Which builds are FUN after 1.1

[Nemesis7884]

So what kind of builds / multiclasses do you think are more/still fun after 1.1 - not talking about uber-efficient min max wise; but FUN to play... (within a party)? Melee preferably...

[Tigranes]

Most of them?

 

From my experience, rogues still send body parts flying, Heralds are still walking mountains, wizards can transform the battlefield with the right setup, etc. I'm most curious about the ranger, but have yet to try  it single or multi.

[ErlKing]

Depends on what you would call fun.

 

Among martial classes I would say Barbarian and Rogue are offensive oriented ones and get fun stuff from the start.

For Barbarian Berserker sub-class is min-maxing for damage and Corpse-eater is just for style, as it's worse than default barbarian gameplay wise.

Assassin or Streetfighter for Rogue give nice bonuses, first lets you play as stealthy damage spike hero and second more of skirmisher in midst of enemies.

 

Combining these two give Marauder - pretty fun class to play with good passives and Frenzy from barbarian and mobility tools plus powerful debilitating attacks from Rogue. You have to position Marauder and combine effects properly to get max effect from Marauder, but result is great and it is satysfying when you can pull it off.

 

Alternatively mixes with other classes are also interesting:

Holy Slayer (Paladin+Rogue) is a bit more tanky and single target oriented, while also having some support capabilities. 

Warlock (Wizard+Barbarian) is a bit weird, but pretty interesting combo when you get few levels under your belt. Early on you spend all your casts way too quickly, but later extra speed and buffs from barbarian help to unleash spell barrage onto enemy really fast.

Rogue+Wizard is another wizard combo, but focusing on damage by stacking debuffs and utilizing sneak attack (and assassinate) to boost damage from your spells.

 

I wouldn't recommend Ciphers because while interesting, their main strength is in charming opponents. It is powerful tool, allowing you to fight opponents above your level, but it becomes boring pretty quick. Soul annihilation subclass is one-trick pony which would bore you out in no time, so don't pick it unless you want to use it whole game.

Ascendant might be interesting if you combine it with powerful martial class like Barbarian or Rogue. At least you would be able to cast spells without worry about uses per encounter and such.

Edited June 10, 2018 by ErlKing

[Archaven]

after the mega nerf good luck in fun builds . if i discover an awesome build (which may not be broken) i probably be keeping for myself. obsidian is not taking criticism constructively but negatively. improve your game by improving battle encounters not unnecessary and uwarranted nerfs. but you know tweaking some numbers in some files are much easier and less effort than actually putting thoughts in "high level" and "epic" fights

Edited June 10, 2018 by Archaven

[Sobric]

I'm enjoying a Cleric (Fighter/Priest) at the moment. 

 

Playing a 'Death Knight' style Devoted/Priest of Berath, with Morning Stars as my weapon proficiency. Only just started, but the aim is to use Body Blows (Morning Star modal) to reduce Fortitude defenses for both the Priest of Berath's spells (Touch of Rot is ace, as is Spreading Plague) as well as other party members abilities. Eventually I want to use Clear Out to apply Body Blows in an AoE. 

 

I'd also like to try a martial ranged DPS character at some point, but I'm not really sure what would be best class for that anymore. 

[Retro1210]

Devoted/Stalker with a focus on using one pistol has been pretty fun.

[evilcat]

Anything with Wizard/Paladin/Chanter.

Wizard with minimal investment has pleanty of fancy spells, you can buff defenses, or use missile spells, or some center on me spells. Every other class is better when you can just drop fireball during combat.

Paladin: you are classic warrior, but can quickheal, have better defenses, can smash really hard. Also you buff whole party with your awesomeness. You are literally Beacon of Hope. It is just generally good foundation for anything.

Chanter, do your things, but sometimes paralyze enemies, or take their armour, or summon dragon, everything is more fun with dragons, and heal yourself by hurting others, life is good.

 

You asked for fun, not power. Pure wizard has more blast, chanter is so supporting, and paladin spread thin on many things.

If you want kill things Nalpazca Rogue Berzerker is probably better.

Edited June 10, 2018 by evilcat

[Verde]

Well I'm biased but Rogues are even more fun with the added +25% damage to certain abilities. Plus they are a great class to multi. Running a Mindstalker (Soulblade/Rogue) now and loving it.

[zendingo]

If you want kill things Nalpazca Rogue Berzerker is probably better.

Please tell me how to make this triple-class character.

