Boeroer

Maybe - I'm too lazy to test that.

Ah, ok - great. Thanks for testing. I guess they changed something about the duplicates. Because I remember that the monk's duplicates profited from Weapon Focus Unarmed and Two Weapon Style. But maybe I don't remember correctly.

The healing bonus from items like Fulvano's Amulet or Belt of Bountiful Healing or Maneha's Armor always gets multiplied after MIG bonus is calculated. So with a lot of Survival plus one of those items you can achieve such a high amount on bonus healing that - if you wear Shod-in-Fait and have high MIG - you're nearly unkillable as long as COnsecrated Ground is up. Tested it in the midst of Nalrend's bounty while doing nothing else than eating crits. Didn't go down - even from multiple Insect Plagues. But as soon as CG stopped, I was dead in seconds.

Those also get buffed by the Coil of Resourcefulness (+15 ACC) if the "dropper" wears it.

Another thing: Turning Wheel works with retaliation now, especially well with Battle Forged retaliation. It also works with every spell that is considered melee (Jolting Touch for example). A hit from Battle-Forged + 10 Wounds from Turning Wheel + Scion of Flame with Savage Attach and high MIG easily surpasses 100 burn damage. Scroll of Protection and Break Out enchantment stack. If you wear Blaidh Golan or the helm from Sanguine Plate and cast a Scroll of Protection you will only get stunned or prone for a blink of an eye. However: Clarity of Agony and Scroll of Protection DON'T stack.

It only stacks because one is a weapon. Weapon enchantments always stack. It's the same with the Solace medium shield and Blaidh Golan (=+100 defenses when prone or stunned).

Do you know for certain that it doesn't work anymore with DoT (and periodically applied damage)? You can't see it in the combat log. You have to watch the (small) red numbers that pop out of the enemies' heads every tick. Most of the time they get covered by other numbers from the DoT/pulse itself. When I had a party with Batsh!t Crazy, Mad Hornet and Zeblastian Hurtstacker I had a lot of DoT/pulses (like Wounding, Deep Wounds, Wall of Flames and so on) and they worked great with CW. I think that was 2.03. There are also reports how people killed the adra and alpine dragon with CW and Wall of Flame. So it should have worked at some time.

Ok, so Spirit of Decay boosts your damage in multiple ways: it raises your weapon damage by 20% - this also causes the lashes to do more damage - which then also get boosted by Spirit of Decay/Scion of Flame. Maybe this explains the high numbers when you use FoD with dual Bittercuts + Scion of Flame + Spirit of Decay...?

I would put 10 points minimum into survival nowadays. And I would like to test Vent Pick on this priest - and that club, "St. Wygelt's Cudgel". Maybe I would try to duplicate Vent Pick with the Helwax Mold - or Bleak Fang. Touch of Rot is a nice Spell. Other than that - it's a priest. You can't go wrong with a priest. Especially Crowns for the Faitful + cipher seems to be a great combo. Painful Interdiction + Secret Horrors is also a great debuff combination for the beginning of a fight. That will lower fort. and will a lot. You could try to use Boots of Speed on the priest (or the cipher) and cast "Hand of Wael on Woe" an the cipher while the cipher casts Ectopsychic Echo on the priest. Nice double-beam that does tons of damage and healing. Yeah - at some point you will find that you do way more casting than melee. You will have plenty of spells at some point - aome of them per encounter. But I think it's ok if this guy transforms from melee + casting to pure caster during a playthrough.

Battle Forged sclaes with level and gets pretty awesome at high levels. But something different: I just discovered that said monk's Turning Wheel works with Battle Forged. With Scion of Flame I did 100+ hits easily against some blights a minute ago. It did not work with Lighning Strikes or Blood Testament Gloves - for whatever reason. Only Turning Wheel. But that's powerful enough I guess. bigwillystyle: That's the reason I said you should stack as much CON as possible. Now, at lvl 16, my monk has 500 endurance. That's 250 at 50%. Thisis more than some characters have when they are full. And with the Mantle of the Dying Boar you can keep your endurance around 30% if you also have Second Wind. It also makes senso to take Acolyte's Radiance as a heal - but not full heal. As I said I begin with a two hander in order to get beaten up and then switch to weapon + shield in order to stay at under 50%. Works pretty well so far. Of course I go down more often than the usual frontliner. But the burn damage is really good. Iron Wheel is also great for this setup: You get more and mor DR the more often you get hit. The Iron Circle also helps when your endurance drops below 26% (= *1.15 DR). All in all it's fun. I think you can tranfer this to a barb - without the Turning Wheel Part of course.

Yeah sure - that's really geat for survivability. But that will prevent Battle-Forged.

I don't know. Made a 28 CON (without resting and MC talents) fire godlike monk the other day (dwarf with max CON + dual Whispers of Yenwood (+4), +4 Iron Circle - also +15% DR if endurance below 26%) and combined it with the Mantle of the Dying Boar (only regenerates if your endurance is unter 33%) with light armor and low RES. He could reach 50% after some time and stay there for long. Was a good (=fun) build. Maybe I'll post that later here. Still working on it.

