Boeroer

Sword of Daenysis has rending and speed. It's pretty neat.

There's no such thing as a recommemded minimum. Everybody will tell you something different. If you're not into Interrupts you don't need to max PER. 15 is sufficient. You don't need to max out DEX either if you plan to dual wield. Again: 15 is enough. I would not use a high MIG score because the usual melee mechanics rogue has enough other high DMG modifiers. MIG bonus would just be a tiny slice of that. So I tend to keep that at 10. INT depends on your taste. I like it to be high so that my afflictions last longer. But you can also go with low INT. But watch you will defense! A dominated rogue is no fun. RES I'd also go with 15 - because getting interrupted is really bad for a rogue and you're already squishy. The rest into CON and you'll have a good stat spread I guess. Reflex will be quite high in comparison to the other defenses.

For me, most of the time it hits for more than 200 damage. I do it like you: I mix Sweet Winds of Death with Dragon Thrashed - in order to speed the counter up and also because you can have three parallel DoT ticks at the same time (6 with two chanters) - this is extremely powerful if you also use Combusting Wounds. Then, when my counter reaches 5 points, I will cast Seven Nights on the guy in front of me (usually three spikes hit him) and he's gone - or I cast a paralyze or revive. Because that can really save the day in difficult encounters. Sure, more damage is nice, but sometimes you need CC or instant kills more badly then a bit more DoT damage.

Hehe. I thougth they were just some guys selling The Watchtower...

Yeah well - I just say "bounties".

I think most of this is because you create a hazard field with that chant - it's not a direct attack.

A bow ranger is pretty straighforward so I never wrote down something for it: dump RES and CON, max MIG, DEX, PERm put the rest into INT. Take Weapon Focus Peasant, Marksman, Penetrating Shot, Stalker's Link, Stunning Shots, Twinned Arrows and Driving Flight - pick up Stormcaller and use wounding shots for good AoE CC and damage, pick up Persistence and use marked prey for maximum single target dps and maximum pet's dps. Then take all the damage-related pet talents and resilient companion. Done.

You will meet some foes (or group of foes) that are really challenging.

Don't know exactly - I always go to WM I early. I think when you enter Stalwart the first time you will be asked.

You just have to hit the upscale button. Then it's ok. The game will ask you if you want to upscale because your level is quite high.

^ Sword of Daenysis doesn't have Guarding. I guess you mean Measured Restraint?

If you don't upscale WM I & II everything will be a cakewalk with a level 11 party.

Don't know if you need max PER - since you get +20 ACC with FoD you might be okay with less PER. Interrupts are not your priority, so I wouldn't max PER. But putting some points into it is not a bad idea. Maxing stats on a paladin is difficult anyhow because a paladin can make use of any stat. So I don't try to dump any (except for very special builds). As a weapon & shield frontliner what you probably want is a stat spread that's not too unbalanced in order to have equal defenses. Luckily, Reflex gets buffed by Weapon & Shield Style, so you don't need to put as many points into DEX and PER. You might want to have: High MIG because of: a) FoD b) Healing (like Lay on Hands) c) Sacred Immolation (so powerful) d) Fortitude defense High INT because of: a) Focus Aura AoE b) Sacred Immolation AoE c) Duration of many of your support abilites d) Healing duration of Lay on Hands e) Will defense (Sacred Immolation on a charmed paladin is really painful) ok PER because of: a) ACC of FoD b) ACC of Sacred Immolation d) Reflex Defense ok RES because of: a) Concentration b) Deflection c) Will defense normal CON because of: a) Endurance & Health b) Fortitude defense normal DEX because of: a) Action Speed b) Reflex Defense When you start with 10 point in each you will have 18 points to spend (15 + 2 from race + 1 from background) So you could do like: MIG: 18 CON: 10 => +24 Fortitude DEX: 08 PER: 14 => +6 Reflex INT: 16 RES: 12 =>+24 Will Your defenses with an exceptional Outworn Bucker would be (without Faith and Conviction of course): +29/+27/+29 (+29/+31/+29 with a superb one). Your damage per hit will be good, your speed is a little gimped (just a little), but something's gotta give. I think you could also do 08 CON and 10 DEX and so on. A few points doen't really matter though. I played with Pallegina in my last Playthrough and although her stats are totally different she was just fine. You can also wear Gauntles of Swift Action and use durgan steel on your shield & weapon and you will be pretty fast despite the 08 DEX (around+30% before armor). That's just an example and I think it will work well in a party. That's not a "I tank a dragon" stat spread - but it's a good mixture of dps and tankyness that you can keep through the whole game. p.s.: This stat spread is also great for using srollls like Fireball or Fan of Flames: your high MIG will result in lots of damage and the high INT guarantuees a big AoE. If you took Scion of Flame (for Sacred Immolation) - even better! Concerning race: Take what you like best. I suppose a wild orlan bleak walker is not what you think of. But Coastal Aumauas can get some nasty red patterns on their face that looks rather spooky. Pale Elves can look quite sinister, too. Humans always work. Even a dwarf might be ok. Of course a fully armored Aumaua is the most impressive figure.

Look out for the Sandals of the Forgotten Friar (WM I) and Blood Testament Gloves (Act III). They totally fit your playstyle. Did you take Turning Wheel?

