Greensleeve

I'm basically with you on this. Class, basic appearance, portrait (gotta get to use those new portraits), attributes, absolutely. But sex and race? Would prefer not to.

So was Blunderbuss and wand combo, mentioned as an example of some crazier dual wield combos. Dual wield arquebus in the style of The Last of the Mohicans here I come.

Might be worth noting that Katrina Garsten until very recently was Katrina Schnell. For those wanting to look up credits etc.

I've been toying with a spell-slinging Fighter, to make up for the lack of AoE. Lore is the obvious solution and there are some great spell-bound items around. Next thought was, of course, synergy. So, Confident Aim. By its description, I would say it should function with spells, regardless of them being scrolls or spell-bound in origin. But there are things that don't quite function as I would guess from their description, and this might be one of them. So before I run off to do some testing, I figured I'd go here and simply ask. Does anyone know if Confident Aim works with spells?

Yeah, it should. Soul Whip does too. All damage modifiers should count, because I'm fairly certain Focus generation works off of damage dealt rather than 20% of base weapon damage or something like that.

The thing about the builds on this board is that they presume you've played through the game. I can't really think of a early-game build/guide off the top of my head. But since you seem to be struggling with the early and you have some stated goals, I'll recommend this: Class Barbarian Race: Aumaua/Moon Godlike (for Stun/Prone defense and healing respectively). You might like Moon Godlike more. Culture/Background: Your choice, I like stuff that gives me Survival. Stats: MIG 18 CON 10 DEX 10 PER 16 INT 16 RES 8 Put all skill points into Survival. Choose the Heal Bonus. Class Abilities: 1st Level: Frenzy. This is the foundation of your play-style. Pop it just before your party and the enemy collides. You'll see a fantastic speed-increase. It'll let you tear all weaker mobs to pieces and put down serious hurt on stronger ones. 3rd Level: Savage Defiance. Panic button. Works very well with a Moon Godlike if you're in Frenzy. When the second pulse goes out and you still have a bunch of seconds left on Frenzy, pop this after a moment or two. Welcome to immortality. 5th Level: Bloodlust. This will let you keep your speed up once Frenzy wears off. Nice passive buff. Talents: 2nd Level: Weapon Focus: Adventurer or Soldier. Gives you extra accuracy, which you need. Your pick is determined by which weapon you find at Magran's Fork. If it's a Fine Poleaxe, use Adventurer, if it's a Fine Greatsword, use Soldier. 4th Level: Savage Attacks/Two-Handed Style. I consider the damage increase to be worth the accuracy loss. This is probably not true on Path of the Damned, but I basically just play Hard. I recommend you do too at this point in your career. If you don't want to lose accuracy, pick Two-Handed Style. 6th Level: Accurate Carnage. Worthwhile investment. You could also pick Veteran's Recovery at either Level 4 or 6 if you feel you struggle to stay alive. You shouldn't with Savage Defiance though. Equipment: Fine Greatsword/Poleaxe: Depends on what you find in Magran's Fork. Justice: I won't spoil where you get this greatsword, but it's pretty nice early game. Tough fight to get it though. Breastplate/Brigandine/Full Plate: Basically, just use any of these three, Fine if you can. Choose Full Plate over Brigandine. Breastplate if you feel you need more speed. There are Fine versions of the Breastplate and Brigandine fairly early on. Fulvano's Gloves/Boots/Amulet: All of them give nice buffs for the early game. They're rather easy to find too. Minor Ring of Protection/Deflection: They'll help and you have nothing better to use. Your other option is to go for a Fighter. Same race choices, same equipment. Pick Two-Handed Style instead of Accurate Carnage. Stats should be same, but DEX 14, INT 12. Talents should be Knockdown, Confident Aim, Weapon Specialization. This is not min-maxed. This is not the best you can do this early in the game. But it's solid and it'll do what you want.

Focus gain is based on damage dealt. I believe it's 20% of damage dealt, which can be increased with Draining Whip. I used Grieving Mother with a pistol during my first playthrough of the game. Work really well. Though, if you don't mind micro-managing positioning/buffs, a dual dagger Cipher would be brutal.

It's about speed, but without the really cool weapons to take advantage of speed + large AoE, this build is mildly dead in the water. It's better to use a more standard damage-dealer at that point, partly because enemies won't live long enough for debuffs to matter hugely, and partly because heavy armor is better early game than late game. So yeah, I stand by my suggestions up there. Respec out of it when you get to Defiance Bay, as you'll get access to stuff like Vile Loner's Lance at that point. And dual wield + heavy armor is plenty fast. So just try slapping on some heavy armor before you give up. It's an easy change that can do wonders. Edit: And yeah, this build does have DPS, but not tons of it. It's more of a melee CC build than a DPS one. Consider a different build if you want DPS, especially early on.

Hence why I said "can be" passive. I absolutely agree. Fighters are sturdy enough that you can do some fun positional stuff with them. Especially with a bit of added mobility.

I know, but none of its abilities activate. I think Frenzy or Bloodthirst Overrides Mourning Gloves' ability to activate at all, and I want to confirm what's going on.

