Boeroer

I used Mabec's Morning Star on a interrupt-barb once and it was good.

Hmm. Are you sure about it being unlimited?Iirc when I tested it, it was stealing up to 3 random spells, and allowed me to do up to 3 casts. For example hitting a wizard, gave me "Wall of Flame", "Minor Grimoire Imprint" and "Concelhaut's Draining Touch". I could cast 2 Walls and 1 Touch, or 3 Walls, or one of each. P.S. Few notes: - when you hit or crit your target, there is 25% chance to make a new roll (acc vs fort) for that spell steal. - casting stolen "Minor Grimoire Imprint" - doesn't steal more spells for you (at least on a fighter) - duration after which the stolen spells "expire", is increased if you crit, and reduced if you graze. But it's long enough anyway. - if you steal from someone who has only one spell, you will steal only that one spell. When I stole spells I got those three spell icons and they had some kind of timer on them (they turned grey in a clockwise motion if you know what I mean). In this time I could cast those spells as many times as I want (and my speed allowed - Blood Thirst helped). If the timer runs out, the spell is gone. Just look at my screenshot. I can't say how many times I casted Calling the World's Maw. Maybe 20 times? Don't know exactly.

Heck I just think about a rogue with Calling the World's Maw + Deep Wounds.

Guys this Morning Star is just insane. It not only steals spells but you can also spam cast them. It's not like you steal one spell, cast it and it's gone - no. It's like the Grimoire Imprint: you steal a spell and then can cast it as often as you like in a certain amount of time (which is very long). I just ran into a horde of Ogre Druids with a barb and hit them with this morning star. At once I had Calling the Worlds Maw and two other spells. I then started casting Calling the World's Maw and never stopped doing it. The Ogres never stood up again. Great Synergy with Blood Thirst by the way: because of the offensive spells you will kill a foe now and then. That will nullify your recovery. This weapon is great on every sturdy frontliner with good ACC and good INT and decent attack speed. I imagine dps Caster-Paladins with all those on-kill-effects.

Actually a ranger with persistence and a wolf (skilled for damage) is very good. You are auto-enabling Predator's Sense all the time and with Stalker's Torc you also have at least one +20% damage mod for ranger and pet.

Whoa - I totally missed that post. How cool is that? Wizard-Barb here I come!

I know. That's over 1500 hrs game time without priest. I also quit katholic church last week because I realized I don't need any priest.

Hehe.

Same here. 75% of my playthroughs are without priest I guess.

Finally somebody listened to my "Weakened + Sickened + Brute Force" litany.

Nope. Also curious... By the way: why don't one just find the helmets together with the armor?

Sadly, the Pull of Eora doesn't force disengangement attacks.

Ahaha! Mix Pull of Eora (awesome spell!) with the fire stag of the druid: Cast that spell onto a mob and send the stag into the middle. After some seconds the enemies and the stag got dragged around so much that there's a circle saturated with flames and nobody can leave it. I love all those red mumbers that pop out of their heads like crazy. Add Expose Vulnerabilities and/or Combusting wounds to speed things up. If you really don't want anyone to leave cast Painful Interdiction or any other weakening spell on their heads and then Binding Web. It's so much fun... With Pull of Eora you can do a lot of weird things actually. I did not test if a fighter with 5 engangement slots whom you put into the circle togehter with enemies will get disengangement attacks all the time when the enemies get pulled away from him. Have to test that out soon. Scared Immolation plus Pull of Eora is also nice.

Nice find!

The Belt of Bountiful Healing also does +25% (at least when I looked it up again yesterday). Where do you get those 15% from? Or do you mean another belt?

Good that you point that out - it's often overlooked. Same with the druid and Insect Plague for example. Not only damages like crazy but also interrupts like crazy with the right stats and talents. Good thing a wizard also has spells that lower concentration - one of the best is Expose Vulnerabilities. You can also get that from The GOlden Gaze sceptre. If you combine that with Alacrity and Blast it will trigger that spell very often.

Then I would also recommend Tall Grass with max PER and DEX and Hearth Orlan. Take all ACC+ and crit related abilities and talents and you're good. Get boots of speed as soon as you can (there is a non-random place where you can get them: Russetwood in the White March, top right in a landslide - you can sneak there without getting into a fight with Ice Trolls I guess.) Fast Runner, a Cape of Withdrawal and Graceful Retreat can give you +32 defense against disengagement attacks. That can be a live saver. You can exchange the cape with the Cloak of the Master Mystic as soon as you can get it (also White March, +12 deflection and invisible after a crit is an even better life saver). When you get engaged (this will happen): pause, switch to a hatchet plus large shield in your second weapon slot, then decide where to run with your boots of speed and then unpause. This is way more effective than the escape ability or other stuff. You will live and outrun every enemy. Just run to another flanking spot and start attacking with the pike again.

