KDubya

You need to go to Caed Nua and talk to the throne before you go down into Sun in Shadow. Should have an autosave that the game made for you before you jumped into the pit. You can't get out once you jump into the pit.

Also set it to go into slow mode when in combat. That plus the auto pause will help you maintain control. And get used to hitting space bar

Ciphers are still top tier with amplified wave given the few item changes and new abilities. Once you get the Durgan steel that just makes em faster and their time leech emphasizes this which you get enough to start battles with at level 14 which they will have around 50 focus by next expansion to start with. Forget about it if you find gauntlets of swift action. Set an arquebus on them and you get a ridiculous amount of focus to spam amplified wave with and keep enemies pinned especially if you choose good talents like both whips and baby sneak attacks. The ridiculous range and fast cast time on amplified wave is what makes them great everything falls to the ground and takes damage even off screen and you don't have to get close to cast just aim at a teammate. Given accuracy and high levels of perception, dex and int cipher is a wrecking ball. Start off every battle with that and after the next volley or so the enemies practically beg for mercy. My go to class given that arquebus is great against ancient death Knights. I agree that Ciphers are great but they are not a quadratic wizard at high levels. You Cipher starts off with a Time Parasite that makes them like 50% faster. Now you have zero focus, you need to attack and hit to regain focus. You can miss with the attack, especially painful if it is a very slow reloading firearm, maybe instead you go with a fast Stormcaller or Persistence Bow. Going with the faster bow means you'll need a few attacks in order to get out your Amplified Wave. After which you will again be out of focus. It takes time and you need to hit in order to gain and make use of your focus. If you skip the Time Parasite and go straight to Amplified Wave you get that first one off but then you are out of focus and need to attack to get it back, all without the benefit of the speed boost from time parasite. Ciphers are easy to balance due to their need to hit and damage in order to generate focus. The Wizard can instead cast alacrity for +50% speed, and then either go right into casting what ever spell he wants or he can set some defenses via free per encounter spells to give him defenses and endurance comparable to frontline melee. this takes enough time for two fast casts that are boosted by alacrity. The Wizard probably has his defenses and speed up before your Cipher has finished casting Time Parasite at the minimum he is set up before you've gotten off your first attack. Unlike the Wizard your Cipher still has his normal low defenses and low hit points. You can fix them with powers but they all take time and cost focus. The Wizard has no limitation on what he can choose to do other than running out of spells, which at four per level gives you a pretty large quiver to pull from as well as being fully refreshed with the power nap, which you don't even need to abuse as your 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spells with only a few higher level spells will carry the day except for a boss fight where you'll probably rest before and after.

I'm not necessarily in favor of the Alpine Dragon's immunity to crush damage, but I can think of a couple of arguments off the top of my head. First thing's first, it is the player that is supposed to react to the game world and adapt to enemies, not the other way around—unless, of course, you just wanted a game you could mindlessly cut through like butter without ever changing anything that you do. If you build your character around doing crush damage only all the time, you willingly pigeonhole them into a niche; can't complain if not all creatures in the game world adapt to your character's strength by becoming weak to it. It is on you to adapt your tactics/strategies to a fight; not on the game to adapt to your character build. The game offers weapons that do multiple damage types. Some of them do crush damage + something else. You could win most fight with crush damage, then run into the one fight where your usual thing isn't viable and you need to adapt. Swapping to a weapon that does two different damage types is one way of doing that. Besides, most if not all weapon focus talents include all damage types, so you can switch to a weapon that does that particular damage type that you need without losing your +6 Accuracy bonus. I don't mind having the immunities to physical damage types being in the game. Having my two monks run into crush immune Ice Blights was a surprise but nothing that could not be countered. After that experience I carried a spear in one slot just for them. When I saw the Ice Blights around the Alpine Dragon I thought that it'd just mean that I either need to be way less than optimal versus the minions or just go after the Dragon. Having the boss and the minions immune to the same damage type is the complaint. I always metagame that Dragons have such huge deflection scores because it is hard to hit the very few vulnerable areas on a dragon. The 130 deflection is from trying to shoot the dragon in the eye, not from it going Matrix on you. Beyond the huge deflection you have equally large DR. Again it makes sense that even if you hit a soft spot it still is heavily armored, the difference being that you can hurt the dragon by overcoming both deflection and DR, while hitting the rest of the Dragon does no effect and is shown in game as a miss. A fist monk can swap in dual spears and not lose out on the accuracy, again not the big issue. The bigger issue is Torment's Reach, FoA, and Flagellant's Path all do only crush damage, changing from fists to spears changes nothing. Crush immune reduces you to only auto attacks, no other class gets hit this hard with an immunity besides a Monk. From a logic standpoint it is better and more immersive to have really large DR rather than immunity to a physical damage type unless you are going to make something immune to all physical damage, like a ghost or something like that. It makes no sense that I can hit the Alpine Dragon with a two handed Morningstar to no effect but I can kill him with a shotgun or a dagger. You can even kill him with cold spells. I'm not on Trial of Iron so no harm done with a reload. I'll just come back with a few stacks of paralyze scrolls and kill him like every other dragon, other than Sky whom I can kill cold in a straight up fight.

