KDubya

The thing we want to see is how well can interrupt reduce the amount of incoming damage, or at least that is what I'd want to see. With the tweaked character using fists, even crits should not drop the bear in ten hits. We then run the test for the 100 perception guy. He will interrupt every attack. We count how many times the bear gets an attack off before the bear sustains X amount of hits. Then we run the test for the 3 perception guy. He will not interrupt at all. We count how many times the bear gets an attack off before the bear sustains X amount of hits. This test will show the absolute best case for the benefit of an interrupt build for mitigating the number of enemy attacks. Then you can see what you could gain by pursuing a heavy interrupt build and then decide the cost/benefit of doing so.

Ruminate - Your method of guaranteeing either interrupts or not looks like it'd work fine. As you say we want to see the effect of interrupts not the randomness of damage. Do grazes interrupt for less time than hits and crits? If grazes and crits have different durations on the interrupt, you could add enough accuracy to guarantee a crit and run the test until a set number of hits is obtained. This would give you the absolute best case, perfect world scenario of every hit is a crit and interrupts. That could then be compared to a 0% interrupt scenario to see the absolute best difference between the two.

Why would a long enough timeline matter? Interrupts in Pillars of Eternity are not the same as interrupts in other games. An interrupt in PoE does not reset the attack, it only delays it. Here is the same test with a morning star, naked, with +27% attack speed: 11 hits inbetween 4 bear hits at 100% interrupt chance. 7 hits inbetween 4 bear hits at 0% interrupt chance. 11 hits vs. 7 hits inbetween 4 bear hits. I'll ask again: does that sound good to you? What would you sacrifice in order to go from 0 interrupt chance to 100%? In your test is how did you adjust/control your interrupt chance? Are they such that in the first test every hit has to interrupt and in the second test every attack can not interrupt? To compare the two scenarios you'd need to go until a set number of hits occur in both cases, as in count the number of bear attacks you receive before you deiver ten hits on the bear or whatever number you want but it has to be the same for both cases. In your test if the bear is killed with 11 hits, then the bear is still alive and attacking in the seven hit case.

The reasoning for being in the caravan could be as simple as fleeing the law. I think it is Deadfire Archipelago that has a Raider background. You could be a pirate "AARGH" I agree with the ruffian group, pistols, blunderbuss, stilettos and sabres sounds like both a good roleplaying choice and a good game mechanics choice. The single weapon style is pretty lackluster in what it brings, but on PotD where monster deflection is much higher the graze>hit mechanic might start to shine.

If you are a fighter and trying to put out damage then you'll want to make use of the fighter only weapon specialization and mastery abilities for an additional +25% damage to the entire weapon group. With that in mind the peasant focus gets you hunting bows for range, quarterstaffs for two handed with reach, daggers, spears, hatchets and fists. The noble group does get maces which have a DR penetrating ability but are stuck with the terrible scepters and rods for ranged weapons and no two handed option.

KDubya, looks like a nice balance between offense and defense that was clearly capable of kicking butt and taking names. The dumped INT was a bit cheesy for my taste, but I've seen far worse when it comes to cheesy min-maxed stat builds. Kudos for a nicely built Fighter! Speaking those Boreal dwarves' bonuses, one of the problems I have in the game is knowing what's what when it comes to those categories. Kiths are easy enough. They're essentially just people. But it gets dodgy knowing what's a beast and what's a wilder and what's a primordial, for example. Still, I suppose that having 2 of the five (?) categories is a pretty decent benefit. From the wiki In the traditional lands of the boreal dwarves, primordial creatures (oozes, sentient fungi and plants) and wilder (ogres, skuldrs, trolls, vithracks, and xaurips) have long preyed on isolated hunters. Generations of conflict with these creatures has given the boreal dwarves inherent Accuracy bonuses against them. I encounter the above a lot more than poison or disease damage which is for mountain dwarves. A pale elf makes for a good choice as well, cuts down on the friendly fire from your wizard. Regarding the intellect dump - you can cut from resolve and place into intellect. Your will save stays the same, you lose concentration, deflection and gain some duration on abilities. If you have house rules on how low a stat can be the base concept still works just won't be as efficient. My personal house rule is to not use the godmode race. If I need to use one to make it work I'd rather drop the difficulty. PotD will be the next challenge, will see if my play style works there or not.

