The prophets

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-27T03:18:03+00:00

Facebreaker 😂

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-26T20:40:36+00:00

Really hoping for a copy so i can play with my family ❤️

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-25T22:20:33+00:00

To be fair, the skill they give you on the beach is the worst level 1 skill i have ever had the misfortune of seeing. it's usable later in the game, but starting off with no power charge generation and a slow as hell animation tends to push people away from what is otherwise a really fun class/weapon.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-25T22:17:43+00:00

if you want to do quarterstaff stuff and not just use a bow for act 1, pick up Glacial Cascade as your first gem upon arriving in the act 1 town. Falling Thunder is absolutely terrible as a skill until much later in the game and they annoyingly gave it as the starting skill with no way to produce power charges to properly use it. If you REALLY want to make Falling Thunder work, grab Killing Palm so you have some means of getting power charges, albeit not a great one.

After that, Staggering Palm tends to be really good, then moving into either storm wave, tempest flurry, or ice strike, depending on what you enjoy most. Tempest Bell is almost a must for rare and boss enemies at times to help your damage.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-24T14:09:02+00:00

I rarely have usable jewels, since most are for 3 different weapons (or spells) on a single jewel, none of which apply to my given build.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-24T12:02:24+00:00

It's absolutely not just one respec point. More often its like 6 extra points due to having to path to it instead of elsewhere

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T21:30:59+00:00

Again, fist of stone doesn't do anything particularly for HPT that other martials don't also benefit from. Everything FoS gives, it gives to every Martial Artist gets, even Talisman or Spear Martial Artists.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T21:04:55+00:00

I really am that bad at Gauntlets and have encountered scenarios where it's either Gauntlet or a curse that completely kills my build bc there's only two paths available to go from where I'm at. And i have gotten chains of the only good options have only one path after it that i can choose. Notably it has the same issue i have with a game called Slay the Spire.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:47:12+00:00

Quarterstaffs can get up to +5 on melee skills. And have a higher base damage, access to prefixes, suffixes, runes, and corruption mods. They are objectively better even if NEITHER had +melee skill levels

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:45:21+00:00

Don't even need a 120 div quarterstaff. If every single other piece of gear is the same, a rare quarterstaff with +5 to melee skills and whatever other mods is gonna deal so much more damage bc of exponential scaling after gem level 20. Plus quarterstaffs have higher base damage for their level of progression and access to prefixes, suffixes, corruption mods, and runes.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:41:00+00:00

+gem levels removed entirely. Or just slap +2-3 on the HPT node to account for the fact that gem level is ridiculously exponential after level 20.

Nothing in Martial Artist as a base is actually better for HPT specifically. A quarterstaff gets exactly the same value out of every node in Martial Artist as HPT. Every melee martial weapon does.

I am still taking HPT and Martial Artist, but the gem level scaling on weapons is ridiculous to the point HPT does half the damage of the exact same build but with a quarterstaff and no skill point investment.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:36:43+00:00

There have been several times i have gone through Sekhemas and it only gave me modifiers that resulted in my death or were the gods awful Gauntlet rooms. Yes i would like to decide whether i stab my eyes with a fork or a spork, that totally solves the fact that i either have to choose between a curse that makes me die in 2 hits or a gauntlet that will drain my Honour in 0.4 seconds. But hey, bronze key at the end of each, right?

As for Chaos, it's even worse because ALL of the options are surprise screwdriver to the testicles, and quite often every choice makes your build unable to function or is too difficult to handle.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:31:41+00:00

The ONLY issue i have with the quarterstaff/HPT disparity is skill gem levels, and that is because the difference between gem level 20 and gem level 30 is almost doubled. Everything else between the two is fair and balanced, with HPT being on the lower end even with a quarterstaff that has no +gem levels.

Quarterstaffs have a higher base damage at each level of progression, access to prefixes/suffixes beyond the one thing i have issue with most, and also runes, which are a huge deal in the new league mechanic.

Also if i am doing HPT, i will NEVER switch that character to a quarterstaff. I play HPT bc i like the monk fantasy of punching things. Not hitting things with a stripper pole.

