PE Questions and Answers

[Bubbles]

Then let's be more clear: on Normal difficulty, you can choose two characters of any class, max Res, Vit and Per, put Plate on them, take every defensive talent available, use them as your only tanks, and still have a party that can beat the game.

 

[SoupNazi]

Why is the opening post

[censored by mods]

?

Do the cats/dogs you can buy have some practical purpose or are they just there for immersion fags?

Just for immersion fags.

 

[Ninjerk]

Then let's be more clear: on Normal difficulty, you can choose two characters of any class, max Res, Vit and Per, put Plate on them, take every defensive talent available, use them as your only tanks, and still have a party that can beat the game.

I'm curious why you seem to be so vested in the idea that Monks aren't tanks.

 

[Athelas]

It might have something to do with the fact that their effectiveness being reliant on them getting hit.

 

[Jaedar]

The question of what class is the best tank depends on what you're sacrificing. Chanters sacrifice little else since their only unique ability - chanting - happens automatically, so you could argue they're the best class for tanking. They also start out with the same base deflection as fighters, monks and paladins.

They have a lot less endurance and hp though.

 

[Bubbles]

I'm curious why you seem to be so vested in the idea that Monks aren't tanks.

As I said, any class can be a tank on the lowest difficulty levels. I just wrongly assumed that we would be talking about the highest difficulty level, in which case Monks simply lack the defensive talents to make them competitive with Fighters and Paladins. But very few people play on that level, and nobody is forced to do so if they just want to have fun.

 

[Ninjerk]

It might have something to do with the fact that their effectiveness being reliant on them getting hit.

Well that's the conceit, isn't it? Can they take the hits? If they can, they can likely pump out damage in a way that fighters and especially paladins could never match (even though the other classes have other benefits).

Anyway, the guy asked if there were other viable tank classes besides fighters, and I SUSPECT monks could do it. I'm not interested in shutting down ideas that are outside-the-box.

EDIT: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Monk

Look at the level 7 talents. I'm unclear what defense (if any) Rooting Pain attacks, but that or either of the available level 7 talents give Paladin-like defensive bonuses.

 

[Bubbles]

Well that's the conceit, isn't it? Can they take the hits? If they can, they can likely pump out damage in a way that fighters and especially paladins could never match (even though the other classes have other benefits).

Exactly my point. If you're playing at a difficulty level where damage output is an important concern for a tank, then Monks, like any other class, would be perfectly viable.

 

[Ninjerk]

Well that's the conceit, isn't it? Can they take the hits? If they can, they can likely pump out damage in a way that fighters and especially paladins could never match (even though the other classes have other benefits).

Exactly my point. If you're playing at a difficulty level where damage output is an important concern for a tank, then Monks, like any other class, would be perfectly viable.

OK, well, my point is I don't have the numbers to prove that it can't be done on higher difficulty levels, but I suspect that it's possible thanks to the many ways to get said stats there are.

 

[Shevek]

There was a thread in the backer beta forums from some guy who made a monk tank. He said it worked ok. Link

 

[Ninjerk]

There was a thread in the backer beta forums from some guy who made a monk tank. He said it worked ok. Link

That looks like a pretty decent build except for Lesser Wounds.

 

[Bubbles]

I just noticed a bug: Monks can have both Duality of Mortal Presence (Deflection) and Cautious Attack running at the same time for +18 deflection. DoMP will be greyed out as "Suppressed", but if it's activated after CA (not before), it does apply its bonus nonetheless (otherwise it would be completely useless for tank monks who don't care about attack speed).

The +8 def does help Monks to be more competitive, but it's also pretty clearly unintended behaviour.

That looks like a pretty decent build except for Lesser Wounds.

He recommends the utterly rubbish ability Soul Mirror, claims that wounds "reduce damage" (i.e. gets his info from the wiki instead of from playing the game), builds a Fire Godlike with low Con, and praises being hit by disengagement attacks for giving you "more damage". Ignore.