Here is my fighter spec'd for damage. This was on hard, level 12 now, not finished yet with game. This is my first playthrough. Damage Spec'd Fighter Can tank well enough to stand in the fray and beat down the enemy with minimal babysitting required Race = Boreal Dwarf - dwarves are cool and +15 accuracy to two of the more common enemies is not inconsequential Culture = Deadfire archipelago - for the +1 to dex Might = 20 - a high might helps damage, scroll use, and the fighterpassive endurance regen Con = 9 - high enough Dex = 18 - faster is better, more actions make for more damage Per = 10 - no malus, but no bonus. wanted the concentration more than the interrupt Int = 3 - fighter's don't have much for duration abilities so no big harm. Knockdown lasts for 3.3 sec instead of 5 sec Res = 18 - balances the bad will save from the intellect dump, gives good dialogue, gives good concentration Talents/Abilities (in order taken) 1.) Disciplined barrage - a +10 accuracy helps to get hits or more crits, doesn't last long. Replace with two knockdowns if you prefer. I like it as it is a one click at the start of every battle, many times I forget to use all or some of my knockdowns 2.) Weapon focus - +6 accuracy is nice, especially at low levels, I went with Adventurer 3.) Defender - modal ability adds deflection and two more engagements at the cost of 0.8 attack speed. You can turn it off when not needed. 4.) Wary Defender - makes defender better with +15 deflection, +10 reflex, will and fortitude saves 5.)Weapon specialization - adds +15% damage to all the weapons in your weapon group. Makes you flexible in that your ranged, one hand and two handed all get better. 6.) Weapon Style - I went with two handed for the +15% damage, dual wield would also suffice here 7.)Armored Grace - reduces armor speed reduction by 16%, makes plate as fast as scale. This makes your actions faster, faster means more damage output. 8.) Weapon Mastery - another +10% damage to your weapon group for a total of +25% that only fighters can get 9.) Critical Defense - reduces 20% of incoming crits to hits and 10% of hits to grazes. Since your deflection is not maxed, you will get hit and this will lessen the blow. Not sure if it works for spells as well 10.) Your choice - I went with Superior Deflection - +5 deflection not super but the choices were not that great. Take whatever suits you here. 11.) Unbroken - a self res to 50% endurance that also gives you +5 DR, +10 deflection and +10 saves - if you need it this is a great ability 12.) Your choice - I went with Rapid Recovery - +1 End regen modified by your might, adds to your Constant Recovery ability, again not super but the choices were not that great. Take whatever suits you here. The team and their damages are: PC two hander Estoc/Warbow - 92K damage with 8 KO Eder Sabre & Shield/ Pistol - 35K damage with 10 KO Aloth - 36K with 13 KO Durance - 19K with 11 KO Grieving Mother (replaced Kana at level 9) - 15K with 5 KO Sagani - around 25 K, maybe 8-10 KO her stats got reset. With this spec a fighter is not a meat shield agro bot but a true tank like the Sherman tank in Fury. An ass kicker in full plate packing steel.

Thanks all for the tips. It sounds like a barbarian is not what I need. Too fragile, requires too much baby sitting. Avoiding bugs and exploits probably not helping my barb either. Think I will either make another DPS fighter, monk, tanky chanter or maybe just re-make a ranger .

Not sure if you are wanting constructive criticism but for me anyway I'd prefer if you listed the various options sorted into good, Ok, and avoid lists instead of the multiple color scheme. As in something like Tanking Best race Orlan - reason why this is so. Tanking Good Race Pale elf - reason why this is so etc. You get the idea, also the reasoning as to why something is good or bad is what I want to see. Why are island Amaumau bad while Coastal are good? Why are dwarves bad choices? Why choose Aedry for a starting culture? If spec'd for damage the advice for talents and abilities would pretty much be opposite from what you have here for a deflection tank.

