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Hey guys, Long time forum lurker and recent member here. I'm sorry if this was asked before but I couldn't find anything. I'm playing single class monk (again :D) in party with regular companions. What enchantments do you usually pick for Tuotilo's Palm shield? It seems in my last game i was bad and left it without any upgrades.

BLUF: Hung up on the decision to go Vaniila Wiz/Helwalker or Blood Mage/Helwalker and optimization choices (POTD, all DLC content, with a story companion party) I've looked at some of Cyrus_Blackfeather's and Whimper's builds on the list but they are somewhat dated so don't know if they are viable. I have also seen Waski's solo mega boss fights with a Sage (BM/HW) but don't know if that will work with a party or if it's better to just go vanilla wizard with a party. ***I understand the different playstyles and have messed around with them in some old saves.*** Context: I played through POE 1 a long time ago as a Cipher and recently revisited it as a Wizard. I am now looking to play through Deadfire on PoTD as a similar character with a full party of my team from POE1, plus extras (Eder, Pallegina, Xoti, and Ydwin) . I've played through on Veteran difficulty and PoTD with other classes to include Votary, Arcane Knight, SC Wizard, and Transcendent (with other party combinations), but never as a Sage. I found some of the Paladin multi-classes fun, but "safe" and I tend to like the higher risk/reward play-style better. I also am a big fan of versatility and typically gravitate to casters, but fast paced melee is also appealing. With that said, and after reading through many of the topics on these boards I am finding it difficult to decide between between blood mage or vanilla mage for the xxx/Helwalker as the optimal choice. From what I understand for Solo runs the Blood Mage is optimal but would it still be fun and viable with a party or would vanilla wiz end up more powerful with party support? Any other tips or advice regarding race, culture, etc are also welcome. Thanks in advance!

Hello Can You guys share with me good build for solo PotD Paladin? I only know I can dump int but I don’t know which class I should chose (I prefer human) and what talents are “must have”. Thanks

Hello! I will soon be returning to pillars and hopefully finally finish it (or at least get past Maerwald) before December when POE2 releases for PS4. I want to do a talkative build that works well in a team (and solo? I dunno if there are many fights you HAVE to do solo) on POTD. Also, havin POE2 in mind, are there some creation choices from POE1 that highly affect conversations in part 2? Stats and build dont matter to me much, as I like pretty much all playstyles in these types of games Races I find the most interesting: Orlan, Aumaua, Godlike Classes i find the most interesting: Paladin, Cipher, Priest While I like slaves or scholars the most, I am open to other backgrounds. For geographic origins I have no preferences at all, though I guess Deadfire would have the largest impact in POE2? Any advice is much appreciated ;D

Hi all, I've looked everywhere I could think of and couldn't find any PotD solo turn based build so I've decided to ask for one here. I've already finished the game on PotD solo RTwP with a Devoted/Streetfighter and it was a lot of fun. However, this build obviously won't work on TB. I'm really interested in FINALLY trying the new turn based system but I only play solo PotD so here's that. A few points for this potential build: 1. I'm using Berath's Blessings so builds that are very weak at the beginning are still fine (I hope). 2. This build should be able to win against every boss (including expansions), including optionals such as the annoying Fampyr's Crypt. 3. I would very like for the build to be able to win against one of the Mega Bosses (I don't care which one), but I don't really expect to find one which does. :(( 4. Tested builds are preferred. Thanks in advance for anyone who tries to help.

Hello. Can You guys tell me how should look good build for solo chanter on potd (ver 3.07)? How should look attributes? Thanks.

Hey everyone, I am currently running a assassin/Blood mage on POTD with AI up scaled. I wanted to use Pallegina and originally planned to use https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1400804034 as her build. although this looks like a solid build, I can not help but think I should go with her as a herald mainly because I read that she would be putting out great passive hp healing and was not sure if that would mesh better with my class. I will provide the rest of my party comp. I just picked up Pallegina so only lvl 7 currently and this is the farthest I have been in poe2 as I was burnt out at launch after playing 120hrs on hard in poe1 Current Party comp *MC -assassin/Blood mage -I use blood sacrifice "A LOT" to control what spells I wish to continue to use. I also use concelhaut's corrosive siphon as a form of gaining health alot as well when im having issues either with running low on hp pots or xoti is running low on healing casts. *Eder -swashbuckler - and pretty much tank atm..... using lost sinners build as well as it looked solid https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398100119 *Xoti - Priest - currently only party heals and support. I am also not sure I want to keep her if another "better" healer comes up. *Aloth - Wizard - also using lost sinners build for aloth https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1406080663 I mainly wanted advice on Pallegina but I am also looking on input on my other companions and what might mesh well with what I got pre planned here for my party. Thanks for the help. Updated: I have received alot of pointers toward using her as a herald. Any builds for her would be appreciated. Also the recommendation to get Tekehu and swap him out with aloth and go with Pallegina as a crusader is up for debate.

I am looking for 5 builds that match according to some rules I have for them. First a couple of rules. I want to have 5 multiclasses. I want to use all classes once except for ranger I do not want to use it. I want to have a Tank, a melee DPS off-tank, a ranged DPS (preferably something with an arquebuss), a magic DPS and a Healer/Buffer. Apart from that anything goes. Feel free to share builds if you feel like it.

Hi Folks! Happy Holidays! I recently completed my fourth run of Deadfire, and I want to attempt to complete every god challenge at once to spice up the difficulty. I was hoping players more experienced than I could chime in and provide suggestions in this thread on strategies to make this challenge work. NOTE: A 12th challenge will be released at some point. I will likely update this thread whenever it gets announced. Magran's Fires, for reference: Obviously, this is going to be monumentally difficult. This post is also going to have a monumental amount of information in it. After thinking about the challenges over the past week, I’ve broken up my thoughts into three big questions I need help with in order to succeed. 1) What can I do to minimize the effects of the challenges? 2) How can I maximize quest xp and minimize battle difficulty and travel time? and 3) What kind of party handles these challenges the best? Are there essential items that we need along the way? Countering the Challenges: Quest Routing This section is entirely untested for now, but we want to get as much XP as possible while minimizing travel time incurred by Eothas’ challenge. I borrow heavily from Dorftek’s guide on getting early XP, which you can read here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/103025-guide-grow-strong-before-fighting-anything/. Here’s my plan so far: Party Composition The good news is that we get to play with a full party, and I'm not so masochistic as to attempt this on Solo or Ironman Mode. The bad news is that, well, combat is HARD. Broadly speaking, these are things that I want my party to have, in rough order of importance: The Party Thus Far That’s where I’m at right now. Here are my questions: 1) Anybody have tricks or tips on handling specific God Challenges? Am I underestimating how annoying Abydon and Skaen are? Has anyone completed Eothas’ challenge yet? 2) Could I improve my route through the game to get more XP? What faction should I side with to make the challenge easier? 3) Give me your favorite character ideas. What builds on the forums handle Magran’s challenge well? What AI settings have you used that are effective? Looking forward to your ideas!

