Boeroer

You can run past them if you are really really fast. A +6 move speed lets you outrun even the annoying monks in that area. It's still supertricky because they will not stop chasing you until you a) drop some summons and b) run towards the entrance of the tower where mercs and undead will battle each other while you escape to the entrance of the tower and wait (out of sight) for the encounter to stop. That might take some time. After that you can enter the tower. Obviously this is more an option for solo players since it's nearly impossible to do with 6 guys at once. Maybe you could do it one after the other (handing around boots of speed when you reached the entrance) - but I doubt it.

I just think nobody thought that you could sneak that far.

If you want to use guns you don't really need that much DEX. Your reloading chant (Sure Handed Ila) and the talent "Gunner" will do more for your attack speed than 4 points of DEX. Leave it at 14 and put 4 more points into INT. Together with an overseeing item (gives you +10% AoE - Aloth's leather armor or a Ring of Overseeing) and The Voice of the Mountaintop (+20% - they stack) you can cover a huge area with your chants - and your invocations will also profit from that.

It's called "Threeconresphobia".

Ah - ok. Not sure if the devs see it that way though.

I really hope so. Would like to see flat boni/mali on armors, not percentage based ones. It's a good system for weapon damage - but really counterintuitive for armor.

RES plus a shield also helps if you don't want that your priest gets targeted and swarmed all the time.

Yes, you can also have this dialog option. But I also remember that I killed him and he dropped it - but maybe I don't remeber correctly or this was changed. Or both. Sorry for the misinformation.

That's right - although after a playthrough with 6 rogues I find the on-crit-effects to be not very reliable. Even with a hearth orlan crit build. But it's a really nice and powerful bonus if you don't rely on it too much. A cipher with a Blunderbuss and Quick Switch plus Body Attunement does awesome single target dps by the way. Blunderbusses have the highest base damage of all weapons - if you ignore DR. So every way to lower DR greatly improves the performance of a blunderbuss (as you can see in my Engineer Build where Sundering Blow and a Blunderbuss do awesome things). Another plus of the blunderbuss: there are two very good uniques in the game. One is Scon Mica's Roar that lowers the enemy's defenses by 5 per hit. And it stacks! So if you hit 6 times he will have -30 defenses (I'm sure this will get nerfed but still). Then there is Lead Spitter which has 7 DR bypass. So a quick switching cipher could cast Body Attunement, fire Scon Mica's Roar for huge damage and tons of focus, then switch to Lead Spitter and fire again (and most of the time cause 6 crits) for more damage and again tons of focus. Most of the time your focus is maxed now and you can start casting a lot until you have to use the last two shots. Tested and approved. You are ablolutely right about the ciphers though: They don't want to fire all the time but from time to time to recharge focus. I think a blunderbuss can be one of the best weapons for that. Since you just need to fire between casting 4 shots from a blunderbuss (or pistol) are more than enough focus for a fight AND do a lot of damage. You have to concentrate on low DR targets or lower DR by yourself or with a comrade (Body Attunement, Expose Vuln., Sundering Blow etc.) though. But if you do that you will have very good damage and lots of focus. I also wouldn't dump RES and CON to 3 on a blunderbuss cipher. The range of a blunderbuss isn't too big and you will get targeted from time to time. A thicker armor also doesn't gimp you as much if you quick switch guns: if you switch right after a shot your recovery will be really short - doesn't matter which armor you wear. I do this all the time with my paladins and I really don't know why it is the case - but you can skip recovery if you switch right after a shot, before the recovery bar appears. So there's no reason not to protect your quickswitching blunderbuss cipher with an armor. However - like others I also would try to max PER since ciphers have not the best ACC and blunderbusses have the biggest ACC malus there is. Since I would go for Island Aumaua this cipher also wouldn't have the advantage of a wood elf. On a ranger or rogue I agree with you that other weapons are better for pure DPS or even CC. The Stormcaller Ranger or a ranger with Persistence are really great. Rogues - as you said - are really good with all these on-crit weapons. But I warn you to use Sabra Marie: all this confused enemies can be really annoying in not so tough fights.

