Boeroer

I agree. I love the freedom of classless systems. That's because I like to do builds and with a classless system the different combinations of skills are nearly endless. But as you said: you need deeper skill trees for that or every char will look the same somehow because everbody will only cherry-pick the best skills - if you don't have trees that force you to specialize a bit. But I also like the restrictions that systems with classes give you. You can try to be very creative in order to break the inteneded role that class is supposed to play. ANd it's great fun to find working builds that don't do what the commmon conception of a class does. And therefore I welcome cross-class-talents because they allow you to bend the rules a bit. They are only bad and break the system if there are too many. If you could just pick one - but that one could be any of a foreign class at the appropriate level - that would be ok for me. It would open up so many possibilities without breaking the class system. But that's just my personal gusto.

DEX 3 is a no go for me (these superslow hits just make me throw a tantrum ). I could do that while retraining at lvl 13 when you get Sacred Immolation and don't need to autoattack any more. But on the other hand - game's basically over then.

Yeah - it's pretty smart to dump INT (thehe). Since you are alone, nobody other than you will enjoy your auras. May I ask why Goldpact and not Bleak Walker? That way you would even get Faith-and-Conviction-bonuses for being cruel. Or is the burn DoT of the Goldpact Knights so good? I only had Darcozzi Paladini and Bleak Walkers so far and liked the extra corrode damage (together with intense flames) when doing two FoD alphas from arbalest & arquebus to erradicate hostile casters first. But I never did solo with a paladin so maybe you just don't have enough talent-/ability points to spend on that special talents anyway...?

I think we all agree that the recommended stats are for run-of-the-mill builds only.

THat's why I said blunderbuss + cipher drug (Carow Golan). You get +4 focus per hit. Blunderbuss hits 6 times - that's 24 focus per shot on top of your normal focus that you get from soul whip's damage. Even against high DR foes you will receive 30 focus minimum per shot. With quick switch and three weapon slots you can get over 100 focus in a few seconds against high DR foes. Against low DR foes you don't need Carow Golan with a blunderbuss. The weapon tiself has 4 DR bypass, then use Penetrating Shot (+5 DR bypass), Ryona's Vembraces (+3) and use Lead Spitter for one of the shots (+3). So you will end up at 12 or 15 DR bypass. So, for everything with more than 1 DR you can use Carow Golan, for everything else don't. Blunderbusses are great for ciphers if you use them that way.

He isn't playing on PotD so 10 PER is totally ok.

On higher levels focus generation against mobs is not a problem. With an exceptional warbow and The Unconquerable amulet you also get enough focus to cast Amp. Wave after two shots. AS brindle88 said: you just have to pick the weakest targets. Or take quickswitching blunderbusses + cipher drug.

With the introduction of immunities a lot of enemies are now immune to prone. But basically you are right. I don't know why the spell has such a big radius. That's the thing that makes it so good.

Druid with Returning Storm, Relentless Storm and Spiritshift+Wildstrike Shock is your best buddy. Also has lots of dot spells that help your pet with Predator's Sense. Wizard with some shock spells is also nice. A chanter with The Dragon Shlashed also triggers Predator's Sense - but he has only poor shock based invocations. The Sure Handed Ila chant is good at lower levels, but I quit using it after I got the two good, fire based lvl-3-chants. A dual wielding monk with Lightning Strikes and a shocking lash on his weapons might also be very happy to engage the foes that Stormcaller hit. The faster he attacks the better the effect. His 50% shock damage against 0.5*(shock DR - 6) will be great since most of the time this means very low DR - especially against foes in plate.

That's absolutely right. And you'll never know what the game is doing "under the hood" while you test that things. Some console command to trigger some debug output would be nice.

Are you sure about hitting? I think you don't have to land a hit to trigger engangement. For example: a fighter with 5 engangement slots (1 + 2 Defender + 1 guarding weapons + 1 Hold the Line) will engange the enemy that he directly targets first and then the other 4 arrows will appear automatically - enganging nearby enemies. You don't have to hit them all to engange them. If you can't engage while constantly stepping onto the heels of a fleeing enemy then I'd say that's a bug and not intended behaviour. I also didn't experience that a lot. But I have to admit I didn't pay a lot of attention to my own disengagement attacks lately. Maybe I will do a test today with a fighter, a reach weapon and 4 or 5 engangement slots and see if the system is totally screwed up.

