Boeroer

Thanks for the quick answer. I also thought it was Durgan Reinforcement but was not 100% sure. I saw that they didn't stack... and never used them again.

I would also vote for Paladin. First of all you get the chance to boost you defenses just by "roleplaying" his order correctly as the main character. Then - as Raven said - the stats you want fit very well for a Paladin. But you could also take a Fighter. Some people don't give their fighters INT, bt the truth is that some of their abilities do profit enormously if you build a high INT fighter. High RES and PER are always good for a frontliner. To be honest you could use every class. A melee ranger would also be possible or a monk. Even a tanky rogue who focuses on crits. Don't gimp yourself if you have a favorite class. You can make it work with those stats in this game - even on PotD difficulty. For example I did this druid tank and he nearly has these stats (just swap MIG and PER). He turned out to be great.

Nice! Pilferer's Grip doesn't stack with Durgan Reinforcement (or Armored Grace, not sure which one) though. It gets suppressed if you have a fighter with Armored Grace and durgan reinforced armor (as I used to have). I was really sad. Speed from abilities (Frenzy, Swift Aim, Swift Strikes) doesn't stack with each other nor with +speed from potions or spells (Potion of Power, Alacrity and so on). E.g. Frenzy suppresses Potion of Power, Alacrity suppresses Frenzy. Outlander's Frenzy suppresses Swift Aim and Swift Strikes. I never tried if Alacrity suppresses Swift Aim - but it should.

Pure tanks don't work as intended (only with chokepoints), but since you asked for it: Class: Paladin (main char), Shieldbearer (hard to kill as long he has Lay on Hands uses left and is not completely CC'd) Race: Wild Orlan/Moon Godlike/Pale Elf Culture: Aedyr Stats: high RES, high INT, high MIG, normal PER, low DEX, normal CON Abilities: Lay on Hands, Zealous Endurance, Righteous Soul, Liberating Exhortation, Deprive the Unworthy, Healing Chain, Reviving Exhortation Talents: Weapon & Shield, Superior Deflection, Cautious Attack, Deep Faith, Shielding Touch, Bear's Fortitude, Snake's Reflexes Special items: Outworn Buckler Class: Fighter (hard to kill as long his recovery works) Race: same Culture: same Stats: same Abilities: Vigorous Defense, Unbending, Unbroken, Critical Defense Talents: Weapon & Shield, Rapid Recovery, Cautious Attack, Sup. Deflection, Bear's Fortitude, Snake's Reflexes, Bull's Will Special items: Cloak of the Tireless Defender, Belt of Bountiful Healing

