Boeroer

Since implements can now be dual wielded I guess pretty good. With The Golden Gaze and Swift Aim + Driving Flight a ranger already was quite nice - until you hit lvl 13 and desperately wanted Twinned Arrows...

The important part was the last pair. I couldn't care less if Polymorph = Request Show.

Right... so, what did Josh post again?

Even better!

@Braven: Yes, lashes will not be combined and form a bigger lash but instead get calculated seperately. This is also the case with FoD + Intense Flames and Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike (I think?). Lashes that add up before getting applied are Turning Wheel and Blood Testament - which makes the max 50% Turning Wheel bonus so powerful - same with Torment's Reach's crushing lash of 50%. Lashes are an awesome addition to damage because as you said they are a multiplicative bonus. And right: the higher the lash the more powerful in an exponential way because of DR (unless it's a raw lash). Boosting the normal 25% lash to 30% with Scion of Flame (only 5%) is already a lot better than having an additional 10% lash. It would be neat if DR bypass would be applied before DR is divided by 4 and if there was MIN damage. That would make fast, light weapons more useful. Because atm nobody likes them too much because of DR issues. It's always hammers and sabres and two handers. @Gnomic: In terms of usefulness Justice's crushing lashes (10% + 25%) are as good as elemental lashes. You just can't improve them with Scion of Flame or one of the other elemental boosters. Besides that why should it be better if there's an elemental lash on it instead of a crushing one?

There are several ones that you can kill without the loss of reputation and without bystanders to turn hostile: - moon godlike east of Eothas' Temple (drops first plate in the game) - human middle west in Woodland Trails, under the plateau where you can find Hearth Harvest and all those lions guarding it - Visceris, human druid with a stag helmet in Copperlane. Here you have to time it right that no citizen or justiciar comes near, but it's not hard to do it. There are a lot more, but those three first come to mind.

Not only Unforgiven, but also Starcaller and Justice have this - and every torch, too. The problem with lashes is that they don't have MIN damage - which means that no damage will come through DR if the lash is too weak. The difference between 10% and 25% is immense because of DR. They also don't profit from DR bypass like Vulnerable Attack. In most cases you will not see the 10% lash make it through. You either need a weapon with damage per hit or a lot of damage bonuses (or ideally both) in order to witness such a small lash to overcome DR and be mentioned in the combat log. Flails are fast but low base damage weapons which clearly doesn't help either. With Justice on a rogue you can see some additional crush damage make it through here and there - but it's not enough to make it a great alternative to Tidefall for example.

Soloing with a non-quitky wizard works always the same: buff yourself up and nuke the ememy. This one is no exeption. Concerning PER/MIG: high MIG is benefical not only for damage but also for healing - things like Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Infuse with Vital Essence, Veteran's Recovery and so on. Wizards can boost their own accuracy with Eldritch Aim and/or with a priest or paladin and he can have decent hit-to-crit conversion with Merciless Gaze - but more importantly they can cause afflictions that result in hefty defense drops which then lets them crit more. You should never start with a damaging spell but instead place an affliction first that matches the damaging spell you want to use (e.g. use a Chillfog to blind and then drop a Fireball). When you do it like that you can get away with a little less PER. But you can of course shift points from MIG to PER or whatever. Another reason for me to raise MIG was that Irenicus looks more like he's on the "mighty" side. Ah, what I forgot: I would pick Doemenel and get the Merciless Hand and also Dungeon Delver. This will give your spells additional 40% crit damage (90% in total). And since Inrenicus is neutral evil he should also have no problem with taking the Gift from the Machine and dropping one of his party members into the blood pool (Effigy's Resentment).

If you are casting average or slow spells it still makes quite a visible difference if you have 10 DEX or 20. Your casting animation will be 1/3 faster. And in terms of percentage it doesn't make a difference if your recovery is 0 or 100 frames - a DEX bonus of 30% will shorten your whole remaining attack cycle (after appliance of speed buffs) by 30% (delay excluded). Of course in flat numbers you will take away less and less frames the lower your recovery already is, but the percentage gain achieved by DEX always stays the same (if we let the 5 frames delay aside).

