Ichthyic

yeah, i love the look of the adra armor, but the special on it i find only useful for things like fighting dragons, and even that when I am underleveled for the encounter. I wish it were easier to mod this game. I know you can change the models that various items use, but I have yet to figure out which of the files inside a given asset bundle has that particular information. the only person I have seen do it successfully did it with a hex editor. and playing around with changing multiple files until he found the right set of bytes. too much bother.

"I disagree on the Redeemer. I think that its anti-vessel insta-kill ability is utterly imbalanced to the point of being game breaking." then, you're simply wrong, because you haven't actually worked out the numbers. seriously, try out the flameblade, and tell me you don't actually kill vessels faster with that, because you will.

the knockout stage of the redeemer is ridiculously easy. go into your AI settings, and set your behavior to completely passive. she will just stand there and get hit. have someone with spells/scrolls/container of ashes, revive as needed. you literally can do this in less than 2 minutes in a single combat. ah, and btw... the redeemer is hardly OP. the effect ONLY works on vessels, and frankly... I noticed little difference in killing speed with her using that weapon, vs using a fully upgraded Rumbalt, or even worse, the flameblade from the forge gauntlets, which actually far outperfoms any other 2h in raw damage against any enemy not resistant to fire. it's a bit more even when you use redeemer on a barb, as the proc can trigger via carnage, but still... it's very close in comparison to the flameblade, which again just does MASSIVE damage against vessels. The one and only exception being ancient deathguards. I think there are exactly 6 of those in the entire game? your second point, that the soulbound weapons are rather mediocre, is far closer to accurate. the only two that are really any good, and I use regularly, are the very first one you get (the scepter) on a blast mage, and the stormcaller on a ranger. oh, and the shield is certainly the best shield in the game, but it still isn't OP. something like being able to add ONE enchant of your choice to any soubound item would likely make them much more interesting.

I think this changed in either 3.01 or 3.02, but nothing that procs damage on crit hit will generate focus any more. tested with every weapon I have on my cipher. just fyi. also, weapons that DOT do not generate any extra focus, just like the DOT from envenomed strike doesn't. really... blunderbus is still by far the best weapon type to generate burst focus for ranged cipher. I've never needed to switch to a warbow to generate focus... ever. just go armsmaster, quickswitch, and use the Coil of Resourcefulness belt... and you get zero switch times, no matter what time in your cooldowns you swap (aside from doing the immediate swap as soon as you fire, which I often take advantage to cast a spell at zero recovery speed instead). switch to pistols for things with DR over 20 (because with leadspitter, ryona's, penetrating shot... you already have base 15 damage penetration). melee is still best with resolution/stilleto combo, or resolution/purgatory/bittercut, depending on what kind of damage you want to do). Scon's roar outperforms leadspitter on anything that has less than 15 DR. My combat routinely is: Cast phantom foes, shoot with Scon's, cast amp wave... shoot with leadspitter, then the time machine or another amp wave, then... whatever needs mopping up if the fight is not already over by then. I so rarely actually use anything else, even though there are plenty of great powers. it's just... these things allow for near complete battlefield control (for anything not completely immune to prone, anyway). pretty much, I only have ever bothered using pistols against dragons. oh, and dulcanele outperforms fellstroke, every time. I think the ambush feature from fellstroke is not working correctly, or it would at least outperform dulcanele on regular flanking attacks. that said, this is a party build... if I was soloing my cipher, then yeah... warbow would definitely feature in a third slot.

so, just noticed that there are now matching helms to go with 3 popular armors (scars, adra, sanguine). AFAICT, there are no added objective benefits to having a "complete set" though. anyone notice anything different?

...which you also get from just killing her and her group of mercs.

another cheat you might want to try is giving yourself a few copies of the Father's Teeth Amulet (since it has charges). summons rot skulls (wand that does heavy crush plus corrode explosion damage). additem fathers_teeth 5 that will give you 20 charges worth use that when you need to clear weak groups fast, or for the very rare times when pierce/fire just isn't going to get the job done.

assuming by "warrior" you mean fighter class: Curoc's brand as your main weapon. that will allow you do damage any creature in the game (does pierce OR fire damage base, whatever the critter is less resistant to). plus, bonus combusting wounds ftw. plus... a free fireball per rest! whee! wands are fast weapons, but they are 2h, so no shields. other than that? since no shield, you likely are going to play a run and gun type fighter, so might as well keep armor to scale at most. weapon specialization/mastery will help you with the low damage a bit, take penetrating shot for the increased DR bypass, as the -20% speed on attack won't affect a wand too much. Oh, and take marksman of course. if sundering blow works with ranged (does it?) then take that. that's about all I can think of to make a fighter into a *pew pew* harry potterite. if you plan to run this as a wand warrior to start, instead of respeccing... I would recommend just giving yourself Curoc's brand to start the game with, via the console: tilde key to open console, then hit enter, then: additem px1_wand_curocs_brand 1 then hit enter again because frankly, wands are fairly weak, and you will be wanting to experiment with how best to use it immediately. also because... I can't recall where the heck you find that wand.

since we're on the subject of ciphers... the one thing I never was satisfied with was what armor to use for your average ruffian build cipher. gambio's is what I usually settle on (free speed buff ftw), but this time I went with vengiatta rugia, to try out the bonus to flanked, plus I like the way it looks. what are other cipher user's favorite armors?

