Boeroer

"Mother Sharp Rock" please

Hm, I had no such problems - and I did durganize Spelltongue with that build. I did this with game version 2.0, so pre 3. And @Raven Darkholmeplayed it past 3.06 iirc and didn't report anything like that. I'm pretty sure he durganized the weapon, but it may be best to ask him directly (basically done with tagging ;)).

But then you could just as well pick a Barbarian with no subclass. All the advantages and disadvantages of the Berserker are tied to Frenzy. If a Berserker doesn't pick Frenzy he's exactly like a vanilla Barbarian.

Actually, with high CON and a bit of DR as described above, I use it 100% of times (vanilla version) at lvl 20 still. True, but don't forget that besides the Confusion you will always have concealed health which is a serious drawback for all unexperienced players, too. As I said I'm totally fine with the self damage personally - but I think it scales too steeply for "normal" players. Starting higher and scaling less aggressively might not be a bad suggestion I think.

What do you mean? The Berserker's self damage from Blood Frenzy is not different from the Spirit Frenzy or non-upgraded Frenzy self damage. The Berserker's Frenzy base damage is actually fine imo (most players don't have a probem with it in the early game) - it just scales steeply which is very noticably at higher levels. This is fine if you raise CON and don't drop it. Then your health pool can grow in a somewhat similar fashion as the self damage rises. I did so with my latest Helwalker/Berserker build where I even maxed CON. Even with the "synergy" of Berserker's self damage + Helwalker's <=50% damage bonus (which grants you tons and tons of wounds) I had almost zero problems with knocking myself out. I didn't even pick Savage Defiance. But I used Voidward Ring and Death's Maw to get some Damage Reduction. I'm sure that helped, too. Anyway I was pretty surprised myself that the build was so relatively sturdy. With a pet that heals on kill (see Abraham for example) and a somewhat decent healer in the party this can become a no-problem imo. But maybe the scaling could be a bit less aggressive. After all it is pretty steep and climbs more quickly than the average Barb's health pool can keep up. You have to relaly know your stuff in order to not getting frustrated at higher levels. Maybe a passive that lowers the self damage could be introduced or something like that. Making it an option...? A bit like Fighter's upgraded Constant Recovery passive.

You can take a look at the following, more detailed build. It uses the same principle of stacked "marking" but instead of a Darcozzi it's a Shieldbearer. That's only because of the theme, you can simply use a Darcozzi instead. In addition it adds some mind control capabilities later which can come in handy. It has enough info I think so that you can deduce your own "Marking Paladin" build: Then there is the follow-up to this Forward Observer idea (by somebody else) which uses a ranged marking weapon instead of a melee one: I'm sure there's also usable info in there. One last thing: Marking (+10ACC) stacks with Coordinated Attacks (+10ACC), both stack with Inspiring Liberation (Darcozzi talent, +10ACC) - +30 all-stackable accuracy overall. Meaning they will all stack with the usual accuracy buffs (see Zealous Focus or some Priest buffs like Blessing and/or Devotions for the Faithful for example). That is superb accuracy support for one of your teammates. But two marking weapons, wielded by different people, will not stack their accuracy benefits on a teammember (but they can be used to support two different team members or each other). I'd say usually one "marking character" in the party is enough - otherwise it becomes a micromanagement mess imo. There is one setup where you can stack two marking weapons and their acc bonus on the same person though: if you dual wield Shame or Glory (sword - you need to pick the right faction in Defiance Bay!) with Cladhaliath (spear - has to be enchanted in a scripted process properly, follow the link for the correct options) you can stack both Marking enchantments on one teammember. All other marking weapons are two-handed ones. If you use that sword and spear you can still add Coordinated Attacks etc. on top like before. This can lead to +40 all-stackable accuracy for one teammember which is the equivalent of 13 additional character levels (in terms of accuracy)! +30 or even +40 ACC is very useful against tough singular foes (like bosses such as dragons etc.) because it makes landing disables a lot easier which cancel the offensive threat and usually also debuff the enemy.

