Boeroer

Drawn in Spring. Annihilation on a sabre only adds 6.75 of damage on crit on average. This is always the case no matter the enchanetments, because the additional 0.5 crit damage mod is only applied to the base damage of the sabre (11-16 -> average of 13.5). It's only an additive damage bonus. Another thing that sabres have is that theyare sharp, which adds 2.7 damage compared to Drawn in Spring. Wounding on the other hand is caculated based on the actual damage roll (including all damage mods like Sneak Attack, Deathblows, MIG, enchantments and so on - pre DR!). It's multiplicative and comes as raw damage. And it gets further boosted by MIG bonus. Daggers have an average base damage of 11(9-13). Without any damage bonus wounding would only add 2.75 damage. But now add superb (+45%), Sneak Attack (+50%), Deathblows (+100%) and a crit with Durgan Steel + Merciless Hand + Dungeon Delver (+90%): the damage climbs from 11 to 42.35. Now wounding gets calculated and is 10.59. That's higher than the annihilation of the sabres. Now add the fact that daggers are faster than sabres and that MIG will boost wounding damage: with 20 MIG it would be 14.84. I will put the damage calcs of both side by side (I'm using 20 MIG, superb, crit with Durgan Steel, Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver, Sneak Attack and Deathblows): Annihilating sabre on crit: 65.48 Drawn in Spring on crit: 59.51 Looks less, but now you'd have to look at the attacks speed. In 500 frames with 10 DEX and no speed bonuses sabre would deal 451,59 (all crits!) and Drawn in Spring would deal 616,05 damage (all crits). Of course it's unlikely that you crit with every strike. And if you don't then annihilation does nothing for you - while wounding would still add damage, even when you graze. So even if you'd crit with 100% of your attacks Drawn in Spring would still be better (with auto attacks). Merciless Hand, Durgan Steel and stuff applies to every non-soulbound or summoned weapon and is not exclusive to annihilating sabres.

Ah, ok. Here you go: PoE1 useful stuff: attack speed calculator, unofficial patch mod, attack speed mechanics, dot mechanics, modals exclusivity rules

Yes, if you do something that is not attacking the enemy the marking will go away. As soon as you click on a target it works again. You don't have to strike the enemy or even be in range. The user action of clicking on an enemy is enough to trigger marking. That means that you will already mark an enemy with a melee weapon even if you are only running towards the target (in order to strike). Yes, the nearest ally who is also attacking the same target. And only against that enemy. If you want to make really sure that Edér gets the bonus for an important Knockdown you simply let the other party members attack somebody else (or do something else) until Edér landed his Knockdown (for example). With casters it's even better: because they usually go into idle mode after a spell was cast, they free up the marking for the next caster who also targets the same enemy. So as long as your spells don't hit exactly at the same time both casters' spells will get the bonus. Because the first one will attack with a spell (uses marking), goes idle (loses marking) and the next caster's spell hits (using the free marking) and so on. Marking + Coordinated attacks is not highly benefical in trash fights but it's supergood in the hard boss fights where you will have troubles hitting the enemy. Edér for example can send dragons prone reliably with this approach. You are right. I was thinking about the Shimmering Cloak I mentioned before. It gives you 3 Minor Missile uses per rest and can be used to boost you alpha strike capability in tough encounters. I should have made myself clearer. In a normal encounter you would only use Prestidigitator's Missiles. Sorry, yes, I overread that. Points in stealth do not improve your detection skills. It is only determined by the mechanics skill and it's easier to detect traps and secrets when you are scouting (some say sneaking). So you just have to trigger scout mode and put points into mechanics to discover stuff. What stealth does: you see that dashed cirlce around you when you scout. If you get near enemies it fills clockwise with a yellow color, then red and then that eye symbol gets displayed and you are discovered and stealth breaks. The nearer you get the faster it fills. Now every point you put into stealth slows down that filling process up to the point where it takes forever for that circle to fill up and you can sneak past nearly everything. That's all stealth does.

I agree. It's still very powerful in my opinion, but yes: if you also judge when you get an item then it's pretty moot. Like Daybreak. I also posted it because so few people actually know it (and how good it can be). The most powerful items for me - if you factor in how early you can get them - would be: 1. Tidefall 2. Outworn Buckler 3. Persistence 4. Durance's Staff 5. Plate Armor from the moon godlike in front of Eothas' Temple in Gilded Vale + Blunting Belt (ok, that's two... ) And also The Long Pain, Firebrand from Forgemaster's Gloves and Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff - but I don't know if we want to have summoned weapons in this list.

Look at his signature - the links are there.

Yes, don't dump INT on a ranger unless you don't want to take Stunning Shots and Binding Roots. Longer stuns are the key to stun-locking your enemy. RES will do not much for you. Dumped INT on a ranger is cool with the wounding enchantment on a weapon and Wounding Shots (applies the raw damage faster), but that's it. Using more shock spells is a good thing if you have Stormcaller in the party. I forgot if you have a druid? Those are really great in combo with a Stormcaller ranger because some of their best spells are shock based (while the wizard's shock spells are a bit mediocre) and you can also take Wildstrike Shock and go totally crazy in melee when you attack the same enemy the ranger prepared with -6 shock DR.

