Quest - Deal with the Bandits

This basically comes down to: how good are the rewards compared to what you can get with a skill point?

Normal: There are very few nodes with flat life in the skill tree and most of them offer way less than +40, so this is a pretty good choice if you are life based. Same goes for mana, however, mana is never the really a problem. There are much better all resist nodes

Cruel: These are very slightly better than the small nodes of the same kind in the skill tree, but worse than notable nodes. Only take them if you really want to focus on something

Merciless: There are excatly as good as nodes in the skill tree get. However, for each charge type there are only 3 in the tree, so these might be worth it, if your build focuses on charges.

Someone already posted a pretty comprehensive analysis so I'll just stick the meta-level.

Beyond the fact that the choices are build dependent, the key thing to understand is the bandit reward is generally better than 'normal' passive node, but usually not as good as a Notable. An easy example is that there normal All Resist nodes are all 6%, but all of the Notable ones are either 12%, or 8% + Evasion / Armor / ES etc.

So when you plan out your build, you have to look at where you'll end up on the tree with the passive points you intend on getting as you approach end-game. IMO it's good to have a rough idea of where your build is going to be around level 75. After that leveling dramatically slows down as XP penalties start kicking in big time, so you won't want to play much more unless you have a pretty efficient build that can do Maps well.

If at that point, you are 1-2 points away from a Notable that accomplishes what you want, then take the skill point. If not, then the Bandit reward is better.

Good day, exiles.

I find Hodari's response on the first page most useful. Great many thanks to him for taking the time to make it!

Some said that "spoon feeding" decisions like this - is bad. I can't concur. Because to me, what Hodari wrote is not "spoon feeding decisions" at all. Rather, it is perfectly detailed opinion of experienced player, allowing me to understand perfectly scope and importance of the decision in this particular quest.

This means, his large post only serves as one of sources i can make my own best decision with. And yes, in fact i do not agree with all he said; in particular, +8% resists choice in normal difficulty is most appealing to me, and i don't agree with his "except nodes which you take to get to something" thought. To me, that possible extra passive point is exactly as efficient as _the_ least important passive point in a build. Which in practice is +10 to primary stat at best, and +10 to non-primary stat at worst, - not always, but i'd say most often.


P.S. This is my first post in PoE forums. I play the game since yesterday, and i made it to level 25 softcore yesterday in one go. Died once in act 2 due to my own stupidity mixed with lack of understanding about possible master quest mechanics (getting warrior spirit back to entrance does not require taking out all the undead which spawn - and my old stubborn D2 self made me to attempt otherwise).

In the past, i was known in D2 closed bnet, harcore, as one of most creative players. Few have achieved what i achieved in Diablo 2. Some D2 builds i invented were both popular and quite available even to a casual player, such as tanking "Nukosorc". This build was sorceress which sacrificed her non-fire offensive spell potential to gain outstanding amount of armor, and very potent fire spells. The main feature was inventing how to do it without "uber" items for highest difficulty level in D2 (hell hardcore, including places like Uber Tristram). This was achieved through combination of specific (rather cheap for hell HC player) runewords and some relatively common equipment. As a result, this build was capable to farm extremely well (teleporting around with increadibly high amount of armor and health was very safe, and she had "normal" for hell HC amount of faster cast - means she was teleporting 3+ times per second), to provide solid firepower during party playing, even to tank most mobs for a while whenever regular tank was not available for any reason.

This is just one example of my Diablo 2 builds defying "common wisdom" (which in case of Sorceress was "one has to have at least two potent damage types, better three, if one wants to do a good sorceress in Hell HC) - and defying them with outstnadingly fun results. I am looking forward to do so in PoE, which is all new to me - and apparently this game has everything and then some to provide for such creativity. I am only starting and it takes long time to get familiar with a game to start creating 1) uncommmon yet 2) unusually interesting builds to play, of course. And this time around, i decided not to go Hardcore - Diablo 2 "wounds" of high-level characters lost due to some rare power fluctuation or ISP failure are still bleeding, even after few years. Plus i am older now, and now there is nothing to prove anymore, anyways. So mostl likely i'll dwell normal mode, and probably i won't be any much social while doing it - more like a lone wolf these days, i am. Still, i thank everyone who created this game, and also every one who, like Hodari, bring in excellent content to its forums and other facets - i dare say, my thanks go not just from my own name, but also from many many new players who play and read and learn around on this forum and elsewhere.

Salute!