Boeroer

"Some kith kiss me, some kith hug me..." The song is Madonna's "Marterial Girl" - of course without "kith" but with "boys". And instead of marterial it's martyrial. And Burl instead of Girl. Or the other way round? I'm really surprised nobody noticed. Well maybe I'm just too old... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSUOFgj97M It's a really bad earworm, I can tell you. The second part of the initial quote is from Karl Marx actually. Not that I expected anyone to recognize that.

Dammit! Since two days I have that Madonna earworm now. Go away!

Yes. And a rogue that flanks can automatically trigger Distracted with a special ability named "Persistent Distraction (lvl 7)" -> which leads to Deathblows (because flanked + distracted). So you just have to be the flanker to trigger Deathblows. Watch out though: if the target is already flanked and you come as "second" flanker, this doesn't work. You have to be the first to flank to trigger Persistent Distraction.

I don't know about the enemy part, but it stacks with Belt of Chimes, which is of course awesome. +55 Concentration prevents even the 3-RES-guys from being interrupted too often.

I find all these bounties to be pretty easy if you have two or more caters - especially a Wizard, a Cipher and a Priest: First of all it is great if you can find some kind of a chokepoint or an area where the can't surround you at once. 0. combat starts, someone throws summons into the midst of the mob or someone goes in as bait (like a barb with Dragon Leap or whatever). Doesn't matter if he's ko after a while. 1a. Priest casts Inspiring Radiance while 1b. Ranger casts Nature's Mark or Aspirant's Mark and 1c. Wizard casts Binding Web 2. Priest casts Painful Interdiction while 2b. Cipher casts secret Horrors 3. Wizard casts Pull of Eora 4a. Monk or any fast char runs behind that area or is there from the start while 4b. Cipher casts Antipathetic Field on someone in the Pull Of Eora area 4c. Wizard casts Wall of Flame 4d. Priest casts Shining Beacon 5. Wizard casts Chill Fog 5. Cipher casts Ectopsychic echo on the monk or whoever ran past the mob 5. Priest spams Iconic Projection from now on 6. Wizard casts Combusting Wounds 7. Wizard wants to make sure that Binding Web and Pull of Eora don't expire. And while the casters are doing this your other members should use scrolls (paralyze, confusion, whatever you have) and spellbind items like crazy and pick off the ones that escape that Blender of Death. You can also use the monk to push other enemies back into that Pull of Eora with Force of Anguish or just use Torments Reach at the edge of that Pull while being the anker for the Ectopsychic Echo. That should be enough. Of course this is when the plan works out. Most of the time it doesn't and you have to improvise. But the key thing here is to buy some time (send in bait) and keep the enemy in one spot (bait + Binding Web + Pull of Eora) and then drop everything you have onto their heads while making sure you can hit them (buffing and debuffing first.) Because most of them will be stuck in the web and Pull of Eora (which also interrupts a bit every time it whirls them around and which will also force a hit check for Ectopsychic Echo every time) you will have time to cast some spells without being overwhelmed. I like those spells that do something in pulses (Pull of Eora, Binding Web, Chill Fog, Mal. Cloud, Wall of Fire) because it not only ensures that most of the time at least some enemies are hit but it also works great with Combusting Wounds. Giving the enemy bait at the beginning is a good thing because there is no defense against that. If you throw a squishy target into their midst at the beginning of a fight - while all others are stealthed and that target could cause lots of damage - that's like having a very strong CC effect that lasts for some time. All enemies will turn towards that bait and you will have some time for buffing/debuffing and then casting CC like Binding Web and Pull of Eora. My Immoratl Martyr was build with that in mind. You toss him in as decoy, he does some serious damage even if he goes down (and up because of second chance) and meanwhile you can buff/debuff an prepare everything while you feed the foes some summons when the bait is going down for good. In fact it's one of the most powerful CC effects I know. There's no defense or accuracy involved. You just turn the behaviour of the AI against it. YOu just have to sacrifice a team member. Best to use one which is of no special use in a specific fight. For example you could use Kana in this case. He will draw a lot of attention if he goes in first with Come Sweet WInds or THe Dragon THrashed - or any other offensive chant.

Yeah - but if the target is larger it eats even more hits. Right atm that spell is totally overpowered.

Yeah, that's the basic idea. You can also add Aspirant's Mark which is pretty good on a rogue because of all the ACC and and Prestidigitator's Missiles because it works with Deathblows and Penetrating Shot. And Deep Wounds works with any spell that does pierce, crush or slash damage.

