mosspit

Oh I think you will like the White Crest Armour then White and Shiny for a Knight in Shining Amour. Otherwise the Crusader Armour that the Knights of the Crucible wears is not bad too. More "realistic" I think. I took Apprentice Sneak Attack instead of Savage Attack. It's just me, I don't like having ACC reduced if I can and ASA seems like a better alternative to me in comparison. For me the atk speed is acceptable. However bear in mind, I don't wear plate on my cipher so I have about 20-25% less amour penalty. Should be close though - I couldn't loot Gloves of Swift Action and was wearing some other gloves. To me there is an ok distribution of spellcasting and melee attacking, roughly half each. But it is still subjective as I can't provide you with the exact total time spent autoattack and spellcasting. Tidefall is one those weapon I will fit into my party if I can. It is found pretty early with Superb quality, dual dmg source and comes with Draining and Wounding - 2 useful enchantments. Just slap on an elemental lash and its pretty much all set until durgan steel. Cant remember if there is any room for Legendary quality though.

It is good to have a discussion on Defiant Resolve. I remembered seeing it a while back. In my opinion, that is a lot of prep work to activate Defiant Resolve. The common discussion point is during Dragon fights. Their fear/terrify aura attacks Will and procs Defiant Resolve just by staying in the vicinity. It is an aura so it will pulse every few (3?) secs. Needs verification, but if Im not wrong Protection against Fear will nullify or prevent the fear/terrifiy effects while still enabling the Defiant Resolve proc.

@OP Didn't really track this post since you were in the capable company of Boeroer. But Im kinda surprised you landed on the Tidefall configuration. I would have expected Blade of the Endless Paths to be somehow chosen. I have used a 2H Cipher wielding Tidefall in a previous playthrough, so maybe I can drop my 2 cents. Both stat spread with 7Res and 12Res can work. I guess it is a matter of how you engage the opponent. It is up to the playstyle you are comfortable with, but you can start the battle with a CC like Blindstrike first and engage the debuffed enemy. A few levels later, you can open with Psychovampiric Shield before engagement. Both dont really help with your Concentration stat per se, but can indirectly help prevent interruption due to the debuffs. At a later stage, the starting focus might not be enough to cast the really effective spells. So you might want to engage first to build up some focus. The good news is some of the solid spells (that I personally like) are fast/instant cast. Borrowed Instinct and Body Attunement are fast cast so no "spell prepping" period, Defensive Mindweb is instacast so no "spell prepping", casting animation and recovery period. Fast and instacast means less chance of being interrupted even if you are in melee engagement. Noted that the observation is from game experience and not done via frame counting on capture software so consume with a grain of salt. I also like using Tidefall due to the Draining enchantment which help with the char's staying power, even though the Wounding effect doesn't generate focus. In terms of armour, I can suggest Wayfarer's Hide and Vengiatta Rugia. Wayfarer's Hide is close to the level and game progression where Tidefall is available. It comes already in Superb quality so it quite close to the DR provided by Plate (11DR compared to the normal plate of 12DR), but with less speed penalty (I think it is either 25% or 30%). Its spellbind is also useful for improve staying power. Vengiatta Rugia is a nice late game armour. It comes already Superb (and 30% speed penalty from memory) and also with Flanking Dmg bonus. Which means you can skip Glanfathan Stalking Boots for something. The retaliation effect is meh though.

Lol I just got the Annihilating mod from wiki. Apparently that is not updated. Oh well.

Personally I have not done a single handed build so I can't really comment based on personal play experience. But in terms of builds, I know of this barb build from the build stickied post. Barb has better mileage on on-crit effect due to the propagation of the effects via Carnage. It is like a consistent small-to-medium sized AoE CC on autoattacks.

I kinda agree but I wouldn't say it is wrong. But rather there is no real foreboding of how powerful those npcs are. I mean they are in no way impossible to fight - but some of the prep work I see in order to take them on is similar to the prep for boss fights. And afaik I didn't notice any indications in Lore or dialogues that suggest that they are that tough. Also not denying that there are fun and/or challenging. Some clearly clearly like the difficulty spikes. I think this area is one the places that developers cater for hardcore or seasoned gamers (plus they made it kinda optional via the diplomatic route). Maybe this area and those spirit ambushes in WM1 is to address the lack of difficulty of PoE as compared to the good ol' inifinity engine games.

