Ymarsakar

I thought it would make sense that they reduce it to 1 per encounter cast from any level 1 for level 9, but the actual change that was in the works was the Vancian master 1 spell deal per level. Might be cool if the talents for the extra spells had provided additional casts. Although it makes sense that they limited per encounter spells to just one, given that many martial classes have small amounts of per encounter abilities. Rogue's blinding strike vs 1 vancian per encounter cast of druid sunbeam that does damage aoe and aoe blinds. Wonder if they'll level up the vancian mastery ranks like the old ADD leveled up wizard spells per levels. That might make more sense than continuing mastery spells to higher levels. Imagine a per encounter devotions 4th level from a priest. That kind of puts to shame the other classes' abilities. The ciphers gain more focus per point, to make up for lack of drug use. I never used the drugs and food to boost focus gains, so I was having a hard time regaining focus given the paralysis nerf around 2.0. Accuracy buffs was not something I had in my party reliably, given no priest's holy radiance and buffs. Paladin's zealous aura was not usually in the right place either, since I was experimenting with a paladin at the front. Well after the 3.0 changes, the ciphers felt a lot better, maybe because like chanters, I was already using lower level powers more.

What I surmise that Balthazar is doing is he is using melee front liners like the ranger pet and barbarians, to stall and soak up damage from the enemy hordes, which he then uses to chain cast priest/druid/wizard spell combos. That's what I did when I started POE, of course, back when there was no UI to show what the range of attacks and spells were. And wizards often had very low range spells, like 5-8m only, which they buffed up later. The problem with ciphers was mostly that it took too long to get to the higher level abilities and most people just chain casted paralyze. The new immunities and what not, changed the balance of that, as well as the new focus requirements. Ciphers shared the same problem as chanters at higher levels, by the time they could use their most powerful abilities, the fight was just about over for middle enemies. Especially given the cipher's +40% melee/range damage auto attacks, almost like a permanent rogue sneak attack at +50% damage. Giving the cipher better/different ways to gain focus, like retaliation or amplified thrust, made it more interesting to me. Changed the playstyle, since I usually like casting fight changing spells when I need them, not when I've done a lot of damage. Usually because if I did a lot of damage, that means the fight is too easy to need it. The antipathetic and echo beams were also fun, but difficult use at times. Would have worked better with a rogue, of course. Back to the other topic, barbarians require a bit of preparation and micro. Which I don't see someone who is microing 2-3 vancian casters in a fight, usually pays attention to. Most important is probably the AOE range of carnage, the way INT stacks with itself due to radius, and using reach weapons to hit in he middle of an enemy pack for more aoes. There are also edge cases where wizard aoes damages enemy hordes, but doesn't kill them. So if they were stacking blindsight and vulnerability together, the barbarian would have dealt the last blow, saving time, reducing damage, interrupting enemies, and also preventing the casters from having to use auto attacks or another spell to finish them off. Even though the casters did a large amount of damage with aoes, their spells were saved for later. Otherwise their spells would do even more "over" damage on 20% endurance enemies and trash mobs. In a party of only Vancian casters, edge cases like this will present themselves, and will no longer be hidden or covered up by hybrid/martial classes killing enemies that would have taken another spell cast. After all, Itumaak does constant damage so long as he is not KOed, and barbarians with on hit weapons, will keep doing that. The Vancian caster limitation was always the number of spell casts they had. But there were ways to prevent them from having to use certain spells a lot due to the other classes contribution to tactics. In fact, a party of only vancian casters, might be more interesting to play, although hellish to micro. Because certain spells will be used more, and others less. The wizard's spot tanking abilities with essential phantom and dimensional shift, are especially fun to play around with. Most people do solo runs though. Less micro, longer fights, more in depth feel for classes. The wizard solo run person would gain a lot of experience with the limitations of those casts. The vancian casters have gotten better since 1.0, mostly because of the /encounter abilities and buffs to certain spell powers/ranges/UI changes. Btw, that Dmir?

Have you tried out the newer fray, aoe cone prone, and overbearing abilities?

