Elric Galad

I think that untill now Obsidian successive patches have been pretty satisfying (considering this is a game with average budget). However, considering that we are probably close to the end of PoE patching, most of us are probably a little anxious about remaining issues. Defenses save/load bug reminds me of BGII Firkrag's dungeon bug : Greater Wolfwere stacked infinite regeneration to the point it was unkillable by anything except instant death spells. This survived until Enhanced Edition, so I hope it will not be the same with PoE... I can understand that it might not be economically rational to keep working on their game. However, I hope they will commit a bit more than other companies, at least as a reward for their backer confident contribution. After all, their business model relies on us. At least I hope they will communicate about their "patching plan". It's obvious that people will complain if Obsidian doesn't correct what they think derserve correcting. But that's life, and that would be a honnest approach. Basically, I won't cry too much for now, but a bit of communication from their side would be nice.

Pistols vs Blunderbuss is a choice you won't have to make. It is the same talent. But I think the OP thought the blunderbuss cone was better for his taste. The 3 firearms have indeed different length and width for their cone attacks.

Immolation is a very good DPS ability, but that's about it.

For pure damages I would say that dragon trashed chanter and his friendly constant AoE seems hard to match, at least because of its convenience and chanter tankyness. It's like 140 AoE damages every 4s at high level. Then 1-2 crowd controler like druids or wizards would make the perfect mix. Wizards may be the strongest but relentless storm is like an auto win button. I suspect stag's carnage+avenging storm to be the ultimate Crowd Cleaner. I have yet to test it. Finally, 1 priest is always awesome. Buffs will shift the balance on your side, and his AoE damages are far from ugly.

Are you sure this thread should be in the Stories forum ? I agree with you, except I didn't find immunity to rogue's attack are so frequent. Frightened and Terrified is another story. For crush immunity... monks can use other weapons. You can have 2 sets, with slaying spirit spear, so it's not a big issue for me. There is only 1 major find for which it is a bit annoying. But I agree with you about Rogue and Barbarian UPness. I made a lot of posts about this. I think that the current situation is not so bad by the way. Now I'm waiting for new patch or... confirmation that they will stop patching. Then it will be mod time.

Circonstancial but incredibly powerful : barb with hallowed redeemer against vessels... now that's a way to reduce risk. Tested and approved as Concelhaut party kryptonite. The point is : barbarian strongly relies on the weapon you choose. Various effects lead to various benefits.

Totally agree with this. Furthermore, draining weapons are also fantastic on barbarian. Barbarian with tidefall never dies.

There's a lot of thread on this forum about barbarian one trick ponyness and being slightly UP (I'm the author of several of them and I used "one trick pony expression a hundred times on these threads), but I don't think Rogue is their main problem. Rogue DPS is a bit less conditonal, it's true, but they are also even more squishy. Barbarian can be an ok off-tank. The consensus on this forum seems to be Barbarian and Rogue being a bit UP, especially because of bad or meh high level abilities. The winner foe pure martial DPS seems to be the ranger, because of twin arrows, stunning shots and 2.0 pets. (I won't call "pure martial DPS" other class like monks, fighters, druids, ciphers)

About lvl 7 spells, it would be easy to fix them : - remove black ooze from call of the primordial possible summons. - double weather the storm duration. - nature's bounty could be a direct effect (taking Druid's Int into account for duration...) rather than a potion stuff. I could understand that Obsidian would like to avoid overlap between druids and wizard for damage spells, providing druid with more support and less direct effects, but they have more or less fail the tuning of a whole spell level. It's sad. (If only call of the primordial could have summoned an Adragan instead ! (even for short duration). Adragans are my favorite PoE monster ^^ Good lore and badass abilities...) As side notes from your spell guide: - Ice ooze dying explosion causes petrify. It worths noticing. - I know your guide is not called Thunderstag, but avenging storm should work with stag carnage. However, I have not yet tested it... This would be my candidate for best limited time AoE melee of the game. If confirmed, it could worth a side note for alternate option (even if stag defense has not great synergy with your idea.)

I find that priests are rather optimal shield users since their most important abilities don't require accuracy (buffs or healing, and seals have a huge accuracy bonus): you can even go big shield.

