Ganrich

Other than Nature Godlike, I think they are pretty balanced, and Obsidian has said they are looking at them potentially. Moon Godlike are pretty neutered in PoE2. The other two Godlike have their builds that they would work in. All the normie races feel pretty good. It really depends on your class or class combo as to what you will use.

I forgot about that passive. Good call.

Probably upgrading Crippling Strike to Debilitating strike. It adds Distracted Affliction to Crippling Strike which already Hobbles. 1 Guile, 2 Afflictions, Should give you Deathblows. Either that, or flank target + any Affliction. EDIT: Atleast that's what ole' Jack Burton told me.

Also, I will tell you that rogue/wizard is fun. I have Aloth specced that way for deep pockets, and 5 grimoires. Its a fun combo.

That's a good question. I personally just see the Ranger as a pet class at this point. It sucks, and I'm not defending it. I'm just of the mind that if I was building a ranged character, and didn't want the pet, I'd build it with the Rogue, Paladin, Fighter, etc. The one ability that I love on the Ranger is Evasive Shot. Talk about a fun ability to use. If I were going to build a Ranger/Rogue. I'd build a Ghostheart/Rogue or a Ghostheart/Trickster. Break the pet out when you need to, use Rogue dots, not use stealth heavily, evasion from rogue for a 1 guile getaway, and build toward evasive shot. I dont dig pet classes though... So the class is meh to me. I dont have the Ranger tree in front of me to see what else id pick up. I'll be on my pc in a minute and update if anything strikes me.

Every ability with a dot is an upgrade from a normal debuff ability. The only exception I can think of is Ring the Bell with one handed weapons. However, most backstab builds use 2 handed weapons because backstab only works on the first strike... so it is only relevant if you aren't using two handers and are doing a One handed Weapon build. Dual Wielding doesnt get the offhand attack to backstab so usong two weapons and backstab isn't the best idea. Ranged weapons give bonus Pen and two handers add a stagger affliction with their upgrades. IIRC. Arterial Strike has an alternate upgrade in debilitating strike. This adds a secondary affliction to crippling striker's hobble, which is distracted. Blinding Strike has confounding blind which doesnt DoT, but adds a stacking deflection debuff to the target for each time they are hit while the blind is going on. This is very common in the rogue's tree. Honestly, for a backstab build id prefer confounding blind anyway. Whittle their deflection before stealthing and popping them with Killing blow. No armor means more damage. Then there is smoke grenade vs pernicious cloud. One is sickens (grenade) and the other DoT (pernicious). The only thing I'm not sure about is Deep Wounds, but it likely breaks stealth too. The stealth rogue can work with every ability, but not every ability upgrade. You can be an upfront mDPS with dots, or a backstab build with more debuffs and burst damage. Is the trade off worth it? I dont know. I think both builds are viable though. Dot build is nasty though. My Rogue/Troubadour just rips through baddies on Veteran. He is like Drizzt in BG1 with the Gnolls. Of course it might differ on PotD, but I dont think the difference between these two difficulties is that great at the moment.

Yes, an arterial strike DoT will break stealth. I dont think it is a bug. I think it is intended to force you to pick between DoT damage vs burst damage. I could be wrong, but looking at rogue it seems like they are trying to allow for two very distinct play styles. Not necessarily pertinent to this thread, but the Chanter Debuff phrases also break stealth. I expected Soft Winds to break stealth, but so do a few of the others that do not do damage. So, if you're building a stealth focused rogue/chanter MC make sure you grab buffs only or be prepared to toggle Chants a lot.

I'd leave set to their purpose at 30s, but if we are keeping the resource boon to Brilliant than I would adjust 3s to 8 or 10s. That's IF I wouldnt change Brilliants boon all together. If Brilliant is staying then the Level 9 Invocation His Heart do Fill needs another function because it gives +1 class resource, and a level 7 upgrade does it better. Either change Brilliant to do somethong else, or His Heart should give those party members who receive it an Empower point back. I cant think of much else for His Heart to do, but I'm admittedly tired and need to get some sleep. The few ideas I do have are either just as OP or step on other abilities toes.

Yeah, Tyranny did it with their Siren Character which used the Chanter mechanics and it carried over here. It gives you one thing to do before auto attacking for a bit waiting for Phrases to build back up on a single classed Chanter. I just think Chanters have a few OP Chants and Invocations that is the real issue. Most of them are high level, but they are there.

