I have not experimented with too many classes yet but I was wondering what peoples impressions were of builds. I like min maxing and I built a moon godlike who is a dual wielding fighter. I dumped everything into might, dex and then con and left other stats at 10. I have done at least 3 times the damage over the course of the game than any of the other NPCs in my party and the char is not squishy.

I didn't feel like I lost out too much on dialogue options, especially considering the special options are not supposed to be better, necessarily. I also tried a paladin (and a druid, briefly) but did not like how little DPS I was getting with sword and shield.

Anyone tried a lot of classes and/or find a build they like best?

My druid is by far the biggest damage dealer in my group. In the early game, he trounces things while transformed. I went boar cause of the passive regen. In later levels they move towards spell casters mostly. With spells like firebug and lightning storm, with scions in both fire and electricity, I pump out aoe foe damage in very large areas that often one shot the enemies. Firebug hits for 80+ damage per foe quite often. Its a room clearer.

If your going for melee damage, tidecaller is an awesome weapon. I've got an offensive two handed paladin with that weapon and she will often gib mobs for 60 damage in a hit when using my flames of devotion. Add sworn enemy and she becomes a potent single target damage dealer.

I'm around level 9 at the moment, so I don't know how much things are going to scale later in the game.

Oh and just as a testament to the druid, I soloed the bear cave at level two right after entering that map from the biawac area. And then soloed the wolves on that same map moments later. I've heard that almost everyone has to go into town and get a couple companions and maybe a level and come back to those encounters.

This was on hard difficulty.

Sounds interesting, I may do druid next playthrough. I was able to solo the bear on this dual wielder too, but it took a couple reloads. I definitely couldn't solo the bear with my build of the druid or paladin.

Hard shouldn't affect it, right, because it doesn't change stats only type and number of enemies? Or are there multiple bears in the cave on hard?

There is a smaller young bear on hard.

I broke the game mechanics and used the Crossbow on my paladin to solo the Bear. It worked ok.

Apparently a tanking rogue is the best thing.
Why? Because some guy beat PoE on Path of the Damned difficulty SOLO with that.
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76184-video-last-boss-potd-solo-explanations/

Wizard is my guy and stat choices do change how the game goes.
My guy has some might and a lot of intelligence
It works a LOT better then it did at game release with increased ranges; melee range spells sucked!.

(1) I made a stealthy wizard, and it's working pretty great.

I dumped CON and PER, maxed MIG, DEX, and INT, and put every remaining point in RES.

I chose wood elf for the bonus accuracy and +1 to DEX.

Took the background adding another point in DEX, then the one that gives +2 Lore.

So, my wizard starts with 18 MIG, 20 DEX, 18 INT, and I believe 15 RES. Lore starts at 4, allowing me to put every level point into Stealth (Using Aloth for Lore to cast the higher scrolls). I also chose "Scion of Flame" during one level-up, increasing my fire damage.

20 DEX gives me a very fast action bar, and I wear no armor to slow it down.

So I sneak up on groups of enemies while my team holds back a little way in case I need to retreat behind them. I get within range of my "fan of flames" spell (usually the yellow "i see you" bar starts loading right when I get in place) and I blast the hell out of them 2 or 3 times before they can reach me - and I have time to run back behind my front-liners if I didn't kill them.

I was level 4 when I went through the Temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale. My first playthrough I remember those rooms full of Shadows being tough as hell. I could have solo'ed it with this character - my team just stood by while I snuck in each room and destroyed them all before they could even reach me.

(2) Another is Rogues. MY GOD THESE ROGUES. My next playthrough I am definitely creating a Rogue as my pc. Right now I'm using Heodan (you know, the tutorial rogue?) and I have him specialized in dual-weilding and stillettos. I bought the first 'special' stilletto after the GV smithy quest, and I just found my 2nd after dealing with Maerwald. Rogues might be the best damn melee fighters in the game (as long as your tank gets the focus of enemies first).

(3) I read an in-game tool-tip during a loading screen about Barbarians being very good taking on swarms of enemies. I can't speak much on it as I haven't tried one, but figured that was worth noting.

Oh yeah, I'm playing druid too - massive damage potential when transformed, and when he gets beat up, he just stands back with the squishy characters and rains magical death on my opponents. It's an incredibly versatile class, and while a bit on the squishy side, it kicks ass - especially when dealing with beasts.

Something I havn't been able to figure out... does the shifted form get the armour and sword bonuses?

No, it doesn't and that's why after level 3 or so your shifted form is worse at taking hits than your normal one. Add that it's duration is 12 sec only and anyone can see why shapeshifting is shit. At level 5 that I'm atm it still does pretty hefty damage per hit, harder and faster than hitting with a bow, but it's so situational that I consider it a gimmick.

It would be a lot better if it was a permanent shift, which you just controlled.
The shifter form in Baldur's Gate 2 was pretty good in the base game, but became useless in the expansion.

I wonder if they made it suck in PoE on purpose or if that's how they shifter works in the game system which PoE uses?

Yes, it's a damage boost you can use once per fight. If in your vocabulary shorthand for that is "Shit", then it's shit, but usually, when I aggro an opponent with my tank, ideally knock him / them down, shapeshift is a very handy move to take them down quite fast.

Barbarian With Estoc and high Might -dex -Int totally wrecks atm im doing high hits that aoe each time, havent tried rogue yet, but i cant believe they do more than this

That build has sounded interesting to me since I first heard about POE. Can you also tank with that character? What are your exact stats?