indika_tates

I have a question about ranged attack speed & recovery. When we are talking about attack speed on two-handers or dual wield it's supposed to affect the recovery time (frames) you have after attacking. What happens then to ranged weapons that have attack speed? For example, Hold Wall which is pretty useless (I tested a normal arbalest and this one and the +20% attack speed does nothing on it) because of the reload time not being affected. If a War Bow has more frames on recovery than the attack frame, why it gets more benefits from attack speed than a hunting bow? What happens with Sure-Handed-Ila and ranged weapons without reload? The reload bonuses are wasted?

A burst of summer flame of Hiravias (level 2 spell vs reflex) against the paralized mobs would have done more damage than that rogue in 30s of fighting. I estimated about 300 damage vs vessels more or less. This is a class I ever tried to play because I find rogues interesting. And you can play with a rogue MC on POTD but everything you can do with a Rogue there is another class that do it better. I'm with Boeroer. A spiritshift druid outdamage a deathblow one by a far margin. You can have the tankiest rogue of the game but with the current health pool you can't fight more than 2/2.5x your endurance. You can notice that in the video there is a large percentage of your rogue damage being eaten by vessels DR. The more you advance in the game, the higher the DR of the foes then less effective your dual wield becomes. If one of the battery's Sirens engage your Rogue is a guaranteed knockout as happened with Aloth.I hope they fix Rogues for POE2, because at the moment there is no incentive to choose this class, sadly.

Then I don't know how to play a rogue. It would be nice if someone post a guide about how to develop it, talents, equipment, party composition, battle tactics and so on. I'm talking about the melee ones, of course. Because it's hard to believe how a front-line 40 deflection character can manage to survive later on with 110 accuracy foes that can crit your character for 80% of your endurance and 50% of your health.

If you want to look at it that way a spirit shifted druid will out dps any melee character with the rogue being at the top of that list. What is the point in having a Monk, fighter, Paladin or a Rogue? Just Roll 6 druids and keep spirit shifting. By the time a druid spirit shifts and positions for melee you cant really get much off. Your also not taking into consideration the weapons the rogue can weild with its on crit effects and you haven't taken into consideration the amount of time the rogue will criticaly hit either. The Rogue is far and away the highest dps class available in the game. Every Time I roll a rogue he single handedly clears the whole screen quicker then my entire party combined and stun/ prone locks them while doing it On POTD your rogue dies no matter what you do. Reckless assault + low deflection + foes rogue apetite means your rogue is on the ground more time than he's fighting. I tried every build, ranged, DW, used every potion at my disposal, every buff, healing from other party members, invisibility items. It doesn't matter. It's not worth it having a rogue in your party. Take a walk to the Abbey or Cradgholt and tell me if your rogue can manage to stay alive more than 15 seconds.

A maxed intellect barbarian with a durganized Blade of the Endless Paths + food + Crowns for the faithful (36 INT. Divine 20base, 1+ pit, +4 ring +2 casitas +3 forum + 6 crowns) is so absurd that everything around him melts. The radius of AOE carnage was like a chanter one. I abandoned this gameplay because it has no challenge at all. Well, the abbey was tough but manageable. I was playing around with a moon godlike and at level 14 she was knocked one time on the entire gameplay. And I was wearing Jack of Wide Waters during the gameplay having 2x damage more than the other party members combined. And you're right Boeroer. A rogue offers nothing to the party compared to what other classes can offer. Is the worst class, frail, low health. The DPS against a single foe is the highest you can achieve but it's worth nothing if you are getting knocked from a loud sound. This is the radius of an old save without the band of union. So the final AOE is even bigger.

It is. It was my mistake. Come & Come target Fort and Dragon Thrashed targets Reflex which is infinitely better because debuffing Reflexes is easier compared to Fortitude.

I know the withdraw thing with a chanter, but I consider it an exploit. It should not chant when disabled, but you can use it. To be honest I haven't used a lot the level eight spells. Cleansing flame is so good. If you choose Magran as your deity there is room also to get Envenomed strike to use both together. I was not aware about Aggrandizing Radiance. Looking at the description it appears to reduce healing to everyone but if only affects the priest it's a talent worth it. When I play with Durance I usually have this tool as an accuracy buff, but with your main char it heals a lot. There is also an amulet that increases 15% the healing done.

