A few questions about Blessings

[Mrs. Nesbitt]

1) Which of the first 4 blessings would be the most useful? The chance to avoid curse, or the increases in either enemy alertness, melee damage, or golden item finds?

2) Are blessings permanent upgrades, or only temporary (timed, lose on death, etc.)?

and 3) If they ARE temporary, should I even spend a coin to get one early on, or wait until I have much better equipment/stats?

Thanks all!

[Bankai9212]

Curses aren't that big of a deal to remove, but you can always use potions to remove them or use a cursed coin to prevent a curse. Melee damage is good if that's what your using as is stealth. Magpie is if you want to get as much money as you can(honestly outside of relics, you end up with more then enough money)

2.Lose them on death.

3.You end up with such an influx of coins from exploration you can true each blessing once.

[kome360]

1. Magpie. Your first priority is to build up XP and resources to tackle future acts; the sooner you buy Iconic weapons and artifacts, the easier the game gets.
2. Blessings are lost on death. This includes your character dying between acts.
3. Yeah. Coins look cool and all, but if you're worried about Soul Flaws you can just buy a purple potion and save it for a cursed hangover. Heck, sell most of your coins for ten bucks each.

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by kome360:

1. Magpie. Your first priority is to build up XP and resources to tackle future acts; the sooner you buy Iconic weapons and artifacts, the easier the game gets.
2. Blessings are lost on death. This includes your character dying between acts.
3. Yeah. Coins look cool and all, but if you're worried about Soul Flaws you can just buy a purple potion and save it for a cursed hangover. Heck, sell most of your coins for ten bucks each.

Magpie is only good for money, outside of some relics you get most of the better once exploring.

[Cyllenian]

Originally posted by kome360:

Magpie is only good for money, outside of some relics you get most of the better once exploring.

Yeah i'm pretty sure that's exactly what they're saying. Once you have all the money you need it's obviously not the best

[TK]

It really depends on your playstyle but I would never go for cat since dying isn't that big of a deal, unless you really give no craps about melee, stealth or your income.
If you don't have to much trouble with sneaking I would go for magpie, if you don't want to sneak and just smack enemies around with an axe the bear one is okay but most of the time, unless you really test your strength facing big enemies head on, the bear one doesn't make much of a difference, so it is basically a choice between better sneaking or more money.
I disagree with people above, if you are struggling you can easily run out of funds when buying potions, ammo and not be able to afford some juicy gear the later traders have.
If you are a hoarder however and rarely to never use potions and other stuff the magpie really is overkill.