Livegood118

Yeah I was working from the values in the combat log rather than anything on the character sheet.

Weird, could've sworn it was working the way I said it was but I guess I goofed something up. Edit: did you try the same with spells?

I'm not quite the tester you guys are so happy to be proven wrong!

I swear guys I can only report what I observed ^^ I tried to be pretty rigorous with the testing e.g. No other buffs, positioning kept exactly the same. That's exactly what I found.

Are you sure marking only confers an accuracy bonus to the closest ally Boeroer? In one of my recent playthrough I tried a +30 accuracy marking Paladin, and found that marking gave the bonus to all allies attacking the marked target rather than the one just beside them. I did it by putting a priest behind a wizard behind a paladin, and observed that both shadowflame and storm of holy fire got the marking accuracy bonus.

You need to get a better laptop so you can start making videos, at least in time for PoE 2

What's going to be your strategy for Cail? Hours of St. Rumbalt Prones and Pray? Scrolls? Summons? All of the above?

A Cipher with a Durganised Blade of the Endless Paths and Gauntlets of swift action and Time Parasite will attack with 0 recovery in Durganised Full Plate. He'll attack just as fast as a character duel wielding Bittercuts and do a lot more damage. A Durganised Bittercut + Durganised Shield + Gloves of Swift Action + Time Parasite Combo with Durganised Full Plate will attack with only approx 10% of recovery (negligible). Basically, if you're going to use Time Parasite, you don't gain much from going the two weapon style route because it's so good (the main benefit of dual wielding is full attacks, of which the cipher has none, and decreased recovery). Dual wielding bittercuts does come with the cool factor though so I don't blame you

Personally, for a melee Cipher I would go: – Sanguine Plate + Dual Wield/Reach Weapon with shield on switch before you've got access to Durgan Steel – 1H Speed Weapon + Small Shield after you get your hands on Durgan Steel – 2H Speed Weapon at Level 15 once you get defensive mindweb Heavy Armour and dual wield in the early game with Sanguine Plate gives you a decent balance of offence/defence (have a shield on switch). With a Durgan Shield, Durganised Speed weapon and the gloves of swift action + Durgan Sanguine plate you'll have a really nice balance of offence/defence in the mid game and attack about as fast as you were before when you were dual wielding. After Level 15 it doesn't matter what armour you're wearing because you've got access to defensive Mindweb which means you can go 100% balls to the wall on offence with Blade of the Endless Paths/Time Parasite at 0 Recovery.

What formula are you using for carnage damage ? Carnage is done at negative 34% Carnage hits get a -34% damage malus, meaning -34% base damage. In the case of a two handed weapon that has 14 – 20 base damage, this means your carnage hits will do between 4.76 – 6.8 (avg 5.78) less damage depending on your roll. An average non-carnage hit vs 0 DR without any damage modifiers and 10 might would be 17. Now let's do an example where the Barb has a few levels on them and is specced for offence with Tidefall which is enchanted with a Lash: Damage Modifier: +48% (26 Might) + 45% (Superb Weapon) + 20% (Savage Attack) +15% (Apprentice Sneak) + 20% (One Stands Alone) +15% (Two Handed Style) = 163% 14 – 20 * 2.63 = 36.8 – 52.6 = 45 Average Modified Damage Carnage hit = 14 – 20 * (2.63 -.34%) = 32 – 45.8 = 39 Average Modified Damage Ordinary hit with lashes = 45 + (45*0.25) + (45*0.25*1.48) = 73 average damage vs 0 DR Carnage hit with lashes = 39 + (39*0.25) + (39*0.25*1.48) = 63 average damage vs 0 DR If you want to factor in enemies' damage reduction subtract 1.25 DR from the final figures (e.g. Carnage hit vs 15 DR = 63 - 15*1.25 = 63 - 18.75 = 44.25) As you can see in the end carnage hits don't do that much less damage than ordinary hits. Given they have +11 accuracy vs ordinary hits at level 16 with accurate carnage, you're going to be critting a lot with them too, which'll add an extra 11.2 – 16 physical damage on a Durganised Tidefall which will also lead to even more damage from your lashes!

In a more detailed example we'd also have to take in to account that the Barbarian has more ready access to attack speed buffs too (Bloodlust, Frenzy, Blood Thirst). So, a Rogue can reach 0 recovery while dual wielding, whereas a Barb with Frenzy and Bloodlust can get pretty damn close to that with a non Speed Enchanted two hander (meaning, Tidefall or Hours of St. Rumbalt), and also cancel recovery every time they kill a foe. Also let's not forget that the Barb is vessel slayer in chief once you can equip Ydwen's Redeemer.