Thank you! Maybe scion of flame doesn't affect Holy Radiance too. It's hard to test. Painful interdiction has two rolls. One for dazed effect against will and one for weakened against fortitude. Most foes have higher Fort than Will so the first one hits frequently while the second one not. I think empowered interdiction is not a bug, it's only for the first roll. It would be nice if this talent affect both rolls. Otherwise it's not worth taking it if only affects dazing.

The thing about Magran's priest arquebus is that one shot can be very valuable if you save it for a wounded spellcaster. While you are casting if you see a wizard/priest on low endurance you fire the boomstick on his/her face. A Magran's priest with Soldier Focus + Inspired Flame has the same accuracy as a Fighter or a Ranger with the same focus. If there are no spellcasters, you do the same with wounded enemies. With Doemenel's merciless hand against debuffed enemies an arquebus shot can give a lot of pain. Late game, because priests are not talent hungry as other classes you can choose Envenomed Strike (High MIG & High INT) to kill enemy casters with one shot.

The Priest Class Guide ------------------------------- Priests. One of the strongest classes of this game if not the strongest one. Priests are amazing. This character has awesome buff/debuffs that can make even the hardest battles a cakewalk. This is my favorite class and I'm going to post a guide that is based on my experience. Take in mind that there are different ways of playing this class but this is only my personal approach. This is based on POTD, so it may or may not be accurate on lower difficulties. Let's talk first about attributes (2nd line caster): - DEX. This is the most important attribute for a priest. The faster you can spam buffs/debuffs the easier the encounter becomes. You want to be fast, you want to spam in tough encounters as many spells as you can in the minimum amount of time. - INT. The second one. The higher your INT is, the higher your radius and duration of spells. An obvious choice. - MIG. It affects the amount of damage/healing you do. - PER. Accuracy & Interrupts. For a second line priest caster CON & RES are not important. If your character gets focused by ranged/melee mobs, or spellcasters he's going to die and it doesn't matter if you have more or less CON. It may be one, two or three more hits if you have high CON but defenses are weak compared to other characters, and you have ways to avoid it. Let's talk about important talents: - Interdiction/Painful interdiction: The priest bread & butter during the entire game. Daze & Weakened are very good debuffs. It has a HUGE radius and you have one interdiction per encounter. You can even enhance the daze affliction with empowered interdiction which is not bad. Your purpose is to crit with Interdictions because if you do so the duration can be about 30-40 seconds late game. Dazed: -2 INT, PER, DEX. -10 Accuracy 0.85% attack speed. The attack speed is more than 0.85% because of additional -2 DEX. Weakened: -2 MIG, -20 Fort & Will, -2 Move speed, -2 CON & Allows sneak attack. http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Status_Effects Having this tool every encounter is great. And you only need two talents (three if you choose empowered interdiction). Not too much to say. Every class that targets fortitude will love you. Specially ciphers, wizards and druids. And you too. - Scion of Flame. Another important one for two reasons. The first one is that it affects (or it should) your Holy Radiance. A player priest that respects his/her alignment with high MIG and Scion of Flame can clear a full room of vessels with this. It also frighten vessels, so it's a net gain. - Inspiring Radiance. +10 Accuracy to your party members. A nice choice. So let's talk about spells. This is the largest past of this guide. I'll choose the spells I think are useful/notable. - Level 1 Spells: ----------------------- Armor of Faith. Your early game bread & butter. The thing about this spell is that it stacks with Druid Delemgan/Woodskin. A barbarian in plate armor with a combination of AoF and Delemgan can achieve a DR of: 15 (pierce) base + 3 pierce proof + 4 AoF + 8 Delemgan + 3 Hard skinned + 5 Blunting belt + 2 Crucible Knights Perk +2/3 Survival skill for a total of 43!!. A fire godlike carrying "He carries many scars" can have 48 DR + 1.5x when at 25% endurance. Is that not great? I think it's. With food you