Voltron

He can grab Blided later, but 2x per encouter is better to keep 1.5 damage increase from Sneaking Attack as much as possible. With his INT debuffs are not that useful for debuff itself, but more for increasing melee damage. I also always take Hobbled just for 2x. If blinded was also 2x- I'take Blinded first everytime.

What I hate in combat mechanic THE MOST is „engagement on move” mechanic. I have nothing against my party member being hit while he is running next to mobs- that is free attack for them since he do not defend himself. However I hate when I order my guy to MOVE FROM FKING A POINT TO B POINT- and instead of moving to this fking place, he stop to fight with every mob on his way, making correct positioning and tactical maneuvering during combat frustrating any many times impossible. I just hate this. “Hey, Jorn Bloodaxe, run there and flank them, ignore enemis, I need you on flank”, “Right boss! On my way!” <run, run>, engage one enemy “Jorn!! I TOLD YOU TO RUN THERE!”, “Sorry! Runing” <run>, engage another enemy “JORN! FOR FK SAKE! RUN THERE! THERE!”, “….ok….” <run>, engage another enemy, “JORN! YOU STUPID……ow, your dead…”. And so Jorn died half his way to his intended position when he was about to attack enemy wizard/priest/archer. Because he had to stop for each dam enemy on his way. I-JUST-HATE-IT…. That is way I play Pillars of Eternity solo. Much less frustration…

I am not mathematician. And I did testing best I could. If you could do it better- you should have done it before me. I don't think for player it matters if one tick is 3,81 or 4, if enemy Endurace drop 4 each tick anyway. If we have to catch every non-math-rule-statement in my post- that could be be a lot there. I was always bad in math You are free to make your own "Logical opposite" thread so my "bolded" one do not hurt your eyes . I corrected "precisely" so math can be fullfiled. And good intentions are still better than nothing.

1. False .. (see previous posts) 2. Every 3 seconds (see above posts) And I haven't tested if it doesn't scale in some way yet .. (char level perhaps ?) Lol, it is not false. Endurace was droping 4 numbers each tick. I did my best with what I had. It does about 3,81/2 damage, true. But if we consider game and mathematic rules that is 4 when you round it. And 2 is also not fasle. I wrote 3-4 seconds since I couldnt judge it "on eye". So I considered and stated it can be 3, it can be 4 or between. No need to be so offensive. I have nothing against my test being more detailed, I am glad that you took it for more detailed testing. However, I did it and spared my time on it, you know.

Not true imo. Deep Wound damage is so low that leaving target with it even with 22 INT gives you only 20/22 damage. Autoattacing it in this time (17 seconds!) you would do ton more damage or equal with just one more hit as a Rogue (with party targets will always have conditions so your Damage is always high). And Deep Wounds do not stack so it is basicely always 4 damage per sec, regarding it you hit with Blunderbuss or dagger. If you are able to hit your target every 7 seconds- and you should even with 4 DEX and Modal (typical Solo PotD tank dumping) you will keep perma Deep Wounds on him anyway. Snaguine Armor with also let you keep it all the time in melee. And hit and run tactic is not good for Rogue. I find myself killing target much faster standing there with plate and abusing Sneak Attack and Cirtical hits with high accuracy. Damage of Deep wounds is nice to SUPPORT your Dps and Retalitation gear. However to count it anyway as good alone damage is just "NO!". Damage is bad. And yes it bybass DR, so you can tell it is free 4 DR on your Rogue. As I said- any more damage in PotD is more damage. However, considering everything, Its not THAT impressive DOT. If Deep wounds work as condition for Sneak Attack to trigger- that would be awesome skill and synergyze so much better for Rogue. Doubt there's any .. You're not gonna dump DEX on your damage dealer right ? Even with -50% from armor and -20% from modal , pretty sure not even 2h weapons would swing slower than 3 seconds (will do some attack speed tests at some point) (unless you miss/get disabled/interrupted a lot) .. If you play TC solo PotD dumping DEX and INT is actually very good option, since you need to have as much Deflection and Defensives rolls as you possibly can. If you play with party- of course you will invest in DEX for DPS. If you play solo PotD, not TC- you can keep 10 DEX and dump INT and Perception, since you can reload fights and try again. However even with 6 DEX (3 Base +1 Godlike +2 from gear), Modal and 4 INT I did not have problem with weapon and shield or Dual Wielding to keep perma Deep Wounds on promary target. Rest had perma Deep Wounds from Sanguine Armor and Sura Shield. Envenomous Attack is good talent to take with Deep Wounds. Both DOTs acctualy start doing enough damage that often enemies died before I could deal last swing or two on them. But that is 1 talent point, so I don't know if I would take that. And its per rest, not per encounter :/

