grasida

But that’s really the only thing trickster brings to the table, and it doesn’t come until power level 3. Before then they trade 25% damage for arkemyr’s dazzling lights, which might be decent, but takes a long time to cast and recover from for a short duration effect that also consumes your class resource. Every cast of that is one less use of escape or crippling blow. Arkemyr’s dazzling lights looks good, but between the sneak attack penalty and the time and resources spent casting it, you’ve sacrificed the bulk of your character’s damage output for one defensive power that’s decent at best. This is a theme for trickster. Let’s look at confusion, gaze of the adragan and wall of many colors. Confusion is very situational, has a very long cast time and takes up even more resources. Gaze of the adragan and especially wall of many colors might be legimitately really good, but to use them twice you have to blow all of your class resources, leaving you with just a weaker rogue. Why not take literally any other class and combine it with wizard? You’ll still be able to cast those two spells twice per encounter, but you’ll get a hell of a lot more other spells as well, better defenses and you won’t eat the big damage penalty from trickster. That leaves us with mirrored image, which is legimitately good. In fact, it’s better than it looks on the surface, because compared to wizards, who can cast it at most twice per encounter, you can keep it running almost indefinitely, even if you’re taking some hits. But is mirrored image, alone and by itself, worth taking trickster? The synergy with riposte is there, but riposte itself is very weak, triggering on only 30 % of misses. Sure, mirrored image can help you get deflection high enough that enemies frequently miss, but if you want to reliably riposte, you have to cut very deep into your offense, and trickster is hampering that even more. At very high levels, when you have death blows and sneak attack scaling makes the 25% penalty seem less painful, trickster might be better than vanilla rogue, but if you’re going to have a tanky rogue, is mirrored image in exchange for the sneak attack penalty better than street fighter? Or spellblade with any other rogue subclass? I doubt it. Tricksters’ utility spells are strictly not worth the tradeoff, and the defensive spell is good, but you’re giving up a lot of offense for some defense when other classes or class combos can just have both. I really want to like trickster and I’ve tried it with a couple of characters, but I just find it really bad. On paper it looks decent, but in practice, when considering the resource cost of their skills and strictly comparing the numbers to what other builds can do, it falls far short. Elsewhere I proposed having tricksters use their defense as their offense. They could get a chance to gain guile when an enemy targets deflection and misses, matched by the drawback that all their non-trickster powers cost more. Paired with moving mirrored image to level 1 and some rebalancing to illusion spells in general, this would give the class a solid niche as deflection tanks with a lot of versatility. A valid concern about that is it would make them a sort of “win harder” class where you’re useless if the enemy ignores you or doesn’t have much trouble hitting you, but extremely strong if you were going to win the fight anyway. But I think this isn’t too terribly different from how a lot of tanks play: if the enemy ignores a tank in favor of squishy characters or can easily take the tank down, the tank is mostly useless.

That's just miserable! Why shouldn't it be multiplicative? I did some math and it looks like it will still be a damage increase, albeit a slight one, for most characters until you stack up pretty significant damage boosts through gear and abilities. By the time you're getting over +100% increased damage, savage attack starts to look bad, though it's still a boost if your accuracy is high. But that's not taking into account any reason you'd want a high hit rate than simple damage. Missing not only means you don't do damage, it also means you waste class resources when your abilities miss, and you don't land special effects attached to your strikes like interrupts or debuffs. This would be an interesting modal if the boost were multiplicative. You have to choose between damage or reliability and resource efficiency. As it is, it seems rare that many builds would want to use savage attack past the early game.

Savage attack’s damage modifier is multiplicative with other modifiers, right? I think all the modal modifiers are so. That makes it a really good damage boost as long as you have a decent chance to hit and can penetrate. At very high accuracy, great swords should even beat dual sabers as long as you aren’t using full attacks. Everyone seems to agree that two handers are too weak compared to dual wield, and great swords look like the worst two handers. But for certain builds they might still be a good choice. If you have good pen, high accuracy and aren’t relying on unreplenishable class resources for damage (e.g. devoted/soul blade or some brawlers) great swords might be the best choice.

