Boeroer

Then it's like focus. I mean the part where you get rage by doing damage. You could also make it so that with missing endurance you gain rage. Like with Blooded. Doesn't have to be too granular. But I like the idea of afflictions making the barb really angry.

I stole it from the Hulk.

For AoE damage I would say wizard. He not only has a higher number of spells from which you can pick your preferred damaging spells - he also can get two rings of wizardry for more spells per rest and he can have blast which is an AoE attack itself. Works like a charm with Kalakoth's Minor Blights if you want to spare spells in trash encounters. Add Combusting Wounds to that and melt even tough mobs with only two spells. You can even deal really high AoE damage in melee with Citzal's Spirit Lance. It's only one spell and you can whipe whole groups with it quickly. I recently played a solo Lance wizard on PoTD, it's very effective. Druid has nice spells, too. Most of his damaging AoE spells also cause powerful afflictions, which is great. But he hasn't the spell variety of a wizard and he can't use "spell saving tactics" to cause AoE damage like the wizard can. Shapeshifting is very powerful, but it's not AoE. To be honest, I would bring both. And a priest. Stronghold turns happen when you advance in a quest. Doesn't matter which one.

Ouch! Great news. Thanks for testing. This calls for a maggot loving necromancer build.

If you have a stag helmet or the wyrwood ring then a wizard with binding web is a nice way. Rogue puts on the stag helmet and is immune to stuck, wizard casts binding web and a whole area is afflicted with stuck. It's a powerful debuff with a low level spell. Chillfog is a great way to cause blind for a long time - but I wouldn't run into it to attack in melee. But with a bow it's nice. Phantom Foes is also very nice. With Phantom Foes you can also trigger the bonus damage against flanked targets that you can get from items and survival. A druid would be another source of afflictions. And don't forget that the fighter has knockdown. A great way to trigger deathblows, as I mentioned in another thread, is a monk with Force of Anguish and Enervating Blows. Preferably with an accurate weapon. He will often trigger deathblows for your rogue with one crit.

Nope. But it works great with beams and Pain Link. If you have a barb in the party then don't throw it away: one of the best items with HoF.

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.