KDubya

I'd try to get to a base 10 intellect, so many Paladin abilities trigger off intellect that you really don't want a malus. A base 10, some cassita casserole and one item will get you 14 and that is plenty. If you get a durgan speed weapon, a durgan shield, Outlander's frenzy, and gauntlets of swift action you'd be zero recovery in hide armor or in durgan breastplate (1.15*1.2*1.15*1.25*1.15= 2.28) Zero recovery would let you drop some dex to get int and con back up to 10.

He may hit like a truck ... if and when he hits. That low of a PER isn't so good. All the Might and Dex in the world means little if you can't actually HIT what you're aiming at. At a minumum, I'd drop DEX to 14 and raise PER to 14. You do have Stalker's Link going giving you +10 accuracy and stunning shots will stun for 1.3 seconds per hit or crit even with your 3 intellect. It's a true stun so that gets you another +30 to hit. An additional +4 from 14 Perception is not as useful as +12% attack speed as Rangers have high base accuracy to start with Might be beneficial to lower Resolve and raise Intellect to try and get to where you can chain stun with stunning blows. Instead of TideFall you could dual wield Drawn in Spring (for the wounding) and March Steel dagger or Unlabored Blade.

If you want more of a Minsc character make a melee Ranger. Look at Boereor's Riptide build. Might 18 - more damage Con 11 - little bit of con Dex 18 - more speed Per 10 - base Int 3 - avoid any duration based abilities Res 18 - more tanky Use a war pig (boar), a wounding weapon (TideFall greatsword), take the damage adds for the pet, stunning shots, swift strikes (works with melee). The pig will hit like a truck, work as a team and obliterate foes.

An added bonus with using this for Zahua is that it'd only use one piece of Durgan steel for the armor, thus freeing up more for the rest of the team. I've found that the AI does not use Force of Anguish or Flagellant's Path on its own (which I prefer so that I can target them properly), does the AI use Skyward kick on its own? Gives a nice, more monkish, alternative to the heavy armored Juggernaut for the many people who dislike heavy armor on a monk but want to use Zahua.

I always take penetrating Shots as she will fight with a bow other than Stormcaller for a lot of the game. Either the Persistence hunting bow with Peasant focus or one of the War bows and Adventurer. I've never really noticed the 20% slower fire rate, but I do notice the +5 damage per shot from a fast firing hunting bow.

What about using the bash shield that has that spell on crit? With a Rogue's high accuracy and hit>crit conversion the spell might proc frequently. I think deep wounds would work as well with it.

Here is the Kind Wayfarer that I have that has lead the team in both total damage and most per hit. This is with equipment, the Inn bonus from Stalwart and wielding TideFall. Compared to Gromnir's Grace this guy is more damaging but less tanky and less intellect.

Or you can grab a shield and some defensive talents and use the new disorienting passive when flanking to set up your own deathblows. I'd avoid Cautious Attack as Superior Deflection is almost as good but with no malus. With you deflection at 100+ you won't die that quickly and you'll be cranking out good damage with deathblows caused merely by flanking.

Since I got my married I no longer need to handle my wand staff, my wife takes care of that.....

Another thing to consider is what your team is. I usually go without a priest or any Vancian casters for that matter. Without a Priest a Paladin becomes much more valuable, so much so that I like having both MC Kind Wayfarer and Pellagrina. The team also has Zahua (Juggernaut), Devil (weapon & shield), Kana (tanky two hander with mainly fire lash chant), and Maneha (want to use her, dual wielding Spelltongue and Unlabored Blade). I do best in a phalanx where everyone is tight, mutually supporting, in melee, and in range of each others buffs, chants and auras.

If you want to factor in additional Fighter abilities you can add in a Cipher paralyzing the target first. All I am saying is that a Cipher gets +40% compared to +25% and saves an ability. It is not huge but it is larger. Perhaps using "much more" was inaccurate.

You can't tell from the combat log? Usually you see how the attack roll happens, or perhaps on a mouseover of the activity description.