So let me see if I have the good on crit weapons here: In no particular order: Two Handed on crit 1.) Tall Grass Pike - prone on crit and an inherent +10% hit>crit, reach weapon 2.) St Rumbaults great Sword - prone on crit and +.5 crit multiplier 3.) Some Great Sword at Salty Mast - prone on crit 4.) Mabec's Morning Star - stun on crit, 3 DR bypass and bigger base interrupt duration Two handed on hit 1.) Soulbound Great Sword Redeemer - few 10% on hit effects 2.) Soulbound estoc - some 5% and 10% on hit effects 3.) Pike with - defense on hit One handed on crit 1.) We Toki - battle axe with prone on crit 2.) Godansthunyr hammer - stun on crit, bigger than normal interrupt 3.) Starcaller Flail - stun on crit, cast Mino's minor missile on crit (once), fast attack speed and 10% damage as burn One handed on hit 1.) Strike hard Hammer - -5 defense on hit, +20% attack speed 2.) Some spear - -5 defense on hit For a Rogue Tall Grass is great since it lets you stay behind someone else and not necessarily get in melee combat. For dual wield or with a shield We Toki is great for the prone. The stuns from Godan and Starcaller do not seem to decrease the targets deflection, it seems more like a bigger interrupt. It still locks them up but doesn't give the extra benefits of prone. For a Barbarian - Mabec's looks to be the better choice for two handers. The stun on crit is nice, but the DR bypass will also go out via carnage as well as the bigger interrupt. A Dual wielder could use We Toki for the prone and then something else or go two hammers with Godansthunyr and Strike hard. The sickening aura and Brute Force might not help with the accuracy but the debuff would make the stun or prone go easier. I still need to roll a barbarian and the carnage CC looks pretty fun.

It'd be the same as the rogue. I believe that a 26 intellect and a 22 dex would let you get by with a graze with Tall Grass. Dual wielding would reduce that, not sure how much but it would be in reach with minimal buffs. The trick would be consistently critting. Maybe that barb AoE sickness to lower the fortitude would help with that? My barbarian experience is really limited. Now is there another weapon like We Toki that is one handed and has a prone on crit effect? You could dual wield We Toki and the Godstunner hammer or Starcaller flail and have prone on crit and stun on crit all working on carnage as well. As long as you could crit you could have some crazy CC. Tall Grass gets you 10% hit to crit and rogues can get another 20% which makes it easier with the pike. Barbarians have lower accuracy, miss out on Reckless Assault and the hit > crit conversions. Barabrian with carnage might do better with some of those 10% on hit effects from Grey Sleeper Estoc or the Soulbound Great Sword.

