Nobear

Good points. There is also the famous Muscle Wizard phenomenon: that Might affects the damage (and healing) of everything, not just things you'd think you'd need muscles for, so Might is great for casters after Intellect, and Dexterity is usually their next choice. This is expected to change with the expansion, but if you just want to get into the game now and have a good time, it's probably not worth worrying about the expansion. You can always start over. And over . I think this game has high replay value, especially if you increase the difficulty or try a new party composition.

I was looking at the outdated game guide, not in-game, so that wouldn't surprise me. Edit: I just checked in-game and Liberating Exhortation says friendly. I'm not looking at the paragraph that describes it, I'm looking above where it says Effect: Friendly Target.

"As to paladin buffs you can/'t cast on yourself: they have to be castable on friendly targets, not just allies" I don't get it what is the difference between friendly targets and allies? I'm guessing he means you can tell the difference by a difference in the wording of the tooltips, but I'm not sure. Edit: Whaddya know, the tooltips do differ between "Friendly Target" and "Allied Target." Reviving is listed as friendly, so technically you'd be able to revive yourself, except you can't because you're unconscious lol! I guess you could be friendly with yourself. I've heard of being your own ally too (reminds me of stuff said by motivational speakers), but not in this game lol

Welcome Nyro! First, I'm going to call them stats for short, though it's interchangeable with "attributes." Now I'll describe some key points you should know: 1) When you are talking about stats on gear, this game is different from certain others (e.g. WoW), in that the bulk of your stat points are determined at character creation, and items give important but relatively small boosts of 1-2 to 1 or 2 stats, with a few items granting 3 to a stat. You can also enchant your chest piece (yes, just this slot) with 1 or 2 to a stat of your choice. You can enchant weapons and shields as well, but not with stats. 2) Bonuses from gear, including stat boosts, do NOT stack with others of the same type. For instance, if you wear boots and gloves that each grant Constitution, one of these will be listed as (Suppressed) on your character sheet and be useless. If one item grants more than another, the highest bonus will be kept. The same thing applies with spells, but these two categories can stack with each other (in most cases; this game has some funny inconsistencies). For instance, a priest spell that grants Might will stack with items that grant Might. 3) Other sources of buffs that DO stack, not with each other, but with those listed above, are resting bonuses from inns (which affect your whole party), and food buffs. An inn in the first town offers +2 Resolve, there are several choices in the Act 2 major city including +4 Intellect, and several in the Act 2 secondary town including one with +2 Might, +2 Constitution and +2 Intellect at once. There is also an additional source of buffs for your main character only, but I will not reveal it unless you are ok with spoilers. The reason I am mentioning these additional sources is because... 4) There are non-combat attribute checks and skill checks in this game, that unlock additional options in dialogue or scripted events. Not all of these options are "better," but they give you more freedom in how you want to handle a situation. They range from RP flavor to truly useful for unlocking better outcomes, such as avoiding an injury or earning a better quest reward. The attribute checks can range from 11 to 19 for the stat checked, and the skill checks can range from 1 to 10. These are maximum ranges, and there's a pretty big disparity in which are represented most, and in which are actually most useful vs basically just adding RP flavor. For instance, to answer your question about Athletics, you can find or buy items like grappling hooks which give you an alternate way to pass scripted events with Athletics checks. As Nakia points out, you only need 3 points of Athletics for each of your characters. Nakia had the right idea, but the effect would be +30% total Fatigue and -90% combat Fatigue loss. This game is confusing in that Fatigue refers to two opposing things: a meter representing how long you can go without rest, and a stacking affliction with the same name that you get as this meter runs low. However, 3 points is all you need to minimize the combat loss, so with at least 3 Athletics, you'll only need to rest when you travel long distances. 