Odd Hermit

I think this would be a quality of life change instead of having to swap around to determine what order you should do things in. Cuts down unnecessary menu micromanagement.

My thoughts thus far: Blood Mage is something I will be trying out with Paladin, will probably be my MC for next playthrough since Paladin is still way better as MC than custom. Bellower sounds like a great idea but the mechanics don't accomplish what it's going for at all. As is I see no reason to use it. You want to use your +PL on a good invocation, but you just dumped your phrases to get that+PL ??? I think their chants should be more potent as well if the range is going to be so severely reduced. I'm liking the idea of an Ancient/Tactician as an alternative to Chanter for summoning. Previously the Chanter was the only class that could adequately fill the fodder spam role. Arcane Archer seems to have potential but I'm just not interested in rangers in PoE still. Psion sounds nice in theory but the focus gen #s are much too low to bother trying. Debonair seems super gimmicky and you get adequate charm without the limitations and penalties elsewhere. The penalties just outweigh the benefits too heavily here. Have no interest in the others.

Tbf pala/chanter with Eld Nary is not even close to single class chanter with the upgraded Eld Nary. It is still better than summons tho, since summons lack Pen. Eld Nary is strong but it has big drawbacks - long cast time, targets fortitude and is rather expensive. The best solo build for me is the Darcozzi/Skald spamming Thrice Was She Wronged - a rather effective and cheap AoE spell. Deltro's Cage/Black Plate for armor, Sun and Moon with modal to debuff reflex between casts, the medium shield with health regen, ring of greater regeneration, etc... Basically unkillable with endless AoE attacks and able to deal with any encounter without abusing consumables, kiting or splitting enemies right from the beginning. Why Darcozzi specifically? The flame shield seems rather weak compared to Goldpact's armor bonus.

Wondering if this is unique to the rogue, since I've been considering trying a cheesy party of multiclasses that can all escape combat, for coordinated ambush -> disappear tactics. I could just play all rogue multiclasses - and I'm quite sure it'd be powerful - but it would be nice to take NPCs that aren't rogues. Edit: Habits... meant to post this in the deadfire builds forum

I find it's helpful to create a few custom characters for 250gp right as you reach Gilded Vale and hit level 2. I avoid as much unnecessary XP along the way as possible and dodge Aloth so I can pick him up at level 3+. Custom characters can handle various tasks at your stronghold, and are nice in a pinch for certain areas where some classes are more useful than usual - having two priests for some encounters is amazing especially early on. I usually have a custom priest and cipher.. For act 1 it's nice to have a druid as well, shapeshift wrecks act 1 enemies hard, plus you can charm animals and heal in a pinch. The companion's stats become less of a problem later on though(itemization and food and spell buffs and etc.), they're all serviceable for PotD.

Most things won't stack so if you have, say, a ring and a cloak with +2 Might and +1Might you get +2 Might instead of +3, and on your character page it will show (suppressed) which means you're wearing items that buff the same thing and the higher effect overwrites if they're not equal(in which case you still get only one of the two item's buff). Personally I think the best gear is stuff you can get early that lasts through the game, there's lots of crazy late game gear but what makes the biggest difference for me is Quality of Life throughout not how decked out I am at the end. Stuff that boosts multiple stats at once lets you wear more interesting stuff without losing too much attribute wise, like you could wear Rotfinger Gloves instead of Siegebreakers and still get +Resolve from something else.

I have a quick question that doesn't deserve its own thread: Does envenomed strike apply to all enemies hit with stag's carnage? I've always liked the look of the Stag, but usually go Cat for damage. If envenomed strike were AoEed with stag it'd be enough to make it worth it.

I think dual wielding should be reconsidered and the off hand weapon should matter more. A penalty to accuracy and deflection for wielding 2x large/heavy weapons. Lighter weapons would reduce that but of course do less damage with full attacks. Currently you can do something like double sabre or mace and be hardly impacted by what seems like it should be a rather complicated and unwieldy fighting style.