can increase it even higher. Be aware it doesn't stack with Zealous Endurance. Blessing. +5 ACC and +10% dmg is great. This spell is useful from level 1 to 16. It doesn't stack with Zealous Focus, so if you have a paladin take it in mind. Divine Terror. The important part of this spell is that it affects will and it has +15 ACC. So if you haven't another source of fright this is welcome. Painful interdiction + Divine Terror can fright mobs for the entire combat. And it's a level 1 spell. Prayer against fear. When fighting drakes & dragons is a must. Since you can cast it from scrolls it's less important than other spells, but useful when needed. Halt. Fast cast speed and affects Will. It has also +15 ACC and it's a great spell to use when enemy mobs pass your first line. Since I recommend Painful Interdiction, against a weakened target a crit can stop a mob for 30-40 seconds late game. At the price of level 1 spell. This is a core one. More useful late game when you have level 1 spells to spare. Withdraw. The emergency spell. This can save your characters or your own priest taking wounds. It's a fast cast one and it's better to disable a character that being killed. And since it's regenerates endurance he/her can come back later to combat. So that's why DEX is the important attribute. You need to cast it fast when needed. The same with Halt. Holy Meditation. Fast cast +30 Concentration + 15Will. Explained on level 2 spells. - Level 2 Spells: ----------------------- Consecrated Ground. Your main healing spell. Have another character with high MIG&INT wearing shod in faith and cast this spell. You'll have more healing than you need. Divine Mark. A great debuff. -25 DEF is a lot. It targets Will (one of the lowest defenses) and it can deal more than 100dmg/crit. The range is short but against big bosses it's very useful. Since it stacks with Scion of Flame, it makes this spell even greater. Holy Power. Another priest gem. If you have enough INT (about 24-25) this spell can reach the entire party on a 3x2 square. +7 RES and +3 MIG for everyone inside for the entire combat. Better Concentration & Will & Fortitude saves. Cast Holy Meditation after and forget interrupts. No one is going to interrupt your party member more. Even critical hits are going to have a bad time when trying to. Iconic Projection. Another great spell. It doesn't do too much damage, and it doesn't heal a lot but because it's a fast cast spell you can spam it on hard encounters. And it makes the difference when you cast five of this against mobs with debuffs on reflexes. Specially on choke-points. Prayer Against Infirmity. Another protection one. The same logic as every protection spell. Excellent when needed. Repulsing Seal. The radius is short. The duration is OK. And you can cast it before combat. Because it targets fortitude if your priest have good stealth you can cast it above enemy casters (usually low Fort defenses). Start the combat within stealth with a Painful Interdiction and disable one-two casters for 10-15 seconds. Suppress affliction. Not too useful if you have unshackling rings in your party. But sometimes is the only way you have to avoid plague of insects for example. Since you can spam it every 8-9 seconds, it can be the difference of seeing your party dieor not. - Level 3 Spells: ----------------------- This is the part when the priest start to become a powerhouse. Let's take a look. Circle of protection. Useful. But you can cast it from scrolls. And scrolls have higher defense increase (+20). But, when you don't have scrolls to spare is a must. The best use of this spell is when you don't have enough level to cast the proper protection spell so you try to lower the chances of being disabled. Specially against confused, dominated, paralized, petrified. It won't save you but you can convert crits to hits, or hits to grazes. Despondent Blows. Do you remember how hard those Ogres from the White March crush your low-level party? No more. It targets Will with +15 accuracy. Cast it on a group of two or three fat mobs and the battle is over. Remember, Painful interdiction helps a lot before casting this spell or another one that targets Will/Fort. Dire Blessing. A core spell. One of the best spells of this game. +20% hit-to-crit is awesome. Even better if you cast it before Painful Interdiction. Your wizards & druids will love you. Your rogues too. The standard combat opening for a priest is Dire Blessing + Painful Interdiction + The rest of spells. Dazing/Weakening every mob in the encounter for 15-16 sec/hit and 30+ on crit can turn the tide even on the tougher ones this game has. The late game opener is Crowns for the faitfhul + Dire Blessing + Painful Interdiction + rest of spells. Against mobs with disables, the protection comes first. It's not too hard to realize why high DEX is so important. You have to cast a lot of spells, and speed matters. Pillar of Faith. One of my favorite spells. It's a bit tricky to use. It targets REF for the main target & Fort for the AOE (which radius can be huge if you have more than 24-25 INT) can prone for 30-40 seconds late game on crit!!! Eight, nine or maybe ten mobs with a single spell. Once again, Painful interdiction and this spell against casters is another priest gem. Because casters tend to stick together behind the main lines it's not too hard to disable a group of them. And disabling casters is a must, specially on POTD. Prayer against XX. As before. Warding Seal. Another seal. But the level 2 one is better. Watchful Presence. Another emergency spell but this one is preemptive. A must on tough fights. - Level 4 Spells: ----------------------- This is the part when having a priest on your party makes the difference. Great stuff in this level. Devotions for the faithful. It's hard to describe how good this spell is. +4 MIG, +20 ACC for you, -10 MIG, -20 ACC for them. In a huge radius. 2x1 spell. Against tough melee mobs is an instant-win. Since it affects Will, one more time again Painful interdiction is your best friend here. Searing Seal. The radius of this seal is big. And it blinds. Since it targets REF it's more effective on some mobs than others. The bad part about it if it's a level 4 spell and there are better spells than a seal. But it's useful sometimes. Shining Beacon. One of the best priest spells. Huge radius, Defense debuff and high DMG. It targets Will (Painful Interdiction again). The problem is that I'm not sure if it stacks with Scion of Flame. It should, but this is a DOT and for example Scion of Flame doesn't stack with Chanter Dragon Trashed. The same can be happening here. Triumph of the Crusaders. A great spell for your DMG dealers. Rogues, Barbarians, Wizards, Druids, Fighters, Rangers. Everyone. Kill an enemy, regen all of your health. A very strong choice if you have time to spare. - Level 5 Spells: ----------------------- Champion's Boon. +10 Mig, +10 Per. Druid storms + Champion's Boon. Wizard Minor blights. Chanters with Dragon thrashed + Champion's Boon is also a good combo. Pillar of Holy Fire. This spell is as great as your INT value. Scion of Flame + Merciless Hand + high MIG on REF debuffed mobs can hit late game for 120+ Dmg/mob on crit. If you catch 8-9 of them (which is not hard late game) you can deal about 800-1000dmg with a single spell. Great if you have a source of paralysis. Against petrified ones is a sentence of death. A classical combo is chanter "At the sound of his voice" then Pillar of holy fire. Shields for the faithful. I'll explain this spell later. - Level 6 Spells: ----------------------- Cleansing Flame. Dragon thrashed + Shining Beacon + Cleansing Flame. Not too much to say. A combo like this is three mobs out of the game instantly. Specially if you linger two dragon chants. Crown for the faithful. The best priest spell. It's a broken & game-changer one. +6 INT +25 RES? Cast this spell + Shields for the faithful and forget about deflection attacks. No one is going to hit you. The luckiest ones may graze you. But no more. Late game is the first spell you cast, since it increases the duration/radius of everyone in the group and barbarian carnage AOE. Spark the souls. It's useful for melee parties. But it's a level 6 spell and you spare your crowns to have it on as many encounters as you can. - Level 7 Spells: ----------------------- Minor Avatar. It's an excellent buff for yourself if you are a caster, or a melee priest. It doesn't matter. Cast it before the important spells if you have time to do so. The duration is great but it's a level 7 spell so it's all about a late game thing. And that's it. I hope this guide helps someone that want to try a priest character. To finish I'll post the min-maxed priest character I use. Wood Elf - Old Vailia. 18 MIG 3 CON 19 DEX 16 PER 19 INT 3 RES You can swap the attributes if you don't feel comfortable with 3 CON but even on POTD you can manage to survive if you fight smart. Have fun!

