mosspit

Sa Tuatanu has one as well. Sadly, I can no longer go back to purchase it. Trial of Iron will give the last save at Thaos.

Except that you can't just discuss Riposte by itself, since the choice of Barricade vs Wall or other shield also affects the performance of the regular main hand attacks, with the Bashing ability effectively slows you down. You handwaving some numbers doesn't change that. My calculations show that in that respect the Barricade has a rather hard time compensating that, even with a fairly mid-range weapon; this disadvantage will only increase as the main weapon improves, and doesn't even factor in any status effects it may impart. This disadvantage relative to wielding a non-Bash shield would thus have to be compensated for in its entirety by the more potent Riposte attacks. Maybe it does, but you have shown no clear argument or calculation to support this so far, and it is far from evident. This would also very much depend on the ratio of Riposte triggers to regular attacks, a value which you have failed to specify. Please do try to support your support your claims with some semblance of fact and reasoned argument. Also: neither Bash nor Thrust trigger Sneak Attack, just Deathblows. Sorry but I insist on limiting my discussion to just the selection of shields to Riposte. You are a numbers guy, so I assumed you understand why I wanted to establish the boundaries when doing unit testing. My "handwaved" numbers are based on some stats that are gotten from an entire completed playthrough using a Riposte Rogue. So at this point let us just agree to disagree.

@Boeroer I didn't try with Cape of Withdrawal. In fact, I don't think I even managed to pick 1 up as a loot item. I would imagine that kind of playstyle would appear like stop-and-go. Pause to allow engagement lines to be established, run a short distance to trigger engagement attacks. Rinse and repeat.

Any idea what bonus acc is applied on Disengagement Attacks? I tried just to use Hatchets and Cautious Attack normally and Riposte is quite rare. Like 1 or 2 times an encounter. A look at the combat log and most sustained hits were "hits". Maybe add Potion of Llengrath's Displaced Image in addition to those Disengagement bonuses. And also, some of the fighters in the new content has overbearing guard.

Ah good to know.

You are correct good sir! Actually I prefer your view. Because this build is meant to be for general PotD, although a tad more conservative. I play Trial of Iron since my 4th playthrough as I find that for some reason, I will completely lose interest in a playthrough once I wipe the first time. Before that, the tension makes the playthrough very inviting. So Trial of Iron is a natural progression, albeit it's a personal one. Solo is a tougher feat to pull off, you and Boeroer will know better

Firstly, I was referring specifically to Shield selection for Riposte. I already acknowledge that a full defensive Rogue can opt for better shields. And a dps rogue can just go dual Bittercuts or whatever. If you do not want to discuss Riposte by itself, let us default to agree to disagree. A Riposte build is not an optimally defensive or offensive build, and I feel that it does need to be built around. Otherwise either Riposte rate is bad or the free full attacks is not effective. Besides defensive mindweb (aka I Win Button) of course. But there are more broken things you can do with defensive mindweb than Riposte. Secondly, let us consider Gerun's 28def and Badgradr's 20def. Have exceptional upgrade on Badgradr's Barricade is reasonable I feel. The 8def difference will loosely translate to 8% increase chances for Riposte to proc. The hit-to-graze conversion loosely translates to 3.5%. So 11.5% increased Riposte rate for Gerun's as compared to Badgradr's. In my playthrough as a riposte rogue I am getting 30% more crit counts than hit counts. So let us set Thrust rate as 50% (since Shields will have lower acc). Badgradr's has bash (6-9 ave 7.5dmg) and Thrust (18-35 converted ave of 13.2 (50% of 27.5)). For Gerun's setup to outdamage Badgradr's, the 11.5% main hand dmg needs to exceed 20.7 or 180dmg total. On top of this do note that Gerun's incur -4 more acc penalty than Badgradr's. Also Badgradr's Barricade is able to reflect 10% of ranged attacks. So based on mainhand ave 180dmg autoattack dmg (likely more since Thrust can be augmented by Sneak Attacks/Deathblows). I will say it is unlikely for that to happen and so Badgradr's Barricade is the best choice for Riposte.

