Boeroer

Yes, they just replace what you havein your hands at that time. They are usually very powerful compared to the normal weapons you can get when you get access to the summoned ones. For example Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff has higher base damage than a normal staff, drains endurance and comes exceptional which is supergood at level 1. Firebrand has huge base damage, a bit ACC bonus and huge damage bonus, is annihilating and does burn damage. It also works with Scion of Flame (gets +20% base damage). It is the hardest hitting melee weapon if you leave Citzal's Spirit Lance (also summoned weapon) aside. But you can't enchant summoned weapons and thus they lose most ot their appeal once you get access to durgan steel, dragon scales and such. Citzal's Spirit Lance is always great because it's like turning your wizard into a barbarian with a badass pike - and it comes superb. Firebrand is the only summoned weapon that can be used by all classes because it's bound to those gloves.

Forgemaster's Gloves.THey summon Firebrand 3/rest. It's very good until you get durgan steel.

Mabec's Morning Star is the second best morning star because it has stun on crit. That is great, but besides that it's pretty meh. The best one is Acuan Giamas, but it comes so late that it's of no avail to plan builds around it. The greatest joke is the morning star "Daybreak" which has a nice enchantment but comes shortly before the latest fight in the game (from where there's no turning back). No idea why they placed that nice weapon there. Cruelty maybe...

Yeah, it still has those issues. At least the +25 deflection works properly. I recently tried a "behind the lines" rogue with Escape and the Cape in order to get one more use per encounter. This totally messed up both abilites - as if the game didn't know which one I already used and which not. At one point both were blocked until save/reaload because the game thought both are still "active". I couldn't activate them anymore. So... not so well implemented.

Don't know if Escape cancels the beam. I never tested this. Monk and FIghter work very well. Also tested Paladin with Zealous Charge: good as well. The perfect dragger micht be a Chanter because he can be useful even if he's just running around, trying to connect the beam with as many foes as possible.

I guess every class could work well as "anchorpoint" for the beam if Cape of the Cheat is equipped, right?

The phantoms' stun has a longer base duration I guess. And if the roll vs. fortitude crits then the duration is even 50% longer.

Chanter's Killers Froze Stiff also targets will - but I never saw an enemy chanter use this. Actually I never saw an enemy chanter use any invocation at all. Why is that?

That person was actually me. Nowadays I'm a huge fan of boar druids.

Yes, that's my favorite late game rogue: 2 Flames of Fair Rhian sabres and Talunthain's staff fpr 9 Fireballs per rest. Also Curoc's Brand for an additional one. Ealry on you can get Sun Touched Mail of Hyran Rath and a bit later the Amulet of Summer Solstice. That makes 10 Fireballs and 6 Sunbeams per rest which is very good with Deathblows (= double base damage of the spells). Also works well with a fighter and disciplined Barrage. Bot classes lack a bit of AoE (if you ignore Charge and Clear Out). Sunbeam is also great for rogues because it blinds for a decent amount of time. But no, I meant a quarterstaff as melee weapon. Except wizards with Concenhaut's Staff I know of no build that is focusing on a quarterstaff. Durance's Staff and Llawrans Stick are viable options, but they are not very exciting either. Same with morning stars, swords and pollaxes.

Err... paralyze, stun and prone target fortitude most of the time, mind control stuff targets will. The most annoying and the stuff you mentioned target fortitude and thus MIG and CON help. That's basically it.

I would skip Vulnerable Attack. With a two hander it will lower your dps in a lot of cases - instead of boosting it. If you like offense then I would take Intense Flames, put a burning lash on your weapon and also take Scion of Flame. This will boost your FoD bonus from 50% to 120% (against 0 DR). Scion of Flame is also good for your burning lash in general and for Sacred Immolation later on. For that you might want to have higher Intelligence though. Savage Attack is not bad either: FoD gets +20 ACC and +1 ACC per level which makes the -5 from Savage Attack quite unimportant, especially if you also pick Sworn Enemy. And Zealous Focus will outweigh Savage Attack's ACC malus while auto-attacking. Another good talents is Runner's Wounding Shot. It will give you an additional per-encounter ability and works very well with hard-hitting weapons. I would suggest either Tidefall or Hours of St. Rumbalt (actually a paladin's weapon which might be nice from the role-playing-perpective).

I think your points were answered correctly and in a decent manner and not "slandered" by any means. You shouldn't turn to sarcasm if you get proven wrong. Just try for once to accept and acknowledge that somebody was right with a detail while you weren't. It's no big deal. You don't need to agree wholly to my opinion, but making snarky comments when somebody just clears things up (while a short "Oops, got the Driving Flight/Twinned Arrows thing mixed up" would be more appropriate) doesn't show grandeur.

