Boeroer

There is a approach for a party fighter with great swords which makes him very sturdy and also do great damage: high MIG and INT, Rapid Recovery, Cloak of the Tireless Defender + any regeneration item like He Carries Many Scars plate armor. Then use an item which buffs the healing that you receive (Belt of Bountiful Healing or Fulvano's Amulet or Maneha's Armor - +25% healing received each), optimal would be to also get St. Borragia's Tears from a minor stronghold quest (+15% healing done) and get survival to 14 (you only need to have 14 when you camp, you can use items with a survival bonus for that - so having 12 survival is enough) in order to get +60% healing. You self healing will be so good that you won't go down easily even when you receive a lot of hits on the head all the time while swinging your sword. In very tough encounters, whenever a priest or druid drops healing spells on you you will get so much healing even from the weak spells that you will survive. Then later grab Tidefall a some point and your healing via draining (that Great Sword turns 20% of the damage you cause into healing) will make you even more sturdy. It's a low micro, fun to play approach that works on every difficulty setting with a party. When you suffer from low health then consider taking Wound Binding - it will restore your health completely (and not just 40%) once per rest because of all your healing buffs. Or sip potions of Infuse with Vital Essence now and then. Those also work with your buffs and will restore over 200 health. Have a look at old "The Engineer" build in this forums and combine his healing capabilities (plus survival) with the skills and style of the "Lady of Pain" which you can find here as well (look into the build index, they are both in there). It will be a great build for PoTD.

OK, thanks.

Great swords are fine. They do two types of damage which is very handy on PotD. You will find nice unique great swords (one that wounds the enemy and heals you with every strike, two that can knock over enemies when you land a critical hit, one that destroys vessels aka undead, one that does additional crush damage - that one you'll get early and so on). It's one of the weapon groups with the most uniques. Then there are estocs which look like more tapered great swords, but do only cause pierce damage. But they have inherent DR bypass and are good against heavy armored foes. A fighter with a great sword and thick armor can be tanky and deal good damage at the same time. He has the right abilities for it. He will not have to switch weapons a lot when he meets immune-to-that-damage-type enemies because his weapon has two damage types. I wouldn't choose a great sword when I want to do the absolute minmax build, but they are totally OK with a fighter - also on PoTD.

Not with a chanter who uses White Worms. In fact, with said chanter the whole castle is a joke once you have a few bodies piled up in some doorway... The bears are tougher then: no bodies for his White Worms.

Maybe, but at the moment bash will hit twice (it's a bug) - so if you have a shield with an on crit effect or a spell chance like Badgradr's Barricade/Dragon's Maw, then their special attacks (Thrust of Tattered Veils or Taste of the Hunt) will be triggered more often than before. Does the wounding "lash" of Drawn in Spring count as seperate hit for CW?

Torment's Reach and Turning Wheel you can have from lvl 1 on. So that's powerful enough for soloing per se. Monks are great in the early game. Tanking Dragons for longer than half a minute is only possible with an all-in defensive build. But you don't have to tank them in order to defeat them. For every dragon there's a trick.

And because - let's be honest - the high level abilities of a barb used to be pretty underwhelming. I mean HoF 1/rest was pretty lame while wizards could use Alacrity and Pull of Eora 1/encounter, rangers got Stunning Shots and Twinned Arrows and stuff like that. At higher levels mobs don't die from one HoF alone. But yeah - if you target 5 enemies with your HoF and dual wield you would get 50 hits if i'm not mistaken; 10 for each enemy. So they would each have 10 combusting wounds which will do 5 burn damage per tick for the rest of the duration of Combusting Wounds. With 20 (+INT) seconds duration this would mean 35 extra damage per one CW instance after 2o+ secs. Times ten = 350 against 0 DR. But against high DR it will be more like 70 or so. So it depends I guess. I will have to test that once I hit lvl 11. Could be really drastical if I combine that with the bash bug which hits twice (=75 hits with HoF) and a unlocked Unlabored Blade (Firebug will proc 2.5 times on avarage hitting 8 enemies every time -> meaning 75+ (2.55*8 = 20) = 95 hits total). But I guess nothing survives that and can still suffer CW after that. Maybe a dragon with adds. I tried out a Wall of Flames (which hits very quickly) wizard with Combusting Wounds yesterday and I have to say I wasn't too impressed by the performance. Combusting Wounds doesn't only come from rings and a wizard, but there's also a wand with spell chance by the way (Curaoc's Brand). Not that this is of much use for a barbarian.

