Boeroer

Confirmed: Rot Skull's AoE, which does corrode DoT, also works with Envenomed Strike. They both stack to a ridicilous amount of AoE DoT. One attack with this combo is enough for most enemies (who are not immune to posion of course). Will test if the spiritshifted stag's carnage also works with it. Barb's carnage doesn't, as was pointed out, but I'm curious to see if stag's carnage uses the same mechanics.

I know it, but that amulet comes really late. For most of the game you will be interrupted to death when you solo with 3 RES - if you don't want to hit & run all the time. Celebrant's Gloves or Potion of Spirit Shield work ok until you get that amulet though. But actually I like taking St. Borragias Tears to absolutly maximize the constant self heals (via Athletics, Potion of Major Regeneration, Scroll of Moonwell, Veteran's Recovery and Shod-in-Faith) and don't drop RES. The performance feels better and more smooth this way. I think I did this bounty more than 15 times now with this char to test the crap out of him and that's my experience (that is influenced by playstyle of course - I don't like micromanagement and pausing every thrid second too much by the way). Like I said: at this stage 5 or 8 ACC don't make a big difference to me (I know it does mathematically, but I can't tell the difference while doing this bounty). But I feel a notable difference between 10 and 3 RES against that mob of hard hitting enemies with high ACC and interrupt values (not to forget the constant knockdowns) - not only because of the lower deflection, but the constant interrupts that I'm eating (even while using potions or items for concentration). That is really bad if you have 4 DEX and want to sip potions while getting hit by ogres' clubs, multiple Plague of Insects, Stag's Horn and whatnot. And of course it doesn't help that drinking a potion is bugged as hell - but it is like it is and we have to work with or around it. It works better with 10 RES and 10 PER than with 3 RES and 17 PER. At least for me in this situation and encounter. Against fewer but harder enemies (less hits/interrupts, higher defenses) this might be the wrong tactic though. And of course you can say: "You should use a figurine for distraction so that it eats those Plague of Insects, then you could do with lower RES and more PER" - true. But I want to know how tough this guy is and what he can achieve on his own. I need to balance defense and offense. To much of a tank and he will die because he can't kill the enemies quickly enough (actually a big problem of all my melee solo fighters I tried) - to much of a glasscannon and he will die because his endurance runs out too fast or he gets disabled all the time - so I don't use summons and also no mind control (unless it's an integral part of the build of course). So I wouldn't call it the universal optimum to dump RES - but it's true that in many situations it is (and of course if you're in a party). By the way: I really like discussing with you guys. It's enlightening, all civilized and also polite enough and proofs that an internet forum is not necessarily a place where the unpleasant fukkards meet.

Maybe - but inspired by that I made a fire godlike dual sabre regeneration monk like that fighter (10 PER, MIG, CON INT max - dumped DEX though) and soloed upscaled Nalrend a few days ago on PoTD without any problems (I have to admit I "abused" Battle Forged plus Flame Shield a bit - because those work with Turning Wheel and Scion of Flame as well as with Blood Testament Gloves(!), which is pretty nasty - will post a build later). Also tried it with more PER and less MIG and CON and it didn't work as well. I only used one potion of Spirit Shield, one potion of Major Regeneration and a potion of Flame Shield. No food, no scrolls, no special PC talents, no prostitutes, no resting bonus. Camping Bonus was +60% healing. It seemed to be quite good. Can't say if it's optimzed, but it required no special tactics (besides switching to the solace shield once I got knocked prone, but I always do that when it comes to those ogres). Just attacked and spammed Torment's Reach while clubs hit my face... But it's true that DEX in this case is quite worthless. But PER at 10 works best (in this encounter, with this build - at lvl 16). Whatever - I admit that in most cases PER has the most impact. But still isn#t worth anything if you're k.o.

Time Warping. It's awesome. You get it at level 40+. Parental Leave also works. You can get that a lot earlier...

Whooha.

I still don't like fighters too much - but to each his own.

