Wolken3156

There's actually a lot of really powerful hats now. For example, in 3.0 the old Hermit's Cap that used to give +1 Might has been changed to a hat that boosts Intelligence by +2 and makes you immune to Confuse!

The Paladin can easily cover healing. Lay on Hands, Reviving Exhortation and Healing Chain are all excellent abilities. Zealous Endurance is good for reducing damage but you might want to consider Zealous Charge since your party is pretty heavy on martial characters. You can always make and use scrolls to cover the buffs for the more difficult fights. You're gonna rest a lot anyway though since your Monk will ideally be taking damage, and that means losing a lot of health. If you wanted to avoid resting I'd probably swap him for another Ranger or Paladin. Ciphers aren't really a good substitute for CC when compared to a Wizard, Druid or Barbarian. A lot of enemies are immune to Prone, Charm and Paralyze so it does hinder their CC abilities quite a bit. Also they lack AoE on a majority of their enfeebling abilities. You could easily use a Druid though without needing to rest often anyway. Just build a Spiritshift focused one, and use CC abilities when the situation calls for them. If spiritshift wears off you can always swap over to Firebrand. I referred to this one for my Priest: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83225-class-build-schemers-needler-roguelike-skaen-priest/ To sum it up though, basically with a Priest of Skaen you can effectively make a Priest/Rogue hybrid. Prey on the Weak gives you Lesser Sneak Attack which also stacks with Apprentice's Sneak Attack effectively giving you a +35% damage to enemies that qualify for sneak attacks. You can use all kinds of other bonuses to boost it too like the Glanfathan Stalking Boots, weapons with the Vicious enchantment and the camping bonus. This basically allows the Priest to deal good melee damage should you not want to cast any spells during a particular fight. It also helps out during the early stages of the game when the Priest's offensive options are very limited.

The deflection is the problem. Getting surrounded results in the Flanked status effect which takes 10 deflection. The Barbarian already has the second worst deflection in the game - 15, sharing that second-to-last place with the Rogue. The difference is, with a Rogue you tend to avoid engaging multiple enemies, with the Barbarian, you are expected to. And the health pool can't compensate for that. (I'm playing on PotD, the only difficulty that's worth playing at for me). You can easily just run a low Might high Resolve Barbarian with great success if you think Deflection is problem. Generally you're using a Barbarian to generate Interrupts and take advantage of on-hit effects with Carnage anyway, so the only real stats that need to be high are Dexterity and Perception. Frenzy already gives a +4 to Might, and if you have a Priest you can use Holy Might to boost it further, so you actually don't really need it that high. Barbarians though, are probably the slowest martial class to develop. Since they need a couple of talents to function effectively and are also dependent on gear. Act 2 is when they start to show a lot more promise. At any rate, I ran low Resolve Barbarian and had no problems keeping him alive on PotD. He was a Fire Godlike though, paired up with Heavy Armor, Zealous Endurance and the Thick-Skinned talent, so his DR was pretty ridiculous.

I was thinking of a high Perception Barbarian with dual Starcallers, Interrupting Blows, Frenzy, Two-Weapon Fighting and Accurate Carnage actually. The laziest but highly effective crowd controller.

