mosspit

That's why a "tanking" barb can be designed to deal dmg by passive means - eg Barbaric Retaliation, Potions of Flame Potion, Item Retaliation. Make them less dependent on actually dealing dmg by their actual actions. So less reliant on the concentration stat.

For that kind of rogue, the preferred way imo is still a retaliation based rogue that avoids getting hits - high deflection. Riposte fits this more, rather than the retaliation from Supper Plate and Battleforged as those retaliation involves getting hit. With rogue's low endurance and health, one would run the risk running out of health in an extended encounter even with heavy CON investment which in turn necessitate potions of Infused Vital Essence. I mean one can technically combine the effects of Riposte and the other more basic retaliation, but for stat planning its better to base it on Riposte mechanics. Oh and Defensive Mindweb.

. Does temporarily giving enemies fatique make them lose 10% of thier remaining endurance each time? Do they get that endurance all back after the hachet’s effect expires? Is it basically just a fancy way of saying “temporary accuracy debuff that stacks with everything”? It is a confusing weapon. Previously, I was hitting my own teammates with that weapon, and notice the target will gain back the endurance when the effect expires.

I think it's the other way around - enemies don't have Health pool. Only Endurance. That's the reason why they can "heal" themselves with abilities. And the beastiary only states the Endurance total of enemies, but not their Health total.

Sure I dont see why not. The biggest determining factor is the talent selection so its either 2Handed or 2 Weapon style. Or even both if you feel like it. When I was creating my build, I did 2H in the early game with Firebrand, then transitted to DW and W/S. On the other hand, there are not many situations where you would bother to use both. Other than burst via HoF. I mean you can only use 1 or the 2 style at any one time. So you would probably gravitate to 1 of those styles. If you can foresee which you like better, go ahead and focus on that. In terms effectiveness, dual wield lends better to consistent CC due to natural speed bonuses and 2H for dmg due to the talent effects. Just as a guideline if you wanna to have a starting reference point. You can freely make a dps DW or a 2H CC barb due to the equipment variety. Its very flexible.

OP is probably referring to infestation of maggots, which can easily drop a low fort low hp wizard in a single casting if you don't heal or suppress it. This is also where spells like infuse with vital essence come in handy. Not necessarily. Besides the obvious discrepancy in spell name, Infestation of Maggots has a different mechanics of doing more dmg the lower the HP a character has. I don't see any indication of that situation in OP's reply.

@Archaven: If I may do some self promotion, I just created a unique barbarian build - The Untank. Step in and take a look to see if it is what you are looking for. I guarantee you that it is neither either a hard hitting CC Barbarian nor a Dexterous fast hitting Barb Edit: In my zealousness, I seem to overlook that the build you saw was probably my build. The thing is for a build with dumped RES, there should be be other mechanics behind the build that can handle its low deflection score. Something like good endurance regen. Otherwise you might find the Barb to be a little too squishy.

Haha depends. I play with maim disabled. Means the character will be permanently gone if Health reaches zero the first time.

@Braven: I stand corrected. Apparently my memory failed me. Nonetheless, He Carries Many Scars still has the peresistent regen going for it. And even though the criteria is Health, it still is good for extended fights.

@Braven: For He Carries Many Scars, I actually did some due diligence before creating the build post. Unless my memory failed me, what I found was that the ingame description for He Carries Many Scars does in fact states Endurance as the trigger criteria, not Health. The wiki on the other hand, state Health. And to top it off, Pallegina's Breastplate ingame description with a somewhat similar effects uses Health as the criteria. Unless anyone has knowledge on this apparent discrepancy, I will run some tests later when Im freed up. But if the criteria is indeed Health, it still has a good use in extended boss fights. Glad I piqued your interest I think it is because it is also partly due to the Soulbound nature of the weapon. If Steadfast was lash-able and durganized-able, maybe the crit effect would have caught on faster. I did do a preliminary search but alas I found no good mention on this. That's why I wanted to do a proper playthrough using the Untank build to confirm my suspicion. Indeed Ranger might make Steadfast work, if I'm not wrong "Hunter's Grief" lowers RES too. So yeah, I can't be sure of the Ranger's ability to handle spike dmg unless I have proper playthrough experience to reference. But yes, a high Endurance/Health pool is part of the synergy.

