Slapstick87

So I've been playing a dps fighter with the Sanguine armor for a good while now (on hard). I don't think I've seen Frenzy trigger yet. Is it 100% certain that it will trigger when I get hit by a crit? (that is the trigger for Spell Holding, right?), or is it a lower % chance? I really wish Frenzy would trigger when I scored a crit. That would make it vastly more usefull. Now I will switch to a lower -% attack speed item since it never seems to trigger anyway. Useless awesome looking armor...

Reading this question for some unexplainable reason made me picture the scene from GoT with the white walkers sacrificing a baby

Yeah, as Nakia said, you can switch at any time if you've learned the spells. And if you have multiple Grimoires, you can have tons of spells locked and loaded if you take the time to arrange them with no repeats. Yeah, of course. I just assumed we where talking about ciphers and chanters here. Those that have to learn a "spell" for ALL ETERNITY and can NEVER in their entire life learn anything else EVER.

Generally correct, I would just like to add that attribute bonuses on weapons stack with attribute bonuses on items. This caught me by surprise.

In old D&D you could only cast Lightning Storm when there actually WAS a storm going on! Would be cool if weather effects could have subtle effects on spells and characters. You don't really enjoy your heavy armor that much in heavy snowfall. Fire spells also would lose their edge a bit, wouldn't they? How about chain lightning getting another jump if everyone is wet to begin with? Slicken could have a slightly longer duration on wet soil. There's lot of interactivity you could add with a weather system that wouldn't "break" anything or be totally OP. It would just be nice little twists to an otherwise static game engine.

I agree that they should add limited spell switching, like with sorcerers in NWN. Every level up, switch 1 spell on a chosen spell level, at least 1 lower than highest.

Nice post! (Just thought I'd get that in there before I start making suggestions ) Very close to my potd build. Now the comments: Bloody Slaughter activates when the enemy is below 10% health. TEN! That's as good as never IMO, and a waste of a talent. I would much rather have Shadowing Beyond, as it can save my day and ruin someone elses a lot more often than a little extra damage on the occasional crit when a mob happens to be a few frames away from dead. You know that extra crit damage you get with the talent? Yeah - that is only for crits that are activated due to this specific talent. Not all crits. Ps. I know it says "Stilettos" in the topic, so I guess that's not open for debate, but dual scimitars deals a truckload of more damage. Oh... I also used a superbly enchanted, crush resistant, clothing item for end game instead of armor. Who needs armor when your enemies can't see you for all of their innards being out in the open? PPs. I see a lot of people taking deep wounds, but I don't know why. Does it add damage to every attack? Because a little dot seems pointless when you kill something in less than 2 seconds. Does it scale with +dmg and +crit? I hit "some boss" (can't remember) with a crit for >180 dmg I think with Finishing Blow. THAT was fun. I would miss finishing blow.

Death godlike is certainly doable, but you won't notice the ability all that much outside of bossfights, ogres and trolls. Everything else has so little health that once it drops below 25% (you know, it might be a drop from 30% to 10%), it's virtually dead already. Those are however, worthwhile fights in which to have the bonus. You'll get +1 to dex which is nice, so not a bad option at all. You might also consider boreal dwarf or amaua. If you don't mind using godlikes (I do), then I would suggest a running a moony instead. That heal is going to save your life at some point. High might and little life means it'll be close to a full health refund when you need it the most, plus it heals your team. It's ridiculous. Death godlike is decent for RP though. I actually dig Rymrgand after doing his questline at Twin Elms.

I find the lack of clear-cut "good vs. evil" alignment system great. It provides (maybe I should say allows. Hopefully PoE2 will have a bit more reactivity) for a more nuanced world and character relations. What nobles and the common folk consider "good" might not be the same. What people consider "good" and what they want you to do (hence reputation with that faction) might also not be the same. Some companions might be fine with you being selfish, as long as it doesn't directly hurt anyone, etc. All-in-all the lack of "good powers as an actual thing" and "evil is a specific trait, personified in gods and demons" gives you more shades of grey. Which also allows for a more dark, grimy and realistic world. Your companions don't have alignments. They have personalities. You have to work them out, rather than just reading label saying "chaotic good".

