Boeroer

It's slower with auto- and primary attacks because you won't have dual wielding and Two Weapon Style. But for Torment's Reach (Full Attack) it's not that bad. For retaliation it doesn't matter at all.

Just checked ingame: it's 50%. So not as bad as I remembered. My bad! So... that's good news for your build idea!

Huh? That would be great. Maybe I remember incorrectly or they buffed this a bit. I didn't use it for a longy long time.

What speed? You can but a lash on any non-soulbound weapon. You don't need to use a special weapon. If you don't use Bittercut you can also spare yourself Spirit of Decay and just put a shocking lash or burning lash on a weapon of your choice.

Sure you can raise RES if you want. You'd have to take away some points from other stats obviously. I didn't look into the reflecting monk. If I wanted to do a really good reflecting monk I would use Aila Braccia and combine it with Soul Mirror. If I wanted to do a retaliation monk I would use the Monksterlasher. But - it's not breaking the build if one uses Badgradr's Barricade instead of dual wielding sabres. So with Soul Mirror + Golden Scales + Barricade you would indeed have a kind of hybrid of reflecting some ranged attacks that miss (you'll need high deflection) as well as using all advantages of the Monksterlasher retaliation. Might actually work quite well.

Soul Mirror only reflects a small percentage of all ranged misses (20% if I remember correctly) while Aila Braccia reflects 100% of grazes (and turns them to misses). Those two are no comparable in power. The shield is just bananas when it comes to reflection of ranged attacks. However, with Soul Mirror and Golden Scales (also bonus reflection) and a priest who uses Crowns and Shields for +50 deflection (Champion's Boon doesn't do anything for deflection - although it's very good for the Long Pain's damage) you could at least make sure that most ranged attacks miss and unlock the full potential of Soul Mirror's + Golden Scales' reflection. The Wood Elf's racial comes on top of course. The idea to use the Long Pain is good because if you are attacking from afar enemies are forced to attack you with ranged weapons/spells as well. It would be really cool if one could only summon one Long Pain fist for the main hand and put Aila Braccia into the offhand. By the way: duration of Long Pain will be really short with 3 INT.

It still does. Jojobobo may not be around the forums anymore by the way.

This changes the build into an "almost" ranged, right? I didn't see anything like this on the build board, but maybe I overlooked.. You def. overlooked. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87160-class-build-the-witch-doctor-mid-ranged-dps-monk-disabler/ This is not so straightforward. Using the Long Pain makes you a melee/ranged hybrid. You can still fight at melee range. All the monk's melee abilites except Turning Wheel also work with the Long Pain. It's very powerful.

Sworn Enemy is on the left side of the tree. Gilded Enmity is linked to Sworn Enemy. Is it a passive or an active effect, hmm?

