Boeroer

It all stacks. I played around with this setup (Marking plus Coordinated Attacks plus Coordinating enchantment) on two front line paladins. They buffed each other (or other party members) with +20 ACC from Coordinated Attacks + Marking enchantment. One had Shame and Glory and the other one had Cladhaliath with Marking and the Coordinating enchantment. When they fought as a double team (attacking the same target), the one with Cladhaliath also got +9 ACC on top from Coordinating (+4) and the accuracy bonus from spears (+5). +20 or +29 ACC from this passive things only is great. It stacks further with Zealous Focus (+6), Quality Enchantments (up to +12) and also Darcozzi's Inspiring Liberation as Torm said. So you might be able to stack +48 ACC on a guy just with passive buffs and +58 ACC with Inspiring Lib. Then you could further use abilities like Tactical Meld and Borrowed Instincts with a Cipher who teams up with your paladin. He would be able to get a bonus of +98. That's quite deadly even for dragons. The buffing with Coordinated Attacks and Marking is very flexible: you can buff whoever you want just by attacking the same target. I also used the Outworn Buckler (and later Little Savior on the other guy) to also stack defenses by +10 for every party member around. Because the two shield's Herald enchantment also stacks. If you give Redfield to somebody else, you can kind of stack defenses to +13 for everybody around. My tinkerings where a bit of inspiration for Torm's refined build now which he tested. Since Torm totally loves paladins I think he's the best to squeeze out all the good things out of this basic idea.

The easiest way definitely is to use Deprive the Unworthy & Repulsive Seal. It's cheese of course (bug abuse), but it's also a very reliable way to keep the dragon down permanently.

Good find! Neither game breaking nor a number one priority bug, but still a thing that should be fixed.

What is your character level? You really have to know how to play the game if you want to kill the adra dragon. Just shouting "Geronimo", engaging and hitting won't work. First of all: use scrolls and potions. It's important to use scrolls/spells that prevent that you get terrified. -20 ACC against the adra dragon is just too much, so get rid of it. Then there are two cheesy ways to beat him: Turn AI on and choose aggressive mode. Stand on top of the stairs and don't climb down. Try to get as near to the dragon without climbing down the stairs as you can. Cast a spell with a huge aoe damage effect in the direction where the dragon waits. He and his adds will turn aggressive. Use ranged weapons and spells to kill the mobs that gather at the foot of the stair. Then kill the dragon. Try not to get breathed at. Keep your healers/revivers in the background in case you get hit. Second cheese: use a paladin with "Deprive the Unworthy". This ability always hits and removes the immunities against afflictions from the dragon. Then use the priest's Repulsing Seal (nearly autohit) to knock down the dragon for a long time. This should be enough to handle him if you repeat that enough times. Cast Repulsing Seal right under him when he's down. If he gets up again, it will trigger and knock him down again. Some tips for your ciphers: use Tactical Meld and Borrowed Instinct. Together it will give your cipher +40 ACC against the dragon. If you combine Scale Breaker and Expose Vulnerabilities and maybe Body Attunement the DR should also be low enough. And use Combusting Wounds. This is really good against dragons. When the dragon is knocked down, cast Combusting Wounds on him and then let both ciphers use Ectopsychic Echo on the dragon.

It depends. Ranger = more micro than a ranged rogue.

I always use them together with Arms Bearer and Quick Switch. Doesn't matter if paladin with FoD, a cipher or a rogue - three or even four gunshots in a row (or when you really need to down that single foe) are just awesome.

Think about this: Island Aumaua + Quickswitch + Scon Mica's + Casitas + Strike Hard. First shot for -30 defenses, second shot for another -5 and then a hit for another -5. Should be doable in under 5 seconds... :D

Talents and abilities that apply to implements also work for your duplicate. For example: if you have blast & penetrating blast the duplicate also has it. At least it used to be so... Maybe they changed that in the meantime. What it also used to have is your equipment but not your weapons. But armor, boots and so on. So with boots of speed you AND your duplicate get +3 move speed. I think that is still the case. Maybe it's greyed out if you already did call another summon?

What? I'm not sure I understand. You mean: sometimes the button is greyed out so that you can't cast it?

It's good against low DR targets and together with Combusting Wounds and Expose Vulnerabilities.

