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The Iron Hammer This dwarf calls upon his ancestors' spirits to aid him in battle. They surround their progeny while he fights, blurring his outline and confusing, or terrifying, his enemies. He fights defensively and outlasts his enemies by locking them down in engagement and picking his moment for devastating retaliatory attacks. He can engage what seems like a whole screen of enemies (and gets better the more he engages) and provides persistent distraction to the whole group, making them all flanked and open for deathblows (including his own ripostes). If you pair the Iron Hammer with any AoE Rogue, that opening salvo (if you wait for engagement) will be all deathblows. *Update notes: I tweaked quite a few abilities and changed the gear to reflect. I also tested a min/max version of the build (stats and gear changes, abilities stayed the same) and it worked amazing on just about all the fights I put it in. I also did some testing solo and it was just too annoyingly slow for me to continue, but he was able to defeat all of the encounters I tried (with cheese tactics like summons and invisibility resets). NOTE: I have now used this build for Eder and it worked amazingly. Game Version: 3.1.1 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: Untested Race: Dwarf, Mountain Class: Swashbuckler (Unbroken/Trickster) Home: White that Wends Background: Explorer Theme. Starting Stats (w/Berath’s Blessing): Mig: 10 Con: 8 (10) Dex: 8 (10) Per: 19 Int: 10 (11) Res: 18 Min/Max. Starting Stats (includes BB): Mig: 15 Con: 8 Dex: 2 Per: 19 Int: 16 Res: 18 Skills: Theme: Active: Split Athletics/Alchemy; Passive: Cap History Min/Max: Cap Athletics; Cap Metaphysics Abilities (In suggested order of selection): Disciplined Barrage Escape Fast runner Knockdown Fighter stance Weapon & shield Confident aim Determination Tactical Barrage Riposte Hold the line Bear’s fortitude Vigorous defense Persistent Distraction Unstoppable Fearless Superior deflection Deep wounds *Guardian stance (if in a party) / Unbending (if solo) Armored Grace Weapon specialization Adept evasion *Overbearing Guard (if in party) / Bull’s will (if solo) *Unbending (if in party) / Snake’s reflexes -or- Conqueror Stance (if solo) Unbending trunk Deathblows *Weapon mastery -or- Unbreakable (for a last ditch save) Weapon slots: Theme. Last Word (Threatening) & Akola’s Apex Ward (Shark teeth counter & Hide & Tooth) Min/Max: Kapa Taga (All Comers & Champion’s relic) & Cadhu Scalth (Luminous Harmony) Gear: Blackened Plate Helm Token of faith Blackened Plate Armor (Usher’s beckoning & Death in Life) Ring of Minor deflection Ring of greater regen Rakhan Field Boots Upright Captain’s belt Bracers of greater deflection Theme: The Gift Bearer’s cloth Min/Max: Cloak of Greater Deflection -or- Champion's Cape *Your choice of trinket (I normally have detonator shard on this guy as an emergency heal on back line, but Eye of Rymrgand is great defensive one) Nalvi (dog):+1 resolve and Reduces armor penalty for whole party *Put DPS pet, on Eder if you have that BB Consumables: Potion of Spirit Shield Potion of Moderate Healing Mohora wraps Coral snuff if you want to use drugs

Hello, so lately I know I've been asking around alot about various builds, trying to find the another build that is just as fun as the two builds I have only beaten the game with (Steel garrote/ Bloodmage) and (Forbidden Fist/Ascendant), So I tried other half caster multiclasses but they didn't Have the same fun feel as the previous 2, but one thing I keep coming back to for the caster half is Druid as I really like the spell list you get with it , with all the Storm, Plant, and Beast spells. But sadly they have a finite pool of spell slots/number of times you can use your spells, which gave me the idea of combining it with tactician which has the brilliant ability to regenerating class resources, which would allow me to cast spells like the more infinite resource having classes, But I'm having trouble picking a druid subclass for this warden build and also having trouble on how I would proc brilliant using said druid class(Fury,Ancient or maybe Shifter), I would really appreciate the help and advice thx.

I am relatively confident in Pallegina's build, and there are many guides as to which spells are good for priest/wizard/druid/chanter/cipher. But Edér... man, I have no idea how to set him up effectively (without either changing his class or his stats). I originally thought just to copy one of the Lady of Pain builds, but they don't seem to work that well for some reason. I would think that a build around Defender would work well with a not-so-tanky party. Taking Defender, Rapid Recovery, Confident Aim, and... that is where I stop having any ideas... Currently, I switch around his weapon setup like they are socks. twohanded, dualwield, SnS-style. The latter seems a bit obsolete, as I already have both Kana and Pallegina with SnS, and of course my whole backline as a backup weapon set. Also for disengagement attacks, I think 2handed stuff would work best?

