drchocapic

Once you reach the Undercroft, just sneak with one character down to the renegade watershapers behind the wooden palisade to the east. If you're careful you can squeeze between and behind them and find a boat to escape to Queen's Berth at the extreme east of the map. The good news is that you only need to reach that exit with one character, which makes the sneaking that much easier. I did it with Eder and he had 0 in sneak, you just need careful timing.

My first run was as a Fanatic (Berserker/Bleak Walker), extremely powerful melee fighter, so much so in fact that it got a little boring by mid-game. Not exactly a subtle class to play and one that tends to approach every fight the same way but if you're looking for a melee damage dealer, it is a very potent choice. I've also used a Chanter/Druid (Beckoner/Fury) extensively. I really like to combine a "classic" caster with Chanter as it gives you something to do (cast spells) while your phrases are building, but I honestly found Fury pretty boring. The fact that the subclass pretty much leaves you with damage spells and not much else in the druid spellbook makes it really lacking in versatility. Chanter obviously is great and the Beckoner is a summoning god but the other Chanter subclasses fit my play-style better. I'm now playing a Chanter/Cipher (Skald/Ascendant) in a fresh run, Chanter is still great (even though Skad doesn't feel as interesting as Troubadour) and Ascendant feels like it will eventually be extremely powerful. So far building Focus is a challenge but in a few levels (and with a better weapon) it's looking really promising.

The best way to make melee characters "interesting" as you describe is, in my opinion, to combine them with one of the renewable resource classes (Chanter, Cipher). This way you get multiple option for spells when levelling up whereas most classic melee classes will always pick the same abilities, and you always have something different to do in a fight.

Yeah especially when you compare it to Maia's, maybe we should be the companion in HER main story. I don't mind giving special subclasses to companions but they should not completely outshine what's available to the player.

Yeah, you've got to love the fact that the game which takes place in the Deadfire Archipelago and involves the Huana more than anyone else... only has one fitting portrait for the Island Aumaua.

Yeah that's another reason why I really like the Fanatic. However you get that skill at level 9 I think so you'll still have to go for a good while with the confusion on berserk.

I've played a lot of Berserker multi-classes during the beta and my favourites were the Brute (Barbarian/Fighter, usually Devoted because it's the best) and the Fanatic (Barbarian/Paladin). Be fully aware that the confusion from Berserk CAN be really dangerous in the heat of battle though, I once sent my Brute to help out my back-line with a pesky monster and he ended up one-shotting my wizard with carnage and one-shotting my cipher with the fighter's cleaving stance. Hilarious, but dangerous.

Nope. Actually my favourite class from the first game (Cipher) is probably at or near the bottom of my list now. I've actually managed to make some very potent builds with it in the beta but the specific way I played it in PoE 1 doesn't really click for me in the sequel. I'm not that upset about it however because there are plenty of new options that I want to explore in PoE 2.

Heh I don't know, a lot of things aren't exactly balanced yet available at the moment.

Yeah it's really hard to get excited about the wizard's subclass abilities. Banishing two schools from use also feels like a pretty hefty price to pay when there are so few spells to choose from at some levels. I don't want to go Evoker at release because it's the most "generic" school out there but it feels like the only one with pretty solid choice at every level right now. Most of the other subclasses get really shafted on spell selection. Let's hope they balance the spell catalogue out before release.

Yeah the whole AI customization is supposed to help players who don't want to get overwhelmed by micromanagement in combat but right now the UI is so daunting that it's more overwhelming than combat. I also wish that characters set to auto-attack would stop having moral quandaries in the heat of battle and just stare blankly at their foe, doing nothing.

I'm hoping for the same thing as my Fire God-like Mage looks pretty baller with the Kuaru Clothing.

I have to agree with that, you can never go wrong with fully descriptive tooltips.

I use Chanters a lot and got out of the fight fairly scot-free thanks to summons. They still might want to tune it down a bit with the whole "adds that come out of nowhere and alpha strike five AoE right on top of your team".

Yeah I'm not a fan either, the mini-game isn't fun at all and it takes way too long to get in range for a boarding assault. Thankfully it seems like it won't be mandatory in the final game.

Sounds like a pretty reasonable request. I would add that we definitely need a parrot pet option considering the theme of the game.

I actually love to play a support character as my main I'm definitely looking at Chanter as a potential pick to be my leading character once the game hits. As for whether I'll go single or multi class, it'll depend on what the high level abilities look like on release. Multi-classing is definitely awesome in the beta but we still have to see how they balance it in the end.

I'm honestly pretty surprised at how much I enjoy Chanters so far, especially since I wasn't a big fan of the class in the first game.

I almost never put a Priest in the party, even in PotD. As far as I'm concerned, they have a really great buff but not much else to make them needed right now. However, you have to consider the fact that we have no idea if the full game will have more encounters that make Priests feel important.

My main gripe about the game is still the lack of actual meaningful choices in levelling and combat. Classes have so few actual viable choices that you pretty much always go for the same things and, even when playing PotD, I don't really feel like I'm actually reacting to what's happening during the fight but rather just applying the same winning formula every time, no matter what kind of opposition I'm currently facing. It's not bereft of fun but it really feels like combat is going to get really old, really fast.

Just feel it’s weird that pistol with a free offhand is slower than pistol with a sword in offhand when reloading bullet..... Magic?? It's also weird that the Gunner talent from the Ranger class, which is supposed to make you reload faster, actually makes you reload 25% slower.

Guys I think I've found my best build yet :

Yeah I've been playing around with some wizard builds recently and the problem with most big spells is still the same : by the time casting is done, the fight is pretty much over. When it takes 6 to 9 seconds (or more) to throw out a big buff/debuff or AoE damage spell, your contribution should equal what other members of the group can achieve in that time, which it currently does not. Some offensive spells can be cast pretty fast but then you run into the opposite issue by running out of spells pretty much immediately only to have to rely on your weapon for the rest of the fight. In that case, you might as well substitute the wizard for a weapon-focused damage dealer which will perform much better in the end. There is no simple solution to the current "caster problem" but I really think that the very limited spell selection we get to pick by levelling is a huge part of the balancing issue. The lack of variety, both in situations met and spell selection, kills pure casters at the moment.

I had a similar issue, just go into the options --> controls and under "Interface" you can rebind the console button.

Good idea yeah, every time I play Icewind Dale 2 I have a billion former adventurers saved up if I want to re-use them and it's great.