L4wlight

Josh revealed some more information about multiclassing:

You know, now we have it confirmed I'm not sure I want it any more (I'm just some contrarian I realise). I love cloaks and all, but sometimes I preferred a character not wearing cloaks because I liked the look of the armour with the cloak or because they made the character look too fancy for who they were, so sticking a necklace on allowed for this variation. I'm just being a fracking contrarian, ignore me, I'm sure I'll be loving the cloaks flapping in the wind soon enough and Edna E Mode can shove it. :D This may be interesting to you: Source: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3807509&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=28

It had something to do with IE Mod. This and the fact that Priest buffs do not work for him/ herself was enough for me to remove it. I was using it only for fast scouting anyway...

That works, of course.

I don't think that Stunning Shots (per Driving Flight or not) triggers "on Hit or Critical Hit" effects. Would be cool though.

It doesn't work that way, if a second target gets damaged by Driving Flight though.

Is it just me, or doesn't Firebug proc at all?

I think you were talking about the belt Coil of Resourcefulness which gives +15 trap accuracy, Mini Quick Switch and +1 DEX.

Yeah it's the same reason why Form of the Delemgan (individual DR buffs) works with univeral DR buffs, making it a really great spell.

I used the /nodam command. Same target/ your save game: 1) hit 2,4 / 12,1 = 0,2 2) 6,3 / 15,7 = 0,4 !!! 3) miss -> (your savegame works) Then I tested it on a normal Carvaner with 0 DR with your savegame: 1) 5/ 25,2 = 0,2 2) 7 / 17,5 = 0,4 3) 6,1 / 10,1 = 0,6 -> (it has nothing to do with the DR value) Now only the third hit (I'm a bit tired ^^) in my savegame at level 2 against 0 DR: 3) 10,6 / 17,7 = 0,6 -> (it works without Driving Flight) My savegame at level 7 with Driving Flight (third target): 3) 3,8 / 19,2 = 0,2 Conclusion: It works only without Driving Flight (that must be the reason why it didn't worked in my previous tests) or at least without a second target getting damaged through Driving Flight (I'm to tired for that last test run).

I created a fresh game (to be sure that it's not a corrupted save game or something like that) and I got the following values: 21,8, 21,3, and 18,6 against 0 DR with corresponding Marked Prey damage of 4,4, 4,3 and 3,7. 4,4 / 21,8 = 0,2 4,3 / 21,3 = 0,2 3,7 / 18,6 = 0,2 Edit: Oh sorry, forgot to switch the language. ^^

No Driving Flight does not work for melee weapons. Driving Flight transfers Stunning Shot with melee weapons to a secondary target (and works with the proc of Badgradr's Barricade).

Good Stuff! The interaction between Driving Flight and (some of the) scrolls is nothing new btw. Boeroer discovered it while he (and I) was testing melee ranger with Badgradr's Barricade back in 2015. It still does. Yeah the damage of the second hit gets penalized, but with a crit build the damage is still okay. Keep in mind that Stunning Shots works with melee weapons now and Driving Flight (from melee attacks), so the secondary targets gets most of the time stunned too. I have good results with my current party. In case somebody is interested: The upcoming build of mine ("Minoletta's Stable Master" ^^) - which I'm currently testing - is a melee ranger build that uses a lot of scrolls. Remember the big bad black wolf on Bagradr's Barricade? It screams "ranger item"! Now that Stunning Shots works with melee weapons, it's very easy to turn a melee ranger into a walking crit machine (melee rangers and their pets can flank very easy --> stun + flank = -40 deflection; Stalker's Link + 10 ACC => profit), resulting in many Thrust of Tattered Veils procs from Bagradr's Barricade on the main and (thanks to Driving Flight) one secondary target. The procs are - thanks to high PER, good base ACC of the class, Stalker's Link, Vicious Aim and the inherent +10 ACC bonus of the spell - most of the time critical hits. Also, Penetrating Shot does not hinder melee attack speed but affects Thrust of Tattered Veil, so I stacked as much DR penetration as possible. Pretty devastating with all those missile scrolls. It's definitely not the strongest ranger build of all time, but it's both fun and effective. Maybe I'll write a guide after my run, because the backstory I have in mind is pretty funny and the char is pretty stylish. ^^ Some things I can add: - (Stunning Shots work with melee weapons now) - Stunning Shots from melee weapon hits get affected by Vicious Aim (+ ACC) - Driving Flight works with Stunning Shots from melee weapon hits - Driving Flight still does nothing for melee hits as such (besides the above mentioned stuff) - there are some more spells that work with Vicious Aim (if I remember right) - scroll of Paralysis for example That sounds pretty cool, but I can't reproduce this.