I'm running a Pale Elf Priest of Skaen as my main character. Her build is similar to Boeroer's Schemer Needler build, only with a different race and I'm running Scion of Flames and Savage Attack over Interdiction and Painful Interdiction. I like the extra damage from both melee and Shining Beacon/Storm of Holy Fire over the mass Weaken. I have other characters to cover for it anyway. I'm also running a Wood Elf Wizard using a Combusting Wounds based build. Which means mostly the Minoletta spells, DoT spells and of course the ever lovable Combusting Wounds. She's currently the team's powerhouse, tearing apart enemies with her spells and just being an overall badass. But that's to be expected from a Wizard =D I also have a Hearth Orlan Cipher, running the build that I wrote a guide on recently. She's a glass cannon, and does attract a lot of hostiles, but she does have Ecto, Antipathetic Field and Whisper to deal with them. She's pretty high up there on the damage charts, losing out a small bit to my Wizard. I think Ciphers actually work really well now, the stronger powers do more than make up for the increased Focus costs. Next is my Druid who is a Wild Orlan. He's kinda half-tank, half-crowd controlling monster, and he's damn good at both. Damage has been picking up as well since he's getting his higher level goodies. His spiritform has also served me very well in carrying my limited offensive options during Act 1, plus its fun seeing a giant bear punch things. Next we have my Ocean Folk Chanter, who serves as one of my main tanks. He does pretty good damage with Come, Come, Soft Winds of Death but he's pretty lackluster at the moment. But I have used this class a million times and know all too well how amazing he'll be once he gets The Dragon Thrashed and the Dragon Wailed and Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr. Being able to use Invocations a bit more often is good though, since he has solid CC with his AoE Paralyze and Charm Invocations. Their accuracy is a bit lacking though, which is probably from the shield penalties. My last member is a Mountain Dwarf Paladin of St. Elcga. Pretty standard stuff with Shielding Touch and Shielding Flames. He also serves as a tank, though I occasionally have him pull out a 2-hander to cut apart lesser foes. He kinda stands out from the rest of the group in a RP sense... considering my main character =/ In my first run of the beta I used a very similar line up as the one above, but with different race choices. Before the beta though I had a Wild Orlan Barbarian, Human Darcozzi Paladin, Pale Elf Priest of Skaen, Wood Elf Wizard, Wood Elf Ranger and Hearth Orlan Cipher, which is much more standard. One of these days I'll play Monk... maybe. Its the only class I never really gave a real run over, which is kinda weird since I normally like running martial artists.

Since you mentioned Orlan, Hearth Orlans are an excellent choice. Minor Threat works perfectly with the Rogue's damage dealing capabilities.

You can get it as soon as you are able to go to the White March. IIRC its found on a group of enemies near Galvino's house.

I did mention a few bows here and there, War Bows are actually a very strong weapon choice in general. I'm not much a number cruncher, so I can't really do mathematical comparisons between the weapons. This is mostly meant to serve a basis guide for making your own Cipher rather than list an absolute way to play them anyway.

Use a Druid, they have millions of CC spells and a lot of these will enable Sneak Attacks. A Wizard is also another option.

Its never really been a problem for me. My party is pretty melee heavy (And by that I mean melee Chanters, Druids and Priests XD) though, with only the Cipher and (kind of, not really) the Wizard being the only back line characters, so keeping enemies off my Cipher isn't terribly difficult since I have 4 front liners to work with. Obviously with less it can be a tad more difficult but still very doable, I was able to run it just fine with only two front liners. But as I said, its not the only way to allocate attributes. If you feel more comfortable with more Res and Con, then by all means feel free to invest in them. Assuming you're running with a firearm, an example of a more durable spread would probably look like this: MIG 18 DEX 13 CON 3 PER 18 INT 16 RES 10 You'll still have rubbish Endurance however you now have a very decent Deflection stat, which can be boosted with Psychovampiric Shield. You could also run a 1-handed weapon and a shield in your 2nd weapon slot should you be forced in engagement. I already listed my thoughts on Puppet Master, it is a very good power, but everything it can do can be substituted with Whisper just fine IMO. Puppet Master does have a slightly quicker cast time though. But I rather save the 20 Focus and use it for another power, maybe even a 2nd Whisper. Pretty sure you can hit the magical 13 number if you just invest only in mechanics. It does mean losing out on Survival points, and you'll probably want to get at least 4 in it for those lovely racial accuracy bonuses. ... Also I knew I forgot an item =/ I also forgot the Coil of Resourcefulness even though I explicitly mentioned it at one point of the guide... how embarrassing!