My barbarian hireling is not very effective, where have I gone wrong? This is on hard difficulty, main is now level 12, barbarian hireling will hit level eleven very soon, or could re-hire. Itumaak came down with a slow bug so I had to park Sagani. Main is a two hander fighter spec'd for damage with Eder, Aloth, Grieving Mother, Durance. For role play reasons I do not want to use any of the godmode races. Also I do not want to use the cheesy , at least in my opinion, retaliation gear. Nor use the obviously bugged "One stands alone" The Barbarian is aptly named "Dirt Nap" as he spends too much time face down in the dirt. His stats are Boreal dwarf Might 20 Con 16 dex 18 Per 3 Int 18 Res 3 health 1395 endurance 233 Deflection 29 Fortitude 81 Reflex 49 Will 49 Acc 57 Damage 25-36 wielding Justice two handed sword with savage attack modal Talents/abilities - Blooded, Barbaric Shout, Bloodlust, carnage, frenzy, savage defiance, weapon focus soldier, savage attack, two handed style, greater frenzy and barbaric blow. defeated 11 enemies, damage down 2124.7, damage taken 1195.9, knocked out twice originally I had him in exceptional leather, after the two knockouts switched to fine plate. Gear wise he will always get hand me downs. He is more ass kicked than kick ass. I use him as I use my two fighters to fire an initial ranged volley and then close to melee. In the tough fights I throw in a yell to de-buff the enemy, hit frenzy at the start of the fight, hit the heal after the frenzy wear off, hit something big with barbaric blow.

I do not understand the "dex does nothing for a paladin" comments. Dex affects your action speed and thus the number of actions you can perform in a given time. If 10 dex gets you 10 attacks, 3 dex gets you 7.9 attacks and an 18 dex gets you 12.4 attacks. If the plan is to make a punching bag aura bot then I suppose a 3 dex is a good plan. If you are trying for the last kill type abilities a higher dex would get you more DPS which would help to get more kills. For a paladin every stat has usefulness, which leads to the issue of ending up as more of a generalist in a team of specialists. Also you should turn off the dialogue descriptions and just pick the response that sounds better to you rather than game the system to maximize your faith and conviction. To me the potential bonus or penalty caused by your role play decisions is the big draw for making a PC paladin at some point.

Limiting vender loot just means that you have to go to multiple venders to cash out. This just makes for more of a hassle. If it is a problem you could adjust the amount of loot that survives the death of the previous owner, If you blast them with a fireball when you loot them you find burned leather armor and melted plate, death by weapons could leave bullet holes and dents that need to be repaired by a blacksmith. This would reduce the amount coming in. To increase the expenses you could raise the prices for magic items at the store. Instead of 4,000 for the blunting belt make it 20,000. now you won't buy any expensive stuff and then complain on the forums about the big tease of cool loot that costs too much

The pet is a one per encounter suicide bomber that is ready to go the next battle without accruing any attrition based health damage. Send it in first to take the alpha strike or be the focus for your fireballs. The lion has a pretty large area de-buff roar that would help your team avoid some damage . I posted this in another Ranger topic: I feel like if the pet is not dead at the end of every fight I am not getting the most out of it PC "Look there's a giant slime and some puddings." Eder "They look dangerous, probably have poison and diseases" PC "Better send the fox in first" Aloth "Once they bunch up I'll let loose with a fireball and some cones of fire" Itumaak "Where is the SPCA when I need them? " My party should be hunted by PETA not by the leaden key.

I feel like if the pet is not dead at the end of every fight I am not getting the most out of it PC "Look there's a giant slime and some puddings." Eder "They look dangerous, probably have poison and diseases" PC "Better send the fox in first" Aloth "Once they bunch up I'll let loose with a fireball and some cones of fire" Itumaak "where is the SPCA when I need them? " P.S. My party should be hunted by PETA

I find death is the best interrupting ability For taking a spell caster down a fighter is better served with knockdown, the pull ability or just killing with a two handed weapon with style,spec and mastery bonuses. A monk would do better with a FoA for a ten+ second prone or a massive damage torment. A fast attack interrupt is only 0.35 seconds and the enemy's actions are not reset just delayed. A 3 second reload interrupted goes like this 1 sec reload + 0.35 interrupt + 1 sec reload +0.35 interrupt + 1 sec reload (3 total) and the enemy gets to shoot. In this example if you hit and made the checks you slow a 3 second action to 3.7 seconds. Nice when it occurs but hardly deal breaking.

MoxyWoo pretty much nailed it on how to get the most out of Sagani. With the hunting bow and vicious shot she consistently hits and crits with auto attack. Add the penetrating modal for further DR ignoring. As long as you keep her vertical she'll output consistent damage. There are no big spikes or AoE but the mob will be thinned. I actually like her for the pet. A disposable suicide tank is great. Sometimes I send the pet to hold the enemy while everyone fires ranged and/or per encounter abilities. Sometimes after the initial volley send in Eder and my two hander fighter into the fray. If nothing else the pet will engage a few and soak 100+ endurance without any ensuing health loss causing attrition damage.