Dirty Figting- 10% Hit convert to Critc. Later you gra Vicious Fighting- another 10%, totall 20% hits convert to Crritc. Grab One-Handed talent, which gives % Grazes convert to Hits-> means more Hits convert to critcs. And then grab Bloody Slaugther- low Endurace enemies 20% Hits convert to Critics, 0.5 Multiplayer to Critcs. Gives total 40% of Hit to Critics if enemy is low Endrace- usefull on bosses and tough enemies. Grab to that weapon with 0.5 Critc Multiplayer (Sabers with Anihilatrion), add Merciless Hand talent- another 0.3 Crit Multiplayer, Dungeon Delver talent- 0.1 Cric Multiplayer. For total 0.9 Crit Multiplayer, and 1.4 Crit Multiplayer against low Endurace enemies. Ingore Backstab and Escape and other useless skill. Grab Savage Attack, Vulnerable Attack and Merciless Assault for total 1.4 damage increase with 5 DR pass. Weapon Focus: Rufian (Sabers), One Handed Style or/and Two Weapon Style/Shield Weapon style (depends if you play solo or not). And use you Rogue as more Damage less Tank focused Fighter. If you solo grab all possible talents that give debuff- Crippling Strike, Blinded Strike etc for even more damage from Sneaking Attack. You will be pleased. Forget about Rogue. And welcome Blade Master build. I will post it soon with details .

That is not correct. I just tested it in deep: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78400-deep-wounds-tested-damage-over-time-ticks-timedmg-int-value-influence-and-how-toolip-is-wrong/ And I finally know exactcly how does Deep Wounds talent and damage work. Check it out. It does 4 damage per tick, ignoring DR, tick is per 3-4 sec and reaplying only makes DW last longer and tick is still per 3-4 sec, same 4 damage per tick. INT value does not matter at all. Details of test in link above. It seem that your results are correct. When I tested it I just looked what tool tip said not how much actual damage it did. I just had so high hopes that this would be real thing, which it sadly is not as it seems Yup just another salt for Rogues. I also had hopes for Rouges, but well...too many of their skills are total crap

True for both. I'd still say if Deep Wounds synergize with Sneak Attack and Backstab, that would be one good step to make Rouges better. Rouge is still quite nice since he has super frequent Critic Hits, but only this. Rest is not impressive at all, I agree. But INT already increase duration. However since this DOT can be easly reapply and has steady 4 damage per tick INT just does not matter. IMO all DOTs in this game are worst DOTs in all RPGs I saw. They should just do damage (scale with Might/some talents and level) over time. Damage should be per second- for example 10 dmg per sec for 5 sec and INT should increase duration but damage should scale. Right now DOTs are just bad.

That is not correct. I just tested it in deep: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/78400-deep-wounds-tested-damage-over-time-ticks-timedmg-int-value-influence-and-how-toolip-is-wrong/ And I finally know exactcly how does Deep Wounds talent and damage work. Check it out. It does 4 damage per tick, ignoring DR, tick is per 3-4 sec and reaplying only makes DW last longer and tick is still per 3-4 sec, same 4 damage per tick. INT value does not matter at all. Details of test in link above.

I like the concept. Very nice. I might give it a go on solo PotD. Early levels are always hard, so that does not matter. Try it in solo PotD (not necessary TC) and tell me how it work if you will try it of course. I will be trying chanter solo PotD now, but your Spellsword intrigued me! I wanna give it a shot. Problem is (as always..) fights against perma-CC mobs. Looks nice, I am glad you made that build. Looks like tons of fun .