This was my MC for my first playthrough. I played on Veteran Upscaled with a party. I completed every quest that could be done honorably including all DLCs. I didn't side with any faction and I skipped the megabosses. The rest of the party: Caltris: A custom Illusionist/Rogue. Xoti: SC Priest of Gaun Eder: SC Warrior Aloth: SC Wizard Prelude: Before Fhorn, there was Will – an estoc-wielding warrior of great resolve. Will's godlike nature made him bear down in times of danger. Will was rocksteady and people all over the Dyrwood grew to rely on him. As a lord, he was just, honorable, and honest. Will's soul was ripped from his body by Eothas and he was resurrected as Fhorn. Bio: Fhorn is a nature godlike barbarian-berserker fighter. He is primarily a damage dealer but also off-tanks. Remnants of Will remain, but as Eder puts it, "Fhorn's got more bark." Others find Fhorn's constant motion distracting. He struggles to contain the energy boiling within him. His treatment by the gods has pushed him to the knife-edge of reason and his rages terrify everyone. As he descends into a battle frenzy, Fhorn chants a litany of Awareness to ward off confusion and madness. His friends breathe a sigh of relief. =================================== Like a Truck, Berserker! =================================== Difficulty: Veteran Upscaled with a Party -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Brute (Berserker + Fighter) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Nature Godlike -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Deadfire Archipelago – Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (No Berath's Blessings): MIG: 15 CON: 12 DEX: 15 PER: 12 INT: 12 RES: 12 -------------------------------------------------------------- Important Skills: Athletics -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (a=auto, ®=recommended, !=important) PL1 Barbarian Carnage (a) Berserker (a) Frenzy (!) Blooded ® Arms Bearer ® Fighter Constant Recovery (a) Disciplined Barrage (!) PL2 Barbarian Barbaric Blow (!) Thick Skinned ® Fighter Fighter Stances (!) Two Handed Style (!) Determination ® Confident Aim ® PL3 Barbarian Wild Sprint (!) One Stands Alone ® Bloody Slaughter ® Fighter Tactical Barrage (!) Penetrating Strike (!) PL4 Barbarian Spirit Frenzy (!) Fighter Weapon Specialization ® PL5 Barbarian Barbaric Smash (!) Tough ® Interrupting Blows ® Fighter Mob Stance (!) Armored Grace (!) Unbending ® PL6 Barbarian Lion's Sprint ® Brute Force ® Fighter Clear Out (!) PL7 Barbarian Spirit Tornado (!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon 1: Lord Darryn's Voulge - This weapon is a blast. Not amazing for single target but great for groups. Equip Boltcatchers and apply Storm Toxin for maximum shock value. Weapon 2: The Willbreaker (Make them Flinch, Unavoidable Demise) - A devastating weapon with nasty afflictions and upgrades to ensure they land. Weapon 3: Mechanical Marvel - Fhorn doesn’t do ranged much, but when he does, he prefers an Arbalest with a knockdown. Chest: Patinated Plate (Constant Rebound, Burnished Joints) Helmet: None Amulet: Strand of Favor - For the 10%. Trinket: I rest sparingly, so trinkets get switched out frequently. Cloak: Champion's Cape Gloves: Gatecrashers Ring: Etonia Signet Ring Ring: Ring of the Solitary Wanderer Belt: Ngati's Girdle Boots: Boots of Stone Pet: Epsilon – Less recovery time due to armor for Fhorn, increased stride for party ----------------------------------------------------------------- Offense: Fhorn opens with Tactical Barrage, Lion's Sprint, and Spirit Tornado (Disciplined Barrage, Wild Sprint, and Frenzy at low levels). Barrage cancels out Frenzy's confusion making Fhorn's friends happy. Fhorn is a melee off-tank who wades into the thickest part of the battle, placing as many enemies as possible in range of his carnage AoE and debuffs. With sprint, he's lightning quick, and can land a devastating attack anywhere on the battlefield. An ideal position is on a blob of enemies locked down by Eder. He makes a great hammer to Eder's anvil. He's not worried about stealing aggro, the more enemies focused on him, the faster he gets. Fhorn is most efficient when 3+ enemies are in front of him, but his mobility and interrupting attacks make him a deadly mage hunter too. Fhorn is mundane without an inspiration buff, but any of them will trigger his +1 power-level bonus. Barrage, Frenzy, and Sprint are all cheap inspirations, but Sprint's short duration makes it situational. In many fights, Fhorn can have three active inspirations and rotate between Penetrating Strikes and Barbaric Smashes. Clear Out is an expensive Full Attack knockback on everyone in range, which can be devastating and is also great for repositioning. For long fights, Fhorn conserves most of his resources for inspirations. Defense: Fhorn's best defense is a good offense, but Spirit Tornado terrifies surrounding enemies and Patinated Plate gives a 30% chance to stun attackers when they hit. In a crowd, there's usually a 1 or 2 unable to attack. Fhorn started out in light and medium armor, but it wasn’t enough. So he donned heavy armor and took armored grace. For half the game, he wore Reckless Brigandine. Eventually, he settled on Patinated Plate and was happy ever after. Unbending prolongs the inevitable, but its Xoti that keeps him running. Fhorn takes lots of damage and he's incentivized to make more enemies attack him. In a ~90-hour playthrough with permanent companions, he leads in total damage done (37%), damage taken (48%), and times knocked out (49). Afflictions: Spirit Frenzy staggers on attack (-5 Might, no engagement for 10s). The Morningstar proficiency subtracts -25 Fortitude on hit (Brute Force allows Fhorn’s attacks to target Fortitude or Deflection). Affinity for Being Surrounded: With Mob Stance, Fhorn gets -5% Recovery per threatened target and a killing blow triggers a free Full Attack on one enemy within range. One Stands Alone grants +20% melee damage when near two or more enemies. Ring of the Solitary Wanderer give -35% hostile effect duration when no allies are nearby. Hit and Crit: Lion’s Sprint add +15 Accuracy to the next attack. Will Breaker converts 25% of Misses to Grazes. Confident Aim converts 30% of Grazes to Hits. Willbreaker converts 10% of Hits to Crits. Frenzy converts 30% of Hits to Crits. Bloody Slaughter converts 20% of Hits to Crits on targets <= 25% health and adds +50% crit damage. Disclaimers: I respec'd Fhorn once around level 12, changing him from a dual-wielder to a 2-hand user. I also switched him from the Blood Frenzy track to Spirit Frenzy. He was too fragile at that point in the game, and I thought that Spirit frenzy would give him better survivability and team synergy. Making enemies cower and staggering loads of them is great for survival. Still, I won't deny that I missed melting foes with Blood Frenzy. The reason for the switch to 2-handers was two-fold. First, due to some poor luck or itemization, I hadn't found any axes or flails worth a damn at the time. The second reason was Modwyr. Major spoiler below if you don't already know about Modwyr. Also, the extra penetration from 2-handers and the morningstar's Fortitude debuff.