Did some testing with Starcaller, the flail that causes stunning. Not sure if it is working as intended but even when you have the little starcaller icon stating 'stunned' there is no change in the targets deflection like there is with the prone effect. Maybe its stun is different than a regular stun? Did some work with We Toki, with 21 dex and a mere 4 intellect, using two weapon style with We Toki and Edge of Reason I was able to knock down with We Toki and then hit him with the other axe getting the prone debuff for the second weapon. We Toki with a small shield has the same break points as the two hander weapons do as far as dex and intellect go. Looks like We Toki with a vicious off hand weapon would work nicely. Prone him with the axe and then hit him for extra damage. With the cipher phantom foes or just another guy flanking you could set up your own death blows. You lose the safety of a reach weapon like Tall Grass but gain another weapon's worth of enchantments. Probably be real nice for a dual wielding carnage Barbarian.

Really would like a Dev answer on this. Is Turning Wheel and its +5% per wound burn lash supposed to stack with Lightning Strikes +25% lightning lash? Bonus question will both of the above also stack with the Chanter's fire weapon chant?

I think back in Beta wounds served as some sort of damage absorber but that is all gone now. Normal wounds happen when you take 10 points of damage. Take 80 points and you get 8 wounds. If you take lesser wounds talent you get a wound every 8 points of damage. Take 80 points of damage and get 10 wounds. That is the only difference with lesser wounds. You can then spend the wounds to power certain attacks and actions, some abilities like Turning Wheel and Iron Wheel passively give you binuses based on the number of wounds that you have at that moment. All wounds have a duration which I think is ten seconds after which they go away.

trying again from Word this time. sapientNode, on 26 Sept 2015 - 08:36 AM, said: Caerdon, on 26 Sept 2015 - 05:09 AM, said: sapientNode, on 26 Sept 2015 - 02:28 AM, said: Not to mention a rogue in plate or a mage in plate makes no sense. Neither have the might/strength to put this **** on and even move in it properly. This is just plain untrue. Wearing armour doesn't require any special strength - any ordinary man can do it - and it certainly doesn't require any special skill as in some games. Armour is designed to be easily worn. Yes, it's certainly more tiring to spend a day in armour instead of your ordinary clothes, but any "adventurer" would be fit enough that they can easily function and move about in one. There are two main reasons why mages generally don't wear armour in games: Tradition. Mages are generally balanced by making them glass cannons. Breaking away from silly traditions is only refreshing. The second reason is not a problem if making mages more tanky also makes them less cannon, as it does in PoE. In fact, unless the lore specifically states that using magic in armour is particularly difficult, they should be wearing even more armour than fighters. Why? Because they don't need to move as much. They don't need to dodge attacks, wave their swords and shields around and step back and forth, trying to balance between defending themselves and finding an opening to attack. Mages can just stand behind the front line and call down fire from the sky, so why shouldn't they be protected while doing it? sapientNode, on 26 Sept 2015 - 02:28 AM, said: As stated the only real strat as of now is choke points where you can force enemies to dance in the back trying to get to you as you pick them off one by one. So realistic there right... When we get to a place where enemies scale walls and we are not relying on HP and things can literally be one shot like real life we still need a method to hold down enemies. If a constant aggro generation in not preferable then perhaps a per rest aggro that yanks or stuns for those times that the AI has decided to chase a character across the map which ends up being better anyway because then when he finally comes back or they do even if they downed your guy they are faced with my main force. it is just annoying because of the time element and that I have to pan around more. Real AI is very far off and so is more realistic combat scenarios aside from FPS. Real world AI would run away and do random things. It also would seriously make bad choices and mistakes and totally screw up. I am annoyed I have to rely on an even cheesier mechanic as in standing in a doorway to take on enemies one by one as my chanter just sings away and my mage has a dance party. Taunts allow for more open combat and add a method in which we can somewhat defend our squishies and mitigate the random AI mechanic. Nothing is perfect but something like what is already incorporated with the fighters pull skill could be opened up to all classes and also made per rest and bumped up in use per encounter. It really sounds to me like you're not taking advantage of all the options the game already provides. There are many, many ways to protect the more vulnerable party members. There are numerous caster-protection spells and stasis shield spells and items and abilities that help movement and disengagement. There are defensive and melee-oriented skills and items. There are lots and lots of CC spells and abilities. There are alternate weapon sets and Spiritshift. There are countless ways you can position your party. You can lump your casters together or keep them apart and bring some characters in only after the combat begins. You can have a secondary tank start combat in the back row with a ranged weapon. You can have a frontline character ready to disengage and move back to protect others. And so on. There really are dozens of ways to deal with these problems, and they're all more tactical/stretegic than having your tank announce to the enemies that their mothers were hamsters and their fathers smelt of elderberries. Come on man wearing Armor doesn't require any special strength? Aloth with that little thin frame in huge plate mail. Sure its a game but seriously go put on some platemail. I could see Durance wearing some because the dude has built himself up over time but Aloth or Kana or Sagani ... not so much.