Items that fit thematically, visually and mechanically would be: - Hermit's Hat (looks a bit like the cap Irenicus wears and is a good headgear for a wizard) - Amulet of Summer Solstice (3 Sunbeams per rest) or Cloak of Minor Missiles (3 Minor Missiles per rest, also +5 burn and +5 shock DR) or Nîdhen's Finger (Mind Lance 1/rest and +3 CON) - Kerdhed Pames (looks a bit like the funny SM leather armor Irenicus wears - at least it has some kind of pauldrons and makes an elf look bulkier that he usually is - and Irenicus as more bulky then the usual elf. Also gives +3 RES which is a nice addition to your abysmal RES. Before gtting it I would stick to Aloth's armor I guess) - Ring of Wizardry A and B (aka Telda's Ring and Ring of the Selonan) - Sentinel's Girdle, before that Girdle of Maegfolc Might or Belt of the Stelgaer - Viettro's Formal Footwear (just for the DEX), before that maybe Animancer's Boots (3 Jolting Touch per Rest, +3 shock DR) - maybe you want to keep them - Rod of Wind and Thunder and Red Reed Wand (for the charged spellbinds only), Gyrd HS (for Gref's Authority mainly) Not too many spell bindings, but at least they fit. Here how the items would look like on an elf, human and aumaua:

Shapeshift ≠ Polymorph ≠ Spiritshift ≠ Request Show

In order to be able to cast as fast as possible you need both DEX and Alacrity. DEX oalso shortens your casting animations AND remaining recovery phase while Alacrity (and all other speed buffs) only reduce recovery time (before DEX bonus is applied). So, a wizard who wants to cast as fast as possible would need high DEX AND make use of speed buffs. Without armor a wizard already has 0 recovery when using Alacrity. If you add Gauntlets of Swift Action you can also wear armor up to hide armor (with 20 DEX no recovery because remaining 0.6 frames will get skipped) or durganized breastplate. Also see here (when trying to estimate recovery when casting, simply use dual wielding fists): https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/ Maybe one should focus on spamming as many spells as possible? As far as I remember Irenicus doesn't use any weapons but simply casts away all the time. So maybe one should take both wizardry rings and bonus spells as well as spell binding gear as long as it fits. The advantage of spell binding gear is also that those spells can be used while Citzal's Martial Power is active - as well as Arcane Assault and Grimorire slam (both become pretty nasty things when buffed this way - same as spells like Sunbeam and so on). In order to make yourself nigh untouchable I would make heavy use of self buffs (which will be a breeze to cast with maxed DEX and 0 recovery) - I would make those mastery spells - and then cast Draining Wall to get more duration out of them. Then I'd use Arcane Assault and spell spamming to do CC and deal damage. Maybe Kalakoth's Minor Blights and later Blunt Wisdom would be a good way to spare spell uses but still deal spell-like AoE damage (also usable with Citzal's Martial Power). Another great thing for engaging tough encounters early is Fahter's Teeth (if you get the adventure). They will give you Rot Skulls, which is a very powerful implement weapon from the druid's spell list - which can be made even more powerful with Citzal's Martial Power. It only has a few charges but you can use it in those encounters where you need a bit more *bam*. In case you meet casters you might want to put on a necklace with additional spell defense and use stuff like Minor Arcane Refection and Arcane Reflection. Also Minor and Major Grimoire Imprint. Those last two spells often get overlooked and not used because people don't know how they work. But they are the perfect spells for your Irenicus. First of all they don't work on evry enemy that has spell like abilites, only on enemies that are dedicated wizards, priests or druids (as far as I know for example Brood Mothers and other Lagufaeth who use "spells" can't be robbed of spells - it has to be a "real" wizard, priest or druid. Maybe even skeletal wizards won't work). It should work on any kith casters for example and also some wilders who are labeled as druids or priests (like xaurip priests and ogre druids). If you meet those you can use the Imprint spells to do the following: You wil get access to some of their spells, for example you will get Calling the World's Maw from high level Ogre Druids. Then you will have 60 seconds in which you can cast that spell as often as you like (or can). Here your immense casting speed will be very benefical. You spend one spell use in order to get dozens of additional spell uses. Basically you can chain-spam Calling the World's Maw until everything is dead. It's very powerful. It's also very situational, but it makes some of the most difficult encounters (ogre druids, bounties, Torn Bannermen's wizards ad priests and so on - where casters will cause you a lot of trouble) a LOT easier. As I said: those Imprint spells are a great combination with high cast speed as you want to achieve it. Concerning stats: What you may not need is RES (just use Spirit Shield or Holy Meditation if you have a priest) and maybe not too much CON if you use your self buffs right. PER is important but can be substituted with a priest and/or a paladin as well (Blessing or Zealous Focus + Devotions + Inspiring Radiance) or by using Eldritch Aim a lot, so maybe you don't need to put too many points into that. MIG is important to increase the damage of your spells and obviously INT is important as well in order to hold up the self buffs longer, to have bigger AoEs, to have good durations with CC and to boost damage of DoT spells even further. Maybe a stat spread for a Irenicus could look like this (neutral to race and culture): MIG: 18 CON: 08 DEX: 18 PER: 13 INT: 18 RES: 3 I once played a monkish wizard with fists and made heavy use of self buffs, especially Martial Power because it works very well with Novice's Suffering and lowish accuracy. It was totally viable and fun. I think this Irenicus concept wouldn't be too far off in terms of self buffing. I also played a rogue who made use of Acuan Giamas (spell stealing) and then realized how aesome spell stealing in general is because you have no limited spell uses any more (other than a timer).

