Boeroer

Does something magical happen once you have 6 party members?

You are right. That part is indeed very tricky since Runner's duration and also that of wounding is rather short. That's why I casted Shining Beacon, then CF (also not too long) and followed up with a Runner's Wounding Shot (or Envenomed Strike) with Tidefall. Still tricky. That way you have decent runner's damage (not the max, but good) or posion DoT and wounding applied with one strike. But that was because of my solo run. It would indeed be way less fuzz to apply DoTs with other party members. So you might as well skip Runner's altogether and give Tidefall to a party member while you use another great sword (as I said - Firebrand with high MIG and Scion of Flame is also very nice. Or try Rumbalt - with Inspiring Radiance + Devotions you can crit a lot). Yeah, if you want a vessel slayer I would also say Berath fits best.

Ok, you can reproduce it with Wrath otFS - but timing is critical. So far no luck with missiles... Also should work with all other arbalests since all of them are overbearing (prone only though).

It's an integral part of the PoE1 ranger, yes. Why are you linking to a D&D page? PoE is not D&D and I'm happy about that. Not that I dislike D&D, it's just another game. I'm totally fine with the Ghost Heart Lodge ranger. A lot of people complained in the PoE char build forum that they don't really want to use an animal companion but focus more on the ranger. The Ghostheart is a good approach in my opinion. You can have your pet running around if you summon it, but you can also completely skip that. And since it's a subclass and we'll have three of them - plus the base class - there's anough room for other fancy experiments around "rangering".

...well that rhymes quite nicely doesn't it? Hi! I just discovered a weird albeit funny bug: when you use Pallegina's Wrath of the Five Suns and quickly switch to Aedrin's Wrecker and command an FoD-shot on the same target BEFORE the five suns crash into the target - then every ball of fire will cause prone and stun when it crits. It seems that the balls of fire inherit the properties of Aedrin's Wrecker in some way. Most likely the same problem we had with offensive auras from items (fear aura from Executioner's Hood, Harbinger aura from Redfield) that would cause prone if you used Knockdown the same time when the effect pulsed. Maybe you remember. This was fixed some time ago though. So now you have six chances in total to cause a crit (5 balls, one shot) and then two chances (=two rolls: prone AND stun) to disable an opponent after that crit happens. These are 18 hit rolls altogether which also get displayed in the combat log. At the moment it looks like that it's a guaranteed disable. Sworn Enemy + FoD + Zealous Focus lets you crit anything if you have that many chances. Now I have to see if this also works with Minor Missiles from Spell Binding, missile spells from scrolls and Prestidigitator's Missiles - plus Aedrin's Wrecker.

ROFL - now I spilled my cucumber sandwich all over the keyboard.

Sure sure - I know. All good. The "Yes, thanks" was not ironical or something. I just wanted to differentiate a bit and show that the answer is not easy and also depends where you are in the game (besides other factors you mentioned).

Yes, thanks. But to be fair: this is a late game setup as I already mentioned. Dual wielders have a much easier time to reach 0. Not that they have to - just in order to increase DPS to the max. Now away from pure dps and towards overall power and usefulness: Two handers get the more powerful uniques early in the game while dual wielding gets you to high attack speed really quickly. Maybe that's why they placed the good two handers in those areas where you can get them early, who knows?

Cool. One thing though: Runner's Wounding shot does raw damage based on your physical damage you rolled. So optimally you would use a weapon which has the highest damage per hit possible. I normally used Tidefall itself after casting Cleansing Flame because that way you could apply two DoTs which get double damage at the same time and do good damage with Runner's Wounding Shot itself. I did basically the same thing but used some other talents because I didn't take the vessel slaying route (which is totally fine): Envenomed Strike because of Cleansing Flame. High MIG and INT are very good things for Envenomed Strike and it's easy to cast Cleansing Flame afterwards because Env. Strike takes a long time to apply completely. An even better alternative would be to have it on another team member I have to admit. I played the priest solo and thus had to use it myself. I also used Savage Attack because it can be beneficial for the wounding damage - as high MIG is. And since I used Aggrandizing Radiance like you did - it stacks with everything - I also added Inspiring Radiance for the +10 stackable accuracy which I think is neat. This means that I couldn't fit in Scion and Sanctifier. But those are all matter of taste. Sanctifier with Bartender's Ring is also a nice "undead hunter" approach - and my beloved Envenomed Strike doesn't work on vessels anyway. So good decisions from your side I would say. Sidenote, just in case you didn't know: Scion of Flame doesn't work with Shining Beacon or Holy Radiance because those are DoTs. It works perfectly well with Pillars of Flame and all other direkt burn damage spells of course - so absolutely viable pick. Since you have Scion of Flame you could also test if Firebrand is a good alternative before you can get Tidefal. It it very good for Runner's Wounding Shot and works with the Scion talent. It doesn't add any DoT effect of course. Edit: I mistyped Shining Beacon as Shining Bacon and now I'm really hungry. By the way: I used a boreal dwarf and took the Maefolc Skull to get the "Berath Vibe" - but Death Godlike with aumaua body shape and a fat two hander looks totally badass.