Trying without any quotes this time, not sure what is up. As others have said armor is carried by the whole body. Women wear body armor in modern militaries and it is at least as heavy as a breastplate. By your reasoning we should stop all Orlans or non Aumaua females from wearing armor. If you need to cheese the AI by only using doorway tactics perhaps you should lower the difficulty level. The problem with the game is that there is no glass to go along with the cannon. Enemies will target the trained combatant in the heavy armor with a shield who will kill one guy at a time instead of going after the asthmatic (3 con) with low intestinal fortitude (3 resolve) who is wearing a dress and conjuring fire that is killing everyone. Wearing armor or not for your ranged casters and bow/firearm users should be an actual choice with pros and cons. Right now there is no reason not to wear a dress. The few enemies that actually pose a threat to the dress wearers don't need to be stopped by adding a taunt. You should instead change your tactics, wear some protection or be prepared for some casualties. Shooting the guy in the dress is the first thing I do in every game I've ever played that had magic in it. Its about time that the enemy AI and the Devs catch on to this winning tactic. Wizards in PoE have all the tools needed via Arcane Veil, Spirit Shield, Iron Skin, Displaced Image and others, most of which are per encounter at higher levels, to have better deflection, defenses and damage resistance than any other character in the game. They just choose not to use them since they are not needed due to the enemy never targeting them in the back. The sad truth is that its easier to just take the rare KO rather than take defensive talents or spell choices and definitely better to avoid armor. Adding a taunt just makes the problem even worse. Ceremonial Armor might have weighed that much but not anything that was ever used in combat. The same with the ceremonial 15 lb swords, they were never used in combat. Functional full plate allows for gymnastics to be performed while wearing the armor. In the past people were a lot stronger and a whole lot fitter than we are today. Historians have studied Greek Triremes and the fitness level needed to row them in battle and come up with that modern day Olympian rowers would be the norm. Look at the physiques on statues. This is centuries before steroids, everything was functional strength. The idle rich martial class, knights, did not work other than to train for combat. You'd get pretty darn good at it if it was all you did and your life depended on your skill. In a melee engagement, a battle, why would you not know who you were fighting? They are right in front of you after all. You'd have trouble seeing the big picture but the guy in front of you, you'd know when he drops his shoulder that he is about to swing. If you turn to run away he will stab you in the back. If you back up he can move forward both faster and easier than you can. If he has a friend who can flank you you're in real trouble. Guys in the rear, especially on horses, they could run away and live but the guys in the thick of it their only hope was victory. The whole "not being able to get away from a guy with a melee weapon who is trying to kill you" is both realistic and the basis for the engagement system in PoE. It is not perfect but it is a hell of a lot better than a magic 'taunt' that makes the enemy do the stupidest thing - attacking the most defensive target - rather than to kill the weak and vulnerable - hitting the guys in the dress.

Or just have good defenses like a Monk and Paladin can have. Sagani, Hiravois, and Kana fall pretty quick but Zahua, Pellegrinna and my Monk stayed alive and would carry the day. This was PotD, level 9 - 11 with White March scaled up.

I am surprised that no one gave the obvious answer. The best DPS with dual flails is a WIZARD Joke aside you could probably make a rogue work - they get a lot of damage adds so less base damage from fast weapons don't hinder them as much. Another option would be a cipher - apply CC and then hit them with the flails to quickly get your focus back and then cast some more. Soul whip is a 40% damage add, dual wield style is +20% attack speed and the new time parasite is like another 50% speed boost so you'd be a whirlwind.

