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This build was created for a collaboration with @Aestus who runs the Youtube channel Aestus_RPG. Here's the video where we talk about this and other builds. This is build 1 of 5 from that collaboration. ----------------------------------------- This build is mainly meant for inspiration. You don't need to follow it in detail to have fun. If you understand the key features - the basic idea what makes this build special - you can usually deviate from my non-core attribute-, skill-, gear- and ability selection and form the build to your own likings and ideas. I do not try to produce the most powerful uberbuilds (often those are the most boring to play in he long run) but to focus on having fun while playing. Usually that means the build is powerful - but it's not the main focus. If you like to read about my personal requirements for "fun to play" builds, you can jump to a list below this post ----------------------------------------- rancfre Ghostoo Cullywoot was born in Rauatai to human parents: a Berserker mom named Clawsine and a Helwalker Monk dad named Auamensh - who didn't really have the most healthy relationship as you can imagine... she losing her temper all the time while he enjoyed blows tis body and all that kerfuffle. But they tried for the kid's sake and somehow managed to raise Wrancfre. He learned the way of the Berserker as well as the path of the Helwalkers. Is parents drummed it into him (with swift flurries often) that one never couldn't cross those streams. At the age of 16 Wranfcfe still hadn't decided whose footsteps to follow. Everybody and their pets, animal companions and even conjured familiars told him he could not do both - because it is known that this foolishness would mean instant suicide. So he crossed the streams... "The power of pain So hard to sustain Cleaning my soul Frenzy on, very noisin' Love with spikes of pois'n Purge the soul Make wounds your gooooal!" - Wrancfre while bodyblowing some c0cky wizards - =================================== The Fountain of Woe =================================== Difficulty: PotD -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Ravager - Berserker/Helwalker -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human (any subrace) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Rauatai (or any) - Laborer (or any) -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats (w/o Berath's Blessings, ★=recommendation) MIG: 10 (do not go higher - so with +2 from BB and +1 from Human pick 7 base) CON: 19 (18 + 1 Rauatai) ★★ DEX: 14 PER: 18 ★ INT: 14 RES: 04 (3 + 1 Human) -------------------------------------------------------------- the unique icons for all passive abilities are part of the Community Patch mod Abilities | Skills | Proficiencies - (!=important, r=recommended) 01. Frenzy (!) + Force of Anguish (!) | Morning Star (!) + Pollaxe 02. Swift Strikes (!) | +1 Athletics (->4), +1 Intimidate (->2) 03. Blooded | +1 Athletics (->5), +1 Survival (->3) 04. Thick Skinned + Two-Handed Style | +1 Athletics (->6), +1 Intimidate (->3) | Pike 05. Barbaric Blow (r) | +1 Athletics (->7), +1 Insight (->2) 06. Long Stride | +1 Athletics (->8), +1 Insight (->3) 07. Bloodlust + Swift Flurry (!) | +1 Athletics (->9), +1 Intimidate (->4) 08. Efficient Anguish | +1 Athletics (->10), +1 Survival (->4) | Battle Axe 09. One Stands Alone | +1 Athletics (->11 ), +1 Bluff (->1) 10. Spirit Frenzy (!) + Duality of Mortal Presence (r) | +1 Athletics (->12), +1 Bluff (->2) 11. Bloody Slaughter | +1 Athletics (->13), +1 Bluff (->3) 12. Rooting Pain | +1 Athletics (-> 14), +1 Intimidate (->5) | Rod 13. Tough + Enervating Blows (!) | +1 Athletics (->15), +1 Survival (->5) 14. Leap | +1 Athletics (->16), +1 Insight (->4) 15. Barbaric Smash (r) | +1 Athletics (->17), +1 Bluff (->4) 16. Brute Force (!) + Turning Wheel (r) | +1 Athletics (->18), +1 Intimidate (->6) | Quarterstaff 17. Savage Defiance | +1 Athletics (->19), +1 Intimidate (->7) 18. Interrupting Blows | +1 Athletics (->20), +1 