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We should make our own rpg and have the player start as an omniscient prison guard!

I have ordered my RAM and MoBo, only thing left to do is order the CPU. CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 64GB 3600MHz DDR4 CAS 18-22-22-42 Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 250 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive Storage: Gigabyte AORUS NVMe Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB Founders Edition Case: Cooler Master MasterCase SL600M Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ 1000 W Fans: Noctua NF-A20 PWM Chromax.Black.Swap X 2

First look at visualizations of Atari Hotel in Las Vegas - https://www.google.com/amp/s/news3lv.com/amp/news/local/a-first-look-at-future-las-vegas-atari-hotel

That's why you always keep your tablet loaded with a few (offline) games and fully charged.

I find the lack of love for my mods in this thread ... disturbing. /cue Darth Vader emphysema breathing sounds I’m quite sure that mod still works no problem. What needed changing to make Soulbound weapons Legendary was not altered by the final patch, as far as I’m aware.

All the companions would be amnesiac prisoners who don't know you are actually their jailer, so the tutorial quest would be you tricking them to help you kill the rats, who know who you are and could, being rats, rat you out were they to live.

Yeah, I was indeed impulsive and made some egregious assumptions

Barbarian + Morning Star is an excellent choice. With Spirit Frenzy you will cause Staggerd with Carnage, lowering enemies' fortitude by 10 points without any additional effort - nearly passively. Add -25 from Body Blows from the Morning Star and Brute Force - and you have a char who always targets the lower of two defenses - and one of them he can debuff by 35 points without any additional resoiurces or action time. On top of that: lowering enemies' fortitude is so benefical for a lot of potential party members. If you take the Willbreaker (causes -3 Will per hit, stacks) and also pick one yell path (e.g. Barbaric Shout for the additional engagement or Barbaric Roar for the AoE interrupt) you can also lower the Will defense substancially which is also nice for your buddies like Wizard, Cipher and Priest. That's why - besides uttering "Whispers of the Endless Paths" - you often hear me mumbling about Morning Stars. Berserker/Goldpact is also a great combo. The very high AR (Thick Skinned + Gilded Enmity and so on) gives you high survivability, Lay on Hands helps with the self damage from Berserker Frenzy, Zealous Focus + Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotion, combined with Berserker's crit conversion leads to great damage outpout and Barbaric Smash can then be a good finisher. Don't know what you expect from "fully optimized" - I don't think there is THE optimal build for the whole game, just for certain situations - but that is a pretty good, well rounded multiclass choice. My last solo PotD run was with a SC Furyshaper - and it was great. I'm a fan of Barbarians since PoE anyway, but Furyshaper is a fantastic class, especially as single class. The Blood Ward is insanely good and the Fear Ward is very impactful, either. I tried an Unbroken/Furyshaper in order to abuse the terrify-disengage situation and it's great fun (although not in solo - too specialized). Berserker is also very nice - but in my opinion you have to either pair it with something that has high AR and sufficient self healing capabilites (like Chanter, Paladin, Fighter etc.) - or you let a healer constantly rain down HoTs on him. The main appeal of Barbarians is not Carnage anymore but their attack speed (Frenzy, Bloodlust, Blood Thirst). That's not very important in Turn Based mode, so I would assume that Barbs do stink there. Except as SC maybe once you get Barbaric Retaliation and/or Driving Roar or Dazing Shout.

If the death of humanity is conjugal love, Grim Dawn is an orgy of deep and meaningful romance.

