Boeroer

Argh - I meant Whisper of Treason, sorry! Mixed that up... Yes, it's aweseome. Should be fast (did anybody test if it's cast time is indeed fast now as the description says?), gives you a meat shield and also debuffs a lot. The only thing that's not so good about it is that you don't get focus when hitting enemies whose alliance got flipped.

I would say Tenous Grasp is one of the best powers for a cipher. Once encounter starts you cast it on an enemy and he will be the best distraction you can have. Can spare you tons of figurine summons, later also Puppet Master (lasts longer). edit: I meant Whisper of Treason, dammit!

Rogue and cipher can dish out good amount of damage without being excessively skilled for it. So I would build them very defensively if I wouldn't want to use figurines all the time. As KDubya said: AoE for rogues is possible with scrolls and spell binding items. THose which deal damage are very nice later on because they work with Deathblows (= double damage). The high ACC of rogues is great for spells and scrolls. But you shouldn't gimp your INT when you want to do that. Ciphers: for early game it's always nice to have two weapon setups: one with weapon & shield and one with a single weapon. Ciphers in the early game can have problems with their ACC and can't hit sh!t with their weapons. A single weapon solves that issue quite nicely because it will give you +12 ACC instantly without any talent and you can switch to that weapon for generating focus more quickly while you're not under pressure so much - then switch to shield once you are. It's also good to use weapons in the single weapon slot that have an inherent ACC bonus - like spears, daggers and clubs. I prefer spears because the have the highest base damage - which is good with soul whip for overcoming enemies' DR. So you will have +17 ACC at the start of the game which can chance things drastically. Later on you can switch to your desired weapon - after Act I I guess. But I think that two handed weapons are not the best choice for a solo game

I'd say both.

Good to know! What about Riposte? It's an ability and does a Full Attack - but it's triggered passively while you do other stuff like running around. I think there's no animation whatsoever (it would totally mess with the walking/attacking animation that's played at that moment) - so I guess none of the speed/recovery rules apply? It just does two attack rolls and damage numbers pop up - that's it, right? Like with disengagement attacks?

Barbaric Blow is also not bad if you have two weapons equipped (and it's the only Full Attack the barb can get atm - because Kockdown from the Girdle of the Driving Wave is still bugged). And as I said before: it's totally legit to switch to a second weapon slot just for HoF and Barbaric Blow (BB) instead of using the one handed setup which is for crits. It would be nice of course to stack the +15% and the +12 ACC with the increased hit chance of BB/HoF - but I think that a Full Attack is always better for those two abilities. You don't need Two Weapon Style for this since it's ony one attack. It's just more micromanagement than simply click the HoF/BB button. Like: We Toki for the one handed setup and Edge of Reason + Wodewys for the second one. It's very likely that a HoF in a crowd triggers Nature's Mark from Wodewys. And with Egde of Reason you will have a quick additional heal with those two abilities.

If you really want to use two handed weapons all the time (survivability might be a problem in very hard encounters like bounties) you should also pick up the Forgemaster's Gloves. The summoned weapon "Firebrand" is a great sword that does burn damage only and has very high base damage. It's nice if you combine it with Scion of Flame, Flames of Devotion + Intense Flames and Sacred Immolation - because Scion of Flame works with it all. It's 120% weapon burn damage all the time with Firebrand and + 90% burnin lash for your FoDs. That will result in higher numbers compared to "normal" great swords - especially against targets with low deflection and weakness to fire. Tidefall is of course always nice. It heals you and has like an additional "raw" lash over time. Later in the game it's even better than Firebrand - once you can properly enchant it with a burning lash and ACC and dmg bonuses and most of all durgan steel. Another good option for a Bleak Walker is Bittercut, a sabre which you can get quite early if you want and which does corrode/slash damage. Besides the fact that two damage types are always nice and this is the only sabre with it, this one also works with Spirit of Decay, adding 20% damage to it's hits (funnily even the slash ones) like with Firebrand. You can add a corrosive lash (+30% instead of +25% because of Spirit of Decay), Remember Rakhan Field for your FoD (+30 instead of +25%), Intense Flames (+90% burn with FoD because of Scion of Flame). So your normal hits would do 120% corrode damage + 30% corrosive lash and your FoDs would do 120% +30% +30% corrode + 90% burn. Which is nice. You can even duplicate it and dual wield it which also gives you 4 Vile Thorns per rest but also a huge defense malus to poison attacks. Other than that, I like it with a shield like Outworn Bucker - also looks nice together. Drawn in Spring is maybe the best option, but it comes quite late.

When he wants to sell you something then you can buy it via the stronghold UI (stronghold button right of the compass). There will be a stronghold notification first (top left of the screen, like with stronghold quests and any other events that might pop up) and then you can open the UI. There will be an entry with icon and description and buttons to buy or cancel. With right click on the icon you can examine the item's properties further and then decide if you want to buy the item or not. You don't have to travel to your stronghold in order to buy it! Azurro will not be there "in person" - so you will never find him there after his initial quest. Once you bought the item, it will be put into your treasure chest in the stronghold (right of the keep's main hall - like with the items you get from stronghold quests).

