Boeroer

I guess the devs didn't think about this and accidentially implemented a refund to max instead just +1? Edit: I tried with a Ranger/Troubadour and first empowered a Ranger ability (3 empower points to 2) and then empowered an invocation in the next fight which got me down to 1 and back up to 2. So I couldn't reproduce it with that character. Maybe it's a special Forbidden-Fist glitch? Or it's a problem with specific invocations maybe. Or one of the enchantments causes this. Or maybe one of the passives that boost empower (do you have one?).

No - phantoms get exactly the stuff you have. Always a 1:1 copy with all enchantments etc. With Tarn's Respite you can stack either the action speed malus or the deflection malus to 20 with the help of a phantom. Or even more if you recast the phantom.

Rod of the Deep Hunter's "Crushing Depths" has a stack limit of 5. So it's only -5 deflection (and +15% recovery time) for each phantom or Living Ilusion. But it works on hit (not only crit) so that's cool.

Okay I said that Sisyfo's Stone with its enchantment Futility isn't that good. But I know combined with Blinded, Arduous Delay of Motion, Thundercrack's Charged Field and Ball and Chain's Crushing Yoke and that's significantly slowing down enemies. Good thing is that none of those have to crit to work and there's no immunity to them (except Blinded of course). In tandem with a phantom you can stack a lot of Chrushing Yokes and Futilities and the Charged Field has not even an attack roll (like some other auras). Maybe that's a concept that could be fun and make sense for the necklace. I never really used it before because the effect wasn't really noticable if it's the only source of slowdown.

löl... I just discovered that if your phantom reached 5 stacks you can simply resummon one and open yet another stack of 5 ... and so on. Works with Willbreaker's will debuff, too. Why didn't I think of this before?

It is very good imo. I value the speed and ACC bonuses higher than the deflection debuff though. You can even use it on a Phantom - and stack the debuff up to 10 instances and not only 5. But generally I thinkt that enemies that receive crits easily don't need further deflection malus that badly and enemies that would need a deflection malus are not that easy to crit in the first place - so to me it sounds better than it actually is. What I didn't try: using a Debonaire with the Blade and another, high ACC party member who charms (maybe Psion/Ranger or so). The Debonaire would get 100% crit conversion vs. the charmed enemy which would mean the deflection debuff would get stacked quickly while the blade also accumulates its ACC bonus. On the other hand a lot of the toughest foes who would need that treatment are resistant or immune to INT afflictions, so... Anyway: very good weapon. Too bad I don't like Estocs too much (it's not rational). Although... an Arcane Knight with Ring of Focused Flame, Eternal Devotion, Zealous Aura, Merciless Gaze... could be cool in reminiscence of my old PoE Marking Paladin days... hm...

They stack in a multiplicative manner. Think about it like this: If you have multiple sources of crit conversion they will get rolled one after the other - until a conversion happens or until all sources got rolled. This is basically how it's done in code. You can calculate the overall chance of stacked conversions rel. easily by multiplying the chances NOT to convert (CNC) - and then substract them from 1 like so: Berserker (0.3) + Dirty Fighting (0.1) + One Handed Style (0.15) --> 0.7(CNC)*0.9(CNC)*0.85(CNC) = 0.5355(CNC) --> 1 - 0.5355(CNC) = 0.4645 --> ~46% crit conversion chance overall Afaik there is no suppression when it comes to conversions since the stacking isn't linear and you can't reach 100% via stacking - so no need to limit it.

Can't say. I neither used the Coil for a suicide char or phantom nor did I test combinations with Cape of the Falling Star excessively, sorry.

I guess he meant unreachable without getting spotted (when not having good stealth). Since you can leap out of combat you can start the leap out of stealth, land right besides the chest and loot it while your stealth is still up.

One of the most underrated items is maybe The Magnificent Escape Cape imo - at least when you are a Wizard or Priest. Its Escape does +50 deflection like the original Escape. But unlick the original it stacks with everything except Escape itself. And as a Wizard/Priest you can prolong it with Wall of Draining/Salvation of Time. It's quite fun to use it with a Streetfighter/Wizard to get to 50% health and then "Escape" + buff up like crazy and stay there at blooded status but in rel. safety. Also nice for humans (Fightng Spirit) and Barbs (Blooded). Maybe also Death Godlikes - but I didn't try that. Same is true for Mask of the Weyc (stacks with everything else but Arcane Veil itself) - but that's a late-late game item so I don't consider it often. I really like the Upright Captain's Belt because immunity to push & pull effects is so great to have for your tank if you make heavy use of Pull of Eora or other similar effects.

