Voltron

This made me really sad and a bit angry. Sanguine Armor was the one item in the game that allowed me to build an (off-)tank for something outside of the "min might/dex, max deflection and HP" meta that currently rules the tanking game. Currently, the most efficient tank is nothing outside of a engagement field placement, that for all other purposes might as well not even be there. The Sanguine armor on the other hand, allowed me to build an at least somewhat usefull (off-)tank with a decent might and either Tidefall or The Rose of Salthollow, which could hold his own (somewhat) and be usefull in the fight (somewhat) outside of being a static engagement field placement. It allowed me to do something slightly more creative, not to mention immersive. A tank that hits like a leaf in a calm wind, and is awesome at his job while doing so, reminds me way to much about mmo's and breaks immersion for me. I have not seen a single person complaining about Sanguine armor being OP or needing a nerf. It's certainly popular, but that because you've actually managed to give us a good unique item that we enjoy using. Why on earth would you remove it? I see absolutely no reason whatsoever for this change. I also don't see who would actually use it now. If you want to slap Frenzy on something, then it should be a light or medium armor. I am deeply dissapointed. I agree. Well, just don't install patch like I won't . Nobody force us to do this

Here are patch notes in progress for 1.05: https://forums.obsidian.net/blog/7/entry-183-patch-notes-105-in-progress/ Personally I think I will stay with 1.04 and do not install this one.... They made a whole lot of buffs to Wizards, which is frankly imo not necessary as they are strong class, able to solo Triple Crown (as was proofed) but still I have nothing against it and good for them, since they seem to be underplayed class. They also buff Cipher Enduracen and health, which is imo one big LOL- last class I think that needed buff in survival. The biggest factor for me however is change to Sanguine Armor: - Sanguine Plate's Retaliate mod has been replaced with Spell Holding: Frenzy Basicely making the only badass and great looking armor in game useless. It is not only becasue I think retalitation is great on solo, no. But it was the only armor in game that would be consider end-game item or meta and the only SUPER GOOD LOOKING ONE. It had great enchant, great look and its bloody red, making it great for role playing some badass characters (which are all my mains ^^) Frenzy is one of those very useless talents that even my solo Barb do not use 90% of time outside of beginning of game. Considering that most melee classsess dump INT- its duration will be not worth at all. And for caster- even less usefull. And so next meta armors will be Coat of Ill Payment and He Carries Many Scars or Argwes Adra. Read rest notes but I am personally very very unimpresed and since I don't have any game-breaking bugs in game I will stay with 1.04 version and do not patch it. Also a lot if unecessery nerfs to some abilities, which is lol in single player game (apart from OSA, yes it said that it was fixed, however not how). And no petrify nerf makes whole patch even more strange. Or nerf to something like Stag Horn or Paralyze scrolls...really? And of course resting system and supplies stay as stupid as they were before. Cheers!

Basicely making best looking armor in game and only really unique-looking armor in game useless for 80% of characters since +4 Might and Con with -10 Deflection is nothing. Especially, irony, for pure melee calsses that dump INT so duration is laughtable. Not installing. Game has already poor choice of good looking items and only armor that makes every class look badass will not be "just another armor with useless effect". I am staying with 1.0.4

Yup, could be. I was playing for 2 years only before got bored so I hardly remember. Maybe it was just how it was around in my clan. Dunno. Either way, I wish for Ranger like that

Can you tell me how did you modify animal companion stats with IE mod? I would also do it and at least have some fun with Ranger. Just find the pets name with the "findcharacter" command and adjust it like any other player. http://rien-ici.com/iemod/console Thanks! If modding was more advanced or Obsidian made more friendly files to mod I am sure we would have now more interesing pets for ranger! Wish I could replace somehow those pets with some other pets, then tweak stats and skill to be tanky/CC and make glass cannon ranger. Ow!! So much fun :D And in WoW you have yes Hunters, but you have Beast Mastery tree for builds, so commonly such hunter with heavy Beast Mastery investment were called Beast Masters, same as Destruction Warlocks were called Destroyers. But that was many years ago .

Lol about monk- just give him Moon race and spam Torment Reach. My monk on level of your fighter was dishing out much faster and higher DPS with Torment Reach unarmed on solo PotD . I cleared those areas with 16 Might Torment Reach spam. On level 7 in Woedika Temple he was critic for 47-56 with it with only 18 Might with much faster attack speed and 2x attacks per skill use. But apart from that- nice build . But I don't see purpouse of it. It is not tank, since 3 CON, it is not DPS since Rogue, Ranger, Monk and Barbarian would be better. So it is nice for lolz and looks fun but for flanker there are much better options. I dont like Fighters- they don't have as good DPS as monks, not as good Single target damage as Rogues/Rangers and Barbarians out DPS them vs groups. They are basicely best tanks- sure, but if you play with party, not solo, I dont know why you'd care about Constant Recovery if you have priests and everything els . Heh, but I have to one day make Moon Fighter just for lolz :D with Constant Recovery and Shod-in-Faith Boots and draining weapons :D.

