Boeroer

As feared. How high is the lash with 20 Metaphysics (which would be realistic in an uncheated playtrough)? Or let's put it differently: what is the gain per point of Metaphysics?

That's just because she's a woman. Since your mommy is a woman, too (I assume) and she always told you what to do until you had the balls to move out but still did your laundry you now feel patronized when listening to a female narrator. ... Nope, I'm not serious.

If you make every fight equally difficult then there will be no feeling of progression in character development (in terms of power). Most players want to feel that their character evolves and turns into a powerhouse. For that you need easier encounters where your char shreds things to pieces with his fancy new abilities. But you also need hard, tricky encounters every now and then to hold up the tension and to get a feeling of accomplishment. This is not done with general buffs or nerfs on all chars or items or enemies. It is done with proper encounter design and certain high level enemies who have some tricks in their sleeve or are exceptionally hard to beat because of insane stats. And then look at people who complain that PotD is too easy at higher levels - and at the same time the same people post about Concelhaut using Arcane Dampener and that it is unfair - or that the BoW dragon is too tough. The kids these days...

Nope. None that I know of.

How does one get 40 Metaphysics?

I also had this situation: I took Sacred Scarifice so that I get revived after unconsciousness while Sacred Immolation is running. I also put on Effigy's Husk with Skean's Resentment to trigger that high raw dmg AoE retaliation on unconscious. Same with the Mantle of the Seven Bolts which does a Shock AoE on unconscious. I kept Espirs. Blade Feast (Ghost Blades + healing) also triggers on the effects above. When I triggered those effects above at 0 health I sometimes didn't get an injury. I believe because Blade Feast got triggered by one of the retaliation effects that killed an enemy and did heal me before the injury got applied? I cannot reproduce it reliably.

I did a bit more testing and the best way to ensure a steady flow of zeal so far is to send in Beckoner's skeletons first besides a tank (can be the Beckoner himself) - or to have a Troubadour tank with Many Lives Pass by. Too bad summons can't be called from stealth. I thought Beckoner with Ancient Brittle Bones and Many Lives Pass By, a Ranger with Animancer's Bow and a Berserker-Lord of the Imps in the team could be hilarious. Beckoner summons skeletons, Ranger marks them for transforming, Berserker kills them, turning them into imps AND another creature. And endless stream of summons and tons of zeal I presume. Also tons of micro...

Uh? I also missed it I think. Did I put it into the list?

Yes, it should become part of the official game.

By the way: the Woedica Necklace that gives you +MIG and RES when a party members goes down also work with summons. Pretty nice synergy with this paladin...

The rank of the afflictions/inspirations doesn't matter when it comes to taking countermeasures. I agree that the UI mod is pretty nice. I don't use it because by this time I memorized that stuff - but it's a good mod nonetheless.

It also depends on your party composition. If you have a priest you can keep the Berseker alive pretty easily. Later Savage Defiance helps as well. Priest can also cast Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time onto your Berserker/Streetfighter and he will deal tremendous damage when flanked and bloodied with Barbaric Blow (big crit conversion, Sneak Attack + Deathblows with Persistent Distraction, +150% crit damage). Note that the self damage of Berserker gets worse with Power Level and high MIG. A ring named Voidward can be used to reduce the self damage. Thick thick armor helps the Berserker to stay alive. Since he can get Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst and also Heating Up (50% recovery speedup from Streetfighter) and you most likely will use dual weapons (another 30% & 15%) the armor penalty will not hurt that much. Generally speaking the Holy Slayer is adier to play while the Marauder does more damage but goes down more quickly.

They said that every godlike will have two racial feats.

I meant the healing. It's substantial because of the dual source. As mentioned before, when using Sacred Immolation and then healing yourself with Greater Lay on Hands and Exalted Endurance + healing bonuses you merely lose 50 health overall. The Cascade of Immolation + Ghost Blades is pretty awesome.

Eh? I do that all the time. Why not?

Oh dear - I forgot that the Espir also heals you when you proc Ghost Blades. I don't even need Greater Lay on Hands to survive Sacred Immolation. As long as I kill with it I stay at high health. Kind of my own private Triumph of the Crusaders: SA procs Ghost Blades who also can proc themselves if they kill... I get +1 zeal for each kill. Meanwhile the chanter sends in squishy skeletons who distract and get roasted for +2 zeal. This is truly awesome... Have to do a build description after playing one of these I guess... Of course the Estoc also works very nicely with every other class that can kill quickly. Not paladin-specific. But the combo of infinite zeal + Sacred Immolation + heal on kill is pretty awesome.

Yeah - endless Zeal is totally overrated. As I already explained it would be an offensive support Paladin. I would cast FoD, Inspired Beacon and Divine Immolation over and over. With a Kind Wayfarer I could spam White Flames endlessly while healing with Divine Immolation and preventing my death with Greater Lay on Hands. I'd put Brand enemy on everybody and let Light of Pure Zeal rain on all vessels and spirits...

Blooded as well

No idea, I didn't manage to do that because dummies have so much health.

Dammit, I totally misremembered Divine Retribution... It gives you +2 zeal when an ally goes down, not an enemy. Superoops... well... does it work with summons...? Edit: Hahahahaha - yes it does. Put a Beckoner, Ghost Heart, Druid and/or Wizard in your party and you'll get +2 zeal every time a summon gets killed. Now suddenly that thing went from meh passive to AWESOMEST passive. Virtuous Triumph does only work on enemies, so you don't need to kill the summons yourself. Just send them on a suicide mission...

Toxic Strike with high INT does tremendous damage. Each tick added ~10 dmg (can't remember exactly) for me. So it's like 5, 15, 25, 35, 45 and so on. That was with the Deep Leap Scout. With high INT it's a lot stronger than Ring the Bell if you like to apply it and then attack another target (because the one with Toxic Strike might die anyways most of the time).

During (exhaustive) testing sessions I never had any problems with it though. Just note that it often summons a pet - like a cat or a dog - that can't do anything and neither takes part in combat nor anything else. It's just there and can be overlooked easily. It might be that those bug reports were from people who missed this - or the weapon is really bugged. But as I said: not when I use it (at least not yet).

There is no reliable resistance to it. But you can interrupt the wizard who's trying to cast it. The casting time is pretty long and monks can interrupt with Rooting Pain or Force of Anguish for example. You can also use figurines as cannon fodder.

I want to try a SC dps Paladin with the Espirs Estoc - because its Ghost Blades proc on kill. And they proc on all kills (Sacred Immolation and Brand Enemy etc. included). They even proc off themselves. I can imagine that with Sacred Immolation, some +PL stuff like Otto Starcat and so on and Greater Lay on Hands/Exhalted Endurance/Voidward I could wipe mobs quickly without dying. Not for solo obviously - but healing party emmbers while damageing/killing enemies and triggering Ghost Blades all the time should be fun. This would also work with any other class of course, but together with the zeal refunds it might be good - and obviously it would be very fitting thematically/lore-wise.

As does the Lantern.