Boeroer

I have a total different experience than Blunderboss: When I use a melee ranger I always flank with my animal companion. Works like a charm. But maybe that's because I use at least 4 sturdy guys and like to stretch out the battlefield after the first initial buffs/debuffs. That way picking single targets and flank them is pretty easy. You should by all means try to flank as a double team as a melee ranger. You will get a lot of +ACC, bonus damage from Stalker's Torc and items/weapons with certain enchantments and stunning shots. And because there are some items with flanking bonus damage and also the survival bonus damage, the cipher's Phantom Foes is really nice now. +30% bonus damage from flanking alone. You can combine that with one of the vicious weapons (Cladhaliath, Traitor's Merit, Misery's End, Dîal Ewn Dibita or Vierina's Leaves) for even more bonus damage (+20%) for a total of +50%. That's like Sneak Attack - not too bad I think.

Hehe. Barb + Redeemer + Bloodthirst + vessels of same or lower levels = great fun.

Also - when you are with a cipher: hit some adds to build up focus, cast Tactical Meld on someone who's also attacking the dragon and has a marking weapon (preferably a paladin who also has Coordinated Attacks). This will give your cipher +40 ACC against the dragon. YOu can also cast Inspiring Radiance on top of that for a whopping +50 of course. Your spells wil then hit the dragon without problems. With boots of speed you can run towards him, cast Disintegration (and hope he doesn't die from it) and retreat. If your Pally is a Darcozzi Paladini with Inspiring Liberation you can get +60 ACC by the way. If you took the Mob Justice talent from the Dozens you will have +64 ACC. With a coordinating weapon you will have +68 ACC with that. You could also (if you have enough focus) cast Borrowed Instincts on the dragon. This would give you another +20 ACC. All in all you can have +84 (+88 with weapon) ACC for a short time. I don't know if Devotions stacks with this. Would be uberawesome.

Good question - that should have been a hit (nearly a crit). It's the reverse thing that I experince all the time: an Ogre raises his club to crush me, I run away with boots of speed and resting bonus and whatnot. When his club hits the ground I'm at the edge of the map... aaand receive a hit and go prone. Stupid...

What is optimal anyways? For me it's a good build if you have fun playing it. And I really like to put a twist on a build which is fun but doesn't gimp it too hard.

I think we can agree on that.

What about Eyestrike? Does it work on... you know... Eyeless?

Where would we be if people always did what wisebutts tell them they are supposed to do?

Another nice trick (if you're having a priest) is to use Withdraw on a character who blocks the path for the dragon. He can't reach your party then or has to take a detour. You can even do that with two characters. By the way: things like Sacred Immolation and Chanters' chants will continue to work while affected by Withdraw. But you have to feed him cannon fodder like summons or charmed adds. I guess blights who are immune to some ot his damge types could be nice. If you don't, he will use his breath over and over again to hit you and that has a really long range. You should also consider to use all the Whisper of Treason items on him. If you put them on a rogue, monk, ranger or fighter, their ACC will be better than an originally cast Whiper of Treason from your cipher - and it will cost no precious focus.

Since you're using a great sword anyway: Why didn't you give your barb St.Ydwen's Redeemer? If he destroys a vessel it sounts as kill and will trigger Bloodthirst. And since you have carnage it will trigger every second swing at least (as long as there are still some vessels around). By the way, talking about vessels: Any character with high MIG and INT plus Scion of Flame who wants to be a vessel killer shoud consider taking Sanctifier and Acolyte's Radiance. It's not as good as the original of couse, but it's not bad either.

Maybe a monk with Firebrand is even better? He can have +50% burn damage via Turning Wheel for a lot more than 2 attacks and his ACC is a little higher than a paladin's of the same level. With his Swift Strikes he could maybe hit more often than a paladin and with Iron Wheel he could skip armor recovery malus at all...?

I would always prefer prophylactic defense buffs over healing (if you have). What I mean is that I would always cast something like Circle of Defense or Reinforcing Exhortation etc. before the enemy touches me. That way your health loss will be lower. Both combined is the best of course. I like Shod-in-Faith a lot because with high MIG and INT you can combine good dps with a big AoE and healing. They are no use if your deflection is too high though. Maybe that's why I nearly always put them on my barbs who tend to stand in the center of the front line. Tons over tons of health make a difference here. Good thing about Strange Mercy and Shepherd is that your deflection doesn't have to be gimped at all in order to make them useful. I would not put any second chance items on my front row if I had that much healing going on. I would reserve those for my backline. Those guys go down from time to time if they get targeted - but they seldomly have health issues. So this 1/rest revive makes sense on them. This is also the only situation where I find that "dead man stands" boots are useful: you are at 0 endurance, the enemy will turn away. You will stand there for 3 secs and after that you fall down and get up again. This 3 sec delay between ko and revive can prevent that the enemy just keeps on pummeling the squishy when he gets revived.

I mean look at dunstan from crucible keep. He forges a superb weapon from some pieces of scrap metal.

Only Vithracks' brains - which they grow on fields these days.

On the other hand - you could prove that it works if you'd post a screenshot where the damage with Fellstroke is higher than the estimated max damage without ambush. So... who's faster?

I think I had those in mind, yes.

It's magic!

When you have four of them you should really search for that Lagufaeth companion who can wield them all at once.

Because all those affliction based attacks a rogue can have are full attacks I guess. Badgradr's Barricade on a crit-rogue with lots of full attacks is totally awesome. Death Blows works with Thrust of Tattered Veils. And since that spell's base damage is high (compared with usual one handed weapons) the damage after a critical hit with it is really nice. I'm playtesting a monk with dual rretaliation(sura's supper plate) atm. in order to trigger resonant touch on anyone who hits me. Let's see what weird things will come out of that.

Ha! Nice idea.

Yes, it stacks. I tried that and also brought a chanter with that Zephyr-Poleaxe and the concentration-debuff-chant. There's also a late game item that that gives you +15 interrupt. I forgot what exactly it was. a ring - or a belt? Can't remember... Edit: I do now remember that it was a pair of gloves.

Or you take a mountain dwarf. Finally some good use for that boring racial ability.

Barrage supresses ZF, that's right. Would be a real shame if Insp. Radiance got nerfed with the latest patch.

Teehee. It's funny though because I did not have a single drop the whole week. Maybe that's the problem...?

Yes. Also booh! But losing 20% speed and gaining an additional arrow is not as bad as losing 20% speed AND 50% reload time while gaining an AoE burn effect and getting blinded after each shot. Blind is a serious affliction. Since guns are already inferior to bows on rangers they should have made it so that Swift Aim and Powder Burns stack OR remove that silly self-blind.