Boeroer

Yes. It used to ignore DR completely which made it very powerful. That might have been an oversught or bug. Then OBS patched this and said in the patch notes that Iconic Projection now has to overcome DR. They never said that it's only 1/4 of DR instead the full DR - or I completely missed that. And now I wonder if Thorny Roots has the same mechanic, because this used to be fixed damage, too.

I had to think about Brütal Legend, that's why I put the "ü" there.

Yes, but as I said I don't think it's that much better than Shatterstar (or Strike Hard) + Godansthunyr to justify the use of the Helwax Mold (for me I mean). Only thing that bothers me is that Godanythunyr looks so much different than Strike Hard and Shatterstar. While the latter looks more "convervative" and simple, Godansthunyr looks like something from Final Fantasy. By the way there are two hammers that share the same 3D-model but use different colors and look good with Godansthunyr: Haba's Hammer and Jarpie's Warhammer. Both are only excemtional hammers and have nothing unique except the looks. They can be bought at Vincent Dwellier in the CRPG. I often use them as backup weapon set against certain enemies and will have enchanted them accordingly (e.g. beast slaying + shocking lash and primordial slaying + freezing lash or whatever).

Yes, you won't be running around shifted all day. By the way there's not a single item with a passive bonus that will work when shifted. The Wildstrike Belt works obviously, but it's not giving you a passive bonus. Actually it will give you a timed bonus and its base duration is of the same length as Spiritshift's - but it's fixed and not influenced by INT, so you will likely have longer shifting duration than Wildstrike Belt's bonus lash. It's a bit stupid.

Instead of Outlander's and deflection I would take Sanguine Plate (just drop it once you get Time Siphon) and Apprentice's Sneak and Savage Attack. The synergies with things like paralyze and stuck are just too nice.

But how do you retain the bonus of the Gauntlets of Accuracy and the healing bonus from the Belt of Bountiful Healing when shifted...? Consecrated Ground from Shod-in-Faith is my preferred method compared to Moonwell although the latter is a lot better. The reason is that catching a crit to trigger Frenzy + Consecrated Ground needs zero frames while casting Moonwell takes some time and my attention/explicit action. This works quite well with low RES and is a good justification to dump it completely.

I guess, I would have to cast Champion's Boon or so to test, but I'm like 90% sure. Iconic Projection does profit from MIG, basically everything does. Brutal Takedown doesn't profit from Merciless Companion and also not from Predator's Sense. Vicious Companion, VC's DR bypass and the innate DR bypass of the pet's natural weapons also seem to have no effect. But nonetheless pretty handy to add 20-30 fixed damage to the Knockdowns. If I crit with it the fox already does 100+ damage now at lvl 10.

Hi! Did any of you ever realize that Brutal Takedown only has to deal with 1/4 of enemies crush DR? I have no idea why but it may be related to the fixed damage it does (20 base)? Iconic Projection does the same and also has a fixed damage of 20. I mean I always take it when I take Takedown because it adds more damage to the pet and Takedown itself is a nice CC option for a ranger - but I never really checked the combat log for the DR mechanics. I also gets +50% damage when the pet crits (it has no seperate roll but uses the roll for Takedown. With the arctic fox which has 10 MIG I get 30 fixed crush damage on a crit). Now I wonder: does Thorny Roots have the same mechanic? Because then it wouldn't be so bad after all.

Sure. When you want to use the Sanguine Plate you might want to skip Outlander's Frenzy - they don't stack or anything. Try to buy Forgemaster's Gloves and summon Firebrand and try it out. Until the later game it is unmachtched when it comes to focus generation with a two hander. It's also a good backup for an estoc when you meet pierce immune foes 'til the end of the game - because it works with Weapon Focus Adventurer as well.

I don't think that wielding two Godanythunyrs is worth it - except for the looks of course. You will have enough attack speed to chain-stun with one and the other one can be Shatterstar. If you use a strike like Crippling Strike or Blinding Strike and crit with Godansthunyr in the offhand (which comes first when doing a Full Attack) you will instantly have Deathblows and a very high crit chance with the annihilating Shatterstar on the second strike. It's a good combo so I wouldn't want to use the precious Helwax Mold for a very slight improvement (if any). If it's a weapon I wanted to clone I would pick Drawn in Spring I guess. Drawn in SPring is also a nice choice for a one handed rogue. One could start with March Steel Dagger, maybe try out Aattuuk and later use Drawn in Spring. I don't like the Unlabored Blade too much but maybe that is also an option. Daggers have the additional advantage that you can not only get +5 ACC from use but also +4 ACC from Flick of the Wrist. Daggers are also a good backup option for rapiers and vice versa.