I don't doubt that in general. It's just that they have to run all over the place to get there. I mean melee rogues. I like it a lot how they can switch off casters and such as soon as they reach them (and don't collapse on the way - which is a problem that gets better with levels).

But he's so funny sometimes when he makes himself look like a five-year-old. How can you ignore that? It's like ignoring kitten pictures in the internetz.

Huh? Where did Torm's posts suddenly come from? I didn't see them when I was replying and now they crawled in between. Weird...

It should work with Rooting Pain. It does wotk with pulsing druid and wizard spells (Chillfog, Wicked Briars and so on) for example (played around with some caster interruptor builds) so I see no reason why it shouldn't work with Rooting Pain. But I never tested that.

Right

Raedric is hard and a spike in difficulty. The whole early game is particularly hard in comparison to the rest of the game. Keep on trying, it gets easier. Especially towards the end! Rule of thumb: - boost your own accuracy with buffs - do some CC effects (like Slicken, Chillfog) to lower enemies' defenses - start attacking and deal a lot of dmaage because your accuracy is high and the enemies' defenses are down Don't start nuking or attacking right away if the encounter is difficult. Brute force doesn't work then.

Ok I'd give her a marking weapon (Shame or Glory or Cladhaliath) and take Coordinated Attacks as well as Outworn Buckler and mark targets for the damage guys. It's really benefical to give +20 stackable ACC to a party member. And the buckler is one of the best shields in the game because the herald aura stacks with everything - even the herals aura from Little Savior. So you will make everybody in range more sturdy. An alternative is to get a ranged marking weapon and do this from afar without the buckler. Her might is not that much of a problem because Flames of Devotion still hits very hard (if you also take Intense Flames + Scion of Flame and put burning lashes on your weapons) even with 12 MIG. And her Wrath of the Five Suns (Sworn Enemy talent) is very good as opener if you also take Penetrating Shot. You can also take Prestidigitator's Missiles then and use Arms Bearer and get the Coil of Ressourcefulness. And put on a Shimmering Cloak if you find one. An then you do Wrath otFS -> Missiles -> Missiles -> FoD-gunshot -> Fod gunshot -> switch to buckler. Or you go for the fully ranged option and do Wrath otFS -> Missiles -> Missiles -> FoD-gunshot -> Fod gunshot -> Runner's Wounding Shot. It's a blast of burst damage that is very helpful in order to take out high priority targets. You can mix pistols and blunderbusses for example and end with the St. Garam's Spark and keep attacking foes with it in order to mark for your friends. SHe's like a walking artillery and that's fun. That is a good approach. Coordinated Attacks is better. In order to boost Edèrs damage you should take Armored Grace and also Confident Aim (never forget Disciplined Barrage - it stacks with the paladin's +20 marking and also Durance's Inspiring Radiation and Devotions of the Faithful). You can then prone dragons with him. Confident Aim's MIN damage raise is actually done after all other dmg mods are appplied, so it's a multiplicative raise and thus way better than the numbers suggest. It's better than Weapon Mastery for example. Taking Savage Attack is good with so many ACC bonuses. YOu are doing right. The staff is one of the best early game weapons and a very effective way to spare spell uses. The spirit lance is better of course but as long as you don't have it the staff is great. Spell Mastery would be Spirit Shield for me if I was going melee all the time - Slicken is also a very good pick as well as Eldritch Aim. Chillfog as well. Those are all good options.

It's the same bug that happens with Take the Hit (I talked about that recently): passive, persistent or modal buffs like Herald, Take the Hit, Zealous Focus, Guardian Stance and so on don't get cancelled once the controlled enemy's alliance flips back. It would be ok for me if the buffs don't go away immediately, but there should be some short timer that removes those bonuses - but there isn't at the moment. Or the mind controlled enemy shouldn't profit from your buffs in the first place. You can't target them with ally spells like Amplified Thrust or Ectopsychic Echo or so - so why do they profit from pasive buffs? Dominate is especially bugged bucause sometimes it only lasts a few seconds despite the fact that you crit with it for a long duration "officially".

Looks good. Battle Axes look fine on a barb and the annihilation enchantment (or other on-crit effects) works ok if you're not playing Path of the Damned. On PotD you'll need the help of party members (causing afflictions) in order to make very effective use of it. I personally prefer hammers though because of the dual damage type (so, no problems when meeting foes who are resistant to a certain damage type) and because you can get a good one (Shatterstar) early. Another foolproof pick is to go for Tidefall + Blood Thirst. Tidefall is one of the best dps weapons when you can reduce recovery - Frenzy, Blood Thirst + Bloodlust are great tools for that. Its wounding works very well with high MIG and with Carnage - and at the same time the Draining does, too. So you will drain a lot of endurance as long as you are hitting. The wounding helps to kill faster which will trigger Blood Thirst and also Bloodlust more often. It a great mixture that makes you more sturdy and lets you kill faster. Another plus ist hat you can get Tidefall pretty early and it comes in superb quality - outranking any other weapon in terms of damage and accuracy that you can get at that point. And it stays to be top notch until the end of the game. As backup weapon you should consider St. Ydwen's Redeemer when you meet vessels (aka undead and constructs). Blood THirst will trigger when the Redeemer destroys a vessel (works with carnage) which basically leads to a fight where you have no recovery at all because you'll destroy a vessel with every strike. It's hilarious! I second Blaidh Golan: it's a good armor for barbarians. Sanguine Plate also is. You can catch a crit that triggers Frenzy and when this runs out you can trigger your own, maintaining speed. Bloodlust stacks with Frenzy, so it's not wasted if they overlap. The advantage of the Frenzy from Sanguine Plate in comparison to the barb's own one is that the first doesn't need any activation time while the latter has a seperate animation that takes some time to complete. Also plate armor + Blood Thirst is a smart pick because Blood THirst wil set your recovery to zero after a kill no matter what your armor penalty is.