=================================== Armorbreaker =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.01 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: untested -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Devoted(Estoc)/Streetfighter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Human, Hearth Orlan (party play) or whatever, preferably not Godlike, as there are 2 good helm picks for this -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Dissident -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 14 (you'll have plenty of other additive damage bonuses; still moderately important, it modifies aoe "spell-like" effects of some weapons and healing done) CON: 10 (don't really need more, don't really want to risk less) DEX: 14 (to be reasonably fast even without Streetfighter special active) PER: 18 (to hit & crit stuff, duh) INT: 17 (to keep that sweet Unbending + Disciplined Strikes + Refreshing Defence active as long, as possible; you only have so many resources) RES: 03 (with Unbending you'll survive anyway and kill any threats fast) -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities | Proficiencies 01. Disciplined Barrage + Crippling Strike | Estoc! 02. Knockdown 03. Escape 04. Fighter Stances (usually use Cleaving) + Dirty Fighting 05. Two-Handed Style 06. Confident Aim 07. Disciplined Strikes + Finishing Blow 08. Rapid Recovery 09. Mule Kick (optional: Penetrating Strike which targets Deflection rather then Fortitude and provides even more Penetration) 10. Vigorous Defense + Persistent Distraction 11. Charge 12. Determination 13. Unbending + Deep Wounds 14. Devastating Blow 15. Armored Grace 16. Clear Out + Adept Evasion 17. Refreshing Defense 18. Slippery Mind (note it can disable some Streetfighter special trigger methods!) 19. Unbending Shield (optional Trunk) + Deathblows 20. Weapon Specialization (optional: Fearless or another defensive ability) or the recently buffed (but still expensive) Power Strike --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Estoc: BotEP -> Eager Blade (!) ->Engoliero de Espirs (!) Weapon Set 2: Some blunt(s) for skellies Alternative: Devoted to Battleaxes with Amra Axe. The playstyle is similar, it's an "in your face" aggressive melee that melts enemies around. It's a really good weapon. You'll face Penetration issues much more often though (2 lower Pen, no bonus Pen modal), so no longer an "Armorbreaker". Or you can go with generic Fighter and switch between estocs and axes, depending on enemy, but you'll loose Devoted 2 Pen (you'll have trouble penetrating some high armor enemies, but probably can manage with foods), 25% Crit bonus (Swashbuckler crits often) and frequent 30% Overpenetration on estoc crits. Head: Helm of the Falcon (speed) ® / later Heaven's Cacophony - for Avenging Storm 1/rest, which has good synergy with Clear Out ® Back: Giftbearer's Cloak with high History skill or Nemnok's Cloak for "On the Edge" playstyle or simply Greater Cloak of Protection Neck: Precognition or Claim and Refusal Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastplate (class resources! + good protection and speed) ® Waist: Gwyn’s Bridal Garter, optionally Undying Burden for more survivability or Upright Captain's Belt if you like to use Pull of Eora (the more interesting picks, like Nature's Embrace and Ngati's Girdle have sadly been nerfed to the ground) Hands: Gauntlets of Discipline ®, alternatively Woedica's Strangling Grasp or Boltcatchers, Rings: Entonia's Signet Ring ® + Ring of Greater Regeneration or Chameleon's Touch Boots: Boots of Stone, alternatively Rakhan Field for another active aoe ability Pet: Abraham (speed and heal) ® It'd be good to play with a history where Devil of Caroc from PoE1 spares Harmke/dies. Her Breastplate then becomes available in Marihi's Shop in Neketaka and offers good protection, speed and additional class resources for ability spam (very valuable). --------------------------------------------------------------- The build was created as a part of my journey to design a melee build that will: 1. Deal respectable aoe damage, 2. Deal high melee damage, 3. Use two-handers (my preferred weapon type since, well, always), 4. Work well throughout the game, not just at cap, 5. Be survivable and efficient even without much party support. It's probably solo-capable, but I don't test it for this criteria. I've tested various adventurer builds, mainly with berserker, at my own criteria: level 13 against tough Xaurip encounter on the Nekataka island with party present, but acting mainly as distraction, control over that char only, almost no AI scripts. Wasn't too happy with the results. Finally a Swashbuckler - Estoc Devoted with Eager Blade / Streetfighter aced the test. Why Estoc Devoted? An Estoc in the hands of a Devoted has high Penetration (10 base, goes up to 14 at Legendary quality), you get +2 Devoted Pen bonus and with a Fighter multiclass you can freely use the modal, which gives additional +2 Pen at the cost of some Deflection. With a Fighter you can soon outheal most damage (just not at the start), so tanking Resolve and Deflection is a non-issue. You end up overpenetrating a lot of the time for +30% damage (particularly that your bread & butter rogue move - Crippling Strike, also provides +2 Pen and crits multiply Pen by x1,5). And generally there are very few enemies who you have trouble penetrating. Advanced/elite skeletons are one such group, as they are immune to piercing damage. Well, eat that 10 Accuracy penalty and switch to another weapon for them. You'll