Boeroer

To be honest you can do great builds just with generic stuff that you enchant yourself. But of course some effects on unique items are powerful if you know how to use them perfectly well or even abuse them to break the game. Some items just give a build a nice twist - like turning a 3-RES barb into a tanky healer with Shod-in-Faith boots or something like that. I think the most precious thing I would lose is fun. edit: typo

Barbarian, two axes, here we go: Right hand: Woodewys axe Left hand: We Toki Maximum PER, lots of DEX, lots of INT, MIG doesn't matter that much. Go to a mob of enemies after your tanky guys engaged and start hitting with Wodewys - because of carnage Nature's Mark will trigger in an AoE very soon, lowering defenses of the mob by 10 - We Toki will start to crit via carnage also - everybody wants to lie flat on the face. Great setup. Edge of Reason with it's draining is also great. Draining via carnage lets you regain endurance like a boss. Who said that battle axes are bad? That must have been somebody who knows nothing. Was his name John Snow?

Edit - sorry, my daughter send this while sitting on my lap. Will post later. :D

Yes, that would be sufficient. But you only will get all that *1.15 durgan stuff and strike hard quite late - so maybe you want to have more DEX so you will be a bit faster as long as your recovery didn't hit +100%. One handed weapons with speed that come quite early are the Sword of Daenysis (Vincent Dwellier in the Salty Mast), March Steel Dagger (quest "Something Secret" with Derrin in Copperlane), Unforgiven flail (quest "Cinders of Faith" - where you can also get Tidefall), Spelltongue (kind of speed enchanted, chest in the map Durgan's Battery - not inside the Battery itself, left side of the map near a destroyed cart ). All the others come to late to build a char around them. But that's just my opinion.

No, it does not. The only offense related abilities that work in melee (and have nothing to do with the animal companion) are: - Swift Aim - Wounding Shots - Marked Prey Hope I didn't forget something. Even Vicious Aim does not work as you said and I really don't know why.

I just did a quick test with a tank that's specced for disengangement attacks: very high deflection, DR and defenses, low damage (so that the enemy wants to leave you and go for your glass cannons), but high ACC and a stunning weapon. I took defender in order to get more eng. slots so that more enemies eat disengagement attacks when they try to pass me. Result: not one single enemy got critted or stunned...? Seriously that ability is total crap. Especially since you can't use it together with Savage Attack, Cautious Attack and so on. I know that defensive modals are exclusive - but first of all Defender is not defensive anymore and secondly: why Savage Attack? Stupid...

Let's see... (for a barb you don't need Saguine Plate. With Sanguine Plate anybody can be a barb though) The things you listed are enough if you also have a DEX bonus: 1.33% (Frenzy) * 1.2 (Strike Hard) * 1.15 (Durgan Refined Strike Hard) * 1.15 (Durgan Refined 2. War Hammer) = 2,11. Add Two Weapon Style: 2,31 Now you could put on a durgan reinforced plate (-0,35) and have Vulnerable Attack (-0,2): 1,76 If you have a DEX score that gives you +20%: 2,11 - no recovery. Did I do it right? Edit: forgot something that turned the whole statement upside down.

But then the system would have to be revised. It can't be that when I walk onto a guy I get like three disengagement attacks just because I ran in a slight curve and not 100% straight. Disengagement attacks shouldn't happen at all when I enter the threat area - they should happen when I LEAVE! At the moment - when I try to flank an enemy who has more than one engagement slot I eat more than one disengaement attack. That's just stupid. It would be totally ok to get some if I wanted run run past him - but for the I would have to leave his reach and THEN I should get hits, not before. As disengagement attacks have a bonus to ACC it could be a nice setup to take defender, high ACC and a weapon that does prone or stun on crit. THat way disengaement attacks with defender would have some usefulness. IF the on-crit effects work with disengagement attacks - don't know.

Did you use that tactics on PotD? Normally this group would be swarmed and your wizards would get targeted by casters and archers. In the beginning of the game there aren't very big mobs. Later one or two sturdy guys just aren't enough. But at the beginning - especially with chokepoints - it's a good strategy. The staff is so good because wizards have very poor base ACC, low endurance (even if they didn't dump CON) and it's the only way that they can take part in melee fights a lower levels without being completely useless. At lower levels it's quite a sacrifice that you have to cast a spell for every encounter - unless you like to rest a lot of course.

Ah come on. If they would drop Tall Grasses and the like you would love that your stronghold gets attacked. Every time!

I would say both abilites are pretty worthless. If you're a supersquishy then +10 deflection will do not much for you. If you're not so squishy you can stand a few slaps on your own. Defender was nerfed to uselessness because engangement - as you said - is nothing that you can build on. Enemies have too many hitpoints to stop them with one Disengagement Attack - even if you're specced for damage it will not be enough to stop any enemy that rushes past you. So, best is to not rely on a single tank but build a solid frontline instead - and even then you will have to watch out. Another approach is to not use glass cannons. It's enough to give your backline a bit of DR and deflection (without wasting a precious ability point of the figher) and they don't get rushed anymore. Doesn't have to be superthick armor or a 100 deflection. You can even feel the difference when you put them in hide armor and put on a ring of deflection.

