Odd Hermit

Reflecting on all the combat in PoE, I've realized almost all of the encounters where you have the opener, are a cakewalk - at least past the early game. The main exceptions are spiritual undead fights with teleporting, high deflection enemies that bypass your melee line to beat on your squishies, and fights that are just dropped on your party and you're forced to fight out of position, basically in a mosh. This means the strongest parties are those built to deal with these scenarios, and if they're suited to do that everything else is easy. What is of high value when this happens? High accuracy(especially on Path of the Damned), reliable crowd control, and fast ability use. Also, fast/strong AoE healing and damage mitigation abilities are nice. What's probably the strongest, is "reset" buttons - primarily AoE confusion spells currently, or charms but confusion is faster giving it an edge and is almost the same result. Having some tanky characters helps, to take some initial heat of your strong CC characters, and/or remove CC from them. What also matters on the remaining difficult fights is buff stacking and versatility. Having a Druid, Priest, and Wizard seems optimal. Having a Chanter seems optimal to a lesser extent. That leaves two slots open. One should definitely be a Paladin for CC removal and +Accuracy Aura. That leaves only one slot that really feels "free" to me, at least for Path of the Damned. All that said I feel that rather than balancing classes around these encounters, we need both encounters and classes to be tuned. If almost all of the most difficult fights are those we're not allowed preparation, positioning, and the opening move for, it devalues many options. However, some classes certainly make the fights where you are allowed those things way too easy. The most major culprit being Cipher. A Cipher allows you to start every fight by having enemies clobber eachother. This is because confusion turns a hostile into a friendly for all intensive purposes, and the surrounding hostiles beat them to a pulp - which in many encounters also cluster then into a convenient blob to AoE down. Confusion effect needs a fix, period. It's just plain broken how it works right now. A confused enemy should not be considered a friendly. This still leaves charms, but charms at least have more limitations and are generally longer casts and cost more resources. Cipher could potentially also start fights without focus to balance this, but I'm not sure the Cipher would compete as a class without that starting base focus, especially on Path of the Damned where weapon damage output is inherently lower due to higher defensive values on enemies. A Chanter allows for a ~somewhat~ similar advantage in that their summons can be sent in. It's less convenient than Cipher, since you need to chain-pull and keep in combat, ideally leaving one weak enemy alive hopelessly attempting to hit a high deflection tank character for a little while. The biggest problem however, is harder to fix. The AI just needs to be better. Better at staying in groups. Better at dealing with adventurer groups using sneaky tactics. They need some scripts to make them behave a little more like a coordinated group themselves. I'm hoping this might happen along with the scripts they're planning on adding for our own characters. And last but not least, some classes just need a bump. I've tried making Barbarians and Rangers work in a number of ways but they just feel lackluster. Rogues also feel too limited/gimmicky, although granted they do, as advertised, a lot of single target damage. I think active abilities/talents in general are lacking for non-caster classes as well. Many are limited to per rest unnecessarily, considering they're not that powerful. Many are also just not even worth the time it takes to use them, or the opportunity cost of an always active passive bonus. I think some class abilities for these classes could probably become base, to start with. Others simply need buffs to be worth considering. On the flip side, all of the encounters between difficult ones, my casters are boring. Especially on lower difficulties than Path of the Damned, where you can go through many encounters in a row at mid-high levels without using a single spell/rest. I end up saving/hoarding them, often for harder fights that never came and resting eventually happened when a tank's health was getting low or fatigue started kicking in. Giving casters per encounter spells earlier feels like a no-brainer change to me, personally, though I'd have it be a split rather than just getting 4 total spells of a given level per encounter or rest. A progression table rather than suddenly giving them all spells of a certain level as per encounter would be ideal. It'd allow for more variety as well, I got quite tired of spamming Slicken/FoF and Winter Wind/Sunbeam while conserving my higher level spells. Being able to mix a single level 3/4 spell per encounter would've been preferable.

Death is the obvious choice. All the others require getting hit, which should be avoided as much as possible on a Cipher. And they won't save you either. Wood Elf is the objectively best Cipher race though. +5 Accuracy basically all the time unless you get totally mobbed into a melee cluster, and it affects your powers.

It should be clear to a player what stats, and how much of each, is coming from - Passive Talents Modals/Auras Temporary spells/abilities Resting bonus Consumables etc. And which stack or don't stack - maybe grey out the sources that aren't being added due to another gain from a similar source. All sorts of derived attributes are currently easy to overlap and miss what's not doing anything for your character. A notification when sources aren't stacking would also help players understand the mechanics better, rather than just letting them keep on going in ignorance of a character wasting gear with non-stacking enchants or whatever.

