MalVeauX

Heya, Guns are very powerful. 10m range, high damage, and damage reduction. And there's just so much that makes them even more accurate, reload faster, etc. I recently played through with 2 tanks and 4 gunmen, and it was ridiculous how they just singled out any target and that target gibbed on the screen. Clothing (enchanted with exceptional, dex and freeze DR) on each gunner (no reload speed reduction). Chanters with reload phrase and fire damage, invocations were paralyze and phantom/ogre. Gunner talents on all. And other talents to boost accuracy (weapon focus & marksman). Elves (wood) with bonus to accuracy for distance. Max Dex. Max Might. Arquebus (enchanted exceptional, with burning lash or corrode, and slaying of your choice; I like spirits or vessels). It's stupid how much damage they do. And it goes fast. Very best,

Heya, Nope, not at all. Min/Maxing is not necessary for this game. Or any D&D game frankly. That's just a classic approach to making a power character. But these games are party games, as long as the party has a good mix and you apply good tactics & strategy for the situation, you can get through it with a balanced group, and not just feel like you have to have tricked out power characters to muscle through every situation, rather than thinking about what you're doing. Very best,

Heya, I run my Rogue without armor (minimal damage reduction to maintain speed), and deflection is poor (why on Earth would your DPS Rogue have max Res or Per, when you need max Might & Dex to get high DPS?). I use Reckless assault (you can get a talent to improve deflection when using this too). When it comes to deflection, even if you try to stack a +10 deflection item, a shield, and take talents like superior deflection, your deflection will still be low compared to a tank character, and you will still get hit. I find that I don't pay attention to deflection and I just manage the Rogue instead of carelessly letting him run into a problem. My Rogue attacks things that are already engaged with my Tank(s), or goes after a single target like a caster. And if a mob surrounds him, he Shadowing Beyonds out. None of my non-tank characters have deflection scores worth talking about. But if you manage your group and manage engagements, it's not a big deal. And they're all con 3~5 too. Very best,

Heya, I've yet to play the game and run out of copper. I'm always having like 80k copper mid to late game with the Stronghold and selling almost all loot. Buying a few hundred copper of ingredients, total through the game, is worth it. Very best,

Heya, Best ranged DPS? Cipher. Overall. But if you want to just be a martial ranged DPS, the Ranger is likely to be it with his abilities & attacks for single target DPS. This is still great, because it means taking out a caster super fast, or specific enemy that is going to cause you issues. If you feel you want AOE ranged DPS, then look to the Wizard, Druid and even Priest (to a lesser extent, and really not until higher levels). Wizards and Druids have the better AOE spells that do damage in general early on and later. If you want up close AOE DPS, a Barbarian can be rigged up for that. But for pure martial ranged DPS versus one target, the Ranger likely will nail it down. If you want a combination of ranged & "other" then the Cipher really is going to have huge DPS. And if you want a mix of things, the Rogue can be tweaked nicely to be a ranged DPS with good melee too, plus evasive abilities to get around and be utility on top of it. Regardless of where you go with it, any character class will work, just focus on what it takes to get higher DPS. You could use slow powerful guns with high damage reduction and focus on making them faster. Or you could focus on faster shots and higher accuracies, to allow for more potential criticals, which increases average damage more. I've played through a few times now and frankly found the guns with damage reduction (even with gunner and chanter with reload song) to be slow and annoying even still. Played through with war bows with high accuracy and it was quite a difference to me, faster, more shots, with high accuracy, more criticals, it was more impressive I found. So for me, just take whatever class you want, focus on using a Warbow basically and enchant the heck out of it. Get talents that grant you more accuracy and/or speed. Max your Dex and Might. Avoid recovery inducing armors (enchant some clothing (0%) for DR). Wood elf (free accuracy bonus), marksman, weapon specialization that includes warbow for more accuracy, and go from there. Very best,

Heya, It will play it. Intense scenes with lots of movement and action will slow down, but it will run never the less. Very best,