Hello everyone, I could use some help on a build I'm putting together. As some of you know I've been testing out the combination of DPS and overall damage resistance by creating several Paladin/X combinations. Anyways I always test the same way. I spawn Ukaizo and see how I do. So far Arcane Knight is right behind my Devoted/Goldpact build in terms of DPS and her ability to tank any damage that come her way. Success wise she got Ukaizo to 50% facetanking everything he had. So I would like some advice on what I'm doing wrong here. I've written out everything I can think of for this build to work. Currently it requires consumables in order to deal out some nasty DPS. What I'm hoping is that I can cut the consumable use down to just the occasional nuke if I absolutely have to. I would like the melee DPS to be increased if possible, I'm also open to using ranged weapons if it makes the DPS increase. I would also like to increase the overall tankiness of the build. Lastly, I had this idea (which I"m certain I read in another post) that I could get heals through flames, is this a good idea? I did give it a go, and it seemed to be working fairly well. Can this healing be increased too? Class: Arcane Knight - Goldpact Knights/Evoker Race: Wild Orlen Attributes: MIG: 15 >> 18 (BB, GoTM) CON: 6 >> 10 (BB, Gear) DEX: 15 >> 20 (BB) >> XX (Gear) PER: 19 >> 22 (BB, Effigy, Cauldron Brew) INT: 18 >> 23 (BB, Gear) RES: 6 >> 10 (BB, Gear) Abilities (Goldpact): Sworn Enemy Sworn Rival Flames of Devotion Eternal Devotion Lay on Hands Zealous Aura Exalted Endurance Deep Faith Retribution Inspired Defenses Divine Purpose Combat Focus Scion of Flame Mental Fortress Uncanny Luck Practiced Healer Improved Critical Virtuous Triumph Stoic Steel Abilities (Evoker): Fleet Feet Wizards Double Mirrored Image Infuse With Vital Essence Llengrath’s Displaced Image Iron Skin Ryngrim’s Enervating Terror Heart of the Storm Rapid Casting Skills: Arcana: 12 >> 15 (Paladin, Wizard, Gear) Mechanics 7 >> 8 (Hunter)* Gears: Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate Weapons (MH): Magran’s Favor (Blazing Core, Enduring Flame) Weapons (OH): Kapana Taga (Lone Champion, All Comers) Grimoire: Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry Neck: Stone of Power (+1 INT) Belt: The Undying Burden (+2 CON) Ring 1: Voidward Ring 2: Solitary Wanderer (+1 RES) Hands: Flamethrower’s Gloves (+2 DEX) Cloak: Cape of the Falling Star Head: Heaven’s Cacophony (+2 INT) Boots: Boots of the Stone (+1 DEX, +1 RES) Pet: Undecided Consumables: Healing Pots x10 Scroll of Great Maelstorm Scrol of Meteor Shower *should be able to get that to 12 or 14ish with gear I believe?

When back in 2017 I heard of multiclassing in the then upcoming PoE2, I wanted to combine my two favorite classes in the game: Cipher and Paladin. I thought the synergy between the two would be monstrous: Faith and Conviction and the defensive arsenal of the Paladin would make a squishy Cipher more than capable to dish out all the damage possible without dying. At the same time, Cipher has renewable resources, so, yay, great for solo. You never wanna run out of fire. In my first playthrough, I didn't go solo, and because of the tooltip warning against multiclass, I opted for pure Cipher. By the time I did multiple playthroughs to know the game better, Paladin got nerfed to death: - increased cost to Greater Lay on Hands - 100% to 25% Virtous Triumph proc chance - FoD nerfs left and right In light of these changes, I deemed any Paladin tank build inferior to any Fighter multiclass, having Unbending become better compared to GLoH, and not having "infinite resources" by killing enemies anymore. Boy, was I wrong. Cipher, that to many is considered one of the most boring and underpowered classes - and the rationale behind their opinion escapes me, having this class access to all types of affliction and a whopping 300+ raw damage nuke - got nerfed, most notably with: - Body Attunement from -4/+4 to -2/+2 armor - Borrowed Instinct (literally single best spell in the game) from 30s base duration to 20s. - Time Parasite from -50% to -25% (note: this is one of the few way that allowed to achieve ~0s recovery at lvl 20) I recently decided to prove myself wrong, and tried an Inquisitor. I've always been a great fan of the Ascended, which for many (party, mostly) builds is insanely good, thanks to its ability to get max focus and then spam the best single target nuke in the game on literally everyone. Alas, Ascend got nerfed, too (from 20s to 12s base duration). What was I left with? Base class, meh. Beguiler, definitely not good for non-Rogue multiclass. And Soulblade. The latter can be surprisingly good when combined with Whispers of the Endless Path, as one can Soul Strike on multiple targets, recover focus at the same time by hitting the secondary ones, thus never actually being starved of focus. The counterattack on top, allows you to keep focus high. I would like to say that this is the best weapon for this build, but what I discovered by going through all the SSS challenges, is that it is not. The best weapon for a character with all the afflictions, with high defenses but excelling in none of them (compared to Tricksters, Skaen Priest, Wizards) is versatility. This build will not point out (except for a few slots) a fixed equipment. What we aim to achieve is the best Armor against every encounter. Therefore, we will focus on boosting Armor. Similarly, the other side of the coin is having good Penetration alongside with it. We plan to have a versatile arsenal. And since we decided that versatility is the name of the game, we will save all the unnecessary ability points from the Paladin tree, and invest them to get the Cipher spells that really matter. THE RACE THE BACKGROUND THE STATS THE SUBCLASSES THE ABILITIES THE EQUIPMENT To be continued... https://goo.gl/Eq12FG (soon)

