Boeroer

You can get Stormcaller pretty early if you want. No fighting involved except Dazir in Stalwart. Then I would always choose Swift Aim and Driving Flight in order to proc Returning Storm as often as possible and to spread the -6 shock DR around for my fellow party members. I can see where Vicious Aim might be very useful - with Persistence for example, combined with Outlander's Frenzy (the speed buff from Frenzy negates the speed debuff of Vicious Aim, and both together give you +29% damage and a nice bonus to ACC). But with Stormcaller I always want to be faster. Up to -11 DR (-5 from Pen. Shot and -6 from Stormcaller) are great for very fast attacks - besides the Returning Storm thing. When I get Twinned Arrows (and took Swift Aim) I will retrain and remove Swift Aim.

I don't know. During my last wizard-build-testing I noticed that the icons were there in this "bad" or backpack or what's that icon supossed to represent - but I did not enough testing to confirm if the spell holding gets triggered or not.

Only rings' spellbinds work nowadays. So mainly Suppress Affliction, Dominate and Combusting Wounds for the phantoms (and the dichotomous soul diplicates). There was a change some while ago. After 2.03 I guess. In the bag there will also be things like non clickable icons from spell holdings like frenzy from sanguine plate and so on. Other enchantments on items still work. Second chance should work on duplicates - and also the speed buff from boots of speed and such.

Why is that? Will it not get the +150% damage bonus?

There's a lore check in WM that needs 6. But it doesn't do anything special. For me it's: Stealth: totally useless unless you are playing solo and want to avoid fights Athletics: weak. But as Braven said I put like 4 or 5 into it. Lore: it depends on the class and the build and the party. If I have no priest I will have one char with 10 or even 12 lore. A rogue with good ACC, MIG and INT will get 10 also. Scrolls work with Deathblows. Fighters, rangers, chanters and monks will get 6 (for Fireballs). Survival: the rest. I want to put at least 10 points into it in order to get +15 ACC against certain foes. This is immensely powerful - especially against enemies with high defenses like dragons. When I want a build with maximum endurance recovery, I try to reach +60% healing received.

Hi. Thanks a lot. Can do around the weekend I guess.

For me it's more like the "don't interrupt me because that hurts my dps"-stat.

That's true. Bounties are best for verifying if your build will work in a solo run I guess. And I also think that high defenses are very valuable if you do solo runs. I test all of my studier builds solo against all sorts of bounties to see how they perform. It's like a lot of mini solo runs. But as far as I remember Braven did not skip hard encounters. He just relied on maximum regeneration, 0 recovery, high DR and spell holding items. I think he even only had 3 CON and 3 RES when he wrote about his playthrough. So there might be a way to do a solo game where you fight all the foes without raising defenses to the sky. I really can't tell because I don't do solo runs. But I guess it can work without having superhigh defenses. You just have to make sure you don't go down. I just happend to test a sort of "Wolverine" regenerating chanter build with +45% healing done and +185% healing received. He can't go KO as long as there's still health in him. His endurance jumps up from mid to full in seconds. And he does good AoE damage. I can't tell about dragons (didn't test that - maybe he will have a hard time), but he did the upscaled Nalrend bounty solo with good (but not excellent) defenses. No problems there - it was almost too easy. You just have to make sure your fights don't last forever. If regeneration time is up, you will die eventually.

It seems to work because he did a (triple crown) solo run like that if I'm not mistaken. The two mentioned triggered abilities (+20 to all defenses, +20 to ACC) are indeed very helpful if you focus on spell holding and spell striking.

Yeah, it's very nice on a tanky druid like this one. But Avenging Storm comes really late. So make sure the build is of any use before you get Av. Storm. By the way: Av. Storm also works with Battle Forged and Potion of Flame Shield or Mantle of the Wreathing Flame ("or" because potion surpresses mantle). So you can build up to four retaliating Avenging Storms when you get grazed/hit/crit. Battle Forged + Potion of Falme Shield + Scion of Flame + Avenging Storm + Heart of the Storm turns every melee attacker into roasted pulp.

Quick update: Avenging Storm works with retaliation. So you might want to reequip once you get that. See edited starting post.

What I forgot: if you want to use Stormcaller you might want to take Heart of the Storm (I would want it). It will provide +20% damage to the bow AND the Returning Storm it procs. Also: make sure that the party members have some shock based attacks if possible. Since Stormcaller lowers shock DR this is one of the best ways to overcome enemies' DR. For example the druid has some really nice shock spells. Put shocking lashes onto your weapons and so on.

As for the rest of your party: there are builds in this forum for every one of them. Just search for [CLASS BUILD] or have a look at the build index. It's the thread right on top. It's up to date.

Vicious Aim and Twinned Arrows don't work together. I would skip Vicious Aim. Takedown is a nice ability for the animal companion. 2 knockdowns per encounter can save your sorry a**. If you combine it with Brutal Takedown and crit a foe with it who's already suffering from wounding and an affliction you not not only knock him down but also do crazy amounts of damage. Then there is Marked Prey and Binding Roots. Binding Roots is 5 per rest and lasts like forever. In tough encounters like bounties you put 5 melee foes on the bench for the whole fight with that. You should also get Penetrating Shot and Marksman. You max. level will be 16 - so there's some more room for additional talents/abilities. You don't need to put all points into mechanics. 10 is enough. Rest should go into survival, which ist really powerful now. I would aim for 10 points in order to get +15 ACC camping bonus against certain races. Leftover points you can put in mechanics again if you really want. Why Island Aumaua? For the additional weapon slot? If you have Stormcaller you don't ever want to use another weapon. That's my experience. Optimal choice would be Hearth Orlan or Wood Elf. But if you really like Island Aumaua it's totally OK of course.

