Boeroer

Yeah - I meant if it's not enough for stretch goals of course.

Fluffle, simple option: why don't you keep the surplus money? You had so much work and I guess you donated more than there will be excess money. I would be cool with it. Or other suggestion: let us give the money to the kitty (money pool for buying coffee/tee and stuff) of OBS employees?

St. Borragias Tears works with every healing you do - except draining. Damn you, brick headed draining! Maneha's armor is great - it just looks... well... you have to like it on your rogue. Dual Purgatory is also nice - but Edge of Reason comes superbidyperb - which can be a plus if you want to give superb stuff to all party members.

Scroll of Prayer against Imprisonment totally works. You will be immune for 27 seconds. You need Lore 10 - or Lore 8 and an item that gives you +2 Lore (like Argwe's Adra or Rundl's Finery or whatever). Or/and get some Lore bonus via resting. Aila Braccia also work against Lagufaeth lowguns and things like Cleansing Flame - maybe it also works against he petrify-spell of Andragans? Would be awesome... Besides that: what Dr. Love said.

Let's assume you only want to shoot once and don't want to reload - then the only pistols that come close to damage per 1 shot are Fellstroke (because of Ambushing) and Dulcanale (because of Annihilating). Pistols also need two resources each to upgrade by the way. All two handed weapons need two resources of each category, all one handed weapons need one resource of each. Sadly, there are no superb pistols in the game and also only one exceptional unique. Exceptional arquebuses can be looted from Torn Bannermen - exceptional pistols, too. I also assumed all weapons have been enchanted to exceptional. exceptional arquebus:base damage: 24-36 = average of 30 + 30% damage from exceptional: +9 only +20% damage on crit: +6 exceptional bonus + inherent acc malus = +3 ACC 39 on hit, 45 on crit with every additional point of MIG you will get +0.9 damage Fellstroke:base damage: 22-30 = average of 26 +30% damage from exceptional: +7.8 only +20% on crit: +5.2 Ambushing = +25% damage sneak attack bonus: +6.5 +3 ACC as arquebus 33.8 on hit, 39 on crit with Ambushing: 40.3 on hit, 45.5 on crit +1 MIG = +0.78 damage Dulcanale:base damage: 22-30 = average of 26 +30% damage from exceptional: +7.8 Annihilating: +70% on crit: +18.2 +3 ACC as arquebus 33.8 on hit, 44.2 on crit +1 MIG = +0.78 damage Hope I don't have typos or something... So, those two can be alternatives. They have lower range though! Another drawback is that they do about the same damage as arquebuses, but only if the circumstances are right and if your MIG is not too high. Chars with high MIG should favor arquebuses because of higher base damage. Low MIG chars (with high PER in case of Dulcanale) might favor pistols - if they don't mind the shorter reach. Blunderbusses have the highest damage per shot (not hit) - but only against very low DR. In order to make them work well against foes with even mediocre DR you'd have to stack DR bypass: Penetrating Shot, Ryona's Vambraces, Effigy's Resentment: Devil of Caroc = 13 DR bypass, +16 with Lead Spitter. With those you can hit most foes really hard. But even then there's a problem with Blunderbusses and that's lashes. Lashes don't use the DR bypass you stacked. So a blunderbuss is the worst weapon to put a lot of lashes onto. So say goodbye to that blunderbuss, dear paladin and dear chanter. But a rogue for example can do good things with a blunderbuss and said DR bypass options. A fighter, too - especially if he has sunderung blow (= -8 DR). Same with a wizard: he can use Expose Vulnerabilites to lower DR directly which also helps with the lashes a bit. And the neatest trick is: he can cast Combusting Wounds on the target first and then deliver 6 parallel DoTs with the 6 pellets. So there are uses for the blunderbusses, but they need a bit of preperation. There's also Silver Flash which has two different Spell Chance enchantment. Because you hit 6 times with one shot there will most likely be a proc. So: fighter + blunderbuss can be really good, paladin with Flames of Devotion: not good.

Man - 1332 bucks from one donator - can't compete with that. Superawesome by the way! And now the donations fly in like bees into their hive on a sunny afternoon. Love it!

