Boeroer

Rofl - the last one sounds like some serious fun. Should be connected to Skaen.

If you pick Veteran's Recovery and Savage Defiance as early as possible and fetch Fulvano's Amulet early (and later Shod-in-Faith, too), and also go for 8 survival in order to get 40% healing bonus from camping (meaning +65% together), you can also dual wield at the early levels without getting knocked out. You will be even tougher than a dual wielding fighter because he won't have any self healing ability besides Constant Recovery and less endurance and health. But of course you will lack a bit of ACC at first because you put everything into sturdyness as soon as possible. But that's better than getting knocked out all the time and doing no damage at all while lying flat on the face. Later, after some levels, there's enough room for dps talents/abilites. With a party, you can achieve 14 survival and have +85% healing bonus. But when solo you will also need some lore (dragons!) and mechanics when solo. I did a PoTD solo barb with focus on self heals and dual sabres and it worked pretty well even in Act I. And the more levels you get the more awesome your endurance and asp. health pool will be - as you said. Max CON is also fun with a barb. After lvl 11 (Heart of Fury) that solo run became a walk in the park. My solo runner had those stats: MIG 20 CON 20 DEX 02 PER 15 INT 18 RES 03 Frenzy, Bloodlust + Blood Thirst as well as dual wielding and Two Weapon Style make up for the low DEX. Very sturdy - esp. because of sky high fortitude. Was a lot of fun.

I'm on a 5 year old laptop with a GeForce 555M, so... But hey! It used to be top notch back then. It's true: Cail is so difficult only because I want to get Tidefall as early as possible.

It's a bit sad though that you need to sacrifice a talent point in order to get acceptable unarmed damage. It would have been nice to be able to loot some more stuff for unarmed fighting. THings like the sandals, maybe knuckle dusters or pit fighter gloves that give you a second damage type or wounding or stun on crit or something fancy like that. Would also allow for enchanting.

Also note that Twin Stones is quite hilarious with Driving Flight. Flying rocks everywhere, changing directions after hits. I once tried to do a melee ranger build with The Grey Sleeper and tried to proc Twin Stones + Driving Flight often, but sadly 5% is just too bad without carnage to be worthwhile.

I searched for the thread about Vicious Aim + spells but can't find it. But I found another one that says that my previous sayings about Marked Prey are not quite right. The stacking of the 20% damage with multi projectile tings doesn't occur on the initial target, but on the target that gets hit by Driving Flight - but still nice.

@fiddlesticks: With Blunderbusses I didn't test and I can't remember what Loren Tyr said about it who looked it up in the code. But I assume it's the same with blunderbusses. Twin Sting hasn't two projectiles per shot but shoots two times without reloading phase - but it's two seperate shots with recovery in between. So Marked Prey works normally with Twin Sting, giving 20% fo each shot. Envenomed Strike (I assume you meant that, not monk's Enervating Blows?) works with wizard's Blast and the AoE splash of Citzal's Spirit Lance as well as druid's Rot Skulls - that's it. Sadly, not with Driving Flight (and not with carnage). Vicious Aim does indeed work with several spells. Loren Tyr (again) said in a post which ones work with it, but I can't recall exactly which ones. I assume that those were all the ones which work with Pen. Shot as well, and some additional. Surely Missile spells were in that group, too.

For me, Cail the Silent will always be the most difficult of all the dragons. Also because my frame rate drops to 5 fps in that stupid cave...

No. Not much. Only raising MIG and speed will do more damage. Savage Attack only gives you +20% of the really whimpy base damage of fists. Novice's Suffering's bonus comes after that. So you would trade -5 ACC for an extremely low DMG buff. The same reason why 3 PER works: grazes only reduce the base damage of fists. But the bonus from Novice's Suffering then gets added. So there's nearly no difference between graze and even crit. This lets the build do very consistent damage. As peddroelm said, only MIG has an effect on the bonus of Novice's Suffering. I never tested the hater talents with NS, so I was wondering if they may be an exception. Another plus for Ryona's Vambraces: they turn misses to grazes: fine thing for this build.

