Boeroer

Firebrand with Doemenel rogue does indeed very impressive damage. It's base damage is a lot higher (I guess around 10 points or so?) than that of other two handers and it's annihilating.

Actually the speed of "average" one handed weapons and "slow" two handers is the same. Look at MaxQuests big Attack Speed thread. So there's no difference in speed. Sabre's base damage: 11-16 (average 13.5, after nerf) Greatsword's base damage: 14-20 (average 17) The difference in base damage is 3.5 (average one handed weapons do about 20% less base damage). That means a lot better outcome of all DMG mods that work with weapon base damage. Sneak + Deathblows + crit on a sabre: 40.5 damage Same on great sword: 51. Now with dual wielding you will have higher dps with average one handers like sabres against low DR because of speed but lower DPS against high DR because a higher percentage of the damage will be eaten up by DR. The more damage mods like Savage Attack, high MIG and so on you add the more the two hander profits. Also: you can find one handers with overbearing and even stunning, but a lot L A T E R - as I already wrote in my previous statement.

I wouldn't like it if they removed all spells from PoE. For what reason? Some meh spells like Sunless Grasp and Thrust of Tattered Veils can go away or be changed all right. But stuff like Chillfog, Relentles Storm and so on were so awesome I would totally miss them. But I wouldn't complain if they invented an equal amount of new spells.

I guess I will send over another batch in April.

It totally depends what you character is supposed to do. You can totally dump RES to 3 if you plan to use items like Sanguine Plate and Shod in Faith etc. If interrupts are a problem, put on items which give bonuses to resolve and use Potions of Spirit Shield, Holy Meditation (priest or item like Celebrant's Gloves) or other items that give you concentration bonuses directly. Other frontliners can have strong CC abilites and don't get hit a lot (e.g. druid with Relentless Storm). Those also can dump RES quite easily and put it all into PER without getting overly punished.

Why are 2handers not suited for rogues? I mean - what are the arguments? Dual wielding has some advantages, but two handers have them, too. Hours of St. Rumbalt for example has high base damage (as all two handers) which is good for all dmg mods such as Sneak Attack and Deathblows which use weapon base damage. You will punch through high DR very easily. Then, Rumbalt has Annihilation which adds 50% bonus damage to crits. Again, this is great with the high base damage of two handers. Most rogues will side with the Doemenels and add another +30% crit damge modifier. And last but not least Rumbalt is also Overbearing, meaning it causes prone on crit. Because a rogue has a high chance to do a crit, this weapon is totally suitable for him. Tall Grass is another example of a weapon that works great with a rogue. If you have other sources of afflictions on you (e.g. wear the Binding Rope) you will have instant Deathblows as soon as the target receives a crit. Tidefall is awesome on a rogue, too, if you max your MIG ad dump your INT (rogues can do that without gimping themselves too much). If you add Runner's Wounding Shot and Deep Wounds you will deal tons of raw damage because wouding and Runner's W. Shot are based on the actual damage roll you did, that includes Sneak + Deathblows + crits and so on (not lashes). Tidefall has great synergies with rogues. The draining also helps a bit with survivability (it doesn't work with +healing modifiers though). There is a sweet spot when fighting high DR targets where two handers do more dps than dual wielding. I don't know exactly where it is, but against high DR targets a two hander will do more dps than a dual wielding setup (now that sabres base damage got nerfed). Two Handers are even better for Backstabs. You will get two Backstab attacks if you attack out of stealth. It doesn't matter if you are dual wielding or using a two hander. You will always get two attacks (if you don't get disabled, go k.o. or get interrupted like crazy). Don't ask me why, it's just like that. Dual wielding is indeed better if you use special abilities which do Full Attacks a lot - things like Blinding Strike and so on. Full Attack means that if you dual wield you will strike with both weapons (also works with bashing shields). If you don't use them a lot, dual wielding is not inherently better. Another advantage of two handers is that you can get very good unique ones with overbearing relatively early while similar one handers come quite late (except you do the Dozens quest line and craft Cladhaliath early in Act II). The Temperacl, Hours of St. Rumbalt, Tall Grass (also great because it's a reach weapon so your rogue can hide behind the front line), Tidefall can be obtained very early in Act II if you want - compared to Godansthunyr, We Toki, Starcaller and so on. Those are in Act III. I did some rogue runs and the ones with two handers were not worse than those with dual wielding sabres or battle axes. One time I had one rogue with Rumbalt and another with dual battle axes, both hearth orlans, work as a tag team. At the end of the game both had dealt nearly the same damage.