Depends - against low-DR-enemies which are not resistant to slash - or if you have means to get a lot of DR bypass or/and you can lower enemies' DR then yes. But against all the other enemies a lot of damage of the hatchets will be eaten up and two swords would outperform hatchets then. Swords have two damage types (this is a huge advantage which is often overlooked) and they have higher base damage (all dmg mods have more impact) and therefore are better when you meet foes with mid to high DR. Hatchets make you more sturdy though. Another advantage which doesn't do anything for direct dps of course.

Sanguine Plate would result in more DR and +4 MIG and CON and therefore also +16 fortitude and more healing - it would be suiting if one likes that armor. I personally find the looks a bit over the top and too reddish, but hey: Frenzy is nice . Recovery would still be zero as far as I can say - but of course only as long as Frenzy works. After that you will lose dps. Godlikes with helmets: maybe IEMod or simply an oversight during the iteration steps of development. Also happens to me from time to time. I would say Moon Godlike is even better than Maegfolc Skull because you will have the benefits of Silver Tide right from lvl 1 on while the Skull comes very late. You can put +2 MIG onto the padded armor I guess (can't say if there's enough room left for the enchantment though). For a rogue that gets hit a bit Elryn's Jacket (also padded armor, causes blind in an AoE ervery few hits you receive) might also be a nice alternative. If you combine it with the Binding Rope (stuck on getting a crit) you can get Deathblows all by yourself - might be handy in solo or when other party memebers are out of CC or so. Another alternative might be Jack of Wide Waters (padded) because of the +2 survival. You could then put a lot less points into survival (only tier 12 instead of 14) which you could put into lore or mechanics or stealth or whatever - also not bad if you'd go solo for example.

I agree with everything you said there basically.

He will have very high fortitude and so most disables will not be a huge problem. He can always put on Fenwalkers - the grazes should then be completely removed by the -5 sec enchantment. Against prone/stun Blaidh Golan will help a lot. Very nice combination of survivability without sacrificing too much offense -as I like it. One tiny thing though: draining does *not* profit from healing bonuses. I made the same mistake once and stood corrected. But with all the other healing factors you have you will not even notice - also because the high direct damage leads to good draining numbers anyway. What does work with healing bonuses though is a potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. So even if health is low (may happen a lot when you heal endurance a lot but your defenses are not great) that's not even a problem because those potions can give you back enough health so that you don't have to rest the whole time. All in all a very nice build. It will need a few levels to develop enough survivability to get reckless but then I'm sure it's a lot of fun. Funnily enough, I think this build would also work very well with Tidefall - but of course he would be hitting slower - if you like rogues with big swords that is. Full Attack abilities are of course nicer with two weapons.

They said there's a cowboy hat in PoE2.

A proper druid would still deliver higher single target dps because of the higher base damage, inherent DR bypass and his massive lashes and also because of some spells that work nicely with melee fighting, but he's limited to short shifting time and has a bit lower DR. A barb with a two hander like BoTEP and Frenzy + Bloodlust also does more dps - but not single target dps of course. A monk also does more dps as long as he has a lot of wounds. But for persistent high single target dps without using resources that rogue would indeed be the best pick I guess. The only thing why Bittercut might be "better" for him on the long run is because of two damge types instead of one compared to Rimecutter.

He? Did I do the math wrong? Maybe, I just hacked something into my calc and didn't double check. But doesn't dual wielding + gauntlets + durgan steel + two weaoons style leave you with enough buffer to compensate ~15% armor penalty?

You mean damaging chants, right? Besides that: fighter tanks are totally useless for me. I find fighters to be better when they combine very high ACC, good damage and enough sturdyness. But that might be a matter of taste. Chanter tanks on the other hand can deal massive AoE damage just by standing around. Dragon Thrashed gets cast every 4 seconds at lvl 16, doing around 80+80 damage each time they hit (if you have the correct attributes - and more if you crit) - and it entirely stacks. You can't find any other damaging AoE ability that will cost no resources, reliably kills all mobs after a few phrases and even works when the character is withdrawn or even prone. At the same time the chanter can run around, attack with a weapon, use spell bindings or scrolls - all while not interfering with his chanting which does this enourmous damage. Even if he would be worse at tanking than a full tank fighter or paladin he would still be way more useful. There's a reason why you can rel. easily solo PoTD with such a chanter but not with a fighter tank. I mean you can, but it's a real chore and involves heavy pulling and kiting - compared to a chanter "tank". Saying that a fighter tank is more useful than a chanter tank only shows that one didn't experience the awesomeness of a chanter once he hits lvl 9. May sound harsh, but I can't really think of another reason. For me, basic chanter mechanics don't need a change - at least not if you look at it from the PoTD perspective, which is slower than the other ones. And certainly not if you look at PoTD solo. What they could do however is to start with a few phrases - like ciphers start with a bit focus - and OBS could invent better phrases and invocations besides the few really useful ones. Most of the chanters phrases and invocations are lame and seem uninspired - that's a pity. Luckily there are a few really strong ones.

