Returning after a long time: current PotD SOLO strongest builds?

[Voltron]

Hello,

I want to return to PoE2 after a really long time (I was playing pretty much only release version for majority of time). What are some current best/strongest builds for soloing PoE2 on PoTD?

Links to threads with such builds are also appreciated!

Thank you very much in advance for filling me in.

V

 

PS. Also does fire-arms relead explot still work?

Edited May 11, 2019 by Voltron

[Boeroer]

Most likey single class Monk. 

[jazzthing]

SC Monk is very strong, no doubt. I think Bloodmage/Troubadour and Bloodmage/Priest are not far behind. 

[heldred]

General conclusions are based upon three parameters:

1) Renewable resources: Monk, Cipher,  Chanter, Wiz-Blood, and Fighter-Tact

2) Tankiness: Combination of inherent defenses (Fighter-Tact), buffs (Wiz), debuff-buffs (Cipher), passive heals (Chanter, Fighter), CC (Cipher,Wiz)

3) Damage output: Which needs to be in two forms...  a) Efficiently doing damage for regular battles (Wiz), and b) High Pen and DPS for megabosses (Monk)

After playing multiple POTD runs, my thoughts drift towards:

1) Monk-Hel (best option, due to upper-tier powers handling bosses, but weakness is you still need to manually build tankiness)

2) Wiz-Blood / Fighter-Tact (best versatility, good buffs, good defensive options, but need to build PL/AR-pen for mega bosses)

3) Fighter-Tact / Chanter-Troub  (safe, but slower, with great passive healing and consistent resources)

4) Wiz-Blood / Cipher-SB (Wiz buffs + Cipher buffs/debuffs...  this one has great potential, but blossoms level 10+...  SB is for Megabosses)

5) Fighter-Tact / Cipher-Ascended (good overall option, could be swayed to make it SB for megabosses)

6) Cipher (would need to manually build tankiness, but T8/T9 skills would be great for bosses)

7) Wiz (buffs cover tankiness, but arcane dampeners can be rough...  the T8/T9 spells are nice, but not needed for bosses, which is why multi option is better)

8)) Wiz-blood / Monk-Hel (This combo rocks most battles and without access to T8s/T9s its potential falls short on megabosses)

 

This is what comes to mind if we are talking Solo, POTD, and Megabosses.  If you drop the megabosses, then anything is viable with thoughtful tactics and minimal cheese.  

 

 

[Waski]

Only tankiness on helwalker you need are immunities for hard cc and interrupts (concentration or immunitie).  I've tinkered with wiz/monk solo and Belranga and big ooze went down,  didn't try others but Dorudugan is for sure possible,  maybe Auranic. No clue about the last one. 

[Boeroer]

What also was strong on solo PotD for me, compared to most other builds I tried was a melee Geomancer (Stalker/Wizard). But I didn't try the megabosses with it. Was real smooth will all other bosses - without any resting bonuses and consumables.

[dunehunter]

5 hours ago, heldred said:

General conclusions are based upon three parameters:

1) Renewable resources: Monk, Cipher,  Chanter, Wiz-Blood, and Fighter-Tact

2) Tankiness: Combination of inherent defenses (Fighter-Tact), buffs (Wiz), debuff-buffs (Cipher), passive heals (Chanter, Fighter), CC (Cipher,Wiz)

3) Damage output: Which needs to be in two forms...  a) Efficiently doing damage for regular battles (Wiz), and b) High Pen and DPS for megabosses (Monk)

After playing multiple POTD runs, my thoughts drift towards:

1) Monk-Hel (best option, due to upper-tier powers handling bosses, but weakness is you still need to manually build tankiness)

2) Wiz-Blood / Fighter-Tact (best versatility, good buffs, good defensive options, but need to build PL/AR-pen for mega bosses)

3) Fighter-Tact / Chanter-Troub  (safe, but slower, with great passive healing and consistent resources)

4) Wiz-Blood / Cipher-SB (Wiz buffs + Cipher buffs/debuffs...  this one has great potential, but blossoms level 10+...  SB is for Megabosses)

5) Fighter-Tact / Cipher-Ascended (good overall option, could be swayed to make it SB for megabosses)

6) Cipher (would need to manually build tankiness, but T8/T9 skills would be great for bosses)

7) Wiz (buffs cover tankiness, but arcane dampeners can be rough...  the T8/T9 spells are nice, but not needed for bosses, which is why multi option is better)

8)) Wiz-blood / Monk-Hel (This combo rocks most battles and without access to T8s/T9s its potential falls short on megabosses)

 

This is what comes to mind if we are talking Solo, POTD, and Megabosses.  If you drop the megabosses, then anything is viable with thoughtful tactics and minimal cheese.  

 

 

Also depends on if you carry vela or not. We can just simply get what class can do ultimate through a process of elimination.

Woedica + Ethos means classes that cannot regen class resources are elimated, which leaves us Chanter, Cipher, Tactician, Bloodmage and Monk, sc or multiclassed.

