Boeroer

Since they promised that we get some kind of AI scripting like in Dragon Age: Origins (and they also showed some UI for it) I'm pretty confident that we can make some awesome scripts for things like "if encounter starts switch to set 1 -> attack (fire gun) -> switch to set 3 -> fire gun -> switch to set 2 -> defensive mode" or something like that.

No, it procs when you do a critical hit on the ememy - pretty common for rogues.

But it's just two shots at the start of the fight. Happens in seconds. After that it's pure tanking. Not that much micromanagement. THe start of the fight is loaded with micro anyway (casting buffs, doing positioning and so on).

Stormcaller is always useful. It's better on a ranger but also good on a chanter. So if you don't have a ranger you can give it to the chanter or a cipher. It has a build-in DR reduction of 6. With Penetrating Shots you'll overcome 11 DR easily. That alone is great. You don't have a lot of invocations because you use long(er) phrases like Drgon Thrashed. And you haven't experienced the effect of Brisk Recitation yet (starting from lvl 4 and the +10% faster chanting every 4 levels). If you are lvl 16 for example and only use tier-1 phrases you'll get a phrase point every 2 seconds. That means that you could cast Killers Froze Stiff (which is a very powerful invocation) every 8 seconds (!) (not counting recovery after using the invocation). To keep recovery short I recommended max DEX and low armor (and also gear/talents that speeds you up like Gauntlets of Swift Action, Outlander's Frenzy and so on). The invocation itself has a base duration of 8 seconds. With 20 INT it will last 12 seconds, with a crit even 16 seconds. So after the first 8 seconds of combat you should be able to perma-paralyze most enemies you hit with the really big cone.

Because they are not good for sustained use - like doing auto-attacks all day for example. Damage per second (dps) is indeed bad if you want to shoot with reloading and your fights are long (like on PotD). Guns are awfully slow and hence the value "damage per second" is not very high. But they hit like trucks. Damage per hit is the highest and their base damage is the highest. Because of that they work very well with any damage bonus. So they are always number one choice if you have abilites wich give you a high damage boost but are limited to 1 or 2 per encounter - like Flames of Devotion, Wounding Shot/Runner's Wounding Shot and so on. With those abilites you can't do sustained damage but only spike damage - because their uses per encounter are so limited. Not 5 FoD per encounter but only 2. So they work very well with guns. One or two shots with an arquebus, done with maxed Flames of Devotion (and maybe with a crit, too), will deal a ton of damage while two strikes with a dagger with FoD for example is just slapping with a wet (albeit hot) noodle in comparison. Guns are the best choice with those abilities. That's why this build uses maxed FoD damage with 2 switching arquebuses. My switching is fast enough because of the special belt I used - so I don't need Qucik Switch as a talent. Edit: @JerekKruger: exactly.

This is true for auto-attacks and when your shield only has bash and nothing else. But when you do the typical rogue strikes (Crippling Strike and so on) you will have Full Attacks. That means your offhand strikes first (in this case bash) and applies the affliction - and the main hand follows and can already deliver a Sneak Attack and maybe even Deathblow. Same advantage as with dual wielding + strikes. And then Badgradr's Barricade has an unlimited amount of procs of Thrust of Tattered Veils on crit. With this feature the bash becomes quite potent - also because that spell works with Deathblows. Imagine you have a stunnung main weapon and Badgradr's Barricade and do a Blinding Strike: bash does apply blind (maybe even crits and procs a normal Thrust of Tattered Veils), stunning weapon gets Sneak Attack bonus and will most likely crit as well because blinding is a strong debuff, so the target is blinded and stunned. Then again the bash follows and will most likely crit, triggering Thrust of Tatteres Veils on Deathblows. Usually this one is also a crit. Thrust of Tattered Veils with +150% damage (or even +100% if you have Merciless Hand and stuff). This will kill most enemies at once. It's a great way to build a sturdy, even tanky rogue who still deals great damage and has not so much issues with health or endurance loss because his deflection is high (at least for a rogue). A dual wielding rogue might deal more dps on paper, but he has to wait until the tanks engage, he has to be babysitted and so on (except if he has regenration and/or draining - but then you have to watch health). The rogue with Badgr. Barricade can just engage as a ordinary fighter or whatnot, hacking right away and start dealing damage while the usual rogue still waits for the best flanking position to open up. So in the end I guess the overall damage done is not that much different. Of course Badgradr's Barricade is not an early game item. Sadly... but for starters any bashing shield will do fine if combined with strike abilites.

