Top 2her reviews

[Mocker22]

Hey guys. I'm trying to decide on a wizard/melee hybrid build and need some advice from people that have had time to try out some different weapons. So far I'm considering the following, but would certainly be open to suggestions.

 

Citzal's Spirit Lance - doesn't seem to scale great? tried it at lvl 19 and only shows 22-30 damage but haven't tried it in practice.

 

Whispers of the Endless Paths - Was super strong before. Still considered best 2her?

 

Chromoprismatic Staff. - I'm curious how high of dps this can achieve with very high metaphysics skill. Also does the bonuses from skill level cap?

 

 

If anyone could also throw in some advice regarding Fighters. I haven't played much since they started patching PoE2. I've heard fighters got nerfed hard? Are they still good or should I consider other options?

 

Thanks!

Edited August 1, 2018 by Mocker22

[Haplok]

Whispers was nerfed (no longer strikes primary target twice). Due to low base damage it is now more of a niche weapon to deliver some special attacks/afflictions in a melee aoe.

[grasida]

I haven’t played a fighter as my PC all that much, but I always take eder as a swashbuckler. I think they’re still pretty good. They no longer have simply absurd damage output, but they do what they’re supposed to, which is provide reliable damage output and limited control options attached to rock-solid defenses.

 

Of those weapons, I’d say citzal’s spirit lance is the best. It will do less single-target damage than other choices, but more damage overall. It goes really well with some class skills on martial characters, like fighter’s mule kick and clear out, or rogue’s affliction strikes, since it will apply them to everything in the AoE of the blast. Whispers of the endless paths got nerfed really hard. It’s still good if you’re hitting several targets with it, but it’s quite situational now. I’m not sure about the chromoprismatic quarterstaff because I’ve never really used it. I guess it has the overall best single target damage and it boosts your spells, so it’s a great choice, but probably overall does less damage than citzal’s spirit lance. If you go for a warlock (wizard barbarian) you should try lord darryn’s voulge. Your summoned phantoms inherit your weapon and can increase static charge stacks. I’m not sure if that’s better than the spirit lance, though.

Edited August 1, 2018 by grasida

[Veolfen]

Hey guys. I'm trying to decide on a wizard/melee hybrid build and need some advice from people that have had time to try out some different weapons. So far I'm considering the following, but would certainly be open to suggestions.

 

Citzal's Spirit Lance - doesn't seem to scale great? tried it at lvl 19 and only shows 22-30 damage but haven't tried it in practice.

 

Whispers of the Endless Paths - Was super strong before. Still considered best 2her?

 

Chromoprismatic Staff. - I'm curious how high of dps this can achieve with very high metaphysics skill. Also does the bonuses from skill level cap?

 

 

If anyone could also throw in some advice regarding Fighters. I haven't played much since they started patching PoE2. I've heard fighters got nerfed hard? Are they still good or should I consider other options?

 

Thanks!

Played a lot of fighter there.

Here are my 2 cents :

 

Fighter HL skills are decent at best, the armor stripping skill is nice but not really beastly. They aren't worth the sacrifice of the multiclass potential.

 

Having played Single Class Fighter, multi class Fighter/Barb and Fighter/Paladin  and actually doing a Fighter/Rogue playthrough i assure you :

 

Always go for multciass with fighter :

 

Also pick devoted if you really want the best damage output possible (aim for 2h Sword ,Morning Stars or Staff, estocs are good too but they only have 1 damage type and it can be troublesome for a devoted vs immune targets).

 

Then multiclass choices :

 

-Fighter/Barb for multihit and fast recoveries : you will clean mob packs quite fast

 

-Fighter/Paladin : really solid and consistant single dps and you are much tankier : distribute active skills decently so you consume ressources decently on each sides

 

-Fighter/Rogue : very high single target dps and crits a lot : take mainly discipline strike & defensive active skills (and maybe 1 control skill) on the fighter side and pick offensive skills from rogue tree. Also combine the nice passives of the 2 classes.

 

-Fighter/Monk : Might have a very nice damage potential, but i don't like monk classes in video games so i can't describe it. 

 

 

For further elements about the best 2 handers we spoke about them in this topic :

 

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/103466-after-hours-of-games-thoughts-on-bests-2-handers/

Edited August 1, 2018 by Veolfen

[Boeroer]

Citzal's Spirit Lance is the best melee weapon in the game. And I mean it. Seriously!

 

It scales perfectly well. Maybe the tooltip had a hickup.

 

However, the biggest bonus point is that it transports nearly all on-hit/on-crit effects over to its AoE.