Druids are fantastic spellcasters, and shifting makes the early game when you have fewer spells/rest much easier - it eventually becomes very weak and near-suicidal to use a druid in melee though as your accuracy doesn't keep up with enchanted weapons plus you're too squishy if you're built for damage. Druids are the caster with what I feel have the most useful spells and not too many blatantly overpowered ones(Wizard/Priest have some very cheesy spells and then lots of junk) although overall they probably are too much in one package. I used the biggest variety of different spells on my druid. I'd say the worst tier is level 2 though, where Blizzard > everything else by far. They feel the most "dynamic" to play, and when you're free to nuke without regard for spells/rest on difficult fights it's very fun. Visually they're also just awesome. I think the shapeshifts could look better though.

Slicken, Chill Fog, Confusion. The rest is fairly subpar and the base stats are inferior to other casters. I'd say I agree with the sentiment. I found Aloth utterly useless until I picked up a few key "cheese" spells and changed his grimoire. The class needs a redesign IMO. Too many IE style spells that don't work with PoE's style of combat(very limited pre-buffs and lots of small encounters not worth spending spells/rest on).

Depends on character. For tanks it's a hatchet for deflection and I use hatchet + small shields as a back-up defensive option for all of my casters. For parties that are melee-heavy, +reach weapons are very useful when using bottlenecks. For ranged weapons, Arbalest occasionally proning things on crits is hilarious, plus it's a beastly weapon. Of the unique bonuses though on found enchanted weapons, I like marking, which gives +10 accuracy to others attacking that target. Great for a weak damage tank to boost the damage of everyone else.

I'd rather I be treated like an adult who can make my own ****ing choices about what language I find acceptable rather than have everything sanitized like a child's bedtime story, thank you very much.

Call to Slumber Firebug Firebug is pretty awesome. Call to Slumber doesn't seem that remarkable compared to Slicken as level 1 though. Magic definitely >>> ranged/melee damage. There's a place for tanky melee/support as well, but classes like Barbarian, Ranger, Rogue feel weak right now due to lacking the versatility of casters. Durability of non-casters non-tanks needs a buff and they could use some more active abilities. If casters get toned down too much though they'll need durability buffs as well since they're super fragile right now - almost too much so but their damage, control, and versatility makes up for it at the moment. Honestly I have a hard time judging balance for hard right now though 'cause it gets really easy past level 5 or so, and only a few fights provide real challenge so things that shine on those particular situations seem strong, and otherwise it's just about efficiency at clearing weak stuff/easy encounters. I think undead need a nerf and almost everything else needs a buff, encounter/enemy wise.

Engagement doesn't matter that much. I went without a fighter the whole game except small periods of using Eder for his personal quest stuff on hard, found it fairly easy. Used: Custom Paladin tank Custom Cipher PC Druid Pallegina Durance +1 of whatever NPC seemed wise to bring along for certain parts of the story or for their personal quest.

Arbalest w/Soldier talent > Arquebus with Inspired Flame, IMO. I use him to buff and heal mostly though. I put +Might and +Int items or enchants on him to make him better.

They could've found ways to include backers that weren't quite so blatantly incongruous. Hide the names until you talk to them. Limit races and outfits to things suiting the location. That's all it'd take and then they'd just be background NPCs for those who want to ignore them.

Druid Cipher is great too but uh... it's overpowered. Not that Druids don't wreck but Cipher's Tenuous Grasp is something to start every fight at a huge advantage with.

The only thing that bothers me is that so many are Godlikes, which are supposed to be rare - plus they just stand out visually. The non-godlikes aren't that intrusive, even if some names don't necessarily fit with the setting.

You will have to rush / skip past some content to get them that low level though. I would say both are pretty bad, but I lean towards Hiravias being the better of the two. Only 11 might / 12 int on a Cipher is just criminal. Hiravias' int sucks but at least Druids are more about damage than CC, and their base AoEs are fairly large so it's not the end of the world for AoE.

You are mistaken. Accuracy for weapon includes bonuses that only affect specific weapons. If I have a staff and weapon focus peasant, I'm not getting +6 accuracy to my spells because I have a quarterstaff in hand. Otherwise I'd have all my casters using a single Rapier/Spear with WF for them just to have highest spell accuracy possible. I can only tell you that you're wrong though, I unfortunately don't know exactly how spell accuracy is calculated right now.

Paladin Tank = 18+ Perception and Resolve, rest doesn't matter at all though might want reasonably high con just for occasional situations where raw damage is a threat. Everything else = 18+ Might, Dex, and maybe Int depending on class. Monk, Barbarian might go high Con to take advantage of their high base endurance, depending on build. Chanter can be a bit more defensively built since their damage output doesn't matter as much. Talents - I take the elemental talents based on which their best damage spells are - Burn and Corrode for Wizard, Freeze and Shock for Druid. Cipher I take Biting Whip, Penetrating Shot, maybe Draining Whip and WF: Ruffian and the rest is gravy once you have a good Blunderbuss. I tried Heart of the Storm and Soul Shock but it's not that great anymore and I just prefer Mind Lancing things anyway now. Priest is weirder 'cause they have their per-encounter abilities that can be tweaked to your liking, but I just took Scion of Flame and WF: Soldier and Arbalest things with Durance mostly. +Accuracy from Holy Radiance is good too. Interdiction I used to like, but I just don't feel it's very necessary with a lot of party compositions where other classes bring good sources of the debuffs it can apply. A damage focused Paladin w/Arbalest and Flames of Devotion talent(s) also hits pretty hard. Having 1 ranged paladin to give Zealous Focus to your caster/archer group is nice too. Hits hard even with Pallegina's awful might(it's like 12 or something). I don't really build melee damagers currently, I put the more useless/weak companions in melee only to block them from reaching my ranged. They can be strong but require more particular party compositions for success and are generally higher risk for lower reward otherwise. Pike Fighter or Barbarian is kind of nice sometimes though, and Knockdown can save your squishies from time to time.

