Voss

Pretty much this. Chokepoints (especially in the Endless) are key.* If you have to engage in dialogue, leave most of the party as at the choke and send a runner up, then book it. Or just snipe a guy at the edge with a bow and run. I was surprised particularly at how quickly the drake died, but then he was stuck at the back of a crowd of kobolds, and as my party slowly killed them one at a time at the door, my ranger blew bloody chunks out of it with her arquebus. For the most part, I've found once I had decent equipment (arbalests, guns) and high deflection tanks, the game became a cakewalk. There is a definite system mastery hurdle with engagement and squishies, but once you work out how the system wants to force you to play, you can exploit the living hell out of it. Often this means restarting, because there a lot of trap choices to make (and unfortunately the companions consist primarily of trap choices). *animal companions are often a problem at chokepoints, at which point shove them in the back and ignore them. They're overly squishy anyway. Passable flankers, but not much else.

Personally, I think monks are fine. The wound mechanic is interesting and functional, which is really all I'd expect. The ranger... hmm. I'm currently running one (much to my own surprise), at range with an arquebus, and killing the living snot out of everything. The pet is... pretty useless, however. I'd rather it just got dropped and a few more active abilities added to the class. As for the attribute thing, I think the big problem is they're too easily pigeonholed, and don't matter outside the choice of tank/not tank. Some classes want more dex than int (or the other way around), but every build is pretty much cookie cutter beyond that. I think the main problem with scripted interactions is they're... forced. They very rarely feel natural or interesting, and would function significantly better off skills than stats. At least that way the spreadsheet nature of the stat bonuses doesn't come up, as you never have to worry about knocking over walls with your bonus to healing or your severely overdeveloped trigger finger.

How are you 'punished?' Frankly I'm feeling seriously overpowered at level 6.

It should do both. Try it out and pause- hover your mouse over an enemy and it should show all the conditions on it in the upper left

I'm not sure what you're defining as 'rogue gear.' Traditional games say one thing, this game says everyday clothes, guns, arbalests, pikes or quarterstaves. In which case, you can arm yourself well just taking the starting gear from Durance and/or Kana, and slapping the Fine enchantment on them.

'double click bug'? One way to check would be to bring up the character sheet in and out of combat (in once soul whip has turned on). The damage expression might be different. Of course, there is a chance it won't be, since its an active multiplier. It depends where it is performing the calculation.

Level 8 is basically end game, you will have plethora of options by then. Being able to grab Durance at lvl 2 with already 3 mechanics is much more useful especially when Aloth is pretty garbage without slicken. Have you not gone down into the Endless Paths? I had to stop at level 8(?) for a locked door I couldn't open (mechanics 10), and the levels above that had traps I couldn't disarm...with a custom adventurer with a mechanics bump from background. Granted my party is still level 5, but having a good mechanic is pretty important as you go deeper. As for slicken on Aloth... well, you do get spell choices on level up. There are a couple spellbooks in your path with good level 2 spells, so it isn't like you'll miss out by spending a pick on one of the best spells in the game.

Doubt it (I've picked a couple different options, but not all), but if you don't kill him, you can't be railroaded into 'owning'* the stronghold (whether you do anything with it or not). *you'd think the duc might object to some random foreigner fortifying and repairing a stronghold roughly a day from the capital in this midst of, well, all sorts of craziness and instability. They might well be up to something... Oh, what do you mean they've also killed the rightful* ruler of the area northwest of the capital as well? *crazy as a box of frogs, but assassination of nobles is generally frowned upon.

Meh. I'm level 5 and 7 levels down into the endless paths, and my tanks simple don't take much damage anymore. As long as I put a bullet in the heads of spell casters, I just rip through everything now. The game turns into tank and spank pretty quickly once you make the first could scrambles up the steep learning curve. I also found some gloves that can do minor resto 3/rest, as the spell (so AOE), so if I need the emergency healing, I've got it.

No, that isn't the optimization strategy at all. The point to the spells is to judge the combat you're in and decide if you need them to win. Quite often, you shouldn't. The resource management aspect comes in at the player's skill in judging the situation. The spells the game has are too ridiculous (well, the good ones) to be per encounter. It would just mean face-rolling every single encounter with a curtain of fire/ice from druids and wizards. As is, the cipher already has this problem- the powers are too good and make every combat 'cast, firing squad, repeat.'

Which... really matters. Which character is where shapes the entire combat. Characters don't override your commands. They'll look for the closest target when the current one falls, and the pathfinding sometimes bugs out. Recovery is also really important. It has very little to do with 'primary casters' and a lot to do with everyone, especially anyone using a slow weapon or guns/crossbows.

I don't see any reason to dump con that low, especially with pointless points in perception. Keep the bonus int... don't rely on the idiot parade for anything. But yes. Ranged rogues win. Bang, bang, dead.

I still advocate the idea of having con reduce armor recovery times, as it gives both armor and con a reason to exist. I do think a (small) accuracy buff needs to go on perception. The companions and monsters seem quite obviously built with this in mind, as the up to 20 point gap in accuracy in places shows. It could even be 1 acc per point above 10, and it would be something. Resolve... eh. Resolve (Deflection2) might as well not exist. I have no idea what design decision prompted this stat, other than 'we gots to have 6'

They're all pretty poor choices at it. I tend to put points into Eder as he's naturally in front, but Mother (once you find her) should be a good choice, as ciphers get a bonus. Durance sadly is the best choice in the time being, as levels can have significant distance between them, especially if you're killing people or familiar things.

yes, I imagine the prepublished strategy guide is perfectly accurate to the current game build.