=================================== Armorbreaker =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.01 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Devoted(Estoc)/Streetfighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human, Hearth Orlan (party play) or whatever, preferably not Godlike, as there are 2 good helm picks for this -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Dissident -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 14 (you'll have plenty of other additive damage bonuses; still moderately important, it modifies aoe "spell-like" effects of some weapons and healing done) CON: 10 (don't really need more, don't really want to risk less) DEX: 14 (to be reasonably fast even without Streetfighter special active) PER: 18 (to hit & crit stuff, duh) INT: 17 (to keep that sweet Unbending + Disciplined Strikes + Refreshing Defence active as long, as possible; you only have so many resources) RES: 03 (with Unbending you'll survive anyway and kill any threats fast) -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Proficiencies 01. Disciplined Barrage + Crippling Strike | Estoc! 02. Knockdown 03. Escape 04. Fighter Stances (usually use Cleaving) + Dirty Fighting 05. Two-Handed Style 06. Confident Aim 07. Disciplined Strikes + Finishing Blow 08. Rapid Recovery 09. Mule Kick (optional: Penetrating Strike which targets Deflection rather then Fortitude and provides even more Penetration) 10. Vigorous Defense + Persistent Distraction 11. Charge 12. Determination 13. Unbending + Deep Wounds 14. Devastating Blow 15. Armored Grace 16. Clear Out + Adept Evasion 17. Refreshing Defense 18. Slippery Mind (note it can disable some Streetfighter special trigger methods!) 19. Unbending Shield (optional Trunk) + Deathblows 20. Weapon Specialization (optional: Fearless or another defensive ability) or the recently buffed (but still expensive) Power Strike --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Estoc: BotEP -> Eager Blade (!) ->Engoliero de Espirs (!) Weapon Set 2: Some blunt(s) for skellies Alternative: Devoted to Battleaxes with Amra Axe. The playstyle is similar, it's an "in your face" aggressive melee that melts enemies around. It's a really good weapon. You'll face Penetration issues much more often though (2 lower Pen, no bonus Pen modal), so no longer an "Armorbreaker". Or you can go with generic Fighter and switch between estocs and axes, depending on enemy, but you'll loose Devoted 2 Pen (you'll have trouble penetrating some high armor enemies, but probably can manage with foods), 25% Crit bonus (Swashbuckler crits often) and frequent 30% Overpenetration on estoc crits. Head: Helm of the Falcon (speed) ® / later Heaven's Cacophony - for Avenging Storm 1/rest, which has good synergy with Clear Out ® Back: Giftbearer's Cloak with high History skill or Nemnok's Cloak for "On the Edge" playstyle or simply Greater Cloak of Protection Neck: Precognition or Claim and Refusal Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (class resources! + good protection and speed) ® Waist: Gwyn’s Bridal Garter, optionally Undying Burden for more survivability or Upright Captain's Belt if you like to use Pull of Eora (the more interesting picks, like Nature's Embrace and Ngati's Girdle have sadly been nerfed to the ground) Hands: Gauntlets of Discipline ®, alternatively Woedica's Strangling Grasp or Boltcatchers, Rings: Entonia's Signet Ring ® + Ring of Greater Regeneration or Chameleon's Touch Boots: Boots of Stone, alternatively Rakhan Field for another active aoe ability Pet: Abraham (speed and heal) ® It'd be good to play with a history where Devil of Caroc from PoE1 spares Harmke/dies. Her Breastplate then becomes available in Marihi's Shop in Neketaka and offers good protection, speed and additional class resources for ability spam (very valuable). --------------------------------------------------------------- The build was created as a part of my journey to design a melee build that will: 1. Deal respectable aoe damage, 2. Deal high melee damage, 3. Use two-handers (my preferred weapon type since, well, always), 4. Work well throughout the game, not just at cap, 5. Be survivable and efficient even without much party support. It's probably solo-capable, but I don't test it for this criteria. I've tested various adventurer builds, mainly with berserker, at my own criteria: level 13 against tough Xaurip encounter on the Nekataka island with party present, but acting mainly as distraction, control over that char only, almost no AI scripts. Wasn't too happy with the results. Finally a Swashbuckler - Estoc Devoted with Eager Blade / Streetfighter aced the test. Why Estoc Devoted? An Estoc in the hands of a Devoted has high Penetration (10 base, goes up to 14 at Legendary quality), you get +2 Devoted Pen bonus and with a Fighter multiclass you can freely use the modal, which gives additional +2 Pen at the cost of some Deflection. With a Fighter you can soon outheal most damage (just not at the start), so tanking Resolve and Deflection is a non-issue. You end up overpenetrating a lot of the time for +30% damage (particularly that your bread & butter rogue move - Crippling Strike, also provides +2 Pen and crits multiply Pen by x1,5). And generally there are very few enemies who you have trouble penetrating. Advanced/elite skeletons are one such group, as they are immune to piercing damage. Well, eat that 10 Accuracy penalty and switch to another weapon for them. You'll still do more then respectable damage. Also there are very cool Estocs in this game, with some of the best available very early - and Eager Blade and Engoliero de Espirs effects greatly support the aoe damage playstyle I was aiming for. -> Blade of the Endless Paths depends on imported/set history from PoE1 and can be reforged as soon as you reach the main city for cheap. BotEP is Exceptional has nice speed, Accuracy and Critical damage bonuses. Might be best for single targets. -> Eager Blade can be bought from pirates in Dunnage - which can happen even before visiting the main city, if you know your way around. And it's even better. It's Superb, provides a random bonus at start of combat (+8 Deflection, +1 Armor or +10% damage) and stacking Accuracy and Speed bonuses on Crit. More importantly it's upgrade has 10% chance to negate recovery on hit (so basically double-attack) and, last but not least, attacking Near Death targets causes an attack aoe in frontal cone (which is not very small, with good Int I've seen it affect 3rd enemy row). Together with Cleaving Stance, this can lead to a cascade of kills and obviously works well with the likes of Avenging Storm. -> Then there's the Legendary Engoliero de Espirs. Not sure it's significantly better then the earlier pair. The Accuracy and Recovery bonuses on them are pretty sweet, but the quests and lore behind Engoliero are top notch and badass factor is trough the roof. Plus after you down an enemy, you get +2/+3 Might, Con & Dex (rather then -2/-3 before first kill, so not too good vs single opponents) and the Dex part kinda partially compensates for lack of other speed bonuses. The Ghost Blade procs (modified by the various damage variables) are very sweet vs large mobs due to the fairly large cone (but will nicely soften up even moderetely tough enemies). The raw lash is also very nice and makes Engoliero pull ahead in terms of damage done. Streetfighter likes to live dangerously. He's a fair bit slower then other rogues in his idle state, but when flanked by enemies or Blooded (below 50% Health), he becomes a meatgrinder. Blazing speed and additional +50% sneak attack damage vs vulnerable targets (on top of regular 30-60% of other Rogues and potential +50% from Deathblows). When both of the above criteria are met and when his Accuracy allows him to achieve a decent crit rate, things just explode (additional +100% crit damage on top of all the earlier bonuses). Of course this means he likes to engage multiple enemies, get hit and possibly stay damaged and Fighter abilities are just the perfect fit for that. In my opinion, Streetfighter with Heating Up or On the Edge abilities active is the best class to use two-handers and not feel slow and/or inferior to dual weapons. Some playstyle for tips for early party play: Recovery (+ later Rapid upgrade) you get from the get go is a nice healing stream, but often not enough to keep you alive, particularly on the first island, particularly when surrounded by enemies. If you have a Priest (you can recruit one in the first town you reach), at Power Level III he/she learns Consecrated Ground, which will temporarily help when you stay in the effect circle. Once he/she reaches Power Level IV, can cast "Triumph of the Crusaders", which heals for a LOT when you down an enemy - that should make you much more survivable already. New Power Levels are reached much earlier by pure classes btw. - level 7 for PL IV). Otherwise if you have a Druid, he can provide plenty of healing also. You still have to be careful for some time, but can afford a more daring playstyle. At your Power Level V (so multiclass character level 13) comes the bomb: Unbending, which makes you nearly unkillable for its duration. Just watch out for enemies casting Arcane Dampeners. Your signature Rogue moves are the trusty Crippling Strike, Finishing Blow for Blooded targets (up to +200% damage, eventually upgraded to Devastating for up to +300%), Escape for battlefield mobility, Persistent Distraction to make everyone you engage Sneak attack vulnerable. Dirty Fighting for extra crit rate. Later you'll pick Deep Wounds and finally Deathblows. Adept Evasion for defence. On the Fighter side you'll use Knockdown to interrupt nasty enemy skills, later upgraded to Mule Kick. Later Charge for cool mobility multihit and finally Clear Out to make mobs your bitches. The last 2 would work very well with Heaven's Cacophony Avenging Storm. Fighter Stances -> Cleaving Stance for extra attacks on kill. Disciplined Barrage-> Strikes should be always active. On the defensive side you'll want Rapid Recovery, Vigorous Defence (+Refreshing upgrade), Determination and, most importantly, Unbending. Also Armored Grace will be nice. With Fighter's Refreshing Defense (bonus to all defenses) and Determination (bonus to Intellect, Perception and Constitution affliction defense), Rogue Adept Evasion (negate Reflex Grazes - and we have high Reflex) and Slippery Mind (immune to Perception, Intellect and Resolve afflictions when Blooded - as a Streetfighter we like to be Blooded), as well as equipment: Gwyn's Bridal Garter (Dex affliction Resistance) and Boots of Stone (Might affliction Resistance), you will be well protected against most debilitating effects. Fighter's Disciplined Strikes, Vigorous Defense and later on Unbending Shield provide Concentration to ensure that nothing can stop you from demolishing your targets. Any comments are appreciated. Edit: Updated 02.09.18 to re-arrange some abilities and add info about Engoliero de Espirs.

