AndreaColombo

Josh confirmed on Twitter that MOAR pollaxes are coming in TWM pt. II. That said, only Rain Blights are immune to piercing damage that I know of. You can use the Blade of the Endless Paths in all encounters, and an Exceptional pollaxe (or the Half Mast) against Rain Blights.

Not quite. It makes it harder for enemies to hit you with attacks that target the Will defense. To overcome enemies' defenses (regardless of which one) you need Accuracy, which you can get a bonus for from Perception.

It's up!

^ A frame by frame analysis is going to be quicker and more precise than recording seconds on a piece of paper (seconds vary depending on frame rate too)

That is indeed the case, as far as I'm aware.

Sen, just found your video in which you explain the global recovery modifier is 1.2. However, I can't seem to reconcile that with my observation in my frame by frame analysis. Have a look at the numbers in this post. On a naked, 10-DEX character with a two-hander I get a recovery time of 50 frames. That's including a 4-frame delay that occurs from the moment the recovery bar becomes empty to the moment the attack animation starts again. Using the math from your video, it should be 54 frames, so 4 frames off compared to the observed value. Revising my math with the Blade of the Endless Paths (where I also mistakenly counted Armored Grace as -16% instead of -15%) we get: Penalties: Plate Armor (50%) Vulnerable Attack (20%) Bonuses: Armored Grace (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel armor (-15% penalty) Durgan Steel weapon (+15% attack speed) Speed weapon (+20% attack speed) Deleterious Alacrity of Motion (+50% attack speed) 25 DEX (+45% action speed; applies to both attack and recovery) Expected: Attack: 30 * (1-0.45) = 16.5 Recovery: (16.5 * 1.2 * 1.5) * (1+0.5+0.2-0.15-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 29.7 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.15-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 29.7 * (1-0.45) / (1+0.45) = 16.335 / (1.45) = 11.26 Observed: Attack: 24 frames (seems to be hard-capped.) Recovery: 15 frames (11 + 4-frame delay) In this case, we get really close if we do not consider the 4-frame delay as part of recovery but animation speed is not what I calculated. Using 24-frames: Recovery: (24 * 1.2 * 1.5) * (1+0.5+0.2-0.15-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 43.2 * (1+0.5+0.2-0.15-0.15-0.15-0.2-0.5) / (1+0.45) = 43.2 * (1-0.45) / (1+0.45) = 23.76 / (1.45) = 16.38 This gets us very close to the observed 15 frames (really, I don't think 1.4 frames are visible to the naked eye.) But still, the math for a naked character doesn't return true for some reason. Same with my observations on wearing plate mail, where I got 75+4 frames versus your calculated 72 frames. Stuff is starting to get confusing...

Rejoice!

Console commands would be my pick for stuff I can't do without. I use many other things too, like cyan selection circles, disable engagement, movement recovery fix, etc.. But the show stopper than prevents me from installing 2.03 right now is console commands. I need them to test bugs and builds, so I'm not going to do without.

Quick update. I've exchanged a PM with tjayharvey on the Nexus and he is still willing to work on the IE Mod, but does not anticipate the update to 2.03 to happen any time soon. Main reason, besides of course his being busy, is that it seems like 2.03 changed a lot of stuff and updating the mod appears to be about as complicated as it was to make it work with 2.0. Take a time-consuming task, add a busy RL, and you get the situation The good news is that the mod is still actively being maintained. tjayharvey also said he's happy to coach any programmers who might want to contribute to the mod's maintenance, so if anyone's up to the task, you may contact him on the Nexus.

Heart of the Storm is very good for a Druid's spells, but melee talents only really apply to their melee attacks (whether Spiritshifted or not). Spells remain unaffected. Wildstrike, Greater Wildstrike, WF: Paesant, Two Weapon Fighting, Savage Attack, and Vulnerable Attack are all good talents for a Druid's Spiritshift. However, taking all of them means you're left with but one talent to spend on powering their spells, and Druids are still a spellcasting class—so probably not a great idea. Leave out the last two, perhaps, and go for 2-3 elemental talents. You'll still have a great damage output with your Spirtshift, and your spells will also be powerful.

I've run tests aplenty on speed and recovery. Dexterity speeds up everything but it is not additive; it applies multiplicatively after all other bonuses have applied. Everything in game that says "attack speed" only affects recovery time. Stuff that reduces the penalty while wearing armor, of course, only applies to armor recovery penalty. Armored Grace isn't going to do anything if you're wearing clothes with 0% recovery penalty. That said, I'm not sure what you mean with the two recovery times blatherskite. Plate armor makes your recovery 50% slower; with Armored Grace, it makes it 30% slower instead. Speed bonuses from Durgan Steel stack with everything, and so does the weapon Speed enchantment. Other attack speed bonuses from spells, potions, or abilities don't stack with each other. The values in the chart linked above are partly outdated. Two-handers have a 50-frame recovery time on a naked character with 10 DEX (including the 4-frame delay that can never be affected or eliminated.) EDIT: Original research. Some of my research.