Cipher: A beginner's guide to GUNMAGE Introduction This guide merely exists as an example on how to build a ranged Cipher, and isn't strictly the only way to build one. As such it may a bit wordy here. This guide is intended for Path of the Damned, but there's no reason why it couldn't work on lower difficulties. Races Personally the race choice doesn't really matter too much, though some races are a lot more useful than others. Wood Elf is the race chosen for this build, it doesn't hurt to explore the other races as some can possibly offer more. Human A ranged Cipher typically want to avoid damage whenever possible, so the Human's racial ability isn't particularly something you want to rely on, and the ability itself is pretty weak compared to what the Godlikes have to offer. On the other hand, unlike Godlikes, you can still wear a hat which may be significant. Wood Elf Typically the race of choice for a ranged Cipher, since just by being 4m away from an enemy you'll gain damage and accuracy bonuses. This does however restrict your power selection a tad bit, as you'll most likely want to avoid powers that move you close to an enemy, such as Ringleader. Pale Elf Resistances to burn and cold damage is never a bad thing. Cold damage resistance in particular is very helpful when dealing with Shades early in the game. Both types are also very useful to have in Cragholdt as the numerous casters in the area favor those two elements. Overall, I'd say its a pretty strong pick. Mountain Dwarf Poison and Disease resistances are alright I guess. Most of these types of attacks usually come from melee attacks, however enemy Druids are very trigger happy with spells of these types. Its not a bad choice for a melee Cipher, but for a ranged I'd probably look at other options. Boreal Dwarf Accuracy bonuses to Wilders and Primordials is actually better than you think, since a lot of the most dangerous enemies in the game are of these types! Adragans and Ogre Druids are among these, and we all know how much of a pain those two are. Coastal Aumua Not too many enemies will be using Prone attacks on a Cipher, assuming you're able to keep them away from melee attackers. Ranged Stuns though can come from Cean Gŵla, Greater Wind Blights and a majority of enemy Druids. Stun however is mostly deadly for frontliners due to their greatly reduced Deflection, though it is an annoying status effect as a whole. Island Aumua An extra weapon set can provide some utility. One strategy is to equip two guns and fire one shot from each to generate a large amount of Focus and then switch to 3rd faster attacking weapon like a War Bow. Obviously if you plan on taking advantage of their weapon sets, you'll want the Quick Switch talent to minimize the amount of time you take swapping weapons around. Overall, this race's usefulness ultimately hinges on your play style; personally I think an extra weapon slot is quite useful. Hearth Orlan An excellent race, Ciphers love crits and this race helps increase your chances of getting them. Not much else to add really, enjoy getting those crits! Wild Orlan Getting a bonus to all defenses upon being hit by a Will attack is pretty good, as enemy casters (In particular other Ciphers) will likely aim their spells at you. This will also work on fear auras which can be very useful when fighting dragons or drakes. Nature Godlike Functionally, their ability is similar to a Human's, though it packs much more of a punch. You do lose the ability to use a helmet though. Death Godlike Death's Usher is a pretty good damage dealing talent when paired up with damage over time effects or AoE. The Cipher however does have a fairly limited number of them available. Its still a pretty good race overall though. Moon Godlike Blah blah Silver Tide. This ability is great on any class and Cipher is no exception. Fire Godlike These make very potent melee Ciphers... but since we're talking about ranged... they're not really an option. Attributes The attribute spread I would recommend is: MIG 18 DEX 18 CON 3 PER 18 INT 18 RES 3 With Deadfire Archipelago - Drifer chosen as the back ground. This is min/maxed of course and isn't always the optimal spread, as such you may choose to add extra CON or RES to help with your squishiness. Just a few guidelines though: Might A primary stat for the Cipher and one of the most important. Might affects all damage you deal, and as Ciphers are designed to primarily deal damage, this is obviously important. Perhaps more important however is that the amount of Focus you gain is directly based on the amount of damage you deal. As such, the higher your Might, the more Focus you'll generate with each attack, making this stat perhaps even more important to the Cipher than it is to any other class. Dexterity Dexterity affects your attack speed and casting speed. With the 3.0 changes, Ciphers don't have as many powerful slow casting powers as they used to, so this stat is slightly less important. Its still however very useful for Focus generation as this will affect your attack speed with your weapons, and faster attacks means quicker Focus generation. Constitution Extra endurance never hurts as damage is ultimately unavoidable. A ranged Cipher though will most likely opt to dump this, as if they're getting swarmed they're gonna die regardless of how much Endurance they have. Perception Accuracy is paramount for a Cipher, as missing or grazing with your weapon is extremely costly as it'll have a powerful effect on your Focus gain. Also a lot of the Cipher's powers have much shorter duration than the spells coming from a Wizard or Druid, as such Ciphers value crits a lot for their duration bonus. With high perception it becomes significantly easier to score crits with your various powers. Keep in mind that the value of this stat decreases as