Boeroer

Hehe, it's a virus! Tried a dwarven fighter once with CON 20, MIG 20, rest 3,10,10,15. - Constant Recovery (+3 base recovery) - Rapid Recovery (+1) - Cloak of the Tireless Defender (+2) - He Carries Many Scars (+1) - Belt of Bountiful Healing (*1.15) - Bracers of Enduring (+2 CON, +1 RES) - Garodh's Chorus v. 2 (+2 MIG, Preservation) - Ring of Prot. - Ring of Defl. - Old Gerun's Wall - Blesca's Labor (draining, +17 ACC) + all the Weapon Mastery stuff The recovery rate was like: 7 * 1.36 * 1.15 = ~11 points of endurance per tick (3 sec). ON top of that came the draining which wasn't too bad either (around 6 to 8 points per hit I guess). Fortitude went through the roof - nice against disables like prone etc. Will was ok, reflex was bad - but I coulkd compensate that with a large superb shield and Weapon & Shield Style. All in all nearly unkillable as long as Constant Recovery was on. And I had things like Unbending, Unbroken, Critical Defense and so on. Would have liked to have more INT and to do more damage. But truly a real survivor. I could totally afford to take things like Take the Hit and stuff. Wasn't really noticable if your buddies weren't too squishy. Moon Godlike would have been the overkill I guess. Some of that findings went into my Torchlight-II-inspired Engineer build which I'm refining and writing some text for at the moment (amongst others).

That's a plus, you're right. Against dragon's breath or something like that it might save you and your pet. In very tough or long encounters consecrated ground would stop at some point. For that reason I later always had a scroll of moonwell and revival in my pocket. But I didn't have to use them a lot.

By the way: I take it that nobody here knows the TV show "Riptide"? Maybe I'm too old...

Maybe also because the duplicates (Essential and Substantial Phantom) have this skill if you took it. That's two times +25% - and their wands also have more base damage.

LOL - the topic title! I'm always open for experiments and extremes (when it comes to class builds that is) - so go for it and tell us what you find out! p.s.: And there are builds in my mind that would require maxed CON. So no killing here.

I put a lot of points into MIG and INT for some reasons: - max duration and healing of Consecrated Ground - max duration and damage of Tidefall's wounding You can really feel the difference. Once had these boots on a 3-INT/12-MIG rogue and he fell on his face quite often. But it wouldn't hurt too much if INT was lowered a bit and some points went into other stats. PER 10 is a bit difficult at the start of the game - so maybe to improve early game experience you could put some more points into PER. Moon godlike would work of course. Then you would have 2 sources of healing. But to be honest I think that Silver Tide will not be triggered very often. The high INT and MIG lead to a very good healing of Consecrated Ground - mind that it's triggered twice most of the time = twice the healing. While Cons. Ground, once triggered, will give you an constant stream of endurance, Silver Tide is difficult to organize. Sometimes it will be triggered when your pet is at full health - sometimes it will be triggered when your pet is already dead. But all in all I think Moon Godlike would be a good choice.

Bleak Walker or Goldpact Knight doesn't really matter I think. The +25% corrosive lash from the Bleak Walker's talent don't make a huge difference. And Goldpact K. is also able to make the cruel decisions if he's the main character.

I posted a paladin build with 3 INT ("The Dull Runner"). I avoided nearly all abilites that rely on INT - only exception was Lay on Hands because it's great - even with 3 INT. I played that guy from lvl 1 to 14 on PotD and it worked pretty well. But I also have to agree to what Torm51 said: FoD shots are great, but after that your dps will drop a lot. I used him as a caster-slayer. A paladin is good for that: you have to run behind the enemy lines in order to reach the casters - you have to be ably to deliver some heavy blows/shots in order to kill the casters quickly - and at the same time you have to be sturdy if you don't want to get knocked out from (disengagement) attacks while you fight behind the enemy lines.

@rheingold: Sure you can. As long as you have another source of DoT to trigger Predator's Sense you don't need a wounding weapon. We Toki plus Edge of Reason are a great team indeed. I used them once on a rogue. And of course you can raise RES abd give your ranger more defl. and concentration. Might be a good idea if you don't want to wear thick armor. The 3 points - together with the brigandine - worked best for me though. @Blades of Vanatar: Chanter tanks work really well. In fact my incoming chanter build is one. But I played some chanter tanks before that as well. I like them a lot. If you want, I can post that build next - I wanted to post the druid build first, but it doesn't really matter. About equipment: If you want to cover a really big area with your chants, then I would recommend maxed INT, a Ring of Overseeing and The Voice of the Mountaintop (amulet). This makes your AoE very large - which is important if you're in the front row and want to reach all your friends in the back row. Besides that there are no "must have" items for a chanter tank that are different from what other tanks would to use. Maybe the Dunryd Demon helm for +2 INT, but besides that... At higher levels I always switch to "The Dragon Slashed..." because it's DPS is so awesome if you have high MIG and INT. And since it's a DoT it works perfectly well with Combusting Wouds (which I really love - as most of you might know by now). And it stacks - meaning that two or more chanters with that phrase are devastating.