That's not true. Actually, 20% of "Speed" is exactly "S".

And people say I devoted my life to this game...

You can also use Asp. Mark in the early game with the wizard and then retrain after lvl 9. Maybe you don't need Asp. Mark at higher levels at all because it gets suppressed by a lot of things later on. My experience with Aps. Mark is that it's a) awesome, because you can have a good AoE debuff with great duration, range and area per encounter - and very early b) best used on classes who have higher ACC anyway. A ranger for example has 30 start ACC. If he also has like 15 PER his Aspirant's Mark will hit wit an ACC of 45 right at level 1 - those often results in crits which prolong the duration more than higher INT would. c) best uesd on melee chars who don't do much useful stuff at the start of an encounter otherwise (like melee rogues, fighters or monks) INT is useful for Asp. Mark, that's true. But it's base duration and area are also good enough with only 10 INT. For me it's the reliability that counts. This gets less important hat higher levels for sure - because the "flat" ACC bonus from class kind of diminishes after some levels. Also: once you have Stormcaller you may want to shoot right from the start in order to trigger Returning Storm asap. You could also give Asp. Mark to the Tall Grass Paladin. Once he got buffed by the other pal the mark should hit everything. Do as you like. Your "everyencounter" opening strategy is surely great. Concerning barb with Tall Grass: it's surely a great setup - especially with your marking paladin who raises ACC a lot. But I don't think that Marking and Coordinating works with carnage - only with the initial target of the barb. Here a hearth orlan rogue with "all in" hit-to-crit conversion might be best for dps. It's a matter of taste I guess. Two paladins also have great synergy effects. And since you only have two melee guys in the group a barb or rogue won't probably be not tanky enough. A paladin with a pike can still be sturdy.

Your opening strategy is good. I'd do it the same way. Makes most encounters easy. The only thing I'd do differently is giving Aspirant's Mark to a char with high ACC so it always lands. I use rogues, fighters, rangers or monks for that. So ranger in your case. While the ranger is casting Asp. Mark the wizard will cast Arcane Assault. This not only does good damage but also dazes. Because later your wizard will have Spell Mastery (e.g Chill Fog) and then you will likely use that at the start of an encounter and not Asp. Mark.

What makes the wolf really good is his higher base damage. So damage bonuses (from Predator's Sense, Merciless Companion and so on) work even better with him. Does Itumaak also have this feature?

Why do you think that?

As I edited above. They are both active, yes. But Swift Aim's speed boost (reduces recovery) does stack with Sure Handed Ila because the first is a universal speed buff and the second is ranged only. Same reason why Alacrity works with Sure Handed Ila. However - the reload speed buffs are the same kind and therefore don't stack. I did a quick test yesterday with an elven ranger and a chanter plus Forgiveness and all the stuff I said above. It is indeed so that your shots have no recovery and the reloading phase is rather short. But the damage output is still not comparable to any bow.

Together with a chanter's Sure Handed Ila you would get from 150 to 53. That's only a third and pretty nuts. If you have such a short reload phase it also makes sense so lower recovery. With a durganized speedy pistol like Forgiveness, Gauntlets of Swift Action, Swift Aim and Sure-Handed Ila your recovery would be at zero (if I did no misstake - and you could use Penetrating Shot without slowdown). So your reload would be 53 and your recovery 0 - with a DR bypass of 11. Isn't that sweet? I assume it's also nice with any other speedy ranged weapon that has to reload (Hold-Wall and Wendgär). Edit: just checked: Sure Handed Ila's Reload buff gets suppressed either by Gunner or Swift Aim. Attack Speed buff works though.

Yes - dual wielding Steadfast + another weapon together with that on kill effect is not optimal if you want to proc Champion's Boon often. But a tanky rogue with shield could be nice for this. Maybe this could be a setup that would make Riposte suck less.

But isn't Steadfast's Champion's Boon AoE? I think it's a very good enchantment if you try to steal kills anyway (for whatever reason). Imagine you casting Champion's Boon for free and thus boosting all your friends' MIG around you by 10. It's the only way to boost a chanter's The Dragon Thrashed for example. And I don't think it's hard to kill for a rogue with Steadfast. Sure, only 25% is a bit meh - but on the other hand the healing and the chances for paladins are quite underwhelming. The worst part is that you have to kill with Steadfast itself - so dual wielding or bash are bad for you. What I wanted yo ask: does it count if your monk kills foes with the crush AoE of Torment's Reach? Edit: Ah! I totally forgot about Sunlance. I thought paladins also got healing when getting hit. Sunlance is of course the best enchantment on it. Too bad paladins can't have carnage.

Also happens to me all the time. I think it's because encounters get too easy and you character progression stops.