you get further in game; especially if you have a Priest. Intelligence As mentioned above, the duration of powers is a little on the short side compared to spells. Having a high Int though, will make your powers have much longer durations. Int also affects the AoE size, however Ciphers do not have too many AoE powers, and some of them like Mind Lance or Mind Blades, are unaffected by Int. Resolve A lot of what I mentioned in Con also applies to Resolve. It should be noted though that Resolve will have an effect on concentration. If you plan on running low Resolve, consider making Potions of Spirit Shield when fighting enemies that utilize a lot of interrupting effects (Such as the Ogre Druid's Insect Plague). Talents I recommend the following: 2 - Biting Whip 4 - Draining Whip 6 - Penetrating Shot 8 - Weapon Focus: Ruffian 10 - Apprentice's Sneak Attack 12 - Gunner or Outlander's Frenzy 14 - Marksman You can of course take them in any other order you choose. Or even take other talents, just a "quick" rundown on them: Psychic Backlash and Brutal Backlash Enemy Ciphers commonly pack these two, which is part of the reason they're annoying. These two talents though are highly situational, so its hard to recommend giving up a talent slot for these. I am almost certain these do however work on fear auras, which would make them very useful when dealing with dragons and drakes. Biting Whip Probably a given, but being able to hit harder equates to more Focus generated, so you will always want to grab this. Draining Whip Another obvious one to take, as this will increase the amount of Focus you generate with your attacks. Greater Focus The main reason to grab this is the fact that it can increase your starting Focus, which means its possible to use your higher level powers at the start of combat. This is especially useful during early game as your starting Focus pool is very small. Late game however, you'll have much more sizable Focus pool, as such this power may be slightly less useful depending on your playstyle. Weapon Focus Accuracy boosts are always welcome. Once you've decided on the weapon you want for your build, you'll want to grab the appropriate talent. Marksman For ranged Ciphers you get another accuracy boost to play with. Envenomed Strike Not a bad talent actually, the raw damage is very strong. However, its hard to justify picking this over other talents. If you have a free talent slot though, by all means go ahead and grab this. Gunner If you plan on using a firearm (And not swapping weapons) this talent is a must-have. Reloading is the bane of any gun user, and being able to quicken it is always a welcomed ability. Dangerous Implement Implements aren't very good at generating Focus, however you may want to use them when dealing with pierce immunes. One weapon however worth considering is the Golden Gaze, which hits multiple times and generates a solid amount of Focus. If you want to use that, then you'll want this of course. Beast Slayer/Primal Bane/Ghost Hunter/Sanctifier/Wilder Hunter They're not bad talents but they're very situational. You could grab one of these and pair them up with a camping bonus to get a huge bonus against one type of enemy, but still you usually have better choices to pick. If you had to grab one of these though, I would say Ghost Hunter is the best choice, as Spirits are incredibly common and are very dangerous. Interrupting Blows Compared to other classes, Ciphers are actually terrible at generating Interrupts, so I wouldn't recommend this. Penetrating Shot The ability to ignore DR means you'll be able to deal a lot more damage. This is especially important in PotD, as a majority of enemies have good DR values. Bloody Slaughter Not a bad talent actually, typically you use this to power up DoT or AoE effects. You could however fire an attack at a enemy low on endurance and generate a slightly larger amount of Focus. This ability also works with Death's Usher, so a Death Godlike with this ability can be quite fearsome on low Endurance enemies. Snake's Reflexes/Bear's Fortitude/Bull's Will/Superior Deflection A bonus to defenses is always welcomed. Grabbing these if you have talent slots to spare if often a very good idea. Quick Switch Swapping around weapon sets brings a lot of utility to your Cipher. If you plan on swapping around weapons a lot, this talent is a must-have. Otherwise you can probably ignore this. Its worth noting there's also a belt in the game that has this talent on it, which can allow you avoid using this on a talent slot. Apprentice's Sneak Attack An easy way to boost damage. You should ideally be setting up the conditions for this to kick in, especially since a lot of the Ciphers powers are good at doing this. Outlander's Frenzy This is a very potent talent, giving you a damage boost and attack speed boost, which can do wonders with your Focus generation. Keep in mind though that the attack speed boost does not stack with Time Parasite, and if you're using a Gun, this will do nothing to your reloading animation. Powers Finally we hit the section we've been waiting for, the Powers. There's gonna be a lot to cover here, of course first up we have the one my build uses: 1st - Antipathetic Field, Mind Wave, Soul Shock, Whisper of Treason 2nd - Mental Binding, Phantom Foes, Psychovampiric Shield, Recall Agony 3rd - Ectopsychic Echo, Secret Horrors, Soul Ignition 4th - Body Attunement, Pain Block, Silent Scream, Wild Leech 5th - Borrowed Instinct, Tactical Meld, Detonate 6th - Amplified Wave, Disintegrate 7th - Time Parasite 8th - Reaping Knives, Defensive Mindweb And of course I'm gonna sum them all up, hoo boy. Lets get started. 