Boeroer

Durador? That friend of Rodriguez?

Why Palleginas Breastplate? It gives you +50% DR when your health (not endurance) drops below 25%. I find this to be quite underwhelming most of the time.

Sure? Because it got buffed to +150% damage and with the cloak you can get invisible 2 times per encounter. Together with an opening attack from stealth and Shadowing Beyond and maybe a Nightshroud in the second weapon slot you could have a max of 6 backstabs in one encounter. And Backstab stacks with sneak attack and deathblows. Just saying.

That's nice to hear.

He? I never experienced such a problem. If I only have 2 points left and want to enchant an exceptional item to superb the game will let me. Or what are you guys talking about?

Once you can take Iron Wheel you need no thicker armor than robes. The mechanic is great: If you don't have wounds you will get them fast (low DR) - but while you accumulae wounds your DR will get higher (up to +10). It's great! You can also compensate the lack of thick armor with high CON and healing like Silver Tide. And also higher deflection. Higher deflection means more grazes which still help with the wound gain but don't knock you over so fast. The Lavender Wreath AndreaColombo suggested is very nice for a monk (or anybody else who wants to get hit). It retaliates with Sickened so to say. The fact that the monk can also cause Weakened with Enervating Blows leads to hefty debuffs that you apply passively. That's really nice. And anyway that Lavender Wreath only looks good if you're wearing robes or monk's outfit. As I said in another thread: High MIG + Veteran's Recovery + regenerating item + Belt of Bountiful Healing + Survival Bonus: Healing Multiplier leads to a nice effect. And if you still fell like going down too much you can always put on Shod-in-Faith.

The Cloak of the Master Mystic can save your butt - and it works quite well with backstab, too.

Yeah - for a dual wield sabre or battle axe rogue it doesn't make a lot of sense.

So does that mean I want to be helping the Knights of the Crucible in Defiance bay for their faction perk? (And maybe getting 7 points in Survival for DR +2 might be nice too)? I've heard others poo poo these options, but if every little bit of DR helps... prototype00 How is +4 DR poo poo? Sure - the +15 ACC from survival is better if you know what to expect. But against kith enemies there is no ACC bonus. So +2 DR is the next best option. Merciless Hand or Mob Justice make no sense for the Backlash Beldam. +2 DR totally does.

Yes, the Backlash Beldam starts like an ordinary melee cipher and only gets fancy when you manage to get retaliation items and if you are able to crat your own potions of flame shield. And then later - with the new high level power Defensive Mind Web and Reaping Knives the cipher totally rocks the house. But in 3.0 also the chanter keeps on getting better an better because the Brisk Recitation and so on. I will put it like this: If you like casting a lot I would use the cipher, if you like low micro then use the chanter.

Thanks a lot. 1.: Sometimes I forget that I've had a resting bonus from Caed Nua when pinning down the stats at the end of the game. This happened here as well, I'm sorry. Nobody found out yet. 15 PER is also ok. Or 16 PER and 15 DEX and so on - what you like. It doesn't matter that much after some levels. 2.: I think it would still work. If you find better items you should use those of course. Soulbound items alsways use the weapons focus of xour choice, so it's easy to use them and replace your old weapons with them. 3.: I made it myself with The Gimp. Used the red haired orlan from the official portraits as a starting point. p.s.: Ouh... "the best"? Nobody called me that before. Nice!

Erm - good question and hard to know. I think it will be equally easy, if not easier. And it's pretty easy as it is so far (ACT III).

If monks also had strong healing abilities they would be outright OP. And you can always use scrolls and potions (using ones that deliver healing over time instead of a healing burst is better because you can drink them at the beginning of a fight.). By the way: High MIG and INT + Iron Wheel + Veteran's Recovery + Regneration item + Belt of Bountiful Healing + Survival Bonus: Healing Multiplier = nice effect on a monk. With Shod-in-Faith even better - but that's obvious.

10 CON & 03 RES will work fine if you don't send him right into the center of the mob. You can play around with DR to see how much you need for your playstyle. I always used to put this one in plate. That lowers dps a bit but I don't have to babysit him a lot then. There are nice helmets in WMII or with the new Stronghold Quest. But I still don't know a helmet that is as good as Silver Tide. Especially with high MIG and INT. p.s.: If you plan to bring a priest, a cipher and a barb I recommend Threatening Presence + Brute Force + Painful Interdiction. Threatening Presence (Sickened) + Painful Interdiction (Weakened) stacks and lowers fortitude (more than 40) and will defenses (more than 30) in a big AoE (of course only if the enemy is not immune). And one is passive and the other is 1/encounter. That's a big debuff for such little investment. Your Brute Force will produce a lot of crits (if it's not Ogres and stuff you're after) and the low will is great for lots of the cipher's powers like all mind control spells and stuff.

So, resetting the area does not work for the blood pool?

If you love greatswords then I would recommend a barbarian dps offtank with Tidefall and Shod-in-Faith boots with max MIG and INT and good PER and DEX, low RES. Before you get Tidefall/Shod-in-Faith he will go down quickly, but after that he's very sturdy and will heal for big amounts of endurance in a huge AoE while dealing good damage in a huge carnage area and apply wounding DoT via carnage. It's a low micro build that is fun. You can also put on all items that do something when you get a crit or hit. This will trigger a lot. You can even make him a moon godlike. He will do a lot of healing when he gets focused so maybe your paladin and priest will have more time for casting buffs and stuff. And most important for you: he's no interrupt barb. Another great offtank dps guy: Riptide Still works in 3.01

Hi! 1.: Sure, you can do that. 2.: No, that's ok. Potion of Flame Shield will be enough (hope it still generates focus post 2.03). 3.: After you have two retaliations it's not very important. Casting speed is not very fast of course. It helps to have friends who help with concentration and/or RES buffs. 4.: That really depends on your party and type of enemy. Against fast hitting enemies who don't deal a lot of damage per hit it's best to rush in and get grazed a lot. Against Ogres (fewer hits but lots of damage per hit) I wouldn't do that. If you have a paladin with Reinforcing Exhortation and Zealous Endurance or a priest with defelction and DR buffs you can do way more tanking even against nastier foes. The new Psychovampiric Shield is also very good for this build and for tankin. Back in 2.03 it gave you way less deflection. Now it's great and I would say: cast Psychovampiric Shield and then rush in! Basically you want to get grazed as much as possible and at the same time get stack as much DR as possible. That way you will generate a lot of focus while your endurance won't suffer too much.

Why is that sad? Sounds kind of cute.

I love it because it works with AoE spells.

Technical Support Forum. Three rows beneath this forum. You can find it. There's a bug with some items at the moment where spell holding items will not only apply to enemies but also on self at the same time. Stormcaller's Returning Storm for example not only hits the enemy but also the ranger (in this case without damage). Maybe those two bugs are related.

"The Roly Poly"

And your Fighting Spirit will be triggered sooner with low CON.

With Sura's Supper Plate? Then it doesn't work with retaliation items. There should have been three thunders: 1 from being hit (that's the normal behaviour of Avenging Storm - it also retaliates) and one for each retaliation. If there's only one then it means the retaliation items didn't trigger it.

Cool, thanks!

Sorry for the typos. Had a glass of (bad) red wine.