Your level is too low, come back later. And: you need to play more tactical. You should use buffs & debuffs. But basically you're too weak to face these enemies.

Combusting Wounds' damage

That's right. It's a pity that you can't see the damage in the combat log. But maybe it would be too much spam. Melee ranger's still inferior if you don't use some special tactics. Then he's awesome. But still: Stunning Shots is so good.

You don't want high deflection. Consecrated Ground woudn't trigger two times in a row (that's what makes the healing so powerful - it's actually two Consecrated Grounds) and the pet would die. I needed to lower RES in order to make this work. I nearly never went down after I got Shod-in-Faith plus Tidefall. I also tried Vienna's Leaves (vicious) and Drawn in Spring (the only other wounding weapon) with dual wielding - but the overall performance with Tidefall was way better. Plus: Tidefall comes early, Drawn in Spring quite late. Interrupts were no issue - only at the beginning. As I said: they explode after some hits. And if you get interrupted, the wolf's still hitting and killing the target quickly. And this is no full tank. So I didn't put him in the middle of the mob of course. P.s.: they are kinda odd - but also very powerful in their ways - most of the time. P.p.s: It's only 7 builds so far. One for each class. 4 to go I think...?

Naaa shhh! Will you just stop with your stupid valid arguments?

No - seriously no. With a bunch of Concussice Missiles you can just sweep the floor with Nalrend and her gang in no time. And also in combination with Combusting Wounds 18 hits from Missile Barrage are way better then two or four hits with a normal attack. Ouch! And you can put that in between when you're reloading your gun (if you don't use bows).

