Boeroer

Hi. To be honest it's a massive nerf. But I also have to say that this "exploitation" of retaliation was maybe too powerful and broke the balance more than most other tricks did. So, it's still a viable combination to use weapon & shield for a cipher. And the cipher still has nice powers like Psychovampiric Shield and Pain Link which make this tanky build worthwhile. Some good powers like Antipathetic Field and Mind Lance work best from the front line. You can skip the whole retaliation part. Because Soul Whip doesn't get applied to retaliation any more, it's damage is whimpy and also Battleforged gets no buff anymore. Therefore, a head slot for gear is better. The rest of the build can stay unchanged i guess. Just take another shield - I would even consider to take a large shield and instead of raising RES a lot I would max out PER. That way you can balance out the ACC penalty of the large shield (- . The higher deflection bonus of the large shield would then make up for the lower RES. This sounds like a zero-sum game - but large shields also raise reflex a lot more than small ones do. So overall - with a large shield and high PER - you gain better defenses while staying accurate enough. Guess I should rework all my pre 3.x builds and also add all the new items and abilitites... edit: well, after studying this build again I think the trick with all the stacked retaliation + Pain Link + Combusting Wounds (from Ring of Searing Flames or a wizard) is still very powerful. You will cause a lot of tiny hits to the surrounding enemies which will stack a lot of combusting wounds - melting foes quickly. You just don't get focus by doing so any more. At the same time you can hit with your main weapon and gain focus. Still sweet I think.

Hey, that's handy, thanks. Less fuzz than with the Gimp.

Sure. He's great.

You're welcome. I also suggested a moose. A chanter can be as you described. He can be ranged or melee, with stats that suit both dialogue and combat and low micromanagement. And he can summon "pets", too. Most would build them tanky and do damage with summons, chants and/or invocations. But it still is a very different experience compared to a ranger. The animal companion of a ranger is really handy. One of the best things is that is has no health pool. As long as there's enough healing it can tank forever, trigger traps or used as bait or distraction without having to rest afterwards because of low health. A nice trick for later: if your animal companion is build in a way that it reliably kills enemies, you can use the priest's spell "Triumph of the Crusaders" to heal it completely every time it kills an enemy.

Overall the Blade is better - especially if you are willing to use resources like Durgan Steel and so on to enchant it. The Grey Sleeper - once obtained, can be leveled to superb quality very quickly without any resources. On a barbarian, the Grey Sleeper can be really good - because of carnage (and the multiple hits per strike) it's special spell chances like Paralyze, Invoke Vessels and Twin Stones trigger a lot more often than with other classes. For any other class The Blade is the better choice by far. Getting the Blade is a lot more work than picking up an leveling the Grey Sleeper - you have to collect all the parts in 15 levels of the Endless Paths of Od Nua - and the last levels of it are hefty if your own character level is too low. The map in where the Grey Sleeper... well sleeps, is quite difficult and the encounter that you have to master before getting the Sleeper is not so easy. But you can scout and avoid fights on that map until you get to that place. If you prepare to fight spirits and strenghten your defenses against stun and paralyze it's doable quite early. There are two other nice estocs in the game whoch you can get really early with not too much fuss. One is The White Spire that you can buy at the Crucible Knights - it has a nice spell binding and looks superawesome with a certain plate armor named "The White Crest" that you can get rel. early in WM I. They fit beautyfully - not only the looks, but also the theme and the spell bindings. THe other is Drake's Bell that you cvan get from an early bounty mission whoich is not too hard. It has 8 DR bypass instead of 5 and also gives you more burn DR which stacks with everything else. Both are great by itself or as a nice substitute until you get the Blade of the ENdless Paths - or the Grey Sleeper.

