Boeroer

I doubt that lvl 7 is appropriate for a new player. Darzir will be too hard and you'll have to do Galvino's Workshop, Lagufaeth and several other stuff before you can enter Durgan's Battery. There you will face Sirens and whatnot. That's way too much effort for the prize. An alternative before getting the Barricade can be Sura's Supper Plate. It's retaliation can be stacked with another one (for example Hiro's Mantle) and works with Deep Wounds. Before you can get that any shield will do. The one from the Drake in Endless Paths lvl 5 (Blabla Solace) is great together with Blaidh Golan hide armor because the defense buffs when you get prone or stunned stack with each other, giving you +100 to all defenses. This can prevent you rogue from getting knocked out by ogres and so on.

It no longer works with DoT effects. That was patched some time ago. Scion of Flame and all the other elemental boosters don't work with DoT damage. As far as I know Combusting Wounds is a DoT effect itself. It's hard to monitor because the combat log doesn't say anything about it. But you can witness it's awesomeness if you cast it on an enemy and put him into a Wall of Flame (preferably when debuffed). It also makes a huge difference if you cast it onto a group before delivering a Heart of Fury (=a lot of hits in one second).

Eldritch Aim + Chillfog usually will do the trick. Later you can combine Pull of Eora, Expose Vulnerabilities and multiple Chillfogs plus Combusting Wounds. This works best with multiple wizards. Generally you always want to have this pattern: Buff ACC - debuff/disable foes - deal damage. Just look at the spells which raise ACC, debuff defenses and/or disable completely and then those which deal damage and combine them accordingly. Combusting Wounds is a special one: for each hit the target will get a small burn DoT effect. It's very powerful if you can generate a lot of parallel hits via Chillfogs, Wall of Flames, Concussive Missiles and so on.

Persistence with 1 INT is quite fun. Take 3 INT at the start and then wear that Ultimate Hat of Alluring Perfection from WM I that does -2 INT , -2 RED, +2 MIG, +2 CON. The full wounding lash damage will get applied instantly. Same with Runner's Wounding Shot and an arquebus as opening shot. Also works with Drawn in Spring of course, but that comes so late compared to Persistence. I had good fun with Hours of St Rumbalt on my first ever rogue now that I think of it. Prone on crit, Annihilation, comes with great ACC. It a good weapon for a rogue. Here you need a bit DEX and also decent INT in order to chain-prone.

Yes - fighter will also work. He can even get 4 Knockdowns per encounter if he wears the Girdle of the Driving Wave. With high INT the Knockdowns last quite long. Esp. if he crits which might happen often because of Disciplined Barrage. A monk can also take Stunning Blows. It's per encounter and is a Full Attack that works best at the start of the encounter because it doesn't need wounds. It has a short duration though. Force of Anguish lasts very long, that's nice about it.

While thinking about great single target DPS: it might be that the cipher is also better than the rogue at higher levels. Think about it: - +40% base damage via soul whip + biting whip without any afflictions etc. - +20% Savage Attack - +50% attack speed via Time Parasite, lasts a long time - Soul Ignition is not super great, but good single target damage when burn DR is low. - Recall Agony. Few use it, but it's a powerful multiplicative raw damage "lash" against single targets. A bit like wounding. - Body Attunement lowers the enemies DR - Disintegration provides a lot of single target damage Plus some nice ACC and defense buffs and disables. What do you think?

Take classes that provide a lot of different CC options. They will provide the afflictions needed for sneak attack and deathblows while at the same time this will prevent enemies from attacking your rouge. Classes like wizard, druid and cipher. Those are no good auto attackers though. The monk with Force of Anguish, paired with Enervating Blows can push a single enemy towards your rogue, disabling him for a long time via Probe and also weakening him, triggering Deathblows for your rogue to finish the enemy off. It's a nice tandem. Priest has some awesome buffs which are also great for rogues.

The only trick in this build is to use the very long linger time of the healing phrase to sing very short phrases in order to build up the phrase counter quickly.

In the early game I surely do apply Accurate I or even Fine and an elemental lash. It helps immensely - and since the early game usually is the hardest part it makes sense to enchant some basic weapons. But I also don't waste too much resources on those. Usually I know what armor/weapon I want for my char and then I sink all the good enchantments into it.

Another reason why I like the sanguine plate on a boar druid. The boar also has a passive regeneration effect when shifted. Sure, it's not that big and doesn't scale with level, but together with Shod-in-Faith, Vet. Recovery and max healing received bonus from camping it adds up pretty nicely and makes you more sturdy while shifted. I guess I just like passives.

