Kaigen42

@cctobias Other way around. Attack speed bonuses reduce recovery and Dex is the only thing that affects the speed of the actual action.

1) You're looking at the recovery period, which is something distinct from reload which only applies to guns/crossbows. Recovery is reduced by attack speed bonuses. 2) If you're using some kind of armor, switch to clothes so you aren't suffering a recovery penalty. Right now the speed property on weapons isn't working, or you could use the Engwithian Scepter. The Sure-handed Ila chant will help. Beyond that, you don't have a whole lot of options. 3) Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Dexterity is even more effective than other attack speed boosters because it improves the speed of the attack animation as well as reducing the recovery period. 4) Friendly fire is an option if your aim is to build wounds ASAP. Basically, implements are not treated different from other weapons, by and large, aside from a couple of talents that affect them specifically. They are generally less damaging than other ranged options, but Dangerous Implement narrows that gap, and there are unique implements with good properties (I'm partial to the Rod of Pale Shades, which is Disorienting and Stunning).

This is why I prefer the Shieldbearer's Shielding Touch talent. Deflection bonus off of Lay on Hands means you're going to be buffing the defense of a target that's already taking hits, and it can be used on the Paladin as easily as a party member. That said, I generally go with other orders anyway.

Scrolls of Paralysis is really handy for this fight, as you can quickly paralyze most, if not all, of the enemy group for long enough to start taking them apart. A high level Wizard can do much the same, but with their casting times, you'll likely still get hit by CC before the Wizard can finish casting a Call to Slumber or what have you.

I don't know, Bleak Walkers and Goldpact Knights both get FoD boosters that benefit from the accuracy boost. It all depends on whether you're using FoD as a finisher to try to get that killing blow or an opener to soften up enemies with strong alpha. Darcozzi will benefit from being able to toss off their (Inspiring) Liberating Exhortations without having to worry about recovery time.

@Crescent Hawk; Why wouldn't it? Every other aura bonus applies to the Paladin as well as the party. On LoH; I was surprised they touched it at all, because I thought it was already a pretty good ability. The increased number of uses will be nice and give better perceived parity with FoD, but I didn't think it needed a healing buff (Okay, Greater Lay on Hands needed a buff because it was so miniscule, but I'm not sure this even makes it more valuable).

Wow, that's a lot better than I was expecting. That's a pretty significant buff. @taek The aura range increase is a known issue. Not sure what causes it, but something causes the buff to more or less double in radius, and it will occur multiple times and stack until it's larger than the map.

I interpret it as: Zealous Focus will now provide graze->hit conversion for your allies, meaning that there will be a chance that an ally that lands a graze will hit instead. Zealous Endurance will provide hit->graze conversion against enemy attacks, meaning that if an ally gets hit, it might turn into a graze instead.

The added bonuses on Zealous Focus and Zealous Endurance will be nice for those who felt those auras were a bit redundant, depending on how big those effects are. In particular, I think the hit->graze conversion on ZE will be interesting, as it's an uncommon bonus on armor and should stack with the Fighter's Critical Defense. Could be nice for parties that field some melee DPS. The increased aura size will be interesting to see in practice as well, especially if they end up fixing the bug that makes auras double in size. Some interesting changes to exhortations. There's no direct buff to Liberating Exhortation, but a UI change will make it easier to see it working at least. Reviving Exhortation might actually be usable now for something other than firing off an extra couple of abilities. The fact that exhortations don't have a recovery phase will make them easier to use for low Dex heavy armor Paladins. I don't think the Flames of Devotion buff will have a huge impact on DPS builds, but at least you don't have to worry about missing your two big hits of the fight. It will help out those builds that like to open up with a couple of boosted gun shots before closing, at least.

Edér is set up fairly well when you pick him up; his Res and Per are lower than you would want on a Tank, but give him Wary Defender and Weapon and Shield Style and he'll do fine anyway. Aloth's stats aren't driven as high as you would on a min/maxed build, but his Int is pretty decent and he's a Wood Elf, so he's not going to have any accuracy problems. Honestly, the only downside to Aloth is that his grimoire doesn't have Slicken and it can take a while to track one down that does; now that you can turn off autoleveling, you can probably fix that anyway. Grieving Mother's stats are the only ones that are way off from where you'd like them to be. You can always use IE Mod if you're really concerned about NPC stats.

Note that grabbing an NPC, even just to sacrifice to the Blood Pool, will void your ability to get the solo achievement, so that one might be off limits. This link will show you the rest. Second Skin, The Merciless Hand, and Mob Justice are mutually exclusive means to get to the end of Act II. Dungeon Delver and Wild Running are mutually exclusive rewards depending on how you resolve At the Mercy of the Tribes. Gift from the Machine requires you to send Icantha's prisoners up the tower rather than rescuing them, this will give you Deceptive and Cruel points. Scale-breaker requires you to make a deal with the Adra Dragon and then betray her when talking to the dragon-hunter. The deific boons are all mutually exclusive, and it might not be possible to get Wael's Boon (I didn't have the option on my most recent run).

This is mostly true, but there's a wrinkle in that additional bonuses on active abilities and modals from talents are treated as passive bonuses and stack with anything. So if a Priest has the Inspiring Radiance talent, that accuracy bonus triggered by Holy Radiance will stack with the Paladin accuracy aura (or a bless spell). This is also why the Fighter's defensive bonuses from the Wary Defender talent stack with other defense bonuses, while the Guardian Stance will not. Since Ancient Memory is a talent bonus, it may well stack. Or it might not stack because it's multiple effects with the same name. I tend not to double up on classes, so I don't have any observational experiences to support whether or not multiple characters using the same "passive" buff will stack.