Heya, Totally depends on you and your party and your roll. For example, a Fighter could be built to simply be a balanced melee damage dealer who is durable enough to not get one-shotted in a fight. Or, you could build a fighter to be a tough-as-nails tank that just doesn't go down, but also doesn't really deal damage either, just holds the line so to speak, but does so forever. Attributes tell you what they do, so they're pretty straight forward. They tend to offer a bonus to something, and benefit a save of some kind. Lots of them blend over, so that you can combine like-stats to get really high stats in one are (like Resolve & Perception adding a ton of Deflection, which is the score that many attacks will use to see if they hit a character, but know that some attacks are targeting a reflex score, or fortitude score, or will score, etc, instead, there are many different "defensive" scores to be aware of, and different attacks and abilities target different things). Other things are a little more subtle at first, but become a big deal later when you're specializing (Dex on a fighter doesn't make sense unless you want a high reflex or if you are going to keep a lighter armor and want to attack faster or do actions faster, on a pure tank, Dex would be something you don't need much of, but on a damage dealer, Dex can be pretty important). Each stat can be reviewed this way, based on what you want the character to do. The hard part, is simply picking an overall direction and focusing. The more balanced you are, the less good you are at anything in particular (this can be good though). Depends on you. This is the roleplay part of the game in many ways. Items are also dictated by what you want to do. If you're an all-out damage dealer, having the heaviest damage reduction armor makes you slower (recovery time as slow as -50% time, making you half as fast as normal). If you want to take all the damage, get the highest damage reduction and enchant for more damage reduction. If you want to have some damage reduction, but not get slowed down, and keep attacking fast and dealing damage, wear lighter armors with less recover time hits (-15%, -20%, -25%) and you can use Dex to offset the recovery time loss from armor so that you can be a decent damage dealer while still having some good damage reduction (then further enchant the light armor for more damage reduction to make the most of it). As for weapons, well, that again is up to you. Some will go for the most damage possible in one hit by just increasing percentages of damage. Personally, I find it a lot more interesting, fun and effective, to simply actually hit things instead of grazing a lot. So I focus more on things that grant bonuses to accuracy. This helps you hit more often, and in some cases, gives you more odds to land a critical, which in general will increase your overall average damage over time more. A light, fast weapon with a high accuracy can be a glorious thing, as you crit everyone. My balanced fighter off tank, uses weapon specializations with flails to get higher accuracies and more odds to keep grazes as hits, and more odds to get crits from high accuracy, so he actually deals damage while wearing really high damage reduction plate, he's a balance between tank and melee damage dealer and I really enjoy it. My pure tank grazes all the time and I see damage scores of 0.7 and stuff like that, instead of 10's, 20's, etc. Weapon sets are important. Sometimes you will have zero use of a shield in a battle against some things, or you're already well too difficult for them to harm, so having a big two hander that deals more damage on swap can be very useful. Like wise, a ranged weapon mixed in there can be useful to for times when you simply cannot get to someone and need to be useful (like stuck behind a choke point). Pay attention to different modifiers on weapons. They deal different damage types that are good against different foes. Lots of weapons have two damage types. Some work really well against some, and don't work well against others, so it's important to pay attention to the beastiary as you play so you can see their defenses and know that your slash weapon is doing minimal against your foe, while a crush or pierce weapon may do far better. Having a good mix on your weapon set swaps lets you quickly respond to this. Very best,

Are priests the only healing class? Heya, Priests have the most healing spells for their class, at least one at each tier, often two (one bigger AOE heal, one more intense heal with less AOE, etc; plus their per-encounter Holy Radiance heal). Also, all casters at level 9 start to have their level 1 spells become per encounter, so you become a healing machine late game (at level 10, level 2 spells become per encounter, etc). This applies to Priests, Druids, Wizards, etc. Druids also have a lot of healing spells with their class, but the Priest has better AOE heals (consecrated ground) and Priests have Revive and Withdraw. But more importantly to know, all classes have access to healing spells. Lore = Scrolls = Healing spells for everyone, at pretty much all levels. You can just get a Lore of 8 with bonuses and points and you're good to go with most spells, from heals to even revive on a scroll. Scrolls are pretty much broken in my opinion because it gives anyone easy access to really powerful things. Tanks with scrolls of revive? Party is unstoppable. Very best,