Yeap. Especially for 2h ones. Since the number of enemies, and hence the number of times this talent has potential to get triggered, is limited. Blood Thirst would be good either prior to when you get to zero recovery via durgan enhanced speed weapons or if you went with a different weapon set up that did not have adequate speed to get to zero recovery. If you went with some sort of max damage per swing type build getting Blood Thirst would be good. On the Rogues - getting distracted when flanking lets you set up your own deathblows merely with battlefield positioning. This is huge if your team does not abuse massive AoE CC in every fight. On Fighters and Ciphers - Ciphers get +40% damage with one class talent that works with every weapon, Fighters get +25% damage in a single weapon group with one class ability and one class talent. Just auto attacking a Cipher does much more damage than a Fighter and uses less resources to do so.

To upgrade the Redeemer I just send the wielder out naked and alone, when they get KO'd I revive them and let them get KO'd again until I get the five revives in combat. The Chanter works well with the revive chant as you can just keep singing and use it again and again. You are correct about the FoD being best with dual wield. Dual Sabres would probably do the best. Plus you can stack Durgan enhancements, Outlander's Frenzy, Dual wield and speed enchants to get to zero recovery much easier with dual wield than two handers. I believe that average speed one handed, with shield and two handers all are 30/60 frames for attack/recovery while dual wielding is 30/30 frames. I believe that if both get to zero recovery than the best DPS is from a two hander as it will swing just as fast as each dual wielded weapon. For a two hander you pretty much need to use an Alacrity potion to get 1.5(alacrity)*1.15(durgan)*1.2(speed)= 2.07 which is enough for durgan robes or durgan padded armor. Adding Gauntlets of speed gets you to 2.38 which is enough for durgan plate or plain scale. I think there are two speed two handers - Blade of the endless Path Estoc and the quarterstaff on level 3 of the endless path. Dual wielding gives you more options to get to zero recovery. With Outlanders Frenzy(1.25)*Durgan weapon(1.15)*Durgan weapon(1.15)*Speed(1.2) + 0.2 (dual wield) = 2.18 which is enough for robes or durgan leather. A second speed weapon and/or Gauntlets of speed will get you to where you can use Vulnerable Attack and wear durgan plate. This lets you do this every battle as it doesn't require a potion. A Durgan shield also adds to your speed. 1.25(Outlanders)*1.15(Durgan weapon)*1.2(Speed)*1.15(durgan shield)*1.15 (gauntlets of speed) = 2.28 which is enough for durgan scale or Vulnerable attack with Durgan Padded. Harder to get than the dual wielder but lets you use a shield and also does not need a potion.

Kdub, I think that you're being a little over the top when saying that Fighters do nothing for the team. Sure, they may not be the highest DPS characters. OTOH, my experience is that their durability and strong if not spectacular damage output makes a fighter a rock in a party's front line. Also, if you want to try to find ways to minimize or at least reduce your micromanagement of the team, fighters tend to be fairly hands off compared to other front liners, like monks. Mind you, I'm not dissing Paladins when I say this. I like having a paladin around as well, even if I don't expect him or her to be a spectacular damage producer. I'm probably still disappointed with Fighters from the 2.0 Defender nerf. I started with Fighters in 1.0 and thought they were great iron golems of death. 2.0 made me see the real cracks in their structure and that is when I discovered Monks and the Juggernaut. After that I feel that Fighters just don't "bring it" They are pretty lite on micro and I do like Charge, but they fall in with the Monk, Barbarian and Rogue as 'buffies" while Chanters and Paladins are "buffers" The "buffers" get the 1+1=4 effect going for the team. Out of the "buffies" the Fighter brings better defense but the game is easier with more offense and just enough defense. Your defense only needs to be "good enough for long enough".