This is just false.People who stomp in rambling, provocating or trolling will eventually get a slight, gentle slap on the forehead, that's it most of the time. I don't know a lot of other places where you can discuss things in a more civil manner than here. Just because one likes to provocate (or just can't explain themselves in a decent manner) and thus constantly suffer from a reddish forehead doesn't mean that anyone with an opinion gets cut down. Maybe you should look again and then rethink:The original post (review) was from may this year and for whatever reason nobody answered to it. It was buried in the forum basement months ago. I think it was a reasonable text and I didn't criticize it nor the author. My post about necromancy was aimed at Mikey_205 who "resurrected" this dead thread only to post an unfriendly answer to a sensible albeit dead text. Resurrecting old threads just for the sake of adding something unimportant is called "Necromancy" in forums, hence I used the term. Not to attack LuccA or his review of an older game (hey, I review PoE all the time) but to gently slap Mikey_205 on the forehead. I guess that wasn't so bad.

Right. They are not impossible to beat, but very tough. Not as tough as some bounty fights though. But maybe they are so tough because there is a reasonable alternative to fighting.

Your observations are correct. With every dmg bonus (Biting Whip, Savage Attack, weapon enchantments and so on) the problem with stilettos not to be able to overcome DR properly will get smaller. But in the early to mid game a two hander is benefical when it comes to high DR, right. And later with Time Parasite it's again the two handers which might be the best option. You can only do the following things in the early game in order to speed up your two hander: - wear thinner armor - boost DEX - pick Outlander's Frenzy - wear Sanguine Plate which tirggers Frenzy (if you want to wear plate anyway) And later you can choose a speed weapon like the Blade of the Endless Paths. For the stilettos you can pick Vulneable Attack. The higher speed of the light weapons, paired with the +5 DR bypass is benefical in most cases. If you also pick Two Handed Style you will have +5 DR bypass with the same speed as before. Wearing a shield works for a melee cipher. You can add Vampiric Shield for even more deflection. Note that his is castable out of combat. You can even cast it outside of combat onto a party member who already has bad RES or doesn't need deflection and then enter combat. That way you spare the focus costs. A bit cheesy though... . Of course the dps will be a bit lower because you are not as fast as with two weapons. But later in the game you can put durgan steel on your shield and that speeds up your attacks, too. With Time Parasite you can reach 0 recovery that way.

One handed usage is good in the early game because it prevents misses and grazes which will kill your dps. Later on it starts to get weaker and gets surpassed by the alternatives because enemies defenses will not be that high any more in relation to the ACC you can achieve. Then even later, once you can get durgan steel and maybe find some Gauntlets of Swift Action, it again is better than dual wielding (from a pure auto-attack-dps perspective). That's because you can achieve nearly 0 recovery with a one hander with speed (like Sword of Daenysis, Rimecutter, Strike Hard, Unforgiven and so on). As soon as this is done there is no difference in speed to a dual wielder. The things that the dual wieder can then do better is doing Full Attacks with rogues' Crippling Strikes (and so on) and using Vulnerable Attack without speed loss (which is good). While the one hander guy will have 12 more ACC and +15% crit conversion. It's debateable which is better - depends on the weapon and the enemy. For example when fighting an enemy with very high defenses the one handed option will be better while against a high DR target with mediocre defenses the dual wielder will have the upper hand because of same speed but additional 5 DR bypass. So - early game: fine - mid game: meh - late game: fine It is viable. Especially if you get Merciless Hand from Doemenel and Dungeon Delver. Weapons with on-crit effects like overbearing and stunning are not underwhelming for a rogue. With the high crit rate of a rogue you will cause prone or stun quickly, this will unlock Sneak Attacks and make the next attack more likely to crit, causing the affliction again. It can be very benefical for a rogue to cause one or two afflictions passively by himself. It's then a lot less fuzz to activate Deathblows for example (easy: flank an enemy and cause prone or stun on crit: Deathblows - no spells needed, nothing). By the way: all battle axes are annihilating. An axe like Rimecutter is good for a one handed rogue. Nice options for a one-handed crit-rogue are (my favorites with a *): Hammers: Shatterstar (two damage types, annihilating and 1.0 secs of interrupt) Godansthunyr* (two damage types, stun on crit and higher interrupt value: 0.75 instead of 0.5 secs) Axes: Rimecutter* (speed, annihilating) Edge of Reason (draining, annihilating) Wodewys (spell chance Nature's Mark, annihilating) We Toki* (overbearing, annihilating) Flails: Unforgiven (realiable, speed, extra 10% burning lash) Starcaller* (reliable, extra 10% burning lash, stunning, Minor Missiles on crit) Spears: Cladhaliath* (+5 ACC, stunning + vicious or coordinating - if you flank a lot the latter is better) Rapiers: Sword of Daenysis* (+5 ACC, rending, speed) Stilettos: Bleak Fang (spell striking: Touch of Rot, rending, 3 DR bypass) Azureith's Stiletto (spell striking: Jolting Touch, 3 DR bypass) Sabres: Resolution (reliable, annihilating, sharp) Purgatory (drainig, annihilation, sharp) Small, light weapons will do the best dps in the game over the course of a whole playthrough with a rogue. They are not good early on because you'll have few dmg modifiers and will face high DR but they get better and better compared to heavy one handers like sabres. Even in the early game they will do more dps against soft targets but stink against armored foes. Lateron you have so many dmg mods as a rogue that you will still do more dps with a light weapon than with a heavier one handed. The reason why they do more dps is because they are a lot faster and speed is a multiplicativy damage bonus while most of the other bonuses are only additive (except lashes and wouding). Highest dps in the game does Drawn in Spring because it also has wounding. Let's look a the Sword of Daenysis that comes with speed and is rending. With Outlander's Frenzy, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Durgan Steel and Padded Armor and 15 DEX it will strike every 30 frames with 3 DR bypass. At the same time Purgatory will strike every 57 frames. The Sword of Daenysis will be twice as fast! That's 100% more strikes or +100% multiplicative damage. Even with higher base damage damage per hit and the additive damage bonuses like annihilation that adds 6.75 damage per strike and sharpness which adds 2.7 damage Purgatory will not reach that dps unless you meet foes with very high DR (I guess 20+). But as I said: in the early game it can be frustrating because you don't cfrit that often and also your low damage compared to solid DR will result in whimpy numbers. But if you hang on you will see that it's good. Here another comparison of one handed Sword of Daenysis and one handed Resolution with Padded Armor and 15 DEX in the early game without any speed buffs: Sword of Daenysis: 48 frames Resolution: 82 frames Still a significant difference, but most of it will be eaten by DR unless you crit a lot (here one handed style comes in very handy), have DR bypass (like this rapier has) and/or target squishies, then the rapier is a lot better in terms of dps althoug it doesn't seem like it. My favorites for a one handed rogue would be: 1. Sword of Daenysis (because a single handed rapier looks cool, has +5 ACC, fits a rogue, you can get it very early and it's one of the best dps options) or 2. Starcaller. Since that comes very late I would use Gaun's Share first (helps with survivability), then Unforgiven (maybe the best dps option for a rogue in the game if you ignore crush resistant/immune enemies). I just think the stun on crit of Starcaller, paired with high attack speed, is great. The other options are also nice. That's just my personal preference