In the Black Hound tavern in Gilded Vale: "I saw something weird the other day in Elmshore: A gang of ogres was loitering in front of the cave where I use to pluck herbs when I return from Twin Elms. I quickly hid behind a bush when suddenly a wild orlan came along. He walked right into their midst and yelled: 'Hey guys! I'm batsh!t and you're chickensh!t!" "What? Was he nuts? How did it turn out?" "They are all dead" Badshid Krayth was a young druid from the Ixamitl Plains who lived a peaceful live. But one day, while he was spiritshifted and chased some hinds just for the fun of it, he met a big white Stag. The Stag didn't like Badshid chasing the hinds too much, so it chased Badshid instead and knocked him prone. Badshid's head hit a rock and made a cracking noise - *crack* - ouch! When Badshid woke up he was at home in his bed, his head wrapped up in bandages. He didn't know why, but he felt an urge to talk to somebody, so he got up. When he saw his mother in the kitchen he wanted to say something nice, but instead a stream of scatology emerged from his mouth so that his mother paled and fainted. Years of ascesis, training and meditating were needed so that Badshid was able to talk like a halfway normal kith again. But every now and then he blows his stack and has to flee the angry mob - making him a nomad. It doesn't help that everybody understands "Batsh!t Crazy" when he introduces himself. He's had more angry outbursts than a common barbarian and got more beatings than a ranger's mongrel because of that, but this turned him into a cast-iron warrior who giVES A STINKIN' SOGGY SHEEPSH*T, YOU HEAR ME!?! =================================== Badshid Krayth aka Batsh!t Crazy =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Druid -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Wild Orlan -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Ixamitl Plains - Scholar -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 17 CON: 13 DEX: 08 PER: 10 INT: 15 RES: 15 -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 1, Athl. 2, Lore 10, Mech. 0, Surv. 11 -------------------------------------------------------------- Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Weapon & Shield Style ® Snake's Reflexes Bear's Fortitude Bull's Will Deep Pockets Superior Deflection Body Control Heart of the Storm Abilities Defiant Resolve (a) Spiritshift Stag (a) Druid Stag Carnage (a) Druid Stag Defenses (a) --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (*=additional echantments by me; !=important, r=recommended): Weapon set 1: Exceptional Hatchet & Ilfan Byrngar's Solace (*Durgan Reinforced) Weapon Set 2: Forgotten Tear of the Beloved & Medium Wooden Shield (*Exceptional) OR Scath Gwannek (if you can buy it from Azurro) Boots: Boots of Stability Head: Stag Helm Armor: Blaidh Golan (*Durgan Reinforced, *Exceptional) Neck: Spellward Amulett Belt: Broad Belt of Power Rings: Orlan's Bramble Ring, Ring of Protection Hands: Bracers of Deflection Quick slots: Defensive Scrolls (Protection, Defense, Prayers), Potion of Spirit Shield, Potion of Alacrity, Ashwood Cameo Figurine --------------------------------------------------------------- Hoi - this one is quite easy to explain: this guy is supposed to walk into a mob and disable them. Since druids have fairly good deflection from the start, it's not impossible to turn them into ok tanks. They get a lot of offensive spells but very few class talents that are worthwhile (if you're not willing to invest in spiritshifting). So you can build a very tanky character who still can dish out lots of damage and cause massive CC via spells. In order to do this, I chose a stat distribution that leads to very balanced defenses. At lvl 14, (with gear and talents I mentioned above), Badshid has the following defenses: Deflection: 111 (121 against spells) Fortitude: 102 (112) Reflex: 103 (113) Will: 102 (112) On top of that he has +15 defense against Stuck, Hobbled, +25 against Paralyzed, +10 against Stunned, Petrified, Sickened and Weakened, +30 against Prone, +15 against Push, +30 to all defenses when stunned or prone, -50% stun and prone duration. If his Will is attacked, it's all +10 because of Defiant Resolve. It's really funny if you meet foes with terrifiy- or frighten-auras beause then it's always on. DR is 12/15/17 against slash/crush/pierce - that was enough. I think we can say that he has pretty good defenses without any buffs - especially as a caster. You can choose which one of the defensive talents to pick based on the enemies that will await you in the near future. Then you get most out of level ups. Another good thing is that druids have some healing over time abilities. That way we don't need Veteran's Recovery and stuff to survive all the grazes that will rain down on us. Moonwell is a great spell for this. His casting takes some time, but luckily he can take a lot of beating before going down. And once Returning & Relentless Storm are both on the fight is basically over. A Potion of Spirit Shield might help against too many interrupts that would prevent you from casting. But that's only for big mobs with high ACC and interrupt (ogres etc.). I chose Deep Pockets because I never did that before ( ) and because of Nature's Bounty (since the other two level 7 spells are somewhat useless). That way I can have lots of scrolls/potions and still have room for this nice summoned potion. You can switch that for any other talent - even more defense would be nice. Cautious Attack can make a difference in tough fights for example. I had some other tanky guys in the party (see doen below), so I didn't feel the need. Speaking of tanks: druids can also summon blights. These things can be very tanky too - if you face enemies that do a certain kind of damage that your blight is invulnerable to. It's really funny to see some xaurips trying to pierce your flame blight. And another good thing: blights don't have durations... Since druids get all their spells per level up you're very flexible. You can cause stun, prone, lots of DoT effects (hello Combusting Wounds!), different elemental damage, raw damage, you name it. And because you're standing in the middle of the mob, you always touch them all with your spells. His ACC is not his best part (not abysmal, but not very high), so it's a good idea to team up with a paladin (Zealous Focus) or any other buffer and/or use another char to debuff the mob until the druid casts his storms. If you feel - while playing the early game - that he's still too flimsy and not yet tanky enough to survive in melee, you can always retreat and use him from the back row like any other druid. I don't know if he's 100% able to play the role of an antiquated "main tank" - I used him together with three other sturdy frontliners (Engineer fighter, Leech barbarian and Drake's Ambassador chanter) and two flimsier chars (Hurtstacker wizard and Needler priest) and his performance was great. I just looked up the record sheet and saw that he got knocked out zero times. Zero! Well, maybe that's because I had a lot of tankiness in this group AND was very lucky - but still. When you get Avenging Storm you might want to reequip: put on Sura's Supper Plate and Garodh's Chorus. That's because Avenging Storm works with Retaliation. Which is superpowerful. It boosts retaliation from meh to wow (see doen below for detailed instructions). Ok, this is the last build for now. I'll see what WMII brings up. Until then: hands off PoE! At least for me. Edit (24.06.2016): As I said above, there is a neat >3.0 combination of items and late game spells that work great with this build: - Put on Sura's Supper Plate and any other retaliation item. - Sip a potion of Flame Shield - Cast Avenging Storm: the three retaltion effects from above will ensure that you will not only retaliate with those but also Avenging Storm will be triggered. Once because you got hit - and three times because retaliation works with it. In addition it also triggers when you hit with your weapon. - Cast Nature's Terror - If you have a priest: cast Spark the Souls of the Righteous on this druid - Tank the enemies while you cast Returning- and the Relentless Storm (if needed) All foes who surrounded you should be dead by now.

But until then he could do a whole playthrough. Then, after WMII is out, he's totally fit and trained for a PotD run.

I just discovered that Amplified Thrust (cipher power) still generates focus (that I knew before) AND benefits from Vulnerable Attack! That's quite powerful. I'm just playng a party of 6 with my "special" builds (Dull Runner paladin, Backlash Beldam cipher, Riptide ranger, Fulmineo monk, Mad Hornet rogue and Hurtstacker wizard). The Beldam is also wearing Ryona's Vembraces because of the multiretaliation-focus-effect. So it's a 8 DR bypass for Amplified Thrust. If you hit a low DR foe with it and have Draining Whip and a +x% focus item you will have way more focus after the Thrust hit. And it is fast and does pretty good damage, too. Also good for rescueing your squishies since it pushes foes away and thus breaks engagement.

Funny - never tried that. I always run inside and turn everything that moves into minced meat.

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...