3 Athletics is also all you need for your characters to avoid falling victim to certain injuries in scripted event checks. I should also point out that scripted event checks sometimes allow you to choose a party member to perform some action. For instance, you might be able to choose the character with the highest Might to try to break through a wall or move a heavy object. However, dialogue checks are based only on your main character. There are entire discussions about the best attributes and skills to have on your main character just to unlock the most/best options. Generally, people tend to favor Resolve, Intellect, Perception, and Lore for dialogue. If your fighter is your main, I wouldn't be too worried if he only has average Intellect, as long as he has high Resolve and Perception and possibly Lore. You will still be able to unlock a pretty wide range of choices this way, just not any super clever ones like figuring out how to trick someone. 5) The best skills overall: After 3 Athletics, Lore is generally considered the best skill for most of your characters to level, except one should be a Mechanic. Many would argue that Lore is even better for a fighter than it is for someone you'd normally associate with lore like a wizard, because a fighter's higher natural accuracy helps when using scrolls. Also, some of the most damaging spells on scrolls do friendly fire, and your fighter will more often be in a good position to use one of these to hurt lots of enemies while avoiding allies. Get at least some characters to 10 Lore, and get your Mechanic to 10 as well. Other than that, I like a decent amount of Stealth on my whole party, but that's personal preference that compliments my own strategy. Not everyone agrees that Stealth is as good as I think it is, and you really need it on your whole party currently, moreso on your front row than your back row. The expansion will bring individual stealth, but currently your whole party is detected the moment a single member is. Survival is probably the least valuable skill. There are some Survival checks, but only for your main character, and nobody I'm aware of considers these checks very important. 6) A great starting spread for a fighter tank, give or take a point here or there depending on your race and culture: 18 (maxed) Might 10 (average) Constitution 4 (dumped) Dexterity 18 (maxed) Perception 10 (average) Intellect 19 (maxed) Resolve The key to a tank's hardiness from stats is maxing Perception and Resolve, as each one grants a point of Deflection as well as two points to another defense. This means that, instead of critting you, enemies will be hitting, grazing, or missing you entirely, especially as you add items and talents to boost these defenses even higher. Ask if you have any questions about the other stats. 7) Race: I actually made the above spread thinking of an Aedyr Moon Godlike, but I have since questioned the wisdom of a Moon Godlike for a main tank. It's amazing IF your tank regularly goes below 75% Endurance or less. The thing about Fighter or Paladin tanks in this game, though, is that they become pretty much invincible if built like above, even on PoTD (the hardest difficulty). Granted, at very low levels they won't be yet, and Moon Godlike will be awesome through Act 1. But after that, a Wild Orlan or Pale Elf would probably shine more for a main tank, in all honesty. 8 ) Abilities and Talents: Lvl1: Knock Down Lvl 2: Weapon and Shield Style Lvl 3: Defender Lvl 4: Wary Defender Lvl 5: Confident Aim Lvl 6: One-Handed Style Lvl 7: Weapon Specialization* Lvl 8: Weapon Focus* Lvl 9: Critical Defense Lvl 10: Weapon Mastery* Lvl 11: Unbroken Lvl 12: Superior Deflection The above is just a template to give you ideas, it's not the only way, and there's no "best" build in every single respect. However, I can vouch that it's strong. It allows my Fighter to "lead the charge" as you say, with enough survivability to almost never go below half health after Act 1, to deal at least some damage (though it's never going to be great compared to your dedicated damage dealers), and to hit reliably, which is especially important so that his Knock Down reliably disables enemies. *There are a few good choices for Weapon Mastery. I picked Ruffian because it covers three types of one-handed weapons, one for each damage type. However, in this game, enemy resistances aren't so significant that this is necessary. You would be well-equipped for probably 99% of situations with any two damage types, and some weapons automatically deal whichever is more effective between two types. Well, this is longer than I was intending to write. I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to ask questions, and have fun!

