[Powerbuilding] Strongest builds that are still viable from beta?

[CheveyoSD]

I don't know about you guys, but my high level single class wizard just melted everything with one empowered aoe spell.

 

 I empowered one of Aloth's AoEs. It erased everything it hit. It made me want to reroll.

[dunehunter]

The class with the highest (single target) melee dps is the shapeshifter/rogue. Sneak Attack + Deathblows + Deep Wounds + Dirty Fighting + Uncanny Luck + Improved Critical + Persistent Distraction + Greater Wildstrike coupled with dual wield, no recovery penalties from armor and claws upgraded for free to legendary level, free heals, no resources required...

Monk/Rogue has better dps, fist does a little better damage than claw, and you get almost +80 lash from lightning strike and turning wheel, wildstrike only gives u +40.

[Answermancer]

 

The class with the highest (single target) melee dps is the shapeshifter/rogue. Sneak Attack + Deathblows + Deep Wounds + Dirty Fighting + Uncanny Luck + Improved Critical + Persistent Distraction + Greater Wildstrike coupled with dual wield, no recovery penalties from armor and claws upgraded for free to legendary level, free heals, no resources required...

Monk/Rogue has better dps, fist does a little better damage than claw, and you get almost +80 lash from lightning strike and turning wheel, wildstrike only gives u +40.

 

 

Is that only with fists, or with weapons too?

[SaruNi]

 

I don't know about you guys, but my high level single class wizard just melted everything with one empowered aoe spell.

 

 I empowered one of Aloth's AoEs. It erased everything it hit. It made me want to reroll.

 

 

 

How does assassin/caster compare with pure caster at level 20? Do empowered PL 9 spells outperform empowered assassinate PL 7 spells (assuming they crit for the assassinate damage bonus)? 

[Voltron]

 

The class with the highest (single target) melee dps is the shapeshifter/rogue. Sneak Attack + Deathblows + Deep Wounds + Dirty Fighting + Uncanny Luck + Improved Critical + Persistent Distraction + Greater Wildstrike coupled with dual wield, no recovery penalties from armor and claws upgraded for free to legendary level, free heals, no resources required...

Monk/Rogue has better dps, fist does a little better damage than claw, and you get almost +80 lash from lightning strike and turning wheel, wildstrike only gives u +40.

 

 

How you get +80 lash from LS and TW? I tested it on lvl 20 on three different builds and they were giving around +10-19 per one, never more even when with crazy hits.

[cactot]

I assume he means 80%. 30% from lightning strike and 50% from 10 stack turning wheel.

[Azalore]

While not a solo build, I stumbled into Thaumaturge - Wizard/Evoker Priest/Eothas.

I was playing on veteran but I am going to up it to potd when I load up next because on veteran it is too faceroll.

Share Your build please, mate. I'm interested in anything related to Wizards  

[dunehunter]

 

 

The class with the highest (single target) melee dps is the shapeshifter/rogue. Sneak Attack + Deathblows + Deep Wounds + Dirty Fighting + Uncanny Luck + Improved Critical + Persistent Distraction + Greater Wildstrike coupled with dual wield, no recovery penalties from armor and claws upgraded for free to legendary level, free heals, no resources required...

Monk/Rogue has better dps, fist does a little better damage than claw, and you get almost +80 lash from lightning strike and turning wheel, wildstrike only gives u +40.

How you get +80 lash from LS and TW? I tested it on lvl 20 on three different builds and they were giving around +10-19 per one, never more even when with crazy hits.

Missed % sorry.

[Maxzero]

 

 

I don't know about you guys, but my high level single class wizard just melted everything with one empowered aoe spell.

 

 I empowered one of Aloth's AoEs. It erased everything it hit. It made me want to reroll.

 

 

 

How does assassin/caster compare with pure caster at level 20? Do empowered PL 9 spells outperform empowered assassinate PL 7 spells (assuming they crit for the assassinate damage bonus)? 

