Boeroer

You don't get fatigued by fighting any more.

Tidefall's (and also Persistence's and Drawn in Spring's) Wounding is influenced by MIG. And INT - but that only matters if you only hit once and then stop for whatever reason.

Right - the duration just gets refreshed. So the ticks of 3 to 4 points of raw damage every 3 secs keep coming and don't wear off. So you kind of get more damage by reapplying it - compared to a one time application of 5 sec. But it's not that it stacks or something. However - Deep Wounds with retaliation is nice nevertheless because you kind of apply it in an AoE if you get surrounded and it keeps ticking even if the enemy stops attacking you. And since retaliation is a pierce autohit (no miss, no graze, no crit) you will always apply it. Even if the enemies are immune to pierce damage or have superhigh deflection. Even if you are prone, stunned and so on. That's why I think it's good with retaliation.

Nice info. Persistence is just nice. Ranger + Predator's Sense + Persistence is great. However: was Stormcaller's Returning Storm taken into account? Because I once had two similar rangers in the party. One with Stormcaller, one with Persistence. The one with Stormcaller was always a bit ahead in terms of total damage dealt. Maybe the character chart misses something? Persistence's wounding perhaps?

Ach damn - you're right. Maybe retaliation items work with it? Retaliation is considered a melee pierce attack.

Mail is kind of bad.

Don't minmax your rogue. I mean like 3 CON and 3 RES - at least nor for melee. That doesn't work. It's totally ok to put him in plate or brigandine and give him a blunting belt. If you really want a bow and high damage per hit, you should go for war bows. Borresaine is good for you because it stuns on crit - this should give you sneak attacks. For the second affliction you need either friends or use one of your special attacks. Cloudpiercer is also not bad because it has rending and spell striking. Both you can get early.

We still have no whips.

They surely will turn to you when you attack them. You should use something like Coordinated Positioning or stuff to sneak behing the lines, attack a caster or something and when things get hot change position with a sturdy fighter or something. Or use escape, Shadowing Beyond or Feign Death. Reinforcing Exhortation also works great on a squishy rogue.

Holy Moly - I just imagine what a Blunderbuss + Avenging Storm will do... Did anyone test this?

It's way too powerful. In no way this is intended. It didn't work that way pre 3.01 - so why should that be intended? You can deal superhigh melee damage AND also more spell damage? And as Aarik said: it's a bug. Why would he be wrong? He might not know everything but I think he would have corrected himself by now if it weren't so.

Did you read the whole conversation? Because we pointed out that you can at least have two uses of spiritshift per encounter with that new soulbound sceptre. That's what makes this whole thing so aweseome. With high INT that's 40 secs of shifting instead of 20. Not bad I say. I can allmost imagine luring those nasty swarmers to my backline where this naked, low deflection druid stands and then all of a sudden *BOOM* and *SMACK* *SMACK* they explode - stupid swarmers.

Fits with the Deep Wounds/Spell thing I mentioned above.

2 Rimecutters can produce higher DPS than dual annihilating sabres, yes. It's because their speed enchantment multiplies and you get very fast. dmae per hit is lower, but damage per second is higher. Rember that all battle axes are annihilating. Just base damage is lower than sabres'. I don't know if you really want to spam rest until you get two of that axes though. Very high stealth lets you approach the enemy and basically touch him before your circle turns red. The new soulbound Dagger is great but it takes some time and efford to upgrade it - because it gets worse and worse each time you upgrade it until the last stage where it becomes a very good weapon. Unfortunately you can't duplicate souldbound weapons with the Helwax Mold. Every other item will work. edit: ach dammit Andrea!

It sounds cool - but I really think this nice combination is wasted on this druid. Because you only need one hit to take away half of most enemies' endurane. Those bonuses wil never trigger because after the first hit they are at half endurance (maximum) and after the second hit they will be dead anyway - with or without Death's Usher and Bloody Slaughter. Those come in really handy if you do less damage but in an AoE - like a barb or a chanter or even spellcasters. Might be good against dragons and other very fat enemies like Eyeless though.

Yeah maybe - but that bug is in the database so the discussion is of no avail.

