Boeroer

Sure, basically use this build: Batsh!t Crazy It's all defensive talents and not much else - very simple. It's a 2.03 build, but not much has changed for it in 3.0. As mastered spells I took Nature's Mark, Autmn's Decay and Returning Storm. p.s.: Funny side effect: with Blaidh Golan (hide armor) and Ilfan Byrngar's Solace (shield) you will have +100 to all defenses if you go prone. You are really, really tanky while you sit on your bum. I considered this to be overkill and now wear the Wayfarer's Hide plus Dunryd Demon. At least at the moment (lvl 14, beginning of ActIII, WM II not yet started).

No Idea to be honest - He always spawns them as soon as I hit him.

Really, that's even better - where did you get that info? From the combat log?

You will deal a MIN damage no matter how high enemy's DR is. You can see that in the log. If DR is higher than damage it says MIN x. That's not much but every hit deals at least a bit of damage that way.

I'm afraid MIG is one oft the stats that will have to be lower. But if you take an orlan it fits, don't you think? You will get +4 or even +6 MIG out of Frenzy - that should be OK. It's more useful to interrupt all the time in an AoE than to deal a bit more damage.

But does the blinding effect of that special silver blunderbuss work in an AoE with Powder Burn? That would make it really good.

That is if you hit the dragon - he then spawns all the ghosts. At least on PoTD - don't know about other difficulty settings.

No, not sure - but did you see that screenshot I posted above? I mean one monk not only hits all of my guys with Force of Anguish, but he does so like 10 times with one strike? Doesn't seem to be intended.

I really hate Sabra Marie in fights against trash mobs.

No, you can get them if you heal the Alpine Dragon's soul. It's a dialogue option and you need at least 17 RES for that option to unlock. If you can't stack that much RES on your main character then I'm afraid you will have to kill the dragon in order to get those vambraces. Deep Wounds works with every form of crush/perce/slash damage you deal. That includes scrolls and spells from items with Spell Binding. So if you hit the enemy with a spell that has a big AoE and deals one of that damage types they will all get Deep Wounds (like Concussive Missiles or Twin Stones from scrolls or Vile Thorns from Bittercut, Overwhelming Wave from the White Crest and maybe some other items that I can't remember now). If you have high MIG and INT that means +20 raw damage. You can build a really nice rogue/wizard-apprentice that way. You just have to pile up scrolls and items with spells that do either crush or perce or slash damage. If you apply Deep Wounds more than once ona target the duration just adds. So it's clever to hit one foe after another and don't focus on one enemy. That's easy with a bow or something. It's also good if you are a superslow hitting rogue - like a tanky kind of rogue.

That's a bug with that AoE Force of Anguish. I also had this with the monks in Crägholt Bluffs.

Druid tank with Returning and Relentless Storm. My favorite. And chanters, too. A fighter can be very tanky and still do great DPS at the same time. Boost his self healing as much as possible and get him Armored Grace, Vigorous Defense and so on while also taking all the damage/ACC related talents and you will get a superb frontliner who doesn't go down easily and does very good single target DPS. Blade of the Endless Paths is my tip for that setup. Bittercut & Shield is also nice.

Not finished reading yet?

Hiravias is actually my favorite official companion. His dialogues are weird and inappropriate and funny. And he's an awesome light tank powerhouse. His combo of Aspirant's Mark, Returning & Relentless Storm decide encounter like Concelhaut and Adra Dragon alone. I also like Kana because he sounds like Kermit the Frog.

The are using Flagellant's Path I think - not just painless teleporting.

Exactly

In my experience it makes no difference if you use the official companions or hired ones - I mean in difficulty. Official companions are of the same level as you which makes a huge difference at the beginning until mid game. Hirelings may be a bit more optimized but I hardly notice. Just playing with official companions only and it's as easy as it was with hirelings. I would even say it's easier but that also depends what builds you are using and what party composition. On the other hand: if you don't like the chitchat and have no need for the little extra XP their quests may give you then you lose absolutely nothing when you don't use them.

You mean Force of Fury or Heart of Anguish?

Maybe 10 is the maximum - but even then it's a lot of raw damage.

Unless you load your gun with them?

Hehe - I'm trying to reproduce that but had no luck so far. I have the idea that Force of Anguish interferes with the 30pt-damage-shield-chant of my chanters. Don't know it that's right, I'll see...

Valiant Weapons: no, because retaliation does not use your weapons, it's an autohit pierce attack. Resonant Touch: I hope so. I'm just evolving a build around that. But I couldn't try it out yet. But it will be very difficult to reach that 10 damage with it that triggers resonant touch. What works: MIG, Vulnerable Attack, Ryona's Vambraces, Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and all other melee damage mods like sneak attack and so on. It also triggers Deep Wounds which is kind of awesome.

For 3.0 you may want to also put points into survival. The +10 (or even +15) helps a lot when you try to hit with your chants and invocations (ans scrolls/spells). Some for +DR. Ancient Memory & Beloved Spirit is now also worth a look. I'm playing two of those guys at the moment and the combined healing is great.

I'm just playing him with that exact build. Together with my MC who uses the same build. Works like a charm. lvl 13 now... The Dragon Thrashed times two is the bestest trashmob cleaner ever. Although that build is not a 100% tank only build. It's a good tank (not like a pure paladin tank, but good) while dealing lots of damage. Oh, and since 2.03 Ancient Memory and Beloved Spirits became better. I didn't use them in that build, but now you can!

There also has to be a bug with monks: watch this: That's from one monk who did one attack with Force of Anguish... I won despite that cheesefest but what's happening there?