Hylea + Mega boss means we need to kill mega boss very fast and keep vela alive by withdrawal(unless someone find another method), which leaves us priest, monk or probably soulblade(not sure about this).

Abydon means the class better relies on spell/summon weapon or fist, which also lead us to monk/bloodmage.

Therefore I think monk is best candidate

[whimper]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

What also was strong on solo PotD for me, compared to most other builds I tried was a melee Geomancer (Stalker/Wizard). But I didn't try the megabosses with it. Was real smooth will all other bosses - without any resting bonuses and consumables.

Sounds like we need someone who knows a lot about this game to post a Geomancer build...  

[jazzthing]

8 minutes ago, whimper said:

Sounds like we need someone who knows a lot about this game to post a Geomancer build...  

I second that. After Boeroer posted a lot of interesting builds for PoE1 he now keeps them all for himself. I guess there are no more nerfs, so you can start posting mate! 

[stratigo]

I am wondering, would cypher SB and Monk multiclass work at popping the megabosses? I did this for my first playthrough and so shied away from it in subsequent ones, but I have never actually beaten the game yet, and figure since it is 'done' as it were, this is the time to do a full completion type game.

[Waski]

40 minutes ago, stratigo said:

I am wondering, would cypher SB and Monk multiclass work at popping the megabosses? I did this for my first playthrough and so shied away from it in subsequent ones, but I have never actually beaten the game yet, and figure since it is 'done' as it were, this is the time to do a full completion type game.

No tools against big ooze I think. 

[Voltron]

Thanks for replies. Anyone has link to some most optimized Monk or Bloodmage threads for solo PotD?

[Jayd]

7 hours ago, Voltron said:

Thanks for replies. Anyone has link to some most optimized Monk or Bloodmage threads for solo PotD?

In the Ultimate strategy thread someone is posting videos of their successful run with Skaen/Bloodmage. I think only two people have done the challenge and both used that class.

[Tenray]

On 5/12/2019 at 10:21 PM, Waski said:

No tools against big ooze I think. 

I did alot of testing with pretty much all classes for the Ultimate and Disintegration kills Hauani O Whe (Big black ooze) instantly, without him splitting up into multiple oozes. You just need to apply Disintegration on Big Ooze and it needs to die WHILE he is under the effect of Disintegration. He does NOT need to die from the tick of Disintegration. You can try it out if you want.

That's why Priest/Cipher is also a nice choice for the Ultimate. Disintegration is insane for single target. I would play it as Skaen/Ascendant, because you can extend your Ascendant buff with SoT + Brillant and get +3 Power Level + free casting cipher abilites permanently. I managed to buff Disintegration up to 600 raw damage total.

Unfortunatelly AoE isn't that great as Skaen/Ascendant unless you get to level 19 and get Holy Storm of Fire from Priest. The Cipher AoE spells are quite bad imo.

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by Tenray

[Kaylon]

No need for Disintegration anymore, you can apply the curse with Essence Interrupter and Hauani won't split anymore. Obsidian said initially it wasn't intended, but since it was left unchanged we can consider it a feature at this point. That means any class can beat the encounter as long as they're able to kill the first form.

PS. I think the herald is a also a good candidate for the ultimate because he can rely on summons for tanking and on spells+summons for damage, avoiding being affected by Abydon's challenge too much.

[NightofTheDead]

Got some questions on what would solo wizard POTD experience would look like today.

 Do you stack deflection on wizard early or not? 

Do you just sneak around to level 12-13 only doing non-combat quests.

Does it have to be bloodmage?

Does it involve any brilliance mechanics and how to you get them?

[Raven Darkholme]

20 hours ago, NightofTheDead said:

Got some questions on what would solo wizard POTD experience would look like today.

 Do you stack deflection on wizard early or not? 

Do you just sneak around to level 12-13 only doing non-combat quests.

Does it have to be bloodmage?

Does it involve any brilliance mechanics and how to you get them?

There is many methods to level, the easiest is of course to just do non combat quests (can get to level 19 with very little fighting)

If you aren't above using cheese bloodmage isn't necessary, you can get permanent brilliant (and many other things) with Strand of Favour cheese.

The earliest you can aquire brilliant is to go to Hasongo before Neketaka, you should however visit Deadlight and Dunnage and do the non combat quests there, since this will also net you some money/sellables.

From Hasongo you should find Captain Thaenic, if you went there straight after Deadlight/Dunnage (assuming this is a new game and you started at Maje/Sandswept Ruins) he will be somewhere east of Sayuka.

Buy Assassins Slippers from him and go back to hasongo, smash any barrel (be sure to not have any torch or similar equipped if its an explosive barrel) and you will gain a very brief invisibility.

If you immediately go to inventory you can equip/unequip strand of favor repeatedly to extend the invisibility, 100 equips would last for the entire game, keep in mind however the invis goes away when you fight.

