Boeroer

That's without Frenzy It's a great endurance and health pool - but no competition to a barb or monk with such high CON values of course.

Just made a lvl 16 mountain dwarf hireling Kind Wayfarer paladin like I said above. Gave him the MC talents via console. Faith and Conviction is that of a hireling. Stats with above talents, without Frenzy and with Perlwood Chicken (forgot prostitude): Endurance: 606 Health: 2835 Deflection: 81 Fort: 162 Refl.: 82 Will: 94 MIG: 22 (26 with Frenzy) CON 35 (39 with Frenzy) DEX: 02 PER: 10 INT: 16 RES: 10 Did the Yenwood fight solo. No problem whatsoever. After Frenzy expires he gets slow - but not as slow as you would think with DEX2. Against casters does solid 40 to 50 damage hits, not so great against high DR foes (MIN damage most of the time). Against spirits he's great (+70% damage on top of MIG and exceptional bonus because of sword enchantment, Ghost Hunter and Bartender's Ring). And he refuses to die... Had Shod-in-Faith though. But no Veteran's Recovery.

I always try to exploit things by tanking them to he max - so I recently tried to take CON to the max with the Iron Circle (ring, +4 CON) and duplicated Whispers of Yenwood (+4 CON). As a Mountain Dwarf you can get 20 CON from the start - so you will end up with 28 CON permanent (25 very early in the game). You could add those MC talents that give you either max endurance/health (Gift from the Machine) or CON+2 (Effigy's Resentment: Durance and Rymrgand's Boon). Then rest a Caed Nua for another +3, sleep with the dwarven prostitute (+2) and eat some Pearlwood chicken for a total CON of 37. Then put on the Sanguine Plate and catch a crit for a total CON of 41. That's +155% or your original endurance and health (or *2.55 in other words). This is extremely helpful on characters who either use lower deflection but regenerate a lot (with Shod in Faith, Regeneration from Veteran's Recovery and so on). Normally those guys run into health issues - but not with those CON stats. If you also take a good amount of MIG and INT your endurance and health pool will be enormous. You can really feel the difference in combat. This guy won't go down easily, even without any healing. And of course he will have the most awesome fortitude defense. So getting paralyzed, petrified, prone and such won't be big poblems. I used a barbarian for this (for obvious reasons: he has the biggest endurance und health pool in the game, so the *2.55 will net in very, very high numbers) and made him a spirit and vessel slayer (Bartender's Ring, Spirit Bane, Sanctifier and so on - it fits with the Whispers which are also Spirit Slaying) - but I think also a paladin can profit from very high CON. He can use all the LoH for other party members - he might not need them. And FoD is a Full Attack, so the dual Whispers of Yenwood might be ok for a paladin, too. But I think it's also no problem to use a shield and a single Whispers of Yenwood. That's only 2 CON less and more defenses - especially with Outworn Buckler. With dual wielding and Sanguine Plate the dps is also good. Not "Oh my God" but good. With Gauntlets of Swift Action and Durgan Steel you can reach 0 recovery. And he's tanky enough because of all the end/health to survive without shield. I would say Strange Mercy will also work that way. And once they fix the Gridle of the Driving Wave (so it also gives you a Full Attack Knockdown) you could have another Full Attack with CC on top of your 2 FoD strikes. So you see I'm a bit of a CON fanboy at the moment... And I can tell you: a mountain dwarf with that head model with the reddish eyes plus Sanguine Plate (plus helmet) and dual Whispers of Yenwood (they glow red) just looks... EVIL!

Nowadays Mountan Dwarfs are not useless because OBS put nearly all effects that do corrode damage or cause sickened or weakened into the "Poison" or "Disease" category. Which means that mountain dwarfs now have higher defenses against a lot of very annoying spells and abilities. Think of vessels and such. In fact, I recently built a mountain dwarf wizard tank with constant 232 defense against poison and disease who also has over 30 DR against corrode damage. What for? He's just standing in the middle of the fight and casts Noxious Burst and Malignant Cloud on himself.

You could use the mold on Flames of Fair Rhian and dual wield them. Would give you 6 Fireballs per rest and comes with burning lash. Since Strange Mercy works with spells... And FoD is a Full Attack - so dual wielding is good for that. I'm pretty confident that the dps wouldn't be much lower than with Firebrand against low to mid DR targets. And maybe you even don't want to kill with FoD - because you might overheal.