I beg to differ, but hey, to each their own. EDIT: If you take a look at the attached combat log, you'll notice that (thanks to interrupts), the baddie I was fighting died before it ever got a chance to do any damage to any of my party members. This is early in the game, but it's also on Hard difficulty. Looking at the log it looks like the initial sneak attack caused an interrupt. Everything following is your team's attacks and capped with a knockdown by Eder. Without that initial interrupt would the spider ever gotten an action off before it was knocked prone? How long/strong was the interrupt? I was expecting some kind of log showing an interrupt locked enemy that never got an action off. What you have is a spider getting killed quickly by a party and being knockdowned to boot. My understanding and experience on hard with interrupt is that it really does not make that big of a difference, especially not enough to go out of your way to spec for it. The enemies action still occur just slightly delayed if you hit, beat the interrupt check and had it happen during an interruptible action.

The guys in the attack speed forum post are doing real testing and real math. This is just sort of a thing to do when you are bored, at an inn and about to log for the night. and want to have some sort of a test to back up your theory crafting. In the one sided fights the losing side never had it even close, not sure hundreds of tests are needed. With the way the guys were made deflection > accuracy so there where no crits to wildly affect the outcomes, and with being out of combat only health damage mattered as endurance regenerated between each swing. In a real fight any crit or even higher than average damage rolls would sway the results as endurance is much lower than health. A few times I ran one guy without defender modal which lowered his deflection to be below accuracy. The crits were telling and beat down the guy much faster.

With your high deflection, 95+, does that not limit the amount and rate of wounds that you gain? Less wounds = less FoA and Torments, so less offense. A crit would just get you more wounds faster right? Or is it the attached debuff/status effect that you are trying to avoid critting you? Curious about a high deflection monk, from what I understand from a small amount of game play and from the forum is that big con gets you a larger pool to draw from and that you convert your wounds to damage either AoE style with high intellect or more single target focused with low intellect. A high deflection would keep you from getting wounds, right?

Skip to the bottom for conclusion if you are lazy For testing builds I started (in a separate save file to not screw with main game) hiring the highest level adventurers (currently lvl 9) and building various classes to compare what they can be like with various stats and what not. Then I thought - what if I have them fight it out? With force attack I can make them bash each other with auto attacks. Being out of combat the endurance regens between swings but the health damage accrues until there is an auto pause due to low health and that shows the victor. First question is, is this a valid way to compare two melee builds? Spell use or anything that requires combat won't work but melee attacks seem to be fine. The fights last a long time as only the accrued health damage matters which seems like it would balance out any weird lucky string of crits that could quickly overcome the much lower endurance. I set up identical builds stats wise to compare weapon types. The base build is Boreal dwarf Fighter: with the goal of making a high DPS fighter that can hold 3 engagements, and be durable enough to stand in the front. Instead of sword and board for maximum tanking with minimal damage, this is trying for enough tanking combined with good damage so that the frontline contributes more to dropping the enemy rather than being a damage sponge wall. Might 20 Con 8 Dex 18 Per 12 Int 3 Res 17 Talents/abilities - knockdown, weapon focus, defender, wary defender, weapon spec, weapon style feat, weapon mastery, armored grace, critical defense 1st up was dual flails vs dual war hammers - with all fine weapons and fine hide armor (DR 7/ 9 vs pierce) dual flails won 8 lost 2 - reason would be to some combination of the faster attack speed and the inherent graze to hit of the flail. 2nd up was dual flails vs dual war hammers but this time in fine full plate (DR14/ 18 pierce) dual hammers won 5 and lost none - reason is the armor DR overcame whatever speed and hit conversion that the flails had. Somewhere in between DR 7 and DR 14 the higher base damage of the warhammers take over. 3rd up was a rematch of dual flails and warhammer guy in full plate but this time gave dual flail guy a fine estoc. - dual flail using an estoc (same weapon group as flails but missing the two handed style) won five and lost none - Even without specializing in two handed weapons, the Adventurer weapon group optimized for dual wield beat the optimized dual wield soldier. 4th up was dual flail guy against estoc guy specialized in two handed weapons in fine hide since it is obvious that in full plate the estoc will win. - estoc two hander won five and lost none. 5th up was dual flail guy vs pollaxe guy in fine hide - this was pretty much a push, with two hander winning six and losing 4 to dual flail. 6th was two hand guy vs two hand guy but with one guy with 11 dex, 18 per and 18 res, both same abilities. - The faster guy won 5 times to zero versus the more tanky guy. 7th was identical two hander guys with one in fine plate, one in fine leather - the plate guy won five to zero 8th was two identical two handers with one in fine plate, one in fine robe - the plate guy won five to zero 9th was arquebus versus warbow - arquebus won five to zero in both robes and in full plate CONCLUSION Two handed does as well versus dual wielding at low DR and does much better with high DR when both are spec'd for damage while also having a modal choice for defender for the extra engagements. I had thought the +20% attack speed from dual wield would surpass two handed being a multiplier and all but I was mistaken. Adventurer with flails and estocs did better than soldier with war hammers and great swords. Adding in the ranged options of warbow and arquebus swings it back towards soldier so overall fairly equal if you make use of initial ranged volley before melee. In melee where you will get hit more armor is always better than faster with less armor. I had thought leather made a good compromise for faster with less armor but I was wrong, full plate is the way to go for front line. More dex is better than more tanky stats. Final analysis is that two hander with full plate with max might and dex is the way to go for a frontline fighter trying to maximize damage while maintaining enough tankability.

