AndreaColombo

Added the pure-ranged and pure-melee builds to my second post. If you've read about my pure-ranged build earlier this morning, it might be worth going through it again as I've made a few changes and additions.

When the guys making the card game revealed the Zahua and Devil of Caroc cards as part of the White March booster stretch goal, they also mentioned a third NPC they couldn't reveal yet. Because only two new NPCs have been revealed for part I of the expansion, the general assumption is that one more companion will be added in part II. Nothing is known about this third companion, however: not the sex, not the class, not anything.

I love you. (Brotherly, that is.) Where's the "bro-fist" button on this forum?

[Reserved to illustrate the pure-melee and pure-ranged variants of the build, which are Coming Soon™.] Pure-ranged Variant The pure-ranged variant revolves around a few core principles: Your Accuracy and damage output when fully buffed won't change: 116 for the former; 60-90 for the latter. However, you will have 11 DR bypass instead of 6, and your crits will not only do full damage (The Merciless Hand talent offsets the -30% crit damage multiplier from the Arquebus) but 10% more (from the Dungeon Delver talent.) Talents & Abilities Pure-melee Variant This variant is actually very similar to the "main" variant described in the OP, with but a few differences:

This build has nothing to do with Planescape's Lady of Pain. It is called so because I usually like to play female characters in this game, but it would work equally well with a male character. Hereby I present you with an off-tank DPS build that makes of maxing out MIGHT an art. I call this a 'preview' because I conceived this build with patch 2.0 in mind (i.e. with PER granting a bonus to Accuracy rather than Deflection); however, it works very well—and is very powerful—already in 1.06. For readability, I will be dividing this post in paragraphs and hide the content of each paragraph with SPOILER tags, so you may expand and collapse them at your leisure instead of being faced with a text wall at all times. Concept Core Premises Character Build Details. As mentioned above, this character must be an Aumaua from The Living Lands. Background is up to you; I chose Colonist for the bonus to Survival as I want my buffs to last as long as possible (hint: Flask of War Paint.) Starting Attribute Scores Final Attribute Scores Talents & Abilities Equipment: So How Does It Work? End Game Screenshots. Having been taken with 1.06, these screenshots show an inflated Deflection score and a deflated Accuracy score by the same amount. Don't forget this build was created with 2.0 in mind (but as the screenshots show, it works already pretty well in 1.06.) Fully buffed; ranged. Fully buffed; melee.

After completing Aloth's quest "Two Sided", you still retain the possibility to ask everyone in the Sanitarium whether they know an expert in Awakenings. This makes no sense, as you already know who said expert is and you don't need their services any longer to boot. The issue is particularly jarring when you meet a character for the first time after solving Aloth's quest (e.g. Nans) and one of your dialog options is: "What do you know about Awakenings?", which is clearly meant for Aloth's quest. SAVED GAME: link OUTPUT LOG: link REPRO STEPS: Load the attached saved game. Open your Journal and observe that Aloth's quest, Two Sided, has been completed. Back to the game, talk to Ethelmoer. Observe that you can still ask him, "Does anyone here know anything about Awakenings?" If you've completed Aloth's quest, chances are you've already asked Ethelmoer this question. Even if you haven't, you definitely already know the answer. Considering this dialog option only appears if you've started Aloth's quest, and it is therefore intrinsically related to it, it should likely disappear once the quest is completed. Now enter the room on Ethelmoer's right and talk to Nans. Observe that you can ask her, "What do you know about Awakenings?" Go down the stairs and meet Moedred; talk to him. Observe that you can tell him, "I'm looking for an expert on Awakenings." Except you so aren't. Not anymore, since Aloth's quest is complete and you don't need an expert on Awakenings (not to mention the fact that, having completed Aloth's quest, you already know where to find one.)

I agree; this bug has been outstanding for a long time and the fix should really be included in patch 2.0.

You don't need to own a U.S. keyboard to bring up the console: Suffice to change the language your keyboard is set to in MacOS to U.S. English (there should be a button for it on the right side of the top bar; alternatively, go to your Settings panel.)