Dammit! I remember that it did - looong time ago. Why not anymore? So stupid...

Yes, a reach weapon really helps to get the best out of carnage. Speaking of prone on crit: I used Hours of St. Rumbalt early on and even at lvl 9 I couldn't disable a lot of folks (also WF and PER 19). In a party you have so many possibilities to lower deflection, as a solo barb not so much. I used Aspirant's Mark and survival ACC bonus and it still wasn't as good as in a party. Dual sabres is still better than Hours of St. Rumbalt in most cases for me. It's also better because I use a Ring of Searing Flames quite often. It's better to hit faster with that thing so that you can stack as many combusting wounds as possible with carnage. I'm curious how Combusting Wounds behaves with Heart of Fury. In a big group it should result in a lot of hits that apply combusting wounds. Should be devastating...

The mantle is of little use against enemies who don't deal freeze damage.

Island Aumaua backstabbing arquebus (or blunderbuss) Arms Bearer Quick Switch rogue for the win! Lots of micro, but lots of one-shot kills, too. Add Deep Wounds Prestidigitator's Missiles, Ryona's Vembraces (when using blunderbusses), Cloak of Minor Missiles and Missile Scrolls, too. Powerful and is not getting in the way of all the melee guys.

Next thing I'll do is a White Worms abusing solo chanter. Hm... sounds kinda gross...

And if you find Rhymrgand's Mantle and combine it with plate then Caed Nua and Temple of Eothas lvl -1 will be a lot easier (if you don't want to sneak and pick locks all the time). It feels like you're only losing health, but not endurance. Very powerful item if you know how to use it. Maybe even more so when you're a pale elf.

Hehe - might be, never experienced that. I always lure the wolves to the bandits...

Just beware: interrups will be an issue at first.

Using a ranged rogue is inferior to a ranger in terms of dps - but not that much. So going ranged with Persistence and Deep Wounds and so on can be good. To prevent swarming you can either raise the deflection and DR of you rogues (enemies' AI looks for this) or you use you wizard to confuse or use Binding Web while the rogues wear stag helmets. The latter also helps with Sneak Attacks and Deathblows. Proven comps with a rogue is everything that sets up Sneak Attack and disables so the enemies can't attack the rogue. For example your Priest can cast Painful Interdiction (=weaken) and the wizard can cast Binding Web and you will have deathblow-able foes in a wide area. More than one rogue is not the best option (in my opinion). I know a lot of people love rogues because they do a lot of single target damage. And they can be useful for tanking out tough single enemies pretty fast. But the more rogues you add the more difficult your playthrough will be. But that's only my experience. I had PoTD playthroughs with one rogue, two rogues and even six rogues. The last one was the least pleasant playthrough I ever did and also the most difficult one (with a party). So I would say thinking that adding more rogues makes a party stronger is a rookie mistake - without wanting to offend anybody, I did it myself. However - to make two rogues work the same applies as for one rogue: AoE afflictions and disables. And maybe a thicker frontline. But stag helmets + Binding Web is a pretty solid way to get them going. One stag helmet you can get from VIsceris in Copperlane by the way (backer nps druid who stands left of the inn). Two rogues can be great alpha-strikers and take out the most dangerous foes at the start of the fight with Backstabs + Sneak (or even Deathblows) from arquebuses or blunderbusses/pistols. But you have to be at 2m range max to deliver Backstabs. So make sure you have either Fast Runner or Boots of Speed on them so that they can retreat behind the front line pretty fast. In my experience Escape is too slow (maybe they changed that). YOur paladin can join the team alpha strike with FoD from a gun. That way three enemies will be dead pretty soon. If two tanks are not enough to keep the enemy away from your rogues, your wizard can be build into a good offtank as well without loosing a lot of usefullness for CC. Put him into heavy armor and give him a shield to which he will switch when enemies reach him. He has awesome self buffs which should do the tanking job pretty well. Same with the priest. Give him a shield. He has great defensive buffs which will not only enhance the tankyness of your paladin and chanter but also for him. You would have 4 guys to guard two rogues - that should be enough.