"I'm a Mopher: half monk, half gopher".

I am eagerly waiting for that "Rogue that plays as a mage build" Boeroer mentioned somewhere in the forum sounds like fun I'm on it. Next one is a "Mopher" - I leave it to you to guess what that is. And then comes the Rogue/Wizard (don't have a special name for that yet).

Thanks, it's an honor. Pretty weak. I mean even normal barbs are weak in the early game. But you can start him as a normal barb and then - at lvl 9 - retrain for this. Or you give him a pike and hit from the second row until lvl 9. That works well.

Not in very difficult fights. You forgot the Maegfolk Skull by the way (triggers Unbending if your endurance drops under 50%).

Ah - ok. That's pretty lame. No wonder I never use it.

Regenerating Abilities just extend your Endurance Pool. They are especially good on high armored tanks who get a lot of mob grazes and would slowly die from that withoput healing. Regeneration keeps them at 100% health - so if something really powerful hits or even crits them, they won't go down. It's also good for sturdy classes that chosse a very offensive build. The loss od defense can be compensated with this extra endurance. There' a reason why enemy fighters are the hardest to kill - in bounties for example.

That's the main reason I keep it on all the time. Too bad there are no earrings in the game... When I was very tired I also had the idea that the Crossed Eyepatch AND the Rugged Wilderness Hat would look good together... and I tried that... for a while.

Finally! FoA!

It gets even better with more than one chanter and Ancient Memory, Beloved Spirits and Veteran's Recovery plus the items you mentioned (except the cloak of course). Or just add those to your recovery fighter. Actually, my Engineer Fighter used exactly that setup you described above (other stats though) - but back then there was no bonus from camping. Worked great even without that.

One addition: If you are concerned about deflection and reflex and your ACC doesn't have to be superhigh, I would always take a larger shield and shove some points from RES to PER to make up for the ACC loss. That way you will have higher deflection and reflex while your ACC stays the same. Just don't forget concentration.

That is not normal and must be a bug of Silver Flash. Normally blunderbusses only hit the foe you're aiming at. Does Silver Flash damage your allies or does it only blind them?

I also want to add that your endurance is capped by health. If your health is 1 your endurance also is 1 - no healing will help you then.

Isn't Maggots doing more damage if the target is (badly) injured? It's a bit like a baby finishing blow with DoT.

