Boeroer

You don't even need to dump stats to 3 for a solo game. Sometimes it's just fun to squeeze out all you can.

It's my job - but I don't want to do this. Not my cup of tea...

It works. But maybe it works even better if you can time your kills exactly for Inspiring Triumph. That you can achieve best (in my opinion) if you use an Island Aumaua with quick switch who carries two arquebuses besides his melee weapon. If you really need the kill for more defense NOW, just switch to a gun and FoD the crap out of someone - you will get the kill and deliver a lot of defense (from Shielding Flames AND Inspiring Triumph - I think it stacks - I used a Bleak Walker for this) onto your party. I even used a fourth weapon slot and also took Runner's Wounding Shot and I liked it - one more chance to get an on-kill-effect. To boost the effects further, I would use the outworn bucker (for +5 defenses for everyone around you) and a sabre like Bittercut. You won't have draining anymore - but to be honest the draining from Tidefall is not enough to keep you alive because with 10 DEX you are too slow - esp. if you wear a fat armor. Add Zealous Endurance, Shielding Touch and Reinforcing Exhortation to the mix. Your party should be very sturdy now if you need them to be. You will deal a lot of damage with the 2 or 3 shots - not so much with the sabre, but ok. For maximum duration and most powerful shots and heals I would go for max INT and max MIG. DEX is not so important when using Quick Switch - but don't dump it to 3 either because of your casting speed . Your RES can be a bit lower - if this is not your only sturdy frontliner. High MIG and INT is not only good for Lay on Hands and stuff, but also great for Sacred Immolation which comes later. This will turn your tanky three-shot-wonder into Super DPS Guy.

Oh nice, I didn't know that.

The most annoying part is that you have to click each cipher manually, pick the same spell and target it on the same monk - five times. A "select ciphers and let them do this" macro would be great for that setup. Wait... why can't we record macros? That would be truly awesome! Like a macro for selfbuffing at the beginning of a fight. Basically like composing combos of actions with a certain trigger.

That's right: there will be no better party in terms of "low micro meets high power" than six chanters. max out MIG and INT, a bit PER, dump DEX if you like and pump RES, leave CON at 10. Build them all in a sturdy way, use Weapon & Shield style and skill them for maximum defenses. You could also take 6 Moon Godlikes for maximum survivability - but maybe that's total overkill. Not only their "Come Soft Winds" do stack, but also their Acient Memory + Beloved Spirits (that's around 9 endurance regeneration per tick). When you reach tier 3 chants and finally can use "The Dragon Slashed" (which also stacks) every encounter (except against dragons) becomes trivial. In the meantime you can use Soft Winds and comlement which whatever short chants you like. Then unleash the power of your invocations all at once. The fights may be slower than with other parties - but there's little risk of failing and you don't have to do a lot of micro. Another party I used and was lots of fun: Very tanky monk with Long Stride, Flagellant's Path and all kinds of defenses against being stuck, paralyzed, prone, petrified and so on. 5 ciphers with whatever weapons or abilities/talents you like - just use Ectopsychic Echo. At the beginning of each fight the monk goes into battle and gets hit to receive wounds. All 5 ciphers cast Ectopsychic Echo on the monk. The monk uses Flagellant's Path to dash trough all foes, damaging them and lowering their defenses. Then he just starts to move away from the pack while pulling five echo beams as a train. Most enemies will be dead in seconds - also works against dragons if you can time it right and give the monk boots of speed (Russetwood) and Fast Runner also. I think that's the best way to have low micro and very short fights. THis can go wrong sometimes though. A stuck or even dead monk and you have to use conventional methods. But then you can always cast 5 times Amplified Wave (regenerates focus on hit!) or Mind Blades - also funny. If you like more conventional approaches with low micro and good survivability and low babysitting squishies: - Paladin tanky guy (look for "Darcozzi Forward Observer") - Chanter tanky guy (look for "Drake's Ambassador") - Barb with Tidefall, Shod-in-Faith and Sanguine Plate - Cipher with a War Bow (not too squishy, will get swarmed otherwise) - Priest with Painful Interdiction (per encounter ability that is really good for the barb and cipher - spells only when needed. After lvl 9 they become per encounter) OR another paladin with focus on support abilities, 4 weapon sets and arquebuses and quick switch. Focus on "on-kill" or "on-use"-abilities like Kind Wayfarer's or Shieldbearers or Bleak Walkers have. - Stormcaller Ranger (one wet towel is ok - and he has it's own bodyguard bear)

That's weird and I think that this is not intended. Since enemies normally don't wear items with "+x to something" you won't experience such effects when you use Deprive on them. I never noticed that because I play with a full party most of the time - but as a solo guy this can really be deadly then.