Funny - for guns/bows/MIG/DEX I would recommend the opposite. Especially if you want to use quick switch. But this doesn't matter too much. It also depends on the weapon you're actually using. For example with Stormcaller you want to shoot as fast as possible. Besides that I would also take a cipher. With one talent he can get +40% damage - nearly as good as the rogue's 50% BUT it always works, not only if enemies have certain afflictions. Their powers can do lots of stuff. Crowd Control and buffing/debuffing are very important parts of PoE combat - much more important than damage. And with a cipher you can have both. Cipher is also a class that can make good use of blunderbusses. They have a power that lowers enemies' DR by 7 and give it to themselves. Combined with Penetrating Shot and the inherent 4 DR bypass of blunderbusses a cipher can overcome a DR of 18 (21 with Ryona's Vambraces, 24 with Lead Spitter). Take an Island Aumaua, Quick Switch and Arms Bearer and you can always shoot at once when you need focus - and your shots will be devastating. One of the 4 blunderbusses can be a pistol that also hurts very high DR targets. Another plus of cipher+blunderbuss: there are drugs that give +x focus per hit - and since blunderbusses hit six times with one shot... A rogue will do more direct weapon damage and a ranger has some means of attacking different targets at once while also doing lots of direct damage. And he can make use of Stormcaller which then forms one of the best builds in the game. But nobody says you can't have both in the party: some of the companions you meet can be a blunderbuss cipher and a stormcaller ranger. Conclusion: cipher

True - better if you have a full party. And even then it's not very easy.

Huh? What does "passive bonus" mean? If you have to cast it it is considered an activated bonus? Then Reinforcing Exhortation is active and not passive - isn't it?

If you kill Osric (Expedition Hall) after retrieving his breastplate he should drop it. The Doemenel manor is full of gems, money and arquebuses. The backer druid Visceris that stands around in Copperlane drops a stag helm (+1 DEX, +2 Athletics).

Maybe because then it would make not a lot of sense to take both special talents of the Shieldbearers - which would be kind of sad. All other order specific talents can be used together. It would gimp the Shieldbearers a bit if this didn't stack. But this is just a guess.

That's not a bug. DR bonus/malus on armor is calculated in a complicated way that's totally unintuitive. Basically there are %modifiers that apply after your enchantments are added. So let's say there's an armor type that has a -50% crush mod. in general. It's base DR is 10. So it's crush DR would only be 5. If you enchant it with crush proofed it will have (10+3)*0.5= 6.5. That would be rounded up to 7. I don't know if this is the exact math they do - but kind of.

It can be done - but it's not very powerful and not very reliable. You will have a sturdy guy who improves his slow attack rate with a Riposte from time to time. What I did was also to stack as much +def against disengagement attacks. You can take Fast Runner (+5), Graceful Retreat (+12), Cape of Withdrawal (+15) and the chanter's phrase (+10) for a +42 deflection bonus against disengagement attacks. Then you take your riposting rogue and run around the mob in circles to force diseng. attacks. Most of them will miss, triggering a Riposte from time to time (it's only a 20% chance, that is really bad). But at least you keep them busy while attacking from time to time. He also had the ability that turns 50% reflex-based grazes into misses what gave him good defenses against AoE too. Maybe with the Alia Bracca shield that reflects all ranged grazes and the GOlden Scales that reflects 25% (durgan reinf.) of all ranges attacks this would be a funny build. "Come on, hit me! Hit me!"

Yeah - I even have one standing in the corner of my bedroom...

Lvl 7 to 9 I'd say. Maybe 10. If you are of higher level it gets boring (except the bounties which are still difficult enough - and a certain winged reptile of course). Crägholt however is tough even for lvl 11.

Yes, cutscene will follow. I also tried it as a bleak walker paladin (PotD) since he will get some points in cruel/aggressive for this. But I never succeeded. What did work was a monk (with Torment's Reach) and a wizard. Chanter seems to be the easiest way. Never tried ranger - but since you can kill the bears solo withj a ranger I think the caravan may also be possible. I think a paladin has just too weak offense and not enough defense yet at this point.

The Adra Beetles? Chantgarden? Queen that was? Dyrcap Hill? Soul Temple Pilots?

What was that? I chose the stag form for my druid tank - since I never ever used it... Cat form would be very nice for a Spiritshift damage dealer - if the duration was longer. When Outlander's Frenzy becomes 1/encounter in 3.0 it would also be a nice talent for spiritshifted druids, esp. cats. They dish out lots of damage and have a high base speed. with +25% and more MIG they will even do more damage.

No, they are really tough. They are casters with powerful spells, they have very high ACC, 10 DR and tons of endurance. If you can't disable them at the beginning of the fight or give them a "sacrifice" like a summon and then kill them quickly you will experience a tough fight. They also like to snipe your squishies with Stag's Horn.

Ohhh - grenades! Love that!

That would severely limit the variants of viable builds and I don't think and hope Obs will do that. The main reason I still play this game is the fact that you can build all classes in very different and still effective ways.

Hehehe. There are some other bugs that are more like features I would like to keep.