"Maybe I can't die - but I will not stop trying. The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain!" Burl Marrax, about 500 years old, immortal and world-worn Vailian pirate, conquerer and colonist, cursed by a native shaman after mocking his religion... and slaughetering his tribe. Or the other way round. "Some kith kiss me, some kith hug me I think they're okay If they don't give me proper beating I just walk away. They can slap and they can smack But they can't see the light 'Cause the boy with the cold sharp blade Is always Mister Right. 'Cause I am living in a martyrial world And I am a martyrial Burl You know that we are living in a martyrial world And I am the material Burl." Burl Marrax in one of his rare happy moments, singing in the bathtub =================================== The Immortal Martyr =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 3.02 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: ahahaha... no! -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Barbarian -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Ocean Folk -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Old Vailia - Colonist -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 19 CON: 03 DEX: 15 PER: 18 INT: 19 RES: 04 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 1, Athl. 4, Lore 6, Mech. 0, Surv. 14 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Accurate Carnage ® Weapon Focus: Ruffian (!) Savage Attack Two Weapon Style ® Vulnerable Attack Bloody Slaughter Barbabric Blow ® Greater Frenzy The Merciless Hand ® Dungeon Delver ® Abilities Carnage (a) Fighting Spirit (a) Blooded (!) Frenzy ® Heart of Fury (!) One Stands Alone (!) Dragon Leap ® Barbaric Retaliation Threatening Presence Vengeful Defeat (!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Purgatory(!) (*Legendary, *Burning Lash, *Durgan Refined) & Resolution(!)(*Legendary, *Shocking Lash, *Durgan Refined) Weapon Set 2: 2 * Club (*Exceptional, *Corrosive Lash, *Kith-Slaying) Boots: Boots of Stability or Boots of Speed Head: Rugged Wilderness Hat Armor: Robes of the Tidebringer (!)(*Durgan Reinforced, *PER +2) Neck: St. Borragia's Tears or Glanfathan Adraswen Belt: Belt of Chimes ® Rings:Gwyn's Band of Union ®, Ring of Wonder ® Hands: Celebrant's Gloves ® or Rabbit Fur Gloves Quick slots: Scrolls & Potions --------------------------------------------------------------- First of all: turn off Knockout Injuries! Seriously, this build is no fun with that. The thing is, this build is build around Vengeful Defeat, an ablitly that will give you a very powerful Full Attack - but only if your endurance drops to zero. Since most people try to avoid that, this ability seems to be a bit circumstantial. But what if you want to go down all the time - what if you want to play a character who's sick of life but can't die - wouldn't Vengeful Defeat be a great ability for this character? Or the other way round: isn't this a good excuse to abuse the heck out of Vengeful Defeat? Secondly: we need one or more party members who can revive in order to get the most out of this build. Sure, you can have items with second chance (and we will use those), but if you want to be revived more than once per encounter (and I recommend that), you need a paladin, priest or chanter. Or somebody who knows how to read revive scrolls. Because we want our hero to go down, we can dump CON and RES and don't even need to have a sore conscience about it - because it's proper roleplaying, that's what this is! All those points go into maxed MIG, PER and INT and the rest into DEX. You see - Burl had a lot of time to train and develop great stats - he had a lot of time to read and do crossword puzzles (hence his high INT), to slaughter some native tribes (high MIG), watch some hummingbirds make love (PER) and do some vaillian dancing (DEX). But he's so sick of life and he couldn't care less - so his RES is really bad and his CON also - because he drinks and eats all those unhealthy things that would give others diabetis, a heart attack and liver cirrhosis. But as I mentioned: he couoldn't care less. Now we have the perfect glass cannon. Time to explain how this works: the plan is to toss this guy into the middle of a mob and start swinging. Because of his abysmal deflection and low DR, most foes will immediately turn towards him. While he does good damage via carnage, he will get hit a lot. Because his Concentration is really bad he will get interrupted all the time, which is bad. I mean he couldn't care less as w know - but WE do care, so we put on the Belt of Chimes which gives us +25 concentration. We also put on the Celebrant's Gloves because those will not only increase the carnage area by 10% but also cast Holy Moly Meditation if we get hit a lot - which is another +30 concentration on top. Suddenly it's very hard to interrupt us - but our deflection is still awful - which is awesome! Because we want to use Vengeful defeat a lot, we can also take all those (normally) lackluster abilites and items that do something when our endurance drops under 50% or even when we co unconcious. That's also why I chose the human race: the bonus ACC will come in handy and I'll explain later why. So, pick up Blooded and so on. We want to accumulate a lot of such effects. The Martyr enchantment is very powerful: for 30 seconds you haste your friends - while dying and doing lots of damage. This is not "Behold the Martyr" - that paladin ability is a different thing. It ends when you revive the Martyr. The enchantment however triggers an AoE haste spell that lasts for 30 sec - it doesn't matter what hppens with the Martyr after it was cast. But "Behold the Martyr" can be of use with this build, too. Another nice effect is second chance + Holy Radiance (see the neck slot). Holy Radiance gets triggered after Second Chance - so you get healed a bit AFTER your second chance comback. And your fellows get healed too! Nice! The ring ist also great on this char. Not only does it boost our carnage AoE because of +4 INT, but also dazes enemies around you once your endurance drops below 80%. And who doesn't know that daze is a