Shadenuat

At levels 9&11 all these talents for wands become redundant, although it's probably possible to make a pew pew wizard build if you add Chanter's buffs into the mix (Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr with wands and talents for 25% extra fire damage? What if both chanter and wizard have talent for extra fire damage? Makes me wonder).

For dialogue options you might want to max one of talking attributes instead of spreading points evenly. Resolve, I think, is a better and more fitting choice for Paladin. Although it should be said, paladins get their own unique dialogue options. I think if you're not afraid to be a bit slow and compensate that with wearing a bit lighter armor while stacking various healing items & moon godlike there, you can go with maxed or almost maxed Might, Per & Resolve. Like, 18/8/8/17/10/17.

If One Stands Alone works as intended I actually don't see a reason for Fighter to exist except for new players or if you just want something very simple to throw into your front line and completely forget about it. The only problem I see is finding enough spare points for barb to have good Might, Per, Resolve AND Int since he needs high Int to get the most from OSA & Carnage. Then you just pack him with Secondary Means of Survival aka Moon Godlike/items proccing heals/leech weapon and you have a Fighter that also AoE's everything to death.

The fun part with barb starts when Chanter gets aura that adds fire damage to weapons.

I think 2-handed is a superior choice for any non-tank, either because of bigger damage per hit, good items or reach option that allows to have more than 2 people on the front at the same time.

You'll stomp everything either way. Wizard has a slight edge in controls and debuffs as they are easier to use (although it's still debatable because druid also gets prone spell, even if later, but then he gets a spell with petrify on it a level earlier than wizard), but remember that druid also comes with extra heals, party buffs, better summons and a save-from-combat spell.

I have a Bleak Walker in party on PotD now and overall, he's alright, I think better in terms of damage than fighter, but less of a tank. Race and equipment matter a lot here. I picked human cause he's larping Sarevok, but Moon Godlike would be a lot better choice. The stats are Might 18, Per&Res 15 & else 10 (dumping Int makes his aura nearly useless). I picked offensive aura (Zealous Focus) and all perks for FoD for +100% elemental damage on hit, WF:Soldier, Sworn Enemy, Revive & Hold the line. Mark the target and whack it with FoD. Surprisingly, he does almost as much damage as rogue with pistol (Forgiveness with gunner & Chanter's reload aura). The equipment is very important. Since my main tank never falls in combat, Ring of Wonder (second chance) went to paladin, as well as Shod in Faith - boots that proc consecrated ground when he gets a crit. Not sure if it helps but he wears Sanguine Plate (retaliation on hit) too. Blunting Belt helps a bit more with DR. The weapons are St. Rumbalts because +12 accuracy in midgame is great and Arquebus. Overall it kinda feels like packing Keldorn from BG2 with items to the point of making him more than his class - he also had crappy stats before you'd give him all the required equipment.

Monks can tank and they do it fairly well actually. What you're looking at is a disabler-tank. I'm using one as my main tank on PoTD now ( ). My build is fairly basic: moon godlike, max Per & Resolve, everything else doesn't matter, some may like pumping Int but it works with just an average int too; heaviest armor, any weapon with +accuracy on it and preferably with something proccing or something "on crit", lighest shield (we need as much accuracy as possible to land disabling strikes). Stack all items with +Per/Resolve and deflection stuff on top of him too. Also an item for +1 engaged enemy can be useful.Talents: first perk doesn't matter, then we want Force of Anguish. That's the fun skill - attain wounds, heal yourself with moon godlike ability (this is why I didn't dump Str), then 2-3 enemies fly across the screen and stay prone for 10 to 15 seconds (depends on your Int), or you can lock down one enemy for half a minute while everyone whacks on him. Other perks: sword & shield style, hold the line, cautious attack. At level 7 I believe you get monk's unique talent which you can switch between +10 to all defences or +10 to deflection. I generally use the deflection bonus. Does he perform better than Fighter? I dunno, he seems to work fine, but Fighter is probably can be even better. Does the character suck? Far from it. Is he unique? P. unique compared to cookie-cutter fighter, I think. Force of Anguish is million times better than Fighter's knockdown and as long as you get damaged it is basically of unlimited use. For Ranger, you just build the character using his strongest points - single target (before you get bouncing shot) ranged DPS. So wood elf, max Str&Dex, take the bear, give bear +3 more DR for easier start, then go for pistols, crossbows or warbows and stack the damaging talents. Flank with the bear so you get more damage from ranger-specific talents. He should be easier to use and have a lot more sustainable DPS than Rogue who is more about openers and wtfpwning strong foes with dat 200 damage Finishing BlowBullet. I don't like the class for same reason. Sure once you get mind blades you can spam that 3 times and end most basic encounters but if you're fighting something with a lot of enemy heal bots after initial punishment it's crossbow time. Meanwhile Druid can just wreck-spam **** from multiple damage sources at time calling storms and plagues and generally ruin any Pharaoh's day. Chanter I dislike for same reason, too passive for my tastes. Give someone Obsidian Lamp and a bunch of other figurines and you get yourself a Chanter. He's just a character to compliment some specific playing styles (like summon spam or gun blazing rogues spam).

