Haplok

In my builds? That's the first one I have officially published Gwyn's belt is nice, since being paralyzed is no fun and being immobilized or hobbled is annoying on a melee. You can Escape, but then you're waisting resources you could be using to Crippling Strike. This build has high Reflex and Adept Evasion, but some effects are applied as Fortitude checks. And even with Reflex added safeguard in case of bad rolls is nice. Reasonable point about Mule Kick. But apart from almost guaranteed Interrupt, I also sometimes like to use it as a cheap damage booster. It's +25%, so same as Crippling Strike. No added Pen, but +10 Accuracy, which is sometimes even better (and means more crits). Regarding Crippling Strike, as you may have noticed, I did not pick the upgrade Anyway, thank you very much for your comments.

Yeah, I meant an in-your-face melee build. For such a build I'd like to at least keep Con & Resolve + Might average (~10), max Dex and Perception. That doesn't leave many points for Int. Used to high-Int builds when testing, I was surprised how quickly Borrowed Instinct was going off-line (that's with adventurers, so without bonus attributes). Debuffs tend to be even shorter. But sure, I did cast Secret Horrors from time to time.

=================================== Armorbreaker =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.01 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Devoted(Estoc)/Streetfighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human, Hearth Orlan (party play) or whatever, preferably not Godlike, as there are 2 good helm picks for this -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Dissident -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 14 (you'll have plenty of other additive damage bonuses; still moderately important, it modifies aoe "spell-like" effects of some weapons and healing done) CON: 10 (don't really need more, don't really want to risk less) DEX: 14 (to be reasonably fast even without Streetfighter special active) PER: 18 (to hit & crit stuff, duh) INT: 17 (to keep that sweet Unbending + Disciplined Strikes + Refreshing Defence active as long, as possible; you only have so many resources) RES: 03 (with Unbending you'll survive anyway and kill any threats fast) -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Proficiencies 01. Disciplined Barrage + Crippling Strike | Estoc! 02. Knockdown 03. Escape 04. Fighter Stances (usually use Cleaving) + Dirty Fighting 05. Two-Handed Style 06. Confident Aim 07. Disciplined Strikes + Finishing Blow 08. Rapid Recovery 09. Mule Kick (optional: Penetrating Strike which targets Deflection rather then Fortitude and provides even more Penetration) 10. Vigorous Defense + Persistent Distraction 11. Charge 12. Determination 13. Unbending + Deep Wounds 14. Devastating Blow 15. Armored Grace 16. Clear Out + Adept Evasion 17. Refreshing Defense 18. Slippery Mind (note it can disable some Streetfighter special trigger methods!) 19. Unbending Shield (optional Trunk) + Deathblows 20. Weapon Specialization (optional: Fearless or another defensive ability) or the recently buffed (but still expensive) Power Strike --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Estoc: BotEP -> Eager Blade (!) ->Engoliero de Espirs (!) Weapon Set 2: Some blunt(s) for skellies Alternative: Devoted to Battleaxes with Amra Axe. The playstyle is similar, it's an "in your face" aggressive melee that melts enemies around. It's a really good weapon. You'll face Penetration issues much more often though (2 lower Pen, no bonus Pen modal), so no longer an "Armorbreaker". Or you can go with generic Fighter and switch between estocs and axes, depending on enemy, but you'll loose Devoted 2 Pen (you'll have trouble penetrating some high armor enemies, but probably can manage with foods), 25% Crit bonus (Swashbuckler crits often) and frequent 30% Overpenetration on estoc crits. Head: Helm of the Falcon (speed) ® / later Heaven's Cacophony - for Avenging Storm 1/rest, which has good synergy with Clear Out ® Back: Giftbearer's Cloak with high History skill or Nemnok's Cloak for "On the Edge" playstyle or simply Greater Cloak of Protection Neck: Precognition or Claim and Refusal Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (class resources! + good protection and speed) ® Waist: Gwyn’s Bridal Garter, optionally Undying Burden for more survivability or Upright Captain's Belt if you like to use Pull of Eora (the more interesting picks, like Nature's Embrace and Ngati's Girdle have sadly been nerfed to the ground) Hands: Gauntlets of Discipline ®, alternatively Woedica's Strangling Grasp or Boltcatchers, Rings: Entonia's Signet Ring ® + Ring of Greater Regeneration or Chameleon's Touch Boots: Boots of Stone, alternatively Rakhan Field for another active aoe ability Pet: Abraham (speed and heal) ® It'd be good to play with a history where Devil of Caroc from PoE1 spares Harmke/dies. Her Breastplate then becomes available in Marihi's Shop in Neketaka and offers good protection, speed and additional class resources for ability spam (very valuable). --------------------------------------------------------------- The build was created as a part of my journey to design a melee build that will: 1. Deal respectable aoe damage, 2. Deal high melee damage, 3. Use two-handers (my preferred weapon type since, well, always), 4. Work well throughout the game, not just at cap, 5. Be survivable and efficient even without much party support. It's probably solo-capable, but I don't test it for this criteria. I've tested various adventurer builds, mainly with berserker, at my own criteria: level 13 against tough Xaurip encounter on the Nekataka island with party present, but acting mainly as distraction, control over that char only, almost no AI scripts. Wasn't too happy with the results. Finally a Swashbuckler - Estoc Devoted with Eager Blade / Streetfighter aced the test. Why Estoc Devoted? An Estoc in the hands of a Devoted has high Penetration (10 base, goes up to 14 at Legendary quality), you get +2 Devoted Pen bonus and with a Fighter multiclass you can freely use the modal, which gives