Druid. The animal forms together with Wildstrike talents are just awesome.

@hansvedic There is some potential synergy in the pairing. The Untank excels in self healing and enough Endurance/Health to take a beating so the Untank can handle the spells coming from Bilestomper. Maybe. In this specific, Hunter's Mail could be viable if the healing from corrode dmg can come from a friendly source. I havent tested this, but apprarently I read that Obs changed the interaction of friendly cold dmg and Rymgard's Mantle. So no idea if the changes has spread to Hunter's Mail. Edit: If Bilstomper features any DoT ground effects, it could potentially trigger Steadfast's 20% Restore Major Endurance on hit by crit effects.

@Maxquest: - Boreal Dwarf is definitely viable for a more offensive approach. I will include this. - For Lore 5 and the skill allocation in general, it was just clear the points at lvl 16. The most important imo is Athletics of at least 4 for scripted events and early game healing, and Survival of 14. The rest are completely optional. - I did recommend Swaddling Sheet for Overwhelming Wave proc for normal encounters. I agree that it is really really good. Just that for signature fights, It loses a lot of its appeal since it does not offer any stat increase beyond the CC trigger. Recall agony is nice but I feel like the Untank needs a better item in the neck slot to justify the slot in extended fights. - Threatening Presence is just something I liked, plus I didn't have a Priest. Tbh, that ability slot is quite flexible. Thick Skinned might be a good alternative. - Interestingly enough, I did consider Hunter's Mail and did a bit of research on it. I even went to Mowrghek Ien early to get the armour and upgraded it to Exception. Then I found this post under the bug reports. Turns out the regen effect only triggered by incoming corrode dmg, which really reduced it's usability. I will include Blackwarden's Breastplate for a more offensive approach. @Boeroer: - Executioner's Hood is a good recommendation for trash encounter. I will include it, just have to sub out Ring of Thorns for Pensiavi mes Rèi or Girdle of Mortal Protection with Girdle of Maegfolc Might. - I do have Frenzy via Sanguine Plate. Usually for trash encounter, Frenzy covers most of the battle duration. But Mourning Gloves some useful effects. Tbh, the gloves slot is quite flexible. I will include this too for trash encounters.

