Boeroer

The first implementation of Spelltongue gave you a 90% speed buff for more than 60 secs. Spelltongue was a game breaker on a barb (indefinite duration of all buffs) but besides that it was just cool. @firkraag888: yeah basically you are right and I should include Abydon's Hammer - but since everybody's mentioning it... Plus: no durgan steel and no lash. Bummer. Hehe!

@moneo: you have no idea how Heart of Fury works when you say that a barb does better damage with Tidefall. I like a barb with Tidefall, the wounding + draining is amazing with Carnage - but once you pick Heart of Fury it can't compete with dual wielding + Combusting Wounds. You wanted powerful stuff, not "pretty cool stuff with low micro". Again: Barb with Tidefall is very nice, but not the best option once you get HoF. You will generate twice as much hits with dual wielding when using Heart of Fury. Even woundig can't compete with that although it's the strongest enchantment for damage (besides that barbs usually have high INT and Tidefall's dps drops when used with high INT - I really like it on a dumb rogue to quickly take out squishies in the backline). If you combine DW HoF with Combusting Wounds and attack 5 foes you will generate 50 hits (instead of 25 with a two hander) which will trigger 50 instances of Combusting Wounds. Every instance will do around 30 burn damage with decent MIG and INT. It will add 50 * 30 burn damage over time which has to overcome 1/4 of DR. You can see where this is going. When only looking at auto-attacks then Tidefall is better, especially with Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. There is no discussion. Redeemer is very nice with Blood Thirst in particular because destroy vessels triggers Blood Thirst. But you don't need Two Handed Style for the Redeemer on a barb. Because destroyed is destroyed and that can't be buffed any further. So you can totally use the Redeemer against vessels while you dual wield against other enemies. Bloody Slaughter is completely useless. It triggers at 10% endurance - usually your barb will kill nearly every enemy who's left with 10% endurance with one strike - with or without Bloody Slaughter. I call it a wasted talent point for every build except maybe boss killers (so... not barbs). If one wants such a mechanic then he/she should use a Death Godlike. Death's Usher at least triggers at 25% endurance left. Sure Handed Ila is nice and all, especially because it stacks with everything, but it's effect can't compete with the damage output of Dragon Thrashed if you do it right. At lvl 16 you will dish out around 80 slash + 80 burn on hit (and a lot more on crit: 120/120) every 4(!) seconds to everybody in that huge range (usually all enemies) - just by standing around. This has to overcome 1/4 of DR, sure, but there's a lot of damage left. I would like to know which party setup can improve it's weapon damage by such an amount just by adding 20% ranged attack speed and adding a 25% burning lash. I don't think there is (except spell spamming in every encounter with +25% lash), but maybe I'm wrong. That setup is better against bosses, but since I explained how you can one-shot then with a cipher very safely you don't need that. And of course you would completely ignore invocations with a Dragon Thrashed Chanter - because invocations will stop the chanting and result in a recovery phase and that means no Dragon Thrashed damage (and also no Mith Fyr and no Sure Handed Ila) for some time. Also the neat and very powerful trick with preservation Chanter + Withdraw is less cool with Sure Handed Ila + Mith Fyr. The only situation where I hate Dragon Thrashed is when my Chanter gets mind controlled...

Whisper of Treason is officially a fast cast and Master of Puppets is as well - in theory. However, in game you will see that Master of Puppets is at least twice as fast (if not faster) than Whisper of Treason. Either Whisper of Treason still has average cast time despite the description - or Master of Puppets has something like instant casting time despite the description. I suspect the first one is true...? I remember that MaxQuests posted a list of actual casting times a while ago - but I can't find it...

For the trashy stuff, get a priest with Inspiring Radiance and Devotions, then a wizard with Shadowflame, add a dw barb with Heart of Fury. Buff ACC, cast Shadowflame, jump in and trigger Heart of Fury - clean up with a Barbaric Blow, sped up by Frenzy + Bloodlust. Everybody will be dead in seconds. Only two spells needed (both of them can becomem mastery spells). You can amplify the damage with Combusting Wounds and also pull together the enemies for Shadowflame and HoF with a Pull of Eora. For dragons and such bring a paladin tank with Zealous Focus, marking weapon, Inspiring Exhortation and Coordinated Attacks and also bring a cipher with Tactical Meld, Whisper of Treason and Desintegration. Boost ciphers ACC with +86 (Zealous Focus + Radiance+Devotions+marking+Coordinated Attacks+Liberation+Tactical Meld) and crit with Desintegration to one-shot the dragon. Cast Whisper of Treason on the dragon to charm him while Desinterate works (takes some time). The dragon will fight for you while he dies. Then invite a tanky chanter optimized for Dragon Thrashed. Give him the Little Savior and Blaidh Golan (preservation of those two stacks to +100 to all defenses when prone or stunned). Place him in a doorway or in the thick of it and cast Withdraw on him. He will be untouchable and get +100 to all defenses but will not stop singing. Use Defensive Mindweb to give everybody those defensive values and walk around in god mode while the chanter still sings, slashing and burning. Sometimes preservation doesn't trigger. Still great that the chanter will sing along while "gone".

