Boeroer

That pretty much always works. There are also two items with spell binding: alacrity (1/rest) in the game. You can use those charges first and then use potions if you couldn't rest.

That's a shame. But what about driving flight? It works with Stunning Shots - so maybe also with Envenomed Strike? In theory you could poison 3 enemies with twinned arrows. Sometimes the driving flight targets two different enemies.

No, but normally the bounty guys don't have stellar defenses. Dragons on the other side have, and it's difficult to even graze them at mid levels. So that's a situation in which I also would favour PER above anything else. Not so much in mob fights. But since dragons are only a tiny part of the game I wouldn't say that what works best against them works best in every situation. However - I don't think we truly disagree. I (for example) agree that PER has more impact than DEX in general. But I wouldn't say this is correct for every char or situation. It all comes down to your build(s). A ranger who uses reloading weapons (and doesn't switch) will probably be bad with 3 DEX 20 PER but maybe not so much with 3 PER and 20 DEX (again: higher levels). A melee rogue with 20 PER and 3 RES can be a really bad DPS guy because he dies too often to do enough damage throughout a fight. With 3 PER and 20 RES he might do more damage in an encounter. So what has more impact? I think you can't answer that question with naming a stat. You have to look at a lot of circumstances. What would an offensive fighter build that focuses on max regeneration be worth with maxed PER but dumped MIG and INT? What would an interrupting barb do with 20 DEX and 3 PER? DEX is not important for melee dual wielders, but for gunners or casters it can be. Especially if they can buff their own ACC but not their speed (wizards are lucky cause they can do both ). I mean stuff like that. The whole system is too complex.

I'd take Bittercut because of the two damage types. It also has 2 spells of Vile Thorns which is has no recovery when you cast it. You can quickly cast those two in very quick succession when things go south. Don't ask me why there's no recovery. I just recently discovered this while testing dual Bittercuts on a monk.

As I said before: higher ACC from PER is useful in the early game, but that usefulness diminishes at higher levels. I also didn't mention the paladin when I talked about classes or builds which can do with lower PER. Paladins have not so good base ACC so especially in the early game the effects of high PER are very good. I mean 3 to 20 PER means a difference of 17 ACC - with a somewhat crappy base. Of course it's powerful when you start the game. But as I said: a ranger with flanking and Stalker's Link has a higher ACC with his auto attacks in the early game with 3 PER than a paladin with 20 PER. I still wouldn't recommend 3 PER - but you can go with 10 and be happy. Some stats - when you combine them with certain items - can be more important than PER. For example I only recently soloed some WM bounties with a dual wielding monk with Veteran's Recovery & Shod-in-Faith. I maxed MIG, CON and INT, dumped DEX to 4 and left PER at 10 and he did great. Then I leveled the stats towards max PER and he couldn't do it anymore because he died too quickly while his DPS couldn't balance this by killing the foes more quickly. This is the late game of course where 10 ACC don't matter as much as in the early game. You have more debuffs, more ACC buffs and you ACC has leveled with you. 10 ACC take up much less percentage of your overall ACC then. Against dragons (where you need every bit of ACC you can get) it is a different case...

Yeah - Blast is like carnage. It's like a barbarian inside a wizard - with 10 DR bypass... If Envenomed Strike works - does Runner's Wounding Shot, too? And what about Glittering Gauntlets? Do they daze in an AoE with Blast?

No, phantoms don't get active abilities - only exceptions are rings. At least that was the case some time ago (2.03 when I last checked I guess). Concerning Powder Burns: It's worth a try.

(Scrolls + Spell Bind + Spell Strinking + Spell Chance + Spell Holding + Potion of Flame Shield) * Deathblows says it all.

ROFL - I just tried to test it and thought "WTF - am I stupid?"

What about Torment's Reach?

A melee ranger for example doesn't need high PER if he flanks with his pet (+10), uses Stalker's Link (+10). He has 30 ACC from the start and can afford to have low PER and will still not suck at offense. Same with characters who use fists: +18 at lvl 16 without any ressources. You can afford to have a bit lower PER. Especially since crits with fists don't work like they should. Or a fighter with Disciplined Barrage. Or a ranged wood elf... although those normally dump CON and RES. That doesn't mean that higher PER wouldn't be good, but sometimes - for special builds - you have to make the hard choices.

Hi! I wonder: since when does Envenomed Strike work with Blast? I just tried it out with a blasting wizard who uses Rot Skulls (from Father's Teeth) + Envenomed Strike. Result: all enemies in the area of the blast got poisoned from Envenomed Strike. And they also suffered from the corrode DoT of Rot Skulls, but that is the normal behavior. However - those two DoT "posionous" effects did stack and took down Nalrend's band after some seconds. I then went on and tried it with a normal implement and then with Kalakoth's Minor Blights. In every case blast works with Envenomed Strike - which is pretty powerful I think.