Arquebuses are the better base weapon, but when you take uniques into account pistols and blunderbuses pull ahead thanks to faster shooting and options with Rending. If you don't want to switch weapons ever, just use an arquebus, as they are all-around effective. If you don't mind switching weapon sets between high and low DR targets, use Dulcanale and Lead Splitter. If you're using Quick Switch and Arms Bearer to open up with lots of gunfire, then you're back to arquebuses again because the benefits of unique guns is muted in that instance.

FYI, if you're not above using IE Mod, there's an option in it now to enable Disposition effects on NPC Paladins and Priests in your party.

It comes down to preference. If you want the best possible damage, I'd go Estoc. If you want a Draining weapon, or a weapon that knocks enemies prone on crit, go with Greatsword.

My 2c: Monk: The point of the Monk is to be a melee character that benefits from being micromanaged instead of only paying attention to them whenever whatever they're attacking dies (if then). Depending on how you build them, they can be tanky or DPS, but if you wish your Fighter had more to do than use a couple of Knock Downs and then sit there trading blows, or that your Rogue could do more than just a couple of debilitating strikes followed by auto-attacking, the Monk is for you. Monks and Rogues are actually great partners, because the Monk can provide a consistent source of debuffs for the Rogue to take advantage of. Paladin: Seems to be intended as a support-oriented frontliner, but their support abilities are lackluster. The main appeal of them right now is that they can pump up their defenses very high, use the Outworn Buckler to buff party defenses, and don't require much attention. Ranger: I think of the Ranger as a slightly more utility-oriented DPS class, as opposed to the Rogue, which is all about doing more damage or enabling their damage. Animal companions provide you with an extra body on the field that can shore up your flank, flank the enemy, or provide a convenient anchor for effects like Ectopsychic Echo. Abilities like Binding Roots and Stunning Shots provide debuffs, while Driving Flight lets them spread damage around a bit. Spellcasters: The main difference between the full casters in this game is their spell pool, not the way they cast. Could things be more interesting if they used different mechanics? Perhaps, but that's not the route the devs went. It's worth noting that spiritshifting gives Druids a free DR buff even if you intend to just keep on casting spells, and the Inspiring Radiance talent gives the Priest's Holy Radiance an accuracy buff that stacks with everything. Neither of those things are reasons to take a Druid/Priest instead of another character--you'll take them because you want specific spells that only they can cast--but it's a useful thing to keep in mind anyway.

Dual-wielding sabers is probably the best damage overall, but it will take you a while to find two good sabers. Luckily, Weapon Focus: Ruffian also includes clubs and stilettos, and you can get good weapons in those categories fairly early to tide you over. If you're still toying with the idea of using a two-handed weapon instead of dual-wielding, I think you'd be good with either Soldier or Adventurer. Estocs are one of the most damaging base weapons in the game, but itemization isn't great. Weapon Focus: Soldier boosts the excellent unique greatswords and also pikes, in case you need to switch to a reach weapon for a fight.

3 Might tanks are fine, but I wouldn't dump Might and Con so that you maintain a reasonable Fort defense (and Might probably does more for you than Con to be honest).

@Omnicron; Sagani doesn't have much apart from the quests. Like other companions she has banter and will interject during dialogue, but she doesn't have additional major conversations apart from her quest like Eder or Aloth. As for party composition, you can't go wrong with taking a Priest along. If it were me, I'd put Kana on the front line with a shield and heavy armor and use the Barbarian as a mid-liner with Tall Grass (pike), but that's probably a matter of preference and playstyle.

There are a lot of ways to build a high DPS melee character in this game, but if you're still getting used to the game and don't want to use a Rogue, I'd recommend a Fighter or Barbarian. You can do high melee DPS with Rangers, Monks, Ciphers, or even Wizards, but those are trickier builds (for the Ranger, the tricky part is remembering which abilities work with melee and which don't). Barbarians do additional damage to enemies around their target, which is nice, while Fighters are reliable, durable damage dealers. Barbarian will probably give you higher overall numbers. As far as caster damage goes, I think the Druid has the edge in AoE damage spells, but the Wizard is certainly no slouch and is better at inflicting status effects.

Priest is a good choice, as they have buffs that you just can't get anywhere else. I agree with the others that a 2H Fighter will perform better than a 2H Paladin. A simple build would be to take Weapon Focus Soldier or Adventurer, depending on what kind of weapon you want to use, and then grab Weapon Specialization (Fighter ability) and Weapon Mastery (Talent) with the same category. Also pick up the Fighter abilities Confident Aim and Armored Grace, and the talents Two-Handed Style and Savage Attack. That's the core of the 2H Fighter build.

That's actually not far off from my first PotD party. You can certainly make it work, though I'd recommend keeping a few Paralysis scrolls on hand once you have someone who can use them, as there are a few fights where you'll want more CC than what the Cipher and Druid can give you.

Never stumbled across that one. Is it tied to a quest or does it appear randomly? One of the shops in Hearthsong has it.

Pistols are the first easily available firearm, and they share a Weapon Focus with Blunderbusses. The unique Pistol Dulcanale is the best ranged weapon in the game against high DR targets, while Lead Splitter is the best ranged weapon in the game against low DR targets. Meanwhile, the best Arquebus is a support gun that's no better for the person wielding it than a bog standard Exceptional Arquebus.

Depends. On my Cipher playthrough I enchanted it because I wanted an early pistol and it's maluses do in fact go away once enchanted with a different quality. It was either that or rush to Defiance Bay and do the Vailian Trading Company quest. Other characters I'll often sell it.