limaxophobiacq

This is a good post, though I wouldn't wait to cast Returning/Relentless Storm untill after buffs are cast since they re-check your accuracy and intelligence every time they hit, which makes them great spells to open encounters with immediately since they'll still take advantage of buffs cast later.

Spells that inflict penalties but also prevent enemies from acting tend to be the best ones, since not taking actions is the second most detrimental debuff after being dead. Really for some of the classes like Druid (Relentless Storm) or Priest (Shining Beacon) these spells do good damage too so the answer to which debuffs are good is going to be pretty much the same as to 'which offensive spells are good'. For wizard: Slicken, Chill Fog, Combusting Wounds, Web, Ninagauths Shadowflame, Call to Slumber, Gaze of Adragan, Crushing Doom, Chaotic Orb, Freezing Rake, Wall of Many Colours Druid: Tanglefoot, Sunbeam, Hold Beasts, Calling the Worlds Maw, Embrace of the Earth Talon, Relentless Storm, Venombloom Priest: Halt (on occasion), Divine Mark, Repulsing Seal, Pillar of Faith, Shining Beacon. The talent Painfull Interdiction is also a good debuff, and the fact that that Devotions for the Faithful gets a strong debuff effect (-30% damage, -20 fortitude, -20 accuracy) in addition to the amazing buff is kind of ridiculous. Ciphers: Eye Strike, Mind Wave, Borrowed Insticts (though its not really good primarily for the debuff effect), Amblified Wave. Not really a class thats that much about debuffs but more about mind control and damage (and then suddenly at level 15 all about making the entire party unkillable with Defensive Mindweb). As for the order. Casting Slicken with a wizard followed by Sunbeam from Druid is obviously good since they both reduce & attack Reflex defense so they'll help eachother a lot. These two first level spells remain effective way into the game when combined. Tanglefoot is neat before anything that attacks Reflex, but for druids at level 9+ Relentless Storm into Plague of Insects opens every hard encounter forever, except against big dragons that aren't immune to paralyze. Then Venombloom if the enemy is not immune to poison. Priest should cast buffs before debuffs, though Devotions for the Faithful is of course both. Again in general abilities that ONLY debuff aren't that great when you could be debuffing and stopping enemies from taking actions and/or doing damage all at the same time.

With this system there's not much difference at all between a high damage + low attack rate weapon or a low damage + high attack rate weapon though (assuming this Armor Rating entirely replaces DR). The only stats that would actually matter would be Penetration and DPS. I'd rather have something like the current system but represent improved armor penetration on some attacks as a % modifier or divisor to the targets DR (basically like how G.U.R.P.S. does it with Armor Divisor).

I think this could work, but I probably wouldn't make them on par with recovery because that could get OP – maybe .5/.4 I don't think so. Reload speed reduction works differently from Attack Speed reduction mechanically (or so I've been told). If you get +100% attack speed you get no recovery time but +100% reload speed would get you halved reload time, and even +200% reload speed would 'only' get you to 1/3 reload time.

Firearms in PoE are only really good for shooting once and switching to another weapon once you're past early levels. As such they're decent for Rogues, since Rogues focus on making a few big damage attacks (but then ranged Rogues aren't really that great), Ciphers who shoot once for focus, or Paladins who shoot once with FoD and switch. For rangers Powder Burns is just bad compared to Twin Arrows with a good magic bow. Attack Speed stacking being really powerfull and firearms not being able to take much advantage of it is also a problem. Durganised Godagh Field + DAoM for 0 recovery stacked with Twin Arrows lets you shoot about 8 arrows for every shot you'd get with an Arquebus even with Durgan + DAoM + Gunner, the higher per shot damage from firearms doesn't make up for it at all. Not to talk about how much better the much higher fire rate is if you're applying status effects on hits.

The head priestess in Defiance Bay is kind of an unusual priest of Wael though. She punishes you for being Deceptive, rewards Honesty, and seems pretty Rational in her behaviour. I'd say most of his priests would probably be more interested in questions than answers, unless those answers lead to more questions. If you asked them for advice you'd be much more likely to get something like a Koan that doesn't seem to relate to your question at all than a straight answer.

Yeah I agree resolve doesn't need to be that high at all, I don't think chanting can even get interrupted and while deflection is nice there's many ways to die that ignore deflection especially late game. I'd say resolve is generally the weakest attribute to be honest*. Personally given how good Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits and Dragon Trashed are I'd never not max might on a chanter but 10 is probably ok if you're focusing on non-damage chants and invocations. Lower than that and you're really hurting your heal though. This kind of high Int + Disciplined Barrage fighter is also great with Ring of the Ancient Forge from Abydons Hammer in the late game. Very high accuracy fast AoE stun with good radius and duration every encounter. *Can you imagine if Crowns for the Faithful gave +25 to any other attribute for the entire party?

That doesn't make any sense. That you don't get an option to commit to it (this: "With Wael, the player doesn't have an option to commit to his plan") is the bug. When I first reported it you even said that there was a bug blocking a dialogue that let you commit to it. That quote is just saying 'you can't get it because you can't get it'. If what he means to say is that the option to commit to it was removed on purpose: Why? Becauseit's to late in the game? That doesn't make sense because the option to commit to Skeans plan comes even later and is still in. Edit: Why do you have to screw my priest of Wael so hard? You already gave her the worst Symbol spell. T__T

What? Can you get it now, or did they intentionally code a talent that you can't get? Edit: Nevermind, found it.