Survival (->6) 19. Blood Thirst (!) + Heartbeat Drumming (!) | +1 Athletics (->21), +1 Intimidate (->8) 20. Stalwart Defiance | +1 Athletics (->22), +1 Survival (->7) | Estoc --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Saru Sichr (! - +Paralytic, +Legendary) Weapon Set 2: Lord Darryn's Voulge Head: Death's Maw (r - for self-damage resistance) Back: Cloak of Greater Protection Neck: Amulet of Greater Health (r - or a +1 CON amulet like Cipher's Shackles) Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (! +Legendary (a), +Devil's Due (r) - regaining health on crit, +Mechnical Mind (!) - remove Berserker Confusion) Waist: The Undying Burden (r - for self- damage resistance and more CON->health) Hands: Gauntlets of Greater Reliability (r - helps to graze enemies with very high defenses with Body Blows) Rings: Voidward (! - greater self-damage resistance), Ring of Prosperity's Fortune (helps with crits when rich) or Chamaeleon's Touch (+1 CON & +1 DEX) Boots: Boots of the Stone Pet: Abraham (not only speed but also +10 health on kill) or Socrates (+20 health on kill - recommended if Edér uses Abraham -> +30 health on kill) --------------------------------------------------------------- What is this build about: gaining wounds incredibly fast from Frenzy‘s self damage, paired with the Helwalker‘s rising MIG bonus (+1 per Wound) and the increased damage to self (+5% per Wound). together with the self damage you're not only gaining wounds faster than you can spend them but you also profit from Blooded (+25% dmg) as well as Fighting Spirit (humans’ passive ability, +7 ACC, +15% dmg) lowering enemies‘ fortitude defense a LOT on the fly with: Morning Star‘s modal „Body Blows“: -25 Spirit Frenzy (staggers): -10 (-5 MIG) Enervating Blows (weakens): -10 (-5 CON) targeting enemies' lowered Fortitude: first with special abilites like Force of Anguish/Efficient Anguish later with Brute Force: target Fortitude with all attacks that would target deflection instead (if Fortitude is lower) because of this, extreme accuracy is not required to deliver lots of critical hits (but of course it would still help, so please send buffs ) Force of Aguish pushes enemies into your Carnage AoE. Usually the initial target of your hits doesn't get affected by Carnage. With Force of Anguish it does! You push the enemy into Carnage Area before Carnage dmg get rolled - so Carnage treats the enemy like any other who's in the AoE: raw dmg. This means that Force of Anguish with Carnage does extra raw damage to single targets which is great. using a multihit weapon and pair it with Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming. A weapon such as the Morning Star Saru Sichr: it has 2 attack rolls, the normal physical pierce/crush roll and "Poison-Dipped", a DoT effect that rolls against Fortitude (what a nice coincidende). They both count as „proper“ melee attacks and they can both trigger Swift Flurry and HBD when they critically hit! The great thing about such multihit weapons (there are others such as the flail Sun & Moon or the Pike Wicked Beast) is: no matter which attack roll crits and triggers SF or HBD, those additional attacks roll twice again: the physical and the additonal one. Those can crit again and trigger another SF/HBD attacks and so on and so forth, creating a loop. This is a huge advantage over single hit weapons and raises the chance to cause a deadly loop of crits that can kill an enemy on the spot. Works best against low fortitude foes obviously. in addition to the Swift Flurry stuff the DoT of Saru Sichr is very powerful: the DoT stacks with itself - and every time you reapply the DoT you trigger a tick immediately which leads to a significant increase of dps (same as with Bleeding Cuts from Battle Axes or Deep Wounds). it also interrupts very reliably with not only Force of Anguish, but also Rooting Pain. Since you gain wounds so frequently you also trigger Rooting Pain frequently which interrupts bystanders (and damages them a bit) pair all that with Blood Thirst at