Ghost heart’s pet is instant cast, no recovery, one bond. Your pet will never meaningfully contribute to damage, but people say the bear is good at taking a hit, the ghost pets are all immune to engagement, and if it dies you can just summon it again. The pets for ghost heart are legitimately good, just disappointing compared to the first game.

Static Charge no longer appears as a hostile effect on enemies and now is clearly dealing damage, but it deals it to both friendly and hostile targets. Since the AoE is really big, I doubt that's intended behavior. Just want to throw in a quick word of thanks for the patch! The speed on it is amazing and the quality of the changes looks to be really good. You guys are awesome!

Does anyone know the proper syntax for the console command to level up soulbound items? I’m trying test stuff with the soulbound pollaxe, but I can’t figure out how to make it work. I’m trying something like: “Levelupsoulbind player gameobject”, but when I put in the normal internal name for the weapon you would use to give yourself the item in the console, I get an error message. I can’t start up the game right now to check, so I don’t remember what the error is. Has anyone figured out this command?

Static charge is clearly applied to enemies on hit, although it is described as a "beneficial effect". However, when my character scores a crit with the weapon, the animation plays, but I don't see any damage numbers either in the combat log or above enemies' heads. I'm not 100% certain it's not doing damage, but it definitely doesn't look like it is.

Myrtillo already beat me to it regarding animist vs. lifegiver. Since I'm multiclassing and don't want to spend a lot of ability choices on druid spells, lifegiver has no downside at all. Druid heals are quite good, and free access as well as boost to their efficacy is quite nice. Lord Darryn's Voulge definitely gives +3 to storm spells as its second upgrade if you bind it to a druid. The upgrades are different for different classes, though. For example, the upgrade listed on the wiki is only for barbarians. Interestingly, lord darryn's voulge's lightning strikes doesn't replace swift flurry, and the speed boosts from the two stack! It doesn't work together with the regular lightning strikes from monk, though, so no +60% lightning damage. But even with the ability to get both flurry abilities at the same time, I'm not sure this makes monk a better choice than devoted. Extra question: Does static charge on lord darryn's voulge actually do anything? I see a graphical effect play when it should proc, but I don't see any numbers in the combat log or anything popping up over the enemies' heads.

I never played a ranger main character in PoE 1, but Itumaak was terrifying. I'd run him around to the enemy back line, have sagani tag archers or mages with persistence or wounding shot, then watch Itumaak just eat them. The pet was fairly fragile, but it felt worth it considering how much damage he could do. I haven't played a ranger to high levels in this game, but at low to mid levels, the point at which the pet started to really shine in PoE 1, the attack speed and damage is really disappointing for something that takes up an enormous amount of the class's identity, skill choices and purported strength.

I thought about ranger, but I’m going into this character just coming off a sense of disappointment with a soulblade/ghost heart, so I want to try something else. I was a little disappointed with how slow and weak the animal companion felt. Although having an instant cast, cheap summon to absorb hits is really good, even with heavy investment in the animal companion, it didn’t feel like it was doing much for me. The rest of the ranger class didn’t feel like it was contributing enough either, though I think it would have gotten a lot better at higher levels with driving flight, evasive fire and takedown combo into soul annihilation. I’ll probably go back and give it, or some other ghost heart build, a try later. As for ranger/druid, another issue for me that’s almost embarassing to admit is that I really don’t like the class name “beastmaster”.