No, every point more will speed up your attack animation and your remaining recovery as well as reload. Even if you already have 0 recovery your animation will still get shortened. DEX is a multiplicative damage modifier to auto attacks - other than MIG which is only additive (but helps with DR).

If you find that cool then try to combine Quick Switch and the Coil of Resourcefulnes.

Sure you can! Just equip a grimoire from your stash and put all your spells into it. If it's full then take another one and so on. THat way you write down all spells you learned. You don't need to write down the spells like Shadowflame or Ninagauth's and Llengrath's Whatever and all the other ones you have to find in the game - those you will always keep. Then you retrain to lvl 1 and stop here. Go into your inventory and learn all the spells from your previously filled grimoires. Will cost some money... Then resume leveling up. You will have even more spells than before because now you can pick those spells on level-up that are not yet in your grimoires. It's almost cheesy.

Yes, I was searching for that threat where he posted it but I couldn't find it.

Sanguine Plate on a melee wizard works fine of course - but I always feel that it is a bit wasted because a wizard can use Alacrity for +50% speed (without a fixed armor penalty) instead of Frenzy with +33% (and -50% fixed speed penalty). Both don't stack with each other. With wasted I mean that Frenzy would have more impact on other melee characters who don't have any other possibility of gaining a speed bonus. If you don't have such characters then using Sanguine Plate for the wizard is no waste obviously. What you might want to have is Gauntlets of Swift Action (stacks with Alacrity).

I still say Adam posted the picture because of the feet of that guy in the upper left corner. I mean it looks as if we're getting to meet a new race with kangaroo feet or something... Or it's a new ability of the monk. First you get the Long Pain (ranged weapons) and then you get the Long Feet (reach weapon). Ehehehe! Or the PoE1 "Boots of the Long March" make a reappearance in Deadfire.

You an pick it at level up if you have the expansions. You don't need to find it. I think it's one of the best CC effects on Path of the Damned: no immunities (like Confusion or Slicken), it completely messes up the pathfinding and tactical movement of enemies. It interrupts them for quite a while, too. It prevents rushing reliably. And it lasts a very long time. I like it with Chillfog and a Blast Wizard. It's also not too bad when you accidentially step into it. You as human intelligence can deal better with that than the stupid AI of the enemies. It's true that enemies can get yanked out of the area. This happens when Pull of Eora's pulse crits I suppose. When you use it on enemies with low fortitude this happens more often than against enemies with high fort (ogres for example).

Actually, after a bit more thinking, I came to the conclusion that this is really smart - and I never thought about this. If you want to prevent rushing you simply put your druid into plate armor and give him a large shield and hatchet - and when enemies are setteled you shift for better casting speed and accuracy - even if you don't want to use the shifted form for melee. Man, why didn't I think of this sooner? Thanks man!

