What multiclasses have you played with so far?

[TheMetaphysician]

Yeah, there's a paladin passive, Mental Fortress, that gives you resistance to intellect afflictions -- so the "confused" will be negated entirely. You can't get it until power level 4, which in a multiclass character is level 10.

 

And there's a "holy slayer" (bleakwalker/assassin) build on youtube that looks really strong that I've seen linked a few times on these forums. You should check that out.

 

Those are the two I've seen discussed so far on the forums.

 

Edit: found the link to the holy slayer video: 

Edited April 18, 2018 by TheMetaphysician

[EbonKnight]

Thanks man, that sounds cool! Would be worried about squishiness, but pallys DO add a lot of tankiness to the proceedings. Yeah, shame about it being only at level 10, but I guess that's only fair, zerkers are too damned powerful to have the only drawback cancelled out too easily, I guess. Lots of stuff to think about before the 8th, but it definitely seems like evil-themed dps builds are gonna be very fun this time around.

[Tommy1984]

So this multiclass system seems pretty darned cool so far. I'm looking for some advice on a bleakwalker build. Off the top of my head, it would seem that a fanatic would be insanely strong, especially if we could somehow mitigate the confusion (is there a perk for the paladin or an ability or something to that extent?). Next up, I'm thinking a rogue/assassin type, or even a priest of skaen combo for mad sneak attacks. Then there's the Soulblade. But perhaps the most powerful combo in my mind, and one that also seems to gel well RP-wise would be Shattered Pillar/Bleak Walker? Can anyone elaborate on how these work in practice and what would (with the current balance in mind) be some of the most fun/powerful of these combos? Cheers :D

 

I have tried following Bleakwalker multis in the current Beta:

- Bleakwalker/Devoted

- Bleakwalker/Shattered Pillar

- Bleakwalker/Berserker

 

The most fun I had with a Bleakwalker/Devoted mountain dwarf dualwielding battle axes. With Confident Aim/Disciplined Strikes/Sworn Enemy your Flames of Devotion almost always crits and basically oneshots everything. He was also very sturdy thanks to Constant Recovery and the Stances/Auras/Passives of both classes. The only downside is, that your weapon selection is very limited.

 

Next was a fist fighting Bleakwalker/Shattered Pillar nature godlike. She was definitly the fastest attacker, but her hits with Flames of Devotion were not as hard as from the previous competitor (monk has less crits and less crit damage). Torments reach should be spamable by using the Shattered Pillars wound generation, but unfortunately it is no longer a full attack.

 

With the Bleakwalker/Berserker (again a mountain dwarf dualwielding battle axes) I had the least fun. He was just too squishy for me. Frenzy gives great bonuses, but even if you can later eliminate the confused affliction it still gives a deflection malus, self damage and hides your health bar. The good thing is that with Barbaric Blow he has an additional full attack ability, which also has an upgrade for refunding the ressource cost on kill. He also gets many cool passives.

 

When the game is released I think i will stick to the Bleakwalker/Devoted multi class. For me it's the best balance between offense and defense.

 

[Yosharian]

I just can't stand the idea of limiting myself to one weapon type when I have no idea what kind of weapons are in the game

[EbonKnight]

Yeah, ditto, that's what scares me most. Still, yeah, it's probably a safe bet that there will be some awesome sabres, so with dw you can counter a lower dex and focus on a **** ton of strength and perception. Or just get a big ass greatsword and call it a day, there's no way gs's won't have some of the best choices, that'd be a travesty :D

[TheMetaphysician]

 

would the Bleak Walker FoD add its bonus effect?

No, sadly not. It's just the usual burning lash of Shared Flames. But still: Mith Fyr + Shared Flames is great for summons' damage while you can stack Ancient Memory and Zealous Endurance (Robust AoE regeneration at later levels). Paladin/Beckoner is a great combo. I like to use a pike to lower enemies defelction and send all skeletons onto one target. In theory this should be great with Combusting Wounds. But at the moment it seems to do nothing?

 

 

As soon as I saw this combo I decided I wanted to play it -- I was a paladin in the first game. For RP reasons, though, I'll be a Shieldbearer. And I have some questions for you about how it plays. As a Shieldbearer, I like being a tank, and so I thought I'd grab a large shield w/modal, shield style, a spear w/modal, and so get 3 engagement slots. I envisage battles going like this (unless I'm pulling the enemies to me with a scout): run up to the nearest guy, engage, activate shield/spear modals, then start the summoning/shared flames cycle you've described on this character elsewhere. I'm worried about two things that I wanted to ask you about:

 

(1) How high is the danger of my summoning spells being interrupted? I'll have absurdly high defenses; will that prevent interrupts enough? (Should I boost Resolve to help with that?)