Maybe sword and sheperd is triggered by skill activation while some other FoD talents are triggered by each attack. This might be meant to avoid double proc from S&S healing (meanwhile applying speed buff 2 times is not a pb). Reverse engineering, yeah !

I don't know what it worths but penetrating shot should work with firebug, overwhelming wave and echoing shout (even if it is not included in your build.) It works on line spells and jump spells.

When you enter Stalwart for WM II, you'll see that the toon has changed a bit. Go to the place which used to be a temple of Ondra. It is now a Temple of Abydon. Talk to the smith girl, she will give you the quest. Do the quest (I don't want to spoil it), and you'll be rewarded with the Unlabored Blade. But that's only the beginning. This is a Soulbound Dagger, you have to bound it to a character to unlock its upgrades. Then you'll see this blade has a very special way of being upgraded... Upgrade it to ultimate level, and you'll have firebug.

Further testing : Penetrating Shot recovery penalty don't apply to spell, even if it adds DR Bypass ! (But of course, it applies to summoned weapon attacks as they are weapons.) Dangerous Implement applies partially to Kalakoth, but in a bad way : you receive raw damages, but no bonus to damages. Marksman does apply to Kalakoth Minor Blights. And Sneak attack applies to main target of Kalakoth's blight, to secondary targets, BUT NOT to blast.

I lost to many times in my life on Gamebanshee. Good site. Do you think Cean Gwla are a kind tribute to Gambanshee ?

Honnestly, not that much. I always use prayer against fear (priest or scroll) for dragons fight. It is important to protect your whole party against fear, not only 1 dude. In this condition, steadfast immunity becomes irrelevant.

Yes, it does. When WMI was released, it was added to the list of status triggering sneak attack and deathblow.

I think it is really poor for offense, but has nice defensive properties, especially the druid, ranger and barbarian version. So giving it to a (ranged) ranger as you do or to a druid, as Thundercat build does on this forum, makes sense. It might even be considered "best in slot item" for them. I don't really see other purposes.

Sorry, it was a little joke. The second colour set is better indeed. Criticism is easy, art is difficult...

This is premium quality testing. Even better because we have clear a general rule now : penetrating shot apply to line spells, single target spells, jumping spells and main target of targetted spells with AoE. It shouldn't work with DoT and lashes (like sunlance). So it should Bypass DR of Silent Scream main target. If it wasn't raw damages ^^ More Seriously, it should work with overwhelming wave, firebug, prone pillar (main target is the onlt one to take damages anyway)... Harder to determine : twin stones (work on line, but not on impact), seven night she waited (work seperately on each line) ? Finally Charge and Flagellant Path should be considered as "melee line spells" and work with vulnerable attack ???

I would really max Dex, so if your race/background can allow it, don't hesitate to put 19 or 20. Second priority is Per. 15 is ok. My last rogue had 13 might. Might is relatively meaningless on a rogue. I prefer letting Con and Res to 10 as Rogue goes to melee. Int is not so useful to deserve a 10% endurance malus.

So you can use golden gaze until Expose vulnerabilities proc, then switch to minor blight for blast festival. It sounds good. Is there any WM II items that has on hit effects ? (Except weapons)

I didn't know that Andy Warhol plays PoE

There are 3 effects from Minor Blight :- Main attack targetting deflection (I think... or is it also reflex ?) - AoE attack targeting reflex (same damages as main attack). - Blast AoE for each main target and secondary targets. Penetrating shot seems to be applied to initial target, and maybe secondary ones (but I can't test it for a few weeks). Blast talent and penetrating blast shall be applied only to the third effects. All of these effects can trigger interrupt even if the logs are misleading (interrupt from blast are confirmed as a single target can be interrupted several times but they are not listed in the blast effect). I'm also curious about Penetrating Shot applied to all crackling bolt and mind lance target (or only the main one). This paranoia comes from Concussive missile where only main target gets its DR reduced by penetrating shot.

It affects the main target of concussive missile, not the secondary ones which is a different effect. So it should work with pillars of faith. That's why I doubt for Kalakoth's minor blight. The main and secondary targets have similar effects so it might be considered as AoE instead of targetted.