I want to make a lifegiver druid built around Lord Darryn's Voulge. I've seen on these forums that it gives +3 power levels to storm spells and lifegiver gives +2 to the druid's healing spells, so you could make a multiclass that casts its spells as well or better than a typical single class druid while enjoying the benefits of the second class. I've always liked the druid's elemental and healing spells, but have never liked spirit shift, so this is a nice way to get a versatile character with flavor that I like. I'll be playing on PotD with the story companions, but I don't want a power build, necessarily, just something where I didn't feel like I screwed myself over. Part of the motivation for this character is versatility over power, which is one reason I take lifegiver and not fury. But I don't know what my second class should be. Lord Darryn's Voulge seems to benefit from getting in a lot of hits, not necessarily all at the same target, and critting often. I'll list out my picks and I'm curious to see what people have to say about them. I'm also curious what kind of stat distribution you guys would go for. Devoted: Seems the clear pick, since it gives great defenses, lots of ways to hit multiple enemies at once and and boosts crits. I'm really not sure how significant the extra penetration would be, since it seems the voulge, with best of shock/slash, shouldn't have much trouble penetrating on its own. The one thing scaring me away from it is the sense that charge and cleaving stance are going to be hit hard in the next patch and quite possibly won't be capable of spreading weapon on hit effects so readily. Devoted screws up spirit shift, but I don't care about that anyway. Nalpazca: Micro managing drugs is annoying, but I love the flavor of swift flurry, and it seems like it would help proc static charge faster. You get tons of damage and the int boost is really nice too. Getting both lightning strikes and swift flurry on one character looks fun. (unless they overwrite each other, in which case monk gets thrown right out the window). But most of the really good stuff (turning wheel, flagellant's path, heartbeat drumming) only comes very, very late when you don't have much time to enjoy using it. Streetfighter: Number one advantage is getting escape from level one. That's so much fun by itself. Riposte is supposed to be pretty weak, but I love the flavor, and it would help spread around static charge. And streetfighter's recovery boost looks really, really good for two handed weapons. And the damage output should be pretty monstrous from sneak attack and eventually deathblows. But I don't know if lifegiver's heals are enough to keep a streetfighter alive while surrounded and I don't really like the streetfighter gimmick that much anyway, even if it's very powerful. I'd prefer trickster, but trickster just looks very bad all around except maybe at very high levels. Kind Wayfarer: This is a good guy with light and healing spells, so thematically it fits very well, but I don't see much other reason to take this combo, especially since kind wayfarer really wants to dual wield. Also, paladin doesn't get a mobility skill, and those make the game so much fun. Is there anything else? I'm ignoring barbarian because I just don't really like the flavor of berserker, especially with this build and dealing with confusion seems really annoying, particularly since the character will be casting a storm spell at the start of every fight.

I’m thinking of scordeo’s edge on a shadowdancer with swift flurry and heartbeat drumming. Use confounding blind to give yourself an effective +4 (?) accuracy per attack, leading to a positive feedback loop where you start to crit an enemy more and faster until it’s dead. With the huge volume of attacks you’re throwing out, you should be able to keep up the zero recovery time buff from the saber a fair amount.

Middle-Earth isn't low magic, at least not the Middle-Earth of the books. As someone just mentioned, it gets to Dragon Ball Z levels at some points even in the third age, we just don't see it directly. Other than Gandalf's duel with the balrog, in which they fell down to the near center of the earth, fought all the way up to the peak of a mountain, fought on the peak under a rain of fire, ice and lightning, and the balrog "smote the mountain in his ruin", it's mentioned pretty specifically in the appendices that Galadriel destroys Sauron's old fortress in Mirkwood all by herself after the elves have defeated one of his armies. Magic is simply everywhere and in practically everything in The Lord of the Rings, it's just that most of it is inherent in places or people and is almost invisible and never directly used. Even the type that is like a spell that is cast is typically subtle and not directly visible to any of the characters that serve as our viewpoints into the world. But the setting is definitely high magic. It's just that no one casts fireball. Presumably it simply wasn't effective. Morgoth had rockets and tank-like equipment in the first age. The dragons are never really explained, but are heavily implied to be mechanical constructs that are inhabited by evil spirits. The Numenoreans also had a lot of what seemed like early 20th century technology, but still fought with bows and swords. Most of the participants in the War of Wrath were elves, not maiar, and they leveled a good chunk of a continent and sank it under the sea, but they fought with bows, swords and spears. Middle-Earth technology simply isn't comparable to modern technology at all, probably because it's designed as a fairy tale setting and is intended to be extremely detailed, but isn't attempting to be realistic.