You can always sip a potion of Infuse with VItal Essence at the start of tougher fights. It helps a lot to counter the health loss between resting. But still this is not suitable as a main tank. You would have to come up with some neat trick to make a rogue the main tank I guess (which I didn't figure out yet). The combination of low deflection and low endurance/health is indeed a hinderance.

I wouldn't bother with firearms at all, so... I would never dump PER - but I have no problem with dumped DEX. But your examples only cover the clichée builds (and makes heavy use of retraining). The fighter solo run that somebody posted way back was all about regeneration and attack speed. No shield, not very high defenses, but maximum regeneration and attack speed. He used Spelltongue to prolong his buffs and healing (even used that trick for Wound Binding so it heals you up completely). He didn't need DEX too much because of his speedy dual wieldung setup, but he wanted maxed CON, MIG and INT. And he couldn't have maxed PER then I guess. He did a successful solo run (even said it was pretty easy) and had fun. So that's what I mean when I say that PER>any other stat is not the universal truth. However, it's true most of the time.

Is Shot on the Run worth it if you want to use that tactic more often?

Your phantom doesn't get Minor Blights just because you have it (at least this was the case some patches ago). It gets your other items with the passive buffs on it, but no spell binding whatsoever. Even rings don't work anymore. What they get is spell holding - so Sanguine Plate, Shod-in-Faith an so on will work. Also retaliation items work. You can put on Binding Rope and your duplicate will cause stuck when hit. Actually - the Essential and Substancial Phantom can make great spell holding decoys and heal the entire frontline with Consecrated Ground (can you cast withdraw on them? That would be so awesome). All the items that do something on x% endurance or unconciousness like Coloroed Coat or the Martyr amulet work with them. Essential Phantom as spell mastery plus Shod-in-Faith plus Belt of Bountiful Healing + St. Borragias Tears can withstand a lot of punishment. If you put on the Colored Coat, Band of Union and the martyr amulet you can just cast your phantom in the front line and let it die - you will cast Instill Doubt + Wicked Briars and get +30% attack speed in an AoE fpr 30 secs once per encounter + up to 6 times per rest if you want. But what doesn't translate to your duplicate are your weapons. It alsways spawns with it's own shocking wand. But I think that Heart of the Storm works with that weapon. But I'm not 100% sure. Hard to test that...

I wouldn't put him in the postion of a main tank or anything like that. But I played a Godansthunyr + Badgradr's Barricade Devil of Caroc and she was absolutely great. One of the best* rogues I played so far. She was in the front line but didn't engage first, so she didn't receive the main heat, but you didn't have to watch out all the time for her. She did great damage (also because of the shield's spell striking for sure which was kind of guarantieed once the target wa stunned by Godansthunyr or debuffed otherwise) because she seldomly went down and didn't have to position herself all the time but could just start hitting. I never had any health issues with her at all. Back then (3.0) Riposte was still crap, so I didn't take it, but now I would use it. Her deflection was high enough to receive a lot of grazes instead of hits, and her DR was high enough to make sure those grazes only did MIN damage most of the time. However, I also playtested this disenganging riposte build a was talking about - thas one might run into health problems because he receives a lot of grazes. But you can alsways stop running around the mob an retreat and play him as an offtank until nest rest. edit: *) by "best" I don't mean best dps or whatever, but the best overall experience, including micro, fun, style and so on.

That would be too powerful. It used to be that way - and everybody fetched a blunderbuss and applied Envenomed Strike six times. However - there is still a nice effect with Minor Blights (by the way: I still wonder what Major Blights might look like): Because of the multiple hits there is a much higher chance of applying the optimal duration of Envenomed Strike - because a graze or hit might get overwritten by a hit or crit. At least I suppose it works like that.

:D

Yes, I also tried it in the meantime. But what does work is Citzal's Spirit Lance. It's relatively big "blast" AoE leads to a whole bunch of poisoned enemies. :D Envenomed Strike + Wizard: I look at it as an additional AoE poison spell which does 100 raw damage and has 3 uses per rest. Way better than the lame bonus spell talents, isn't it?

Hey, I'm powergaming all the time and seldomly have a priest. ...although they really make things easier.

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?