KDubya

Personally if I only have one Monk on the team he will use fists, especially if it is Zahua. The reasons are fists self upgrade, don't require Durgan steel, have a nice set of sandals that boost damage and because he starts with Torment's Reach which does best with dual wielding as it is a full attack. If Zahua started with Swift Strikes you could skip Torment's Reach and replace with Force of Anguish and get a spammable 10+ second prone. If you have two Monks on the team one should use weapons, if dual wielding go for Torment's, if two hander go for Force of Anguish. Both should take Swift Strikes and Lightning Strikes. If the Monk is not getting wounds he is still putting out some mean damage just from auto attacking. On PotD my plate wearing Juggernaut Monk with 25+ DR gets plenty of wounds - just be the first target and you'll get a few missile strikes. Lots of times I'll be able to summon the Twins before I've closed with the enemy just from the enemies Alpha strike.

Following orders only fails as a defense if your side loses the war. With regards to Devil of Caroc she is not evil. Everyone she killed is a murdering arsonist, she never killed anyone who didn't have it coming. She's just rebalancing the scales of Justice, sort of like a renaissance era Josey Wales.

Also why does it lower your DPS? Why does it not work with two weapon style? Why does it do such crappy base damage?

If you want to run into a crowd, kick some ass and survive you might want to look into a heavy plate wearing Monk with two fists o' fury. Much more durable than a Barbarian and you still have AoE attacks from the cone of Torment's Reach and the line attack from Flagellant's. A lot easier on the specs as well since a ten intellect will suffice, especially with a +2 item and some food. Barbs are a one trick pony - Carnage - but it is a really nice trick. AoE damage with every melee attack. Nothing clears trash mobs faster than a Barb (or at least nothing that doesn't require resting to get back spells ) As Anaeme pointed out you need a lot of stats and a lot really high. If you go for max Perception for the accuracy and interrupts and the max intellect for the area increase to Carnage you can run out of points with everything else at a 10. Not really a death dealer but you will have good CC. For a more pure damage dealer you could drop Perception to ten, use accuracy weapons like spears, maybe shave a few off of intellect and add what you can to Might and Dex. Try for zero recovery. if you were willing to go with two handed instead of dual wield you could go with reach weapons like quarterstaff or pikes. These would let you wear a dress and hide behind the tough melee guys while you hit from the second row. Much more survivability and faster attack speeds.

I'd trade Durance or Aloth for Pellagrina. Paladins are great team players and her new abilities are pretty cool. Plus with LoH she can keep itumaak alive longer. With the new level seven ability Persistent Distraction your Rogue can set up their own Deathblows merely by flanking the target. Your shield will give you enough deflection to survive in melee while you flank and spank with +150% damage adders. With this you don't need to cause additional effect, just battlefield positioning.

I've always found Lesser Wounds to be pretty bad. If I take 80 points of damage I get 8 wounds, with a talent you'll get 10 wounds. Not much difference and wounds expire in like 10 seconds anyway plus you are limited to having only ten at a time.. If wounds lasted longer and could be stacked higher than ten it might be worth a talent pick. I'd rather take a damaging talent like Vulnerable Attack, Savage Attack, Apprentice Sneak Attack or grab some of the defense boosters like the Fortitude boost or the Will boost. Even taking weapon and shield to super augment your deflection and Reflex when you occasionally swap to Fist and Shield Captain America style would be a much better choice than Lesser Wounds.

Hmm, do you expect something to change? Not oercentage wise, but in flat numbers. 21 to 26 frames is not a big difference. You can spare 10 points of DEX and only lose 5 frames - great deal! 20% faster is still 20% faster. When you attack four times with your 10 dex, the 20 dex guy attacks five times. Where will you place five stat points that will be better than that? With the large number of damage adds Might is not that attractive and your Perception is probably near maxed anyway. Also it is a long time till you get the gear needed to get zero recovery, until then 20 dex on a rogue is way superior to 10 dex. I personally wouldn't re-spec out of dex after getting to zero recovery, that just feels wrong but YMMV.