This is a WiP thread you'll always get the most updated version of this guide here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uAOT1_2JV0Do_9a8NhjYEdiGWh_JTiL3UcreR1qUHvY/edit?usp=sharing Harder than a Pillar: A Fighter's Handbook Warning: Be prepared for a long read. In this guide I'll try and help you build the best fighter possible for party play, and and while this guide is not made with RP in mind, i think even roleplayers will find at least some of the advice useful. I only plan to write about the tank fighter for now, however I'll add advice for DPS, hybrid and even ranged builds in time. I doubt most of my advice is useful for solo play, but if any of you guys have any luck beating the game as a solo fighter I'll gladly add your tips here if you want to. I'll also add any builds you send me to the guide. Updates 18/04/2015 - Expanded race and attribute descriptions and tweaked the sample build a bit based on feedback. Color Coding Red: Don't pick this, this is a poor option. Orange: An ok choice. Can be useful in some situations but not often enough to recommend it. Green: A good choice. Light Blue: A must have, usually the best possible option. Class Features Bonus Talent: Constant Recovery Skill Bonus: +1 to Athletics, Lore, and Survival. Endurance: 42 +14/level (High) Health: Endurance x5 (High) Deflection: 25 (Very High) Accuracy: 30 (Very High) A great starter pack you are accurate, you are hard to hit, and even if you do get hit you have a nice hp tank to absorb it. Constant recovery is just awesome for non tank builds, however, tank builds will still find it useful in the early game since their deflection and DR are not that high yet. The bonuses to skills is not bad either since you get a bonus to both Lore and Survival are useful in combat. The Tank Fighter The job the fighter was born to do, abilities like defender and his natural resiliency means he can tank like few else can, and while your damage is low, your accuracy is good enough to be able to hit your actives so you still have some degree of battlefield control. This is a character you can send into a room full of enemies alone and he'll still be standing even after minutes of fighting, enabling your party to buff themselves in the mean time. Still this is a character that is only really needed in PoTD since you really need the extra deflection this character brings to the table, people playing in other difficulty levels will get a better millage from a hybrid fighter. Races While you can pick any race and still be a relatively good tank even in PotD. Still this is an optimization guide and since some races are still better than others. Aumaua (Costal): Attribute bonus is bad, but the racial is nice for a tank since your health can drop fast while you are prone or stunned and many enemies may also decide to switch targets. Aumaua (Island): Might bonus and the ability are near useless. Better for those that like to open with a ranged weapon. Dwarf (Boreal): Might bonus is useless and damage bonuses against certain enemies are not something you need. The con bonus does not help but in the current meta no build ever maxes con. Dwarf (Mountain): Might and con bonuses don't help you do your job better. The racial actually it's too situational to actually choose him for this. Elf (Pale): Bonus to perception is useful and the ability is nice to have. I don't rate it better because of the propensity of the AI to target your squishier party members instead of you with special abilities (ie shades and their cold attack). Elf (Wood): Bonus to perception is useful but the ability being a ranged attack bonus is useless for a tank. Human: Bonus to resolve is nice, but the extra accuracy from the racial only helps if you still have actives remaining by the time you reach 50%. Orlan (Hearth): Nice attribute bonuses and while the ability at first may seem useless for a tank, a crit also give double duration for a knockdown, the way the ability is phrased it should also give the bonus even if your ally is attacking with a ranged weapon. Orlan (Wild): Best race for a tank, attributes in the right places and and awesome racial ability that helps you evade some of the worse status effects. Godlike (Death): Attribute bonuses are useless. Ability is best suited for a damage dealer and you are not a damage dealer. Godlike (Fire): Attribute bonuses are bad, but the racial is nice for a tank, nothing better than becoming more resilient when your are getting a pounding. Godlike (Nature): Attribute bonuses are useless. And while the racial ability gives you some extra con when you are damages the extra life will not help you that much. Godlike (Water): Attribute bonus are bad, but the racial is one of the best ones for a tank. Most of the times you get hit hard it's because you are suffering from a status effect like stun or para, so you cannot really defend yourself or your party members. Attributes Res > Per > Int & Con > Might & Dex Might is not needed, you have low base damage since you are using mostly fast weapons, an extra 20% damage from a good might score is a waste of points. Either dump it hard or leave it at 10 since it helps in the early game. Dexterity is not a really useful stat but sometimes you may want to get two knockdowns fast and a really low dexterity score can be detrimental in this situation. Constitution is not really important but you should not dump it unless you want a really bad fort save. You have enough endurance even for the hardest fights so you don't need to any points here unless you are dumping might. Perception is mot as important as resolve since your ref save is high thanks to a sword and shield style talent. You may wnat to lower this a bit if you don't want to dump dex. Intellect is important, i find that the extra prone duration allows the rest of my party to kill one or two mobs you are not engaging without taking a sweat. A 14 second prone on a crit is just glorious. Resolve is your most important stat, it adds deflection and will save, should be maxed. Fighter Abilities Armored Grace: A waste of a talent for a tank. Clear Out: It's one of you few limited resources, but a great opener for fights with many tough enemies since you can disable 2-4 enemies and engage the remaining ones. Confident Aim: Even if your accuracy suffers for the heavy shield you can always swap to a high accuracy set to use an active ability. Critical Defense: You are not gonna get many crits with you high deflection, Defender: The bread and butter of the build, take this ASAP. Disciplined Barrage: It's not a bad ability per se, however there is usually a better choice every time. Guardian Stance: Forces you deactivate Defender. Into the Fray: Useful to pull and debuff an enemy harassing your party without having to move. Knockdown: Your only other choice at lvl 1 is disciplined barrage, so this one is a no brainier. Useful to help your damage dealers to position to beak engagement or even to drop an enemy that decides to ignore you and hit your party. Unbending: I recall only one fight where this talent could have been useful. Unbroken: Take this if you you don't have any item that grants second chance. You are not gonna die a lot, but when you do it's nice to have some kind of backup. Vigorous Defense: Useful to avoid a nasty spell or ability that's about to hit you. Also helps turning crits to hits. Weapon Specialization: Even if you pick this you are not gonna do significant damage so you might as well skip it. Fighter Talents Constant Recovery: An extra hp every tick is not worth a talent. Bonus Knockdown: An extra knockdown is cool, however only pick it after getting more useful talents. Offensive Talents Weapon Focus: The extra accuracy is nice, for hitting with your actives. Peasant is the best choice since you get both spear and hatchet, Adventurer is good too for the flail. Extra Damage Against X Talents: You base damage is pitiful, so that extra 25% will not help much. Gunner and Marksman: Even if you use a ranged weapon every now and then i wouldn't spend a talent to improve those few attacks. Interrupting Blows: Tank weapons usually have low interrupt and even if they are fast you low dex and heavy armor make you attack slow enough to make this talent worthless. Bloody Slaughter: Your crits are a joke. Modal Abilities: They all force you to deactivate defender, so not one of them is useful. Envenomed Strike: A nice ability for anyone who ain't a tank. Defensive Talents Superior Deflection: Extra deflection is always nice. Weapon and Shield Style: +6 extra deflection just for using a shield is good enough for a talent, the bonus to reflex is just the icing on the cake. Hold the Line: You already have defender. While the extra enemy engaged could be useful, there are a couple of items that grant this talent too. Save Boosting Talents: Many are just plain useless, but Bull's Will and Mental Fortress are useful since many effects that target will actually take you out of the fight. Cautious Attack: Useless since it cannot be used while defender is active. Graceful Retreat: The only reason to reposition is because you lost the aggro of many mobs, that also means that probably not many enemies are engaging you. Utility Talents Elemental Talents: Since base damage is not good enough to benefit from the bonus, getting the talent for 5DR vs an element is not worth it imo. Shoot on the Run: Since we can't throw our shields we have no use for this talent. Fast Runner: Tanks work best when stationary. Deep Pockets: 4 slots are more than enough. Arms Bearer: The Island Aumaua racial is considered one of the weakest ones. You can pick this to make them feel even worse about it, but that's it. Quick Switch: If you learn to time your switch you'll never gonna need this talent. Wound Binding: The only reason to use this is that your health is really low, but then if you are at that point you might at well rest before getting into another fight. Field Triage: Worthless. One of the reasons to pick Kana early is so he does not get this. Items Since I'm trying to make this guide as spoilerless as possible I'll avoid mentioning specific items. Remember not to be stingy with consumables they are cheap and easy to craft. Armor: The best quality plate armor you can find. Second chance is nice. Resolve or perception bonus are nice too. Crushing or Lightning proofing help to increase the armor lower resistances. Weapon: While any Expectational or Accurate weapon will do, you may want to have both an naturally accurate weapon like a dagger, spear or rapier and a hatchet for the extra deflection, a flail is nice too. Other Slot Items: Extra saves and deflection are a must but you'll usually use your rings for that. Get bonuses to perception and resolve first, and constitution and intelligence second. Bonuses vs ugly abilities like prone stunned or charmed are useful. Food: Drakest Rauatai Cookies and Ixamitl Ricepan are you default food. Dragon Egg Dish is good for longer and tougher fights. Potions: Keep the best endurance and regen potions you find in your quickslots. Any potion that grants extra endurance, DR or deflection is useful too. Scrolls: Any defense buff is good for you. Scrolls of revival are a must for those times that you end up as the only party member not downed. Sample PotD Build: The Tiny Smart Fighter Race: Wild Orlan Class: Fighter Region: Aedyr or Ixamitl Plains (Bonus Resolve) Background: Slave (Bonus to Athletics and Survival) Might 8 Constitution 10 Dexterity 10 Perception 16 Intelligence 14 Resolve 20 Lvl Ability Talent 1 Knockdown 2 Weapon and Shield Style 3 Defender 4 Wary Defender 5 Vigorous Defense 6 Weapon Focus (Peasant) 7 Clear Out 8 Superior Deflection 9 Into the Fray 10 Bonus Knockdown 11 Disciplined Barrage 12 Mental Fortress This build will tank your party though PotD with authority since he is extremely hard to and hit boasts really nice saves. His accuracy is good too while using his spear and his actives have a nice duration thanks to the Int bonus. With defender active an exeptional heavy shield and a hatchet, you reach 140 deflection for hard fights, for easier battles you can use a light shield and a spear which gives you enough accuracy to get a crit or two if you are lucky. Depending on party composition you may be able to tweak the build (ie priest buffing deflection for tough fights).