the latest levels… essentially it is a debuffing+CC+damage-dealing build, best used for hunting down squishy but dangerous enemies. But is also very helpful against bosses due to the fast and reliable debuffing of Fortitude, which helps most party members to land spells a lot more easily etc. Issues: the self damage which gives you a lot of wounds also kills you quickly the self damage of Berserker’s Frenzy scales steeply with Power Level (unusual +2 per PL base dmg). This base damage gets boosted by MIG, the Helwalker’s increased self dmg percentage (remember +5% per wound), Blooded (+25%) and effects of items (such as Baubles of the Fin or a pet like Harley etc.). That's the main resaon to not raise your base MIG over 10. You will gain +15 MIG already from Frenzy and the Helwalker passive - you don't need more and you don't want more because it makes you go down more quickly. to avoid killing yourself you should def. raise CON, pick up items with CON and/or health bonuses. In addition pick “Tough” and wear an amulet of Greater Health. This makes the build surprisingly sturdy at the early levels bc. the self dmg is still low. also use items that give you resitance to damage (Undying Burden, Death's Maw, Voidward!) - they work very well to soften the self damage and make it manageable. This, together with the high health, balaces out the self damage at higher levels very well. unintuitively picking Iron Wheel is not a good solution. Even though it raises CON and AR and sounds lie a good idea: it doesn’t stack with Berserker’s Hardy (+5 CON and +2 AR) - so a lot of its effects would be wasted. Better to pick Turniung Wheel for more dmg and longer duration of buffs (such as Swift Flurry). get items that heal you up: Abraham (+10 health per kill) or Socrates (+20 health per kill) and the Devil of Caroc Breastplate (healing over time on crit - also useful against Confusion) This build profits a lot from a good healer in the party obviously. But raising Athletics like there's nothing else also helps. It heals you a great deal at 20+. Savage Defiance is better than going down in a pinch, too. Berserker’s Confusion is annoying and cannot be exploited with this build - so you want to get rid of it asap. You could do that with Enlightened Agony - but that’s wasting 2 ability points. Better to get Devil of Caroc Breastplate and enchant it. Or use food like Luminous Lobster. But since the Breastplate also heals on crit it’s the best pick imo. as long as you have to deal with Confusion do NOT pick Rooting Pain! It will interrupt yourself. Only pick Rooting Pain when you have enchanted the Breastplate properly (or got rid of Confusion otherwise) the DoT "Poison Dipped" of Saru-Sichr which produces that double-hit effect for SF/HBD does not work against poison-immune foes. Why is it fun? always wounds to spend and buff you up - alsmost never has to use auto-attacks right from the start. hits very well right away: Body Blows + Force of Enguish alone carry the build through early game alone - because Boy Blows is a "free" and big defense debuff/ACC buff right away. good weapon damage even without exploiting critical hits nice CC early on - especially satisfying when using it against casters an other annoying enemies later becomes even stronger with Spirit Frenzy and Enervating Blows, debuffing Fortitude even more with the introduction of SF and then Brute Force it makes another leap finalizing the fun ability collection with Heartbeat Drumming and Blood Thirst, who doesn't like crit chains + Blood Thirst, right? so it’s just works well from start to finish - which makes it enjoyable when a crit loop happens (and that's often if you focus on the right enemies) it’s just jawdropping I personally enjoy the challenge to keep it alive lots of crits, paired with the right voice (noble for me) results in lots of contagious laughter during battle - which is just so fun and is lightening my mood Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

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!