if you like the most story feedback... choose cipher. there are story line elements and dialogues that play directly on ciphers as a class; probably more than any other class. on normal it also gives you quite a bit of variability to play with, and still squishy enough to be a challenge if you aren't paying attention. also, you can skill your cipher into being the party rogue, with stealth and mechanics. works out quite well. go pirate with ruffian skill and sabers and pistols/blunderbuss; hell you can even wear an eyepatch that will do you good. your stats for a cipher (high int and perception and might) tend to also be good for dialogue choices that avoid combats, the only lack being that resolve is typically a dump stat for ranged ciphers, though on normal you can boost that as well, if you then keep your con low and your dex low. Can probably get away with setting your resolution to 13, as there are several items that can boost it by 3 to get you to 16, which allows you to pass most dialogue checks for resolve. for the absolute most variability in combat, I would recommend a druid. pretty much good at anything, and you get spiritshifts to liven things up a bit if you tire of casting spells or just need the extra huge melee boost. oh, also, you can change the difficulty on the fly between easy/normal/hard (will reset on reloading the area you are in), so you can start on easy, then if too easy, switch to normal, then hard once you get the hang of it and have some good gear.

If you are playing POTD when you grab this staff.... you might have some problems with the part where you are supposed to level it by "killing blights", since almost all of the blights you run into in WM are immune to blunt. so here's the tip: bring a druid. during combat, have the druid cast the spell "minor blight". whoever has the greenstone staff can then target the minor blight and kill it with the staff. bonus- it won't even fight back. Repeat 5 times, done (yes, you can do this in a single combat even). the only tricky part is you need to lock down something in combat to keep the combat going until you can kill the summoned blight(s). suggest finding a single enemy target, or one that is left at the end of group combat, then just keep it paralyzed or otherwise immobile (scrolls, fetid caress, cipher, knockdowns, whatever) while your druid does his summons. turns out to be the easiest leveling chore of any weapon.

just updating this; there are two helmet types: type 1: +3 might, preservation (50 defense on prone/stunned). you get this one by answering most of the questions with you "surviving" the encounter. type 2: +3 might, retaliation you get this by going kamikaze for every encounter.

just started the WM2 areas for the first time (started a replay from scratch when I got the expansion pack a couple weeks back). where do you actually get Abydon's hammer?

mourning gloves have been fixed in 3.02 btw... they are far superior to pretty much any other kind of glove now, for almost every character you expect to actually kill things (obviously terrible gloves for characters whose role it is to tank or cast buffs/debuffs). +10% bonus attack speed +5 all defenses (works like cloak of comfort, so stacks on top of defenses from rings, etc... except for the cloak of comfort itself, which it does not stack with) +10 concentration (meh, but a tiny chance less your attacks will be interrupted) +15 interrupt (this is the same as the feat, and stacks with it, so very nice) +15 endurance (per kill - again very nice considering monks are taking damage all the time, and do tend to kill things fairly quickly). -1 resolve (i guess they had to make a "downside"... but it is unnoticeable) on a monk, the only competition would be with blood testament, but it's like trading a bit of extra offense vs a whole lot of defense, plus still a bit of offense (in the + speed). gauntlets of swift action starts off better, but as soon as you get your first kill, mourning gloves continue to be better from then on. especially given monks hit like trucks and get kills quickly. that said, I tend to use mourning gloves on my tidefall barbarian. and yes, if you kill things with carnage, it triggers the +15 endurance.

also... blights. also... flesh constructs. better weaponize your monk if you plan to solo WM; there are several areas with blunt resistant, or even completely immune, foes. blunt immunes are even more common on POTD.

I have been thinking of doing a barbershop quartet run for almost a year now. maybe it's time.

another thing not often mentioned with ciphers, is the level 2 spell: phantom foes. because of the rest mechanics in the game that can give you really good bonuses against flanked enemies with some survival skill, this makes phantom foes a great first spell to use against groups of enemies. with level 12 survival, you now are automatically doing 20% extra damage to them once you cast this. aside from that bonus, it also frightens them, which makes them slightly easier for you to hit, and them less likely to hit you. all for just 20 focus. bargain. really REALLY useful if you are playing a solo cipher, where you are not going to be flanking enemies very often otherwise.

good catch.

eternity keeper is actually the easiest way to do it... well, except for the fact that the author hasn't yet updated it for 3.02

they work equally well either way. play melee, and use the fantastic buff spells and cone damage spells. play ranged and use penetrating burst attacks and round aoe spells. penetrating burst attacks are awesome with the right instrument. Plus, there are spells designed for burst wizards to lob elemental damage that way as well.

he always stays at your stronghold for a day or so whenever he visits. but no, there is no avatar of him in your meeting hall.

skydragon indeed noticeably buffed. soooo.... much... stunning... the entire battle has been buffed, actually, and in POTD there are several greater blights that will immediately cast returning storm all over the place, so you have the dragon with lightning breath, and the returning storms proccing everywhere... very irritating. still, the dragon itself doesn't do as much damage as say, the ardra dragon does. that fight can go south quick because of the way enemies stream into that fight in stages. though the dragon seems more of a glass cannon than I recall. went down pretty fast.

for me it's always a tossup between tidefall and Rumbalt, since rumbalt does way more damage if you are hitting things with low deflection. plus, free prone. but otherwise, I would go with the suggestions kdubya made, though I don't think the rings of liberating are a good thing to replace the skill with, since there are actually some really useful rings out there.

after you complete his request... he will come back again later. then you can buy items from him. he can trigger any time any character is supposed to trigger appearing at your stronghold thereafter. I've had him appear 5 times so far to sell me stuff after I finished his quest. not a bug.

did you count the bonus 20% from the raw damage? raw damage of course not being affected by DR.