Boeroer

I don't know. If stacking things is a problem, you should just make it so that certain effects are powerful enough in itself, but don't stack. For example: Why does Ancient Memory stack with itself? If the talent itself would do 2 per tick but didn't stack, it would be viable for a single chanter. If you'd have more than one chanter in the party you could just take that talent with one chanter and the others could skip that talent. Problem with stacking solved - still a viable talent. The other is: balancing these regeneration effects is really hard if you use flat numbers. You can make it so that it's ok at low levels - but then t will be meh in midgame and totally useless in endgame. If you balance it for midgame, it will be totally overpowered in the early game and so on. That's why we don't have flat +x dmg modifiers in PoE (some exceptions), but mostly +x%. Regeneration would work ok for the entire game if it wouldn't give you +x endurance per tick, but +x% of your max endurance per tick instead. So let's say +1% max endurance per tick. That would always mean that it takes 100 ticks (300 sec) to heal your complete endurance. Doesn't matter if you have 500 max endurance or just 100. That would be fair. Why should the complete regeneration of a high-con char take longer than that of a low con char? Would also be another motivation to invest in more con, which is still the least importat stat.

And take Armored Grace! It's awesome!

Ancient Memory (0. stacks, that's true. With 6 chanters and Veteran's Recovery (1.5) + Beloved Spirits (0.4) on each you will have a regeneration of 8.7 endurance every tick. Tick rate is once every 3 seconds. So you get 8.7 Endurance every 3 seconds. That's good at lower levels - but you had to use 6 chanters for that (which is quite extreme) and each one of them had to "waste" 3 talents (out of 7) for that. That's not worth it, seriously. 6 times "The Dragon slashed" on the other hand - now that's powerful. You'll do like 700+ damge per phrase while just standing around. Even fire immune enemies will get hurt because it's half fire/half slash. And that only costs you one ability. Why is one talent superweak and the other one so good? If recovery would scale with level, it would still not be overpowered, but just viable. And why these numbers? 0.8??? 0.4??? How about 1 and 0.5. I mean who decided that 0.8 is a good numer?

That's what I guessed. Thanks for clearing this up.

Weapon Focus Soldier is a very solid choice. Great Swords or Estocs - in the end it doesn't really matter. My advice for Great Swords + Fighter is Hours of St. Rumbalt: causing prone and doing extra dmg on crit is perfect for a high accuracy char.

I'm happy that your party composition works. You've put a lot of planning into it and it would have been a shame if you would have died early. The Lagufaeth and Banshees always were the most annoying enemies for me because of their paralyzing abilities. The bounties in WM are pretty tough, too. If you survived that I'm pretty confident that you can do the rest, too. Watch out for Crägholt - and I don't mean the Torn Bannermen outside. The hardest fights in the game (Alpine Dragon aside) I had against these stupid animated weapons inside Crägholt. I tend to use special synergies between my party members - if the enemy is immune to nearly all afflictions (like this hovering weapons) this tactic falls apart. So watch out! Always risky to go into areas that you are to weak for. Lvl 5 in Dyford Ruins is very ambitious for example, hehe. Ok, keep going - long life and prosper!

You can add that tiny animat - then you have 6 dwarves. If you want 7 dwarves your ranger can take the boar as animal companion. Isn't a dwarf technically, but looks linke one...

I was also disappointed when I saw that the first time. Makes this item nearly useless.

So they really nerfed this in a way that it's useless now. Too sad.

You can stack things like Thick Skinned, the talent from the Crucible Knights and Iron Wheel. And food of course.

I don't know. What has the timer of summons to do with saving? I don't know how Unity works "under the hood", I just toyed around with it a bit. But you can't save your game during combat (thant's when summons appear = instance created) and after combat they disappear (you can remove the instance). Then you save. What's the problem? Before the trap nerf the traps also disappeared after some time. They didn't stay forever. At the moment seals do stay forever, even if you leave the map and come back later they are still there. Doesn't seem to be a pproble, but I think that's not a very clever design. Nobody expects hos seals/traps to stay forever if you leave the map. I get it that if you just instanciate game objects and never remove Thema you will get problems with loading. You should remove thema - but in a smarter way, or not? You don't need to remove the old ones with new ones - you can just remove the old ones when you leave the map, rest, after some time and so on.

