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I have decided to play another run of this game on PotD Upscale, as I had never finished the game on this diffuculty before. I have tried few classes as my PC, mostly melee, as I want to play with my nukers NPCs such as Aloth, Hiravias, and Durance. Choosing another caster would make the party "unbalanced" IMHO of course. Among those classes I had chosen, I found Rogue is the weakest melee attacker. It does nothing good enough, even as a single target damage dealer. I know that many topics like this one had been discussed thoroughly in the past. Creating a new one seem unnecessarily redundant. Yet, I find those topics mentioned are not clear and concise enough. Sometimes, those posts even transformed into a war between Rogue-lovers and the opposite, which I do not mind if it was not dragged too far and too long. Anyway, I hope my new post would suit anyone who wants to find the answer on Google about how good Rogue is on PotD Upscale. Rogue has the worst starting stat. Damage dealer Rogue cannot tank or off-tank. Starting with only 15 deflection, Rogue is the worst tank class in this game, while Fighter starts with 30 deflection and monk has 25. The only way to play melee Rouge is to hit an enemy that had been already engaged by another tank or party member, which seems to be the correct method to play. The problem is that if some archers target you, what would you do ? Walking away, Escape, or Shadaowing Beyond means that you do not attack and thus cause less damage. Not to mention that in order to doing so, you must spend some skill points on non-damage skill first, which is not effective also. This low-deflectioned problem will happen or cause another problem no matter how you distribute your stat points. Most people tend to do it either a glass-cannon way or balanced way. The first one is dumping RES to minimum like 3-4 depending on race, and the other one is keeping RES at 10 so that Rogue might mitigate some damage. The rare one is pumping RES to max and gimping other stats, increasing Rogue survivability. The sad thing is that even at max RES, Rogue still has lower deflection than Monk at 10 RES. Reckless Assault does not stack with Savage Attack. I am not sure who decide the rule like this but it hurts so badly. If these 2 skills stack on each other, Rogue would be considered stronger. The net benefit would be +40% atk damage +3 accuracy -8 deflection, which is pretty good. By the way, in reality, they do not stack, which means that other melee damage dealer classes have a way to get +20% as well. The difference would be that Rogue has +13 accuracy more relatively. Aceeptable ? Let's find out later. Sneak Attack requires a target to be debuffed or flanked. In order to flank an enemy in Pillars of Eternity, 2 characters must attack the same target on the opposite side, which means one character needs to spend time walking to the back side or use some skill while the other one engages in the front. Usually, the one doing the walking is Rogue and tank go in front. This seem to be normal and effective for any melee attacker class since you always want an enemy to be flanked as the stat is lowered. However, in some circumstances, you cannot just walk casually to their back side, because in most situation you need to use a choke point to prevent your party from getting swarmed by a horde of enemies. On PotD Upscale, there are a lot of enemies. Without flanking, you need other party members to debuff for you. They may be required to use certain skill or spell for you at the moment instead of doing their things. For instances, Aloth may use fireball or Hiravias may use Spiritshift. All preparations must be done so that Rogue can get +50% damage from melee weapons. As a result, net party DPS may be not as efficient as you think. Comparing Rogue vs Spiritshifted Druid, I also find that by the time Rogue reachs the back side of an enemy, the Spirited Shift Druid (Hiravias) has attacked 3 times already. The damage per hit is also much more than Rogue's Sneak Attack. Spritshifted Druid, they surely hit hard and fast. Rogue has no attack speed buff. Even though Rogue can hit hard with proper setup. Sneak Attack in a combination with Deathblows can produce a big damage number. Rogue lacks attack speed. This is why most Rogue players must put a lot of stat on DEX in compensation. Per rest abilities are not enough. Shadowing Beyond, Finishing Blow, and Fearsome Strike are per-rest skills. Such constraints limit Rogue damage output harshly. When playing Rogue, unless meta gaming (you know what will happen next), people tend to keep these skills for the hard fight, which they do not know whether it will come soon or not. Eventually, they may not have a chance to use them at all. Limiting 1 time per rest on Fearsome Strike is a joke. Backstab is just an illusion. The skill is really hard to use. In order to Backstab an enemy, you need to be invisible or in stealth. With Stealth, you can do Backstab 1 time per encounter. With Shadowing Beyond, you can do 2 Backstab per rest. With level-15 skill Feign Death, you can do Backstab 1 time per encounter. The number of availability is low and what you get is merely +150% damage. Any normal character can reach +200% damage by attacking 3 times. A minmax Spiritshifted Druid may even attack 5 times while Rogue "prepares" to do Backstab. However, you might take this skill anyway because you do not have anything better to choose. This is kinda sad. Dirty Fighting is just a lesser version of +10 accuracy. Dirty Fighting is a great passive skill for any damage dealer. Everyone likes it. This skill is one of the reasons anybody wants to play Rogue as PC. However, other classes might have similar skill too such as Stalker Link from Ranger and Discipline Barrage from Figher. In summary, I want to like Rogue but the class is just not that good in PotD Upscale. All Rogue-lovers, please read this before comment. My opinion is based on PotD Upscale only. If your Rogue works on lower difficulty, I understand, but that is not the point here. Try playing White March II at level 15-16 and choose level upsacle to High Level and you will see what I mean.

like, more balanced stats instead of Drake Ambassador min-max. I saw The Gunslinger just now, and thought that maybe a melee chanter that uses both pDragon Thrashed and offensive invocations to deal damage? I know that casting invocations slows down phrase gain for a bit, but I wonder if that would still be viable from a damage-dealing perspective..? Stat spread I thought of: 15/8/8/15/18/14 ?