For a tanky rogue (Devil can do this as well). Might 10 - Rogues get a lot of damage adders Con 10 - I don't like to dump con on PotD Dex 18 - faster actions Per 18 - better accuracy, interrupts and more crits Int 4 - the minimum with +4 from food/items to be able to chain prone with We Toki or Tall Grass Res - 18 - to balance out the low will from intellect and for good dialogue 1 - Crippling Strike - two uses instead of one 2 - Weapon Focus - axes, warhammers, spears, sabres whatever you like 3 - Reckless Assault - +8 acc, -8 defl, +20% damage 4 - Weapon and Shield style - +6 defl and shield adds to reflex 5 - Deep Wounds - raw damage and resets with every hit so low intellect does not matter 6 - Superior Deflection - +5 deflection 7 - Persistent Distraction - great ability, lets you set up deathblows with flanking 8 - Deflecting Assault - +5 deflection 9 - Dirty Fighting - 10% hit>crit 10 - Vicious Fighting - 10% hit >crit 11 - Deathblows - the reason to be a rogue 12 - Wild Card - Savage Attack (I'd skip if you are going with an on crit weapon), interrupting blows, fast runner - avoid things with durations as they won't last long 13 - Adept Evasion - You have a good reflex save, or Sap is another OK choice Compared to a Fighter you will have +8 accuracy from Reckless or be even if you go with large shields. For deflection you will be 15 behind at start, -23 with reckless, with talents you will get back 16, plus the shield. Damage wise consistent deathblows will get you +150% damage compared to a Fighter at +25%. A tanky Fighter is way more tanky than you can ever be, but a Fighter going for DPS - that guy you can be as tanky as plus do more damage. Your Rogue will have Fortitude and Will saves that are unaugmented but your Reflex save will be really high. You won't have a lot of health and endurance. You will have enough deflection that you can flank and survive the counterattack without needing to be ready to escape. With a Durgan shield and a durgan weapon you can have a pretty fast attack that will have 20-30% hit to crit with a really high accuracy, use We Toki and you can prone them one at a time and kill them quickly.

If you will have two paladins then one of them can get by with a ten intellect, just give the dumber one the DR aura, let the smarter one (Pellagrina) have the accuracy aura. Might 18 Con 10 Dex 10 Per 15 Int 10 Res 15 I've done this as a two hander Kind Wayfarer using TideFall and had a good time in PotD. Led the team in damage. Gets good dialogue from Per and Resolve. The might makes up for the average intellect as far as healing goes. Plus you can eat cassita casserole for +2 and wear a +2 item to easily bring intellect up to 14. Once you get Sacred Immolation and Scion of Flame you burn everything down.

If your team is durable then steady single target damage works fine on PotD. Four tough melee guys up front (monks, paladins, chanter) can hold the front and kill what is in front of them while taking minimal damage. Reach weapons let them double up on enemies or stay in the second row if there is a choke point. One or two ranged guys can then focus on distant threats or on dropping the front line. Having some sort of movement ability like Flagellant's Path, Charge or Dragon Leap let you jump past the frontline and cause havoc in the back.

A Paladin with stats of 10+ everywhere, with three at 15 and then 3 points left over works well. Get a two handed weapon, heavy armor and you are tanky enough as well as dishing out enough damage to deter dis-engagement. Plus you get all the usual Paladin goodies. Paladins make the team better, Fighters don't. A tanky monk like the Juggernaut works really well. For extra fun have both and then add in a melee chanter. Two Paladins, a monk and a chanter make any team better and can hold the line against whatever comes.

They are using the Juggernaut build Now you know how the AI feels.

I'll roll up a few henchmen to fill up the party along with Eder and Aloth. Then I'll drop henchmen as I get the story companions. I really like Kana, Devil, Pellagrina and Zahua as both personalities and stat/abilities. I like Eder for the personality, not a Fighter fan since 2.0 and I discovered Monks, but he makes a fine Fighter. Grieving Mother I dislike the personality and the story. Aloth is pretty bland and boring. Sagani's American accent does throw off the immersion, but Rangers are great. The banter about itumaak with Eder is always fun. Durance tends to end up as a sacrifice Hiravois tends to get replaced once someone starts to use Stormcaller. Just not a big Druid fan.

Defender by any name would be a bad ability. +2 engagement for -5 deflection is just a terrible return on investment. Now if they combined the new prone attack on disengagement with Defender or Wary Defender then you'd have something interesting that'd open up new possibilities.

Yap thanks I did spec zuhua as juggernaut going forward and he is very strong with that setup. He has perfect stats for it too. Clocking at almost 1000 damage per combat hour atm at level 7. I made sure to take vulnerable attack at level 4 though. But lighting strikes still don't stack with turning wheel or do they? I took lighting strikes and stunning blows for now. Did all the first round of bounties now at level 7 after inserting aloth for the second cipher just for some variation. So far I prefer zuhua with plain old fists. Sure his deflection is lower than with larder door and hatchet etc but he hits back really hard and if he should go down (happens rarely but did happen against dweller and Co) it is already after he dealt a ton of damage to to the enemy. I tried gemstone staff but was not impressed. I like fast weapons except on maneha where carnage sort of compensates for slow estoc weapons. What are post patch 3.0 best weapons for zuhua? And armor? I use hendryks coat (from crucible Knights merchant) because it seems good with the prone push defense and is exceptional, but is sanguine generally considered better or a retaliation armor? Lightning Strikes works with Turning Wheel but Stunning Blows is a fine substitute. It is a full attack and does not require any wounds. Turning Wheel has the bonus of not needing you to do anything. I also prefer just fists. If you have two monks you only have one set of the sandals so going with dual wielded weapons for the second Monk is not a bad plan. Dual wield takes full advantage of the Full Attack from Torment's Reach and Stunning Blows. For weapons dual Sabres, Battle axes, warhammers, even swords. Pretty much any average speed weapon will do fine. I find that fast speed weapons other than fists perform not as well when it comes to Torment's spam which puts out the most damage per wound. With weapons you can go for zero recovery which is nice. For that you'd need Swift Strikes with two durgan enchanted speed weapons. (1.25x1.15x1.15x1.2x1.2x1.2) = 2.85 and full plate is 2.5 + .2 (vulnerable strike) One speed weapon with durgan plate would work without vulnerable strike. For armor I like any heavy set, I prefer Plate for the better DR compared to Brigandine, but Brigandine has some really nice armors like the retaliation one. Sanguine is probably better on someone else as the Frenzy speed boost overwrites the Swift Strikes boost.