Hi. Long time lurker and I appreciate the help this community gives and seems friendly. So I got the highly addictive case of restartitus and have been looking for a build (still haven't completed the story though putting quite a few hours in but still fairly new) playing on veteran I'm interested in the fate testarossa build but I would love to use dual guns. Then I came across the gypsy thunder build but when trying it got bored fairly quickly, which then gave me an idea. Would those 2 builds work together? Could I cause a thunder storm while shooting thunder at them? So this is where I am at also taking a few inspirations from sintee's gunfu monk. (awesome build but as my MC I don't want to be forced into decisions) Class: monk (helwalker) /druid (fury) Race:pale elf Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 11 PER: 20 INT: 16 RES: 03 Adding berath blessing for +2 onto each Skills and abilities I'm currently not sure on those going to pick as I go. This is what I really need help with. Next problem is blunderbuss or pistol? If pistol I'm looking at going towards arcane blaster and thundercrack. If blunderbuss not a clue other than kitchen stove (maybe hand mortars) however have I made my build not as effective with blunder as my might is high? I'm thinking deltro cage might be the armour for that boast to lightening damage too. Don't know if the recovery time will be worth it though. Anyway thanks for reading and looking forward to your input. PS. Kind of imagining this char loosely based on storm from x-men

A seemingly fragile glass cannon that can attacks fast, dodge everything, deal with mobs, and get out of the stickiest situations alive. Alright, this is my first post after years of lurking. (Sorry about my poor formatting skills and no pics) This build is for you if you like: - versatile characters - playing around your afflictions - outmaneuvering enemies with risky plays This build is NOT for you if you: - hate micro - don't like very squishy characters - feel uneasy because you don't have heals (ya goddamn chicken, **cluck-cluck...!**) When Trickster was the only class to get buffed in the last two patches, I thought I'd try a solo run on a character I had in mind originally as a Streetfighter/Nalpzaca, which proved to be too squishy and unreliable in some fights. What does this build do: goes into fight and builds up asap maximum Wounds, either by deliberately getting yourself hit a couple of times (but who wants that, really), or by using the titular ability of this build, i.e. Dance of Death. Then, as you have a +10 Int +15 Might bonus, you can start casting all the defensive buffs that allow you to not get hit, and keep stacking bonuses while attacking very fast thanks to Lightning Strikes. All of this spiced up by the mystique of the Trickster, which provides all the afflictions and the CC that base Rogue is missing. THE PREMISE: BUILD BERATH'S BLESSINGS: RACE: REGION: STATS: ABILITIES BY LEVEL: SKILLS: EQUIPMENT: STRATEGY Thanks to Stealthmandem for some useful suggestions!

To find out that Shattered Pillar Monk is utter trash now. Went from super OP to (for me) unplayable. I played the game the first two weeks it came out a lot have changed since then... Time to reroll i guess. I got one question im planning to do either a Nalpazca paladin multiclass or a Helwalker Paladin multiclass. I prefered nalpazca because of the insane stat/accuracy/crit bonuses from pots and drugs. But im not sure when i read the patch nodes from 1.2 what those mean: "Alchemy Skill no longer affects "Poison" keyworded spells and abilities. (It still affects applied poison consumables)" From reports in the forum i read that Alchemy does not work anymore on increasing the stats that potion and drugs provide is that correct? In that case there is only one good monk subclass left and my decision is clear. I just want to be safe about how alchemy skill works in 1.2 - can anybody tell me maybe?

The Slayer (Updated for 2.0) Slayers are suicidal dwarves that go out into the world having sworn to die in battle to expunge some dishonor from their name. This slayer is constantly trying to die, but is just too good at killing to have succeeded at his goal yet. The build uses +damage the more you’re hurt synergies. This is more of a theme build rather than a min/max; but it did WAY better than I expected (this works really well in party w/ someone using willbreaker and Body Blows) Game Version: 2.0 Difficulty: PotD (+all Upscale, no mods) Solo: *No - You will need backup (Salvation of time and/or Barring death's door from others, the cloak can't always last long enough on boss fights) Race: Dwarf (mountain for the red hair) Class: Ravager [Helwalker/Berzerker] Home: The Living Lands Background: Laborer Stats: (not including blessings) Mig 16 Con: 10 Dex: 10 Per: 18 Int: 16 Res: 8 Skills: Active: Athletics Max (or split with alchemy, see consumables) Passive: your choice (I chose to pump survival for my backup weapon set) Abilities: (in order I selected them) Frenzy Swift Strikes Blooded Lesser wounds Thick skin Two handed style Barbaric Blow Accurate Carnage One stands alone Swift flurry Bloodlust Stunning blow Blood frenzy Duality Savage Defiance Bloody Slaughter Barbaric smash Enervating blows Interrupting Blows Stunning surge Brute force Turning wheel Tough Bull's will Bloodstorm Heartbeat Drumming Bloodthirst Equipment main weapon: Oathbreaker's End (early game I used duskfall+modwyr to get the wahai poraga then lord darynn's to go get oathbreaker's) Backup weapons: Magran's + Mohora Tanga Whitewitch Mask Protective Eothasian Charm Reckless Brigandine (into the breach) Ring of greater regen Voidward Boots of the stone Nemnok’s Cloak Boltcatchers The Undying Burden Pet: Nalvi Consumables Food: Mahora wraps (get that mig to 20 & nifty recovery speed) Coral snuff (more speed) Potion of Spirit shield Major heal pots (or moderate if you split between athletics and alchemy) This guy plays so much better than the first two iterations. Dots for everyone, and a giant axe finally!