Yup. This has an interesting interaction with Devotions For the Faithful, which actually buffs its own accuracy (for the debuff effect) when the priest is in the AoE.

Priest and Wizard are certainly the strongest classes no doubt. Donno which I'd say is the absolute strongest. Priest is the one you least want to be without but I think you might be better of with one priest and two wizards over two priests and one wizard. Chanter over Paladin for sure, and IMO the Druid to Chanter gap isn't even that large. Chanters don't have the CC druids have with Relentless Storm but the AoE damage with steady heals is incredible, as are the summons, and they can do it all while tanking at the same time. I'd put Cipher way higher up, on the same level as Druids/Chanters, and don't really see how you can place them that low. Defensive Mindweb alone is such a crazy powerfull spell (like 'I don't see how you can lose a fight if you have this up'), unless we're talking soloing the game, that at level cap they're certainly up there. My list: 1. Priest 2. Wizard 3. Druid 4. Cipher 5. Chanter 6. Ranger 7. Paladin 8. Barbarian 9. Monk 10. Fighter 11. Rogue

Well ****. It's such a good barbarian weapon otherwise. Sad that it's not great for HoF.

How does Unlaboured Blade compare if you calculate the average firebug damage? HoF with Unlaboured Blade vs. a large group of enemies should on average result in multiple triggers of firebug.

I don't really see how you can deal with this (which I don't really think is much of a problem in PoE to be honest, Chanters and Ciphers are right up there with the Vancians, IMO slightly below wizards and priests but slightly above druids): while also doing this: Yeah. I remember those spells. I remember how stupidly overpowered they were and how mages and sorcerers were on a completely different playing field than other classes toward the end of BG2 and through ToB.

Does anyone know if this has been fixed? It's not in the update notes for 3.01, 3.02, or 3.03.

I've said it before but Stag early game is bonkers, with Vicious Companion you have 8 DR penetration carnage at level 2, granted not a big radius but you'll still often hit 2-3 additional enemies when they clump together, and then you get 15 DR on level 4 with resilient companion. At low levels before you get good weapons it honestly feels comparable to a similar level barbarian on it's own. Late game animal companions defenses don't really keep up though and I feel they get disabled all the time, but thats when the ranger itself starts to shine with twin arrows and really good bows.

Kana finding the source of his societies lofty ideals being a pit of slavery and human sacrifice, and the conversation that follows. It makes me think about the history of ideas and how a lot of our current interpretation of the words we hold dear (lets say f.ex. "all men are created equal") were originally indended rather differently by people who (despite being in many ways quite impressive) by our interpretation of those same words did some pretty terrible things.

Well PvP doesn't exist, so it's pretty irrelevant. As for groups a dual-wield barb with Heart of Fury + One Stands Alone is just devastating in 3.03 now that HoF is per-encounter and OSA triggers just from being near enemies, even with just 4 enemies in carnage radius thats up to 8 attacks + 24 carnage attacks all at +45% damage in one click available every fight. Against groups of enemies no martial character can match that burst DPS or the CC potential if you use spell-trigger weapons. Now will casters using per-rest AoE spells in the end still be more effective with less risk? Yeah. Casters are pretty ridiculous though. Using any martial characters after level 9 or so is mostly about style and not wanting to rest too much. PotD does not increase enemy DR, looking at beastiary notes on PotD vs. hard and the difference is +15 to Accuracy and Defenses and +25% health.

I know it does fractional damage and health, I was talking about defense and accuracy values specifically since they as far as I understand are only ever treated as whole numbers in the system, with these fractional values from faith and conviction being rounded of. Which is different from health and endurance where the fractions are actually used.

Is there any other place in the game where fractional defence values or accuracy is even a thing? It just seems ugly and arbitrary, much like when items 'of defense' and 'of protection' where changed to +9 instead of +10 for no good reason.

As I said, they are working as intented when actually cast, the displayed accuracy when I mouse over them is just off. Verified cache and no change.

3 priests, because priests are cool goddamnit. You'd have to rest a lot early game with how much Iconic Projection you'll be spamming but once you hit level 7 you're on easy street.

These three are as you can see still bugged for me. Cipher (GM) is level 15, priest level 16. Edit: Tested them in combat and they actually work right, it's just the displayed accuracy when you mouse over them that's still wrong.

Is Palleginas talent really that amazing to make up for how much better the Immolation is for a max-might max-int paladin, and for her lacklustre racial compared to a moon-godlike?

That's because Resolve is very obviously imbalanced. I'm surprised it's still the case in WM2. Resolve and Perception want to mirror each other. But they fail. +2 reflex is as good as +2 will, +3 interrupt is as good as +3 concentration... ... but +1 deflection is not as good as +1 accuracy! It's half as good. Let's double this and see what happens. I to feel that resolve is the weakest attribute in the game since con was changed to +5% health/stamina. +2 deflection would be to much though I think (it would let you make crazy tanks too easy) but 1.5 wouldn't really look very good and neither would adding a third minor effect to Resolve. It's not an easy problem to solve. If anyone thinks resolve isn't the weakest, I'd say consider the spell Crowns for the Faithful. This spell gives +25 resolve for everyone in the AoE and while very strong it is not really a gamebreaking spell. Which other attribute could you give a +25 bonus to with the same AoE and Duration whithout it being ridiculous? None. +75% damage to entire party? +75% action speed? More than double health and stamina? +150% AoE and +125% duration? +25 accuracy and +75 interrupt? All those would be broken good.