 

That isn't too powerful for a single class wizard, but very, very good for multiclass wizards that get some special attack abilites:

 

• Rogue:
  • Arterial Strike/Gouging Strike/Toxic Strike - raw DoT in an AoE with only one attack (besides the afflictions of course which also get applied to all enemies who got hit) 
  • Deep Wounds in an AoE
  • Sneak Attack and Deathblows in an AoE
  • AoE Riposte
• Fighter:
  • Knockdown and Mule Kick in an AoE (hilarious)
  • Cleave with AoE
  • Clear Out: every hit of the AoE attack that Clear Out does will trigger another AoE attack of the lance = HUGE damage (and also everybody gets pushed and goes prone)
•  Monk:
  • Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming: I don't think I have to say a lot - more chances to crit which might trigger another AoE attack wich is more likely to crit than a singel target attack and so on. Still produces chain reaction that one-shot low-defense mobs
  • Stunning Blow & Surge: Stun in an AoE. WIth Stunning Surge you almost always regain your Mortification. In 1.22 you even get more Mortification than you spend (nearly always) - thus you can spam it endlessly
  • Force of Anguish: I think you know what happens. It's like a grenade filled with human bodies as shrapnell.
  • Skyward Kick: like Mule Kick basically
  • Instruments of Pain: the lance becomes a ranged weapon with a range of 10.8 meters but unlicke Long Pain you can still use all melee abilites with it, including Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming.
• Paladin:
  • Flames of Devotion in an AoE. THat's is basically. Nothing too wild but still nice
•  Druid:
  • Taste of the Hunt: big raw DoT on everybody and usually full heal
• Cipher:
  • Soulblade: Soul Annihilation applies its raw damage to every enemies it hits in a weird (but powerful) way
  • Ascendant: Draining Whip + Spirit Lance means you always get maxed with one attack if you hit enough enemies
• Barbarian:
  • Barbaric Blow in an AoE: the crit chance and damage translates, but Carnage does not proc off of the AoE hits (in general)
  • Blood Frenzy/Spirit Frenzy apply their effects in an AoE (additional to Carnage)

 

I'm sure I forgot something. I did a lot of testing around the Lance and can't remember all stuff because there are so many cool synergies. Unfortunately Ranger's Wounding Shot does not transport its DoT to the AoE rolls. Also the pike modal doesn't. Concussive Shot and Tranquilizer do work though.

 

WotEP does translate afflictions and stuff to its cone, but it doesn't work with Clear Out and INstruments of Pain, its base damage is a lot lower and its AoE is smaller. It has some nice enchantments though

 

Wahai Poraga only hits 3 additional foes around you - you have to be surrounded by foes and its base damage is lower. It also doesn't work with Instruments of Pain, but with Clear Out.

 

Both cost huge amounts of money to bring to legendary status. This can be done earlier than Spirit Lance reaches legendary, but it makes you spend a lot of moey that you could put into stuff that gives you more advantages than upgrading your weapon from superb to legendary 

 

That's why I think that Citzal's Spirit Lance is the best melee weapon in the game. This also works with mortars, Minor Blights and rods with Blast of course, they are no melee weapons though and thus don't work with several melee abilities.

I personally think that wizard/monk is the most crazy combo (because of Flurry+Drumming and Surge), but rogue and fighter are also supernice. Soulblade, too - you just won't use any cipher powers...

 

Now I will get toasted because I most likely caused a nerf.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[M4xw0lf]

I'll make a Spirit Lance Warlock next. Yep.

Start of each battle: guys, please wait for 5 seconds until I'm done buffing myself to over 9000.

Edited August 1, 2018 by M4xw0lf

[Murp]

2her? I hardly knew her.

[grasida]

Now I will get toasted because I most likely caused a nerf.

 

I haven’t really played any characters that tried to maximize the use of spirit lance. I seriously contemplated a sage, and have played Aloth as a battlemage, but restarted the game right around when spirit lance came online.

 

Do you think it deserves a nerf? Personally, I think it’s a summoned weapon that can time out and be dispelled, competes for casts with the strongest hard CC spell in the game and is only available to a class with limited damage boosts and no extremely good way to use it on its own. So it’s fine that it’s really powerful. I guess it might be a little broken with swift flurry and heartbeat drumming, though.

[Dorftek]

Citzal's Spirit Lance is the best melee weapon in the game. And I mean it. Seriously!

 

It scales perfectly well. Maybe the tooltip had a hickup.

 

However, the biggest bonus point is that it transports nearly all on-hit/on-crit effects over to its AoE.