I would say that is not attributes what make your character able/unable to offtank in cases of emergency. It's a matter of equipment. Since you want to shoot faster you should avoid medium-heavy armor but if you go melee light armored it hurts. This is a game where you can't be at the same time a tank and a DPS char as DPS/Defense specialized ones can be. 1) Your stats are fine. 2) Equipment. Put a tower shield+hatchet in your secondary slot and pray for the best when you need to offtank. Your pet can flank the same mob you are facing. Take in mind that if an enemy is chasing your wizard/priest it may ignore your character even if you engage it. But they are usually not willing to disengage your pet. 3) INT is not so useful for a ranger. Not to dump it, but 10 is fine. Look at the skills/talents that make use of INT to see that there are few. DEX, PER and MIG are important stats for a Ranger. DEX makes you fire faster, PER makes you accurate and MIG gives you damage. 4) Wood Elf is the best option for every character that cast/shoot from the distance. Not only for +5 ACC it gives you also +5 DEF & +5 REF. 5) Try to experiment yourself the better build that suits your playstyle. You can respec your character cheap to try different attributes.

Well, he has low PER, average INT (for a wizard I expect at least 17-18) and crappy MIG. He's a wood elf which is nice but he should have better stats like 8 RES, better INT & PER & MIG. I agree with you, he's playable but when you play with your own wizard you see the huge difference between well made one and him. In the end what matters on a wizard are disables and this task is well performed by Aloth. But I think I simply hate him

Every time I play Aloth goes to the pit. If he does more damage compared to other classes is because wizards are powerful but this NPC have one of the worst stats distribution a wizard can have.

This is the reason I never used Girdle of Mortal Protection. If it decreases damage about 40% when getting crit is definitively an option specially because mobs do full damage on criticals. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks Boeroer

Stun and Paralysis (two of the most common and annoying disables) are against Fort. In this build it comes "accidentally" when buffing CON and MIG. Since chanters have low health and they draw a lot of aggro you can run out of your health pool quickly. So this is the reason to max CON. RES is a flat increase to deflection and concentration. You can solve the second one by spells/items/potions. Equipment solves the low deflection. Chants are not affected by interrupts and you don't care about your main attack. Then low RES doesn't affect this character because it gets balanced by high CON. Bull's fortitude is because at level 16 your build is complete and you have to choose a talent. Actually, it doesn't matter but I tend to use ciphers because defensive mindweb is OP as hell. So this is the reason to reach the higher fort defense you can achieve. You can protect your party from affliction that affects will (Charm, Domination) with spells/scrolls so it's not an issue. The reflex save is horrible, sword and shield style mitigate it a bit but reflex spells are going to crit this char often but on the other side he has a massive endurance pool compared to other chanters specially after +5% from the machine and +4 Iron's circle. More than Eder by the way.

- Lore 12 is for dialog options. There are a lot of lore checks in the game. I like it but you can stop on lore 8-10 if you want. - Abydon's hammer +4MIG and stun/encounter is great. The quick switch is only for scrolls, then change again to sword&board. With 3 res without enough deflection you're going down very quickly. - Shod in faith is also an option. But I usually have Maneha in my party so she's another candidate for this item. At the beginning of the game Shod-In-Faith is a no-brainer, but later on you can stack proc/crit items (Ray). - Accuracy vs racial type works with chants. I tested it against a troll and it got an increased value. (Early game 43 acc Soft winds of death, 58 acc against a troll) - Fortitude saves are nice. But this monster fortitude is better with defensive web