Especially when you look at Brisk Recitation. It doesn't do much for Mith Fyr itself (only speeds up phrase collection in this case) but is very benefical for Dragon Thrashed (stacks more instances). Also, you can reach nearly all enemies with high INT, Voice of the Mountaintop and an overseeing item - while this, again, does nothing for Mith Fyr (usually you are in range of your party members without such things). Dragon Thrashed is a DoT which benefits from crits more than normal damage does. Its duration gets increased by 50%. This is a multiplicative damage boost instead of the usual +50% to base damage. If you have high MIG you will boost the base damage (additive dmg bonus) and if you have high INT you will boost it again (multiplicatively). If you crit with it you again add an multiplicative bonus. High MIG and INT don't do anything for Mith Fyr - nor does your accuracy. It's the perfect phrase for a chanter who has bad MIG, not too much INT and low PER. You can't stack it so you have to put a shorter phrase in between. As far as I know Dragon Thrashed didn't get nerfed for a long time. Only the description got changed from "does 70 slash and 70 burn over 16 seconds" into "does 13 slash / 13 burn per tick over 16 seconds" (or words to that effect). Also each tick as to overcome oly 1/4 of enemies' DR. So to completely nullify the damage an enemy would need 52 slash/burn DR... You would need a very offensive party with a lot of AoE in order to beat optimized Dragon Thrashed with Mith Fyr (which you can't optimize with the chanter). And even then you would be better off at some point to alternate between Mith Fyr and Dragon Thrashed (you can have continuous Mith Fyr then with some Brisk Recitation and high INT). Obviously Dragon Thrashed is the better alternative if you have a more defensive party that doesn't dish out a lot of dps but favors a save and steady approach.

Dominate is special because it doesn't alter the stats of the enemy. So when he profits from a bonus of yours it's a bad thing. Charmed enemies are a lot weaker because charmed is also a hefty debuff. It doesn't matter that much if charmed enemies get Zealous Endurance - their defenses are so abysmal because of charm that they will die quickly if you attack them during the charm duration.

What a fighter can do at higher levels is to hit an enemy with Sundering Blow (causes -8 DR), switch to a blunderbuss and then fire. But that's not low micro. I never checked if an implement with Dangerous Implement can do more dps than a war bow. Because you can get the Engwythan Scepter quite early and it has speed. A fighter has Constant Recovery (if he wants it or not) but in this case it could be used to heal the damage Dangerous Implement will do to you. And as always: two damage types are better than pierce damage only. And if you won't use mind control this time you might rethink about using Take the Hit? This will protect your backline immensely. I also looked up Guardian Stance: you can use it with Take the Hit. It can't be used with Defender and Savage Attack - but since you can't use those anyway this might be a good pick. If you use this ranged fighter mainly as support-guy he might actually become useful. Think about it: +10 deflection from the fighter, +DR and hit-to-crit conversion from the paladin, damage cut in half from the fighter again... should result in a very sturdy party. ACC-loss from Guardian Stance can be countered with Disciplined Barrage.

I do not underestimate a ranged fighter. I tested that concept thoroughly and it's just not good (at least for me). Make sure to take Runner's Wounding Shot.

You don't know Charge. By the time the paladin gets SI the fighter gets Charge. It has more base damage than SI and works extremely well with crits - and it has a very long AoE "range". It's also a lot faster and the fighter can use it to open the fight and dish out two charges quickly. If the encounter is short then the paladin has no chance to apply that much damage with SI - there's not enough time. Charge is very powerful. Also one of the most fun abilities. Dual wielding actually adds damage to Charge because you will do a hidden Full Attack at the enemy you targeted with Charge.

As I said in the other thread: ranged fighter = meh. Better to use a rogue and give him Vet. Recovery and a sturdy stat spread if you fear that he's too soft.