still do more then respectable damage. Also there are very cool Estocs in this game, with some of the best available very early - and Eager Blade and Engoliero de Espirs effects greatly support the aoe damage playstyle I was aiming for. -> Blade of the Endless Paths depends on imported/set history from PoE1 and can be reforged as soon as you reach the main city for cheap. BotEP is Exceptional has nice speed, Accuracy and Critical damage bonuses. Might be best for single targets. -> Eager Blade can be bought from pirates in Dunnage - which can happen even before visiting the main city, if you know your way around. And it's even better. It's Superb, provides a random bonus at start of combat (+8 Deflection, +1 Armor or +10% damage) and stacking Accuracy and Speed bonuses on Crit. More importantly it's upgrade has 10% chance to negate recovery on hit (so basically double-attack) and, last but not least, attacking Near Death targets causes an attack aoe in frontal cone (which is not very small, with good Int I've seen it affect 3rd enemy row). Together with Cleaving Stance, this can lead to a cascade of kills and obviously works well with the likes of Avenging Storm. -> Then there's the Legendary Engoliero de Espirs. Not sure it's significantly better then the earlier pair. The Accuracy and Recovery bonuses on them are pretty sweet, but the quests and lore behind Engoliero are top notch and badass factor is trough the roof. Plus after you down an enemy, you get +2/+3 Might, Con & Dex (rather then -2/-3 before first kill, so not too good vs single opponents) and the Dex part kinda partially compensates for lack of other speed bonuses. The Ghost Blade procs (modified by the various damage variables) are very sweet vs large mobs due to the fairly large cone (but will nicely soften up even moderetely tough enemies). The raw lash is also very nice and makes Engoliero pull ahead in terms of damage done. Streetfighter likes to live dangerously. He's a fair bit slower then other rogues in his idle state, but when flanked by enemies or Blooded (below 50% Health), he becomes a meatgrinder. Blazing speed and additional +50% sneak attack damage vs vulnerable targets (on top of regular 30-60% of other Rogues and potential +50% from Deathblows). When both of the above criteria are met and when his Accuracy allows him to achieve a decent crit rate, things just explode (additional +100% crit damage on top of all the earlier bonuses). Of course this means he likes to engage multiple enemies, get hit and possibly stay damaged and Fighter abilities are just the perfect fit for that. In my opinion, Streetfighter with Heating Up or On the Edge abilities active is the best class to use two-handers and not feel slow and/or inferior to dual weapons. Some playstyle for tips for early party play: Recovery (+ later Rapid upgrade) you get from the get go is a nice healing stream, but often not enough to keep you alive, particularly on the first island, particularly when surrounded by enemies. If you have a Priest (you can recruit one in the first town you reach), at Power Level III he/she learns Consecrated Ground, which will temporarily help when you stay in the effect circle. Once he/she reaches Power Level IV, can cast "Triumph of the Crusaders", which heals for a LOT when you down an enemy - that should make you much more survivable already. New Power Levels are reached much earlier by pure classes btw. - level 7 for PL IV). Otherwise if you have a Druid, he can provide plenty of healing also. You still have to be careful for some time, but can afford a more daring playstyle. At your Power Level V (so multiclass character level 13) comes the bomb: Unbending, which makes you nearly unkillable for its duration. Just watch out for enemies casting Arcane Dampeners. Your signature Rogue moves are the trusty Crippling Strike, Finishing Blow for Blooded targets (up to +200% damage, eventually upgraded to Devastating for up to +300%), Escape for battlefield mobility, Persistent Distraction to make everyone you engage Sneak attack vulnerable. Dirty Fighting for extra crit rate. Later you'll pick Deep Wounds and finally Deathblows. Adept Evasion for defence. On the Fighter side you'll use Knockdown to interrupt nasty enemy skills, later upgraded to Mule Kick. Later Charge for cool mobility multihit and finally Clear Out to make mobs your bitches. The last 2 would work very well with Heaven's Cacophony Avenging Storm. Fighter Stances -> Cleaving Stance for extra attacks on kill. Disciplined Barrage-> Strikes should be always active. On the defensive side you'll want Rapid Recovery, Vigorous Defence (+Refreshing upgrade), Determination and, most importantly, Unbending. Also Armored Grace will be nice. With Fighter's Refreshing Defense (bonus to all defenses) and Determination (bonus to Intellect, Perception and Constitution affliction defense), Rogue Adept Evasion (negate Reflex Grazes - and we have high Reflex) and Slippery Mind (immune to Perception, Intellect and Resolve afflictions when Blooded - as a Streetfighter we like to be Blooded), as well as equipment: Gwyn's Bridal Garter (Dex affliction Resistance) and Boots of Stone (Might affliction Resistance), you will be well protected against most debilitating effects. Fighter's Disciplined Strikes, Vigorous Defense and later on Unbending Shield provide Concentration to ensure that nothing can stop you from demolishing your targets. Any comments are appreciated. Edit: Updated 02.09.18 to re-arrange some abilities and add info about Engoliero de Espirs.