Sorry about that When it comes to these kind of snippets, I am not exactly the most creative person ever. Took me quite long to come up with a revenge themed one too lol Coat of Ill Payment is definitely a strong contender for optimal armour. But the reason I chose He Carries Many Scars is due to the Trial of Iron mode where I highly value survivability. Even though my entire party is built with some degree of tankiness to handle some engagement, I try not to allow her or the anchor tank fall. When that happens, things usually go south really fast and I needed to redo the game from the start. But I think Coat of Ill Payment fits the theme of revenge better and am including it in the build

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking out for the highest dpser in my party I can tell you I don't min max. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long playthrough. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you attack someone else now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you (my party member will do that). But if you don't, I will stand my ground, I will face tank you. And I will kill you. [CLASS BUILD] The Yellow Flash (Riposte Offtank Rogue) Build Environment Version 3.03 with White March Part I & II Core Concept The Yellow Flash comes from the yellow trails that appear when Riposte happens. The Yellow Flash is also quick with her feet, boasting high reflex that is further boosted by Adept Evasion. 3.03 Riposte has received a well needed buff and so begins the journey of giving the skill a chance in my latest (completed) playthrough. Riposte now gives a 30% chance to trigger a Full Attack on a graze on Deflection check and a 20% chance on miss. Riposte attacks will carry the same benefits as the auto-attack version, which means they are can be sneak attacks/deathblows, and can trigger on-hit/on-crit effects. But it means that they can also miss. Also Escape now gives +25 Deflection and Reflex (10s). Afaik there is another rogue build using Riposte as a key ability but The Yellow Flash is built very differently. Personal Playthrough Experience I have used Rogues in the traditional sense (dual wield sabres) and they are excellent single target dpser. But they are in no way durable and I use skills like escape and shadowing beyond to drop aggro if needed. So I wanted to try something different and after some light research I started a playthrough with a MC Riposte Rogue. It is both a validation of how Riposte performs and if an inherently defensively weak class like Rogue can at least take up an offtank position. The playthrough I used this Rogue in is a 6man party (The Yellow Flash, Tank Fighter, 2H Offtank Chanter, DW Barbarian, Support Priest, Utility Shapeshifter Druid). This is a melee party (no ranged weapons). Playthrough is also done on Trial of Iron with no split pulling of enemies. All signature fights are attempted and done successfully. Recommended Stats Allocation MIG: 11 CON: 14 DEX: 11 PER: 15 INT: 10 RES: 17 Stats for Personal Playthrough Rationale Good RES investment to push Deflection to decent levels or rather to overcome the low starting Deflection of the Rogue Class. High PER for good offence in terms of accuracy / crit-rate. For the recommended stats, I propose to give higher CON. Reason is during my playthrough I find that while the Rogue fares well in melee, spell dmg will have the most impact in bringing down The Yellow Flash. So having a higher End/Health pool to sustain through the damage is helpful, and to booster Fort which tends to be the weakest save for The Yellow Flash. As mentioned, Escape add Deflection and Reflexes for a short period of time. Early on you can use to escape engagements. Later on, you can use Escape as an opening skill to engage enemies with higher defences. Shadowing Beyond is mostly to drop aggro when things go south but generally it see more use in early game. You don't really need High Mig as Sneak Attack/Deathblows + equipment will give good damage values. Not to mention The Yellow Flash has a good crit rate. Recommended Talents (a=auto, r=recommended, !=important) Weapon Focus: Noble Weapon And Shield Style (!) Cautious Attack ® Shadowing Beyond ® Vicious Fighting (!) Superior Deflection ® Bear's Fortitude ® Body Control/Unstoppable Recommended Abilities Elemental Endurance (a) Sneak Attack (a) Blinding Strikes ® (if there are reliable sources of Blind from the party, choose Crippling Strike) Escape (!) Dirty Fighting (!) Riposte (!) Adept Evasion (!) Deathblows (Ignore if you can't place stack status debuffs) Sap / Smoke Cloud Deep Wounds ® Quest Talents (For MC) Blooded Hunter Song of the Heavens Dungeon Delver Gift of the Machine Scale-Breaker Flick of the Wrist Dozen's Luck The Merciless Hand Galawain's Boon Rationale: Riposte is of course needed, but you might not be able to get Badgradr's Barricade early. So even though Riposte can be chosen at lvl5, you can opt to take it at lvl7 instead. Dirty/Vicious