That sounds really cool. I take it that you don't have Sandals of the Forgotten Friar yet? Would you say that with Bloodlust+Bloodthirst+Frenzy it would be wise to put on Ryonas Vambraces and also take Vulnerable Attack for 8 DR bypass (and maybe adding Garodh's Chorus and Barbaric Retaliation for double retaliation that is not crush?) - or would you think that it's better to go for more speed and take Gauntlets of Swift Action and no Vuln. Attack? Since you only can boost your damage significantly via MIG and scaling maybe the DR bypass is worth the slower attacks? I mean Blood Thirst takes away some of it. What do you think? Or even go for Glittering Gauntlets (if you manage to get them) for the AoE dazing maybe? Do you know how talents like Wilder Hunter behave with the fists' damage? Do they also only raise the whimpy base damage or maybe the bonus of Novice's Suffering, too, like MIG does? Same with the Bartender's Ring? If those things work differently from talents like Savage Attack they might be a good pick...? I'm fleshing out a wizard pike build atm because the testing of Spirit Lance + Knockdown + Runner's Wounding Shot + Envenomed Strike + Clear Out against bounty parties went so extremely well that I decided to make a build out of it, purely focused on 2h melee. Arcane Veil + Wizard's Double is really good in the early game, too - so it's not too hard to solo with a pike as a wizard even in the early game.

An maybe also after I posted this: Stacking Disorienting

Ah, and I forgot: Stunning Shots of the ranger now also works in melee. It means perma-stun most of the time if you're fast enough (high DEX + Swift Aim + durgan steel) and your INT is not too low. Most enemies die after very few hits/bites if you combine wounding + stun because the pet then gets +95% DMG which is awesome with that high base damage they have. And they crit a lot because of the stun, too. Since you will flank with your pet a lot, you can also skill for a lot of survival and go for max dmg bonus against flanked targets.

Monk: When using Full Attacks with a bash shield you will attack with the bash first and then comes the main hand weapon. So yes - 2 attacks with bash, not 1. That's the reason I recommend it with Torment's Reach. Bash is an ability and therefore gets +1 ACC per level. With Bagradr's Barricade your ACC will only be a few points lower than that of your main weapon with Weapon Focus. I guess 5 points or so. The bash ACC therefore is surprisingly high. Barbaric Blow is only good when you dual wield. With a pike I would skip it. Stacking Disorienting and Interfering got nerfed: doesn't stack anymore. Tall Grass on a barb is a great setup. Reach is good for the best placement of the centre of carnage. Hours of St. Rumbalt and barb are also big friends. No reach, but also prone on crit and annihilating - and two damage types. Ranger Marked Prey now marks a target and you and your pet will do +20% weapon base damage to that target. ACC is also higher if I recall correctly. Wounding Shot is better with 2h, yes. The combination of Tidefall + Shod-in-Faith boots and maybe also Veteran's Recovery on a ranger makes his pet do enormous damage, prolongs the life of the pet and the ranger. It's just no tank but is sturdy enough for an offtank. Rangers have lowish endurance and health but their base deflection is OK. If you let your pet engage first you won't run out of health. The pet has no health bar which can be abused with excessive healing. Think about your paladin. Lay on Hands and the Wayfarer talents can keep the pet alive for some time. Rangers now also have 2 healings for their pet per encounter. And the pet can feign death. Rogue The Full Attack abilities are ok. They also work with Badgradr's Barricade by the way. So if you don't like the idea of a monk with it, you can use it on a rogue and skill for all those full attack abilities. It worked quite well for me when I used this setup for the Devil of Caroc. I combined it with the stunning hammer Godansthunyr. That led to a lot of crits with the bash which triggered Thrust of Tattered Veils. That also works with Deathblows by the way. Or - what I totally forgot: maybe a rogue with a reach weapon can balance out his squishyness while he's still able to dish out melee damage. Tall Grass would be good (if the barb won't take it) or even Llawran's Stick (has speed). Durance's Staff is also nice: it has two damage types (crush/burn) which makes it the only reach weapon which has two damage types instead of only one.