That's kind of the the point. The single target damage isn't going to be anywhere near to the Rogue, but you'll probably do way more damage overall with the Barbarian overall than the Rogue. Let's say you've got 5 enemies, each with 100 endurance, the rogue does 30 each hit and the Barbarian does 20 each hit. After 5 hits the Barbarian will have finished the encounter, whereas the Rogue will have to hit 17 times. Now compare vs a single target with 500 endurance – Rogue takes 17 hits, but the Barb has 25. Each class has different value. The fact that the damage is dissipated over a large number of enemies doesn't make the Barbarian "crappy" vs the Rogue, it's just a different way of dealing damage.

Actually, my comments were reserved specifically for Barbs as a main tank between levels 1 – 10. Damage Barbs are pretty fantastic from the beginning to the end of the game with a reach weapon early on then a Draining Weapon or a Stun/Prone on hit weapon depending on your party composition. Highest might and highest intellect possible with Tidefall, Shod in Faith and the Girdle of Mortal Protection and with the right ability/talent choices you'll be an unstoppable murder machine with 0 recovery, of course switching to dual wield weapons when you want to proc a big Heart of Fury. Also accusing someone who hasn't been anything except rational of being "emotionally attached" to a class is ridiculous. Boeroer and I were able to to agree and disagree on the relative merits of the class through a discussion based on evidence and the value it can provide in certain circumstances. Functionally when we're discussing damage a class can do we place a lot of value on how fast they attack (like your Rogue build with 0 recovery). Carnage – the Barbarian's core ability – effectively means the damage that they do is multiplied by the number of enemies they can hit in an AoE. Assuming you're surrounded by 5 enemies, a Barb will effectively be able to attack five times in the time it takes any other class in the same situation to attack once (and probably even faster because of various speed increasing abilities the Barb has). Carnage has insane accuracy later on, with the +16 bonus from levels and the +5 bonus from accurate carnage meaning you get a passive +11 bonus to carnage hits' accuracy that stacks with everything else in the game.

Yeah, I think the issues my Barb in the early game stemmed from the fact that you have (a) fewer reliable ways of disabling your opponents and (b) less ways of compensating for the innate deficiencies in the class (In this case, primarily deflection) at that time. To that extent, I feel like having higher defences is important earlier on because you're going to be taking waaaay more hits overall (which is why Fighters/Paladins/Monks feel much more sturdy at this stage). Couple that with my decision to go for low Con and Dex early on and well, things didn't work out great. Barb is overall a great class though imo.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a heart of fury evangelist in any thread about Barbarians. Also, to be fair to me I did say at the top of my post that things got going once Heart of Fury and certain items came in to the mix Levels 1 – 10 in my experience were not good though with a tanky barbarian, particularly with low Con and low Dex. I'd die too quickly and wouldn't do enough damage to justify having the character around. I would have much rather have had a Fighter or Monk or other class in the same position but more modestly defensively specced. Also I noticed something with Heart of Fury - sometimes if you killed the first target with the initial spin the second spin wouldn't happen. Maybe I was just imagining this? My experience is that in fights with tough single enemies: – Frenzy will have typically worn out by the time it comes to take them down the tough guys – Blooded is nice, but in fights against tough guys you'll probably want to keep your health above 50% – Barbaric retaliation is more useful vs multiple light hitting foes rather than with more dangerous individual ones with stronger, less frequent attacks – Barbaric Blow's ok I guess...? Nothing to write home about imo and probably not worth the talent point I mean, theoretically, yes you could group the weaker enemies around strong single targets but in these fights (I'm thinking Llengrath, Dragons, Concelhaut, Thaos) does this ever really happen that much in reality? Usually I'm so caught up trying to make sure CC lands on the tough targets to prevent my party from getting wiped that the locations of the other guys is kind of immaterial to the wider picture. (My thought processes in these fights are usually Buff -> CC Everything -> Take out weaker targets -> Take out stronger targets) As regards the Chanter and single enemies, any Chanter can start chanting Come White Winds and use Seven Nights She Waited every 10-12 secs or so to hit smaller enemies for 3 icicles and larger enemies for 4 icicles. In my experience, a well aimed one of these can do around 300 damage and up against large targets (about 500 if petrified).