Rygmrand's "Artist" Class: Spiritualist ( Soulblade/Chanter ) Difficulty: PotD+ Version: 2.1 Solo: Hel Yes DESCRIPTION: A powerful build that snowballs early into a biawac of destruction and test the power of your gaming contraption! Kill your enemies with ice and decay. If you thought Grave Calling/Hel Beckoning's imp route was neat, you're in for a real big treat. Soul annihilating summons all day! RP: A character I imagined who would rise up to be Rymgrand's top agent. (EDIT) Patch 2.1 - Soul Annihilation's killing blow now has been fixed, but the skeleton and chillfog synergy is still going strong. Difference is now you can either dump SA on enemies or spam cipher spells during chillfog bursts kind of like a semi-ascendant that has Soul Annihilation. I also recommend trying out a Berserker Howler (skeleton nukes) or Harbinger multiclass (deathblow passives) for damage output if you can make do without the cipher utility to increase accuracy or weaken enemy fortitude defenses. There are 2 things that make this build work: 1. Soulblade's Soul Annihilation (SA) despite saying "Primary Attack", will trigger any weapon "on kill" effects if the target dies from the raw damage portion of the attack even if the weapon with the effect is equipped on the offhand. Apparently it also ignores the type of creature it is when it is killed, which will fulfill any "on kill" effect that requires a certain monster type (kith, etc). CAUTION: I am sure this is unintended so enjoy it while it lasts. D: 2. Most abilities that are activated or procced from a weapon will usually calculate damage and special effects using the weapon and any passive abilities the character has. In the case of the cipher, it will generate focus for them. There are some exceptions, but it is usually the case. Technically you could use SA's agnostic killing blow on any soulblade multiclass, which would probably make soulblade/rogue into an insane force of destruction on trash, but the chanter multiclass was the safer choice in order to supply your own "easy fuel" for SA kills and to default back to a chanter summon line on harder fights. Using the raw damage hit of the Soulblade's Soul Annihilation, I am able to 1-2 shot my low HP summons and able to proc the on kill effects of Grave Calling and Hel Beckoning regardless if they are a vessel or spirit. For Grave Calling I have enchanted it to cast chill fog on a vessel kill which will be my skellies. This will result in a free AoE non-hazardous chillfog spell when I kill my summon that blinds and pulses damage to enemies that ALSO contribute to my focus gain, which means I can then use soul annihilation immediately again on an enemy or spam cipher spells. This also stacks my ice lash buff and with the paralyzation on crit enchant, many of the enemies caught in the chillfog spam become blinded and paralyzed as they get torn apart. The afflictions will still persist even if they are immune to freeze damage. The even nastier thing is that if a vessel dies from chillfog it will spawn another chillfog because it is still benefiting from Grave Calling's passives. You will want to cull near-death non-vessels with SA to take advantage of their deaths. POST 2.1 - While this still can work when fighting spirits, it now requires a bit more micro of what blade does killing blows. The other styles seem a lot more viable now and even weapon/ranged can work since the build has no full attacks. In the case for Hel Beckoning, which has procs on a spirit kill and behaves similar to Grave Calling, the two options are a corrode AoE or a corrode imp summon. Although the AoE option is definitely the higher damage option on normal fights, the single aoe cast can miss since it is after all going against fortitude defense, can be resisted by poison immunes, and it doesn't pulse like chillfog does. So for this weapon in solo mode I opted to turn it into a imp summoning tool though in a party you can opt for the AoE instead since you won't have to worry about resistances and survivability as much. The main benefit is to gain ranged cannon fodder separate from the chanter's summons that will also leave usable bodies for "The White Worms AKA Corpse Explosion," which will give a crush damage vs reflex option. Note: The bodies still have the summoning timer and will disappear when it expires. Also of course, the white worms can be used aggressively to unload even more damage on top of the chillfog deathzone to end encounters even quicker without needing focus to spam amplified wave. Hel Beckoning may not always be your main offhand since there are options like Resounding Hammer that gives a free Might+PEN inspiration when killing your summons. Now the obvious weaknesses of the 2 weapons is that the major damage abilties go against fortitude, chillfog is only freeze damage, and maintaining an imp army can only go so far with their pitiful corrode damage PEN. In these specific situations, we can then fallback to the summon meatshield wall of chanters while we pick off targets to gain focus and grind them down via cipher spells or switch to another weapon with another kill effect (although not as strong as Grave Calling but they are "good enough"). We also still have the options from chanter and cipher abilties to lower defenses for the weapon's abilities to land. Some freeze immunes like rime constructs still are vulnerable to the paralyzing effects of chillfog so even if you do no damage, the enemy is prepped to be killed via other means. POST 2.1 - Auto skellies instead and dump SA on enemies while chillfog taps them for focus. While the fire lash chant is great for focus gain, the build does not use it because SA gets countered if your summon is benefitting from the fire lash chant for some reason. In this build, I've opted to use 2 chants: 1. Life Leech Chant: Since you will be doing a lot of damage on trash and hitting your weak defense summons, this chant works great as a healing option. In times of desperation you can back away and "tap" your minions to recover. 2. Skelly Summon Chant: This frees up phrases that would have been used to initiate battles with summons to allow different invocations to be used. Unlike the invocation skellies, the bodies of these skellies can be used for corpse explosion if you are fast enough to trigger it before the body disappears. OTHER NOTES: You do not gain focus from hitting your own summons even with confuse just to be clear with it. There is also a bit of mental micro of needing to know, which blade is being used when auto-attacking your summons. This build also makes use of the Magran belt. While the additional burn damage is nice for minor focus gain, the primary reason is to gain a chance to summon a fire elemental whenever you hit, which is a lot when you have several weapon aoes hitting mobs. The elemental will then serve as easy focus fuel in the midst of tougher or dwindling enemies. There is one really interesting caveat you need watch out for and that is the confused affliction. With the affliction, your aoe zones will damage you which will result in death if you don't have the defenses to get out or survive it if you happen to be in the thick of it. For this reason, INT and DEX resistances are recommended to have. It also serves as an amazing mechanic since now you can just summon your skeletons directly into the chillfog and have them blow up into a nuclear chillfog, which is pretty amazing to watch honestly if your computer can handle it. In a party, have some berserker caster or rogue put a controlled confusion on you for skelly chillfog bombs that would violate the Geneva Convention so hard. Having said that, a howler (berserker/chanter) can do this all by himself using Grave Calling normally. With the SA trick, you could also go double imp enchants for 2 imps for the price of one body. Keep killing your imps to generate more imps as long as you alternate hitting an enemy in between since hitting your own summons does not generate any focus for you. Using this trick, even a non-chanter can build up a ton of imps really quick that can fuel other types of mob builds, but chillfog is too good to give up for an imp. SUBCLASSES: Each chanter subclass has its perks in the build. Skald - Skeletons and wisps have really low defenses so hitting them will generate phrases really quickly, which then can be spent on discounted offensive invocations. Unfortunately it does not generate any phrases from chillfog or noxious blast. Troubadour - Not as bursty as skald's phrase generation, but a lot more consistent than beckoner for rapid phrase generation and helpful when retreating after enemies ripped apart your summons really fast. A skelly every 3 seconds from the skelly chant is also amazing for lazy summon fuel. Beckoner - The lowered HP of the summons helps for initial kills with SA. Even with the lowered duration of summons, a high INT build is still sufficient to be able to have summons constantly up and there is usually enough time to kill a few. It is however, tighter on resources on tough fights until level 19 where the skelly chant will free up some room to use phrases on non-summoning invocations and a bit difficult to use on lower INT builds. It also is the strongest nuclear chillfog subclass when using confuse affliction. Ascended - If you prefer autoattacking summons with just Grave Calling, Ascended works just as well, but this guide will be about Soul Blades since ascended builds perform similar to each other once hitting the ascended buff. RACES: Pale Elf - I chose pale elf to be more in line with the lore of being Rymgrand's BFF, but the real benefit of it is that the fire and freeze AR is extremely helpful when finding several summoned fire elementals chasing your character around or a sudden intellect affliction has the character in the middle of a chillfog deathzone. Wood Elf - Same stats as Pale Elf, but gives a free dexterity resistance. Human - Can be useful in a party since the accuracy boost and damage boost from being bloodied is easier to maintain and control, but you will have to forgo using the life leech aura. CULTURE & BACKGROUND: The White that Wends for perception since accuracy is the highest priority in the build. Matches with the whole RP thing too. You're free to choose whatever though. ATTRIBUTES: SKILLS: WEAPONS & MODALS: ABILITIES: +Good / ?Notable / -Bad EQUIPMENT: +Good / ?Conditional / -Bad

Hello For my 2nd run I try to play a principal priest, I do not especially like xoti. But I discovered that much less I like to play interpreting a priest, and much less with pallegrina in the group, doing anything referring to gods is negative for her. So the solution is to play without a priest, but I do not know if it is viable in the maximum difficulty with level scale. I would like you to leave your opinion and what strategies you would use.