 

(2) When you start casting the summoning spells, do you lose your engagements? I don't have the beta, so I don't know.

[Boeroer]

1) if you don't have Concentration then it may happen that you get interrupted. RES doesn't help anymore, you need something that gives you Concentration. You can achieve concentration through buffing of you can take a passive ability.

 

2) Good question - I actually didn't test this.

[TheMetaphysician]

Even if Res doesn't give concentration directly, would it help by increasing deflection and thus lowering the number of hits? In other words, do enemy abilities typically only interrupt on crit, or only interrupt on hit/crit?

 

I literally just saw a youtube video mentioning that passive concentration ability; can paladins get it?

[Boeroer]

Most interrupt abilities interrupt on hit, some on crit and stuff like Knockdown even on graze. All of the rogue's active abilities now interrupt on... hit I think?

 

So ensuring that people only graze you by raising deflection might help a lot with interrupts.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[Tommy1984]

I tested the Beckoner a little (but only single class to get all summons). Here are the stats of the upgraded summons from a level 9 single class Beckoner:
 


Results:
- summons scale with character level (see skeleton on a level 6 and a level 9 beckoner)
- summons don't scale with power level (tested with Nature godlike by triggering "Wellspring Of Life" with "The Bride Caught their Ruse and Set to Make them Pay")

Summons:
- Skeletons (x6): are squishy but they do good damage and each splits in 2 new skeletons on death (that are actually larger than the orignal one)
- Phantoms (x2): are a bit underwhelming
- Wurms (x6): are really good - the enemy that is targeted by all upgraded Wurms sometimes gets oneshotted
- Ogre (x4): are also good, they have a self buff (see picture), but they have movement issues in the beta and sometimes do nothing
- Drakes (x2): they have 2 abilities, but these don't work in the beta
 

(1) How high is the danger of my summoning spells being interrupted? I'll have absurdly high defenses; will that prevent interrupts enough? (Should I boost Resolve to help with that?)

 
Resolve doesn't give you Concentration like in PoE 1. You get concentration from spells and talents. For example each class can take the talent "Combat Focus" to get concentration on the start of the battle:
 

 

(2) When you start casting the summoning spells, do you lose your engagements? I don't have the beta, so I don't know.

No, you keep your engagements

Edited April 20, 2018 by Tommy1984

[TheMetaphysician]

 

(1) How high is the danger of my summoning spells being interrupted? I'll have absurdly high defenses; will that prevent interrupts enough? (Should I boost Resolve to help with that?)

 

Resolve doesn't give you Concentration like in PoE 1. You get concentration from spells and talents. For example each class can take the talent "Combat Focus" to get concentration on the start of the battle:

 

concentration.jpg

 Thanks for all that info! especially the screenshots of the summon stats and commentary on them.

 

What power level is that Combat Focus ability on?

[Tommy1984]

Combat Focus is on power level 3, so its character level 7 for a multi class

 

I also forgot the Will'o'Wisp (x4) summon:

 

but the Will'o'Wisp is really weak, almost no damage

 

Next I need to test the chants ... but for now I can say that "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death" is really overpowered. It seems to heal you for every enemy affected. I aggroed the whole village and can just stand there soloing with always full health.

 

edit:

The arch enemy of the Beckoner is an enemy chanter with "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death" ... one of the Mataru Warriors in the Beta Village is one of them ... when he is almost dead he heals to full health on the next tick, because he is surrounded by 6-12 Skeletons on which he can leech.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Tommy1984

[Rezbot]

Good day everyone!

Long time PoE fan, been anxiously awaiting PoE2. Didn't get into the beta sadly, but would someone with the beta mind educating me on possible pitfalls this party combination?

Yes, it's melee heavy, everything I'm hearing about PoE is that Casters are still so-so, and I find I enjoy the game more with a brawler team. I'll take any insight you have on things that work, or areas that might fall flat.

 

 

Melee Tank --- Unbroken+Shieldbearer 

 

Ranged Healer --- Lifegiver Druid (bow?)

 

Melee DPS --- Berserker+Devoted (2h vs DW?) I'm concerned about the Berserker, can someone finally clarify if the confusion will cause friendly fire on carnage? This would definietely push me to MageSlayer instead due to the amount of melee in this group.

