Livegood118

Well, it's v5.0 of the game and it's probably not going to be getting any more patches. With all of the knowledge min-maxers now have, I'd like to pose a challenge for character builders: What's the most effective single class Paladin character you can build? The conventional wisdom is that Paladins should generally be multi-classed. I'd like to read an outline for a single class Paladin build that makes me think: "Damn, I'd definitely pick that over a Herald, or an Arcane Knight". Feel free to use equipment, party synergies, mass PL stacking, defence stacking, ability quirks etc ... but it shouldn't be game-breakingly cheesy (i.e. Salvation of time shenanigans) and it shouldn't require you to do anything on a regular basis that's annoying or extremely gamey (like making yourself confused, relying on a specific rest buff, that sorta thing). Who will answer the call?

OK great that makes sense now. It would be interesting to see some sums on hard data from creatures stats on POTD in the game. Still not totally convinced for spells, though I'll look out more often now Something else I've been mulling over is that it may actually not be worth debuffing enemies in a lot of cases if you can just cast the spell you'd originally planned on casting twice. Guess it depends on the circumstances / how much bang for your buck you get for teammates from the debuff.

Is the argument here that the general ratio of PC / NPC's accuracy vs. enemy defences later in the game tilts more favourably towards the former? As such, if you add accuracy, less misses are becoming grazes and less grazes are becoming hits etc ... I think that argument intuitively makes sense for characters that attack with weapons (e.g. +15 accuracy from legendary, +10 from skills), but for spellcasters I'm not quite so sure?

Maybe I'm a bit thick and not getting something here: Can someone explain to me why +3 accuracy becomes less valuable later in the game? I appreciate that +3 accuracy is a smaller relative percentage of your overall accuracy in later parts of the game (e.g. +3 accuracy is an additional +10% if you have 30 accuracy, but is only an additional 5% if it brings 60 accuracy to 63 accuracy). However, in an absolute sense the bonus remains the same irrespective of your existing accuracy (it's still +3 Accuracy). Ultimately, where any additional accuracy bonus puts you on the accuracy equation (from miss to graze to hit to crit) compared to where you otherwise would have been without the bonus seems to be what really matters here rather than accuracy as a relative percentage? Additionally, it would seem to me that considerations arise from the kinds of things you're using your accuracy for, and the extent to which something might be affected by accuracy swings. So for example, if you're casting a wall spell you're not going to care if 2/40 ticks miss. But if you miss a fireball two times because the accuracy equation swung against you, that's a bigger deal.

OK so I did a bit more thinking about this, and I think spell schools are quite relevant. Here are most of the "Good" offensive spells from each school that aren't buffs, summons or summoned weapons: Conjuration: Chill Fog, Binding Web, Wall of Flame, Wall of Draining Enchanting: Expose Vulnerabilities Illusion: Dazzling Lights, Miasma of Dull Mindedness, Ryngrim's Enervating Terror, Gaze of the Adragan, Wall of Many Colours, Freezing Rake Transmutation: Slicken, Combusting Wounds, Arcane Dampener, Pull of Eora Bitter Mooring, Freezing Pillar Evocation: Lots of them! Particularly, the big two Level 9s - Meteor Shower and Salvo Now, accuracy is much less relevant for Pulsing AoEs because they repeatedly re-apply themselves and can also be stacked pretty easily. Same principle applies with wall spells - the swinginess from decreased accuracy is less of a concern. If we take pulsing spells and wall spells out of the equation that leaves: Expose Vulnerabilities, Dazzling Lights, Miasma of Dull Mindedness, Ryngrim's Enervating Terror, Gaze of the Adragan, Freezing Rake, Combusting Wounds, Arcane Dampener, Bitter Mooring So it's effectively a choice between +3 accuracy with these spells, or +2 Dex and much more effective Evocation spells (including +1 accuracy from +PL) overall. Seems like Firethrower gloves win on balance then if you're guiding principle is that if something's dead it doesn't need to be CCd.