Hi QA folks! I thought I read a bug report about this - but I couldn't find it anymore. Sorry. This is an old bug but it seems it never got fixed. So: If you play a Soulblade/Fighter and kill an enemy with Soul Annihilation you will not get an additional attack from Cleaving Stance. Imagine that: not a single one. That's somewhat disappointing. It seems that Soul Annihilation isn't considered a melee attack when it comes to Cleaving Stance - which it totally is. But I can't say for sure. Anyway: doesn't work. No savegame needed (I guess) since you can reproduce this easily with any Soulblade/Fighter. Bye!

I would like to make a full 5 man custom party where all of them have Devoted as the Fighter subclass. But I don't want to just to use one build for all five. I want to roleplay a bit with them. I already searched youtube and found some Fextralife builds but I was wondering if someone has an idea for a party that would fit well together. Cheers in advance my fellow gamers!

Description: Not sure if this is the right section for it, but two Fighter abilities / talents aren't exactly working as intended - the Guardian Stance upgrade to Fighter Stances, the Unbending skill, as well as the Unbending Trunk upgrade. Steps to Reproduce the Issue: Guardian Stance reads: "Enemies that disengage from the fighter are immediately attacked and proned, if successful." What it does: It seems to occur regardless of who disengages, and if the fighter actually performs a disengage attack. You could be running in circles and proning everyone that you engage just by moving out of engagement range. Unbending reads: "50% of Damage Taken converted into Healing for 15.0 sec." What it does: It actually converts 100% damage taken to healing, a 1:1 ratio, effectively making the fighter immortal for the duration. Unbending Trunk reads: "75% of Damage Taken converted into Healing for 15.0 sec." What it does: Yeah, it heals more than your damage taken, so not only are you immortal, you actively heal any lost health the more you get hit. I'm not sure about Guardian Stance, but Unbending and Unbending Trunk applies to NPCs as well, so when they hit that button they become effectively unkillable until the ability expires. Important Files: Er, I think this is largely irrelevant, but I'll upload a few videos to showcase it the abilities in question. Guardian Stance: Unbending: Unbending Trunk:

Hello. I have a bug/a question, this depends. From the game release the Fighter subclass Black Jacket had no Constant Recovery. One of the patches gave him the ability to recover, although less efficient then in usual fighter. When I tried to create chareacter-adventurer Black Jacket, the game said I can't take Rapid Recovery as I had no Constant Recovery. Is this a bug? Or is intended to be a part of the penalty?

Hi everyone, im starting to play the Pillars of eternity though the deadfire is already launched. Im new to this game and im starting to love it. To cut it short im using a DPS fighter class. Im sorting out all possible combination of talents and weapon. But i stumble upon the recovery speed. There is not much info regarding this IMHO so far. Can someone enlighten me rgarding this. By the way im using 1H Flails so that it increases accuracy and has a 30% more chance of making grazes to hits. I believe accuracy is important as a DPS player.

Hello, I am not sure if this actually working and just not showing up in calculation representation but mob stance and armored grace are not showing up when hovered over in calculation. Fighter/ Paladin is wearing Gipon Prudensco so it should be at 20% which pic is showing 7% for armor but I does not look like it is calculating correctly as shown.

So, what is exactly the amount of healing provided by Unbending ? I've never been sure. It's base value is 25% of damage received. As it provide healing over time, I suppose Might and Intellect are taken into acount. In addition to Unbending duration, does PL also affects the amount of healing per tick and the total duration of regeneration due to 1 single attack ? Do % Healing stack additively with Might ? Based on formula for similar spells, I would expect : Total % of damage regenerated = 25 x [(1+%Int Duration Bonus) * (1+0.05 x (PL-5)] x [(1+%Mig Healing Bonus + %Healng Bonus) * (1+0.05 x (PL-5)] Within a duration of [(1+%Int Duration Bonus) * (1+0.05 x (PL-5)] x Base Duration for each attack. It would be useful to target the right number for 100% healing. Does it also work with self inflicted damages such as Mortification, Take the Hit and Sacred Immolation ?

Hey guys, in response to the new update v1.20 which gives us access to a mod manager and makes the integration of custom classes easier than ever, I thought it would be a cool idea for the community to make a library of all the class and subclass ideas they have that could be integrated into the game. One of my favorite things about Neverwinter Nights 2 and other crpgs is the sheer amount of classes and subclasses available for us to choose. While Deadfire has added to the number it never hurts to go the extra mile with mods to tailor your experience. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to start off with the Priest of Abydon, a priest focused on defense and uses a variety of transmutation and earth like abilities. Description: Abydon is the god of duty, preservation, hope, progress, aspiration and industy. The patron of balcksmiths, laborers and the Crusible knights, the god inspires excellence in your chosen field and encourages honest work and tenacity. Abydon sacrificed himself to stop a cataclysmic event from wiping out the Entwithan civilization. He rebuilt himself from scraps of his essence and the help of Magran into the Golem, a being made of metal, however the geas that drove him towards preservation was lost. The watcher chose whether to remind him of it or let it remain forgotten. (Favored dispositions: honest and stoic, disfavored dispositions: deceptive and clever) The priest gains spells that correspond to Abydon when they reach a new power level. The Blessings of the white forge: +Deflection bonus when wearing heavy armor and if possible, can enchant normal equipment to highest level but not legendary and add lass to equipment (meant to help early game not replace unique equipment) Spells and Abilities gained: Fan of Flames: Bellows of the forge Firebrand: lose access to spiritual weapons or if these two options are in the realm of possibilities: 1. Spiritual weapon: Warhammer, crushing dmg and 2. Gift of the Forge: add burning lass to currently equiped weapon/s Twin stones: the hammer of Abydon could send shockwaves across the earth Ironskin: known as the god of constructs, Abydon rebuilt himself into a being made of metal Calling the World's Maw Embrace the Earth's Tallon Rusted Armor: Corrode poorly forged armor Unbreakable: Rebuild yourself as Abydon once did, if possible could include Symbol of Abydon: deals crushing damage and provides deflection bonus Citzal's enchanted armory: Fabricate weapons and a breastplate out of thin air, and Incarnate: Summon Steelclad Construct The Golem Reconstructed Edit: Decided to change the disposition to honest and stoic, fit better.