I decided to go for a Helwalker Monk as my PC but I'm already having issues keeping him alive. I feel like my monk don't have the high deflection / Armor needed to properly survive. Sure I could throw some heavier armor on him but it feels like that would hurt his damage too much. I'm only level 6 so haven't gotten that far into the game but I'm really thinking about restarting and going for PotD instead of Hard but also going for a regular monk or even the shattered piller one. What are you guys thoughts? We are talking Hard/PotD difficulty

Has anyone else tried out this combination? I personally think it's insane. This guy gets insanely buffed without ever having to take damage from an enemy making him a great mid/back line fighter. Shattered Pillar Monks are sort of the answer for monks that don't want to get hit, but Berserker circumvents the need to create wounds from enemy attacks. Also, unlike in PoE1, you don't a mage to cause friendly fire to stack your wounds. You also don't have to run into melee, run out taking disengage penalties, and then begin your damage. Background Human - Living Lands - Whatever I'm not your dad. Human because you put yourself below 50% with Frenzy and kick off the 15% damage and it kind of fits the whole Frenzy theme. Notes on Stats: 20 Might (This allows for 30 might with 10 self inflicted wounds from the Berserker's Frenzy. That's an extra 30% damage (60% total) according to the sheet from might alone.) The rest is up to you depending on what you want, but I originally went for 18 Constitution and then 10 in everything else. I tend not to min/max (especially now since the game calls me infirm for doing so), but you could dump int to avoid cleaving your melee with friendly fire carnage. The tank provided took the cleaves fine and I'm sure with a proper tank they won't worry about the carnage hits too much. You could also dump resolve if you want to use this build with reach weapons or The Long Pain. Notes on Gear: Unsure so far, but it seems you could build this however you want. One thing I noticed is, with proficient weapons you have a lot more accuracy and hit a lot more often than with fists since there isn't an unarmed proficiency. I liked using the Dragoon's Leap Boots (Bounding Boots?) and jumping into the back line and RAVAGING mages. The problem is after you leap you stand there like a doofus for a while. The safer you are the lighter armor you can wear. Pretty simple. Notes on Talents: Since I used him as a "behind enemy lines" type, I chose anything that made him run fast and also took Force of Anguish in order to CC mages. If you intend on using this from the friendly mid/back line then you probably could skip the movement speed/disengage talents. Bloodied works well here as well. I believe it's an another 15% (25%? I should have have looked this up before posting) damage that you create for yourself. Lesser Wounds is obviously great here since you stack wounds faster with less Frenzy casts. I took accurate carnage as well. The worst part about the build is listening to your tank and rogue complain that you're hitting them 3 times a second. Notes on Gameplay: Start with Frenzy, Auto attack everything (including your friends) to death. When Frenzy runs out, cast Frenzy again. When all your Frenzies are exhausted, cast Swift Strikes. Guess when your health is too low and heal using Athletics or whatever. Use CC or whatever as needed. Finally a non-micro heavy monk. This is my first post and not really a guide by any measure. Just something I tried out and had fun with and wanted to see if you guys had any thoughts on it. P.S. - Please don't nerf. I'm making this guy in PoE1 for my "cannon" play-through. Thanks in advance. P.S.S - If you read this Boeroer, you're the reason I have rerollitis. I hope it keeps you up at night. Edit: Just adding stuff as I think of it.