I have to say, I tried a Barbarian main tank on my last playthrough and I found that it only really got going once Heart of Fury and certain items became part of the equation. Apart from that it felt just a little bit ... lacklustre? It's hard to describe – it just felt like I was missing something. I'm not even sure if it was better much better than a sword and board fighter and I definitely died a fair bit more. With low Dex I attacked soooo slowly most of the time and Heart of Fury doesn't really have a massive radius. Maybe I've been spoilt by playing Dragon Thrashed Chanters so much. Dropping 70 – 100 damage bombs on hit every 4 seconds in a massive radius with no friendly fire is just to good. And I don't really think anything can solve the age old problem of Barbarians being completely useless against strong single targets - i.e. having no class abilities whatsoever that really help with these. With smart ability/talent selection a Fighter can switch from main tank to 2H single target DPS monster very quickly. For me at least Barbarians will always be about blowing heart of fury with two weapons and then moving on to a massive two hander like Tidefall (for draining) or the Hours of St. Rumbalt (for prone) to get good damage in. That's where they shine imo.

Yep, they all stack. Inspiring Radiance is fantastic because it will stack with every other source of accuracy in the game. Aggrandizing radiance is great because it also provides passive buffs that stack with everything. Note that the "negative" aspect of the talent – the reduced healing – will only affect the Priest so others will still get a good heal out of it. I've never used Brilliant Radiance but someone else here might be able to vouch for it.

I find that Rogues' value increases proportional to the amount of AoE CC you can churn out in the party, namely because: – Hard CC'd enemies can't hurt the naturally squishy Rogue, meaning you're less likely to die – The Rogue can go balls to the wall with damage when enemies are hard CCd – Hard and other cc will mean the Rogue is dealing damage optimally (Sneak Attack, Deathblows) – Having other characters CC means the Rogue doesn't have to be able to CC and can invest in passive damage increasing abilities Naturally as a result of the above I find Rogues get better the farther in to the game you go, and they can be pretty lacklustre in the beginning. I wouldn't run a Rogue without at least 2 of Cipher/Druid/Wizard/CC Chanter as I'd much rather take a fighter instead.

You should consider picking up Borresaine (Warbow) from Copperlane for its nice stun on crit procs or Persistence (Hunting Bow) from level 4 of the endless paths for very good DPS because of the wounding lash to tide you over until you eventually get Sabra Maria around level 13-14. Both are very strong early game bows – the Wiki says Borresaine has Draining Enchant but I could swear it had speed the last time I checked ...

If we're talking about RP I would say that all members of all Paladin orders would have a healthy amount of resolve, given that their abilities stem from an unshaking belief in the virtues of their order. After that it's probably up to you. Darcozzi are passionate smart-asses so they would have high intellect and perception. Orders that value cruelty or kindness would probably favour might for its ability to damage and heal respectively. In practical terms, all Paladin builds like high might and high intellect for Sacred Immolation, big aura range, long exhortation, big FoD hits. Dex is not really greatly valued because not much of the Paladin's overall output, both in terms of support and damage, comes from autoattacks. Con is usually middling though can be nice for even more Fort saves then Perception is whatever you can squeeze in after everything else.

PoE 2 is going to have a much more customisable AI set-up, a la Dragon age or FFXII. Maybe once PoE 2 is long finished we'll get a remastered PoE1 with the engine improvements from 2.

