Boeroer

That's why it's a rule of thumb. I have thick thumbs. The first five levels of the Endless Paths are a bit weird because you would normally jump into the pit and then ascend back. The difficulty of those levels is a bit reversed. And also it's very unlikely that you reach the ogres when you're lvl 3. After Maerwald and stuff you will be of higher level most of the time.

Where to go first - it depends. On the items you want to use early, on the level you have, if you like a challenge or if you like to steamroll everything. I personally do the first levels of the Endless Paths (until I get Persistence) and quests in Defiance Bay until I reach level 6 to 9 (depends on the party, 9 tends to be too easy most of the time), then I start the White March - because you get so many new quests which will level you up even more quickly and there's also some nice gear waiting for me that I use a lot (Bittercut sabre, Stormcaller bow, Ring of Changing Heart, Cape of the Master Mystic, Wayfarer's Hide and so on). And then I just go here and there as I like. Before doing WMII I normally start Act IV in order to buy some other neat items in the shop tent in Twin Elms and to fetch Blood Testment gloves or Purgatory. I would never skip the Endless Paths until the late game because then it's way too easy. A rule of thumb is that if your level matches the level of the Endless Paths you're on then you're good. I think The Paths are not meant to be explored in one single rush.

One of the most tedious parts can be the Endless Paths of Od Nua. There are not too many camping supplies and there's also not a master staircase on every level. So returning to town or Brighthollow can be time consuming and boring - especially because of those very looong loading screens. The whole "no resting" thing is mostly about convenience. It's not expensive to get camping supplies or to rest in a town. It's even for free at Brighthollow. It only costs you a lot of time. As Kaylon said all that travelling can be a pain in the back. But it's ok that it's tedious. If it were too easy to get supplies or if we had fast travel options everywhere then all the per rest abilities would be too powerful and the healing talents would be totally useless (atm they are not totally useless with the right build). Edit: and what Raven said.

Yeah - I wasn't sure if the game treats blunderbuss shots as a single hit when it comes to the "highest damage dealt" or "highest crit" (or what it's called) statistics.

Hm, wouldn't a blunderbuss be able to do higher damage than an arquebus? At least in theory? Of course it's more unlikely that you crit with all six projectiles and you need to shoot a foe that has not too high DR - but in theory the damage should be higher, shouldn't it? Or is this not counted as one single crit but six different ones?

Cool - thnaks for testing. Maybe that got fixed or my game had a hickup when I tested this. It was around 2.03. Are special abilities like Blinding Strike now also working with Backstab? Because back then they didn't trigger Backstabs but only did "normal" damage - even if I was stealthed or buggy-cape-invisible.

I tried this some time ago when the neverending invisibility bug of the Cape of the Master Mystic was not fixed yet. So I was able to use Finishing Blow while being invisible. But as I said: it didn't work. I got some really weird numbers then. Somebody should try (with an arquebus) if this is still the case.

Ah - now I get it. That's obviously right. Never thought about it that way.

Jap, I also used it in the Chillfog chanter build when the +100% healing received chant is on. Heals over 130% health then. It's great when you play with high MIG and good healing bonuses from equipment and camping.

It only increases the minimum damage your weapons rolls. So, a weapon with 10-15 damage does 12-15 with Confident Aim.

Wound Binding is more powerful, but requires a talent. A Potion of Infuse with Vital Essence is cheap. That was my main point.

As I said: Finishing Blow doesn't seem to work with Backstab and Deathblows. I got ridiculously low damage numbers when I tried that. Maybe they fixed it - it was some patches ago.

I mean maybe it can be useful to have a lot of engagement slots when you are a fighter and use Overbearing Guard or something like that. But I never had a lot of success with that special build. For the rest of all chars I think it's save to totally ignore your engagement slots. Maybe there are players with other experiences.

It's way better than the Wound Binding and Field Triage talents. Because there's a potion with it. It's a super handy spell for squishy 3 CON blaster wizards who use Dangerous Implement and have 0 recovery.