should read our firstest covid-19 post in the original thread... or not. too long ago and hard enough to read one Gromnir post, much less two. just as covid-19 were becoming recognized as a concern, we predicted the second amendment folks would appropriate, same way they did the gadsden flag. warning: don't expect the following explanations to be reasonable. what is has been largely insulated from what is reasonable for the past few years o' US politics. you want an explanation which is reasonable and you will first need to find a way to get around the endemic divisiveness of the past few years as well as the unfortunate realities o' human nature. two main reasons: 1) trump failed to deliver ppe. in february, when members o' the task force and experts were warning the administration 'bout the dire threat covid-19 posed, the trump administration were encouraging the producers o' masks to sell their inventory... to china. the white house were specific informed that by january it were too late to provide enough masks for all american citizens, but it were possible to create enough supply for health care workers. the trump administration ignored such warnings and instead pushed US manufacturers o' ppe to send their inventory overseas. by late february/early march, when it became obvious the wh miscalculated... trump will never admit a mistake. he always doubles-down. masks and ppe were a sore subject for trump as they represented an obvious administration blunders. obvious trump solution is to claim masks were never needed in the first place. 2) mask wearing instant became entangled with second amendment rights. why? 'cause second amendment folks is all too willing to turn every government action into a life or death fight 'bout Liberty. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510356/no-compromise am recommending listening to the podcasts although am admitting is highly unlikely most will have the endurance to do so. the thing is, once alt/far right groups latched onto masks as a liberty issue and they became vocal and visible in their opposition to blue state governors, trump predictable picked a side. trump's tweets is illustrative 'cause the measures adopted by the three governors in question had nothing whatsoever to do with firearms. the problem is that all too many 2nd amendment honks is o' the no compromise variety who believe any government action which diminishes liberty makes it all too likely the radical democrats will be showing up to their door to take their guns with their next decree. why do such folks follow basic no shirt, no shoes, no service laws and individual store guidelines but balk at masks which could save lives? regardless, once masks became a trump issue, fox news and breitbart went into full disinformation mode in support o' the President and next thing you know masks is, believed by all too many conservative voters to be at best ineffective and at worst lethal. don't ask for a reasonable answer. HA! Good Fun!