Novice's Suffering is like it's designed for low PER because grazes do almost the same damage as crits. Very good with barbs. Fighter with Confident Aim and dual flails.

Unlike you I'm unpredictable.

It is so powerful because it has a) wounding b) the spell stealing works like so: You charge a caster and hit him a few times (or take a barb and hit a group of casters to immediately gain access to their spells). Rogue or fighter also works fine because of Deathblows and high ACC. Then you get some spells for a given time (it's quite a long timespan). In that timespan you can cast those spells as often as you can. There is no limit other than your speed. With it most bounties that includes casters are a joke. You steal Calling the World's Maw and can cast it over and over till everybody is dead. Really. Cool with rogue (Deathblows and Deep Wounds) or barb (Blood Thirst). And in all other fights it has wounding which is the best dps enchantment. It comes really late, true. But if you use it right it's a game breaker.

Sure - without speed buffs (like Outlander's Frenzy or potion or Angio's Gambeson, Behold the Martyr/Vengeful Grief or other stuff that brings you near 0 recovery with a two handed weapon) dual wielding is great. Even with buffs I like it because you might use Vulnerable Attack and/or thicker armor. But as you already said: the theoretical damage output of melee should be higher than ranged because you a) have to move a lot which lowers damage output over the course of an encounter and b) you put yourself in danger There is other stuff, too: the rogue can have several Full Attacks per encounter which will contribute to his damage. With Shadow Step, Escape and Boots of Speed he can lower that damage loss. But it's difficult to factor in - like the effect of armor (slower speed but less knockouts) on dps. On the other hand a ranger could deliver two Wounding Shots with guns that would also result in a spike of damage - his damage increase because of Stunning Shots is hard to determine and so on. I like the colors you put there - but the downside is that at first look it seems that the rogue does a lot more (theoretical) damage. But in this case the numbers are relatively close to each other A small change of damage would result in a substantial shift of the "break even line", what do you think? Still I like this comparison and the work you put in. It looks great and is very informative. I think with MaxQuest's mod that lets you count ALL damage a character does it is possible to determine the "real" differences in damage potential over the whole game (for your own playstyle only though). But you'd have to do a complete playthrough in order to get the results.

Ok, that's a big plus.

I'm curious: is the pet included? The numbers are not that far apart - so I guess adding/leaving out the pet would result in a substantial shift of green/blue?

You can spawn any character, yes. You can also add them to the party. Even a dragon.

I'd rather dump RES than CON on my backline. It's really bad if they get one-shotted with a ranged attack. Mind Control is not a big deal because the AI will not use spells and while you're turned you won't get attacked. In PotD there are also a lot more enemies who will rush your backline. But I do both sometimes: dumping CON and also RES. It works but you will be very frail. You have to let the front line unstealth and engage and then unstealth and attack with the back line. That way they don't get targeted immediately. And stuff like CC also helps with survival. But in general I'd say it's less of a hassle to have less squishy casters. Also some medium armor can prevent rushing. Some enemies look for low DR, some for low endurance and others for low deflection.

Stormcaller is more fun if you ask me. Just because of the "whack" it makes when Returning Storm triggers (it's not really returning in this case, just a one-time strike of lightning) and because every hit produces a nice brizzling sound from the shock damage. They are both very good.

I think that Disciplined Barrage is one of the best abilities a fighter has. For me it's not Weapon Focus or Disciplined Barraged. I will always take both because they stack. But that's just me, liking offensive fighters better than defensive ones. The downside of Disciplined Barrage is that it's an active buff that runs out after some time - and that doesn't stack with Zealous Focus. If you use Zealous Focus you can leave Disciplined Barrage out without too much loss I guess. Confident Aim is indeed better than Weapon Mastery. Without any damage bonuses Conf. Aim is a raise of ~8% damage and conversion on top. With every dmg bonus you get (MIG, enchantment, Weapon Spec. and so on) the multiplicative effect of CA gets stronger. That's why I take both - again. But you see that I have a different kind of fighter in my mind. If I had to decide between Weapon Mastery and Confident Aim then I'd pick Confident Aim. Knockdown also gets +1 accuracy per level (all offensive abilities do) - so it's easier to hit with a Knockdown than with auto-attacks. Maybe you don't need all the ACC you can get because of this.