Can you tell me how did you modify animal companion stats with IE mod? I would also do it and at least have some fun with Ranger.

Which will only make them less annoying, however still useless...

Ok. Range Rogue: 50% from Sneak attack, if flanked or conditions so in party that is not a problem. 1xPer encounter Blind strike (Sneak Attack) + 0.25 damage 2x Per Encounter Cripliing Strike (Sneak Attack) + 0.25 damage Dirty Fighting plus Vicious Fighting = 20% Hits convert to Critics. Witherin Strke- target Weakened 1x plus 0.25 Deep Wounds- DOT, weaker than Ranger one, ok, but it is still here. Backstab wtih Blunderbus anyone? Finishing Blow and Devastating blow for low Endurance bosses, Accuracy and great damage bonus. Also Escape for fast run behind tank or Shadowing Beyond for positioning and fight reset. In party I would take Rogue for range sniper. Accuracy is not that big issue if you take Wood Elf plus Marksman. Ranger just do not cut for me as ultimate range DPS. He has some nice skills, yes, but not enough to be "Ranger" imo. And I would take ranger anytime if his pets would not suck and be better to choose from. Wish I could have Crystal Spider as pet....

What is wrong is not that I have to upgrade pet- problem is even if I fully upgreade pet, he still sucks hard! For example in WoW or Borderlands if I choose to focus mainly on building for my pet- it really grew strong, it was tanky, it has decent DPS and a lot of CC skills. So investment in pet was good. But here pets are just too weak. And they scale sooo baaad. Bear and Boar on 12 level ranger should have at least 80-90 deflection on PotD and around 18-20 DR and 70 resistances, with talents or without- doesnt matter. Right now they have so low stats, even with all talents and so low Endurance and DPS that they are just 100% useless.

Seriously, I was trying today both party and solo ranger. The only good thing about ranger is their DOT attack and bidnig roots. Their damage is not that high with range weapons and I think I could get more from range Rogue set up for firearms. But worst thing about them are their pets. They are awuful! Like in any other RPG they are useless past beginning of the game. Why: - They stats are bad! Deflection is bad, resistances are bad - They scale HORRIBLE, horrible! At 12 level ranger (test build, after ACT 2) pet (boar or bear for best tank) is dying like crazy to anything. Its CCed with easy, it DPS with easy or dominated and run and attack me.... - Pets talents are just waste. I need to invest at least 4 talents for my pet to stard doing not half bad damage in PotD or live long enough for me to reload firearm. That means that I have to gimp my ranger to put talent into pets! - Pet choice is boring and generic as hell. Bear? Well, ok. But wolf? Deer? Seriously?! It is fantasy game! Where are Giant Wolfs, Crystal Spiders, Giant Tigers, Snakes, Wyrms or some cool beasts. Why always some stupid wolf. When I play PotD and I see my Wolf charging Ogre I am so sad that I exit game. - Ranger are not even top range DPS. Rogue is better and you can build other classes to do decent job (firearm Cipher anyone?) I tried to play one and I just can't. If Rangers were more like Beast Masters in WoW, where you pet could really hold his own as your tank or support you as DPS or do some nice CC that be great. But PoE Ranger pets are just liability for me. Wish apart from WoW even one RPG could introduce viable and cool Ranger/Pet class in game. Did anyone played Borderlands as Pistol/Sniper Mordekai with Bloodwing build? That was great synergy ranger/pet build. Obsidian, I know its late alrady but dam give ranger some love and ESPECIALLY his pets, who just suck hard... :/ I always like cool "Hunter with his deadly predator companion" image in my head, but so far apart from WoW no RPG could deliver it as viable option.

Exactly. PotD would be awesome to mod around. I wonder why Obsidian dont see potential in mods. They are in nowadays bread and butter of RPGs. Look and DA: Inquisition. Ignoring fact that is was awfull and super bad "RPG", it is not moddable almost at all and all what modders do are chaging colors of stuff. And nobody remember about this game anymore. Mods are what keep RPG fresh, since RPG world is big enough that there is always room for changes. I know PoE is not Skyrim, but you have to admit that Skyrim is best example. Installing some mods make it just different game!

