next run, potd or potd + ?

[Panda Baby]

sup guys, me again

so, i did all my playthrough from nekataka onward basicly in veteran+all upscaled mode. execept dragon in BOw and reef vampires and wael oracle didnt foudn it particulary challenging, hated sss exp so just did the minimum required fights. loved FS

i want take next run higher, shoud i potd or direct potd + upscaled ? will there be a noticeable diffrent between veteran+all upscale and potd no upscales?

on my next run i will use some henchies as i really cant suport xoti and aloth anymore, they are hell annoying.

party compo will be mc herald, eder ( love him cant pass him up), bloodmage/lifegiver hench, priest of wael hench, and nr 5 pure mage hench, probably blood mage or evoker ( i love lvl 9 missil spell)

i didnt find myself using empowering much for boost spells or rarely, mostly was for replenish on long fights, so having blood mage and no empowers dont seem such a big deal.

could maybe even do priest/druid mix and take 2 pure blood mages for the sake of it, as the priest level 8 and 9 sells didnt seem so much game changing to me but maybe in potd it will

any thoughs? one thing i noticed is crush damage weapons seems to be the best for most bosses as their crush def are lower than others excep a few exceptions. ( and awesome modals).

also i will probably use more arcana for scrolls, except diplomacy other skills didnt seem much relevant through my playthrough

 

 

 

[Not So Clever Hound]

51 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

want take next run higher, shoud i potd or direct potd + upscaled ? will there be a noticeable diffrent between veteran+all upscale and potd no upscales?

I think you should try PotD Upscaled then and see. Beware, rocky start.  

51 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

party compo will be mc herald

You do you of course , but didn't you do a Herald in your first run already? Why not try something new?

51 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

priest level 8 and 9 sells didnt seem so much game changing to me but maybe in potd it will

SC Priest and high level spells can be really good, Skaen or Berath mostly IMO. Berath's Symbol and Summons for tanking are sweet. But in terms of highest bang for your buck for going SC I think it's Blood Mage and Monk for any party/solo configuration, then Assassin (mostly for solo) then Druid in a party for Great Maelstrom. Then Priest and Cipher equally IMO.

51 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

crush damage weapons seems to be the best

I think it is statistically the best physical damage, then for elemental it's arguably Shock or Corrode - I'd say Shock because a lot of high-impact Corrode spells target Fortitude which sucks a little bit on PotD. But you can also use both . Some of the most powerful spells are Freeze (Freezing Pillar, Shadowflame, Eld Nary, Her Tears, Maelstrom has flex damage type) which sucks in BoW. And don't even get me started on Fire damage .

Edited December 8, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Not So Clever Hound]

42 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

i will probably use more arcana for scrolls

Forgot to comment on this: building around Arcana is incredibly impactful at high level, for instance with an Assassin, Arcane Archer or even Arcane Knight IMO. But it feels a bit cheaty because it's so powerful and flexible and copies powerful class abilities instead of doing its own thing. And resources are so easy to get that once you have enough capital to keep going there is no tradeoff.

[Panda Baby]

haha yh my first play was mc herald and i loved it much lol cus it was tanky as hell

RP speaking and variety speaking its what i enjoyed. res from chant, res from paladin, some stuns, some passive buffs...i really had a blast with it and cant think of another being as versatile but open to sugestions. im in love with the jack of all trades use of herald and tankiness and universallity

in terms of druid rust armor and maelstorm are awesome agree, but can be from scroll, a sorcerer mix only have 1 use of rust armor at level 20 which is bleh.

i only used maelstorm on 2 encounters, bow dragon and weal oracle, as it was op and i didnt want abuse it much cept to be unable beat the boss without this extra help.same for other scrolls.

i assume potd and potd upscaled will be lot harder.

i was hesitating yh about priest between berath and wael as berath offer pallid summon and rust armor, even if rust armors dont stack have a priest able cast it considering sorcerer have only 1 cast of it is a welcome bonus. the berath symbol is nice too for small extra dmg.

is the summon of berath really that good in compare ? to all good stuff priest of wael bring ? extra gaze of adragan, confusion, free iconic,  arkemyr...thats alot goodies too.

for skaen except the beyond ability and the free mass blind i dont see anything special in it, mind enlighten me

i enjoyed cipher in poe but in poe2 somehow dislike them dunno. sure some nice abilities but dunno...dont feel the magic hehe.

sc druid only seems interesting to me for maelstorm which seems cheesy,? his other level 8-9 spells dont seem that great to me , but feel free correct me.

a party made of sc blood mage, sc life giver, sc priest could be fun too yh instead hybrid sorcerer , why not.