Reach Weapon... a melee that can't stand in melee. O ya no DR bypass on any reach weapons either, so enjoy those carnage hits for 7. You can just switch between 2 weapons with different types of damage or apply elemental damage to your weapons too. The DR on some monsters is so insane Estoc actually doesn't do as much as some people think. No DPSer can stand in melee period, ever, because for most damage you can't use armor. That ****ing sucks and I liked potential of melee in IE games more but that's just how this game works.

Barb, naked, any reach weapon, Frenzy, brute force, sickeness debuff, savage assault. Works well enough on PoTD.

The only class that is not great at anything is Paladin. What he does can be replicated with a few items and scrolls. Add some range to those auras ffs, it's like second-hand invisibility spell from Order of the Stick comic.

If you're bored your chanter has nothing to do in combat until invocation (if it would ever come to it), slap all spell-binding items you find on chanter. You can create whole collection of second-hand spells for him to use that way, and they are all mostly 3/rest. Max Lore and fill all his fast slots with scrolls too since other party members generally never have to use them.

Maxing Might/Dex/Int/Resolve evenly and dumping Con&Per makes for a lot of options in dialogue and provides good damage for a ranged character.

If you're min-maxing and looking to be more effective in late game you can ignore shapeshifting talents. Spend them on increasing your elemental damage, maybe running speed and such instead. Take all which give you more spells to use per rest.

Ooh right the awesome celtic spell. P. fun although I haven't tried it against targets with high Deflection.

You can just take everything and use everything, there aren't many talents for spellcasters anyway. Cold is good for spamming level 1 cold spell which is like fan of flames but better because it is more narrow but longer so it's very easy to aim by just flanking enemies, lightning is good for lightning, and fire is nice for sun based spells and to **** up petrified targets with Sun Lance. Corrosion is probably the only that is eeh, since Venombloom and Plague of Insects do raw damage, and low level corrosion spells ain't worth it.

pew I think it was petrification from Earth's Talon that multiplied damage, but I ain't sure.

But in the game they're often more reasonable than any human and their NPCs, if they have dialogue, never attack you first, which is cute, kinda like undead in PST. They are always ready to reason with PC, provide rewards and they can even be trusted to hold their promises as proved when their leader punishes his own when they try to attack you in Od Nua. They're not like illithid at all, those just think of everyone but them as slave fodder.

I went with Hylea's choice simply because it made some people happier in the present and because it is unjust to take anyone's choice of living their life away. What does it matter? PoE's world seems to be self-preserving, if you send souls back to the wheel they'll reborn, if you send them into hosts they'll eventually die and also be reborn, if you destroy them other souls will split and make more souls. It's a no-choice as long as it doesn't affect main character anyway.

I heard Sensuki say mobs like to target characters in 6th character slot.

Yeah I'm waiting for patch to be able to finish Od Nua, and don't experiment with builds or parties at all. I see no reason to since after about first half of the game you can roflstomp everything just with you main and companions, even with companions having p. ****ty builds and stats. I just don't feel encouraged to experiment.

I want a mod that will allow to always be in animal form, but it will turn off spells, and which will add more perks for those forms.

PoE is one game where I wouldn't mind more clothing items, because they are actually best "armor" for many types of characters.

It's not like opener is that important the further you are in the game, where monsters generally walk arond in packs of 8 or more. And at higher levels he can cast spells per-encounter and then it's probably a better idea to switch armor for a robe or run crazy fanatic naked. Or do it from the start. I mostly carried him around because he had better writing than other characters, tbh.

I just "roleplayed" him. Made him wear some cool armor and red hood, gave him sword, shield & gun cause he has a perk for +10 accuracy with those. Opened with gun, heal-boted and off-tanked. Made him look like a priest from Warhammer basically since he is one in some ways. Or many. Got him a perk that does damage with his per-encounter ability and generally improved those per-encounter skills, and gave him 1.2 quicker reload speed for guns and Magran class skill for those weapons. Oh he also was Mechanic of the party, all points hoarded for that.