OrangePulp

So I've got it working, although it's definitely something of a workaround, and a decent amount of manual work for each spell. Seems like setting the scaling at 0 for the weapon buffs does start at 0 regardless of spell level; or at least, it's behaved that way for parasitic staff and kalakoth blights so far. How many summon weapons are there? Wonder if it's worth grabbing a json library and writing a script to handle it.

I'm thinking now about a possible workaround: remove scaling from the summoned weapons themselves, but have the spells apply a separate buff that grants all the same benefits. My questions, for any who've been more in the guts of these things than I have: Is there a flag to make it stack with everything, as a weapon buff actually would? I wouldn't want to have it overwrite or be overwritten by some other accuracy buff or what have you. I'm pretty sure making it apply only to weapon attacks and not spells won't be too hard, but is there a way to make it cancel or dispel itself when switching weapons? Unlike monk's transcendent suffering buff, I don't have a single attack type to bind the buff to, and I wouldn't want it to persist if the character isn't using that summoned weapon. Edit: So, looking more closely, I could actually model it after Transcendent Suffering, by adding a keyword to all the summon weapon attacks (which I thought were just base quarterstaff or whatever, but I was mistaken). Now the question is, if I add a buff to each weapon summon ability, can I make the power level of that status effect independent of it's originating ability/attack? Most of the statuseffects I look at have the scaling base level set at 0, but it seems to inherit the level of the ability itself. I would want a status that actually scales from power level 0, like transcendent suffering does.

I've been trying to implement a mod that makes summoned weapons based on power level rather than character level, and I'm starting to think it's impossible. I initially tried cloning Scaling_Weapon, as well as it's subsidiaries Scaling_Weapon_SE_Accuracy, Scaling_Weapon_SE_Damage, and Scaling_Weapon_SE_Penetration, with new names/guids but changing them to power level scaling, and setting one test weapon (concelhaut's staff) to use it. When that didn't work, I simply modded the scaling for Scaling_Weapon_SE_Accuracy to use power level rather than character level, and all of a sudden I was getting 0 accuracy from it. Decided to try basing it off the monk's transcendent suffering abilities instead, and I realized that they're not actually parented to monk fists; rather, it's a base ability tied to monk that only applies to a certain attack type of unarmed. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the item itself can't properly access the wielder's power level? Maybe only character level is exposed, because they made all summoned weapons based on CL rather than PL. Does anyone know of any equipment or summoned weapon that does scale based on player PL? Always possible there's something I'm overlooking. Otherwise, really dashes my hope of a single-class conjurer with pumped PL for big summon weapon damage.

I honestly don't remember if they were always this way, as I don't think I used any on my initial playthrough at release, but summoned weapons in PoE1 are currently typed Universal (like soulbound weapons) so you get the benefit of any proficiency you have.

Whether +25% damage + 50% pen is enough, I don't think we really have enough data to draw a conclusion right now; might be that base criticals need to be buffed. However, I'm always wary of critical hit damage as a stat in games, because it's another multiplier that gets thrown into the mix. Criticals are already a multiplier by themselves, and when you add another on top, sometimes you start to see cases in games where crit as a stat overtakes everything else. And there are already abilities that are giving things like 50% hit to crit.

Forget to mention that Dex has diminishing on DPS because the more you put into it, the less u you get due to how it is calculated. What's the calculation on that? I had thought that each point would be more valuable, as it's a reduction from 100%, and each point reduces by 3% (so if you had it down to 50%, hypothetically, another 3% reduction would be twice as valuable as when it was at 100%). Is it done differently?

...do traps even add any real value to gameplay? Other than situations where you can't easily disarm them due to combat, but you don't have to have them be otherwise hidden to accomplish that. That being said, I feel like the change to traps requiring perception is something based on a more... 'realistic' look at things, to the detriment of gameplay. You're still going to focus mechanics on a character in almost all situations (really, in a 5 person party, who wouldn't dedicate someone to that for convenience and loot), so now we have an extra mandatory stat just for exploration sake. More necessary than having high mechanics in pillars 1, I'd say, given how punishing traps are; you used to be able to just soak some of the nastier ones with a high hp tank, but no one wants to take 25% max hp damage.

My suspicion was that grazes were removed by default specifically because of spells and abilities, namely CC. As has been suggested before, maybe CC should have a lesser effect on graze, but for some CCs, even 50% duration was really strong, as you could then combo into something else with the reduced defenses.