 

 

[Not So Clever Hound]

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

the berath symbol is nice too for small extra dmg

With all the scaling, this can be a deceptively potent room cleaner. Cast and forget and win.

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

is the summon of berath really that good in compare ?

Yeah, because you get 2 of them .

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

to all good stuff priest of wael bring ? extra gaze of adragan, confusion, free iconic,  arkemyr...thats alot goodies too.

I love Wael and it's probably more impactful throughout a full playthrough. But it will be stronger as (martial) Multiclass IMHO. Berath better justifies going SC.

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

for skaen except the beyond ability and the free mass blind i dont see anything special in it, mind enlighten me

Skaen's Incarnate in particular is nice (ever fought Fampyr priests and wondered what the heck their Effigy summon was?). If RP allows.

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

i enjoyed cipher in poe but in poe2 somehow dislike them dunno. sure some nice abilities but dunno...dont feel the magic hehe.

SC Cipher shines once you actually play it. Things like Death of a 1000 cuts, Time Parasite and Shared Nightmare are transformative. 

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

sc druid only seems interesting to me for maelstorm which seems cheesy,? his other level 8-9 spells dont seem that great to me , but feel free correct me.

Yes, but then there is also PL scaling on previous abilities like the Insect spells, Relentless Storm and Embrace of the Earth Talon. They scale very well, and for some of those you can fire them from a huge distance. But yeah, Great Maelstrom is the MVP - cheesy I don't know. Very long casting time, some risk of friendly fire... It's immensely powerful, but it's only a straight "I win" button in fights that aren't that challenging anyway.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Not So Clever Hound]

36 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

RP speaking and variety speaking its what i enjoyed. res from chant, res from paladin, some stuns, some passive buffs...i really had a blast with it and cant think of another being as versatile but open to sugestions. im in love with the jack of all trades use of herald and tankiness and universallity

Sure, it is indeed one of the strongest and versatile possible combos in the game .

I mean I love Wizards myself and I've played more Deadfire wizards than I would ever want to admit . In terms of uber jack of all trades, wizards are up there too...

[Panda Baby]

for berathsummons, what you mean i get 2 of them? the spell only summon 1 pallid knight, u are not allowed have 2 summons up same time do you?

i take exemple of xoti who could only have 1 level 9 vine up, if u summoned a 2nd one, the first exploded.

usin the balance polish mode with summon balance btw dunno if that affect this or if incarnates are diffrent of classic summons such as vines.

true wizards are so versatile.  and a bit squishy hehe, but with blood mage the spare points from empowers can go to lengrat and martial aye.

 

by the way, how come on my new playthrough i dont get the bonus from gift of machine and pool of blood? in my poe 1 history i did precise i sacrificed aloth and kept souls to myself which should have granted me +1mig and +1intel, did i miss something?

 

 

 

[Boeroer]

Berath Incarnate summons the Pallid Knight AND the Usher at the same time. They count as one summon. Such as a Chanter can summon three skeletons at once or a Druid can summon multiple oozes at once.

Other priests' Incarnate also have multiple creatures, for example Priest of Eothas summons three Dawnstars. Wael only summons one giant eye that shoots lightnings iirc. Skaen summons one freaking Effigy and so on. I think Woedica is the only Priest subclass has no incarnate summon. 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

weird but when i tested with berath priest i only had 1 creature summoned...the pallid knight, didnt have the usher appear

[Elric Galad]

BPM provides Incarnate summons with Legendary weapons. Pallid Knight is a fighter, and having only normal weapons mean she was useless. The other summon is a SC fully scaled priest so it helps less.

BPM reduces the duration of Incarnate of Berath because 2 for price of 1 was too good. 

With BPM, the PL penalty is lesser but lasts longer.

The usher should appear too. It was tested and worked.