The ranger Ody Kellen and his wolf (nick: Ryder) were two mercenary buddies from the Saint's War. They decided to stick together and open up a dogfight business in Ondra's Gift, Defiance Bay. After some time they realized that most of the fights where poorly choreographed and they lacked a real champion to attract wealthy, pleasure-seeking and gambling-addicted people. The two friends decided to offer a more exciting bet: they would climb into the pit together and defend a pot of gold against any other two opponents who challenged them. Trained and hardened by the war, they were an excellently coordinated double team and always managed to defend the pot. After some time, they where called Riptide and The Pit Fright and their fame rose. Kellen, who loved to fight at close range with blades instead of using bows, would cleave deep wounds with his great sword. That would put Ryder into a blood rage which nobody could withstand. At the same time, Kellen would watch out for rabid Ryder and heal his wounds with magic he learned from a brilliant, but mentally inept druid. The druid once told him that the Dyrwood was formerly known as the Drywood because it used to be so swampy - obviously this guy was batsh!t crazy. M'Ray Batsh!t Crazy, to be precise. They two pit fighters were so powerful that word of their prowess (and their gold pot) reached the Living Lands. There, a woman who lived near a dormant vulcano heard about the two pitfighters and their big fat pot of gold. The locals called her "The Drake's Ambassador". However, her master, a very clever, fiery, proud and greedy drake (on the brink of becoming a Fire Dragon), demanded that she travelled to Defiance Bay and won the purse for him. "No sooner said than done", said the Drake's Ambassador - and just did it: She went to Ondra's Gift and challenged Riptide & The Pit Fright alone. The two friends answered that a two-on-one would not be fair - but they accepted on condition that anybody could join the Ambassador during the fight. The pitfight started and the Ambassador turned out to be a formidable defender and terrifying warrior who furthermore wielded powerful fire magic. She also was able to confuse and charm the wolf (remember his nick, Ryder?) during his blood rage. He turned against Kellen... who barely survided the merciless (and vicious!) attacks of his own companion. But soon after that Kellen was able to hit Ryder with an unshackling kick in the butt. That brought Ryder to his senses and with even more rage he jumped at the Drake's Ambassador and wounded her severely. Defeat was staring her in the ugly face when she let out a terrible screech into the sky (we could name her Screaming Mimi for that)... ...and Hell-Gyraffe crashed upon their heads! The Ambassador's master knocked them all down and burned their skin and fur with his breath until they finally surrenderd. Man, that really hurt! Not only physically, but also emotionally. Standing inside the remains what was once their prospering, gold potted livelihood, burned and bruised, Hell-Gyraffe offered them a deal: "Go to the Searing Falls, take my Ambassador with you, search the cave of Cail the Silent (who's quite talkative by the way - so maybe he has the same humor as the druid mentioned above) and slay him. Bring me the burning hot stone he hoards - everything else you find there may be yours. Do that and I will give you back half of the gold you lost today. With no other alternative left (that didn't include hard, honest work or some bootlicking), Riptide and The Pit Fright agreed and set off to the Searing Falls. On the way, Ryder peed like a thousand times at the Ambassador's leg until she dominated him with her frightening, monocled gaze and let him fetch dried xaurip poop all the time - which was not too dry because the dyrwooden path was quite swampy... =================================== Riptide & The Pit Fright =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 2.03 -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Ranger & Wolf -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Pale Elf® -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Deadfire Archipelago - Mercenary -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: MIG: 18 CON: 10 DEX: 20 PER: 10 INT: 17 RES: 3 <- wtf? Yes, only three -------------------------------------------------------------- Skills: Stealth 1, Athl. 3, Lore 10, Mech 0, Surv. 10 -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities/Talents (a=auto, !=important, r=recommended): Elemental Endurance (a) Marked Prey® Stalker's Link(!) Predator's Sense(!) Swift Aim® Wounding Shot Defensive Bond Play Dead Weapon Focus Soldier® or Gallant's Focus Vulnerable Attack or Apprentice's Sneak Attack Savage Attack® Two Handed Stylec Merciless Companion(!) Vicious Companion(!) Resilient Companion(!) --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (* = additional echantments by me; ! = essential, r = recommended): Weapon set 1: Tidefall(!)(Freezing Lash*, Durgan Refined*,) Weapon Set 2: arbalest or arquebus Boots: Shod-in-Faith(!) Head: Tempered Helm Armor: Heldrik's Coat®(Durgan Refined*, Perception+2*) Neck: Stalker's Torc® Belt: Bluting Belt® Rings: Ring of Thorns® & Ring of Protection (Ring of Unshackling if you fight against charming/dominating enemies) Hands: Gauntlets of Swift Action® or Gauntlets of Accuracy or Gauntlets of Puissant Melee or Bracers of Enduring Quick slots: scrolls (Moonwell, Revival), potions(Iron Skin, Spirit Shield) and so on --------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings! This ranger build is a melee one. It's dps focus is on the animal companion, which is a formidable damage dealer if you manage to activate all it's special abilities in a fight. So, this ranger's task is to do that as often as possible. In the best of cases the enemy is constantly afflicted with a status effect which allows sneak attacks (in this case called Merciless Companion) AND suffers from a DoT effect. At the same time the animal companion - although he's quite sturdy compared to past versions - should be kept alive while he's doing it's work. And last but not least he himself should not go down. At the same time it would be a big bonus if our ranger would cause some good damage, too. All this should require as little micromanagement as possible. Phew! What a statement of requirements! How can our ranger achieve all that? If the ranger's using melee weapons, he and his pet can easily flank the enemy - that qualifies for sneak attacks. A weapon with the wounding enchantment would activate the Predator's Sense. A draining weapon would heal the ranger and help him to prevent knockouts. That calls for Tidefall. This great word also does some really nice damage (Swift Aim for speed, Two-Handed Style, Savage Attack and Stalker's Torc for the win) and is superb. I also used Vulnerable Attack. Now I think that Apprentice's Sneak Attack might be a better alternative, but it's tricky to determine without a lot of testing. Vulnerable Attack works like a flat +5 damage bonus per hit and also applies when you only graze. But it also slows you down. Apprentice's Sneak Attack might result in more dps, but only if you manage to flank your foes all the time. You decide - I can't say which is better. Glanfathan Stalking Boots would fit nicely - but I just don't have the space for it. Vengiatta Rugia would also be nice - but it's too thin for this build. Well - you always have to make compromises I think. I also thought about putting on Sanguine Plate and take Vicious Aim instead of Swift Aim. That would result in +13% speed (+33% minus 20% instead of +20%) and would grant us +17 ACC in comparison as well as +20% damage. Sounds great! But honestly I still don't know if Vicious Aim even works in melee (description says no) and I like my high attack speed a lot, so... Please try it out if you like and report if that's better - I'm very curious. We also want to hit/crit our enemies and not graze them - so why the low PER? And Swift Aim without Swift and Steady on top of that? Luckily, a ranger with Stalker's Link gets +10 ACC when he's attacking the same foe as his pet - and we always want to do that anyway. Secondly, the foes will always be afflicted with "flanked" for the same reason. That's the same as another +10 ACC (or -10 deflection). Together with superb and Weapon Focus we'll have an effective ACC-bonus of +38 points. Swift Aim is -7, so we end up at +31. That's enough for us. We don't rely on any on-crit effects. I didn't even take Swift and Steady because of this. Talents are very rare if you want a dps pet (but plenty of abilities!). You can take Gallant's Focus instead of Weapon Focus if you also want to buff your pet's ACC a bit - I didn't. The points that you don't invest in PER will be used to max out MIG (buffs Tidefalls pierce/slash damage, Tidefall's DoT, Tidefall's healing and Consecrated Ground's healing), DEX (we want attack speed!) and INT (buffs duration of Tidefall's DoT, Consecrated Ground's healing, Wounding Shot's DoT and Marked Prey). But how can we heal the pet without using scrolls or other partymember's abilities all the time (which means a lot of micromanagement and would lower our own dps)? Our two buddies will stand very near to each other during fights - so we can use the Shod-in-Faith boots - they come with the endurance pump! All you have to do is to lower your deflection a bit in order to receive a nice crit in the face. As soon as this happens, you will get ehaled by Consecrated Ground and your pet will also be healed. Very nice! Now you're not only doing tons of damage together (a rogue turns pale in the face of this damage output) without even using a single special attack! All you have to do is to position your two friends and let them autoattack. Against tough foes use Marked Prey and/or Wounding Shot - but normally you don't need that. Even heavy armored kith will just explode after a few hits. At the same time your double team is also quite sturdy. You can absolutely use them as offtanks. The ranger has a high starting deflection - so the dumped RES doens't hurt as much as you would think - deflection is still around 60. Thats not good, but not superbad for a Two Hander either. Remember that you get healed by Shod-in-Faith and Tidefall all the time. Just watch your health bar. Use DR+ items to improve your survivability because you want to get hit and you will be. The rest of your defenses are like 90, 110 and 70. Your will defense is low - and that's the weak spot of this build: if your pet gets confused,charmed or dominated and turns against you, you will face hard times. You're lucky that you can stand some bites because of all the healing, but it really hurts. You can also be turned and then all the nice synergies go down the drain. That's why I chose the Tempered Helm: it gives you +10 defenses against this at least - while also buffing your defenses against paralyzed and the like. Heldrik's Coat gives you +30 against prone attacks which is very nice because lying prone on the floor will also end the flanked affliction and your pet's dps would suffer. The rest is standard I'd say. It was a pretty powerful build and turned out way better than I thought it would. As I said: they explode! Cheerio!