Some of you might remember me from the good old Level-1-Noober-Challenge or the Naked-Challenge in PoE 1 so a warm "hello again" to all stumbling into this post! First i must admit that i love PoE 2 after starting it two weeks ago but - on the same hand - it starts to bore me again and again so i did not completed a single run even though i have created dozens of characters now - mostly using TCS settings. I started the game completly blind using Monks and Druids as i played them the most in PoE 1. The problem was: They lacked the easy escape buttons and died many times due to ambushes or bad luck (yeah, lack of metagame knowledge here!). I then started switching to priest and rogue multiclass. Hellwalker/Priest of Skaen was fun, my current Shifter/Trickster even more. Concepts of a Paladin/Trickster also sound very promising. However. My question to the community is: What do you think is the most capable class to beat PoE 2 (plus DLC) using the following rules: 1. Complete the game without wearing any armor, boots, gloves, helmets, or accessories in combat. 2. Path of the Damned or Triple Crown Solo. 3. No Berath Blessings. 4. No retraining. 5. Upscaling for all enemies. 6. Collect all bounties. 7. Finish the main game plus the DLC´s. 8. Chanters are banned. 9. No AI scripts. 10. Difficulty increasing Mods like Deadly Deadfire are optional but highly welcome - your choice! There are only a couple of execptions to play through the game: 1. You may use things like Camping Supply, Lock Pick, Hook, Prybar, Hammer and Chisel, Rope and Grapling Hook. 2. You may use plot/quest items for their plot/quest purposes. 3. You may use gold for quests, resting or visiting brothels. 4. You may use gold to build up your ship. As i personally play only using Triple Crown settings i have died many times running into unknown territory AND lacking the easy escape options (Withdraw, Smoke Veil, Shadowing Beyond...). Splittpulling still works but seems to be much harder than in PoE 1 as enemies tend to follow forever if you cant outrun them. Is there a way around? Another major concern is the fight against the Guardian of Ukaizo. Will any naked character stand a chance here? I know that the battle can be skipped using invisibility but somehow that feels lame. Is there a way to "talk him down"? However: Before tiping too much nonsense i am eager to read about your ideas. Thanks! P.S. Maybe @Reent will wake up again playing another Chanter?

Need 5th for my super-duper team (also some ideas for others' team builds): I always found that traditional tanks do very little for the team, hence I split duties of a tank between my melee dps and the healer/buffer, resulting in a stable 4 man PotD (no scaling) group that allows to "carry" companions through their respective quest lines. I prefer to go for level 20 before Hasongo, so right now the only companion being carried is Eder. Once he's good, I will have a spot open for 5th custom character on my team. I would appreciate to learn new "OP" build while doing so. At the moment I have the following team comp: 1. Trixie (Swashbuckler: Devoted/Trickster) as WotEP Deflection-Riposte "main tank" 2. Xander (Templar: Kind Wayfarers/Eothas Priest) as Healer-Buffer turtle (120+ all defenses lvl 16) 3. Vilara (Mindstalker: Ascendant/Streetfighter) as Main DPS (Streetfighter+Mortars and Ascentant for self buff, and some extra utility for hard fights) 4. Ravig (Loremaster: Troubadour/Wizard) as De-buffer/Summoner turtle (Used to open fights with Summons, then put maluses on enemies: Pull of Eora+Expose Vulnerabilities+Arkemyr's Torment & Hex for sneak attacks from Vilara) and then stand around occasionally summoning stuff with 12% vamp/ +10 deflections chants always active. 5.??? I have never played/been attracted to Druid,Monk or Barb in either PoE or PoE 2: Deadfire. Would appreciate strong PotD builds including these classes focused around big damage numbers Thank you!

Gonna be streaming Magran's Fires Berath & Magran's Challenges. I will usually stream between 3pm - 11 pm CEST. The challenges are: Berath's Challenge: Any party member Knocked Out for 6 seconds is Killed Cannot flee from combat Magran's Challenge: The game cannot be paused The game time cannot be slowed In addition the challenges force you to go PoTD & Upscaling. Party Composition: Devoted/Skald Bleak Walker/Streetfighter Priest of Eothas Evoker Wizard Devoted/Assassin Playthrough will be uploaded to my youtube channel once I'm done. Eventually I will make Build Guides for my each individual party member. Channel links: Twitch Channel Youtube Channel Donate via Streamlabs