Sorry for posting my builds all the time at the moment, but this is an example of a powerful melee ranger that also supports his pet a lot: Riptide & The Pit Fright Rangers are really good nowadays. That's because they got some awesome new abilities like Twinned Arrows (for bow rangers), Stunning Shots (now also works in melee - totally powerful), Powder Burns an so on. Best thing they changed: the pets got a huge, huge buff. They can now choose a DR talent that scales with level, and if you skill them right they hit like trucks. They don't hit fast, but every hit is devastating. For example: if you combine Marked Prey, Vicious Companion, Mecilass Companion and Predator's Sense with the Stalker's Torc and Stalker's Link the pet will have +135% damage. Nearly as much as a rogue with Sneak Attacks and Deathblows. Ouch! Combined with the high base damage (wolves have +2 base damage, so they make the best single target dps pet, stags have a per-encounter carnage ability that makes them the best AoE dps pet) it really gets awesome. They are still not super tanks (the Antelope is a bit tankier than the rest because of better defenses) - but sturdy flankers (sturdier than a glasscannon rogue) and don't go down as quickly as they used to. The ranger can also heal his pet now or revive it - and the pet can feign death - works like the withdrawal spell of the priest. The best thing is you don't have to gimp your ranger to make the pet awesome. You can totally play a great bow shooter or melee guy with a devastating pet. If you don't want to skill your pet it can be your bodyguard. It's still better and more sturdy than before because base DR also scales with level. But remember - it's not a tank. None of them tanks like a well build kith character can. The build I posted above is quite great (if I may say so - at least I had a lot of fun woith it on PoTD 2.0) because it combines tankyness and single target dps. Like a rogue who also heals his comrades and doesn't go down fast. But that is just an example. Dual wielding rangers make sense because with Swift Aim and speedy weapons they can attack so fast (during the whole fight) it's not even funny. Combined with Stunning Shots and so on he's a very, very good single target dps/cc guy.

Yeah sure - but as we confirmed in another thread: you are a potion addict. This wizard would have it 1/encounter with spell mastery - ok, quite late. But with rings and stuff he can cast a lot of lvl 3 spells per rest. He can also wear the Padded Armor that has 1 Alacrtiy per rest and skip the gauntlets. The lacking DR he could compensate for with Iron Skin or Spirit Shield. He lacks the damage mods of a fighter - as long as he's not willing to cast Martial Power. But he can expose vulnerabilites, debuff and so on - all on his own. So I think he will be at least as good as the LoP - but only if he had time to buff/debuff. But you know I hate all that buffing at the start of the combat - so maybe I will not try this out. It would be sooo cool if OBS would give us some tool to create a command chain that gets processes every time a certain event triggers (for example "if encounter starts, do..."). Or even a self defined combo that you can save under one special hotkey or UI button.

Lowering DR is your best option. Expose Vulnerabilities is a good friend here. I had a blast wizard with Golden Gaze in my party, attacking with nearly 0 recovery (durgan steel, Alacrity, Gauntlets of Swift Action) - and besides doing tons of damage he also cast Expose Vulnerabilities on impact a lot (I believe that blast-hits also count for the spell chance - it procs all the time). You could really feel the difference - especially if your only chant was The Dragon Thrashed.

It's great for un- or light armored monks. It doesn't mean you have +10 DR all the time of course - but at times you get CC'd and take a beating that you didn't plan for it can save your live - good if combined with Rooting Pain & Turning Wheel & Resonant Touch. I like it. It's not so great if you like to spend your wounds all the time with Torment's Reach and stuff.

Yeah, a good defense buff, summoning a weapon of choice (Concelhaut's Staff, Citzals' Spirit Lance or Llengrath's Warding Staff), cast Alacrity and off you go. You can easily do with dumped RES if you use Spirit Shield for Spell Mastery and pump PER instead (of using Eldritch Aim - that's too short anyways). Then cast Citzal's Martial Power and you'll destroy. Concelhaut's Staff has such a high base damage that every +% mod does wonders. So high MIG, Savage Attack, Two Handed Style, Apprentice's Sneak Attack and so on really do good things with that staff. We don't have to talk about the Lance - it's just awesome. But I also love tha warding staff. It's not the bestest for damage, but the prone effect is really nice - like a monk with Force of Anguish - without the wounds. Hell, you could also skip heavy armor and use Iron Skin if you want. Making you even faster. Speaking of faster - Did anybody test Llawran's Staff (or Blade of the Endless Paths), durgan refined, with Alacrity? Should lead to 0 recovery. With Gauntlets of Swift Action you could even wear a durganized plate and have no recovery. And did anybody playtest a wizard archer by now? Using normal bows and later summon the new Blackbow? Would like to hear how good that is. Should also work well with Martial Power. Arcane Archer build anyone? Edit: Damn - I now want to do that. Stupid game!

Wait... Pellagrina - that's the new consumable. Vailian mineral water, right? For monk I like to either have sombody around who can weaken and/or sicken (priest/cipher/barb) if I use Force of Anguish. For Torment's Reach + Flagellant's Path a wizard with Binding Web is a good friend - if you put on a stag helmet yourself. Great fun!

Please report!

Sadly, all those on-kill effects on items get suppressed by literally everything - same with that Tempered Helm from Durgan's Battery.

The sceptre you get from a quest around the stronghold and it comes quite early in Act II. A second row damage dealer with a two handed weapon sounds like a rogue or barbarian with the Tall Grass pike.

Then try to get the Cloak of the Master Mystic early. It makes you invisible (like shadowing beyond) when you receive a crit (2/encounter). So you can get two additional free Backstabs per encounter now. And Backstab got buffed to +150% dmg. With Sneak Attack and Deathblows combined you can do +300% damage three times per encounter (and 2/rest with shadowing beyond - even 3/rest if you upgrade Nightshroud).

Don't know about the item - can't think of any that ever did this. Yep - "healing received" mod gets multiplied, not added. You can test that with a fighter who has constant recovery and some might and then watch what happens when you put on a belt of bountiful healing and use the resting bonus. Oh - that's a really good question. But I think it's the other way round: using FoD triggers the Healing and a Full Attack. It's not that every hit of the Full Attack is a FoD use in itself. So I guess it just triggers once - if you dual wield or not. But you can always test that and tell us what happened.