A Barbarian at that point in the game should probably use a pike. or armor up (brigandine/plate/breastplate) and use whatever Fine weapons you can get. Dual swords are pretty good, with Whispers of Yenwood in one hand, Fine Sword from Temple of Eothas in the other. Make sure you have Vulnerable Attack, go to town. You should be able to cut through enemies like butter. Make sure you always use Edér's knockdown, give Durance the Holy Radiance talent that gives it +10 Accuracy, use Arcane Assault to Daze all enemies, always. Or you could get Azureith's Stiletto and do Jolting Touch Carnage attacks to make everything explode. Personally, I prefer dual swords and heavy armor. Finally, I'd dump Perception compared to the statline in here at this point. It's just not needed yet. I'd probably have the following: MIG 18 CON 10 DEX 10 PER 16 INT 16 RES 8 Will give you good offence, good AoE, and with dual wield + heavy armor, you're fast and sturdy enough.

Fighter would work very well too. They're fantastically durable and powerful at single-target DPS. However, they can be a bit passive. Not necessarily an issue when you have speed and high numbers across the board. I'd recommend checking out The Juggernaut, Lady of Pain, Monksterlasher, maybe Interrupt Barbarian. The Barbarian builds on the board are rarely standard ones, as it's pretty easy and straight-forward to build it. But I can give a few pointers for the class if you want just a standard stand-up-and-fight build.

I did some preliminary testing, and it seems as though Mourning Gloves don't activate properly on a Barbarian with Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. Mourning Gloves just didn't go off, yet the other two abilities did. I'm going to try to verify.

I'm theory-tinkering with the idea of optimizing on-kill effects and stacking as many of them as I can. To that end, I've been trying to catalogue them. I haven't gone over spells yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm missing an item or two. So please, do chip in. Class effects Barbarian: Bloodlust Blood Thirst Paladin: Inspiring Triumph The Black Path Strange Mercy Items: Mourning Gloves: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance Tempered Helm: Bloodthirst (different from Barb ability) Anything I missed? I guess the most obvious synergy here would be a Barbarian with the two items. Extra speed, power, defense, healing on kill with the ability to kill lots and lots of mobs. Anyone done a build with extensive on-kill effect use?

This.

Well, keep in mind that all classes, regardless of whether they use magic or not, utilize the power of their soul to fuel class abilities. The Fighter's Knockdown ability is literally using their soul to over-power the enemy and force them off-balance. A Barbarian's Carnage isn't them hitting in wide, sweeping motions, it's the power of their soul exploding out of every hit they lay on the enemy. So Awakening will sensibly convey power to all classes. It doesn't explain why Aloth or Edér go from being nobodies to killing Archmages though, or why Durance, maker of the Godhammer can regain his lost power. I mean, it was literally sheared off. Shouldn't be there to recover/restore.

Wait, what is 3.04 changing that'll impact this? Is it just the change to sabers?

Good to know. I'll probably go for Bittercut and Dragon's Maw on Maneha then. I was leaning that direction anyway. I saw your Leech build a while ago and it opened my eyes to how cool Spelltongue really is. And while the synergy with a barbarian is pretty great, I'm cobbling together a Fighter build using Spelltongue, a two-handed weapon, and Quick Switch, so my MC has dibs on it already. I suppose it's a decent candidate for duplicating though.

So I'm determined to use Maneha during my next playthrough. I'm a bit torn on how to build her though. The two options I'm considering are a sword-and-board build with bash, the other is a variant on MountainTiger's Interrupt Barbarian. I've heard bash is great with barbarians. I guess it's because of 1/encounter Heart of Fury? Getting full attacks while still maintaining solid defenses. Badgradr's Barricade seems like the best choice. Insight would be appreciated. The other option would see her with Godansthunyr and Strike Hard. Defense-debuff, stunning, meet Carnage, and go to town. I'm worried she'll be mildly squishy even in heavy armor unless managed, and I don't know how heavily I want to do that. Any opinions on the tankiness of dual wielding barbarians in heavy armor? I also considered Boerer's Leech build, but it seemed... inappropriate to slap a rapier and buckler on a rough-and-tumble pirate like Maneha. But I'm sure I can convinced (though I have a fighter build in mind mixing Spelltongue and Abydon's Hammer).

Thanks for the advice. Any tips on which patch to play? I've heard the save-load stacking bug is pretty bad in 3.02.

So, it's time to get back into PoE. This time around, I'm going for either human or Death Godlike Fighter with a buckler and a weapon. I need some advice though. I'm thinking sabres. They look good, do decent damage, and once you get up there in damage, the damage type isn't too important. I'm pretty sure Bittercut would be the best option in that case, but please correct me. However, a weapon with Speed would be really nice. The easy to access ones would be Danulya (I think that's the name) and the frost axe from the visiting stronghold merchant. But I really like swords and Last Blade of the White Forge is just so damn late in the game, otherwise I would almost certainly go for that. Any advice? Stick to Bittercut, use Durgan Steel sabre, shield, Gloves of Swift Action? I hate potions, so I'd rather not rely on the haste spell. Oh, and finally. I'm currently on patch 3.01. I've heard of a lot of bugs in 3.02. Is it worth updating, or should I just stick to what I've got until 3.03?

Well, the Blade of Endless Paths will give you higher DPS than Tidefall. So if you're going for damage output, you should use the Blade of Endless Paths. But! If you want damage while being tankier, Tidefall is the way to go, particularly when combined with some form of retaliation.

Oh that fight. I didn't even really stop to recognise it as a hard fight. I just used the tactics I typically used. I suppose Kana threw down a paralyse towards the end though.

Or penalty, exactly.

Scrolls of Paralysis have +15 Accuracy, so they very often hit, or at least graze. And even on a graze I believe it has a duration of 10 sec. So you know, easy to hit, huge AoE (8m radius I believe) and huge range (20m), and long duration. Totally wins an encounter all on its own.