Heya, So, Diablo is not an RPG at all. It's just a hack and slash action game essentially. It is similar in some ways, but these old cRPG type games that have a heavy focus on the roleplay aspect generally focus on dialog a lot. You make choices in the game that effect different outcomes and directions. Things like that are not in Diablo. You couldn't choose to just side with the Demons and lay waste to Tristram, nor could you attack Tyreal because you thought he was lying. Text dialog wasn't interactive, it was just back-story. So in a game like Pillars of Eternity, the dialog & text are story as well as choice making where you literally choose to do something or not, and it can have an outcome on things. How you say something matters too. I really enjoyed Diablo 1, and put way too much of my time into Diablo 2 on the ladder on b.net, and pretty much watched the idea of Diablo die with the release of the cancer that is Diablo III. But honestly, I really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale series, Neverwinter night series, and now Pillars of Eternity way more than any of the Diablo series, because I really like role playing. I actually much prefer the pen & paper approach to role playing with friends. But when you're not able to do that with a good group, these kinds of games help quench the thirst. Why do I like games like Pillars of Eternity? Because I like an unfolding story where you make choices and you can be a Hero, or really, a selfish Villain basically, or totally apathetic and just in it for the loot and swag, and you get to have more than one character and they actually interact and matter to each other. The game has a strong focus on combat, which is different from some other cRPG's where you can essentially find alternative methods around situations other than combat (and some exist in Pillars). Very best,

Heya, My barbarian and rogue both run with no armor in my current play through, with maxed Dex. Focusing on speed of attacks and high accuracy for lots of critical odds. You play them as not-front-line-characters. Drink mead/ale/beer constantly before a fight. Equip with normal clothing (0% recovery) and enchant to have some damage reduction and other useful things. Armor is just for damage reduction. It doesn't change if you get hit or not. It just changes how much damage you take. If you play the game in a way that your character doesn't get attacked much, or hit much, then they will not need a lot of damage reduction really, but it's always useful to have SOME damage reduction to avoid the oopsies and random mess ups. If you find it's just not working for your style of play, then look to lighter armors like Padded and enchant and use armor, but just don't use -50% armors and stick to the lighter stuff that is 20~30% or so and get a high Dex score. Very best,

Heya, You may laugh, but having more quick slots is pretty useful in prolonged fights in POTD. More scrolls. More foods. More potions. Very best,

Heya, Force yourself to roleplay a "balanced" (no min/maxing attributes) party of characters on Path of the Damned and Expert Mode. Very best,

Heya, All my characters roll with Beer/Mead/Ale whatever I find. I always buy it when I see it. I always keep it on a quick slot. Every swafts it down before a battle. It's like having exceptional & superior armor on all characters, a whole tier earlier. But every bit adds up over the game and it really is useful stuff. The other dishes I use are mostly crafted/cooked, I rarely buy dishes, and I focus on keeping a few that have stat buffs that I know I want (like +2 might, +intellect, etc, good for fights, and good for conversations or dialogue options on the fly). Very best,

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. Heya, Yeap, almost all of the "spirits" in the game deal cold damage. So any armor enchanted to reduce cold damage will be helpful. Add to that a potion or spell of bulwark of the elements, and you essentially no longer have to fear spirits and can casually kill them. They take more damage from fire & corrode, so enchanting to those elements is good, along with of course, slaying of spirits. This similar logic from knowing your foe can help you in most fights. Shades/Shadows/Spectres/Phantoms in general are the worst I find and most threads revolving around them are similar, they are just hard enemies, if you're not prepared for them. They deal nasty damage, paralyze, and worse yet, teleport and go after your squishies real fast. I actually just cleared the light house with my martial group. Each play through I tend to enchant everything with cold damage reduction, fire lash on weapons, and from there, I just make sure and have the appropriate potions from crafting or buying. It makes things easier. Very best,

