Boeroer

Of course I will not close the game when I go to the bathroom, eat a (second) dinner or make me some coffee or so. But usually I will close it when I'm finished for the day or when I go out. There were some nights where I didn't close it because I fell asleep while bringing my kids to bed. So... hard to tell. Maybe 1/4 is idle time? Just a guess. I played a lot in the beginning but not so much nowadays.

For Sagani: use Persistence and skill for max pet damage with Predator's Sense, Vicious + Merciless Companion, Takedown + Brutal Takedown (Brutal Takedown only has to overcome 1/4 of DR). Combined they are great for taking out high priority targets. Ituumak crits for 100+ damage against high DR targets all the time for me. Druid's Avenging Storm doesn't get triggered by retaliation any more, sorry. I would suggest an offensive shapeshifting (wildstrike shock) build with focus on self heal via Veteran's Recovery and survival 14 - also using Nature's Vigor & Balm right at the start of combat while the party is still in a compact formation. This way he can be placed in an offtank posistion as well. Aloth as blaster with Kalakoth's Minor Blights is good enough. I like to also use his Phantoms frequently. Also because of the following: I found a way to make good use of Kana's horrible skeleton summons (and also Rhymer's Summons): summon the skeletons together with other (multi-instance) summons like wood beetles, wizard's Phantoms and then cast Spark the Souls of the Righteous and gang up on the enemy. Ranger's animal companion also helps of course. Don't let the weak summons come into contact with the enemy though. The multiple shock damage is so numerous and strong that most bounty fights end very quickly if you only have enough summons + Spark the Souls.

ROFL

Durgan steel on clothes does not make you any faster, because recovery penalty will not drop below zero. It also reduces the recovery penalty of some robes that only have 5% recovery penalty to "only" 0, not -10 or something (see Berathian Robes in Raedric's Keep for example). However, the 15% crit-to-hit conversion will work just fine even on clothes. Don't know if you want to use durgan steel only for that though. If durgan stell doesn't lower the recovery penalty on an armor you most likely encountered a bug (that I didn't hear of until today, so maybe you should post it). Also note that durgan steel enchantments on armor will not stack with enchantments that already adress the same thing (unlike on weapon and shields where it stacks). For example Hirbel's Protective Skin has a 10% crit-to-hit conversion called "Saveguarding" that will get suppressed by durgan reinforcement's 15% crit-to-hit conv. Same thing happens if you have other items other than weapons/shields that affect the same thing as durgan reinforcement. Pilferer's Grip will give you 10% less armor penalty - but it doesn't stack with durgan reinforcement on the armor - it will get suppressed. Hope that helps.

Hello there, welcome and cheerio!

Most speed buffs that stack do stack multiplicatively, so it gets easier with every additional speed bonus to reach 0 recovery. It's harder with Soulbound Weapons like Stormcaller's though because those can't be enchanted with Durgan Steel (another +15% multiplicative speed boost). Swift Aim is not a good pick if you use a bow or a gun unless you plan to retrain at lvl 13. Because Twinned Arrows or Powder Burns are modals as well and don't work with Swift Aim. If you don't plan to use either bow or gun or if you are willing to retrain at lvl 13 it's a good pick. Attack Speed is a multiplicative damage boost and therefore more effective than additive damage bonuses like +20% damage (if not fighting extreme DR). In this case it also comes with -10 ACC which is a drawback of course, but a ranger can work around that with Marksman, Stalker's Link and Stunning Shots. If you want to know when you hit 0 recovery try MaxQuest's PoE Attack Speed Calculator: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ But with Stormcaller it's not possible without consumables or spellbinding (using DAoM).

Sure Handed Ila's speed buff stacks with every one of those, the rest doesn't stack. The reason is that Sure Handed Ila is in a different group (code wise) and only affects ranged attack speed and reload - while the others are all in the same group and buff attack speed universially (ranged, melee, casting and so on). Ila's reload buff also used to stack with Swift Aim's reaload buff and also Gunner. Can't say if this is still the case though. Other speed buffs that stack with everything are Two Handed Style (only one handed melee weapons when dual wielding), speed enchantment on weapons (only works when using the weapon for attacks), durgan steel on weapon or shield (same), Bloodlust (barb, universal), Gauntlets of Swift Action (universal) and Anitlei (Zahua, universal). Hope I didn't forget something. All other speed buffs will suppress each other (better one suppresses the weaker one with the exception of Spelltongue's Time Siphon which supresses them all although it's only 15% - for whatever buggy reason).

I think that human is the best race for a barb who wants to abuse Vengeful defeat with the help of paladin/priest/chanter. It might also be good for Heart of Fury, if you plan to maximize the damage per hit. You'd have to take Greater Frenzy and Blooded as well and maybe wear Ryona's Buckle, too. Basically all items that give you something once endurance is below a certain point. You'd just have to wait till Endurance drops below 50% and then use Heart of Fury. Too much hassle for me... It used to be the best race for the Leech build (prolonging buffs endlessly with the help of Spelltongue + Carnage, including Fighting Spirit), but nowadays that part of Spelltongue seems to be nerfed away.