 

 

Level 1 Nature Godlike Assassin/Wizard with 20 Might and 20 Perception (easily done with Blessing of Berath).

 

Stealth/Invis-> Cast Chill Fog.

 

20-28 damage a tick (30% might, 30% overpen, 30% sneak attack, 10% +2 PL). Also get -1 armour from flanked on target so overpen is easy.

65 accuracy (20 base, 10 Perception, 25 Assassin, 10 Flanked).

50% crit damage (also gives you 13.5 penetration on crits) - 30 damage crits.

 

This ticks every 3 seconds on the whole screen while Blinding everything. If you get targetted you can Smoke Bomb away. As you level you can proc the Nature buff through Infuse or Xoti easily enough. Dirty Fighting, Uncanny Luck, Improved Critical and Deathblows later on as well for 15% hit to crit, +10% crit damage and Chill Fog procs Deathblows on it's own (+50% damage for 30 damage ticks and 37 crits).

 

Don't forget to sleep in the Inn in Neketaka for +1 level 1 spell casts (lasts until you rest again).

 

Maybe at the level 8 and 9 spells make up for it but you got to wait a long time for that. When you can do this with level 1 spells it's pretty amazing.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Maxzero

[eisenefaust]

Stealth/Invis-> Cast Chill Fog.

 

20-28 damage a tick (30% might, 30% overpen, 30% sneak attack, 10% +2 PL).

75 accuracy (20 base, 10 Perception, 10 spell, 25 Assassin, 10 Flanked).

50% crit damage (also gives you 13.5 penetration on crits) - 36 damage crits with 75 accuracy and Dirty fighting for 10% more crits in the future.

 

This ticks every 3 second on the whole screen. If you get targetted you can Smoke bomb away. As you level you can proc the Nature buff through Infuse or Xoti easily enough.

 

Maybe at the level 8 and 9 spells make up for it but you got to wait a long time for that. When you can do this with level 1 spells it's pretty amazing.

 

That sounds incredibly fun. I'll have to give that try next! thanks for the idea!

[dudex]

found another hilariously broken combo

 

sharpshooter/helwaker  with frost seeker (heath orlan)

 

crit city (this is all from one attack with swift fury)

 

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/931561028383403096/253B43C34C7B57BAB0635D1C87F1E70DB30579EF/

 

this is level 7 nowhere near its full potential. imagine this with another 25% crit to extra attack, driving flight, 50% lash damage, etc

 

played around with the statue boss at poko kahara and i literally took it down with one attack. it just kept procing extra attacks non stop.

Edited May 11, 2018 by dudex

[Maxzero]

 

Stealth/Invis-> Cast Chill Fog.

 

20-28 damage a tick (30% might, 30% overpen, 30% sneak attack, 10% +2 PL).

75 accuracy (20 base, 10 Perception, 10 spell, 25 Assassin, 10 Flanked).

50% crit damage (also gives you 13.5 penetration on crits) - 36 damage crits with 75 accuracy and Dirty fighting for 10% more crits in the future.

 

This ticks every 3 second on the whole screen. If you get targetted you can Smoke bomb away. As you level you can proc the Nature buff through Infuse or Xoti easily enough.

 

Maybe at the level 8 and 9 spells make up for it but you got to wait a long time for that. When you can do this with level 1 spells it's pretty amazing.

 

That sounds incredibly fun. I'll have to give that try next! thanks for the idea!

 

 

Maybe not that great now that I tested it more. The Assassinate bonus only applies on first tick boo!

 

Sneak attack, Deathblows and all the other stuff does though but still it's annoying.

 

I think it's because the 'Frost patch' does the damage while the DoT is the debuff.

 

I wonder if you paired it with a dedicated DoT whereas the whole DoT would get the bonus. Time to test with Assassin/Druid.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Maxzero

[Kenji]

Does anyone here still min/max their attributes? Or do you guys distribute the attributes more evenly (No more 3 con, 20 might, and etc.) similar to the companions and sidekicks?

