ErlKing

Fortitude, reflex, will defenses are interesting way to differ enemies, but: - Fortitude targeting damage powers/spells are rather bad versus enemy "tanks" and there are usually better powers that target deflect if you going after "casters". - Reflex mostly apply to rarest damage powers/spells and these usually worse than alternatives despite higher accuracy (maybe it is just me, having such party). - Will attacks have best CC capability and far too often are better than attacks rather than fortitude/reflex ones. Overall spell/power effect > targeting defense when it comes to picking your hand, either that because of lack of alternatives or disbalance of powers/effects usefulness.

I added 6 athletic to itumaak via console because I count this as design oversight. Animals not good tanks, but they: - don't lose health, so can take hits without need for rest. - can be buffed by priest/cipher to hold better (Ignore pain is crazy good). - have really high move speed and very mobile in combat - throw cipher echo on it and you can flank crowds in no time. - sponge for unbalanced charm/dominate spells, animal got dominated - its not that bad if your guys hit it accidentally (no health loss).

When target stuck, prone and paralyzed there is no graze attacks and arbalest not so great for crits anyway. Hold Wall x1.2 + Swift Aim x1.2 - recovery boost and Swift Aim x1.5 - reload boost make big difference in terms of dps. Maybe not as impressive as high number crits, but this way work better for me. What do you mean? Superb quality? What stops me from enchanting Hold Wall to superb? Weapons differ only by enchantments (base stats all same), so weapon with most useful unique enchantments win, thats why I compare x1.2 attack with stun chance. If you not going to argument your opinion "why even post".

Well, I stack buffs for accuracy (paladin + priest) and throw debuffs (cipher + priest) so while 10 accuracy is nice it doesnt matter that much. About arbalest pick - Hold Wall available right from start and I haven't got to Aedrin's Wrecker yet, though I dont know how much of improvement will be change "x1.2 attack speed" for "stun chance on crit".

Quick switch a bit cheesy because there is one thing about switching weapons - if you switch right after shot it cancel recovery time, so you can shoot all your guns in 1 second. Actually you can take 2 warbows, pick penetrating shot + vicious aim and quick switch between bows after each shot - cheesiest ranger ever.

My pick is Hold Wall arbalest (because of x1.2 attack speed) and swift aim ability, Reliable, decent speed, prone on crit - solid choice. Blunderbuss does glitch with bounce shot talent and need penetrating shot. Also Sagani looks better with arbalest rather than firearm, but thats my personal bugs in head.

Let me guess - you have cipher/s in team + wizard/s/druid/s and CC **** out of enemies before they even touch you?

You guys should just post base deflect, deflect bonuses from various equip options and how total number affect game. 40 - you get hit a lot, crits too (mages beware of enemy snipers). 60 - somewhat risky, some hits, some grazes, misses from weak enemies, crits from tough ones (usually casters and ranged weapon users). 80-90 - somewhat tanky, ok for offtank, you ll get hit, but rarely critted, mostly grazes (usually barbarians/monks that not going for glass cannon style). 100-120 - tank, no crits, rare hits, mostly grazes (usually fighters, paladins). 130+ - ubertank, mostly for hard bosses or just for optimum tank role. These numbers for midgame/lategame I think, at start it is 10-30 points lower for each grade.

Dual stilettos - fast, DR bypass, pierce.

My Paladin just chopped that sick wizard to pieces, role > stat bonus.

Swift aim + unique arbalest (x1.2 attack speed) + one talent that make shot ricochet = crazy fast multi target arbalest shooter. Also fox is way too cute. If you have cipher in team you can cast echo on fox and make it flank enemies (fox have really high move speed).

Oh really, Which one? Lvl 9 but still don't have that spell. Game is already easy enough? I bet you playing powerteam, well optimized and such, but when you going through dungeon first time its: a) Oh, tough fights, my team hardly manage, but it is interesting... [meet spam charm] WTF???!!! how am I supposed to deal with this??? b) Ha ha, easy peasy, good thing that I build my team right, kinda boring though... [meet spam charm] pfff, thats annoying, enemies cant do a thing, but if I dont pause every second autoretarget kill charmed ones because of retard AI. In my book its poor design.

Paladins in PoE are "martial zealots, devoted to a god, a ruler, or even a way of life." In game they positioned as single target combatants and supporters. Currently they high defenses tankable characters with boring damage powers and few interesting single buffs that duplicate few priests AoE spells. Problems I see in game mechanics: 1) Effects on kill are unreliable and frustrating. 2) FoD mostly annoying to use, because its plain +damage without any additional tactical meaning. 3) Lay on Hands are really weak as heal. How I would like to see Paladins: 1) Make FoD modal (activates in combat) and instead of [100% original +50% burn damage] it would be [20% original + 80% burn] or just [80%-90% fire damage]. Bleak Walkers can get talent that makes it corrode damage instead of burn. Darcozzi Paladini can get talent that give +2 move speed and "weak fire shield" effect while FoD active. Kind Wayfarers can get talent that regenerate endurance to others while FoD active or small heal per hit. Shieldbearers can get talent that give +5 deflect to others while FoD active. Goldpact can get talent that give +10 fort/refl/will to others while FoD active. 2) Change "on kill" talents also trigger "on crit" with some necessary tweaks: Inspiring Triumph +5 defenses on crit +20 mental status effects (charm, domination, confuse, frighten) defense aoe buff on crit for Goldpact AoE frighten on crit for Bleak Walkers +2 DR aoe buff on crit for Kind Wayfarers. 3) Make Lay on Hands to transfer 10% of Paladin current endurance to target at rate 1 to 3. Greater Lay for 1 to 5 ratio. 4) Give all auras as ability pick, so Paladin get some flexibility in combat instead of sticking with one aura for whole game (only one active anyway). 5) Mark enemy 1 per encounter instead 3 per rest. 6) Liberating Exhortation should either suspend charm/dominate/confuse or give 50+ resist versus them. That way paladins will get: - unique way to change damage type, more utility without directly buffing their damage, no more tedious FoD on first 2 attacks for dps burst. - unique scaling heal at cost of their own endurance - no more awkward steal kills management - more flexible and fun to use support/buff abilities Still not better tanks, still not better dps, but more utility, real ghosts bane (fire damage), better scale and easier to use. Overall I think paladins should be somewhat analogy to priests as ciphers to wizards.

