Akimbo

Uhm, for crit builds Arbalest are the best, as they have a passive chance to knockdown on crits. In fact, outside of niche conditions, Arbalest are still the best ranged weapon hands down.

No, ranged is quite powerful right now still.

Nope, you're totally right, it doesn't say melee. I must have been thinking of savage attack. Still, point remains, it is melee only.

I'm actually looking to replace my Paladin now. I have a godlike moon paladin as a tank. She's done well, casually tanks 5+ enemies, but she just doesn't do enough. Thinking of replacing her with an off-tank Fire godlike Fighter. Will technically have two off-tanks and no main tank, but if the enemies are dead, it shouldn't really matter.

It quite specifically says melee only.

In the first Keep you attack/sneak into (Raedric's), on the top floor there's the robes you use as a disguise so the monks/templars don't attack you. As far as I can remember they're the best clothes in the game stats wise: 2DR 0% Penalty

Paladins have no problem holding aggro, you don't even need the talents for holding aggro if your micro is quick enough. If you really want to take a Paladin, the classic Sword & Board tank is probably your best bet. If you try and focus on damage, then you end up just being a bad warrior. As a PC the Paladin gets his proper buffs to defenses, making him/her a powerful tank and with some decent gear choices, your damage won't be -bad-, just not great. The biggest problem with a Paladin, is that they don't have anything that really sets them apart. Some weak buffs that don't always stack, some on-kill abilities that don't help because you'll rarely be doing the killing etc. All that said, I run a non-PC Moon Godlike as my party tank. She holds aggro very well, especially with the self-heal and while she doesn't do a lot of damage, she can chip away at the enemies.

I went with Durance, Inspired Flame (+10 accuracy for Arquebus) and an Arquebus. Along with a Chanter with the ranged speed chant and the gunner talent my priest packs a punch and at a fairly safe distance. If you don't want a firearm, I suggest an Arbalest. I really don't think going into melee range as a priest is a good idea, though it is certainly possible.

I like my dungeon. I can arrest people and just put them there. Why would I want to do that? Well at the moment I'm not sure, it doesn't seem to really be beneficial to me. The main problem that I see with the system, is that I lose out on their loot! So right now, I have to do every fight twice: Once to see if they have loot work killing them for. Once to arrest them if they don't. My solution? A chest in the dungeons that holds their "confiscated goods", so that you don't lose out on potential loot just by roleplaying and not murdering everyone when they surrender.

Which is generally the most useful slayer enchantment? By default I tend to lean towards Kith, simply because most of what I've fought so far have been "sentient humanoids". However does this change later in the game? Basically I'm looking to enchant Tidefall or perhaps an Estoc for my Chanter, who is fed up of doing no damage...so I'm looking to see what the "best" options are. e.g. Probably fire lash, since I have the talent that improves burning damage already.

We tested this in beta. The strikes all hit but they don't stack on the target, only the longest duration one takes effect. This thread seems to argue otherwise? http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/75468-envenomed-strike/

Thanks guys, I think after reading a lot of posts, it can be easy to forget that people are talking about their glass-cannon DPS builds of level 9+. It seems sometimes that people mean their tanks are always doing that kind of damage. (Though there seem to be a few OP builds that can tank AND do that kind of damage.)

I feel like I'm missing something vitally important in this game. My chanter generally hits for 3-10 damage depending on enemy DT, however I see people regularly talk about how they hit for 40+ vs basically everything. Am I missing something vital in my gameplay? Are they including all buffs in those numbers? Are they "abusing" Estocs/Maces/Stilettos; as they seem to be the only really viable weapons due to their DT penetration?

I havnt tried it but would a chant that combines the frost chant with the fire chant work? or the fire and the speed? my thinking is that if you could slow and damage people following you you could have a fun time running around people in circles You could, but I think it's ultimately pointless. One thing that did occur to me was to get the fire AoE phrase, sit the Chanter in a doorway then have a Priest cast withdraw on them.

I'm in the process of going round collecting NPC companions now. I'm just stuffing them in the Stronghold until I can be bothered to do their quests. Otherwise I'm always going to use a full party of custom NPCs. I'd just cheat some more money tbh, not sure why you "wasted" it all trying out builds!

Yes. The companion stats were awful, but have been rebalanced. Not sure how good they are now, but they're not supposed to be perfect min-max characters. They're supposed to be people, who have their own flaws as well as strengths. This is an RPG after all. If you want min/maxed OP characters, then make a custom adventurer. More on topic, sorry I didn't realise you wanted to remove racial abilities, but I don't think it's possible to recreate them entirely from scratch...

Phrase level should = # of chants. Finish chanting a level 3 phrase? Now you have 3 chants and can use a level 1 invocation. Level 3 Invocation needs 5 chants? Then you need to finish: 1 level 3 phrase + 1 level 2 phrase, 1 level 3 phrase + 2x level 1 phrase, etc. etc. Not sure how well or balanced this would be, might need some more specific tweaking to be "fair". However I still find myself thinking I should have just made a fighter...and I never play pure fighters.

Starting with your top question: - Might directly affects damage dealt by a %, Dexterity affects "delay" between skill / attack use. Ideally you want both of those stats as high as possible. - Perception does nothing for finding traps. That falls under the "Mechanics" skill. - If you melee, people tend to use a pike or estoc for their rogue. Pikes have reach allowing the rogue to attack from behind a tank. Estocs have DR penetration (5 points). A lot of people get stuck on the dual-wield stereotype for rogues, which with a certain set up can work fine, but isn't always "best". You'll have audio cues if your rogue is getting resisted due to DR, but better to just deal with that problem beforehand. - No need. Use a good weapon like an Arbalest to initiate combat. (Hobbling shot & sneak attack initiation = yay). Either use a pike or if you're confident with micro, an Estoc. No need to worry about DR that way. - No, if you use a slow weapon with heavy armour, you'll attack even slower! - The initial strike is what is important. As is having a high enough amount of damage to make DR not such an issue in general. It's why Arbalests were so good. No with their damage nerf, they're still good, just not "Use Arbalest or nothing". The bows imo are still terrible, though I think they are viable with penetrating shot and constant sneak attacks. - The two-handed talent is melee only. That's the most important part and many (all?) classes can provide this benefit. Otherwise I can't think of anything special that stands out.

Tidefall - 2H Greatsword, has 20% leech - Found in hidden loot in the Dragon's gold pile.

Sooooo, I and a handful of others have been asking WHERE we find these "early" and "easy" retaliation items, I've found a vague reference to getting the Sanguine armour from an adventurer group, but what about this "Hiro's" (typo?) or one of the other items (a cape?). Some help would be appreciated

This worked perfectly for me. Respecced both my Chanters and a Priest using this.

Isn't Per 3 reducing your deflection by like at least -7?

Interested in this build, I found out what the Sanguine armour is, could someone explain what/where "Hiro's" is please?

Make sure you add it to the weapon thread!