Jayd

Thanks for this. I noticed you mentioned stealth is useful for lowering recovery time. I didn't know that was a thing and can't seem to find more info. Is recovery time reduced while in stealth?

This looks like a really cool concept, and I apologize for going on a slight tangent, but Pallegina leaves you if you follow through with the Huana questline, right? I can't imagine her being cool with you orchestrating a war between the VTC and RDC. That's the main reason I haven't allowed myself to get excited over Pallegina builds - burn the imperialists!

I hope this is the right forum for this. I'm at the last part of the quest "The Shadow Under Neketaka". I've seen in walkthroughs and on video that you should be able to fight the dragon Scyorielaphas to submission, at which point you can choose to siphon a portion of his soul without the metaphysics check. However, every time I fight him he just dies without any dialogue. Was this behaviour patched out, or am I doing something wrong? I've tried engaging him after each phase of dialogue, and even force attacking him when I'm looking at the wards. Same result every time. I found this video and tried to replicate it. It just doesn't happen this way for me. The dragon never stops to say anything when near death - he just dies. I do notice that he tends to take a chunk of damage when he's near death that doesn't look like my usual DPS. The only difference I see is this guy manages to get him down before he casts that tidal wave attack which breaks the wards, while I don't. Is that the issue? A DPS check? I'd like to know before I commit to trying to beat it.

Yup, and the boss move of combat rolling behind an enemy while my antelope headbutts him from the front to get flanked, merciless companion, and predator's sense is my favourite play. Perhaps rogue would have higher damage potential but I've been loving how the ranger plays, and the Ranger single-target accuracy helps with getting the most out of Scordeo's with the pistol modal.

I'm on my first playthrough and I was keeping my eye out for a weapon that might synergize with a Shifter (who will not even have the weapon equipped for most of each fight). I think I've found it in Scordeo's Trophy. The idea is to get some stacks of Strategic Blitz* (SB) up before spiritshifting and enjoying significantly reduced recovery for your melee attacks for the duration of the shift (and a good chunk of the next one). Ranger multiclass is perfect for this because their fantastic accuracy bonuses can allow you to effectively use the pistol modal, which cuts pistol recovery in half at the cost of accuracy. This allows you to stack SB very quickly. You also get the fantastic Evasive Roll (ER) ability to close distance + shift + attack with bonus dexterity instantly. It also helps that firearm reloads can be canceled unlike other recovery phases. Spiritshift armor has no recovery penalty, and spiritshift weapons are dual-wielded. With SB stacked on top, you can achieve very low recovery times. With high INT (which you should have as a Druid), you can have the buff last nearly two shift durations (easily over 40s). It's almost like turning INT into DEX. By using ER or CC, you can break engagement, re-apply the buff, and shift again. This has a significant impact on spiritshift DPS and gives you something to do other than auto attack. In a nutshell, ER, Ranger accuracy, the pistol modal, capitalizing on INT, spiritshift speed, weapons, and armor, all come together to make this the perfect weapon for the Beastmaster class. Just be sure not to get too far from your companion when shooting if you're using the Stalker subclass (which you should be, with Shifter). Sorry I don't have more hard numbers, but I think this is neat and wanted to share. * I thought hard about using Opening Barrage because it can also help with casting and shooting, which can become important in long, tough fights. But ultimately you spend so much more time shifted than casting that SB is the superior choice. Might be interesting to try that out with a Ranger/caster.

That miss chance on spells sounds brutal - and frustrating. I'll keep that in mind. I feel like Hunter's Claw and its upgrades might be really good, since I assume each dungeon will have you coming across the same type of enemy over and over again. Rangers seem to have so many (too many) abilities to get, though, so I'm not sure yet whether to prioritize it. Your points about DEX were exactly what I was thinking when I was talking about it being important for spells; I don't want to get bumrushed while casting, and I want to have the option of getting a spell off in a pinch if I must (I have the fantasy of Evasive Rolling out of melee and using Quick to get a spell off before being attacked again. Not sure how well that will work - maybe OK if my pet is engaging, idk). After what Ensign said, though, I wonder how often the speed increase from DEX will really be the difference between getting caught casting and not. I probably won't be able to get a good sense of it until I start playing.

The plot keeps thickening. About how high should my natural PER be to ensure that I can hit enemies reliably with spells? I feel like getting the most of this class must involve some of the good Druid spells like Plague and Relentless Storm.

Thanks everyone - you've given me a lot to think about. I will experiment on my own to see what works (I've never been one to copy+paste builds) but now I'm thinking along the lines of middling Con/Res (neither totally dumped), max Dex and high Int, with a bleed off into Might/Per. I am concerned about leaving Per at 10 because it should be important for this character to land AOE spells (Plague of Insects proccs both big animal damage buffs), which don't benefit fully from the ranger's single target accuracy buffs. So I might be leaving Might at 10. I got convinced by Dexterity because if it is the best damage scalar and it speeds up cast times, it's going to be the core of everything this character does. I'll need to work around squishiness by coordinating CC and flanks with my animal and dropping dudes quickly. Please keep giving more advice if anyone has it - I appreciate it!

The character's supposed to be in melee range. Dumped Res and average Con would get me destroyed, wouldn't it? @Steezbucket: Interesting, I didn't realize deflection was so all-or-nothing at a high level. But with defenses like that, how do I (and my animal buddy) not get deleted in melee? Rely entirely on CC and smart tanking?

Hello, I haven't started POE II yet, but I love theorycrafting and building so I've been planning out my character. I want to try to make a good Shifter/Stalker Beastmaster. I plan to prioritize Res as a defensive stat (to capitalize on the Stalker deflection buff) and Int for shift duration and the duration + AOE of Druid buff and debuff spells. I'm having some trouble deciding whether Per or Dex should be focused for offence. I reason (and it seems to be common wisdom) that Per is better than Might because more hits and crits trumps a damage bonus, so that's why I'm not really considering Might. The issue is that Rangers seem to have a lot of strong, easy-to-apply buffs to Accuracy, which suggests that the Per attribute itself is less important, and those valuable points could be invested in Dex instead to increase attack rate. Dex also has the benefit of helping with Druid spells' cast times. Since this character will be trying to quickly cast spells before shifting, this could be invaluable. Does anyone have the experience to say definitively whether focusing on the Dex instead of Per attribute would have a significant effect on my hit/crit rate (assuming I am using Ranger abilities optimally)? Would Dex be more valuable anyway? I want this character to be good on POTD. Thanks for your time.