Raven Darkholme

On normal and on hard...

What an understatement.1) Righteous Soul gives +15, not +10. That's 50% more already.2) Even if it goes through, duration is reduced by 5s. 5s is a lot in PoE combat, especially that many of the powerful effects last only several seconds in the first place.That is exactly what I am talking about. Fear aura lasts 0.1 seconds on graze, 0.2 hit and 0.3 on crit. Best charms in the game last up to 2 seconds.But thats the problem people haven't even played paladin and pretend to know all about them.

@OP who even cares what party is perfect if you only bring pre built companions? There is not much choice of premade companions so it's kind of obvious you only get a handful of compositions. As everybody stated here self made parties are the way to go but there is too many choices here to say what really would be perfect.

How to avoid the bear not getting knocked out: Don't bing a ranger.

I think it dropped in the last dungeon on my solo cipher run, which is kinda pointless since you can't leave and can only do the endfight there.

You people always trolling about paladin being only as good a defender as fighter. Pally doesn't get affected by fear auras he doesn't care for being charmed, his saves are 27 points higher, his def 13 points higher than fighter, I mean, you saying endurance regen covers the same defensive effect, really?

Depends on the difficulty setting on PotD the map is swarming with drakes (5) and young drakes (7) who also get buffed by xaurips on normal according to an online guide there are supposed to be only 2 young drakes. So if you want to clear the map on Potd I would say solo not before 9 and with a party not before 7. Ofc you also can sneak directly to the cave on Potd clearing the map is harder than the actual fight inside.

You sort of missed the point, where being hit by lightning is bound to hurt a lot more (ie. deal more damage) than being hit by a sword. One leaves you as a lump of charcoal and the other makes a cut / hole. Realistically, both might be as deadly (such as putting a sword through an eye, into the brains) but a sword can in no way compare to a lightning bolt in actual damage done. The game is already balanced in this account by giving wizards/druids limited amount of times they're able to reduce a target to a lump of charcoal. No further balance should be needed. Literal 1:1 balance you're talking about would be more feasible for a competitive PvP based game, such as Guild Wars or WoW PvP. But it has no place in an actual single player roleplaying game. And fantasy is about warriors being able to take multiple foes and surviving (which they do) and being able to take on bears and dragons (which they can). It is not about swords dealing as much damage as lightning bolts and fireballs. No, it's you who missed my point. You talk about realism in a fantasy game - ie lightning should do more damage than a sword. What I said was that a warrior doing that kind damage with his sword isn't more ridiculous than the idea of a guy calling the lightning. It's not about balance, it's about not limiting choices and not forcing players into stereotypes. If a fighter is able to kill a dragon by himself (like it seems you agree) he won't certainly do it using a toothpick and trying to outlast the dragon... Talking about realism in a fantasy game is ridiculous. A poisoned dagger wielded by a nimble fighter who can reach the weak spots of a dragon could be just as deadly - you just need imagination (the literature abounds in fighter vs dragons fights...). But these days people seem more influenced by the mmo culture where the idea of hero doesn't exist anymore and people are always forced to play in large groups to be able to achieve something.Anyway this is my last post on this topic. I just posted an opinion and I don't like when other people are trying to impose their own as the right one... Dagger doesnt carry enough poison to kill the dragon, you poison the hafling in the group. He is resistant to poison (in D&D) then you send him to scout out the dragon lair. Then the dragon eats him and gets poisoned and dies. Then you have gotten revenge on the hafling for eating all your supplies. Best post ever.

Tomorrow the adra dragon will fall.

No without and yes its ridiculous, but wouldya believe I just had a 47 graze which would be near the same on crit, no?

My front line just doesn't take damage? That is a much larger problem with AI, and combat mechanics. If you design a super-tank that through stacking skills, attributes and equipment achieves near unhittable defense, and then combine that with abusing the AI mechanic of the enemy bunching around instead of disengaging and going after your backline, you will have in effect broken the game. If that is your playstyle then a ranger is useless for you, in fact anything other than a super-tank and a team of ranged glass cannons would be useless for you. To fix that they'd have to: 1.) Have monsters disengage from your non-damaging super-tank, eat a disengagement attack and then mob your glass cannons. 2.) Have more monsters have a teleport ability to get past your super-tank and hit the glass cannons. 3.) Give monsters an ability to teleport your backline into melee range like the high level fighter ability can. 4.) Give monsters an alternate ranged weapon set and have them focus fire down your backline. 5.) Players could self regulate and not use builds and tactics that trivialize encounters. Since, I believe, that someone has soloed the game with every class on PotD, the tools are in the game to overcome all challenges posed by the AI if the player goes all out to win, even without using a full party. Based on this the only sure way to address the problems are option 5 and self regulate. I'm all for the ranged option and smarter enemy casters ofc.

I always kill them too except for one time where I wanted to find out what the other options do, there is one where you don't take the money they offer, I think the option is tagged as benevolent and they give you the ring anyway.

You don't need to kill them for the ring though.

My front line just doesn't take damage?

There is a random two handed weapon at the adra pillars in Magran's fork, somegimes it's an estoc. As to the bow, just look it up in the wiki and dozens quests can be looked up at gamespressure.

It reflect's ranged grazes back. Often in this game ranged magic counts as ranged, so I wonder... Sadly killed all dragons and drakes except adra already soI can't easily test it.

Yeah, but you need either very high stealth or invisibility to land it. But the damage should be going through the roof with backstab, if I ever get to a point where I don't know what talent to pick I will try it.

Enchant one yourself?

I thought PotD is the only difficulty there is? ;P I guess I got lucky, after that big hit it never was above 100 again.

That is awesome! My only concern with rogue is survivability. In the start of the game at level 2, I try to kill three xaurips with the rogue in valewood, but the rogue ends up missing too much even with the weapon focus adventurer using a pollaxe and gets owned by the Xaurips. If a rogue has that much trouble vs three xaurips at level 2, how is he going to handle a critical moment at higher level if he gets a few enemies targetting him? for POTD, TOI, is a rogue worth it? As a ranger you get the bear companion which is an extra meat shield to form a defensive wall. Depends on your group I guess, since mine is a lazy grop with 3 main melee and 1 flexible, the rogue doesn't really get targeted. Solo is different, but the pet gets skewered solo and the rogue can shadow beyond and escape. Sneak attack crit with fine arbalest, marksman + the talent that ignores 5 enemy DR

A ranged rogue can do 188 damage on level 4 with an arbalest btw. :d Just happened to me with my lazy party. (2 fighters 2 palas, cipher, rogue)

This happens every time after I fight the forgotten, annoyingly enough sometimes even midfight against them. I always save and quit after the fight.

But it did make them useless/boring in the beginning of the game, while almost not hurting them in the mid to late game where they should have been nerfed. Try reading my post next time. I read your post, don't worry.

I don't know about that comparison pet = rogue. :D

I just could never be bothered to extendedly try and babysit the rangers pet. Tried it twice and deleted the group in the temple of Eothas. :D