 

That isn't too powerful for a single class wizard, but very, very good for multiclass wizards that get some special attack abilites:

 

• Rogue:
  • Arterial Strike/Gouging Strike/Toxic Strike - raw DoT in an AoE with only one attack (besides the afflictions of course which also get applied to all enemies who got hit)
  • Deep Wounds in an AoE
  • Sneak Attack and Deathblows in an AoE
  • AoE Riposte
• Fighter:
  • Knockdown and Mule Kick in an AoE (hilarious)
  • Cleave with AoE
  • Clear Out: every hit of the AoE attack that Clear Out does will trigger another AoE attack of the lance = HUGE damage (and also everybody gets pushed and goes prone)
• Monk:
  • Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming: I don't think I have to say a lot - more chances to crit which might trigger another AoE attack wich is more likely to crit than a singel target attack and so on. Still produces chain reaction that one-shot low-defense mobs
  • Stunning Blow & Surge: Stun in an AoE. WIth Stunning Surge you almost always regain your Mortification. In 1.22 you even get more Mortification than you spend (nearly always) - thus you can spam it endlessly
  • Force of Anguish: I think you know what happens. It's like a grenade filled with human bodies as shrapnell.
  • Skyward Kick: like Mule Kick basically
  • Instruments of Pain: the lance becomes a ranged weapon with a range of 10.8 meters but unlicke Long Pain you can still use all melee abilites with it, including Swift Flurry & Heartbeat Drumming.
• Paladin:
  • Flames of Devotion in an AoE. THat's is basically. Nothing too wild but still nice
• Druid:
  • Taste of the Hunt: big raw DoT on everybody and usually full heal
• Cipher:
  • Soulblade: Soul Annihilation applies its raw damage to every enemies it hits in a weird (but powerful) way
  • Ascendant: Draining Whip + Spirit Lance means you always get maxed with one attack if you hit enough enemies
• Barbarian:
  • Barbaric Blow in an AoE: the crit chance and damage translates, but Carnage does not proc off of the AoE hits (in general)
  • Blood Frenzy/Spirit Frenzy apply their effects in an AoE (additional to Carnage)

I'm sure I forgot something. I did a lot of testing around the Lance and can't remember all stuff because there are so many cool synergies. Unfortunately Ranger's Wounding Shot does not transport its DoT to the AoE rolls. Also the pike modal doesn't. Concussive Shot and Tranquilizer do work though.

 

WotEP does translate afflictions and stuff to its cone, but it doesn't work with Clear Out and INstruments of Pain, its base damage is a lot lower and its AoE is smaller. It has some nice enchantments though

 

Wahai Poraga only hits 3 additional foes around you - you have to be surrounded by foes and its base damage is lower. It also doesn't work with Instruments of Pain, but with Clear Out.

 

Both cost huge amounts of money to bring to legendary status. This can be done earlier than Spirit Lance reaches legendary, but it makes you spend a lot of moey that you could put into stuff that gives you more advantages than upgrading your weapon from superb to legendary

 

That's why I think that Citzal's Spirit Lance is the best melee weapon in the game. This also works with mortars, Minor Blights and rods with Blast of course, they are no melee weapons though and thus don't work with several melee abilities.

I personally think that wizard/monk is the most crazy combo (because of Flurry+Drumming and Surge), but rogue and fighter are also supernice. Soulblade, too - you just won't use any cipher powers...

 

Now I will get toasted because I most likely caused a nerf.

It works with taste of the hunt?

I was trying Wotep with taste of the hunt and it always only worked on the primary target :/

[arkane83]

I'll make a Spirit Lance Warlock next. Yep.

Start of each battle: guys, please wait for 5 seconds until I'm done buffing myself to over 9000.

I actually found the 2h conjured weapon warlock was fun from the start, but I agree that the "buff phase" is way too clunky. Also, just dual wielding good weapons using wizard buffs (ignoring conjured weapons) gets you in the fight faster, let's you wear heavier armor (2h + armor = snail), and feels much sturdier. Not to mention dual wield let's you use modwyr to ignore zerker confuse and skip casting infuse...

 

Cool when you set it up, but the long buff time had me move on to other builds.

[M4xw0lf]

I already made an AI behavior to handle all the buffing, i'm good to go ^^

[Boeroer]

5 seconds?

 

Every fast buff of the wizard takes 0.4 sec base casting time and 0 recovery. Faster with some dex or if you're smart and cast Alacrity after Infuse. So you cast 13+ buffs at the start of every combat? I'd say that's buffer overflow.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

It works with taste of the hunt?

I was trying Wotep with taste of the hunt and it always only worked on the primary target :/

Last time I tried it did. Was maybe one week ago. WotEP's cone doesn't work like the AoE circle of the Spirit Lance in some ways. For example it will not proc with Clear Out and also not apply Soul Annihilation or work with increased range (Instruments of Pain) but will do the cone based on your position and the normal primary attack at range (same with Wahai Poraga). But afaik it will use Savage Attack - while the lance's AoE doesn't work with the -10 deflection modal (I forgot the name of that thing).