[CLASS BUILD] The Untank (The Unconventional Barbarian Tank) Build Environment Version 3.06 with White March Part I & II Core Concept A Barbarian who is built to quite literally facetank dragons. But instead of the usual traditional tank of max'ing deflection through high RES, the Untank dumps RES to deliberately get crit'ed by enemies to trigger various crit effects. In particular, a synergy with Steadfast which is not commonly found in builds I have seen. The stat spread and weapons sets selection enables the Untank to do an initial high dmg burst to adds. And subsequently go into "Untank" mode in which it can facetank enemies via multiple self healing sources and high % healing received, while still dealing decent dmg via retaliation. Inspiration I previously did playthrough that involves a retaliation build that is heavily based on Dr <3's The Anvil. From that playthrough, I had a good sense of how a retaliation tank could perform and was impressed by the build's ability to soak up dmg and deal retaliatory dmg at the same time. However for that playthrough, I still had a traditional Paladin support tank for the signature encounters. After that success Frozen Crown playthrough, I wanted to up the ante by (i) reducing party size to 4, (ii) not having a priest, (iii) playing on PotD ToI and (iv) not having a traditional tank to engage boss in key encounters. I decided on a Barb as a dmg sponge as the class has the best endurance/health pool of all classes. And with the knowledge gained from the retaliation monk playthrough, I started to devise a viable tank build that does not rely on straight up dmg avoidance for its staying power. Personal Playthrough Experience With the restrictions in place, I have decided a party of the Untank together with The Yellow Flash, a Support/DPS Boar Druid and a CC/DPS Wizard. At the point of this build post, I have completed all Bounties, WM 1 & 2, Concelhaut, all Dragon Fights. Whats left is Burial Isle and the last fight with Thaos. There is not much healing support available via the party - mainly coming from the druid's Moonwell, Nature's Vigor, Nature's Balm. Most of the Untank staying power comes from its items and abilities. For all signature fights, the Untank is tasked to melee engaged all the bosses. Doing so against the bosses, the Untank has not been knocked out even once (although the Untank's team mates did get knocked out). Recommended Stats Allocation (Race: Costal Auamua / Culture: The Living Lands) Mig: 21 Con: 16 Dex: 8 Per: 15 Int: 15 Res: 3 Recommended Races Coastal Auamua Enables the Untank to push the limit of dmg and healing due to +2 Mig, and makes it make resistance to prone/stun which can impact the Untank's survivability. Fire Godlike There are items which improve the Untank survivability at low Endurance. Can be considered if you have a Priest as to half keep the Untank at under 50% Endurance more consistently. Pale Elf The added Fire and Freeze DR is nice for a tank built to soak up dmg. Boreal Dwarf * The added accuracy to Wilder and Primordial types is nice for a more offensive approach if one can spare more buffs from team mates Race and Culture Cultural Background The Living Lands (+1 Mig) - Colonist (+2 Surv) Skills: Stealth 2, Athletics 5, Lore 5, Mechanics 0, Survival 14 Recommended Items (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) For Normal Encounters Recommended Items Head: Maegfolc Skull (!) / Executioner's Hood * (Before: Hermit's Hat) Body: Sanguine Plate (!) (Before: Plate Armour) Neck: Swaddling Sheet ® / Hiro's Mantle (Before: Cloak of Protection) Gloves: Gloves of Swift Action / Pilferer's Grip / Mourning Gloves * (Before: Forgemaster's Gloves / Gauntlets of Accuracy) Belt: Girdle of Mortal Protection ® / Girdle of Maegfolc Might Legs: Shod-in-Faith (!) Rings: Ring of Thorns / Circle of Iron (!) / Pensiavi mes Rèi (Before: Ring of Deflection / Ring of Protection) Weapons: Set 1: Bittercut / Resolution / Purgatory (Before: Sabres) Set 2: Strike Hard / Godansthunyr / Captain Viccilo's Anger / Dragon's Maw (!) (Before: Hatchet / Small Shield) For Signature / Dragon Encounters Recommended Items Head: Maegfolc Skull (!) Body: He Carries Many Scars (!) / Blackwarden's Breastplate * Neck: Hiro's Mantle / Rymgard's Mantle Gloves: Gloves of Swift Action / Pilferer's Grip Belt: Belt of Bountiful Healing (!) Legs: Shod-in-Faith (!) Rings: Ring of Thorns / Circle of Iron (!) Weapons: Set 1: Steadfast (!) / Dragon's Maw (!) Set 2: Hatchet / Ilfan Byrngar's Solace / St Ydwin's Redeemer Notable Consumables: Ripple Sponge ® Potion of Flame Shield ® Recommended Talents Veteran's Recovery (!) Stalwart Defiance (!) Weapon Focus: Ruffian Bear's Fortitude ® Accurate Carnage Weapon And Shield Style (!) Body Control Unstoppable Recommended Abilities Towering Physique (a) Carnage (a) Barbaric Yell ® Savage Defiance (!) One Stands Alone (!) Wild Sprint Threatening Presence Heart of Fury (!) Barbaric Retaliation (!) Dragon Leap ® Playstyle Explanation Usage during Normal Encounters Always start the encounter with weapon set 1 dual weapons first. This will ensure that the Untank's deflection is low and can trigger the on-hit-by-crit effects near the start of the encounter. There are 3 notable ones are Conscreated Ground, Overwhelming Wave and Frenzy. Conscreated Ground is to provide sustained healing for both the barb and other