs/potential future balance updates. That now that Fighter/Monk have been adjusted, they're garbage tier, and all of the "Good" items are worthless now. My question here is a simple one. Really? So far, the only changes I really have an issue with are the ones to items because those seem to have been handled a little more sloppily than the class adjustments (Blanket changes rather than specific tuning on a case by case basis). Understandable due to how many items there are in the game, but at the same time it led to some somewhat arbitrary number changes. Cipher also got hit somewhat hard without really getting anything in return which is unfortunate, as Cipher was in a pretty not great place already as anything besides multiclass fodder. Priest kind of came out smelling like roses, they're not mandatory to take for Devotions of the Faithful anymore, but their single target spells now cast within half a second. Rogue apparently got some really nice buffs across the board and some bugfixes. And even the classes that got hit the most - Monk and Fighter - only had that happen because they were considered two of the most overpowered classes in the game. And for good reason, frankly. Both had abilities that could proc off of themselves infinitely. Fighter could output insane amounts of AoE damage on its own, which essentially meant it was all three roles at once instead of a primary defender. So my big question is... Is the game still fun with these nerfs? Do the classes still feel powerful without being able to cheese the whole game? Followed by... How are the changes to Veteran/PotD in addition to all of these changes?

So, I'm pretty new to this whole modding thing, but I wanted some advice on how to do a rebalance of some of the sweeping item nerfs and some ability nerfs in 1.1 I'm trying to wrap my head around Spiritual Successor as a file editor though, and I'm a little lost - whenever I try to edit an ability, I can't make sense of most of the stuff that appears. It's all just strings of letters and numbers, I can't find anywhere where I could, say, adjust a full attack to a primary attack. For best results, I want to collect all of the changes I'll need to make in this thread and carry them out when the patch hits - I think it'd be easier to work backwards with some of the bugfixing framework for certain skills. Here's a list of the abilities I wanted to edit: Fighter: Charge - Make it so that it's a primary attack against all enemies it hits. Removes dual wield cheese but still allows for decent AoE damage/use of two-handers. Weapon Specialization - Bring this up to 15% damage with proficient weapons Weapon Mastery - Bring this up to 10% damage with proficient weapons Cleaving/Mob Stance (Not sure if I need to edit these separately, clarification would be lovely) - Instead of a full attack against one enemy, a primary attack against all enemies. For this, I don't know if it's possible to do a 'half-mod' if 1.1 has some sort of functionality included that keeps Cleaving Stance from infinitely proccing. I've seen a lot of Fighter buffing mods bumping Armored Grace from 25% to 50%. Is this something I should do? I'm not really sure how the math works. Monk: Turning Wheel - 5% lash instead of a 2% lash. Lightning Strikes - 30% Shock Damage lash I've considered bumping up the Action Speed buff from 15% to 20% again. Would this be too much/make the game too ridiculously easy, even with the updates to difficulty? As for items... Items are a bit of a different beast, as - judging from what people have said - pretty much every item in the game has been hit with some sort of change. It honestly seems like it'd be better to just decide on which items I plan on using most and changing them individually. What you guys could do to help me... Do the work for me? :D No, but seriously... Some help deciphering the more obtuse bits of data with the mod tool would go a long way. For example, I have no idea how to properly change something from a Full Attack to a Primary Attack (Or, in the case of the new Charge, from a Stun to a Primary Attack on all enemies). I feel like editing the passive skills would be better since I'm pretty sure it's just changing numbers around and that's about it. Plus, how on Earth do I adjust Cleaving Stance so it hits everybody instead of just one nearby enemy, or would I not be able to do that? Also, once I've done this, what do I do to get my files to take effect over all other saves into infinity? Please be as descriptive as possible. I saw an Override folder mentioned in the sticky thread, but I don't see one in my Steam folder. Do I have to make one myself? Since I'll only be changing specific skills, the override will only affect those skills if they're changed in subsequent patches, right? So I don't have to worry about it affecting, say, all Monk skills or all Fighter skills, or Paladin/Cipher skills? Also, if some of you who are also unsatisfied with the state of things could review the changes I'm considering and potentially provide your own input/suggestions for updates to the other classes, I'd appreciate it. I've really only played with Monk, Fighter, and Paladin, so getting some insight into how the other eight classes fared and how people are planning to adjust those skills would be much appreciated.

I think Zahua's was changed from 15% to drug effects to 15% all beneficial effects (So, an effective 3 Int as far as that goes).

So, after a lot of waffling about builds and stuff, I wanted to share what I'm planning on running as soon as 1.1 goes live to hear your guys' thoughts on it. This character is intended to be a MT Watcher, dealing out respectable damage while weathering some of the harder hits from powerful enemies, with the right armor of course. With that in mind, I have two ideas for class combinations and would like to hear opinions on them. The stats will remain the same. Stats: Human/Deadfire/Aristocrat Active Skill Focus: Alchemy Passive Skill Focus: Insight/Streetwise or Intimidate 16 Might (14+2) 10 Con (9+1) and 10% Max Health 16 Dex (15+1) 18 Perception ( 10 Intellect 10 Resolve (9+1) Gift of the Machine bonus and sacrificing Durance to the Blood Pool both factored in. I may sacrifice Devil of Caroc for extra penetration instead I intend to play this character as either a Brawler (Fighter/Shattered Pillar) or a Bleak Walker/Shattered Pillar. I can see positives and negatives for both options. Right now I'm leaning toward Brawler because it gives more flexibility in how I want to roleplay my character. I wanted to share the build with you guys and get some solid feedback on the state of Fighter right now. In the wake of the beta, I've seen a lot of talk being thrown around about how Fighter and Monk are both completely useless/garbage tier now, but by that logic, every class is garbage tier. Fighter still seems to offer a lot of useful traits when multiclassing with a melee Striker. Basically, what I'm wanting is an honest assessment of where Fighter/Monk are right now - without any sort of reactionary nonsense. Is it as bad as going from God tier to absolute garbage or are they both still very good options just not completely game breaking?

Alright! It's important to note that (apparently) PotD has been adjusted to actually be pretty hard! So we'll have to see how squishy this sort of build is with those changes. As a Shattered Pillar, I actually don't get a lot of mileage out of Turning Wheel unfortunately, at least not as much as I would as a Helwalker or as a no subclass Monk. Only +5 Intellect and a 10% lash with the new changes, since I only get 5 wounds. That's one of the reasons I've considered No Subclass, as well as tweaking it so that it's back to its pre-patch form. Alright, so I can use this guy as a dedicated mage killer - honestly that sounds like a pretty good deal.