Just a side note: Spiritshifting will not quicken your casting animation nor the recovery of casts. It doesn't give you more DEX or an attack speed bonus (unless you use a cat's 1/ rest haste). You might have the impression though because your melee attacks will have a very short animation and recovery and thus you can cast sooner after a melee attack. But shifting in order to gain higher casting speed in general is not working. If you're wearing heavy armor (higher penalty than the natural armor of the shifted form) then it's a smart move I have to admit. It would be really clever to wear Sanguine Plate, catch a crit, get Frenzy and then shift in order to cast with higher speed. You'll lose the armor penalty and gain +33% faster recovery (for casting and hitting) at the same time. Of course wearing Sanguine Plate and wielding an implement looks kind of silly.

I agree that Mith Fyr is very nice for HoF - and you won't lose any damage of Dragon Thrashed as well because you can't hit with it right away unless you sneaked into the middle of the enemy group. And usually the barb wants to jump in quickly and trigger HoF asap (should be possible within the first 10 or so seconds of combat while he still has the lash). Even if he needs more time one could use Wengrith + Mith Fyr + chained Dragon Thrashed. What also could be more benefical than Dragon Thrashed is when you use a lot of Relentless Storm and such or if you use a lot of Ectopsychic Echo...? By the way, since I seldomly use Defensive Mindweb: would Ogres and other summons also profit from the high defenses that Mindweb shares?

I wanted to add that a normal two hander has an average base damage of 17 while the summoned stuff has 25(!). Since everything besides lashes, wounding and Confident Aim is calculated on base damage you can see why this is so powerful. The more dmg bonuses you stack the better. Even taking all the hater talents (add 6.25 damage per hit) besides vessel and spirit (there's a Bartender's Ring for that) and using Gauntlets of Puissant Melee (+2.5 per hit) and Azalin's Helmet (+2.5 per crit) would make sense if you don't know what else to pick.

It should be the case. I think it's just a minor bug or oversight.

I don't understand your damage calculation. With 25 MIG one instance of Dragon Thrashed deals 14.5 slash + 14.5 burn on every tick for 11 seconds or 4.83 + 4.83 damage per second . Did you overlook that it deals 10 slash AND 10 burn damage as base per tick? Or am I missing something? Also you can stack 3 instances for 3 seconds with Brisk Recitation at lvl 16 with a gap of 1 second (where it's only two instances): In that grey area you should do 3 times 14.5 burn + 14.5 slash per tick. Against 0 DR this means 87 damage per tick. During the gap it's 58. To everybody in range. Or am I doing something wrong? I also doubt that you will only hit 1-2 enemies more compared to HoF if you have 25 INT, Voice of the Mountaintop and an overseeing item. Heart of Fury can hit a lot of enemies, but usually you hit 5 or 6 and that's it. With above AoE of the chanter you usually hit everybody - maybe you missthat one skeleton archer who stands far away every now and then (screenshot with 25 INT, Voice of the Mountaintop <chanter only> and Overseeing on both chanter and paladin): I laid both AoEs over each other so you can see the exact difference. Yellow inner circle is chant base AoE, red circle is SA's base AoE. The translucent circles are the ones with 25 INT + Overseeing + Voice otM. When we speak about area, chant's AoE is twice as big as SA's. Radius is about 1.4 times bigger. You will hit more than +1-2 enemies compared with HoF (even smaller AoE) or Sacred Immolation. Usually this area covers all enemies except in the really crowded fights like Battle of Yenwood Field or Elmshore ogres and such. But as I said: you will be better off with Mith Fyr + Dragon Thrashed than with Mith Fyr and something else just to support your party. It can be smart to have the chanter stat his singing with Mith Fyr first - because he will not be in range of the enemy (or not all of them) anyways. With this phrase let the barb do HoF with the lashes while (plenty of time because of linger time), then adding pure Dragon Thrashed for the rest of the fight (this is done by picking Mith Fyr and then adding a lot of Dragon Thrashed in the songbook to make sure Mith Fyr will not get sung again). THis would be the best apporach I would think.