CeciliaPhoenix

Hello, I replay Pillars 2 - or some of it before I get bored - from time to time, usually with my favorite class wizard, multiclassed. This is the perfect period for that, because I have to work a ****ton, so no time for gaming aside from beating up some monsters for a few hours a day. This time, for the first time, I tried out deadly deadfire - hardcore mod, and it suddenly made me much more interested in the game - suddely even the base game content is interesting. Alas, I only installed it at lvl 19, right before finishing everything on the non-DLC maps. I'm currently playing a helwalker-blood mage, which might be my most played combos - who knows, running casually with 35 might and not so much constitution, and not really blowing up myself due to that one ring that is overpowered, no priests involved. The most ridiculious part of the monk though, especially with a class that prevents it from being hit, is just the crit resets. When not using a lance or casting, I'm running around with the sanguine greatsword with weeping wounds (two chances to crit per swing), and a casual 30 perception + dance of death, and just casually hitting things for 500+ damage who don't have excessive deflection. It would probably be even better with Saru-Sicr, just fists, and most certainly mohora tanga. Not to mention the other monk abilities, or the wizard aoe weapons... With hardcore mod in mind, which makes enemies tougher, fights a bit longer, what other classes could come close, especially with a wizard multi? Rogue seems more appealing with dots, now that things don1t just get oneshot in the base game, and I'm thinking of trying to make berserker work (with priest support for this one, no accurracy). I'm just not sure how good blood thirst is, never seen it on anyone but Serafen and Konstanten - especially with hardcore mod, where things are harder to kill. Tactician fighter also seems more interested, even in a party, due to effectively endless resources, at least discipline - but fighter damage seems much lower than what others can do. Soulblade is also a great option, possibly.... ...but monks are a bit ridiculious.

I also wonder if psion/priest would be effective, for a support character with ranged weapons, or I should just accept Xoti and make a custom ascentant/arcane archer for my cipher support. @Boeroer And thanks for the replies

@Boeroer oh gosh, I've read what that helmet does. But...my cute death godlikes I really think that godlikes are way too weak due to the presence of items such as that, but I like the concept too much. I wonder if there is a mod...

Thanks for the replies @Shai Hulud I tend to play arcane spellcasters in the pathfinder games, I finished kingmaker with an arcane trickster and a kineticist (that is cheat mode by the way), and played sword saint, sorcerer - eldritch knight, and the illusionist arcanist (forgot the name of the archetype) in wotr, have to finish it eventually with the new dlc. But of course, you multiclass a million times in that one except for the "real" full casters like the illusionist. (...) As for the hierophant, it plays quite okay before the wall of draining, and a bit of a one-man army in terms of spellcasting. Kitchen stove is boring but enough to gain ascended, and then you can cast whatever. I found that wizard aoe spells like the pillar are still better tho, despite the power level increase, but fast casting cipher cc and single-target damage (or two targets via mind blades, that is disgusting) is superb. But, as I said, I tried to do a bit of too much at the same time (which I still do with the other ideas, lmao) - I found/tried the draining touch while playing this, but I ended up using the kitchen stove and then casting most of the time, I want to experiment more with that summoned weapon (and ofc the lance) @Boeroer I really like your ideas about how to maximize the usage of the draining touch. I am still kinda unsure what character I want in the end, keeping in mind that I want to be flexible enough to use other "styles" of dealing with encounters, like the lance and pure casting. I am still debating between the sage, the warlock, and the fighter - the latter is less about blowing things up, but flexibility and immortality in several forms. I guess the main debate is between sage and warlock for me, like what can each provide on a meta level. Sage has extra accuracy, loads of stats (kind of pathfinder logic here, where the answer to most problems is more stats ), endless resources (although harder-to-use blood sacrifice), and extra action economy in melee via crits (I wonder if disengagement crits also produce more crits, like feared target trying to run away from the draining touch and gets critted). Barbarian, on the other hand, seem to have interesting ways to gain action economy for everything, including casting, but I wonder how much of a constraint is the fact that their abilities are expensive, and they have no way to regain rage.

