mazeltov

Pilgrim's progress Outside Cilant Lis - by the machine x2 Gilded Vale - by Black Hound Inn x1, southeast field x1 Dyrwood - south central x2 Stormwall Gorge - by north central rock x1, northeast grove x1 (mind the lions) Eight total. Synergizes with a companion rush because they're all along the rush path. Bonus Burned Lady Encampment - western outskirts x1 Black Meadow - west entrance x1, south central x1 Woodend Plains - northeast corner x1 Esternwood - south central x1, northeast corner x1 Six total. All this in Act 1, without going to Searing Falls or past Dyrwood.

One way to do a build like this would be to focus on steady damage output with a Sabre. But that might not be defensive enough for a classical fencer type. Another way to do it would be to develop a Deflection Fighter or Paladin and use Measured Restraint, a unique rapier enchanted with absurd accuracy bonuses and the ability to lock down an extra target in combat. Darcozzi Paladin would probably be best because as you pick more swashbucklery Clever/Passionate dialogue choices, that unlocks even more of those types of dialogues in addition to making the Paladin ever tankier through a class ability. Panache = power. Aside from reputations, Resolve and Perception are the most important conversation stats, and they also happen to be the key tanking stats as well. It aaaaall comes together. Measured Restraint location:

More specifically on Vithrack brains: Cartugo outside the Vailian Trading Co. in Ondra's Gift. Then for tier 2 gems the black market trader outside the Salty Mast, who apparently only spawns at night. He asks for a quest-related passphrase, but I was able to bully him into selling to me with a Might check. If only I'd known about that gem dealer on my first playthrough! Just started Act 2 at DB, left and went back to check the plants around the Engwithan machine outside the tutorial dungeon: no respawns.

Checked the wiki about creature types, and it turns out that undead are actually split into two groups: vessels and spirits. So a Priest wanting to specialize in hunting them as I mentioned above would have to burn two precious talent slots, instead of one. Balance! I'm sure many people running on D&D autopilot like me have wasted Holy Radiance uses trying to Burn Shades and such. Edit: Just realized creature types are listed in each Bestiary entry. I must be blind, 'cause I specifically looked for them and never found them during my ~80 hour playthrough. P.S. there should be a separate general thread for each class to raise little issues like this that don't warrant their own threads.

Agrias at 30, secksy Khelgar, more traditional Khelgar after Monkification.

Buffs? They (or more specifically, their overpowered hard CC spells) should be nerfed along the lines Odd Hermit suggested in his thread. Along with all the other casters. Cut the durations, cut the accuracy (which incidentally cuts the durations even further). And I don't think Wizards should turn into Ciphers, that get to use their whole repertoire every encounter, instead Cipher should be pulled into line. Bonus spell talents, bonus spell rings... Vancian casters need to run out of gas eventually. Bzzzt. Ten yard penalty. That sneaks pre-buffing in through the back door.

That is pretty effective, except in the most annoying fights of all: critters in the Shadow family. All those things (and undead in general) tend to have mega Freeze DR. You did mention trying to go for spell crits, but still. Reading this thread makes me think the Sanctifier talent (+25% damage vs undead) might actually be worth taking for Priests, to augment all their Burn damage spells (e.g. the Burn damage from Holy Radiance). If you could get the damage multipliers high enough with Might, Sanctifier, etc. it might be enough for Ico Pro to blow out the Shadow family too.

Looks like you set the difficulty to.......... Raging Barbs. -- WW: The Apocalypse playthrough is now a go. Maybe a Gurahl or Bastet drood mixed in. Speaking of, I noticed wild shape says one per encounter, but doesn't list a duration. Can you stay in it for the entire encounter?

Crit Focus from Pally aura adds 5% Hit-to-Crit, so throw that on the pile. Assuming Rogue is the class, where are we with this? Hit-to-Crit Rogue 20% Orlan 10% Dire Blessing 20% (2nd level Priest spell w/ pretty long duration) Crit Focus 5% Aattuuk 10% (TE purchase IIRC) Bloody Slaughter 20% (only vs low End [what is low End anyway? 100 abilities use this condition but I've never seen specific figures]) So 55% or so before Act 3, 75% vs "low End?" In the unlikely event they stack properly, of course. Any other sources of Hit-to-Crit out there?

Eder Hits: 1041 Crits: 668 Reminder that The Hours of St. Rumbalt is a fair and balanced weapon that should totally be for sale at the local village blacksmith instead of in an Act 3 dragon hoard.

CC them first. Failing that, CC the guy who gets charmed. Typically they send a pack of ghouls at the party then try to rush into melee (which they fail at half the time because they can't path around the ghouls). Luckily units don't block projectiles in this game, so you can have the ranged DPS train a four-gun salute on the bloodsuckers even in the middle of their meatshields. Since the level is basically ten packs of ghouls with a vampire in each one (IIRC one pack has two vampires), Wizards will have the time of their lives spamming Fireball and Fan of Flames.

My earliest save is after I bought it, but the wiki says Lora in Copperlane market. A second one can be looted from Also try to find any and every source of Pilgrim's Crown for crafting early Fine gear.