Are you sure Reinforcing Exhortation can't be cast on yourself? Liberating Exhortation can, in case you didn't know. The only thing I have against Hastening Exhortation is that it's Per Rest. I'd find it awkward to rest more often just for one ability, and I do prefer to go around with my inn resting bonuses and/or a certain other perk from the Salty Mast as much as I can :D. Only recently have I grown tired of going back and forth to keep those buffs up when the content is doable without it. Alternately, I could rest no more often than I do now, but then I'd only get limited use from Hastening Exhortation. Now, if these concerns over resting mechanics don't bother you, be my guest and take it. It'd make your rogue happy, but then so would Reinforcing Exhortation. Was it you who posted before about squishy melee DPS? That'd certainly help! Yeah, sounds like FoD just isn't your thing. I've seen it hit for 40+ recently (with Ravenwing), but the main use of it for me is combining it with the respective Shieldbearer or Darkozzi talent. Lately I actually have used it to finish off an enemy here and there, but I think Reinforcing Exhortation would be better than taking FoD just for that. Edit: and Greater Lay on Hands seems like it would probably just take the lead for you for level 12. Aside from RP considerations, that's the one I'd pick since you have a priest and all, but at that point your choice won't make or break your game lol.

The OP said he wants to make Kana arquebus/pike. I assume he is thinking arquebus for alpha strike, then a reach melee DPSer from there. In that case, you will be in a good position for chants that cover the whole party, not just ranged like Sure-Handed Ila. Are you going to have a main tank or any other melee? What is the rest of the party composition going to look like? With four ranged, I'd still take Sure-Handed Ila. With less than that, I'd probably go with Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr. If you set it up so you start chanting one of these and then go to a level 1 chant, the linger on the longer chant will be enough to ensure 100% uptime on it. Your chants will automatically cycle, so you can still gain the points you need for invocations even if you only set up two chants. For level 1 chants, I use Blessed was Wengridh. Before I got level 2/3 chants, I alternated it with At the Sight of their Comrades. I'm not sure if you'd be close enough in the second row for Come Soft Winds of Death or Dull the Edge to achieve maximum effect. You might be, but I haven't personally tried a second row chanter. For invocations, I like one summon per level. I chose the phantom and wurms, and plan to take ogres (I'm level 9 on my PoTD play through). The phantom is a very clear winner over skeletons, both for its DPS and survivability, and its attacks also stun! Unfortunately, Kana has taken the skeletons even if you have auto-leveling turned off, but you can still take the phantom and The Thunder Rolled. If you were willing to wait to get a good CC invocation, you could alternately take Hel-Hyraf, but I found The Thunder Rolled to be just too valuable fighting shades at early levels. Keep in mind, while your chant buffs will be great in the second row, that's a really bad position for any invocation buffs, since you target invocations in a cone and your party will be both in front of and in back of you. For level 2 invocations, The Killers Froze Stiff is just ungodly good. Its range is twice as long as The Thunder Rolled. Sometimes I have to run up to use it effectively as a ranged chanter, but you shouldn't have that problem in the second row. For level 3, keep in mind I haven't gotten that far yet, so maybe someone else could help you on this part. The buff ones will be tricky to target effectively as I mentioned above, but the level 3 buffs seem so good they might be worth it even to only cover half of your party. Aside from ogres, I would probably still get Rise Again. For talents: I'd take the two chanter talents, two-handed style, WF Soldier... and that's all the must-have ones I can think of, so that leaves two. Maybe someone else can fill in the holes I left here. Cheers!

Hm I was thinking about FoD. It does decent damage for me especially when I'm using a good weapon like Ravenwing, but it's probably not worth it for you since you are not also picking up a strong (tank) talent tied to it. I think it's only really an obvious choice for a tank if you are a Shieldbearer or Darkozzi. I am also level 9 on my PoTD play through. I believe I am very close to finishing Act 2, and have just gotten to level 7 in Od Nua. Exciting! No spoilers :D. Thank you very much for pointing out the obvious use of Liberating Exhortation to get allies out of CC. I've also used it for poisons, insect swarm and other lingering debuffs, but sometimes I don't consider something so obvious as CC. I guess the only thing it can't be used for is if your ally is confused/charmed/dominated. 10) I'd do Bear's Fortitude to bring it in line with your other defenses. 11) I am definitely planning to take Reinforcing Exortation. I haven't used it yet obviously, but I imagine it could be good for two major classes of situations. One is for the very toughest fights, to make your tanks even more invulnerable. The other, probably more common use I can imagine is to cast it on your weaker members when they get targeted (e.g. Shadows, Pwgra summons, ornery kith who decide to break away, and your own positioning blunders). It seems like a much more reliable "oh no" button than stockpiling potions for party members who lack their own defensive spells/abilities. 12) That's tough. I don't have Lay on Hands. How useful do you find it? If you find it very useful, maybe Greater Lay on Hands is worth it for you. With mind control statuses, if there's only one MCer, I CC and focus fire him. If there's more than one, I use the appropriate priest spell. This brings me back to the thought of FoD. If you decided to take it, you could also take the Goldpact talent to improve it. Maybe this would help vindicate your decision to be a Goldpact Knight . You'd be sacrificing Reinforcing Exortation, which you weren't totally sold on anyway, and which you don't really "need," I just imagine it could make certain fights smoother and that's why I plan to take it. As I say, FoD can do decent damage even with a good melee weapon, so you could use it once for your alpha strike and once to finish off an enemy. Overall, none of the decisions you've laid out will make or break your game, those are just my thoughts on it. You've already taken the "must-have" abilities/talents. Have fun in the rest of your game!