My tanks usually carry alpha range weapons or some kind of warbow/wand/rod for distance dps. Makes them more flexible if their health is low or something is blocking them from a target. So for kana, the chanter, I had hatchet/small shield in the beginning. If it needed more dps then I used warhammer/sshield or sabre/sshield. Sabre has the base damage of an estoc or greatsword, but attacks faster, at average not slow recovery speeds. With near full plate -50%, the greatsword is pretty slow. There's the Vile Lorner's lance, up in Salty Mast club in second floor, I think. That has a pretty good on hit effect for tanks. -5 to all defenses. Most of the good sabres are in Caed Nua levels. Like Resolution. Bitter Cut, no idea where that is though, that's more end game. Spears have +5 accuracy, ACC. So early and middle game, they can make a large difference for people who attack slowly. As each miss is more noticeable, each graze is soaked by DR. The problem with sabres is that rogues tend to want to get a monopoly on them, especially if dual wielding. But there are plenty of fine sabres around, just use those. Lash effects are pretty cheap these days, put those on. Save the fine/exceptional stuff for the uniques. The lash effect is a huge percentage of your overall dps, especially if your base weapon damage is high. And if your might is high, which a chanter/healer/paladin should have high might. The chanter's death chant, the first level one, doesn't show up on the damage sheet. It bypasses DR, more or less, and doesn't require defenses to save against. It just punches right through and drains enemy's endurance, very good against lots of enemies, high DR enemies, spirits, the usual difficult enemies that are immune to X, Y, and Z. It also pulls aggro around the chanter, which is useful for battlefield management. The death chant and the old aoe heal effect, helped when I was clearing Caed Nua on the crit path at party level 2, using all story NPCs like Eder, Aloth, Kana, Durance. The tanks just needed high enough deflection to ensure the spirits couldn't kill them. Split pulling enemies also helped a lot, taking them on 1-2 at a time instead of taking on 5+ at a time.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84357-quality-of-the-new-class-skills/page-4?do=findComment&comment=1786101 I was just talking about a party with no Vancian casters over there, and how it might produce more faithful and interesting results and gameplay/flow styles. Paladins have some of the best permanent group buffs and /encounter heals. Chanters have infinite heals due to their spell invocations, and some light aoe heals from their limited duration effects. From highest priority to lowest. And Least micro to more control needed to optimize. Chanter, Paladin, Fighter, Rogue/Ranger/Barbarian/monk. The chanter's death chant aoe and ability to wield weapon/small shield, while stacking defensive talents, makes it pretty versatile. More so than a fighter using overbearing guard and 2/4 engagement limit. The Paladin has personally higher defense as it levels up, but because it needs to use powers, that drops engagement on enemies, which can disturb how the battlefield is laid out. So as Arnegar wrote of it, I would also put a paladin in the middle with arbalest/arquebus in slot 1 and Soldier weapon in slot 2. Then if anyone slips past the chanter, the paladin can engage them. Fighters can do some pretty good CC and spike damage output in the beginning of a fight, and is very stable defensive wise due to constant recovery. A sabre/small shield fighter for good dps and defense. A spear/small shield fighter for a bonus to knockdown and active abilities accuracy. warhammer/small/medium shield fighter to make use of crits against flanked/prone enemies with disciplined barrage, and the +1 engagement warhammer. Against bosses, might need an enchanted larder door. Or against enemies that can stun/petrify/prone/etc when procing physical attacks. The hard CCs. As for some of the other class setups, I usually run rogues with sabre + small shield, using escape and backstab. Shadowing beyond, coordinated positioning, and finishing attack are also important. Rangers like Sagani, I tend to keep naked or with just a robe, doing lots of dmg with driving flight and stunned shot cc or prone/stun on crit weapons, using the pet more as a mini rogue flanker and damage meat shield. The monk normally wears plate armor if he is in a normal party, but here he can go with lighter armor and hit the enemy's backline using dual fists, torment's reach, anguish. The barbarian I used with hide armor, and put either a reach weapon on them, Soldier focus, or dual spears. Well any weapon that has additional effects on hit/crit is useful with carnage. Monks don't need too much micro management if you use AI script with self defense/defense on auto attack and aggressive on the class profile. That's because the script knows how to use swift strikes and torment's reach. It's only the anguish one you often times have to micro, because anguish is either very low priority or the script doesn't use it at all.