1st-level Powers Antipathetic Field This is a very powerful tether based power, dealing more damage than the Wizard's Ray of Fire! Its does have the limitation of being forced to move around to position it, plus you must avoid getting your allies caught in it as this will destroy them in no time flat. Eyestrike Blind is a very powerful status effect and being able to freely use it in each encounter makes this extremely useful during the early parts of the game. This also affects Will as well, which a lot of enemies during Act 1 have a low value in that area. If you have a Wizard or Druid though, this power does become less useful during a skirmish they may decide to toss out a spell or once Spell Mastery is available, as their sources of blind are much more effective overall. Mind Wave Knocking a group of enemies Prone has a lot of applications, especially if you run a lot of other casters. It can help with being swarmed and it can allow Reflex and Deflection based attacks land much easier. Soul Shock A potent and extremely spammable AoE power. It deals decent damage and has no affect on your own allies. This power alone will decimate a majority of early game encounters. I find myself using it less later in the game, but its still a pretty good AoE attack, especially if you have someone running the Stormcaller. Tenuous Grasp Its very hard to recommend this over Whisper of Treason now, due to its average cast speed and less powerful overall effect. The Frightened effect though has a very long duration, which can really help out with landing a majority of your powers. Whisper of Treason The signature move of a Cipher and with good reason too, as this power is just incredible now. It has a fast cast speed and it also inflicts Charmed which has numerous applications. A Charmed target will distract enemies, and also attack them too. Charm also lowers all defenses by 25 points, which makes them very easy to kill. 2nd-level Powers Amplified Thrust Much like Soul Shock, another early and powerful source of damage. This power though gets outclassed a tad bit quicker than Soul Shock though as you start to get more powerful weapons and powers. Mind Blades A decent AoE power, this move does less damage than Soul Shock however, but it does affect a much broader area. Mental Binding Paralysis is an excellent effect and is a good way to stop a dangerous enemy in its tracks. Paralysed enemies also make the best Focus generation targets. As such an ideal use of this power would be to open with it and then fire a shot at them and generate a huge chunk of Focus in return. Another thing that makes this power really stand out is that any enemies near the paralysed target get inflicted with Stuck, making this useful even for controlling groups. Its duration though is very short, but its still there. Phantom Foes This power has a very long duration and a very large radius. Its very useful for triggering Sneak Attacks, especially in areas where setting up flanks is difficult due to the narrow space, like a lot of indoor battles. However, this does get suppressed by other afflictions that lower Deflection, including Blind. Psychovampiric Shield Oh hey I wrote about this recently. Copy/Paste +25 Deflection is pretty nice, but I've always preferred this Power for its -10 Resolve. -10 Resolve from Psychovampiric Shield is a great way to lower an enemy's deflection and will defense. It also lowers their Concentration as well which great for Interrupting. This also doesn't get suppressed from Miasma of Dull Mindness which means you can get a -16 Resolve on one enemy target. It also doesn't get suppressed by Wild Leech either which could potentially lead to a very tasty -20 Resolve, however Wild Leech does pick a random attribute so it isn't exactly reliable Wild Leech doesn't get suppressed by Miasma either, so in theory you could stack all three and potentially get an incredible -26 Resolve! But I haven't actually tested it, and it would be difficult to test since Wild Leech is so random. Recall Agony The Cipher's equivalent Combusting Wounds, though it unfortunately only affects a single target. Functionally though, you would use this in the same manner as you would use Combusting Wounds by pairing it with a lot quick rapid hitting attacks. This power also stacks with Combusting Wounds, though ticks from Combusting Wounds won't trigger any damage from this and vice versa. 3rd-level Powers Ectopsychic Echo The most famous (infamous?) power in the Cipher's arsenal. Much like Antipathetic Field, this power deals enormous amount of damage, rivaling the likes of the Wizard's Bitter Mooring! However what makes this power even better is that you can tether to an ally with it, and this power has no friendly fire attached, making it much more user friendly. Attaching this to a melee character at the start of a combat and having him move around behind the enemy lines is an effective use of the power, and can potentially make this the Cipher's best source of AoE damage even. Fractured Volition This power is a massive debuff to enemy defenses, making it a pretty ideal power to make use of against major targets. If you have other sources of Hobbled and Weakened though, you may want to pass on this. Pain Link Basically the Fire Godlike's racial ability made into a power. Its pretty underwhelming and generally not worth the Focus to cast unless you're up against a really large group, and they're all targeting one character. Puppet Master Whisper of Treason will usually be a better use of Focus since Charmed does nearly the same thing as Dominate, costs significantly less Focus and has a much longer range. Puppet Master does have a few things going for it though; for one it has longer duration than Whisper of Treason. Dominate also doesn't incur a massive penalty to accuracy and defenses like Charmed does, making a Dominated target much more of a potent threat to their own allies. Secret Horrors This power inflicts Sickened and Frightened in a wide area, which excellent for lowering enemy defences. This power is really good if you're packing a lot of casters as this will make Fort-based spells much easier to use. Frightened is also good since it lowers Will, so this power can also work as an accuracy boost for your Cipher. Soul Ignition Strong DoT affect; though it only affects a single target. 