Boeroer

He's just waiting for a bit more coins in order to buy Tall Grass. Obviously it's not optimal to use Two Handed Style + spear & shield. What do you mean "there's no talent for weapon and shield"? Of course there is.

I'm currently doing a barb ultimate run with a quite similar approach and so far it's going well. Since I consider the monk to be stronger I'd say he's viable.

quick update: ulti-barb killed Maerwald at lvl 5 with the unexpected help of some beetles and is off to Defiance Bay...

Nothing special. And all of Copperlane turns hostile. Wouldn't do that. The dozens however are such idiots - I really like to wipe them out. Cloudpiercer is not bad, too. It is rending (3 DR bypass) and has a spell striking (Jolting Touch). But I also think Borresaine is better because of the stunning enchantment.

Hehe, no - they are mainly wussies.

Dammit. We should ask if there can be trinkets that work for every class. Else I would convert that to an item that can go into a quick slot and has some uses per rest or per encounter (like figurines and stuff).

Knockdown in combo with Disciplined Barrage is one of the best ways to disable dragons. Besides charming them of course (Munacra Arret + Disciplined Barrage). +1 ACC per level (unlike overbearing or stunning weapons), Full Attack, increased damage. I don't think it falls off. It's actuall so good that I also pick Bonus Knockdown every time. It's a shame that Edérs INT is so lowish.

I did. And although this might be a troll's question, I'll answer still: It's uneffective. Although Frenzy, Bloodlust and Blood Thirst also work with ranged weapons, it's still not good enough to make up for the loss of carnage. And you won't have dmg bonuses that you can use with ranged weapons (except Dangerous Implement and maybe Blooded when you're at 50% endurance and One Stands Alone once you get surrounded - not really convincing). You can achieve impressive rate of fire though. Completed Raedric with the ultimate barb. Had to sneak around a bit. Lvl 5 now. Going to Maerwald...

Well, Borresaine can be bought from the guy at the market. Named Irgrun or so - not the Dozens. Cloudpiercer is the war bow you'll get from the dozens if you do "The Bronze beneath the Lake", and that's indeed the second faction quest which will lock you out of the other factions. However, you can also simply kill Wenan (and all other Dozens) and loot the bow from his corpse.

Basically because it's crap I guess. Now seriously: it surpresses Savage Attack and lowers your deflection, only giving you +2 engagement slots. Hold the Line would be better - if you want to do anything with engagement that is - which is a quite meh approach though. You can totally ignore any talents and abilites around engagement and be totally fine in my opinion.

Just for your information: "The Ultimate" barb (named "Mallet" - guess what his weapons are...) is in Raedric's Castle at lvl 4 and is doing good so far. In the meantime I used some food and potions buffs to beat the Xaurips at Anslög's Compass and also the spores. I don't use random loot tables either. So, no Gloves of Manipulation and no stealthy boots, but 2 rings of deflection. After lvl 5 things will become a bit easier. I don't think I can beat Raedric at lvl 4. I didn't know how superuseful Wild Sprint can be when you're doing ToI.

No, I meant: why should all of the Eothasian priests out there be happy that wands share the Adventurer focus with flails?

In this case: A caster who uses the "x uses per rest" mechanic for their spells. In PoE those are druid, priest and wizard. Google "Jack Vance" if you want more details about the term Vance-ian = Vancian and where it originates.

Why is that?

+33% damage for the rogue? That's about the difference between an exceptional sabre (+50%) with 15 MIG (+15%) with Sneak Attack (+50 = +115% base) compared to One Stands Alone (= +85% base) with carnage (= +55% base only) I would guess. Sabre's average base damage is 16. So the rogue hits a single target with 34.4 average and the barb hits the initial target for 29.6 avarage and the carnage targets for 24.8 average only. Total damage to 5 enemies after 5 hits (without DR): - rogue: 172 - barb: 768 The higher the DR the better for the rogue. Fine sabre would be: - rogue: 29.6 - barb: 24.8 initial / 20 carnage Seem to be pretty near correct, those numbersLivegood188 used as mere examples. Actually they were slightly off in favor of the rogue. At least in a somewhat realistic scenario with auto-attacks.

Yes, that's right. Unfortunately, this leaves Kana with those useless skeletons...