@firkraag: Please read again: I said Twinned Arrows have no reduced damage (which is correct). Twinned Arrows and Driving Flight are two seperate things. Twinned Arrows will fire two arrows at once with -10 ACC but normal damage. Driving Flight will make sure that every projectile will hit another target behind the inital one in an 20° arc. I never said that Driving Flight has no reduced damage because that would be wrong. And people here will back my opinion when they think it's true. They will also object me if they think I made a mistake. That you still say that actually shows quite well what I meant.

Great! I really feared it was broken.

No, it's +150 base dmg bonus all together. Another +50 would be too weak at level 11. Look at what other classes get at lvl 11 or 13. @firkraag - I never said that Driving Flight has no reduced damage. In fact I wrote in my first post that it has only 60% damage. Please don't post false accusations. Also, I still can't see where Kaylon used 4 arrows. His base damage calcs use two arrows as far as I read it. So Driving Flight's damage is not even in. But it may be that I missed this. Reading long calcs on the phone is sometimes hard. Why I won't answer further in detail: Your problem - or better: my problem with you sometimes - is that you tend to post things that are extremely generalized, massively exaggerated or wrong. That is not a problem per se, it happens to all of us sometimes (although most of us only make strong claims about two classes when they actually played them both till the end). But whatever, mistakes happen. But then, even if several other users come around with more experience in that matter, do some math, give some examples or other good arguments you can't ever admit that your initial statement was not dead on. You will start to get upset (or so it seems) and flail around verbally (although you seldomly insult people, which I appreciate). We've been there several times now and I think it is of no avail if I further answer to you at length in this matter. I have no problems commenting/helping/objecting with other topics though since I think I can seperate that. Especially when I post you seem to get very annoyed - although I try (at least) to post in an objective and mature manner. Maybe my tone upsets you, I don't know. But it takes time to write these things and also to check some facts here and there and it's no fun if I do all that and then face this reactions (mainly ignorance). So I really think it's way better for the whole topic when Kaylon answers your assumptions and questions. Your reactions to him are a lot more calm. That way you won't be distracted that much by irrational objection towards me.

Yes - works really well. Reason for rogue is that Deathblows doubles spell's base damage and that Deep Wounds works with spells that do crush/Pierce/slash damage. But this works as well with a fighter: more accuracy and sturdiness, less damage.

Man... I guess I'll let Kaylon answer this...

In this game monks are different. They don't need to be unarmed and they can wear any armor. Heavy armor is even better in the early game. Also using weapons instead of fists is better in the long run. And any offensive char who operates in the front gets damaged. In this case you will get something out of it. Lovely! I think there are some people here who agree with me that monks are the no.1 dedicated melee class. They just require more micro than the other melees because you put out "casts" all the time. So they play like a mixture of fighter and caster - somewhat comparable to melee cipher.

Stalker's Link doesn't need flank and stuff - as Jerrek already said. It was changed pretty early after release. Nowadays it gives you +10 ACC as soon as the pet attacks the same enemy. The wiki (where you seem to get your info) is severely outdated on some pages. Stalker's Torc adds +20% damage to this. If Stalker's Link should be taken out then Minor Threat (Hearth Orlan racial) of the rogue has also to be removed because it triggers on exactly the same conditions. Twinned Arrows have no reduced damage. Kaylon's calcs included everything you just said. Please read more thoroughly! It's debatable if 15 MIG will result in numbers that justify the statement that the dual wielding rogue will severely outdamage a ranger. We still haven't taken into account that Driving Flight will add even more damage. Sadly, I don't know the exact dmg malus of it so I can't calculate it's damage with Kaylon's numbers.

Monk can do it as well with Torment's Reach. And if you have high INT the cone size is huge. The cone of Torment's Reach is independent from weapon damage and has its own base damage (crush), but it works with all spell chances (x% to trigger spell on hit or crit) and also prone or stun on crit. A great weapon combo for monks is Starcaller + Badgradr's Barricade. Since the low base damage of both doesn't matter for Torment's Reach but the high speed is beneficial, you can proc the stun and the Thrust of TV even more often, dealing tons of AoE crush damage in the process. In general bashing shields make sense with a monk with Torment's Reach - because of its unique properties. Low base damage doesn't matter as I said and bash gets +1 ACC per level. Of course a second weapon would cause more damage, but the combo of higher survivability with nearly the same damage output is great. A monk with shield can also get away with thinner armor, making up for the speed loss when auto-attacking a bit.

Sounds like he knows what he wants and how to get it.

Well - you'll have higher chances that stun because both swings have the chance to do it. So if you miss the first swing you'll still have the second. So yes, it will increase the chance to stun. But I can't say how this compares to the -5 to deflection and fortitude. I guess it's better than disorienting - and the +2 MIG instead of +1 is also nice. I don't know if those small advantages justify the use of the Helwax Mold.

He will be as hard as on normal. Dragons don't change from normal to hard diff. Yes, most of the late game is too easy with a full party - even at PotD.

Yes, since FoD has +20 ACC and gets +1 ACC per level it will lead to stuns more easily than auto-attacks.