4th-level Powers Body Attunement Lowering enemy DR is always a good to have. This is also gives you sizable boost to your own DR which can be handy in some situations. Mind Lance This is a very damaging AoE attack, it is however a line based AoE so you'll most likely have to adjust your positioning in order to avoid damaging your own allies with this. As a line AoE, this also puts it at slight odds with Ectopsychic Echo and Antipathetic Field. Pain Block This is the Cipher's one and only healing power, its a pretty good one though. It heals for a decent amount and also gives a delicious +10 DR to the affected ally. Silent Scream This power may seem less impressive than Mind Lance until you realize that this baby deals Raw damage. Which means it flat out ignores DR, making this an incredibly deadly AoE attack. It also inflicts Stunned on the primary target as well, which you can also use to gain back the Focus you spent on this power too. Wild Leech This power can seem unreliable since it affects a random attribute so you don't have too much control over it. It is however a -10 to a random attribute so the effects will still be felt regardless of what it affects. This also in turn gives you a +10 bonus to random attribute which can be very powerful since it has a fairly good chance of affecting one of your primary attributes. 5th-level Powers Borrowed Instinct What an incredible power. -8 to Intelligence and Perception is pretty dang good, but to add to it you also get all kinds of accuracy and defensive bonuses as well! Ringleader AoE Charmed and Dominate is as good as it sounds. The range of this is painfully short however, so caution is advised when using it. Detonate Yep, that's a lot of raw damage. It also deals a sizable amount of Crush damage should you kill a target with this, making it an incredible source of AoE damage. This does have friendly fire attached, so make sure your allies are either out of range or well defended. Tactical Meld Fairly unerwhelming since Borrowed Instinct is overall a better use of Focus. It is useful as an opening against some of the toughest fights though, where getting Borrowed Instinct to land isn't guaranteed. 6th-level Powers Amplified Wave This deals a decent amount of Crush damage and affects a wide area. The real reason you want to use this though is the fact this also inflicts Prone. Coupled with its massive AoE, this is an excellent CC tool. It does cost an enormous amount of Focus however. Disintegration Quite possibly the most powerful DoT effect in the game, this power deals colossal amounts of raw damage. Mind Plague AoE confuse is pretty good and this power disperses in a wide area too. However 60 Focus is hard to justify for it, especially when you can just use Scrolls of Confusion or even just a Wizard for similar effects. 7th-level Powers Stasis Shell This power can be used to lock out an enemy from combat, they won't be able to take any damage however. This makes it highly situational, and with a 70 Focus cost, its almost not worth even using. Time Parasite A combination of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and Arduous Delay of Motion. Not a bad combo by any means but it does cost an enormous 70 Focus; but if you're running a Dex heavy build, the benefits can outweigh its cost. 8th-level Powers Reaping Knives One of the best summoned weapons in the game. It deals excellent damage, can be used by martial classes like Monks and each hit with it gives you Focus. Highly recommended if you have a dual wielder of any kind. Defensive Mindweb The best spell for turtling. This is a game changer, as having a Paladin or Fighter in range makes this into a massive defence boost. Suddenly, now your entire party can tank a dragon (Or at least attempt it). Equipment This I confess is an area I'm not very good at. What I typically run though is: Weapon 1: Scon Mica's Roar Weapon 2: Golden Gaze Head: Helm of Darksee Body: Vengiatta Rugia Neck: Talisman of the Unconquerable Hands: Pilferer's Grip Feet: Glanfathan Stalking Boots Waist: Girdle of Maegfolc Might Ring 1: Ring of Protection Ring 2: Ring of Thorns Which decent but I'm sure many of you can think of better builds then that. I won't really delve into this though, as there's a ton of items and I'll be here forever trying to cover them all. So here's a brief list on some other good choices. Weapon 1: Scon Mica's Roar, Lead Splitter, Dulcanale, Fellstroke, Persistence, Stormcaller, The Rain of Godagh Field, Borresaine, Lenas Êr, Stormcaller Weapon 2: Golden Gaze, Pretty Pretty's Rib Head: Helm of Darksee, Hermit's Hat, Stag Helm, Azalin's Helmet, Tempered Helm Body: Vengiatta Rugia, Starlit Garb, Raiment of Wael's Eyes, Angio's Gambeson, just plain boring enchanted Clothing Neck: Talisman of the Unconquerable Hands: Pilferer's Grip, Bracers of All-Consuming Rage, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Gauntlets of Accuracy, Ryona's Vambraces, Gloves of Manipulation, Rabbit Fur Gloves Feet: Glanfathan Stalking Boots, Boots of Speed, Boot of Stealth, Malina's Boots Waist: Girdle of Maegfolc Might, Broad Belt of Power, Sentinel's Girdle, Belt of Stelgaer, Coil of Resourcefulness Rings: Ring of Protection, Ring of Thorns, Ring of Searing Flames, Ring of Unshackling, Pensiavi mes Rèi, Sigil of the Arcane, Frigid Claim, Bartender's Ring Conclusion I have probably missed a TON of things. So go yell at me for anything I missed or anything I may be unaware of.