lashes work like so: Example 25% burning lash: Your physical damage roll pre DR * 0.25 - enemy's burn DR * 0.25 = burn damage. Imagine an enemy with 5 crush DR and 4 burn DR and you rolled 12 crush damage per DR. Your overall damage would be: (12 crush - 5 DR) physical damage + (12 * 0.25 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) lash damage --> 7 crush + 3 - 1 burn = 9 damage (7 crush, 2 burn). DR bypass like Vulnerable Attack does not work with lashes, only the initial direct damage (in this case crush). This makes fast weapons with low damage (and blunderbusses) worse for lashes and favors hard hitting weapons when you meet foes with decent DR. Lashes also don't use MIN damage like the initial crush damage would do. If crush DR is higher than crush damage you will still deal a bit on MIN damage. If burn DR * 0.25 is equal or higher than your lash then you do zwero damage. Multiple lashes on a weapon (from whatever source) do not get added like so: 25% + 10% = 30% lash. Nope, they will get rolled seperately and both have to overcome DR*0.25. That makes lashes that are lower than 25% very weak because they often get nullifies by enemies' DR. Especially with fast, low damage weapons like flails. In the case of Starcaller (same example): (12 crush - 5 DR) physical damage + (12 * 0.25 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) first lash + (12 * 0.1 burn - 4 * 0.25 DR) second lash --> 7 crush + 3-1 burn + 1.2-1 burn = 9 damage (7 crush, 2 burn, 0.2 gets rounded down to 0). Note that with Scion of Flame you could raise all your burning lashes by *1.20. So in this example with Starcaller you'd have 25% * 1.2 + 10% * 1.2 = 30% + 12% burning lash. The only exception where lashes get added is the Wildstrike Belt: it simply adds 10% to your Wildstrike lash. Let's say you have 30% shocking lash from Wildstrike Shock and 15% from Greater Wildstrike Shock. The Wildstrike Belt will NOT add a seperate 10% lash but instead give both lashes +10% so they end up like: 40% Wildstrike Shock + 25% Wildstrike Shock. Because of this, the Wildstrike Belt is a MUST for every melee oriented, shifting druid. If you's add Heart of the Storm you'd have 48% + 30% shocking lashes. All other lashes get rolled seperately against DR. A weapon with burning lash + Flames of Devotion + Intense Flames is NOT one single 100% burning lash, but instead you will have 25% burn + 50% burn + 25% burn. With Scion of Flame: 30% + 60% + 30%. One reason why a paladin should take Scion of Flame... In case of a Bleak Walker you could have 25% burn + 50% burn + 25% burn + 25% corrode and so on. Lashes like it a lot if you can lower enemies' DR via spells and abilites like Expose Vulnerabilites, Hel Hyraf, Sundering Blow, Body Attunement and so on. Raw lashes (wounding for example or the damage from the Blood Testament Gloves) don't care about DR, so they are great against foes with high DR. Sometimes the raw damage (that is based on damage roll PRE DR) is even higher than the actual physical damage. Example: Drawn in Spring vs. a dragon. Hope that makes it clear.

The Juggernaut build fits your description quite well, doesn't it?

So what's passive and active then? - armor bonus of Gilded Enmity? Sounds like active. - armor bonus of the bear form (spiritshift)? Sounds like passive? - Paladin's temporary armor bonus once he gets hit? Passive? - Barbarian's Thick Skinned? This has to be passive... or not? I tried several combos and it's not clear what stacks and what not. I ended up with a character that had multiple AR suppressions. It's not always clear what is considered a passive bonus and what not. Like on PoE: why did Inspiring Radiance and Inspiring Liberation stack with everything? Whay did Devotions (that only raises melee and ranged ACC) stack with universal ACC buffs for melee and ranged? Officially those were passives or had other weird stacking rules, but were triggered by an active ability. This is not very intuitive and thus new players never knew about such things.

Well, it's highly subjective.

If you have a character with high deflection then put on Aila Braccia (small shield, monk in the Celestial Sapling). Present yourself to Thaos while the others retreat. It will turn grazes of Cleansing Flame into misses (100%) and reflect them back to Thaos - who will kill himself with it. It helps a lot to raise deflection with Shields and Crowns for the Faithful (= +50 deflection). For the statues just grab St. Ydwen's Redeemer. If you didn't upscale they should be of lower level than you and you can just destroy them with a few hits. Also, as already said: Arcane Dampener is golden in this fight.

In PoE I always play in Fast Mode while running around and in Normal Mode when in combat. So, Deadfire feels extra sluggish for me now. Also because attack speed bonuses don't have the same impact as before.

Estoc was just an example for a two handed weapon.

Firebrand works with any weapon focus - so you could also take WF Adventurer and use an estoc as backup weapon if you like. It also works with Scion of Flame. Your reputation/dispositions will have no effect on your char values as a barb. It will only influence how people react to you in dialogue. I would also use the gloves, yes. Just because then you can summon FIrebrand in nearly very fight. Usually you will rest after 6 fights anyway (if they are not too trashy).