 

 

All in all Spirit Lance has the most "AoE interaction" of all melee weapons.

 

Edit: just rechecked in game: Taste of the Hunt still works with the AoE of Spirit Lance.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[M4xw0lf]

5 seconds?

 

Every fast buff of the wizard takes 0.4 sec base casting time and 0 recovery. Faster with some dex or if you're smart and cast Alacrity after Infuse. So you cast 13+ buffs at the start of every combat? I'd say that's buffer overflow.

I counted Citzal's spirit lance, martial power, and Frenzy, too. With appropriate talents like rapid casting and the early casting of DAoM, I think I'm not too far off with 5 seconds.

[Boeroer]

Yeah you are right. But I had to bring the buffer overflow - you have to understand!

 

Martial Power is actually quite meh in my opinion. Better keep some CC spells at hand (Pull of Eora, Call to Slumber, Gaze of the Andragan for example) or to refresh a self buff or so - this seems to be more effective/versatile - but maybe that's just my impression. Warlock is so fast with casting that it's a pity if you can't cast anymore while Frenzy & Bloodlust is up.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Boeroer

[M4xw0lf]

Yeah you are right. But I had to bring the buffer overflow - you have to understand!

 

Martial Power is actually quite meh in my opinion. Better keep some CC spells at hand (Pull of Eora, Call to Slumber, Gaze of the Andragan for example) or to refresh a self buff or so - this seems to be more effective/versatile - but maybe that's just my impression. Warlock is so fast with casting that it's a pity if you can't cast anymore while Frenzy & Bloodlust is up.

I already had my doubts about martial power, will probably not really use it in the end.

[Boeroer]

Well - maybe if you can still use Barbaric Blow it's not that bad. +20 ACC will lead to more crits and so on. It's just not my kind of buff - just because of the disabled spell casting.

[jww]

Yeah you are right. But I had to bring the buffer overflow - you have to understand!

 

 

I understood the pun!

[1TTFFSSE]

Yeah Citzal's is strongest if you have abilities which enhance your base penetration.

 

Otherwise Aoe multi target we have

Wohai Poraga - high base penetration and aoe damage

Lord Dyrryn's Voulge aoe attack effect and good damage thanks to it having good base penetration AND also being able to do shock damage as alternative

 

for single target I think the consensus was:

Chromo Quarterstaff (with all its damage and speed upgrades)

Voidwheel (if you take the raw damage upgrades)

[Toadbat]

Now I will get toasted because I most likely caused a nerf.

Maybe, but a nice build has been up since mid July on Fextralife and I have just tweaked the details for me and am just about to try it out. So, I hope not!

https://fextralife.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-deadfire-builds-guide-sage/

 

-T

[Verde]

How about the Chromatic Quarter staff...that thing is a beast!

 

Surprisingly, same with the Fampyr Quarterstaff.

[anathanielh]

Sanguine greatsword is my favorite with my wanderer (monk/ranger). Because I have so much accuracy boosts, I can just keep the modal on and crit regularly with abilities. Good heals n raw dmg are my friends

[thundercleese]

@Boeroer: Do the AoE hits also proc SS refund? If so you could dump all your wounds on say Skyward Kick, then use SS to instantly refill, rinse and repeat.

 

Now I will get toasted because I most likely caused a nerf.

I haven’t really played any characters that tried to maximize the use of spirit lance. I seriously contemplated a sage, and have played Aloth as a battlemage, but restarted the game right around when spirit lance came online.

Do you think it deserves a nerf? Personally, I think it’s a summoned weapon that can time out and be dispelled, competes for casts with the strongest hard CC spell in the game and is only available to a class with limited damage boosts and no extremely good way to use it on its own. So it’s fine that it’s really powerful. I guess it might be a little broken with swift flurry and heartbeat drumming, though.

 

I think the problem is less with Spirit Lance, and more that Swift Flurry and Heartbeat Drumming are stupidly OP. Since the proc is only rolled for once, if your proc crits it will proc again and again until you fail to crit; I got an 8 crit proc against a poor Rathun which did around 430 damage - instant chunking.

Edited August 2, 2018 by thundercleese

[grasida]

I think you just got ridiculously lucky. Or something is broken. Are you consistently seeing results like that? Swift flurry and heartbeat drumming aren’t supposed to activate off themselves, although they can proc off each other. The chance for an 8 hit flurry, even with a 100% crit rate, should be very low.

[thundercleese]

Have only had a proc that big once, however it is not uncommon at all (at least once every other fight) for me to get 3-4 from a flurry proc. My character doesn't even have drumming yet so I can only imagine how silly things will get once I do.