Multi-class talents

[Mechalibur]

My tests have the same results. No scaling whatsoever.

 

Combined with the defender nerf, fighter is probably the worst of the melee combatants right now. Their high engagement llimit with defender is nice, but at higher levels enemies seem to feel fine taking disengagement attacks so that they can go for the real targets.

[tongz11]

If the wounding shot multiclass talent works like the Ranger one, it will have some great synergy with Combusting Wounds. 6 wounding shots on a Combusting Wounds will be a crazy damage burst, if the engine can keep track of that many dots at once.

[Nobear]

If the wounding shot multiclass talent works like the Ranger one, it will have some great synergy with Combusting Wounds. 6 wounding shots on a Combusting Wounds will be a crazy damage burst, if the engine can keep track of that many dots at once.

 

I'd forgotten about that, and didn't think of it when the multiclass talent came. Pedroelm did this kind of testing with Combusting Wounds with a blunderbuss a while back, but I forget whether he also threw Wounding Shot into the mix. My memory is fuzzy, but IIRC there seemed to be some DPS-boosting synergy, even though the engine wasn't perfect and maybe dropped some ticks.

[Shevek]

OK, I've just finished giving the last multiclass talent a shot and here are my thoughts:

 

Acolyte's Radiance - Similar to holy radiance except it can only be used 1/rest.  The endurance provided by this talent is not large and the fact that it can only be used once per rest makes it a poor choice except for players who rest exceptionally often.

 

Apprentice's Sneak Attack - 70% less damage than the rogue ability but does apply in every situation where a rogue would be able to sneak attack.  A reasonable though not stellar choice, especially for off-tanks who would typically be flanking their target anyway. 

 

Aspirant's Mark - 20% weaker than the druid spell and usable only 2/rest.  Somewhat useful as an opening strike, especially for players who tend to rest fairly often.

 

Enigma's Charm -  20% less duration than the cipher power but usable once per encounter.  Not especially useful for casters once their spell slots become per-encounter instead of per-rest, but a solid choice for melee characters who want to broaden their combat options.

 

Gallant's Focus - 33% weaker than the paladin aura (and does not stack with similar accuracy boosters).  If no one else in your group is providing a party-wide accuracy boost, a permanent +4 ends up boosting party damage by a reasonable though not stellar amount. 

 

Novice's suffering - Boosts unarmed damage to the point where unarmed attacks become competitive with lower-end weapons.  A solid choice for niche builds that make frequent unarmed attacks, like druids who focus on animal-form melee, but too weak to justify otherwise.    

 

Outlander's Frenzy - 25% weaker than the barbarian power and with a drastically reduced frequency of use (once per rest).  The bonus to attack speed is decent for characters with on-hit weapons/abilities, but the inability to use this more than 1/rest makes it a luxury that most melee builds (the apparently natural choice for this kind of talent) won't be able to afford. 

 

Prestidigitator's Missiles - 33% fewer missiles than the wizard spell and can be used 2/rest.  This isn't a bad choice for low-level characters, and the corrode damage type makes it occasionally useful later on, but the amount of damage it inflicts just isn't high enough to justify most characters taking it. 

 

Rhymer's Summon - 33% fewer skeletons than the chanter invocation.  The skeletons are too weak to dish out meaningful damage and die too quickly to block choke points, but can at least briefly flank enemies if you have character(s) capable of sneak attacking.     

 

Runner's wounding shot - 20% weaker than the ranger talent and can be used half as often (1/encounter instead of 2/encounter).  Movement-impeding conditions like hobble have become somewhat more useful in 2.0 and the 1/encounter duration makes this a competitive though not stellar choice for most non-caster builds, especially low-level rogues. 

 

Veteran's Recovery - 50% less endurance regeneration than the fighter ability.  The very slow rate of endurance regeneration makes this talent barely noticeable except on ultra-low-constitution characters, who likely don't have a spare slot to take this feat anyway. 

 

On the whole, I found Enigma's Charm to be the most worthwhile multiclass feat as it opened up some interesting strategic options (especially for disengagement) and could be used reasonably often (albeit not at the start of combat).  Runner's Wounding Shot was also somewhat better than expected in a post-patch environment where foes race past tanks more frequently to reach the backline.  Most of the other multiclass talents would be at least situationally useful with the exception of Acolyte's Radiance and Veteran's Recovery, which are in my judgment too weak for just about any build at the moment.   

The unarmed talent does not work for shapeshift. It is utterly useless.

[Boeroer]

An OBS developer said that's a bug and that it's supposed to work. So we have to wait for the next patch I tink.