I wonder how you will do it - monks have especially high Fortitude & Will defences (up to 150) when upscaled, and all Will debuffs targets... Will of Fortitude. Seems like lucky roll to me. Am i wrong? Fighter with Disciplined Barrage or Paladin with Sworn Enemy + Zealous Focus, then add a priest with Inspiring Radiance, Crowns and Devotions. Whisper of Treason from Munacra Arret has +10 ACC and gets +1 per char level. At lvl 14 this would result in +20+10+20+6+10+14 = +80 ACC on top of your base ACC. Cipher can do the same with Tactical Meld (+20), then on top Borrowed Instincts (+20) for a total of +100. If you want to go totally crazy you can add a paladin with Coordinated Attacks + Marking for another +20, even +30 if it's a Darcozzi. That would mean +110 for a fighter with Munacra Arret, +111 for a paladin with Munacra Arret or +130 for a cipher with his own WoT. On top of base accuracy at lvl 14. Base accuracy at lvl 14 would be 72 for fighter and 67 for paladin and cipher. PER bonus comes on top. One could add Distant Advantage (Wood Elf) as well. So if you want to charm an enemy you can do it reliably.

If you want to make your melee cipher more durable you should invest in decent MIG and INT (not unusual for a cipher to have those high anyways) but also good CON and pick Veteran's Recovery at lvl 2. Then put on Fulvano's Amulet (it's in the South of Magran's Fork map on a corpse that is guarded by a troll). Also skill survival to 8 asap and take healing bonus 40% when camping. This way you will be more durable. If you want to wear thick armor you might want to use dual wielding in order to balance out the speed loss. High DEX also helps (also lets you cast faster) but dual wielding will have a great impact, too. Buy a Blunting Belt from the smith in Gilded Vale. Then you can focus on dual flails or stilettos if you want (I'd go with stilettos). Because there is a draining flail very early (Gaun's Share in Eotha's Temple in Gilded Vale) or a draining stiletto in lvl 1 of the Endless Paths (Oidreacht, under your own Stronghold, carried around by a giant spider). The good thing about stilettos is that they are fast and have 3 DR bypass which is neat with fast weapons, and that there are two unique ones in the early game (the other one you can buy from the smith of Gilded Vale). But the flails have the better uniques later on (Unforgiven + Starcaller). Tidefall is also a nice option (but its wounding does not generate focus). Later buy Shod-in-Faith Boots from Dunstan of the Crucible Knights, too. If you want you can also wear the Sanguine Plate. It will give you Frenzy when you get a crit and that speeds up your recovery and gives you nice MIG and CON (beneficial for damage, self healing, fortitude defense and also health). Of course it looks better with a two hander than with stilettos. Dual flails might look cool with it, too. If you want to boost your DR further use Body Attunement on the enemy you want to hit. It will lower his DR (which is great when using stilettos or flails), this more focus for you, while you gain the DR you took away. This should lead to a pretty solid cipher with good survivability as well as damage/focus gain.