Arcane veil isn't an issue. At all. As an aside, quick switch bugged out on me. It was working at first, but after a bit, it switched back to the default cooldown. So I reloaded my pre-leveling save and picked something else. Just for some insight, I've just finished the gilded vale area (including the keep), and the grounds of the stronghold, and a few rooms after Maerwald. At 2 days and 22 hours, (Kana has 2 days and 9 hours for time in party, the shortest of the group) I've got the following stats for the party [including a custom paladin and druid, the former is a tank with 12 might, 12 con and 17 per/res, and the latter is 16 might, dex and int, as is my main, ranger) [stats: enemies defeated, total damage done, highest single target damage, hits] Ranger, arquebus : 74 defeated, 7233.1 damage, 75.5 highest, 99 hits Eder, saber&shield: 34 defeated, 2160 damage, 28.3 highest, 121 hits Paladin, sword(whispers) & shield (larder door): 33 defeated, 2472.8 damage, 55 highest, 152 hits (larder door has bashing, so counts as a weapon) Kana, crossbow: 31 defeated, 2271 damage done, 35.7 highest, 84 hits Druid, warbow: 60 defeated, 3821.9 damage done, 51.6 highest, 127 hits Aloth, wand: 27 defeated, 3121 damage, 39.9 highest, 245 hits I presume spells are included in hits and damage done, as the druid's highest damage is almost certainly from blizzard. I have no idea if my ranger's damage includes the pet. Scary if it doesn't. To be fair to eder, he is the only one lacking a fine weapon. I briefly tried a fine stiletto in the keep, but it was utterly worthless. Oh, and the ranger was using an arbalest before we ran into Kana, stole his gun and enchanted it to fine.

You will. It is the big problem with the game. Far, far too much is hidden from the player, from little stuff (what counts as a Vessel?) to pure mechanical stuff (how slow is very slow, as opposed to normal slow or extremely slow), to anything that isn't the level you're currently on. This will become simpler in time as various wikis are filled out, but it really should be part of the game Cyclopedia, which should be filled out with actual details not really vague statements about longer, longer, large and longer. (see the entry for Recovery). All the talents, abilities and spells should be in there, as well as the basic equipment details. And it should be accessible through the main menu, not just in the game proper. As is, it is the biggest problem with the game. As an aside, the character side bar (health, endurance, damage, accuracy, DR, Defenses) should have tooltip pop outs for how those values are calculated/what is currently contributing to the final value.

Penetrating shot is certainly worth it with the bow. With guns, I'm reluctant to slow them down any further. I just fought an encounter with a mixed group of guls, skeletons (21 piercing DR) and revenants. I've got a druid with a fine warbow, and penetrating shot, and a ranger with a fine arquebus, gunner, and vicious aim (+acc, +dam, -rate of fire and reload). Their stats are set equal (16 might and 16 dex), though the ranger does have a hat with +1 might, giving her an extra 3% damage Over the course of the fight the damage was Druid w/warbow: 19, 21, 14(graze), 6 (skeleton), 2 (skeleton, graze) Ranger w/arquebus: 36(graze), 61, 46 So the druid had time for 2 extra shots while the ranger was reloading, but the damage for the bow was 62, while the arquebus was 144. Not exactly a scientific study, but the kind of difference the weapons make.

To be honest, I'm finding the paladin and chanter to be worse. They just don't contribute in any meaningful way. I'm currently running with a ranger, and she kills people. Bang, dead, see ya baby. The pet is a matter of control- don't just blindly rush it into combat. Keep in stationary at first, then send it in after engagement happens.

Moving is key, assuming you can't paralyze or otherwise insta-gib him (which a lot of firing squad parties can do easily). While paused at the start of combat, starting giving orders: Send someone forward to engage him (or the blights), then move one ranged character back, then move others behind the table- one directly behind, the other to the far side, now melee characters will have room to move up and engage (the various trappings in the room restrict movement terribly). At that point the AoE doesn't matter much, and ranged characters should focus on Maer. If you can engage him directly, with Eder or another fighter, tripping him is the way to go. Slicken (or obviously, paralyze) may also work if you're more ranged focused. At that point it should be fairly straight-forward. As with most dialogue-start encounters when you're force-moved, staying in the default position is a bad idea. I assume the developers like to do this just to punish people for existing.

Fast weapons pretty much require the vulnerable attack talent, and as such, aren't really worthwhile until you can get that (level 4 minimum), plus one or two other talents to make characters worthwhile in fights. Even then, however, against many enemies a stiletto+vulnerable attack is still coming up short on DR 12+ enemies, which aren't exactly uncommon.

Yes, but are you still fatigued? Once that reaches a certain point, it debuffs endurance. Once you rest, it will go back to normal.

Anything can be interrupted, even auto-attacks But no, it doesn't stand to reason. The few points of deflection aren't going to save you, and the interrupt modifier won't make much difference either. What you have to do is engage second, after enemies have settled on a target, and by preference, attack something the tank is already attacking. Personally, if I were to build a melee cipher, I'd go with pike or quarterstaff. Because frankly, the pathfinding to move against new targets when the first one drops has netted me more than a few disengagement attacks, and choke points confuse the heck out of the pathfinding AI. Second rank fighting with reach avoids all that.

Ah, good to know this. I was confused and a little frustrated that they were essentially non-interactable, but made to seem important, and since the main character is 'seeing things,' I had wondered if they were spirits of some sort, and thus relevant. At least at first. Then there were far, far too many of them, with bizarre proportion of the 'rare' godlike, just standing around like any old idiot. They go a long way to disrupting the atmosphere of the game, especially in Gild Vale. What they should have done was stuck a special inn somewhere, lumped them all in and put a mausoleum in the basement.

Practically? It gives a free keep upgrade if you sell it to Heoden in the prologue. It sells for less later on, for some reason.