The "Stop-N-Go" or "The Jumping Fortress"* (Holy Slayer) [*Thanks to Dr <3 for this more evocative name.] Introduction: The idea behind this build is take advantage of several defense-boosting abilities that require you stand still (the large shield modal, Bronlar's Phalanx, Stoic Steel), combined with the fact that you count as "standing still" when you use Escape to teleport somewhere. In practice, this build has two modes. In the first mode we rush into the middle of your enemies with two weapons or a two-handed weapon and get ourself Flanked and Bloodied as quickly as possible. In the second "Stop-N-Go" mode, we shift to a heavy shield/weapon set-up, activate our stand-still abilities and spam Sworn Rival. This allows us to comfortably sit in the Bloodied/Near Death zone while enjoying a number of abilities that are conditional on being low health. And when we need to re-position to get flanked again, or need to move to take out potential threats, we use Escape to teleport there. In the latter mode, we're extremely tanky -- we have a high deflection, substantial damage reduction (especially against ranged and reflex-based attacks), multiple sources of regeneration, and a 20+ armor rating -- and we can pull out Lay on Hands in emergencies. And we also have an impressive array of offensive boosts that allows us to quickly obliterate targets around us. Difficulty: Solo PotD v.2.1 (with Berth's Blessing and level scaling) I completed my Solo PotD run using Berath's Blessings and level scaling. Berath's Blessings aren't necessary, but the 50k bonus blessing is recommended, as it will help you get some key equipment much sooner.Classes: Holy Slayer (Streetfighter Rogue/Goldpact Paladin) Rogue gives us a number of great offensive boosts (e.g., Deathblows) and Escape, which is crucial for this build. The Streetfighter specialty adds some fantastic offensive boosts while Bloodied and/or Flanked, which is most of the time. Paladin gives us a number of abilities that allow us to be very tanky, including Stoic Steel, one of the best "stand still" abilities. The Goldpact specialty allows our Sworn Rival ability to provide a temporary stacking armor boost whose cost is refunded when the target dies. And since we kill things very quickly, we can keep that armor bonus up pretty much all of the time. Race: Human The Human bonuses to accuracy and damage when Bloodied are great for this build, since it's built around being Bloodied or Near Death.Background: The White that Wends (Hunter, or anything else you like) The White that Wends gives a bonus for our most important stat, Perception. There are a number of reasonable choices for background, but Hunter probably provides the most generally useful skill bumps (Mechanics).Stats: Might: Very High Constitution: High Dexterity: Very High Perception: Max Intellect: Min Resolve: Medium Perception is our most important stat: since we'll frequently be seeing the massive Streetfighter bonus to critical damage kick in, we'll want to crit as much as possible. And we'll generally have a large shield accuracy penalty to overcome. Dexterity is our second most important stat; it's always nice to be able to do more, and do it quicker. Boosts to Perception, Dexterity and Might are DPS increases that are multiplicative with respect to each other, so in order to be a DPS machine we want to boost all three. Might is our third most important stat. It's nice -- it boosts our damage and our healing abilities. But the damage bonuses from the Rogue and Streetfighter abilities will quickly dwarf any bonuses Might provides, making this a lower priority than Perception and Dexterity. We want a reasonable amount of Constitution, to allow us to comfortabley stay Bloodied or Near Death most of the time. But this build gets so tanky that after the first third of the game, that a small boost to Constitution suffices. We want our Resolve to be flat. We don't want it to be too high, because we still want to be hit in our warm-up mode, and we don't want it to be too low, because we don't want to be hit in our stop-n-go mode. Intellect is the least important stat, since little hangs on it -- in a solo run we don't care about how big our aura is, we don't have any other interesting AoE abilities, and the only class ability with a duration we care about is Lay on Hands -- and that's partially a good thing, since it gives us more fine-grained control of how much health we have, making it easier to say in the Bloodied zone. For reference, in my run my starting stats were M16, C13, D20, P21, I10, R10. In hindsight this was a mistake -- M21, C13, D20, P21, I5, R10 would have been better. Skills: For the early game, this can be whatever makes things easiest -- I'd recommend starting with a point or two in Explosive and Arcana to provides some AoE options on the first island, and then some points in Stealth and Mechanics. After that you can retrain to take whatever you like. In my run I invested heavily in Explosives, but after level 10 I never bothered using them -- it was easier to just kill things the old fashioned way. Class Abilities: (Highly recommended abilities underlined.) Escape and Lay on Hands (You won't use Lay on Hands in 95% of your fights. But it's nice to have for the toughest fights.) Deep Faith Retribution Zealous Aura and Weapon and Shield Dirty Fighting Any (Crippling Strike, Flames of Devotion, Divine Purpose and Inspired Defenses are all reasonable choices.) Sworn Rival and Riposte Any (Snake's Reflexes, Bull's Will, Bear's Fortitude, and any leftover options from above are all reasonable choices.) Any (Ditto) Exalted Endurance and Persistent Distraction (Exalted Endurance is a little funny -- in a lot of fights you'll never even use it. But it's great in tougher fights, since you can turn it on and off as needed to keep you comfortably in the Bloodied zone.) Any (Any of the leftovers from above or Adept Evasion are decent choices) Any (Ditto) Any (Any of the leftovers from above or Uncanny Luck are decent choices) and Deep Wounds Any Any Improved Critical + Slippery Mind Any Any Stoic Steel and Deathblows Any Gear: (Highly recommended gear is underlined.) Armor: Bloody Links (early), Reckless Brigadine (later). You'll also want a set of legendary plate armor for fights against enemies with strong piercing or corrode attacks. Shield: Bronlar's Phalanx Weapons: ​(Initial Mode): Any nice 2-hander or pair of weapons will do nicely.A couple nice 2-handed choices: Lance of Midwood Stag (you can start wailing away, and when you get Blooded Woodskin kicks in and you can shift to Stop-N-Go mode, keeping the Woodskin armor boost for a while); Voidwheel (the self-damaging aspect of this sword is actually a perk, since it helps you become Bloodied more quickly); Wahai Poraga (you're often swarmed with enemies, so hitting several of them at a time is nice). If you go with two weapons, I'd recommend Rust's Poignard (with persistent distraction, enemies are usually flanked and you'll get the flanking bonuses) and Stalker's Patience (ditto). (Stop-N-Go mode): Kapana Taga (The Lone Champion enchantment gives you a stacking +4 deflection and +1 armor bonus whenever there are no nearby allies (i.e., always); and the Champion's Relic enchantment increases damage with # of people engaged and increases engagement limit, which is great when you're used to being swarmed.) You'll also want to have the Animancer's Energy Blade as a back-up weapon against high AR targets (which is about half of the fights in the BoW DLC). Neck: Protective Eothasian Charm (early): +1 to most important stat (perception) and hefty damage reduction and healing when Near Death? Perfect fit for this build. It's a decent choice for the entire game, or you can replace it with something like Bone Setter's Torc (+ crit chance and + healing for emergencies are both nice) or Claim and Refusal. Belt: The Undying Burden Rings: The Ring of Mule's Wit is fantastic with this build -- it drops our Int to 1, but we won't notice, and it gives us resistance to all Mind Afflictions(!). The Entonia Signet Ring and Ring of the Solitary Wanderer are also nice options. Hands: Firethrower's Gloves, Gatecrashers, Woedica's Strangling Grasp are all decent. Cloak: The Cloak of the Falling Star is great for solo play, and thus great for this build. (Violet Redemption would be perfect for this build, fitting nicely with the stand-still effects theme. Sadly, we can't get it until the very end of the game. ) Head: The Cap of the Laughingstock looks silly, but it's amazing for solo martial builds, effectively increasing our accuracy by +10. And since this build wants to get as many criticals as possible, to take advantage of the Streetfighter bonuses, it's especially good for this build. (It does make our enemies immune to resolve afflictions, but we don't care about that.) Feet: The Rakhan Field Boots are a nice choice, as they effectively give you an additional 1/encounter teleportation option, which also inflicts a full attack on anyone in the way. The Boots of the Stone and Footprints of Ahu Taka are also decent. Pet: Jules (+perception, and bonus to healing is nice for the toughest fights) and Nalvi (+resolve and reduced recovery) are nice options after you get to Neketaka. Avoid pets that give you healing after killing things, though, since you don't want them to force you out of the Bloodied zone! PROs of this build: It's great against single tanky enemies, since it can last forever and wear them down. Once you get the key equipment and your level 10 class abilities, the build really starts to take off, so we have a fun build to play for most of the game. It's really, really tough -- once everything comes together, we can beat every fight on upscaled PotD without having to pull mobs or use consumables. CONs of this build: Certain kinds of enemies can be a pain (e.g., spellcasters); in these cases we'll want to use Escape to teleport next to the most threatening opponents and take them down quickly. Since you lack AoE attacks, swarms can take a while to get through. You can compensate by investing in Explosives or Arcana, but I usually just hacked my way through them. You won't get everything online until fairly late (level 19). But most pieces of the build will be in place (and the build is fun to play) long before then.