Hi, I just played around with this item and found several special attacks that don't work with it's two projectiles. For example: - Wounding Shot: the +100% DoT doesn't get applied - Flames of Devotion: the +50% burn damage doesn't get applied I also have the impression that sneak attack and deathblows don't get calculated correctly. It says "Sneak Attack" and so on in the combat log, but the damage is not higher than that of a normal hit. Maybe there are more issues - I will test further. Then I will upload a special savegame in which you can test all these cases. Some things like Blinding Strike work with it though. Since the Gaze has two slow moving projectiles that don't hit at the same time you even get the effect that the first projectile hits, causing blindness, and the second one even hits harder because of that. It's also applying blindness which gets updated then. Also two times Deep Wounds (which also gets updated). Till later...

Would be less annoying if they would drop special loot, right?

That works - but I would use two weapons from the peasant's weapon group (Vile Loner's Lance + a stunning & vicious Cladhalíath is a nice setup) or two hatchets or a mix of that. This way I would retain the +6 ACC and the speed bonus of Two Weapon Style. I wouldn't want to give up the gloves' slot for the forgemaster gloves because there's Blood Testament and before that there's also Ryona's Vambraces and so on. Forgemaster Gloves are really nice on a Rogue that's build for Two Handed Style and crits though (like for Hours of St. Rumbalt or Tall Grass) - never saw crits with such high numbers. What I also really like about the monk is that you can build him in so many ways - to fulfill so many different roles. He can do tanking, reflecting spells and shots like a boss, do great single target damage, AoE damage, long lasting CC, stacking afflictions that qualify for Sneak Attack/Deathblows (prone, stunned, weakened) and so on. Maybe that's the main reason why I love monks so much. You can do lots of monk builds and they can all be powerful and fun to play. But paladin is also one of my favourites nowadays. He is such a nice supporter without too much fuzz - he does considerable burst damage and is very sturdy. I even find that two paladins in the party are better than one.

Just remember that the priest starts with 10 ACC less than some martial classes. So the +10 from the Pale Hand only sets them on par - and that's only with two special weapons. A fighter or rogue with 10 PER still hits better with scrolls than a 19 PER priest. But I agree that his buffs do compensate this - as long as you have spells left.

Monks are really cool. I tried a monk with 20 CON the other day - just for fun. Dumped RES to 3 in order to get lots of wounds, max DEX, high MIG and so on. Put on a simple monk's outfit, Shod-in-Faith boots and a Girdle of Eotun Constitution. He was sooo good.

I know, I know!

I just tried and it's also possible to use non speed enchanted weapons - if you use lighter armor. With a durgan reinforced hide armor you can also have no recovery - as the math predicted. I also just used a barb with frenzy and Spelltongue + Drawn in Spring. Not only does Spelltongue steal 15% attack speed (which lets you wear a bit thicker armor) - it also prolongs the duration of frenzy until the end of the encounter. This works especially well with a barb because of carnage-stealing. A monk's AI can be set so that it automatically uses 1 wound to fire up swift strikes - so most of the time it's on. The rest of the classes have to manage their speed buffs, that's true. But that's a tiny drawback compared to the DPS you get out of it when you recovery hits 0. Edit: Forgot Sanguine Plate: that also kind of works automatically if you build your char around it.

Yeah, but since you get 182% you can easily place a plate in there - even without durgan reinforcement. Edit: ah, wait.. no - don't know. I'm confused... Edit 2: ok, now I got it: 182% - 50% (plain old plate) - 20% (Vuln. Attack) and you are still at 112% - no recovery bar. But same for the monk Swift Strikes or the barb with Frenzy (or any other class with Outlander's Frenzy that should become 1/encounter). I also did a test with my speedy monk and found out that two speed enchanted weapons + durgan are much faster than two normal weapons + durgan - faster than 20% could explain. But I didn't have the idea that each weapon speed enchantment works for both weapons - which is kind of nuts by the way. That explains a lot.

Oh - I have to retrain my Tidefall-Ranger into a Drawn-in-Spring-Ranger now.

Thanks for the testing - it's highly appreciated. Same goes for Kaylon's research.

I played this build and it was fun: Druid tank You can just adapt the stats. Maybe take away some MIG and CON and put it into PER. If you dump DEX completely casting will be very slooooow thooooough.

Maybe single weapon usage (one hander with and without shield, two handers) has an inherent speed penalty? Could it be that using two sabres (even without two weapon style) is faster than using only one? Then it would make sense.

Ah - so it reduces armor recovery penalty or makes things like Vuln. Attack faster (kind of)? I see I have to think about a new build that exploits these things to a maximum. I also wanted to do a monk build that focuses on reflecting ranged attacks like you wrote the other day. Now I'm torn... maybe that's a good thing since I promised not to touch this game until WMII.

Nice build. Your statements concerning Gallant's Focus and Apprentice's Sneak Attack totally make sense. You could also get Flick of the Wrist from playing "Orlan's Head" in the Gref's Rest in Stalwart. It also works for all Soulbound Weapons. But there's a bug at the moment: it doesn't stack with the Pale Hand (or any other +ACC talent from the other gods). Hopefully this will get fixed. The talent from playing "Dozens" in the cellar might also help a tiny bit with survivability. Mechanics don't have any effects on priest's seals anymore. But maybe the Coil of Resourcefulness (quick switch belt, +15 ACC on traps) still works with seals. Seals have a very high ACC by themselves because they are seen as hazards - hence the high chance of hitting/critting. But since you want to have mechanics in a solo run anyway it doesn't really matter. P.s.: I would really love to see an enchantment called "anti-perforation". Lovely. It's like my "Wuthering Strike" I posted the other day or AndreaColombo's "Buttercut". :D