Challenge accepted. This may take a while.

Whisper in general is just a much better use of Focus. With 30 Focus you can cast one Puppet Master or Whisper of Treason and one other 1st or 2nd level power. Dominate is a better effect overall, but generally you're only Dominating or Charming an enemy to keep their heat off you and to distract the enemy, and Charm can do that just as well as Dominate can. +25 Deflection is pretty nice, but I've always preferred this Power for its -10 Resolve. -10 Resolve from Psychovampiric Shield is a great way to lower an enemy's deflection and will defense. It also lowers their Concentration as well which great for Interrupting. This also doesn't get suppressed from Miasma of Dull Mindness which means you can get a -16 Resolve on one enemy target. It also doesn't get suppressed by Wild Leech either which could potentially lead to a very tasty -20 Resolve, however Wild Leech does pick a random attribute so it isn't exactly reliable Wild Leech doesn't get suppressed by Miasma either, so in theory you could stack all three and potentially get an incredible -26 Resolve! But I haven't actually tested it, and it would be difficult to test since Wild Leech is so random.

Brisk Recitation is a Chanter ability in 3.0 which quickens the chanting speed based on your level (Up to 40% at level 14). The speed difference is noticeable, and makes Chanters a lot more useful. In 2.03 though, Chanters are very flawed, since battles typically don't last long enough to use a single Invocation, especially if you use the higher level Chants. What I recommend is you open up the Chant editor and make two chants. One with only 1st-level chants for the purpose of building up Invocation uses, and another with all the powerful chants you want to make use of. Switch between the two modals depending on what you want your Chanter to do during the battle. Also don't forget to name your chants! This is extremely important!

