Boeroer

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.

It would all be OK if they just explained their own mechanics correctly. Doesn't matter what Unity 4 can do and what not in my opinion. Just say that attack speed mods only work on recovery, that they are multiplicative when they stack and belong to the same group - and name that groups - and that they stack additively if they are from different groups. Give two or three examples and that's it. Can't be so difficult. Any underpaid intern who can read this forum could write it down so that OBS could place it in the game.

But that's not the case. The damage and accuracy of the druid's natural weapons scale with level. And certain spells are especially good when you combine them with a melee approach (=spiritshift). All storm spells (Returning, Relentless and Avenging Storm) are a good example, but also Nature's Terror. Due to scaling weapons (= very high base damage at higher levels) which are paired with very potent lashes, inherent DR bypass and attack speed a spiritshifted druid does the highest single target dps in PoE game at high levels just by hitting stuff. But spiritshift is limited of course. As a bonus he can cast all those awesome spells - his best are his CC spells in my opinion. One of the neatest tricks with shifting is to wear spell holding gear like the Sanguine Plate, run into battle, receive a crit and then shift: you will have all the benefits of the spell holdings - like Frenzy - without any drawbacks - like the 50% recovery penalty from plate armor. If you take away the spells from the subclass (which can shift for unlimited time) then the spiritshift form would have to be even more powerful to make up for that, that's true. I would love to see more dedicated talents or abilites for the different spiritshift forms (I mean besides the existing that you can't influence or which are 1/rest :/ ).

I really digged Legend of Grimrock. The atmosphere was great (turn off the lights and use headphones ), the combat system is not too complicated. There you could also do multiple runs like in PoE because there were enough good and viable builds. It's a dungeon crawler like Eye of the Beholder used to be - and it's not too old. Grimrock 2 I didn't play yet because they refuse to release a Linux version like they did with Grimrock 1.

I actually like it that you can't tell which one is the best - even if you understood how the underlying mechanics work. All three have their uses. But you are absolutely right - the mechanics around dmg bonuses vs. lashes, fixed damage DoTs like wounding and also attack speed are very, very obscure (amongst other stuff). This could and should be explained better. My guess is that the designers don't *really* know how this stuff got implemented, too. Look at bashing: obviously Josh and friends didn't know why bashing itself takes away DPS instead of raising it in the most cases.

Tidefall comes a lot earlier than the BotEP. That's one of the reasons I usually favour Tidefall over the Blade. The other is the two damage types. Crits are good for wounding - like you said it's based on the initial damage. This becomes even more important if you get durgan steel. The more dmg mods you add the better for Tidefall - it's a lash after all - while the +5 flat damage of the Blade via DR bypass don't get "buffed" by anything. Marking is a very special enchantment. So I like to give the Blade to somebody who can somwhow use this enchantment. Like a damage-oriented paladin with Coordinated Attacks for example. Good damage and great single ally ACC support at the same time. And last but not least: the attack animation of estocs is a bit boring... But what about a third option: Hours of St. Rumbalt? It has two damage types, it causes prone on crit, it is annihilating (= +50% additional damage on crit). And it also comes quite early. This is the great sword I use most of the time. Fighter's high ACC, combined with Disciplined Barrage leads to a lot of prone-crits with huge damage. CC is much more effective than pure dps in my opinion - and when it's paired with annihilation it's even better. Also works great with high INT. I like high INT on fighters. If you start with a Knockdown then usually the enemy won't get up again.

Ah, ok. Now I understand which break point you meant.

It's great for the early game. Later on you don't need it, but it really helps to get off the starting blocks.

Death Godlike chanter with single haded weapon is a good thing. Come Sweet Winds will get +12 ACC and White Worms also gets the ACC bonus if I remember correctly. And of course things like Phantom and some other invocation fit nicely, too. Vile Loner's Lance might be a good pick. Works great with the Champion invocation that gives you +interrupt. Maybe add Interrupting Blows, too? Together with Mourning Gloves you might have interrupt-lock on single targets. Cladhaliath with stunning + vicious might also be nice. edit: thanks.

Moon Godlike Kind Wayfarer, St. Ydwen's Redeemer and Tidefall, Shod-in-Faith, Jack of Wide Waters armor, St. Borragia's Tears amulet, Lay on Hands, Healing Chain, survival 12 (14 with armor, +60% healing received), Veteran's Recovery, Fulvano's Amulet or Belt of Bountiful Healing. Wound Binding, Acolyte's Radiance. Youl will heal all the time - if you kill, if you use FoD, if your endurance drops, if you receive a crit, with LoH, with Holy Radiance, with Healing Chain - while you will have awesome regeneration and self heals, too (+105%). If your health drops too fast - use Wound Binding or potions of Infuse with Vital Essence. With that much healing bonus those will give you back a ton of health.