I made some testing using Companion Rogue (created) and my main. I can finally tell how Deep Wounds work and how much DPS and damage they do, how much per tick, time between ticks and if higher INT is better or worse or do not matter at all for DOT damage. TEST: I applied Deep Wounds using Blinding Strike on my Main Character and I was watching his Endurance. After each tick of DOT I was using PAUSE and IE mod command "healparty" to heal him so I can watch next tick damage from Deep Wounds (you auto regen outside of combat, which interrupt checking damage and tick times). There were three test: 1. 22 INT Rogue 18 Might 2. 20 INT Rogue 18 Might 3. 4 INT Rogue 18 Might Results: Each time one tick DOES ABOUT 4 damage (3,81 but game round it to 4 anyway), ignoring all DR on char. Tested on mainChar with full plate and all gear and naked. It is always 4 damage. Each tick is about every 3-4 seconds. 1. on INT 22 we had 5 ticks, 4 damage each, making for total 20 damage over 17 seconds. Last tick happened on about 0 second. Which gives us 1,17 DPS 2. on INT 20 we had againt 5 ticks, 4 damage each, making for total 20 damage over 15 seconds. Last tick happened on about 0 second. Which gives us 1,33 DPS 3. on INT 4 we had 2 ticks, 4 damage each, making for total 8 damage over 7 seconds. There was no last tick at 0 second. Which gives us 1.14 DPS. Tested few times and results were same on my main, regaring of his defenses, DR, CON or Endurance. CONCLUSIONS: Conclusion 1: Deep Wounds does pretty much same DPS regarding of your INT. Difference between lowest INT: 4 vs highest INT: 22 is 0,19 DPS. Which is nothing for a cost of 18 points INT difference! INTELLIGENCE DOES NOTHING TO DOT DAMAGE! Conclusion 2: Enemy DR does not matter. Deep Wound always hit for 4 damage per tick. Conclusion 3: Deep Wounds can be reapplied during its duration and it will still tick 4 per attack. So if you use Retalitation Rogue lower INT is better since enemies will reapply it themself gives you constant 4 damage per 3,5 sec (or 4 sec..). The faster you attack the longer DOT stays on target. Conclusion 4: No active or passive damage bonuses increase or decrease damage of Deep Wounds. Conclusion 5: Toolip and talent description stating its Damage is TOTALLY WRONG. Damage stated there is wrong. That is not total damage nor damage per tick. For example: on INT 20 toolip/description was saying 12.7 damage over 15 seconds. Which is totally wrong since Deep Wounds made 5 ticks, 4 damage each, dealing total 20 damage over 15 seconds. WHAT DO RESULTS MEAN: 1. Deep Wounds are not THAT bad. Extra damage is always nice and it is especially good on group of enemies if you have retalitation gear. This 4 damage per tick always ignore DR and all defenses, which is always additional damage. It can be reapplied (do not stack) so each time you Graze this huge DR target for 9-12 damage per swing, your Deep Wound add to it 4-8 damage per your swing, depending on your Attack Speed. 2. Toollip is probably bad to all DOTs in game. 3. INT does not matter for DOT. 18 points difference in INT stat gave us only 0,19 DPS difference. Those points can be add to more meaningful stat for Rogue like Res/Per/Dex/CON/Might. 4. Deep Wounds still does poor damage overall. Buff could be used hear to double damage or make it scale with might. 5. Also good idea would be to make Sneaking Attack work on targets with Deep Wounds. Which makes sense- deep wounded target is vulnerable to attacks. That would give Deep Wounds more meaning and synergize better with Rogue. Thank to IE mod. Without it I wouldn't be able to test it.

I have this problem from the beginning of game. I read few user tests but there were inconsistent. How does DOT work? For example Deep Wounds. Lets say I have 4 INT and desctiption says 13.3 damage over 7 sec (10 sec base). Does it do 13.3 TOTAL over those 7 sec? Or there is some tick when it does? Or does it do 13.3 damage AFTER 7 sec? In which case if I reapply Deep Wounds I will prevent them fron triggering at all if I use fast attack weapons and retalitation? Does higher Intelligence help DOTs or make them worse? Please, any dev out there. Could you please give us exactly math of how DOTs work in this game and how they are affected by reapplying and INT value? I am scraching my head over it and I can't figure it out. Thank you.

