Frog Man

Someone made a fun Barbarian build for POE1 that used fists. With the unarmed monastic training and fist modal has anyone had any luck with non-monk pugilists?

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I feel like if you love these games you’re going to do well more than 1 run. The decreased party size (in addition to a host of other benefits) will leave more companions and clssses for a second run. I’m excited to play the game this way: 1) traditional good guy run on hard with all my buds - Eder aloth and Pallegina (plus tekehu) 2) evil run with xoti Serafen rekke maia constanten etc on POTD 3) more POTD but with full created party of oddball and optimized multiclasses

Durance reliably misses all offensive spells on POTD, even with accuracy buffs online Meanwhile that extra 6 deflection sure is useful..not. But it's more of an annoyance than a crucial problem. As long as he can make my party immune to domination he can sit in the corner jerking himself off for the rest of each fight for all it matters This got a hearty LOL from me. So crass.

Well aren’t you a needy little bugger? Can’t I get you anything else - warm towel perhaps?

I've used a Shattered Pillar/ Soul Blade and a few other Shattered Pillars like pure class, mixed with Devoted, mixed with Paladin (both Gold Pact and Bleak Walker) and mixed with Berserker. Now that fist damage is fixed (it used to lose out Transcendent after a save load) Fists are the king of auto attack DPS. They have more base damage than slow one handers like swords and battle axes and the attack speed of fast weapons like rapiers and daggers. Power level also directly increases your penetration, accuracy and damage. Bottom line fists are great and you want as high a power level as you can get. So based on the above you'd want to use a Nature Godlike for the wellspring which gets you +2 power level and can be activated by Swift Strikes and Thunderous Blows so it'll be active pretty much all the time. This gets you +15% damage, +1 penetration and +4 accuracy, all of which is way better than any hat + racial. A pure class will have more abilities, more power levels, access to high level abilities and faster access to abilities. Getting an extra ability pick every time you gain a power level is really really nice. Just due to power levels a pure monk will gain +1 penetration, +4 accuracy and +15% damage for free. I would not make a pure Cipher, especially a Soul Blade, the synergy that they gain from multiclassing with a melee type is just too great. Even blending a wizard for the instant buffs, illusion spells and summoned weapons or a priest with summoned weapons would work really good and be better than a pure Cipher. Your shattered Pillar/Soul Blade gets +40% damage from whip at the cost of one ability, and can get +1 penetration from the Cipher passive for one ability. So two ability picks puts you at +25% damage, equal penetration and -4 accuracy compared to a pure monk who will be two power levels ahead. So auto attacking wise its better for the Soul Blade mix depending on the value of two abilities. If you keep the cipher abilities low, only taking the really good ones and only when the game forces you to pick one (when you gain a power level) you can get some of the monk abilities but you will not have enough to take all that you'd like. Just dumping all your accrued focus into soul annihilation rather than using cipher powers will put out a lot of damage A pure monk will be the better monk by far. If you want to use lots of monk abilities and passives going pure is a good choice. If you want instead a few Cipher abilities to add some unique stuff to a monk a soul blade is a good choice. It comes down to playstyle, from a mechanical standpoint both are good. I much prefer Shattered Pillar to any of the other Monks. Needing to take damage for wounds is not as good as needing to inflict damage for wounds. It's better to give than receive To me a melee Helwalker who gets to taking an extra 50% damage just seems too glassy. Lots of ranged versions that use the Helwalker to fuel a massive spell assault from their other class but that doesn't fit my image of a monk. I don't have experience with druids and shifters, just don't like the playstyle. For races a Nature Godlike adds a lot to a fist user. Other than the gimped island Aumaua (faster movement through surf and mud??? really ???) every race is pretty good so pick what you like. PotD with party companions will be easy enough that you can make any class you like without min maxing and be successful. So make what you find fun and interesting. Triple Crown Solo is a whole different game. I wish I loved anyone in my life the way KDubya loves monks (Good info by the way)

Durance at the salty mast brothel ‘now to find a home for my OTHER staff...’

Which build works better for Pallegina if her lifeless corpse is rotting at the bottom of a blood pool?

This is a fantastic thread idea and something I need help with. I LOVE THE INTERNET

Iroll20s Then Giveplayermoney1000000

Did I read wrong? I thought death ring worked like the bg2 spell that could wipe out low endurance minions?