1. Well the weapons that give acc bonus (unique weapons nonwithstanding) add 5acc and one handed style give 12acc by default. So technically you can dump Per and still kinda function similarly to a non-dumped version. However, most of the rogues strike abilities are full attacks (uses both main and offhand weapons). So if you decide to have a alternate weapons set with 2 weapons, you lose 12acc. Or if you dont, you miss out on dmg. So it is not a very popular style choice for rogues. Also note that your attack speed will be slower than 2 weapon style (durganized and non-durganzied) and weapon and shield (durganized). 2. To me, you can divide the weapons into 2 types spell striking or on-crit cc effetcs. Spell striking we have Azureith's Stiletto, Starcaller, Bleak Fang. They normally give spell effects once per enounter. For the cc effects, we have Cladhalíath (choose stun-on-crit enchantment), We Toki and Godansthunyr. In White March, spellchance weapons (tehnically not crit only) are introduced and there are Wodewys, Vent Pick, Unlaboured Blade, Nightshroud. Another effect that is technically crit related is Annihilation (+0.5 crit dmg) and we have Purgatory, Resolution and Shatterstar. I guess Cladhalíath is quite attractive as its a spear (+5acc) and you can get earlier than the other prone/stun on crit 1 handers (potentially in act 2 if you side with Dozens).

Oh nice, didn't realize it can be stacked. Its not something I cast often and even then I left at 1 cast. Good to know.

Several directions? Can you elaborate? Yeah I tried the variant on the White Crest Armour and it kinda sucks. As you say, its non Foe AoE, and it has quite a long casting time. So by the time I aim it and cast, the foe would have moved. And the cast time means chances of interruption is high. The Swaddling Sheet variant is immediate. So now my barb gets Conscreated Grounds, Frenzy and the "improved" Overwhelming Wave almost at the start of every battle. Pretty good! And no idea if its just me, but most the time the wave seems to move in the direction which can hit many enemies. Or maybe just my imagination, and it just goes the opposite direction from which the wearer is facing.

I faintly remember it is combat only. You are thinking to suck every stat to get a +10 to all stats Cipher? (And another sorry sod of a party member )

For me on the PC, I can highlight the pet and "Ctrl 7" if it is a 6man party. Press 7 again will select the pet. Technically 8,9,0 should work but I never tried those.

I think this area was designed to trick gamers to underestimate the power of the those npcs there. First time I did that area, I did the diplomatic route and got ambushed by the Low Tide guys near the centre. I mean how dangerous could "Low Tide" be?.... I had to retreat into a cell to turtle up as 2 of my party were knocked out in the first 10secs. Recently, I did a playthrough but went to unlock the room with the Salt Well. I didn't know it will turn the whole area hostile... and it did. Barely made it out via the mountain ledge route. The 2 toughest aspect is the - Composition: Monks, Priests and Pallys. Monks able to do Flagellant's Path, Force of Anguish, and Dichotomous Souls. Priests can do Crowns of the Faithful. - AI: The monks and pallys at least are scripted to go after your spellcasters and support, who also tend to built less tanky in general.

Oh wow, guess it is good. Slows enemies too. Shield cipher sounds good. No real downsides at all. By the way, I discovered a really neat trick with cipher. You can actually cast that vampiric shield power outside of combat by targeting yourself. It will drain your resolve and give you +25 deflection over a long duration. Outside of combat, the focus immediately replenishes, so it costs nothing so you can use all of your initial powers casting charms or mental binding instead at the start of battle. The resolve loss sounds bad, but if you dumped resolve and only have 3, you only lose 2 resolve since you can’t go below 1 in any stat. Basically you get 23 net deflection for free. This is really great for a shielded, defensive cipher. They don’t really need concentration anyways if enemies mostly graze and the rest disabled with your crowd control spells. Also, you can keep casting vampiric shield until you crit yourself for maximum duration. I think there is a recommendation by a poster where you cast this on a min Res teammate (usually 3 Res). That char will be down to 1 Res, but the Cipher still gets the full defensive effects. So trading 2 Res for 25 deflection. And yes, can be done out of battle.

Heh yeah, I can imagine. Same reason why I personally dont like playing min Con characters. Min Res is still ok if the character has good Endurance regen. Never played such a ranger so I can't comment based on actual play experience but I will guess that enemy archers and poison spells will be the bane of this char. Well at least the Con reducing effects are less effective as afaik, you can't go to negative Con.

