Really like your POE videos. Do you have plans to do any full playthrough of this game (or POE2)? I'd love to see

I've only gotten through this game once, but that Deep Wounds tangent makes me think about that battle axe modal Bleeding Cut. Could really turn into a nasty damage over time thing by Riposting into enemies with not only the damage of the attack itself, but by also stacking two DoTs into the stratosphere with every Riposte, Cleave and forced Disengagement...

True strike is designed for table top play where characters arent min maxed for combat and the ones who dont specialize in combat

This just provided an insight thanks. I'm not that much of a fan of that relationship building in gaming, even while recognising that BG3 is the best there is at that. I love the character building. Soloing BG3 is silly. It's a game about the infinite complexity of those choices. But soloing is goal driven. There isn't one goal in BG3.

That video was great. Loved the share about tbf tropical island. I bought the game a few months ago, I've been looking at build guides and was leaning towards cipher/rogue. This convinced me to go ranger.

This game has just incredible replayability!

Dual Wielder is A-Tier for me, but not for the reasons it's "supposed" to be used. See, your spellcasters can normally only wield one staff at a time. With Dual Wielder, all of a sudden they can have TWO! I've got a Sorcerer/Tempest Cleric build that's REALLY happy to have the Spellsparker and Mourningfrost by the end of Act 1.

Just wanted to thank you for these videos. Hopping into this game as a PoE noob and it’s overwhelming. Your videos have really helped to simplify/explain things. Not sure if it’s worth it from a time investment standpoint but some build tips on the other companions would be nice.

I think the only way you can reasonably get staggering smite is by multiclassing a caster with paladin, but taking paladin after you have 4th level spells?

I put monk in S. My monk is the only class I have that almost invariably defeats Lae'zel in combat. "Squishy" isn't much of a concern when you rarely get hit. Well, at least, not in late game.

Circle of Death may not have huge single target damage but the AoE is MASSIVE that low damage adds up VERY quick when youre hitting 20 targets at once

My favorite Sharpshooter build involves getting Thief Astarion (any thief will do but I love him) two Hand Crossbows as quickly as possible, and then having him multiclass into Ranger after level 4 for Archery, Hunter’s Mark, and Horde Breaker. By level 5, you have three attacks and are dealing a low end of 40 damage a turn if you hit your All In shots (more with damage riders like Caustic and Strange Conduit) and that’s before considering the use of magic crossbows or the FOURTH attack he gets by Act 3

Concentrated Blast can be good for a character who is still concentrating on something like Guidance as combat begins.

Starting my first Deadfire playthrough and this is super helpful. Thank you for this and hoping to see more PoE/Deadifre content :)

Why take dirty fighting over one handed style? Seems twice as good if you are sword and board.

Hey Aestus! just stubled over this video and enjoyed it a lot. I was wondering how you explain to your players why they are able to recover the moth-hide from a dream?? Or is this a joke from the high-prince like "take this with you, it'll keep you warm and me entertained..."???

I consider Produce Flame to be an improved version of Light, specifically because Light can only be attached to one weapon. When you cast Light on, let's say a melee weapon, you lose the light when you switch to ranged, and you have to switch back to melee (or recast on your ranged) to see the light again. Produce Flame does not have this issue, it's just in your hand the whole time no matter what you wield. So to me it's a great utility cantrip for a consistent illumination source, and secondarily a possible way to set something on fire - not a damage cantrip for me.

I had no idea initiative was a D4, wtf hahaha

I never understood things like blade ward. The best time to “anticipate lots of melee damage” is say the first round against some gith fighters - so you either have to preemptively apply it or guarantee the first turn, and guarantee the target they go for first. So now you are talking about building a whole item build and fight tactic, maybe even team comp, around a cantrip. Just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

does the man have a youtube or blog where we can see more of these builds?

i thought monk would have been s tier for sure. i just finished doing my first honor playthrough and karlach with a monk build was the mvp for most fights.