I got Insect Plague stuck on my characters after that fight too. Saved my party by liberating exhortation spam, otherwise I'd have actually had people die from health damage after combat. Anyway, Chill Fog is definitely overpowered and/or broken. It doesn't seem like it should be party-friendly to me, at the very least. Spamming blind effect in a fairly lengthy duration AoE field is also just a bit much, for the same reason Slicken is so strong. Both mostly prevent the enemy from doing anything while they're in the field unless they have high enough defense to regularly resist it. I'd also say high Int is an overpowered attribute right now for all casters.

It's true, level 9 for 1st level spells/encounter on my Druid. Aloth isn't quite there yet but I'm assuming it'll be same for him.

I go through a lot of encounters w/out using spells/day because I hoard them. Then eventually I'm low on health for a few characters, so what I do is keep them back a bit and move my other characters forward and "spell dump" to quickly get through a few more encounters with total overkill damage before resting. It's fun to let loose with my druid once in awhile. I do wish we got spells / encounter at low levels, even it's just 1 for each spell level it'd make a huge difference and I wouldn't have my casters hanging back plinking with ranged weapons so much. I used my druid's shifting for some encounters early game but it doesn't scale so well and becomes more of a "hit this guy he's squishy and in melee!" button later on so I hang back with a ranged weapon "of marking" to give accuracy bonus to my other characters. Same goes for Aloth.

I disagree. I think they're trying to fit too many things into a 6 attribute system and link them in fairly arbitrary words that have other meanings. Perception, Resolve, Intellect shouldn't even be combat stats IMHO. They're too vague and it's hard to translate personality into combat style in such a rigid mathematical way. You can see Durance's high resolve in his personality, but it does little for him in combat from a practical standpoint. And does having a high number in resolve add anything to him as a character really though? No, absolutely not. Durance would feel the same to me with or without that number, he'd just be stronger in combat if those points were spent in intellect and might instead. The only character these stats impact in dialogue is the PC. But they just limit our options in roleplaying a personality if we build for combat. I want my druid to excel at damage dealing in combat, so now I have to be imperceptive in conversations because perception does nothing for my damage output. It's just a frustrating limitation. Plus, interrupts are too weak which is major issue when 1/3 of your attributes deal with them. It would be too simple, easy, boring with just damage/ duration+AoE/ defense. The potential combinations would shrink dramatically.

17+ in Might/Dex/Int I stack int as priority personally. Long durations on confusion and paralysis is amazing, and it improves debuffs and some damage over time stuff too. I chose Wood Elf, though I'm having a hard time judging the accuracy bonus's distance limit or if it's even working honestly(+Accuracy is really strong for Cipher since it makes your CC more reliable). Island Aumaua is great for carrying more guns too, and +Might. Godlike seem like they'd be good for Int+Dex, but Helms > their racials IMO. Also can't go wrong with Hearth Orlan if just for the Minor Threat hit to crit coversion.

I think a very, very big part of the problem is that Might/ Dex/ Int directly improve most of your actions, while Con/Per/Res are mostly only useful while you're under attack. Problem is, taking out targets faster, completing actions faster, and having large AoEs/longer CC durations all have more substantial and tangible benefits than being more durable when things go wrong - but things are more likely to go wrong in the first place if your damage output and CCs are weak. You can't really play an "outlast" game very well with most party compositions. It almost feels like defenses should've been a separate system entirely - having to balance Might/Dex/Int on their own would be a more difficult ordeal than just dropping the others to max them.

"Doing fine" is a bit meaningless. It's relative. I could drudge through the content with a full party of poorly built characters, but it's more fun, efficient, and less RNG to do it with a well built group that has competent damage dealers and tanks rather than a bunch of mediocre "balanced"/non-min/max builds that just suck at both.

Yay there's a beagle. Too bad there's not a dachshund. I have a longhair dachshund mix <3 Yes I want a version of my dog as a digital pet in a fantasy video game. People are weird.

And I have files(save and output_log) and screens to attach, although I can't figure out how to attach files here. Here are the screens at least - http://i.imgur.com/KafE12Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/f4PZPAG.jpg I believe the issue is caused by dismissing and recruiting, somehow bonuses from talents and/or gear get reapplied and stacked. Pallegina has a special armor, and Hiravias has a bonus level 1 spell talent, that might explain this.