Because wizards use combo spell chains, they need time to cast. Which is what the martial classes are for. Chanters and monks and ciphers, are the hybrid classes, they use special resources which can be gained over time. Although the cipher was always weird, even though I've played with all versions of them from 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0, because the cipher's focus gain is very very unstable due to enemy defenses and grazes/hits/crits. That lack of stability probably bothered me more than anything else. Of course monks are also unstable, due to taking damage, but I can always unleash harmful AOEs that just touch the monk. I have to spend time debuffing enemies for the cipher or buffing it using priest. I prefer a much more stable gameplay, predictable almost, such as spell chain combos or chanter verse 5 spell invocations. Barbarians, I rate as higher than rogues and fighters, because barbarians still have some good passive effects that activate even after the rest and /enc abilities expire. Rogues have very solid alpha strikes and initial hits, very useful for when I need to take out somebody in the backrow that I can't easily get to, and escape/coordinated positioning makes it very easy to change where people are at. Fighters can only maintain their recovery for x seconds, and they often run out of their /encounter abilities, but in return they do pretty good spike dps now with clear out and fray, with some solid sabre/shield combos as well. The fighter's prone on engagement attacks, can also be interesting, as it is a solid CC stop against people moving around him. But I am still not taking the nerfed Defender modal, especially since you can take the talent hold wall for +1 engagement and then use warhammer special for another +1 engagement. I wonder why Balthazar uses the damage listed on the page for his characters. That is not exactly a good way to see the power levels of different classes in fights. Just as it was noted that rogues over damage certain enemies, and thus often are inefficient with the usage of their per rest and per encounter abilities, so the same is the case with classes full of op spell damages that do aoe. It even counts the damage people do to their friendlies. Yea, because wizards have fireball that crits your own people, it increases his damage stat, but carnage doesn't because it is foe only... Comparing barbarian carnage and full on passive abilities that are forever on and applying damage, to things like wizard/druid combos using 3+ spells per fight, is beyond unbalanced and uneven. People should try a party with no Vancian casters to see the real difference between hybrid and martial classes. Or to put it another way, use only 3-4 people, that are only Vancian casters in a party. That would be a much more legitimate test and playthrough, than going by damage numbers on that page. What I suspect people are doing, is that they are using the advantage of martial classes, to make their vancian casters look good, whether intentionally or not. It's not a legitimate test.

This is why I like psychological dramas plus life and death dramas, for example Grisaia no Kajitsu. Not a lot of Western focus on those genres and sub genres, although some people like Chris Avellone seems more interested.

Yeah - they "may" because there's a roll against fortitude that may fail. It's like any other attack that causes prone - like Knockdown or all the other weapons with prone on crit: You first roll the damaging hit against deflection - and if that crits there wil be a second roll against fortitude to determine if the target also gets prone. So the prone effect "may" fail despite the initial attack being a crit. Originally, I had thought it used a random process like the zealous endurance hit to graze effect. Actually that wasn't in the game at the time, so the orlan's hit to crit conversion effect. So I interpreted it as a chance to proc, after passing a hit roll. If I had tested it earlier, I might have realized that the proc chance was 100% on crit, but that there's another roll for it. But that would still be better than say a 50% proc chance on crit. Since player's accuracy can be buffed, and enemy defenses debuffed.

Someone from Obsidian mentioned that this was a bug, since before it only fixed the NPC stats once per save game, not every time it reloaded. Unfortunately, the fix won't be in 3.02.

There's something like that robe, if I recall in a sidequest from Dyrford. Where you go against Skaen cultists. I can't remember if the modifier was +4 though. But it seemed at the time, better than the +2 fine robes. Reading what ottffsse wrote, it seems that would be it. But I don't recall any other robe like that in the main game.

Did you ever test the cipher's new fast cast level 1 charm to use it on enemies to reduce their defenses, then use something like leech or instincts on them? I was wondering if that was viable in the middle of a fight due to charm being fast cast now.

Paladin was always weird as a melee tank, because whenever Pallegina went to cast any of those paladin powers, the engagement lock broke and the enemies just retargeted somebody else. Although I noticed that doesn't happen as much now with the AI, so long as I avoid AOE attacks. Defender should have had an aoe bubble or damage deflection like the new fighter talent. Putting an aoe tanking ability that far up the level, is not so good for the class build. Doesn't need to be very powerful, even 10-20% of damage redistributed to the fighter can really change how it plays with Defender in the start. Active abilities like grabbing an enemy and pulling them back, is too micro for a fighter's normal defensive zero micro playstyle. Cone attacks, battering ram sweeps, aoe deflections, enlarging the fighter's circle space to take up more terrain (that was always a neat trick in Temples of Elemental Evil, casting enlarge on a fighter to make them take up more space), would have added basic and more flexible tactics to a starter fighter's repertoire. Soaking up damage, and then applying a hit to graze effect, less than zealous endurance, would have added something new to the fighter, if it was combined with a limited time modal that also redistributed damage party members took. But would have required them to retool those fighter modals. Limited duration modals, like the druid shapeshift, can be really easy to balance. Rather than permanent modals. Since they made constant recovery not so constant any more, they can do the same thing with modals, and buff up their power as a result. It's something Obsidian really should have thought about before White March 2 came out, though.

