Boeroer

With Aggrandizing Radiance you only gimp the heal for yourself - your party members still get the full healing from Holy Radiance. And as far as I know, Aggr. Radiance's bonuses stack with other stat buffs. I'm playtesting a dwarven priest of Berath atm. with the Maefolc Skull, Abydon's Hammer, Sanguine Plate (currently 33 MIG: 21 base and +12 from items + abilities. With Champion's Boon it's +18 = 39 MIG) - I hope I can raise this with Aggr. Radiance to +14 = 41 MIG. Shod-in-Faith boots are really funny with ~40 MIG. So I think Aggr. Radiance can be fun. But it's rather short.

With a ranger and Powder Burns you could also do some AoE damage with your initial gun shots. You only need that special eyepatch that makes you immune to blind. It comes quite late though.

@AndreaColumbo: No, he said armor and accessories. With weapons it all stacks (like it used to be with weapons).

Yeah - that's a bit sad. Would be funny if you could "abuse" your mind controlled enemies that way. Perhaps they should allow that for dominated, but not charmed enemies. Because I don't really know why dominated is considered the "stronger" affliction. It's acutally worse than charmed. Charmed enemies get debuffed like hell and will get killed by the other foes quickly - which is nice. Dominated enemies just flip alliance. How's that better?

That's a common setup - and a powerful one. I did it with a 3 INT Paladin and it worked great (Sacred Immolation was gimped of course). You can also do this with a cipher. You will have tons of focus at the beginning of a fight (if you fire all shots after another) or when you need it (requires more micro throughout the fight). However - this is very micro heavy because the AI doesn't switch weapons (except when chars are mind controlled). So I only do this with one char maximum. Most of the time a char that needs a lot of micro anyway (like a cipher). This retaliation cipher build is fun if you have all the necessary items - I don't know if it's the most powerful (cipher) build (I doubt it). And I really don't want to discuss that - because if you ask a hundred PoE players "Which is the best build ?" you will get 200 answers. And it would be lame to play "the best build" only. What would it be good for. Fun is key! Being bad is no fun - but being in godmode also isn't (after the initial "Whoohaa!"). It's a build that you don't have to babysit all the time and it's one of the builds that combines sturdyness with nice offensive capabilities. I hate frontliners who only soak up damage and do nothing else. It's so boring.

Right! And don't you dare to change that!

Why? It's only +2 CON and you have to duplicate the sword for it. So you can't duplicate any other more powerful item. I don't think that's worth a nerf. And it's also not a bug. Weapon enchantements always stacked with everything. Two Godansthunyr also will give you +2 MIG by the way.

Well, that just seems so wrong. Is it a bug? No, no bug. All those talents (+20% elemental damage) onyl work on direct damae, not DoT effects. Same with the druid and his many corrosive DoT spells. They don't profit from Spirit of Decay.

Whoa! Totally missed that - thanks for the info, that'S very nice.

I'd love to see that happen.

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.