Trying to remember my build, it should be this: Lvl 1 Blinding Strike Lvl 2 Weapon Focus Ruffian Lvl 3 Reckless Assault Lvl 4 Two weapon style Lvl 5 Dirty Fighting Lvl 6 Vicious Fighting Lvl 7 Finishing Blow Lvl 8 Vulnerable Attack Lvl 9 Deathblows Lvl 10 Savage Attack Lvl 11 Withering Strike Lvl 12 Shadowing Beyond I killed things stupendously fast :D

I played through potd with great success with a Hearth Orlan - max might/dex, 10 int, 7 con (I belive), low resolve, high (think maybe I got it to max) perception. In my opinion, you don't really want to hard-dump any save simply to avoid crits. A crit hit vs. Reflex can kill you, a crit dominate will last long enough for you to kill your entire team, etc. I would take blinding strike first, because the debuff is stronger and gives you better survival ability at start. Do bring a cipher on the team (and a wiz if you don't mind). Cipher debuffs are great to help the rogue survive and kill. Don't hate the pike in early game to stay behind your tank in doorways. Dual wielding ruffian weapons is a good idea. Stilettos and Sabres comes in great varieties. In terms of talents and abilities it should be pretty straight forward what to take. Maximize your damage output with crit talents and modals. Skip backstab, coordinated positioning and riposte (enemies on potd do not miss).

I never leave home without my wizard and priest

For me a priest is ranged 2. in necessity, right after a tank. They're great for saving my group when something hits the fan. I do use the priest as an offensive caster as well though. I think of it as "preemptive healing". If I can trap an enemy to prone, blast him with some divine wrath, hold him and then maybe shoot him in the face and kill him, that's a lot more manageable and protective of poor Aloth than trying to simply heal him while he's getting his ribcage turned into a birdcage.

I only really want one thing for difficulty adjustment. An AI that properly evaluates if an disengagement attack is worth it to run past and attack a squishy caster. That would turn the tables a lot in terms of difficulty. If the AI had proper badass prioritization of targets and selective methods for dealing with said target (such as paralyze caster with low fort save, all switch to ranged and blast paralyzed wizard with shotguns, switch back to normal weapons, etc.) - I would be more than thrilled.

I haven't done the math, and you may be right, but the loss of Reckless Assualt (as it only works on melee) and the fact that a bow deals a lot less number of attacks in total than two fast or normal weapons, was in my experience substantially in favor of melee. By a wide margin. You also need to fiddle more with the other characters to apply a debuff since you can't flank the target yourself. Just my 2 ¢ of course

Hrm... I'm tempted to argue that a ranged fighter IS a rogue. Thinking about it "in character" I doubt anyone would introduce himself or label himself a "rogue" or a "ranger" or a "barbarian". They're all just.... you know... fighters, soldiers, sellswords, whatever. I'm currently playing with a melee dps fighter. The strong point of a dps fighter is the survivability. It's much higher than a rogue or a barbarian, which I'm loving on my Ironman playthrough, although the dps is admittedly lower (still nb. 1 in the team though). You will not experience this benefit if you go ranged. The melee DPS is actually quite nice with my enchanted morningstar (they look awesome), so I imagine you would be able to output decent damage. However it would be nothing more than almost any other character could perform, without any other benefit whatsoever. It would be like sticking a gun on a rogue or a monk and never use a single ability. You know, you could... by why would you?