is for dps purposes. When I played a tradition dual sabre hearth orlan rogue, my critical count is about twice that of normal hits. The Yellow Flash ended the playthrough with about 30% more criticals than hits which isn't too shabby. Weapon and Shield Talent will add your shield's deflection values to your reflex and Adept Evasion further makes reflex attacks much harder to land on the Yellow Flash. Things like Dragons Breaths are very manageable. Crippling Strike is for opening skills and helps to trigger Sneak Attacks/Deathblows. Sap is mainly to interrupt mages' spellcasting but you can replaace with Smoke Cloud if preferred. Race and Culture Cultural Background Old Valia - Labourer Skills: Stealth 2, Athletics 5, Lore 2, Mechanics 12, Survival 8 Recommeded Races Pale Elf Spells will be the biggest source of "big" damage to The Yellow Flash. So +10DR to cold and fire will help. Coastal Aumaua Because Prone and Stun is annoying. They will decrease your defences and it is likely that your Deflection will be out of range for triggering Riposte Recommended Items Head: Maegfolc Skull (!) (Before: Garodh's Chorus Preservation Version) Body: He Carry Many Scars / Coat of Ill Payment (Before: Plate Armour) Neck: Mantle of the Excavator (Before: Lilith's Shawl) Gloves: Siegebreaker Gauntlets (Before: Gauntlets of Accuracy / Mourning Gloves) Belt: Gridle of Eoten Constitution Legs: Viettro's Formal Footwear (Before: Boots of Stability) Rings: Ring of Protection / Ring of Deflection / Ring of Thorns Weapons: LH: Drawn in Spring / Unlaboured Blade RH: Badgradr's Barricade (!) Rationale: Wear the heaviest armour as Armour Penalty is not that big of an issue due to Riposte. Maegfolc Skull is prefered as it help both the Rogue both defensively and offensively. Unbending is good as The Yellow Flash does not have many ways to regain Endurance aside for consumable uses. He Carries Many Scars for a defensive approach with the slight regen and increase in DR when the Yellow Flash is taking significant dmg. Coat of Ill Payment for a offensive approach to propagate Deep Wounds to attackers via Retaliation. Badgradr's Barricade is the best shield for this build as due bash and on-crit effect of Thrust of the Tattered Veils. The added deflection will help to create more openings for Riposte and the Weapon and Shield Style will add Reflex which in turn synergize with Adept Evasion. If you are lucky, you might be able to purchase Scath Gwannek from Azzuro. While not as good Badgradr's Barricade, it is still decent to tide you over till you can get the Badgradr's Barricade. You can get a bash shield called Larder Door very early in Act 1, but I feel the accuracy penalty is too steep, especially at the early stage of the game. For weapon selection, it is actually quite flexible. The crit rate of this build is not bad so you can choose single handed weapons with nice crit effects or high damage.I like WF: Noble as you can wield Drawn in Spring and it stacks with Flick of the Wrist. Unlaboured Blade is nice because of it benefits from all WF and Flick of the Wrist, has 20% speed to make up for loss of dual wield speed and high dmg/acc when fully upgraded. The spell proc is not that impressive though so be warned. Generally, avoid weapons that do hard CC like We Toki or Godansthunyr as they will prevent enemies from attacking you. Role Analysis Pros: This build can still maintain a decent offense with very good survivablility. On-crit effects from weapons (especially Badgradr's Barricade) do trigger pretty often. It is a relatively low micro management build once you established positioning. Once the items are in place, Riposte triggers at a decent rate against most mobs. It is a fun build in the sense that it goes off the beaten path of the dps melee and ranged versions, and it is still viable on PotD. Cons: It is quite item dependent. Until Badgradr's Barricade is gotten, the Rogue is in a place where it can either be a less effective dual wield dps rogue or a meat shield that doesn't really do much damage. So it will be advisable to make a beeline for the shield in Durgan's Battery meaning going through Ogres and the Constructs in Galvino's place. Against signature fights, the Rogue is generally not strong enough to tank the bosses alone. This is because besides Adept Evasion, there isn't much going for the Rogue that aids it's survivability. Compared to classes like Fighters, Monks and Paladins with class specific tanking abilities. Afterthoughts The Yellow Flash was quite decent to play in my opinion. And it is off the beaten path so building The Yellow Flash was fun for me. But it also depends on your playstyle. If your party is one that focus on hard cc to render enemies unable to attack, it might be better to skip Riposte as it will not be triggered frequently. I still feel that Riposte is slightly underpowered but at least now there is notable mileage from picking the ability versus before 3.03. Good Luck