Ooor you import her via console... Well, that obviously doean't work for the MC. But honestly: as soon as you put headgear on you won't see the model's head anymore. So the portrait is the most important part, isn't it?

Yes, if you push CON it's not bad at all. With low or normal CON it might work if you rest a lot. As firkraag888 said draining works nicely on rogues as long as they are able to attack, because usually they deal quite some damage per hit which leads to good regeneration numbers. And besides that: Draining doesn't need INT or MIG like other healing does and also doesn't work with survival so you can focus on stealth or mechanics. So, all in all it's a good approach for a rogue with low INT and/or MIG. I played a max MIG, max CON, 1 (!) INT rogue with Tidefall and RUnner's Wounding Shot as my main attack ability. He had no Veteran's Recovery because of 1 INT and also no Shod-in-Faith because of that. Still he stood in the front line and was used to operate behind enemy lines with Escape/Shadowstep. He was surprisingly sturdy after the early game was done (where high CON doesn't have that much impact but the low starting value has) and after I got Tidefall. He was a good rogue: low babysitting compared to some other rogues and great damage because of Tidefall and RUnner's WS combined with 1 INT. If the rogue has high INT and MIG though I would def. recommend Veteran's Recovery and survival over draining (or better: in addition to draining). THis even works when he's disabled or running around. By the way: a great sturdy rogue who needs no babysitting after the first levels is one with a bashing shield (for the strikes - best is Badgradr's Barricade), Veteran's Recovery and Weaon & Shield Style. Retaliation also works with Deep Wounds and here also Riposte makes sense. The class that profits even more from draining is the barb - as long as he can hit several enemies with Carnage (because draining works with Carnage). He will leach from all enemies he hits. Barb + Tidefall is a lot of fun, also beause the wounding negates some DR-problems with Carnage (34% damage malus).

Normally Dragon Thrashed should deal more damage. Also remember that its AoE is bigger so it should reach more enemies. In addition to that, it's also possible to expand it's AoE further with the Voice of the Mountaintop which only works for chants (+20%). AND you could also add +12 aCC if you wished via one handed weapon use. But I never actually checked: does a chant also get +1 ACC per char level like Sacred Immolation does? And does a chant profit from Merciless Hand and stuff like SI does?

You can also add her whole character via console command (if you don't need steam achievements).

If you have two paladins with SI they will both heal each other's raw damage they receive from SI - because SI also heals allies but hurts yourself a bit.

A very nice chanter approach is max DEX, PER and INT and no to light armor, Sure Handed Ila and Blessed was Wengrith, wielding Stormcaller (or whatever fast ranged weapon) and using Killers Froze Stiff as often as possible. You can reliably achieve perma-paralyze with this approach at higher levels with some bonus INT and also at lower levels with crits. Killers Froze Stiff targets will which is awsome. If you don't want to use invocations because of the fuzz and mostly auto-attack then I'd probably go Sure Handed Ila and Myth Fyr + Burning Lash (obviously not Stormcaller this time) + Scion of Flame. This will give you +60% burn damage (or to be more precise 30% + 30%). Also spells will get the +25% burning lash from the chant, so it's not too bad to take Prestidigitator's Missiles as well. There is a nice ranged paladin variant that is not about supergreat damage but great accuracy boosting: Darcozzi Paladini with Inspiring Liberation, Coordinated Attacks and a ranged marking weapon (Pliambo per Casitàs or St. Garam's Spark or Cgadob's Hazel). Especially for your casters this is great. Just point on the enemy (no need to run there) you want to mark and the nearest party member that also attacks this foe will get +20 stackable ACC "for free" and without micro, even +30 when you cast Insp. Liberation on him. If you do this with Pallegina (obviously without Insp. Liberation) you can also get Penetrating Shot and Wrath of the Five Suns as well as Prestidigitator's Missiles and be a good damage dealer besides giving good support. The most powerful thing is the perma-paralyze of the chanter I would presume, but it requires some micro of course.

