Boeroer

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.

You have to pick up the Blackwarden's Breastplate.

Time is short? You need more INT! You have a farm in Thailand? Nice! How's the internet connection on the countryside? We have to decide next year to which countries our foreign ministry may send us. Would like to put Thailand on the list.

Did you post in the right topic, dear Sir Mocker22?

Don't know about RES and CON - you'll have good experience what you can raise/lower on that char. I just wanted to add: if you want to have high MIG and INT and also use Deep Wounds: look out for all items/scrolls that grant you spells that cause either pierce, slash or crush in an AoE. Like Overwhelming Wave from White Crest (crush) that you mentioned. Because they all cause Deep Wounds in an AoE. Look out for the Swaddling Sheet (stronghold quest). It will cast a foe-only Overwhelming Waves in multiple directions when you receive a crit. Bittercut has three uses of Vile Thorns (pierce). And a scroll of Twin Stones can be nice, too. Same with Concussive and Bounding Missile. But maybe you knew that already?

Don't think so. Scion of Flame doesn't work. Well - a bigger AoE increases the overall damage output - but not the damage that is done to each individual.

I don't want to sound harsh, but nearly all things you said above are incorrect: - The chat radius is the biggest base AoE you can have with any passive ability on any class. If you do it right, nearly all the time all enemies will be covered by it. Not to speak of your companions. - Voice of the Mountaintop works just fine as it should. So does INT. INT gets applied as to any other ability. It increases your base AoE by %. So does Overseeing and Voice of the Mountaintop. Alltogether you can get an absurdly big AoE. - The damage of The Dragon Thrashed was not nerfed. What was nerfed was the ACC of hazards in general. So it may be that your chant will not hit/crit as often as it used too. Compensate that with more PER and ACC buffs. But it's still one of the best abilities there are. Dealing DoT damage while standing around, not infuenced by status effects like prone, not influenced by low DEX, but pumped by MIG and INT. Huge AoE, good chance to hit. Works with Predator's Sense and Combusting Wounds. Stacks with itself and other DoT chants. It's best if you are a tank and stand in the front line in order to catch really every enemy on the field. - Brisk Recitation is a beast at higher levels. It speeds up your chants by %. So a longer base recitation time will profit more in terms of flat seconds. A phrase that took 3 seconds will be sung in 2 seconds now - you gain 1 sec. But a phrase that used to take 10 seconds now only takes 6 - that's a gain of 4 seconds. You can easily fit another phrase in there. And you can feel that. At least in PoTD. Suddenly you can spam invocations like you never could before. Suddenly retraining to cast "Seven Nights" as often as possible totally makes sense. That invocation is so good if you can cast it repeatedly in a fight. Same with "White Worms" . but I said enough about that in other threads. - Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits got buffed a lot. They now heal a lot more in a big AoE and also stack. So it's correct that a party of 6 chanters is very, very powerful - especially after lvl 9. So I wouldn't say the changes were minor. All in all they buffed the chanter big time.

You know I really was tempted to use that command and see what happens.

Right - good that you point that out. If it would increase the base radius that would be waaay more powerful. It just works like more INT basically. Same with Overseeing.

Healing done - the healing you do with spells, abilities and so on. I only know of MIG which does this at the moment - is there any item that has this? Healing received- the healing you receive. If a priest casts a healing spell for +100 endurance on your head - and you have an item that gives +25% "healing received" - you will get more healing: 125 instead of 100. Those two things can stack: Let's say you are a paladin with +25% "healing done" (from MIG) and wear a belt that has +25% "healing received". Now you cast Lay on Hands on yourself for +100 endurance (base). You will heal 156 endurance. Because: 100*1.25 (MIG) * 1.25 (Belt). Vent Pick is a unique Stiletto that causes Flames of Devotion on every fourth hit/crit (in avarage: 25% spell chance).

That's right. I just meant you can totally skip armor and still be tanky if you choose this. You will have to skip something else, that's true. Eh? Force of Aguish (especially at that low level) is just totally awesome and great fun. It also works ok with the AI settings. I guess it depends how you play your monk: If you want to have low micro it's good to use Turning Wheel, Iron Wheel and the stuff that does more damage when you accumulated many wounds (like Blood Testmant Gloves) and just let him loose. He will be aweseome without micromanagement. If you want more control/micro and spam powerful abilities by yourself a lot (Torment's Reach, Flagellant's Path) those I mentioned are not so great, I absolutlely agree. Speaking of Endurance: I playtested a monk with +100% endurance from high CON. It's hilarious! So much endurance and health... One trick is to use dual Whispers of Yenwood for +4 CON that stacks with other items for +7 (or +8 at best). Sanguine Plate is also nice because of the +4 CON from Frenzy - and it looks devilish together with the oozing red swords. Of course you can't use fists then.

If you don't want to use guns at all but only Outworn Bucker + weapon and still do good damage I would use a sabre because of the high base damage that is good for FoD. Bittercut is nice because it has two different damage types (slash/corrode). You won't have to switch weaoons if you meet slash-resistent or -immune enemies. It looks neat together with Outworn Bucker (and Argwe's Adra armor by the way) and you can put a corrosive lash on it to fit the Bleak Walkers "Remeber Rhakan Field". Then you're all fire and acid. At level 13 - with Sacred Immolation - you won't have to worry about weapon damage anyway. Make sure to also take Scion of Flame then... Later, you could test if Vent Pick (a stiletto that procs FoD by itself) works with your Intense Flames and Remember Rhakan Field. If it does, I would take that then. The new helmets for Argwe's Adra, He Carries Many Scars, Whit Crest and Sanguine Plate are pretty nice - I would favour them at any time. They have all good to very good enchantments that are better than +25% damage when the enemy is nearly dead already. Death Godlike fits the theme - but their racial is just bad for a single target melee guy. Better to use this on a character that does AoE damage or wants to steal kills a lot (a rogue wielding Steadfast will have a 25% chance to cast Champion's Boon on kill for example). Then there is a new helmet that looks like a skull and gives you +4 MIG. I'm sure you want to wear that with an evil party. It looks a bit stupid on anything but elves and dwarves because it's ridicoulusly big when you out it on an aumaua, human Orlan etc.. But on a dwarf or elf it is smaller and looks spooky and good. Another great headgear is the Executioner's Hood - you will so want to wear it. It has a passive fear aura and looks great together with the Wayfarer's Hide. So just make sure you don't take too many godlikes.

Yes - for me it increases the base radius by 20% - at least when I tested it with two chanters in a 3.0 game. Remember: It doesn't increase your current AoE radius (with INT bonus and all), but the base radius. Same with a ring (or other item) with Overseeing. But you can note the difference when you stand still, hover over the chant icon and see the radius, then take off the amulet and see again. Together (ring + amulett) you will have a 30% increase of the base AoE radius. If you also max INT and wear +INT items you will get a really big AoE.