Hi! Given that you're new to the game I will assume you're playing with a full party and most likely with the official companions? I would recommend that since they add a lot of flavor to the game. One upside of the Psion/Troubadour is its great versatility. It can do support, debuffing, CC (I count summons as CC mostly) and deal damage - even healing and reviving. Whatever you need. And then its resources never run out - which is its best selling point imo. What you find fun to play might depend on your preferences and also your party composition. If you're playing solo your build needs to look differently than the one that is supposed to go with a party.I'm not a super big fan of summons in general (because of the usually very long casting time and the added micromanagement and the additional bodies crowding my space). So in my first run with a Psion/Troubadour with a party of official companions I went with a combo of CC+damage and used Killers Frozen Stiff + Soul Shock most of the time. Both are cheap so you can cast non-stop almost and still have enough resources for the occasional big spell - but in another run I tried to combine summoning with massive mind control and build the party around that. For example I had a Swashbuckler tank with Riposte and a club+modal as well as an Assassin/Wizard who would prep. the enemies with Miasma of Dull Mindedness for my Whisper of Treason, Puppet Master or Ringleader. Combining summons with mind control is very impactful and almost too effective. You basically create a small army for you while reducing the number of enemies. Beware enemies that are immune to intellect afflictions though - mind control is not working with them. But summons always do work. I don't know a situation where they won't help. That's why I avoid them sometimes... I can also totally see a build that completely focuses on summons, support and healing that wouldn't need any accuracy at all. That's just some examples of different approaches for a Psion/Troubadour. For a party run I personally like to go with a small shield and some defensive abilities. This takes heat away from you because enemy AI is looking for weaknesses such as low deflection, low health, low armor and so on. If your party can present something more squishy then you are rel. safe from getting attacked so much that it hurts your focus generation (Psions stop generating focus if they get damaged). At the same time a small shield doesn't hurt your offensive casting at all. Main weapon doesn't matter much but I liked the Gladiator Sword because it gives you extra +5 deflection with a shield - and since it doesn't get used much in melee it's offensive limitations don't matter. Later stuff like Sasha's Singing Scimitar might be what you are looking for. A lot later it might be the Weyc's Wand and so on... What all my Psion/Troubadours had so far is a ton of INT and lots of PER. Especially the cone-shaped invocations profit from high INT enormously because their AoE will grow on a way that you don't have to get too close in oder to make them impactful. Killers Froze Stiff for example has a great base AoE already which grows a lot with lots of INT. If you then combine Lingerig Echoes with the longer durations bc. of high INT you get quite long CC effects, too. And of course your summons will last longer etc. I like high PER in a party with official companions because none of them has very high PER - but you need that to discover difficult traps and secrets. In addition it helps with hitting stuff (accuracy) which is always good for somebody who does CC or deals damage. For a pure summons/support build you wouldn't need PER though. Here high MIG (healing) and DEX (casting time) would be better. High DEX is always good by the way. Makes everything feel more smooth, especially casting. Cheers and good fun hopefully!

HOW is real. easy with Disintegrate. If it dies while Disintegrate is active it will not split and the fight is over. Doru can be done with endless summons, even if it takes ages. Maybe Troubadour/Psion is the way to go, but I haven't tried BPM for such things so I can't be sure. But a Troubadour/Psion can also use an Arbalest+modal or Crossbow+modal with good speed (thanks to Sure-Handed Ila's double reduction for reloading weapons) and that would help against merging, too (if the Disintegrate fails for example).

Then you haven't understood how to "properly abuse" Bounding Boots. If you cancel the leap action before landing, it won't deplete a per/rest use - but you will still land at the target location (without the noise and the dazing effect) and have 0 recovery. This makes solo runs a lot easier because you can sneak everywhere without any points in stealth and cover a lot of ground in an instant. You can loot all containers even if guards stand next to them because if you jump in from stealth the detection will only start once you truly land. But if you cancel in the air (while the target circle is already showing up at the destination) and immediately clock on the container you can loot without getting detected. There's also enough time to jump back out again (unless you toich the guard, that will break stealth immediately). It also allows to flee from all sorts of problems at any time, even of you are stuck or otherwise can't run away (disengagement, blocked path etc.). Very useful to reach the backline, kill some threats, jump to another high prio target and so on. Unlimited tikes per encounter. Is is less reliable in Ultimate runs because you cannot pause the game which help a lot with the timing (when to cancel). But even with the slowest combat setting one can manage with some practice (without pause). But it's def. a lot more hassle so I guess that's why it isn't that popular. Anyway, for me cheese is to use something to your advantage which the developers clearly didn't foresee and intend. True Love's Kiss, Gouging Strike and Brand Enemy all work as designed and thus cannot be considered cheese. They can be very potent with the right setup and in the right situations, but at least you buy that potency with a lot of idle time. Same with sending summons from a save space. Takes forever but will surely lead to success (unless the enemy needs some special treatment: see Huani OW for example). Stuff like prolonging buffs indefinitely with Strand of Favor etc. - that's extremely cheesy in my book. Stealing free spells with Grimoire Imprint: also extr. cheesy. Using Bounding Boots as I described: cheesy, but not as wild as the stuff above. Endless DoTs: not cheesy. Just imbalanced if solo and combined with invisibility. A very long duration (that would suffice for any encounter with a full party but run out in very long solo fights) instead of and endless one might have been better. Bit it's still is no abuse of an unintended effect. With the same line of argumentation I would also say that Salvation of Time + Brilliant or Blood Mage + Wall of Draining are not really cheese. Just like endless DoTs and endless summons they are just too imbalanced for some situations (mostly solo runs imo).