There are different DoT effects. Things like wounding, (Runner's) Wounding Shot and others have a fixed amount of overall damage an more INT just stretches the time in which that damage is applied, which is not good. Other DoT effects like Deep Wounds and Envenomed Strike don't have that fixed overall damage but will do more damage with higher INT because more damaging ticks are added. It's stupid that there are different kinds of DoT, but it's like that.

Yes. But 4 ticks with 1/4 (aka 25%) damage each against 1/4 (25%) DR is the same like the whole damage against full DR. So the complete (added up) damage of Enduring Flames had to overcome full DR.

Solo monk vs. Nalrend is relatively easy (Monksterlasher does this without breaking into sweat most of the time) while with a rogue it's near impossible without kiting or heavy scroll use. Since we're not looking for the best solo class things get tricky. I would prefer to use two or four distraction tanks who do nothing else than soak damage so that the tested char doesn't get pummeled to death instantly.

Man, you are a hard nut I can tell you. Why don't you just look at the lost health of a companion you hit? It's not that hard, really.

If you are in a party then normally 1 use of Firebrand is enough. So you can do 3 fights with it. I usually put it on Pallegina with Scion of Flame because she wants that anyway and there's nothing more powerful that early in the game. You can cling to it if you don't want to use Arms Bearer or switch arquebuses. If you add Runner's Wounding Shot it's better than arquebuses in my opinion because you don't need additional weapon slots. Enduring Flames and Runner's Wounding Shot are both better with low INT - but that's not so great for Firebrand and for paladins in general. In the late game - with Durgan Steel and burning lash - Hours of St. Rumbalt nearly does the same FoD damage on crit and also crits more often, causing prone. Tidefall will also be better maybe. But before that Firebrand is supergood. Especially if paired with Merciless Hand and other crit bonuses. And with Sworn Enemy, Zealous Focus and FoD crits are common.

Are the other party members allowed to act offensively or are the only there for support? Because if you bring Kana with Dragon Thrashed at lvl 16 fpr example the bounty is over quickly without the main protagonist doing much.

All cool. Let's do this!

Sure, sure. But to test if wounding stacks it would be enough.

Fair enough. But fun fact: both are not limited.

Watching the health loss on one of your mates seems to be the most easiest way though.

Dual wielding is better for certain abilities, for example Heart of Fury and also Knockdown and Charge.

Exactly. That's why it's so good. With very high MIG and very low INT the DPS gain is awesome.

Well - higher base damage is way better than an auto +10% damage bonus would have been. So there's that.

Concerning multiple wounding entries in the past: This is 3.02. You can see that there is only one entry of Drawn in Spring all the time. At this point wounding stacked. So I assume it still does. Edit: v. 2.03 (same): Maybe my brain is not swiss cheese after all and I rembered correctly that there only was a single wounding entry since I started to play PoE.

Well - I guess I'll just do the health test myself when I'm at home... Would be a pity if it was nerfed.

Nope. I mean I know: there is no auto-bonus like with onehanded or dual wielding.

Sure, the usual rogue build is not suitable. But actually a high INT rogue build with focus on spell bindings and scrolls is more powerful in the late game than the usual rogue. Because of ACC, crit conversion, Deathblows and Deep Wounds (which works with AoE spells that deal slash, pierce or crush damage). But it's rare, yes. I once made a rogue build that was specialized on scrolls because else I rarely use them (if ever) in party play - and he was very powerful compared to the usual melee rogues I did. Of course only because of consumables, but still. It finally gave the rogue AoE damage. It was not even fully optimized but had a focus on background and role playing instead. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86156-class-build-the-sorcerers-apprentice-twisted-sneaky-dps-scroll-user/

It always looked like this. You have to look at the health (!) loss, not endurance. As you said, this regenerates too quickly. Health doesn't and gets reduced by the same amount as endurance when you get hit. Look at health (not endurance), hit twice with Tidefall, wait a few seconds and then look what's left of health.

Higher pledge could mean that your chances are higher. Like if you bought more than one lottery ticket. That way even the guys who donated not so much (but for them it's a lot of money) will have a chance at least. Just an idea. I also don't want to divide the community with this. I just like the ledger idea a lot.