additional +2 Pen at the cost of some Deflection. With a Fighter you can soon outheal most damage (just not at the start), so tanking Resolve and Deflection is a non-issue. You end up overpenetrating a lot of the time for +30% damage (particularly that your bread & butter rogue move - Crippling Strike, also provides +2 Pen and crits multiply Pen by x1,5). And generally there are very few enemies who you have trouble penetrating. Advanced/elite skeletons are one such group, as they are immune to piercing damage. Well, eat that 10 Accuracy penalty and switch to another weapon for them. You'll still do more then respectable damage. Also there are very cool Estocs in this game, with some of the best available very early - and Eager Blade and Engoliero de Espirs effects greatly support the aoe damage playstyle I was aiming for. -> Blade of the Endless Paths depends on imported/set history from PoE1 and can be reforged as soon as you reach the main city for cheap. BotEP is Exceptional has nice speed, Accuracy and Critical damage bonuses. Might be best for single targets. -> Eager Blade can be bought from pirates in Dunnage - which can happen even before visiting the main city, if you know your way around. And it's even better. It's Superb, provides a random bonus at start of combat (+8 Deflection, +1 Armor or +10% damage) and stacking Accuracy and Speed bonuses on Crit. More importantly it's upgrade has 10% chance to negate recovery on hit (so basically double-attack) and, last but not least, attacking Near Death targets causes an attack aoe in frontal cone (which is not very small, with good Int I've seen it affect 3rd enemy row). Together with Cleaving Stance, this can lead to a cascade of kills and obviously works well with the likes of Avenging Storm. -> Then there's the Legendary Engoliero de Espirs. Not sure it's significantly better then the earlier pair. The Accuracy and Recovery bonuses on them are pretty sweet, but the quests and lore behind Engoliero are top notch and badass factor is trough the roof. Plus after you down an enemy, you get +2/+3 Might, Con & Dex (rather then -2/-3 before first kill, so not too good vs single opponents) and the Dex part kinda partially compensates for lack of other speed bonuses. The Ghost Blade procs (modified by the various damage variables) are very sweet vs large mobs due to the fairly large cone (but will nicely soften up even moderetely tough enemies). The raw lash is also very nice and makes Engoliero pull ahead in terms of damage done. Streetfighter likes to live dangerously. He's a fair bit slower then other rogues in his idle state, but when flanked by enemies or Blooded (below 50% Health), he becomes a meatgrinder. Blazing speed and additional +50% sneak attack damage vs vulnerable targets (on top of regular 30-60% of other Rogues and potential +50% from Deathblows). When both of the above criteria are met and when his Accuracy allows him to achieve a decent crit rate, things just explode (additional +100% crit damage on top of all the earlier bonuses). Of course this means he likes to engage multiple enemies, get hit and possibly stay damaged and Fighter abilities are just the perfect fit for that. In my opinion, Streetfighter with Heating Up or On the Edge abilities active is the best class to use two-handers and not feel slow and/or inferior to dual weapons. Some playstyle for tips for early party play: Recovery (+ later Rapid upgrade) you get from the get go is a nice healing stream, but often not enough to keep you alive, particularly on the first island, particularly when surrounded by enemies. If you have a Priest (you can recruit one in the first town you reach), at Power Level III he/she learns Consecrated Ground, which will temporarily help when you stay in the effect circle. Once he/she reaches Power Level IV, can cast "Triumph of the Crusaders", which heals for a LOT when you down an enemy - that should make you much more survivable already. New Power Levels are reached much earlier by pure classes btw. - level 7 for PL IV). Otherwise if you have a Druid, he can provide plenty of healing also. You still have to be careful for some time, but can afford a more daring playstyle. At your Power Level V (so multiclass character level 13) comes the bomb: Unbending, which makes you nearly unkillable for its duration. Just watch out for enemies casting Arcane Dampeners. Your signature Rogue moves are the trusty Crippling Strike, Finishing Blow for Blooded targets (up to +200% damage, eventually upgraded to Devastating for up to +300%), Escape for battlefield mobility, Persistent Distraction to make everyone you engage Sneak attack vulnerable. Dirty Fighting for extra crit rate. Later you'll pick Deep Wounds and finally Deathblows. Adept Evasion for defence. On the Fighter side you'll use Knockdown to interrupt nasty enemy skills, later upgraded to Mule Kick. Later Charge for cool mobility multihit and finally Clear Out to make mobs your bitches. The last 2 would work very well with Heaven's Cacophony Avenging Storm. Fighter Stances -> Cleaving Stance for extra attacks on kill. Disciplined Barrage-> Strikes should be always active. On the defensive side you'll want Rapid Recovery, Vigorous Defence (+Refreshing upgrade), Determination and, most importantly, Unbending. Also Armored Grace will be nice. With Fighter's Refreshing Defense (bonus to all defenses) and Determination (bonus to Intellect, Perception and Constitution affliction defense), Rogue Adept Evasion (negate Reflex Grazes - and we have high Reflex) and Slippery Mind (immune to Perception, Intellect and Resolve afflictions when Blooded - as a Streetfighter we like to be Blooded), as well as equipment: Gwyn's Bridal Garter (Dex affliction Resistance) and Boots of Stone (Might affliction Resistance), you will be well protected against most debilitating effects. Fighter's Disciplined Strikes, Vigorous Defense and later on Unbending Shield provide Concentration to ensure that nothing can stop you from demolishing your targets. Any comments are appreciated. Edit: Updated 02.09.18 to re-arrange some abilities and add info about Engoliero de Espirs.