frontliners, and with High Mig and decent Int it will have a good healing effect and coverage. Overwhelming Wave from Swaddling Sheet is extremely useful. The Untank's decent PER and INT will increase the chances and landing and also help to ensure that the stun duration is good if it lands. The several seconds of stun can give a lot of breathing room for preparation and positioning. Frenzy from Sanguine Plate has the advantage of being instacast and the Untank do not need to wait for the activation animation, and there isn't recovery after. The advantages can be used to get a better HoF activation amongst other things. Start the battle by looking out for a good HoF activation. Twin sabres setup should translate into good dmg. Bittercut is nice for dual dmg type and Resolution/Purgatory has Annihilation which can further improve crit dmg. Your team mates can help prep the battlefield by using CC effects. After HoF is triggered, switch to a Weapon and Shield set and proceed to tank and dps the remaining enemies. Strike Hard is nice as it has Speed Enchantment which can help with the Untank low attack speed, and Disorienting doesn't rely on a crit for it to apply and will improve the susceptibility to future attacks. Also it doesn't decrease the enemy's ACC so the enemy will more likely hit to barb to trigger Barbaric Retaliation. If there is means to improve the Barb's ACC via support from a pally or priest, consider using Godansthunyr for AoE disable. Captain Viccilo's Anger is also a decent choice. Survivability should not be an issue. If endurance runs low, you can activate Savage Healing or rely the triggers from Maegfolc Skull (Unbending when Endurance is below half) and Dragon's Maw (Savage Defiance when Endurance is below half) Usage during Signature / Dragon Encounters Before you start the battle, camp to get the +60% healing received buff from Survival 14. Together with Belt of Bountiful Healing, you can get 85% healing received. Also besides the usual consumables, you should eat a Ripple Sponage and avoid eating Wyrthoneg. Ripple Sponge is for reducing the RES and Will of the Untank so that the Untank becomes more susceptible to Will attacks. Although Steadfast increase Will by 7, eating Ripple Sponge can reduce RES by 3 (min of RES 1) or Wil by 6. So it is a net gain of 1 Will. Not to mention a usefult gain of 10% Endurance. You should also consume Potions of Flame Shield for added retaliatory dmg. You should start the encounter with Steadfast and Dragon's Maw setup. In many signature fights, bosses tend to have an aura that will consistently pulse to apply Frightened or Terrified debuff. With the intentional low Will save of the Untank, there is an increased likelihood of getting crit'ed by the Frightened or Terrified debuff but a fully unlocked Steadfast will prevent both effects. However, the Steadfast effect of 20% chance to cast Restore Major Endurance when hit by a Critical Hit can trigger even though the Untank is immune to the Frightened / Terrified effects. The pulse rate is about once per 3secs so Steadfast can be treated as a psuedo passive source of Restore Major Endurance that is further augmented by High Mig and the +85% Healing received. This is addition to the other spell triggers of Maegfolc Skull, Dragon's Maw and Shod-in-Faith. This creates an interesting situation where the Untank has enough of an Endurance Pool to absorb high spike dmg, enough stacked healing to heal through it, and enough Health due to Barbarian class health modifier to avoid running out of Health. The lowest health I have experienced on the Untank was during the Lenegrath's battle where the Untank ended the fight at about 30% health. Of course, this will means copious usage of scrolls/spells of Prayers Against X. If you have a Priest, try to avoid casting spells that can improve the Will save of the Untank. In addition there is increased DR effect when the Untank gets to low health (<25%) trigger by He Carries Many Scars and low endurance (<26%) by Iron Ring. These will improve the Untank's chances of surviving the next attacks before the stated healing can take effect. Build Synergy Recap The first part of the build is to leverage on the Untank fairly offensive orientated stat spread for delivering a solid opener via HoF. Once it goes into "Untank Mode", it uses high healing effectiveness coupled with high endurance/health to hold the frontline so that the party can continue the offensive, while still dealing decent dmg via Barbaric Retaliation. In signature fights, te Untank make use of high healing received buffs coupled with multiple healing sources to retain engagement on the bosses. In particular the synergy between Steadfast and Fear Aura is pretty nice and is quite effective. The result of these are that Untank can tank dangerous enemies, similar to traditional tanks but with a different mechanics. This is one of the biggest takeaway from creating this build, and having a full playthrough using it. Special Note - Unlike common recommendations, do not durganize the chest armour piece for the Untank. Reduction in crit rate can potentially interfere with the synergy of the intentional crit effects. - * Including recommendations by MaxQuest and Boeroer based on thread replies. Proof of Concept Below is a screenshot of combat log portion that shows the synergy of Steadfast with Fear Aura (Alpine Dragon)