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,

Heya, Realistically though, since this game has nothing random to it, this doesn't really happen unless you let it happen. This may apply if you've never played through. Or if you're reckless. But if you're going around in scout mode and you spot an enemy, it's pretty easy to let the tank go forward, engage whatever, as they will all go after him, give it one round, and then bring the rest of your party in. Only teleporters will likely break off here or there. The rest will be focusing on that initial character that showed up and got their attention. I do open fights often with my current casual play through, by sending one tank to one group, and send the other off-tank to another group, and start the fight on my own terms that way with two "magnets" in the open area. As things move in, I bring in my rogue, barb, and priest and ranger to selectively pick off priests, wizards, enemy rogues and leave their tanks/paladins/fighters for last. Very best,

Heya, So you're basically seeing the issue. Barbarians are a "fun" class, I guess that's a good way to put it. If you try to squeeze the most potential out of a character, some just come out on top due to mechanics and abilities, like a Rogue for example. Barbarians only have one really interesting unique ability and that's really the ability to have Carnage on a reach weapon, attacking pretty fast, and being pretty accurate and pretty hard hitting with a very high Might value potential, and you can maximize critical hit probability with it to help increase average damage. Apply that over time, and a Barbarian is an excellent melee crowd thinner. Is it ideal in the game? Maybe not. It's more probably that a caster can do the job with less limitations and with less potential to be engaged and caught in a melee brawl with no way out. A lot of Barbarian fun, is about the class's concept and less about the pure mechanics in terms of making them the most efficient at something. I'm enjoying my Barbarian right now in a group with a Paladin tank with Zealous Focus, making the Barbarian even more accurate. I use my Barbarian as a 2nd row melee DPS. Carnage (free AOE DPS) Frenzy (attack speed is the biggest factor I think here) Blooded (big damage buff) One Stands Alone (damage buff, flanking reduction) Threatening Presence (enemy debuff, very good) Heart of Fury (DPS) With a two hand weapon and two hand weapon style for more damage, and the weapon specialization pack for the accuracy when using lances (pikes?). I like to keep two nice reach weapons on him. A piercing weapon like Tall Grass, or a crushing weapon like a Quarterstaff so that you can output ideal damage depending on the target's armor types. I'm currently enjoying a play through with a Barbarian as the PC, and choosing all the Cruel/Aggressive options in the game. Pretty fun. I have a Rogue in the party too. And he does sick amounts of damage, very fast. But he doesn't do it with AOE splashing crits that send trash mobs flying from behind a row of two tanks. Very best,

On a lighter note, Does it really matter? Really, unless you're trying to make an optimal team for POTD or something, it doesn't matter much if you have 1, 2 or 3 tanks or even just off-tanks, or any other character designed to withstand a crowd. Right? I mean, this game isn't a pure min/max power gaming atmosphere where one absolutely must use a specific class as the pure tank, where it's fine, and fun even, to try other things. I think context would help a lot. Knowing if this is a casual play through, versus a competitive timed run through POTD or something would make a considerable difference in responses. It naturally sort of went that direction anyways. You have the casual responses and the POTD responses all lined up here as it is. If you want to run a duo of Wizards as both being primary tanks with the ability to drop nasty spells and buffs/debuffs, so be it. You're not wrong for doing so. Very best,

Heya, Depends on how you play and what the rest of your party consists of. I prefer the 1 main tank, and 1 off-tank method. I've done 4 play throughs now, and I really just like having those two tanks at all times that can highly benefit each other. I've done it with doubled up fighters, I've used a duo of Chanters, and now a Paladin & fighter duo, etc. A single tank can do almost everything you need. I like having an off-tank, a character that is also tanky in case my tank is bypassed or one-shotted, etc, that can take over the role, and still be a damage dealer (albeit low) the whole time. My off-tanks, I balance tankiness and damage. So my fighter off tank, for example, takes Weapon & Shield Style, but also takes Single Weapon Style, and any other things that give bonuses to accuracy, while still having a high Per and Resolve, with a good portion mixed between Might & Dex for damage output (I like Dex more, because of how it works with attack speed and you'll be wearing plate, plus I like the extra reflex). Fighters, Paladins, Chanters, Wizards, etc, can all make great off-tanks that still do damage. My favorite "tank" setup so far, though, is a duo of Chanters. They're just silly they're so good. They both are identical and are all-tanked-out in talents, but the key is their songs. They have alternating phrases so that my enemies stay Frightened/Terrored, and any other debuff or buff I want the whole fight, making them even better. Then, to do damage, they drop summons that are the DPS that they bring. So you never have to worry about balancing them to do damage themselves, their summons do it. Phantoms and Ogres are just fantastic. I used Phantoms even late game. Also, they get invocations for revive. They're just the perfect tank to me because of that utility. Currently enjoying Paladin-tanks that are also good off-tanks. Their auras are very useful, they have self-heals, etc. Very best,