This is the belt the TC was talking about BTW, it is pretty sweet: Rot Skulls!? Oh my goodness, I want this on my Wizard. That item is dropped by Ulmar at the Longwatch Falls, its not a new Stronghold item.

Well, that's quite the buff they got, Puppet Master looks incredible now, instant cast with a good duration opens up so many possibilities, especially since Dominate is such a wonderful ailment. Looks like these powers have all returned to their former glory. Well, maybe not entirely the case for Mind Blades, since 10% damage reduction for each jump will hinder it. But at least it looks a lot more promising.

The enemy I experienced this on was the Sky Dragon. My Druid would cast Wall of Thorns and while the spell will successfully go off, any other spells he attempts to cast afterwards would play the casting animation, but would have no effect. I had AI settings completely disabled.

It happens with Wall of Thorns as well, which sucks since I love the Wall spells =(

The point I was trying to make though was that low level spells still remain powerful and useful even at later levels. While the higher level spells are certainly more powerful, the lower level ones still remain as useful as they were when you first got them.

Grimoires cannot be enchanted. As I mentioned though, the damage of spells can be boosted with buffs and talents, its just the approach for them is is different compared to a weapon. For example, a direct damage spell like Chill Fog becomes a lot stronger if the Wizard has the Secrets of Rime talent and can also be used as an interruption tool if you pick up Interrupting Blows. As another example, Minoletta's Minor Missiles (Since you mentioned it) only deals around 12 - 22 damage per projectile. This damage however can be boosted with a high Might score, so if you have a Might score of 19 for example, this becomes 15 - 27 damage per projectile. Since the spell does Corrode damage as well, if you grab the Spirit of Decay talent, that's a 20% damage boost to the spell. Finally, since the spell is a projectile, it does work with Penetrating Shot, which allows the spell to bust through an enemy's DR. Toss in Combusting Wounds and you add an extra 5 burn damage that ignores DR to each projectile. Ok maybe I over elaborated, but you can see the spell becomes very powerful under the right conditions, to the point it even matches higher level spells.

Per rest abilities? Oh no, resource management in an RPG what has the world come to The main downside to the per rest system is that unlike older RPGs, there's no real punishment in realizing you didn't bring enough items or you were a little too trigger happy with your spells. Enemies do not respawn when you leave an area, and don't spawn to block your only way out of a dungeon either. If you choose to camp instead, you're never at any risk of being attacked by a group of enemies. Of course, these are things that could possibly be implemented, but I imagine many will argue it may break the game's flow and pacing. Personally though, I don't even care about the per encounter change. I felt battles became very one-dimensional once 3rd-level spells became per encounter, since at that point you can just recklessly spam them and they can easily destroy most enemies without putting a single tear on your party's resources. Heck, this is even true to 1st-level spells becoming per encounter. Timers are almost never a good idea in any kind of game. This especially true with PoE, which has an enormous amount of content outside of the main story to explore and complete. Adding a timer would only encourage players to rush towards the endgame, ignoring the side content. This is true, regardless of how generous the timer is. Plus in general it'll just cause a huge influx in negative reactions. No one likes being rushed. Damage doesn't scale with level for any class, even martial characters. So a Fan of Flames spell from a Wizard will still remain a powerful attack even during late game, especially when you take into account the expanded options a high level Wizard has to augment its damage, through the appropriate talents or buffs.

I suspect it does, but can't check right now. The duration for summons is fixed.

Would've made more sense to change the Focus costs back rather than increase Focus gained. Eh, maybe it'll work out anyway.

While it is a heavy nerf, Reny still proved useful for act 2 on PoTD with his stuns. But then, I've never been a chanter specialist, and I don't know if any of the level 2 summons is worth it. The Spectre is much more powerful than both level 2 summons. The level 2 summons are alright but I usually prefer the AoE Terrify, Charm and Paralyze invocations instead. The Wurms are alright ranged attackers, while the Will O Wisps can confuse enemies with each attack they do. The level 3 summons though are quite formidable and well worth it. The two Ogres are quite beastly, dealing solid damage and having good overall bulk. The Drake isn't as powerful as the ogres but it does have a fear aura which can help out with landing Will-based abilities.

3rd-level invocation summons lasts for half a minute, while the 2nd-level invocation summons last for 25 secs, which is plenty of time for them to do their business. Reny Daret's Ghost lasting only 12 seconds does make its use questionable though since its barely enough time to position it for Sneak Attacks and throw off a few attacks.