Yeah good no problem. The dual wielder gets those buffs, too, if you want - even if he doesn't need them to reach 0 recovery. Why not. Now we have apples for apples... So now step by step - and we're only looking at dps: - Once the two hander guy (with all the stats, buffs and items) attacks as fast as a dual wielder with the same buffs and items - he does more dps. Do you agree? - You can't be faster than 0 recovery - even if you have more attack speed bonus than you need. So when a two hander reaches 0 recovery he will be as fast as a dual wielder. Do you agree?

Please understand this: you can't get faster than 0 recovery. You may want to be all fair and also give the dual wielder those buffs like Frenzy and so on. You can add Frenzy + other speed buffs to a dual wielder, sure - but it's of no use at some point because he can't get any faster than O recovery while the two hander catches up to that. And once (quite late in the game) he did that he does always more dps - Full Attacks aside. That's the whole point that I and others (including Kaylon I guess) are trying to make. Before that the dual weapon setup does more damage against low to mid DR foes, that's right. Kaylon didn't write in favor of any position - he posted a test result - showing how a two hander can be as fast as a dual wielding setup (and thus doing more dps). That undergirds what I was saying. I have the feeling that I have to elaborate a lot because you don't get what I mean. In fact it is quite simple but your comments are not very helpful.

I'm looking forward to playing a gun ranger/priest of magran. Maybe Powder Burns will still be in the game...

I don't make it personal and I don't mislead. In fact I'm trying to stay focused and not to beat around the bush. I'm also trying to avoid sarcastic comments. You should read my posts again. You will see that I don't make any insulting or misleading comments nor do I attack you personally. And I don't shout either. You are not limited to potions. A barbarian with Frenzy and Bloodlust (and maybe also Blood Thirst) could achieve 0 recovery without potions for example: being as fast with a two hander as with dual weapons. So it's possible (and not too difficult in the late game) to out dps dual wielding with a two hander. That was your question and it got answered. I'm not trying to win anything, I'm just rying to answer your question and to show you that there is no simple answer. What I also said is that it' way easier to achieve 0 recovery (earlier) with dual wielding and pointing out other advantages of dual wielding - supporting parts of your position as well. I'm sorry that you can't see that I'm trying to be neutral here. But your initial statement was very strong: "not suitable/no way/how is it possible". Several users, including me, showed that it can be suitable and also is possible. Maybe for you and your playstyle it is not the case, but that doesn't mean that two handers are not viable or can't compete. No need to get huffy I'd say.

Eh? Why is a melee oriented ranger with an animal companion taking away somethig? You can already do this in PoE1 and it's quite unique because of the "tandem"-mechanics of ranger & pet, flanking an enemy. I made a build for it and it works really well - and is totally different from rogues or fighters or whatever. Nobody said there should be a subclass that focuses on melee AND have no animal companion. We willl have one base class and three subclasses by the way.

Your question: "how is that possible"? The answer is: That's the answer. If you attack as fast as a dual wielder (meaning you strike as often in a given timespan) you will have "out dpsed" a dual wielder bwecause your damage er hit will be higher. So there is a way - and it's not that quirky or weird. Quite simple. I don't see the need for shadowboxing. I'm not in favor of two handers or dual wielding. Both have their pros and cons. Simply saying "X is better than Y" or "Hours of St. Rumbalt is not suitable for a rogue" doesn't work in this game and you can see why. There are too many ifs (build, enemy's DR, actual attack speed, buffs, damage types, unique enchantments, party composition and so on).

That would be nice. A bit like the old D&D rangers - Drizzt and stuff. But I can't think of any plausible talents around dual wielding at the moment (besides two weapon style of course). Maybe more cool Full Attacks would be nice. In PoE things like Wounding Shot (or Strike) are Primary Attacks only - which is lame.