[Owlbear]

I really enjoyed my Sage (shattered pillar/wizard). Wizard is full of variety and pure destructive power, and monk have awesome buffs and combat animations. It really made me fall for both classes.   Also monk is one of those classes that won't "force" you to dualwield as the melee attacks are made by your primary weapon and the class is full of bonuses for a one handed crit character. That was a plus for me

 

Right now I'm trying to decide things about my next character. A Mindstalker (beguiler/assassin or streetfighter) sounds like a fun character, I really like the mobility and the debuffing attacks of the rogue class, but I already finished the game as a Psyblade, so it wouldn't be that much fun imo. Also rogue is pretty much all about it's full attacks, so dual wielding is recommended. 

 

Another fun, but maybe weird idea was an Oracle (druid/cipher). I really like the druid lighting spells and mixed with a cipher it kinda made me imagine a protoss/high templar like character from Starcraft with it's psi storms and psi blades.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Owlbear

[Shadenuat]

Most of them?

 

From my experience, rogues still send body parts flying, Heralds are still walking mountains, wizards can transform the battlefield with the right setup, etc. I'm most curious about the ranger, but have yet to try  it single or multi.

I think you're mixing just classes with builds (which are classes + items and abilities, and many items don't feel as special to me anymore).

 

As for Ranger, it's a class which is all about maxing accuracy. So guess how well it does in PoE system, especially if you mix it with any other martial class  with it's 1 point +20 accuracy wounding shot +10 acc for mark +10 acc for pet .... that's more or less how ranger plays.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Shadenuat

[Myrtillo]

I started a 1.1 fighter on PoTD and I am having a lot of fun so far.

The nerfs removed all the broken aoe damage stuff, and lets me emphasise a more tactical approach. (Buffs, positioning, cc, etc.)

He has high intelligence to reinforce this aspect, which synergizes well with watcher abilities, as well as a high arcana score.

He dual wields sabre and pistol because it gives him versatility (even if it makes full attacks way less efficient)

So far I find it really fun because he always has something meaningful to do (either one of his abilities, or a melee attack or a range attack, or a scroll), but I actually have to think about the situation rather than spamming the same move because it is just always the best option.

 

It is what makes combat fun for me: Identifying the best option amongst a lot of possibilities and choosing it at the right time.

And from a rp perspective, this approach makes a fantastic corsair captain.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Myrtillo

[Odd Hermit]

Wizard is still by far the most fun class IMO, the arcane spell selection is just a versatile, powerful, and fun toolkit with many synergies to find. They have less redundancy than most other classes.

 

I played a Troubador/Trickster going for the "Bard" feel, but I think Chanter design has serious issues - for one using respec to move talents from redundant summons to passives is clearly optimal. It's powerful, but the nature of phrases -> invocations is still such that you spam one ability, and have 1-2 passive chants going all the time, so the majority of the Chanter selection sees no use whatsoever due to opportunity costs plus it's a pain currently to micromanage chants due to modal switching being clunky.

[QuiteGoneJin]

Ryzak Sent me his Battlemage Build, I was intrigued that he went Devoted (sword) and Evoker and I have had more fun with it than any other build.

 

Quotes from him after I asked for details

 

"Devoted for the bonus penetration on a weapon choice. Safe bets are swords, greatswords, sabers poleaxes, as all of those have strong uniques that are easily accessible. (I like dual swords for Modwyr/Watcher's Blade)

The devoted takes care of the single target melee offense I want. The evoker takes care of the area of effect damage, and since you can still cast enchantment/illusion spells for defense as an evoker, that takes care of your defense in melee.

Stats are 8ish con and resolve, max perception/dexterity, any remaining in might/intellect. I like wood elf for the dex/per bonus and resistance to paralysis. 

My grimoire of choice is the Grimoire of Spark and Flame, I build my spell choices around that. I take Tactical Barrage for the +power level, I wear the firethrower's gloves for the +1 evocation power level, and I get +1 from being an evoker. At level 20 this means my evocation spells are as strong as a pure wizard with the 'prestige' ability.

Combat generally looks as follows: stealth and open with whatever area of effect spell I like such as fireball. Once combat triggers and I am out of stealth my ai script self buffs me with tactical barrage, spirit shield, infuse with vital essence, Llengrath's Displaced Image, Ironskin,etc in about 1.5 seconds with zero recovery. I promptly charge into the largest group of enemies and drop a single strong close range area of effect spell - I like torrent of flame, which is scary strong if you empower it too. The stun from charge + the concentration from spirit shield means I almost always get that aoe off without interruption, which brings the group to low health, possibly kills a few. I melee the closest target with penetrating strike, if he dies I get a cleave from mob stance. Generally after this its mop up. For particularly tough fights I may open with crowd control like enevating terror, and for stacking accuracy I like alchemy skill with some of the +accuracy potions.

