Boeroer

I would say alter Shadow Step and Smoke Cloud in a way that you can re-enter stealth or become invisible for a rel. short time. Then you won't need to buff the damage because backstabbing would be possible again. Make Shadowing Beyond per encounter or give it more uses per rest than mere 2. Give small, concealable weapons like daggers and stilettos +200% bonus damage when backstabbing. Atm backstabbing works best with hard hitting, slow weapons because the number of attacks is so limited. I have to admit this will only buff Backstabbing.

Casters who get their spell uses back after resting. Namely wizard, druid and priest in PoE.

And they are not immune to prone. Against a monk or fighter with very high ACC they kneel before me all the time.

Ach damn it.

Yes, it's burning DoT. And the Eyeless are immune to it, that's true. But they have so much endurance that a 1/encounter ability like Holy Radiance alone wouldn't win you the fight even if it worked. Against most other vessels wich are a pain in the back (and don't have a ton of endurance and no stellar defenses, but come in great numbers) it's a great ability. Against Eyeless and other immune vessels you can still use the Redeemer or Abydon's Hammer. To be honest I always found the Eyeless to be less annoying than most other mid level vessels like fampyrs and some darguls or even plain old skeletal fighters and wizards. It all depends when you meet them (what level you are). I tend to do WMII as last part of my playthrough - the Eyeless are no threat then.

For me the best low level AoE guy is a monk with Torment's Reach. He will not improve his AoE "magic" much after that though. I think of all the vanican casters the druid and the wizard are the ones who have the best low level AoE spells and therefore are also good on early game. The druid has the advantage that his base stats are better than the wizard's. The wizard has some awesome spells like Eldritch Aim, Parasitic Staff and Chillfog which makes him great in the early game, but in that list only Chillfog is AoE. But the combo of Eldritch Aim + Blinding + pulsing frost damage is very powerful. All vancian casters get better and better with every level though. Some spell levels may suck (looking at you, druid), but generally speaking their "power curve" is very steep. You guys forgot priest. For me a late bloomer when it comes to AoE damage - but very powerful, too because of his tremendous MIG, INT and ACC buffs. Shining Beacon + Pillars of Faith & Fire + Holy Storm + Symbol of <deity> are very good with this. And against vessels a MC priest with focus on max MIG and INT and the right reputation is the bane of all vessels. Even fampyrs can be one-shotted if you manage to crit. I once had a priest who did over 300 damage on hit (not crit) to each vessel in range with his Holy Radiance without too much fuzz. Maybe one could lift that to 400. The bonus damage from level/reputation and high MIG/INT add up (or multiply?) pretty nicely. With this, most difficult vessel encounters become cakewalks. In terms of damage, nothing compares to a HoF barb, optimized for biggest AoE and with max DMG per hit and combined with Combusting Wounds. And the chanter is of course the most convenient way to apply a lot of AoE damage.

Hidden nerf I guess. I think that also means that Citzal's Spirit Lance + Envenomed Strike and Rot Skulls + Envenomed Strike doesn't work any more.

I don't want to sound c0cky, but your rogue disagrees about what? Those stats only prove what I said. Compare your "max damage" to a solid shapeshifting druid who will deliver crits above 200 dmg regularly. And compare your "total damage done" to a HoF-barbarian or a monk. Both will laugh at the total damage done. I have two screenshots here from my last playthrough with the Golden Dragon build (barbarian tank, not optimized for damage - since he's a tank) and an unarmed shapeshifting druid (boar, focused on survivability rather than highest possible dps): Those are lvl 16 though. But they are just two examples from one of my playthroughs where I didn't even focus on damage dealing. I even looked up my Counselor Ploi's stats (pure supporter paladin, totally not dps oriented) and even he has a higher max damage value. My melee priest in that run has "only" around 100 max damage hit, but his overall damage is way higher than the rogues (with very few crits). As you can see, theay are all better in their own ways while contributing to the party's performance in so many other ways at the same time: tanking, supporting, buffing, CC. And all of them provide a lot of survivability - I'm pretty sure they are way better at staying alive than any rogue. The rogue can only deal single target damage - and even at that he's bested. That's sad. I would like the rogue to be better. Some damage dealing things don't even get logged - like ranger's animal companions or chanters' Dragon Thrashed. If you count ranger+pet as one char, they also clrealy win against any rogue. The rogue is not the best single target damage dealer nor is he best at anything else - except hurling AoE spells with Deathblows - which is quite funny. They need a complete overhaul in my opinion. Either give them better single target damage without all that affliction fuzz (something around poison maybe or special talents/abilites around short blades or allow then to re-enter stealth?) or give them more AoE possibilites.

You have to rest at an inn (in a village or city), in your stronghold (if you acquired one and build the mansion) or camp (uses camping supplies) in the wilderness or dungeon.

I don't know. Double damage with spells is more powerful than more ACC in this case, because as a rogue you can always use a Scroll of Valor or a Potion of Eldritch Aim and nearly get the same ACC as a fighter, but a fighter can never get +100% damage with spells. The rogue can have additional hit to crit conversion, too. And he has Deep Wounds which work with all spells (also AoE) that do crush, pierce or slash damage - like Bounding Missiles or whatever. Besides Disciplined Barrage the fighter has no talent or ability that boosts spells directly, except maybe Confident Aim. For spell bindings which don't have anything to do with damage a fighter might be better though - for example Whisper of Treason.