Yes, sorry, it was rod + scepter that are in the same weapon group. Not wand & scepter. Thanks for pointing out.

He? Put one Dragon Thrashed phrase into your chant and name it "Armageddon" - finished. That's how you do chants with Kana...

In terms of CC effects AoE nearly always beats single target though - which makes carnage + on hit/crit effect more effective than single target hit + on hit/crit effect. This is even more crucial if you have spell chances on weapons. With a barb + overbearing weapon you can jump into certain bounties and start hitting - there will be a big chance that you won't get hit at all and can kill everybody without getting interrupted. You can't do that with any other melee class. This walking CC effect is one of the reasons I value barbs. The other are creative and unique abilites like Blood Thirst for example. I mean how awesome is Vengeful Defeat? Kill people around you while going down? Hilarious! By the way: doing a "The Ultimate" run with a dual wielding barb atm. We'll see how it goes. So far I'm at lvl 3 in Anslög's Compass. Didn't have to use pulling, kiting or consumables so far (exception: I lured the trolls to the bandits of Magran's Fork because of this infamous and annoying outlaw who uses Unbending 3 times in a row. ).

The lvl-bonus for carnage is another reason why barbs get better and better with every level. At the beginning of the game they start with a big malus in ACC and damage for carnage and their base ACC also isn't top notch. In later levels it's the opposite. No wonder some people think that barbs suck when you only look at the first few levels, how can they not? It's those "hidden" improvements that make the barb effective. But, as was said before: probably the class whose usefulness depends on items the most.

I'm not emotionally attached to any class. I'm just judging from (somewhat large) experience. I just think that barbs are way better than most people think. I guess you haven't watched Kaylon's video.

Both (melee or ranged) works well with a cipher. When ranged there are three approaches which grant good focus: 1. Quick Switch + multiple guns or arbalests or crossbows: you want to get as many weapon sets as possible (Island Aumaua + Arms Bearer talent = 4 weapon sets) and fill them with your weapom s of choice, e.g. arquebuses. Once you want to focus you switch to an unfired weapon set and shoot. This can give you immense focus bursts when you need them, but only 4 times until you have to reload. Another variant is to use a bow or implement for the 4th weapon set and use that after all guns got fired. Pro: very fast focus gain at the beginning of the combat Con: slower focus gain once you used all guns, intensive micromanagement because of manual switching Special feature: there's a crossbow in the game that works with every weapon focus and shoots two times before you have to reload and it also gives +3 extra focus per shot for ciphers. I would recommend 4 arquebuses. 2. Bows: Yeah and that's basically it. Bows have higher sustained DPS when the fights are longer. Hunting Bows are faster and do better against foes with low DR, war bows also work ok against armored foes but are slower. Pro: higher DPS Con: sometimes takes a few more shots to get enough focus against high DR foes. Special feature: there's a Hunting Bow in the game that works with every weapon focus causes -6 shock DR on the target and does shock damage (works with Heart of the Storm talent). I would use war bows. 3. Implements: Same as bows basically, implements have a bit less base damage but two damage types which can be a big advantage against foes who are resistant or immune to pierce damage as well as meeting foes who are vulnerable to crush or slash. There's also an implement with the speed enchantment fairly early in the game (Engwythan Scepter) which will be the best ranged DPS (or better: focus per second) option overall for a cipher - at that point in the game. Pro: very flexible, better DPS when meeting pierce resistant foes or foes who have a certain weakness. Con: a bit less DPS against foes with no special resistance to pierce damage Special feature: there's a rod in the game that shoots two projectiles instead of one and it can proc a spell on hit that lowers enemies' DR by 5 points and debuffs their defenses. I would aim for the Golden Gaze (rod, ruffian) or stick to the Engwythan Sceptre (scepter, noble). The good thing with wands rods and scepters is that they are both in the same weapon group and thus you can cover all physical damage types (crush/slash/pierce) with a wand rod and a scepter in your weapon slots. All those approaches work well. At the moment I like the implements best.

Still you can alter the stats when retraining (in an inn for example).

It gives you +2 RES and -1 INT and that's it. It's the only "fancy" hat that does anything besides covering your head. But basically it's for the looks, yes.

They should have a 3d-model.