During my playing around with this I was thinking that either a dual hammer build like that or dual axes with We Toki. The extra attack speed from two weapon style might push it down to where the rogue can always get the effect on the follow up. The great thing about Tall Grass and St Rumbaults is that you can buy them as soon as you can get to Dryford. I forgot where I got the Godstunner hammer but it was in Act III, Strike Hard and We Toki are both on sale in Twin Elms Act III as well. The prone effect works better than the stun in that the recovery is longer. With the prone the target will start to get up, at this point he gains back his deflection and is not treated as prone but he still needs to go through the stand up animation. Full plate and stupid would probably be enough to keep someone tied up this way due to the animation but you'd lose the prone effect.

My wound management goes like this - first one goes for swift strikes. Then if I have only one or two I'll bang out the Torment's. If I have four or more then I'll pick a target for Flagellant's. I don't try and hold onto any for Turning Wheel, they last as long as it takes me to spend them on other attacks. I have not gotten to thirteenth level yet for the twin summon. They look really cool but they will suck up eight wounds that prior would have powered a few Flagellant's. If the wound cost is too much or it throws everything else under the bus I might need to skip it and get something else at thirteenth. Maybe Enervating Blows for some additional debuffs and set ups for Apprentice Sneak Attacks. I read your bug report on Turning Wheel and I'm assuming that it is supposed to stack and will be fixed. If it is designed to not stack then I will drop Turning Wheel and take something else, Stunning Blows looks to be my next choice for level five. The other choice would be Force of Anguish. The problem with going FoA would be having too many wound burners. Stunning Blows are not as good as FoA but do not use wounds and are twice per encounter. For me FoA would be situational and once I get Flagellant's it'd hardly ever get used. Gaining wounds has not been an issue, I'll frequently get alpha struck for eight or so which sets the Juggernaut into motion. The speed reduction from plate hasn't been an issue, for me anyway, I'd rather have the +7 crush, and +10 slash & pierce from plate at a cost of -35% recovery instead of robes. Plus my team does not have a Priest, or any caster for that matter. So healing is from Shod in Faith boots or from two Greater LoH. With Flagellant's Path being the cornerstone of my build Iron Wheel would not be available until level thirteen. There it'd be down to that, the twin summon or maybe Enervating Blows. The great thing about Monks is that there are different ways to build them, they are all effective and fun, and you have hard choices on which good talent to not take. More classes should be like this.

I was curious and I was bored. What combination of stats and equipment do you need for a Rogue to knockdown his target and to get a follow up attack before they lose the prone effect? As with all my testing I used a tavern out of combat hitting one of my own guys. Wearing Leather armor and using Vulnerable Attack and getting a hit for the prone effect, grazes are too short and crits are always long enough. - 26 Dexterity and 7 intellect let you get a follow up attack on the target before they lose the prone effect. I did not have a way to increase Dex any more so I started to increase intellect to get the result I was looking for. - 22 Dexterity and 8 intellect let you get a follow up attack. - 20 dexterity and 9 intellect let you get a follow up attack - 11 dexterity and 10 intellect let you get a follow up attack With Padded Armor and using Vulnerable Attack - 23 Dexterity and 7 intellect lets you get a follow up attack - 20 Dexterity and 9 intellect lets you get a follow up attack -26 Dexterity and 7 intellect lets you get a follow up attack I did not have a way to get Dex higher than a 26 for my test - 21 dexterity and 8 intellect lets you get a follow up attack Conclusions - You need at least 7 Intellect to have a normal prone be long enough. A +2 item and +2 from casita casserole will get you the +4 easily without requiring specific inns. To get by with 7 intellect you need padded and 23 dexterity (Deadfire Archipeligo + non Dwarf + +2 item + +2 Rauatai Sweet Pie) If you want the option of leather armor and the freedom of just needing a +2 from food and a +2 item you want to have a base intellect of 4 not 3. if you got intellect to 26 with a 22 dex you could hit again on a graze in case you were curious My recommendation for a dumb Rogue who intends to use Tall Grass is: Island Aumaua for the extra weapon slot with Might - 12 - Rogues get a lot of bonuses so can cut here. Con - 10 Dex - 19 Per - 15 - accuracy helps with the crit and the prone effect hitting Int - 4 - the only duration I care about is the prone from Tall Grass Res - 18 - mainly for dialogue but the deflection will help if you swap to a shield for more defense If your not going for the dialogue you can leave at ten, place six in intellect for a ten and put another two in might or perception.