My thoughts: Fighter The best single target dps class in my opinion. Later an gets some AoE abilities as well. Fighters can dish out good damage while staying alive even when not skilled for tankyness. I would go for dual wielding. Why? Because Knockdown (up to 3/encounter) is a Full Attack, meaning you will hit once with every weapon. But the main reason is Charge. It doesn't say it in the description, but Charge will also deliver a Full Attack to the target, ON TOP of the crush damage that charge itself does. This kills most enemies right away. This makes the fighter the best "behind the lines" class. He can quickly take out dangerous enemies like casters while not getting knocked out. Add high INT, Clear Out and Disciplined Barrage and weapons with on-crit-effects and/or annihilating (like Godansthunyr + Shatterstar for example) and you are good to go. Very effective and lots of fun. A charging fighter is also out of the way and makes room for all the other melee guys. Paladin For me it's always Outworn Buckler. It's just too good. Have a look at my latest paladin build Counselor Ploi, it's a supporter melee but also kills for effects. Can easily be converted to a Kind Wayfarer. Monk Always dual wielding because of Torment's reach (Full Attack). BUT - what's really nice is a monk with Badgradr's Barricade: the on-crit-effect works woth Torments's Reach AoE which triggers Thrust of Tattered Veils - and you don't lose much dps with bash because the cone's crush damage has its own base damage which is completely independent from your weapons. You can build a tanky monk and still do Full Attacks with Torment's Reach all the time. Until you get Badgradr's Barricade you can take the Larder Door that you get very early. This is the best combo of stzrdyness and dps on a monk there is If you don't like shields in a monk, then any dual weapon setup will do. Look at my Monksterlasher build, it combines sturdiness with very high dps. Barbarian If you want a reach weapon, take Tall Grass and skill for critical hits. You might want to take Aspirant's Mark on any of your chars because it's the only way to lower deflection in an AoE if you don't have casters. Prone in an AoE (carnage) is very powerful. Use Frenzy, Bloodlust (both stack) and also Blood Thirst to speed things up. The only Full-Attack-ability of the barb for which you want dual wielding is Heart of Fury (HoF), which is superstrong. But you could use dual war hammers in the second weapon slot and switch before HoF in order to get two swings - or you do it with Tall Grass, it's also nice enough for HoF. Ranger Go for a wounding weapon - likely Tidefall because it's the earliest one to get. Later you could respec for Drawn in Spring + Little Savior (stacks with outworn buckler) or something. Look at my Riptide Ranger build and you'll know why a wounding weapon is good for a ranger. Also put on Shod-in-Faith boots to constaly heal your pet (pref. wolf). The build says it all. It's 2.03, but most things said there still apply. Rogue Melee rogues are kinda crappy in my opinion. Strict single target damage while being extremely squishy is a bad combo - especially if the damage is nothing special compared to some other classes which are not as squishy and don't need that much micro with afflictions and all. I tried a ton of different builds but they are all inferior to other classes' builds which do the same as a rogue. This is not an invitation to a discussion - my mind is set on this one. Maybe they are fun in a solo game when using stealth and invisibility and stuff - but when you prefer the good old "into the fray" approach there's always a better option than a melee rogue. What works okayish and requires not that much babysitting is a tankish rogue, skilled for sturdyness with Veteran's Recovery, a shield, with retaliation and Deep Wounds. With high MIG, Vulnerable Attack and all his damage mods he can dish out good (dual) retaliation damage when he gets hit and will also trigger Deep Wounds on everybody who hits him (even if immune to pierce damage). Grab Sura's Supper Plate and Garodh's Chorus (both retaliations stack) and Deep Wounds, then maybe a battle axe (I would aim for We Toki). You can even take Riposte although it's still not superpowerful. What may be good is to aim for the Unlabored Blade - its Firebug spell chance will get fixed with the next patch 3.04, which is supposed to come out this week. Firebug has very high base damage and it works with Deathblows (damage will get doubled) and Scion of Flame and will do very high damage when it triggers.

They can be a nice distraction - esp. if you are solo. They don't last very long though. I quickly tested the Grey Sleeper with Torment's Reach: sadly, against my expectations, the special effects don't get triggerd by the AoE cone. I tried to do a ranger build with The Grey Sleeper because Twin Stones works with Driving Flight in a really funny way, but 5% spell chance is so low that it's not worthwhile without carnage.