Sorcerer, Fury edition Wizard : No Subclass Druid : Fury Version : 3.0.1 Difficulty : PotD Solo : untested, unlikely. After my first sorcerer run I decided do away with the niceties, I realised that I was using only half the spells I had, some of them I had used about once in the entire run, and PEN was a real pain in the ass for the later third of the game. Race : Any, I played Aumauna Background : Rauatai & Scholar (or one of the other giving Metaphysics) Skills : Metaphysics and Athletics Stats : MIG : 16 CON : 8 DEX : 12 PER : 18 INT : 16 RES : 8 To be boosted with Gift of the Machine, Effigy Ressentment, Cauldron Brew, Savage Cunning (I wanted to go all PER but I forgot to change effigy, so it was DEX) Grimoire : Ninagauth’s Weapons : dagger and medium shield (start), Cadhu Scalth (Old City) & Griffin’s Blade (Random encounter Neketara), Chromoprismatic Staff (Nemnok) Armor : Aloth’s Leather Armor Rings : Kuaru's Prize (Huana Quest line), Ring of Greater Regeneration (Brass Citadel Shop) Gloves : Firethrower’s Gloves (Berath’s Blessing Merchant or Ashen Maw) Belt : The Undying Burden (Delver’s Row Shop) Boots : Leaping Boots or Footprints of Ahu Taka (Whenaru Cleft) Headgear : Horn of the Bleak Mother (or any +PER) Necklace : Protective Eothasian Charm (Gorecci Street) Cloak : Cloak of Greater Protection or Shroud of the Phantasm (Berkerna’s Observatory) Abilites: Free (f), picked upon leveling (p), Grimoires (g). Abilities I won't use are unmentioned. lvl 1: Dancing Bolts (f), Chill fog (p), Sunbeam (p) lvl 2 : Fleet Feet lvl 3 : ADL (p) lvl 4 : Infuse with Vital Essence (p), Burst of Summer Flame (f), Insect Swarm (p) lvl 5 : Weapon and Shield Style (p) lvl 6 : Automn Decay (p) I didn’t write in Burst of Summer Flame at the beginning, but that’s because I didn’t notice the cast time. It’s a great little instant damage button, sometimes Insect Swarm is not the right spell. lvl 7 : Returning Storm (f), Infestation of Maggots (p), Expose Vulnerabilities,(p), Ninagauth's Death Ray (g), Fireball (g) lvl 8 : Llengrath’s Displaced Image (p) lvl 9 : Combat Focus (p) lvl 10 : Hail Storm (f), Calling the World's Maw (p), Ninagauth's Shadowflame (g), Secrets of Rime (p) lvl 11 : Overwhelming Wave (p) lvl 12 : Heart of the Storm (p) Hail Storm is not great except for its massive AOE, I enjoyed using it as a out of stealth opener. lvl 13 : Plague of Insects (p), Relentless Storm (f), Rapid Casting (p), Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (g) lvl 14 : Embrace the Earth Talon (p) lvl 15 : Llengrath's Safeguard (p) lvl 16 : Sunlance (f), Venombloom (p), Death Ring (g), Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar (g), Gaze of the Adragan's (p) lvl 17 : Scion of Flame lvl 18 : Spirit of Decay lvl 19 : Rusted Armor (p), Tayn's Chaotic Orb (p), Ninagauth's Killing Bolt (g) lvl 20 : Accurate Empower This is not a difficult build. Stay back, buff, throw a Stun/Blind/Paralyse, look for the smallest AR/Defense rating, cast, repeat. Plenty of room for adaptation, no grimoire/weapon switching, no PL to keep track of. The last quarter of the game was spent casting CC in a chain and watching every possible ennemy getting their ass helplessly handed to them by Eder and Maia, while still having the highest dps.

Hi. Just noticed a strange thing. The weapon dps on companion is lower when he equips a weapon. The gun has a bit higher DPS in inventory and in the compare item tooltip. Is this a bug or does it show lower DPS when equipped including his skills? I disabled showing base stats to see real dps for my char. Does this affect companion guns or is it a bug?

Hello Everyone, I know game is out for some time now, but i enjoy it enough to finish it a couple of times. I read forum pretty much and community seems still active here. Would like to share with you my build. In RPG games i always go for melee guys, as ranged and spellcasters always annoys me and so is this time. With this build I was able to end game on PoTD with 300k overall damage, where Manhea, as second damage dealer in party made like 80k. For Boeroer and many other guys who knows game well this wont be anything special, but might be good option for someone like me who always think spellcasters are .. meh Idea of build is to pick mages/rangers and other squishes and end with them as fast as possible. For monk melee guys are not a big trouble since we got pretty big health pool so we just skip from target to target. With Flagellant real fun kicks in. There is no things that we need from other characters. But things that are nice is Priest lvl 4 buff +20 Accuracy and i love combo with paralyze from Cipher lvl 2 power. Enemy get great debuff to deflection and we can kill lot of guys with up to 3 torment's. Also You may ask here what when i get dominated. I just dominate myself with my cipher :D Untill i run back from enemy rear rank, there is already cipher running to me with his dominate. I hate consumables so used only potion of accuracy for every dragon. ------------------------- Difiiculty: PoTD in party. Started with idea of solo, but game was boring without Eder's speeches Party: This guy as Watcher, Pellagina (Tank), Eder/Manhea (Second Off-tank with Estoc), Durance (Ranged, but he shoot maybe 5 times/encounter and he is blind anyway), Grieving Mother (Ranged DPS/CC because ciphers are damn interesting class gj Obsidian), Hirvas/Alot (Basically whoever you want) ------------------------- Race: Moon Godlike. Target was to be as much self efficient as possible but with focus on DPS Class: Monk Role: DPS/Offtank. Generally it's designed to target squishes and end with them asap, without that much micro like rouges. ------------------------- Might: 18 +1 Constitution: 15 Dexterity: 18 +1 Perception: 18 Intelligence: 3 +1 Resolve: 3 ------------------------- Talents and skills: Torment reach (For me cone of it is too small to cry on low INT and target is simple enemy anyway Swift strikes / Long stride (I took Swift strikes due to lack some speed early game) Turning wheel Duality of mortal presence (Always set for other defenses) Crucible of suffering (Man it's like flat buff) Flagellant's path (This is where it become way easier to get to mages) The Dichotomous Soul (Didn't use it too much as it take forever to cast it and with low Resolve it get interrupted like hell, but was useful in hard fights) Iron wheel Weapon Focus: Peasant (Around level 10 respec this only for ruffian as dual purgatory is cool as hell and I cant live without dual wielding) Two Weapon Style / Vulnerable Attack (If you are going for Raedric early go for Vulnerable Attack here) Vulnerable Attack / Two Weapon Style (Vulnerable always ON ) Bull's Will (This build lack will as... as... ... very much. Basically target was to be self efficient so from now i will stack defenses against Paralyze) Body Control (Again - Paralyze is our worst enemy) Mental Fortress / Sneak Attack (Charms are annoying too, but there are less enemies able to charm than paralyze imo) Superior Deflection / Sneak Attack (Won't hurt and I run out of ideas) About LVL 10 I respec WF: Peasant for Ruffian and we start using sabres instead of fists. Didn't do it, but lower CON and add to RES could take place, but I didn't feel i need it, Manhea or even tanky Pellagina need rest more often than I. ------------------------- I didn't stuck so much to items, as we can adjust them pretty much like Orlan's Bramble Ring/Fenwalkers/Wayfarer's Hide (all of them paralyze def) but I will post my equipment Armor: Early - Plate from Raedric hold Middle/End - Sanguine armor / Hand and Key is cool also but damn, it looks bad imo / Wayfarer's Hide (Paralyze def) / Blaidh Golan (Durgan always) Boots: Early - Take whatever you found :D We don't have that much choice Middle/End - Shod-in-faith / Fenwalker (Just remember to not suppress with Orlan Bramble Ring for example) Neck: Spellward Amulet all the time. Again Paralyze is what I hate, and it usually comes from spell. In case of these 4-handed Laufgsdghfdsdgfsf from White March we can change it for something else. I didn't. Hand: Early - Gauntlet that gives +2 DEX early on Middle/End - Gauntlet of swift action (These are usefull to get 0-recovery as we are interrupted a lot) Belt: It get nice when we get to Looped Rope. It's a must have to change all hits and criticals from paralyze, charms to grazes. Rings: Orlan's Bramble Ring / Ring of Protection / Ring of deflection / Ring of thorns Weapon: Early/Middle - Fists. These have superior damage and speed. Are cheap. And have superior damage. Not to mention their speed. Change with spears when needed. Middle/End - Dual Purgatory. With all upgrades. I think there is no need to comment. Could switch to Edge of Reason, but i love dual swords/sabres. This build gave me much fun and fulfilled my expectations with llike 330k overall dmg done and around 140 biggest single hit. With swift strikes ON we hit 0 recovery with Vulnerable Attack ON, yet it's not needed since we get Purgatory. If u got any suggestions, let's discuss