For a normal party run I consider the Devil of Caroc Breastplate to be way, way more important than any temporary consumable effect - and if you like to play a generally benevolent person - like most players do - you can't go wrong with the benevolent pre-set background imo. PS: DoC Breastplate + Helm of the Falcon --> one of the best looking combos imo - and also one of the best combos in terms of protection vs. attack speed (with a two handed weapon).

Of course not, at least for me. As Gouging Strike and Brand Enemy, True Love's Kiss works exactly as intended by the developer. It's not a weird side effect that can be used to your advantage which the designer didn't see coming (see Strand of Favor etc al., endless use of Bounding Boots, persistent Draining Touch, stacking Beast's Claw into heaven by save/reload, stacking food bonuses with save/reload, permanently stealing free spells with Grimoire Imprint and so on and so forth). Imo there's no difference in the level of "cheesyness" between applying a nerverending DoT and then hide vs. hiding and then sending a neverending stream of damage (summons). In both cases it's just having a source of damage that won't run dry while staying untouchable at the same time.

I don't use Pain Link much (dare I say "never"?), so this might be false, but since Pain Link doesn't seem to do raw dmg, maybe it has the same PEN value as the original attack and has to go through AR again? Could it be that the dmg of Pain Link underpenetrates due to the high AR of D.? Also, if the calculation is done like "let's "substract" 70% of the dmg in order to retain 30%" then - if the usual double inversion mechanics with maluses get applied - the remaining dmg portion would be way smaller (see Underpenetration, Grazes and dmg reduction in general). Just two random ideas that came to my mind to explain the low numbers. You can defeat D. without massive cheese with Lover's Embrace from Stealth and then hiding. I don't think BPM nerfed that. It takes many hours though - but you can just go elsewhere and return later. Make sure to make yourself immune to pulling (fitting helmet or belt) to not accidentially get pulled out of hiding. Also D. hitting himself with fire attacks repeatedly prolongs things a lot as you suspected.

Yes, although I think the Rogue class is one of the weakest (or let's say most unfun) for PotD difficulty I really like the Devil of Caroc as a companion. She was the one I gave Badgradr's Barricade and Godansthunyr to (the first time I tried that combo out), but she was also fun with Tall Grass. Her immunities can be exploited with some friendly-fire AoE spells (mostly from Wizard iirc) where you can place her in the front line to bait enemies and then shower them with spells which won't affect the Devil. I once made a "team of two" for that purpose: Devil oC & Bilestomper, one of the builds I posted here in the forums back then.

No problem. Tagging is a good practice imo. Especially since I usually don't look into this subforum frequently. I didn't mod much myself so I can't say what the problem is. @Elric Galad, @Noqn - any ideas?

Yes, I agree. I think Ghost Heart is neat in special cases, but I generally prefer the normal animal companion. It "stacks" with summons, it cannot suffer injuries so you can revive it infinite times and it's a good bait/decoy right at the start of the battle that doesn't need any action time or resource. I'm just a bit mad still that Ancient's Wild Growth doesn't work with Animal Companions. That would have been so cool...

Immune to engagement: It means that enemies cannot engage the (Ghost) Boar. The Boar can engage just fine once he gets an engagement slot (with the help of the right abilities - animal companions don't start with an engagement slot).

Hehe, define "old". I'm 46.