Def. the Golden Gaze. I once tested a ranger with this and it's quite awesome. Outlaner's Frenzy + Vicious Aim + Dangerous Implements do quite a bit damage, and Driving Flight and the two projectiles trigger Expose Vulnerabilites pretty soon. It's only 5% in theory. You get two projectiles instead of one and both work with Driving Flight, raising your theoretical chance of 5% to ~20% per shot. You should take Penetrating Shot, too, because the two projectiles are a bit weaker than normal implement shots. Once Exp. Vuln. got triggered, you will have 10 DR bypass - combined with the damage bonuses it's quite awesome. Implements with stun on crit or prone are redundeant once you get stunning shots. It also works with driving flight, meaning it also stuns the enemies behind the initial target. With Golden Gaze this can be two different targets (Driving Flight doesn't always choose the same target behind the initial one) and you also have a higher chance to hit/crit with the stun effect on the initial target (because you have two projectiles). Marked Prey also works in a weird way with the Golden Gaze: the first projectile get the 20% damage bonus, but the second gets +40%. The damage bonus kind of stacks. This also works with magic missles with every projectile and also Missile Barrage (up to +180% damage for the last projectile). So you could also take Prestidigitator's Missiles and a cloak of Magic Missiles. Those all work with Pn. Shot and also Driving Flight. It's a nice build. For the wizard I'd also say that you should focus on missiles and other damaging spells. Spells whch don't care too much about INT are: - Jolting Touch - Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp - Minor Missiles - Thrust of Tattered Veils - Wizard's Double - Necrotic Lance (the direct damage part) - Ray of Fire - Rolling Flame - Concelhaut's Draining Missiles - Crackling Bolt - Bounding Missiles - Essential Phantom - Ironskin - Writhing Tentacles - Ninagauth's Death Ray - Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring (the damaging part) - Chain Lightning - Concelhaut's Crushing Doom - Ninagauth's Killing Bolt - Substancial Phantom - Thayn's Chaotic Orb (damaging part) - Kalakoth's Freezing Rake (damaging part) Some of those spells work with penetrating shot (all direkt targeted damaging spells like missiles or necrotic lance, all jumpers and all spells that go in a straight line like Rolling Flame and Crackling Bolt) - so I would advise to take that. It doesn't slow down your spell casting. That would be a "sniper" approach. You could even use Persistance as main weapon because it works really well with high MIG and low INT. The wounding damage will get applied nearly instantly with 3 or even lower INT (Dandy Hat of the Diseased Yak: -1 INT or Ultimate Head of Alluring Perfection: -2 INT).

I'm really interested how you manage to enchant a weapon with adra dragon scales.

They also proc with Torment's Reach I think, since on-crit effects and other on-hit effect also work with it - but I haven't tested that. Would be even better with Twin Stones because Torment's Reach and Twin Stones are both cones.

With carnage the Grey Sleeper is fun if you attack large groups of enemies. Paralyze here, a summoned vessel there, Twin Stones from time to time. The weapon dps from the Blade is higher of course. The elemental lash alone results in more damage than most soulbounds can give you with their special feats. Try The Hours of St. Rumbalt on Maneha and you'll see it's one of the best weapons for a barb though.

Dancing Bolts, Winter Wind, Returning Storm, Twin Stones, Relentless Storm, Nature's Terror, Venombloom - those are all foe only - just to name a few that come to mind. If you'd taken decent CON and Veteran's Recovery you needn't to retreat in order to cast. You could also cast Nature's Balm before going into melee. In the early levels it's also good to summon Firebrand. Compared to the other weapons around at that time it does great damage. You can then use Taste of the Hunt with it to deliver damage while getting healed. Edit: nevermind. I missed a whole page. Good riddance!

Higher DEX is also not bad for casting. When you want to wear heavy armor I wouldn't go under 10. RES is neglectible. You'll have Spirit Shield and a lot of awesome self buffs and auras like Lengrath's Displaced Image, Arcane Veil, Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage and healing from Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon (which is really, really good). I like to take Veteran's Recovery and an item with +25% healing bonus, too - maybe also survival 8 or even 14 for the healing bonus. An approach of mine would probably look like: MIG 18 CON 10 DEX 10 PER 16 INT 18 RES 06 With those stats I solo'd the Nalrend-Bounty in Elmshore a few house ago without kiting, pulling and also without any consumables or resting bonuses (I had +15 ACC against wilders from camping though). The defenses will be quite balanced, too.

But teleporting a fighter across the battlefield in a blink while leaving behind a trail of invisible destruction is totally cool?

That may be. I just recalled it was there at some point. Who runs around completely naked anyway?

Thanks - I rolled them quickly with the help of the console just for this purpose. I could have taken a more fitting skin color with the aumua (under the Maegfolc Skull). Also nice. The color of the armor fits the color of Citzal's Spirit Lance very well.

Turning Wheel and Iron Wheel both apply without problems. With Iron Wheel you have to wear at least cloth armor. If you go naked it doesn't work (I suppose it enchants your armor in some way - I mean code-wise). What sometimes doesn't work is the mechanic of Blood Testament gloves (+2% raw lash per wound). Sometimes they work and sometimes not. Maybe this got fixed lately, too. Also, the whole thing about Enervating Blows is total nonsense. Monk's Fists scale with level and get higher ACC bonuses than most weapons - and earlier, too. They crit all the time...