No, sorry. I can only guess the there might be one or two diplomatic options in the quest lines of every official companion. I don't know for sure. But as I said: once you start WM I there will be enough. You shouldn't wait too long to begin with it. If you do all the main content first and then go to WM it will be way too easy. Optimal levels are 8 to 10 I'd say. WM II requires some more levels though. You can squeeze the expansions in between - you don't have to do them after the main questline. In fact: once the main questline ends you can't do anything else at all.

That explains it all.

Most of the time I also don't use the official companions and never have any problems to reach at least 3/3 in the needed reputations when I play a paladin or priest. Is the game option switched on which allows you to see the disposition after the dialogue options in brackets (e.g. "Bla bla bla" [honest])?

Then you either should have skipped some of the honest options in favour for diplomatic and/or you skipped some content. However, there will be plenty of new dialoge options for you in WM I & II.

They do. Like Gauntlets of Swift Action also do.

Oh, that's a good question. I didn't watch out for that.

Ah, ok, as I expected after your post. So you should choose which kind of "item retaliation" is best for you: pierce, sickened or stuck.

Cool stuff! Tanks for that. Instead of an interface they use a method... not sure if that's cool though...

Right. So all those disabling spells of yours (e.g. Mental Binding and Mind Wave - which reduce deflection via allfiction like paralyzed, prone and so on) increase the chance to score a crit and thus do additional damage.

Are you sure and did a test? Because some of those "do this than also that happens" talents like Inspiring Exhortation and on-kill-effects like Bloodlust or Mourning Gloves or Tempered Helm seem to stack with everything nowadays. It might be that Vielo Vidorio stacks with the rest of the speed buffs because it's one of those talents that only work when you use an ability?

They are. Savage Attack is also a good option. Since your main targets are disabled most of the time the -5 ACC doesn't matter much - but the focus gain and damage are better with it. Stacks with Apprentice's Sneak Attack and also Soul Whip + Biting Whip. Draining Whip is also good if you do lots of damage per hit. You will do +40%+15%+20% = +75% damage which really hurts and gives you good focus.

What do you mean they don't stack? When I put on lavender wreath and sura's supper plate then the enemy who hits me doesn't either get hit or sickened? I did a test build with binding rope some hours ago and it worked with supper plate and battle forged as well as with flame shield. Version 3.02. What I didn't have was a retaliation item that was no weapon - like coat of ill payment. So it might be that this gets suppressed by binding rope or lavender wreath?

That's right. The only "normal" retaliation that stacks is that from the supper plate because weapon/shield enchantments stack with everything. But you might want to skip retaliation altogether because it's base damage is really low and even the highest dmg mod doesn't turn it into good damage. It's only worth it with Combusting Wounds or if you combine things like Glitternig Gauntlets (=dazed), Enervating Blows (=weakened) or Avenging Storm with it.

Nice idea. Salvation of Time might be great for this. Sadly, Spelltongue isn't enough to prolong duration endlessly anymore. Maybe with carnage it still is, but attacking single targets even with 0 recovery isn't enough anymore. I tried it with a fighter to exend all his aweseome buffs and it didn't work so well. Maybe it's better if you crit a lot or once the foes are properly buffed - like Lagufaeth with Broodmothers are most of the time or Xaurips with priests and Ogres with Matrons can be. Together with Salvation of Time you should be able to squeeze out a lot of extra duration. Too bad Spelltongue's base damage is so underwhelming.

Missile Barrage with Deathblows is so awesome.

Sneak and Deathblows yes, carnage no. And because the damage of retaliation is so whimpy Deathblows with it are still not very impressive. What is impressive at higher levels is Battle Forged from the Fire Godlike race. It works with Deathblows and Scion of Flame and it stacks with the Potion of Flame shield and the other retaliations. You can even combine this retaliation stuff with Riposte, Binding Rope and Lavender Wreath for maximum punishment. However - because rogues endurance and deflection are low it's hard to make this work for a long time. But Combusting Wounds with this is fun for sure and makes it effective. Ciphers can use Combusting Wounds and combine it with Pain Link. Every enemy around you gets hit when you get hit plus all that retaliation means that there are a gazillion of hits taking place - great for combusting wounds. Also great in conjunction with any beam spell. What does work really really well is Druid's Avenging Storm with all that retaliation. It's adding a high shock damage bonus that's not based on % but a flat amount, no matter how whimpy the initial damage is. This makes multiple retaliation great. But this spell comes really really late. Monk's Turning Wheel also works with those retaliations, adding up to +50% of burning lash to every retaliation. While this is totally meh with normal retaliation it's very good with battle forged and flame shield because the lash and the initial damage profit from Scion of Flame. And monks can have TON of endurance and health as well as very high DR with Iron Wheel which makes it my favorite class for using Battle Forged. In fact I'll put out a monk build around battle forged in a few days. Edit: and I forgot: barb's One Stands Alone, Blooded and stuff also worked with retaliation recently, adding +50% damage to retaliation and Battle Forged once you hit 50% endurance. And you have the raw damage retaliation, too. Blood Thirst also works. So if you kill an enemy with retaliation your recovery will be set to zero - no matter your DEX. This can be fun with Battle Forged, Flame Shield and Firebrand. Also building around that ATM - but I don't know yet if this is truly viable.

Ah - now I understand. You're going to dual wield Bittercut + Ravenwing? But why those two? They are not in the same weapon group. Bittercut + Bleak Fang would make more sense or not? They share the same weapon focus and on-crit Touch of Rot's initial damage would profit from Spirit of Decay (and from Deathblows I guess).