Boeroer

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.

ROFL - great one! You're so funny sometimes. I fear I'm repeating myself - but just for people who don't want to search in the tread: You have to siphon knowledge from Maerwald in order to get the sabre "Flames of Faîr Rhîan" from the Endless Paths. It has 3 Fireballs per rest. You can clone it later with the Helwax Mold in order to get another 3 or you take Bittercut which also has nice spellbindings. Add Taluntain's Staff which also has 3 Fballs. But before that pick up the Sun-Touched Mail of Hyan Rath (3 Sunbeams) and the Amulet of Summer Solstice (3 Sunbeams) - you will then have 9 Fballs and 6 Sunbeams. And so on. Simply use every spell binding gear with offensive spells you can find and choose the ones you like best (for example Swaddling Sheet instead of the Amulet oSS). But remember that spells don't work with Sneak Attack, only Deathblows. But the hit/crit conversion works and of course the high ACC is great. Also great of cause is to deliver one's own afflictions with Sunbeam or such spells. Spells like Minor Missiles or Overbearing Wave which do pierce, slash or crush damage will also trigger Deep Wounds. Besides the spells you can play him like a normal rogue. Maybe I should write a build description. I think this is the fourth or fifth time I write this down. But I'm sooo lazy atm when it comes to class builds...

Fighter's Weapon Specialisation and Mastry don't give you any accuracy, only damage bonuses (+15% and +10%). Persistance does more single target damage than Stormcaller (especially once you get durgan steel). Stormcaller can be better when it comes to foes who are resistant/immune to pierce damage. And also the reduced shock DR can be benefical for other party members (think of shocking lashes on party members' weapons). Low deflection on a barb is usually no problem after some levels because he becomes so beefy. His other defenses are as high or low as those of other classes. He can make up for the lower deflection with One Stands Alone: while otehr classes would get flanked in the fray the barb will maintain his deflection value. With Frenzy he will even have +16 fortitude, +24 with Greater Frenzy. So when it comes to defenses against prone, stun, paralyze and petrify the barb is one of the sturdier classes (as long as Frenzy is on).

But then you could also say that a Potion of Alacrity is the most powerful item in the game...

Dual wielding with the heavier one handed weapons - like sabres - actually does more damage with FoD in most cases (when enemies' DR is not superhigh - and if you crit in most cases). Dual hammers is also my favorite on a fighter. Because of the two damage tyes and also because Shatterstar is guarding and annihilating which fits a fighter quite well.

Ah - so it only works for the initial roll against deflection. Bummer!

Which is the real awesomeness.

1. Acuan Giamas 2. Munacra Arret/Spirit Spiral 3. Swaddling Sheet 4. Little Savior 5. Aila Braccia