PJ, he said he's soloing. So if you could manage the lagufaeth at Langwatch Falls the constructs shouldn't be a problem at all. Something must be wrong then.

I totally love that.

Now this is absolutely true.

They should not be especially difficult and therefore don't need to be nerfed. If you find them difficult please don't go to Longwatch Falls to do the bounty there or try to mess with the native lagufaeth. Maybe you have encountered a bug that used to stack defenses onto the animats every time you reload. But that should be fixed by now - unless you are not using the actual patch. It may also be that your character level is too low (?). Did the hut yesterday with lvl 9 and it went smooth (on PotD with a party of six).

Arcane Dampener also works for removing immunities to afflictions in an AoE. There's also a ring with that.

*sigh* yet another test...

Yes - these monks with their servant paladins and priests are real buggers. You can't even lure them into the lagufaeth - they will just gang up on you and hit you even harder.

Hehe: yes, Interfering stacks. Had them all down to 62 ACC instead of 92. Then I did my barbaric shout: "You can't hit me, nananana!" edit: or alternatively: "U can't touch this... HAMMER TIME!"

What a team of 6 barbs, one with The White Spite, the second one with Vile Loner's Lance, the third with Wodewys, the fourth with The Hours of St. Rumbalt, the Fifth with Tall Grass and the sixth with The Temaperacl would be able to do? I'm tempted to plan another playthrough... oh nooo! edit: Maybe Interfering like on Lost Thayn's Reach also stacks? Will test that now...

Maybe - you should run a test if the overall DPS in an encounter is higher with the White Spire. Oh wait - that's a rhyme! Sweet! The good thing is that you can buy it early. BotEP comes bit late or not? Of course you can always use the White Spire (while you light a fire*) first and then switch to BotEP later. )* just for the rhyme

That's right. Level 6 is a bit early for Stalwart.

Is the invocation that turns you into a good warrior any good against dragons?

I updated the posting. You can do it just as good with Vile Loner's Lance and a small shield. You don't need an empty hand. A durgan refined shield gives you 15% extra speed and more deflection - that's worth it. A good thing is to debuff with a long lasting spell. Aspirant's Mark works really well. When it becomes 1/encounter it will be perfect for this build. At the moment it's 2/rest which isn't superbad. If you start with this the rest of the debuffing will be quicker.

Give us grenades! Please! Ah - and whips! While you are at it...

Hahaha - that guy really plays the squeaky wheel.

LOL! Yeah... sadly I'm too weak to resist. My eyebags look like Sparfel's waterskin... But I'm doing no playthroughs at the moment so that's something. Tomorrow I will start another working project so maybe this will really be the last day testing some builds. And here's the result with Vile Loner's Lance and a small shield (no hammer involved): As you can see it's nearly the same. It also went below 0 a lot but I missed the right moment to take a picture. Whatever - Barbaric Blow is really nice with this (and HoF of course) - and because you can stack a little more ACC on the spear than you could if you were dual wielding spear/hammer you produce more crits - which leads to longer duration of the disabling - which leads to more crits... so long story short: it's nearly as effective. This might turn out to be a really good build even for midgame: not too low deflection, nice debuffing and ok damage. I dumped MIG by the way and did not take Vuln. Attack but still had 30+ damage hits because all of my hits were crits - imagine that with a second damage dealing barb (Firebrand?) in a double team - or even with a priest who casts Crowns for the Faithful and Painful Interdiction - ouch! p.s.: for you I drew another silly picture, AndreaColombo.

I agree. Stunning Shots alone is awesome.

True - but they only have crappy class talents - so there's more room for defensive ones that could possibly raise your chanter near the level of a paladin? I mean you can alwys chant some defensive chants to make up for a few points of defense. And you can always switch chants. Start wit short, protective chants to call a summon, then switch to AoE damage - or something like that...? Ok, solo against dragons is a totally different thing.