T0rin

I don't know, but they are giving the skill a +20 accuracy bonus in the 1.6 patch. I'd assume like any skill, it depends on what weapon and talents you are using. Even classes with low base accuracy (Wizard) can reliably hit and crit often on PotD.

Yeah I didn't bother with Animat at all.. I was at that point of having 6000+, thinking whether I needed Animat for Raedric/Cad Nua, or whether I wanted Rotfinger as soon as I got to Defiance Bay. I opted for the latter. I usually end up selling some ~550 copper worth of stuff to Heodan. Animat just isn't worth the money in the long run if you can get by without it. Once you get to Defiance Bay and can buff your mechanics to ~8, you're set.

If you have a party, you can pretty much do almost anything and complete the game. Characters optimized to that level are really more about being able to solo. Optimized stats might make some of the really end game (Adra dragon, etc.) content easier, but it is all doable even without that.

On a related, but kind of unrelated note... I started a new Wizard TCS run last night, trying to follow the punch-lists in this thread. Worked mostly well, except for the hidden loot containers, which I didn't have enough mechanics to find. At level 4, I had 5 stealth and 2(?) mechanics, which was not enough. I eventually died in the dungeon of Raedric's Keep to a chest I could have sworn was trapped, but nothing was showing up for, so I yolo'd it and it killed me. I then restarted so that by level 4 I had 4 stealth and 3-4 mechanics, and died trying to sneak past the guard on the battlements of Raedric's Keep. (definitely need 5 stealth for that!) So on a third attempt I waited until level 5 (had to level up on non-quest stuff mostly, spiders and the like) to go into Raedric's Keep, and was able to loot all the hidden caches along the way. I also did Cad Nua at level 4, at least I killed all the spectres/shadows, using the aforementioned Ray of Fire, Concelhaut's Draining Siphon (this was really good actually) and a few Fan of Flames... no armor, Arcane Veil + Hardened Veil + Fine Hatchet + Small Shield. (enchanted to Fine) I opted to come back to Maerwald, mainly because I hadn't done Raedric's Keep yet, so I didn't have any traps, but it turned out to be more or less like the rogue run... drop the trap, buff up with potions, spam some Fan of Flames (brought 2-3 scrolls extra) and clean up with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. Everything after that was pretty much smooth sailing.. once you get Rotfinger + Essential Phantom, combat because mostly a joke, and I proceeded to clear out all the combat heavy quests that the Rogue would normally need to bring scrolls for. Opted for using Pikes this run, (Citzal's Spirit Lance is really good) had Sanguine by level 8, Tall Grass by 6-7, using Ring of Wonder + Ring of Protection + Finreah's Grace + Int enchanted on Sanguine, and of course Shod-in-Faith. Got a bit into Act 3 and called it a night.. but Wizard is really pretty easy once you get past Cad Nua and Radric's Keep, which take a little extra effort compared to Rogue because of the lack of base Mechanics + Stealth.

The documents are great, thank you. So what is this secret spell for winning the Cad Nua fight as a Wizard? I've tried Fan of Flames and Chill Fog, separately and in combination. Bewildering Spectacle seems to have minimal effect, as they don't deal much damage to each other and can potentially lead to a Spectre ending up standing next to you. Stacking Chill Fogs wasn't enough.. and is even harder now that it is no longer a Foe AoE spell. I didn't try Ghost Blades or Ray of Fire, but the latter might be good. The Thaos fight as a Wizard solo (I did play through twice as Wizard on PotD/Expert, just no Trial of Iron) is really not that difficult, and by the time you get Rotfinger Gloves and Essential Phantom, every encounter becomes a joke. Not only is your duplicate just as tanky as you are, but they have a full 3 uses of Rotfinger Gloves, regardless of how many you have used, so you essentially can get 15 uses in a single fight, if one were to go on that long. Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is really good in the early-mid game just for clearing out most non-Boss enemies. And there is really no reason you can't do the Maerwald fight the same way you did with a thief.. i.e. drop a trap, buff up with Bulwark and spam Fan of Flames. Leave a single level 1 spell for Parasitic Staff to finish him off if needed. Arcane Veil (and Hardened Veil) trivializes most of the short early game fights, since you can afford to wear no armor and never get hit. It is the longer fights that can give you trouble, once your Arcane Veils are used up.

