mosspit

@OP: Yeah for my current run, I actually have my pally wield a GS and later Tidefall. My anchor for the early game is a fire retaliation monk whose might mig, con and int ensures that Veteran Recovery is sufficient. At lvl13, my pally transited to a sword and shield since Sacred Immolation provides more than enough dps, and my monk started to fall over in survivability. Gave Tidefall to my chanter instead. You shouldnt be too worried about a pally's crit rate tbh.

Yeah as Torm mentioned, Storm Druid is super good. In my previous ToI playthrough, I had to refrain from using Relentless Storm too much as it got too easy. But of course, it was like an emergency button I could press if things ever go sideways. Cipers are also neat in my ToI or TC playthroughs. In my current playthrough, I just had to attack twice and I got enough Focus for even the highest level power. I am currently dual wield sabres and previous playthroughs I was wielding Tidefall. And shortly after the start of encounter I could cast Defensive Mindweb aka I win button. In my opinion, TC is about planning ahead with more emphasis on signature battles. Consistency in the party's performance in those situations is also important.

Actually Ciphers has one of the best starting CC with Whispers of Treason. Sure, it is not AoE, but the thing is it will pull aggro away from your team and you can initiate with it. Maybe even cause the enemy to waste skills on the charmed enemy. Yes, yes more micro and all that jazz. But good thing is that most of the Ciphers powers are Foe AoE, so the lack of targeting is not that bad. I find the best AoE for me is Druid's Relentless Storm. It is very disruptive to the enemies whilst giving your party a fair bit of breathing room.

Yes I am I was half tempted to name my Ranger's Wolf as Rosencrantz So far I'm coming to the end of Act 1 as a 2h Ranger and it's going quite well so far I'm looking forward to building up my Wolf so isn't as squishy and to get Tidefall, Shod-in-Faith boots, etc Too bad PoE has no customizations for back tatoos Thanks for reminding me about the RPG with one of the best atmosphere from my past. Have no doubt about that your wolf will be a force to be reckoned with, the talents for pets are pretty straightforward.

Look at the bolded blue part below..... Hang on hang on. Combusting wounds is a low level wizard spell that can possibly do significant damage under the right conditions. Those damage figures you have quoted there from maxquest 300 damage? That is no where near realistic what will be replicated by a player in realistic battle conditions. That build you have mentioned with the quick switch Off the blunderbuss four times: just doing that quick switch would kill most enemies so much damage would come just from that. I think you are over selling how powerful it is, under the right conditions, versus the right enemy, who has low DR, if positioned properly it can do beneficial.

Hang on hang on. Combusting wounds is a low level wizard spell that can possibly do significant damage under the right conditions. Those damage figures you have quoted there from maxquest 300 damage? That is no where near realistic what will be replicated by a player in realistic battle conditions. That build you have mentioned with the quick switch Off the blunderbuss four times: just doing that quick switch would kill most enemies so much damage would come just from that. I think you are over selling how powerful it is, under the right conditions, versus the right enemy, who has low DR, if positioned properly it can do beneficial. You might want to read the last line of the post you quoted....

Next to his caravan, the is a small space between the caravan and some trees. Try to position him there. Usually only 1 enemy can reach him and doing so, he wont get flanked. With only 1 enemy engagement, he stands a much better chance at surviving.

Why kill the npc companions?

The start is always rough. 12 Perception is fine, every 1 Per is 1 Acc so more Per doesn't make game changing difference. To help, you can pick up the Weapon Focus early for your martial classes. Make a beeline to the Glided Vale to grab your custom/npc companions. For custom companions, the earlier you get them the smaller the experience gap will result. So those key levels like lvl9 for chanters can arrive faster.

@Guildenstern123: Do you happen to be a Vagrant Story fan? Paladin vs Chanters. Paladin are the better tanks by definition of the role. Thing about Chanters they are the king of jack of all trades (yes that sounds weird). Great thing is their large aoe chants does a range of different effects - buffs, debuffs and dps. In addition they are passive and do not take many talents to buff them (Brisk Incantation is auto and Ancient Memory / Beloved Spirits is technically optional). The chants dont even waste any action resources in most cases so they can cast scrolls, swing a sword while the chants are still ongoing. This means they can be rather flexible - from taking W&S talent and wearing defensive items, to getting 2H talents with WF and go dps. Whatever role you can do with the generic talents really.