This guide is mainly designed with a sturdy frontline (2+ other melees) in mind and my actual run is a party run too (I intend to test some more builds in the same run). As for a solo game, yes 10 DEX might be more than enough and you definitely want to do something for your defense. In a dps heavy party on the other hand, you want some more DEX (for the casting routine) in order to even have the chance to use spiritshift at its full potential/ length, because fights are very short (even on PotD). I never felt the need for more CON/ PER/ RES in a well arranged team. You can buff your deflection/ accuracy/ immunities sky high, but you can't buff your casting speed (that easy). EDIT: I'm interested in your results and thoughts though. Feel free to share them.

I'm doing another run right now. I intend to overhaul the guide after that (factor in all the changes from v.3.03, finally write the "buffs & party composition" part, including all the alternative entries etc.). And of course... Thunder Stag inc.

Yes. I agree with you, but the AoE damage of this party was just "fun killing" insane.

Made my day.

Your line-up looks perfectly viable to me. My party line-up was... - Kana (tank for trash; buffs; heavy AoE damage) [as Drake's Ambassadors Consort ^^] - Palleginia (tank for trash/ heavy hitters; single target buffs/ heal; focused damage/ bursting down squishy/ dangerous enemys with Blunderbusses and Missile Spells; later AoE damage; bodyguard for the Tundercat) [as "Missile" General] ^^ - Aloth (AoE damage; focused damage; active CC/ debuffs) [as Zeblastian Hurtstacker Double] - Durance (heal; buffs; debuffs] [as Buff-n'-Heal-O-Tron] - Sagani (heavy focused damage; passive AoE damage; passive CC] [as Storm & Plague Caller] and of course Itumaak (off-tank; flanker) [as... Itumaak!] The damage potential of my line-up was much too high near the end of the game. I think Eder and Grieving Mother could give you a more balanced experience. Edit: You could take out Aloth too. My AoE damge was out of control.

Obviously, many spells of the druid class are different in the way that they reapply and spread damage/ afflictions/ hard crowd control effects etc. over and over again, resulting in accuracy not beeing that important as compared to spells that hit the target only once, so please stop comparing apples with pears. This is especially true for all the storm spells. Set them up with a reflex debuff (like Tanglefoot) and after they stun the enemy once, it makes targets easier to hit on subsequent attacks. I also found my critical hit chance with claws pretty high, thanks to hitting mostly cc'd targets. 10 PER is more than enough imo. For this build at least. Edit: And don't mistake this build as a pure caster build. It's a melee build that uses mostly storm spells and other preperational stuff to set things up. It's more of an obligatory chore you have to get done before you can jump into action. Sure you can switch the values of DEX and PER if you like, but you'll need much longer to fulfill your caster dutys. Even on PotD difficulty the fights are pretty short. Keep this in mind.

I described the reasoning behind the particular attribute ratings - in detail! - in the note-section. And I tested it on PotD and never got owned once. In fact, this build plays like a demi god. Sure the start can be bumpy, but that's not unusual for a lot of builds... If you really think that you need an above average accuracy to hit anything on PotD, then maybe you should learn to make proper use of buffs (you can buff your accuracy sky high) and debuffs (this build keeps all enemies on screen stunned for eternity after a simple reflex debuff...). Also, both RES and PER are the most easy attributes to buff.

True. It was the golden decade of cartoon animation.

Really? Well... If anything, Thundercats is a childhood nostalgia memory of mine.

Oh yes, I had to lern it too. This one and "The Erlking". Anyway, nice build. In a party without a Blast Wizard you could even give the Golden Gaze to the Sorcerer's Apprentice and switch to the "main" weapon of choice after Expose Vulnerabilities procced (great synergy with all the "missile" like scrolls), at least until you get your hands on Acuan Giamas.

Which game version do you have? In 3.2 Overwhelming Wave only procs once from Swaddling Sheet, but there is still some kind of bug, that makes it hit every foe two times. But this is true for all Spell-Holding items. Once this bug is fixed I think it will be more balanced I guess. Also keep in mind that, if you get this item as soon as possible through save scumming, it is your own decision to use it that early, but the game clearly wasn't balanced with this item in mind for the first stages of the game.

I guess that, if you factor in all possible group buffs and debuffs/ disables, it seems to be more unfair for the enemies than for the player.