Hell No!!!! Why do they need to make tank & spank even better? Much better if they have the enemy act like people do in analyzing threats. Every fight the first move should be to shoot the guy in the dress. Your robe wearing casters should be commonly mistaken for Avian Godlikes due to the large number of feathers that will be sticking out of you Having low DR, low deflection and low endurance (the proto-typical 3 con, 3 res glass cannon) should be like a neon light flashing saying "shoot me instead of the guy in plate mail with the big shield". In this game casters can wear plate, it's time the enemy started to make that be a real choice instead of the current no brainer wear a dress for the fastest action speed.

Saved for future edits/comments Addendum - Apprentice Sneak Attack is a good pick for level 12 or 14. Another +15% damage is nice and its easy to set up via flanking or Sagani's stunning shots with a bow.

This is the Juggernaut, designed to be the heavily armored vanguard that is both unstoppable and relentless. If the enemy can not damage you, you beat them down, if the enemy does damage you then you beat them down faster. The five D's are what you need - damage, DR, defenses, deflection and damage. In the words of Patches O'Hoolahan - "A frontline melee who can't take a beating is as useful as a **** flavored lollypop" Onto the build. (Used and tested on PotD and in White March) Class - Monk Race - Boreal Dwarf Culture Any will work, you are not at any max or min for stats so pick whatever you want. If one started with Brigandine armor I'd say take that. Stats Might - 18 You want damage to get through DR. Plus you will get speed from Two Weapon Style and Swift Strikes Constitution - 15 You want high endurance and high health. Getting a very high Fortitude is also very good. Dexterity - 10 More would be better but you run out of stat points. Can swap with Perception Perception - 15 The accuracy helps, especially at the beginning. Interrupts are also useful as your fast attack speed will frequently interrupt enemies. Also gets you some dialogue options. Can swap with Dexterity. Intellect - 10 Many of your attacks are AoE and this also extends your duration of Swift Strikes and other buffs. Again more would be better but you run out of points. Resolve - 10 You are a frontline melee who will get hit so more deflection and more concentration is wanted but again you run out of points. All of the stats are not at any racial/cultural minimum or maximum so you can freely choose whatever suits you. I'd like to get the benefit of maxing any of the stats but I do not like the minimum effects on a Monk. Every stat is useful. Your dialogue is limited to Might. Constitution and Perception. The good news is that any items you find that boost stats will be appreciated. Talents/Abilities Level One - Swift Strikes - I like the speed boost and it lasts for ten seconds instead of one attack with Torment's Reach. Works with weapons as well as fists. Level Two - Lightning Strikes - Adds 25% lightning lash to all your swift strikes. Works with weapons as well as fists. Level Three - Torment's Reach - Spend the first wound on Swift Strikes and then blast out as many Torment's as you can. Cone AoE will get multiple targets and also has a minor debuff. The Monk AI does a good job of using these as fast as it can. Level Four - Weapon Focus Peasant - +6 accuracy for you fists. Also works with spears and hatchets to give you alternate damage types or quarterstaff for a reach weapon. At low levels I find missing more problematic rather than slower attack speed. Level Five - Turning Wheel - adds a +5% burn lash per wound. Currently bugged in that it does not work at the same time as your lightning strikes lash. The lash is applied against 25% of the targets DR so you want to get past five wounds to start to put out a big beat down, but even extra minimum damage adds up. Wounds only last for ten seconds or so, so you still want to spam out your Torment's but this will help with the damage output. Level Six - Two Weapon Style - +20% attack speed that works with fists or weapons. Can swap with level four pick if desired. Level Seven - Duality of Mortal Presence - +8 to either deflection or defenses. Time to start shoring up our vulnerabilities. Level Eight - Vulnerable Attack - Set it and forget it. Even against only 5 DR it still kills faster then to not use it. Level Nine - Crucible of Suffering - gets you +10 defenses for 20 seconds after a hostile effect expires. If the first stun gets you this will help against the next ten. This is where the relentless part starts to take shape. Level Ten - Savage