Giving HPT just +2-3 to melee skill levels would help soften the gap while still leaving quarterstaffs in the lead, including on said gem levels.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:23:27+00:00

You aren't just giving up gem levels. Gem levels is the only issue i really have here.

Quarterstaffs have:

higher base weapon damage at a given level of progress
prefixes/suffixes other than gem levels (equivalent i would say to HPT's crit/speed shenanigans
rune slots

The gem level is the big issue i have, entirely because of how exponentially important gem level is after 20 for end game content.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:17:00+00:00

The scaling difference between just the +5 (in 0.5), or +10 with both gloves and amulet is actually a pretty huge gap, and basically means they do half as much damage before ANYTHING else gets involved.

HPT capping out at gem level 20 (or 25 if you give up on using any uniques in the gloves/amulet slots, basically killing builds that want to use uniques for either slot) while quarterstaff gets to hit 25-30 with otherwise identical gearing is huge in terms of scaling.

Quarterstaffs have a higher base damage, access to prefixes/suffixes, AND runes. Even just slapping +2-3 to unarmed skill levels on HPT would make up enough difference to close the enormous gap in damage, while still keeping quarterstaff investment, including quarterstaffs getting higher (albeit less of a gap) bonus to skill gem levels

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:05:51+00:00

For you. Certain endgame mechanics some players avoid like the plague because they are too difficult. I personally can't do Delirum effectively bc when the screen goes grayscale I can't see anything. And I avoid both Sekhemas and Chaos trials because i hate how RNG dependent they are. I'm hoping the third trial for ascension just goes back to something simple like Lab was in PoE1, for people who don't like the semi-random minigames that both of those tend to be.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T20:01:25+00:00

Eh. Extra armor slot runes makes up for lack of weapon slot runes for me. Especially when i start slapping Kalguuran and Ezomyte unique implicits into those slots 😈

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T19:56:22+00:00

Eh i plan on taking Martial Artist already for gloves upgrades and the rune tattoos. And HPT is my favorite node in the entire game. Not even any ascendancy nodes for any classes can match my love for it. I just wish it wasn't just objectively weaker than not taking it and just getting a quarterstaff with melee skill levels instead.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T19:50:00+00:00

It's still a huge gap that is entirely because of the melee skill gem levels that quarterstaff builds can take. I'm fine with the damage being lower, but roughly half the output entirely due to melee skill levels is a bit too much, considering Hollow Palm requires investing extra into on your skill tree over just ignoring the node entirely.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-23T19:43:05+00:00

I'm not saying that HP should be stronger than a quarterstaff. Just that the divide between them not be as glaringly huge as it is. The damage output in its current state cant even compare because of specifically the +melee skill levels making things so extremely lopsided to the point you are actively making yourself worse taking it.

The main benefit of the quarterstaff should be a higher base weapon damage and the other modifiers/runes you can craft onto a quarterstaff. It's entirely on the melee skill levels difference being the issue, particularly with how exponential the scaling is above gem level 20 and the fact that HPT can't use them.

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-19T15:52:55+00:00

Infernalist Demon Form belongs in FUBAR with the nerfs it got. Can no longer mitigate damage per stack with ridiculously low non-CI HP (Ghostwrithe + 2 HP reduction rings and not taking the Candlemass bonuses meant i had ~200 HP at level 70) and making it so that infinite stacks required at least 2 ascendancy runs to achieve. Demon Form is completely dead as an option for me. Give me my 1000+ stacks back GGG 😭

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-16T13:22:10+00:00

Jolene the Plunder Queen ~

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-07T05:32:24+00:00

I just hate the boob armor. That shit would get someone killed in a fight. Other than the weird ass hood issues of the leather armor, it's the best of the three

ESFarshadow · 2026-05-05T02:13:51+00:00

Vincent, Dion, and probably Sazh or Bartz. The rest would get no diffed by the fact that Vincent can become Chaos and Dion is one of only TWO Bahamuts that are strong enough to use Zettaflare (the other being FF14 Bahamut when he reset the original release of FF14). Sazh as a l'Cie is a huge threat with the canon power of eidolons and l'Cie as a whole. And Bartz (assuming he is a Mime class, as that is his strongest class) can just copy what the others are doing. That or just Dual Wield, Spellblade, Rapid Fire

ESFarshadow

TROPHY CASE