Amra is one of them and you can get it pretty early.

All the brands' support has been pretty decent for Zen, with a few oddities mostly from ASRock and ASUS. My GB x370 Gaming 5 has had BIOS updates up until July this year for the 3000XT processors, so couldn't have asked for much more. For 500 series Gigabyte and MSI in that order have the best regarded boards.

gross misunderstanding. the reconstruction amendments 'tween 1865 and 1870, as well as the civil rights legislation o' the mid 1960s is the governmental action which most ardent addressed mayor lightfoot's concerns. weren't the Court. what brought 'bout real change were the will o' the people as realized through legislation that were written and enacted to end abominable evils. in 1850, before the civil war, the state supreme court o' massachusetts held that, among other issues, the US Constitution did not make school segregation illegal. the court decision resulted in widespread anger and a groundswell o' public support demanding change. in 1855, massachusetts solution were to pass state legislation desegregating schools. problem. solution. scalia were an originalist and a textualist. am not sure why folks tend focus only on the first aspect, 'cause they is not same thing. scalia, to whom acb has been unfair compared, specific observed how the intent o' the authors o' a law were largely immaterial when applying textualism. is the meaning o' the words, fair interpreted and in context o' the time and framework o' the legislation, which guides a textualist judge/Justice. more than one person has suggested an originalist would need have brown v. board of education fail. after all, the writers o' the reconstruction amendments specific addressed school segregation as they debated the amendments and from the legislative history it is kinda clear they didn't believe equal protection would result in segregation. for scalia, finding school segregation illegal based on equal protection were not a hard case, 'because he were a textualist. didn't matter what the legislators thought or intended 'cause the clear meaning o' the written words o' the fourteenth amendment would, from scalia's pov, have precluded school segregation. course the Court in brown applied a sociology argument to decide the case, so... judges and Justices is 'posed to declare what the law is and not necessarily what it should be. if law is not to be interpreted as something immutable as it were written, then how should it be interpreted? at what point in history were school segregation Unconstitutional? am not asking when school segregation were wrong, but rather when it were repugnant to a Constitution which the mayor o' chicago correct observes did not view her as a person worthy o' protection in 1787. were school segregation Unconstitutional in 1787 and nobody realized until 1954? perhaps some folks believe society evolves and so too should the Constitution? sadly, hasn't history (recent and remote) shown how easily our idealized notions o' American values may be subverted by voices filled with hate? if you believe as a nation the US progressed forward in an ever improving cycle as evidenced by Court decisions correcting the mistakes and failures o' Congress and the people, then you are a poor student o' history. those obsidian board history buffs such as @Hurlshot and @Guard Dog will no doubt be able to name many examples from US history which tends to prove society may regress with equal speed and vigor as it progresses. to let you know just how not-controversial the decision were, buck v. bell is one o' the most brief decisions you will ever read. ... in our federalist system, is Congress which is purposefully designed to represent the evolving standards o' the electorate, not the Courts. does it seem wise to have those nebulous evolving societal standards nobody can adequate identify or define be established by an elite group o' nine men and women who have lifetime terms? we got concerns 'bout acb. she is not a textualist same as were scalia. woulda' liked to see her sit on the appellate court a bit longer 'cause a few o' her espoused and more controversial positions has not been tested in the crucible o' a rl decision. am not liking the dissembling all nominees to the Court increasingly engage. of course acb has an opinion 'bout voter intimidation, but she cannot answer even simple questions 'bout such? say she ain't lying when she avoids answering even the most simple questions is undermining her perceived legitimacy as an impartial and honest adjudicator. etc. regardless, originalism is all too often used interchangeable with strict construction and textualism. fail. blame originalism for the evils Americans perpetrated 'pon their fellow men for more than two hundred years o' the history o' this nation is also a fail. however, having read slapjack definitions o' originalism even at law school sites, am not surprised by the confusion o' many, though such understandable and correctable ignorance is all too often magnified by politicians with an agenda. ... oh, what the hell, originalism? HA! Good Fun!

German ****roaches yeah, they still creep me out, but the other types we use as feeders for exotic pets are kinda cool. Maybe they could put a Dubia roach in the game, it would just be a garbage disposal, eating up whatever planks and such are laying around the yard. Problem with roaches in the game is they'd be impossible to kill. Shoot em with a poison arrow would just get them high, acid attack would shine their shell, gas arrow would be perfume/cologne.

Extra PEN is always good if you don't like to switch weapons. In the worst case it "only" leads to overpenetration. And you won't have St. Omaku's Mercy right from the start.

As always: depends. On difficulty, on play mode, on preferences, on weapon setup, on build. There is no universal "best" melee striker. Monk/Rogue is very good in general though. Lacks the absolute oomph of Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind, but is very impressive during mid game. Helwalker/Bloodmage has the advantage of infinite Wall of Draining - which is gamebreakingly good because you can prolong all kinds of benefical effects endlessly, including Minor Lay on Hands from gloves. Unlimited healing + wounds all the time + huge AoE + Spirit Lance + endless Merciless Gaze + Swift FLurry and so on and to forth.

Depends on the weapon and on your play mode (RTwP or Turn Based).

i tried calculating this but there are so many moving parts that I think it is very hard to say. I would say just go for whatever playstyle you prefer; if you're not going to use the pet, rogue is probably better choice.

Powerotti's Rumbling Boar build is one of my favorites. It's definitely worth trying, although as I do play TB I do not know how well it would work there.

Warbow is a good example: With Veilpiercer and St. Omaku's Mercy there are two war bows that have an enchantment that has a 50% chance to skip Recovery on a crit. With a Ranger you not only have high ranged ACC and thus can crit with a war bow more often than most other classes, you also have Driving Flight (crits of Driving Flight count as well!) which increases your chance to trigger a recover-skip significantly. So you could do a Devoted/Ranger for example and try to land as many crits with those war bows as possible, skipping recovery often enough and thus raising dps significantly. This is an example for RTwP mostly because skipping recovery is very benefical there. No idea if it's any good on TB mode. Another setuo would be to use Watershaper's Focus with Ondra's Wrath. A Ranger with Driving Flight and that weapon has 3 AoE attacks with one shot (initial attack+blast, 1st jump + blast, 2nd jump + blast). ALl those attack rolls can proc Ondra's Wrath which is a powerful AoE dmg effect. It can trigger multiple times. Very powerful combo from stealth. A Monk/Ranger with dual mortar increases his chances to get a refund for Stunning Surge because his AoE shots will jump, doing more attack rolls which might crit. A Fighter/Ranger with Driving Flight, Clear Out and Fire in the Hole can produce a lot more hit rolls because his Clear Out is not only producing AoE*AoE*2 attack rolls but instead AoE*AoE*3 attack rolls. Stuff like that.

