Boeroer

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.

Once you take Iron Wheel you can skip thick armors. It will guaratee you that if you have no wounds you will get them fast - and when you have plenty you will have a lot of DR. But I always wear a blunting belt on my monk - at least in early to mid game.

Do you think that a Girdle of the Driving Wave would be nice? That would mean one more Knockdown use per Encounter...?

Yeah - but with the console you can't see how good they are once they are unlocked completely. Or wait... is there a command for that which I missed?

Nice idea - but I think only spells from priests, druids and wizards (all that have a "per rest" spellsystem) can be stolen and then cast. You will steal spells from chanters and so on (log says something about stealing three spells - even mentiones the neames) - but they won't be added to your action bar for some reason. It's either bugged or intended - don't know yet. Played around with my priest of Eothas and that morning star and that's what I found out so far (don't know if that's always the case). Also tested it on a barb with similar results.

The single target melee damage of a spiritshifted druid is unmatched by any other class (rogues included) - but spiritshift is short and there's only one way to regain a spiritshift use during encounter (new soulbound sceptre, bound to the druid and unlocked). Basically you take Outlander's Frenzy or Sanguine Plate, Weapon Focus Peasant, Two Weapon Style, Vulnerable Attack, Wildstrike Shock/Greater Wildstrike Shock/Heart of the Storm and wear the Wildstrike Belt. Then you want to master Nature's Mark (or later Dancing Bolts, when defenses tend to be very low in comparison to your high ACC) and Returning Storm. Don't take Taste of the Hunt - it doesn't work properly with spiritshift (can't remember why - just tested it one week ago or so and it was completely useless). Your move will be like : At the beginning of the encounter, start to cast Returning Storm while the tanks engage. Then cast Avenging Storm (if you already have it) - then Outlander's Frenzy, then shift and move in. By the time you cast all that spells you will be free to choose which enemy to pick. You will go there and kill him with one or two strikes (crits with 140 and above are normal, even normal hits do over 100 dmg if the roll is ok). It's a good thing to have increased move speed. You want to move fast once you're shifted. You don't want to waste any time with running around. So Resting Bonus is good. So is Fast Runner (if you can fit it in). But as I said: your shifting time is very limited. And it's a lot of fuzz and casting to get there every encounter. It's very powerful in terms of melee damage but also a pain in the <lower bodypart with cheeks> in terms of micro. I like it best nowadays when I don't use this setup as a flanking striker like a rogue, but as superawesome emergency button when the oh so smart AI rushes to my backline. At one moment he's just a druid with low deflection and low DR, casting stuff - and once the rushers come in *poof* I'm a man-stag out of hell that does *thud-thud* and the enemy's vaporized. Of course: you may not use the dhift every encounter - but you don't gimp you casting that way. You are still a great backline caster. And when the time comes that shifting is needed it's very satisfying. An the other hand - I do like the tank approach even better. That is: skipping spiritshift altogether and only take the defensive talents, put on a shield, wear hide armor. Then you're a good sticky tank (enemies won't rush past you a lot - you're a dangerous caster with not too high DR - they tend to stick to that) with tons of CC capability.

I'd love to see a solo PotD playthrough with a Barbarian. No one seems to try it though. I would - since it's one of my favorite classes and everybody says he's no good for a solo game (which is true for a standard barb) - if I only had more time. But I'm not a solo player by heart (at least in PoE) and expect that the learning curve will be very steep.

Haven't tested with a Wayfarer Paladin. But when it procs on Pallegina, allies get +20% speed buff from Vielo Vidorio Oh - very nice! Would be really weird if it didn't work with Sword & Sheperd then. Damn - now I regret I haven't a paladin in my current playthrough.

Faith and Conviction on companions/hirelings now scales with level. It's ok. Well, I use to give my MC paladins four weapon slots, three guns and a shield setup and Quick Switch. That way they do some nice, serious burst damage with FoD shots and can tank and support like ever. That's a lot of micromanagement - a bit too much for my taste. But it's so effective.

And it's really, really hard in PoTD if you're not a monk, ranger or wizard.

So - how do you think any other class manages keeping 2 or 3 enemies engaged on it, without letting them escape?

There is also an option to go for Vent Pick. 15% of FoD on hit/crit and thus "sword and shepard" proc. Now also chant that +100% healing phrase, and suddenly your party doesn't have endurance limit, only health pool That's a really nice idea. Maybe this doesn't work though - like Greater Frenzy doesn't work with the Frenzy from Sanguine Plate. Maybe only the FoD from the Paladin himself (and not the one from the Pick) gets coupled to Sword & Shepherd. But it's definitely worth testing

If you also want to take a Bleak Walker into your evil party (and who doesn't want to do that?) I would recommend making him the PC because of Faith and Conviction and the ideal stat spread for dialogues. And there are two quests which are related to Bleak Walkers - I think you get special dialogue lines if you're one, too. But that's just my taste I guess. Concerning items: there are so many good items now that I really can't decide what to wear and what not. So I don't think you will have a problem with item shortage. A priest will never be weak just because he isn't the MC. The later the game the more he will cast and the less he will attack in melee. Those few PC talents don't make a huge difference. But of course - +0.3 crit damage multiplier is nice. But a priest is OK without it. A rogue may cry though.

Yeah well even in a team the paladin tanks best. I always play mine as alpha strikers who shoot two or three times (2* FoD, 1* Runner's Wounding Shot) with an arquebus or blunderbuss and then switch to outworn buckler. Works like a charm and combines very high burst damage with great tanking abilities. But of course you can build a paladin who doesn't go into melee. There is a build in this forum "Darcozzi Forward Observer" or "Commendatore" who used Coordinated Attacks, St. Garam's Spark (Marking) and Inspiring Liberation to pump his buddies' ACC by +30. He was 100% ranged and the build sounded like great fun.