Fighters were very easy to learn when I was playing POE first time. They tended to not require micro, more forgiving on mistakes in tactics. I'm glad to see some of the dps abilities got buffed, since the fighter needed it as people were not using them because their utility only extended to their personal defense, not the party's offense or defense. A fighter with disciplined barrage feels "good" in the beginning now. Of course, I also stopped using large shields. That would have helped in my first playthrough, although back then the main tank needed a very high deflection. Above 70-90. Sagani back then, had about 10-20% of the dps she has now. Aloth didn't have per encounter raw damage. The NPCs didn't start with fine weapons.

I refused to use arbalests and other weapons that "may prone on crit", until people said that they always proned on crit, and then I was like "what". But I always thought the accuracy penalty on those arquebuses could be compensated for, but there were too many close calls in my first game, due to that. So arbalest and crossbows are my favorite ranged alpha weapon as well. Especially for casters, since their accuracy is horribad to begin with, and the reload animation allows me to cast their spells, without them attacking and then having to recover again. I remember that thread Boer was talking about, because I recall that was when Paladins first got flames of devotion as an upgraded alpha strike. I think a lot of paladin abilities were per rest or something equally bad like that before that patch came in. Somewhere around White March 1 or just before. Since paladins used might for healing, that meant a maxed might build would also benefit damage. By decreasing dexterity, which affects less negatively for people wearing full plate -50% like a chanter, the paladin's other stats could also be buffed up a bit.

Also, not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but I was doing some experimentation with a level 14 priest, and realized that the level 6 spell (or maybe level 5) spark of the something or other, caused a buff on a party member and gave them a retaliation like effect in the combat log every few seconds. So I cast it on a cipher to see if that was recognized as a cipher retaliation for focus gains, and it was. So good synergy for defensive melee cipher and a priest at higher levels. POE WM 3.01

I usually use paladins or/and chanters with a lot of melee. Passive heals and support. The barbarian probably might need a reach weapon, on top of whatever other weapon slot combo it has, to ensure it can switch if the doorway is blocked off. As for zahua, I replied in the other thread about monks. For melee characters, I usually set Ai to self defense only. For ranged characters, sometimes defensive. Never auto attack to offense for me, since it moves people out of position.

I use sagani's fox like a mini rogue. I restarted POTD with a monk, a rogue, and a barbarian, just to see how they would play in the beginning and learn the updated changes from experience via battle. The monk takes some getting used to, like the cipher and rogue playstyles. Getting a monk at high level, you won't know how to integrate him if you don't know how the class plays. Half the reason I integrated a rogue into my party this early before White March, was so when I slipped in the Devil, I wouldn't be going around like a chicken with its head cut off, wondering why my party tactics are broken. Certainly, for mass crowd control, durance and aloth are pretty important. But a paladin and chanter these days can make up the healing output of a priest, so long as you also have enough melee to form a wall. Chanter technically has "infinite healing" though. Paladins run out of lay on hands 2/encounter and druids/priests run out of spells. Chanters do not, so long as they can keep chanting at least. And their aoe passive heal has been restored to about the same usefulness as around 1.0 if not more useful, limited duration but increasingly more effective heals due to might and levels. To address the OP, a monk's role is DPS and tanking. They combine well, since the monk has to take damage to get wounds, which causes them to do damage. So the more damage=morewounds=more dps output via torment's reach. Unlike other melee classes, they often work better without any enchanted weapons, just fist alone unlocks their potential. I like the fist/shield combo though, especially since the icon turns into a shield now. Anguish is hilariously funny to watch. The AI script doesn't know when to use it, so I have to micro that one. On another note, backstab/escape on the rogue is pretty fun to use. Maybe it'll become boring later, but right now it is pretty good for an initial pull against critical enemies like wizards. Might need to cast a priest stasis spell later on though, for when the rogue can't get away. I've noticed a lot of areas in Act 1-2 of POTD has had their enemies reduced. Used to be, trash mobs were like the RUssians, a quality to quantity all on its own. Had so many enemies that would circle the tanks, that the backlines ended up touching the front. Pulls would get 10, maybe 15 enemies, and that was the time when barbarians and aoe spells shone. I've been practicing a formation with the priest and druid at the center, with a circle of melee around them, using terrain to block off access if feasible. Different from my previous playthrough, which focused more on out ranging people, since I didn't have a priest to heal anybody. And chanter's aoe heal was non existent.