Don't exactly get what you want to know, sorry. I guess you mean which armor (with durgan steel) you can wear and still have 0 recovery with no potions and buffs - while dual wielding? Then the answer is: yes, durgan reinforced Wayfarer's Hide will work. In fact, even a leather armor would work. No potion and no speed buffs needed. Cool stuff. If you use speed enchanted weapons (March Steel Dagger, Sword of Daenysis, Shatterstar, Danulya, Rimecutter and so on - there are a few more) then you can even wear durganized plate AND switch on Vulnerable Attack with no speed loss - still 0 recvery. You won't have to use any buff or potion. Or you use a bit weaker armor (leather) and also take Cautious Attack without speed loss or something. Also neat.

Yes, I totally agree - that is a common "problem" of the monk in western RPGs. To be honest I also skipped monks for the first several PoE playthroughs because of that. However in PoE - if one can ignore that image - they can be a lot of fun. Now one of my most favored classes. Rangers - not so much I'm afraid. Doesn't mean they are bad - but they don't appeal to me because they are quite limited in the ways you can build them. I guess the subclasses in PoE will drastically change that.

Moon Godlikes' racial ability is very powerful - I mean if you compare it to available headger in PoE1. I don't use them a lot because I don't like the looks too much but they are powerful. I used Fire Godlikes quite often because you can do a some nice shenanigans with the burn retalition - because it scales with level and leads to insane retaliation damage if you combine it with certain class abilites. Examples: - monk: Battle Forged retaliation with Scion of Flame, Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes and Blood Testament Gloves will have +20% base damage and lashes of +60% burn, +25% shock and +20% raw. This leads to retaliation strikes which do 100-150 burn damage with Battle Forged alone. Add a Flame Shield potion and other retaliation items as well as Rooting Pain and it gets totally crazy. This monk can just stand there and do nothing and still kills everything that hits him in melee (as long as it's not immune to fire). - barbarian: One Stands Alone and Blooded work with Battle Forged. Add Scion of Flame, Firebrand and Barbaric Retaliation and he can also be a powerful retaliation tank as the above monk. Both have the advantage of very high endurance and health so that the 50% endurance is not that tricky. - cipher: used to generate focus via Battle Forged. Now it's all nerfed and doesn't work anymore - but the combo of Ring of Searing Flames (Combusting Wounds) + all the retaliation you can stack + Pain Link is still very powerful. - priest: can reach very high MIG which results in high Battle Forged damage. Plus: Fire Godlike priest of Magran fits nicely. Meh: priests' endurance and health are quite bad and you shouldn't plan to use Battle Forged a lot because you will have to rest all the time because of low health. Death Godlike I seldomly use. I like the combo of Death Godlike and chanter or priest of Berath - but to be honest the racial ability is not good enough to justify the loss of headgear. Nature Godlike: same basically. Nature Godlike Stag Druid or Nature Godlike stag ranger are nice concepts - stylistically - but the racial ability is very underwhelming. It stacks with everything though, but it would have been better if it triggered at 75%. Or if it worked like Fighting Spirit (humans). The term "Wellspring of Life" suggests that there's healing involved - which is not the case. An inherent regeneration like those of a trollhide belt that scaled a bit would also have been awesome. Bird Godlike: ok, the racial ability is totally bonkers, but Pallegina makes up for this with her awesome Wrath of the Five Suns. I like her very much.