Why did you max MIG? You maybe should lower MIG a tiny bit and put that into PER. Your fortitude defense will already be good but your reflex will be bad because you dumped DEX. MIG is not so superimportant for a rogue. As a tank with low DEX it can be worthwhile to take Deep Wounds - it also works with retaliation. You can also use Sura's Supper Plate in order to get dual retaliation (it stacks). Together with Vulnerable Attack, high MIG and later Ryona's Vambraces it will do 2*10 damage on most foes and it will apply Deep Wounds wich should add another ~20 raw damage on top without doing anything. Also look out for the Aila Braccia shield in Twin Elms - it's extremely good against any sort of targeted ranged attack (spell or shot). Especially the Lagufaeth can stunlock you and then you're done. With that shield they will stun themselves. Big help this one, really. It turns every ranged graze into a miss and reflects it back to the attacker. So: if you get pummeled in melee use Sura's, if you get shot use Aila Braccia. Depp Wounds also applies to any spell that does pierce/crush/slash damage. If you use Bittercut you will have Vile Thorns, a cone shaped AoE pierce spell. All foes that get hit will also get Deep Wounds (=+~20 raw damage). The White Crest Armor has Overwhelming Wave that stuns and does crush damage - same thing: Deep Wounds in a huge AoE. Scrolls that can do this: Bounding Missiles, Concussive Missiles and Twin Stones - maybe Insect Swarm also works - not sure about that one. Using spells/scrolls as a rogue with high MIG and INT plus Deep Wounds can be really great. Your ACC is very high so most of the spells will hit or even crit. Your best friends as I said are spells that cause any form of pierce/slash/crush in an AoE. But things like Fireball from that sabre in the Endless Paths (siphon knowledge from Maerwald's soul) and that staff in Twin Elms (both have 3 Fireballs per Rest) are also nice even without Deep Wounds. If you take the Cloak of the Master Mystic plus Backstab and Shadowing beyond you will get rewarded if a crit ever hits you: up to 2 free +150% backstabs out of stealth (Backstab got buffed to 150% dmg bonus). If you do this with an arquebus and target a debuffed enemy that also qualifies for sneak/deathblows the damage will be devastating. +300% damage for a normal hit is just insane. You can always add two more of that in a tough fight with Shadowing Beyond if you need to. And your opening move should also be a backstab shot from stealth. So you can do a maximum of 5 backstabs in one encounter: 1 from stealth, 2 from the cloak and 2 from the ability. Even six if you use Nightshroud I think. These are just ideas I have - I seldomly do solo runs but I have tons of experience with party PoTD runs with all kinds of chars. Maybe this ideas inspire you. edit: what I forgot: With Blaidh Golan (hide armor) and that Irfyn something Solace shield (medium shield fom the stupid drake in the endless paths) you will have +100 to all defenses when you are prone. It's quite funny. I don't know if Riposte works if you are prone (would be nice) but surely this might be abusable somehow.

If you use a barb and don't want to put him in the thickest armor you have you need to use AoE debuffs. Something that keeps the barb alive while it weakens the enemies' defenses. Then the barb's AoE damage- and CC-capabilties work best. As I saw her RES and CON are not low - so she should be quite sturdy - I mean for a barb. However: I always had lots of fun and no fuzz when I put my barbs in (sanguine) plate, shod-in-faith and gave them Tidefall. It adds a tremendous amount of survivability while the AoE dps is still great. No CC here - but doesn't go down easily as long as such a barb keeps hitting. I think this setup is best for people who have trouble keeping their barbs alive.

No, Avenging Storm is not really that kind of spell. I creates a second, seperate shock hit. It doesn't work like a lash on your melee attack. So if the WIldstrike bug gets fixed, the damage of Avenging Storm (while spiritshifted) will lose 33% of it's damage - but it'S still a great spell. As nemesis pointed out: it not only adds a shock attack to your attacks, but also works as retaliation with the same effect. Awesome spell for tanky druids. Can't wait to take this with Hiravias who I play as a "shock tank" atm. You are right: Nature's Terror fits in very nicely! Will try that in combination with the three storms. Man - if only those Eyeless wheren't immune to shock... However - this sceptre does a lot for spiritshift druids and I'm thankful that someone showed my this. I really had no idea what sort of druid build I should aim for - concerning a 3.0-WMII-build-fest. I really don't want to repeat myself with the class builds.