Right. And a barb with maxed CON, thick armor and enough self healing is very, very durable at higher levels. I'm speaking about ~500 endurance and ~3000 health. Takes forever to hack them down. At least long enough to trigger HoF after careful positioning. The key to a great HoF experience is very high INT though. Every enemy who you can catch with it improves the performance of HoF exponentially. So - forum resting bonus, Gwyn's Band of Union and a priest with Crowns for the Faithful are your dearest friends. I used a 2 DEX / 3 RES dwarf for a barb solo run on PotD and it worked well - especially against mobs and bounties. After you get HoF and Cape of the Cheat or Dragon Leap the game's nearly too easy. By the way: Blood Thirst + damaging scrolls like Maelstrom can mean zero recovery casting once the first enemies died...

Marked Prey is also good. You can take Wounding Shots next time or see that another party member gets some DoT ability. Like Envenomed Strike or some spell or chant which does damage over time (Combusting Wounds - wiz, Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon - wiz, Autumn's Decay - dru, Insect Swarm - dru and so on). For example the chanter's lvl 1 chant "Come Sweet Winds of Death" would serve perfectly well. Just let him sing that phrase all the time and the pet has permament Predador's Sense while the chanter is not too far away. The chant is pretty neat by itself, too. It does raw damage and slowly grinds down even heavy armored foes like those paladins. And it has this nice synergy with rangers's pets. If you have it, you can even skip WOunding SHot if you want (although it still does good damage with such a hard hitting weapon like crossbow or arbalest).

Well to be honest I personally think the dialogue options you gain with high RES or INT or whatever stat are not worth any hassle. They don't change the outcome of the dialogue 90% of the time - and then it's mostly to avoid a fight or to make a fight easier (missing loot). Who wants that? And there are also a lot of checks with PER, some with MIG, even a few with CON. You can't cover them all. You will not skip any content because of that or miss any item or so. It's just to have another option for answering - and then most of the time the answer of the npc is the same as if you took another (non stat-checked) line. But if you deperately want to retrain because of dialogue options you can put 15 in all of those stats you think will matter for dialogue and leave the rest at 10 for example. With items or resting bonuses or food it's rel. easy to gain 16 to 18 in any of those stats then. Wounding Shot with an arbalest is actually pretty good. The 100% bonus damage is great and helps to put down sturdy foes. And Wounding Shot also triggers Predator's Sense and Merciless Companion (aka pet's Sneak Attack) at the same time. With this combined approach, any enemy will go down quickly.

Hehe, thanks. I just looked it up at Steam: I've put nearly three thousand hours into this game. I can't say how this is even possible - but sometimes I leave it open (and paused) over night, so that's def. not the exact number of hours I actively played the game. But I played it a lot, that's for sure. The number of characters I've played or tried I can't guess. Hundrets maybe.. But most of my time I'm using the console to try out build ideas - and 90% of the time they don't meet my expectations when I test them solo or with a supporting tank as distraction against bounties and other high level content. But when they seem to be fun, I do a complete PoE playthorugh with them and then I post them if I'm satisfied. It's hard to test support capabilities if you are solo, so I always use a complete party with the builds I've cumulated so far. However, when it comes to numbers, rules and mechanics, I'm not the expert here. I just like to build classes in unusual ways. And I'm not the only one for sure. I mean look at the build list - so many awesome ideas that lead to great builds.

The paladins and champions in Raedrics Hold are very tough. No need to change anything. Your bear will do a TON of damage after you give him "Merciless Companion", "Vicious Companion" and "Predator's Sense" while using Wounding Shot on the targets the bear attacks. Alternatively, you can use any ability of any party member that causes a "damage over time" effect on the target the bear attacks. If he has Predartor's Sense, he will rip everything apart after two or three hits which suffers from such a DoT effect. Even paladins...