 

By the way, Symbols are basically the best Tier 8 damages spell of the game. Period. Only tier 9 Maelstrom ans Minoletta can compare. But you get only one cast of them without support. Symbols being no friendly fire is also very cool.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Elric Galad

[masterty66]

I always do POTD + Upscaled. Often with Galawain's Challenge too. I haven't noticed that anything has been too overly difficult. Oh don't get me wrong I wipe sometimes and there are some very challenging fights. But usually after a little perseverance and some better use of consumables etc I manage. 

The beginning tends to be the most difficult. Once you get into the upper teens and start finding the powerful equipment things aren't so bad aside from some select fights in the DLCs. And for my part some fights can get annoying when I fight a tough beast type enemy which rolls an annoying effect with Galawain's challenge but I enjoy it anyhow

[thelee]

On 12/9/2021 at 6:55 AM, Elric Galad said:

By the way, Symbols are basically the best Tier 8 damages spell of the game. Period. Only tier 9 Maelstrom ans Minoletta can compare. But you get only one cast of them without support. Symbols being no friendly fire is also very cool.

in terms of balance, it's kind of wild the damage power curve that happens for priests upon unlocking tier 8 spells. the same thing happens with maelstrom and minoletta, but at least those are on classes/in spell schools that you *expect* to do lots of aoe damage.

[masterty66]

7 minutes ago, thelee said:

in terms of balance, it's kind of wild the damage power curve that happens for priests upon unlocking tier 8 spells. the same thing happens with maelstrom and minoletta, but at least those are on classes/in spell schools that you *expect* to do lots of aoe damage.

Wizard PL8 is starting to really grow on me as well. Black Bow is amazing. 

[Boeroer]

I actually value Meteor Storm over Minoletta's Missile Salvo. It works the same with Unstable Coil etc. but does a lot more overall dmg, has a bigger AoE and is boostable with fire PL (of which you can stack a lot).

I also think Storm of Holy Fire is very good for the same reasons - and it's PL7. As soon as Xoti reaches PL 7 it's a different approach to encounters all of a sudden - at least in my case.

Their biggest drawback is the fire-only dmg. But for the Priest it's PL 7 (so enough alternatives to cast) and Wizards have Grimoire - so plenty of alternatives to choose from really. 

The symbol spells' biggest advantage is - imo - that they are foe-only and sometimes have a nice support effect for allies at the same time. You basically cast two spells at once which is a lot better than most players think initially I guess (I mean in terms of action economy mostly). 

9 hours ago, thelee said:

in terms of balance, it's kind of wild the damage power curve that happens for priests upon unlocking tier 8 spells. 

Honestly, I think that is how all PL 8/9 should feel like. There should be a price to pay for multiclassing. And I don't only mean in terms of power/impact/mechanics but also in terms of coolness and the "I want" factor.

PL 8 and 9 shoukd really make you sit down and think twice whether you really want to multiclass or go for single class. Priests and Wizards and also Druids achieve that (not the spiritshift part unfortunately, that's sharts for SCs)... Monks, too I think.

And that's because of their powerful but also "cool" PL 8/9 stuff.

The other classes... mnyeah... Rogue maybe - but only if you really understood how Gambit and/or Vanishing Strikes work and then you'd still be hard-pressed to pick SC Rogue imo because the possibilities and the "coolness" for multiclassing are/is so vast. Barbs are also an edge case. As much as I love Driving Roar and especially the Blood Ward... it's a bit much to forego the fun of mukticlassing a Barb just because of Driving Roar - which then kind of forces you to play a Barb like a ranged caster of sorts (same is true for the exploding fire axe... wtf, hehe) . But weird and maybe also a bit offputting for the classic Barb lover who just wants to smash - but with a boom.

This also has something to do with VFX and audio in my case. If it has awesome effects - like most high tier spells have - I just want to use it. WotW with Mortars for example is just so moch fun to watch. Gambit on the other hand - while really good - ist just not that spectacular. 

Then you cast a Missile Salvo and holy **** you unleash Hel on Eora with visuals and sound and it's awesome!

Edited December 11, 2021 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

10 hours ago, masterty66 said:

Wizard PL8 is starting to really grow on me as well. Black Bow is amazing. 

Yes, I really enjoyed my last Aloth iteration with him, the Phantom and two Blackbows (+Helm of the White Void).