Fighting Spirit triggers once per encounter - but it takes 5 seconds until it starts after you got reduced to 50% endurance. But then you can be healed and still profit from it while WoL will stop if you do that.

Yeah, Nature Godlikes are really inferior. I just wanted to build one because never had before. And if you use the Mantle of the Dying Boar you can stay a 33% endurance all the time - meaning that the stat bonuses will not expire unless you get healed above 50%. Fighting Spirit wears off after some time. But in most fights it's obviously better. Also a Wood Elf would have been better.

I think that's true. But they make up for that with a great combination of sturdyness, heals and buffs. Rogue for example has CC attacks, but they are all single target, quite short and most of them don't disable the enemy (Sap is the only exception). Their purpose is to enable Sneak Attacks and that's it mostly. However, with a decent mechanics skill he can make great use of disabling traps - which is often overlooked.

Taste of the Hunt with carnage is very good. It's totally worth it. You will gain a lot of survivability because you heal all the time and you will also do raw damage with it. You will loose a bit dps because Firebug will be triggered less often - but I think it's a good trade. Unlabored Blade + Dragon's Maw is indeed ony of the best combinations I tested on a barb. You should consider taking Blood Thirst. Once you kill an enemy (which happens often because of Firebug + Taste of the Hunt) you will have no recovery. Didn't test it myself, but it seems to be a smart way to speed you up. Edit: Oh, and Braven meant "Sword of Daenysis" from Vincent Dwellier (Club of Prestigious and Refined Gentlemen, Salty Mast, Ondra's Gift) and "March Steel Dagger" from Gordy (just don't give him the Dagger at the end of the Quest, Southwest Copperlane). Both have the speed enchantment and use the same Weapon Focus (Noble). With Dual Wielding, those Weapons and Frenzy you will have no recovery with Vulnerable Attack and Padded Armor. If you later use Durgan Steel on the weapons and armor you can even wear plate armor without recovery.

I've played them all and nearly everything is viable - even on PoTD. Melee only parties are hard. Parties without buffs are even harder. Parties without strong CC are hardest. The most gruesome playthrough I had with 6 rogues. Genreally speaking: the more casters the easier. If you can combine sturdyness, buffing and cc you will have the easiest playthrough (but not necessarily the fastest). If I take your list and add my experiences: Fighter: Solid choice - very sturdy. If build around Constant Recovery you can even have a very good single target dps guy who is still very sturdy. Just watch your health bar. Damage is good, CC is quite weak, sturdiness is awesome. Best ability (in my opiniopn): Armored Grace (lets you combine speed and DR) Monk: This class is just awesome. Best starting stats in the game. Unbelieveable AoE damage with dual wielding & Torment's Reach - or very tanky if you want. Even a great ranged char nowadays with The Long Pain. Also one of the best single target CC guy with Force of Anguish - or even AoE CC with a stunning or overbearing weapon & Torment's Reach. Damage is awesome, CC is good, sturdiness is good. Best ability: Torment's Reach (AoE Full Attack which also works with on-crit effects) Barbarian: I love them. It's all about carnage. Can be AoE dps, AoE CC (esp. interrupts), can even be a good dps/tank hybrid with the right equipment Best ability: Frenzy (*1.33 speed is awesome) Damage can be awesome, CC can be awesome, can be sturdy (it all depends on equipment though). Good against mobs, not so great against strong single foes. Chanter: Very good in "slow" parties, meaning sturdy guys, few glass cannons(=longer fights but less risks). If skilled around "The Dragon Thrashed" the best AoE dps gus there is. The usefulness of chanters raises exponentially if you have more than one (dps chants stack, AoE regeneration also). One of the most powerful classes in the late game. Dps can be awesome, CC can be great (but timing is difficult), can be sturdy Best ability: The Dragon Thrashed Druid: Absurd single target dps with Spiritshift, but also very useful CC tank with weapon & shield and focus on the storm spells. Great Class Dps can be great, CC is top, can be build very sturdy without loosing much CC capability. With Spiritshift great against single targets, as CC tanks great against mobs Best ability: (Relentless Storm) I managed to squeeze at least two great builds out of every class. But with some classes it's just easier to come up with different kinds of buils that work and are fun to play.

