Rimiu

I know monk is strong but I'm really digging the Battle-mage style. Is it really no good?

I would second this. On my current play-thru I have a custom companion that is a Mindstalker (Trickster/Psyblade). Like Elric said, good dps, good defense from trickster and cipher abilities add replenishing debuffs/buffs. Lot's of ways to play when managing or I can simply run her off of AI utilizing rogue DPS strikes/cipher debuffs and she does just fine. I also did a full play-thru with a Mindstalker main(Assassin/No Subclass) which I really enjoyed but doesn't fit your criteria b/c too squishy. This sounds very intriguing. Sadly I'm not really knowledgable on gear opportunities and which skills work together well. It seems like lots of old stuff doesn't work as ot used to be, comming from PoE1. This looks good on the first view but then again Llengrath's Grimoire has mostly only spells for self buffing. So it ends up just being a buff self, summon spear and auto attack build or am I wrong and miss something? Depends on how you develop the character. It can be specced that way or you can select other spells as you level up and use the spells in the grimoire to free up the points so you don't have to select the buffing spells from the tree. There are also some useful abilities such as Stunning Blow, Force of Anguish and Skyward kick from the Monk tree which give you a nice bit of damage and CC using the AoE from the lance. Combine with Bounding Boots to get Leap from the Barbarian tree to make positioning an absolute dream. It's fun and very flexible. You can respec to a caster build using the defensive abilities from the monk tree, or as a self-buffing ninja lancer. You can also use the ranged fist attacks ability with it. Several options really. Another excellent variant is to use Spider Silk Robes and Helm of The Grotto Deep, then you can inflict hilariously efficient poison damage using the monk's combat prowess combined with the wizard's self-buff. It's a Jack of all trades - the only thing it lacks is healing. I think I will keep this in mind as well though I'm not really keen on using 1 spell gimmicks. In this case "abusing" the Lance. After reading all the relevant Threads I'm really REALLY interested in Tactician/Blood Mage. But I'm not sure if tactician is counterproductive in a group setting and how to actually deal damage with that class as well as what gear to pick. Ideally I would like to dual wield or 2H but I guess it would be too fragile then? Sounds like Monk. Or Brute. I'm a huge fan of monks but isn't it mainly spamming 1-2 spells endgame? Thank you all so much again. Trickster/Cipher(unsure which sublass) and Tactician?/Blood Mage are really interesting for me right now. The latter even more. But I don't know how to make it actually deal decent damage from the front lines and if Tactician even works in group play.

This looks good on the first view but then again Llengrath's Grimoire has mostly only spells for self buffing. So it ends up just being a buff self, summon spear and auto attack build or am I wrong and miss something? Paladin is the only class that I try to avoid. Way too passive (almost no active skills) and it forces me into the subclass RP or take penalties for no reason. I'm really grateful for all the replies so far and I hope I don't look too ungrateful with my replies.

Hello, I'm still relatively new to the game and have severe restartitis... Most of the stuff I tried just didn't click with me one way or another. I finished PoE1 multiple times on PotD but this time I have a hard time. I'm honestly looking for something that is: - melee - can take a hit (doesn't have to be a super tank) - has lots of abilities - decent damage (doesn't have to be a nuker or top dps, just good damage) I'm leaning towards trickster since it alone fills almost all of the above I think but multiclass would probably better/more fun? Or any wizard/subclass multiclassed? I really appreciate any and all help and if possible some minor guidelines. PS: I checked most of the builds in the Build thread and it seems most stuff has either been nerfed/changed or never got much feedback to begin with and exist since 1.x. I really appreciate all the work that people put into it though.

Any chance you could point me to any not outdated builds like that or maybe make a quick post of yours? I have been looking for a rogue build (either trickster or in combination with wizard.) for quite some time now.

Thank you. Really makes me wonder why the wiki has it wrong.

Hello, I'm seeing conflicting reports. The Wiki says it's from a captain that spawns at -3 Vailian Trading Company but other videos and forum entries I found here mention I have to be -4 Principi sen Patrena. What is correct now? Was there maybe a recent change? I hope I posted in the correct subforum.

I read that Arcane Archer's imbue arrows are broken as in penetration does not scale and they don't do much damage. Is this still true?

I'm not super knowledgeable about the game yet but after trying this build for a bit the character seems awfully slow in combat with such low dex. Will it stay like this throughout the game or is there equipment to alleviate this?

I will update all of mine after the holidays Yay, thanks!

Any chance these builds could be checked if they still function in 4.0?

Hello, I wanted to ask if Beraths Blessiing is required to make these builds work.