Well, subclass depends on you. I'd go with Devoted/Streetfighter, but you have to be aware of the limitations. Devoted means you have to pick one weapon type and generally stick with it (you loose Devoted bonuses and get a -10 Accuracy penalty with other weapon types). I personally recommend going with Estocs for 2 handed or Swords/Sabres for duals. That's an important question btw. two-handed or duals? Unbroken or no subclass are okay choices as well, just they don't pack as much punch. Estoc has high Penetration (10 base, goes up to 14 at Legendary quality), you get +2 Devoted Pen bonus and with a Fighter multiclass you can freely use the modal, which gives additional +2 Pen at the cost of some Deflection. With a Fighter you can soon outheal most damage (just not at the start), so tanking Resolve and Deflection is a non-issue. You end up overpenetrating a lot of the time for +30% damage (particularly that your bread & butter rogue move - Crippling Strike, also provides +2 Pen and crits multiply Pen by x1,5). And generally there are very few enemies who you have trouble penetrating. Advanced/elite skeletons are one such group, as they are immune to piercing damage. Well, eat that 10 Accuracy penalty and switch to another weapon for them. You'll still do more then respectable damage. Also there are very cool Estocs in this game, with some of the best available very early (one depends on imported/set history from PoE1 and can be reforged as soon as you reach the main city, an even better one can be bought from pirates - even before visiting the main city, if you know your way around). Streetfighter likes to live dangerously. He's a fair bit slower then other rogues in his idle state, but when flanked by enemies or Blooded (below 50% Health), he becomes a meatgrinder. Blazing speed and additional +50% sneak attack damage vs vulnerable targets (on top of regular 30-60% of other Rogues). When both of the above criteria are met and when his Accuracy allows him to achieve a decent crit rate, things just explode (additional +100% crit damage on top of the earlier bonuses). Of course this means he likes to engage multiple enemies, get hit and possibly stay damaged and Fighter abilities are just the perfect fit for that. Recovery (+ later Rapid upgrade) you get from the get go is a nice healing stream, but often not enough to keep you alive, particularly on the first island, particularly when surrounded by enemies. If you have a Priest (you can recruit one in the first town you reach), at Power Level III he/she learns Consecrated Ground, which will temporarily help when you stay in the effect circle. Once he/she reaches Power Level IV, can cast "Triumph of the Crusaders", which heals for a LOT when you down an enemy - that should make you much more survivable already. New Power Levels are reached much earlier by pure classes btw. - level 7 for PL IV). Otherwise if you have a Druid, he can provide plenty of healing also. You still have to be careful for some time, but can afford a more daring playstyle. At your Power Level V (so multiclass character level 13) comes the bomb: Unbending, which makes you nearly unkillable for its duration. Other good alternative for a Swashbuckler is Trickster, for a more defensive-oriented approach (and devious, can nicely distract enemies with his dazzling lights and lead them to some powder barrels for example). He gets cool self-buffs, at PL III casts Repulsive Visage which terrifies near enemies. Much less damage though and with the Fighter, you don't really need the extra protections. In any case your signature Rogue moves are the trusty Crippling Strike, later Finishing Blow (eventually upgraded to Devastating) for Blooded targets (less then 50% health), Escape for battlefield mobility, Persistant Distraction to make everyone you engage Sneak attack vulnerable. Dirty Fighting for extra crit rate. Later you'll pick Deep Wounds and finally Deathblows. Adept Evasion for defence. On the Fighter side you'll use Knockdown to interrupt nasty enemy skills, later upgraded to Mule Kick. Later Charge for cool mobility multihit and finally Clear Out to make mobs your bitches. Fighter Stances -> Cleaving Stance for extra attacks on kill. Disciplined Barrage-> Strikes should be always active. On the defensive side you'll want Rapid Recovery, Vigorous Defence (+Refreshing upgrade), Determination and, most importantly, Unbending. Also Armored Grace will be nice. Stat spread could be something along the lines: Might: Average ~14 (you'll have plenty of other additive damage bonuses, so that's not very important; still nice, it modifies aoe "spell-like" effects of some weapons) Con: Base, ~10 Dex: Average (with Streetfighter triggered you don't really need more speed, but when his special isn't active and you're using a two-hander or sword&board you want as much as possible). Per: Max (to hit & crit stuff, duh) Int: Max (to keep that sweet Unbending + Disciplined Strikes + Refreshing Defence active as long, as possible; you only have so many resources) Res: Dump (3/4, depending on race) - you'll survive anyway Also it'd be good to play with a history where Devil of Caroc from PoE1 spares Harmke/dies. Her Breastplate then becomes available in a shop in the main hub and it offers good protection, speed and additional class resources for ability spam (very valuable). Aww, hell, I've written so much, might as well post it as a build. Here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105365-class-build-armorbreaker/