We are certainly not getting it wrong. A potion of Alacrity or Frenzy + Gautlets (~50% speed bonus) are enough to attack as fast as a dual wielder (who sort of has the same speed bonus without doing anything but wearing two weapons). But that's not what Kaylon meant I guess. He was explaining that you can attack with 0 recovery if you do the things he listed. Once you reach 0 recovery it doesn't matter if you dual wield or use a two hander. 0 recovery is 0 recovery and you can't get faster than that. The 20 DEX was only mentioned because with it you can skip one frame(!) that would otherwise be displayed. So - attack speed of two handers and dual wielding will be the same once you reach 0 recovery - but damage per hit will be higher with the two hander. That will result in higher dps obviously: same speed + higher damage per hit = higher dps. By the way the two hander user can of course wear armor and still reach 0 recovery. Either he's wearing a durganized robe (=0% penalty) or he's a fighter and wears durganized scale combined with Armored Grace as I already said. A dual wielder will not per se attack with 0 recovery. BUT it's a lot easier for him to reach 0 recovery. Dual wielding alone will not get him there. He would also need to drink a potion of Alacrity and have no armor penatly - but then he could skip Gauntlets of Swift Action and durgan steel. OR he could use those things and wear heavy armor and/or use Vulnerable Attack for a bit more sturdyness and dps (doesn't reach two hander's dps, but comes close) and still have 0 recovery. This is an advantage of course - but so much for your as for survivability. So, in terms of auto-attack dps (not looking at armor and whatnot) a two hander can be better than dual wielding in the late game - but it's more fuzz to get there. Once you have a lot (or even unlimited) Full Attacks dual wielding is generally better. A good exampe is the monk with Torment's Reach where dual wielding is a lot better than a two hander. Counterexample could be a barbarian because the +33% damage malus of carnage, paired with high DR of enemies, can lead to a lot of MIN damage where a two hander like an estoc would punch through easily.

Nice momentum we have right now.

PoE1 ranger can be pretty good in melee. Stunning Shots, combined with Swift Aim and dual wielding turns you into a stunlock-machine. Marked Prey is very good - and Wounding Shot is nice with two handers (check it out with Firebrand...). Stalker's Link with Stalker's Torc is good for melee, too. You don't need to spend any talent or ability points on your animal companion. Although you'd lose some very nice synergies if you skip it all I'd say. Since there will be the Ghost Heart Lodge in PoE2 which only has a spirit-like animal companion which you can summon but don't need to, we already have a ranger who's more "self centered". I think it's very likely that one of the other two subclasses goes the opposite way and does invest more into the animal companion(s).

Is there ANY story to this? (because they seem like theres no story, all combat mostly) I toy with getting grimrock 2 often. (and this would help me decide) explained. Ah ok. Well... it's really like Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder where you don't talk a lot but instead find hints and clues about the lore and the world. I mean you get thrown into a dungeon and have to crawl out. There's a heavy emphasis on puzzles - some of them really hard but not mandatory. If you like that than yay, if not than it's not a game for you. So, no, not really big storytelling there.

$1275...

Ehm... sorry - what exactly do you mean?

There is no spell that gets completely rid of this. Maybe one can suppress it via Suppress Affliction or Liberating Exhortation (never tried). You can prevent a hit with high fortitude - and you can try to heal your party up because Infestation of Maggots deals no damage if the victim has full endurance. I never had any problems with this spell. Multiple instances of Plague of Insects are more annoying in my opinion.

Which skill? If you have a priest then try Inspiring & Aggrandizing Radiance + Minor Avatar + Devotions + Shining Beacon - one of the best AoE damage combos in the game. If you add Cleansing Flame after that it gets ridiculous. Sure, those spells come a bit later. Before that you are stuck with Iconic Projection and Pillar of Faith for AoE damage. But once you have Shining Beacon your priest has a very powerful AoE damage tool. Later you can add Storm of Holy Fire and stuff, too.

I mean it's relatively easy to find out which does better damage without math (which might be prone to mistakes if you can't be sure about all the details): just attack a teammate and monitor how much health is left after a given timespan. Do it often enough and you can see which one is better in terms of damage. You can easily switch armors on your "crush test dummy" to simulate different DR and resistences, too. It just takes some time.