Disagree, if build properly you can defend against them. Immunize- no, but that would be broken. My anti-CC monk build was at least haf less CCed and all CC last super short so if you build your char properly you can avoid perma- CC and let him kill all mobs in Endless Paths as face-melee on PotD. CC total immune? Immposible. On solo as melee char however it is great tacitc If I were you OP I would create monk or paladin character tank just for anti CC tank and then took both those talents, all paladin abilities that increase defensives and two talents that pssively increase Will and Fortitude. He should be able to defend himself in Endless Paths 80% of time and even if CC hit him- duration will be short and he can tank and heal himself quite well. And take Moon godlike for his race for more healing. At the beginning of fight, throw your monk/paladin in front and let him eat CC. As a monk you can cut durations of it by half, as a Paladin you can tank or shrug most of it. However OP- you are in party. so you have tons more tools then I had in solo Endless Paths. Keep your priest on back and let him use anti CC spells on your party and boost deflection or DR for your main tank. Let your wizard open EVERY fight against hard mobs with- Chill Fog, Slicken, Phantom/other AOE CC and go in there and use fan of flames on Shades and ghosts in general. Don't underestimate 1 lvl spell- they are awesome.

Thank you! I loved playing monk in D&D most becasue of their awesome defensive rolls nad magic resistance etc. They were awesome against mages. Add to it drow race and any enemy mage had huuuge pain to harm you ^^. It suits them so good, whole mental and body control! The only thing that I miss in this build is some item gear that would give me more resistance to charm and domination. There is only such item in game, neckle, however only for rangers, which is a big waste . This one: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Torc_of_Defiance - I wish I could use it.....

Because they do in solo game. In party game every calss can do. But as Kaylon himself wrote above- rangers has good single target damage, but solo game is about AOE nuking/AOE CC, Tanking and healing or tanking and DPS (AOE if possible). Rangers suck becasue they have single target skills. If Rooting was AOE CC then ranger would be quite good. And if his pets were scaling better, because for example Bear can tank some mobs, ok. But put him against CC enemies like Shades, Crystal Spiders or Vithracks and suddenly it is only you and enemies and then ranger suck. Wish Ranger had more skills to build his pets to be super tanks/DPS like Beast Master in World of Warcraft. And if pet choices were better- like drake, big spider etc. If Pets Deflection and, most important, resistance against CC- petrify, domination nad charm were much better- then you could relay on your pet as tank or CC monster and build ranger for pure DPS. Right now pets are more annoyance for me in PotD since they suck as tank, suck against CC and their DPS suck, and if they die- ranger get penalties. My buddy was playing ranger in party in PotD- he was doing great Damage and killing really fast enemy wizards/priests, but solo- no chances, especially in Endless Paths. He is beast on bosses- Blunderbuss DOT stack plus Envenomed Striket DOT stack (both per pellet) and it deals insane damage. But after that- reloaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad...... I see your point. To tell the truth, I think this game has abundance of AoE effects. Ranger's Binding Roots is one of very few (good) single target skills. The thing is, there are very few strong monsters in the game. I mean, Adra Animat is not much stronger than regular Animat. You don't fight something like 2 Battle Horrors in Baldur's Gate. I would enjoy encounters which have an occasional big baddie among them. Alas, PoE's pathfinding is not up to the task The difference isn't big, but Boar is noticably tankier than other animals. High Constitution, 15 resolve (!!), 5 Int. The best mental stats among all animal companions. But still, at level 12 animals have 60 Accuracy and 60 Deflection. I agree with you. This game focus too much on huge numbers of enemy packs, which of course favour AOE abilities and AOE CC and also CC resistance mechanic is imo bad plus there is too much CC from enemies in game, especially in melee and damage is too low. So in PoE you do not feel spells like Fire Ball, Finger of Death or Poison Could. Nor you do not fear backstab enemy assassins or two handed tanks. You fear being overwhelm by numbers or being perma CC-ed, only watching as your char dies with costant Paralyzed/Petrify/Stun (10 second)...(10 second....)....(10 second).... I like this game but still prefer D&D system in many ways, like defensive rolls and damage value.

I know the pain, but belive me it was MUCH harder with male moon. Here is gallery with couple of moon-female-like graphics: http://imgur.com/D0oXNQc,Co3HEmG,sOvk4M9,9czRHi7,0w69zZ3,yBciGgs,38wt48Q,nFuTluv,uvzYe0h,hPufTq3,0s59zM8,Dh1QhK6. Maybe you will like some. Of course you will need to cut and edit them properly . Give it a look. Challenge accepted :D Well, thats how build are born! :D Good luck mate! At least take Shod-in-Faith boots with you :D

Ty man, appreciate it ^^. And yes- I tend to dump some stats also but I learnt that balanced stats in the end work better imo. This is becasue whole defense system where each stat increase one of your four defensives. And yes- Moon for the win . I love Moon godlike.