The Devoted subclass is currently giving -10 to accuracy instead of the bonus accuracy when choosing a two-handed weapon as the chosen weapon. Ranged weapons were not tested.

Armored Grace lists that it reduces the Recovery Penalty from Armors by 25%, but the actual reduction is consistently less than that across all armor types. This means that either: Armored Grace should reduce Recovery Penalty via Armor by a flat 25%.OR The tooltip/description of Armored Grace should be amended to reflect that the reduction is based on the armor type.

So I bought PoE 2 but I still didn't beat PoE (I'm planning to beat after the release of all PoE 2 dlcs and finish college semester). And the few hours playing PoE sometime ago made me very happy with the Cipher class. And the multiclass option with melee classes in PoE2 made me even happier =D So my questions is, what is the pros and cons of each fighter subclass (with the Cipher subclass Soulblade)? From my my first view about, - Black Jacket is to a DW user with different weapons, flexible with range and melee weapons, but the lose of constant recovery is a great con? - Devoted can use one type of weapon but receive great bonus to that weapon, the only cons I see is to someone who like to use different weapons and the restriction to melee OR range weapon outside of the option "Range Weapon and Unarmed". My regret in the moment is we don't have Soulbond Sabre and that's my favorite weapon type and I would like to my char have a soulbond - Unbroken could work as a off tank in union with a main tank to use the great bonus penetration from Disengagement Attack? (That could be hard to manage, I think? I don't have in-game knowledge for this) P.S. English is not my native language, so sorry for my mistakes P.P.S. If anyone wants, you can also talk about the other multiclass options of Cipher with melee classes

I've been enjoying my first play-through through PoE II but I've just realized (after a number of hours) that my main character is slightly bugged. I decided to choose a Devoted Fighter but didn't comprehend the fact that I'd only be able to choose one weapon proficiency for the rest of the game. I ended up choosing a shield as my proficiency, hoping to go back at a later level and choose a weapon that I could use, but have only recently realized that I won't be getting that chance. My main character is now essentially playing with all of the disadvantages of the Devoted subclass, but none of the advantages since the Shield obviously doesn't get the weapon advantages from the class. I could start using unarmed attacks (since they count towards the Devoted proficiency bonus) but that's not really my play style and I'd prefer to use an actual weapon. I understand wanting to make class picks to be permanent but I wish there was a way for me to re-pick my devoted proficiency or possibly even choose a new sub-class through an ingame retraining system. I don't really want to restart now (after putting many hours in) just to change my character's proficiency so, unless I'm missing something, I'm basically stuck with my nerfed character. Any ideas on how to circumvent this?

Hey, I was wondering if I could get some advice for a possible cleric build, I was thinking about Berath/Devoted or Magran/Evoker, I'm pretty new to the PoE world and was wondering if someone could provide some advice, I will say I don't really care if the this is min/max as for my first playthrough I find myself more interested in learning the game and the story. Please let me know! Thanks!

Hey all, I can't decide between a Battlemage (Fighter/Wizard) and a Psyblade (Fighter/Cipher). I want to make a character with good melee capability as well as decent magic/casting to help augment that melee ability further and occasionally cause damage with casting. Essentially I don't mind occasionally using jolting touch or mind wave to cause damage (I certainly want to use these abilities), but most of the time I want to stay in melee and fight it out. That means I want to use (most of the time) instantaneous casting abilities as augments, because if I'm in melee I don't wanna spend too much time in recovery (I'm also a fan of heavy armor). I find a fighter is a great base class with a nice mix of defensive and offensive passives which is why I am going with that, though I'm open to suggestions. The Wizard and Cipher both bring casting to the table but they do it in different ways. I usually look at buffs/debuffs in terms of "does this increase my chances of hitting them and reduce their chance to hit me?". I feel the wizard is more focused, or rather, has better options for self buffing (arcane veil, mirror image, displaced image, citzal's martial power) increasing my melee abilities and most/all of these are instant cast. Cipher can do something similar but does it by debuffing enemies more with eyestrike and other abilities. These abilities have long cast times which makes me iffy about how much time I'll spend in recovery. But on the other hand I can get soul whip and soul annihilation for increased damage. This is essentially my problem, do I take instant, strong buffs over soul whip and slower debuffs? If anyone has any one tried these classes, please share your opinion of their effectiveness and just how much fun you had.

Hey guys, First time poster here. So I recently started playing PoE2 and I had remembered that it mainly focuses on your and your ship. I immediately decided to create Sinbad (the cartoon not the comedian). So here my question. Does anyone have any tips on making a beginners build for a two weapon fighter? I'll mainly be focusing on a sabre+pistol or sabre+sabre build. Thanks, Kaloka

Hey guys, First time poster here. When I opened up PoE2 today I remembered how it game mainly focuses on you and your ship. So I immediately wanted to make Sinbad (the cartoon not the comedian) for my first build. So here's my question. Can anyone show me a beginners build for a two weapon fighter? Thanks, Kaloka

At first I started a Trickster/Soulblade main character, but I don't really like the trickster so now I'm thinking of starting a Devoted/Soulblade or an Assassin/Soulblade. Which one would make more sense to partner up with a swashbuckler (fighter/rogue) Edér if I'll focus on one handed style with swords and medium armor? Assassin/Soulblade and Fighter/Rogue has multiple ways to Flank enemies with smokes, blinding attacks and cipher debuffs, but a Devoted/Soulblade generally looks more viable with Disciplined B., Confident Aim and Cleaving Stance. Basically my planned attributes for both would be Might15, Con10, Dex16, Per15, Int10, Res12