Ah - you're right. I think some construct in Galvino's Place has it, now I remember. Thanks!

Me too!

Hi! While toying around with my new monk build I found the spell striking "Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp" in the game objects folder. I guess it is supposed to work like Jolting Touch on Azureith's Stiletto and Cloudpiercer - but I never found a weapon that has Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp as a spell striking. Is this just a game object that is not used yet or is there a weapon which has this? If yes: which and where is it? Thanks in advance!

Ah, I see. Nice. Yes, weapon enchantments always stack with everything, so the two heraldic shields are a great combination. When you install all the patches you can get an item named "The Helwax Mold" from a stronghold quest named "The Wax Maker" - it lets you duplicate an non-soulbound item of your choice. You can fully enchant Little Savior and then duplicate it and give it to another guy. Then you'll have +15 to all defenses. If somebody stuns you or you're going prone there's also that medium shield that you can get from the Drake in the Endless Paths at lvl 5. It gives you +50 to all defenses when you are stunned or prone ("Preservation"). It also stacks with other items that have this enchantment - like Ring of Thorns, Blaidh Golan armor and so on. It means that you'll have +100 to all defenses when you get stunned or prone. It's immensely helpful to survive enemies who tend to do this to you - like Ogres and also dragons. You can even switch to that shield once you got afflicted - you don't have to use it all the time. By the way: ...really made my day. I just imagined your monk running around with some prostitutes on his back and shoulders.

If they target the floor: sure. But if they target a character they will follow you like a seeking missile - for example Stag's Horn does this. You can't avoid being hit by this when you run away. It will get you. I just don't know when the game determines if it's a hit or not. The combat log shows the roll when it finally reaches you. But that's no proof that it's also calculated that way. I don't know about arrows though. I can't remember seeing one following me - but they are pretty fast, so maybe they do but I can't really see it if I'm not paying close attention. It would be nice if the calculation was done after the projectile reaches you. But that's more tricky (code-wise). edit: ok, with Unity3 and it's build in collision detection it's not that tricky...

Hold beasts can be really nice against dragons. Why didn't you use some scrolls of Prayer against Fear? Besides that: killing dragons became a bit easier when OBS introduced the camping bonuses that the Survival skill can give you now. +15 ACC against a dragon is a great buff. Did you have those?

I have a question about this: what happens if you have Persistence in weapon slot 1 and a hatchet + Aila Braccia in weapon slot 2. Then, when you see a targeted ranged attack is released, you pause and switch to shield setup. What will PoE do? Is the hit roll done already (with the defense values of weapon setup 1) or will PoE roll it when the projectile/spell finally reaches you (using the defense values of weapon set 2)? I guess it's the first one, but who knows?

My... then I raise it to M-M-M-M-M-Monsterthanks! But wait - maybe I'm wrong but... I think I remember that when I tried out a fighter build a couple of days ago Confident Aim's min dmg bonus was displayed on the character sheet.

Except sabres.

Cool - thanks for that info. How did you find out? Does Comtessa's Gage change the min damage on the char sheet or did you have to monitor a quadrupizillion number of hits?

PER is extremely important for any interrupt build - more than for crit builds. Other than that... it's impact on ACC is a bit overrated I think. Sure - early game it's great to have like +5 ACC - but there are many ways to buff ACC and it increases per level. So after some levels +5 ACC isn't a big deal any more. But for interrupts it's great throughout the whole game.

The problem with drinking potions is not getting interrupted and has nothing to do with Dex. Of course it has something to do with DEX. When you are able to sip the potion more quickly the chance of getting interrupted is decreasing - this is especially important if you fight enemies with high interrupt values but slow attacks, like Ogres. RES also helps a lot of course. If you can just shrug off the hit without being interrupted you can sip your potion more quickly - but with more DEX there's a chance that the enimation is finished before you even get hit. So - if drinking potions while standing in the centre of battle is your thing and you want to be the best at it () you need both high RES and DEX. I have exprience with this because I recently tried to kill Ogre mobs just with Battle Forged and potions of Flame Shield (pimped by Turning Wheel and Scion of Flame). It works by the way.

I would always take Unbending. It can so save your sorry as$ when things start to go south. Combined with Disciplined Barrage you can use it to kill one or two foes very quickly, without the need to think about healing or fleeing. Can really make a difference in tough encounters like bounties. Fearless I would never use by the way because there's a lvl 1 scroll for that. And 2 Lore is not that difficult to get. Disciplined Barrage is always nice if you face opponents with very high deflection or fortitude (Knockdown). Charge is nice when you want to reach casters as quickly as possible - like annoying Andragans who petrify you for about 15 sec (that's a death sentence). It even works when they stand behind their mates - like Flagellanth's Path. And you will do nice damage to all who stand in the way. It's a good ability when you go near the enemy, trigger combat, then run away a bit so they form a line - and then charge towards the end of that line. It's also not bad as an emergency exit when you get surrounded and can't escape otherwise.