I am a software developer and this is also my guess. Seems you made an educated one. Thanks a bunch for testing Thick Skinned. In the meantime, I had to cut out skirts from a fashion catalogue and glue them onto some oddly drawn figures. I guess you had the more interesting - and more manly - job. :D

Testing builds is number one priority for me - after I did some playthroughs. That way I get to know the system, I discover what I like and what not and where's potential. I like to toy around with the ruleset and items to find interesting and fun to play builds. When I find something really nice, I will do a playthrough again. Maybe the playthroughs take more time than the builds though. I want to make sure that they not only work at lvl 14, but throughout the whole game. So it happens from time to time that I don't kill Thaos because I know before (after Crägholt for example) that a build or a party composition is working really well. So Thaos can wait forever. Most of the time (with a powerful party) the fight against Thaos is a child's birthday party anyway, so... All that testing is the only reason I'm still starting the game (like... every day). My poor kids...

I don't know if they nerfed it or if the AI responds better now to this tactic. When I used it some time ago, I did the bounty in Valewood only with this thing. I was too weak to do it any other way. I just put the +1 movement chant and the frost trap chant in my songbook, then I ran towards the xaurips/drakes and turned and ran away. My whole party was dropping so many traps that half of the pack was badly injured and hobbled (great for my ranged rogue) when I decided to turn around and face them. I also erased the gleaming society (and deciples of the true flame) with this (added other traps and seals). About your thoughts: 1.: If you're too fast, they will return, that's true. So if you have an insane movement speed you need to run back and forth or run in circles around them. Also works in Crägholt if you're too weak to face them directly. Yes, I just realised that new drop traps will replace the old ones - I think this was nerfed in one of the latest patches. The trick would now be to let the enemy step into the traps before new ones are dropped. This needs way more micro and reduces the usefulness of the phrase a lot. 2.: Never had such problems - but as I said: Some time passed since I used kiting tactics. 3.: Good to know, thanks. 4.: I now think they nerfed another viable (not OP) thing so much that it's really crappy now. Sad story p.s.: I just tested a chanter-barb-combo where the chanter would sing the minus-10-Concentration phrase and the frightening phrase and casts a "Terrify" after 4 phrases. The barb maxed PER, dual wields Godhanstunyr (0.75 sec interrupt, stunning) and Shatterstar (1.0 sec interrupt) and took Interrupting Blows and Threatening Presence. Works like a charm: interrupt-locking all mobs, regardless if I hit or crit. Damage is whimpy - but who cares if I just can hit forever without being hit. So you can still make good use of your chanter now... you know... Interrupts.

Which soulbound item is overpowered? They are all weaker than a fully enchanted (12/12), durgan refined weapon. Only exception is Stormcaller. AND you have to run around and unlock all the good (not overpowered) stuff. The rest of the soulbound items I never bothered to use.

Sorry - sugar gets suppressed. So it's up to +6. Don't know how Fleet Feet potions would work. But I think they would be a good alternative if you don't want to build your whole chanter around that trap chant.

Yes. Use the 1st level phrase that gives +1 move speed and the drop trap chant as a pair (or use zealous charge). Use ranged weapons. Form a tight pack with your companions an start the encounter. Run away with all your party members so that they don't fan out (doesn't need to be perfect)- but don't run too far - the enemy shoukd not turn it's back in you but chase you. When the drop trap chant kicks in, all party members will create traps, not only the chanter. This will result in a very dense minefield. All enemies that followed will get hobbled and suffer some serious freeze damage as long as they follow you. It's the high amount of traps that does this. The chanter alone drops not enough of this. This is a easy way to kite and kill mobs that would normally be to string for you. Drop traps (as all hazards) have a very high chance to hit. You can use one single chanter if you stack a lot of move speed on him. Like boots of speed, chant, fast runner, sugar, The Last Tower and so on (up to +7). Then you do the same but run circles or back and forth all the time. With Shot on the Run, dps invocations and summons this is an easy way to do solo runs, too. I never tried out if animal companions also drop traps. If they do, a party of 5 rangers and a chanter (all have "Shot on the Run") would be squeezing the most out of this.

Whoa... interesting. Would be good to know if the same happens with Thick Skinned or other talents/abilities that give +DR.

They exist and are really useful in some situations - but "finding" your own traps triggers pause (if you chose the option) should really be fixed.

That's right. You can also use a potion of power (+25%) as an alternative. That also boosts might a bit.

Yeah - sadly they don't stack with durgan reinforcement's -15% anymore. But you can get them quite early and therefore they are not completely useless.

Really? Nice! Didn't notice... I didn't pay much attention to fighters lately, I must admit.

I'm also using Linux (Ubuntu 15.04, 64 Bit, Intel i7-2670QM, Nvidia GeForce GT 555M) and never encountered such problems.

Also: Unarmed (and therefore Novice Suffering) doesn't work with barabarian's carnage. Is that intended? Can't be... You will just hit the initial target, no carnage will be triggered. You know how to ruin a talent, don't you?

No problem - this way it always stays on top without me poking it.