Here's an early draft of the Lady of Pain build for the Deadfire backer beta. Most things are subject to change as newer beta versions are rolled out with balance changes; more so once the game is out and we get to see whole ability trees and all unique items. These were the defining traits of the original build, which I'll pursue again with this one: Maxing out its MIG score. Packing as many damage bonuses as possible. Pumping Accuracy as much as possible. Reaching 0 recovery (or getting very close to it.) Turning its low Deflection into an asset. With this in mind, my Lady of Pain build for Beta 1.0820B is as follows: Race: Coastal Aumaua Aumaua gets +2 MIG bonus; Iit is crucial to go for the Coastal subrace in order to get Resistance to Might Afflictions, which makes us immune to Stun. Background: Any Attributes: MIG 20* CON 10 DEX 10 PER 18 INT 15 RES 05 * Can be 21 if you remove one point from another stat. I chose 20 to stick to an even number; I didn't want to dump CON (as you'll see, this Lady of Pain is quite the glass cannon compared to its PoE counterpart) and I wanted to allocate all points from RES to INT in order to make up for the Will defense penalty while profiting from a longer duration on all self-buffs. These attributes include the bonus point from your chosen provenance. It can be anywhere so long as you rearrange your stat points to look like the above. Class: Devoted/Helwalker In Deadfire, synergies between the Fighter and Monk classes abound and nothing screams Lady of Pain like this combination. A few highlights: Helwalker gets +1MIG per Wound up to +10. This is what turns low Deflection into an asset: Let them help you hit them harder. The bonus MIG from Wounds increases your Healing received, including Constant Recovery—this beautifully offsets the extra damage per Wound you take from the Helwalker. * Duality of Mortal Presence can be used to gain up to +10 CON (1 per Wound) in a build that already encourages you to hoard Wounds. Thunderous Blows gets you +5 MIG and +4 penetration; Lightning Strikes adds a whopping +50% lash and +35% attack speed. The Devoted adds +3 penetration and +25% critical hit damage off the bat, plus access to Weapon Specialization, Armored Grace, and fighting style talents. * as of the upcoming beta build, MIG will no longer affect healing, thus eliminating this synergy. Proficiency: Sword Here is another deviation from the original build, as Deadfire makes heavy armor + two-handers a rather impractical combination. Namely, heavy armor's recovery penalty was doubled from 50% to 100%. Based on the information we possess from the beta, it is not possible to reach 0 recovery in heavy armor unless you dual-wield—and even then, you must sip a Potion of Relentless Striking to achieve it. Additionally, the modal for Great Sword is rather underwhelming. Swords have a nice modal that gives +2 penetration in exchange from -20 Deflection—a good trade-off for the Lady of Pain, since its Deflection already sucks Granted, there will be fights where taking the Deflection hit will have you killed pretty fast, so we can't have the modal on all the time; however it's a nice-to-have and Swords have good base damage. Talents: Many good talents in the Fighter/Monk trees. Here are my picks for the beta in no particular order: Disciplined Barrage Two Weapon Style Disciplined Strikes Fighter Stances Knock Down OR Force of Anguish* Confident Aim OR Into the Fray OR Determination Rapid Recovery * Now that Prone no loner has a duration and merely counts as an interrupt, Knock Down is no longer as powerful as it used to be in the first game. The push back from Force of Anguish may prove useful if you're taking too much of a beating, as it shoves the enemy and gives you time to drink a potion. Mortification of the Soul Swift Strikes Lesser Wounds Lightning Strikes Clarity of Agony Bull's Will Note that I am not taking any active Monk abilities that may cost Wounds (we want to keep Wounds high in order to benefit from the extra MIG) or Mortification (we want to use it to pop Lightning Strikes back up when it expires.) Confident Aim is only really "necessary" in this first backer beta build, since Disciplined Strikes is granting Miss-to-Graze conversion without also granting the ability to Graze. From the next update on, I suggest Determination to gain a +20 bonus against Charmed/Dominated effects which could prove ... hurtful, if they landed. Clarity of Agony is very good in case those Afflictions landed anyway, since it will make them last 50% shorter. Bull's Will is highly recommended to make up for the relatively low Will defense. Going into higher levels, make sure you pick the following: Armored Grace Weapon Specialization Body Control Unstoppable Fearless Duality of Mortal Presence Thunderous Blows Clarity of Mind Recapping: Damage Up to 35 MIG with no spell or item buffs (20 starting + 10 Helwalker + 5 Thunderous Blows); that's a multiplicative 75% damage bonus. 50% lash damage from Lightning Strikes. 15% damage bonus from Weapon Specialization. 25% crit damage bonus from the Devoted sublcass. You can get an extra 20% from the Potion of Relentless Striking, which becomes 40% with 10 ranks in Alchemy. Penetration +3 from the Devoted subclass. +4 from Thunderous Blows. +2 from Half-Sword (Sword modal.) That's +9 on top of the extra penetration from the Swords' enchantment; should be enough to guarantee over-penetration every time you land a critical hit. Accuracy +8 from Perception. +5 from Conqueror Stance. +5 from Disciplined Strikes. 50% hit-to-crit conversion from Disciplined Strikes. That's +18 Accuracy on top of that from the Swords' enchantment with no spell or item buffs. You can get +20 from Devotions for the Faithful, which also gets you another +4 MIG that I think stacks with everything else we've been using so far. You can also get +6 from a Potion of Deftness, which becomes +8 if you have 10 ranks in Alchemy (which I dearly endorse for the extra attack speed.) When you crit, you get extra damage and extra penetration; with over-penetration, everything gets a 30% multiplicative bonus, including your MIG which was already multiplicative. That's pretty massive. Recovery: -35% from Lightning Strikes (20% from the ability; 15% from the Dexterity boost.) -50% from dual-wielding. -20% from Two Weapon Style. -20% from Armored Grace (can't get it as a multi-class in the beta, but eventually you will in the game.) That's -125% recovery and some of those abilities also boost your attack speed. If wearing medium armor (e.g. Scale Armor, +50% recovery) you must get to 150% to have 0 recovery. Based on the above, a speed weapon would already get you to 5%; an item that gives +2 DEX would get you to 0 without using potions. If wearing heavy armor, that's another 50% penalty—you'll need the Potion of Relentless Striking to get to 0 recovery. Alternatively, a Potion of Deftness with 10 ranks in Alchemy gives you a 75% attack speed bonus, which is enough to reach 0 recovery in Plate armor with no speed weapons and no other boosts to DEX. It is not known how many potions of that kind we'll be able to hoard in the game, nor do we know whether speed weapons still exist and how they work. Hopefully there will be at least one end-game sword with that ability and the potions will be available in large supply. In the beta you can reach 0 recovery wearing medium armor and popping the potion (150% recovery - 155% recovery bonuses.) Defenses: Your Fortitude is unconquerable, especially once you get Duality of Mortal Presence (can't get it as a multiclass in the beta.) Your Reflexes are pretty good owing to the bonus from Perception (further increased by the PER bump from Disciplined Strikes and the DEX bump from Lightning Strikes.) Your Will is relatively weak, as it's only getting a bonus from Bull's Will. You may want to take the talent Determination for another +20 against Intellect Afflictions (that's +30 total against Confusion/Charmed/Dominated before any item bonuses, which is solid.) You are immune to Stun thanks to your racial; with Body Control, you are also immune to Dazed. You are immune to Paralyze thanks to Unstoppable and to Terrified thanks to Fearless. Your Deflection is poor. Granted, the Conqueror Stance makes up for the 5 points you lose on Resolve, but you're gaining no bonuses from anywhere. Popping a potion of Relentless Striking gets you -10 and using the Sword modal gets you another -20. You'll need to either boost it with spells and items, or watch out when you use those to avoid getting critted too much (enemies will over-penetrate your Armor Rating and hit you for a multiplicative 30% extra damage that also applies to the extra damage you take from the Helwalker ability.) You should wear Scale Armor at the very minimum—better Plate or Brigandine. With low Deflection, you want to boost your Armor Rating at every opportunity.