Hey so trying to figure out what’s the maximum penetration u can get regardless of whatever weapon u use or spell u cast. 1. Blackened Plate gives -1 AR to nearby enemy. 2. Tier 2 Might inspiration/potion of piercing strike/+2 PEN food/weapon modal, to be noted these are considered active bonus and won’t stack with each other. 3. Class only like Devoted/Sharpshooter. 4. Elemental ability like scion of flame. 5. Flanked = -1 AR. 6. There is an amulet grants u random buff, one of it is +1 PEN. 7. The Sanguine sword has an active to reduce enemy slash AR for 20 sec, maybe combine this with frostfall’s +hostile effect duration. So for a mythical quality 2h axe u can get 8 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 17 Pen, 19 if a devoted. 18/20 if count that amulet. So can we push PEN further? I know certain weapon has better PEN due to its enchantment, but I’m hoping to find more generic way to increase PEN, not only work with specific weapon. Also to make flanked a valid choice, anyone know which figure summons the tankiest summon?

With certain setups Driving Flight can be reason enough to pick a Ranger. I would still summon the Animal Companion though. It's cheap and a powerful summon.

Animation of bridge construction - https://gfycat.com/bouncydistantblobfish

Yes, only the duration gets reduced. But if you are applying a hard CC like stun the enemy still will still get stunned from a graze. It would be better imo if he only got dazed (but not for reduced duration but the normal one). That would also make more sense in terms of "realism"(TM): if you only graze the face of an enemy with a stunning blow he shouldn't be stunned, only dazed. Graze = Daze you know?

sorry i can't answer the tb-question, but it is always worth summoning the pet. it's a significant amount of DPS that the ranger needs to have, because that's how the ranger is balanced. (much like a rogue is balanced around having sneak attack damage, a ranger is balanced around having a persistent friend doing damage.) the cost of summoning the pet is meant to balance out the fact that you no longer suffer from bonded grief.

That's helpful to hear your thought process. I like that Loremaster Fassina build slightly better with Arcana, but I think a Sorcerer build for her with Poison is next on my list to play with. Both make good use of the +1PL from her subclass familiar. Untangling all the PL bonuses for those was one of the first reasons I read your FAQ and forum threads in depth. Fun stuff!

I deliberately chose not to pick it up simply because I was trying to go for something different (i got a little bored of always equipping it on tekehu) but for those with less desire to be a contrarian, lance of the midwood stag would be extremely good for this build for precisely those reasons. later on you could start with weyc's wand (empower) and then switch to lance of midwood stag for the rest of the fight for a total of +5 PL. earlier in the game i tend to be pretty aggressive with poison use. later in the game, it's much more targeted and deliberate because of action economy - because of wael's challenge i had to just come up with some vague heuristics on targeting, so i would generally start trying to hit an important caster or two with poison after the initial round of buffs. if i have advance warning for a fight (stealth) i would either load up on an initial poison to do after a halt, or (if there are no good halt targets) i would just start the fight attacking with poison (landing a confuse poison on a healer type can be pretty effective). as reminder note IIRC, poison only gets half your alchemy skill towards its PL scaling. Direct poison bonuses or generic PL scaling are therefore worth 2x (so litany of the spirit is effectively worth +2 alchemy PL, not +1; spider silk is worth a whopping +4). (again i just kinda winged it in-game because of wael's challenge)

Hey, @Skazz, @BruceVC used the word boring in reference to Majesty. *goes grabs pop corn and waits* Two forumites enter, one forumite leaves.

Oops; I guess I wasn't clear. My understanding is that the mod itself may no longer work, since it hasn't been updated after the last official patch.

Why isn't the latest patch pinned on this forum instead of this older patch?