Yeah. But as it is now dual Bittercuts (+ Spirit of Decay) are wasted on a melee ranger. Rogues, Monks & Fighters on the other hand... When they fix Girdle of the Driving Wave you could at least have one Full Attack per encounter as a ranger.

Oh, nice. Thanks. I always returned the stuff to him. Never thought about that solution. Too bad - I had an evil party not long ago and didn't try that.

I think all passives work - but not the modal ones I guess. So Dangerous Implement may not work beause you would have to trigger it somehow and there's no button for that when you select your duplicate. At least I never saw a duplicate lose endurance while shooting. May also be the case for Penetrating Shot. But that's all easy to verify via combat log I think. What corrode damage talents do you mean? Spirit of Decay? Because of the Necrotic Lance from the high level duplicate? Don't know it that's worth it. Since those duplicates do pure shock damage with their wands maybe Heart of the Storm would be great. Too bad there's only one decent ranged shock spell in the wizard's arsenal. What also works (and is really great) are boots of speed. And rings with Spell Bindings (Ring of Searing Flames, Arcane Dampener, Ring of Unshackling) also still work. Combusting Wounds with two fast hitting blaster wizards (one original, one duplicate) ist still good. And the duplicate will always have a fully reloaded ring if you summon it. The monks also profit from boots of speed and Long Stride. So I guess they also get the other passive abilities/talents. But I don't know for sure how it all works in 3.02 to be honest. I'm afraid you will have to test it and report.

Binding Web + Immunity to stuck is a great combination. I can tell because I used a monk with Stag Helmet to drag an Ectophsychic Echo beam through an area of Pull of Eora + Binding Web - using Flagellant's Path. And since you are a druid - und if you have a wizard in your team: try the combination of Fire Stag + Pull of Eora + Binding Web + Embrace the Earth Talon.

And the burn damage of FoD also gets boosted by Scion of Flame.

Really? Didn't know that. That's really good to know. What's that Stalwart quest? Is it new WMII stuff? If there was only a way to get two pairs of sandals (other than the Helwax Mold).

But he wants to retaliate (with Battle Forged). This he can only do when his endurance drops below 50%. So I would strongly recommend a lot of CON in order to gain a lot of endurance and - maybe even more important - health. After he hits 50% endurance I would switch to the play style you mentioned. Before that I would use a two hander (maybe Firebrand - also works with Scion of Flame).

Yeah. A Firebrand druid is kinda crap. I just thought the high damage per hit and Taste of the Hunt would be a good combo - but the druid lacks melee ACC and damage modifiers to be good at it. I mean besides spiritshift.

Yes - I tried it when I was toying around with a Firebrand druid. It's good if you deal a lot of damage per hit. Or if you are a barb with Dragon's Maw. The synergy of petrify + Taste of the Hunt is a really good point. Missed that, too.

What did today's release do? Edit: Ach! You meant my ciphers.

Really nice - and really a different kid of shapeshifter build. I love that synergy between Form of the Delemgan and Elemental Endurance. I totally overlooked that. Two questions: Did you consider to put on Sanguine Plate to proc "the real" Frenzy and then switch to cat form? Should spare you a talent (Outlander's Frenzy) and give you a bit better stat and speed boosts. With the fitting helm you will also have that anti-prone and anti-stun thing like with Blaidh Golan. Would slow you down in kith form of course... What do you think? What about Gyrd Háewanes Sténes? I can restore one Spiritshift use per encounter. You have to attack with it though. Really nice!

I still have to read it all - but I already have a suggestion. You HAVE to use spears when in kith form. Because... you know... Britney!

Low RES plus barb plus the intention to tank while dishing out fire retaliation damage will get you killed a lot until mid game on PotD. Even in plate armor with a Blunting Belt. You will eat a lot of crits. You can't rely on your Battle Forged as reliable damage source until high levels (when your health and endurance are much higher and also the damage from BF). However- you can make it work if you use a shield in your second weapon slot and take weapon & shield style and switch to that once your endurance got reduced to 50%. Then you will catch more grazes than hits/crits and will stand up longer - but your retaliation still happens. You can combine your BF retaliation with the ones from items: the shield Sura's Supper Plate adds retaliation which stacks with that from other items (there are two armors and a cloak that have it). Then there's Barbaric Retaliation (ability). All in all this adds up to 4 similar retaliation effects, doing good damage. Use Vulnerable Attack and Ryona's Vembraces to make it more awesome. If you want you can also take Scion of Flame later on to boost your BF and then also use items with Fireball uses. There's a sabre that has 3 uses per rest. And you also should use scrolls with fire spells then. Your high MIG and INT are great for that. This can be a lot of fun - just keep in mind that you will be really squishy at the beginning. Just keep on going!