Boeroer

I like a Badgradr's Barricade rogue. Now that I know your rogue I can think about another synergy... *makes Dr.-Evil-gesture* And that is friendly fire spells which target reflex + Adept Evasion (+ Blaidh Golan when the spell causes prone or stun). Shield rogues can have one of the best reflex defenses in the game when it comes to such spells and stuff like Slicken + rogue (while the rogue tanks) are quite nice. Blaidh Golan will make sure that you always stand up first should you get grazed or hit by your friend's prone/stun spell. I guess also Fan of Flames and Fireball is quite cool if you also add some burn DR to the rogue.

The thing is that a cipher would probably be better off with another one handed weapon when it comes to focus generation (for example Shatterstar or Bittercut) although those flails have that additional lash. Not in your case of course because it's your backup set and you're set on the Weapon Focus. And with probably I mean surely.

And I'm thankful for that. I hate different starting values for classes when it comes to things like endurance, health and so on. Those should be derived from attributes and that's it. It's ok if they start with certain abilites that emphasize on the class as a profession (like giving Constant Recovery to fighters which makes them a lot more sturdy) but to be stuck with a low endurance wizard (even though he's supposed to look like The Rock on steroid abuse) is bad. I like me a meaty wizard.

You can switch off Knockout Injuries in the game option on any difficulty setting, even PoTD. But not on ToI/Expert Mode. I always switch them off because they are simply annoying and do nothing for me - it just destroys Vengeful Defeat as you pointed out. I do the same with gib effects. They make White Worms less useful and are silly anyway. Who explodes and leaves no corpse behind after getting hit by a medieval weapon? I mean besides some spirits and unstable constructs.

Sure, I agree. It's a nice backup setup for your character. I just wanted to point out (with regard to the topic) that the small burning lash is not very good on a flail even for ciphers who have good damage bonuses and might speculate on some additional focus. But I can see that it works to bring the lash through DR if you manage to reliably do crits and are the MC. Then it will do somtehing for your focus - also paired with speed. Maybe one should check if dual flail (Starcaller + Unforgiven) is a good option for a critty cipher - both have that mini-lash. Or if dual torches are an option. Heck - I never even thought about using Justice for a cipher, but it makes some sense now... glad we talked about this.

What is the rogue doing exactly? I mean stats, items and all that stuff? Vengeful Defeat is a weaker version of HoF. Judging from game description it should be the same minus the damage bonus - but when I used it extensively in a playthrough it seemed to have a smaller range of action and generating less hits than HoF does. Maybe that got changed, but I read nothing about it. But it was/is very good nonetheless - especially if you can abuse it with a knockout-revive-cycle. The "problem" with your party is that you have nobody who has a revive ability (besides scrolls). Second chance items are only 1/rest and it doesn't work to bring several of them and switch them out after encounter. You'll only get one use of second chance per rest - not matter how many items with second chance you pile up.

But it doesn't help the cipher if the small lash doesn't get through. Maybe a cipher with 15 MIG, Savage Attack, Apprenice Sneak, Soul Whip and Biting Whip, exceptional flail (like Unforgiven is) as well as Scion of Flame can manage to bring the small lash through enemies' DR. Let's see: Flail's average base damage is 11. 11 * (1+0.15+0.2+0.15+0.2+0.2+0.3) = 24.2 average damage on hit 24.2 * 0.12 = 2.9 burn damage --> enemies burn DR has to be 9 or lower so that damage comes through (over DR 9 the lash damage is <0.5) 24.2 * 0.30 = 7.26 burn damage --> enemies burn DR has to be 27 (!) or lower so that damage comes through And this is with a pretty good damge bonus setup. Of course it gets better with crits (will add 5.5 damage, 9.9 with Merciless Hand and Dungeon Delver), but still... You can see what a huge difference those "few" percentages make because of DR, no DR bypass for lashes and no MIN damage going through - paired with a light hitting weapon. It's better with Justice but still not very good. Originally Lightning Strikes of the monk only added +15% shocking lash. They changed it to 25% because it seldomly made it through DR and thus was useless. P.S.: as a sidenote: if you want to have a constant stream of focus gain for your cipher then try a cipher + priest with Spark the Souls + chanter with Mith Fyr. I don't know why but Sparks generate focus - even more so with an additional lash (if it gets through - amybe also bring a wizard with Expose Vuln.) - and the lash also works for your weapon of course. Thanks MaxQuest for the hint!

If I only had an animated gif with this.

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).