Ech…Rogues can’t tank? Use „Search” and type „Retalitation Rouge Tank” thread or „Triple Crown Solo Rogue”. And see for yourself. Rogue can tank. Tanking is all about Deflection, which you can bump through gear and stats, CON and self-heals or escape skills. If you make Moon Godlike Rogue, use DEX and INT as dump stats, you can have nice Deflection from start and high CON. Whats more retalitation works much better on Rogue and he has “shadowing beyond”- skill that lets you reset any fight if you can’t tank anymore. And that 1.3 is not just “one talent” that is one MORE talent that you will be missing. Every damage on PotD solo matter, EVERY. 20-30% is a lot when you solo. And remember one thing- retalitation works when you get HIT. GET HIT. The highest Deflection you have- the less Retalitation will be usefull. So, Yes you can bump PER and RES and get super high deflection as Paladin but that is counter productive for Retalitation gear. You have to find good balance between Delfection and Retalitation. If you want to be TOTAL tank- retalitation won’t do much. That is why barb synergyze so well fir Fire Godlike and Retalitation. Low deflection plus Carnage means more AOE dps. And high endurace plus Defiance help keep it up J. And as I said- Paladins do not have good talents that support retalitation. Nor good damage bonuses to melee. Paladin tank/solo PotD is definetly good. There is solo Triple Crown video somewhere. However if you thinking mainly of “retalitation buil”, not “paladin build” then they do not synergy that good. There are much better options for retalitation build.

Retalitation is bad on Paladins. Simple because they have no passive good damage bonuses to make retalitation stronger. Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack can make it stronger but any class can take it. Retalitation is good for example on Barbarian because he has Carnage, OSA plus Blooded. Carnage makes every retalitation proc on every enemy around once more, increasing inseanly dps, OSA adds 20 damage to it and blooded bump it once again by 25% when below 50%. OSA is really the only good thing for barbs. Without it, they do not have good damage bonuses, since their strong abilities- Blooded and Bloodlust trigger at 50% Endurance. And Frenzy is not so good. Next is Rogue because of Sneak Attack, Deep Wounds and higher Crit chances. If you are attack by enemies who are flanked or have one/two conditions that are required for Sneak Attack 50% more damage to work- each retalitation also get 50% more. Whats more, each retalitation hit trigger Deep Wounds, so AOE RAW damage DOT. But to do it you need to meet requirments for Sneak Attack. Which can be problem in solo, easy with party. Nest is Cipher, because his Soul Whip and Bitting Whip gives him permanent 40% more damage, so only 10% less than Rogue and it is permanent without any requirements (well, you have to be under max focus, but you are always since you use spells…). That is 40% more damage to retalitation. Whats more- each retalitation hit gives you Focus like normal attack, allowing you to spam DPS AOE spells. Add to those 3 classes above Savage Attack and Vulnerable Attack and you have comparsion what retalitation builds can do. And you need 18 Might at least for retalitation. Low Might on Paladin will make laghtable damage from retalitation. Super low. You need Might for retalitation. All other calsses can benefit from retalitation (it is always additional DPS) however they do not have builds around that. I heard monk can be build for it, but it won’t be as good as those above. If you are looking for retalitation builds, then Barbarian>>Rogue>Cipher>>>>rest. I’d say. Some would put Cipher before Rogue, but I like Deep Wounds.

Omg, I love when people try to compare fantasy world society with our society and what they would do… Ther are elves there, dwarves, ogres, trolls, dragons, bah! there are guys running around and throwing fireballs, lightnings and ice storms from their hand. Bah! there are guys who can change themselves to animals. Bah! There are guys who sing and can summon OUT OF NOWHERE wyrms in front of you. God or something? Not only that- there are undeads, immortality is possible, diseases and wounds can be healed by magic. And animants can put animal soul into other people... To add to that- you have Gods that actually are, they even show themselves to men, you can see their priest channeling their powers. They talk to people. Bah! you can’t find any logical arguments that gods do not exist, because they are. One even stepped down on earth. And all people worship gods in this world, because you would be stupid not to belive if gods truly exist, and that is a fact same as there are lions in the world. And then you see that some children born with signs of magic/god touch etc. And you think those people kill it on sight? Do you think this is so abnormal? You have fire gods, nature gods, some God of Death, some other gods. And children can have signs of being touch by them. In society where GODS ARE AROUND and magic is nothing strange. Society like this have totally different morality, rules, priorities, mentality, view of life and death and purpouse then our have. Everything. They live knowing for sure that their soul will go on in Cycle. Nah! they can go to animants and see their soul! They have proofs that gods are, bah! there are facts that there is immortality in this world. In such society, crawling with people from AT LEAST 5 different races in each town/city, mages, animants etc. I don’t think godlikes children are that much strange phenomenon.. And remember people have different view on world- they know gods watch them. It is not like here- when you kill child and maybe God will punish you when you die. No, here you can kill child and next day your house is destroyed by lightning. And that could be a god that punished you. They can do it. What you discuss here (off-topic) is totally dump discussion. You have no idea, not even any comparison what mentality would people have in such world. They might look human, but they could be TOTALLY different from us. And please tell me if you know Magrana that you would try to hurt your child who is cleary touched by some flame-phenomena…