Good thing about chanters is they can be good tanks and impressive damage dealers at the same time. Same as barbs and monks by the way, but chanters are king in this "hybrid" discipline. Any class can tank well if build properly, but that may take some time, lvls and knowledge. If you can grasp and embrace the mechanics of a monk I think there's nothing that is more fun in PoE. Some of their abilities are so satisfying when applied in combat. But people tend to either love or hate them. However, they are quite powerful, but require more micro than chanters for example. I'd say they require the same amount of micromanagement as casters. A Kind Wayfarer paladin can be a lot of fun if you combine the ability to kill with all his healing capabilities. He has two special talents besides Lay on Hands and Healing Chain that heal allies - one when using his Flames of Devotion ability (burning lash 2/encounter) and the other when killing enemies. This can be done with any weapon style (weapon & shield, 2 handed, one handed or dual wielding). If you combine Flames of Devotion, Intense Flames, Scion of Flame and put a burning lash on your weapon you will cause massive, massive damage those 2 times per encounter. And the rest of your attacks will be fierce enough, too. Later on, you get Sacred Immolation. After that you will kill a ton of enemies just by standing around, healing your allies non-stop. Search for "damaging healbot" - it's an unfinished build in these forums which has a lot of cool ideas around this. I personally would go for Fire Godlike, using Forgemaster's Gloves to summon Firebrand and another 2 hander as backup (another great sword or an estoc maybe or even Durance's Staff) - just because of the fire theme. Being a burning monster out of hell and at the same time calling yourself a "Kind Wayfarer" who heals friends by killing foes sounds funny... Moon Godlike also makes a lot of sense with such a build.

Depends on difficulty and whether you have full party or not. Even then I'd say it's pretty tough at lvl 4 for a beginner.

Sure, why not. I think both will work. Her high MIG and rel. high CON as well as her low DEX and normal RES make her more suitable for the more meaty, less defensive type with dual sabres, Frenzy, Bloodthirst and Bloodlust I guess. THat way HoF is optimized and she can reach great speed even with 9 DEX, the thickest armor and also after Frenzy wears off. With Hof, you tend to kill at least two or three foes - so Blood Thirst and Bloodlust trigger right away, letting you attack directly after HoF without recovery and then with +20% speed from Bloodlust (which stacks with Frenzy). It's ideal for finishing off the last standing foes. Combining Vengeful Defeat with that also makes a lot of sense. Wit a proest, paladin or chanter in the party or with a scroll or second chance item you can use Vengeful Defeat (it's like HoF light) more than once in a tough fight. With that setup I soloed every bounty on PoTD - sometimes you make a mistake and it horribly fails, but normally an optimized HoF + eventually Vengeful Defeat turn everything into minced meat. It's a risky strategy when soloing because you have to be in the thick of the battle to get the most out of HoF, but it's a lot of fun. It's all about the positioning and the right timing to be honest.

Now it is. It used to be quite meh. I mean + 2.5 starting focus... pfff.

Right! I also thought about that combo. Once I have the hood, I will retrain and skip both yells/shouts that I currently use. Then there's room for Frenzy (just too good for HoF and fortitude defense and my deflection is already very high) and Threatening Presence. Coupe de Grace is guaranteed with HoF.

Well, Cape of the Cheat (=Escape) or Dragon Leap are indeed the best ways to reach as many foes as possible. If you can hit 5 or more foes the fight is normally over before it begins (with dual sabres that is). I always send the barb first when he has HoF (after his ACC got buffed a bit). With a wizard Pull of Eora is really nice to amass a lot of foes, then use petrify or paralyze before jumping in with the barb and trigger HoF. I have little concern about jumping into the fray to be honest. The barb only needs enough concentration so that he's not interrupted to death. If HoF is not enough to kill most foes then he has Vengeful Defeat and Second Chance. That "HoF light" will finish off most of the remaining mobs. Then, with a chanter/priest/paladin or a scroll, you can rise again if necessary. Another good way (without jumping or escaping into the fray) is to use a reach weapon from the side - it only allows for one "round" of HoF, but you can place the hit way better than with a short range weapon - normally reaching more foes this way. Tall Grass comes to mind. It's predatory enchantment is not too bad for HoF. Or hey - a superb Llawran's Stick.

