Boeroer

Yeah, but I also play during the night, so it does count.

It would have been cool if barbs had a unique (but simple) resource system like monks (wounds), chanters (phrases) or ciphers (focus) have. One that influences some of their most prominent abilitites, like Carnage and Frenzy and maybe also the Yell. Something named rage or so, where rage would increase Carnage and Yell area and would fuel Frenzy (influences bonus or prolongs duration or so). Then there would be no discussion about INT on a barb. Rage could grow if the barb gets affected by an affliction and would get dampened when he gets healed.

You can play with INT 3 and you will most of the time hit 3 foes at once if you don't flank but stand in the midst and enemies surround you. And you can also have +INT items which also will help a bit. But a lot of the barb's abilities are influenced by INT, for example Frenzy, Bloodlust, Savage & Stalwart Defiance, the yells and shouts and so on. Since most of those already have quite short durations dumping INT has a very noticeable effect and makes those ability less attractive. Longer durations are a big plus if you have a barb - that's one reason why Spelltongue on a barb is so nice. So it is true (for me) that INT is one of the most precious stats for a barb - and it feels weird sometimes. Not because all barbs should be dumb, but they don't have the reputation of being extraordinarily smart either. But I still like PoE's stats system. I have the same "problem" with fighters and monks by the way: can't make them without high INT.

You might consider Basketball. When I was 20, I got injured during a game and couldn't walk without crutches for nearly 3 months. Until today I can't bend my knee completely. Big success!

The best racial feat in my opinion. And if you have 1 talent to spare and wear the Bartender's Ring, you can take Beast Slayer and enchant your weapons with kith-slaying. Then you have a char who either has higher ACC or higher damage against every creature there is.

3k+

Forest Lurkers at lvl 3 are tough. Huge endurance pool, rel. high DR and good defenses and acc. And they hit hard and cause stuck on hit.

Then I guess it only works when you pick Wildstrike - because with my druid (who has Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike) it works just fine.

The AoE indicator for Mind Wave got messed up in one of the later patches, maybe 3.something. Before that is was centered on the enemy you picked as your target. Don't know why it broke. Maybe because there's this secret design philosophy of OBS that, when they introduce some new features with a patch, they also have to introduce some new bugs as well. It's called balancing...

Yes, you can. Concelhaut, too.

That is indeed one of the most inexplicable decisions the designers/devs made. Durance's staff would be the best quarterstaff in the game if the devs would finally change crush/burn into burn/crush.

Yes, you can always leave and come back later.

Luckily for Durance, the Binding Rope only works with melee hits. But it would have been realistic to get stuck when you shoot yourself in the foot.

Yep. Random stronghold quest.

Eh? Other characters that hit you get stuck. It's not even possible to hit yourself in melee in PoE. Very good item that.

Maybe a green Aumaua or wild orlan will do. Or a Nature Godlike? Oops - shame (and no glory) on me for naming it "Shame and Glory" and not "Shame or Glory". Second time this week after Dragon's Bell. You can tell I didn't play that game for a long time now.

@MaxQuest: whooha! Dual wielded marking weapons stack? That is totally new to me and great news. I guess I'll have to add a DW variant to my Counselor Ploi build. Sadly, the only one handed marking weapons you can get are Shame and Glory + Cladhaliath. Looks really weird together. And since two spears also look stupid I guess the only tasty alternative is to clone Shame & Glory with the Helwax Mold.

The domination from the Ring of Changing Heart has no ACC bonus and is only 2/rest while Munacra Arret and Spirit Spiral both have 3 Whispers per rest at +10 ACC. The only advantage of the ring is that it has fast cast and can be cast out of combat. All dragons but one can be charmed. The one who's immune is with Llengrath. But if you charm the other one they will attack each other, so who cares?

It's relatively easy to determine if a party is too powerful for a certain encounter. Take the average level, the quality of equipment, the average damage, the damage done, how many times knocked out, the average ACC, the defensive values, if there are casters and so on. Of course you can't determine if the player has some very weird and powerful builds, but a kith opponent also wouldn't know this. If you want to make it realistic, only examine stuff that is visible, like quality of equipment, number of foes, are there casters, perhaps how high health is (injured), fully rested (do they look worn and exhausted) abd so on. Based on that you could give them a scripting how they should behave - mayybe also based on morale, dispositions and orders they have.

As far as I know you need more than 10 mechanics to find 8 ingots in the mining cart in Durgan's Battery. I don't know for sure because I always have a party member with 12 or more. You'll also need some fighting skills against a certain big, white, winged creature and against a certain humanoid, dried, robed creature to get them all.

Cool, thanks.

But it reduces recovery, too (if any left). The charm + knockdown approach with high ACC is one of the best ways to kill dragons in my opinion. I didn't even have a cipher. Only my charming paladin, melee priest and max INT knockdown fighter. All three sturdy enough to survive a few attacks. As you said: first charm the dragon and occupy him and his ads with killing each other, then later rush in and prone him until he's dead. I also had a barb, a druid and a wizard, but they just watched. So I assume cipher will work equally well - even more charms and other good stuff in the quiver and nearly same ACC if needed.

A pity. The only way that still might work is to use the console to dismiss them and then put them back into the party. I would like to do a play through with them - even without achievements.

Maybe... But even if they do stack (what I suspect) it might not be very reliable. Let's say you have two marking + coordinating paladins and one cipher. How do you make sure only the cipher profits from the ACC buffs and not one of the paladins? Too much fuzz for my taste. If you can figure out a way then I'm all in! For me, the perfect setup is a marking Darcozzi Paladini with Coordinated Attacks, Zealous Focus and Inspiring Exhortation, a priest with Inspiring Radiance and Devotions and a cipher with Tactical Meld casting it on the paladin. That way you will have +86 ACC on your cipher, +96 with Whisper of Treason. It should all stack. You could even add Borrowed Insticts. I think it stacks, too for +106. But thats too much focus waste for buffing in my opinion. +86 is enough to crit-charm any enemy most of the time as long if there's no immunity involved. When you exchange the cipher with a fighter you can nearly do the same with prone. I always crit-proned my dragons until they where dead. As far as I remember there are no dragons who are immune to prone. The +10 resistance mean nothing. Maybe the flying one is immune? Can't remember...

If you manage to save them that's a glitch. I don't know if you can send them to the stronghold. But what is that trick to keep them alive? Never heard of it. Casting Barring Death's Door on them or what?