They say they increase damage to flanked targets, but they also say sneak attack, which gives bonus damage based on a variety of conditions, not just flanked. So which is it for these boots? Is the damage increase only for Flanked, or does it grant an all-around (though minor) version of the rogue's Sneak Attack?

lol I find Durance funny, but that's because I'm laughing at the expense of my other companions and how uncomfortable he makes them feel.

I would largely agree with you, personally. The problem is, there's a large and very loud subset of any popular multiplayer game's player base who will whine (even if it's cooperative) that their class can't do x as well as another class, even though they can do y better, and they will keep whining until the game gets made bland by over-balancing and much of the uniqueness between classes is removed in the name of balance. So I imagine it's harder to please most players with a multiplayer game than a single player game, all things equal.

Alright, time to delve into the all-to-common territory of "Why didn't PoE explain that to me?". Let's take the object we have at hand, Plate Armour. Plate Armour has a base DR of 12, a Slash of 18, and a Shock DR of 6. Now, let's say you add Burn-Proofed. This bumps the Plate Armour up to Burn DR 15. Makes sense, right? So, what if we add Shock-Proofed? That'd add 6+3, no? Because that would make sense, after all, cover your weaknesses, right? Eeeeeeeeh! No! The armour system and the special "elemental" DR:s are based on percentages of the full DR. So in fact, when an armour has a base DR of 12, and thus, say, a Burn DR of 12 (unlisted), what it really means is that the Burn DR is at 100%. So what's the effect on the Shock DR? 6 of 12 is 50%. And 18 of 12 is 150%. So in reality, it's: Base DR = 12 DR. 100% Burn (12 DR) 100% Freeze (12 DR) 50% Shock (6 DR) 100% Corrode (12 DR) 150% Slash (18 DR) 100% Pierce (12 DR) 100% Crush (12 DR) Meaning that when you modify the DR of the armour in any way, this will be taken into account. And unless I'm mistaken, DR can even be applied in fractions, although the displayed numbers are rounded, making it even harder to determine what's going on, sometimes, in terms of actual damage reduced. This is something important to keep in mind when planning armours. For reference, what armour are you wearing, specifically? I have no idea what would have the stats you describe in the OP. Edit: And yes, Pale Elves could make really good tanks.. if fire and especially ice damage was more common. My memory is fuzzy, but I think shades and phantoms deal ice damage, but they're also notoriously hard to tank. Nothing else comes to mind. You are correct except for one detail: plate armor also has 150% Pierce, not just Slash. Yeah, it's that good. My best guess is that Torm is wearing Fine plate armor and is also wearing the Blunting Belt. That would account for everything but his Crush DR. My guesses are that this would come either from some unique plate armor with bonus Crush DR, or some other item with it, but I'm still in Act 2 so I don't know what items these might be. I concluded that the DR values must be percentage-based too, after I thought "Let's patch up this plate armor's biggest weakness." Fortunately I still had a previous save to go back to when I realized this. Now I am wondering what the best enchant would be. I mean, Slash or Pierce would give the most DR on plate and make you ridiculously well-protected against one of those. With only one Blunting Belt, one of my tanks could go this route. But, to my fellow strategists, what's the most common damage type tanks encounter, and what's the most deadly?