Don't know if you're still considering this, but it sounds good. Penetration is not a huge issue, you can get Hammering Thoughts for +1, you can spam the cheap Cripping Strike for +2 Pen. Your Soul Annihilation attack doesn't care about enemy armor at all. Stilettos would fit that style and they have high Penetration (although in a somewhat resisted type). Plus against elite skellies and such you can always temporarily switch to a weapon with different damage type, like flails, maces or clubs. In fact for main hand weapon I would recommend a higher damage weapon, like a saber or sword maybe. That's because your Rogue Full Attacks ignore main hand recovery and only use the offhand recovery value - so you can have higher damage with them "for free" (and generate more Focus). But of course the light "swasbuckling" arms would work too, are just slightly less optimal. I like DoC for extra protection and the valuable extra Guile resources (2 more Crippling Strike per encounter - 3 more with Empower - and each usually generates enough Focus to follow with a strong Soul Annihilation afterwards), but you can go lighter if you like. I wouldn't call such a build a "CC beast" though. You tend to rarely spend focus on actual CC and it's difficult to max Int for buff/debuff durations due to a bad case of MAD. In the end, you probably shouldn't pick much apart from a few staples, like Secret Horrors. Maybe Psychovampiric Shield for some tough cookies and Tenuous Grasp+Whispers of Treason or Puppet Master for use in particularly difficult encounters. Generally the focus of such a build is on melee damage. For CC pick Beguiler or Ascendant.