It's worse. It still gives you +12 ACC automatically if you only put a one handed weapon in your main had, but the One Handed Style got changed from 15% hit-to-crit to miss-to-graze.

Buy the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer at Anslög's Compass after Raedric (only then you will have enough money) and summon Firebrand as often as possible. Seriously: there is no better option than that if you also take Blood Thirst and Bloodlust. Use Raedric's great sword Justice as backup weapon until you find something better.

Yes, I played such a rogue and wrote about it here in the forums here and there, but I never posted a full build. I stacked deflection and bonus deflection against disengagement attacks and used the one handed weapon with the highest damage on hit (Bittercut) and the best bashing shield (Badgradr's Barricade) - I guess you could easily take Purgatory as well to profit from draining. I also made sure I am fast as hell - because the faster you run the more attacks you can provoke in a given time. I did it like so (only things that are somewhat important for this special build idea): Bittercut + Badgradr's Barricade (procs Thrust of Tattered Veils on bash-crit unlimited times per encounter and works with Deathblows) Night-Runner (+15 deflection against disengagement) Cape of the Master Mystic (+12 deflection) Boots of Speed (+3 move speed) Fast Runner (+1 move speed, +5 against disengagement) Graceful Retreat (+12 against disengagement) Executioner's Hood (fear aura lowers ACC of enemies, heal on kill, bonus ACC when attacks miss) Mourning Gloves (heal on kill, +5 to all defenses on kill) Escape (+25 deflection) Weapon & Shield Style Cautious Attack (+8 deflection) Superior Deflection (+5 deflection) Riposte Binding Rope (enemies get stuck when they hit you: easily unlocks Deathblows) Spirit of Decay (for Bittercut + corrosive lash) Vulnerable Attack dumped DEX Most bonuses here stack (esp. the normal deflection + deflection against disengagement). You can reach crazy high values against disengagement - but disengagment attacks also have higher ACC. I helps a ton if you have some party members that can do blind AND frighten or terrify (most likely a wizard). Both will make sure enemies still attack but have very low ACC. A Barb with a disorienting weapon (-5 to ACC in an AoE, Barbaric Yell) and/or Captain Viccolo's Anger (fatigue in an AoE) and GLitering Gauntlets (daze in an AoE). Frighten, daze and fatigue stack their ACC maluses and you can bring down enemies ACC a lot like this. And then I ran around mobs at high speed in order to provoke attacks. It works quite well. However: since engagement stops you you have to click a lot in order to continue OR you have to uncheck the option in the game menu. If you do so you can chain movement points with shift + click and draw circles around mobs right at the start of the encounter. BUT: it is a lot of micromanagement. I did not finish a playthrough with this build because it was too much fuzz for me. But it surely is viable.

No, you can drink potions of Spirit Shield or your priest can cast Holy Meditation (lvl 1) or you can wear: - Celebrant's Gloves - The Lost Periapt of the Winding Path - Belt of Chimes I guess your priest is the easiest way. That's why I drop RES to 3 when I have a priest in the party. Also, later the priest has Crowns for the Faithful (which I use all the time) which gives all chars in range +25 RES(!) - and +6 INT which is great for any barbarian. Another way to avoid a lot of interrupts is to lower PER of enemies (Miasma of Dull Mindedness) or to not get surrounded by a ton of people as long as you don't have nay of the aforementioned buffs going. I like to flank with a barb in the earlier game. Later, once said items are there or my priest has Holy Meditation as Mastery I can afford to jump/run right into the fray.

Maybe once or twice. But I try to avoid it. Even in a solo game.