You didn't try Fire Godlike Barbarian I see. Try him. In first levels his Frenzy (+4 Might and +4 CON and 1.33 faster attack) plus Fire God Like racial is Awesome in early levels. Of course after that it becomes even more nuke machine, providing best DPS against group of enemies. At the beginning Barb lower Deflection means nothing really on PotD (everything will hit you regardless of starting Deflection) but his bigger Endurance pool, Battleforge retalition+ Carnage (more DPS against pack of enemies) plus 4 DR is super good early on. Grab after that his self heal and he is really good as Fire God Like. There is not better race-class synergy in game than Fire Godlike Barbarian imo. I win against wolfs no problem thanks to all those factors. Give it a go. Cheers!

It can also make sense to remove/nerf obvious exploits, since they will reduce options for players that don't want to cheese their way through the game or make other abilities seem useless and weak in comparison. I agree with you. And that's exactly what Lord Vicious was arguing against - he'd prefer (unless I misunderstand) that OP tools on the player's side not ever be nerfed because that's "not fun". I disagree with him for the exact reason you stated - obviously dominant strategies make the game boring by removing interesting choices for the player. I disagree. I have tons of fun for example with OSA retalition barbarian in game. I am currently on my 3rd (!) solo playthrough in PoE, did 2 times Triple Crown solo. Now you can but you do not have to use OSA barb, or retalitation Cipher etc. You choose it. We will never compet against each other in this game, nor we will PvP. I for example won't patch my game anymore if they nerf OSA on barb. I like barb as he is and I won't allow nerf on my PC. That is only talent that makes barb do something phenomenal at same level as other classes can. I want to have my fun and I have. You solution destroy my fun just so players like you feel less bad not using "cheese" tactics. I was always against nerfs in Single Player and I always will. If player want, he will type god-mod, donwload mods etc. to "cheese" through game either way. However that is not my problem. Everybody play as they feel fun. And don't tell me that OP builds put less choice for players. You decide what to play and how. Cheese or not, broken builds or not, using console or not, using mods or not. This is not MMO, no leaderboards, no PvP. Just you and YOUR adventure. And even if you balance all skills- THEY WILL ALWAYS be "best builds", "best skills" and "most OP tactics". Thats how RPGs/MMOs work. With variety always come best combinations. You will just trade one OP build for another. You can't change it no matter how much balance you will do. I would never finish this game if not for barbarian with OSA. Rest classes are not so fun for me. At least until barb won't bore me . They I will move to chanter, since after retalitation barb he is most powerfull solo class in-game. That is fun for me. And nobody will tell me if my fun in SP game, on my PC is not fun. So I am against nerf in Single Player. I am all for buffs though.

Yup. My favourite class to solo game. Tons of fun, tons of power and best barbarian class ever created in RPGs. Of course it has few problems (like all calsses): debuffs to Fortitude from his two passive skills are useless, since most enemies have on PoTD higher Fortitude than Deflection, outside of Blooded and Bloodlust, which both need 50% Endurace (lol) he only have OSA and Carnage that makes him very good class. This melee class do not have any perma damage bonuses so it deal lowest single target damage, while dealing best AOE/Group damage from all classes. Nice design. I am on my third solo PotD with Fire Godlike barb (I like this combo too much!!!), but now not TC anymore but normal solo. I like TC challenge but I don't feel anymore for it. I currently 18 Might, 18 CON, 17(18) INT, 17 Res, DEX and PER dumped. Dual Sabers main set and Ravenwing/Blesca's Labor/Sura Shield second set. Sanguine Armor Dexterity +2, additional Crush damage reduction, Excellent and Animancer Boots if situation went wrong. Just got level 11 and I am going to clear now 1-15 levels of Endless Path, as always. Barb is best for it. I just love Fire Godlike barbarian. TIP: Be sure to get With Crucible Knights last plot Talent (you have to ally with them!!) it will give you +2 DR when wearing armor. Pair that with Thick-Skinned (+2 DR to Slash, Pierce and Crush) and +4 DR from Battleforged while under 50% and you are much harder to kill. And he looks badass :D Last run. Gonna try chanter solo next I will never patch OSA. Unless they won't nerf it THAT MUCH . Best barbarian class even in RPGs.