You are right about the dmg type. But I stand by what I said about Riposte. If you take Riposte, I do not think Godansthunyr is optimal. I personally would not place a Rogue under a situation where it is mob'ed since it still not defensively strong enough to be a main tank. Godansthunyr will help the Rogue tank better since the attacker will be stunned. But it is not useful in triggering Riposte. That is my point. I would say Riposte needs some degree of specialization. Because it is like getting a sweet spot (but maybe it doesn't even exist). A defensive minded Rogue can get other better shields than Badgradr's Barricade, that adds to a tankiness of a Rogue, and in the same vein the Rogue can be built very defensively like much less emphasis on PER. With Riposte, you would not want to sacrifice too much on offense as otherwise the "free" full attacks become weak. And the best bash shield is needed for Riposte to both push defense high enough to help trigger it, and qualify for a full attack (Thrust makes all the difference). Even so, I am still on the fence whether Riposte is worth it. It is rare enough that I do mini celebration in my head when I see one goes off lol.

Godansthunyr is good if your aim is to disable. I have used it for a short while and the disable is nice. But in the context of Riposte. No I do not recommend it. Riposte needs an enemy to be able to act and attack, and not be hard cc-ed. Reason for Unlaboured Blade is decent weapon with a good proc effect. Plus it has speed property to slightly offset the loss of dual wield speed. If the Rogue doesn't use Riposte then yes, Godansthunyr is good. But still have a alternate weapon set as Godansthunyr and bash are both crush type. Unless of course you depend on tattered veil to provide pierce.

I am currently playing through as a Riposte MC Rogue, but in a party not solo. Closing in on the end. Riposte is kinda nice but it is not earth-shattering good. Assuming the Rogue's defence is sky-high, it still "only" procs 20-30% of the time. It is good against trash mobs and is an alternate way of playing a rogue that is still viable. As mentioned, Badgradr's Barricade is no contest. You need a bash + proc shield to make up for the loss in dps for the traditional dps version. But Godansthunyr is debatable. This is because you would want enemies to still attack the rogue to trigger riposte and do more dps. I opted for Unlaboured Blade - High dmg, rare but good proc and can gain extra acc from normal WF and Flick of the Wrist. From my experience, this rogue fares well vs deflection and reflex attacks. Weapon and Shield Talent, Cautious Attack and Adept Evasion has decent synergy. One of the things that can put the rogue to danger is magic attacks so get a hgher CON to have a good endurance pool to withstand attacks. Can afford Cautious Attack due to Riposte.

So this is not a major bug but since I am assuming patching for this game is going to wind down soon, might as well clean this out. So this is mostly witnessed through the Character Profile View As you can see Eder's Damage Taken is "-Infinity". Due to this for the overall party most damage taken, another character is taking the spot. I have attached the output.log and saved game but take note that: I have used custom profile pics for the custom NPCs so their portraits may or may not turn up right Game mode is Trial of Iron Saved Game: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bx1wklcu5h8y2m4/907bb2337f42427289a807e20ab18b50%2041695722%20TheGrfsRest.savegame?dl=0 output_log.txt

Prize? PRIZE?! Who dares ask the great and all powerful for a Prize?! The prize is best rep on OBS PoE boards... Similar to the scene where the party enter the dozen's den with a group of adventurers passing by, I choose the option "Never heard of you." But all the best to the to-be-crowned best rep of OBS PoE boards

As with any contest, the important thing is... What's the prize??

I might have worded it poorly but just to be clearer: It is more of a fact that cooldowns and stamina/mana resources are already commonplace in modern gaming. So reverting to a system that is common is not as "exciting". Although good olde IE games were the first to implement these so PoE is in no way innovative in that regards, IE-style games has been a thing of the past. The "innovation" can be thought of bringing back the system that is not common in modern rpg gaming. Which is intended for PoE targeted audience. If PoE2 is intended for a different crowd, so be it.

For the wanting of changes to rest/encounter system, it probably also boils down to who the game is targeted for. PoE was inspired by IE games and made for gamers who has the inclination to play such games. If PoE2 is targeted differently then the game will also follow the direction of the audience. TBH with cooldowns and add in resources like Stamina or Mana and you have Dragon Age styles. While not negative, it is not exactly innovative either. Good write-up btw, although I naturally have small difference of opinions here and there. Eg, you dislike Take-the-Hit on a main tank but I found it very useful on my runs with a Fighter offtank to extend the endurance/health span of the accompanying anchor tank. This is indirectly a praise to PoE for the flexibility it offers.

If you are referring to the Phantom's attacks then there another aspect to consider. From my experience (without peeking at the codes), Phantoms seem to have a preferential targeting behavior. In my experience, it is my party's spellcasters that get the attacks. So unless everyone's Fort is that high in a 6man party to be out of graze range, someone is most probably getting stunned.