All classes can do solo runs on Path of the Damned, yes. Even the barbarian who is said to be the weakest class for soloing can do it. I'm playing a barb on a PoTD solo run atm and it works out nicely - even with a low deflection build like mine (3 RES). But I think I will retrain into a tanky build once I get a good shield with bash (Badgradr's Barricade and later Dragon's Maw) and durgan steel. Bloodlust and Blood Thirst are a pretty neat combination when going solo for a slow but strong hitting barb. They even stack with Frenzy - and Blood Thirst also gets triggered by kills-by-spells like Firebug or scrolls and also by Retaliation and such things. It can turn you into a fast hitter even when you have all the slow things: low DEX, heavy armor, Vulnerable Attack and so on. I don't know if I can beat Llengrath or the Adra and Alpine Dragons with the barb (Concelhaut is easy because you can split his minons easily), but Thaos will be easy because I will be lvl 16 and he will be lvl 12. . The Radiant Spore was always easy for me compared to some other enemies. Don't know why people rate it to be so difficult.

Paladin also starts with 20 deflection, like rangers. Fighters 30, monks and chanters 25. The rest has 15 or even 10. When Sunbeam hits the druid has the equivalent of 40 deflection (and +20 to all tother defenses as well). Combine that with a shield and Weapon & Shield style as well as good RES and he's pretty good at tanking at the beginning of the game. It's the reason I still love tanky melee druids with shields who skip Spiritshift altogether. Of course also because they get Returning and Relentless Storm which let them "tank" like gods against mobs later on.

At the beginning the official companions are much better because they have the same level. Tanky builds (with not-maxed RES) for classes who start pretty squishy (because of low starting values) take some time, yes. And the others will not have so much more health and endurance. Funnily a druid with high RES and Weapon & Shield Style is not a bad tanker (for a caster) right from the start because he starts with 20 deflection and has Sunbeam (which blinds) at lvl 1.

And with that mantle, healing gear and survival bonus plus Chillfog you can actually have a second, quite powerful healing effect while blinding and damaging the enemies besides Veteran's Recovery. And you can trigger it at will. That is - let's face it - supercool! Maybe you shouldn't avoid getting hit by your own Chillfog after all. Health is no problem with Infuse with Vital Essence. I understand that in solo play getting surrounded is not good. But in party play this is one of the coolest tank approaches. A bit like The Dragon Thrashed + Ancient Memory - only with ice. And the stacking of Chillfog is no nice - also because of all the interrupts and the combination with Combusting Wounds. The Bilestomper also works like this. Attract the enemies, cast nasty stuff on yourself and let your friends shoot/cast from afar. I'm also planning a Fireball build which does it this way: dropping Fireballs onto your own head while tanking. You can stack 17 Fireball uses per rest and 1 per encounter with a wizard. SHould be enough for every encounter. Or maybe I try to do that with a Shield Rogue and Direballs + Adept Evasion. He could use things like Binding Web scrolls to set up Deathblows for the Fireballs and wear a stag helmet to be immune to stuck. But sadly you get the good fireball items a bit late. So that build would take some time before taking off. A wizard could live up to the theme right from the start. Also with Combusting Wounds + Wall of Flames (which is superpowerful). Oh, and I forgot Flame Shield, too.

ROFL

Great! I would go for Pale Elf, Crossed Patch and Rymrgand's Mantle and stand in my own Chill Fog all the time. @Sfzrx: the mantle also gives you +5 freeze DR. When you combine it with Pale Elf, Secrets of Rime and a plate you should have >30 DR against freeze. Then you can stand in your own Chillfog (or eat any type of frost damage) - and if it hits you, you will get healed.

I seldomly play fighters so I have no idea what that bug is everybody's talking about. So what is it?

Don't know if it's wise, but I think it will work.

@Jojobobo: Thanks for the neat tricks with the crate and so on. Good to know for the next run. I didn't do a lot of solo runs so far. Normally - when I have a party - I roflstomp most of the game and kill everything that calls for it. Did you guys know that when you use a figurine at the end of the fight (when you're about to die) and the summon outlives you and vanishes, the game is not over? If you were smart enough to pull the enemy away from their usual spawn point they will return to that after the summon diappears. When the distance is big enough and the encounter ends you will stand up again. Saved my a** a few times. I just lure them away to a good spot - and when I feel I'm about to lose but don't want to reload because I already killed like 80% of them I just pop out that squishy animat or the wurms. It also works with Rhymer's Summun I suppose, making it a quite useful talent all of a sudden...? I also can imagine that a sneaky, stealthy rogue who tries to avoid fights can be fun when played solo. Please report how the tanky barb behaves. I'm really curious. @Dr <3: Would you mind to post your chilly bilestomper variant as a build (how do you call it? Ice Crusher? Rimeclomper? )? I would really like to read it - and more recent builds are always nice. As we already discussed I had to decide between poison and ice and chose poison because of stylish reasons and the wish to make mountain dwarves useful. But I would love to see what you did with ice.