Pure ranged fighters are not good. Knockdown doesn't work. There are level-ups where you only can choose an ability that doesn't contribute to this playstyle. What works with ranged weapons is Into the Fray, Clear Out. All the other active abilities don't work with ranged weapons. This excludes you from Knockdown, Sundering Blow and most sadly, Charge. The damage bonuses apply and all - but it would be more beneficial to just build a very sturdy ranger, cipher or rogue with Veteran's Recovery. Ciphers do a lot of weapon damage and you'd have the additional powers that you can use. Also a ranged chanter with Blessed was Wengrith + Sure Handed Ila and focus on invocations would be better.

If Blast does :what about Torment's Reach and Turning Wheel? Think about Shattered Pillar + Ascendant.

They are slow but hit very hard after some levels. Great against high DR targets. I can't stress enough how nice it is when you combine a wounding weapon with Predator's Sense. Also their Takedown + Brutal Takedown isn't bad at all.

It should. It's a melee ability. But actually I never checked.

It adds the equivalent of 5 damage to every attack while it slows you down. It depends on enemy DR if its use is benefical or not. It's a no-brainer for retaliation builds and for everybody who has low base damage melee weapons.

Critting with Blast is possible (as far as I know it also gets +1 ACC per level?) and thus you can cause stun to an enemy here and there. But the Golden Gaze is better on a wizard. You will trigger Expose Vuln. pretty soon because of Blast and then its dps with Blast is unbeatable. Two Blasts with every shot, higher base damage and so on. Also more AoE interrupts. On a priest it's wasted. A priest could use Gyrd better than Golden Gaze because it also profits from the special priest ACC talent - so it doesn't matter which priest, it's not necessary to pick a priest of Wael.

That's exactly why I don't use the sceptre for the dominate proc. it's harder to target enemies when there charmed and you have to adijust around them if you want to make them most out of it. It's not needed and Is just a nuisance I agree. The randomness of the dominate means more micro. Especially when your main target gets dominated your char will stop attacking. i prefer targeted mind control. But the insane ACC bonus and the raw lash are very unique and hard to beat. I still like The Golden Gaze better.

For the early game it's very good. Especially with high MIG. The range is ridiculous and the damage is good for the early game, too. Think of it like a Spell Mastery - those come at lvl 9! Since it doesn't scale it becomes a bit moot at higher levels - unless you are a rogue (Deathblows + Deep Wounds) or a ranger (Marked Prey + Driving Flight + Penetrating Shot) - or if you can stack a lot of DR bypass (like I usually do with Pallegina). Or if you take Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver and so on - and crit with it reliably.

It's correct that lashes don't benefit from DR bypass MaxQuest. P.S.: you ninja!

That depends on the damage bonuses you can stack. Since lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses they work better and better the more damage your physical attack does. But Scion of Flame and the others will only add 5% to the lash damage. So you would have to stack a lot of dmg bonuses so that Scion of Flame for a lash only gets better than let's say Two Handed Style. Example: plain Great Sword with 10 MIG and burning lash against 0 DR 17 slash + (17 * 0.25) = 4.25 burn. 17 + 4.25 = 21.25 With Scion of Flame 17 slash + (17 * 0.3) = 5.1 burn. 17 + 5.1 = 22.1 Now instead Scion of Flame I'll take Two Weapon Style: 17 slash * (1+0.15) = 19.55 slash + (19.55 * 0.25) = 4.89 burn. 19.55 + 4.89 = 24.44 The difference is 2.34 - Two Handed Style is clearly better. Now let's assume we have a fighter with 18 MIG, Weapon Spec and Mastery + Savage Attack and an exceptional weapon: 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.3) = 33.83 slash + (33.83 * 0.25) = 8.46 burn. 33.83 + 8.46 = 42.29 With Scion of Flame 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.3) = 33.83 slash + (33.83 * 0.3) = 10.15 burn. 33.83 + 10.15 = 43.98 With Two Weapon Style 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.3+0,15) = 36.38 slash + (36.38 * 0.25) = 9.1 burn. 36.38 + 9.1 = 45.48 The difference is 1.5. Two Weapon Style is still better but the gap closes (keep in mind this is vs. 0 DR) Now the same fighter with a superb weapon - and he does a crit: 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.45+0.5) = 44.88 slash + (44.88 * 0.25) = 11.22 burn. 44.88 + 11.22 = 56.1 With Scion of Flame 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.45+0.5+0.15) = 44.88 slash + (44.88 * 0.3) = 13,46 burn. 44.88 + 13,46 = 58.34 With Two Weapon Style 17 slash * (1+0.24+0.15+0.1+0.2+0.45+0.5+0.15) = 47.43 slash + (47.43 * 0,25) = 11.86 burn. 47.43 + 11.86 = 59.29 The difference is 0.95. You can see that at some point Scion of Flame would be better than Two Handed Style, but it's a long way. Maybe for a rogue it's more benefical to choose Scion of Flame instead of a base damage bonus like Two Handed Style at some point. But you always have to remember that lashes have to overcome 1/4 of enemies' DR and that means that the higher the DR the worse the bonus of Scion of FLame is compared to Two Handed Style. For classes with only few damage bonuses I thik it's save to say that they are better off with a base damage bonus than with a 5% lash increase. Of course it's best if you can do both. If you have a level up - and no base damgage bonus talents left - you can take an elemental talent and boost your damge further.