Kana took skeletons with his level one pick. You can not get rid of it without using IE Mod or some other editor.

In my opinion if you need to kite the enemy and abuse the AI it'd be better to come back at a higher level and have more of a straight up fair fight. If that is too easy get rid of the hired optimized cipher and replace with a story companion. For Zahua I'd suggest looking at the Juggernaut build. His stats work well for that.

On PotD I'm going to try to do Act II up to level nine, then go to upscaled White March pt 1, finish that go on to up scaled white march part 2 then go to upscaled Act III. Will need to do Endless Paths as needed to hit level nine without starting Act III. Want to try and save as much as I can in order to level up soulbound weapons.

Durance makes a great offering for any sort of melee tank. The bonus con and the bonus endurance (or was it health?) is great.

A Barbarian will be much better at this due to carnage. Get a priest and use brute force with Mabec's morning star and you'll either stun or interrupt everyone. Even a Monk will be better with stunning fist and Force of Anguish which prones for like double the duration of a fighter and is spammable for two wounds. A fighter gets 2 knockdowns, maybe into the fray, clear cut might be per rest. The new ability might prone if someone disengages from you. I t seems pretty situational. On top of it all of their CC is from prones which is a common immunity for foes.

Plus you could have Wodewys and another on hit weapon like Vile Loner's Lance in one weapon set and two speed or damaging weapons on another weapon set. Start with the axe, get the proc of Nature's Mark and then swap to the other set.

So what happens with Monk's fists past level 14? Do they get another accuracy and damage bump? That'd make them more comparable to Durgan enchanted weapons.

A monk in heavy plate with a 15+ base constitution is not going to take that much damage and will have a huge health pool. Combine 25+ DR with the Paladin hit>graze aura and some Durgan enchanted armor for additional hit>graze and you can withstand an awful lot of damage. The monk is not going to force you to rest too much. If you have melee heavy party just hold back whomever starts to accrue too much damage for a few seconds at the start of a fight so that the damage gets spread around between several guys. You can even make good use out of field triage with a high con high health character as it is percentage based. A Monk, 2 Paladins, 1-2 Rangers, 1-2 Chanters, and 0-1 Ciphers will make a durable team that will not need to rest except for health and can handle what ever comes in PotD. It is even fairly low micro except for the Cipher.

If you think Fighters are useful you really need to try out a Monk. Pretty much anything is better with a Monk. Same base accuracy, and endurance, 6x instead of 5x health and 5 less deflection. An easily maintained +25% speed buff and a +25% damage lash, spammable knockdown that lasts 3x longer than a fighter, spammable AoE full attacks with +50% crush lash. Getting hit happens all on its own at PotD, you don't need to do anything special The disengagement and movement abilities all get made obsolete by Flagellent's Path at level 11. Heavy armor on a monk works fine. As an added bonus a Monk's fists self upgrade, saving you crafting materials at the cost of not being able to durgan or add a lash. At level 13 Fighters get an attack that debuffs DR and adds +20% damage to one attack - it'd be great at level one but at level 13 it is terrible. At level 13 Monks get too summon two kick ass twins that are great. Some of the hardest fights in the game are against Monks - the drunken Orlan, the bounty in White March. NPC Fighters just take longer to kill but you are never in danger of losing to them.

I'm going to run in PotD the following: Zahua - Juggernaut build Devil of Caroc - sword and board durable rogue build Kana - two handed melee, maybe Thayn's Reach pike for the debuff Pellagina - take her new power, probably two handers and not sure for the PC or the last spot. Was thinking of: 1.) Dual wielding Gold Pact Paladin, Island Aumaua sabres/stillettos/arquebus or Boreal Dwarf two hander with Estocs- this would get me two paladins and all the goodness that comes from that. 2.)Chanter - Drake's Ambassador but work in Stormcaller into the mix maybe - this would get me two chanters and all the goodness that comes from that 3.) Cipher - melee based maybe sword and retaliation shield like Backlash Bedlam or maybe with reach weapon like quarterstaff (the speed one from Endless level 3)