Rogue with Deathblows and lots of spell bindings is really good though. Sneak Attack doesn't work with spells, but Deathblows do. So try to grab every piece of equipment with spells (Sun-Touched Mail, Amulet of Summer Solstice, Flames of Fair Rhian and so on). But in terms of single target damage he's inferior to druid, ranger and later on also fighter (if the fighter is skilled for dps and has Charge). And you always have that fuzz with the afflictions and also have to be very careful so he doesn't get knocked out after being looked at.

It never was. It's a simple misconception. And now players finally realised that it's the weakest class in the game. That's also because some other classes got nice buffs and great new abilities with the expansions and rogues... only got crap. Rogues are only good at the beginning of the game.

But with FoA they fly away and stop hitting you. Then you can't gain or spend any more wounds. Flagellant's Path also stops the Rooting Pain fest. Pushing against a wall is a bit circumstantial. I meant Torment's Reach is the best in this setup. The enemies have lower MIG and don't hit you as hard any more and they won't get disabled.

Sure. I always use potions of spirit shield with low resolve chars when I meet numerous enemies - until I can get some item that buffs concentration.

I'm looking forward to reading your reports. Small addition: since Soul Ignition is a DoT power, it doesn't get affected by Scion of Flame. It's still good for burn lashes and Battle-Forged.

Outlander's Frenzy won't stack with Time Parasite - but it's a nice way to fill the gap until you have enough focus for Time Parasite. And of course you can take it way earlier.

Haha - but then Rooting Pain's AoE will be very small. Take Torment's Reach: there's nothing better to spend wounds really fast. Or cast Dichotomous Soul early. But maybe you don't even need to do that. With 10 wounds you won't have any more Rooting Pain, but see it like a bridge to a maxed Turning Wheel: as long as you don't have 10 wounds, you don't have 50% burning lash for retaliation via Battle Forged, item retaliation, Potion of Flame Shield and so on. But you can balnce this out with Rooting Pain. Once you reach your full "lash" potential, Rooting Pain might stop, but your burn damage will be very high. Once a wound expires and Turning Wheel's power decreases a bit, you gain Rooting Pain back again. It's a quite effective setup. Iron Wheel also fits really well into this: when you want to get wounds really fast your DR is low, but once your wounds reach 10 and you only want to get MIN damage and retaliate your DR is +10. Nice. If you can manage to cause more than 10 damage per Rooting Pain (it's very difficult, maybe a ton of MIG and Expose Vulnerabilities helps - did anybody test if the bracers that give you +10% spell damage work with Rooting Pain?) then Resonant TOuch also may be really good. Imagine you receive a crit of 100 damage, causing 10 times Rooting Pain which each causes 10 damage on all surrounding targets. This might give them all 10 Resonent Touches which you then can trigger, giving them a lot of raw damage.

The drunk orlan is a pain in the back because of Rooting Pain. If you surround him and then hit him hard he will react with so many Rooting Pain flashes... Yes, it triggers for every wound, not hit. It triggers multiple times when you get hit hard. I also like the talent that lowers the damage you need to get a wound in combination with Rooting Pain. Without Rooting Pain I don't think it's worthwhile, but with it it helps you to trigger Rooting Pain more often with every hit you take. If your wound counter reaches 10 you don't get any more wounds. Therefore Rooting Pan stops working. You can test it of course. But unless OBS didn't change the behaviour lately it's like that. Rooting Pain also works if you inflict the wounds yourself. Don't know if this is of any use though.

But you have to spend your wounds quickly because after 10 your Rooting Pain won't trigger any more. Rooting Pain has a nice synergy with Combusting Wounds (Ring of Searing Flames) by the way. It gets even better when you can add Pain Link via cipher.

Yes, it's a nice side effect. Given enough enemies, HoF with Spelltongue also prolongs all currently active timed effects, even from potions/scrolls and so on for... like... forever. It's debateable if this is more powerful than the sheer damage or massive CC you could cause with other weapons, but it's nice nonetheless. Hm, I actually never tried out HoF + Spelltongue + Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence. I can't remember if it has a healing over (very short) time or if it's instant (haven't played for some weeks now). If it's the first, a trah encounter could restore your whole health...

It should be applied every time. Every new hit prolongs the time the spped buff lasts. Normally you can see it in the character sheet under active effects.

+45% to damage is not bad of course (maybe added by +20% from higher MIG from Frenzy), but a lash should be better if the burn DR is not ridiculously high. Maybe the raw retaliation helps. Blood Thirst and Bloodlust ould be a good addition. They also trigger when retaliation kills stuff, making your attacks very fast even in the fattest armor with a two hander like Hours of Saint Rumbalt (I love that thing on a barb).

That sword is quite mediocre anyway.

What makes this special monk very good at retaliation is Turning Wheel + Battle-Forged + Scion of Flame + Blood Testament. But I guess that Battle-Forged + Blooded + One Stands Alone + Scion of Flame + Barbaric Ret. is also a nice combo. One should try and post a build.

Abydon's Hammer doesn't work. A priest is mandatory. A cipher could use Wild Leech, a wizard Martial Power and so on. But Pallegina doesn't have any self buffs for MIG nor do your other team members have sufficient buffs for her. And also Pallegina's MIG is quite low. They raised it a bit in a patch some time ago because before it was even impossible to upgrade Steadfast with Pallegina even if you had a priest.