Few more tidbits from Josh on Something Awful: Retraining costs money in game proportional to the retraining character's level and you are rebuilding every single level. It's a relatively laborious/time-consuming process so I don't think many people will be retraining six or seven times in a single game. Attributes are covered since that's one of the things people are likely to want to change due to Perception now (in patch 2.0) modifying Accuracy instead of Deflection. [On top of changing Attribute bonuses from resting in Caed Nua] I'm also retuning the inn bonuses so they almost all grant multiple benefits at lower value. e: And not only skill/attribute bonuses. Deflection is still on Resolve. We're not making up for the reduction because Deflection tends to get really high on its own. (I happen to agree with the latter.)

More bonanza: https://instagram.com/p/5NfBdXpxzI/

I will likely start a new game and play through the expansion content at around level 5-7, which IIRC is around the time you are "meant" to (as in, the expansion is designed around characters of about that level, if memory serves.) I will be taking the new companions with me and I don't want to wait too much before they join my travels (and I want to see how they react to most original content.)

I would still be against having two different stats affecting the same thing (e.g. Two separate stats affecting Deflection.)

And so PoE slides deeper into mediocrity. :| I don't think it's bad, myself. During my second play through I had my character wield a two-hander for most of the game, only to decide near the end of the game that I actually wanted the Red Knight. I had to cheat to respec my character so I could do that (not that I particularly mind cheating; having a respec button is simply quicker and more convenient.) My problem would be if they only did this (i.e. implement a respec button) and nothing to fix other issues (first and foremost, dumb A.I. which generates in turn the vast majority of the most pressing issues with the game; the Attribute System that heavily favors min/maxing; several game mechanics not working as advertised or intended; the absence of bracketed scaling for the critical path; etc.) It is my impression that 2.0 will fix several bugs and at least try to fix the Attribute System, as well as bring a few small improvements to the A.I. to the table—which would be a good start

It's probably not noticeable on its own, but on a Fighter who's already regenerating 3 points of Endurance (IIRC per second) through Constant Recovery, that's the equivalent of the talent that improves upon the latter (and whose name defies me atm.)

For the record, that's actually grammatically correct (but "sure" is spelled without an "h".)

Respec'ing confirmed.

The first meaning of the word "might" is "physical strength." Besides, the system underlying the game is but a simplification of the abstraction of our character concepts and of the story being told. It couldn't be otherwise. Programming still isn't at a point where you can "pump might" but also let the game know it is not intended to represent physical strength for that particular character. If programming that advanced was possible, it would be too expensive for a 5-million game.

There is also a ring that confers Second Chance. It can be bought in Ondra's Gift from Cartugo, in front of the Vailian trading coster.

It's already been reported and acknowledged. Will dig up the link when I'm home. EDIT: it's here.

Yep. BMac confirmed to me via PM that he changed the code so that the font would always render at full resolution instead of upscaling beyond 1920x1200. The change will be in 2.0

Fighter's talent is Constant Recovery (named Veteran's Recovery.)

I've just checked in-game, and plate armor actually has 125% Pierce and Slash DR. Not that it changes how DR works, mind you—just clarifying. Nobear—I do not possess any statistics on what damage type is the most used by enemies in PoE, but IIRC the big fellas that aid Thaos in the final fight deal Slash/Crush damage (meaning they'll hit you with the damage type you resist the least between Slash and Crush.) I usually tend to "pump" my DR for both as much as I can because of it, seeing as I can also benefit from it throughout the game. That said, if you make extensive use of elemental AoE spells, you may want to protect your men against the types of elemental damage you use the most.

It was changed in patch 1.05, much to the dismay of proper roleplaying (GM is clearly a very perceptive person, not an overly intelligent one.) I guess it was done because, with the current Attriubute System, INT is more useful to her than PER and her stats are fairly abysmal as is. If 2.0 changes PER to grant Accuracy, there will no longer be a justification (however poor) for this inane change, so I dearly hope GM will be changed back to her original status.

This is by design. When several bonuses affect the same thing, only the higher bonus applies. There are very few exceptions to this.

Hey Aarik, could you get any feedback on the above? Apologies for chasing, but since we're getting a Monk companion in The White March, I figured this would relevant