I think you've missed Barbarian, Ascendant Cipher, Priest, Druid and Chanter from your list of classes that majorly benefit from staying pure. Like some have wrote before, the major benefit for staying pure is not only access to final ability tiers, but also much earlier access to strong PL VI-VII abilities. Blood Thirst at level 13 rather then 19. Amplified Wave and Disintegration at level 11 rather then 16. And so on... The only 3 classes I would always multiclass are Fighter, Rogue and Paladin. So actually for MOST classes there are solid trade-offs to this decision.

*Facepalm*

changing the weapon is out of the question. That is the base being built around. I found the opposite in my testing. I found the brawler build more mobile/fun but took a while to kill everything. Brute and marauder did massive kills very fast. Swashbuckler did great (both trickster and streetfighter) but not as fast as the other tested builds. I linked some vids in one of OPs other posts. The brute cleared floor one of VTC solo within a signal duration of unbending. I have tested all this so I'm speaking from that position not supposition based on paper. From my point of view, the trouble is that you're testing builds at level cap and taking full advantage of 1/rest effects (mainly Avenging Storm). That's nice for build theorycrafting, but IMVHO not so great for actual gameplay, which generally mainly consists of getting to level 20, not playing there. Also personally I don't want to rest after every (optionally every challenging) encounter. And IMO before the cap and discounting Avenging Storm, Swash will badly outperform the Brute. You don't always trigger Streetfighter bonus, but when it counts, you tend to do and things start to die fast. And you always have your regular sneak, Persistent Distraction and Finishing/Devastating Blow. Nothing on the Barbarian's side really compares. Marauder is another story, but he's squishy as hell, so even more gimmicky to use with stuff like Nemnok's Cloak or Cleric casting Barring the Death's Door with Salvation of Time. One other thing. The Deltro's Cage Armor. Does it provide enough benefit to be worth the heavy armor Recovery malus - and resource loss from not using the DoC? Does Lord Darryn's Voulge Static Charge even benefit from that? If so, how much? It'd be good for stuff like Heaven's Cacophony Avenging Storm (seriously, I don't think they should have put such a powerful effect on an available early, repeatable use item, kinda devaluates the Druid - but hey, it's there to be used) or Mantle of 7 Bolts, but those are 1/rest.

Not that hard IMO. Pick Bear for extra Armor, keep it back to protect the squishes or flank priority targets - and to improve ranger's Accuracy with Stalker's Link. If you make it charge, then sure, it will die very fast. But you very clearly shouldn't. Then again you can pick Ghostheart and not worry about it much. Pure it's not great, but it's very good multiclass material, particularly with Rogue or Cipher.