 

[Athelas]

Lessr Wounds is very useful (the sooner you can generate wounds, the better). Force of Anguish, Turning Wheel, Swift Strikes and Rooting Pain are the best monk abilities.

 

[Lhynn]

I found monk abilities to be p. shit overall, stunning fist is nice if you want to disengage but thats it, rather have the passive buff to damage from wounds that can make it p. insane. Most fun ive had has been using priests and druids, they have interesting spells that can turn the tide of the battle rather easily, the rest of the classes are meh, they do their job i guess.

 

[Bubbles]

Priests are basically the swiss army knife class, while Druids are the heavy nukers. Both are better than Wizards or any of those boring auto-attacking trash classes.

 

[Ninjerk]

Priests are basically the swiss army knife class, while Druids are the heavy nukers. Both are better than Wizards or any of those boring auto-attacking trash classes.

Any idea why Ciphers get so much +Accuracy on their spells? I'm guessing because they often target non-Deflection defenses and they don't want them to rely on Eldritch Aim pots?

 

[Bubbles]

Any idea why Ciphers get so much +Accuracy on their spells? I'm guessing because they often target non-Deflection defenses and they don't want them to rely on Eldritch Aim pots?

Ciphers actually have relatively little +Accuracy because their base Accuracy is already high. Priests have lower base acc and get more +acc on their spells to compensate (many priest spells have +15 acc). I think the idea is that all the caster classes should have roughly similar spell acc values, but that Ciphers should have more base acc for their weapons.

 

[Bio Force Ape]

I'm thinking it terms of total number of enemies a character can engage as being a primary concern for a tank. And that would put Fighters far above all other classes due to their unique Defender ability. Also, +1 engagement targets is an enchantment a weapon can have, and since monks are likely not using weapons, they lose out there.

Just thinking it might be fun to try a party with a weird mix of classes that doesn't include the usual fighter out front.

 

[Ninjerk]

Any idea why Ciphers get so much +Accuracy on their spells? I'm guessing because they often target non-Deflection defenses and they don't want them to rely on Eldritch Aim pots?

Ciphers actually have relatively little +Accuracy because their base Accuracy is already high. Priests have lower base acc and get more +acc on their spells to compensate (many priest spells have +15 acc). I think the idea is that all the caster classes should have roughly similar spell acc values, but that Ciphers should have more base acc for their weapons.

I've only briefly played a Cipher, but a bunch of their spells get anywhere from +5 to +10 accuracy against their targets.

 

[Athelas]

The other casters get +10-15 accuracy.

 

[Svartalf]

According to the tooltip, three piercing Minoletta's Bounding Missiles impact on a foe and then fork to two additional targets each. However, in the combat log you can see how only 1 missile hits an enemy which then in turn divides twice. Shouldn't the spell hit the main target thrice as the level 1 variation of it and afterwards bifurcate for a total of 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 impacts?

 

[Lhynn]

Im having tons of fun with GM, thinking about restarting as a cipher, monks shouldnt even be in this game, neither should chanters.

 

[Kattze]

Finally started for realz!

Now, what attribute influences damage for Wands/Rods/Scepters?

I am still trying to be a psuedo warrior-mage, so any beenfit to carrying Greatsword for my Wizard? Rod/Scepter will be my primary, greatsword for close combat.

 

[Zetor]

If I move during a reload action, does it completely cancel the action, or can I "resume where I left off"? (ie. my cipher has 0.5sec to go on the reload, but I have to move or some monster will get in engagement range)

There's no progress bar for reloads, so I'm guessing it's the former.

 

[SoupNazi]

If I move during a reload action, does it completely cancel the action, or can I "resume where I left off"? (ie. my cipher has 0.5sec to go on the reload, but I have to move or some monster will get in engagement range)

There's no progress bar for reloads, so I'm guessing it's the former.

It cancels the action yeah, the animation restarts from the beginning.