To answer the question "Do phantoms get your abilities like Vengeful Defeat?" No, they don't. However they receive all your items (Dichotomous Soul all items except weapons). This includes summoned items you are carrying while summoning the phantom. A special case is Concenhaut's Draining Touch - because on a Phantom it will not go away after a hit but stay as long as the phantom lasts. It would also get Whispers of the Endless Paths and stuff like Bracers of Greater Deflection, your armor (for example Nomad's Brigandine with its deflection bonus) - and its base deflection isn't bad either. While it would not get Riposte (because character ability) it will have Offensive Parry (if you enchanted WotEP with it). Basically the phantom gets a 1:1 copy of your gear with all enchantments etc. It's not clear which on-death effects suppress each other. For me Efford worked well in combin. with Effigy's Husk and the Mantle of the Seven Bolts - but not with Cape of the Falling Star.

That's how my left knee looked when I had a sports injury roughly 20 years ago.

Adding the freeze affliction to a freeze spell is not changing the flavor of an ability to me but an emphasis on the flavor - while adding an interrupt would change it. But maybe that's just me. But it's a freeeze effect. My compromise was that it's extremely short so it has no significant impact on the workings of the spell but is just more of a cool flavourful effect instead of a useful CC component. By the way: I tried the spell at lvl 20 with a Sage (30 INT) and the duration of the -10 ACC scales pretty nicely up to 45 secs. If you'd like to tweak the damaging part of the spell I would go for even more PEN instead of base dmg. PEN can be a problem for Wizards (at least on PotD) and having one high PEN ability at low levels would make sense and make in a serious alternative to stuff like Fan of Flames etc. maybe? It could be explained with the need to touch the enemy (description). You would make sure to use a freezing hand on places that are not covered with thick armor I presume. Thinking about teasing my wife when I come home with really cold hands... I put them on her uncovered neck of course so she may squeak and squirm. Also the term "piercing cold" has to mean something, right? I was thinking about really high base PEN - in the range of whaz M's Precisely Piercing Burst has. But maybe that's too high? It would grant Overpenetration often which entails kind of a dmg boost, too... I don't know. The base damage isn't high so maybe that's okay? Maybe auto-hit wouldn't be bad either... It surely has its appeal. But there's already Minor Missiles and Thrust oTV which are auto-hits, hm... Eh - I'm just shooting out thoughts here... I don't advocate for putting them all in at once. At least not for now, hehe...

There's already Thrust of Tatterd Veils for very reliable interrupts (and that's the only reason to get it imo) and there's also Slicken - so I wouldn't give another interrupt effect to Sunless Grasp.

Hi! As you may know Nannasin's Cobra Strike is a very potent summoned ranged weapon for Wizards, but is has a very short range (1.8 meters - like a Pike or Quarterstaff). With this little trick you can use it up to a range of 8 meters: put a pistol, wand or scepter into your main hand summon Cobra Strike summon Concelhaut's Draining Touch -> the right hand's Cobra will get replaced with the Draining Touch hit something with Draining Touch -> the Draining Touch will disappear and the Cobra will not return but instead your weapon of choice will use Full Attacks from up to 8 meters away (Rogue's strikes, Monk's Stunning Surge, Fighter's Penetrating Strike, Paladin's Flames of Devotion...) -> the attack will be executed with both weapons and the short range of Cobra Strike will get ingnored as long as you use Full Attacks That's it. Maybe nice to know. Certainly nothing gamebreaking though.

Iirc K's Sunless Grasp also has a +10 ACC bonus which is nice. Edit: no it hasn't... The freezing (paralyze+) was more of a "flavour" thing to emphasize that chilly hand that's touching you. That's why I said it should be very short. So you're frozen for a very short time and then it melts but leaving you with a chill that causes the ACC malus (and Reflex malus with CP). I thought that would make the spell more more intersting and "cool" without actually adding much power. And at later levels with all duration shenanigans it could still be useful because the paralyze could last for 5-6 secs or so. I would still be hard pressed to pick it over Chillfog, Slicken, Spirit Shiels, Parasitic Staff, Thrust of Tattered Veils and so on. But then it wouldn't hurt so much to pick it for some themed build like the "Frosty the Touchy Snowman" or so.

I would say Fighter is one of the weakest classes for a solo run, especially if you don't want to use stealth and summons. Soloing with any class not using stealth and summons is a challange to begin with, but fighters have limited uses of special abilities per encounter, their regeneration has a rel. short duration (for solo) and they totally lack potent AoE abilities - so longer fights with numerous enemies get reduced to exchanging auto-attacks which takes forever. At the same time the defenses will not be high enough for long. It surely is possible - we had somebody who soloed the game with a lvl-1-ranger who just didn't level up - but overall Fighter is not the best choice. Having said that: Caed Nua is a chokepoint and especially difficult for solo characters if they don't use stealth and summons - because the phantoms are so overwhelming and the constant stunning is deadly and nearly unvoidable. If you can make it past there it's going to be a lot easier for a long time until the late(r) game. Try to make good use of consumables to power through and maybe for once try summons.