Sorry, I mistook your location with Caliban Rilag . My apologies. Fan of Flame then are your best friends

1. Sneak 2. Fan of Flame scrolls 3. Retalitation gear helps a ton against shades (they attack in melee), chances are that they will themself on you while you are stun locked. You should have Sanguine Armor with you already. 4. In solo you want to stack AS HIGH Fortitude and Will (so Might, CON, INT and RES, dump DEX and PERC) as possible to have as much chances as you can to avoid stun lock/CC. Deflection can be easy boosted by gear.

Indeed I'm playing with Main tank Moon like fighter Off tank moon like rogue Off tank / DPS char Fire like Baba And Finally I cut the need for more then 10con in PoTD in a six man party. Both the tanks run around with 18 Might 10 con 10 dex (only dump stat is int). It's THAT better for my DPS meter ;p Honestly I like it, the heal is not that OP since you will have to rest a bit more if you want to improve the overall DPS of the party dumping con a bit. I ended resting less when I used an Orlan tank (18con) + pala off tank because you have more total HP to play with so I found it a decent balance between the 2. Basically IMO Moon Like let's you be more DPS oriented with more rest overall, while having 2 HEAVY tanks doesn't require the moon godlike and you'll rest less but you will do less dps as well. And I'm talking in a min/max set up with 6 ppl in PoTD. For solo run you more or less try to "cheat" the game with split pulls, bottle neck, figurine / retaliation. I don't see moon to be more game changing then any other abuse people use out of here (main reason couz I don't like the solo mode, to be honest). And about role play, I'm in the group of players who likes RPG games on PC but don't care about roleplaying. I ended up running BG2 modded (ascendancy and all the others "hard mode" mod you can find out of here) more then any other single player. I played competitive WOW for a couple of years (top 100 world pve progress guild here) so I honestly just care about hardcore progress and that's my playstile. RPG games on the PC are "hybryd" for masses of people that have very different playstile, from casual to hardcore to full roleplay oriented. You can't demand to have perfect balance (in not modded setup) IMO it's too hard to achieve that, honestly I ended running BG2 for years with more or less the same class (dual classed wizards) + 1 inquisitor. Here the choices aren't that deep but at least I can run with 4 different classes and try different set-up without hurting myself too much. It's OK atm after all. Isn't it? Everything great, but the problem is that Moon Like racial is straight better by miles than other racial. I wouldn’t argue with your opinion if all racial benefit player in similar way you described- one heal, one reduce damage, one increase attack speed, one increase defensive rolls, one make you do more damage the less/more Endurance you have etc. etc. So all racials can compensate for some class lacks or stat dumping, similar to like Moon Like compensate for lack of self-heal or dumping CON. I don’t have problem with Moon Like racial idea. However, I have problem with it being superior to every other racial in game.

Rogues dominate when it comes to single target dps. It's actually kind of stupid. Your post makes no sense whatsoever. My Rogue is sneak-attacking practically 95% of the time. The remaining 5% is when I'm too lazy to apply debuffs. Keeping debuff uptime on enemies is easy when you have 6 guys, so unless you're soloing you're doing it wrong. Each to his own. My experiance was quite different. My Rogue was doing insane good DPS on single target enemy however I did not like that I had to applie debuffs using my other party members or to use summons. It is not like I don’t like it because I like solo game. No. It is because Rogue do not feel like class that can stand to his own in game without baby sitting by other classes/items. You see, I NEED other party members to applie debuffs/flank so I can use my talents, not to do Maximum damage, but just increased damage in general. And need to rest after each fight if I want to have fun with Backstab (Shadowing Beyond). With Cipher I can do my own stuff with nobodies help, same with Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Chanter etc. However with Rogue I need this party to applie debuffs on groups enemies, resting to recharge Shadowing Beyond, to get flanking I need other party member or at least figurines (more resting, more camping supplies). I am not saying that Rogue is impossible to play as. However when I played one I mostly felt like I play more with other classes to apply proper debuffs, summon creatures behond enemies (flanked status) etc. to finally do with Rogue what I need to do. With other classes, I can be boosted by other party members, but I can do my “class stuff” without anyone else. Rogue is VERY depending on others (debuffs, flanked). So I hope I explained it little better. I like the concept of Rogues (to hit harder weakened enemies) but I don’t like execusion, when I can’t meet requirements of my own skills alone. That is why I think some bombs or traps/mines that could AOE debuff would be nice for Rogue. Sure, I can give one enemy 2 conditions once per encounter to have more dmage on him or use figurine to do it also. However 95% time in this game you fight against group of enemies. I just don’t like feeling like a “fire that make barrel explode” rather than “barrel that explode with fire”.