Even with the Voulge, Swash will probably do a lot more damage then Brute. Just won't spread aoe (which means other weapons are probably preferable).

Ranger / Rogue is a top tier ranged DPS multiclass though.

I disagree with the assesment Swashbuckler "locking things down and wearing them or holding for others to kill". That'd be more accurate description of the Brute IMO. A Streetfighter Swashbuckler will deal a lot more damage then a Brute, at least prior to level 19 and Blood Thirst. But then Swash will get Clear Out at level 16 which is fun in its own way. Unbending means you can fully dump deflection, focus heavily on damage stats and even have lowish Con and still survive trough everything (barring Arcane Dampener). Deltro's helm has been nerfed btw and I don't think Cyrus would get much mileage of it.

On PotD if you're not a super-seasoned veteran only if you like dying a lot... On Veteran it could be okay.

"You can" does not equate to beginner optimizing his choices, gear and cheesing the game with early end-game gear acquisition strategies.

Marauder for a beginner? Come on...

A Cipher / Paladin would be a pretty cool off-tank, with lots of nice support abilities. Not much casting synergy (like Int+Might bonus and speed from Helwalker monk, Accuracy bonuses from Ranger or Recovery reductions from Streetfighter or Barbarian), but should have no trouble filling Focus and staying in melee. Or maybe a Trickster rogue for more damage focus with the pretty great defensive buffs, which should allow him to stay in melee.

Eh, it would work as an OFF tank, with a lot of versality provided by Wizard spells, but at least on PotD it doesn't work that great for regular gameplay IMO. A lot of buffs are short lived and expire all too fast. The number of casts is very limited. When you finish buffing, you barely have any spells left. And despite the coolness factor of throwing enemies around, monk just lacks the punch to be a serious damage dealer (at least prior to Heartbeat Drumming and stacked with very high accuracy bonuses). My test sample at level 13 against the tough kobolds encounter on the Neketaka island showed that, while decently durable, such a build just couldn't push enough damage to eliminate foes fast before the buffs expire. Many attacks ended as Grazes. Also they usually resisted most of his Stunning Blows, Raised Torments and often even Force of Anguish.

...if you want a ranged playstyle. In melee you'll be squishy like a bug.

Yes, pulsing Blinding is amazing. Even enemies with highish Fortitude tend to fail the save eventually. And what's really surprising is the long Blind duration. I'd expect it to also "pulse", but no, the duration is in line with 1-off debuffs which land or fail.

Those are classes, not builds. I recommend playing without any build. Pick whatever class you like and roll with it. Game isn't too hard and Veteran can always be lowered should you experience too much difficulty. You may also avoid Corpse Eater, Ranger and Wizard subclasses. I think he first needs to decide on a playstyle (hence classes), then a build can be tailored to that.

Well, it is really cool for single target damage for classes without Full Attack signature moves (like Cipher). I agree its not broken though.

Fighter / Rogue (Swashbuckler) is easy to play and very strong. Cipher Ascendant (either pure or multi) is very fun and also powerful.

Devoted / Streetfighter with the Eager Blade does okay aoe damage. Extra attack on kill with Cleaving Stance, extra aoe attack when striking near death targets, 10% for double attack. Less aoe strikes, but way more damage per hit on secondary target. Frequent Overpenetration. Then there eventually is Clear Out, which is awesome for this purpose.

No, no Nemnok's Cloak.

Honestly, after some tests of mid-game characters (level 13), in my opinion, you should go with Swashbuckler. Berserker multiclasses just die too easily (except Brute, but his damage output isn't the greatest). With Fighter Unbending on the other hand you become nigh unkillable and can comfortably stay blooded. Allows to freely dump Res AND have lowish Con too. I'd go with Estocs - Eager Blade is available early and really awesome with its extra attacks when hitting a near death target. Plus Cleaving Stance and you get 3 attacks at the price of 1. Sure the Voulge is cooler, but its begging to be wielded by a Barbarian. Plus late game you can get Econgliero de Espirs, which is pretty awesome too, casting aoe Ghost Blades on kill.