A howling immortal one-man-army that smashes everything in its path with high Hit-to-Crit conversion. "Sir! The third cohort has been repeled, they suffered heavy casualties! Should we send the cavalry?" "Send the cavalry, the fourth, the fifth, the bloody reserves too! The enemy has us clearly outnumbered!" "...Sir, it's just one man." "what." "With a Morningstar, Sir." https://imgur.com/a/bi7qvIL Until now, Barbarian has been a luckluster class to me, lacking the other martial classes high accuracy, and with not enough sustain to fulfill its role like it did in PoE1. Not to mention lack of any obvious CC. However, the Morningstar modal completely changed my mind: in combination with Brute Force and Might afflictions, one can effectively increase their Accuracy by +35, by lowering the enemies Fortitude of that much. Note that the modal, while having a -25% damage penalty, can be turned off after scoring the first hit, as it persists for ~12s, and then on again. Morningstars are underrepresented - the only two unique ones are Saru-Sichr and The Willbreaker. While the fomer is quite unimpressive, The Willbreaker has the following perks: - 10% attack speed - 10% Hit to Crit - High raw damage over time on Resolve affliction ridden enemies (in this build, we will reach about 90 raw damage over 20s, by just hitting things. RIP deep wounds) - 10% Chance to Shaken on Hit Combine the former with the 30% Hit-to-Crit from Berserker, and another 25% from Intuitive, and we get to a nice ~53% Hit-to-Crit. And that's why we turn at the Devoted subclass, which adds more penetration on top of Tenacious, and additional Crit damage, all the same without losing in versatility, as Morningstars have good damage combination (Pierce/Crush). The issue of self inflicted damage during Frenzy is addressed through spamming of Unbending Shield, Ring of Greater Regeneration, and last but not least, Devil's Due upgrade from The Devil of Caroc's Breastplate (incidentally coming with the Intellect Affliction Resistance we need), which provides healing on scoring Crits. Top this with a Voidward (-25% Raw damage, necessary because at high level and Might Frenzy ends up dealing about 30raw/3s), and you obtain a self-sustaining unstoppable killer. I've tested this character in successfully clearing the Drowned Barrows, Nemnok included. I strongly believe this build is suitable for solo'ing PotD, even though it will suffer A LOT before getting its core ability, i.e. Brute Force, i.e. lvl 16. But again, in this game one can reach that level without much fighting. Here's the build. Race Class Culture and Background Attributes Skills Abilities Equipment

Short: POTD, direct route to Gorecci street after clearing the beach. No spending gold (except crafting), no free bonuses, no cheese. BIG HEAD MODE MANDATORY! Complex rules: - POTD , upscaling only - NO BLESSINGS! NO DLC items / Collectors Edition / Console command pets (only the astral pig is okay for roleplaying reasons!). - benevolent backstory! but DO NOT USE HYLEAS BOUNTY! - pick up Eder and Xoti whenever you like! - (allowed to) full clear everything on the beach! (including the cave) - Stay on the route to port maje, you are only allowed to take what you can see from the road (ale and fresh fruit) - NO TALKING to anyone that isnt on the beach OR directly related to the gorecci quest (i.e. the woman in the prison who gives you the quest). - You are allowed to LOOT everything u can in the main area of port maje (i didnt go into the tavern or into the mayors house) but DO NOT TALK TO ANYONE THAT ISNT REQUIRED (for the things mentioned above)! - This means NO recruiting, NO buying items! ONLY LOOT (+crafting!)! - You HAVE to hard engage the entire group at the well! (NO pulling half of them! NO kiting around walls!) You may stealth into position / move (since they dont aggro right away) Screen of the difficulty: https://ibb.co/krBAwo ^This puts you at level 2 with some drugs,pots and food. FINISHED WITH: Moon Godlike Kind Wayfarers Paladin+Drug Monk multiclass (named Gorecci), Xoti monk/priest , Eder fighter https://ibb.co/dH312T Finished Fight: https://ibb.co/dDsYGo So the setup i used was around the wizard who just HAS to die instantly, in fact i HAD to hit the first knockdown as well since his 1 cast is jolting touch which just fks you up. Setup: https://ibb.co/mES0wo On my first try i got an insane roll as well https://ibb.co/eeNuNT hitting for 49 damage but still ended up dying because the fighters ended up blocking the way down and that ONE bloody archer just deleted me... Eder got instagibbed on my 2nd try but thanks to his op armor passive i got to push thru AND Got past the fighters while taking only a few disengage attacks and the archer https://ibb.co/hSJqwo Still almost fked up my main character in 2 hits https://ibb.co/htjkU8 But after the archer was dead and my party was still pretty alive it was just easy cleanup as seen on top. https://ibb.co/dDsYGo Items used: Ripple sponge (crafted) was the mvp imo. +15%dmg -5% speed drug on eder, the interrupt drug on xoti though i didnt see any interrupts and would probably have prefered svef. A bunch of pots (like 3 in a row on xoti while she was solo tanking the 2 fighters while my other 2 chars were dealing with the last archer). and then some Stun bombs (20% chance to hit on 4 ppl gave me like 1 graze/hit each of the 2 times i used them. Probably not using those again... Food: Grog on MC and fresh fruit on xoti and eder TAKE THE CHALLENGE AND SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE/BUILD GIT GUD

POTD difficulty, trial of iron, solo playtrough. This guy started to talk to me as i stepped in the range of his totems in stealth. Didn't notice them before Conselhaut caught me in his best trap ever, made of a deadly totem and a lack of pause during the dialogues. During the dialogue, my character seems to have died from the totem effect, continiously doing whatever it does. After dialogue ended, i have a map full of fog of war, no characters and no game over message. I can save and load this state of the game, and I have a dead save file. I don't think that supposed to happen. To repeat the bug you just need to go to this encounter, get in range of totems while in stealth and talk to Concelhaut. Your character will die while in dialogue and you will get the result. Here is my save file - https://www.dropbox.com/s/9e3nglttwokxvun/Zerral%20%28c70d0256-241e-444b-9489-9879381787d6%29%20trialofiron.savegame?dl=0