After writing my concern I went and checked Venombloom, Plague of Insects and Insect Swarm (among other poison/disease spells) with Spider Silk Robe and Mask of the Grotto Deep on/off and the stats of the spells didn't change one bit. At the same time poison consumables changed their stats. I guess it's fair to say that generally poison PLs bonuses don't work for anything but poison consumables. Those spells are considered poisons when it comes to antidotes and immunity vs. poison though. They just don't get a bonus from poison power levels. I invite everybody to test more/other poison spells. Maybe there are some that are excluded from this behavior. I only tested the druid ones (and Nannasin's Cobra Strike - also no luck).

the two Rings are identical (also in terms of game objects) - so it's basically one Ring with two instances. It has one enchantment named "Commitment1" that simply gives +1 RES to the wearer at all times, no conditions. Then it has a second enchantment called Commitment2 as well that can give the wearer(s) +1 RES on top. BUT it only works if you first cast Lover's Bond (1/rest) on ANYBODY in the party. It doesn't have to be the other ring bearer. If you cast Lover's Bond on any party member then the two ring bearers can profit from the additional +1 RES, making it +2 RES for them overall. The Receiver of Lover's Bond doesn't get the Commitment2 bonus. non-controllable summons can't receive Lover's Bond - controllable summons can though. If they wear the ring they can get the +1 RES from Commitment2 though - they just have to stand near the caster of Lover's Bond. the ring bearer who cast Lover's Bond has to stand near the party member onto he cast it - in order to get the bonus I mean. The second ring bearer (who didn't cast anything) has to stand near the first ring bearer to get the bonus (NOT the party member who received Lover's Bond). It also works if you only have one ring: cast Lover's Bond onto any party member and stand near them and you get it. If one ring bearer casts Lover's Bond onto the other ring bearer then it's all more straightforward of course. This makes it not usable for solo if you don't have controllable summons or an animal companion - since you can't cast Lover's Embrace on non-controllable units to unlock the bonus. If you have controllable summons or an animal companion it can work. Since you can find two of those rings you can stack them in the stash to reload the 1/rest use. That way you could get +2 RES for every fight and the INT immunity of course - which is great imo. Solo without AC and/or controllable summons: nop way as far as I can tell.

Ah, got it. I can try a bit later and see how it goes. Edit: so... I tetsted it and it's pretty wild:

Good imo. Even after CP I'd never use this spell because it's just awfully ineffective. I mean it competes with stuff like Chillfog, Slicken, Parasitic Staff etc... To make it even a tad better and also to match the description/vibe even more I personally would bring the recovery down to 3 secs to match that recovery of fists (aka the casters hands ;)). Too bad this wasn't implemented as a summoned fist... It's a Conjuration spell after all and it would have been cool to be able to deliver a few more frosty blows with those effects it has. But that would mean two summoned weapons in one tier... So not making it an actual summoned fist but having the action time/recovery of one is cool with me. Now that I think of it more and looking at stuff like Chillfog etc. I wonder if it would be unbalanced to add a very short freezing affliction (paralyze+) vs. fortitude. Like 2 secs or so. It wouldn't mean much on the early levels but with PL scaling it could stay useful even for the late(r) game when the base duration scaled a bit and in combination with INT...? And also gainst DEX-resistant foes...? In comparison to: Fetid Caress - which comes at PL 2, has a 10 sec paralyze and 15 sec AoE sicken (takes 4.5 secs to cast though and has no dmg component).

Poison PL boosts only work for actual poisons (the consumables) iirc...? Will check later...