We could tag one of the devs from the community realm who are always happy to help, like for example @Shyla? If that doesn't help then maybe try to hit @jesawyer on Twitter (in a nice way ;)): He's not active here on the forums anymore but he is very active over there. I often see him answering reasonable questions, especially when it's about the Ultimate. But his feed and notifications are quite crowded I guess (he has a lot of followers) so there might be a chance he misses it. The chance could be even higher if you try it on Tumblr, he's anwering there very frequently and posts the answers on Twitter, too - but I have no experience with that platform: https://www.tumblr.com/jesawyer

Getting the Fear Ward takes some levels. Same with Spirit Frenzy. Before those the upsides of a Furyshaper aren't that obvious and you might think "well... why did I take a Furyshaper in rhe first place?" But once all the pieces of the "synergy-puzzle" fall into place I think it is a very rewarding combo. It doesn't take much fiddling to lower enemies' Will and Fortitude completely into the ground and disabling them hard before hitting them - and this is not only making things easy for you but for the whole party, too. Imo if one thinks at some point in the early game "well this doesn't feel spectacular" it just needs a few more levels. The Fear Ward, if used right - like... debuffing Will of enemies beforehand with RES-/INT-afflictions, Willbreaker, clubs, spells (Miasma of Dull-Mindedness from a buddy wizard is your very best fried by the way!) is a devastating tool to have combined with all the other goodies. Once it works you can (if you want to) also build your party a bit around the effects of the main character - like giving a melee damage dealer more engagments to profit more from the terrified enemies breaking engagement, favoring spells that target Will (see several chanter invocations, priests' offensive spells, Cipher stuff etc.) and Fortitude (lots of Wizard and Druid spells) and so on.

If it's mainly about retaliation I think not much beats a Fire Godlike's Battle Forged at high levels since it scales so well. All the other retaliations don't. I think the low health of priests could make this concept challenging, especially because you need to receive at least a graze in order to retaliate (contrary to riposte). That's why I wouldn't drop CON. I guess you know this but similar forms of retaliation don't stack unless they are from a passive (Battle Forged) or a weapon (see Sura's Supper Plate). So for example it's either armor, helm or cape (see Hiro's Mantle) + Sura's. How about Swanddling Sheet and Binding Rope? They kind of retaliate, too. Iirc they do have stacking issues with normal retaliation though - but I am not 100% sure anymore.

Hi! Nope. The spell effect (here: Minor Missiles) will not proc any weapon effects (here: Missiles from Spearcaster). Driving Flight will lead to two procs of the imbued spell (here: Minor Missiles) - one for the initial 1. hit and the second for the projectile's jump->2. hit. You can even make it to 3 if you use a weapon with a built-in projectile jump in combination with Driving Flight (see Fire in the Hole+Chain Shot or Watershaper's Focus). So the jump of Driving Flight + using Spearcaster will give you a second chance to proc its Run Bolts - but again the spell effect of the imbued missile shot doesn't interfere with the weapon effect (doesn't proc it).