Nature Godlike monk with max MIG, PER and INT, Tall Grass with corrosive lash & Aspirant's Mark (or Greenstone Staff), Rotfinger Gloves, Ryona's Breastplate or Argwe's Adra or the Colored Coat. Enervating Blows, Envenomed Strike. Bilestompers + Spirit of Decay will give you +10 corrosion DR - combined with Iron Wheel you can have +20 corrosion DR on top of your armor's DR. You can walk into our party's corrosion spells without fear. Instead of Bilestompers you could also try Greenstained Boots + Wyrwood Ring. You can combine this with the Nature's Embrace belt.

Fire godlike Priest of Magran with Firebrand (Forge Master's Gloves), Scion of Flame, Suntouched Mail, arquebus with burning lash. Take the Doemenel questline. Wear the Amulet of Summer Solstice, too. Buff MIG and ACC into the sky and attack with Firebrand and your fire spells (you will have additional 6 Sunbeams per rest). You can add Flames of Fair Rhian and Taluntain's Staff as well as Curoc's Brand as backup-weapons - just for the fireballs (7 per rest). Fire godlike barbarian with Hiro's Mantle or Coat of Ill Payment, Scion of Flame, Blooded, One Stands Alone, Ryona's Vambraces, Vulnerable Attack, Drake's Bell with burning lash, Crucible Knights questline, Thick Skinned, Blood Thirst, Bloodlust, Frenzy, Barbaric Retaliation, potion of Flame Shield. Drop the Devil of Caroc into the Blood Pool. Your retaliation and Battle Forged will have 9 DR bypass and Drake's Bell will have 17 DR bypass - great for carnage! Once Battle Forged kicks in you will have 8 bonus DR - if you wear any item with additional burn DR this will stack with Drake's Bell and you will have +21 burn DR once Battle Forged is on. You can walk into your party's fire spells without getting harmed a lot.

Dex doesn't matter when recovery is reduced to 0 by attack speed buffs - so there's no break point in your example (or I misunderstood). You can reach nearly 0 recovery with 1 DEX and the same stuff you listed (there's a tiny fraction of recovery left if I'm not mistaken - but it's so tiny you can't see it). But your attack animation will be a lot slower with 1 DEX of course. A fighter with armored grace could now wear a durganized scale armor and still have ~0 recovery. Same fighter with dual weapons & Two Weapon Style and the same stuff could wear durganized plate and could skip the potion and turn on Vulnerable Attack instead, meaning +5 flat damage per strike (that doesn't scale with anything) against most enemies. He would be as fast as the two hander guy. Somebody would need to do some serious excel-magic to find out which is better overall with standard weapons.

I also had the impression that when I put Fenwalkers + Suntouched Mail on Pallegina in my current run the poison tick rate thingy had no effect at all when you get hit by blowguns. I wanted to run some more tests but what you say confirms my suspicion. I didn not test if Fenwalkers and Potion of Major Recovery stack though. I guess not. The potion doesn't stack with Break Out (like on Blaidh Golan).

They should introduce some items that shift with the druid. I also found it sad that you can't summon weapons when shifted. A were-stag with wildstrike burn and a huge flaming sword would have been a sight to behold...

Frenzy does indeed get influenced by Spelltongue. Shod-in-Faith boot's Consecrated Ground gets prolonged, too. Lay on Hands the same. All buffs and heal with fixed durations that I tested work with it, including potions, drugs and scrolls. I didn't test food because it has enormous duration anyways. I did a lot of testing with a barbarian + spelltongue: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83388-class-build-the-leech-barbarian-time-bandit-tank/ I didn't test Sacred Immolation though and I can't say if it will get influenced. It has a fixed duration, but at the same time it's also weird because - as you already noticed - it doesn't show up in the UI and seems to be coded differently than the usual buffs. You will have to try out for yourself I'm afraid. My guess is that it works. If you use Sanguine Plate and use high MIG and INT you could think about using Veteran's Recovery as well (spelltongue works here as well). Most of the time I then can skip Lay on Hands - or use that as emergency button only. Since it's difficult to determine your endurance while Frenzy is on and when to use LoH, Veteran's Recovery can help a lot to keep you alive without watching at the green/orange/red question marks of your frenzied paladin's concealed endurance all the time. Just note that most of the time you will not be able to attack fast enough to prolong your buffs endlessly like a barbarian can do. Because paladins don't have carnage they only hit one enemy at a time with spelltongue. You would have to attack with very high speed in order to accomplish endless extension of your buffs. But nevertheless it prolongs the buffs and that's great. It works a lot better on enemies who are buffed! Then the durations you leech will be bigger than from those who don't have buffs. You will still leech duration from those, but a lot less. You can use this and charm enemies, buff them with some minor buff and when they turn back hostile you can leech the buff from them.