Attack - More damage is always popular. Level Eleven - Flagellant's Path - A teleporting attack that damages and debuffs everyone between you and your target. Start in the frontline get a few wounds, activate Swift Strikes and then zoom across the battlefield and hit the mage. Run to the mage's farside and then zip back towards another target or back through the melee that is busy trying to chase you. With this you ARE the Juggernaut. Level Twelve and Fourteen - Pick whatever you want. Superior Deflection if you need more deflection, Weapon and Shield Style if you find yourself swapping to a shield often, some of the defense boosting talents like Bull's Will or the specific defenses like Mental Fortress, even Interrupting Blows can have some utility. Level Thirteen - The summon fire and ice twins. Just too cool not to take, add in spell use on items and you're even better. Notable Omissions - Equipment - Armor - You want the heaviest you can get. Brigandine or plate. When I hire mercs at level two to fill out my team until I get the story companions I always pick the culture that starts with Brigandine, 10 DR in the beginning is a godsend. Sanguine Plate is very nice with the Frenzy when crit effect activates but the speed does not stack with Swift Strikes. Shield - Having a shield and fist on one of your slots is very useful, especially in the beginning. Start taking too much damage and swap to the shield. The Larder Door with its bash even counts towards Torment's Reach's damage output as it is a full attack. You can even swap to your shield when you are paralyzed or prone. Weapons - Primarily you want to use your fists. They scale with level, they are fast speed, they do more damage than other fast speed weapons. You will want to have another damage type available, for this I like Spears. There are a few good spears, no one else ever uses them. The custom designed one Cladhaliath works well. Throw a lash and a Spirit Slayer on it and you'll be happy. You can go with weapons only. I'd suggest going two handed with Tide Fall and Greenstone Staff. I actually have Zahua set up like this and he does well. Misc. Equipment - Anything that activates when you are critted is great, Shod in Faith is unbelievably good with this build. I missed them when I swapped for the unarmed damage boosting boots but Zahua is getting good use out of the boots now. Defense boosts are better than deflection. Team Support - A Paladin with the DR boosting Aura, Zealous Endurance, Greater Lay on Hands, Herald shield and Reinforcing Exhortations is great. Chanters can help with their fire lash song and frighten the enemy song. Dropping a big AoE paralyze is always useful as well. Durance makes a great contribution as a sacrifice to the Blood Pool for +1 Constitution and +5% total endurance.

The change was made to allow some weapons to benefit from specific weapon talents. So does that mean that weapon focus, mastery and specialization with the knight weapon group will all apply - +6 accuracy, +25% damage - when I use the Forgemaster's Gloves to summon a Firebrand "universal" Great Sword? Your answer was a little vague.

I quite agree that interrupts are important and that DAOM is a wonderful spell, but DAOM doesn't affect Action Speed, only Attack Speed. That means it cuts down on the recovery time when casting a spell but not the casting time, while dexterity cuts down on both. Dexterity is the only thing that cuts down on casting speed. The choices of dex vs per for a mix-maxed blaster wizard (when mig and int are maxed) is 19 dex/16 per (27% action speed, 6 accuracy, 18 interrupt) and 16 dex/19 per (18% action speed, 9 accuracy, 27 interrupt). So I choose the 19 dex version, as the 9% extra action speed is worth more to me than 3 accuracy and 9 interrupt extra. If I want even more interruption, there's always the talent for +15 more. When DAOM is up, that gives a 27% shorter casting time and a 77% shorter recovery time. And that's before you start wearing +dex equipment or gain +dex resting bonuses. EDIT: Removed surplus math section. What would you use for stats in the case of the OP where he doesn't want anything dumped lower than a 9? You have a lot more Wizard experience than I do and I'm curious. On a related subject do you find any downside to having a 3 con and a 3 resolve? Is there no real consequence due to a combination of - the con malus is a percentage applied to a small number; the lack of endurance is remedied with the 2nd level endurance spell; the bad deflection and concentration are easily fixed with spells; and finally the enemy doesn't really target guys in the back even if there not CC'd.

