Level progression of base attacks (accuracy/dmg etc) per class?

[gotjazz]

So I finally got this game and I've been reading some wiki and forum stuff about builds, mechanics etc. 

 

I found a lot on power level and how abilities scale when leveling up, how this affects single and multiclass characters respectively but either I'm too stupid to use Google or there is information missing on how regular weapon attacks scale in respect to level and class. 

 

 

I've seen that different classes have different starting values for accuracy for example but does that not progress with level at all? How about penetration or weapon damage? 

 

With weapon proficiency only granting abilities now this makes it look like every character independent of class or level can use every weapon with more or less the same efficiency when not using any abilities but only regular attacks. And I find that hard to believe. 

I'd hope that multiclassing Cipher with some martial class would net me some inherent and progressive bonus in hit-rate and/or damage to make up for lost power-level for example. 

Or does everything really hinge on abilities now? 

 

[Raven Darkholme]

Classes had different starting accuracy in Poe1 not in Deadfire sadly.

Every level up you get +3 accuracy and defenses, penetration and damage only scales with level if you use summoned weapons.

If you are a monk or have monastic unarmed training and use fists they scale with power level which also kinda scales with level but can be modified further.

 

For weapons yes it depends very much on your passives and actives and ofc the weapon enchantment.

There are ofc quite a few classes better suited for weapons then others.

[UltimaLuminaire]

Trying to understand the nature of your confusion.

So for basic attack scaling, you pretty much get accuracy and defenses per level. Fighting enemies way above your level requires a huge swing in resources to help you hit for this reason. Penetration and weapon damage scale off your weapon's quality. For enemies, this is accounted for by encounter design and expected level. The exception to all of this is Monk Fists (EDIT: oh yea summoned weapons are cool), which scale things off of PL. You can rock some serious damage with Monk Fists if you can boost your PL up, or watch it suffer if you take PL penalties from afflictions, etc.

Weapon proficiency modals are good for resourceless augmentations. Having access to them is good early on when you're still building up resources for consumable crafting and food. Mid to late game, you may have plenty of resources to burn so the modals will come into play less frequently outside of the clearly abuseable ones, such as pistol's rapid reload modal.

Specific classes have abilities to help with accuracy. Fighter has the best tools for boosting accuracy early on while Barbarian doesn't give you any accuracy bonuses outside of the accurate carnage passive and lion sprint, for instance. Cipher does get a significant accuracy boosting ability in their own progression, but if you're managing your party buffs correctly they may never have to use it. In general, though, late game accuracy is not an issue for any class or combination thereof, even on PotD.

As for your question about gameplay hinging on abilities, I'm even more confused. PoE 1 & 2 has always had ways of optimizing auto attacks, but abilities in Deadfire greatly influence the range of burst you have access to, which help a lot with nasty targets or mobs. Managing your resources and knowing when to coast on your auto attacks is important.

Edited October 30, 2019 by UltimaLuminaire

[thelee]

7 hours ago, gotjazz said:

With weapon proficiency only granting abilities now this makes it look like every character independent of class or level can use every weapon with more or less the same efficiency when not using any abilities but only regular attacks. And I find that hard to believe. 

Believe it or not, that's how it works. It was a conscious game design choice so that players didn't have FOMO if they picked up an interesting new weapon - short of niche situations that the modal would've been used for, every one can use the weapon as well as any other. It also means it doesn't "prescribe" certain build approaches - people who wanted to make battlemage types in poe1 had to accept they were always going to be a bit crappier in terms of landing hits (It was already a big deal in poe1 backer beta when everyone had separate melee/ranged accuracy and rangers had crappy melee accuracy - people got pretty pissed about being "forced" into playing a ranged ranger or a melee rogue, so the designers scrapped the separate melee/ranged accuracy. taken to its logical conclusion, the designers scrapped any differentiation in accuracy).

In PoE1, martial and caster classes were differentiated in part by different starting accuracy/defenses (and casters had special caster accuracy for spells). In Deadfire, martial and caster classes are differentiated moreso by (optional or automatic) passive abilities: e.g. Fighter's Confident Aim, Barbarian Carnage or Thick Skin, Rogue Sneak Attack or Dirty Fighting, etc. Casters rarely have passives that actively boost their auto-attacking (cipher and chanter are sort of hybrid classes so they get some passives [chants for chanter]) which in the end tends to make martial classes better suited for grindy auto attacking. The flip side is that casters tend to have way more active abilities to use (monks being an exception).

Do note that classes are still differentiated by health and defenses (mostly non-deflection). So there's still a rough guideline on how you should be using the classes; the tankier classes are therefore still barbarian (extremely high health) and fighter (only class with a bonus to deflection).

7 hours ago, gotjazz said:

I've seen that different classes have different starting values for accuracy for example but does that not progress with level at all? How about penetration or weapon damage? 

Nope

 

7 hours ago, gotjazz said:

I'd hope that multiclassing Cipher with some martial class would net me some inherent and progressive bonus in hit-rate and/or damage to make up for lost power-level for example. 

No, that's a deliberate tradeoff for all multiclasses - you lose out on power level and high level abilities in exchange for diversity and more abilities. Sometimes this tradeoff is hardly a tradeoff, because multiclasses can sometimes create insanely synergistic outcomes. A mindstalker (cipher/rogue) for example gets so much extra weapon damage from sneak attack that you end up supercharging your focus generation.

Edited October 30, 2019 by thelee

[gotjazz]

Okay. Thanks everyone. Not what I expected but if this is the way it is then I'll plan my build accordingly...