Hope this helps!

.....

Early game (assuming you start at level 4 with the Berath's blessing) isn't awful, but I was a little reliant on the blind grenade for a little bit to neuter groups as I worked them down, until I got a little better gear. Curse of Blackened Sight is a good opener too, things become simpler around level 7 since it opens up Llengrath's Displaced Image which significantly toughens you, even with the nerfs to it in 1.1.

 

The trick to the build is that certain weaknesses in the build are covered by other elements. Having only average resolve/con are covered by the +5 con from infuse with vital essence, and the defense from wizard spells. I tend to wear a cloak of greater deflection to help with that as well. The high perception + the accuracy bonus from Tactical Barrage + the accuracy bonus from a potion mean that you land your spells reliably, and dual wielding strong legendary weapons with high accuracy is very effective.

 

The Evoker "doublecast" goes off about once in every 5 or 6 fights, occasionally multiple times a fight. I've had it go off once or twice on an empowered Torrent of Flame and completely wipe out a pack. (hilarious)

....

Passives are mostly up to your taste - I took:
Confident Aim
Two Weapon Style
Weapon Specialization
Armored Grace
Improved Critical
Weapon Mastery
Determination

I think thats all, but thats mostly from memory."

[QuiteGoneJin]

I really enjoyed my Sage (shattered pillar/wizard). Wizard is full of variety and pure destructive power, and monk have awesome buffs and combat animations. It really made me fall for both classes.   Also monk is one of those classes that won't "force" you to dualwield as the melee attacks are made by your primary weapon and the class is full of bonuses for a one handed crit character. That was a plus for me

 

Right now I'm trying to decide things about my next character. A Mindstalker (beguiler/assassin or streetfighter) sounds like a fun character, I really like the mobility and the debuffing attacks of the rogue class, but I already finished the game as a Psyblade, so it wouldn't be that much fun imo. Also rogue is pretty much all about it's full attacks, so dual wielding is recommended. 

 

Another fun, but maybe weird idea was an Oracle (druid/cipher). I really like the druid lighting spells and mixed with a cipher it kinda made me imagine a protoss/high templar like character from Starcraft with it's psi storms and psi blades.

Monk Wizard looked great, so did Barb. Love my fighter right now (details in an above post). I kinda wanna see all the cool endgame lvl 8/9 animations for melee but feel like single class martials are too weak for POTD.

[Ichthyic]

 

 

I wouldn't recommend Ciphers because while interesting, their main strength is in charming opponents

er... nope.

people who multiclass ciphers apparently only do so thinking of using only one or two skills.

ciphers probably have the best overall utility in combat of any caster.  they have a lot of spells that disable, cause raw damage, increase your characters stats, manipulate positioning, and best of all, the thing everyone seems to forget for some reason... time parasite.

time parasite, by itself, makes ciphers simply the most powerful class to combo with.  I guess people just never bother to try it.  look... it's an AOE that sucks all the speed AWAY from every opponent around the target, AND gives YOU all their speed for pretty much the duration of combat.  it's ridiculous.  it end up doubling your speed and halving theirs, or more, for a net effect that you are operating FOUR TIMES faster than your opponents.  I don't care WHAT you pair that up with, melee, ranged, wizard... that's gonna leave a mark.

the domination thing is only one small part of ciphers.

my conclusion is either that people just haven't actually played them past using dominate or annihilation, or else they are lying to try at get the devs to NOT nerf ciphers.

*shrug*

even with the current nerfs to annihilation, it's still wayyyyy op for anything you are going to run into in this game, and still fun to play because you can play a soulblade pretty much any way you want.  I know I do.  plus, you theoretically have unlimited cipher spells so long as you keep doing damage.

inquisitor (bleak/soulblade) is still a very fun and powerful build.

 

[Owlbear]

Maybe it's just me misunderstanding that "pairing", but you can't multiclass a cipher and pick time parasite, if you meant pairing it with another character then why not just make that other character be the solo class cipher so you can build something fun instead. 

 

Domination is a huge part of ciphers. The only uniquely great thing about ciphers is that they can use charm way before and better than anyone else. That being said I'm all for nerfing or removing the charm abilities, but then the least they should do is totally rework the whole cipher class. In PoE other caster classes were burdened by their per rest abilities so the cipher totally made sense, but now I'd never pick a cipher over a wizard for an example if I want to make a multiclass character. 