No, the rogue with the BotEP can also wear plate if he uses a potion of Alacrity for example - giving him 0 recovery like the dual wieder has. The dual wielder could also gulp that potion, but it wouldn't do anything for him because he already has 0 recovery. Anyways - having higher DR is of course benefical, but it's not relevant when speaking about dps. So, the best melee dps option in the late game can be two hander. If it's the best option overall is debateable and also heavily depends on your class, your enemy and your and party setup and what gear is available - if you like consumables or not and so on. But the best possible melee dps option late in the game is a two hander. The big advantage of dual wielding is that before the late mid game to late game - where speedups like durgan steel become available - you will have better dps most of the time if you use a class which has no good speed ability (rogues, fighters, papadins and so on) and you don't want to drink Alacrity potions or use drugs. And of course if you use a rogue who takes all the strike abilites - then I would totally recommend dual wielding because it should always result in higher damage output (first strike blinds, secnds strike already has Sneak bonus and so on).

Right - and it's also benefical to use Blood Thirst as well if you are not already at 0 recovery with Bloodlust (for example if you use a weapon without speed enchantment - like Drake's Bell with maximum DR penetration setup). After HoF you will have no recovery because you killed at least one enemy, you can follow up with Barbaric Blow which will most likely kill another enemy - again no recovery - and then hack away with auto attacks which are sped up via Bloodlust. Blood Thirst can close the gap between weapons with and without speed enchantment(s). Of course - if you already have 0 recovery then taking Blood Thirst is nonsense in order to speed up your weapon attacks. But there might be reason you want to keep it: If you want to use attacks that are not related to your weapons - like Dragon Leap, Echoing Shout, spell binding gear or scrolls: those spell like abilites which don't use your weapons' enchantments also work with Blood Thirst. If you kill enemies with a Dragon Leap, a Jolting Touch or a Fireball or whatever you will also have 0 recovery - while the speed enchantment of your weapon will do nothing in this case. Casting some "spells" with 0 recovery in full plate is powerful.

That is a misconception. Monks are good with fists, but they are equally good or even better with weapons and especially with heavy armor in the earlier stages of the game. On-crit weapons with overbearing or stunning as well as weapons with spell chances work with the AoE cone of Torment's Reach for example. So like a barbarian you can deliver CC or other effects in an area of effect while doing a lot of damage. I guess people think they have to play a monk as you described and are repelled by the "martial arts" thang. But you can easily play him in other ways and he will be as good or better. May people found him to be too micro-intensive and it's true: the usual monk needs a lot of micromanagement to be effective - just like casters. But then he's the best melee class in my opinion.

The monk is exactly that: a powerful, active melee character with a lot of (AoE) ability uses and very strong CC options per encounter. Yet this also didn't please a lot of people because they couldn't find out how to use him properly. Guess you can't please them all. There were no dedicated talents for melee rangers in PoE1, it's true. Only ones which worked ranged as well as melee at best. Something around spears or pikes would have been cool - like a boar hunter or generally a big game hunter.

The attack animations of two handers and larger one handers have the exact same length - with or without potion. The speed of attack animations only changes with DEX. Potions and other buffs only influence recovery time. Recovery is also the same with two handers or single larger one handers. Dual Wielding will reduce recovery only. Attack animations remain unchanged. So if you can tell those things by watching the attack animations you may be victim of an optical illusion. Which is understandable because the two handers are longer and seem to be slower. But counting frames shows that they are not. Once the recovery of two hander and dual wielding is the same, both variants attack with the exact same speed.

If you have a rogue or fighter with decent MIG and lowish INT (like Edér for example): those are also good with Tidefall. Pallegina - due to her lame MIG score and the fact that she has no big damage bonuses other than lashes (which don't help the wounding damage) - might not be the best character to give. Tidefall for Maneha would def. be a better pick. She can have high attack speed even with two handers (Frenzy, Bloodlust und Blood Thirst stack) and she has high MIG and not too high INT and she can stack some nice damage bonuses like Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and Blooded (altogether 60%). Plus: the wounding via carnage makes up for the fact that quite a bit of physical damage gets eaten up by enemies' DR because carnage suffers from a damage malus. Aaand she would do wounding in an AoE (Cleansing Flame jumps!) and also drain a lot of endurance via carnage - which is cool.

That - and that they don't know themselves how the stuff works. Neat project MaxQuest. Also pleases the eye. Can't wait to see it finished!

I guess - because otherwise you can't skip the recovery of WotFS. Shot and the fiery balls have to hit at roughly the same time. So it's also impossible to time if you're too near. At max range it's doable though. But although it's a neat effect it's way to much fuzz to be exploitable.