Not if you just chain your commands at the beginning of a fight with shift+click. It takes a few seconds and you're good for half the fight. I would turn AI on so that he doesn't cease attacks after an enemy in the command chain drops prematurely. But yes - it's still a bit of microing compared to a ranger who can be a good autoattacker.

If your rogue puts on the Cloak of the Master Mystic (+12 deflection, invisible after getting a crit) and takes Backstab and wears a large shield (rogues can afford that with Reckless & Deflecting Assault) he will be good in the front line. He can reach an absurd reflex score this way so maybe even Adept Evasion is worth it. It's still a good tactic to flank with the other tank of course like KDubya said.

Not if you can hit one foe after another - like with a bow. I showed in this buils: Mad Hornet that Deep Wounds can be used to boost dps a lot if you're not sticking to one target. It's also great for rogues who are slow. For example a rogue with 3 DEX and a plate. He will hit so slowly that Deep Wounds duration may have expired when he hits again. He will still deal good damage because it's raw and also applies if the enemy is immune to his weapon attack. A slow rogue can still deal a lot of damage with a wounding weapon like Drawn in Spring and Deep Wounds. I mean obviously he will not be that murder machine like a dual sabre rogue - but he will also not go down as fast. It's just not good for a standard dual wielding rogue who wants to kill one enemy as fast as possible.

Not that again please. Barbs are totally cool. And you can do a lot of different things with them. They just don't excel at soloing and against single targets (but that's ok). But their class ability carnage opens up so many possibilities. For example it's totally cool not to deal a lot of damage if you build an max PER interrupter. You can leave MIG at 3 if you want. Greater Frenzy with max INT will give you +6 for quite some time in return. You will interrupt-lock a whole area after some levels and still deal more (combined) damage than the average fighter can. Or you can build a sturdy barb with Savage & Stalwart Defiance and a draining weapon. You can even build a healer-barb who uses Shod-in-Faith and max MIG, CON and INT and dump RES. Any weapon that has a x% spell chance like Unlabored Blade works best on barbs because it will trigger a lot more often than on any other class. With carnage you can do a lot of weird things, even build an affliction-immune tank like I showed in this build: The Leech (still works in 3.0 by the way). Barbs only need deeper knowledge of the mechanics and a bit of thinking out of boundaries. But a classic apporach like Plate + Shod-in-Faith + Tidefall also works great. I even build one the other day with duplicated Whispers of Yenwood and other +CON items and brought CON to 30 points permanently without resting bonuses or consumables. That means double endurance and health. Together with a fat armor and Veteran's Recovery that guy will not go down so soon, even if his deflection is not top notch. Maybe barbs are not the best class for beginners because at low levels they fall quickly and also don't hit a lot - but they can be shaped into hilarious builds. For example a Fire Godlike retaliation barb with high MIG, INT and CON, stacked Retaliation, Potion of Flame Shield and that new retaliation skill that deals raw damage and Blesca's Labour or Edge of Reason pluas Shod-in-Faith will be working very well as a tank.

Do you think Grey Sleeper rogue would be a good idea ? Or 5% Twin Stones is too low to be reliable ? I've tried it on my last run, the chance is rather low. Yeah, that's not the way to go. But a Bittercut with 2* Vile Thorns works and also the White Crest armor with Overwhelming Wave. And scrolls of Bounding & Concussive Missiles and Twin Stones. That is especially nice at the beginning of a fight when you let the mob come to you. I'm thinking about a rogue "wizardlike" build who duplicates Bittercut for a total of 4*Vile Thorns per rest.

That is a rather nice combination. You can get two backstabs per encounter for free if you're willing to eat at least 2 crits. Especially since Backstab got buffed to 150%. And it stacks with sneak and deathblows. At the moment there's still that bug that lets you turn invisible until you reload. That is a total cheesefest. You can just go and murder everybody and everything while you're invisible, dealing backstabs every time you hit.

As I already said: Deep Wounds also works with spells that deal crush, pierce or slash damage. On a high MIG/INT rogue it will add about 20 raw damage to every AoE attack that qualifies.

For a rogue who focuses on crits you will definitely want a hearth orlan for a melee flanker or a wood elf for ranged. For sturdier rogues you can use wild orlan, pale elf, moon godlike of course and also coastal aumaua. Boreal dwarves are somewhat in between. Nice ACC buff with a bit of extra CON. I think in terms of power Death and Nature Godlike are crap.