I use small shields, no accuracy debuff then. Good compromise between defense and offense. For tougher fights, you can always slap the larder wall in. The dragon chant I only use on the 5th chant, for 1-4 I use the death chants. That way, I get a UI prompt for when I need to cast a spell invocation at 5 verses. Cause the dragon thrash has a rather noticeable effect on screen, with a sound. Of course I'm always the person that wanted to add in custom voice over lines for specific tactical conditions that have been met in games like Homeworld 1. Makes controlling things easier when combining visual and audio cues, two channels instead of one.

I took shield talent, outlander in the beginning. Hiravias can shield tank or use outlander/shift for lots of melee hits. Getting the recovery time to near zero, is very nice for dps. Hiravias is using aloth's leather armor. Using the druid regen spells, he can still take a fair bit of damage. I've noticed that attack speed affects spell recovery, but only recently did I realize that that means I should stop using cautious attack on my casters. No wonder those cipher hybrid builds were too slow. And exploiting this little thing that's been the case since passive effects for all weapons were added in to be stackable, that engithan scepter with 20% attack speed and the march steel dagger also has 20% steel, easily gotten in Act 1-2. I like hybrid or flexible builds, that are good at melee or range depending on the tactical situation, and has a lot of options, without needing to specialize for one talent path. One of the problems with spending multiple patch revisions with one save game is that some of the changes tend to get forgotten. Because attack speed was not so good in the past, I guess I haven't tested it thoroughly when they buffed it up for weapons. The wizard when it took small sneak attack talent, also applied it to spells if I recall. Wonder if they fixed that, it seems to not apply to priest attack spells at least.

Zahua showed me the power of monks in White March 1, when fighting against paralyzing poison fishes. So when I restarted POTD anew, I decided to go with a monk as main. Works with a lot of different weapons and armors, so is flexible when I change my party around. Until you actually play the class for a few dungeons and to level 6-12, you don't know what the class even plays like. Without the experience, choosing one over the other is a dice roll, random luck. Some of the classes get interesting at certain levels.

I use it on hiravias before he shapeshifts. There's a minor bug where in shapeshifted form he can't use certain class abilities, like second wind or outcast frenzy. Also if he queues those new abilities up, he can hit himself after shapeshifting if you use the shift queue clicks. It's a more reliable way to get good dps out of the druid's shapeshift and wildstrike, since hiravias' cat 33% frenzy is 1/rest. The druid claws are fast, so low recovery, combined with the natural hide armor which doesn't have recovery at all, makes for a very fast melee attack with 25% attack speed. Using the 33% cat buff is even better. Then there's the 50% alacrity potion made via crafting. For the cost of a talent, getting some good alpha cast speed in the beginning of each fight appeals to my playstyle too. Since the more /encounter abilities a vancian class has, the more flexible they are. One neat way to avoid the problem with hidden frenzy health, is to take an ability that activates at 50% endurance. That way you can see on the buffs, when that ability activates. Of course, that doesn't necessarily help if your COn or endurance is too low. Since the immediate next hit might down you, even after you notice it.

I would probably take another weapon slot, and just have that thing in reserve for when you need it. Making it like a cross class talent. Works better on a quick switch build though, I hate that delay timer.

As for being proficient in one weapon, I have more hours in the Japanese cavalry sabre than I do playing Pillars of Eternity. The knowledge doesn't transfer to an estoc or greatsword or pike 100%, but it does transfer. Different ranges and weights, and certain techniques don't work, but if you understand the basics, you understand the basics. And basics can be applied to all kinds of weapons. But that's not what people care about when they talk about their fantasy LarP roleplay, of course.

There is no "think you can breathe in water or your not crazy" sanity check. That doesn't exist. That test has to exist, otherwise nobody is sane. There has to be an objective reality to go with an objective test, otherwise half the people can believe the CIA owns that MCDonalds and the other half disagrees. But nobody is right, or rather everyone is right. As for people in power, they are certainly narcissists most of the time. They can level up to malignant narcissists and then psychopath/sociopath later on. For Durance, he doesn't need to cover up his activities to survive. The Dyrwood would praise him for it, and the Dozens would hail him as a hero. In US culture, at least, the sociopath probably understands that he can't admit to eating humans he has killed. Not going to benefit him that much. Many warrior societies have made use of narcissists and psychopaths, by training them to adhere to warrior values and tribal rules. This makes use of their ability to kill people for their own benefit, by making it to the tribe's benefit as well. And when the narcissist fails, hey, one less potential psycho around. It's win win either way for the tribal society.

RemoveTalent Companion_Kana(Clone) if_their_bones_sleep_still but_reny_darets_ghost Findcharacter Kana to see which clone number he is at first. The stats reset on reload, as others mentioned, but the other stuff should still be stable. That's funny, I think of the Dyrwood as Australia.