Erm - I don't think he was too serious.

I mean if you can kill all bounties solo on PotD I'd say it's proof enough that a build is viable.

Great! I love the combination of blinding + Dragon Thrashed + immune animated weapons in solo run. Never thought about that. Blind is such a powerful debuff. Only yesterday I was thinking about how to raise a chanter's ACC (and how to lower enemies' defenses) for better The-Dragon-Thrashed-hits. Besides the obvious Killers Froze Stiff or scrolls nothing useful came to my mind. Should also work nicely with any party. By the way I'm currently doing a playthrough with your paladin-prince-charming and the barb supertank (shield, frighten, fatigue, Stalwart Defiance and so on) and it works really well. Will post both builds (besides one or two others) after finishing off Thaos. There I will def. mention that those are your inventions that I merely playtested. The idea of Sworn Enemy + Charming alone is not enough to "fill" a whole paladin build. So I added some tweaks here and there.

TUB's spell chance is broken somehow. If it triggers it only does 1/encounter. And it doesn't work with HoF at all. On-crit weapons also don't seem to work correctly. I only see 1 proc when I do HoF with them. However, Badgradr's Barricade and Dragon's Maw work really well with it. You'll deliver tons of Thrusts of Tattered Veil or Taste of the Hunt with them when doing HoF. Way more than you should. For optimal HoF you want dual wielding. Vulnerable Attack, lots of DMG mods like one stands alone and Frenzy on and weapons that hit as hard as possible - so dual sabres are an obvious choice. With that and a bit of luck you can nearly one-shot the hardest bounties.

Hehe. Sounds nice. Make sure to pick up Persistence - it's wounding is great with low INT. @Slacker83: I guessed so. That's why I said you shouldn't read that special part.

The Lady of Pain is fun. The Engineer build is a tank with shield and tremendous self healing that has some nice burst damage after a while and is not worthless in melee, too. Note that some - or most - of my builds are 2.x versions. They are also not 100% optimized for PG, but make some minor compromizes so that they stay true to their style, basic idea and indiv. backgroud. However, they are absolutely viable to beat PoTD difficulty. I did a playthrough with all of them. They still work the way they are advertised, but you can add some of the new talents/abilities and items now. But if you get the basic idea of the build I think it's easy to squeeze those in. Feel free to report in those threads if you discover something new or which new feats work great. The builds of mine which *don't* work with official companions are: - Monksterlasher (needs to be a Fire Godlike) - Backlash Beldam (it's beauty was destroyed by OBS - it doesn't work at all atm. - Scheemer's Needler (needs to be a priest of Skaen) - Bilestomper (should be a Mountain Dwarf) The Devil of Caroc can be build as a Mad Hornet without problems - but her racial feats, her armored body and her stats make her more suitable for melee. I still have 4 or 5 builds in the pipeline - but don't wait for those. Could take me weeks to finish my curr. playthrough with them and write the builds.

Yeah I can't even say when it was changed. All of a sudden it gave +10 starting focus as well. Maybe they did it along with the cipher rebalance which also made all the powers above lvl 1 super expensive (basically +10 focus for every spell level instead of +5).

It gives you +10 max focus as well as +10 starting focus (this was added in a patch to make it worthwhile). It doesn't scale. It lets you cast powers of a higher level at the start of the combat - which can be pretty nice. The max focus itself is not so powerful if you spend focus asap. But combined with the starting focus it's a viable pick.

There's only the priest's litany against stun. But there are a lot of items with either high defense bonuses against prone/stun (like boots of stability) or preservation items (including two shields that lets you stack preservation) or even Breakout items (-50% or -33% duration) so that prone and stun shouldn't be a such a big issue as paralyze or petrify can be. And the sanguine plate can also be good in such encounters: Frenzy raises your fortitude defense quite a bit via +8 to the related stats.