I never finished White March Pt. 2 and I've never played a Rogue aside from briefly using Devil of Caroc. Rogues seem like the hands down weakest class in PoE 1, and it's even more noticeable after Deadfire in which ... while currently much easier and imbalanced ... Rogue multiclasses were amazing for me. I want to take a Rogue / Paladin build in Deadfire, continuing from a Rogue in PoE, but am tempted to just do another Paladin for PoE. Another Paladin sounds boring though(unless I can find something weird to do with one), so I'm trying to figure out what the hell to do with Rogue class in PoE 1. They do good damage, but so do much sturdier classes. They don't seem best at anything, but at the same time aren't versatile either. ??? They can go invisible, which seems really great... for solo play. I could find some utility for this in a party but mostly for making easy fights easier - which having any class that has AoE instead of a Rogue would do better anyway. All I can think of is item usage, since some of their talents affect scrolls and such and seem potentially cheesy. But it seems a Chanter is still more suited to this role(you can chant while doing item stuff) while being a stronger class overall. I think I might rather have 2x Chanters than 1 Chanter and 1 Rogue in a party. A case can be made that the Rogue is a more "for fun" class than a powerhouse, but I'm not sure it has enough active abilities to really offer that either. Can anyone sell me on the rogue's potential or is this class just pointless masochism?

The large shield modal and high pierce armor rating might help you out for the boat fights. They are super firearm heavy so you can almost always expect most enemies to be using pierce damage ranged weapons. I should've used large shields more especially in the early game, you can just swap to your main weapons after the opening volley.

Wizard is still by far the most fun class IMO, the arcane spell selection is just a versatile, powerful, and fun toolkit with many synergies to find. They have less redundancy than most other classes. I played a Troubador/Trickster going for the "Bard" feel, but I think Chanter design has serious issues - for one using respec to move talents from redundant summons to passives is clearly optimal. It's powerful, but the nature of phrases -> invocations is still such that you spam one ability, and have 1-2 passive chants going all the time, so the majority of the Chanter selection sees no use whatsoever due to opportunity costs plus it's a pain currently to micromanage chants due to modal switching being clunky.

This reminds me of mustard jelly vs. lich in Baldur's Gate II hahaha.

Generally, find kith and kill kith. Monsters drop junk, kith drop gear. If you're an immoral sort of character you can also steal tons of stuff in Neketaka. I went with a goody two shoes character and didn't steal anything but I did unlock things for exp and had a peek inside, and left some solid stuff behind. My next playthrough will be substantially more piratey I think, with more cheese because I'm going to build a hired adventurer party. I didn't get a lot out of the party banter this game. Eder/Xoti/Pallegina/Maia was my party, perhaps I missed out by not picking certain others but it wasn't as interesting as in PoE1.

No definitely not. Wael for the wizard illusion spells is the best choice for any priest / melee multiclass, and I'd never bother with a pure priest with the state of the class at the moment. I just take Xoti as Monk/Priest 'cause her unique items are good and the execute spell she gets is decent enough.

No, caster + cipher is generally a bad combination because ciphers fuel their resource through weapon attacks and not spells. The Cipher part of the class ends up not doing much for you if you're spending your time spell slinging and not building focus and using powers. Combat only takes so much time and you won't have enough to make enough use of weapon attacks, spells, and Cipher powers. Druids have some melee buff spells and shapeshifting but it's hardly bringing you comparable benefits as Rogue, Fighter, Paladin,Ranger, or Barbarian all of which improve your weapon attacks much more substantially with strong passives and abilities that count as weapon attacks.

I would've thought Evoker would be a poor buff wizard but I just looked at the spell list and apparently all you really miss out on is Arcane Veil which is less important in this game plus there are tons of firearm using enemies. Transmutation and Conjuration really seem like the least important Schools which makes Evoker even more of a no-brainer between the subclasses. However, you do lose Chill Fog. D:

Yes., but you have to know and use the good spells and avoid the bad. I could easily someone picking and using all the wrong spells and getting frustrated. Also, Aloth has low perception and I think early in the game, especially if on Path of the Damned difficulty, it can be an issue for people that may put them off early on because without accuracy buffs of some sort he probably just misses too much. Using an Arcane Knight main right now with high Perception/Int/Might and it works very well as a tanky support/CC character that can still nuke.

I'm using her as Priest+Monk, the level 1 spell from her class actually makes for a solid finisher enabling her to get extra wounds and more damage from her sickle. She does fine as a healbot in a pinch but is a solid melee as well. Definitely stack Religion on her. Pure Priest seems like a waste, pure Monk works fine, but I prefer the combo because she gets the tools to make it work better than it would with a basic Priest/Monk build IMO. Although a Wael / Nalpazca would probably work.