=================================== The Unstoppable Wave =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.05 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Fighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Coastal Aumaua -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Deadfire Archipelago - Aristocrat -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 16 CON: 10 DEX: 12 PER: 16 INT: 14 RES: 10 Note: I'm not a min-maxer, and I didn't count special talents for a main character. -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: 7+ Survival ® 10+ Lore (!) A bit of stealth and athletics are always good to have. -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, ®=recommended, !=important) Two Weapon Style (!) Vulnerable Attack ® Superior Deflection Bonus Knockdown (!) Weapon Focus : Ruffian ® Weapon Mastery : Ruffian ® Apprentice's Sneak Attack Spirit of Decay ® Abilities Constant Recovery (a) Knockdown (!) Confident Aim ® Disciplined Barrage (!) Armored Grace ® Weapon Specialization : Ruffian ® Unbroken Charge (!) Triggered Immunity Note: Unbroken and Triggered Immunity are mostly there because I like feeling invincible. This might be too much defense, and they are unecessary for this build. --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments; (!)=important, ®=recommended): Weapon set 1: Bittercut x2 (*Legendary, Corrosive Lash, Durgan Reinforced, Duplicated with Helwax Mold) ® Weapon Set 2: Abydon's Hammer (!) Boots: Boots of Speed (!) Head: White Crest's Helm Armor: White Crest (*Superb, Durgan Reinforced, PER+2, Crush-Proofed) (!) Neck: Swaddling Sheet (!) Belt: Looped Rope Ring 1: Pensiavi Mes Rèi Ring 2: Ring of Protection Hands: Siege Breakers ® Quick slots: Scroll(s) of Maelstrom, Scroll(s) Paralysis/Confusion ®, Potion(s) of Major recovery, Potion(s) of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion Abilities from items with regular set (feel free to change between battle to get even more per rest casts): Per Encouter: 1x Ring of the Ancient Forge 1x Abydon's Labor 1x Overwhelming Wave (triggered on crit, Foe Only) Per Rest: 1x Dancing Bolt 4x Vile Thorn (fast cast) 1x Recall Agony 2x Infestation of Maggots (fast cast) 1x Clear Out 1x Overwhelming Wave ----------------------------------------------------------------- Principle Good Old Fighter... The plainest of all classes... It does not mean the lamest. However, it's not that easy to build around them. I had the idea of this build when I realized there was a huge potential with one of fighter's 1st level ability: Disciplined Barrage. Disciplined barrage is an instant +20 accuracy for limited but significant time (15s +Int modifier for something like 20+s) No other class has something similar that high. You can get up to +15 from consumables, but that makes a lots of consumables if you want to use this every battle. And that is still not +20 and it is not instant cast. My thought was: What can one do with +20 accuracy and a naturally high basis ? And my answer was: About everything !!! Accuracy works for damages, and works even better for crowd control. The problem was: A fighter has a limited number of active abilities, and they are usually not comparable with High level spells (apart for charge and its crapload of damages). But it is possible to add them through items and scrolls. Item Choices So, accuracy works for CC and damages, so what about picking the best CC and damages spells from items ? Overwhelming Wave from both White Crest and Swaddling Sheet drew my attention. So that was the basis of the build. These waves are quite powerful. Sure, White Crest is only once per rest, but when you start a bounty battle with a “Disciplined Wave” in their faces, you're pretty happy to have it. Swaddling Sheet's wave is uncontrollable, but does not cost casting time, and often works with pretty satisfying and fun effects (especially with that +20 accuracy). I also liked the idea of the wave. It really fitted the fighter's gameplay, with charge and Knockdown, running into the fray and crushing anything. Coastal Aumaua fitted this theme quite well by the way. Duplicated Bittercut was my choice for dual wielding. In addition to be a popular choice for DPS, these 2 Bittercuts also bring some additional castings, which was nice for this build based on item's abilities. Plus Wave -> Water -> Acid and Wave -> Sea -> Pirate -> Sabers, so it fitted nicely with the theme. Abydon's Hammer is not in this build as a weapon. Abydon's Hammer is here for Ring of The Ancient Forge. 1x per encounter mass stun with +20 Accuracy pretty much wins the fight by itself once you have it. Siege Breakers were another good choice for even more Crowd Control. +4 Resolve brings various benefits including half of the Deflection from a regular deflection bracer, a bit of Concentration, and Will Defense. This is decent raw power, but Siege Breakers are of course in this build because of the Clear Out casting. Boots of speed were necessary to compensate for White Crest movement penalty ; mobility is always nice anyway. Apart for this, the other items are pretty much just passive boosts. I thought that I already had enough abilities, and I didn't found something reallly appealing for the other slots. And yes, I find diving wave a bit weak, especially when you have already 3x Full Attack Knockdowns... Consumables are another way of getting interesting abilities. Some good endgame choices for scrolls are scroll of maelstorm and paralysis, to cover the damages and CC aspects. Apart for them, some potions of deleterious alacrity of motions help for important battle, as you won't have sanguine plate to auto-cast frenzy for you. Gameplay This character is made to take the initiative, and to quickly “break” the battle. That's why I call him a siege breaker. In my current experience, 20s of disciplined barrage might not be enough to last for the whole battle, but it is often enough to WIN it. 20s are enough to kill the most dangerous foes, encapacitate several others and deal a lots of damages. Instant cast is INCREDIBLY convenient when you try to get the initiative at the beginning of a fight, so it fits very well with this strategy. The most intersting openers are Overwhelming Wave from White Crest or Ring of the Ancient Forge from Abydon's Hammer. You will often hit or crit, and you'll pretty automatically graze even in PotD. Fighter's incredible toughness is also a very convenient for optimal positionning as you don't really fear standing in the front. In my latest fight Concelhaut himself didn't have enough time to recover from stun before getting killed and most of his party shared the same fate. Disciplined Barrage + Knockdown is a very interesting combo that you can access very early game and repeat on every fight. Knockdown is a full attack, and you get 2 rolls also for the prone part. This was my main reason to choose dual wielding. Very few ennemies can avoid being prone with 2 rolls at +20 acc. You are also likely to crit, causing around 10s Prone with decent Int. This is probably the best guarantee of single target Crowd Control in the whole game, even if it is not the longest. This fighter gets great potential for assassinating any dangerous ennemy in the back row when Charge finally shows up. Charge is combined with a (full) attack on the main target. That deals a lots of Single Target damages in addition to AoE from Charge. It is also 3 separate attacks on the target, which means 3 interrupt rolls. This build has a high Perception, mostly for accuracy, but the bonus to interrupt also results in pretty much guaranteed interrupt on Charge. This might not sound that awesome, but this means you're likely to recover and Knockdown a caster before he got enough time to react. And due to fighter's durability, you're not likely to get killed even if isolated in the back row. Due to this combination, this Fighter is able to act as the perfect assassin, except for the stealth part of course... These abilities will be your bread and butter(cut) for minor encounters. On major ones, you'll have a lot of item abilities at your disposal, especially when consumables are included. So this build is quite versatile. Infestation of Maggots deal a lot of DoT (now that it is not bugged anymore... maggots... bugged... got it ? Got it ?) and fast casting Vile Thorn can deal a fairly good amount of AoE. Clear Out acts as a Backup AoE CC once your powerful openers have been used. Fighter's single target DPS and physical damages resistance are very high, so you'll have a quite decent team member even after all these abilities have been used. I have almost finish the game in PotD so now I can confirm this character was nice as a MC. The “Charge Assassination” part was really what really fun to use, and having all these ennemies stunned by your waves was quite enjoyable. My MC Fighter is above my barbarian for damages and close to my dragon trasher chanter for kills. This might be because of MC's slight bonuses and additional micromanagement. But it was efficient for sure. -------------------------------------------------------------- Various side notes : - Vulnerable attacks also work with Charge. - I picked up Disciplined Barrage and Knockdown early and Weapon Focus (and the likes) quite late. That enables you to choose whatever single handed weapons you find for dual wielding, which is very convenient. For example, Ravenwing isn't an awesome endgame weapon, but is really strong and easy to get early on. - Fan of flames scrolls are of course your early game joker. Hello Caed Nua ! - Clear Out should be nice with this build, except I don't like it (per rest are ok for items, but I don't like them as abilities. Totally subjective...).