I am using HoF only for burst dmg with CW, and after that switching to a different main depending on situation. Tidefall until I get my hand on Dragon Maw - switching to a shield setup around WM2 when defences start to become an issue. I was even thinking of using Steadfast on the barb for the healing proc on-hit/crit. So just wondering what's the best 2 weapon setup I can do. Havent gotten any elemental talents yet as I was focusing on defensive talents. I think I will just roll with whatever is accessible to me at this point then, thanks On a sidenote: I never did realize why Swaddling Sheet is so highly recommended.... and then I tried it. This thing is so damn good. My barb is min Res so Swaddling Sheet triggers pretty much every battle. The stun that it provides gives so much breathing room for reposition and preparation, and the AoE is huge.

Ok so I got Badgradr's Barricade and with that I also got up to lvl 11 so HoF and CW combo is online. Question: is HoF with dual bittercuts better, or sabres with Annihilation (Purgatory, Resolution)? Note my barb is not my main char so no access to Dungeon Delver and Merciless Hand.

In this case dumped res and con is preferred to spread the debuff asap and to potentially stunlock enemies. But yes this ranger is kinda glassy and needs to be played at a distance. Also accept that spells if landed will probably knock out the ranger pretty easily (and you probably wanna target those spellcasters first). I always wanted to play Devil, but unfortunately she is the least accessible of all companions. Her immunity to poison makes for interesting setups though.

But why 50 retries? Any particular reasons?

It is not so bad without a priest, especially if you have a Paladin and/or a Druid. I done a couple playthroughs with no priests. Just have to get used to not having Crowns of the Faithful for bosses Right now, Im lvl10 and preparing to go through Galvino's and then get into Durgan to get my rogue the shield. Combination of Ninagauth's Shadowflame and Relentless Storm can lockdown most encounters. Especially Shadowflame as it is fast cast. But I think if my druid and wiz get CC'ed before they can get their spells off, Im pretty much screwed.

Well, the ridiculous aspect was aimed at Suppress Affliction affecting Knockout Injuries. Never did cross my mind. I did not intend to underestimate the will of men.

@AlexKidd For some reason, seeing injuries being suppressed made me laugh in real life. Maybe its because I not thought of it. Maybe cose it seems ridiculous. Probably cose its ridiculous I nv thought of it. Anyways, yeah my druid and wizard has started off quite tanky. Druid is a boar so there is regen, wizard has harden veil and lenegrath displaced image. All 4 has shield on swap and 3 out of 4 have weapon and shield talents.

@Moneo Thanks for your input. I guess I will see if anyone else have anything creative to add based on my stated preferences.

Oh good to know on the Preservation issue.... Damn hopefully it won't bug out at the wrong time. And I think I remembered you mention about the Disengagement method before. Hmm... i dunno man. Don't you find engagement locks in this game a little iffy?

Well, playing PoE solo is not a matter of "skill" IMO. I think it's a matter of iron ass, red eyes and endless patience. Tactically it's based on luring and kiting. And C. LE, for example, in his guide gives an advise as sophisticated as totally stupid. He mentions, that monsters in PoE have their own health as long as endurance. Normally, this doesn't matter, 'cause when you knock out all of your foes in encounter, they are automatically dead. But when you are facing a tough foe solo, you can use such a tactics: kite your enemy and harm it, sooner or later it'll run out of health and die no matter how thick he is. I suppose I don't need to tell you, how silly and dull this is, killing foes in PoE via expiring their health. So, solo playthroughs are IMO boring and tedious. That's why I prefer going full-party and powerplaying. But nevertheless, *jedem das seine*. Erm to each his own. Even if I look at others doing solo, that is not my objective here either. And I know the game is not balanced around solo play. But what about 5man, what about 4? I trying to find how small a party size I can go without luring or pulling tactics? And there is where I get alot of tension together with ToI mode, and it keep things interesting. I already done a 5man Frozen Crown playthrough and the part that excites me the most is when I faced seemingly bad odds and manage work the party out of it. And its quite a nice feeling once I accomplished that. I mean I am not bragging or whatever. I am just checking if anyone have any nice strategies or synergies I can make use of. Thats really the point of this thread.

Good to know about But binding rope and BR. I notice the suppression effects when I was playing my retaliation monk previous playthough. The retaliation effect is based on which is the item last worn. So if Hiro's Mantle was suppressed, unequip and equipping it will make it active and suppress Binding Rope. Or was it the other way round?