I never pay any attention to engagement and I'd say I'm doing fine.

I'm usually lvl 5 or 6 when I start with bounties I think. I did a lot of playthroughs and a lot of different party compositions are viable. Things like six rogues might be very very tough, but also doable without a lot of consumables. But generally speaking the more per-rest casters you have the easier the bounties are because you can just spam everything you have in quick succession.

For 1:: That's why monks have a much bigger health pool (with the same CON) than fighters or paladins. If you balance it right you will not rest much mroe often than with other frontliners. A little bit more CON does add a lot of health because the base health is already high and CON adds +5% per point.

Maybe you won't. Guns deal less crit damage than other weapons. I think that Firebrand (has Annihilation) with Scion of Flame should result in higher crits. Sure, it lacks the lash and you can't enchant it to legendary, but it comes with damaging III (like superb) and works with Scion of Flame. Plus: +15% from Two Weapon Style and +20% from Reckless Assault. Ok, that's not so much, but it still adds some damage.

Well, some bounties are not so tough, but others can be mean. Especially the Dweller is horrible if your level is too low: no chokepoints, he's a fast runner (so kiting is difficult) and so on. But bounties like Clyde or those guys at the Esternwood Cemetary are quite easy. The WM bounties can be especially tough. It all comes down to buffing yourself and debuffing the enemy. This is where you can see what proper use of your abilities and a good party synergy can do. For all bounties where you can use chokepoints Chillfog and similar spells that debuff and/or do damage periodically are a good way to win. But it's all doable. I usually build the Warden's Lodge as soon as possible and go for the first bounty as soon as possible - because the XP you gain and also the loot is great.

Yeah, but it's a bit of a waste because Swift Strikes don't stack with Frenzy - so I prefer to give this armor to a party member who has no own speed buff - like rogues or paladins or fighters.

We have to determine if we mean damage per attack (also counting AoE damage) or single target damage rolls only. Things like Direballs from a rogue, Torment's Reach from a dual wielding monk or Heart of Fury from a dual wielding barb can deal a lot of damage per attack, but not necessarily per hit. Do DoT spells/abilities also count? A chanter with the burning lash on, Secret of Rime and Seven Nights can deal ridicoulous damage when he manages to hit a lot of foes - most of them with three bolts each. Highest AoE damage can be achieved with Combusting Wounds + White Worms I think. You only need to pile up a lot of bodies in front of a chokepoint, cast Combusting Wounds on the incoming crowd an cast White Worms and BOOM - everything is dead - including your headphones. Whenever I have a chanter Raedric gets one-shotted. Same with Concelhaut and friends... But I guess you mean single target non-DoT hits... I once tried out Backstab-Deathblow-crits with Firebrand and all the +crit damage weapons and talents as well as Scion of Flame. I can't remember the numbers though, but is was impressive. I tried to combine this with Finishing Blow, but it didn't work: I got 2 damage - yeah, 2! WTF? If this worked it would be the highest single crit ysou could score I guess. A Bleak Walker with all the FoD talents, including Scion of FLame and Spirit of Decay, shooting with a Blunderbuss against 0 DR could deal very high crits, too. But I think a rogue with a spell that has very high base damage could rule them all. +200% damage (without MIG and elemental booster talent) on a crit with a high damage spell is hard to overcome.

Ooops, sorry. Shame on me. I saw there are only two lonely chanter builds - I didn't realise they're both mine.

So... Monksterlasher monk, Chillfog chanter and Sorcerer's Apprentice rogue still waiting for a ticket.

The chanter's lash affects more than just weapons - it also affects spells. At least it used to.

No, I meant: It could be that applying CW as a DoT effect makes it easier to prevent it from triggering itself (because it doesn't get triggered by DoT ticks) - but since it used to work with DoT effects a lot of patches ago, that can't be the main reason why they chose that path. Whatever - it's very complicated.