Yeah, I noticed that too. By level 8-9, I was just going full man-mode on some harder fights (Raedric's Keep for instance) without any scrolls at all, and found myself getting close to death, but Health death, not Endurance. I don't think I ever got close to an Endurance death... Moon Godlike + Shod-in-Faith is just pretty ridiculous healing. I didn't take it, but opted for Weapon Proficiency: Ruffian instead. (Sabres!) More accuracy = more crits, so it remained in line with the build idea. I think I had 80-85ish Accuracy by the end of the game. There are not a lot of good options though.. like you said, many of the defensive talents are just not very helpful, and most of the non-acquired Rogue talents are 1-2/Rest, which I don't like. All the good Per Encounter skills and passives get taken, which doesn't leave much. Maybe Fast Runner? Though it doesn't do anything outside of Combat..

Yeah, it did. I saw you do it, and I was like OK, let's go! The first death was a learning experience in how Shadowing aggro works, or rather, that you need to let the mobs "touch" you before running off. My first attempt resulted in me running off with everything chasing me, and by the time it expired, I had a Spectre standing right next to me, and welp, that was all she wrote. My second death was more my fault, I waited too long to activate Shadowing, and again, Spectre got me. I've become rather proficient in the first hour or two of the game though... I ended up using Resolution (4th level Od Nua, not risky by level 8-9) and Purgatory (Blood Sands Archdruid, not risky by 9-10), simply for their +0.5 crit damage multipliers. Nothing fancy like Crit -> Stun or Crit -> Prone, but then again, I never really found myself in a situation where it was necessary, even the final fight. Earlier that that, you have Paralyze/Maelstrom scrolls for all your "hard fight" needs. The final fight was pretty anticlimactic.. with Corrosive/Vessel Slaying on the Sabres, each doing 20-35 damage or so, I was critting the statues for 70-90+ and they died in a short handful of hits, I think I took maybe 1 or 2 attacks from them, but the Exceptional armor (DR 26ish on slash/pierce and 24ish on crush) made it a pittance. Thaos died in 2 or 3 attacks I believe. Yeah, it is not the case. You need to talk to her once after finishing the trading company quest, but after you deny her joining your group, you can still go to the embassy and get The Forgotten quest. Though, like the more intensive fights (Raedric quest, Banshee quest) it is probably best going in prepared. Paralyze would probably be enough in combination with Touch of Rot, as long as you survive the first few seconds of the fight, it isn't difficult to recover and end it. At first I was hesitant about Sanguine Plate and doing those near-end-game-hard-fights without being able to reliably see my Endurance, but after a few of them, I realized that when Sanguine procs, so does Shod-in-Faith, so as long as I know what I'm getting into, I'll still be doing a lot of endurance healing, but I'll have notably more damage output to boot. I ended up getting it at level 8 and using it through the end, and nothing got close to killing me that wouldn't have with Au-Brekr. And some might consider it shady/borderline abusive, but the low endurance auto-pause can serve as a warning when you can't see your endurance. But yeah, a Ring of Wonder wouldn't be bad. Not sure which ring you'd drop though... I guess Deflection, since you mind less getting crit, since you have better armor/damage mitigation. How do you deal with the Banshee quest Spectre fight or the Burial Isle pre-hole fight? You're pretty reliant on Lore for both of those, and I don't think you could sneak past them? Do you think you could use Shadowing to break the encounter? I guess so, if people are doing 17 kill Pacifist runs with Rogue, no reason you couldn't skip those fights. Good luck... after failing 15 or so of those at level 4, I gave up. No Shadowing means you actually have to fight the Cad Nua spectre fight, which can be really rough and RNG dependent. I kept getting stun locked by 1-2 remaining spectres after I managed to kill the rest. Perhaps no armor, really high deflection and some Fan of Flames scrolls to go with your level 1 spell repertoire would be enough to push me over the top. This Rogue run has really shown me the value of Lore... almost to the point that I think it is a bit OP as a skill. Would love to see a list, I really admire how you streamlined the first half of the run, would be a great pattern to follow for almost any speed run.

I know you haven't had any feedback on this, but I would like to say I watched all 6 hours of the walkthrough, and the approach to getting Gaun's Share and getting to Maerwin was very helpful for me, I was really struggling with those on my TCS attempts. Some questions... 1) Why Starcaller / We Toki? I mean, I can understand why you picked them, but why not Sabres? 2) Why Aru-Brekr? Just because it is easy to get / good when enchanted? The movespeed never seems to be very important, and at the levels of deflection you maintain, the added range deflection is practically useless later in the game. Is it because Sanguine Plate represents too much risk if you cannot see your health? What about He Carries Many Scars? Too risky? 3) If you are lucky enough to loot a Glanfathan Adraswen, what to you skill in lieu of those last 2 points of Lore? 4) I don't suppose you have a 'speed run' checklist handy, do you?