 

I find min/maxing attributes very punishing, low con means characters getting one-shot by high difficulty AI where enemy rogues and backlines bypass your frontline defenses. And I found companions (with their supposed "inferior" stat distribution) to actually be faring better than my hired adventurers from time to time.

 

Any thoughts?

 

I plan on doing an all-hired-adventurers run similar to Icewind Dale after I finish my first run with 100% companions. This is something I'd like you guys' insights on.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Kenji

[ppscurry]

3 con is rather punishing but 3 resolve is just fine. Even stacked up on wizard buffs, a non scaled skeleton still hits me at 10+ levels. Also, does soul annihilation crit?

[Voltron]

I am trying now solo PotD with new solo build. It's simillar so far in concept to my Nirvana Build from POE1 solo. So far working really good:

Moon Godlike, Kind Wayfarer/Shattered Pillar with High Athletics for second wind and Lay on Hands. 

High Might for healing bonus and damage, High Perception to ensure hits on early levels. 

So far working really well with Moon Silver Tide Heal (3x time during fight if my health is dropping), Flames of Devotion heal, second wind heal and Lay on Hands heal. Monk dmg + fast attack speed works really well. Since it solo I will probably invest more in Paladin defensive passives and his passive that increase all healing received. Later when I will get Torment Reach I will finally start to have easier time with group of enemies because it lacks AOE now. Damage is nowhere that impressive as on Pillar/Zerker or Bleak Walker/Zerker (it's still ok because monk is great and FoD offers nice burst + Focus Aura accuracy bonus), however it's so far unkillable. I miss hits to crit from zerker though. Kind Wayfarer/Zerker could be nice too, but it doesn't add up from role play perspective at all :D :D (yes, I still roleplay even on powerbuilds).

 

Got to Neketaka no problem so far. Just make sure you take companions to party to rob them from equipment and then kick them.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Voltron

[Logos]

Does anyone here still min/max their attributes? 

 

 

I just finished the game with a single class subclassless wizard with 4 res, max int and max mig. There was only one res-based thing I couldn't do in the entire playthrough (barring a few conversation options that could be solved with other skills/attributes) (minor spoilers):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and it was that I couldn't acquire a weapon I probably wasn't going to use anyway. Other than that I found there to be no drawbacks to dumping res. 

[Logos]

As for strong builds, a single class wizard using nothing but (empowered) missile spells is insanely strong. I imagine a nature godlike evoker that buffs itself with infuse with vital essence (lvl 2 spell) would be even stronger. I ended all of the end-game fights before they even began with two casts of the level 9 missile spell. Before I got that spell I used bouncing missile and concussive missile in almost every fight and it consistently wrecked faces. I played on normal (I'll go for potd next), but I could consistently beat enemies with 3 red skulls over their head with empowered missile spells. 

 

edit: the level 8 biting wind spell that does raw damage and weakens is really, really good too. It vaporizes entire screens of enemies at once.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Logos

[Voltron]

 

Does anyone here still min/max their attributes? 

 

 

I just finished the game with a single class subclassless wizard with 4 res, max int and max mig. There was only one res-based thing I couldn't do in the entire playthrough (barring a few conversation options that could be solved with other skills/attributes) (minor spoilers):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and it was that I couldn't acquire a weapon I probably wasn't going to use anyway. Other than that I found there to be no drawbacks to dumping res. 

 

 

If you finished a game can you tell that there are some worth and strong helemets later in game. So far I found some +1 here, +2 here helemts but not good enough to not take Moon Godlike heal or Nature Godlike + 2 Power Levels.

[Logos]

There are very few good helmets in the game. Off the top of my head I can only remember one that was so good it stuck out in my memory. Going godlike is not as much of a drawback in deadfire as it was in poe. 