Okay, lets try and work this out. Eder has a base 51 Accuracy with no weapon and shield. Eder has 73 Accuracy with a sword only. (+12 single weapon + 4 Fine Sword + 6 from ????) Where does the other 6 come from? Eder is not wearing any items that gives a +6 bonus. Eder has 53 Accuracy with sword and shield. (73 - 12 from single weapon - 8 from shield = 53). So I lose the +12 bonus from single weapon and the shield says -8. I assume I'm getting the +4 bonus weapon bonus and a mysterious +6 bonus and then it's subtracting -8 from the shield giving me an overall +2 bonus. But it doesn't tell me where this +6 is coming from. This is why I don't understand the rules system. It's not clear and defined. Eder's +6 accuracy using the sabre is from his weapon focus Ruffian talent/ability. I like the percentage increases as it allows for small adjustments, being stuck to only whole numbers greatly diminishes how to affect the total. Currently an increase in one point of might gets you +3%, with whole numbers you'd have a +1. This would cause either massive inflation in all damage numbers, or stepped increase levels where odd levels in a stat gets you nothing. A conversion of 3% = +1 would then cause serious issues with weapon speeds and DPS with heavily enchanted, high might using daggers. In a real time combat a flat +10 to a fast dagger is much more powerful than a flat +10 to a slow greatsword. The whole number approach only works and is balanced in a turn based system where both the sword and the dagger get one attack per turn. All of these issues are avoided by using % based increases that affect the base weapon damage. To balance the current system you just need to adjust base weapon damage and base weapon speed. I would like a display called attack speed or attacks per second that takes into account your armor recovery penalty, dexterity bonus or malus and your weapon speed including reloads.

I think it is as others have said due to trying to keep some semblance of reality in their weapons. The estoc is a perfect example of the dev's approach to weaponry. It appears that they are trying to stick to real weapons and realistic damage types and armor representation via the slash, crush and pierce attributes. I think they did a fine job of it other than the estoc could use a small decrease to base damage to balance the almost always superior DR penetration. Giant two headed axes and sledgehammers were never (or at least very rarely) used in combat. . The physics of fighting with something that large at the end of a long shaft do not support their inclusion. Some sort of a bec de corbin would be pretty cool though

First I would like to apologies up front to Maverick87 for jumping in on his thread, especially as my first post here on these forums. But I would rather ask now and start over now then at a higher level. But now to KDubya ... do you mean more damage because you can attack faster? Or does it influence the damage with every hit? I have my Barbarians attribute set like this ... Would higher dex have been more beneficial? My first char was a barb. I didnt finish the game cause i found normal mode too easy and wanted to reroll a tanky dps fighter. BUT from my research and what i can tell is that: Your stats are solid enough though i would swap con with dex. Barb gets enough endurance anyway as a class. You ll have a lot anyway. And no dex doesnt influence the damage itself but as you said you attack faster. Also i would consider leaving per res at 10 as barb has allready too low of deflection, especialy when frenzied. I had them at 10 and it still felt a bit squishy. No need for apologizes hope i helped. Thank you, it will help I think. I was trying to get the build to make better use of the Fire damage from Fire-Godlike, and switching CON with Dex might help a bit in that area. As maverick said the dex lets you swing faster thus doing more damage. The dex does not improve your damage per swing. With regards to the intellect to give a fighter I think it is way more beneficial to dump it to 3. The points are better placed in max might and dex for damage per second, 8-10 in con, rest between per and res. I like to favor resolve over perception for the concentration and the dialogue options. With the addition of the wary defender modal you will gain +15 defl +10 saves which will let you tank well enough when needed while blasting out solid damage. You can always add a shield if really needed. The key aspect of the build is that you are not a wet noodle swinging punching bag, you're a sturdy damage dealer that will stand in the fray.