Like the title says I would love to hear your builds that would fit well together. 1 Tank 1 Melee DPS 1 Ranged 1 Magic 1 Healer Custom characters all. Thanks in advance!

First of all, I'd like to say that im still new on this game but im so amazed on the game mechanics that i cant help but to create my own DPS calculator. There are so many factor which affects the DPS but for now id like to discuss how Accuracy stat really affects the DPS outcome of your character. (Any criticism is very welcome, you can contest your own opinion if you want. It would help me also have a deeper insight for the game.) In my understanding, accuracy determines the success rate of your attacks, regardless of how high your DMG if you dont land a hit then its close to useless. Success Rate = (Accuracy - Deflection) + (1-100 Roll) If the sum is: 1-15 = Miss - You have a 15% chance that you will never land a hit. 16-50 = Graze - 35% chance, you will land a hit but it will be only 50% of your DMG (0.5DMG) 51-100 = Hit - 50% chance to land 100% of your DMG. >100 = 0% chance, but if you land it it will be x1.5DMG(Awesome!) Now lets assume that your Average weapon DMG is 17 (14-20 for Great Swords), for starters. And you are a level 1 Fighter (Accuracy=30) fighting a young wolf with 24 Deflection, your total accuracy before Roll is 6(30-24=6). giving you a: (6 + 1) - 15 = 7-15 = 9% Miss chance 16 - 50 = 35% Graze chance 51-100 = 50% Hit Chance 101 - 106 = 6% Crit Chance. Multiplying your DMG to the percentage would give you your Average DPS. Percentage x DMG Multiplier x Ave DMG Total ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.09 x 0.0 x 17 = 0 0.35 x 0.5 x 17 = 2.975 0.50 x 1.0 x 17 = 8.5 0.06 x 1.5 x 17 = 1.53 Total DMG = 0 + 2.975 + 8.5 + 1.53 = 13.005 or approx. 13 To prove the basis of calculation, Suppose to be you have a 100% chance to always land a hit, (1 x 1 x 17= 17) that would give you a full potential of your weapon damage since its always a hit. And if you had only a 50% chance of hit and 50% on crit(say because you had an overwhelming Accuracy), the calculation would be: (0.5 x 1 x 17) + (0.5 x 1.5 x 17) = (8.5) + (12.75) = 21.25 which is gives you 25% more of your weapon potential.(Amazing) Now at Level 1 Fighter I always choose the "Disciplined Barrage" over "Knock Down" because of the bonus + 20 Accuracy. Calculating the added accuracy of the ability would give me a DMG of: Accuracy before Roll = (30 + 20 -24) = 26 Miss = 0% Graze (27-50) = 24% Hit (51-100) = 50% Crit (101-126) = 26% therefore: 0.00 x 0.0 x 17 = 0 0.24 x 0.5 x 17 = 2.04 0.50 x 1.0 x 17 = 8.5 0.26 x 1.5 x 17 = 6.63 Total DMG = 0 + 2.04 + 8.5 + 6.63 = 17.17 DMG before Damage Reduction. Now I know that there are a lot of factor affecting the DMG,(Might,Dex, equipment etc) but i guess Accuracy is as important as other stats. Now Im trying to make a DPS calculator, and im reading the Weapon attack speed from other forums to do this so. What are your thoughts guys.

