Returning Player Assistance

[omnitremere]

Hello friends,

With all the hype surrounding Outer Worlds I have the itch to play through POE 2 again.  I beat it when it first came out but have not really played it since and I know the game has changed substantially.  I see a lot of guides for how to build characters but it is not clear if they work in the current version or what kind of armors and weapons are considered good for those builds.  I would appreciate any guidance you can provide or links to applicable builds that work in the games current state.  If you have an alternate recommendation for better party synergy please feel free to throw that in as well.  Thanks!

MC - Moon Godlike SC Hel Monk.  Main DPS .  

Efficient Aungish, Lightning Strikes, Raised Torment, Stunning Surge, Turning Wheel, Skyward Kick, Launching Kick, Resonant Touch, Whispers of the Wind.  

Lesser Wounds, Long Stride, Two Weapon Style, Uncanny Luck, Enervating Blows, Improved Critical, Parting Sorrow, Potent Empower, The Razor's Edge, Imagined Pain, Prestige.

Using the Abraham pet to get away with light armor.  Beyond that I really have no clue what kind of Gear I should shoot for.

Pallegina - Off tank/Secondary DPS.  I am not sure how heavily nerfed the Chanter is and I seem to recall Pallegina being horrible as anything other than a pure tank.  

Xoti - Pure priest focusing on support and healing.  

Eder/Aloth - I am going to use Boerer's 5 engagement slot and Illusion Magic recommendation respectively so no assistance needed here.

 

[Boeroer]

Pallegina as Herald is a nice offtank. Either focused on offensive support (Shared Flames + Exalted Focus + Mith Fyr) or passive healer (Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory and active Lay on Hands). Chanter is still plenty strong.

As Crusader she can totally take the role of the main tank. But I guess that role is reserved for Edér.

Xoti a SC Priest is absolutely ok. Besides her lantern there's a ring and boots which improve restoration/inspiration  power levels which makes her a good support and healer.

I would always take Enduring Dance as SC Monk. Once you get Whispers of the Wind you won't get hit a lot (invisibility). So the dance is very useful then.

Lesser wounds isn't that important in my opinion.

Good Armor for a dps monk with Abraham is Miscreant's Leather. This + Abraham makes you faster than wearing no armor.

Fists should be one of your main weapon choice. They scale with Power Level and are great on SC Monks. Also WotW adds jumps with PL, so you want to stack that. You can use anything non-crush as alternative weapon - e.g. swords, sabres, stilettos, whatever. With WotW a very good melee option is Battle Axes + modal. 

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Boeroer

[omnitremere]

Awesome thank you.  I will replace Lesser Wounds with Enduring Dance and pick up Miscreant's Leather when I can. 

If I have Pallengina focus on offense (Shared Flames etc.) is there any special gear I should acquire for her?

[Waski]

Better skip efficient anguish for lesser wounds, on helwalker with high enough strenght (21-22 out of combat ) and hylea talons dot from it gonna be above 8dmg even without thounderous blows  and generate wounds , with enduring dance you can chain cast WotW like nalpazca. Would be good to fit clarity of agony and heartbeat drumming too.

By lv 20 parting sorrow and long stride are useless IMHO on helwalker, ajamuut stalking cloak is a must.  For armor I would take effigy husk for PER immu (at lv 20 only defenses you need are immunities/resistances and concetration to fire up first WotW.)

For weapon any combination of fists, grave calling, magrans favor, scordeos edge is good, I prefer Axe (modal) +scordeo for non slash immu for extra stacks dots- modal doesn't influence recovery of WotW and scordeo gives extra acc for more crits( and more hits with main hand thanks too heartbeat drumming)

rust poingard and mortars are really good  too

[omnitremere]

Fascinating thank you.  I will be sure to reroll around lvl 20 out of those talents.

By level 20 am I losing DPS when using weapons other than my hands on the monk?

[Boeroer]

Depends on the enemy (and how they are positioned). There are an awful lot of enemies which have weak crush AR. For those fists are one of the best options.

But there are also some very powerful combos with Resonant Touch, most notable maybe blunderbuss and hand mortars because they apply so many hits with a single attack. It's pretty wild with WotW as you can imagine. I made some videos on that. 

Same with Keeper of the Flame with its AoE (watch out: self damage) or Sun and Moon (double attack roll). 

Also everything that has special on-hit chances like Karaböru or Sungrazer can be very nice (if enemies stand together). 

However - looking at the pure stats of weapons the fists will always be great weapons against enemies that are vulnerable to crush. As I said Battle Axes are good with WotW as well because the recovery malus for Bleeding Cuts doesn't matter during the execution of WotW.

Also check out Hylea's Talons which add a lash to your melee attacks while they can put a mild dot effect on you (generating wounds). Good item for a monk. 

Same with Ajamut's (or so) Stalking Cloak: it stuns with every attack from stealth or invisibility and gives an ACC and dmg bonus as well. You are invisible during WotW so...

Another thing as soon as you get WotW: you won't use stuff like Raised Torment or Stunning Surge and most other abilities a lot then (Efficient Anguish I would keep since it targets fortitude and can be handy against enemies with high deflection but low fortitude). So you might want to retrain and take mostly non-attack abilities besides Anguish and WotW.

[Kaylon]

A Nalpazca monk with Hylea's Talons can regenerate easily 5 wounds every 6s. With the adra ooze pet (which will prolong your invisibility for another 3s) you can basically spam WotW while staying invisible all the time. If you don't want to play a Nalpazca you can also use a scepter with modal activated + Aldris Blade which will generate a wound with every hit (from self damage) and heal you at the same time (heals on crits) or Voidwheel+Voidward (generates wounds on hit and heals on kills, the ring prevents taking too much raw damage).

Also if you don't play godlike you can also add the Mask of the Grotto Deep which adds another powerful dot on hit from invisibility.

PS. Keeper of the Flame can also help with wound generation but the AoE damages friendly targets and adds resonance to them (yourself included) which is a bad thing if you plan using Resonant Touch..

[Boeroer]

Keeper of the Flame (with lots of Religion) is also great because of the AoE. You can prevent the self (burn) damage and Resonant Touches with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and turn it into healing. Doesn't generate wounds then of course.

[Kaylon]

Another surprisingly good weapon is St.Droga's Skull - it comes with 20% burn lash and also 20% chance to proc burn dmg (50% dmg of the sabre) in a large AoE. Overall it's like a 20% lash weapon with 10% AoE dmg.

[omnitremere]

Thank you both very much! This information has helped me understand playing the monk significantly more.  I appreciate your responses.