Rofl The encounter I like best for testing builds in a realistic environment are the ogres in front of the Elmshore cave. They hit very hard - so you can see if your defenses are good enough. They don't have too high defenses, so you don't need to debuff all the time like you would do against other bouty groups. They have a ton of endurance and you can do a lot of attacks, collecting a lot of data. They don't have too fancy resistances or immunities. They have around 10 DR which is not too high and not too low. And they are slow - meaning you can test kiting without too much stress. Usually, when a build can solo those without splitting he can solo the whole game. I never managed to beat those guys with dps melee rogues, dps melee rangers and dps melee fighters without kiting or pulling. They are just too tough and hit too hard. But if you use a tank for distraction who eats all the plague of insects then you can have great data while attacking them. Did the druid have the Wildstrike Belt by the way? It adds another lash. I would agree that a boar druid has better DPS throughout the game than the cat. His wounding is passive while the cat has only one flurry per rest the boar will always cause wounds. You can also count Returning + Relentless Storm. The forst per encountet. Sure, it is a multiple target spell. But it ALSO damages your priority target. Nature's Terror is also a great spell while shifted. The surrounding enemies will be terrified. This helps with survival, too. And Nature's Terror adds shock damage without having to stop swinging. You don't need to drink a potion to get low recovery. Put on sanguine plate and let the enemy crit you. Then shift. Frenzy will nearly last as long as the shifting.

Backstab + Sneak Attack + crit = +250% base damage. That is nice for a single hit of course. Too bad a rogue can't backstab all the time.

Choose normal difficulty and just try. I started PoE the first time without a clue what to expect and what to do and it still was fun. Learning by doing you know.

Cool you want to try. You don't have to play through the whole game for that by the way. You could buy two hirelings in Gilded Vale's inn and then use the console to level up and get all the gear and enchantments you need. That way I test new build ideas before using then in a complete play through. Spares a lot of time. If you want to do that and can't figure out how it works or can't find the right commands don't hesitate to ask. It's quite simple but sometimes the commands are a bit obscure and some internal game object names are spelled wrongly or differ completely from the ingame lore or item description. Example: Maefolc Skull is Giants Skull and The Hours of St Rumbalt is The Hours of St Rumbault and stuff like that. You can find the correct game object names for the console in the game object folder on your hard drive.

Huh, the spell description makes it sound like this isn't the case: "The beacon disappears if the ally is revived." Is this wrong? If so the ability suddenly became a lot more appealing. You're talking about paladins' "Behold the Martyr". I meant the enchantment. There's one WMII amulet that has it (forgot the name). I mentioned it in my "Immortal Martyr" build. It triggers a big AoE haste spell that affects all in range and then lasts for a fixed time. It's not a pulsing effect linke Behold the Martyr. The first thing I do when starting a new playthrough is deactivating the party AI. I can't stand the sight of my party members running around each other trying to reach a certain position as if they were doing a casting for the Benny Hill Show. Especially if you have gun wielders AI will totally destroy your tactics. And if you have quick switch AI is totally screwed, too.

I always try to reach path lvl 4 with my first entry - but it's usually tough. The reasons are Resolution and Persistence of course. Once I have those I quit and come back later.

Yes - Avenging Storm getting the wildstrike lash was totally game breaking. Good they fixed that. When I first tried that druid my jaw dropped to the floor until I figured out that there was this bug. But still impressive performance. It's even better if you skip Outlander's Frenzy and put on Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith, run to your target and catch a crit, then shift. You'll have even more speed, more MIG and END and waste no time for casting. Rogue can do the same of course.

Tehe - all good. Keep on celebrating!

It's really hard to say. It also depends on the type of pet (wolf and stag do more damage than the others, bear and lion are esp. slow and so on), how you play and if you want to focus on micromanagement for the pet, if you can keep it alive with tactics (no health + persistent healing is really good here), if you have persistent wounding or other dot effects and afflictions at hand and so on. Only thing to say is that they hit hard but a bit slow. Concerning speed: The martyr enchantment on late game items helps a lot here. You can pit it on a barb with Vengeful Defeat and second chance or the priest's reviving Guardian. The hastening will still work even if the barb gets revived. Paladin's hastening exhortation may also help. When I played the Riptide ranger (see the build list) it felt like they did equal damage because I was so amazed by the numbers the pet scored with permanent predator's sense. But that's just a feeling, no hard data and all. If you think about all the enchantments and equipment the ranger will have at the and of the game I would say he will do more than his companion.