Since this was requested I will type up this build. It does require a mod from nexus to unlock Woedica Priest subclass - but if you play monk/priest you may as well go all out and play the Woedica priest because of the excellent spiritual weapon synergy on Woedica: +20% raw damage on "summoned fist" attacks that synergize with monk bonuses to fist attacks. Unmodded Skaen/Helwalker also works but is not quote-unquote absolutely optimized and "op". Note: Helwalker can be replaced by Nalpazca if you don't want to be super squishy although barring death's door kind of solves the squishiness later. This build does excellent single target and aoe damage and is very versatile. This is the general guide, for a more solo specific Contemplative playthrough check this excellent guide as it is more focused on solo play: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105553-build-servant-of-death/ Woedica is a more powerful priest subclass for monk combo than barath so this one is definately adabtable. Race: Human or Death Godlike - human if you want more accuracy on cc attacks and death godlike for more damage potential Stats: (no bonuses) Might 14 + 1 (Human) Constitution 7 Dex 15 Perc 18 Int 18 +1 (old Vaila) 3 +1 (Human) note this is strictly the stat distribution for party play if you are soloing you probably want to lower Might and Dex and not dump resolve or con so much - although this build can handle the low stats once you get barring death's door + salvation of time. And even in Party play going dex 10 / con 12 is not a bad idea if you want more room for error and be on the safe side of things. There are some variations in the ability selection involved ! = mandatory , r= highly recommended Leveling 1. Swift Strikes!/ Restore r default spell: Writ of Engagement 2. lesser wounds! 3. halt (early game) / later can be replaced by suppress affliction r or arms bearer or keep halt. Suppress Affliction is probably the best choice 4. Two-Weapon style! / Withdraw ! default spell: Summon Spiritual Weapon (Fists) 5. Dance of Death ! 6. Clarity of Agony or Weapon and shield style (solo), even The Long Stride is an option in strictly party play but you will probably go with either weapon+shield or Clarity of Agony in solo play or if you want to off-tank 7. Torment's Reach! / Dire Blessing! Default: Writ of Consumption 8. Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry: choose one...Lightning Strikes probably is the more consistent dps choice, in a party setting, you may get more mileage out of Swift Flurry since the party can buff/debuff enough for you to land lots of crits. Overall Lightning Strikes is probably the more sound choice. 9. Stunning Blow r ...while optional and not a core ability to the build it is highly recommended, and the alternatives are pretty underwhelming (combat focus???? really) one of the Bulls/Snakes/Bears talents or the excellent Clarity of Agony if you haven't picked it up yet - but those are more options for solo play where some extra defensives are prioritized over offense. 10. Duality of Mortal Presence! / Scion of Flame! Default spell: Divine Terror note: here things get tricky on the priest side. Scion of Flame is the strongest selection for the end-build but you won't need it immediately so you may take Litany for the Body or Devotions for the Faithful. Out of the two I like Litany for the Body slightly more because it is a fast cast (and +2 ar on top of a good armor is very good) cast but given the aoe effect Devotion for the Faithfull is very good in a party setting. In party probably Devotions is better. Absoluely and in my opinion don't fall for the trap of taking Shining Beacon - yes it is an excellent spell, but one that can be more effectively cast from a scroll. Just keep in mind that for the end build Scion of Flame is the thing to take for the end build and all of your other tier 4 abilities will go into the monk tree. 11. Enduring Dance ! 12. Thunderous Blows 13. Raised Torment ! / Barring Death's Door ! Deafult spell: Writ of War 14. Rooting Pain r 15. Stunning Surge r 16. Turning Wheel !/ Salvation of Time ! default spell: Pillar of Holy Fire 17. Flagellant's Path r 18. Litany for the Spirit r - note: around this time it is a good idea to respec and take Scion of Flame at Priest lvl4 And take either Litany for the Spirit here (recommended) or Keep Devotions of the Faithful at level 4 Priest in addition to Scion of Flame 19. The Dichotomous Soul ! / Storm of Holy Fire ! default spell: writ of sorcery note: I now recommend Dichotomous Soul over Heartbeat Drumming as in patch 2.1 the soul summons will be buffed so in the end they will be more effective than Heartbeat Drumming. You can opt to take minor avatar instead of dichotomous soul though - it is a question if you want 2x very effective summons or if you want to boost your own stats a bit more - with the monk bonuses I personally do not think minor avatar is necessary. 20. Skyward Kick ! Alternative Variation: It is also interesting particularly when soloing, to go for a "kiting" approach: in that case you would stack stride via The Long Stride, Boots of speed etc and take The Long Pain (without upgrade) - that way you can run around and attack from range with your buffed fists. It is definitely an interesting approach. Also if solo play is the focus you should probably give up stunning surge in favor of 2 more defensive talents - definitely clarity of agony and upgrade. Overall assessment: This character is very strong from start and gets even more power to the endgame. As you see by the time you hit level 4 your damage engine is already in place: you have the Spiritual summoned fists on the Priest side and Swift strikes from the monk with generous healing abilities in withdraw, restoration and holy radiance, from there it progressively gets stronger. Another milestone is at level 13 with Barring Death's Door and finally the capper at level 19 with Storm of Holy Fire. It tested very favorably in terms of dps beating out a strong witch rdps meaning it should actually exceed aoe avenging storm blunderbuss scouts - but more importantly it does very high single target damage along with aoe damage and is efficient in doing that seamlessly especially at high levels: after casting storm of holy fire it is free to move in with high single target pressure thanks to skyward kick + stunning surge or further aoe pressure through pillar of holy fire and raised torment and flagellent's path. Further, and this is specific to the Woedica subclass of priest, not only does it get a bonus +20% raw damage to your fist attacks through the spiritual weapon, but you have access to nasty "writ" spells that can pretty much disable enemies: How does Writ of War (level 5) sound? Enemies cannot use active abilities (in a small aoe) for 20+ seconds (up to 30 seconds with high intelligence). Or Divine Terror terror (level 4) - frightened for up 40s with high intelligence. Or Finally Writ of Sorcery (level 6) - cannot cast spells for another 30 seconds. You can disable dangerous targets that way while you pummel them. Also even though I do not use ranged weapons, Acina's Trihorn hat is a very good headgear for this because it gives you +5 accuracy on such attacks. Typical play/ ai behaviour is such: (simplified) Always choose by list order First defensives: 1.) If health under 50%-> Second Wind, Holy Radiance, Restore 2.) If near death -> Bearing Death's Door, Withdraw Offensive list order Turning Wheel is active 3.) Lightning strikes 4.) Dance of Death/ Enduring Dance 5.) Storm of Holy Fire 6.) If attacking high armor target -> tenacious blows 7.) if engaging -> spiritual weapon, dire blessing 8.) If target is bloodied -> Stunning Surge 9.) If engaging/engaged by multiple enemies -> raised torment 10.)lowest fortitude -> Skyward kick 11.)weak to fire-> pillar of Holy fire If soloing you want to buff up first with barring death's door +salvation of time before going into attack mode and keep an eye on the buff bar and be ready to withdraw should you need it. Abilities like the writ abilities, summons, and others you can control by hand Recommended gear: Acina's Trihorn head if not choosing death godlike - boosts accuracy on lots of your spell attacks Armor: If you are soloing you want plate until you get death's door/ salvation of time otherwise I like High Harbinger Robes, Pale Hide, Bloody Links or Gipon Prodensco as well as Garari Cuiras. Pale Hide or Bloody Links is probably the best overall choice here. Rings: Ring of Focused Flame (especially later), after that it depends on situation, solitary wanderer if you are soloing and greater regeneration or Kuaru's Prize if you are in a party. Also Ring of Minor Protection is handy too. Neck: Strand of Favor Cloak: Greater Deflection , Frostfur are nice and of course Nemnok's Cloak if you pferer that Boots: there are boots that give you an extra second level priest cast, those are good Belt: I like The Maker's Own power here personally Bracers: Rekvu's are good when soloing because consitution afflictions are nasty, otherwise Accuracy bracers or Hylea's Talons are nice here going with the "fist" attack theme. Weapons: The beauty of summon spiritual weapon: fists is that it replaces any weapons you have equipped with summoned fists so you don't need an extra weapon slot for more versatility. Otherwise, as fire stat sticks you can't really beat Sun and Moon + Marux Amanth, though Magran's Favor + Marux Amanth may be more consistent Magistrate's Cudgel is great against kith and allows for some really nasty things like marked (+10 accuracy for 30 seconds) followed up by writ of war on the target with a very good chance to hit and poof! suddenly because of your ultra high intelligence thanks to monk they can't use active abilities for 35-40 serconds easy. Follow this up by switching to to something like Frostfall and killing things and the duration of writ of war gets extended on the target. Club (especially the modal) is crucial here to debuff enemy will save further if you want to land those nasty writ spells. And your dps bread and butter is the summoned fist attacks. With turning wheel active you get the following bonuses +10 might (if helwalker) +15% lightning strikes (non conditional), +20% fire damage (turning wheel - but average is closer to 10-15% because you won't be at max wounds all the time) , +20% raw (summoned weapon:fist), and of course there is tenacious from thunderous blows for another +2 penetration. In general to take advantage of the fire stat sticks you want to start a fight by doing storm of holy fire and pillar of fire and then transition into monk melee pummeler mode with summoned fists after buffing with dire blessing. Anyways this is a beautiful build and looks badass to play because of the vampiric summoned fists, enjoy and definitely try this one out, I think it is one of the more fun melee pummeler/offensive spell caster hybrid builds out there.