Some general comments - Cast times in general need adjustments, many spells should be shorter casts Priest and (caster)Druid suck, partly a cast time issue but also not enough potency to be found in their spell selections overall. That all Wizard subclasses suck other than Evoker is disappointing - losing two schools is too much for what you get in most cases. Wizard is still in decent shape though. Casters seem relatively light on strong talent options compared to melee Almost opposite the Wizard, a Chanter subclass is seemingly always better than default class. Chanter does need toning down as well. Paladin defenses and healing seem overtuned a bit, I think single class Paladin isn't overtuned but what the class brings to multiclasses might be. Fighter is in a good place overall but probably warrants some nerfs to a few particular things. Cipher seems on the weaker side if not multiclassed. Pets do not survive well enough, again, and ranger generally lackluster albeit still potent enough at ranged damage to work. Barbarian seems to rely entirely on choice multiclass combinations to be worth consideration at all. This is based on low - mid level play so far. I have tinkered with the companions a fair amount in different combinations, and also an Arcane Knight and Sorcerer(lifegiver). I actually found the Sorcerer a decent Priest substitute at least - Nature Godlike + Infuse with Vital Essence + Lifegiver shift bonus = extremely long duration/potent HoTs you can toss up ASAP at the beginning of the battle. On that note, Nature Godlike are overpowered ... l mean I understand the point of the racial is going over their power... anyway, it's great their racial isn't garbage anymore but it seems many other overly circumstantial, weak, etc. racials got left untouched.

I did the same thinking carnage would feed me tons of crits for phrases, but it ended up lackluster due to the squishiness. Summoning is often not worth the time in shorter battles, I really need to pick some trash-clearing offensive phrases on my dude. However, summoning tons of little creatures is a lot of fun, I think beckoner offers a novelty and nostalgia factor for me of summoning tons of stuff in Icewind Dale and just having a little army between you and the enemy. And Chanter/Paladin can certainly pull and kite backward to get a summon cast out before a fight really begins in many cases. One nuisance though is I'm going to have to retrain a Beckoner regularly I think, as certain summons become an obsolete waste of your talents later on.

Some chants are offensive, so completing them faster is better - more chances to hit, more damage/healing with soft winds of death and so on. The question of whether the offensive chants are good enough to justify it is one I'd just say "no" to though. Edit: Guy above makes a great point however, and I'm now reconsidering the Troubadour. I was torn between Skald and Beckoner for my Paladin/Chanter as well. I have decided Troubadour and base Chanter aren't worth it this point - relatively. Skald really benefits from a crit-happy build, and Paladins don't get great accuracy or crit conversion stuff. The penalty of +1cost for all non-offensive Phrases is harsher than with other builds where you crit enough it hardly matters. I think the best MC option for Skald is probably just Devoted Fighter or Monk. Troubador I can sort of see the appeal as a support character, and for characters that have other active things to do that come at an opportunity cost in time spent vs. phrases. But chanter phrases are strong and include potent buffs as well, and summons are great support as meat shields. So... I'm pretty "meh" about Troubador. Beckoner is weird because you maintain the basic Chanter class with upsides and downsides for the same type of Phrases, it's like the cost is just not having Troubador or Skald - if Beckoner's summons are worth it, Beckoner is then automatically better than default Chanter which is just odd. Early in the game the duration on summons is pretty lame, but then later on becomes less of a downside - having more summons starts to pay off more an more. Squishy summons often die quickly enough it's better to have multiple targets anyway, and you potentially get more flanking and attacks landed and so on. The Paladin being so healy/tanky, I think the way to go is to emphasize the summoning abilities of the Chanter and not try to Skald it up as tempting as it it. I think the basic Chanter class is entirely inferior to Beckoner. It seems like Beckoner should have a downside that isn't just weaker summons since really, the actual spells that summon end up overall stronger and this downside is null.

Learning this piece on piano is among my goals at the moment. I can play Iron Man though so I'm getting pretty close...

Axes have annihilation, giving them more damage on crits. Starcaller or other stunning weapons are a strong choice as well, but I wanted to build a barbarian that uses Axes in particular. It's unfortunate that axes don't have the strongest or most diverse options available, and I wouldn't argue this is the strongest barb build available. Max crit chance will always be higher for rogues who can get +20% hit->crit conversion with Dirty/Vicious Fighting. So no it's not the highest. You do get 15% of your regular hits converted(via new one handed) though, and with other conversion buffs on top of natural crits you'll still be getting plenty of prone procs and of course the high damage of annihilation.

Well that's disappointing. It sounded like it had potential, even for Pallegina if it worked with talents affecting/reliant on Flames of Devotion.

Godansthunyr is certainly a strong option, as is Starcaller(faster), for more focus on disables. But this build is partly about the romantic(ish?) theme of an axe wielding barbarian, and as Boeroer noted Axes do have Annihilation with works well with the new One Handed Style's hit to crit conversion. I've also considered using Purgatory and Vent Pick(and going dual wield) for sheer damage, but I'm not sure how Vent Pick's Flames of Devotion works.