Maxzero

While you can get party for some of the checks a number of them are Watcher only.

I hate this argument against balance in single player games. It is the designer's responsibility to balance the game, not the player's. Avoiding content is not a solution to balance issues. Players who want to feel more powerful can lower the difficulty. Players who want a challenge should have access to that experience on the highest difficulty, regardless of what abilities they want to make use of. Man, it's a Single Player RPG- you play broken build ONLY if you chose to do so- you don't want, don't do it. If someone will want he will just use console or cheats, god mode, one-shot everything. It's single player RPG- you are broken as you want.That ignores the fact that many players, myself included, feel that artificially restricting yourself from broken combos isn't true difficulty. You can call it lack of willpower/discipline if you wish, but I believe that balance within singleplayer games is important. One of things I like best about these types of games is creating a strong build, or party, that can annihilate enemies. That enjoyment is destroyed by easily exploitable abusive combos that don't require any thought put into them. And who decides what is too broken? So far the 'broken' includes Beckoners, Monks, Paladins, Berzerkers, Devoted, Soulblades and Evokers. Rangers, Rogues and Priests are not OP (except Devotions of the Faithful). If everything is OP then nothing is. > And who decides what is too broken? I believe a combination of developer competence and community exploration can quite firmly prove such things. > Rangers, Rogues and Priests are not OP I never said they were. > If everything is OP then nothing is. That doesn't make any sense. Well since you didn't specify which combo you thought was OP and instead complained about the posters instead what am I supposed to think? In fact your original post didn't want OP builds to be discussed at all yet now you want community discussion? To jog your memory: "Why are people so obsessed with finding the most overpowered thing to steamroll the game with. I can't think of anything much more boring. How about finding a combo which is most fun and interesting to play and is strong without being broken?" Your original post. So lets now discuss this properly. Which builds do YOU think are OP? Well, this is awkward. Ack my apologies. Teach me to post distracted.

Don't think this one is gamebreaking since deflection is not +20. I still get hit a lot (POTD) with my paladin tank, despite sword+board, resolve bonus and other sources (currently 76 deflection total). It would be only gamebreaking if the enemies wouldn't hit anymore (they definitely do). Still one of the best sources of defenseHonestly deflection in general isn't what it used to be. Basically defense is all about armour and healing. And CCing and terrain manipulation to minimise attacks inbound in the first place.

I hate this argument against balance in single player games. It is the designer's responsibility to balance the game, not the player's. Avoiding content is not a solution to balance issues. Players who want to feel more powerful can lower the difficulty. Players who want a challenge should have access to that experience on the highest difficulty, regardless of what abilities they want to make use of. Man, it's a Single Player RPG- you play broken build ONLY if you chose to do so- you don't want, don't do it. If someone will want he will just use console or cheats, god mode, one-shot everything. It's single player RPG- you are broken as you want.That ignores the fact that many players, myself included, feel that artificially restricting yourself from broken combos isn't true difficulty. You can call it lack of willpower/discipline if you wish, but I believe that balance within singleplayer games is important. One of things I like best about these types of games is creating a strong build, or party, that can annihilate enemies. That enjoyment is destroyed by easily exploitable abusive combos that don't require any thought put into them. And who decides what is too broken? So far the 'broken' includes Beckoners, Monks, Paladins, Berzerkers, Devoted, Soulblades and Evokers. Rangers, Rogues and Priests are not OP (except Devotions of the Faithful). If everything is OP then nothing is. > And who decides what is too broken? I believe a combination of developer competence and community exploration can quite firmly prove such things. > Rangers, Rogues and Priests are not OP I never said they were. > If everything is OP then nothing is. That doesn't make any sense. Well since you didn't specify which combo you thought was OP and instead complained about the posters instead what am I supposed to think? In fact your original post didn't want OP builds to be discussed at all yet now you want community discussion? To jog your memory: "Why are people so obsessed with finding the most overpowered thing to steamroll the game with. I can't think of anything much more boring. How about finding a combo which is most fun and interesting to play and is strong without being broken?" Your original post. So lets now discuss this properly. Which builds do YOU think are OP?

I hate this argument against balance in single player games. It is the designer's responsibility to balance the game, not the player's. Avoiding content is not a solution to balance issues. Players who want to feel more powerful can lower the difficulty. Players who want a challenge should have access to that experience on the highest difficulty, regardless of what abilities they want to make use of. Man, it's a Single Player RPG- you play broken build ONLY if you chose to do so- you don't want, don't do it. If someone will want he will just use console or cheats, god mode, one-shot everything. It's single player RPG- you are broken as you want. That ignores the fact that many players, myself included, feel that artificially restricting yourself from broken combos isn't true difficulty. You can call it lack of willpower/discipline if you wish, but I believe that balance within singleplayer games is important. One of things I like best about these types of games is creating a strong build, or party, that can annihilate enemies. That enjoyment is destroyed by easily exploitable abusive combos that don't require any thought put into them. And who decides what is too broken? So far the 'broken' includes Beckoners, Monks, Paladins, Berzerkers, Devoted, Soulblades and Evokers. Rangers, Rogues and Priests are not OP (except Devotions of the Faithful). If everything is OP then nothing is.

Keep in mind while for passive skills your MC usually is the user of the skill but for active skills your party members can actually be the user. So you can have someone else use mechanics or pickpocket and have your MC focus points elsewhere (Athletics is good because often you get no party support for the checks).

Pretty much every class needs accuracy except maybe pure summoner Beckoner and pure support Priest. In fact getting a hold of enough accuracy is more of an issue for me.

So its only Ogres and above who get Empowered attack options? Would of thought Wisps would have some attack options. Maybe upgraded Wyrms get options as well since the description mentions unique attacks.