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

I have created a DPS calculator for Deadfire. I used a custom function (Makro) to calculate how the game handles stacking of multipliers (it is neither simply multiplicative nor additive). The row above the main table is to enter your character values (your accuracy, damage multipliers from talents, equipment bonuses,...), but the bonuses from your weapons are listed separately in the table. To calculate the total multiplier for one of your stats, you have to use my custom function WMULT (). Let's say you have a damage bonus of +15% from might, +20% from soul whip and -30% from another talent, then you have to enter "=WMULT(1.15;1.2;0.7)" into the "dmg mult" field above the table. If you have another +10% damage bonus on your weapon, you enter that into the table. I am not very far into the game, so i have only added the base weapons, but you should be able to add any other weapon to the table to calculate DPS. Edit: Added dual-wield bonus, added modal abilities, added spell dps Excel Spreadsheet Google Speadsheet

Hello all. I'm towards the beginning of a Cipher run, and believe it or not, I've never played a Cipher before (I know, they're supposed to be amazing, but I'm just getting around to it). Now, I'm at the point where I need to start making some real commitments to what direction I'm going to take my character in, but I'm split between two: 1. Crazy Awesome DPS 2. Crazy Awesome Crowd-control As you can see, either would be crazy awesome. But essentially, my character could go either way and, since I have zero experience with Ciphers, I was just wondering what the masses would suggest. Of the Cipher powers, which ones do you think are more effective, which ones work well with a party set-up (I'm probably going to stick mostly with Eder, Pallegina, Aloth, Durance, and Kana - I'm thinking of carrying this character over to Deadfire), etc.? Just FYI, my build is as follows: Meadow Folk Might: 16 Constitution: 9 Dexterity: 10 Perception: 15 Intellect: 18 Resolve: 10 And I'm playing on Hard. All suggestions are welcome.

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.

Hi Josh & Aarik, thanks a lot for answering those questions and feeding us with infos. One thing though: looking through the said video I noticed how you guys answered a question about bashing shields: You answered something like that it's not supposed to be a big dps boost. One should use dual wieldung or two handers for that. A shield is suppoed to give you deflection and not dps. So far, so good, but I think you misunderstood: The thing is that bashing shields reduce the dps compared to normal shields! It seems you don't know about that (which is understandable). Bashing doesn't speed up your attacks - so instead of hitting things with your good and sharp sword every 2 seconds, you will alternate between sword's good damage and the low damage of bashing. You will do less dps than a guy who uses a regular shield! Let me put it this way: If you wield sword & shield and attack 10 times with that sword - it does 10 damage - you will do 100 damage in total, right? Now if you attack 5 times with the same sword and 5 times with a shield bash that does 3 damage, you will only do 65 damage (I made the numbers up to make it plain). In the same amount of time (because unlike dual wielding, using a bashing shield doesn't speed up your attacks) you will do less damage compared to a normal shield guy. The worst thing about this is that bashing also costs you enchantment slots. You basically pay for a dps loss. Bashing must at least cause the same amount of damage as your main weapon if you don't want to produce a dps loss compared to normal shields. This is difficult to achieve and also not very logical. So another way to upvalue bashing would be a stun- or prone-on-crit effect, a small push effect on hit/crit, disorienting on hit (basically like some unique weapons have), dazing or whatever comes to mind which would make bashing useful and not a gimpage. One could also think of an active ability like Knockdown like the Girdle of the Driving Wave has: Knockdown 1/encounter. All those stuff would be plausible and not hard to implement. Some of the PoE1 shields had things like that (or even way better), like Badgradr's Barricade or Dragon's Maw. The other bash shields would have been better if there weren't bashing on them at all. I hope you understand what I mean. Now you surely agree that something has to be done. It wasn't my question by the way. But a good one I think.