Empowered Interdiction: It is as I suspected. That's the reason I never take it. Thanks for testing!

Does anybody know how Holy Randiance's scaling is like when you're NOT the main character? If you are the MC and feed the correct reputations it becomes very powerful (healing and damage to vessels reaches very high numbers). Did OBS did a similar thing with it like with the paladin's FaC or how does it scale on a hireling or Durance? Edit: does Empowered Interdiction still only affects Interdiction and NOT Painful Interdiction? In the past, the +10 ACC didn't apply to the weakening attack. Still the case?

Andrea - sorry to bother you, but it's acutally mopher - half monk, half cipher. They don't morph anything - at least nothing that I know of...

The build in this forum was named "Damaging Healbot". I was just too lazy to write down all the words. I mean he has to do damage because otherwise he wouldn't heal as well. Heck - now that I read my posts again: I was even too lazy to write "Heal" and only wrote "''Bot" at some point.

Did you know that the elemental damage (and DR) bonus talents don't work on DoT spells?

There should really be a talent that adds FoD uses. Like Bonus Knockdown for Fighters. They can skip Critical Focus and integrate that into Zealous Focus from the start.

cba? California Bureau of... of... Awesomeness?

Yeah - it's a great synergy: the Observer marks the foe and boosts the Healbot's ACC into the sky - and the Healbot then takes out some enemies with nice +30 ACC (or even more with the camping bonuses) while the rogue pokes here and there with his +80% hit-to-crit conversion for massive single target CC and ouchyness while getting healed by the 'Bot if things start to go south for him. Durance can sip a hot tea after his initial buffs.

A speedy wizard with the Rod of Pale Shades (Spell Mastery Expose Vulnerabilites and Pull of Eora), Interrupting Blows and Mourning Gloves is really powerful without using a single per rest spell. By the way it's perfectly cool to use a ranger with Swift Aim + Driving Flight and Golden Gaze to proc Expose Vulnerabilitiies.

Of course - if you have a priest Dire Blessing would be better. And by the way Inspiring Radiance's +10 ACC stacks with everything, too. So a priest, the Forward Observer and a Hearth Orlan rogue could really wreak havok - no matter how high enemies' defenses are. Oh - and don't forget the cipher with Tactical Meld which he will cast on the paladin in order to get +20 ACC on top of all the buffing. Hehehe... Man - this Forward Observer and the Healbot would make a hell of a paladin dream team. edit: forgot the word "rogue".

By the way: do the rogue's Dirty Fighting/Minor Threat stack with Potion of Merciless Gaze? That way you could stack 30(Dirty F. + Minor Thr.) +5(Crit. Focus) +15(potion) = 50% hit to crit conversion. With a durganized Tall Grass this would mean +75% hit to crit conversion. Plus the sky high ACC when you attack the same target as the paladin... ouch!

Yeah - it's a pain in the a** maintenance wise. By the way: I meant an all ranged party that kites and shoots. No desginated tanks or offtanks whatsoever. Zealous Charge + Shot on the Run plus the chanter's goodies is very powerful in open terrain. In close quarters you have to switch from shooting to tanking with some of your "rangers", but that's not much of a problem. For example a fighter can be a nice ranged dps who can easily switch to tanking mode. Same with paladins and rangers - if you don't build glass cannons of course. But most of the time you can just keep shooting if your CC lands.

Phew - hard to tell. To be honest I'm also thinking about taking both and skip greater LoH. With both you can always switch from speedier offense to offense against higher DR to defense mode. Greater Lay on Hands ist most of the time overhealing anyways. But if I would have to decide between the two I think I would go for Vulnerable Attack. This also works with retaliation (you migh want to wear Garodh's Chorus or Hiro's Mantle) and also with scrolls and spell bindings that count as melee (Jolting Touch mostly). By the way retaliation now also profits from high ACC and can crit. On the other hand: once you get Sacred Immolation you can forget Vulnerable Attack - then Cautious Attack would be better to make you even more sturdy. So maybe take Vuln. Attack at level 4 and retrain to Cautious Attack at lvl 13?

Psychovampiric Shield is really help- and powerful in the early game. +25 at low levels is huge. Later on I skip it most of the time because you'll have more endurance and +25 is less powerful (percentage wise) - but from early to mid game it is really great.