Boeroer

For a kiting group you have to have a chanter with the tier 2 chant "Frost and rhime followed the footsteps of karth". It used to be meh but I used it the other day and was amazed. The drop traps have a high accuracy and do quite some damage and the best part is the hobble affliction that lowers reflex a lot. It works best if the whole group is fast and does kiting (there's also a chant for that) because then the trail of frost traps is really broad and more traps will be dropped. I used that tactic to line up foes, hobble them and then cast some spell against reflex on them (Ectopsychic Echo for ex.). Works great!

Things like the space piglet ot the black hound or zombie cat or mini animat or whatever.

The PET - not the animal companion. That works of course. Especially with the fast wolf with bonus disengagement defense.

You should do some more testing (only if you want of course) because sometimes I have the impression that second chance fails to do it's job. I have a priest with a second chance armour and from time to time I wonder why he doesn't get up after the first knockout. But maybe I miss something like dot damage or the like...?

Bonuses from chants are handled like bonuses from gear at the moment. That has up- and downsides. So you can stack bonuses from chants and auras or prayers and so on (which is nice), but you can't stack bonuses from chants with the same bonuses that cone from gear - like you experienced.

It does stack with sneak attack at least and therefore should also stack with deathblows. But deathblows and backstab won't trigger together I think, because the moment your first attack (Blinding Strike or whatever) hits, you get sbeak bonus and apply afflictions, but your breaking stealth and therefore can't trigger backstab anymore. I see no possibility to apply two afflictions to a target without breaking stealth. Solo that is. With a party and individual stealth in 2.0 it's possible.

Would be so awesome if Ectopsychic Echo worked with your pet... AND if you could control your pet of course.

Fast Runner and also Zealous Charge work. They both work only in combat, not outside of it. The latter is a little bit stupid though, because sometimes it takes more than a second before the aura really starts working. That's the reason why I kicked my paladin offtank and hired a priest with Aggrandizing Radiance. I needed to run behind enemy lines as fast as possible because of 3*Ectopsychic Echo. Priest worked, paladin failed. Monk with long stride would have been my next try.

Man... I played a lot of ciphers and never took that power because of the tooltip. 25 raw damage pfff. If that's per second... rolling a new cipher.

I totally forgot: which difficulty? On normal or hard it's totally ok to do that. I was talking from a PotD perspective. Sorry...

I think he meant that the bonus from perception is missing and that's 8 or 9 defl. if you maxed perception in 1.06.

You get a talent point every two levels. Maximum level is 12. Now we can do the math... Talent points are rare. With a two hander, a fighter might need thicker armour, because he will get hit more often. But that's only if you want to tank with him. If the fighter is not your main tank then he will be fine with light or medium armour. But I have to admit that I don't use fighters a lot so I'm not an expert.

Yeah... then don't buy these talents. It's a lot of fiddling to make them work effectively and even then it's not superpowerful. You can achieve the same thing with spells that lower deflection and don't have to spend two talents.

Rofl... I totally misinterpreted the confused part. Sorry

That's the main reason that dual wielding rogues have better dps: that their special attacks are full attacks that deny recovery between the two weapons. Very powerful indeed. And you're also right about reach weapons. With tall grass and a good hit to crit ratio you will have a very potent rogue that does't get hit a lot.

I never experienced that the game changed weapon sets randomly. Maybe your char got charmed or dominated before? Because then he/she will change weapon sets from time to time. I think they always choose the weapon with the highest per hit damage when they get charmed.

But carnage has less damage - so maybe most retaliation damage will get eaten up by DR since the pierce damage is so low. Vulnarable Attack and stellar might could help a bit. This deep wounds thing is interesting though, because it adds raw damage - so no DR is involved.

Everything you said in above post is right.

Gauntlets of acc +5 and Inspiring Radiance plis blessig or the paladin's aura help to produce crits.

Two weapon categories means two talent points which equals bad. You can of course use two handed weapons with a rogue. I would say estocs are one of the best weapon type for rogues. Dual wielding sabres is king, but the differences are not that big that I would say you would be gimped. Estoc or pollaxe and warbow is a good choice. Or greatsword or pike and arbalest. Sabres and pistols: also nice. I all depends which weapons you will find and how early you can find them. So in my opinion Weapon Focus Soldier is one of the best choice you can make: Tidefall greatsword, Tall Grass pike and Hold Wall (later Aedrin's Wrecker) are some of the best weapons in the game. Plus: you can get them very early. Same with ruffian: Resolution sabre, Jolting Touch stiletto, Oidrwhattheheck stiletto, Disappointer pistol - all early in the game. What use is a superduper item when you get it very late? Like the Purgatory sabre for example.

I agree - Echo is superstrong and you can get it early. That's also the reason Mental Binding is so good. Amplified Wave - with the tactic I mentioned above (I use Painful Interdiction plus Threatening Presence or the cipher's horror-Power) - is also a great damage dealer because it's radius is so big and it often crits. I just send the Barb into the fray, cast Interdiction on his head an then three times Amplified Wave. 75% of the foes die instantly - the rest goes prone. And that's not only during lame fights against wichts or something. It also works with all bounty encounters. They were just ricidoulusly easy.

The weapons I mentioned are all great - even without speed enchantm. With that they will be even better.

Right - I wanted to concentrate on the powers I use mostly. I abused Ectopsychic Echo with three ciphers and a fast running priest that ran behind enemy lines. Everything dies in seconds - really, seconds. But it also requires a lot of pausing and sometimes goes horribly wrong. Since I have access to Amplified Wave I don't use that tactic any more. Amplified Wave is superstrong when you combine it with a priest's Powerful+Painful Interdiction AND a char that can do sickened AOE. They stack, dropping fortitude by over 40. Amplified Wave then hits like a truck because it targets fortitude.

That will work. Even on PotD in 1.06 with Tall Grass my barbarian knocks enemies prone all the time. But don't waste two talent points on Brute Force + Threatening Presence as long as you have another party member that can apply the weakened affliction in an aoe (e.g. a priest with Painful Interdiction). Most foes have way higher fortitude than deflection and minus 20 will not be enough - let alone the fact that Threatening Presence can miss. If you stack weakened and sickened it's working like a charm though - especially on large mobs of relatively weak enemies.

Ok - I tested it with an old savegame in Court of the Penitents against a spectre which I flanked and blinded... . .. ... It works! Not only sneak attack and deathblows, but also deep wounds! The pierce damage is still kind of low (although I also had reckless assault and vulnarable attack on). Best hit I had was 15. After 5DR was subtracted it was at 10 - still lousy. BUT! Deep wounds added more than 16 raw damage on every retaliation. Now that's nice! Rolling a new rogue retaliation build now... :-D Next question: Do Blood Testament, Turning Wheel and Enervating Blows apply to retaliation?