Hey there fairly new to the game, been looking around at builds and such and playing a little on my own getting up to Kana. I've been abit on the fence about builds and such though seeing what will be viable in the long run, I own both White Marches so I cap at 16 I think. I'm adamant about playing on Path of the damned and it doesn't seem all that bad for me at the minute, a few wipes but once I had Eder in there things picked up. I was running this before Human - Shieldbearer - Living Lands Might 20 Constitution 3 (This really hurt for a while but got past it eventually) Dexterity 3 (Slooooooow) Perception 18 Intellect 15 Resolve 19 Looking at what's around none of this synergies well at all. I've heard about the Wayfarer's though I think Shieldbearer's were just what I was attracted to RP wise. Basically I want to run a Greatsword with backup Arquebus etc. Who basically buffs his teamates slightly with heals and auras, doesn't have to be over the top. Hence just leaving intellect at 15 for dialogue and abit of AOE. Abilities wise Im open to suggestions I know about Strange Mercy and Lay on hands and that's about it aswell as some proficiency talents. I'm fine with a bit of squishiness if I can get the healing off or just back off and become a gunner etc. This doesn't have to be min/maxy but just wondering what will get me through to the end. At the minute Constitution and Dexterity are a hard sell on me but I'm worried about dumping resolve since I think it might have been the only reason along with the outworn buckler that I even reached Kana. Any help is appreciated, Cheers.

Looking to make an Officer inspired Priest of Magran build. Mostly an RP for Normal or possibly Hard difficulty with companions from the game. Almost like Cadegund from the companions that were dropped before release. Think heavy plate, arquebus, sword and shield. Anyone got any tips for stats, talents, gear to look out for (and what quests to do to get that gear)? Would appreciate any tips and hints at all. I know I want to play Human (Meadow Folk), and that I want to be a Priest of Magran and Mercenary background. But other than that I am flexible. Thanks alot!

Hello everyone, At release, it was viable to have a Cipher dual wielding stilletos or sabres. In fact, if you look at the Zealot Fenix build in http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844 , it shows a build I had in mind. However, 3.0 is now released and there have been many changes across the board. Has anyone created a viable dual-wielding build for the Cipher class? If so, can you please share? Thank you in advance!

I got this game right after it came out. Despite being the two classes I was looking forward to most, the ranger and druid classes were a huge let-down. Ranger: Despite being marketed as one of the main damaging classes, the ranger's DPS was nothing to write home about. Neither was the animal companion. (But I kept playing anyway, because I love animals.) The Druid was an even bigger let-down. Despite all the pre-release updates gushing about the spiritshifting abilities, it turned out to be very weak. It was only mildly effective during the first few levels of the game, but then it failed to scale up with the character. That, combined with the complete lack of special abilities to boost it the way you got tons of abilities to boost your spellcasting, meant you quickly had to abandon it and stick to spellcasting exclusively. (I know I sound greedy and ungrateful since the druid was one of the best spellcasters at the time, but it was the spiritshifting ability I really wanted. I would have gladly taken the option to focus on spiritshifting over spellcrafting, and sacrificed being able to become a first-rate spellcaster to become a second-rate warrior if only it meant spiritshifting didn't get me killed every battle.) There was some talk about the devs eventually balancing them better, but I quickly finished my first playthrough then moved onto other games and projects while I waited. Now I'm back, and I'd like to know if anything has changed since I've been away? Or should I aim to finish my cipher or chanter instead?

Hi everyone Looking for some comments and suggestions. Aiming for a heavy-hitting, 2-H Paladin, that also has the accuracy to actually land-hits, and the resolve for dialogue. Might: 18 Con: 8 Dex: 12 Perc: 16 Int: 8 Res: 16 Ocean Folk, White Wends, Laborer Thoughts? My only thought was that perception may be too high, and would be better used bumping Dex or Con. Thanks for your help!