It's a combination of both. What you want to aim for when using lashes is as much damage before DR is taken in to account as you can get. So let's say you had a Monk with 10 wounds using Torment's reach with Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes, a Weapon Lash and Scion of Flame + Heart of the Storm using a sabre with a 100% damage modifier: 11 – 16 * 2 = 22 – 32, average hit = 27 Unmodified damage before DR = 27 TR = 27*0.5 vs .25 DR = 13.5 vs 0 DR TW = 27.5*0.6 vs .25 DR = 16.5 vs 0 DR LS = 27.5*0.3 vs .25 DR = 8.25 vs 0 DR WL = 27.5*0.3 vs .25 DR = 8.25 vs 0 DR = 73.5 damage vs 0 DR vs other DR = 73.5 - DR2 @10 DR = 73.5 - 20 = 53.5 @20 DR = 73.5 - 40 = 33.5 Now, let's take a more optimised example of a Monk with the same skills/talents set-up but damage mod 24% (Base Might) + 24% (extra might) + 15% (Apprentice Sneak) + .45% (Superb) +.2 (Sabre) +.2 (Savage Attack) = 1.48, who lands a Crit with an annihilating durganised sabre with the Doemenel talent 11 – 16 * 2.48 = 27 – 40, Average Hit = 33.5 Crit Mod = 0.5 (Base) + 0.5 (Annihilating) + 0.3 (Durgan) + 0.3 (Doemenel Talent) = 1.6 11 – 16 * 1.6 = 17.6 – 25.6, average from crit = 21.6 Unmodified damage before DR = 33.5 + 21.6 = 55 TR = 55*0.5 vs .25 DR = 22.5 vs 0 DR TW = 55*0.6 vs .25 DR = 33 vs 0 DR LS = 55*0.3 vs .25 DR = 16.5 vs 0 DR WL = 55*0.3 vs .25 DR = 16.5 vs 0 DR = 143.5 damage vs 0 DR vs other DR = 143.5 - DR2 @10 DR = 143.5 - 20 = 122.5 @20 DR = 143.5 - 40 = 103.5 @30 DR = 143.5 - 60 = 83.5 – The higher your modified damage before DR, the stronger your lashes will be (crits get factored in to this) – Lashes can indeed get eaten by DR – All lashes (other than wounding or other sources of raw lashes which work against 0 DR) work against .25 DR, meaning you get more bang for your buck vs DR when your lash% is greater than .25 – Investment in elemental talents (e.g. Heart of the Storm) will increase the corresponding damage of lashes, such that a .25 lash becomes a .3 lash and a .5 lash becomes a .6 lash

It's just a symptom of the Paladin class and their general lack of physical damage enhancing abilities (Flames of Devotion and Sworn Enemy being the only ones) that a War Bow won't really be effective. Compare a Paladin to a ranger with twin shots for example then add in the pet damage, and well, the Paladin just won't compare at all in terms of damage (I'd say a fully specced out ranger would do 4x-5x times the damage of a Paladin on autoattacks at range incl. Pet). Most of the Paladin's abilities are geared towards being close to the centre of the action and being able to take hits – Faith and Conviction, Sacred Immolation, Fast Exhortations, Heals, Coordinated Attacks, Auras etc ... If you want your Paladin to do more you have to look to other ways of giving the Paladin's abilities: – Talents (Envenomed Strike, Wounding Shot, Prestidigitator's Missiles) – More Weapon Slots (Arms Dealer, Armed to the Teeth (Aumaua), Quickswitch, Coil of Resourcefulness) – Spells from Items (Munacra Arret, Spirit Spiral, Flames of Fair Rhian, Cloak of Missiles etc ...) – Scrolls (Bounding Missiles, Missile Barrage etc ...)

Very nice! My heart skipped a beat a few times in the llengrath fight when you got paralysed, when you caught the tail end of the flying dragon's breath and when the slower dragon at the end was about blow your face off with a breath before you got him down.

Make sure your Chanter's using a hatchet and shield with the white winds wept level 1 chant (the one that does raw damage in an AoE). Trying to make Chanters do decent melee damage just isn't worth you time – their main offensive strength comes from AoE Chants (like the Dragon thrashed) and Invocations so you can tank up pretty good and still do great damage. The Invocation White Worms Writhed is very powerful if you can stack corpses up and drag enemies towards them from other locations in the map (make sure gibbing is turned off in options and don't reload so the corpses reset). The level 2 AoE CC invocations are very strong as well. There's nothing wrong with having two ciphers but you you might benefit from replacing one of them with a Priest. Priests have some very powerful game changing buffs like devotions for the faithful, can provide immunities to afflictions (which will be your main source of wipes in the game) and can do very good damage in their own right at later levels. They fall down on Hard CC but your Druid and Cipher should be able to pump out enough of that for it to not be a problem. Spiritshift on a Druid and its related talents can make Druids extremely powerful single target damage dealers temporarily. To optimise it at the minimum you'll want two weapon style, Wildstrike Shock, Greater Wildstrike Shock and Heart of the Storm. Druid's storm spells are superb so there's a nice synergy here. Paladins' damage output will be a bit lacklustre until level 13 till you get Sacred Immolation, but you can boost it by using Flames of Devotion (With intense flames), Runners Wounding Shot, Prestidigators missiles, Envenomed Strike with big base damage weapons like Arquebuses, Pistols, Blunderbusses and Arbalests. Also make sure you've enchanted all your weapons to have lashes on them. This is a massive source of extra damage.