More dex will get you more damage. The damage modifiers are all additive and all apply to your base weapon damage. So +30% from a 20 might, +25% from weapon spec and focus, +15% two handed style, +30% exceptional weapon, and savage attack modal +20% will get you +120% damage If your weapon has a base damage of 20 you'll do 20x(1+1.2) = 44 points of damage per swing. An 18 dex will swing this 24% faster than a 10 dex. Even in full plate an 18 dex will swing 24% faster than a 10 dex. With a 3 intellect durations are pretty short so avoid them where possible. Disciplined barrage does increase accuracy which gets you more hits and more damage. A knockdown makes them prone which gets you more hits and stops any incoming damage but takes more micro as the disciplined barrage is a one click and done ability which means you'll use it every combat while a lot of times you might forget to use knockdowns. Estocs are really good, numbers wise the -5 DR is hard to pass up. The weapon group also has flails for using with a shield or single hand for accuracy and a warbow for ranged damage. Great swords will hit for less damage but there are some nice magical ones throughout the game. They are bundled with pikes which also have some nice magical ones in game plus they have reach which is advantageous in many applications. Warhammers are a solid one hander, and the ranged arbalest and arquebus are two of the best big damage initial shot weapons in the game. Start with a ranged volley then switch to your sword. The difference in damage between estoc and greatsword, while present, is not so great as to make either a bad choice. Estoc's bigger damage compared to opening volley of arquebus/arbalest followed by great sword or pike which also lets you stand behind the frontline. My main is a dwarf two hander spec'd for damage and I really like the class. On hard at level 10 now went with the estoc/warbow. Wearing exceptional leather enchanted for pierce proof and +2 dex along with the blunting belt. He hits hard and fast with enough endurance, DR and deflection to stand in the front and beat people down. Leads party damage by like 2.5x the next closest companion. The being able to stand in the middle of the battle is what sets a damage spec'd fighter apart from a melee rogue or a barbarian, which are both fairly fragile and require more micro and attention from a healer. In my opinion it is easier to spec a fighter to put out DPS than to make a durable rogue or tanky barbarian.

Here are my thoughts: 1.) Drop intellect to 3, take the 7 points and put 2 into con to get 8, rest into might and res or perception. The only duration a fighter has is knockdown, 3.3 sec is as good as 5 sec when it gets you 7 stat points. 2.) I'd skip the extra knockdown ability, two per encounter are plenty. 3.) Wild Orlan??? is that for role play reasons? For me, role playing wise I avoid the vermin (they make me think of Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy), fish mau mau, and the godmode race. Game play wise I like Boreal dwarves for trivializing two types of common foes, and pale elves for the energy DR. 4.) I'd take a weapon focus at level 2 for the acc boost and then follow with spec and mastery when available. This passive +25% damage boost is what marks fighters as different from the other classes so make the most of it. 5.) If you are dumping intellect no reason to take the accuracy buff talent (disc barrage) or the defense boost (vigorous defense) the duration will be very short with a 3 intellect. In general, avoid duration based abilities with a really low intellect.. More damage is good, more tanky is good. 6.) The Noble group has maces, which are great, but has really terrible ranged weapons with rod and scepter. I like the adventurer for the flail, estoc and warbow, or the soldier for the greatsword, warhammer, Pike, arbalest and arquebus. Knight and Ruffian are not bad as well. The fighter spec and mastery applies its +25% to all the weapons in the group so getting a good ranged weapon for the initial closing shot is great. 7.) Take armored Grace - this gets you -16% armor penalty which is similar to getting another 5 points of dexterity. It makes a fighter in full plate as fast as anyone else in scale. It is one of the best fighter abilities in my opinion. With good single target DPS, good DR, good accuracy, and good endurance a fighter spec'd for damage is a great team leader. You'll get good stat based dialogue, other than intellect and be durable enough to stand in the middle of the battle and beat things up without much babysitting.