Correct. Woodskin wouldalso work. Pollen Patch and Garden of Life as well iirc. Beetle Shell, too - but's that's not really useful unless you want to cast a long-lasting, pulsing spell (e.g. Moonwell) and then retreat into the shell and let the pulses profit from the raised PL. Even bothering yourself with Tanglefoot would work I think. Woodskin and Form of the Delemgan are the best options imo. I personally would pick staff and pike and switch based on the spells I want to cast and also based on the enemies' AR. Having crush and pierce as alternatives is good - having both at reach is even better. +3 PL from the staff is better than +2 from the pike... but the latter is universal while the Spine of Thicket Green "only" works for Beast and Plant spells. Vion-Ceth bonus is only +20%/+30% dmg which is pretty lame overall imo. I think you misunderstood. It converts poison/corrode damage should you get hit by it - not when you are causing it. Anything that raises MIG and INT since many of his spells are DoTs which profit a lot from a combined MIG and INT score. They are pretty bad. You can cheese the Fire Stag though: if you prevent death (for example via Barring Death's Door or Shieldbearer's Lay on Hands) you can trigger the self-destruct of the stag but it won't die. You can then trigger that action over and over again... Aspect of Galawain is cool visually - and you can make it quite tanky with "Wild Growth" (the robust spell you can use on summoned beasts - it has no duration and lasts as long as the summons lasts). But honestly... for its Power Level it's pretty lame and especially weak offensively. The Sporelings are excellent though. You can controll them. At higher levels they last for a really long time, they scale properly and get big health pools - and if you use both Wild Growth spells on them they can tank well. Also Call to the Primordals is a very good summoning spell. Some of the Oozes have special attacks (for example Plague of Insects - inlimited uses!). Multiclassing with a Helwalker is a good choice as well imo - since you will get bonus MIG, bonus INT, unlimited (paid with wounds) summons (Dichotomous Soul) and bonus ACC (Dance of Death) and casting speed (Swift Strikes). They do stack. Riposte and Offensive Parry can get triggered by the same miss. Wizard also does work bc. of the self buffs. With Wall of Draining you can later keep up all the self buffs forever. You can also prolong stuff like the deflection buff of the Mask of the Weyc (stacks with everything except Arcane Veil) and the +50 deflection from the Escape Cape (stacks with everything except Escape itself). Ciphers generate focus with Offensive Parry (but not Riposte). Shattered Pillar generates wounds with Offensive Parry (not Riposte). Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming trigger from Offensive Parry, too (not Riposte). I think it even generates phrases for Skalds if it crits. Steel Garrote gets health from Offensive Parry (because it also causes dazed). But generally Trickster/Fighter is a good combo for this. Also because Refreshing Defense (+20 to all defenses) stacks with Mirrored Images (+30 to deflection). I prefer Unbroken (because Ryngrim's + Disengagment Attacks) but Devoted is fine, too if you want to stick to WotEP at all times. By the way: Riposte and Cleaving Stance both use the cone AoE of WotEP. Offensive Parry is single target. You might also want to look at the Great Sword "Effort". It has an enchantment that works like Vengeful Defeat and they stack. Immolation does raw damage - it doesn't work with Rekvu's Scorched Cloak. Parallel resurrection effects get all triggered at once and thus will be wasted. If you get two Rings of Reset (one by exporting/importing a character who wears it) you can stack them in the stash after use and the depleted one will get "reloaded". That way you can use it 3 times/encounter. It's a bit cheesy but the only way to really make such a build worthwhile imo. Else you will have debilitating injuries all the time.

No. Summons don't really get knocked out but get removed from combat on 0 health -> no revival. I don't fully understand the question. I haven't used this ring in a long time - but iirc it's an active 1/rest ability that you can cast on an ally -> you and the ally become immune to intellect afflictions. Phantoms/Dichotomous Soul summons aren't controllable - so you can't make use of active abilities they might get from items. And they won't use them themselves. You can cast Lover's Bond on a summon - but that's not that useful since you would cast an effect without duration (until end of combat) on a summon which has limited duration.

Corrosive Skion at PL9 is 1 spell/encounter and it "only" does corrode dmg (9 PEN). I cannot really see how this is as good as Disintegrate which gets paid with focus, does more overall raw damage and isn't even expensive. It's just too weak for PL9 imo. Not counting when Bloodmage - but that's another story. I'm pretty sure not many SC Wizard players ever take it... Lowering the base duration in order to set it to overall 30 secs again wouldn't be nice - since that would be bad for scaling with INT. -100% healing instead of enfeebled would be a solution, but I prefer systemic approaches. Introducing a "special" effect instead of using an exisiting affliction is not what I would do personally. Also it would make it kind of a more potent death sentence - since you wouldn't be able to counter it with an inspiration. I personally would be totally fine with enfeebled raising the duration to 45 secs immediately. 8 corrode dmg per sec would mean 360 corrode dmg (with 10 MIG and INT). That's not unbelievably high in the late game and most tough enemies have way more health than that. They also might have high AR so with underpenetration that would result in rel. low damage overall. And there's always the risk of grazing or missing that precious 1/encounter spell. Also it takes a long time to actually kill a late game enemy because of the rel. low ticks. So - dps is not stellar. Then it's rel. easy to dispel enfeebled with any CON inspiration and then heal the victim back up. A resistance would even prevent enfeebled and only result in weakened. At the same time: when you can't do/have any of that then it will be pretty devastating - as a PL9 single target, 1/encounter spell should be imo. In theory it's a cool spell - could be cooler though.