And? This ain't WoW. You arent competing for a raid spot. Nor trying to win a Battleground. If you enjoy it who cares if it's optimal. You dont have to be the single most optimized character in the game. Yes, you could use self buffs, grab a big two handed, and use backstab. Either way it looks fun. I bet even after the PotD balancing that every combo will be viable. The ability to build it different ways is what makes it fun for some. You dont always succeed in the uber build, but just for something fun. MCing isn't necessarily for the powergamer, but for the person that wants a bit more flavor than a single class provides. There are times where they get both. There are times that they dont. You seem pretty dead set to hate the mechanic either way. So we will have to agree to disagree.

I thought people played Spellblade as assassin/evoker critting with fireballs from stealth or some such, not as a martial class? I mean would you really end up using citzals martial power at max lvl? why would you want to do that when a single class wizard can do it better Assassinate works with spells. So, +25 Accuracy, +4 penetration, and +50% crit damage on spells. Thats why. Also, evasion is great for a squishy, deep pockets on a wizard means 6 quick slots for grimoires, combat stealth abilities, etc. Also if evoker's passive goes off out of stealth it will really do some damage. Good damage from stealth, best mobility in the game, and tons of utility not available to wizard class. Sounds reasonable to me. The best reason to do it is fun, and an Evoker/Sin looks like a lot of fun.

Yes. You can usually get and Invocation off right at the beginning of Combat.

Yes, absolutely. Lifegiver/Troubadour would be pretty insane. When shifted, and with the +100% healing chant... Sounds pretty insane to me. Priest would be a buff/heal machine too. Troubadour is a Subclass that I think works really well to MC with the other caster classes. Particularly wizards, priests, and druids. I could see some Cipher subs not meshing well, but I think you could get something functional. They just may bloom a little later than the others. I dunno. I havent tried Cipher much.

It for sure could be a bug. It's hard to say. I have never recieved 4 phrases at the beginning of combat when level 1 on Troubadour, though. It takes a couple levels before it starts getting 4 phrases at the onset of combat. I've had a fair few restarts too. I cant remember if you start getting 4 phrases at level 2 or 3.

Troubadour can work with whatever you like. Is there another class that interests you? Edit: Paladin is a great pairing btw.

In my experience on Troubadour I dont start with phrases equal to my highest costing Invocation. As I have the Invocation being discussed in this thread, and seem to always start at 4, and it costs 6 phrases. Also, an early level Troubadour starts with 3 phrases generated. So you have to wait a minimum of 3 seconds to cast your first invocation. Maybe it's different from Subclass to subclass, but I can't say.

The benefits to Brilliant need to be changed. Maybe return an Empower point to those effected. Its only a 2.5m cone. So you wont likely get more than yourself plus 1 or 2 friendlies. Although, not allowing a second empower usage in the encounter. Something similar to what Sasha's Sabre does. This would simultaneously tone down the sabre and not make the ability so broken.

To play off of evilcat's post... The reason my rogue/Troubadour works so well is because of synergies. 1) Open with Arterial Strike wielding a flail w/ modal on. Hobble is -5 dex, and that reduces Reflex save. Flail modal is -25 Reflex. Hobble reduces Reflex by 10 (2 points per Dexterity lost). So together they reduces Reflex by 35. So that enemy with 50 Reflex just got reduced to 15 Reflex. 2) Swap weapons to Sasha's Sabre. Empower any offensive damage Invocation other than tornados. They all attack Reflex except tornados which attacks Fortitude. Crit like crazy because their saves are garbage. Sabre gives back 3 Chants for the Empowered Invocation. If target(s) still standing then hit them with the Invocation again. Obviously, unempowered this time. On Veteran they are dead. Since invocations are AoE you usually kill more than 1. 3) After this use Flanks, another Arterial Strike, or ring the bell with deep wounds passive running. 4) Late game you get Chanter Phrase that weakens enemies so you can focus your rogue abilities on maximum damage instead of getting 2 afflictions to proc Deathblows. That's pretty much it. I use 1 handed weapons for accuracy so I am more likely to crit. The more damage my strikes do the bigger my DoT from Deep Wounds is. I use Troubadour instead of Skald because this is a bit squishy, and Skalds require melee crits for their phrases to generate faster. Troubadour just turns on Brisk Recitation, and gets to work. If I have to play defensive I turn BR off and switch chants to the weaken + something else defensive. My intellect is high enough for 100% up time on 2 Phrases. So, they are weakened and have to get through a 10pt damage shield to boot. I use BR modal like an old MMO tank stance dances. If enemy has a lot of armor I have Hel Hyraf Invocation, Killers froze invocation to increase crit chance, and Confounding Blind which adds a stacking Deflection Debuff for every hit the enemy takes while blinded. I have Thrice was she wronged invocation fully upgraded, and it hits targets a total of 5 times when upgraded. These are the synergies and they are fun. You can start coming online pretty darn early.