Positioning matters alot. What you can do is to get your sturdiest char to get the dragons attention and lead it to face the left side, buffing the tank as much as you can with defensive effects. The rest of your party buff themselves on the right. Once Alpine gets affected by any effects or attacks (aura counts), the phantoms will spawn on the right. Your buffed party are in a good position to take them down first, while your tank holds his ground. Alpine also might path inefficiently to your tank due to the slow moving blights. From there it is about clearing the mobs fast (phantoms gets priority) to get Alpine alone. As with most dragons, stay on its sides. Front gets breath attacks, rear gets tail swipe. Always have Prayer against Fear on. I already done 2 PotD Trial of Iron Alpine fights on 2.03 and 3.03 with different party composition and it has been smooth with this opening strategy.

No, first level skill selection is fixed without using console commands or mods. Otherwise I would have replaced summon skellies on Kana for his first skill long ago...

Fighters have quite a number of duration abilities like Constant Recovery, Discplined Barrage, Triggered Immunity etc. Low int will lead to lower durations on these skills, and also the CC durations of skills like Knockdowns. On the other hand, you don't necessary need to go max Might to be an effective offensive character. Focusing on the Fighter, the Might bonus is additive and not multiplicative. So Might bonus will add on to other bonus like Weapon Damage especially for physical attacks. You can potentially shift points from Might into other stats and still maintain a decent physical offensive. But Might will help with Constant Recovery's heal amount and spell based attacks in general. So it is up to your inclinations I guess. A trick with Disciplined Barrage is to activate it before using other skills like Knockdown. That 20acc will help a lot in landing the CC effects. If you don't mind weapon swapping, you can use wield 2 weapons on your alternate weapon set to increase your chances of a prone effect when you use Knockdown. Another great thing about Discipline Barrage is that it has no recovery so you can use it as an opener skill.

Or maybe convert 1 of the rogues to a riposte offtank? It is slightly suboptimal than the more traditional offtank choices but it is off the beaten path which can be fun. Only shortcoming is it needs that bash shield from Durgan Battery to have a noticeable performance boost. Until then it will be like playing a poor man's version of a rogue. When using a melee dps rogue, I don't find that it is often that enemies turn away from the tank to hit my rogue that often. My rogue also doesn't dump RES so that might be a reason too. If things get hairy, escape and shadowing beyond to drop aggro are good options.

Well, in Searing Falls and Caed Nua level 2 you can meet ranged Skirmishers. Those do not paralyze on hit. But yeah, melee Skirmishes will paralyze on hit (can be saved against though). That is why the skirmisher at Madhmr Bridge is infamous and warrants entering from alternate locations for solo runs. Also note that Black Hound will only carry the Ale and Pearlwood Chicken if the chef in Valewood is saved.

1. There is a way to get your custom party members with as little exp gap as possible. Follow these steps. Proceed on with prologue and sell all items to Heodan for currency. Including the pistol and wolf hides. In the ruins, proceed left before the traps > kill lone skulder > sneak past the 3 skulders > kill 2 spiderlings > kill 2 spiderlings + 1 large spider. At valewood, make a beeline to Glided Vale At Glided Vale, watch custscene and after custscene double up the slope and take the longer route to the inn. Reason is that passing by the temple ruins gives discovery exp. Do the scene with Aloth and enter the inn to recruit the custom companions. Doing so you should be able to recruit companions with exp gap of a slighty more than 2200exp (iirc it's 2204exp). Then with the number of custom NPCs, finish as many quests as you can before recruiting the storyline NPCs. Reason is to take advantage of the slight exp bonus with a non-full party. Including returning to Cliant Lis to disarm all the traps and killing remaining mobs. Your custom NPCs should easily level to 2 here. Once you are satisfied, recruit the NPCs you want whose exp will be adjusted to yours. Doing so, the custom NPCs will be quite close to your MC level. 2200-ish exp is typically about 2 quests worth of leveling in most cases. I know that it is also possible to lure the initial mobs away with Heodan and Calissa and letting them get killed so that you can transit the map, but it seems a bit excessive for me. 2. Most builds are squishy at the start, even builds that are to be made tanky. To help with this, Black Hound sells Ale and Pearlwood Chicken. The former adds 2 DR which is huge at the start, the latter adds 2 to CON. Both are quite affordable so you use them for fights you know that are tough at the start. 3. Mobility will be sort of limited at the start as there are very limited options. I think it is about knowing which fights you can take and which fights you will have problems. Bandits, Shrooms (Anslog Compass), Shades and Forest Lurkers can be slightly tricky at low levels (there each caused me Trial of Iron runs in the past).

Morningstar is fine but you should ideally have another weapon type on swap for crush immunity / high resistance foes. Greatsword maybe since it gives slash and pierce options.