The one time I tried using console commands to respec in a very minor way (just switch one talent for another on two characters) it bugged my game, and this was on the latest version of PoE with no mods. I definitely don't trust those console commands, even if I wouldn't feel cheesy using them to reassign the stats of companions. Fortunately, even PoTD is not so hard you can't use the companions effectively despite their suboptimal stats.

I do like to buff/debuff near the beginning of the fight. I set everyone to focus fire one enemy, preferably a caster, when the fight opens (but I give some allies alternate commands: see below). I have my paladin tank use FoD (with Shielding Flames) on the enemy nearest her, and Eder, positioned a couple spaces away based on my custom formation, attack the enemy nearest him. I have Durance open with Holy (Inspiring) Radiance, then Interdiction (also talented). By this time, the enemies are all typically in place neatly around my tanks, which basically never move until all enemies around them are dead. On easy fights, Eder opens with Knock Down and my cipher opens with Mental Binding on the first focus-fire target. Needless to say, this target usually dies very quickly. On tough fights, Eder opens by using a figurine to place summons behind the enemy. My cipher, now with more focus built up, casts Ectopsychic Echo on a summon, which I then move around to hose down the enemy while she and the rest of my ranged focus fire enemies who are not in the line of the Echo. Aloth will meanwhile be casting Slicken or debuffing, using Arcane Assault, Minor Blights, etc., depending on the fight. I do enjoy using traps when the enemy is right around the corner of a chokepoint, and my party couldn't all get into the room even with their high Stealth. In this case, I have my party in position so the enemy will have to pass through the doorway to get line of sight, I have my mechanic cipher set the trap in the doorway, fall back, and open the fight by unstealthing. This game allows a wide variety of strategies, and yours works for you and that's awesome. I still think mine is more beginner friendly. Although, as you point out, we may have lost the OP anyway . I was getting away with using a ranger's pet as a second tank in Act 1 on one partial PoTD play through. It would die pretty fast in large fights like in Raedric's hold, but in general it was doable. I guess it depends whether squeezing out the extra DPS is more important to you, or making sure your fights are controlled and consistent as much as possible, no matter how vast the hordes you are fighting. I just did the Cail fight, which others have mentioned as an example of a major fight, and it was super smooth and easy for me on PoTD at level 8. I had no problems with adds on my back row. I think a ranger's pet would have gone down pretty quick and all hell would have broken loose. So basically, there's leeway to play practically any which way you can think up, some strategies just prioritize DPS while others prioritize control and consistency. Personal preference factors in, but I'd say control and consistency strategies are generally easier and more beginner friendly.

First, I want to point out that you don't even have to be in scout mode to get the element of surprise 95+% of the time. It's relatively rare that enemies will detect you before you detect them. I have the option set to autopause when I detect an enemy, so I can stealth when this happens and they still don't see me. Other than that, my strategy is very similar to yours, with maybe one major difference (see below). Pumped Stealth unlikely — well, here's one of the unlikely ones :D. The skills I take on each of my party members are: 3 Athletics to minimize combat fatigue, and the rest divided between Stealth and Lore, except for my cipher who has Mechanics in place of Lore. I'm at level 8 now. I will stop at 10 Lore/Mechanics, and I believe that will put me at 8 Stealth for all my party. Currently my two tanks have 6 base Stealth, brought up to 8 with items. I just don't see any other skill investment being as awesome. What, Survival for a pitiful duration increase? More Athletics for the extremely rare case that I've traveled far and couldn't benefit from a reset on my Per Rest spells anyway? Some enemies are better at detecting you than others. With my current Stealth values, I'm able to walk right up to some enemies, literally starting the fight with my tanks in place. That's of great strategic value. In other cases, I can get closer than I could otherwise, still making a strategic difference even if less dramatic.

