MadDemiurg

Jolting touch spellstriking is also fixed . It's still decent, but not nearly as good as it was.

The accuracy is actually 12 lower compared to a superb bow. Damage is great though (but the duration is very short and you miss often).

FYI jolting touch spellbind/scrolls are fixed in 1.05 and do as much damage as the spell (not that much).

ZF/ZE do no stack with general accuracy/DT buffs like priest's bless and armor of faith..If they did, there wouldn't be as much of a ****storm around paladins being redundant. Inspiring liberation is +10, not +20, but it stacks with itself and with everything else, meaning 2 casts on 1 target = +20. This is probably a bug, I've reported this one (the stacks with itself part) along with some other but no reply so far. Sworn Enemy is a unique buff, so it stacks with everything too (but not with itself), but it's not that useful as it only improves paladin's accuracy, and even with it paladin is nowhere near being the best (or even good) damage dealer in a party. So, ZF, Inspiring and Sworn Enemy will all stack. But ZF is will not stack by other common accuracy buffs and Sworn Enemy as I said is paladin only.

Cipher needs as much micro as a wizard if not more if played efficiently. You can cut it down to spamming 1-2 buttons if you play sub-optimally, but you still need to spam said 1-2 buttons. Ranger is less intensive, but you do need to micro the pet apart from the ranger himself. I'd say the lowest micro options are ranged rogue and tank fighter/paladin. Tank chanter is pretty low maintenance as well. Given that you seem to want another dps char I'd say rogue.

Better story, combat and roleplay options - yes. Dating sim - no. DA:O was not as abhorrent as DA2 or DA:I though, so it's not the worst example of that series. IWD is basically a dungeon crawler. I say neither of these.

Melee wizard - well any wizard can melee decently, but you can make a specialized build that focuses on melee a bit more. I'll go with specialized from here. Race: Moon godlike/Coastal aumaua/Wild Orlan/Pale Elf (each one has ups and downs) Weapons choice: Set #1: 1h (hatchet or warhammer when you get the soldier focus + small shield Set #2: Pike or Greatsword What you actually gonna use when in melee: Concelhaut's parasitic staff (level 1 spell), Citzal's spirit lance (level 5 spell). Stats: There are several variations here, but in general you want max INT (buff duration), DEX (cast speed, dsp), Might (dps). Dump perception, between constitution and resolve I'd go like 8 CON 10 Res for melee (Usually I dump CON as well and go 15 res on a generalist caster). It's possible to dump RES even more for more CON. Talents: Veil/Hardened Veil - ultimate defense for hard fights, limited duration and uses WF: Soldier (Spirit lance is a pike) Vulnerable attack 2h Style Savage attack Alternative would be to ditch Vulnerable/2h style/Savage as lance is already very hard hitting and go for some defensive talents like superior deflection, snake's reflexes etc. Depends on how much you want to tank. Noteworthy spells for melee wizard: Level 1 Concelhaut's parasitic staff - main early game weapon Wizard's double (stack with veil, pretty useless on its own) Spirit Shield Level 2 Bulwark against the elements Infuse with vital essence (most used tanking spell, combine with high DT from plate) Mirrored images Concelhaut's corrosive siphon (good endurance drain spell) Level 3 Deleterious alacrity of motion Llengraths displaced image Level 4 Iron Skin Minor arcane reflection Level 5 Llengraths safeguard Citzal's spirit lance - main lategame weapon Level 6 Citzal's martial power Arcane reflection You still can (and should) use debuff/cc/aoe spells too. Shameless self promotion (melee wiz at work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPG4SwS8mY (This is a console generated test char, I used a more caster oriented build in my actual playthrough, but as you can see this one kinda works)

Aaaand a wizard beating Adra dragon in melee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPG4SwS8mY That was recorded in slow mode, so use 2x speed in settings to watch it faster. I screwed up on several occasions in the vid, but still managed to beat it as you can see. It's much less safe than a "caster" approach though. But that's probably the first vid doing it with a weapon in melee .

Tbh you can avoid most combat with stealth only, but you might not get the lowest kill count possible. What you're describing is possible too, but if the charmed mob gets killed(quite likely) it will count as your kill.

Yep, but it's dangerous because charmed/confused mobs can get killed and I think they're added to your kill count in this case.

Maybe I should cut this down to a more specific set of questions: Scrolls have +10-15 accuracy bonus, which is designed to compensate for lower base (20) accuracy if spellcasters, just like most spells (and in fact most scrolls are taken from one of the spell lists). But since all classes use the their base accuracy with scrolls, medium and high accuracy classes get +5-10 accuracy over supposed baseline. Is this ok? Same for traps How different accuracy buffs are supposed to stack? Is savage attack affecting offensive chants a bug? Should inspiring liberation stack with itself (see screenshot)?