Shadowing Beyond per encounter would be first great step to improve Rogues. I am waitning for such a mod. There are already mods for some other skills to be per encounter, so I think it is matter of time only.

Rogue would be great if not for stupid requirements of Sneak Attack- Enemy need at least specific condition on him, or two if you want more damage (sneak attack upgrade talent)- two. In first case this should be ANY CONDITION, not only those mentioned in skill description or just an attack from behind (so it can work solo) and in second it should be just passive damage increase without stupid two conditions requirements. Second problem is backstab- only when you are invisible. Which means only 2x Shadowing Beyond-> Backstab combo. And then rest…but no! You need camp supplies! If Shadowing Beyond was per encounter and 3x it would be better since you could eliminate top priority targets with Sneak Attack + Backstab plus possible Critic attack. Also what Rogue miss are some sort of bombs/mines/traps that could inflict conditions (stun, paralyze etc) on enemies to synergize best with his Sneak Attack Bonuses. Or if he can summon a Shadow of himself, which can’t be killed during duration but also do not inflict any damage. But thanks to it you can inflict “flanked” on enemies 1x per encounter. Rogue is nice in theory, but when you play it you see how maps and some requirements and some talents execution prevent you from playing a truly Rogue/backstabber and you find yourself too many times being a inferior warrior in first line.

You don't. It's just one of the failings of the 'make-multiple-PCs-and-call-them-a-companions inn imo'. The idea of which (for me) is just them being lazy and going 'We created 6 companions with stories, but now I am tired. Lets give the playerss the tools to create generic companions for their party and call it a day!'. And it's not like the cost of creating a companion would have been very high and thus the few we got - they rarely interact with the world so I can't imagine giving them a backstory and stuff being so hard for a writer to do... ...but good to know about the moon godlike....I didn't realize their self heal was good enough to replace a priest. Now maybe I could create non healer PC and not having to suffer the Dunce (or was it Durance....) in the party:) Companions are an investment. You have to invest in quite a bit of writing (at least, more than any other character gets in the world other than main villain etc), you have to invest in portrait art, you have to invest in a companion quest, you have to invest in voice-overs (which cost a lot), and so on. Indeed, part of the reason POE companions aren't quite as vocal or involved as in some other RPGs is precisely because they are a lot of work. Meanwhile, they added the ability to have custom adventurers because... it's a nice feature and one that many people asked for. Of course, now, you mistakenly connect the wrong dots and complain about that too. Moon Godlike isn't as much healing flexibility / power as Druid or Priest spells, but they are definitely the only racial bonus to be really good at the moment. They're surely far too good - look at Human bonuses which are very similar but get a 5-second delay that makes it useless. I disagree. Fire Gold Like racial is also very good. Of course you need to build for it, and it works best on barbarians/Rogues/Ciphers, However I'd still take their extra 4 DR over any other racial apart from Moon Like anyday. With right gear and plot talent and class talent, my Fire God Like below 50% have 24 DR overall and 36 DR for Slash and Pierce and about 30 any other. So I call it great, especially on barb when you can take plot talent (+2 DR when wearing armor) plus think skinned (+2 DR). And Burn retalitation is great for some classes. But I agree, while BattleForged is imo very good, you need to build properly around it. At the same time Moon Like racial WORKS GREAT FOR ANY CLASS ANYTIME. For DPS that want extra sruvival, for tank that want to be more tank, for casters that want double Enduracne, for range classes that are focused by enemies. Moon Like is superior becasue his skill HAS NO DRAWBACK. This ability allows you to get 10 CON when you wouldn't go below 16-18 on other race, get lower PER and RES when you wouldn't want to dump both on other race etc. If you create for example Fighter with 10 CON Moon Like- you are much better tank and much better Paladin than lets say Human Paladin with 18 CON. And since you are tank- you heal your party FOR FREE. AOE HEAL! That is just beyond broken. This race just make every class 2x time more effective or 2x more tanky. The whole idea of healing when Ednurance is low is stupid. When should I heal if not when I am low on Endurace? So this racial has no downside and do not require ANY MICROMANAGMENT, build around it etc. It is just superior to every other racial BY MILES. There is no better race for solo. But god...they look SO UGLY! :?