First of all: as you can see, this build is not a 100% defensive one. I don't like them because they are boring - and it's pointless when you as a tank are the only one alive but all others are dead and you can't damage anything. Secondly this build has nearly maximum amount of alpha strike (or burst) damage via FoD (FoD + Intense Flames + Burning Lash + Scion of Flame = +120% burn damage of overall damage, not base damage). With two shots of his arquebuses he can potentially take out two dangerous squishies like casters - or at least deliver the killing shot. I need this for triggering the on-kill effect of Inspiring Triumph for example. But I also value the tactical advantage to be able to take out casters very quickly at the beginning of the fight and then switch to tank(ish) mode. Paladins are perfect for this. Another class that does this very well is ranger (even better alpha strike, doesn't tank es well but has a pet that helps a lot). And yes, I usually have dedicated damage dealers in my party, not necessarily the back row though. I have no problem with 4 melees for example. If this is the case I just make sure that every party member is sturdy and does spread more instead of clinging together and using the traditional front line/back line approach. And of course it doesn't matter where damage comes from, be it melee or ranged. Important thing is that there is damage.

Hehe. Depends on your damage per hit and also a lot on the difficulty level.

You can make him ok-sturdy with Veteran's Recovery and the draining also helps as long as he's hitting with dmg mods. But his main issue is still health loss. Because his health pool is small. Better than draining weapons only (which also don't work with healing bonuses) is a weapon & shield setup.

Yes, I only wanted to say that (and explain why) I'm not an expert with that item.

The items are mostly for the ice theme. I like spell bindings a lot, but they are not mandatory for this build. So feel free to use different ones. Also the case with the White Spire. It just looks so cool on this build with the rest of the items. Bear's Fortitude helps against nasty afflictions like Lagufaeth blowdarts and banshee cries and so on (if you hane no priest). The whole build's idea was to stack as much regeneration as possible. This way you can be a good tank while having enough offensive potiential. In a party you normally don't need a tank who can survive for ages but can't deal damage himself. Although the weapon & shield version already has high RES. As for the skills: in between the implementations of skills got changed a lot. Nowadays survival can give you several bonuses while camping, athletics will give you Second Wind and so on. THis was not always the case. For example in the earlier days of this game you got fatigue after long travels and athletics helped. It gave no Second Wind. Survial only gave you longer potion duration and nothing else. So the skill distribution of my older builds will be a lot different than my newer ones.

Actually I don't know of any build that is using a quarterstaff. They just lack an interesting unique.

I never used it for long because I either have a priest or use scrolls of prayers once I have access to them.

I said the Redeemer is hilarious with a barb who has Blood Thirst. That's because he will hit multiple vessels with one strike (Carnage) - most likely triggering the destruction of a vessel. That will then set his recovery to zero... and so on. Groups of tough vessels just get obliterated. I also think that the Golden Gaze is the best implement in the game - but still the soulbound scepter is also nice because it's the item with the highest ACC bonus in the game and it has a raw lash which is also great. On top of that it dominates quite frequently if you have Blast - which is a powerful CC effect. And last but not least the: +3 RES stacks with everything, also other gear that gives bonus to RES. With the leather armor Kerdhed Pames for example you can have +6 to RES which means +18 Concentration, +12 to will and +6 to deflection. Not bad for an implement use who likes to get close - like priests for example. And of course it needs no resources.

Why yes, sorry. I misunderstood and was thinking about official companions, not custom ones. Derp. Erm, Messier-31, you know what? Now that I read his post again maybe that's really what he meant and I misunderstood it, not you. Well, now he can pick the answer that's uitable for him. Sorry if I sounded rude by the way, didn't mean to.

I guess then Jojobobo wouldn't have used it in his solo run.

Yes, sure - but because of its lower range and low dmg it's just a good backup weapon for anybody who uses hunting bows. You wouldn't pick it as your end-game weapon because of this. At the same time Durance's Staff comes with two damage types, a lash and has no shortcomings so it's viable to use it till the end. That's what I mean.

That's what I mean.

Perhaps it makes sense, but it's not fair at all. Some companions have good gear on them (see also Kana) while others have nothing special (see Zahua). Ok, Zahua can get Anitlei which is better than an item - but Sagani's bow is a slap in the face.