Barbarian has Carnage which turns every auto attack into an AoE attack. Barbaric Blow is not superpowerful but can be good with dual weapons and a high crit rate. Heart of Fury is only 1/encounter because usually everyone is dead when you use it properly. It's that powerful. Besides that most weapon effects (draining, stunning, wounding, spell chances and so on) work with carnage - so you maybe can imagine why people like them. They are also the class that can achieve very high attack speed very early. Monks have some abilities that are 1/encounter, but their other abilites (the most powerful ones) are not limited in use as long as you gain wounds. They have an AoE attack that is very powerful and as long as they have wounds to spend they can wipe the floor with whole groups of enemies. And when they don't have wounds you can use the per-encounter-abilites. Both classes have high endurance and very big health pools - so you can afford to do a very offensive build without the fear that they will go k.o. all the time (might take some levels to build enough health so that the difference to other classes is visible). If you are a beginner with both of them I would recommend a stout barb with good MIG, CON and INT, Veteran's Recovery and Savage Defiance, wielding a great sword (aim for Tidefall) and wearing thick armor. Take Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst. This requires low micro compared to a more squishy barb or a monk. A monk requires a lot of resource management but is more powerful if you do it right (just my opinion).

Thank you. There is no penalty for shooting at close range. But talents/abilites like Marksman and Distant Advantage (Wood Elf racial ability) only work when you are more than 4 meters away (I think it's 4, but maybe 5 or so, can't say for sure). So you would lose those bonuses if you shoot from point blank (if you took them in the first place). Those two are the only bonuses that work this way if I'm not mistaken. On the other hand: with a rogue you can get a Backstab bonus with a ranged weapon when you are shooting from a very close distance: 2m or less gives you the Backstab bonus (if you shoot from stealth or invisibilty, +150% base damage). Gunner will reduce the reload speed of blunderbusses, yes. It reduces the reload time for every weapon that has a reload phase: crossbow, arbalest, pistol, blunderbuss, arquebus. It will only reduce the reload time and nothing else. As a side note: armor penalty will not get added to the reloading phase, only the recovery phase. If you don't want to use gun switching (with multiple guns in your weapon slots and Quick Switch) then Gunner is recommended, yes. It stacks with Swift Aim and also Sure Handed Ila. But in this case the stacking is multiplicative which reduces the individual effect of each additinal bonus - the more reload bonuses you stack. So with Swift Aim (50%) + Gunner (20%) and Sure Handed Ila (20%) you will not have a reduced reload time of 90% as one might think (if you added the values), but instead it's "only" a bonus of 68% because you multiply them instead. Still good to stack them. If Pallegina uses an offensive scroll she would lose the marking of the weapn because she will not attack with it, but I think she will retain the bonus from Coordinated Attacks because she's attacking with a spell. But it would have to be a targeted spell like missiles or Stag's Horn. I don't think it works with AoE spells that you target on the floor like Fireball (all speculation). If she uses a scroll that is not offensive (prayer, buff and so on) she will surely lose both. I would not give her lore but survival as you said.

Casting Reaping knives on oneself is a bit uneffective. But why not make it possible?

You could? But you can't see how? Hehe :D

No wait. I just tested it ingame and actually it only benefits the ranger. Mea culpa! THe pet doesn't get +10 ACC. I must have confused this with marking when I was testing all those +ACC things I spoke about above (using Cladhaliath and flanking and so on). I remembered incorrectly. So forget what I was saying about Stalker's Link: it only gives the ranger +10 ACC. Still good, but does nothing for your pet's ACC. But I tested my wolf and bear that I have in an old savegame and they both had 88 ACC (without any buffs, attacking alone) at lvl 13 which I think is pretty solid. My rangers only have 89 at that point (with Twinned Arrows + Stalker's Link = +/- 0) - so pretty similar. And that's with Weapon Focus, an exceptional Stormcaller and 19 PER. Therefore I can't see why the pet should have troubles hitting things.