Boeroer

Yes - look at the Batsh!t Crazy build (https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83775-class-build-batsht-crazy-disabling-druid-tank/).It's tanky enough and a great walking CC effect with the storms. Once cast, Relentless Storm doesn't care about DEX and armor penalties. As long as you stand upright it will keep on cracking. Those are the reasons I nearly never use pure "traditional" tanks like paladins or fighters. They are too limited and no fun.

True. Once I have a priest I have zero use for things like Righteous Soul or Aegis of Loyalty. And in my case an alpha-strike-skilled Pallegina is tanky enough even without defensive talents. I also don't use fighters as tanks: they only can tank then and nothing else while a chanter can tank nearly as well (he only has 5 less starting deflection) while dealing a shartload of damage just by standing around. Fighters on the other hand are very nice as disrupting units: sturdy even when skilled for DPS. Anyway - if you want to combine high dps with good tankyness in one companion there's no one better than Kana in my opinion.

Yeah - also, a percentage bonus based on actual stats would lead to absurd and exponential power growth.

I hope the emails don't have to be the same and there's some other way to connect the fig pledge to the backer portal. I use different email addresses for every account I have. But if I remember correctly that was no problem when I backed Lords of the Eastern Reach at Kickstarter.

The rogue class is underwhelming per se. Especially on PoTD. The good thing about chanters is that they can be skilled to be total tanks and still can deal a hell lot of damage via the Dragon Thrashed with no drawbacks. The dps from the chant is not dependent on DEX and recovery at all. So slowness is no problem at all. And they also keep singing while prone or withdrawn. To be honest such a chanter is one of the easiest ways to do PotD solo - so how can't he be great in a party, too? Pallegina can be build into an excellent alpha striker while retaining a good amount of sturdyness (as all paladins). But unlike a chanter, she has to give away defensive capabilities in order to deal good damage. But Wrath of the Five Suns, combined with Pen. Shot & Ryona's Vambraces as well as Scion of Flame and Sworn Enemy is a great tool to take out nasty casters. And when you took Scion of Flame already you can also take Intense Flames for your FoD. It's true that Pallegina hasn't that much MIG, but the huge bonus the burning lashes give you make up for that. I mean look at this: you FoD strikes will have the following lashes: 50% (FoD) + 25% (Intense Flames) + 25% (weapon lash) - all those get multiplied by 1.2 because of Scion of Flame. You will do 120% burning lashes with FoD. This is huge and WAY more powerful than Deathblows or even Backstab. Lash damage is calculated based on the actual damage roll you do, including things like Savage Attack, Two Handed Style, crit damage and whatnot, not only the weapon's base damage like Deathblows does. Thus, you will reach way higher numbers with Pallegina's FoD strikes that a rogue will with Deathblows. Sure, it's only 2 per encounter (sometimes 3 if you manage to attack from steath), but you can add Runner's Wounding Shot which works the same (80% raw damage lash, not mere weapon base damage bonus) and Wrath of the Five Suns. And suddenly all enemy casters are dead. Later she will do a lot of damage with SA even if her MIG is not that great. And once she delivered her FoDs, Wrath and Runner's Shot I can always switch to support and tanking mode with Outworn Buckler. That's why I nearly always build her as alpha striker offtank and not as a pure tank. But as I said: she then has to give away some defense. I found that Hours of St. Rumbalt is a great weapon for her. Firebrand is also nice in the early to mid stages of the game. Dual Wielding is also not bad for FoD, but since I also use Runner's Wounding Shot most of the time I go for 2H or guns + Quick Switch with her for her alphas. That's the main reason I would always choose Kana as tank over Pallegina. If Pallegina is your only source of healing on PotD, you should consider to bring Hiravias. His healing spells (Nature's Vigor/Embrace, Moonwell) are like buffed versions of Constant/Vetereran's Recovery and can be cast on top of each others, making other healings obsolete most of the time. If you add Kana's Ancient Memory + Beloved Spirits and maybe Consecrated Ground you need no other source of healing. Maybe the chars die from low health, but not low endurance. I also like to add Veteran's Recovery on the chars which will get beaten frequently. Usually I never have to cast Lay on Hands or other single target healing spells in those "oh crap" situations because they seldomly happen.