Hi all! Really liking PoE so far. Only 20-something hours in, about half way through Act 2 & I've got a question regarding my party's damage output, specifically why it seems so low. Whole party is level 6. Eder (Heaviest armor i can find, shield, fine sabre) Aloth (leather armor, fine wand) Durance (fine robe, fine wand) Kana (heaviest armor available, shield, fine hatchet) Pelligrina (Heaviest armor available, shield, fine pike / spear thing) Cipher [me] (fine leather armor, fine war bow / lead spitter, key spells used are Mental Binding & Mind Blades) recently been doing some quests around Defiance Bay, and I've noticed that my damage output seems really low. like, each party member is only doing 2-5 damage per hit. without spoilers, the enemies i've been facing recently all have a DR of about 10-15 & I'm hitting for the MIN damage value more often than not. Have I done something wrong gear or skill-wise? should I be hitting harder at this level? most fights at the moment are drawn-out wars of attrition. my casters drop before too long coz I cant defeat anything quick enough & my front line just sit there slowly hacking away. most of the time, they get the job done, but it takes ages & I cant help but feel I'm doing something wrong. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(Scroll all the way down for example fights and lots of screenshots of various battles). Portraits (for use in game) Difficulty - Path of the Damned - Trial of Iron Class/Role - Fighter - DPS, off tank, flanker or second tank to form shield wall with eder - Laborer (+1 athletics & mechanic) Race/Origin - Orlan - +10 chance to critical when attacking same target as ally - Living lands for +1 might Stats - Might: 18 - Con: 3 - Dex: 18 - Per: 18 - Int: 3 - Resolve: 18 NOTE: Fighter have constant recovery which heals you for +3.9 endurance, this is why you can get away with low constitution for this build. This was my health after clearing all of magran's fork at level 3 with the following party, compare it to eder's. NOTE: I was able to kill all the wolves in Valenwood solo by backing into a corner and fighting them two at a time, I drank one beer, made and ate Duc's Own Beefloaf and pearlwood chicken, used one minor recovery potion. Weapons/Food 1st weapon slot - Estoc 2nd weapon slot - Pollaxe or Warbow depending on intel gathered before fight. Optional Hatchet & Large shield is a great choice too which can put the Orlan in high deflection mode in case he needs to temporarily tank. He already gets high deflection from the perception & resolve being at 18. NOTE: Estoc for piercing DR bypass, Pollaxe in case you need slash/crush, Warbow in case you need to range if path to enemy is blocked. NOTE: Estoc penetrates heavy player enemies extremely well. Always drink Ale + Pearlwood chicken for fights you think may be tough. This applies to all companions. Minimum, make sure eder and this character eat chicken and ale before tough fights. pearlwood chick gives +2 constitution, +10 endurance and the ale gives +2 damage reduction. Skills - Disciplined Barrage - Increase accuracy which means higher chance of critical - Weapon Focus Adventurer - Gives +6 accuracy for Estoc, Pollaxe & Warbow. - Confident Aim - 1.2x minimum damage, 20% of grazes convert to hits - What you pick after is your choice since the above three skills is most important. NOTE: On POTD you'll need all the accuracy you can get. Accuracy ensures higher chance of getting those criticals. NOTE: In order of priority increase Mechanic, Athletic, then a little bit to survival, lore and sneaking. I like having multiple utilities at my disposal. ARMOR - Plate or Brigandine - Heaviest armor you can get Tactics - Let tank go in first, once enemies have chosen their targets, move behind an enemy to flank with your estoc or pollaxe. Have the entire party also focus your target with ranged attacks. - Save disciplined barrage for the most dangerous enemy in the group. Damage - VS WOLF, When you're level 3 you'll do 25-36 damage with each hit and rarely miss. - VS SHADE, When you're level 4 you'll do enough damage to a shade to take it down even with it's 16 DR. - VS Plate Armor Tank Enemy, you'll do enough damage to take him down with no problem. Survivability & Recovering from Mistakes - This build is all about surviving mistakes, but still being a powerful DPS. Rogue, Barbarian, Monk and any other class would normally go down if you make a mistake, but with this build you can make a mistake and still recover due to high high deflection and constant recovery which make it great for blind play through. Level 3's VS Boars Positioning First, Notice the tree to right of Eder, notice our orlan fighter slightly behind and to the left of eder. We're going to let eder handle as many of the boars as possible. Boars attack, notice how they are confused, so I don't attack with the Orlan fighter and patiently wait, situation is under control. Young boar moves in, now is a good time to move in our fighter, I make durance, kana & aloth help focus fire the young boar. After young boar dies, two boars move in and attack the Orlan fighter, THIS IS BAD. I MESSED UP. I I should've moved the orlan fighter back after killing the young boar, which would of resulted in one of the boars attacking eder and the other engaging the orlan fighter. At this point have aloth, durance & kana focus fire the boar on left. Two hits from both boars took the Orlan down to two bubbles of endurance, so I have Durance heal him back to four bubbles. Our orlan is still taking a bit of damage, boars hit hard, due to constant recovery I have enough time to have Durance put down the consecrated ground healing circle. Even with consecrated ground boars hit real hard, so I have durance throw a healing iconic projection toward our fighter. Our orlan fighter kills boar, constantly hitting for 25-30 damage and NEVER missing. He has not missed once up to this point. Next boar, focus fire with party. You can check out the damage numbers on the bottom right for our fighter orlan, note that he has still not missed an attack up to this point, reliably dealing 25-30 damage with each attack. Boar hitting our orlan fighter stats. Our orlan fighter doesn't miss any atttacks, continuing to reliably deal 25-30 dmg per hit. Move in to flank and get that flanking bonus, normally this is what you want to do at the start of the fight, but the BOARS WERE TOO MANY. The orlan did not miss one attack during the whole fight and was able to take damage from two hard hitting high level boars on POTD until Durance came in for the heals. Conclusion The beauty of this build is in recovering from mistakes which is vital if you're playing POTD, Trial of Iron in a blind play through, while still being able to dish out DR bypass critical damage. Remember to let the tank go in first, let the enemies settle into position, assess the situation, then decide if you're going to use the orlan fighter or patiently wait. The point of this build is to deal high damage criticals without missing and having that constant recovery to stay on the front line. I've tried rogues & monks, but they go down too fast before I have time to heal with durance. I make mistakes and recovering from them is important. Another thing you can do is equip a large shield & hatchet, if your orlan fighter gets into too much trouble, just switch him to hatchet & large shield and he'll go into HIGH deflection mode. *cheers*

Greetings fellow watchers. So im planning a 2h dps fighter on hard. Im thinking of maxing might, per, res, then dump int3, leave con and dex at 10. Now considering other related posts i have a few questiions. 1. Is knockdown or disciplned barage better at lvl1 and why? (Knockdown seems like a dps ability in disguise since it lowers def) 2. Which talents/abilities should i take and why? (i have settled on most but the descriptions are so vague sometimes, i am not sure) 3. For 2handed ive read you should leave dex at 10. Why? isnt attack speed always good for dps? 4. Estoc or greatsword? Estoc seems so good even considering the great sword dual dmg type. 5. Armor? (thinking of heavy) How much more durable is he considering barb and rogue? Any other advice is appreciated Note: I have settled on the 2handed dps fighter thingy so no need for "rogue, barbarian are better at dps, or go dual wield" posts. I will also much appreciate corroborated answers from players that have tested stuff. Thanks in advance

Hello all, I'm new to the game and have been trying to build a melee DPS class. I have been mostly toying around with Barbarian and Rogue, and had some questions about Resolve, Concentration & Interrupt. In both cases, I decided to dump Resolve to 3, and now that I'm a few levels in, I noticed that I keep getting interrupted anytime I get hit. I'm considering re-rolling, but am unsure if I should as raising Resolve would force me to lower DPS stats. Which amount of resolve is recommended for a melee DPS class? Which amount would allow me to avoid being interrupted too often? Is it worth to trade off my damage output for getting interrupted less? I'm still at the very beginning of the game. If I leave my Resolve at 3, will it be possible to raise my concentration and limit the amount of times I get interrupted through items/talents? Thank you for your help