Glad you made it happen without a restart. That would have been frustrating. The Endless Paths seem to be designed in a way that you have to clear one/two or three levels, then retreat, do something else and come back later. It's even impossible to pass a certain door if you didn't solve another quest of the main plot line in Defiance Bay.

A Happy New Year to you as well. I made pizza with my kids (which was fun) and fell asleep while bringing them to bed, waking up at 4:35 am (which was abit frustrating). But why the "bla bla"? I just answered the question to the best of my belief (and experience). I guess... I had some sparkling wine when I wrote it... Happy new year to all you forum members as well (even brindle88, if you're still reading ). I wish you all good health and contentment.

AoE beats single target in this game for sure (mainly because most difficult encounters have a lot of not too sturdy enemies). Pure tanks who can't deal damage don't work so well in this game. Enemies tend to run past them and eat the weak disengagement attacks, then disturb or even kill your backline. There is no taunting machanic or something. If your tank can also deal good damage then he will be more effective. There are a few exceptions to that (for example Defensive Mindweb). You don't have to use casters to deal AoE damage by the way. There are several classes who can deal AoE damage without spells: monk, barb, chanter for example. Even the fighter and paladin can do that later on. You can beat the game with single target damage, too. It's especially helpful against bosses and for quickly taking out high priority targets. So - as always a good mixture is not a bad thing. But the real "key" to success in this game is high accuracy, crowd control and disables/debuffs (meaning lowering defenses and prevent retaliation). Then add good defenses. Pure damage will not win the game. If you can get those first things working you will beat anything no matter how you apply damage. An important thing to know are the stacking rules - let me tell you they are awfully documented. Edit: added a bit more text.

I never managed. And I really tried when that druid > rogue discussion came up back then. Not with annihilating sabres nor with dual Drawn in Spring and also not with dual Bittercut (although that's quite neat with the two damage types + Spirit of Decay + corrosive lash). It works with Missile Barrage + Deathblows though. But that's a bit limited.

Who said "lol nerd"? As far as I know nobody did that. This has been a civilized discussion so far and I would be happy if it stays this way. I also wouldn't say that you should blindly trust the "vets" - who can define what that is - but if some people who played the game quite a bit and did a lot of research and testing all tell you their experiences you maybe should keep an open mind and consider that there might be a slightchance that they don't talk total nonsense. Especially if they report about tests that have been done inside the game and outside of a highly theoretical and maybe outdated spreadsheet. You can still present a testing setup where a rogue build beats a druid in single target DPS throughout the same encounter. I tried to post several builds for every class here in the past and sunk countless hours into planning, testing and playing those builds. And sadly there's a reason why I only posted two rogue builds so far and both are no melee rogues: it's not because I hate rogues (I don't). They just don't perform as well as all the other class builds I tried. Not in terms of fun (which is highly subjective) but also not even in the terms of dps. You can't solo bounties with them. It's possible with any class exept rogues if you don't want to split pull and draw the invisibility card all the time. And nowadays it's even worse when compared to other classes because those got really neat abilities during the expansions. That's no proof of course,but those are hints that cope with my general impression that rogues are the weakest (and most one-dimensional) class atm. If you want to keep up with barbs, casters and monks in terms of damage and you only can deal single target damage it better be really really high or really reliable. I mean there are some builds that work quite well, like the shield rogue with Badgradr's Barricade for example. It's fun enough. It's just sad that even such a creative idea gets outperformed by most other classes that can even add something else than single target damage to the party. Concerning Finishing Blow: I think we talk past each other. It's a not too good DPS ability with weird mechanics that has very limited uses per rest. It has not much impact on your DPS. Not like Charge or Wildstrike or Heart of Fury or whatever else do which too can use per encounter and are even more powerful when used properly. So I don't think it's of any value to say rogues are good damage dealers because of the very circumstancial Finishing Blow. It is now what Heart of Fury was before the buff: a bad joke. It would be a whole other situation if it would be a per encounter ability or even a (weaker) passive ability: more bonus damage the lower the endurance of the target - now that would have been a cool ability. They can do good single target DPS, true, but they are not the best, that's what's sad about the whole situation. Because they can't do much else than that.

The only nerf I would do to druids would be to take away spellcasting while shifted and make Spiritshift a modal. That would be enough for me. They don't feel more power- or useful than the other classes except rogue. Mind that a spiritshifted druid "only" does single target damage and easily gets outperformed by a barb or chanter when it comes to overall DPS. By the way: I played a solo barb in PotD and did every encounter and had not much problems. No kiting involved after some levels. You can't do that with a rogue. They start off weaker than a rogue though. But barbs can catch up and overtake quickly. But since this is about rogues, let's talk about sensible rogue buffs.