As KDubya said, it has indeed always been that way and it has been mentioned on the forums several times, so I assume it's working as intended. The description doesn't suggest otherwise either. In fact, the talent is far more beneficial for characters with shields than with only one weapon since it is more effective when you have low accuracy.

There is one possible use for bash: torment's reach. It's a strict damage upgrade for monks with shields who mainly use torment's reach to attack because it works with full attacks. It's a trap on all other characters. It really needs to get a lot more damage (either per quality level on the shield or simply per character level, the accuracy already scales with your level) and it really shoud work with either one handed or two weapon fighting.

Actually, I'm not sure what is going on with crucible of suffering. It seems to go off whenever it feels like it. I get the effect after attacking a party member with Resolution, but not with a plain sword. Sometimes I get it just when taking damage. I haven't tested carefully, so I can't make any kind of conjecture as to when the ability actually activates. save file Log File Regarding Wael's eyes, I have since noticed that some spell holding effects will trigger outside of combat and some won't. Sanguine plate's frenzy won't work outside of combat but shod in faith's proc does. I suppose it's possible that wael's eye's doesn't work outside of combat and that's why it wasn't working when I tested it. But I wore it on my monk, my main tank, for quite some time, and never saw it go off. I think it's almost impossible that he was never crit by anything in all that time.

They definitely stack for me. I haven't been keeping an eye on my DR throughout fights, but I think turning wheel works with iron wheel as well.

I wore this on my monk for a while and never saw mirrored images, so I thought it might not be working. Sure enough, the effect doesn't seem to go off when I beat up poor Aloth. Also, in this picture you can see Crucible of Suffering firing on my monk even though he was never affected by any afflictions here. It seems to fire whenever he hits anyone in the party. I haven't specifically checked against enemies, but I assume it just goes off whenever he attacks. Finally, regarding the Badgradr's Barricade shield, is it intended that pillar of faith is only once per rest? This is not obviously a bug, but it seems so excessively conservative that I'm not sure and thought I'd ask. Yes, the ability is powerful, but even if it were per encounter, it would still be relatively low impact (high level priests can cast the spell per encounter!) and bash is such a terrible property -- it's a strict reduction in damage output for any character that doesn't have near unlimited full attacks (monks) -- that it needs something powerful to make it worth it. If this is intended and this forum is not the appropriate place for design feedback, please let me know and I'll mention this elsewhere.

I think the talent that used to increase max focus now applies to starting focus. I didn't take it myself, but that's what I've read. Fast weapons will always have some advantage over slow weapons for ciphers, at least once you can hit through DR reasonably well, not because of the quantity of focus gain, but rather because of the granularity. Gaining focus in small amounts at a time quickly is inherently better than getting a lot at once slowly for the reason that fine grained gains allow you to cast as soon as you have enough for the power you want. With a slow weapon, you overshoot what you need, and then have to wait for the long recovery time to expire before you get to cast. In the end you might have more total focus gained, but you'll probably have fewer spells cast. Even if your estoc only costs you two "wasted" seconds compared to dual wield, two seconds is a lot of time in this game.

I like the starting focus reduction. It means the cipher has to play more as a fighter/mage than as a straight caster. I'm playing on hard with a dual wield melee cipher with Eder and the four caster companions and I like that I have to spend time hitting enemies in melee. Focus gain is not an issue at all. I use my starting focus for mental binding or body attunement, then manage a mind lance about every third attack, and I attack very fast. I don't feel like my ciphers are overpowered in comparison to the wizard, priest or druid. Sure, they're very consistent and can use their abilities every fight. But when things get serious and my other casters start tossing around all their spells with abandon, I think they outdo the ciphers in terms of damage and control, especially now that I'm getting some of the higher level spells.