Matuse

Using 1 weapon already gives you a bonus without even needing a talent; higher accuracy. Thus a better crit chance.

Why is that at all clear? The talent says it works when using a single one-handed weapon. It says nothing about ONLY using a single one-handed weapon. Why shouldn't it work with a shield? Because there's a sword&board talent? That's not a good enough reason.

Some of the spots have a semi-randomized drop. A ranged weapon spot could be any ranged weapon. The spot at the Adra columns where you get Durance I've seen with 3 different two-handed weapons. Three is not a great baseline, but probably that spot will pick a random 2-H fine weapon to spawn there when you enter the zone for the first time each game.

Your HP don't regenerate, and traps inflict HUGE damage. I've had 2/3rds of my party get maimed from a single trap outside of combat.

Unless you start as a rogue, there's really not much of a reason why Durance is any worse than your main character at Mechanics.

It quite specifically says nothing of the kind.

I also find it really annoying that party members with move orders will stop and start attacking for no discernable reason. Just as bad is when you order someone to move a couple selection circle diameters to the right (with an open route there) and they immediately bolt to the left and try to circle around the entire melee scrum to get there. I'd also like it if my front line people would not run forward into my own AOE effects when an enemy dies. If I have you standing in a place, STAND IN THAT PLACE. Don't go running off! I'm not sure why basic movement AI has gone so far downhill since 1998.

I find Wall of Fire to be extremely good. Combine it with a chokepoint and it melts stuff. It's especially nice against ogres and their caster variants.

No. Tax revenue from the stronghold is based on completing quests, not time passed. The only thing that really seems affected by the passage of time is construction of improvements to the stronghold. So, once you run out of quests to do, the stronghold stops being any kind of source of income (or anything else). This also encourages you to metagame the stronghold - don't do ANY quests until you've acquired it, so you can increment the stronghold progression by doing as many quests as possible after getting it. In my most recent playthrough, I basically walked into GIlded Vale, and then walked straight out the other side after gathering up a couple companions to go the Caed Nua. It wasn't until after the stronghold was underway that I went back and played the game "legit". This also served to get me companions early so I didn't have to deal with their horrendous talent picks by getting them later.

The only time you really need to carefully budget is prior to doing Raedric's hold. If you wipe out all of the guards there, you'll typically walk out with about 20k worth of saleable junk. This more or less sets you up permenantly.

I'm nearly (I think) at the end of Act II, and currently have just under 90k copper. I've bought very little, stronghold upgrades mostly. Have not bothered to do any enchanting. This is on Hard.

I've been in there in 4 games so far, and have never found the gloves in that spot.

I found them in a hidden (mechanics) compartment in the room with the Nridek during the Bronze Of The Lake quest for the Dozens. If they aren't there every time, well that's highly annoying. It also means you need to sign up with the Dozens, which some may not want to do.

There is a pair of +2 mechanics gloves available, so you can hit everything with an investment of 10.

Yes, that fight is pretty bad, if for no other reason than the guy who drops the Sanguine Plate is well, WEARING the Sanguine Plate, and thus benefits from its retaliation ability. Need to split them up a bit, and have a way to stun that guy so he can't keep hitting you back.

Go to the docks, get the quest from the merchant to give the seeds to the guy in Copperlane. Finish that quest however you like, and this gives access to Pellegina. Once that's done, you can go to the embassy in First Fires and the ambassador will talk to you, he gives the quest that results in the fight that drops the Sanguine Plate.

My current main is a quarterstaff using Hearth Orlan. He just about leads the rest of the group combined in total damage inflicted. I grabbed Durance's staff when I recruited him (it's quite spiffy with the bonus fire damage), and he stands behind the tanks and just murderizes stuff in melee, with generous support from Mind Wave, and Mental Binding. Devastating, damaging, very fast cast time, and use little focus.

Probably easier to just have the 15 dex, since you'll probably want that anyway in order to get any of your abilities to work in between monster attacks for the duration of the game. Plus the +Reflex, which is a huge killer from nuker monsters.

No, that's not what he pretty much said. He pretty much said both factions won't like it, and

Well, we can hope that the severity is not so high, because Mind Blades got severely thumped. I don't even bother using it anymore. It barely even tickles anything.

Except that's just flat untrue. The Helm Of Balduran is an end-game ToB item.

Whatever the goal may have been, what we have is a game where tanks are nearly indestructable, and everyone who isn't a tank is a grease stain as soon as they get a monster's attention. The other deliterious side effect of this situation is that it strongly biases DPS characters to being ranged (since any character in melee is going to get hit), which makes the Chanter reload chant even more powerful and desirable. So, I'm seeing the exact opposite of the expressed goal being the game's reality.

During a fight with something, you can mouseover an attack messege and get an exact breakdown in how it worked. It will show your Accuracy, their Defense, your roll, and what the result was. If you assume that you'll roll about a 50 each time, that will give you a reasonable idea of how much bonus your accuracy is giving you. Generally, yes. The other characters are (in theory, anyway) not going to be attacked very often and deflection won't help them very much. Heavier armor will drastically reduce their damage output. There's no difference between the two. Endurance is per-fight, Health is per-rest. Any damage you take hits both equally. Give him a shield and/or some defensive talents to keep him up longer, or give him a reach weapon so he can stand behind the frontline and still hit stuff. One of my biggest issues with PoE's combat mechanic is the "Holy Trinity" approach, which I absolutely detest as a design mechanic. Tanks become so tanky that in order to hurt them, the monsters have to be so overwhelming that they turn any non-tank into finger paint in half a second. It squeezes out rounded characters and puts absolute priority on creating absurdly specialized cogs.

I've seen stat requirements up to 19 so far, and that's just up through Defiance Bay. Put plainly, unless you absolutely cripple yourself outside of conversations, it's just not practicle to boost conversation skills high enough to get all of them. 19 in Perception, Resolve, Intelligence, Might...not happening. Plus on top of the attributes are the skill requirements. So far I've seen the need for +5 in a couple different skill types.

Wipe out all of the guards in Raederic's hold. Selling their gear nets you a good 18-20k copper.