The whole idea of limited resting is just stupid. The whole game in basicely in the middle of summer. There are no storms, no raining etc. The whole game is in medieval-fantasy world. Everybody know how to get wood to make camp. Whats more- you have wizards who can just make fire anytime. So in my backpack I carry 5x Plate armors and 3x Halberds but I can have pillow and something to lay on in the night? Whole idea is just stupid. If party want to rest- they rest. BG2 system was better where you could get attacked in the middle of sleep if you rested in not cleard area or in wilds. But having running after alsmost EACH battle for example as a Wizard to get 2x pillow and wood for camp, since your super uber lvl 12 party can't set up camp anytime they want- idea is so dull that I just refuse to use it. It is just plenty stupid. I click rest- I rest and fk supplies. I will build wall around my camp each night with my plate armors, spears, shields and pikes which I have tons and let my 5 summons from figurines guard me whole night. Better then inn with knights :D

We could use more info, like your main class, difficuty you play on and party composition. And levels of your characters of course. If you have in mind Endless Paths past 10 level: both talents are very useful but won't give you absolute defense. You need more than that. And Endless Paths has CC that are covered by both talents. I don't know if you are a monk, but here is my monk build that was specificly built around those two talents and anti CC skills/gear: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78627-endless-paths-1-15-potd-solo-monk-achieved-story-also-ofc-build-and-details-inside/ But generally if you are in party CC should not be a problem. Clerics and other classes have some ant-CC abilities and their own CC to counter enemies with it. As I mentioned- we need more details to help you properly .

Because they do in solo game. In party game every calss can do. But as Kaylon himself wrote above- rangers has good single target damage, but solo game is about AOE nuking/AOE CC, Tanking and healing or tanking and DPS (AOE if possible). Rangers suck becasue they have single target skills. If Rooting was AOE CC then ranger would be quite good. And if his pets were scaling better, because for example Bear can tank some mobs, ok. But put him against CC enemies like Shades, Crystal Spiders or Vithracks and suddenly it is only you and enemies and then ranger suck. Wish Ranger had more skills to build his pets to be super tanks/DPS like Beast Master in World of Warcraft. And if pet choices were better- like drake, big spider etc. If Pets Deflection and, most important, resistance against CC- petrify, domination nad charm were much better- then you could relay on your pet as tank or CC monster and build ranger for pure DPS. Right now pets are more annoyance for me in PotD since they suck as tank, suck against CC and their DPS suck, and if they die- ranger get penalties. My buddy was playing ranger in party in PotD- he was doing great Damage and killing really fast enemy wizards/priests, but solo- no chances, especially in Endless Paths. He is beast on bosses- Blunderbuss DOT stack plus Envenomed Striket DOT stack (both per pellet) and it deals insane damage. But after that- reloaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad...... Envenomed strike does not stack (tested by many people included peddroelm, who did this quite rigorously), Arguments whether class sucks or is good based on solo performance are quite moot since the game is balanced for party play. I must admit I was on the "rangers suck" bandwagon, but after actually using one I'd say that their performance is comparable to that of a ranged rogue, at least until level 11 (dps is a bit lower, but they get extra utility and extra tanking body, which is not THAT bad). I still think they can use some improvements. I get it but each to his own- for me class is great if you can solo game with it. I get that game in balanced by party, but it is up to individual player in single player game to judge what is good and what is not. For me ranger is not good becasue he is only great where all other classes are- in party. That is just and only my opinion. Can you exaplain focus gaining trick please for Cipher? I am curious Well, by now everyone knows the retaliation trick. It's based on it, but it's on steroids. Thing is, you retaliate even to friendly characters and likewise you gain focus from attacking friendlies too. If you eat carrow golan and have draining whip you have +6 focus on hit. Likely more. Now you equip retaliation armor and force let's say, figurine beetles to attack yourself. You'll be getting at least 6 focus per hit (but would take almost no damage if you have high DR). If you stack 2 retaliation items you'll be getting at least +12 focus on hit, but you'll burn through your summons faster. Still, the amount of focus you can get this way is crazy, you are likely not even able to cast spells at this rate. My only regret is that you don't have a "mistress" summon, equipped with leather armor and a whip. :D Good one. If Cipher wasn't so boring for me I would definetly try it . But good to know just for more knowledge .

