Boeroer

At the beginning of the game there are no retaliation items - you have to play more like a rogue until you get spells like Psychovampiric Shield that help you to withstand heavy beating and retaliation items that give you focus when you get hit. So at the beginning of the game you need somebody sturdy as a frontliner - like Edér for example. Then you can go and flank like a rgoue would do. Maybe you can skip the shield until you find a really nice small one and go one handed in order to hit/crit a lot - you will need that focus. I would also recommend to get Kana first (just pick him up and then leave Caed Nua) and give him a big shield and fat armor. Aloth should cast Chill Fog right in front of your frontline and then let the bandits come to you. For later, when you aquired retaliation gear - your goal is to have as much DR as you can. That includes Blunting Belt, Paladin's Zealous Endurance, Priest's Armor of Faith and so on. You want to get grazes in order to retaliate, but you don't want to get damaged a lot. The bandits are pretty badass if your level is too low by the way. Just one level more makes them easy. Just try to use Tenious Grasp on one of them at the start of the fight. And start the fight with a gunshot (enchanted Disappointer) instead of running towards the enemy - that will give you a lot of focus that you can use to CC - then go into melee fight. Monks are way easier at the beginning of the game because all their stats are very good right from the start (deflection, ACC, endurance, health). I think they are the class with the highest stat bonuses alltogether. Cipher's stat are quite meh.

Well yeah, nice you like those (I put them on my monk) - but Daze doesn't count towards Sneak attack/Deathblows. They are better on a barb with carnage.

Your deflection will not be that of a fighter, but later in the game it doesn't matter that much anymore and you still have your thick armor to protect you. Then you have all those fancy buffs that also work on yourself that can easily make up for the lack of endurance and deflection. When you hit lvl 9 you can choose which lvl1-spell will turn from per-rest-use to 1/encounter use on top of your normal spells (spell mastery). Same at lvl 11 and 13 and 15 (for spell levels 2, 3 and 4). You may choose spells that fit to your "armored" playstyle then, like Armor of Faith (+4 DR), Holy Power (+3 MIG, +7 RES - and therefore also deflection), Circle of Protection (+15 to all defenses) and Devotions for the Faithful (allies: +4 MIG, +20 ACC, foes: -10 MIG, -20 ACC). Then you can buff yourself every encounter and be a very good frontliner even without per rest spells that you can use like in D&D. Shod-in-Faith boots, like Farncis said, are also great for such a priest. If you get a critical hit they emit the spell "Consecrated Ground" which heals you and alle friends around you. If used right it's one of the best items in the game - and it's perfect for a frontliner that doesn't have superduperhigh deflection but very thick armor (aka plate). Just make sure your MIG and INT are not too low because raising those stats makes Consecrated Ground really good.

rofl Sounds like a really good item for a high PER barb. Combine that with the new halberd that has a -30 concentration aura and you will be the ideal AoE interrupt-locker.

Oh - I forgot: If you want 12 more ACC on top for the total ACC overkill go for one-handed.

If you really want to focus on heals and buffs only then I'd say dump PER completely. That's one of the few cases where you can dump a stat and it has no negative effect. But there are some offensive priest spells that are really good and with 3 PER you will miss or graze a lot with them - especially in the early game. Also: the priest's special talents that give +10 ACC to two weapons are obviously not boosting your spell ACC. A medium or large shield on the other hand (ha!) however does lower your spell ACC.

Yep - it's like a dragon hunter chant.

Not more than others. It's always wise to have a backup weapon with a different damage type and a backup CC spell with a different kind of affliction.

If you do it with The Golden Gaze that's the case. But those two projectiles fly rather slow and the time between both hits is noticable. But since Twinned Arrows works the same (just a bit faster) I think it also should work. I have no idea about the blunderbuss though.

I think it's quite easy to upgrade the terrible dagger. I just won't do Raedrics Keep and come back later with the terrible dagger on my barb. Or I do the quest in Yenwood Fields solo... about 100 idiots to fall victim to my carnage...

Sure. Best combination of low (to no) micro and power.

That's also a good tactic.

I think I found all new items - because like you, i searched the whole folder for new items (not only px2).

For a minute there, i shat my pants. I gave up on trying to upgrade this sword. Really takes forever, unless you bind it to a 1h rogue or something. why is that?

A wizard with Binding Web is also nice: stuck lowers reflex a lot and the Dragon chant targets reflex, so...

The most powerful ones for example. And some of the most powerful ones I've seen aren't even soulbound.