 

With the soul annihilation nerf they tried to fix a problem just to create a new one. Most people preferred the soulblade for multi purposes because soul annihilation was just way too good. So good that it totally outcompeted the rest of the cipher abilities. Now with the halved damage they turned that around, it doesn't worth the focus spent when you can just use a cipher ability that does better damage anyway and it's available for every cipher subclass.

 

So while cipher(soulblade) characters are still powerful and can be fun for some, it's nowhere near where it should be. I mean cipher was my favorite class in PoE, but now I only finished the game with it because I wanted to see the unique cipher dialogues. :|

[Verde]

Wizard is still by far the most fun class IMO, the arcane spell selection is just a versatile, powerful, and fun toolkit with many synergies to find. They have less redundancy than most other classes.

 

I played a Troubador/Trickster going for the "Bard" feel, but I think Chanter design has serious issues - for one using respec to move talents from redundant summons to passives is clearly optimal. It's powerful, but the nature of phrases -> invocations is still such that you spam one ability, and have 1-2 passive chants going all the time, so the majority of the Chanter selection sees no use whatsoever due to opportunity costs plus it's a pain currently to micromanage chants due to modal switching being clunky.

Exactly why I haven't touched Chanters since my first POE1 playthrough. So much micromanagement and redundancy.

[Walstafa]

I had fun on my first full playthrough with a Devoted/Troubador dual Sabres cheese build. That straddled both sides of the patch without issue. 

 

I'm now trying a Devoted/Kind Wayfarer Greatsword build, which is pretty fun too. Just got the Whispers of The Unseen Paths sword and looking forward to giving that a go tonight.

[1TTFFSSE]

Wizard - Ghost Heart (ranger) is a cc/ debuff god with good single target and aoe dps options. Currently running Maia that way in my party. unparalleled accuracy to apply crippling debuffs

 

Assasin (but any rogue) - Zerker: sick sick damage

 

Paladin - Priest - your ultimate buff bot - Paladin chanter works too but is second fiddle to pali-priest

 

Pure dw rogue - yeah yeah single class and squishy but these guys tear up any single target enemy like no one else and arte really fun to play and are mobile, I would say although for instance, Ydwin has most deaths currently in playthrough as this she is MVP in the group because she often takes out an enemy mage or cleric by herself and other dangerous targets before those do any damage to my party. (and part of the reason she has highest death count is because of ai - if it is mc player controlled 100% she have many ways to avoid damage)

[Verde]

With the 1.1 increase in difficulty my Rogue is getting Bloodied and or Flanked more consistently making Streetfighter even more viable (moreso as a multi imho) unless you really like walking the line

Edited June 11, 2018 by Verde

[bigwillystyle]

Enjoying my Warlock; buff up with Wizard spells, Frenzy, wreck faces

[1TTFFSSE]

With the 1.1 increase in difficulty my Rogue is getting Bloodied and or Flanked more consistently making Streetfighter even more viable (moreso as a multi imho) unless you really like walking the line

Yeah I find a good fast Breastplate *Devil of C" + regen items are a necessity but once your Rogue has those they can dish good dps in the front line. Once you have a Pali to apply greater lay on hands and or cipher to apply pain block on them liberally they shred stuff without really dying. 

 

Ranged cipher melee rogue dps synergy is sick in any party since PoE1 and encourages good mobile tactical gameplay. You send an echto echo at the dw rogue with the cipher and have the rogue jump to the enemy mage back line with it. the rogue proceeds to shred the enemy mage/ cleric backline while the echto echo beam adds dps and hits all enemies between the cipher in the back, the tank holding the enemies off the cipher, and the dw rogue behind the enemies. best of all ai seems to like to use echto echo in that way too. 

[hansvedic]

I've been enjoying my Spiritualist (Cipher Ascendant / Troubadour Chanter) support build with the story companions. My main goal is to provide support through summons, charms, and other debuff/crowd control spells. Why fight a battle that someone else can fight for you, eh?

 

EDIT: With this run, I am mainly focusing on alchemy, but if I were to do it again, I'd probably focus on explosives for even more crowd control possibilities.

 

EDIT 2: I've been played this character as a ranged character, so it might not be what the OP considers fun.

Edited June 11, 2018 by hansvedic

[Ascaloth]

I've been running a Fury/Helwalker since the patch beta, and am probably nearing the third quarter of the game.

 

Let's just say I might be putting up a new Class Build soon, because this lady is sick.