A frigid soul in a cold barren land. She wanders around aimlessly, unknowingly guided by the Cosmo. Always alone but determined, she gazes towards the coal-black unflinching sky, her treasured flute by her side. At a distance spanning mountains wide, there is fire and warmth. A caravan can be seen, perched upon the snow capped mountains, the smell of barley and ale, the jovial atmosphere and the loud chattering of kith resting after a long day's travel. Unmistakably, the group of kith starts hearing a faint but sonorous melody. Not a second too long, a thunderous parade of jagged streaks can be seen painting blue the once austere sky. They jolt gently like falling Sakura leaves, chaotic but peaceful. The once loud chattering of the kith folk stops abruptly as if time itself has stopped. Even the previously biting gale lays still, replaced by the thunderous echoes of a forgotten past yearning for a distant future. As abrupt as it came, the spectacle ceases to exist. The void replaced by stars, slowly forming in the sky. And just like that, this band of weary travelers have bared witness to a famous bard's tale only thought to have been a legend. 1. Watch these Gameplay Videos first before you read on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSX6l2QgP2o 2. Required Mods Mod: Level Scaling Mod Why? We want the game to be harder so it will be more satisfying to beat. We want to DL the file called, "Level Scaling Mod" under the old files section. This is because the new mod file got tuned down as a response to the 1.1 patch which increased the game difficulty. We want the original file. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/24?tab=files Mod: Afflictions and Inspirations Mod Why? This is just an optional mod but it really improves the UI of the game. It's much cleaner to look at and much more informative than the standard base UI the game comes with. https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/32 3. Character Creation Race: Pale Elf Why? I just like the way they look. Also, *whispers* Class Selection: Devoted Fighter + Nalpazca Monk Why Devoted? This build has a 46% chance to crit so having that +25% crit damage would prove useful. That's not even the best part. Why we pick Devoted is because of the +2 penetration we get. Since we will be playing on POTD and since we will be using a Blunderbuss (low base pen), we will need as much armor pen as we can get. Why Nalpazca? It's miles ahead in comparison to any other monk subclass. This is because Helwalker makes us too squishy, Shattered is a no go because we need max wounds to take advantage of Turning Wheel and No Subclass gives us no benefit. Nalpazca on the other hand offers us a substantial benefit (+10 pl to drugs) with an easily fixed penalty (we need to take drugs). Also, Drugs are ridiculously good! Attributes: Without/With Berath's Blessing Mig 8 -> 10 Con 8 -> 10 Dex 18 -> 20 Per 18 -> 20 Int 18 -> 20 Res 8 -> 10 Why we only need few of might, constitution or resolve? Our weapon (Blunderbuss) has a low base damage so +% damage from might is not that attractive, the +% healing we get is ok but we have enough ways to keep ourselves healthy. We will have enough defense rating (deflection, fortitude, reflex, will) to offset our non-investment in constitution. Resolve gives us an ok amount of deflection. We also have sufficient tools to lower hostile effect duration through Ring of Solitary Wanderer (-35% hostile effect duration) and Clarity of Agony (-5 sec Duration of hostile effects, -50% Hostile effect duration for 20.0 sec). Why we need a lot of dexterity, perception and intellect? We need dex to attack fast so we can keep procing Avenging Storm which is the reason for this build. Perception is the king of stats, especially in POTD. We want to hit enemies. As a side benefit, both dexterity and perception increases our reflex defense. With sky-high reflex, plenty of the heavy hitting enemy ranged aoe damage will miss us leaving enemies to rely on their puny basic attacks to do damage on us. Enemy spells shouldn't be an issue either as we have enough will to resist it. The reason why we max intellect is for the increased duration in our abilities, scrolls, and drugs. This is more valuable than it sounds! Culture: The White that Wends Mystic Why? Mainly for the Lore. Also, Mystic gives us +1 to Arcana (the active skill we are going to max). Weapon Proficiency: Blunderbuss Why? We will be using Kitchen Stove which is a Blunderbuss. Active Skill: Max Arcana Why? Arcana along with Alchemy are straight-up bonkers as of patch 1.1. +1 Arcana is equivalent to +1 to power level of scrolls. We will be taking advantage of all the scrolls we can find/craft to unleash hell towards our enemies. Avenging Storm is our bread and butter. Passive Skill: Max History Why? We will be using the The Giftbearer's Cloth (+5 all defenses except deflection, increases with the History skill). 4. Equipment and Consumables Equipment: Helmet- Pearlescent Helm or Death's Maw (you can use whatever for this) Necklace - Bonesetter's Torc (for the +5% crit, +10% healing done and injury removal) Armor - Devil of Caroc Breastplate (still the best armor in-game despite the nerf imho) Ring Slot 1 - Ring of Solitary Wanderer (for the -35% harmful duration) Boots - Footprints of Ahu Taka (for the +2 dex and +10% healing done) Cape - The Giftbearer's Cloth (still gives a lot of defenses despite the nerf, +15 at 20 History) Gloves - Firethrower's Gloves (has everything we need for this build, +2 dex and +1 Arcana) Ring Slot 2 - Entonia Signet Ring (you can use whatever for this) Belt - Upright Captain's Belt (for the immunity to push/pull effects) Pet - Abraham (reduces recovery speed by a lot, best pet in-game imho) Weapon: Kitchen Stove - We want to use a Blunderbuss for its multi-shot passive. Kitchen Stove just happens to be the best Blunderbuss. Note# We want the modal on as it does crazy AOE damage. Its negative effect is offset by Intuitive from Disciplined Strikes. Note# The optimal enchantments are Frantic Reload and Wild Barrage. Food: Hot Razor Skewers is really good as it gives us +2 might, +2 pen and +1 to power level. Any other food should be fine as well. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# Captain's Banquet +20% dmg with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Note# Crusted Swordfish +2 pen with spells doesn't work with Avenging Storm for some reason. Drugs: Deadeye is excellent for this build as it gives us accuracy as well as the % interrupt that gets pretty crazy due to multi-shot (Blunderbuss passive). Note# Coral Snuff is not good because its action speed bonus overrides the action speed bonus of our abilities. They don't stack together. Note# For hard encounters, use Deadeye. For general encounters, use any other drugs or even no drugs at all. Scrolls: Scroll of Avenging Storm - Our bread and butter. This is the reason why this build exists. Nuff Said. Scroll of Circle of Protection - Increases our defenses by 15 until combat ends. This is pretty crazy huh? Scroll of Moonwell - Increases our defenses by 10 and gives us a huge amount of constant healing (26.2hp per 3 seconds) for a long duration (40.5s). Scroll of Withdraw - We will only use this as a last resort. It makes us untargetable while healing us but we are stunned for the duration. Note# I only use these set of scrolls for hard encounters. For general encounters, use any other scrolls or even no scrolls at all. Note# No matter how much fun it is to always use Avenging Storm, I only use it when I actually need it. Use it sparingly as it's hard to craft. Note# I'm not using Scroll of Meteor Shower and Scroll of Great Maelstrom because they just one shot everything with maxed out Arcana. 5. Abilities Abilities by level guide: 2. Lesser Wounds 3. Fast Runner 4. Fighter Stances + 1H Style (+20% critical chance is crazy good) 5. Determination (amazing tanking passive) 6. Confident Aim 7. Disciplined Strikes + Lightning Strikes (core abilities of this build) 8. Rapid Recovery 9. Clarity of Agony (really good against strong damage over time) 10. Vigorous Defense + Thunderous Blows (+2 pen applies to Avenging Storm) 11. Duality of Mortal Presence 12. Crucible of Suffering (amazing tanking passive) 13. Conqueror Stance (+10 to accuracy/deflection is nuts) + Enlightened Agony (we love intellect) 14. Armored Grace 15. Enervating Blows (super useful against enemies that heal) 16. Refreshing Defense + Turning Wheel (we love intellect) 17. Body Control (resistance to might affliction) 18. Unstoppable (resistance to dex affliction) 19. Snake's Reflex + Bear's Fortitude (more defenses) 20. Uncanny Luck AI Behavior Script:

Glanfathan Soul Hunter Game Version - 1.2 Difficulty - PoTD up-scaled / Solo / Deadly Deadfire Race: Wooden Elf Class - (Ranger) Ghost Heart / (Cipher) Ascendant Alignment - Neutral (The strongest survives) Culture: Aedyr God - Galawain Companion - Bear Increase difficulty mod: Deadly Deadfire Hardcore (https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/43) Videos: Showcases L20 - Equipment (On this video I didnt have Bracers of Greater Deflection) L20 - Abilities, Attributes (On this video, I used my old setup, check new version in abilities section) L20 - Queen L20 - Ukaizo L19 - Fampyr L15 - Adra lighthouse L13 - Ondra Temple Attributes Might - 10 Constitution - 10 Dexterity - 19 Perception - 10 Intellect - 18 Resolve - 11 Skills Alchemy 19 History 19 Abilities Whispers of Treason (CL1) + Marked Prey (HL1) Resilient Companion (HL2) Penetrating Visions (CL3) Draining Whip (CL4) + Gunnery (HL4) Marksman (HL5) Weapon and Shield Style (CL6) Ectopsychic Echo (CL7) + Evasive Roll (HL7) Protective Companion (HL8) Hammering Thoughts (CL9) Body Attunement (CL10) + Stalker's Link (HL10) Recall Agony (CL11) Bear's Fortitude (HL12) Ring Leader (CL13) + Driving Flight (HL13) Borrowed Instinct (CL14) Tactical Meld (CL15) Disintegration (CL16) + Survival of the Fittest (HL16) The Empty Soul (CL17) Defensive Bond (HL18) The Complete Self (CL19) + Superior Camouflage (HL19) Snake's Reflexes (HL20) Equipement Pet: Abracham (https://pillarsofete...dia.com/Abraham Weapon 1: Bronlar's Phalanx (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy) + Scordeo's Trophy (https://pillarsofete...cordeo's_Trophy Weapon 2: Hand Mortal(https://pillarsofete...com/Hand_Mortar) + Cadhu Scalth (https://pillarsofete...om/Cadhu_Scalth) Weapon 3: Dragon's Dowry (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Armor: Patinated Plate (https://pillarsofete...Patinated_Plate) Head: Heaven's Cacophony (https://pillarsofete...ven's_Cacophony) Belt: Girdle of Eoten Constitution (https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Girdle_of_Eoten_Constitution_(Deadfire)) Ring: Ring of the Marksman (https://pillarsofete...of_the_Marksman) + Small Ring of Protection Footprints: Boots of the Stone (https://pillarsofete...ts_of_the_Stone) Gloves:Bracers of Greater Deflection (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (https://pillarsofete...eadfire_bracers) Belt: Captain Belt (https://pillarsofete..._Captain's_Belt) Amulet: Strand of Favor(https://pillarsofete...Strand_of_Favor) Modals: * Large Shield * Pistol * Blunderbuss Food: Captain Banquette Gameplay: Charm enemies Put Ectopsychic Echo on Companion Generate Focus and RS with Scordeo If enemies surround switch on Hand Mortal and use Heaven's Cacophony active skills When you Ascended put Disintegration on each enemy around you Tips: Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Rogue distraction and stop enemies sneak attack Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Fear, Terrified Food: Captain Banquette prevent you from Domination Alchemy: Potion of Piercing Strikes with Body Attunement helps penetrate Golems and Ukaizo armor Alchemy: Potion of Ascension increase Disintegration damage

So after 1.1 and, as Josh said, a great scythe swiped over items & abilities and "reworked" encounters (I think most people would only ever remember the boars, panthers and dragons living happily together) I began another playthrough with 1+3 custom characters, not very optimized and mostly some fun builds, PoTD+all level scaling, only up. The beginning was promising and game began reminding me of Tyranny on highest difficulty - people who played it probably know that final fight in prologue there was supah difficult, although then it just fell down. So I began using actual healing spells, switch weapons to fit enemy armor. I explored just 25% of the world map, and due to even more xp gains from monsters, and overall enormous amount of xp you gain for quests and such, hit level 15 (!) and almost abandonded the playthrough again. I only kept going to check on possibly reworked encounters, but so far only few were tweaked (the prologue, engwithan titan and it's dungeon was, for sure, gullet dungeon a bit, some random redskulls were placed - a few); most encounters, secondary & faction locations, bounties, mini-dungeons were not touched and are just as easy as they were. So here's the thing. Player abilities got cut in half, all items got Sid Meier'd "cut everything 50% and see what happens", yet the game is still too easy. Well, a few points. By cutting on player abilities, you also affect enemies. For example, enemy fighters are not an unkillable fortresses anymore due to Unbending nerfed. Rogues are still the only ones which can 2-shot your characters, while others don't seem as strong. The items and stacking, sure, may have affected some powah builds, but ideally you should actually balance endgame for player having some high tier items, not just turning them all to worthless junk. But here's the thing. No matter how much you plug the holes, the ship continues leaking. Why? Because PoE leveling system is simply not balanced for an open world game. Cause, a) You gain XP too fast. and b) Levels are everything, and accuracy is everything. Most of your potential, comes from levels, just like in PoE1. Where after first big city, game became super easy. Baldur's Gate countered this somewhat with the flat AD&D leveling system, where after particular level, gains did not matter as much ("you leveled up. you gain +1 to saving throws and +1 hit point"). Also some classes were hard to level up (Druids and their 13 to 14 leveling). And I think PoE2 should have done this during development too, compared to basically linear PoE1. So, why not do something like this now? Without MODS WILL FIX IT agenda, I think 2 things should happen (at least maybe on Veteran/PoTD): 1) Without touching much on XP rewards, it's probably possible to make higher levels require more xp. Most players I've read feel that levels 1-8 are fine, since you need to get them quickly to feel like you well played 1st game. The difficulty during these levels is also pretty good. So I'd keep these levels as they are. Then there is a particular something about going from level 9 to 12 or so. I felt it and many others said that "after level 12" (which is when player vacuum cleans Neketaka) people become overpowered. So maybe this should get 25-30% or so increased xp requirement. Finally, going from level 12 to 20 should give diminishing returns. So the further you are, the more xp you need to gain these levels. 2) At some level, character system should create sort of "plateau" (like levels 8-12 in IE games), and your accuracy and defences, as well as hit points gains, should diminish. Naturally it's same for the enemies. That way, most of Deadfire populaton, which primarely consists of low level critters and various pirate goons won't explode the moment you click on them. Or, you know, maybe scale everything +10/-10. But many believe that level scaling is cancer etc. Naturally, there should also be more high level content. There are nearly not enough strong creatures and crazy encounters in the game, which we haven't seen in PoE1, and many were just copypasted from it or White March. I played up to level 18 after all the super patching, and it's same story as ever - at some point, enemies simply cease to be any threat, and begin exploding from your dudes armed with better weapons, or simply die to a single empowered spell... all while you barely touched second half of the game. Oops.

Hey there! Long time lurker, first time poster. With the release of 1.1 I've been meaning to start my PotD playthrough, and I've been looking for a way to make use of a Berath priest, preferably paired with a martial class. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi all, I finished the game in normal difficulty pretty easily and wanted to retry on PotD. I've spent hours looking over these forums, Reddit, steam guides and other places Google has directed me in an effort to figure out how to progress through Path of the Damned. I've just started my third new playthrough attempt. The first attempt, I made a monk designed to be an off-tank and collected Eder, Durance, Aloth and Kana. I got the party level 4. I struggled but eventually killed the bandits in Black Meadow with a LOT of restarting from saves. I couldn't get that group to Defiance Bay, couldn't complete the Temple in Gilded Vale, and generally died a lot. The second attempt, I created a chanter to be a summoner/dps/middle of the party dude. I struggled in all the same places had even more trouble with the bandits and had to lead them into a group of trolls to thin the group before I could kill them. I got this group to the second level of the Temple in Gilded Vale but couldn't get further. Lots and lots of saving and retrying. The third attempt, my current one, I started a DPS cipher using this build and hired five custom companions and used all characters here except the wizard. I'm not far in yet, but I'm still dying and struggling a lot. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Hoping some of you have some advice.