Looks good. Please report how he's doing.

I don't had Charge yet and Zahua has higher DR, health and only -5 deflection. So in theory he shouldn't be forced to rest a lot more often than Edér - unless he gets attacked much harder...?

I like to compensate low deflection on front liners with high self heals (Veteran's/Constant Recovery, healing bonuses), decent DR (early game) and health pool (highish CON) and healing + spell holding gear. This way you can go all offensense with talents and abilities and shift the "improve sturdyness" part to the skills (and sometimes spells), I mean putting 12 or 14 points into survival. The result is always a good damage dealer who is also not dropping quickly in an encounter. This works with every class. Health loss can be an issue, but most of he time I rest because my caster's spell uses are empty and not because of low health, so... not an issue for me.

I consider monks to be more powerful (or to have the potential to be more powerful) than fighters but it's true that monks require a lot of micro, especially when using Torment's Reach, while the fighter does not (necessarily). I just picked picked up Zahua for my last playthrough and parked Edér (only offensive talents+abilities + max regeneration) in the stronghold - just for his questline. I play them both in the same way with the same items (plate armor + Tidefall and so on). I don't know why but although Zahua has a lot more health and not that much less deflection I notice that he's running out of health a lot faster than Edér did. Although I have Iron Wheel. Why is that? I can only guess that Lagufaeth like to attack monks more than they like to attack fighters? When I enter an encounter usually it's Zahua now who gets all the Blowgun-darts. They never bothered to attack Edér. Is this just coincidence or is there a part of enemies' AI that prioritizes monks over fighters?

His parents are from Aedyr.

Depends. The bear had a bit more DR while the antelope had higher defenses. With "Resilient Companion" they were all good offtanks.

DAoM does not stack with Frenzy. I usually give my chanter 12 survival and an item with +2 to survival so taht I can choose the +60% healing bonus. I also will wear an itme with +25% healing bonus. THis all stacks to +85%. It works with Veteran's Recovery and also Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits and makes your passive healing powerful. Dragon Thrashed does rely on ACC. It targets reflex. So high PER is good, but high MIG and INT are more important. You can boost the ACC of Dragon Thrashed by +12 if you use a single one handed weapon (weird). Mob Justice is pretty meh, but it depends. For example Merciless Hand does nothing for DoT effects like Dragon Thrashed and such. But it's good for characters that crit a lot with weapons and for high ACC casters who use direct damage spells.

Another good candidate (actually best in terms of dps) is Strike Hard - but it comes as late as Godansthunyr. Hours of St. Rumbalt is a great weapon. It works also well with durgan steel because the crit chance goes up (=more prone) while the crit damage gets boosted, too (stacks with Annihilating). If you focus on crits and crit damage (Merciless Hand and so on) it's a lot of fun.

Maybe because everybody is biting fingernails because they have to do yet another playthrough now.

Hehe - thanks.

It also helps a lot to prevent rushing. I currently have it on Blast-Aloth as Spell Mastery and since he uses it in every battle he never gets rushed (also uses Iron Skin).

Or look at the Last Tower (large shield). It will give you +1 move speed which stacks with everything since it's on a weapon. Just for the sake of stacking absurd move speed bonuses. Also look at Dimensional Shift - maybe it's cool with beams? You knpw: stun in a beam shaped AoE + beams vs. reflex and so on. Could be devastating with a fighter + Charge. First the fighter charges to the other end of the battlefield, you cast beams on the nearest enemy and pull the figher back with Dimensional Shift, stunning those the fighter charged and dragging the beams across them all. Then the fighter can charge again... should be ouch.

Last time I did test this you could cast different beam spells on the same target. You need high casting speed though in order to stack them. Alacrity and low armor penalty help a lot. Funnily enough INT doesn't do anything for the beams (range and duration are fixed) so you could dump INT completey if you'd only want to use beams (which I doubt, but theoretically). As a side node you can only use one wall spell at a time. Combusting Wounds does get triggered by the beams' "pulses", yes. As MasterCipher said: the range is only the casting range. If you stack lots of move speed bonuses you can cover a huge area with those beams. Things like Boots of Speed, Fast Runner and Alacrity stack, so you could end up with +6 move speed without a lot of hassle - which is superfast. Also, running away lets enemies follow you in a straight line - very useful, too. You'll need high MIG to raise the dmg, high PER to ensure more crits and also interrupts and I would also use high DEX in order to cast faster. If I remember correctly either Vulnerable Attack or Penetrating Shot and also Ryona's Vambraces work with beams - but I may be mistaken here.

Oopsala. Must have missed the "for free" part. Even better.

Every style has its bonus and no penalties. Single handed weapon use gives you +12 ACC and the style a 15% hit to crit conversion. Weapon & shield gives you higher deflection and the style raises his even higher and also gives you more reflex. Dual wielding removes the melee attack speed penalty (equivalent of a 50% speed boost) and the style adds another 20%. Two Handers have higher base damage and the style gives you additional +15% damage. None of them has penalties and I think it's good to keep things consistent and don't make too many exceptions.

They didn't say that it's for free though.