For the record, Zahua was written by Eric Fenstermaker.

Everything in the game that says "attack speed" only affects recovery. Fighters can achieve greater speed because Swift Strikes doesn't stack with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, whereas Armored Grace does.

^ The only thing that affects everything is Dexterity. Everything else only affects recovery, including the Monk's Swift Strikes. For all intent and purposes, Fighter is the class that can achieve the fastest attack+recovery time in heavy armor.

Personally, I could settle for pure reassurance right now. If either Spring or tjay chimed in and confirmed that yes, the mod will be updated at some point, it would be enough for me and I could proceed to installing 2.03. I won't, for now, as I'd rather stick to 2.02 + mod than to update and lose the mod. That said, tjay was online on the Nexus today, so he's totally still around. Guess it's a matter of not having much time (Spring did mention in this thread that updating the mod is not easy as far as programming tasks go.)

I'm on 2.02 but I forgot to remove any items of protection from my characters before running the comparison. Deflection progression is the same for both classes.

There is a finite amount of XP in the game, but that's hardly a concern since a party of six can cap way before the end if you're on a completionist run. Besides, if you respec, you still retain all the XP you gained until that point. Money is not a problem unless you willfully impose restrictions on yourself or play solo, which doesn't seem to be the case. It might look like you're short on gold at the beginning, but your fortune will build up fast in Act II. In Act III, you'll be literally swimming in gold and magical items (I never sell any uniques, and always end the game north of 60,000 gp with my party fully equipped and lots of potions and food in my inventory.) Temple of Eothas can be unforgiving with smaller parties but if you have 5 or 6 companions, you won't have many issues. You can recruit Durance without going too far off your way; Kana if you progress with the plot a bit before going back to Gilded Vale.

I don't think the comparison between Knock Down and Savage Attack is particularly adept—they're separate, they stack, and nothing prevents a Fighter from using them simultaneously for a +40% total damage bonus. The fact that knocking enemies Prone was the exception, rather than the rule, proves my point: Fighters are a class for one-on-one melee combat. Vulgarly, auto-attacking. They are the low-maintenance class par excellence. Their every ability revolves around making their attacks stronger with but a few exceptions, which include Knock Down (and with the +20% damage bonus, now even Knock Down adds to their attacks on top having an additional effect.) Sure, it's nice to knock enemies prone but that's not what makes Fighters worthwhile or tips the fight in their favor. When my Fighters hits for 50 average damage a swing, has 10 DR bypass and her recovery lasts only 15 frames, I don't really care if my enemy doesn't fall to the ground with a Knock Down; they're going to die really fast anyway.

So, it comes down to my inexperience with Paladin as I thought Faith and Conviction was on all the time as opposed to just in combat. I've just tried it in combat and it totally applies to my henchman Paladin. I don't think Paladins should have received a buff to other defenses, as they're already 10 ahead of everyone else (and your PC Paladin can get more than that.) Additionally, it seems to me (even though it is not written anywhere) that Paladins gain 3.5 Deflection per level, whereas Fighters gain 3. At least that's what I get when check the Deflection numbers of my level 14 characters.

Again, Knock Down gives +20% damage besides the Prone effect. Fighters can effectively get 5 attacks per encounter at +20% damage as of 2.03, which is pretty good for a class whose main thing is melee one-on-one. CC was never a Fighter's job in the first place; just a nice little bonus.

Paladins went down from 30 to 25 and Fighters went up from 25 to 30 because Faith and Conviction, so technically Josh's statement is still true. The only problem I see with that is that Faith and Conviction does not apply to Pallegina or henchmen Paladins—not even the base values. So those get nerfed quite a bit. EDIT: Josh just told me on Twitter that base Faith and Conviction should apply to all Paladins. As of 2.02, it doesn't seem to, however. Could someone with 2.03 test this? I don't want to update until the IE Mod is made compatible with the new patch.

For the record, Pilferer's Grip reduces armor penalty by 10%, not 16%. It is perfectly possible to get 0 recovery (or very close to that) without using them (Gauntlets of Accuracy are a better investment for that slot.) But that's beside the point, since the OP is discussing classes with no items or bonuses. Druids in Spiritshift form can be very good damage dealers. They dual-wield 5 DR bypass claws that can be brought to 10 with Vulnerable Attack (20% speed penalty offset by Two Weapon Fighting.) Their base damage is pretty high and their natural armor has 0% recovery penalty. Taking Wildstrike, Greater Wildstrike, and the relevant elemental talent + Savage Attack, Hiravias matched (sometimes outclassed) the Lady of Pain on single-target damage. Of course, Spiritshift is 1/encounter and has a limited duration. But then Hiravias has spells to cast. All in all, Druids are pretty good.

Spiritshifted Hiravias can outdamage the Lady of Pain. Just saying.

Josh's answer

I would back PoE II without thinking twice.