I once played a wizard tank (Bilestomper) and it was awesome. He had 2 (!) DEX, thick armor and a shield. Sure, his castings took way longer, but he seldomly went down. All that 0 recovery stuff is of no use if you fall on your face when enemies look at you. If you already have good deflection via shield then things like Wizard's Double work even better. Since that spell only gets removed when you receive a hit (not a graze) it can last quite a while. And all the grazes get catched by thick armor quite well. A dps blaster wizard with low deflection and low RES can use (durganized superb) robes plus Spirit Shield and later Iron Skin to reach high DR while retaining 0 armor penatly. It should be sufficient to survive a swarmer even if your defenses and endurance are poor. If you also have a druid then combine it with Form of the Delemgan to reach crazy high DR - for a squishy caster. Another good way to distract attackers is casting a duplicate. It's also not bad to put on a Girdle of Mortal Protection because it lowers crit damage to that of normal hits (100 + 50 = 150; 150 * 0,73 = 110). With ok DR, it's the crits that will kill you, not the hits. It's better than a Blunting Belt on a low deflection char. A leather armor will take away some dps, but will help to survive. It's up to you to decide if you need it or not. I personally like my casters to be not squishy because I like to fight in loose formation, swarming enemy casters and so on. Others like to protect their casters at all costs and don't need DR on them as much. My experience with my playstyle is that it's not worth the fuzz. If I build a party in a way that everybody has decent defenses and everybody can deal good damage the game becomes easier for me. That is because even if somebody goes down it doesn't mess up my whole party composition. Some parties have big problems when their dedicated dps guy(s) get knocked out because their tanks and supports can't kill anything on themselves. Another fun thing for ranged wizards who go into casting mode can be a switch to hatchet + Aila Braccia. With (hardened) Arcane Veil + Wizard's Double you can reach a lot of deflection, add Wood Elves' defensive bonus against ranged attacks and usually you will reflect all those nasty spells and shots that would normally take you out. Lagufaeth and others love to target the wizard in the back. With this shield they will get punished so badly. Sadly, it comes so late.

Great news - they are totally in line with me.

Yeah - but even then my thinking is: Why is this a problem of Empower while it's not a problem with all the other stats which get absolute bonuses on level up (and not percentage based ones)? I mean you could say it is a problem that the fixed endurance bonus has less impact at higher levels - but nobody complained about that, right? It's always like this: if you level up from lvl 1 to 2 it feels like you took a big step - and you did. If you level up from 19 to 20 it's hardly noticable (except you get a very potent new ability). That's also the reason why in later levels the new abilites have to be more powerful than the older ones - else a level up wouldn't do much for you anymore.

Sure, but that wasn't the point. The point was that the percentage of the increase is lower at higher levels if you stick to a flat number that is added every level. That's true for Empower but also for all the things I listed - also for deflection and accuracy. Because you always get the same bonus on levelup no matter how large your pool already is.

You get the same rewards with the backer portal. Don't know anything about slacker backer stuff.

But MayQuest - that's the case for all things that get raised by a fixed amount every level. Like deflection, endurance, accuracy and so on. The relative gain of +10 accuracy is lower on higher levels than it is on lower. If you have 30 ACC and gain +10 ACC it's a bigger increase (percentage wise) than getting raised from 90 to 100.

He's obviously douchebagndere.

Please not for me. I don't like that concept at all.

It's even more fun if you combine a disabling weapon like Godansthunyr with Badgradr's Barricade and also wear the Binding Rope: stuck + stun, then comes the ToTV bash with deathblows. Too bad the bash comes first when you do full attacks - but the follwing attack cycle really hurts.

Yepp

I once placed a withdrawn character in the way to block the dragon and he spammed breath attacks like crazy with no cooldown at all.

The breath is like a dragon's ranged attack. Most of the time the breath is used when there are no enemies in melee range. If you place a party member or summon right in front of the dragon he will usually not use his breath attacks and also not his AoE wing slams but attack that melee opponent instead with slashes and bites.

Oops.

They also think about an "enhanced PoE1 edition" after PoE2 comes out. That would be a port to Unity 5 then. But nothing is decided on that matter.

Cool. Thanks for testing, that's good to know.

My early ACT I PotD path usually is: - Sell everything to Heodan in order to get nearly 2500 bucks. - Cilant Lis als usual - go to Valewood, kill the one outlaw that stands on the road, then lure the wolves to the bandits and free the dwarf, speak to norton Nonton. - go to Gilded Vale, talk to the Black Hound barkeeper, do Against the Grain, pick up the Smith's quest and the Anslög Compass quest, pick up Aloth, rest, pick up Edér, hire a low micro merc that fits - like a supporter paladin for example - beeline to Durance, beeline to Kana - kill everything hostile in Valewood including bears, fetch Fulvanos stuff on the wall - solve Norton's quest in Gilded Vale - do Smith's quest, luring the top left trolls into the bandits (who are very tough otherwise) - do Madhmr Bridge quest with the looters - do Anslög's Compass quest (no tricks needed, mushrooms can be annoying) - do Temple of Eothas quest (no tricks needed, shades can be annoying) - do Raedric quest (frontal assault in order to get as much gear as possible, using chokepoints and pulling - abusing Kana's White Worm , paladins can be annoying) - do Caed Nua (easy - nothing annoys me anymore) - sometimes do some levels of the Endless Paths, but usually going right to Defiance Bay, might pick up Sagani and drop the merc (not necessarily) I do the same if I only want to use hirelings. But that's usually a bit tougher as I said. On the way I clear all maps which I cross - except Valewood which I clear after GIlded Vale. This way you won't have any trouble on PoTD, no matter the classes or builds and whatnot - if you know how the game mechanics work.

It's supposed to be the final one unless game breaking bugs pop up.

Cool cool cool!

Are you sure?

It's actually a lot easier with story companions than with hirelings. PoTD is most tough in the early game and story companions' level is one above hirelings' which is a huge plus. Few stat points in the right places don't matter that much. You can get four companions very quickly and then hire one adventurer until you reach the fifth. And a rogue is always non optimized - compared to other classes. It's not that difficult at all.