 

Melee DPS --- Assassin+SoulBlade (2h for big opening hit, then DW?) Will Bleakwalker be a better choice over soulblade? Early burst from backstab/FoD and Auras VS. frequent SoulBlade burst.

 

Range DPS --- Sharpshooter+Devoted/Beckoner (are dual pistols still worthwhile?) Was thinking devoted for single target dps vs Beckoner because the Zoo sounds fun, but i might run into space issues with the summons preventing the melee team from easily reaching their targets. 

 

Thank you for your help!   

[dunehunter]

Fighter/Paladin has a good mixed offense and defense. For a good melee DPSer I recommend Devoted/Soulblade because dps is not just mean high single target damage, AOE is important too. As a Devoted/Soulblade u have really good burst damage thanks to SA, and the best AOE in beta as cleave and charge(bugged atm). Your AOE damage will make wizard cry

[Boeroer]

Combat Focus is on power level 3, so its character level 7 for a multi class

 

I also forgot the Will'o'Wisp (x4) summon:

willowisp.jpg

 

but the Will'o'Wisp is really weak, almost no damage

 

Next I need to test the chants ... but for now I can say that "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death" is really overpowered. It seems to heal you for every enemy affected. I aggroed the whole village and can just stand there soloing with always full health.

 

edit:

The arch enemy of the Beckoner is an enemy chanter with "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death" ... one of the Mataru Warriors in the Beta Village is one of them ... when he is almost dead he heals to full health on the next tick, because he is surrounded by 6-12 Skeletons on which he can leech.

Yes, Soft Winds suffers from two bugs right now. One is the incorrect tick calculation that also affects DoTs and does double (or triple?) tick at the start and the other one that it drains from everyone it hits instead of just checking if it hit at all and then healing a single time like it's described.

[Tommy1984]

Yes, Soft Winds suffers from two bugs right now. One is the incorrect tick calculation that also affects DoTs and does double (or triple?) tick at the start and the other one that it drains from everyone it hits instead of just checking if it hit at all and then healing a single time like it's described.

 

Yeah my combat log shows, that I was healed for 7 Health and then several times for 3 Health ... so I think the first tick is doubled.

 

For fun I tried a Shieldbearer/Beckoner solo on POTD.

- stats: maximum MIG/INT/RES, dumped DEX

- talents: Deep Faith, Zealous Endurance, Inspired Defenses, Combat Focus, ...

- equipment: dagger (modal gives +10 melee deflection), medium shield (modal gives 30% damage resist), plate armor

- chants: "Come, Come Soft Winds of Death"

- invocation: "Ancient Brittle Bones"

 

Then I set my AI-Script to:

- Condition = "Self: At Least 2 Phrases"

- Action = "Ancient Brittle Bones"

- Target = "Enemy" / "Nearest Target"

 

Then just watch after starting a combat  ... this kills everything without lifting a finger (even the Engwithan Titan)

 

(nice fact I found, that I didn't noticed before: pets in PoE2 now give passive bonuses)

[TheMetaphysician]

Boy, I sure hope they don't nerf this too badly before I get a chance to play (or worse, in the middle of a playthrough). I love paladins, and I love the fact that there are so many good uses for paladins in this game, it seems.

[dunehunter]

Boy, I sure hope they don't nerf this too badly before I get a chance to play (or worse, in the middle of a playthrough). I love paladins, and I love the fact that there are so many good uses for paladins in this game, it seems.

Paladins were also nerfed multiple times in PoE 1, if I remember correctly, they got deep faith nerf, FoD nerf, basic deflection nerf, and later on devs realize they nerf paladin too hard so they gives accuracy bonus to FoD as a compensate. So .... we will see

Edited April 22, 2018 by dunehunter

[Raven Darkholme]

 

Boy, I sure hope they don't nerf this too badly before I get a chance to play (or worse, in the middle of a playthrough). I love paladins, and I love the fact that there are so many good uses for paladins in this game, it seems.

Paladins were also nerfed multiple times in PoE 1, if I remember correctly, they got deep faith nerf, FoD nerf, basic deflection nerf, and later on devs realize they nerf paladin too hard so they gives accuracy bonus to FoD as a compensate. So .... we will see

 

Paladins did not get nerfed they got SI and never were the same again, the small nerfs never compensated for that juicy powerspike.