Outlander's Frenzy is essential if you want to reach 0 recovery with your dual wielding cipher (without consumables). When you get Time Parasite you may want to retrain - but I don't know if it's worth the costs. Amplified Thrust and Pain Link can only be cast onto allies, not yourself. But nothing stops you from having two ciphers and cast that on each other. It's a good setup (also with the beams and Tactical Meld). A nice combo is having two hearth orlan ciphers, skilled for critical hits with marking weapons who always attack the same target. One can be ranged, the other melee - or both melee, doesn't matter. With Tactical Meld and Marking they will give each other +50 ACC while also converting 10% of hits into crits (and maybe also flank for another -10 deflection). You can give one og them Aspirant's Mark (-8 defl., -8 reflex). That's also great for the beams (which target reflex). Cladhaliath with Stun on crit and marking (+10 ACC to partner) plus the Vile Loner's Lance (-5 defenses on hit and very long interrupt) is great. The other guy could use the Blade of the Endless Paths or Shame or Glory & Sura's Supper Plate or dual wielding with another sword or an axe (+0.5 crit damage, We Toki is nice). Most of these weapons come really early. And I don't even know which awesomeness awaits you in WMII (soulbound stuff hoorray). However, this way the spear guy gets +5(spears) +5(disorienting) +10(marking from buddy) +10(flanked) +8(Aspirant's Mark) +20(Tactial Meld) +8 (Exceptional Gear) = +66 ACC and 10% hit to crit conversion. With durgan refinement it gets even better of course. The Blade of the Endless Paths guy will get nearly the same bonuses. With Shame or Glory a bit less and more critical damage while also prone on crit (We Toki). But stun suppress prone, so maybe you want Cladhaliath to do +4 ACC instead o stun. Then maybe you want to give one of them Gallant's Focus for another +4 ACC? Weapon Focus also can be put on top (+6) So you could end up with ~80 ACC for your two ciphers and it would mostly be passive. You'd only have to cast Aspirant's Mark and Tactical Meld. Even without Tactical Meld it's still +60. Not to mention all the CC spells they could cast in order to lower defenses further. Crits will be near 100% if you fight against enemies of your level.

Exactly. Another thing with cipher is that they stop shooting in order to cast powers anyway - so they can't reach that high dps number as a rogue or ranger with a bow (who will fire nonstop). A gun is ok for this. You fire now and then for a big chunk of focus instead shooting quickly all the time. And as I said they are also viable against enemies with very high DR. You'll run into focus famine if you have to fight such enemies with a bow. That said - I think a bow will still generate more focus over a longer fight - if you just have one gun without quick switch. But the 4 slots in combination with quick switch do the trick: At the beginning of a fight, cast some CC powers to lower defenses (or even DR for your blunderbusses) so that your focus is near 0 (you don't want to overstock your focus), then fire those 4 shots (takes about 5 to 8 sec I guess if you switch right after each shot). Your focus will be full. Now you can cast all the time. Maybe you only have to shoot three times because else you overstock. Then just cast a power and shoot again when you want. THis is a bit micro-heavy though. AI will not quick switch on it's own, which is sad.

Not that it stacks the damage you might receive. But it refreshes it. So if you got hit for 25 damage already and have 5 left - and then the next one kicks in - you're at 30 again and it all starts from the beginning. This only works great if you are a group of tanks with high deflection and thick armor. Only the damage that comes through counts toward the damage shield. Combine this with 6 times Ancient Memory and you're nearly unkillable in normal fights.

You can also search for things like "_armor_" in that folder and also get new items from stronghold quests and other things that are new to the game even if they are not related to WMII. For example the new helmets for the fancy plate armors (sanguine, argwe's, he carries many scars & white crest).

Aspirant'S Mark is very nice on a high ACC & high INT character like a fighter.

In Stalwart? You have to complete WM Part I first and then rest outside of the white march.

No, it doesn't. You get your extra talent. And The Dragon Thrashed awaits you al lvl 9. For the second chant I can recommend the damage shield - but chant it so that it's not applied at the same time but in succession. You will not get damaged anymore. With a Ring of Searing Flames it all gets even better. For a quick finish use the White Worms invocation. If there are already more than 5 corpses from your chanting then this thing is devastating. You can even lure enemies onto piles of corpses.

I did a quick test with a quickswitching gun cipher - and as I said before you get so much focus at the beginning of a fight that you don't need to "reload" your focus in normal encounters. It's very powerful and also works great when you encounter high DR enemies. Those are a problem for bow ciphers.

Look at the damage of that dagger and then ask again.