"He got a vision. Everything was in flames" =================================== The Boreal Thrasher =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.0+ -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Chanter -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Boreal Dwarf -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Living Lands - Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------- The dwarf inside Maegfolc Skull Stats: MIG: 21 CON: 19 DEX: 2 PER: 15 INT: 18 RES: 3 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Lore 12, Rest on Survival -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents: -------------------------------------------------------------- Ancient Memory (!) Beloved Spirits (!) Weapon & Shield Style (!) Superior Deflection ® Veteran's Recovery ® Deep pockets (Optional) / Quick switch Secret's of Rime (O) Bull's Fortitude (O) - Phrases: -------------------------------------------------------------- - Come come soft winds of death - The dragon thrashed, the dragon wailed (!) - Invocations: -------------------------------------------------------------- - Reny Daret's Ghost (!) - At the sound of his voice (!) - White worms (!) (This gem when used properly can do insane damage) - Urdel and Gurdel (!) - Seven nights - Items: -------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon set 1: The Flames of Fair Rhian / Black sanctuary Weapon set 2: Abydon's hammer Boots: Echoin Misery Head: Maegfolc Skull Armor: White Crest (Exceptional, Pierce proof) Neck: Necklace of fireballs / Amulet of summer solstice / Swaddling Sheet (If you get lucky, this item is (!)) Belt: Belt of chimes Rings: Gwyn's band of union + Iron's circle Hands: Gauntlets of accuracy / Bracer's of deflection Quick slots: Every scroll you can spam (Paralisis, Fireballs, Healing, Scrolls of defense and so on) -------------------------------------------------------------- This is a simple chanter build, similar to other ones posted on this forum. This build is very simple, walk with your boreal thrasher into the middle of the combat, get surrounded and start spamming "Double Dragon" (because it stacks) until everyone dies. When you reach 5 phrases, either Urdel and Gurdel or Seven Nights depending on what you need. Boreal dwarf is a very strong choice for a chanter for two reason: the first one is +15 accuracy for wilds/primordial mobs. +15 accuracy means more dragon crits (last longer and deal more damage) and the second one is that you don't care of -1 dexterity. Wilds and primordial usually have high Fortitude defense. I'm going to explain why I choose this equipment. Echoin Misery (A guaranteed proc every encounter because mobs are going to crit you) Maegfolc Skull (Unbending keeps you alive, +4 MIG is nice) White Crest (Overwhelming wave & Dancing bolts is welcome). Another option is Ryona's Breastplate but It looks better on Pallegina. Swaddling Sheet (Another overwhelming wave if one is not enough). This is not a common adventure so before you get it, every item that allows you to spam spells is welcome. Belt of chimes (Concentration is horrible in this char, so it helps a bit. If you have a priest on your party, or you want to use celebrant gloves be free to put whatever you like here) Gauntlets of accuracy (This build is about Dragon thrashed, so landing it properly is the most important thing. You can't have enough accuracy) Flames of Fair for three fireballs/Bittercut. Three fireballs/rest and if you have no use for bittercut on your party infestation of maggots/thorns for more spells/rest. With this setup when mobs crit you there is a lot of pain for them. 2x Warding seal, 1x Overwhelming wave, 1 Ray of Pain. This build works better with a Wizard/Priest/Paladin on your party. Painful interdiction is the opener during the game (dragon thrashed is against fortitude, and mobs usually have this stat as the highest defense so lowering it is a must). Ryngrim's enervating terror is the second option to mass debuff mobs. Put a champion's boon on this character and enjoy massive dragon thrashed damage. A paladin zealous focus is also important because of +6 accuracy and +15% graze/hit conversion (which affect your chants also). If you are going to choose Scion of Flame as one of your talents be aware that it doesn't work with Dragon thrashed (It's a DOT) Abydon's hammer is for stun effect & quick switch before using scrolls. This character with food and spells can achieve a might of: - 21 (Initial) + 4 Maegfolc + 10 Champion's boon + 2 (Food) + 4 Abydon's hammer + 1 Gift from the machine + 1 Galawain's boon = 43 MIG With this MIG every scroll you can use is going to deal insane damage or healing to your party members/foes. The same applies to your crit/proc items. If you want more MIG/INT choose whoever you hate most to sacrifice being Kana the best candidate (+5 resist affliction). Have fun!

I think this is exactly the barbarian dilemma. You have a character that can deal a lot of damage to multiple mobs at the same time, but you have skills that are contradictory in order to achieve it (frenzy). If you activate it you are converting hits into critical hits (-10 deflection) that are a guaranteed interrupt so in the end you can get the opposite of what you are looking for (attack speed) for being constantly interrupted. But what can you do to avoid it? You can raise RES instead of DEX but if you are not getting interrupted RES points are not worth it. On the other hand there are potions/spells/items that can mitigate this problem like spirit shield, holy meditation and celebrant gloves so you have another ways to avoid interruptions better than spending points into an attribute that it's only worth it if you are interrupted or you have a specialized deflection character (Fighter). It's very hard to get an outcome of RES/DEX balance because every mob has different stats and there is a random factor on every encounter. You may get interrupted 50 times against ogre druids and 10 against xaurips. What is worth on one encounter is not worth it in another one. As a general rule based on my own experience in this game I tend not to dump RES below 10 to make use of concentration buffs when you really need it. Specially as a barbarian. Having a front-line character with dumped RES and relying DPS on him/her is a sentence of death.