superpowerful debuff? I chose those two famous sabres because they combine high base damage with Annihilation. High base damage is good for carnage - and Annihilation is aweseome for Vengeful Defeat (and also Heart of Fury and Barbaric Blow). Those abilities not only do full attacks (hello dual sabres), but also give you more crits AND higher crit damage. If you are the main character and trigger HoF or Vengeful Defeat while standing in a mob of badly wounded enemies - with those fully enchanted sabres - you can get the following max crit damage multiplier: +0.5(crit)+0.5(Annihilation)+0.3(durgan steel)+0.3(Merciless Hand)+0.5(HoF or Vengeful Defeat bonus)+0.5(Bloody Slaughter)+0.1(Dungeon Delver)+0.1(Rabbit Fur Gloves) = 2.8 crit damage multiplier. Sadly, it doesn't really work as a multiplier - it seems it just works like any other damage bonus. So I assume it's more like +280% base damage. But hey - also not too bad. I enchanted those to legendary but it also works with exceptional or superb of course. Legendary just happened to fit exactly into the 14 enchantment points pool. Axes also work fine with this. Especially We Toki. And Hours of St. Rumbalt is also nice. the damage is lower because - you know - full attack and so on - but the prone effect makes up for that. Another very powerful option would be Firebrand - but it didn't fit the theme so I didn't try that. But I can imagine a fire godlike with that flaming sword and Vengeful Defeat. Those crits are the reason why I want to have a lot of ACC. This is done easily with camping bonuses. WIth the rugged wilderness hat you have 16 survival - which will give you +18 ACC against a chose creature type. ON top of that we have the hit-to-crit conversion of Vengeful Defeat (or HoF) that is 20%. +20% from durgan steel results in 40%. So a lot of crits will occur if you use those. Add some Fighting Spirit (human racial ability) and you're good! The best thing about VD (Vengeful Defeat) and HoF is that you do a full attack at all enemies in range. The range is your carnage area plus a little bonus. All those hits from the full attack trigger carnage. So the more enemies you can reach, the more damage every one of them will get. Damage's growing exponentially if you manage to hit 5 or six foes at once. If you have a priest in the gang you need to use Crowns of the Faithful. It can do so much for this Martyr Barb. Now you may inkle why I wanted to build a character around VD. If you go KO and are surrounded by enemies, your VD will be nearly as powerful as HoF. You will be like living bait: all the mobs will be drawn to you because you are such a squishy. Don't hesitate to cast a lot of AoE damage spells onto your Martyr. You will hit him of course, but also all those mobs around him. Be like King Edward Longshanks! And don't be silly because of frendly fire - this barb loves that! Just keep a reviver nearby for the time the second chance is used up. I can't emphasize this enough I guess: using this build as a decoy will make your life so much easier in hard fights like bounties and stuff. He can buy you some time while you buff/debuff. He's like a living CC effect that doesn't have to rely on ACC or doesn't have to overcome defenses. He's just there and draws enemies towards him. And while being punished for that he really can do some harm. One of he best spells with this is Pull of Eora: the foes will be drawn towards the barbarian and will be whirled around and form a really dense pack: great for your HoF and VD. And while they all try to smash the Martyr, they don't bother the rest of your party who can just fire away. Oh, and I nearly forgot: VD always triggers: if you are prone, stunned, petrified - doesn't matter. Once you go down, you will trigger WD. So your barb can do lots of damage even while disabled. "Thanks for knocking me unconcious dudes!" Another great spell for this is Baring Death's Door. It used to be a pretty useless spell for me - but with this char it's golden. If his health gets really low (will happen after some fights) that's not a reason to stop dying (aka resting)! Cast Barring Death's Door and see the magic! He jumps into the crowd with his 1 HP and *boom* Vengeful Defeat. You revive and *boom* Vengeful Defeat... and so on. Just don't revive when Barring Death'S Door wears off: then he becomes the mortal martyr. His dps drops a lot then if you ask me... I (once again) did the (upscaled) Nalrend quest with this guy for a last test. So that nobody can say this guy is just a funny toon but not playable (I did a whole playthrough with him by the way): two paladins and an invocation-based chanter only stood nearby and revived when he dropped. The bounty was over pretty fast (and Nalrend dead). I still had 1/3rd of health - despite the fact that I had a quadrizillion stings from Plague of Insects. Oh, speaking of bugs: Why don't ants go to curch? Because they are in...sects. Have a nice pray! p.s.: I guess a Fire Godlike barb with a retaliation item would cause even more harm while going down - but I'm a bit fed up with godlikes these days, so... Edit: Here are some impressions if you want to build this as a suicidal genie and as the eternal candle:

I nearly always flank - doesn't matter how many foes there are. I always concentrate attacks on the few dangerous ones and ignore the rest. Because dead foes can't harm you. It's not very wise to go one on one all the time. Flanking not only applies "flanked", but also lets you benefit from some other possible things: Minor Threat, Stalker's Link, Coordinated Attacks, Marking, Coordinating, Vicious, Distracted and so on. It's also great if you - as a melee ranger - use a weapon with marking for your pet. Flanking + Stalker's Link + Marking + Merciless Companion is great. +30 ACC and +30% damage. +50% with Stalker's Torc.

Bath!t Crazy wears hide armor (Blaidh Golan). Heavy armor makes casting really slow and you want to get your Storms up asap. I never needed more DR because the constant CC makes it easy to survive without it.

Hm, then you must have missed the two nice ones.

Well then I would skip Borrowed Instinct for sure if I had a priest.