Raven Darkholme

For bossfights as this melee rogues suck.

That's true, but kind of a moot point unless you see something besides DPS or focus to be worthwhile spending a talent point for on a cipher. Biting Whip, Draining Whip, WF Ruffian, Gunner, Marksman, Penetrating Shot... what must-have talent am I missing? Early greater focus is not that bad.

You don't really get, that most people complaining about this rest the same way you do. This whole philosophy if you don't wanna cheese, don't do it just stinks like ****. Especially in a game which seemingly cares for balance as several updates prove.

ooOOooooOOOoo. Got try it with a monk! You cheap bastard.

Or you can never pick up any loot at all, or you can play without a monitor, or you can never level up, etc. All these options are exactly as irrelevant to any balance discussion because nothing forces you to use them, just like nothing prevents you from resting after every fight (or more to the point, before every remotely difficult fight). Therefore, for the sake of balance, the only reasonable assumption is that everyone is at full strength in every fight, because, surprise of surprises, that is exactly the case any time that you have a difficult fight ahead - the first thing you do is rest up, or, more importantly, you at least CAN. The fact it's inconvenient to run back to town for more supplies if you overdo it is not relevant to balance at all. The only way a rest system can possibly work is if the devs have the balls to actually restrict it in some real way instead of going "trolololo stare at some loading screens you naughty boy, you rested too much", which has to be the most idiotic way to try to "balance" anything ever conceived. "Hey let's totally allow the player to do this, and let's make it the strategically superior choise, but let's make it turn the game into total ass!". ****ing brilliant. But hey, why balance anything or design the game intelligently when you can apparently just call anyone doing something smart a "cheeser" and win. THIS.

The strategy is perfect, thats true, my comment was directed at the thought the strategy is only viable with a rogue which its not. A monk would be awesome for it, too.

It doesn't work that much worse with an offtank running around.

You can get accuracy gauntlets +5 early on in Raedrics, just check the thread in this forum, whete you can download a file with all the dates for specific drops in random loot table chests. Also I can only encourage you to use warbow, it's not only similar dps to heavy weapons, but also more reliable focus. Take marksman early and biting whip. Wood elf is an awesome class for ciphers distant advantage also works on spells.

You pretty much thought of an awesome strategy I was too lazy to come up with myself, but I saw the theoretical capability of EE, thats why I opened this post. As to FF, as soon as somebody said"Echo doesn't do FF", I was like wtf, didn't it do FF before? Many people denied it ever was, but I'm pretty sure it was at least in 1.03 maybe in 4 also.

His tail slap also hits ridiculously hard and targets Reflex. On a party member with 135 Reflex and 21 DR to the attack, it "grazed" my party member for 175 points of damage. That said, I find it ironic that you point out Low Dex as a problem. Why? 1. You get +30 to Reflex from sword and shield style and an Orlan with max Perception can get +24 to Perception, which results in a total of +58 to Reflex. (+28 from having 24 Perception.) 2. Dumping Dex to 3 and adding +2 from an item results in a -10 to Reflex from the stat. Even if you have 10 Dex and take no penalty, you're still going to get damaged by that breath weapon, grazed by the melee attack, or grazed by that tailslap - all fairly often while in melee. (Depending on if you're behind the dragon or in front of the dragon. A party might have 2 tanks and the the dragon can target any of them. Plus, I've noticed that enemies can and do target Rogues, even though they have been engaged by the tank. This particularly occurs when knocked prone or some such effect occurs to the tank.) 3. The net gain from Perception, Dex, and Sword and Shield Style is +48 to Reflex. Not too shabby. 4. From what I've seen, having done the fight now, It's better to have larger Endurance Pool from Constitution to absorb that damage, with potions to heal and a priest at the ready, than to have a 10% lower chance of being grazed. Even at 170 to either Deflection or Reflex and 25 DR, you'll still take some serious damage from grazes. You have to choose something - you can't have it all. (At least, without consoles commands or hacks.)Your Fort will be low if you lower Might to raise Dex and you'll have a harder time overcoming the DR of the Adra Dragon. Your Health and Endurance will be low if you lower Constitution to raise Dex. If you lower Resolve, you would have lower Deflection and Will. And, you won't be able to lower Int. So, which stat would you lower to gain Dex and why? If I could, I'd have 24 in all stats, but that's not possible in normal play. We have to choose what we max and we have to accept any trade-offs we get for not maxing one stat or another. Are you advocating dumping a different stat or just not dumping Dex and, therefore, not maxing Might or adding to Con? What is your plan/build that gives better defenses, in total? First you talk about soloing and now all of a sudden its a party with priest? Sword and shield also applies to deflection so your point is moot. What you say about reflex could also be said about def (having the stat dumped to 3 don't matter) but it shows you haven't actually done the fight solo yourself.

Since you keep referring to soloing Adra. Specifically in that fight dumped Dex is a bad idea. He also has a breath attack which hits even harder than melee.

Rings of unshackling if you already got hit by insect plague. Charm to keep them from even casting it.

Shield does not affect spells, cautious attack does.

It's also to note that summoning and resummoning Phantoms is faster than the other summons. Don't wanna cast echo when the fight is over.

Ok, sorry and no hard feelings, I will edit the post, deleting sadly doesn't seem to work here.

That was not intended as insult. You can't even express if you find something funny these days. A similar jab might as well have hit me.

*bad joke* please delete

Afaik one handed works with a shield. Not sure about stacking though.

I don't know where you get b) from. Afaik 2 enemies are enough to flank a fighter with maximum engagement.

In that fight I had no resting or food boni, so "only" 20 MI.

If you have a full party full CC is enough. If you solo massive damage is the way to go.^^

Yeah my first solo was with a cipher who had only 95 def with level 12 and way less before. If you can dish out enough damage you don't need a tank. Game is just more enjoyable with one or two tanks I feel.

You can't avoid getting flanked except by not getting surrounded btw.

You do not engage period if you don't attack in melee.

You don't get stat points on lu. Int is most important followed by MI than DEX. IN gives you duration AND AoE.