It is desirable if you wanna disarm and unlock stuff as much as you can. It gives +2 to Mechanics, which at higher levels can save alot of points that can go to other skills like Survival. Being a glove slot is inconsequential as you don't need to wear it all the time. You use need to wear it to disarm and unlock stuff, then take it off afterwards for something else useful.

I was kinda lucky with Stronghold events though. My first quest gave me the wax maker at just 13 Prestige. I didn't realize it was possible But it will be moot if I failed like I did the previous run heh Edit: wait it was my 2nd quest, first quest was Blind Man's Venom

@Torm51: hows your rng loot this time round? I don't think I gotten gloves of manipulation in a long while lol. This run I got tons of useless cape and rings of deflection. Only worthwhile thing is probably a gloves of swift action from Durgan Battery area.

I think what it means is: For spells with Friendly Fire, Int will only increase the area of the foe only segment. Usually its the outer circumference. The Friendly Fire portion will not increase. It will be more evident in spells with huge AoE like Storm of Holy Fire.

Times when expert mode hinders. I am also on my TC run since I failed my last ToI run. Fortunately my MC is a cipher (paladin is the custom companion). My disposition is all over the place, but totally fine with it

Sworn Enemy is great. Once per encounter and last for the entire battle so it is independent of low int. Coordinate Attacks. Buffing the nearest ally with 10 acc is nice. The rest is tad more situational. I like Reviving Exhortation as it is fast cast, and heals for quite alot of endurance. Aegis of Loyalty has a synergy with Scared Immolation, but is not needed for every battle.

It depends on your strategy. In one of my ToI playthroughs, I used stasis shell to trap Alpine Dragon after quickly getting the needed focus and buffing accuracy. The idea was to split the fight into 2 separate phases - one with the adds only and one with the dragon alone. It worked extremely well. After all the adds were killed, Alpine still had more than 10secs left in its stasis. I chose stasis shell as it has decent base duration, and there is no immunity against it.

I like the mechanics of it. But in practice, it is difficult to use it effectively. Speaking from personal experience in a party setting, one has to use it in a very deliberate manner. 10 charges for the max dmg potential which is once per encounter. And to do that you would need deal more than 100dmg specifically by the monk. Have to consider other party members contributing dmg on the same resonance target(s) in the meantime which does not add charges. It would be better if there were additional effects like resonance touch is an aura in which other party member affected by the aura can contribute to resonance charges, or the resonance charges themselves have some sort of small debuff that is stackable with additional charges. But it is just theorycrafting at this point.

Actually the thread kind of digressed into a Rogue vs Ranger after this Calculations provided via various posters were aimed at shedding some light on this. Maybe hyperbole is applied? Or maybe you never expected to be proven the contrary, and by contrary I meant that the ranger maybe isn't "severely outdamaged" by a rogue. Personally when the issue of pet is described along lines of dying too easily I struggle to understand if it is the reality of the situation or is it another case of hyperbole. Pets have enjoyed many fixes and buffs since vanilla days. Really all you need is Resilient Companion and level scaling takes care of the survivablity issue. Don't expect pets to tank boss dragons but they can handle 2 normal type enemies whacking on it no problem. At least in my experience. Just to be clear, I have nothing against Rogues. In fact, the one and only build that I created on this forum was for a Rogue.

I personally always took Apprentice Sneak Attack as an added dps skill in a party setup. At least always in favor of Savage Attack. Vulnerable Attacks is build dependent. It has more mileage on weapons that are fast hitting and low dmg.

It is recommended for dps. Which builds are you referring to? Note that some builds do not have it as cross-class skills was introduced later in the game's lifecycle (WM1's time? I honestly can't remember) Torm does ToI or Triple Crown playthroughs. So no luxury in reloading for the right sale.

Lol seriously? 1 more thing not to do in future playthroughs

Is the Escape skill good? The last time I used it (the rogue skill, not from the cape), it suffers from inconsistent pathing issue. Like being body blocked when I tried to teleport behind enemy lines.

Sigh... believe whatever makes you happy firkraag, I'm done with arguing with you over this. maybe if you tried intelligent communication instead of arguing like you yourself just admitted then you would have more success next time Sorry just wanna chip in that JereKruger didn't deserve that comment for his detailed breakdown. Not that it matters, but it's the internet and I can post what I feel.

Wait, Sneak attacks is 50% and Deathblows is 100%. So 150% total? I thought Sneak Attack is 50% and Deathblows adds another 50% for 100% in all. Nvm, I will do a iroll20s and check myself