Heya, For solo play? For a party? What else, or who else, is in the party if applicable? All of that makes a big difference in what you end up doing. Also, are you planning on being a martial character doing melee DPS, or are you talking about being a tank and simply dropping spells around you? So many ways to build it and use it. I just finished a caster-party play through and I definitely found Mages able to be tanks, and of course, heavy DPS from range. A wizard tank, for example: Int, Per, Res maxed out with some Dex Arcane Veil + Hardened Veil Weapon & Shield Style Superior Deflection (And lots of other options for defense as you please) Dazzling Lights (Daze), Chill Fog (Blind), Slicken (Prone), Spirit Shield (buff) Bewildering Spec (Confuse), Bulwark vs Elements (buff), Blackened Sight (Blind), Mirrored Image (buff) Llengrath's Displaced Image (buff), Repulsive Visage (debuffs) Confusion (Confuse), Ironskin (buff), Flame Shield (retal, buff) Call to Slumber (Prone), Envervating Terror (Weak & Terrify) Gaze of Adragan (Petrify) Or, say you wanted to be a martial melee and close range DPS wizard, less focused on tanking. Max Might, Dex and Int. Conc Parasitic Staff, Jolting Touch, Ghost Blades, Sunless Grasp Combusting Wounds, Blackened Sight, Fetid Caress, Vital Essence, Merciless Gaze Arcane Dampener, Draining Touch, Alacrity of Motion Call to Slumber, Torrent of Flame Martial Power, Death Ring, Gaze of Adragan Again, depends on what you're doing. You can be either way, just depends on spells you choose to use, which you can swap all the time. The biggest difference will be to determine if you are going to tank and drop spells around you, or be melee (like actually use a melee weapon), or be a bit of both? Very best,

Heya, Nicely done. Stealth is the key here it seems and key combats avoided with invisibility after being sighted, and knowing which quests and where the hidden items are and stuff like that. But Stealth is overwhelmingly the reason it works to avoid specific combats that would otherwise be impossible, and that's not even unique to the Rogue (stealth), but the invisibility is. I'm wondering how it would work with another character type, with high stealth as well, like a Fighter, or Barbarian, just for fun. I thought about a Ranger, but the pet would actually be more of a problem than a help. Very best,

Heya, I'm currently pushing a melee rogue, centered on single handed weapon, no shield, wearing no armor, with high dex, high int, high per, and some might. Focusing on accuracy over all else, to go after more crits and just keep hitting so I have consistent output. He absolute crushes single targets. He's squishy as all get out though. So what I do in general is as combat starts I send the Rogue off to flank and let my tank(s) get engaged. After the first blows begin, I move the Rogue in to start dealing damage. For certain fights you can always buff for that fight (enchant armor with damage reduction to a damage type specifically, on something like padded armor for example, to keep some speed, while getting some survivability). I play with a Priest, so having those "get out of jail free" spells helps tremendously when your Rogue gets knocked out. Withdraw & Revive are awesome. Very best,

Heya, There are more defensive buffs available (scrolls, potions) than accuracy buffs. I'd go focus. But you can get both and use one or the other based on needs. Very best,

I wondered what happened... Very best,

Thanks, So far, my Rogue is definitely single target destroying quite nicely with all the accuracy and crit modifiers and the paladin's zealous aura focus with more crit help. The barbarian is cleaning out the weenies nicely. The Ranger & Rogue are doing well at picking off, quickly, the casters. So far so good. Kind of weird for me to play all these martial characters, as I'm so much more used to casters. But, oh, it's great to be cruel... Very best,