The one thing I wonder about with the no helmets thing is how in poe 2, each slot is supposed to essentially be a single stat (as far as what magical effects it can have), which can throw off some of the balance, since your'e more specifically limited in one stat (which seems, overall, stronger as it's easier to plan for lacking in that one stat for the entirety of the game). Regardless, I feel like it's an important gameplay consideration to trade out for the more powerful racial, which are generally stronger than a single talent anyways. And think about it, in pillars 1, if you could just wear a hat that had something like the moon godlike (obviously the strongest), or even something like fire godlike in some circumstances, racial benefit, wouldn't you? A lot of cases where that's stronger than whatever else you're getting off a helmet. So far in this game seems like it would be nature godlike for that power level bonus.

Anyone else concerned about how armor is going to scale on enemies, compared to penetration? On a non-devoted martial character, the only way I can think of to increase penetration is weapons with modals, or naturally high penetration. That doesn't feel... great, to me. At the moment each enchantment tier adds what, +1 pen? And baseline weapon pen is 5. So if you're using a non-pen weapon, at exceptional, you'd be at 7. Compared to the lagufaeth that are what, level 7-8 enemies, that have 9 base armor? I felt like in pillars 1, when characters needed to switch weapons to get a different damage type, it was usually against enemies who had much higher resist against one type of damage, and a lot lower to others. In this scenario, using any of the non-pen weapons, and with the upcoming pen changes, you're doing half damage. I feel like my main problem with this is that penetration doesn't feel very easy to come by. If accuracy ended up being much more important than anything else, you can at least build characters with high perception. But for armor pen... what do you do as a rogue, or a ranger? Or really anything that isn't a devoted fighter. Building accuracy can help, with crits giving that 50% bonus, but I don't feel like that's enough. I'm especially concerned about any big monster encounters, dragons and the like, having very high armor in addition to high defenses otherwise. Possibly even worse for casters, as they have less options for increasing penetration than melee chars, really. No weapon modals for them; hope you really enjoy those spells with naturally high penetration! Obviously the numbers, and even the current class/build options we have, aren't final; just saw that sawyer tweeted out changing priests to no longer having restricted spells, which is great. And I do like the idea of armor being relevant to large amounts of damage, so that it's more universal. But I feel like getting the current system balanced is going to be very tricky.

Don't they have lightning fist from swift strike instead of flaming fist now? It would be OP if they have both. They had both before, the lightning upgrade was in PoE1 (for 25%, don't remember if it's the same here).

I haven't seen anything that requires both, it seems to be one or the other. Some things have been changed, like Swift Strikes now using the per-encounter resource (called Mortification for monks), and Clarity of Agony now using wounds.

For sure a bug, and apparently also already on their bug tracker

I've noodled around with the Helwalker, and while it is a glass cannon, it sure doesn't feel weak to me when I've played it. It's especially mean when multi-classed, say, with a Cipher or a Sharpshooter. You have to remember that buffs stack more easily in PoE2. So the Helwalker can simultaneously enjoy the buff to his might from his wounds, as well as from a priest, and so forth. It's not hard to get him shooting arrows like thunderbolts. It's also just dandy that we now have a ranged monk build, which we did not have in the first game. Is this based around using that ability that generates accuracy and wounds? I'll admit I hadn't thought much about that from a pure ranged perspective. Otherwise I'm not sure how you'd generate wounds, the mortify self thing seems insufficient. If turning wheel is out due to helwalker monk, which is my suspicion as they accomplish something of the same thing, I'll be very disappointed. It was so good. Really liked holding wounds for 50% burn lash as an alternative to torment spam.

To be honest even helwalker seems kinda weak; 1 might per wound as 3% additive damage, stacking with all the other additive you might have (which includes transcendent suffering now, it seems), compared to the old turning wheel which was 5% lash per wound, a multiplicative bonus. Not to mention taking 5% more damage per wound is pretty rough; can get 'free' wounds with that stance, if you're not getting hit, but the penalty for an enemy turning their gaze on you seems pretty high. And yeah, the mortification/wound thing seems kinda odd to me, at least as it currently is. Granted, monk always had some per-encounter/per-rest abilities, but I'm not sure they split very well with that system. If anything, I'd think force of anguish would be mortification, and swift strikes a wound ability.