fruitsalad

That's exactly the reason why I thought about giving a Shattered Pillar/Ascendant MC a go, because the way both class resources are working is similar. Perhaps I will try the first island like that and see whether I like it. I don't have much experience with multiclasses but this combination at a first glance sounds pretty good to me.

So far the single pistol with One-handed Style and the activated modal is working pretty good, if the enemy is not pierce resistant. I will not rush it to get that arcane gun, but instead be all the more happy should I finally stumbe upon it. Too bad One-handed Style is not viable in many cases. I can imagine that a small recovery time bonus added to this ability would have been nice. Or something like a action time bonus if you use other things like grenades, potions or scrolls because you have a free hand to reach for them. I wonder how much more damage one would deal with Two-Weapon Style and two Swords as opposed to One-handed Style and a sword on average. Did anybody of you ever calculate that roughly?

Thanks for all your helpful replies. Also @thelee for your helpful guide. I read a few sections from it that came up when googling stuff even before you mentioned it. Should be stickied or something in my opinion. I just tried using a one-handed style, a pistol with the modal active and it awesome. I am shooting almost twice as fast as Eder is swinging his saber. Given that the enemy is not pierce resistant. I probably will give Eder mace proficiency for the modal to help with that. Or have Pallegina cast that level 1 chanter ability that reduces armor. With how penetration and armor rating works it seems to be quite a useful spell. I just hope that I will get the gun @Boeroer mentioned not too late into the game. What do you think about a Soul Blade as single class Cipher, should that focussing on a melee approach is more appealing to me? I also thought about going with with a Chanter/Troubadour single class just to have another character being able to tank or use summons to protect the backline a bit. Just relying on Eder for that feels uncomfortable. What do you think about a SC Troubadour with the attributes MIG 14, CON 10, DEX 10, PER 14, INT 16, RES 14? Using a medium shield when tanking and perhaps an Estoc against weaker enemies. I really like the idea of combining the Estoc modal with the -2AR spell chanters to handle heavily armoed enemies. And I could also summon mobs as distraction/cannon fodder, although I'd prefer to focus on damaging spells and buffs. What I forgot to ask about: How important is CON? In PoE1 I played a paladin with 10 CON and because my high defenses it worked fine. I rarely took damage so fast that I could not just heal it. For an off-tank/support chanter, do you think that 10 CON and 14 RES would be fine? Do different classes have different health and defense base stats or is it all the same for everybody, apart from class specific skills that aid survivability? Thank's again you all

I forgot something: the way concentration and interrupts work changed with PoE2. It seems concentration is a buff you need to have stacks of in order to not be interrupted. Is there any way during combat to see how much concentration you have?

Hello! After completing PoE1 I just started PoE2 with a single class Cipher as main character. Set difficulty is hard with critical path scaling enabled. I just completed the first island and left for Nakataka. Many things seem to have changed over the sequel and I could not find satisfying answers to them. So I just ask them here. 1. My MC is a human SC Cipher Ascendant with One-Handed Style. I planned on concentrating on melee (apart from an opening shot from my pistol), but it seems to be very hard to get enough focus to ascend with my attacks. I picked Draining Whip to help with that, but still. One thing that kind of bugs me is that some fights have been really difficult. So I feel the need to cast early, further delaying ascension. Is melee Ascendant not viable? Are there other weapons and weapon styles you would recommend for this sub class? How could I make one-handed melee Ascendant work? 2. Some enemies have a high will defense. That's why I picked Club Weapon Proficiency. But sometimes putting my Cipher in melee range is very risky. Because of that I chose Tenuous Grasp as first level ability. But it seems rather useless to use it to lower Will because it targets Will in the first place. When I would need to use it to lower Will, I often fail to apply it. Does this get better as the game progresses? Do you use Tenuous Grasp at all? This ability would have been way more helpful if it targeted another defense. 3. What are your recommended 1st level spells? I just picked Tenuous Grasp and Eyestrike so far. I replaced Whisper of Treason with Puppet Master. Are other 1st level spells worth it at all? Low level damaging spells probably have a better focus per damage ratio, but as Ascendant this should not really matter, given that you are able to ascend early into the fight. 4. For a melee Cipher that wants to start using abilities as soon into the fight as possible, would you recommend another sub class? I want to stay single class for now, because I want to reach higher power levels earlier into the game. 5. I am not a fan of min-maxing so I chose the following attributes: MIG 14, CON 10, DEX 14, PER 14, INT 16, RES 10. Do you think that's okay? Sometimes I feel I am a little bit squishy with only 10 CON/RES, but I played a Paladin in the first game, so I am probably a little spoiled. 6. Are firearms and crossbows viable to use apart from the opening shot? The reload time is atrocious and really off-putting in my opinion, which is one reason I chose swords for my Cipher. But most Cipher players picked Two-Weapon Style and guns, so I am certainly missing something. 7. What's your strategy will skill point allocation? Are you spreading the points across the characters or are you focussing on a certain skill with each party member. My strategy for mechanics for example has been to give each character 2 points for the party assist bonus (because of the diminishing return later on) but focus on mechanics on my main. Is this viable or are there better strategies? 8. Skills like Alchemy and Arcana seem to be useful for any character. But I have the feeling that choosing those would leave too few points for other skills. Are there skills that you would pick anyway with each character? And how many points would you put into them? Alchemy seems to be universally useful to me, because unlike scrolls, potions of all levels are usable to any character, no matter their Alchemy skill. Alchemy just would make them more powerful. On the other hand, because all potions are usable no matter the skill, this could be an argument against going for Alchemy at all. What do you recommend? That is all I think. Thank you so much for your time PS: What about Trickster? Do you think it would fit the playstyle I described better?