I guess that nobody finds this as awesome as I do?

Sometimes the encounter starts slightly before the shot falls. Then you'll only have one use left. It has to start after the shot falls. It's best to use an arbalest since it's range is longer. And maybe high DEX helps too. The shorter the animation the bigger the chance that the shot falls before encounter starts. Same thing with all per-encounter-abilities that you can use out of combat: Tactical Meld, Tenious Grasp, Wounding Shot and so on. I used this with two paladins and tried to start encounter with two FoD shots at the same time. If they have the same weapon type and the same DEX and you Pause while giving commands even that works.

I just found ot that all the "Missile" scrolls work with Penetrating Shot (not a big surprise, they are called missiles for a reason) - but even better: they also work with Driving Flight! This turns all your Missile Scrolls into AoE spells. Concussive Missiles is very cool: they explode on impact, doing AoE damage, and continue to fly and explode another time for even more AoE damage. Bounding missiles bounce around like hell. This is - who guessed it - totally awesome with a Ring of Searing Flames or another source of Combusting Wounds: with Missile Barrage (=9 projectiles) you don't only cause 9*5 = 45 extra burn damage to one target from combusting wounds - you cause two targets to suffer 45 burn damage! Whooha! Stunning Shots don't work with this by the way.

Maybe I was lucky - I didn't experience this at all.

If you "console" them with the name gaintlets_of_swift_action, then you'll get the ones that do +15% attack speed. They have a missing enchantment description in the tooltip though - maybe they took them out of the game. I never found them since 1.05 or so. The other ones I also never found. Keep in mind that I accumulated over 1500 hours of gameplay...

Please don't deprive Deprive the Unworthy of this cool feature and don't damp Arcane Dampener! This thing actually makes them worthwhile in the first place. Maybe you could just tweak the duration of both and nerf the autohit of Deprive the Unworthy (there's a bug report for that). That would make them still very useful but not so "overpowered" like it's now.

^ Dammit!

Do you have a druid in your party? With Persistence and all his DoT spells he can stack a ridiculous amount of DoT effects by himself. Well... he won't hit a lot with the bow I think. Recall Agony is a really good point. The damage output of CW alone will get doubled (even if the damage from Recall Agony itself would be tiny) if you combine it with DoT effects. Man... now I really want to try a new cipher build with a wounding weapon. Will this never end?

Firebrand + 20 might + FoD + Intense Flames + Savage Attack + Two Handed Style + Apprentice's Sneak Attack + Scion of Flame + Vulnerable Attack + Ryona's Vambraces = monster burn damage from hell. I think it's 29-44 * 2.55 * 1.2 + 8 = 96-143 for a normal hit and 184-278 for a crit (Firebrand is annihilating). Now substract burn-DR. These aren't exact or tested numbers. But it should be around that value. Too bad FoD has only 2 uses per encounter (3 if you start encounter with FoD from stealth).