Yeah I tried a two-handed Pally... but that shield.... +5 all Defenses on the whole party is just way to good to pass up Give that shield to your fighter or cleric or chanter or druid? "Paladin hands only"

Paladin worse than fighter in tanking. Paladin worse in dps than rogue/monk/barbarian. Paladin worse in buffing/support than priest. Paladin is absolute zero in crowd control. But I kinda like playing paladin because: Paladin better in tanking than anyone but fighter. Paladin better in support than anyone but priest. Paladin better in dps than... lets just say that they not so bad. Most Paladin abilities are per encounter, so he is your go to go buff/heal/ressurect/antidebuff person. Paladin being wisecrack by knighthood order rules just priceless ^^ Overall Paladin not that great, but having him/her in team is kinda nice.

Paladins for tanking and rp aspect. Cipher for "Glass BFG". Wizard for "Ultra glass would be BFG at later levels". Chanter for "Iam kinda lazy slowpoke, but powerful". Barbarian for "Iam Minsk, have you seen my hamster?" Monk for "Operator, download me kung-fu".

Plantlike enemies have low slash resist, undead tend to have low crush damage. High base damage scale better with damage modifiers, so: Sabre could be better for - Rogues (sneak-attack) - Barbarians - Ciphers - High might or/and crit oriented builds - Ones who took ruffian focus Mace is better for everyone else.

That made me thinking... What if we give Aloth heaviest armor, biggest shield and unenchanted hatchet (or just bare hand).

Actually thats true even other way around, I mean wizard and cipher confuse/charm/dominate spells - throw AoE confuse spell and at least one enemy ll be confused, becoming target for other enemies, keep throwing confuse and opponents ll kill themselves. That turn hard fights into park walk. Cipher unbalanced powers obvious - fast paralyze or slower confuse or even slower charm/dominate outperform each and every possible debuff, while having same Acc bonus as most powers (or even more). Currently only Cipher countercharm could return control to you, making cipher even more "must have" for party than it should be. 1) Personally I think suspend spells/powers should return control of character to you, but place huge debuff or paralyze target (like struggling wills), so charm would still possess great threat, but wouldn't be such annoyance. 2) Talents, spells, abilities that add defenses vs specific status effects should be like +30/+40/+50, not +10 3) Confuse should not change friend/enemy polarity. 4) Some debuffs and status effect attacks should have additive post effect to prevent spamming - charmed once -> +10 to charm resist, charmed twice -> +20 to charm resist and so on.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76065-liberating-exhortation-not-working/ It does not work on charm/domination, also it does not work on petrify. I am suspecting that it does not work on paralyze either (I havnt tested that one). So all it does is just suspend stat debuffs for a time, that definitely should be in spell/ability description. Actually I wonder if liberating exhortation remove debuffs from charm, making it worse for you.

Yeah, Cipher is combat turnaround at low levels. Wizard/druid ll take that role bit later. Lvl 4 is too soon for bounties, there are plenty of quests and stuff around to explore. Also: - get blunting belt from first town and put it on your tank. - get defender+improved defences for fighter to tank better, give him largest shield and send him ahead to catch first attacks. - save wizard/priest spells for tough fights, do not burst it out in fights where your "rechargeable" toons capable to win on its own. - try to debuff deflect / prone opponent and follow up by concentrated attacks. - wizard have spell with confusion effect - use it at start of fight and enemies ll attack their own for some time.

Personally I went for soldier focus / specialisation for Eder. - defender + improved defenses = +15 deflect +10 defenses +2 engage, hell yeah. - soldier spec = good damage with pike/greatsword for damage or switch to warhammer/shield (shatterstar for extra engage) for tanking, optional arqebus for starter. So Eder goes as second line damage dealer and backup tank in case my paladin got flanked, which is often. In my first run I used Eder as main tank and he is reeeaaaly good at it, but as my PC cipher was overpowered and I didnt like that Eder start conversations with npc I restarted with paladin (kinda fit my rp playstyle better). In my opinion fighter builded for damage could be good, much more reliable than other classes - no restrictions, no conditions, pretty self sufficient.

Sounds nice. NPC paladin have unique racial bonus. NPC ranger have unique animal companion. NPC druid have unique shapeshift form. NPC chanter have unique AND ANNOYING sound fx for chants. NPC priest should have +quarterstaff +arqebus talent instead of +sword +arqebus. NPC fighter have free talent, but could be more interesting. NPC wizard could have 3 wizard assaults, but x0.8 damage each. NPC cipher could have free backlash talent (no one ever pick that one intentionally anyway).

Penetrating Shot does apply to Mind Blades without affecting casting time, also to soul lance and I suppose soul ignition. Marksman does not affect spells.

Actually blunderbuss/arbalest have really long reload phase, attack/recovery pretty long too, but not so much. Thing is that you can cast during reload phase, so here is difference between bows and blunderbuss. Bow - lot of short recovery phases between attacks during which you cant cast. Blunderbuss - average phase during which you cant cast + long phase during which you can cast.