With newly aquired invis go to Concelhaut's island and you can very easily grab the brilliant cloak.

While under Slippers of the Assassins effect you don't need to sneak to be undetected, which will also help you level up quite a bit.

Now to get brilliant you simply cast Flame Wall on yourself while having Brilliant Cloak onb till it procs, then you do the same strand of favour cheese you did for the slippers just with brilliant.

[Haplok]

Not sure why one would waste time on the game, if the way to win was to find cheats.

[Raven Darkholme]

11 hours ago, Haplok said:

Not sure why one would waste time on the game, if the way to win was to find cheats.

The point of my post was to answer a question, now what was the point of your post again?

[Not So Clever Hound]

On 4/2/2021 at 2:38 PM, NightofTheDead said:

Got some questions on what would solo wizard POTD experience would look like today.

If you'd like a recent Solo PotD SC Wizard build, you can check out the below Bloodmage build on this forum. I made it in the latest version of the game with all DLCs. It did not rely upon Brilliant or Strand of Favor but you do need Bloodmage, deflection and other defenses stacking, some Wall of Draining and the very (very) occasional Potion of Barrier Death Door / Lover's Embrace to solo a few of the hardest encounters of the DLCs and Megabosses. But I solo'ed every piece of content the game has to offer without hickups or extensive cheese besides what I mentioned above.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/120463-class-build-updated-the-bleeding-arcanist-20/

EDIT: I forgot to mention the obvious  I did have a lot of fun with it and I humbly recommend it for inspiration if you'd like to return to the game with this kind of playstyle!

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Haplok]

Didn't really see a question asking how to cheat.

[Kaylon]

1 hour ago, Haplok said:

Didn't really see a question asking how to cheat.

I understand your way of thinking, however by Obsidian rules not only it's not cheating but it's even considered to be "in the spirit of the game" (since those methods are the foundation of all the "ultimate" runs). In other words, if the game allows it, there's no cheating and you can't blame the others for using it...

PS. I suppose we could also mention food stacking for the people who want even more power. 

[Haplok]

Maybe I'll provide some examples.

I don't consider Wall of Draining a potion of Final Stand (or other effects for that matter) a cheat. Cheesy AF, but, well, gotta win somehow. And that's within the game rules. Same with using Gouging Strike / Paladin mark and vanishing to hide in a corner. Or forcing an elemental spawn and using a wall to trigger Brilliant off it.

Food/rest bonuses stacking... yeah... that's... kinda borderline already.

But continuously equipping and unequipping items to stack ridiculous duration extensions on usually very short lived buffs? That's exploiting a very clear game bug to me - cheating.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Haplok

[Not So Clever Hound]

Personal and humble opinion:

I don't think it's as much about "cheating" (those aren't cheats as much as loopholes that devs know about but haven't corrected after many opportunities to do so, and that are necessary to complete certain crazy game challenges) as it is about whether you want to play within generally accepted boundaries of the game or not. Ultimately this all comes down to personal preference, and to what people consider acceptable cheese, cheesy cheese, cheaty cheese... 50 Shades of Cheese.  

However one thing is for sure, at least to me: outside of Ultimate runs, using Strand of Favor to indefinitely prolong Brilliant, BDD, Vanishing Strike, Deltro's Lash etc is a bit like going down a rabbit hole that makes everything else irrelevant and as such, somewhat ruins the game. What is the point of doing anything in the game if you can extend Vanishing Strike to infinity? You will just walk around and destroy everything in the game without ever being in danger. It's probably necessary for Ultimate, but to be avoided in "normal" gameplay if you want to be compelled to actually use class abilities and a modicum of strategy.

But it's still fun to try once though  

Edited April 7, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Kaylon]

6 minutes ago, Haplok said:

Maybe I'll provide some examples.

I don't consider Wall of Draining a potion of Final Stand (or other effects for that matter) a cheat. Cheesy AF, but, well, gotta win somehow. And that's within the game rules. Same with using Gouging Strike / Paladin mark and vanishing to hide in a corner. Or forcing an elemental spawn and using a wall to trigger Brilliant off it.

Food/rest bonuses stacking... yeah... that's... kinda borderline already.

But continuously equipping and unequipping items to stack ridiculous duration extensions on usually very short lived buffs? That's exploiting a very clear game bug to me - cheating.

I was talking about food stacking (ie stacking multiple food effects), not stacking resting bonuses. 

Obviously there's nothing wrong about using spells/abilities during a fight in a normal way.

However if it's ok for you to exploit the AI to stay out of enemies sight and do damage continuously, then you can't blame those who do the same to increase short buffs to infinite durations using SoT or Wall of Draining. And when you have classes who can abuse these methods you can't blame other classes for using Strand of Favor either.

Anyway, it's a single player game and everyone can play it the way he enjoys it - using mods, cheese, exploits, cheats, etc... There's no competition here and judging others it's pointless.