GV - Larder Door DB - Ring of Deflection +10, Exceptional Plate, Cloak of the Tireless Defender Dyrford - The Hours of St. Rumbalt, a fair and balanced greatsword TE - tier 3 crafting mats

In the interest of brevity, this will be "what was Durance spamming during my Hard playthrough?" Lv 1: Nothing notable. Withdraw disappointed because a guy sitting out the fight for 30 seconds might as well be KO'd Lv 2: Divine Mark and Iconic Projection are excellent, but Mark's low range makes it a liability at higher levels Lv 3: Circle of Protection and Pillar of Prone Lv 4: Worth bringing a Priest just for Devotions of the Faithful Lv 5: Restore Critical Endurance, Shields for the Faithful, Revive the Fallen Heals are fairly weak in my opinion, but they become more useful later because enemy AoE usage increases steadily throughout the game. Also a custom Priest with higher Int and Mig than Durance would get a lot more mileage from them.

Fighters get a +1 uses per encounter talent for their key active, Knockdown. Why no talent like that for Pally Flames? Step it up Balance Man.

Considering class abilities, Fighter could be decent for a one-handed crit build. Actives Disciplined Barrage: instant cast, +10 Accuracy for 15 secs 1/e Knockdown: CC + negative Deflection for the target; when it crits the prone duration will be longer 2-3/e Passives Confident Aim: +20% Graze-to-Hit, and +20% minimum damage Weapon Specialization/Weapon Mastery: Ruffian: +25% damage for sabres Sabres are a good choice for this build, since they have naturally higher damage than other one-handers, which is more damage for crits to multiply. There is a unique sabre on level 4 of the Endless paths, Resolution, with .5 crit multiplier and +20% Graze-to-Hit enchants, in addition to being Fine. This build would have 70% Graze-to-Hit with One-Handed Style, assuming everything stacks properly. It would have very stable damage output, and with the base damage multipliers, hefty crits for one-handed style. Ten bonus Accuracy for 20 secs or so each fight, depending on Intellect. Add to that the natural advantage of Fighter tankiness. The build's extreme focus on the ruffian weapon group also works with stilettos and clubs.

One thing about this ability. If you're really on top of your micro 110% of the time I guess it could be useful against the most dangerous afflictions, like Petrify. But most afflictions aren't dangerous enough or don't last long enough to warrant the mental effort required to "temporarily suspend" the effect on an ally. I had this ability from level 4-5 onward and honestly only ever thought to use it against the most annoying afflictions of all: Dominate and Confusion. But because the ability only works on "friendly targets," and party members aren't considered friendly while Dominated or Confused, you can't use the ability on them! If the patch fixes this, then the ability would be okay-ish, but still only worth taking toward the lategame. Reviving Exhort on the other hand is good, because Knockout is bad, and you'll always remember to use revive right away, 'cause your characters will be sprawled out on the ground red-faced.

The disengagement talents need significant buffs. If I bother to waste two talents of a build on a tertiary concern like disengagement, I want to be really, really resistant to disengagement attacks as a reward. Graceful Retreat should go from +12 to +20, and Fast Runner from +5 to +10.

No. You just accidentally picked the game's best-at-everything class for your main. Including best at damage. My tanky two-hander Eder is blowing the rest of my party out for DPS at 50k total, while my "DPS" Rogue is back at 35k. Even Aloth is at 35 for pete's sake.

Three tanks? Seems a bit much for Normal. But as long as you have Durance on the front line, have him spray some guilt-free Fan of Flames scrolls into troublesome packs. His Might and Intellect will give them extra punch. Kana and Durance make decent riflemen too; Durance can take a Priest ability for +10 Arq. Accuracy.

Nice tip. Testing for Might: Girdle of Might +3 Celestial Suite Rest +2 Lyrinia's brothel buff +2 Dragon Meat +3 Total +10, all stacking. The last three are obviously on timers. -- I've found two pieces of +3 attribute gear so far: Lilith's Shawl +3 Per (DB Lighthouse quest) Girdle of Might +3 Mig (on the way to Twin Elms at the start of Act 3)

Naw, my lv 9 roleplay pally in mediocre tank gear has a passive 132 AC in combat, and I built her before even knowing how tank optimization worked. This is without Superior Deflection, which probably stacks for another +5. Edit: Sho 'nuff. Just hit lvl 10 and picked up Sup. Def.. 129 out of combat, 141 in combat before buffs. What a difference a level makes...

The difference is relevant if the lasher has damage multipliers affecting the lash portion, e.g. Scion of Flame.

Zealous Charge needs something extra to make it worth taking, sure, but it should be something in keeping with the spirit of the aura, which is mobility. Maybe a linger effect so characters could dip in and out of the aura while maintaining the buff for a short time. Another odd thing about the aura system is that Focus is the only one with another (admittedly terrible) class ability to augment it.

If Zealous Endurance was changed to +5 DR (from +3) and gave the using Paladin an extra engagement slot, it would help close the tanking gap, and maybe make Zealous Focus less of a no-brainer. Fightards would still have the engagement slot edge with Defender (+2 slots).