Wildstrike adding lash damage to spells is a confirmed bug: to bug report But even without that Avenging Storm is very nice and does enough damage on it's own.

Hmm, do you expect something to change? Not oercentage wise, but in flat numbers. 21 to 26 frames is not a big difference. You can spare 10 points of DEX and only lose 5 frames - great deal!

So... did a test with twin pale elves. One rogue, one druid (spiritshift stag). Both took the same non class specific talents for melee fight, including Outlander's Frenzy. The druid took all the wildstrike shock talents and Heart of the Storm while the rogue took Deathblows and all the other goodies that are good for dps and also Secrets of Rime because I used two durgan refined Rimecutters. Items: Rogue: superb Rimecutter + superb Rimecutter, White Crest armor plus helm + 2 CON, Ring of Thorns, Ryona's Vambraces, Glanfathan Stalking Boots, Girdle of Maegfolk Might, Lilith's Shawl, Ring of Deflection. Druid: Wildstrike Belt I went and attacked the ogres who stand around Elmshore when you want to do the Nalrend quest. The Rogue, once he flanked, did mostly crits that were about 75 to 95 damage, he had no recovery. Ogre went down pretty fast. The Druid, however, went into the fight with the Avenging Storm and dealt 120 damage with his first hit (not crit!). the next strike was a crit for over 160 damage. The third hit I can't remember because I was all "Holy Batsh!t?" and the Ogre exploded. Druid's attacks had a recovery bar and he was a bit slower than the rogue, but not too much. When the frenzy expired the diffenreces became more obvious - but still that damage per hit was just jawdropping - the rogue - although I had chosen the annihilating Rimecutters - could not deal that much damage even with crits. The two then got surrounded and the druid went down pretty fast while the rouge could survive a few seconds longer due to his armor and stuff. I then went into the log and saw why the druid is doing so much damage: Avenging Storm profits from Wildstrike Shock! Your normal unarmed damage is very high: 50 - 75 per hit with MIG 17 while the rogue only had 21 - 31. On top of that came Wildstrike Shock with 50%. And than came Avenging Storm which does up to 20 schock damage normally - but it also adds a wildstrike shock bonus. I don't know why - maybe Avenging Storm is considered a melee attack and Wildstrike Shock just applies to every melee attack (why shouldn't it). I think that's not intended but it's plausible. This will work with the other wildstrike elements, too, I guess. But the synergy of Wildstrike Shock, Heart of the Storm and Avenging Storm is best this way. Yeah well. What can I say? With this spell the druid spiritshifter is definetly a better damage dealer than a rogue - even one with very good equipment. You might say that spiritshift only lasts 15 secondes and it's true - but that sceptre gives you two uses and that surely is enough because you murder the foes so quickly it's just hilarious. Without Avenging Storm the druid's damge per hit was nearly the same as the rogue's. That's because the rogue did way more crits. The druid is a bit slower so I expect the dps to be a little bit lower than the rogue's (without Avenging Storm). And I also have to factor in the higher freeze DR of the ogres against Rimecutter's lash. Maybe as a cat their dps is even because a spiritshifted cat will hit faster. Stag form's carnage is still 1/rest by the way - but imagine those numbers in an AoE. Avenging Storm comes pretty late - but nemesis205bw was absolutely right when he said that there's no reason to bring a rogue when you have this. If you look at the game from the beginning to the end maybe the rogue will deal more melee damage overall because he starts with Sneak Attack and the druid will have to buy all those talents until he gets really powerful. But druids also have powerful spells! If you are the MC it may be that the rogue will get more out of that: he can side with the doemenels and will get a +0.3 crit damage multiplier bonus. Since he crits more often than the druid that would make him stronger in comparison. Same with Dungeon Delver and Rabbit Fur Gloves and stuff. p.s.: Did I mention that Avenging Storm also stuns on hit? p.p.s.: I don't know how a fully pampered Lady of Pain compares to this (without food and resting bonuses - just abilities and items). Can anybody post some numbers (damage, recovery)?

Oh, sweet!

All the time. And my favorite is Force of Anguish which is supercool because you basically punch someone in the face with a nice, satisfying sound and they fly 10 meters backwards and land on their buttocks where they stay for over 10 seconds.

There's one Nature Godlike - but I won't spoiler who that is.