I think for 1 playthrough, I played Pallegina as a 2H'er. It is a shame if you didn't take Scion of Flames. Pallegina can benefit from most notably, FoD, Sacred Immolation and her unique ability Wrath of the Five Suns. WotFS in particular is quite a fun "alpha strike" ability. You can severely dmg or even out right kill spellcasters at the start of the battle. And if the target isn't dead, it is still under the effects of Sworn Enemy.

Indeed. I remembered my very first playthrough trying to complete the Clyde bounty in Magran's Fork. I kinda discovered for myself FIreball is fastcast, and promptly chained cast and unloaded 4 into the enemy's ranks in the first seconds of combat and subsequently winning the encounter. Even now, my tactic hasn't changed much.... only i do so with shadowflame :D From the first post, it seems like OP is playing with CON 3 casters at an area where he/she is underleveled to be affected by Plague of Insects that much. However, apparently OP is using Aloth, and I don't remember that Plague of Insects being able to incapacitate him in a single casting. So I supposed hyperbole is involved. I mean this whole game is, at its core, a numbers game. Which is pretty much very similar to other games of this genre. The old IE games too. I have not idea what to say when OP tries to paint PoE in a bad light by dumbing it down to a game of coin tosses, while ignoring or not noticing the fact one can actually manipulate the odds. This game isn't for everyone and perhaps not for OP too.

It is one of the loot that is governed by the random loot system. But it is can be manipulated, especially early into the game. - Progress through the prologue. You should not need rest excessively. - Progress through Valewood. You can explore a little but try to hurry to Glided Vale if possible. - At any point in the game, try to make a save and reload at least once. This will normalize the seeding process from what I read. I always do the save/reload in the inn. - Always have your main character to be position one in your roster (leftmost slot). From what I read, changing position will cause the loot table to scramble. - Note the calendar day. It needs to be at 20, hour doesn't matter. Do not mix this up with the in-game days passed. There is some rng involved with the starting day but typically you will get to the inn by day 19 or 20 of the current "month". If it is day 19, just rest at the inn. Which is required to progress the story anyways. - At day 20, go to the 2nd floor of the inn and go the locked container in the south side of the inn map. It needs a Mechanics skill of 3 or 4 to avoid using lockpicks from what I remembered. It should always yield the Rymrgand's Mantle. I always do this just to have the item against early game spirits. At this point, I treat it as a "guaranteed loot"

Btw from what I saw on Dr <3's new Chanter build with regards to Boeroer's comments and the calculation corrections, not sure if Scion of Flames is multiplicative when considering it's effects with Fireball. Nonetheless, the dmg should still be be pretty good.

Yeah that is an interesting concept. I am currently on a playthrough with a modified version of the Yellow Flash so my experience with the build is refreshed. It is not solo but it does have a reduced party size of 4 so the rogue has more opportunities to showcase her tanking ability. From a dmg dealing perspective, it definitely could work. Added retaliation dmg from riposte on top of spell dmg synergy with deathblows makes for strong dmg output. From a survivability aspect, that is where I have some doubts. This rogue should not have any issues with melee deflection targeting attacks. I have done the Roderick and Byrnlod bounties and she can handle multiple (I have seen 4 during Magran Priests bounty) melee attackers on her own with the occasional healing. However, she is still susceptible to attacks from magical sources as there is very few abilities that enable the rogue to avoid/reduce incoming dmg. After all, riposte is actually a dps ability that does nothing for direct dmg mitigation. Couple with rogue's low Health multiplier, I think potions of Infused Vital Essence might be a necessity as there is a possibility of running out of health before enemies are killed. I guess it depends how you gauge the success of a build? After all if things go south, there is always an option of Shadowing Beyond and disengaging to reset the battle should you be ok with that.

I created a build guide a while back which features a rogue riposte build with the Badgradr's Barricade. There are also others giving their thoughts on the idea of a retaliation based Rogue in as posts in the build thread. Might be worth taking a look.

Oh well, if it worked it kinda feels like it will be a bug anyways.

Well, ZF doesn't completely suppress the effects of Blessing. The acc does get suppressed but I remembered the +10% dmg part still goes through. So theres still some merit in using both at the same time. Gallant Focus on the other hand will get completely suppressed by Blessing.

Indeed, was mostly keen on the double Shame or Glory compared to the other 2 faction weapons.

Hmmm I loaded up a save from a while back (1-2 years back) where I sided with the Knights. Also verified Commander Clyver doesn't drop Shame or Glory, neither does Gedmar drop Misery's End.

Maybe Doemenel is a little different. For that faction, you get to choose between Weapon or Gold or wait and get the favor later when you complete the questline. Maybe the weapon spawning logic is different due to the added condition.