Boeroer

Haha - yes, that may be.

Sure, why not. Or is there a place behind your front line for a Tall-Grass-Devil? Pike with Backstab and high Stealth is actually pretty fun from the second row. You let the enemies engage the front line (you won't get noticed with decent stealth), let them catch afflictions and then you'll have two free Backstabs with Sneak Attack and Deathblows. It's not very micro intense and effective. A quick switching blunderbuss Devil with Runner's Wounding Shot is also nice. Herr, Backstab is also devastating even if you only get one shot instead of two pokes with the pike.

Great work Fluff, keep on ruling!

Wait until you want to split stacks!

Ogre Druids don't use Relentless or Returning Storm as far as I know. If you charm one then the others will unleash their spells onto him instead of you. Also works if you charm a normal Ogre. Their will defense is bad. Don't use spells against them that target fortitude. It's their highest defense and if you graze the duration of the spell is halved. It's better to use CC that targets the will defense (if you have).

You have to disable them before they unleash their spells. Ogre druids can be charmed easily, human druids can be disabled with things that target fortitude, but charms also work well. And Durance knows a litany that prevents stun, but there's nothing against Plague of Insects.

ROFL - I meant WITH somebody else!

Tall Grass and Hours of St. Rumbalt is a nice pair (if you don't plan to use the sword on somebody else).

Grab Godansthunyr from the Sky Dragon's place instead. Strike Hard is nice as well, but for me the stunning enchantment and the longer interrupt (0.75 instead of 0.5) and the +1 to MIG are better than speed in this case. Shattersta also has higher interrupt by the way (1 instead of 0.5). With Godansthunyr you can cause stun all the time with Disciplined Barrage and Knockdown: Knockdown with Shatterstar first, then chain-stun with Godansthunyr, alternating between annihilating crits (Shatterstar) and stunning crits (Godansthunyr).

Barbs with pikes (reach weapon) have one huge advantage that is often overlooked: they can place the center of the carnage much better than with a normal melee weapon. For them it's a lot easier to reach more enemies with a strike. Also, since barbs start kind of squishy but grow sturdier and sturdier with every level, it's a good way to avoid getting attacked in the early game (attack from behind the front line). Later you can be a really great flanker. Once the enemies build a bulk you come from the side and poke right into their middle. If enemies got CC'd a bit (blind is a great affliction) then it's easy for the barb to prone them all with Tall Grass + Carnage. Rogue + pike is also a good option. Herr the main advatage is the avoidance of direkt contact with the enemy. Fighter is better off with dual wielding or a nice non-reach two hander in my opinion. Wizard with pike is nothing special until you can summon Spirit Lance, which is awesome. But you don't have to use a pike as backup weapon. Spirit Lance works with every Weapon Focus. So a quarterstaff or any other two hander (pollaxe?) would do, too. Wind's Arm comes very late, but Zephyr aura (debuffs concentration) and Expose Vulnerabilities (also debuffs concentration) stack.

Official companions start one level above hirelings. That makes them a lot better in the early game. Since the early game is the hardest part of the game, in my opinion the official companions make the game easier, not harder.

Dual wielding because of Knockdown (Full Attack) and Charge (finishes with a Full Attack at the target). Also great to achieve low recovery in thick armor (dual wielding + Armored Grace). A fighter like Edér is sturdy enough without a shield. And 3 Full Attack Knock downs, combined with Disciplined Barrage are good CC- and damage tools when dual wielding. I like dual hammers a lot. Shatterstar with Annihilating + Guarding seems to be made for a fighter. If you put Shatterstar into the main hand and do a Knockdown, the offhand will strike first, most likely causing prone, the second strike with Shatterstar is likely to crit, which is great because of Annihilation. Dual sabres is also nice.

Yes, it is! Especially a barb works great with Nov. Suffering. Just don't take any dmg-mods like Savage Attack or Blooded and so on. Those only raise the base damage of weapons and Nov. Suffering leaves the tiny base damage of fists (5- untouched but gives you a huge damage bonus that is not influenced by those dmg mods. This also means that crits don't do so much for your damage. On the upside: grazes will nearly do the same damage as hits or crits. And carnage has a -34% DMG malus. But -34% of 5-8 isn't so bad. At the same time Carnage suffers from a -10 ACC malus at the start of the game which leads to a lot of grazes. But again: since a graze with fists doesn't gimp your damage as much as with normal weapon it's not that noticeable that Carnage has some serious handicaps in the early game. Nov. Suffering gets boosted by MIG though. So your goal should be to have very high MIG. High INT is always good for carnage of course. And with high MIG and INT I would always pick Veteran's Recovery. Then take Weapon Focus Peasant, Two Weapon Style. As I said skip all the DMG mods, also Apprentice's Sneak Attack. You can take some defensive talents like Bear's Fortitude at some point because you skip the dmg related ones. Maybe in this case even Greater Frenzy is viable, because of the higher MIG. Abilities like Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst are great. Even One Stands alone can still be viable because of the defensive part (more foes needed to flank you) - if you get flanked a lot. Search for the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar (bounty in WM I, Durgan's Battery map). Armor depends on your playstyle. If you want to run into the thick of it then thicker armor. If you like to flank then thinner. Everything that speeds you up is nice (Gauntlets of Swift Action for example). Also everything that raises MIG.

Good question. No idea actually. Never tried that.