Same with the PoE rogue: easy to skip the last levels, you won't miss anything.

It can be stacked, that's why I ask. You can get lucky and leech DEX three times and get +30 DEX. I don't know if this works if you cast it three times on the same person but it surely works if you cast it on different ones. I once did the Battle of Yenwood Field with over 50 MIG and 30 INT... Just for the fun. So if you'd had a 1 INT 1 RES guy in the party chances would be higher that you'd leech a stat that is already at the minimum.

As far as I can remember it used to shoot out in several directions. But maybe my memory fails me or it got changed. I haven't used it in a long time because I never got the adventure in my recent sessions.

I'd rather say this is necromancy...

The problem is the monks. They get stronger and stronger the more you hurt them. You have to use crazy ACC buffing via priest (Crowns + Devotions + Inspiring Radiance = +36 ACC) and then use disabling CC spells and/or mind control so that the monks can't use their wounds on you. Else you will just get obliterated. But some good Whispers of Treason can make those fights a lot easier already. Also, when it comes to dealing damage, pick off one single monk and finish him, then off to the next. Do not attack several of them at the same time (except if you can keep them disabled).

And most important: it's foe only and spreads into several directions - while the original druid's spell would only have one broad line and also stun allies.

If you use a 3 RES character (like a Tidefall rogue or something like that) and put on the Ultimate Hat of Alluring Perfection (-2 INT, -2 RES. +2 MIG, +2 CON) you will have the ideal "victim" for Vampiric Shield. Now I wonder: does Wild Leech work out of combat and on party members? Never tried that...

Huh? How did that post slip in? Ach - I guess it first had to be unlocked by an admin because you're a new user? I totally missed it. Druid 0 recovery: With Dual Wielding, Frenzy and Two Weapon Style you would have 0 recovery without armor penalty. But if I recall correctly the natural armor of the shifted druid has -25%? Anyways, the remaining recovery is pretty short (like 8 frames or lower I guess - check MaxQuest's awesome speed calculator) - but more importantly your attack cycle is shorter than that of dual sabres with 0 recovery. That's because the natural weapons are faster than the heavy one-handed weapons (but hit even harder AND have innate DR bypass). Skaen priest with Firebrand or stilettos When looking at dps: in the long run stilettos would be better - but only from late midgame to late game. But this would need enchantments, finding decent stilettos, probably use some durgan steel on them and so on. Since priests usually tend to spend a lot of their time casting I always feel that's a waste of resources. Also, the very high base damage of Firebrand works very well with the good damage bonuses of the skaen priest - and Aggrandizing Radiance + Minor Avatar will ensure a lot of summon duration and also a lot more crits (which is great for Firebrand). And in the early to mid game there's nothing better. You can later retrain for stilettos if you want to improve your dps in the later game - but I usually want to spend the good stuff on characters who make more frequent use of their weapons. But yes, stilettos are also a good alternative. See my old build "Sheemer's Needler" in the build section for that (it is old and has no WM talents if I recall correctly, but it gives you an idea). Rogue with TIdefall and recovery No, he will not reach 0 recovery without potions. He is more focused on hefty spike damage to possibly one-shot enemies (works pretty well) and survivability rather than boosted dps and dropping unconcious all the time. With 20 DEX and Gauntlets of Swift Action and Scale armor + durgan steel he would have an attack cycle of 85 frames which is good. If he gulps a potion of Alacrity or using Angio's Gambeson he would have 0 recovery and thus would deal a lot higher dps than a dual sabre rogue. Also, Backstab with dual sabres will give you teo hits - Backstab with Tidefall also teo hits. Tidefall is the better option when using Backstab because of that. Wounding with 1 INT and +300% damage bonus is really devastating. Also Runner's Wounding Shot + Deathblows + Tidefall is a death sentense. Way better than Finishing Blow when using two handers in my opinion. The good thing is the good survivability with the awesome damage per hit and the overall tactical approach with Backstab. For some this is fun, for some it's just tedious.

I'd like to add that priests' special accuracy talents like Hope Eternal, Inspired Flame, The Pallid Hand and so on which will give you +10 accuracy with two different weapons work with all soulbound and summoned weapons as well.