If you can stack enough AR boosts it becomes worthwhile. In the example you mention, a Berserker with fine light armor you have 5 +1 (fine) +1 (thick skin) + 2 (Berserk rage) for a total of 9 AR with 8 versus the weak type. For -20% recovery you have -50% damage from normal weapons, -25% from fine normal weapons, no protection from some of the mid pen weapons, -25% from the rest of the mid pen weapons, no protection from fine mid pen weapons and no protection from armor piercing weapons. Even crits won't be able to over penetrate you. If you went with fine robes you'd have a AR of 7 and no recovery penalty. This would stop anything from over penetrating you and even armor piercing weapons would need a crit to over penetrate. If you went all in with plate you'd be at 13 AR, now we have some armor worth wearing. Even Fine armor piercing weapons are getting socked with -75% damage. Definitely worth the -55% recovery speed. Just Dual wield with the style boost and your attacks will be plenty fast, add in the speed boost from rage and some boost from the on kill effect and you are a Harbinger of Death melee god. The extra two penetration that they gave to every weapon really cheapens the value of armor. REALLY appreciate the explanation. Sounds like robes, nudity, and tons of heals are the prescription. Something like heavy armor herald, heavy armor berserker, naked priest, naked troubadour (heals and shields), robed evoker could work.

Agree with Jerek here (and many of the other suggestions). Bears repeating that White March 1 and 2 were awesome. I thought the companions were pretty underwhelming, but the DLCs on the whole ended up becoming the best part of the game.

Wizards get death ring as well. That could bode ill for summoners.

My hunch on the name change is that they realized not all rangers use bows Shot works better with bows, guns, and if I’m reaching, scepters and rods. Pew pew pew!

There were some excellent jokes in this post. I enjoyed it.

On my second playthrough of PoE I built a fighter around the ideas of mobility and disruption. I guess he was a bit like a light cavalryman without the horse. So he had fast runner, boots of speed, graceful retreat, extra knockdown (with high INT for duration), some other stuff, and when he finally acquired charge he came into his own. He could be wherever he needed to be: charge the backline to instagib a caster, run off to intercept an enemy, land a 10 second knockdown, sprint over to support the tank, maneuver to line up enemies for another big charge, and so on. Not a build for soloing POTD but a fun playstyle that was reasonably effective in a party. I want to reuse that in Deadfire and was thinking a Fighter/Rogue (even more fun, mobile, and disruptive) with a single wield, fast weapon (though I would consider a sabre too). Do you have any suggestions on subclasses, talents, weapons, etc. that would optimize this build while fitting in with the concept/aesthetic? This could be a fun role for Eder since he can go fighter / rogue. Looking forward to hearing responses to this.

KDubya- can you help me understand the armor conundrum? Are you really running through beta 4 with a naked party?

THC - nice party you put together. I just have two quick notes: 1) for your evoker, if you don’t like godlike don’t pick one. Sure nature godlike is ‘optimal’ but if you want a mage with a hood or something go for it. Don’t let optimization get in the way of fun. A human evoker will still be strong. 2) support - priest all the way. They have a buff called devotions of the faithful which is a huge accuracy buff that stacks with all other ACC buffs. On top of that their spells are great for healing, buffing, and Damaging on occasion. Just a hunch - but I bet their high level abilities kick ass.

I view it as a smart business move. Hiring the entire cast should certainly get some crossover interest from Critical Role fans who haven’t played pillars. As a purely Obsidian/Pillars fan, I still love it because you can see the resumes of those folks and they are really good. I think Obsidian paid for some high quality talent for this one. Should be fun! Excited for the next backer update.

Lmao. I’m glad you remembered! Let’s do this! That farmer is straight as an arrow!

Arguments aside, tell me about this devoted hunting bow guy! So you just pick hunting bow as the devoted weapon and use modal and he owns? How do you build him?

Slightly on topic - but how do you guys feel about the effectiveness of a CC wizard so far? Focusing on things like TOTV, slicken, curse of blackened sight, etc. Is a Cipher just much better in the debuffer role? Is the debuffer still an important role in a party?

I never wrote any builds on the forum but used many, many of them for my characters and for companions. But I always took them as they were intended: as inspiration! Don’t treat them like a recipe from a cookbook that you have to follow exactly.

Wait did I end up in the romance Thread again?