The problem with that is opportunity cost. Level 11 opens up Flagellant's Path which is a great AoE damage and debuff that also zips you across the battlefield. Level 13 gets you the Twins which are crazy good and level 15 opens up Resonant blows which in my limited use seem OK, possibly good. Waiting for level 15 just seems like a long time to wait. You can only store 10 wounds at a time, if you are going to spam out Torment's, Force of Anguish, Flagellant's and maybe the twins you just won't have that many wounds stored up for that long. Plus they time out. If you were going with heavy use of Auto Attack fueled by Turning Wheel then I could see the appeal of Iron Wheel as you will not be using many wounds as is. Even just auto attacking with one wound dropped on Lightning Strikes will have you out damaging a Fighter just using your fists. A Fighter needs Durgan steel weapons, zero recovery with Superb+ enchantments to overtake a Monk in damage output from fists that self upgrade. If desired you could give the Monk the same dual wielded Durgan death dealing weapons and be better than the Fighter again. A Fighter has some cool defensive tricks but PoE is dominated by your ability to survive long enough to dish out massive offense. Defensive abilities in excess of what are needed are wasted. It is better to kill faster than to survive better, plus the delay in killing will result in more damage taken.

You can do fine on PotD with a Kind Wayfarer two handed sword with 18 Might, 15 Per, 15 Res and everything else a 10. A 10 intellect is enough for the entire front line. He led the team in damage output. I always bring one Paladin, for my playstyle I like them much more than a priest. I'd say all Orders can be viable, you just need to identify what your role is and then build for that purpose. I'd drop a Fighter long before I'd ever even think about dropping a Paladin. Fighters do nothing for the team and are outshone by both Monks and Rogues for damage with Paladins giving them a run for their money with Alpha FoD and surpass them once you get Sacred Immolation. Best of all just about everything is per encounter, no need to rest or save your powers.

I want my Aumaua wizard to have six wands set to rotate mounted on a Dwarf with a backpack who acts as a tripod. Where are my fully automatic gatling wands???

I just picture a heavily armored monk as using big spiked gloves and spiked armor in general. If you gave Monks free DR every few levels it would unbalance heavy armor monks. I'd rather have the option to go with heavy armor than getting free DR and have to wear no or light armor. I consider Monks to be the best individual melee guy, Paladins and Chanters synergize with a team much better.

It is a one time check. To upgrade White March Part One you need to be level nine. Or you can use the console and set it up that way. I'm not sure of the proper command but someone will be along that will have it.

How do all of you "deflection = dodging & dexterity" explain a Dragon having a huge deflection? Is something the size of a house moving 'matrix' style causing your gun shot to miss? Or does the dragon just shrug off blows that don't hit very small vulnerable spots, similar to how a high resolve guy can push past the pain and keep fighting. I imagine a high resolve guy as getting hit but just ignoring the pain.

As others have stated having a stat open up another dialogue is not required and many times is not the statement you want to make. This really matters with Paladins, especially if you take off the training wheels and remove the labels. This forces you to choose what best fits your character. To me Perception opens up the observation type of information and questioning. Like a detective noticing clues. Fits any type of personality. Intellect seems to open up the clever "lawyer like word parsing" type statements. The type that gets around an obstacle through the use of a contractual loophole. Resolve seems to open up the sheer willpower and force of personality type statements. The type that does the right thing not the easy thing. I frequently find it hard to roleplay a guy with both the intellect and resolve conversations opened. To me a high Resolve guy would not choose the loophole choice that Intellect guy can choose, YMMV.

Consider the huge deflection on a Dragon. What causes that - matrix like dodging or scales so thick that there are only a few small vulnerable areas that can even cause damage? I think it is due to the small vulnerable areas not matrix dodging. I think of Resolve as a similar situation - through sheer willpower you shrug off the effects of an attack.

I spent two weeks downloading Witcher 3, letting the computer download day and night. It had missing files and could not install. Ended up downloading in Vientiane Laos at a hotel when I made a visa run. No online gaming there that is for sure. Thailand is a great place, lots of fun. I think I'll roll up a new Juggernaut 3.0, stick to a four man team to keep it interesting. More Durgan steel for everyone. Probably Pellagrina, Kana and Devil.

Yeah, the last few odd Monk levels do have a lot of nice choices. It's a shame you can't somehow take Iron Wheel instead of Turning Wheel. Out of interest KDubya, how're your experiments with a higher Intellect Monk going so far, if at all? Not so good, time is just short. I was between projects for two years just hanging out at my farm in Thailand and had a lot of free time. Now back on a project building a power plant and just can't game like I used to.