[Voltron]

There are very few good helmets in the game. Off the top of my head I can only remember one that was so good it stuck out in my memory. Going godlike is not as much of a drawback in deadfire as it was in poe. 

 

Nice, thanks. I don't like Godlikes, but they are usually best for solo runs. Wish nature godlikes didn't look like Santa Clause after stroke...

[djinnxy]

I took my recent favorite from beta for my first run through. It is a Wood Elf Priest of Wael / Bleakwalker. I'm only 15-20 hours in because it came out early in the work week. So far most fights just involve using the tanks and the environment to herd enemies then using the summoned rod with FoD to blast them to death. If need be there are a bunch of other great skills at my disposal, but usually aren't necessary with the exception of heals. Running PoTD with levels up and not running into much problem. There were about 4 or 5 fights with reloads. I also had 1 ship combat that wasn't feasible. 

[Voltron]

I took my recent favorite from beta for my first run through. It is a Wood Elf Priest of Wael / Bleakwalker. I'm only 15-20 hours in because it came out early in the work week. So far most fights just involve using the tanks and the environment to herd enemies then using the summoned rod with FoD to blast them to death. If need be there are a bunch of other great skills at my disposal, but usually aren't necessary with the exception of heals. Running PoTD with levels up and not running into much problem. There were about 4 or 5 fights with reloads. I also had 1 ship combat that wasn't feasible. 

 

I generally so far have feeling that PotD in PoE2 seems generally easier than in PoE. Running with party with my Pillar/Berserker or solo with Kind Way/Pillar I also ended up most fights super smooth, never reloaded even once. 

 

I hope we get something like Endless Path here.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Voltron

[djinnxy]

I generally so far have feeling that PotD in PoE2 seems generally easier than in PoE. Running with party with my Pillar/Berserker or solo with Kind Way/Pillar I also ended up most fights super smooth, never reloaded even once. 

I hope we get something like Endless Path here.

 

 

I never ran PoTD on Pillars 1 so I wouldn't know. Even in beta the most I ran is veteran. There's a definite learning curve as in you can't just rush in and go to dinner till the fight ends. You need to make use of the environment to block ranged and spell attacks where possible or get to them quickly. 

 

Yeah endless paths like material would be great. I love deep dungeon delves as long as there's still a world above it in a game.

[MadDemiurg]

PL7 spells with crits from wizard/assasin will outdamage same spells at PL9 from pure wizard... But PL 8 & 9 have some nice damage spells e.g. meteors.

 

Some fun combos:

Devoted/soulblade: charge + soul anihilation + cleave + repeat

Berserker/wizard: citzals lance with carnage and bloodthirst is fun, good returns on int invested and durable with wiz buffs

Paladin/wizard: the tankiest bastard in the game until buffs run out

Paladin/priest of Wael: more or less the same

Devoted/skald: aoe paralyze + charge with a ton of crits + repeat

Evoker/assassin: smoke veil - stealth - nuke. In the end, pure wizard might be better though

Edited May 11, 2018 by MadDemiurg

[Voltron]

PL7 spells with crits from wizard/assasin will outdamage same spells at PL9 from pure wizard... But PL 8 & 9 have some nice damage spells e.g. meteors.

 

Some fun combos:

Devoted/soulblade: charge + soul anihilation + cleave + repeat

Berserker/wizard: citzals lance with carnage and bloodthirst is fun, good returns on int invested and durable with wiz buffs

Paladin/wizard: the tankiest bastard in the game until buffs run out

Paladin/priest of Wael: more or less the same

Devoted/skald: aoe paralyze + charge with a ton of crits + repeat

Evoker/assassin: smoke veil - stealth - nuke. In the end, pure wizard might be better though

 

Berserker/Skald is also crazy good. AOE Paralyze-> Leap -> Ton of damage and crits, zerker passive with Sklad Phrases and buffs. And fits nicely from roleplay perspective .

Edited May 11, 2018 by Voltron