No rest for the builders!

I would suggest Shatterstar and Godansthunyr. Both have (secretly) higher interrupts than normal war hammers. I don't know why, it's no official enchantment, but they do. Normal ones have 0.5, Shatterstar has 1.0 and Godansthunyr has 0.75. On top of that, God. has stun on crit. With the high interrupts you don't need to attack superfast, since 1/0.75 seconds per interrupt is very long. You can allow yourself to even use Vulnerable Attack. Also: Shatterstar comes quite early. Take Interruping Blows, Threatening Presence (lowers concentration of enemies a bit) and use Barbaric Yell/Barbaric Shout (dito) OR a chanter with the -10 concentration-phrase plus terrify-invocation) and you have a nearly perfect interrupt build for your barb. DPS is not superhigh, but ok. I tested that two days ago together with said chanter and it's great!

I just had the following idea: why not let other classes pick one (just one) original ability from another class. So, for example, one could choose to pick Lay on Hands OR Zealous Focus OR Faith and Conviction and so on at the appropriate level (or maybe original lvl +1). Or choose carnage OR Frenzy OR Barbaric Yell. That would lead to very flexible builds and still be a unique system - no real multiclassing (that messes everything up). You don't even need to invent new "multiclass" talents. Just define which one could be picked by other classes at certain levels. Fighter with carnage, Chanter with Flames of Devotion - such stuff. edit: Yes, a classless system would be my dream, but classes are also ok.

It's not too powerful. It's just not crap like some of the others. +4 ACC may be good at the start, but after some levels it hardly matters. Remember: the dice that are rolled are d100. So +4 ACC alone can make a difference, but doesn't very often. The paladin's aura not only gives +6 ACC in a bigger aoe, but also does graze-to-hit conversion and hit-to-crit with a second talent. My (maybe provoking) question is: why are these "multiclass" talents weaker than the originals in the first place?

I just don't sleep anymore. That way I'm able to do a lot of playthroughs and builds.

Looks great for a Stormcaller Ranger. You could even go for Penetrating Shot instead of Apprentice's Sneak Attack if you want to really demolish high DR foes quickly - but I also did it without Penetrating Shot. Slowed down my Returning Storm generation.

With a priest!

At the moment the shock base damage of Stormcaller doesn't get affected by Heart of the Storm (same with Bittercut/corrode and Firebrand/burn). AndreaColombo filed a bug report. Hopefully this will get fixed soon. As for the Returning Storm from Stormcaller: I really don't know. Never tested that myself.

Ah, right. ZF and scroll of valour don't stack. Inspiring Radiance in the other hand stacks with everything. So do marking weapons and Coordinated Attacks.

There are some. For example the DR of animal companions. Was introduced because they died too quickly at higher levels. Same with Spiritshift Abilites.

You could add Zealous Focus and Inspiring Radiance for +10 coolness though.

Right - forgot that, sorry. Good point with the damage types. But there's just two foes in the game that are immune to pierce and shock st the same time - if I recall correctly.

Stormcaller is a hunting bow - you need WF Peasant for that. Stats are OK. You could dump con to 3 and put it into INT for higher stun/wounding/marked prey duration. Twinned Arrows, Stunning Shots and Driving Flight(!) are perfect for Stormcaller. That way the Returning Storm triggers superoften and you hit more foes with the -6 shock DR effect with a single shot. If you want even more DPS, don't waste talent points on smth. rel. weak like Apprentice's SA, pump your pet instead. A Wolf with Vicious, Resilient and Merciless Companion plus Predator's Sense is a DPS monster, especially if you use wounding and stunning shots. I also strongly recommend Stalker's link. There's a torc that adds +20% damage to that talent.

But that's always reserved for the barb.