It's so impactful and so easy to script for AI, too. I tend to forget my Aloth after he cast his initial spells and for a pure caster it's hard to set up non-annoying AI imo. But this is so easy and it just wrecks nearly all enemies. It's even effective against RES-resistant foes. Not being able to use offensive abilities ist still a great debuff. 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

this run i will take sc priest sc mage sc druid cus previous run didnt have acces to most  epic stuff as had lot multi classed.

i was thinking of make maybe mc arcane knight with gold pact+enchanter subclass for build it like a melee dmg dealer with buffed defenses/dmg from martial/lengrath spells,  but had trouble set AI for it properly and well...miss my chants, but i definitly want make a run at some point with an arkane night+ devoted or unbroken warrior with parry mechanism of that big sword as a tandem.

having pure mage i wan test that blackbow phantom stuff especially if it can be used with one of the martial spells that disable casting or smth like that, love to experiment.

i was thinking if use berath blessings on potd upscaled for start at level 4 wouldent be too killjoy. well i can always do potd upscaled and reduce if some fight become impossible.

i wanted play deadfire since it came out but i didnt have a laptop for it good enough...now i feel frustrated i wasted 3 years since this game is out before finally be able enjoy it now that its out of support and live..

@thelee post on pathfinder really got my interessed too, game seem a bit like deadfire.

 

[thelee]

16 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

@thelee post on pathfinder really got my interessed too, game seem a bit like deadfire.

oh i don't want to oversell it. i'm still enjoying it, but while i'm playing it i'm already using it as an inspiration for my next deadfire run

also - for the flack that obsidian gets for having buggy games, obsidian has nothing on owlcat. ohhh brother

[Panda Baby]

2 hours ago, thelee said:

oh i don't want to oversell it. i'm still enjoying it, but while i'm playing it i'm already using it as an inspiration for my next deadfire run

also - for the flack that obsidian gets for having buggy games, obsidian has nothing on owlcat. ohhh brother

u mean bugs are still so many  on pathfinder?  but isnt the game new kind of, i only seen it gog recently in new arrivals

[Boeroer]

7 hours ago, thelee said:

also - for the flack that obsidian gets for having buggy games, obsidian has nothing on owlcat. ohhh brother

I think for such complex games the occurrence of really annoying bugs was quite low (in PoE/Deadfire). In the past it was not uncommon that I bought a game and couldn't even start it. The most annoying bug I had so far with PoE was that the game crashed reliably when you climbed from the basement of Raedric's keep to the captain of the guard on the roof. That was fixed within days. After that it was only "inconveniences" that I could circumvent until patched. Granted: I don't use potions much, hehe.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Boeroer

[thelee]

9 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

u mean bugs are still so many  on pathfinder?  but isnt the game new kind of, i only seen it gog recently in new arrivals

it came out september, so it's relatively new, but the depth and amount of bugs is still quite astonishing, especially if you want to be mean and compare it to where deadfire was four months out. some critical class features are completely nonfunctional, a lot of feat interactions work incorrectly, allegedly act v is a mess and obviously they ran out of time to QA it (i'm not that far in so can't speak personally). personally speaking i also had a lot of crash bugs early on before finding a sweet spot for graphics settings. (also, the dumbest bug i personally found and reported - i could not rebind the "W" key. Only that key. All other keys on the keyboard I could rebind.)

edit - some of this stuff would be much less of a big deal if being able to respec your character (to get around surprising bugs) didn't automatically knocked your difficulty into "custom mode" which, unlike p:k, irrevocably locks you out for the current adventure from achievements.


more back on topic,

On 12/11/2021 at 1:28 AM, Boeroer said:

I actually value Meteor Storm over Minoletta's Missile Salvo.

meteor swarm certainly kicks butt but my problem is that its range is *very* limited compared to its area, which poses more problems for me in most situations. missile salvo is very easy to deal with.

Edited December 12, 2021 by thelee

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, thelee said:

meteor swarm certainly kicks butt but my problem is that its range is *very* limited compared to its area, which poses more problems for me in most situations. missile salvo is very easy to deal with.

Its range is pretty bad, that's right - but with Fleet Feet or D. Alacrity you can cast it and run away (no engagement) before the meteors hit you. 

Also Farcasting helps a bit.  

Sometimes I just use Rekvu's Scorched Cloak and stand in the midst of it - especially if I use the Fractured Casque with Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry anyways. I mean it's supposed to be a shower - so I take one.