Most people are willing to give Finland a pass for being allies of Hitler, not without reason but still... Or, say, Poland a pass for invading Lithuania when they were fighting the soviets, or taking part in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia; or Churchill a pass for starving millions of Indians. People are willing to give all sorts of things a pass- or be utterly shocked and appalled- not so much depending on the action itself but on who is doing it. (People also tend to 'forget' that Stalin had tried for years to get an alliance with the western powers against Hitler prior to Molotov-Ribbentrop, and western plans specifically involved getting the Germans and Soviets to fight each other to a bloody stand still while they stayed out of it. Undoubtedly Molotov- Ribbentrop sucked for Poland, but for Stalin it was utter genius. Which he later ruined with the most stupid deployments and grossly gross incompetence leading up to Barbarossa, but that was later)

I do not second the idea of adding roaches to the game. I would probably throw up if I see them. I'll take spiders any day over roaches.

I would love Poe 3 .

Clarity of Agony can help, yes. Especially at the start of fight in order to be able to spam Forbidden Fist more often. However it is not mandatory to use all the time after some point. Once you stacked up some RES and "-x% hostile effects" gear and food you don't need it to manage your Forbidden Fist Curses. Often the curse is below 2 secs then. It doesn't make sense to use the wounds for Clarity. Because its recovery is quite long it can get in the way sometimes and I just tend to skip it often then. But if you get hit by something nasty it can be really good to have: it not only frees you from the affliction but also gives you back wound(s) and a bit of healing then. Should you ever try a Nalpasca (there's plenty of drugs to find and to buy cheap - no reason to not use them all the time) : he has this main weakness where Arcane Dampener removes drug effects and gives him a drug crash. With a lot of Alchemy it's not too bad stats-wise but it prevents healing and degrades wounds. This can be annoying as heck. Some encounters love to spam Arcane Dampener at the start of fights, so...

Yeah, I like Morningstars. Always switch to them against skellies But as you wrote, the Estoc uniques are way cooler. If I were making a build for morningstars, I'd probably feel obliged to include Barbarian there for Brute Force. Although Monk with his primary attacks against Fort and Enervating Blows would be nice as well, I suppose. I have the problem that I feel obliged to include a rogue subclass (who am I kidding, a Streetfighter, alternatively Trickster for more tankyness) in every martial build. Otherwise I feel the damage output is lacking. The combo of high passive Sneak bonuses (with potentially powerful boosts) and awesome active abilities, like cheap Crippling Strike with extra damage and penetration, Devastating Strike with huge damage bonus and extra Accuracy, Deep Wounds for added DoT and eventually Toxic Strike for a situational deadly DoT is just hard to beat. IMO default Rogue is already strong. And Streetfighter bonus just puts the kit into overdrive - and right from level 1.

Espirs is one of the best weapons in the game for me: it's Ghost Blades proc on kill - and it doesn't matter how you kill the enemy - DoT, AoE, whatever. You don't need to kill with the Blade but can also do it with a spell - as long as you are holding the blade. That also means that the Ghost Blades will proc more Ghost Blades if they kill something. And it also heals on kill. The more enemies around the more healing. A stat bonus (Ravenous Soul Hunger) of +3 to certain stats on kill can be achieved easily by a Devoted/Streetfighter who can usually kill his first enemy very quickly. It stays until combat ends. That weapon is very nice for melee/caster chars, but I guess a Devoted/Streetfighter also works very well. Since the Ghost Blades have a cone-shape it's best to attack from the flanks (like a Monk with Torment's or a Chanter with cone invocations) and not get surrounded. Else it's difficult to hit additional enemies with them.

Waist: Gwyn’s Bridal Garter I always wonder about this in your builds. Otherwise? Looks like a well written, very solid build. If you have a party, I'd perhaps argue against picking Knockdown and Mule Kick, since someone else could do the interrupting, and it's not like wizards can survive against you in melee for long. You can almost perma juggle some tough enemies, however. It's a personal choice, I've never like it on straight fighters, though love it with Spirit Lance, but well, aoe. For Fighter/Rogue I also pick Crippling Strikes and Escape and never upgrade them. Escape is simple, since the upgrades make it cost way too much Guile and you don't need the stealth, but Crippling Strikes is often upgraded. However, if you just wait a few levels, you can get the distraction from a passive, and the bleed of the other upgrade is weak, and does nothing if the enemy's not moving, and since you can only attack in melee range... yeah, it feels useless. So why not just save the point for something good.