Why come into this topic then? Why police us? Seems pretty clear what the topic is about considering the title. Stop worrying about how other people are playing the game.

Sneak scales off PL or character level?

So with Drake being so good its about whether its worth it to Multi a Beckoner? Also is it the Dragon with unlimited empower or the tier 5 Drakes as well?

Correct. So a Beckoner can summon 2 Drakes with their own Empowers? Does each Drake summoning have it's own set of Empower pools? Does that mean a Beckoner gets basically unlimited Empowers for their own class?

Swift Flurry works with high crit. Yeah this is fairly well known. Fighter with Discipline Strikes can do the same thing while being tankier.

That sounds incredibly fun. I'll have to give that try next! thanks for the idea! Maybe not that great now that I tested it more. The Assassinate bonus only applies on first tick boo! Sneak attack, Deathblows and all the other stuff does though but still it's annoying. I think it's because the 'Frost patch' does the damage while the DoT is the debuff. I wonder if you paired it with a dedicated DoT whereas the whole DoT would get the bonus. Time to test with Assassin/Druid.

Untrue. I just used it on skeletons and a charge was 1 less after combat ended. I said summons not summoner, u can control your drake and use its empower unlimited times. Well the skill I used it on has "Summon" tag. https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/If+their+Bones+Still+Slept+Under+that+Hill,+None+Can+Say I guess its only high lvl summons? Have u tried it. It might be a high level thing. I tried to use the Empower of the Wyrms and it didn't work either.

I empowered one of Aloth's AoEs. It erased everything it hit. It made me want to reroll. How does assassin/caster compare with pure caster at level 20? Do empowered PL 9 spells outperform empowered assassinate PL 7 spells (assuming they crit for the assassinate damage bonus)? Level 1 Nature Godlike Assassin/Wizard with 20 Might and 20 Perception (easily done with Blessing of Berath). Stealth/Invis-> Cast Chill Fog. 20-28 damage a tick (30% might, 30% overpen, 30% sneak attack, 10% +2 PL). Also get -1 armour from flanked on target so overpen is easy. 65 accuracy (20 base, 10 Perception, 25 Assassin, 10 Flanked). 50% crit damage (also gives you 13.5 penetration on crits) - 30 damage crits. This ticks every 3 seconds on the whole screen while Blinding everything. If you get targetted you can Smoke Bomb away. As you level you can proc the Nature buff through Infuse or Xoti easily enough. Dirty Fighting, Uncanny Luck, Improved Critical and Deathblows later on as well for 15% hit to crit, +10% crit damage and Chill Fog procs Deathblows on it's own (+50% damage for 30 damage ticks and 37 crits). Don't forget to sleep in the Inn in Neketaka for +1 level 1 spell casts (lasts until you rest again). Maybe at the level 8 and 9 spells make up for it but you got to wait a long time for that. When you can do this with level 1 spells it's pretty amazing.

When I see a helm that gives +2 Power levels then maybe its comparable.

Apparently the top required Perception is 20.

Actually he should be speced into the passive you don't have many party members with points in. For example say your other 4 companions have 7 points total in Diplomacy and you have 1 yourself. 1+4 = 5 Diplomacy total. To get to 6 Diplomacy either you would spend 1 point to make it 2+4 or your other members would have to spend 4 points to get to the 11th level breakpoint to make it 1+5. So it's a lot more efficient for you to spend 1 point then your other party member to spend 4. Of course you only get 1 point a level...

I am pretty sure companions don't take the skill checks in conversations. Only when you specifically select them in an event (eg Athletics test, etc).

Hmm, I suppose it depends on what skills the companions start with points invested in. I do know that party contribution to skills functions like this: Total party points/contribution to skill check person 1/1 2/2 4/3 7/4 So for example if you have two NPCs that each have one point in Alchemy, that's a total of 2 points, and you get an additional 2 points to your skill check. You start to lose efficiency at 3 points and beyond. God, that's such a weird bloody system. So the best way is to have 2s on everyone and everything? No it's total. You want your whole party total to have 7 to get the +4 bonus.

In case anyone didn't know the achievements you gain during play can be spent when you start a new game to give you new abilities. Some let you start at level 4, another double return on skills, gold, etc. There is one in particular that gives your MC +2 to all stats. I have enough points to unlock it now. I am wondering if I should start making my min max builds around this now. For some builds that a very stat reliant it could make a difference. Thoughts? For me I think I actually will start making my builds taking it into account.

Mechanics is easy. Either select the Hunter background or Old Valia Culture and Artist background (also gives Insight). Start with 1 and 1 point each level is good. Mechanics is probably the most impactful skill in the game. Keep in mind while your party members stats support you they do not support at a 1 to 1 rate. For example a 7 rank in a teammate will give you a +4 bonus. Athletics is nice to prevent the odd injury but resting is super easy. For the passives: All 3 of the speech skills (especially Intimidate and Diplomacy) are important. So is Insight. May advice would be to focus on one speech skill (either Diplomacy or Intimidate) plus Insight. Watch the skill checks you are getting. If you have a total of skill level of say 11 Diplomacy (8 base +3 party support) and are only getting difficulty 7 skill checks stop putting points into it and put some into Intimidate or Insight. If you have a party member maxing them as well it allows you to free up a lot of points. For example if you are maxing Diplomacy you should have 3 teamates maxing Bluff, Intimidate and Insight while one works on Survival. You want at least 2 good options for speech because no one option covers most conversations.

I like it more then PoE 1. If feels like it is its own game instead of a wannabe BG 3. The setting and mechanics feel a lot more fresh.

Actually it works fine but if you have the free time between summons why not put it to use? If you want a lazy Summoner Ranger and Paladin work.