Dumping might is a terrible idea on a cipher, especially in 1.05 (you could pull it off with the old draining whip). There's no reason to max perception on a cipher, switch it with might. For powers you really want to start with antipathetic field and mind wave, but then again it doesn't matter much if you go pacifist.

Your poll is also missing a "it should stay as is" and "it's overpowered, please nerf" options. You definitely have some agenda! I think illuminati are involved in this.

I'd be satisfied if it was a decent spell economy tool, allowing you to do some damage without burning your slots. Its value would of course diminish after level 9, but it would be much better than it is now. Essentially something comparable to parasitic staff in terms of power by level 9 (which is per encounter for level 9 wizards), with some talents to improve it if you want it on top.

Looks like I'm already not at the minimum as I killed 4 more mobs than needed in the tutorial . Oh well, I'm not gonna reroll because of that. I haven't done heritage hill tower yet, so I'll post about it when I'm there.

A couple of wizard tactics: Wall of force based: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw9_C8rJzuk Confusion based: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ymkC_HK8g Will add an extended wizard analysis later and maybe some battlemage tactics.

Paladins. Paladins make good brickwall tanks, although that's probably not the role they were designed for. They do piddly damage, even sworn enemy only brings it to "acceptable" level, but that's not their strength anyway. After getting more familiar with the game I actually prefer paladins over fighters as tanks, but only as PC. They are capable of soloing, then again all classes are, and it's not like they are the best solo class (which is a subjective matter anyway). Their support is not that great, apart from a few specific abilities. So basically an alternative tank class. Rangers. Rangers do decent ranged dps and provide some extra utility via CC abilities and minor aoe. They require careful pet micro and pets are a bit underpowered in the end atm, but it doesn't make the class THAT bad. They excel at singling out enemies in my experience because of stunning shot. Priests/Druids Really? They have entirely different spell lists compared to wizards which function in a very different way. I'd agree that some of their abilities are kinda gimmick at best and could use a revamp (see my signature), but they aren't what defines the class, their spells do.

Actually the amount of work put into different models, abilities and vfx for the forms is probably bigger than that what was put into some other classes as a whole. So it's really a shame it doesn't get any real screen time.

Yep, that's pretty much my summary in the first post - initial damage way too high, but no scaling (although current damage numbers would be good for lvl 12 tbh), and also no accuracy scaling(monk fists get this at least), no enchantments (you can add lash by wasting a talent on wildstrike), no bonuses form the majority of items (thus inferior survivability/utility) and duration too short to consider any investments (shifting talents are on the same level of crappiness as barb's greater frenzy).

Suggestions of me having an "agenda" are a bit ridiculous, especially in context of a gaming forum poll. I would add an option: "No, I'm fine with spiritshift as it is", but I'm no longer able to edit the poll. I didn't even think about it when creating the poll as I thought its common consensus that it's broken atm and the only question is wheter to make it decent or keep it as a gimmick. I've made a druid with spiritshift talents too initially, but quickly rerolled realising how bad this decision was. You can use it on high levels of course, but it's nowhere near as good as anything made with a little bit of thought. In fact, a druid dualwielding enchanted exceptional weapons would do more damage than shifted at high levels, talents or not. I could do a spreadsheet to illustrate this, but its pretty obvious from the stats. I would be ok with the shift disabling casting if it did its job (making Druid better in melee).

How is sword in offhand worse for monk than fists? Agree on the rest. Offhand 1h weapon is cheesy/bugged (and also worse in instances where you autoattack instead of spamming Torment's Reach because you don't get damaged much), but you can go for it, yes.

Melee DW cipher if you're ok with being glasscannon(ish). Melee wizard, but it's bit more complicated to play and you should know what you're doing. Also DW is not optimal for melee wizards (2H/weapon and shield are). DW monk (fists > weapons for early levels, but you can go with swords from the start, it would just be a bit suboptimal).

Even with this theory. You make your barb lose 600 health, so you can pull this off like 3/rest max. You make your cipher spend 45 focus on facilitating the combo. 1 amplified wave would do 500+ total damage to said 10 mobs as well as CC them and leave you with 10 spare focus. Tbh I'd rather use that combo on ranger's pet as it has decent endurance and a lot of heath you can bring into play with heals, which would be fully restored after encounter. Don't think it's a great idea.

This should also go to the bug section I think. Most DoTs work properly with int. If it's considered too op for the wounding shot to scale with int just make it fixed duration (beam spells are).

Quite interesting and unconventional approach. What are your armor/weapon preferences? Gaun's share obviously, but 1h or DW with something else? Also graze -> hit conversion should be decent on barb because of -84% damage penalty on carnage graze (so you really don't want to graze)? So maybe 1h style flail/sabre(purgatory or resolution)? Armor - think heavy for DT as I don't think you can get interrupted during recovery and you get hit a lot?