I only play with story NPC's. They are fine. You don't need a custom party for POTD. Your POTD best friend is the bestiary and knowledge about strength/weakness of your characters & enemies. If you find a zone where mobs are too powerful, come back later. After level 8-9 POTD is a cakewalk.

Resolve is all about concentration. If you have a barbarian with dumped RES you'll be constantly interrupted without (ab)using potions/spells. The flat increase to deflection is negligible mid-late game when you have superior deflection talent + superb tower shield + inherent level bonus. The trick is that specialized deflection characters (like fighters) can get to the point where the enemies have to pray to even graze you. So outside of a fighter build I find that 10Res is just enough to avoid negative concentration, specially if you have 2handed weapons where you get perma-interrupted if your char is surrounded by 2-3 mobs. There are builds of low-res characters that fight on the frontline, but you have to use permanently items/potions/spells that fix your lack of concentration. On the other side, perception is very important specially for casters. You can have 50 might but if you miss it's worth nothing.

Indeed. I'm playing an aumaua quick-switch cipher (guns) and this is the sequence: - Mental binding - Scon Mica's Roar (-5 def) - Silver Flash (Blind) - Lead Spitter (Pure damage) - Fellstroke I also use Kana but with Arquebuses because it's the same number of weapons. It's great to wipe out 1-2 molesters (wizards on cragdholt, lagufeths "queens", and so on) before the combat "start". It generates a good amount of focus to play with. Quite funny to avoid the stormcaller build (but you can change fellstroke for it and the result is the same, or better).

Just exit to the desktop and restart the game. It's what I do and it works like a charm.

Boeroer Nice build as usual. In the character creation I noticed something. I was thinking on how to make the best of inspiring triumph. Since a paladin like this doesn't have awesome DPS skills until sacred immolation making him your scroll user is a good idea. You only have to bump tradition on this character and make use of some magical stuff. I'm going for the classical max MIG max INT paladin and there are nice items/scrolls to perma enable inspiring triumph for everyone. Specially single-targeting scrolls combined with sworn enemy.

A cipher with Stormcaller or an Engwithan scepter is going to outdamage a blunderbuss one (expose vulnerabilities spam). Another reason to take a fast weapon is that recovery affects your character powers delay after firing (recovery DPS loss). If I were going for a firearms one I would choose an aumaua quick-switch. Often in encounters there are a mix of mobs with high DR and low DR. Just shoot the mobs with the lower DR and use your powers on the sturdy ones. The classical Stormcaller cipher with Hearth of the storm & Apprentice sneak sttack inflicts massive amounts of damage quickly lowering mobs DR for free (Soul shock is affected by hearth of the storm and is not too rare to inflict 200+dmg/power when there 6-7 mobs in range). And you can get this bow on level 5 if you rush it (If I recall correctly you can avoid fighting with stealth). I've tried many cipher builds, but the Stormcaller wins. Fast shoot, fast reloading, insane damage and shock/pierce as damage type which is rarely resisted. The builds I use is (Wood elf - Deadfire + Caroc to the pit for 1DR bypass) 15 Mig 3 Con Max Dex Max Per Max Int 3 Res Expect a lot of crits with this build. For talents, any focus, apprentice sneak attack, marksman, penetrating shot & interrupting blows. It's extremely frail, but that's the rest of your party job. Keeping him/her alive. Late game important equipment is Ryona vambraces & Maegfolk Skull (For a total of 9DR bypass, 14DR bypass with E.V. and 20DR bypass from Stormcaller but I'm not sure if all the DR debuffs stack)

I tried it but I deleted the gameplay. It doesn't matter if you stack insane amounts of deflection on your rogue. The health pool is low even on maxed constitution. And a rogue is not a character that can afford being hit like a fighter or a barbarian. On lower difficulties it can be viable but on POTD you need to rest to the point it becomes a chore. I mean, if you want you can complete a POTD campaign with a retaliation/riposte rogue but you are going to have to rest a lot. More than you want. I usually use Caroc on this role because when I get her the frustrating early stages of this char have passed and at this point you have decent equipment to increase the survability of your rogue. Having also one or two sturdy chars for the first mob waves is useful. If a riposte rogue gets focused or draw too much agro even if you have enough healing the health bar is going to drop quickly.