Hello Theorycrafters, I'm thinking about running a Hybrid Dual Wield Fighter as a main. The idea is to use Dual Weapons and KDs as crowd control in one slot, while still being able to tank when switching to a handaxe and shield in the second slot. I do intend to run a main tank alongside him though. anyway, currently the plan looks like this: Might 14 Constitution 06 Dexterity 18 Perception 14 Intelligence 10 Resolve 16 Level Ability Talent 1 Knock Down 2 Bonus KD 3 Defender 4 Wary Defender 5 Disciplined Barrage 6 Two Weapon Style 7 Weapon Spec 8 Vulnerable Attack 9 Vigorous Defense 10 Weapon Focus 11 Into the Fray or Clear Out 12 Weapon Mastery I'm leaning towards Wild Orlan and Maces/Noble weapon Specialization. As it stands, the build will come out 18 points short on deflection compared to a dedicated Tank fighter and a few points short on other defenses. On the offensive side, his damage increasing talents hit late and are few. though from the whole fighter set, what I miss out on is only savage attack and confident aim; and of course 6 points of might. Of course, the fighter is already a bit short on +% damage talents compared to other classes, but then again, most of it is covered by enchantments in late game anyway. I know, PoE isn't the best game if you enjoy hybrid builds, but what are your thought on the build? viable (I know it's playable, which build isn't)? Any comments for improvements (aside from: stop trying to make a hybrid of course)? Thanks and happy discussing!

I tested spell speed this evening. Fast 2.23 seconds consumed Frames to Effect: 14 Frames to Completion: 35 Frames of Recovery: 32 AVERAGE 4.3 seconds consumed Frames to Effect: 53 Frames to Completion: 79 Frames of Recovery: 50 SLOW 7.93 seconds consumed Frames to Effect: 128 Frames to Completion: 132 Frames of Recovery: 106 I used naked Wood Elves with 10 Dexterity as a baseline. Recorded casting in FRAPS at 30 FPS and checked speed frame by frame in After Effects. Dissected single spells and verified with queues of 5 spells. Speed seems to vary some within categories, as fireball and burst of summer flame gave different results. There is a slight delay between when the system declares a spell has been cast and when it realizes that spell's effect, probably based on the effect's animation. I tested the same spell with 10 Dex and 20 Dex to find that the next spell occurs 30% faster, so Dex expedites casting time and recovery time, but had little effect on realization time. For comparison, a hunting bow is 3.0 seconds consumed, 45 frames to completion, 45 frames of recovery. Fast spells are ~25% faster than hunting bows, deal ~100% more base damage and can reach a 1.4x damage multiplier (talent, bracers), so a good fast spell is akin to a hunting bow with a 2.4x damage multiplier and swift aim. Below is my raw data pasted from notepad. --------- FAST --------- (DRUID summer flame) 10 frames to be told cast 13 frames to see damage 35 frames to end casting animation 32 frames to start new casting animation //13 to damage [0.43 seconds] 35 to end [1.17 seconds] 32 to new action [1.07 seconds] 67 frames total [2.23 seconds] (DRUID summer flame [20 Dexterity]) 7 frames to be told cast 12 frames to see damage 29 frames to end casting animation 23 frames to start new casting animation //12 to damage [0.4 seconds] 29 to end [0.97 seconds] 23 to new action [0.77 seconds] 52 frames total [1.73 seconds] (WIZARD fireball) 14 frames to be told cast 17 frames to see damage 36 frames to end casting animation 34 frames to start new casting animation //17 to damage [0.56 seconds] 36 to end casting animation [1.2 seconds] 34 to new action [1.13 seconds] 70 frames total [2.33 seconds] --------- AVERAGE --------- (DRUID blizzard) 50 frames to be told cast 53 frames to see damage 79 frames to end casting animation 50 frames to start new casting animation //53 to damage [1.77 seconds] 79 to end [2.63 seconds] 50 to new action [1.67 seconds] 129 frames total [4.3 seconds] --------- SLOW --------- (DRUID returning storm) 128 frames to be told cast [4.27 seconds] 132 frames to end casting animation [4.4] 106 frames to new action [3.53] 238 frames total [7.93 seconds] *Changed a few frames after verifying with a paused queue. Fast -1 frame, Average +3 frames.

I wander if is possible a DPS Paladin not specialized in any type of weapons (two handed, marksman, etc), that can be able to use all kind of stuff out there. I have two possible orders: Goldpact Knights (+Fire) and Bleak Walkers (+Corrode) this last one looks interesting because the variety of damage (If I found creatures with high fire immunity), but I have two problems with it: 1) I don't like to play its alignment (aggressive, cruel). Is that important to the lore or is just there to define a build? 2) Do I need a special weapon to have that corrode bonuses? This is the build: Human - Deadfire Archipelago (to hit more) Attributes Might 18 (+24% Damage +16 Fort) Constitution 10 Dexterity 20 (+30% Speed +20 Reflex) Perception 10 Intellect 10 Resolve 10 Abilities Faith and Conviction Flames of Devotion (+Fire damage) Zealous Focus (having average INT mainly is to buff myself) Sworn Enemy Liberated Exhortation Righteous Soul Haste Exhortation Talents Intense Flames (+Fire Damage) Remember Rakhan (+Corrode Damage) — for Goldpact Enduring Flames (+Fire over time) Critical Focus Scion of Flame (+Burn Damage) Spirit of Decay (+Corrode Damage) — for Goldpact Envenomed Strike Bloody Slaughter The final Flames of Devotion damage would be: [Weapon Damage] + 24% (Might) +100% Fire (Flames) +50% Corrode (Enduring) +20% Fire (Scion) +20% Corrode (Spirit) for Goldpact: [Weapon Damage] + 24% (Might) +100% Fire (Flames) +10 (Enduring) +20% Fire (Scion) What do you think? Is a useful build to play Hard with the lore companions?