fiddlesticks

Wizards: Known for not casting spells?

If I get time on the weekend, I'll definitely try to experiment a bit with hostile effect duration. I'm curious to see how it works. I'd also like to know if the -5 seconds from Clarity of Mind apply before or after the percentage reduction.

I think that's reversing the causality though. You shouldn't invest in Intimidate just to get extra Deflection from the armour. But if you're investing in Intimidate anyway for role-playing purposes, the extra Deflection is a nice little bonus.

Favourite is obviously Pukestabber.

What's the highest Intimidate check in the game anyway?

It's possible that I'm misunderstanding something, but if I follow the speed calculation provided by MaxQuest, I get: step_1 = 1/0.5 - 1 = 1 step_2 = 1/0.35 - 1 = 1.86 step_3 = 1/0.15 - 1 = 5.67 step_sum = 1 + 1.86 + 5.67 = 8.52 speed_coefficient = 8.52 + 1 = 9.52 phase_duration = 1/9.52 = 0.105 Which would imply that the duration is reduced to 10.5% of its original value. That's clearly not what Sfzrx observed though, so either I made a mistake, or there's more to it than meets the eye.

I don't think that solves the balancing issue though. Constantly spamming summons was already the optimal strategy for Beckoners, so increasing the cost of all other invocations wouldn't hurt them at all.

Detailed patch notes are now online in case you want to know about all 1.1 changes: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/101944-patch-notes-for-1100035/

Empower was nerfed as well, so it's probably no longer enough to carry you through tough fights all by itself.

An upgrade to Charge that restores its previous functionality would be fun. Make it PL 8 or 9 as an incentive to remain single classed.

Yeah, from personal experience it feels like the WotEP still performs nicely. It's just a situational weapon now rather than the obvious best choice.

Ominous.

According to his profile, he's been a member of SA since 2001, before Obsidian was even founded. So it's probably just his home community.

Does anyone know?

Currently, every point of Resolve above 10 provides -3% hostile effect duration (up to a maximum of -75% at 35 Resolve). There's also a ring which gives -35%. Do these stack additively, i.e. is it possible to reach -100% hostile effect duration? And if so, does this make you immune to all afflictions? I have to admit, the idea of shrugging off Charm and Stun like they were nothing holds a certain appeal to me. What specifically counts as a hostile effect? Only afflictions or damage over time effects as well? What about things like drug crash penalties, the Berserker's confusion during Frenzy or the Priest's Incarnate debuff?

I wouldn't necessarily say "unfun". They're slow at the beginning, but that's true of solo PotD in general. They can hold their own well enough and once you pick up Sacred Immolation at level 13, you become an engine of destruction. Which brings up something that is often ignored in these tier discussions: class balance is not constant across all levels. Considering the prevalent view on these forums seems to be that the early game is the hardest part on PotD, shouldn't we rate classes like Monk or Ranger, which start out very powerful, higher than the Priest, which takes a few levels to unlock its full potential? What about the Barbarian whose power depends as much on equipment as on Abilities. Or the Chanter for whom the difference between level 8 and 9 is night and day? On top of that, how much does effort factor into the power discussion? Priests are undeniably strong, but buffing up for every important fight can quickly become tedious. A Fighter with high Lore is a better wizard than the actual Wizard, but that requires you to spend time on the crafting system. On the other end of the spectrum you have Chanters, which a lot of players dislike precisely because they require little to no effort to use.

In PoE1, action speed is calculated using the following formula: (Time without Dex adjustment) / (1 + Bonus from Dex). To make an easy example, let's assume a single action takes exactly one second to perform without factoring in the bonus/malus you get from Dexterity. Now take a look at the following graph: The x-axis shows the Dexterity score, the y-axis the actual time it takes to perform the action in seconds. As you can see, the value of an additional point of Dex decreases the more Dex you already have. Going from 10 to 40 Dex roughly cuts the time in half, but going from 10 to 70 Dex only cuts it by about two-thirds.

The problem with a scaling system like yours is that it makes manual computation of the optimum really hard. The current Pen mechanic is very transparent in that sense. Can't reach the threshold? Better switch weapons or change tactics. Whereas if the reduction is -5% and then -10% etc. it's not as clear which weapon is best under which circumstances. I think that's what Josh meant when he said the old DR system was "mushy" (and personally, I agree with him. In PoE1, I relied on gut instinct more than math when it came to weapon switching).

If you want a picture of BG2, imagine an Inquisitor stomping on a Mage's face - forever.

Multiclass characters need to be level 13 before they get access to the fifth tier of powers, so yeah, that takes quite a while to unlock.

According to the in-game description, the Mage Slayer's ability only works in melee, so that's out sadly. Sharpshooter/Berserker to get around the penalties sounds like a novel idea though. Gotta try that at some point.

That was actually the first character I completed the beta with. :D It's not spectacular, but performs decently enough. The upgraded Marked Prey is really good.

Does PotD affect the AR of enemies? I don't recall any of the Lagufaeth having more than 9 base AR.

Do the natural weapons of the shapeshifting forms get the same penalty as all non-proficient weapons when you're multiclassed to Devout? If so, that's definitely a bad combination. Although I suppose there's still Firebrand.

Calling the Shifter bad seems crazy to me. It's the one subclass that I definitely feel ought to be nerfed, because as of right now, freely switching between forms (and getting healed every time you do it) is insanely powerful.