Kaylon

Bittercut with spirit of decay (which applies +20% dmg to both slash and corrode dmg) does better damage than Purgatory, the spells are just a bonus. Let's say you do 100% critical hits for the sake of the argument... 50% more dmg means, on average, 8 more dmg every hit. 20% dmg means 3dmg on average, thus Purgatory can do at best 5 more dmg than Bittercut on average. However, if you look at the bestiary you'll see that more than half of the enemies are either resistant to slash or weak to corrode and Bittercut will do better damage in most situations. PS. Also Bittercut is obtainable very soon in ch.2 while Purgatory comes only in ch.3... PPS. A fire lash will add only 1 more dmg to a critical hit with Purgatory compared to Bittercut...

Firebug looks good on paper but in reality sucks because it uses your base accuracy (ie up to 33acc loss compared to weapon) which means not only it has a poor chance to proc (less than 10% because of misses/grazes) but when it procs it also has a good chance to miss/graze. Also in order to bounce you need to have a second enemy behind or target or else it will stop. A lash will add more dps than this proc... A superb march steel dagger with a lash and durganized might even outdps it...

You have also Cladhaliath - it comes with +5acc and can have stunning and 20% dmg vs flanked, stunned, prone.

Dual durganized legendary bittercut with corrosive lash is the next best thing after dual dawn in spring. And with the gauntlets of quickness you can reach 0% recovery if you wear a durganized robe/monk outfit.

Well, I tested the ring of searing flames again an now it works. Maybe it was a bug introduced in 3.01 and was fixed in 3.02... PS. In the previous patch I got multiple rings from raedric's keep because I was planning to use them with Persistence and I was really disappointed when they didn't work. Finally I postponed my playtrough because even the Stalker Torc was bugged and it didn't work (now it works too).

Have you tested that? I tried using multiple rings with combusting wounds and it doesn't work... It sounds like it should work, in theory. You can only wear one pair of gloves at a time, so you'd just swap out the pair that exhausted it's charges with the pair in inventory. (as opposed to two rings, one on each hand). I'd try it, but don't have a spare helwax mold lying around Nobody forces you to wear the rings at the same time either... I just used an example of a common item which can be found multiple times and which should provide you, in "theory", more than 3 uses per rest. However the game won't allow more than 3 uses per rest no matter how many items you switch.

I was talking about stacking charges. The fact that the spell doesn't work is irrelevant here.

Have you tested that? I tried using multiple rings with combusting wounds and it doesn't work...

The wall of force blocking the path to lvl2 is disabled only after talking to the steward after you kill Maerwald. Also the door from lvl13 can be opened only if you understand the engwithan language which is possible only after finishing Undying Heritage from Act2.

Yes, the description should say +x% radius. I don't know if developpers used approximative descriptions all over the game because they have poor math skills or because they don't want things too look very technical or complicated.

When combusting wounds will work again DT will become even more effective... Also the chanter might be able to solo any encounter you can't finish until you kill everybody by withdrawing himself with the small shield from the alpine dragon.

Indeed the damage of each tick checks vs 0.25DR and if the last tick has 1s or less it will be lost. DOT damage is affected however only by the might bonus.

Sacred Immolation does on average 25 dmg vs full DR every 3s. Dragon Trashed does 20 dmg vs 0.5 DR every 3s. With Scion of Flame SI will be superior most of the time because of the higher base damage/damage bonuses even if it has to overcome a higher DR. But when you start stacking the chant there's no contest anymore - it's 40dmg vs 25dmg... And with 30int you can even triple stack the chant...

There's a more elegant method - you can use a priest to withdraw the paladin during Sacred Immolation. He will stop taking damage and his defenses will be boosted by 100 because it works like a stun. With 240+ all defenses nothing can touch you anymore. Of course you can spec the rest of your party as pure damage dealers...

There's still a problem. Check out my example of a crit vs 16 DR in my first post. I'm not sure why you add 3 to the duration but either way using your formula I get 80 damage rounded down. What I saw was 77 damage. The last tick was shown so there's nothing to amount for the missing 3 damage. And a bonus question - why do we have 6 ticks at 13.95 sec duration if damage ticks each 3 seconds? 0-3-6-9-12-13.95 that's 6 ticks. The game rounds down the final damage - ie if you do 6.9-6.9-6.9 it will display 6-6-6 and your final damage will be 20, not 18.

Ok, let's take the first example for the people who still don't get it... Your spell does 74.4 corrode dmg over 9.3s and the guy has 4.5 corrode DR. Then your final damage should be 74.4-4.5=69.9 over 9.3s. To calculate the damage of each tick you have to do 69.9/(9.3+3)*3=17.0. And you should have a last tick (which might be displayed or not) at 9.3s doing 69.9/(9.3+3)*.3=1.7s which is rounded down to 1. The final damage will be 17+17+17+17+1=69. A graze will reduce the duration of the dot to half - which means you'll do 74.4/(9.3+3)*(4.65+3)=46.2dmg over 4.6s. A crit will increase the duration by 50% - that means you'll do 74.4/(9.3+3)*(13.95+3)=102.5 dmg over 13.9s.

Beast Slayer, Untroubled Faith and Deep Pockets aren't that good. Scion of Flame (which enhances SI, FoD, burning lashes and gives 5 burn DR), Bear's Fortitude, Snake Reflexes should be your first choice. Using a potion of Infuse with Vital Essence at the beginning of the fight will compensate the health loss from SI and more.

Sagani's bow (which can be obtained as soon as you finish ch.1) is another top choice because it does thrust/crush damage and can be durganized and also have a lash unlike Stormcaller.

I thought it was obvious the ticks were every 3s.

The total damage of the DOT is reduced by the DR and the result is equally distributed over the entire duration of the dot. And you can't trust the displayed numbers because the numbers are rounded to integers an not all ticks are displayed.

You should change your weapons depending on the enemies until you get Bittercut or Drawn in Spring. Constitution is required at the start of the game because your defenses are not high enough and you have to soak damage and defend yourself against disabling afflictions (stun, paralysis, prone). From ch2 you can start lowering your constitution because you can use boots of stability/fenwalkers to boost your defenses against disabling afflictions. Once you get Sacred Immolation you should lower your constitution to 3 and increase your intellect to 18. Use the belt of the eotun, dragon's lair resting bonus and lyrinia's boon to keep your constitution at 10. Use potions of infuse with vital essence during fights to get your health back and avoid resting...

No.

Deep wounds doesn't stack, each hit just refreshes the duration.

You can start WM1 at lv7 but you should stick mostly to the main quest. Side quests and bounties should probably be finished too before starting WM2 to avoid losing them. Alpine dragon and the lich are lv12-14 content and should be done probably during ch.3.

To solo you need very good knowledge of the game. Example 1 - the bear cave at lv2 Once you free the cook you should be able to craft potions of wizard's double, fan of flame scrolls and some food. For equipment the optimal items are crossbow, brigandine, hatchet and small shield. For skills flames of devotion and weapon and shield style. You can shoot the bear from stealth using FoD then switch to melee. Next you drink the potion of WD which will give you enough time to use FoF and a last FoD with the hatchet if needed. In normal it should go smoothly, in potd you need a few reloads... Example 2 - eothas temple With plate and rymrgrand's mantle the damage from all the shadows, shades, ghosts will be reduced to min and all your endurance lost will be healed back. A fine brigandine will reduce the damage of the will-o-wisps to minimum. Fine plate + blunting belt can reduce the damage of a skuldr king to minimum if you use also a potion of wizard's double.