I'd say dual wielder can be better than Asi, and that's by being able to dual wield staves, not necessarily for damage but just so you can get the benefits of wielding blth staves or.a staff and different weapon at the same time. I.e my Shadow Heart currently has Blood of Lathander and the staff that grants additional 1d4s to my bless spell. Making her very helpful in the frontline (also made her life domain for sweet heavy armor proficiency)

Circle of the moon Druid can do insane damage if you take the tavern Beatles and savage attacker, as well as the level 10 subclass exclusive wild shapes having high damage attacks and awesome movement allowing it to go around the whole battlefield wiping out enemies

Thunder wave is F for “Funny tier” pushing all the goblins into the spider pits in act one kept it in my loadout for my whole playthru

IMO sleet storm and hunger of hadar should be at the top of S tier, if not in their own tier entirely along with counterspell. Sleet storm is cartoonishly overpowered even on its own, and HoH is S-tier because of its synergy with sleet storm. Try casting just those two spells on top of each other during an encounter, and have the SS caster wear boots of stormy clamour. This 2-spell combo autowins the vast majority of combat encounters in the game, even in Act 3. You don’t even need to cast anything else after; the enemies will literally slip themselves to death in under 10 turns. SS+HoH should be competing with 5th and 6th level spells for your concentration and spell slots for many encounters, even with no upcast benefits. This combo is even better with ray of frost and repelling eldritch blasts. You can also combo sleet storm with web (another easy S+ tier spell in my experience, especially early game with grease) as well. Land druid is really great for this due to its infinite, no-concentration web access with spider wildshape.

Dual Wielder should be A minimum because casters are able to equip two staffs like the Markokeshir and the Staff of Power

Running this for a group tomorrow, will report back!

Dancing lights is really good to plug vents.

I love the POE series and especially the first one. I agree wit your point of BG3, it's a great game but just didn't match POE. I also found that I had to keep adjusting the camera with BG3 so I guess there's something to be said about a fixed isometric view in POE.

Putting monks where they are bc they’re “boring” is a little odd for a tierlist based on value- that portion was incredibly biased.

Bone Chill was great for the last phase of the Act 2 boss fight. Bone Chill him so he can't heal, but he'd absorb his minions anyway so you get 2x benefit of denied healing + enemies being taken off the board for free.

I've found true strike to be useful for things like chromatic orb early game and upcasted attack spells late game. It's slow, but useful in preserving those precious, precious spell slots.

The best time to use Thornwhip is when storming Moonrise Towers in Act II. Send someone with it who also has ranged attack ability into the rafters to snipe from above. They can pull anyone who approaches to their doom (bonus points if they also know Eldritch Blast with the invocation to push, that way if they’re too far for thornwhip they can use EB and too close for EB they can use Thornwhip. Clear the rafters and control the high ground. Make sure to equip them with some gear that makes THEM difficult to shove or move against their will, or they’ll be vulnerable to the same strategy.

Thank you for including the google doc

Watching this later... how did you not realize that Repulsor is AOE? It's awesome!

You weren't joking about getting a Tier 3 on that performance! I'm instantly hooked into the vibes of the adventure. Excited to try this out!

Starting my full new playthrough. Think I’m picking an orlan

Love how you frame colonialism as a topic of History. As a Geography major and History minor, I agree in avoiding the minefield of Post-Colonial studies, as it seldom provides definitive answers!

And you’ve convinced me to start a new playthrough. Just unsure of…which class I want my main hero to be. I think I was an orlin cipher before?

I hope avowed is good. I hope it has good customization. I looooove PoE’s world so much.

ASI at b os crazy Actor at a tier is crazier only 6 mins in...

Wizards have one great thing going for them: if you stay with Aloth around, you can pick alternate spells and learn from each other, effectively doubling the choices of spells, for just some gold cost.

Rogue really seems to me like they were designed with multiclassing in mind. Idk how much they were changed from tabletop though, maybe that's just how they are

TL;DR - Pick the wee ones

I've made two attempts at creating a gnome bard for the racials, but both times I've restarted the run. I simply cannot stand how stupid they look.

Do Humans Next

Damn, boy. Nice job on the song!

Really hope Obsidian tries to make a comeback with a PoE3 game after seeing the success of BG3. cRPGs are not dead!

Disagree with alert, there are just too many items that increase initiative rolls as is, add that to the 14-16 dex score that almost every build has and you’ll be winning initiative rolls all the time. I have never picked it and my party is usually grouped up together before an entire fight on tactician

I ran the adventure and it was great! Players loved it!