What armor and skills/build did you use to keep the melee rogue alive through PoTD? Specifically to keep him alive? Well I ran with leather until Defiance Bay, and then switched to an Excellently enchanted, crushing proofed, clothing actually. Also had blunting belt on through the game. Early game the survivability was a bit of an issue, but solved by using a pike behind tanks when there where many enemies, and dual wielding with few enemies. Mid-game (Act II) I had Oidrecht for draining, plus a lot of disabling from other classes to keep him safe and enable sneak attacks. Mental Binding, Knockdown, Paralysing, etc. It still pays off to use spells to enable the rogue, because the rogue kills so fast. In Act III the rogues stopping power was so ridiculous that it was no trouble sending him 1-on-1 with practically anything, or throwing Pain suppresion and the priests Triumph of the Crusaders for the hard fights. If I got swarmed "Shadowing Beyond" was my way out. I decimated back row spellcasters and archers before anyone could sneeze, and then moved in to flank the tanky front liners For attributes I was a Hearth Orlan, going max might/dex - 10 Int, dump resolve, rest into perception. I got in a lot of interrupts as well which helped whenever someone was attacking me. You could argue that the rogue isn't a self-sufficient damage dealer, and that would be true. I however enjoy the interplay between different roles on the team and had a lot of fun going this route. It's also key to understand that he doesn't have to be in the fighting scene immediately. You can wait for tanks to get control, that blind spell to land, and the worst offensive spells landing on the tanks before you start slicing and dicing. Seeing things just go "splat" in 0.2 seconds when I click on them with the rogue controlled is fun!

I started a ranged rogue for potd, however I found her dmg output "fine" but a bit slow. So I switched to melee rogue, and holy **** did she wreck face. I had no trouble keeping the melee rogue alive through potd, and she was by far the most important damage dealer in the group, paired with a cipher and a wizard. So if you simply want a rogue, I recommend melee. Ranged is however a rather straight-forward build. Max dex & might, I had Int at 10 so I didn't have to ditch defences to the floor (you can at least attempt not to get critted). Con was around 9 I think, and very high perception to get some interrupts in every now and then. Don't bother with armor, I ran around in just clothing (enchanted) + blunting belt. You might not even need it if you're going ranged. For a melee rogue the "Shod in Faith" boots was pretty nice, maybe you should keep them handy for shades/phantoms. For weapons, I found corrode to be the least resisted damage enchant, but also fire to be the most usefull (Because I thoroughly hate shades and phantoms). I found "coordinated positioning" to be not necessary, however "shadowing beyond" was a lifesaver at times. Backstab is not recommended.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this weapon enchant still doesn't work? I was unable to find anything recent (post patch) on it. So weird if one of the enchants on a weapon they've built an entire questline around still isn't working.

Works fine for me

I just finished a potd run where I had a chanter as a tank. I thought "surely on potd difficulty the fights will be long enough to get some spells off". I summoned my ogres exactly once. I did summon the phantom a few times. The AOE charm I also used once. Granted I had a melee rogue/cipher/wizard/priest doing damage and evaporating things left and right. Combat was over in the blink of an eye, you know... except for pausing every 4 frames. A paladin would've been a much more usefull tank. I would never pick a chanter for any party again, ever. They can go swinging from a tree for all I care.

I only did the first bounties on my first play-through (didn't realize there were more!), so I hit max lvl after doing several quests in the end city. I'm actually HAPPY that we get to max level before the game is over. It's fun to have some time to be awesome and play with your end-game abilities, rather than getting them just in time for the end fight and that's all you get to play around with them.

Shouldn't it replace the previous debuff? So you can reapply a debuff before the previous one runs out.

Would be cool if Nature goodlike was a bit more "natury". Like summoning two level-appropriate animals to fight with him when health < 50% or something like that. All abilities except the moon (and arguably fire) godlike are very... unnoticable. You don't really notice the abilities.

I was never an advocate of nerfing things. It just seem bad that shield style is so much encouraged by mechanics. Instead of nerfing it I would rather provide more defensive options alternative to shield. In PoE most weapons have very similar and, frankly, quite boring, attributes. I feel that in good old BG2:ToB weapons were more exciting with great defensive enchantments (magic resist, armor class bonus etc.). This way there was a lot of 2-handed powerful alternatives to weapon and shield playstyle, which didn't hurt survivability but sometimes surpassed shields in certain situations (Carsomyr). Well I'll give you that one. There were at times more special attributes, abilities, etc. on items "back in the days" (NWN with a bunch of mods was a many-year love affair for me) . Balanced? Well that would be a stretch. Fun? Oh yes! I'll take fun over balance (to a degree) any time of the week.