Is it correct to measure the value of accuracy through relative percentages? My thinking was along the lines that the value of accuracy can only really be determined through reference to the defences of enemies you encounter, and possibly the kinds of spells you're using and the extent to which grazes / hits / crits have effects on those spells. Accuracy is always naturally more effective against tough enemies that have high defences. OTOH I can see how the firethrower gloves would possibly give a more consistent benefit over time.

Firethrower Gloves: +2 Dex, +2 Explosives, +1 Arcana, +1 Evocation Power levels Gauntlets of Accuracy: +3 Accuracy Thoughts?

I'd have to say I find Wizards very strong from the beginning to the end of the game. Really don't agree with some of the sentiment shared in this thread. Versatility is power. Having the right tool for every situation is incredibly useful. Great spells that apply almost every good CC affliction in the game for long duration (AoE Daze, Blind, Immobile, Paralyze, Petrify, Terror). Combusting wounds + Wall of Fire melts anything not resistant / immune to fire from beginning to end. Mass disruption for any kind of enemy through Slickens and Pull of Eora. Infinite Buff extension through draining wall. Arcane Dampener. Biggest nukes in the game. Even low - mid level nukes remain really strong through stacking PLs. Make yourself invincible through buffs. Or through invisibility. Reflect enemy spells. Extra spells for days through grimoire of vaporous wizardry + rekvu's helm + empower restore skills (gives you 2 skills back when you do it with grimoire of vaporous wizardry).

lmao that sucks

Hi - sorry to thread necro. Just wanted to check if it's definitely the case that wall of draining doesn't work like it used to?

Hi - quick question. Is there any mechanical benefit to empowering Woedica in PoE 1 for a character in PoE2? I think I remember reading somewhere that it gives your character a power level boost but now I'm looking online and I don't see anything about it

This is definitely doable with at least one DB Fireball. A second might not give your Wizard time to get away.

Agree with 1. I'm really not sure what the hell I'm supposed to use Delayed Blast Fireball for. Sort of disagree of with 2 - I think it's OK that classes have a few damage types that they're really good at and some they're weaker at. For example, the Wizard is strong in Fire, Frost, Missiles but not quite as proficient in raw, lightning, poison, corrode. Otherwise class diversity would potentially be undermined - think about the effect you're proposing would have on the usefulness of the Druid vis a vis the Wizard, for example. Disagree with 3. Other than against Dorudugan, my Wizard was invaluable vs. every megaboss. In these fights for every character in your squad you really need to be using everything you have at your disposal. In the case of a Wizard, this means using Brilliant, Wizard self-buffs and a range of buffs from elsewhere in combination with Wall of Draining for (effectively) infinite duration (similar approach needed with Priest + salvation of time). Bel-Ranga's Deflection and Reflex get to acceptable levels as the fight progresses, Auranic's defences aren't the issue in her fight and Haunai has lowish deflection and reflex which also get better as the fight progresses. I haven't found penetration to be an issue on any of the megabosses apart from Dorudugan whose whole shtick is that no class can really do good damage to him and you have to whittle him down over time.

I can't think of any encounter like this off the top of my head. There are enemies which will be strong vs. both by having general high DR, but generally speaking you won't find fire immunes and frost immunes in the same place (Beast of Winter probably contains a few exceptions)

TBH I'm not seeing the issue here for the wizard. When something has immunity or a strong resistance to fire it will invariably be weak to frost and vice versa. The Wizard can dish out the most frost damage of any class in the game (perhaps playing second fiddle to a single classed chanter with eld nary) among other damage types including crush, pierce, acid and raw. The difference between a fire specced wizard (Sun and Moon, Magran's favour, Otto Scarcat) and a frost-specced Wizard (Sun and Moon, Griffins Blade) is really only an 8hour wait and a weapon switch away - the majority of other PL bonuses will be damage type neutral. Echoing boroer, I also have had relatively few issues with Wizard penetration on POTD. By mid-level there's no reason why your wizard shouldn't be nomming crusted-swordfish most rests (wait 26 hours for ingredients to restock). Stacking PL and getting the relevant penetration talents also helps.