Because they do in solo game. In party game every calss can do. But as Kaylon himself wrote above- rangers has good single target damage, but solo game is about AOE nuking/AOE CC, Tanking and healing or tanking and DPS (AOE if possible). Rangers suck becasue they have single target skills. If Rooting was AOE CC then ranger would be quite good. And if his pets were scaling better, because for example Bear can tank some mobs, ok. But put him against CC enemies like Shades, Crystal Spiders or Vithracks and suddenly it is only you and enemies and then ranger suck. Wish Ranger had more skills to build his pets to be super tanks/DPS like Beast Master in World of Warcraft. And if pet choices were better- like drake, big spider etc. If Pets Deflection and, most important, resistance against CC- petrify, domination nad charm were much better- then you could relay on your pet as tank or CC monster and build ranger for pure DPS. Right now pets are more annoyance for me in PotD since they suck as tank, suck against CC and their DPS suck, and if they die- ranger get penalties. My buddy was playing ranger in party in PotD- he was doing great Damage and killing really fast enemy wizards/priests, but solo- no chances, especially in Endless Paths. He is beast on bosses- Blunderbuss DOT stack plus Envenomed Striket DOT stack (both per pellet) and it deals insane damage. But after that- reloaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad...... Envenomed strike does not stack (tested by many people included peddroelm, who did this quite rigorously), Arguments whether class sucks or is good based on solo performance are quite moot since the game is balanced for party play. I must admit I was on the "rangers suck" bandwagon, but after actually using one I'd say that their performance is comparable to that of a ranged rogue, at least until level 11 (dps is a bit lower, but they get extra utility and extra tanking body, which is not THAT bad). I still think they can use some improvements. I get it but each to his own- for me class is great if you can solo game with it. I get that game in balanced by party, but it is up to individual player in single player game to judge what is good and what is not. For me ranger is not good becasue he is only great where all other classes are- in party. That is just and only my opinion. Can you exaplain focus gaining trick please for Cipher? I am curious

Seriously, modding in this game in currently dead apart from great IE mod. It is so dam hard to change any items, skills or develop new ones, or create new character, textures for armors/weapons, hairstyles, maps- EVERYTHING is just impossible. I don't understand that. Every RPG developer knows that mods are what keep players playing their game even for years! Look at BG2, at Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Skyrim! Seriously- what is your problem with giving people modding/editor tools or just some tool that they can use with Unity engine to simply change stuff without some HEX editing for hours. Please, RPG games even if great are being carry later by mods. I like this game, but as always I know how much great things would dedicated moders add to this game and you even didn't dream of make. Take example from Techland and their Dying Light game- they realeased FULL modding tools for their players with source code even. Just to keep game fresh and fun. Please, Obsidian. Please.

Because they do in solo game. In party game every calss can do. But as Kaylon himself wrote above- rangers has good single target damage, but solo game is about AOE nuking/AOE CC, Tanking and healing or tanking and DPS (AOE if possible). Rangers suck becasue they have single target skills. If Rooting was AOE CC then ranger would be quite good. And if his pets were scaling better, because for example Bear can tank some mobs, ok. But put him against CC enemies like Shades, Crystal Spiders or Vithracks and suddenly it is only you and enemies and then ranger suck. Wish Ranger had more skills to build his pets to be super tanks/DPS like Beast Master in World of Warcraft. And if pet choices were better- like drake, big spider etc. If Pets Deflection and, most important, resistance against CC- petrify, domination nad charm were much better- then you could relay on your pet as tank or CC monster and build ranger for pure DPS. Right now pets are more annoyance for me in PotD since they suck as tank, suck against CC and their DPS suck, and if they die- ranger get penalties. My buddy was playing ranger in party in PotD- he was doing great Damage and killing really fast enemy wizards/priests, but solo- no chances, especially in Endless Paths. He is beast on bosses- Blunderbuss DOT stack plus Envenomed Striket DOT stack (both per pellet) and it deals insane damage. But after that- reloaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad......

Added Gear detailed Statistics under GEAR sections. Enjoy!

I wouldn't bother with Slayer. It only means bonuses against one type of enemies and lack of them in every other cases. And Kith enemies are least danguerous enemies in game and easiest to kill so imo it is waste of 4 enchant points. Go Excelent and Corrosive or Fire Lash and after that Superb if it will be one of your main weapons. Leave Slayer at the end or just do not bother with it at all. I only find it good against Vessels for last boss fight, but that is if you solo min-max. Just don't bother with slayer. Quality and Lash are most important.