Heya, So a melee Wizard is absolutely possible. You have a lot of choices though. You could go with a more durable Wizard, with damage reduction armor, that is a little slower, but more durable. Or you could focus on output, and go with light to no armor to benefit from the speed, and focus on Dex to increase speed even more. And then you could use certain buff or enemy condition spells to make yourself more durable or avoid things. So you could use the defensive stuff found on a tanky wizard, and let your melee damage output be your main damage focus. On that note, if you do go with melee, I would focus more on getting high accuracy to get more crits which will increase overall average damage more than just increasing might. Ideally he would use a reach weapon and be 2nd row, with support spells. Or you could open every fight by making them prone, or blind, or whatever you want. Very best, Speaking of which, I discovered that Bulwark of the Elements makes those Shade + Shadow fights trivial. I am collecting potions with the same buff to give to my other ranged, and I just might use them in the Lighthouse fight if I have trouble without them.

It is true that the game is relatively forgiving below PoTD, allowing fun alternate party compositions/formations, and it's solo-able by a strategic/patient player even on PoTD. However, the OP stated he was new to PoE, so I wanted to give him the advice that I think would lead to the smoothest and most controlled fighting experience. If he wants something else, he is free to experiment like any of us are.

That's what I would do too, for a Hunting Bow. Now if your ranger were using a gun, that's where I'd do Swift Aim, because that reload speed boost is massive, but bows don't even have a reload time. Only guns do, which include crossbows and arbalests.

Maybe not make THIS game online, but have a game within the PoE universe online, with similar style and graphics and everything. Would LOOVE this to happenI really hope not. I'm enjoying PoE, and the last thing I want is for there to be story-centric stuff spread all over the place in eighteen different places and products I'll never enjoy, let alone get into. The whole franchising thing has gone too far. It is a mercy that Dragon Age decided to spin off into mediocrity so soon, because nowhere has it been worse in this regard than there, as far as I've noticed.Even the Elder Scrolls universe, which has a more mainstream and generally less demanding audience than PoE, didn't translate into a very popular online game with that audience. The PoE audience would be even more easily disappointed if an online followup were anything short of a miracle, and even a followup would take resources away from future single player content that we know Obsidian does well.To be fair, the format chosen for ESO was very unfortunate. It should have been a small scale co-op experience or if an MMO, then a sandbox - not a PvP-centered themepark that it is. The management wasn't the best either; I never felt like the dev team had a clear, strong vision of what they wanted the game to be and how to incorporate its Elder Scrolls heritage into their plan. I haven't actually played ESO, I've just read that it isn't very popular. I've played Oblivion and Skyrim, and was engaged in them for a while, but ultimately lost interest because their balance was bad enough to impair even a single-player experience for me. That's one of the reasons I wasn't interested in ESO. I was skeptical that a team which let very fundamental, well-known balance issues and exploits continue through successive games, could balance an MMO, which requires a whole other set of standards for good balance. Back to PoE, I find it well balanced enough to keep my interest as a single-player experience, but balancing properly for any online game (MMO or otherwise) would require a different level of balance. It would be a real challenge to figure out how to keep each class interesting and unique while balanced. In a single player game, you don't care if a cipher is more powerful than a barbarian, say, because you can have both in your party and each one brings something unique to the table. In a multiplayer game, nobody's going to want to play an underpowered class. Overall, we just know that Obsidian can create solid single player experiences, so to attempt a multiplayer experience would be a huge risk no matter how you look at it, and it seems more single player is a more popular idea with their audience anyway.

This. How can you not need more than one tank (or other frontline character who doesn't die too easily, i.e. offtank) when there are often fights with 10 or so enemies and only about 5 will fit around a character before spilling over to find someone else? I think you wrote in another thread that you hadn't played the game much or at all recently. View's comment implies that things maybe used to be different. I don't know. I do know how they have worked since 1.0.5, which is when I really started getting into PoE. And for strays (or teleporting shadows or other enemies who get past your front line), I find the most effective way to handle them is to CC and focus fire it. If you have a tank running around just to pick up one stray, he will suffer disengagement attacks left and right and things can easily get messier, not cleaner. It'll mess up positioning of friendly fire AoE spells etc. I keep tanks stationary and the fights are almost always clean and controlled unless I mess something up.