Wow. See me blushing. Thanks for testing this and posting a screenshot. Good thing I didn't say that I was 100% sure. Now I say that I'm 99% sure that this is not intended. AndreaColombo! Please write me a bug report! Torm - it's obvious that this has to be the alpha strike weapon of the Forward Observer...

I'm 99% sure that it doesn't do that. If you hit a second time with any disorienting weapon while the target still suffers from -5 defense from the first hit the duration gets updated but the debuff doesn't stack. So why should it stack with 6 projectiles?

Oh thanks all. Torm - I just thought about your main weapon. If you don't have issues (stylewise) with spears on paladins then maybe the Vile Loner's Lance is also a good alternative to Strike Hard. You can get it early, it has inherent +5 ACC for your paladin and -5 deflection on hit like Strike Hard. Edit: the perfect weapon for the Forward Observer would be one that has Marking AND Disorienting. Unfortunately only one weapon has that: Pliambo per Casitàs. It's too slow to constantly debuff enemies with -5 defense. Maybe a custom crafted Cladhaliath would be nice?

Portraits are no argument. Aumuas can't have facial hair either but despite that there's a portrait with a bearded aumaua holding a mask.

^ Engagement is pretty useless if you don't do a lot of damage per hit. Enemies will just ignore it to reach the soft targets. Don't waste precious talent- or ability-points on that. Even with a build focused on disengagement attacks (did some tests) it's not worth it. He summoned skeletons with Kana, he didn't fight them. It's not very easy to protect glass cannons from being attacked. First of all, they are an attractive target because they have a low deflection and low DR. The AI will try to attack them first. Secondly, they do lots of damage or are casters which also makes them the number one target for the AI. If the "motivation" is so strong the AI will ignore a lot of punishment in order to reach those glass cannons. You wouldn't do it any other way I suppose. One thing that works (besides not having squishies) is if you take Fast Runner and run away if you get targeted. Most enemies quickly realize they are too slow to catch you and turn around.

AndreaC: would you still use the Sanguine Plate once Outlander's Frenzy becomes 1/encounter?

What input? Sounds nice! For this build I personally would skip FoD and concentrate solely on support. In this case Reviving Exhortation. It's a great per encounter revive with a huge range. If you think you have too many riviving abilities: build a barb focused on vengeful defeat.

Haha - Soulpunk... maybe we're witnesses to the birth of a new subgenre. But honestly: when you look at the description of some of the spells - for example druid's, it says that the druid amasses stray soul fragments to form blights. So why couldn't an animancer use this soul fragments to power short-lived constructs? I so loved the spidermines of Torchlight II. They are a little bit like the exploding constructs in Glavino's Workshop - just faster. I say it would fit beautifully into the lore of PoE. And for the "mana" resources: maybe nothing too complicated. I really like the idea that he gains additional "mana" or soul power when a foe goes down, but has some resources at the start of the fight. It's a little bit like the cipher's mechanic, but it doesn't matter who kills the foe. Doesn't have to be the animancer.

Are there buttons with no writing or is it really blank? Can you click in the area where the voices should be? Can you hear the voices when you click? It's a known bug that sometimes the font of buttons or the button itself or tooltips disappear (or to be precise: are invisible) - but you should still be able to click them. If you can't interact at all then this seems to be a different problem.

Don't forget that ciphers do a lot of damage with weapons, too. They are a bit like rogues with spells.

That's a very good tactic - but these are all high level abilities. I think Torm's problem now is the early game (or isn't it?). The Penhelm fight is difficult for low level groups because it takes place in a small but open area with lots of high DR foes that have good defenses. They can take a beat and won't die quickly if they try to reach your squishier damage dealers (if you have some). And they are trying really hard. So - a "classic" party setup with a tanky but non-dps frontline and a DPS-heavy backline is not optimal for this fight (or any other fight against foes that teleport etc.). A party that has no real glass cannons performs better in this case. And if you're level 3 - which is really low for this encounter - you don't have lots of CC capabilities either. Those you have might miss a lot. My overall opinion is that lvl 3 is way too low for Penhelm. Especially if you're doing ToI.

I didn't! Still a good char.

Being a construct raising maniac instead?

Paladin aura + Priest Buff doesn't stack. The rest does. With an hearth orlan rogue and a durgan refined Tall Grass plus buff you can get an absurd hit-to-crit conversion rate.

Shot on the Run might be good then I suppose?