[Tommy1984]

I really like the summoner builds and now tried the Troubadour (and Shieldbearer/Troubadour):
- when using "Brisk Recitation" he can pump out lower tier summons at the same rate and higher tier summons faster than the Beckoner (drake: 4x6=24sec as Beckoner, 6x3=18sec as Troubadour)
- because "Brisk Recitation" disables the linger and the summon duration is longer compared to a Beckoner you can lower INT (maybe even dump it ... depends on desired chant radius)
- another approch with high INT is to use "Brisk Recitation" first, to get your summons out fast and then switch it off for double chants (or keep it on for more invocations)
- as a Troubadour you can keep up 2 chants all the time with 20 INT (duration = 6 seconds, linger = 6 seconds)
- as a Troubadour you get only half amount of summons per cast compared to a Beckoner, but they have doubled health (although defenses/damage seem to be the same)
- so you get: less DPS, but sturdier summons with longer duration => they seem to work better as "meat shields" or vs. enemies with AoE damage
 

[dunehunter]

 

 

Boy, I sure hope they don't nerf this too badly before I get a chance to play (or worse, in the middle of a playthrough). I love paladins, and I love the fact that there are so many good uses for paladins in this game, it seems.

Paladins were also nerfed multiple times in PoE 1, if I remember correctly, they got deep faith nerf, FoD nerf, basic deflection nerf, and later on devs realize they nerf paladin too hard so they gives accuracy bonus to FoD as a compensate. So .... we will see

Paladins did not get nerfed they got SI and never were the same again, the small nerfs never compensated for that juicy powerspike.

Have u played the game from PoE 1 beta? I did and SI is added by WM 2 which is in the very late of their develop cycle.

 

I also remember bleakwalker can do 300+ damage with FoD in beta and got nerfed immediately

[Boeroer]

Yes, they got nerfed pretty hard at the beginning (FoD, Deep Faith, starting deflection) and rebuffed again (FoD +20 ACC). SI came later.

 

I remember an arquebus shot with FoD that did over 1000 damage.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Boeroer

[dunehunter]

Yes, they got nerfed pretty hard at the beginning (FoD, Deep Faith, starting deflection) and rebuffed again (FoD +20 ACC). SI came later.

 

I remember an arquebus shot with FoD that did over 1000 damage.

 

I find my old PoE beta thread LoL https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69078-flame-of-devotion-with-an-arbalest/?hl=%2Bflame+%2Bdevotion

 

Anyway I think it's too early to judge class combo. Because although Paladin comes with a sweet Off/Def package(Deep Faith, FoD, LoH), all of its mid-late game abilities are Extotations that is not self-targetable. I wouldn't say give him some good starting abilities can be counted as OP because later on his abilities cannot buff himself. SI is an exception in late game but using SI will cost more resource so u can use less FoD so it's a source management question.

 

Anyway what I try to say it is too early to judge class or combo right now without seeing the whole talent tree, some class might start good but become meh later on(PoE1 rogues I'm pointing at u).

 

Edit: I also find it is unclear to tell what role a paladin is from his talent tree. He start with very good Defense/Offense hybrid abilities. But once after power level 5, all abilities are suddenly turns into supportive ones like all the Extotations. In the very late of the tree, there is SI which is a dps/healing abilitiy. We can tell the designer is also very undecided about his role in the game. From the beginning he want to make it a Tank/Striker, but later on he changes his mind and try to make it a supporter, but then finally he made up his mind to turn paladin into a Healer/Striker/Tank hybrid. 

Edited April 23, 2018 by dunehunter

[Tommy1984]

My Level 9 Bleakwalker/Devoted with dual battle axes already does relatively consistent ~100 damage per hit on a crit with FoD ... if you add up both hits you are already sitting on 200 damage with FoD in the PoE 2 beta. I think there are other class combinations that can even beat this result.

[dunehunter]

My Level 9 Bleakwalker/Devoted with dual battle axes already does relatively consistent ~100 damage per hit on a crit with FoD ... if you add up both hits you are already sitting on 200 damage with FoD in the PoE 2 beta. I think there are other class combinations that can even beat this result.

 

That's because Lash is calculated separately from the basic damage. In Beta 1~3 Wounding Shot have similar damage to FoD, or even higher because Wounding lash is calculated separately from basic damage AND lash! But they nerfed it in Beta 4 so now wounding doesn't count a lot stuff and the damage is much lower.

 

I wonder wether Lash will be tuned into an additive damage bonus like Wounding or not.