The main problem with Priests and hammers in PoE is that they don't match very well (one xception in the late game). The additional problem is that there is no multiclassing but only some minor cross class talents. One talent for each class. Some of t hem are good. some others are poor. The best cross class decision would be to choose a priest and then pick Veteran's Recovery which is the cross class talent that comes from the fighter. Veteran's Recovery is always a good pick for a front liner with good MIG and INT. Now the problem with the priests is that we have 5 different playable orientations in PoE, each has its own favorite set of weapons: Eothas (god of light/redemption/birth, benevolent and honest): Flail (1h), Morning Star (2h) Berath (god of death/life cycle, rational and stoic): Mace (1h), Great Sword (2h) Magran (god of fire/war/trials, aggressive and clever): Sword (1h), Arquebus (2h) Wael (god of illusion/secrets/perception, clever and deceptive): Rod (2h), Quarterstaff (2h) Skaen (god of defoiance/hatred/rebellion, cruel and deceptive ): Stiletto (1h), Club (1h) As you can see, there are no hammers involved. Things that come close (when we look at blunt force tauma ) are flails, morning star and mace. Club is maybe to whimpy for a stout dwarf. You can take other weapons, but you can't get the nice +10 accuracy bonus that the weapons above can get. Also note that hammers in this game are one handed. THere is one exception. I my opinion one can easily imagine a dwarf with a big, two handed Morning Star. Sadly, the really good morning stars in the game come very, very late. But in general you can easily enchant any morning star to be awesome with some ingredients and special steel. One of the best weapons in the game is Acuan Giamas, a very special Morning Star. It is even better than the TIdefall-setup I mentioned earlier. But Tidefall comes early while this monring star comes so lante that 95% of the game is over once you get it. It's sad. There are some nice flails in the game. The one with the best dps comes fairly early (Unforgiven). Fails are fast weapons with low base damage though. So, no hefty strikes with mights force or something like that. Maces are like Morning Stars: not the best unique ones for the main part of the game. However, there is Ravenwing that is quite powerful when you get it (but not too special in the later game, but still good). There are exceptions to the rule: soulboud and summoned weapons get all the bonuses, they are considered "universal" weapons. Those would be (only listing melee ones that might fit): - Firebrand: very strong Great Sword made out of fire. Has high base damage, does increased ciritcal hits and does burn damage. Can be summoned by the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (3 per rest) and the Forgemaster's Gloves (3 per rest). Would fit Magran very well. I already used this on Durance and it's great with self buffs like Minor Avatar and so on. Can be achieved pretty early in the game - Abydon's Hammer: a soulbound two handed hammer that is very strong, but comes very late in the game. Would totally fit a dwarf. Also the whole Abydon theme fits "classic" dwarfs. - The Grey Sleeper: a sinister soulbound estoc that is ok-ish but also comes quite late - St. Ydwen's Redeemer: a souldbound great sword that fits Eothas or Berath very well and is awsome against "undead" aka vessels and ok aginat everybody else. Can be achieved mid-game. - Nightshroud: soulbound mace that is quite meh but would fit Skaen and also Berath, comes late mid-game. The strongest melee setup with a priest that I know of and which I also played is a priest of Berath with Tidefall (unique great sword). That is great melee single target damage combined with the great spells of a priest. Firebrand with any melee priest is also nice - the most effective one would be a priest of Skaen with Firebrand. A priest with a war hammer would be doable, but you would gimp your accuracy. The other alternative would be to use a fighter and then pick the priestish talent "Acolyte's Radiance" for a bit of party healing and vessel repellent. You can get some items that contain priest spells. This would be mostly melee though and way less casting. You can pick any weapon without drawbacks. My approach would be a priest of Eothas who uses morning stars until he gets Abydon's Hammer. Abydon's Hammer is also very good for casting damaging spells like Shining Beacon: it gives you +4 MIG which directly improvey the damage of spells. Hope that helps. Let me know what you think.

This was the case for me with the 2nd beta as well.

Crossbow: holy cow! Faster than two handed weapons in plate armor. So it's apparently easier to reload and fire a crossbow than it is to swing a sword. Erm... Also: dw pistols. :/