You finished whole main plot being at 9 lvl and than done White March and Cragholdt's Bluff? Were You playing with IE Mod Experience nerf 25/50 %? I stopped before the Animancy Trial, so before the riots and before the water goes down to allow access to Twin Elms. Not using any mods.

I'd even be happy with randomizing the stores. Instead of knowing that Tall Grass will be waiting for you at Dryford finding it in Gilded Vale or Hearthsong would be fine and add a little excitement or frustration. Maybe have it as a toggle-able setting. People wanting full on random could have their game, people wanting to be able to plan out each move and purchase before the game starts would have theirs.

Cheap is immunity to a common melee damage type. Even cheaper is to have the minions and the Dragon immune to the same damage type. When I saw the minions were crush immune I thought "Guess I'll just send my two damage dealing monks at the Dragon instead. Have the others handle the minions." When I saw the Dragon was crush immune as well I loaded an earlier save and went somewhere else. Worst of all I think the best Monk specific equipment is in his horde to add insult to injury. Why not make one of the Dragons, or any monster for that matter, immune to magic? Piercing immune Dragons would be amusing for Rangers to handle or any ranged weapon user. Normal monsters with immunities such as that are fine, you can get past them using un-optimized weapons. Fighting a Dragon on the other hand tends to require your best effort which is not possible for a Monk against a crush immune Dragon. His best weapon are fists (crush), Torment's Reach (crush), Flagellent's Path (crush). Sure he can grab a spear, even two of them, and poke at it but none of his special attacks will be possible. At worst a spell caster would have to forego having a 20% elemental damage boost against an immune monster and have to use a different spell. No other character class gets horse ****ed like this.

I still think Fighter does very good damage when specced properly even in Plate. Just give them a big 2hander spec them for offense and they can be very durable frontliners with good damage. If you do the same thing with a Monk - put him in plate, give him a Great Sword, take damage talents and a few tanky abilities, you get a much better melee combatant. All base stats are the same except the Monk gets more health. A Fighter gets +25% damage with one weapon group, a Monk gets +25% damage via Lightning lash and a +25% attack speed buff that works with everything for the same cost in talents and abilities. Throw in Armored Grace and the Monk is still better and has an extra ability. Standing in melee without a shield the Monk will gain wounds to fuel AoE cones and teleporting debuffing line attacks, the Fighter just gets endurance loss. Instead of a Fighter you could even go with a tanky shield using Rogue. You start -10 deflection behind at the start and Reckless makes it -18 deflection. A Superb Large Shield with Weapon and Shield Style would get you the same Accuracy as a Fighter (+8+- and +16 deflection total (-10+-8+12+16+6). With sneak attacks, not even deathblows, a Rogue one hander with a shield will out damage a two handed Fighter and have more deflection doing it. The best Fighter build is probably "The Martyr" - be a Mountain Dwarf (choose Slave as no one would willingly choose this path ) from Rautai, for 20 con and max your intellect for aura range and duration buffs. take the two health healing general talents, take Guardian, take Unbending to heal 1/2 incoming damage and take the new take 1/2 the damage for the whole team aura that can be active with Guardian . The team gets +10 deflection and only half damage. You take an accuracy malus and half the damage that your team takes and you have two talents that can heal back 60% of your health loss to prolong the misery The saddest thing is that the Martyr is probably so good at what he does that it'd break the game. Keep his defense low so that the enemy targets him first, even paralyzed he will still do his job. Just slap him with a LoH once in a while to keep him vertical.