Hey, I am an old PoE 2 player who was lurking around, and playing a lot years ago when it came out. I am not that much of a gamer these days, so most of my fun is testing out builds on the highest possible difficulty, and then trying a new one with a new set of companion builds when restartitis kicks in (roughly 2/3-way into the main game) - but that is the most fun part of this game (I might prefer pathfinder rpgs as a powergamer and an occasional gamemaster of pathfinder, but there I have my set-in-stone builds). I never fully finished PoE 2, so I kinda want to at least once in this life I play with upscaled path of the damned, deadly deadfire normal, and community patch. What is set, this time, is that I want to play a blood mage who does three things, if not simultaneously. First of all, I want a frontline character who is tanky, one way or another, and deals a looot of damage in all "modes". Gish mode: (1) wielding a one handed weapon with tuilo's palm, but that one-handed weapon is mostly a placeholder for concelhaut's draining touch. Gish mode (2) spirit lance, mostly for ship battles or when get bored of the draining touch. Casting: (3) well, using debuffs just like in the first 2 modes, but also putting down extreme ranged aoe's like freezing pillar. I am playing in a party, which is kind of an issue - my last character, a blood mage ascendant ran into the problem of trying to do too many things at once, and my surprisingly well built party and me wiped out everything too fast (I didn't reach the dlc's with her before restartitis ). So for my draining touch + ninagauth pillar caster, I have the following ideas: Sage - either with helwalker, or, if community patch allows using forbidden fist attack with the lance, perhaps a forbidden fist with a heavier focus on the lance. Probably a helwalker. I already played sage a long time ago, and I know that it can be incredibly tanky with very high saves. It also has +12 accuracy, and a lot of might and tenacious for casting, but still needs a priest friend (kinda) for aware and barring death's door. I am not super high on the +10 int for casting alone, because it interacts weirdly with intellect buffs, and could not give myself brilliant back in the day due to it. Still, its a +25% duration/50% aoe over the "normal" +5 bonus int you'd have on other builds. The monk is bonkers in melee, however, and would interact nicely with the draining touch, and its tendency to crit a lot, not to mention the lance. Battlemage - tactician. I found that it is quite doable to trigger brilliant even in a party. It has 15 accuracy and 25% hit-to-crit with intuitive and conqueror stance, or instant melee refresh on kill with the other stance. It is unkillable from mid-game onwards even without the priest buddy, but would still need one for the tenacious. I really like this one as well, not sure if I like battlemage or sage more. I wonder if unbending gets triggered by blood sacrifice, and whether the fighter passive gubbins work with the draining touch, considering the latter is a "universal weapon" (so its either like fists, or not a weapon at all so no passives work). (...) I am also unsure how much spell damage can I squeeze out of this one, aside from being able to spam them endlessly under the correct circumstances. Warlock - I am more unfamiliar with this. Wouldn't go berserker, too much hassle for something a priest can give, the furyshaper looks better. Needs priest for accuracy, tenacious, bdd, and seems to revolve around being as fast as possible. Under 50% hp while killing some randoms, it could deal a lot of spell and melee damage, but doesn't have the melee moves monk or fighter has. My biggest concern is longevity, it seems to run out of martial ability uses too fast. I also wonder if bloodlust, at least, could be extended with wall of draining (I guess thirst cannot). Alternatives: druid, or chanter. With druid I would just sit at the front in cat form, using a "barbarian" 25% action speed, and mini "unbending" via healing spells, and just cast or claw - needs wall of draining badly, can't have it asap. No summoned weapons. I guess it is specific enough to run into less action economy problems than hierophant in a party. Chanter - this has a lot of potential, maybe less so with a blood mage, via the special energized buff, the on-demand paralyze, auras that interrupt, spells that interrupt, etc. Similar to the druid, sits in the middle with a sword and a shield, no summoned weapons (I guess it would be bad with this). I can't make up my mind to "full-clear" the game between the three martials, and I want to be able to use the two summoned weapons and the nuking alternative, because the game is long and you get bored. I am open to other combos as well, as long as they are varied and effective.