prototype00

True, his knockdown is pretty dependable. But why not also give him hobbling strike, blinding strike etc. But I think that trying for backstab is just too action intensive to bother with, really. But it boosts my party’s Damage based on her religion score! That’s a great bonus! True enough, and I could probably buff my perception before castingbwith Xoti Ooh, good to know, what phrases are you running? Nice! She can be ranged DPS then. If you have any questions or would like me to expand more make sure to ask Also nice, he can sub for Eder or Maia as DPS.

Sure, you don’t get to boost your rando Annihilation Sabre all the way to being Stormbringer in all but name. But I like that it makes me want to switch out items to more powerful ones and the upgrades themselves are super flavourful, they must have spent a lot of time thinking them up...

So I’m planning builds for my besties in this game, but I had a couple of questions: Eder Swashbuckler Fighter /Rogue I’m quite enjoying his off tanking/DPS setup here. May I ask if it is worth it to invest in Stealth tricks for Backstab or will his Sneak Attack Autoattack + Rogue Interrupt abilities be better? Xoti Priest Since my main was already a Monk, I decided to go full on support for her. But I realized that you need to be almost frontline with her to benefit from her unique weapon boosts. Anyone have experience with this? Aloth/Serafen Wizard and Cipher I needed hard CC in the back row but I’m finding that it isn’t as good, the paralysis effects from the both of them have hardly ever worked. Anyone experience this? Cipher Paralysis used to be Grieving Mother’s Bread and Butter. Pallegina Herald I’m assuming the Paladin /Chanter Multi is pretty top tier for tanking. Anyone have any advice for this? Maia Rua Ranger or Geometer? Is the Wizard Multiclass good for her? Or is it better to go straight DPS (the Rogue multiclass?) Tekehu Probably Druid The spells and street shark are too much to give up on. Is his Chanter sub and multi any good?

Great! Lightest armor so he punches like a typewriter, and the focus ticks up real fast. When its at max (after one or two punches), you unleash it for around 40-50 Raw damage + Bludgeoning damage. Most things gib by then, but then again I'm only lvl 4. prototype00

Do you get the bonus from the party during regular interactions? (Not Scripted Interactions)?

The modals are kind of... uninteresting mostly. I switch them on as needed but they are off most of the time. Is that wrong?

So... every character has a main skill that they boost pretty high while trying to get around 2 in their off skills to get the full +4 party bonus? Sounds legit. Any skills that are preferably on the MC?

Hmm, I suppose it depends on what skills the companions start with points invested in. I do know that party contribution to skills functions like this: Total party points/contribution to skill check person 1/1 2/2 4/3 7/4 So for example if you have two NPCs that each have one point in Alchemy, that's a total of 2 points, and you get an additional 2 points to your skill check. You start to lose efficiency at 3 points and beyond. Hmm, there’s got to be a mathematically superior way to distribute skills...

Just wondering how people are building skills? I’m probably going to put: Insight/Diplomacy and Mechanics on the Watcher (these seem to need rather high checks) Athletics / Survival on Eder Alchemy / Religion/Metaphysics on Xoti Athletics / Diplomacy on Pallegina Mechanics / Stealth on Maia Rua or Aloth But I don’t know whether to max or spread out?

It actually overrides the damage from your melee weapon entirely, so it winds up being like 40 damage in total rather than "more" (although I don't get 40 damage for 40 focus, it's more like 32). If it were additive damage it would actually be solid build, but as it stands it's almost identical to my standard sabre attack. Soul Annihilation needs to be buffed, otherwise I can't see a reason to take this subclass for multi or even single builds. Maybe it gets better once you start regularly and easily getting your focus into the 100-120 range, but that's an awful long time to wait for a class to become fun. Just consoled myself into a shadowdancer. Lost all my achievements but luckily I'm not one who cares about those Wait.., when I’m playing my Monk/Soulblade and punch someone with Soul Annihilation and mouse over the Damage calculation it always lists my Bashing Damage followed by my Raw Damage so this can’t be right? (Though, yes initially it just lists the bashing Damage “with additional Effects”)

No, I mean the passive skill Insight.

Hmm, that is true, I’ve seen a whole lot more Insight or Perception Checks so far, maybe it’s value has been tuned down a bit.

You kind of have to at lvl 1, which one do you recommend? Ancestral Valour has the fastest cast that I can see...

It takes up one slot, the Shield slot specifically. You always need to wield it two weapon style.

So should I take the points from Might in my Monk/Cypher and distribute it to Dex? *Currently 18 Might 14 Dex, Eyeing 16 Might 16 Dex...

Nature Godlike gets +2 power level whenever you activate Swift Strikes.

So... there is a difference? Like actual game content I could get by importing I could get no way else? And you are arguing with me about scale? Just to be 100% sure. Okay, you win the internets. I concede. Discussion over. Onto my original question now - is there a place storing saves so that I can access this content?

Is that so? Could I ask where you get your certainty about this?

Yes, yes. I know you don't keep the exact bonuses, but Josh mentioned that there might be either story repercussions or in game effects for once having had them.

Things like Gift from the Machine, or Blessing of Hylea/Galawain e.t.c. apparently come over in an attenuated form.

The questionnaire is nice but you won’t get all those delicious bennies you picked up in the first game.

KDubya, would you rather go for Swift Flurry or Lightning fists, if it were up to you?

Something about the waning attention span of Obsidian forum goers, probably.

Once again, for clarity, I never said it was impossible to reach max level on all characters, just that in the interim, when your entire party is 10th Level, say, having to put in the 9th lvl second stringers makes me reluctant to freely switch out my awesome current roster. This is compounded by the smaller party size in POEII meaning that more companions are benched/not tried.

You are in fact, wrong. As Boeroer pointed out earlier, left behind companions get less, a point I’ve made clear since the start. They get less but not to the point they're left much behind. You just pick 'em up and after a couple of fights they're in par with the rest.Fair enough, you think that’s fine, I thought it was irritating when wanting to switch characters. Did you have it in mind to tell me I’m mistaken in how I feel? Edit: Also, for perfect clarity, most fights don’t give more than paltry beastiary XP. If you want them to actually level, you’re going to have to go around completing quests.