Vent Pick is not especially great. It just comes durgan refined (no need to use ingots on it) with that special proc of FoD which only adds +50% lash to the one hit/crit where it procs - and it does so seldomly. Something like Godansthunyr is very nice though. If you combine Binding Rope (retaliates with stuck affliction, suppresses normal retaliation, but not from Supper Plate nor Battle Forged) with Badgradr's and Godansthunyr you will deliver lots of crits via retaliation, Rooting Pain and weapon attacks, causing stunned and triggering Thrust of Tattered Veils. Also fits the "anvil" theme.

Torment's Reach is special. It does a Full Attack with the +50% crushing lash and stuff, but the cone is a separate thing. It only does crush damage and it has a separate base damage that is not influenced by your weapon choice. It doesn't use lashes on your weapons. If I remember correctly, it also doesn't use DR bypass. This is a lot different from Carnage for example. It works more like Blast (wizard). However, it does indeed trigger on-hit and on-crit effects and also works with spell chance items (Redeemer and so on, where you have a x% chance to trigger y on hit or crit). Blast does that, too. It also procs the Thrust of Tattered Veils from Badgradr's Barricade (medium shield in Durgan's Battery). That thing also reflects ranged attacks (10% I think, stacks with durgan steel). The best shield for reflecting missiles of all sorts is Aila Braccia. It works perfectly well with Soul Mirror, because the shield will reflect all grazes (and turn them to misses) while Soul Mirror will also reflect some misses (those don't get reflected by the shield). For melee, when you get pommeled, I guess the Supper Plate is good. Badgradr's Barricade is a really good mixture between offense and defense when you use Torment's Reach. Else, the best thing to have for Torment's Reach might be fast weapons with ACC bonus (dagger, club, rapier). Because the cone doesn't care about your weapon's damage, you should be able to spam it faster and with more precision. The initial hit is of course weaker (because fast weapons have lower base damage), but the cone damage will not be altered. And since you can spam it faster, it should result in more damage. Didn't try that theory out by myself though.

I think I don't understand the first question. Full Attack means that you are striking with both weapons if you are dual wielding or use a bashing shield. The offhand will strike first. With a two handed weapon, a weapon + shield, a single weapon or any ranged weapon you will only strike/shoot once like with a Primary Attack. Those strikes work like normal melee attacks (besides having special bonuses) - so a Full Attack like from Flames of Devotion does trigger on-hit and on-crit effects, yes. Same with Crippling Strike and so on. DR bypass also works like with auto attacks. The graze-to-hit conversion of Whispers of Yenwood only works for the attacks that are done with it. I mean the strikes you deliver with that sword. Nothing else. Same with all other weapons that have conversions.

Why are you gaming on a laptop? That's my privilege!

No. I think it simply loops through the damage types you currently have and determines which of the corresponding DR is lowest. No damage involved yet. But I think first of all the roll (ACC against defense) is done. And this is done after the attack animation. Because if you miss you can skip all the other calculations. But correct me if I'm wrong. One could of course do the DR-check first, then play the fitting animation - while keeping in mind which DR number and which damage type is used - and then do the attack roll + damage roll. It's great that the actual attack roll is done after the animation. This gives a buff more time to be applied - sometimes after animation, right before the roll.

I hope you also took Turning Wheel. Because it also works with Battle-Forged and normal retaliation. +60% burning lash (with Scion of Flame) is a pretty powerful answer when you get pommeled.

Yes, Kaylon meant Defensive Mindweb. You need one very tanky char (in terms of defense values) and once you cast it you are in god mode.

Great stuff!

That's not universally true. You completely ignore that a melee combatant has to run to his target (or the target to him) and thus looses a lot of potential DPS compared to a ranged combatant who can just switch targets in range without any time loss. This is more obvious when playing on PotD where you have more enemies and the fights last longer. That's one reason why a monk with The Long Pain is more powerful than a monk with Transcendent Suffering. It's also the reason why Boots of Speed are a DPS booster if you prefer melee and a defensive tool for ranged characters. And by the way all active offensive abilities of the fighter only work in melee except Clear Out and Into the Fray. The latter makes no sense for a ranged fighter, as do all the abilities around engagement (Defender, Overbearing Guard) and defense. You simply don't need them as a ranged fighter but you have to take some because there's no alternative. The nicest active tools of a fighter (Knockdown, Sundering Blow, Charge) can't be used with ranged weapons which leads to a very boring build which only has some passive damage bonuses and is more sturdy than it needs to be.

For me the hardest fights are Brynlod and also Magran's Faithful. Dragons are quite easy because you can charm or prone or paralyze them easily with a party and the ads are not that powerful but just annoying. The bounties however have a lot of high level casters that can really smash you in seconds if you're sloppy (especially if you choose upscaled content). The druids of Magran's Faithful will shower your casters with Sunbeams like there's no tomorrow and so on. Still not supertough if you're lvl 16 or so, but harder than the bog dragons + Llengrath in my opinion. But yes: the more you advance the easier it gets. Especially with a lot of casters there are no real challenging fights later in the game. The trash mobs you can easily dispatch with your Spell Masteries and in tough fights you can just use all your spells. Try a party without casters (wizard, druid, priest, cipher). That's a bigger challenge. Not necessarily when fighting dragons, but when meeting big groups of high level enemies (Torn Bannermen, Abbey monks, bounties).

You can agree to let Lumdala go if she gives you the name of Lord Gaderman - and when she gave it you can still kill her ("Actually, I have a more dramatic ending in mind").