The Fury is a Druid subclass. Based on what we talked about before I assume you mean the Furyshaper (Barbarian subclass). A few attribute points here and there aren't too important imo and also depend a bit on the player and how he approaches combat and even more on the party composition (like what is the exact role of the character and how does he go about it). But my tipps align pretty much with those of @Not So Clever Hound: INT: I personally value INT a lot. Besides that a Furyshaper/Beguiler is - for me - first and foremost a debuffer. Damage dealing is the secondary concern. So INT is great for that (long durations but also big area of effects - including the Carnage area). Hittig more enemies with Phantom Foes and Secret Horrors means (a lot) more focus generation, too. PER: Also nice in this case - because you want to hit enemies reliably with your debuffing tools before finally whacking them. Also, when playing with official companions noe of them has a very high PER score, and since PER is used for searching traps and secrets it's benefical to have a main character with a high PER score who can do that. Once spotted, traps and so on can be dealth with by a different character (the one with the highest mechanics skill). So you can totally split the searching and the disarming between two party members - no problem. DEX: It's always nice to have good DEX, especially when casting/summoning is involved - because it not only shortens your recovery from actions but also the action/animation times as well. And casting spells/summoning wards usually takes much longer than executing a weapon attack. So high DEX not only makes you do stuff faster, it also makes your character more reactive in combat and also more versatile: he can react to unforeseen situations more quickly. This has more impact than it seems at first (imo). It also looks less sluggish (=better). MIG: That wouldn't be very important in this case for me. A mid score is fine. You'll also get +5 from Frenzy. Don't go below 10 though because this leads to a damage malus that is calculated in a way that it hurts more than one would think. CON: As a melee guy without stellar defense against weapon attacks I wouldn't drop CON too much. But since it's a Barbarian with access to high base health and Fit from Frenzy (+5 CON) and also some armor abilities I wouldn't raise it high either. Going high CON def. can make the fights for a non-tanky melee guy less stressful, but you will be able to charm/dominate enemies, paralyze them, terrify them and so on so in the long run you shouldn't receive too much punishment on the battlefield. In the early game I would grab an Amulet of Greater Health if I could find it and tha should make things cool . If not needed: even better. RES can be great - in this case I would either dump it completely or just keep it mid. Furyshapers seem to have anger management issues and this would explain low RES to me, hehe. I personally would maybe go like this (high doesn't necessarily mean maxed): MIG: mid (not below 10 bc. damage malus does hurt a lot because it's not additive) CON: mid (can go below 10 - health malus is additive and not that bad) PER: high DEX: high INT: high RES: low For active skills I'd prefer athletics - but I almost never use consumables (which can be very strong). So if you want to use potions and scrolls etc. you should invest in Alchemy or Arcana. Passive skills I always give a good stretch so that it fits the character. This is best for dialoge options and scripted scenes. There are some items that scale with passive skills (see Giftbearer's Cloth, Captain Samelia's Legacy and more) - if you want to use those it makes sense to max that one particular skill. Sorry, don't have one. I think there's othing here in this forum that's more than some theorycrafting. I have successfully played such a character but didn't write it down in detail. Most precious abilities for me would be (Spirit) Frenzy, Fear Ward (automatic pick), Thick Skinned, Barbaric Shout, Brute Force, Blood Thirst, Secret Horrors, Phantom Foes, Whispers of Treason and Puppet Master. Also later Leap (so nice bc. you can use it out of comat from free for some cool movement actions and "sneaking" past guards etc.). You want some engagement slots (see Barbaric Shout and Thick Skinned) because once enemies become terrified (for example from your Fear Ward) they will often disengage - which will give you free disengagement attacks which really hurt. But in order to get those you have to engage first (there will be a green "arrow-line" to indicate engagement). Good luck! PS: sometimes your summoned wards will get targeted by enemies because they have rel. poor defenses and health. When they get destroyed it's quite bad for you. This can become annoying. Best solution imo: a Priest in the party who can cast "Withdraw" (spell lvl 2) on the ward. The ward will become untouchable/invincible - but it will still work just fine like it's supposed to. Second best option imo is to summon them in a place where enemies won't get to them so quickly. But that's no solution against ranged enemies. There are also other spells that might work (Pain Block or so). PPS: charmed enemies normally flip back to enemy status if you hurt them. However, if you only apply a damage over time-effect like Disintegrate or Soul Ignition they do not! Both of those target fortitude - so it's cool to cast Scret Horrors (sicken: -10 fortitude, frighten: -10 will) and then hit with the Morning Star + Spirit Frenzy (another -35 fortitude, +3 Will from Willbreaker), then charm (another -10 Will) and then cast Disintegrate agaisnt the low fortitude. The enemy will stay charmed and fight for you, but it will also die so after the charming it will most likely fall apart. This takes some casting time ad fuss so I wouldn't do it against the easy enemies - but some tough nuts can get cracked pretty nicely that way.

No idea

edit: I don't know what is wrong with this forum... I can't post some texts without it freaking out completely, so I will add my reply as a picture instead (admins, please do something about this, it is a recent problem): Cheers!

Tactical Barrage does synergize with Cipher pretty well imo - esp. since Ciphers have no own reliable way of getting an INT inspiration. Tactician/Beguiler makes for a nice synergistic combo bc. of Phantom Foes imo. Making it fairly easy to become Brilliant and refresh your Discipline. That can then used for Clear Out which is an awesome focus generator if applied to a bunch of crowed enemies (and higher INT = bigger AoE). Even if the Tactician gets confused (from getting flanked) you can use that to your advantage with the Cipher side - because it allows you to cast certain Cipher powers (see Amplified Thrust and -Wave or Ectopsychic Echo for example) on enemies instead of allies only. In case of Amplified Thrust the enemy target will get hit twice(!) by the thrust, which makes that spell a nice single target damamge tool and really worthwhile all of a sudden. Unfortunately the defense buffs of Borrowed Instincts and Refreshing Defense don't stack - but maybe one should just look at this and see it as two spared ability points (for not needing to take Vigorous + Refreshing Defense).