Hm, well if what you say is true, it would indeed be good if my ranged are all standing close to each other, i.e. near Kana who is the ranged chanter with the gun in question. I like to do a lot of focus firing on top of CC. I wonder how big the range is though. How close is close? And how long does the effect last? Is it from the first successful shot with the Marking weapon until the enemy dies? Or does it require a shot at all, or just the condition that multiple party members are targeting the same enemy and somewhere in the process of attacking it? Also, does it apply to spells and abilities, or just autoattacks? Maybe those details are not all known, but I'd like to know if they are.

Malveaux gave some good general advice. I will beg to differ on this, especially on PoTD where there are so many enemies. In almost any fight, there will be more enemies than can fit around a single character of any class, whereupon the rest will find someone else to attack. You could have a second melee character be an "off tank," but for PoTD I prefer two tanks for maximum control and smoothness. Granted, one (Eder, an early companion who is a fighter) I have build like Malveaux has, with some offensive abilities/talents too, but for a fighter there aren't that many "must have" tanking abilities/talents, so you can easily do this without sacrificing much in the tanking department. Aside from having two tanks (the distinction between a tank and off tank is somewhat subjective), the other important thing to use is CC (crowd control) spells like prone, paralyze, etc. The positioning of your two tanks is also important. I prefer a custom formation with the two tanks in front spaced two spaces apart, and my four ranged grouped up in two rows starting two spaces behind them. This means there will be very few fights where your ranged are attacked, and you can CC and focus fire the exceptions, like teleporting Shadows. Lower difficulties are, of course, more forgiving and have less enemies, so having two tanks is less important. On hard, for instance, I found I could usually get away with a ranger's pet as an off tank, which allowed me to maximize my party's DPS further. On PoTD, a ranger's pet is going to die very easily.

I also have a tendency to restart with different characters on a more than normal basis. I actually am already restarting with trying this build: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79744-tcs-rogue-dw-sabre-4-shot-thaos-1-bs-1-cs/ I little different but looks to be well rounded. That looks like a very solid build for soloing, super good. Are you soloing though?

I haven't played around with a melee wizard, but those sound fun to try. The only thing I would add to the second is, Conc Parasitic Staff is great, but Spirit Lance does even more DPS. I'd be tempted to get Arcane/Hardened Veil even for a second row reach DPSer, but I suppose that's debatable. Keep in mind that weapon talents work for summoned weapons as well. Parasitic Staff is a quarterstaff, and has the benefit of becoming Per Encounter at high level. Spirit Lance is a pike, and will give you more max DPS but will always be Per Rest. Each benefits from the respective weapon focus talent, as well as Two-Handed Weapon Style.

I just got St. Garam's Spark, a pistol with the Marking property. I gave it to my ranged chanter, thinking it might grant accuracy, say, to my cipher. However, I went into battle to test it, with the whole party attacking the same target, and I saw no indication of any enemy debuff or ally buff granting accuracy on anyone. I checked to make sure Kana had indeed hit (well, it was a graze), and I paused and checked less than a second later. So what gives? Does it not work? Or does it work silently? And if it works, how? Is it supposed to a) Apply an enemy debuff to the target, granting anyone attacking it increased accuracy? b) Grant a buff to all other allies, increasing their accuracy against the same target? c) Grant such a buff to only one ally (randomly chosen)? or something else I haven't considered?

Maybe not make THIS game online, but have a game within the PoE universe online, with similar style and graphics and everything. Would LOOVE this to happen I really hope not. I'm enjoying PoE, and the last thing I want is for there to be story-centric stuff spread all over the place in eighteen different places and products I'll never enjoy, let alone get into. The whole franchising thing has gone too far. It is a mercy that Dragon Age decided to spin off into mediocrity so soon, because nowhere has it been worse in this regard than there, as far as I've noticed. Even the Elder Scrolls universe, which has a more mainstream and generally less demanding audience than PoE, didn't translate into a very popular online game with that audience. The PoE audience would be even more easily disappointed if an online followup were anything short of a miracle, and even a followup would take resources away from future single player content that we know Obsidian does well.