My assassin/bleak walker playstyle hasn't changed from level 1 to level 20. Stealth, flames of devotion, one shot a dude, repeat. Berserker/devoted, assassin/devoted, assassin/soul blade, shapeshifter/monk, etc. etc. All of them play the same at both ends of the levelling scale. This thread is mostly people complaining that they don't understand the various systems of poe 2. All the most powerful builds are multiclasses, with evoker being the only exception. Multiclassing is extremely worth it, you just need to actually read the text the game displays for you. Check out the builds forum some time and tell me that multiclassing sucks. This. I'd also say that most builds start getting real synergies by level 4 at the latest. Either way, the entire game you have two resource pools to rely on in combat. Example: Beckoner/Kind Wayfarer only needs a summon and FoD... Oh wait, you get both those at level 1. My new Assassin/Troubadour took getting to 5 before be started getting really good. This is because I needed Killing Blow and White worms Writhed. The idea is to make a corpse, and explode that corpse. He was fully functional at level 1 though.

I'd take FoA for knock back before Thunder Rolled from Chanter. FoA interrupts on graze. Where Thunder Rolled doesnt even hit on graze unless you put two points in. If I was fishing for an invocation to hit reflex I'd go Thrice she was wronged or wait for White Worms. Both have great upgrades, good damage, but no CC. To each their own. I definitely agree on dumping Might that far being a bad idea. Monks are strikers and probably need "some" damage capabilities to be functional. Yeah, Skald with low perception is bad. The class can gain phrases from crits, and accuracy (which Perception Governs) needs yo be high to get crits. You can still be tanky, but lower con, dex, and intellect a bit. Maybe around 12ish for all of them, get might up to about 14 or so, and pump Perception to 16 or 17. Maybe bring Resolve into the 12ish neighborhood too. Honestly, you're trying to get too many stats too high. Pick 1 to get high, and try not to dump anything too far. Skald kind of picks perception as your high stat for you though.

Yeah, it asks which class you want to apply the soulbound to. Similar looking screen to deciding the class or combo of a companion when you first get them.

Chanterss also follow the rule of "never a bad MC." They are super powerful, and I don't know if this is because of their more laid back play style, people dont understand their utility, they aren't a MOAR damages kind of class, or whatever. There is a Chanter sub for every combo, and every sub is really powerful. My current Rogue/Troubadour has the Weakening phrase, and that means I can focus on pure Dots of the rogue, and not worry about double Affliction requirements by burning through other resources to get Deathblows working. Makes up for the loss of some Sneak Attack as I can be much more frugal with Guile Usage. I can open with Arterial Strike while my flail modal is on and then use a damage invocation to melt that target, and then move on to the next target with an arterial strike, and between it Deathblows, and deep wounds people die. If I want to melt something a bit hardier I have an upgraded Ring the Bell with one handed weapons for a big DoT. Sasha's Sabre means I can do an Empowered damage invocation, and follow up with Killer's Froze Stiff which leaves targets paralyzed. That gives +50% crit. Or I can do this the other way around, an empowered AoE paralyze and Then follow up with AoE damage with that crit chance applying to the damage spell. Since I am a troubadour, I can really play with double phrases or turn on Brisk Recitation and pump out some invocations. All the while I am dishing out Rogue damage. Chanters are godly. Every sub is good, and so good that they core class looks bad. Wanna summon? Beckoned. Wanna be 100% melee with crit focus? Skald. Want a more versatile spell castery Chanter? Troubadour. There is a Chanter sub that will multiclass well with every other subclass in the game. They just rock.

It wasn't bugged on me either, but stopped working after a reload. It now only goves back 3 chants. Still ok for back to back invocations, but it isnt giving the empower back. So, if it isnt patched today I recommend you give it time, and I'm sure it'll stop working.

Not that I'm aware of. I actually think it says to weapon attacks in melee.

Skald is fine. You just jave to actually spec into some perception to get some crits now. Before it was all might and dex. Combined with fighter, barb, pally, Stalker, or monk it's good. Maybe Shifter too. If like me you dont like being relegated to melee then it's bad. If they nerf anything chanter it'll be summons. Which will hit Beckoner more than Troubadour. Drakes and dragons having infinite Empowers is stupid. Also, if troubadour is stepping on any of the 4 Chanter class's toes it is the core class. The only reason the Core Class will exist is for people that dont wanna toggle Brisk Recitation. Which is sad for the core class.